Concerns about health issues and environmental pollution stimulate research to find new health and hygiene related products with healing properties and minimum negative effect on the environment. ...Development of new, natural antibacterial agents has become one of the most important research areas to combat some pathogens such as Gram- positive and Gram-negative bacteria, fungi, algae, yeast, and some microorganisms which cause serious human infections. Lawsonia Inermis (henna) leaf extracts for preparation of antibacterial poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) nanofibers via electrospinning technique were investigated. PEO and PVA based electrospun fibers containing henna extract were verified by the appearance of FTIR peaks corresponding to the pure extract. Our study demonstrates that 2.793 wt.% Li in PVA and PEO based solutions showed bactericidal effects against Staphylococcus aureus and bacteriostatic action to Escherichia coli. Concentrations of henna leaf extract strongly impacted antibacterial activities against both bacteria. Henna leaves have a great potential to be used as a source of a potent eco-friendly antimicrobial agent.
Ion exchange membranes (IEMs) have consolidated applications in energy conversion and storage systems, like fuel cells and battery separators. Moreover, in the perspective to address the global need ...for non-carbon-based and renewable energies, salinity-gradient power (SGP) harvesting by reverse electrodialysis (RED) is attracting significant interest in recent years. In particular, brine solutions produced in desalination plants can be used as concentrated streams in a SGP-RED stack, providing a smart solution to the problem of brine disposal. Although Nafion is probably the most prominent commercial cation exchange membrane for electrochemical applications, no study has investigated yet its potential in RED. In this work, Nafion 117 and Nafion 115 membranes were tested for NaCl and NaCl + MgCl
solutions, in order to measure the gross power density extracted under high salinity gradient and to evaluate the effect of Mg
(the most abundant divalent cation in natural feeds) on the efficiency in energy conversion. Moreover, performance of commercial CMX (Neosepta) and Fuji-CEM 80050 (Fujifilm) cation exchange membranes, already widely applied for RED applications, were used as a benchmark for Nafion membranes. In addition, complementary characterization (i.e., electrochemical impedance and membrane potential test) was carried out on the membranes with the aim to evaluate the predominance of electrochemical properties in different aqueous solutions. In all tests, Nafion 117 exhibited superior performance when 0.5/4.0 M NaCl fed through 500 µm-thick compartments at a linear velocity 1.5 cm·s
. However, the gross power density of 1.38 W·m
detected in the case of pure NaCl solutions decreased to 1.08 W·m
in the presence of magnesium chloride. In particular, the presence of magnesium resulted in a drastic effect on the electrochemical properties of Fuji-CEM-80050, while the impact on other membranes investigated was less severe.
We aimed to investigate the anticancer activity of new synthesis benzofuran-substituted chalcone derivatives, which have the potential to be chemotherapeutic agents, in lung and breast cancer cell ...lines. The cytotoxic effect of chalcone derivatives on cell viability was determined by ATP (48 h) viability test. Doses of compounds found to be toxic to cell viability were examined using fluorescent staining (Hoechst and Propidium Iodide (PI)) to determine the mode of cell death (apoptosis and necrosis). After examining the effects of the compounds on the cell death mode, their effects on the migration abilities by the wound healing method were investigated. The effects of benzofuran chalcone derivative compounds on cell cycle were also investigated in lung and breast cancer cell lines. Two chalcone-derived compounds (Compound 1 and Compound 2) exhibited a potent anti-growth effect on lung cancer (A549 and H1299) and breast cancer (MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231) cell lines. In the double staining used to assess cell mode, the amount of PI positive cells increased with increasing dose, as did the number of pycnotic and fragmented nuclei, both of which are apoptotic markers. The compounds have been found to limit the migration capacity of cells. Finally, two chalcone-derived compounds inhibit the division of lung and breast cancer cell lines by keeping them in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. Considering these promising results, we can say that advanced analyzes are required for the development of these two chalcone-derived chemicals as anticancer agents.
A study was carried out to evaluate the relationship between anosmia and hospital admission in coronavirus disease 2019 patients.
The clinical data of 1534 patients with confirmed coronavirus disease ...2019 virus were analysed. The study was conducted with medical records of 1197 patients (78 per cent). The basic characteristics of patients and symptoms related to otolaryngology practice were examined. The patients were divided into two groups according to their follow up: an out-patient group and an in-patient group.
The majority of patients presented with anosmia (44.2 per cent), dysgeusia (43.9 per cent) and fever (38.7 per cent). Anosmia was observed in 462 patients (47 per cent) in the out-patient group, and in only 67 patients (31.2 per cent) in the in-patient group. Younger age (odds ratio = 1.05, 95 per cent confidence interval = 1.03-1.06) and the presence of anosmia (odds ratio = 2.04, 95 per cent confidence interval = 1.39-3) were significantly related to out-patient treatment.
Anosmia could be a symptom in the clinical presentation of the coronavirus disease 2019 infection.
Cyclophosphamide (CP) is a potent anticancer agent; its clinical use is limited due to its marked cardiotoxicity.
The present study was aimed at evaluating the cardioprotective effects of silymarin ...(SLY) and curcumin (CUR), which have strong antioxidant properties, against the toxic effects of high-dose CP on the heart of rats.
A total of 36 adult Wistar albino female rats were randomly divided into six groups. Group I (control group; nothing was administered), Group II (CP group; 30mg/kg/day CP was administered intraperitoneally to each animal for seven days), Group III (SLY group; 100mg/kg/day SLY by gavage for 14 days), Group IV (CUR group; 100mg/kg/day CUR by gavage for 14 days), Group V (SLY+CP group; 100mg/kg/day SLY by gavage for 14days plus 30mg/kg/day CP intraperitoneally starting from the seventh day) and Group VI (CUR+CP group; 100mg/kg/day CUR by gavage for 14days plus 30mg/kg/day CP intraperitoneally starting from the seventh day). Biochemical, histopathological and immunohistochemical methods were utilised for evaluation of the cardiotoxicity.
