Magnetically Controlled Carbonate Nanocomposite with Ciprofloxacin for Biofilm Eradication

Biofilms are the reason for a vast majority of chronic inflammation cases and most acute inflammation. The treatment of biofilms still is a complicated task due to the low efficiency of drug delivery and high resistivity of the involved bacteria to harmful factors. Here we describe a magnetically controlled nanocomposite with a stimuli-responsive release profile based on calcium carbonate and magnetite with an encapsulated antibiotic (ciprofloxacin) that can be used to solve this problem. The material magnetic properties allowed targeted delivery, accumulation, and penetration of the composite in the biofilm, as well as the rapid triggered release of the entrapped antibiotic. Under the influence of an RF magnetic field with a frequency of 210 kHz, the composite underwent a phase transition from vaterite into calcite and promoted the release of ciprofloxacin. The effectiveness of the composite was tested against formed biofilms of E. coli and S. aureus and showed a 71% reduction in E. coli biofilm biomass and an 85% reduction in S. aureus biofilms. The efficiency of the composite with entrapped ciprofloxacin was higher than for the free antibiotic in the same concentration, up to 72%. The developed composite is a promising material for the treatment of biofilm-associated inflammations.     

The Formation of Mn-Ce Oxide Catalysts for CO Oxidation by Oxalate Route: The Role of Annealing Conditions

Catalysis Letters - A series of Mn-Ce oxide catalysts with Mn:Ce?=?1 was synthesized by oxalate route under different annealing conditions. The physicochemical properties were...     

Life under ice in the perennial ice‐covered Lake Glubokoe in Summer (East Antarctica)

This study focuses on hydrological and biotic variables in Lake Glubokoe, which is located in Thala Hills of Enderby Land (East Antarctica). Water and sediment samples and physical measurements were collected once a week in the austral summer (19 December 2010 – 6 February 2011). This lake exhibits perennial ice cover that reached a thickness of 2.5–2.7 m during the study period. A very low concentration of planktonic chlorophyll‐a (0.06–0.45 μg L^?1) was measured in the lake, indicating its ultra‐oligotrophic status. The water was poorly populated by algae and metazoans, especially in upper waters below ice cover to a depth of 2 m. Small planktonic organisms (2–5 μm) were observed throughout the study period, but larger organisms (>8 μm) such as the cyanobacteria Planktolyngbya limnetica occurred only during the warmest period (January). Only few individuals of metazoans (rotifers) were found in planktonic samples. Due to deep light penetration (10–15% of incoming active solar radiation reached the depth of 30 m), thick cyanobacterial mats (30 cm) cover all the bottom surface (grey silts) in the lake. Abundant benthic biota associated with these mats was found (up to 1000 ind. m^?2). Among the benthic metazoans, bdelloid rotifers and tardigrades were the dominating taxa. The results of this study suggest a typical ecological feature of most subglacial lakes in East Antarctica is that metazoans are very poor in the pelagic zone, preferring instead to occupy an area near the lake bottom because of a favourable constant temperature of 4 °C, good level of dissolved oxygen and available food resources as the bacterial detritus.     

Plasma-assisted ignition and combustion

The use of a thermal equilibrium plasma for combustion control dates back more than a hundred years to the advent of internal combustion (IC) engines and spark ignition systems. The same principles are still applied today to achieve high efficiency in various applications. Recently, the potential use of nonequilibrium plasma for ignition and combustion control has garnered increasing interest due to the possibility of plasma-assisted approaches for ignition and flame stabilization. During the past decade, significant progress has been made toward understanding the mechanisms of plasma–chemistry interactions, energy redistribution and the nonequilibrium initiation of combustion. In addition, a wide variety of fuels have been examined using various types of discharge plasmas. Plasma application has been shown to provide additional combustion control, which is necessary for ultra-lean flames, high-speed flows, cold low-pressure conditions of high-altitude gas turbine engine (GTE) relight, detonation initiation in pulsed detonation engines (PDE) and distributed ignition control in homogeneous charge-compression ignition (HCCI) engines, among others. The present paper describes the current understanding of the nonequilibrium excitation of combustible mixtures by electrical discharges and plasma-assisted ignition and combustion.     

Microindentation as a perspective method for determination of mechanical properties of ribbon metallic glasses

Conditions of gauging of true microhardness of thin ribbons metallic glasses (MG) with the count of their depth are established. For the first time the method of a indentation was approved for an assessment of crack resistance of MG. The behavior of parameterKIc is found in a interval of temperature of viscous-brittle transition down to the beginning of volumetric crystallization of MG. The estimation method of temperature of viscous - brittle transition is offered at the microindentation of annealing ribbon on an elastic substrate.     

Surface Structure,Spectroscopic and Photocatalytic Activity Study of Polyaniline/TiO2 Nanocomposites

PANI （polyaniline） as a promising conducting polymer and photosensitizer has been used to prepare PANI/TiO2 （polyaniline/TiO2） nanocomposite as photocatalyst. TiO2 nanoparticles with size of 5-100 nm were encapsulated by PANI via the ＂in situ＂ polymerization of aniline on the surface of TiO2 nanoparticles. IR, SEM, EPR techniques were used to characterize the mechanism of electron interaction in PANI/TiO2 nanocomposite. The resulting PANI-modified TiO2 composites exhibit significantly higher photocatalytic activity than that of neat PANI on degradation of MB （methylen blue） aqueous solution under UV irradiation.     

Deposition of BaTiO3 Films from EthanoI-PVB Medium

EPD （electrophoretic deposition） of barium titanate from organic medium ethanol-PVB （polyvinyl butyral） was performed on Ni, Ti, steel substrate. Stable BaTiO3 suspensions with concentration of 2 wt.% have been prepared for the deposition. A uniform and dense layer was obtained for films deposited from ethanol with PVB of 0.1%. The surface topology of deposited films can be controlled via the applied voltage. This method allows to obtain crack-free and smooth layers BaTiO3 from organic medium with thickness of 4-20 μm.     

Numerical Analysis of Quasioptical Multireflector Antennas in 2-D With the Method of Discrete Singularities: E-Wave Case

Numerical method for modeling the E-polarized wave scattering by electrically large quasioptical two-dimensional (2-D) reflectors is presented. Reflectors are assumed zero-thickness and perfectly electrically conducting. Efficient numerical solution is obtained from the coupled singular integral equations discretized using new quadrature formulas of interpolation type. It has controlled accuracy and deals with small-size matrices. To simulate a small-horn feeding, the incident field is taken as a beam generated by a complex-source-point (CSP) current. Presented numerical results validate empirical rule of -10 dB edge illumination needed to provide the best electromagnetic performance of reflector     

Chaos at Interface Brings Order into Oxide/Silicon Structure

Integration of oxides with silicon fuses advanced functional properties with a mature technological platform. In particular, direct EuO/Si contact holds high promise for spintronics but requires single-crystalline epitaxial films with atomically sharp interfaces. The standard approach employing regular 2D superstructures of metal atoms on the Si surface fails to meet the challenge. Here, an alternative route is designed and shown to solve the problem. This route avoids regular templates; the chaotic 2D distribution of metal atoms on the Si surface prevents stabilization of unwanted crystal orientations. Thus, the disordered submonolayer phase at the interface promotes order in oxide/Si coupling, as witnessed by a combination of diffraction techniques and high-resolution electron microscopy. The results not only mark tangible progress in manufacturing EuO/Si contacts but also provide a general framework for monolithic integration of functional oxides with semiconductor substrates.