The result showed that an increase in heart MDA and DNA fragmentation levels were detected while significant decreases were seen in SOD levels in CP alone group when compared to the other groups. CP caused severe damage in the histopathological status of heart tissue including intersititial oedema, haemorrhage, degeneration and necrosis in muscle fibrils and perinuclear vacuolization. A significant increase in the percentage of TUNEL-positive cells and γH2AX protein expression was detected in the CP-treated group compared to the control and other treated groups. There was significant increase in the percentage of caspase 3-positive cells and decrease in the percentage of Bcl-2 positive cells in the CP group compared to the control group and other treated groups. However, a significant decrease in the percentage of cTnI and cTnT immunoreactivity was also observed in the CP-treated group compared to the control and other treated groups. In the groups in which SLY and CUR were administered concurrently with CP, biochemical parameters, histopathological and immunohistochemical results were found to be significantly lower than in the CP-only group.
These results lead to conclusion that the natural antioxidant SLY and CUR might have protective effects against CP-induced cardiotoxicity and oxidative stress in rats.
Salinity Gradient Power - Reverse Electrodialysis (SGP-RED) is a promising membrane-based technology to harvest the energy of mixing from solutions of different ionic concentration. Unfortunately, ...currently available commercial ion exchange membranes – being not specifically designed for RED – are far from satisfying the requirements of this operation, especially when operated with hyper-concentrated brines. In this work, novel sulfonated polyethersulfone (sPES) cation exchange membranes (CEM) were prepared by phase inversion method and tested under high salinity gradients. Use of 5 M NaCl electrolyte for immersion precipitation coagulation bath facilitated the self-standing membrane formation as a result of the electrostatic interaction between the fixed charged groups and electrolyte solution. Microscopy results revealed that dense or asymmetric membranes with non-connected pores were formed by solvent evaporation or immersion precipitation, respectively. The membranes were characterized for ion exchange capacity, water uptake, charge density and thickness, and further studied by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The obtained properties of the newly developed membranes were subsequently compared to those of commercial CMX (Neosepta, Japan) and Fuji-CEM-Type 1 (Fujifilm, The Netherlands) membranes. The asymmetric membranes resulted in a very low resistance especially for high ionic gradients but relatively low permselectivity, while dense membranes still had a low resistance compared to commercial membranes and exhibited high permselectivity. Interestingly, in terms of power density, lab-made membranes outperformed the commercial benchmarks when tested for RED applications with brackish water (0.1 M NaCl)/hypersaline brine (4 M NaCl) feeds; power density of CMX and Fuji-CEM-Type 1 were 3.23 and 3.77 W/m2, respectively, while power density of asymmetric and dense sPES membranes were 3.64 and 3.92 W/m2, respectively.
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•Novel sulfonated polyethersulfone cation exchange membranes (CEMs) developed.•Immersion precipitation and solvent evaporation preparation techniques adopted.•Reverse Electrodialysis performance evaluated in terms of power density.•Benchmark commercial CEMs outperformed at high salinity gradients (0.1 M/4 M NaCl).
A number of production methods have been developed for high-performance fibers; however, most processes use toxic solvents or generate a lot of unwanted by-products. Our research resulted in the ...development of a new family of high-performance polypropylene (PP) fibers by utilizing a simple, ecologically friendly bath (ECOB). Various commodity polymers can be used with ECOB melt spinning system at high throughputs and performance benefits. Our treated as-spun PP fibers had a highly oriented, but not crystalline precursor morphology with
f
a
up to 0.6 generating superior mechanical properties. After drawing at draw ratios of 1.49 at 120 °C, highly oriented crystalline and amorphous phases were achieved for the drawn fibers with
f
c
and
f
a
values of 0.95 and 0.87, respectively. This fine structure for ECOB-treated fibers resulted in tenacity close to 12 g/d, initial modulus higher than 150 g/d, and ultimate elongation at break of 20 %. The polymer melting point of the new fibrillar PP fibers increased by 9 °C.
The effectiveness of Salinity Gradient Power - Reverse Electrodialysis (SGP-RE) in real practice is still not clearly defined due to the lack of specific studies in literature, being investigations ...in large part limited to pure NaCl solutions or aqueous mixtures of two salts. In this work, we experimentally assessed the impact of natural feed streams (collected from Licetto river and Tyrrenian sea in Amantea - Italy) in terms of Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) and power density (Pd) measured on a lab-scale SGP-RE stack prototype; results have been compared to those obtained when using NaCl solutions having equivalent ionic strength. Highest OCV (3.68 V and 4.09 V) and Pd values (0.46 and 1.41 W∙m−2) were observed at temperature of 60 °C for real and synthetic feeds, respectively.
The extent of electrical resistances (ion exchange membrane/electrical double layer/diffusion boundary layer) was elucidated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS); in particular, a critical effect of real solution on cation exchange membrane (CEM) resistance was detected. Additionally, ionic characterization of process effluents revealed the occurrence of uphill transport of multivalent ions Mg2+, Ca2+ and SO42−.
•Loss of power density is observed for SGP-RE operated with natural feeds.•Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy shows a major impact on CEM resistance.•A negligible impact of non-ohmic resistances is observed.•Uphill transport of multivalent ions Mg2+, Ca2+ and SO42− is detected.
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