2,345 research outputs found
Surface area or diameter – which factor really determines the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles grown on TiO₂ coatings?
Titanium dioxide coatings were prepared on Si wafers using the sol–gel method. Four different types of coatings with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized. The diameter and surface density of AgNPs were conditioned by the concentration of Ag+ ions in the initial solution, time and UV illumination source. The bactericidal activity of AgNPs on the titanium dioxide coatings against the S. aureus strain were calculated as the percentage of the inhibition of bacterial growth after 24 hour incubation of microorganisms at 37°C on TiO₂ coatings with AgNPs. Control samples were coated with titanium dioxide without AgNPs. We concluded that the titanium dioxide coatings modified with silver nanoparticles had a high antibacterial activity. Moreover, we demonstrated strong dependence between surface areas of AgNPs and inhibition of bacterial growth. The obtained results evidence that the surface area of AgNPs grown on titanium dioxide coatings is a major factor determining their antimicrobial potential
Temporal and between-site variation in helminth communities of bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from N.E. Poland: 2. The infracommunity level
The relative importance of temporal and spatial effects was assessed in helminth communities of bank voles (Myodes glareolus) in 3 woodland sites in N.E. Poland in the late summers of 1999 and 2002. Among common species the rank order of sites in relation to prevalence and abundance of infection was maintained between surveys. Site effects accounted for most of the deviance (in statistical models), and time was less important, so the exact location from which voles were sampled was of critical importance. The only exception was Syphacia petrusewiczi. In contrast, for derived measures such as species richness and diversity, most deviance was accounted for by host age, and the interaction between site and year was significant, implying that rank order of sites changed between years. Temporal effects on derived measures were generated primarily by a combination of relatively small changes in prevalence and abundance of the common, rather than the rare, species between the years of the study. In the medium-term, therefore, helminth communities of bank voles in N.E. Poland had a stable core, suggesting a substantial strong element of predictability
Measurement of the Luminosity in the ZEUS Experiment at HERA II
The luminosity in the ZEUS detector was measured using photons from electron
bremsstrahlung. In 2001 the HERA collider was upgraded for operation at higher
luminosity. At the same time the luminosity-measuring system of the ZEUS
experiment was modified to tackle the expected higher photon rate and
synchrotron radiation. The existing lead-scintillator calorimeter was equipped
with radiation hard scintillator tiles and shielded against synchrotron
radiation. In addition, a magnetic spectrometer was installed to measure the
luminosity independently using photons converted in the beam-pipe exit window.
The redundancy provided a reliable and robust luminosity determination with a
systematic uncertainty of 1.7%. The experimental setup, the techniques used for
luminosity determination and the estimate of the systematic uncertainty are
reported.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figure
J-PET: a new technology for the whole-body PET imaging
The Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) is the first PET built
from plastic scintillators. J-PET prototype consists of 192 detection modules
arranged axially in three layers forming a cylindrical diagnostic chamber with
the inner diameter of 85 cm and the axial field-of-view of 50 cm. An axial
arrangement of long strips of plastic scintillators, their small light
attenuation, superior timing properties, and relative ease of the increase of
the axial field-of-view opens promising perspectives for the cost effective
construction of the whole-body PET scanner, as well as construction of MR and
CT compatible PET inserts. Present status of the development of the J-PET
tomograph will be presented and discussed.Comment: Presented at the 2nd Jagiellonian Symposium on Fundamental and
Applied Subatomic Physics, Krak\'ow, Poland, June 4-9, 2017. To be published
in Acta Phys. Pol.
Three-dimensional image reconstruction in J-PET using Filtered Back Projection method
We present a method and preliminary results of the image reconstruction in
the Jagiellonian PET tomograph. Using GATE (Geant4 Application for Tomographic
Emission), interactions of the 511 keV photons with a cylindrical detector were
generated. Pairs of such photons, flying back-to-back, originate from e+e-
annihilations inside a 1-mm spherical source. Spatial and temporal coordinates
of hits were smeared using experimental resolutions of the detector. We
incorporated the algorithm of the 3D Filtered Back Projection, implemented in
the STIR and TomoPy software packages, which differ in approximation methods.
Consistent results for the Point Spread Functions of ~5/7,mm and ~9/20, mm were
obtained, using STIR, for transverse and longitudinal directions, respectively,
with no time of flight information included.Comment: Presented at the 2nd Jagiellonian Symposium on Fundamental and
Applied Subatomic Physics, Krak\'ow, Poland, June 4-9, 2017. To be published
in Acta Phys. Pol.
Commissioning of the J-PET detector for studies of decays of positronium atoms
The Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) is a detector for
medical imaging of the whole human body as well as for physics studies
involving detection of electron-positron annihilation into photons. J-PET has
high angular and time resolution and allows for measurement of spin of the
positronium and the momenta and polarization vectors of annihilation quanta. In
this article, we present the potential of the J-PET system for background
rejection in the decays of positronium atoms.Comment: Presented at the 2nd Jagiellonian Symposium on Fundamental and
Applied Subatomic Physics, Krak\'ow, Poland, June 4-9, 2017. To be published
in Acta Phys. Pol.
Temporal and between-site variation in helminth communities of bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from N.E. Poland. 1. Regional fauna and component community levels
Helminth infections were studied in bank voles (Myodes glareolus) from 3 woodland sites in N.E. Poland in the late summers of 1999 and 2002, to assess the temporal stability of derived statistics describing the regional helminth fauna and component community structure, and spatial influence on the latter. Regional helminth fauna changed dramatically between the two years, primarily due to a fall in the abundance of Syphacia petrusewiczi but was partially compensated for by an increase in Mesocestoides lineatus and Cladotaenia globifera. It was dominated by nematodes overall, but more so in 1999 than in 2002 when larval cestodes were more frequent. Most derived parameters for component community structure varied considerably between sites and the two surveys, the hierarchical order for sites not being maintained between surveys. They were susceptible to the disproportionate influence of three relatively rare, unpredictable species with the greatest overall aggregated distribution among hosts. Jaccard’s similarity index was less influenced by the rare species, showing greater stability between sites and across years. In conclusion, temporal variation confounded any site-specific characteristics of the summary measures quantified in this study and their usefulness is therefore restricted to the years in which the surveys were conducted
Possibility of improving technological effectiveness of dairy wastewater treatment through application of active fillings and microwave rabiation
The aim of the study was to determine the technological effectiveness of treatment process of model dairy wastewater in anaerobic reactors with active filling (AF), heated with electromagnetic microwave radiation (EMR). Experiments were conducted in a laboratory scale. The AF were produced using micro-pore extrusion technology. The study demonstrated that AF introduction to the technological system and application of EMR significantly improved the effectiveness of organic compounds, phosphorus removal and biogas production. Initial organic loading rate also affected the final results of wastewater treatment
Evaluation of Single-Chip, Real-Time Tomographic Data Processing on FPGA - SoC Devices
A novel approach to tomographic data processing has been developed and
evaluated using the Jagiellonian PET (J-PET) scanner as an example. We propose
a system in which there is no need for powerful, local to the scanner
processing facility, capable to reconstruct images on the fly. Instead we
introduce a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) System-on-Chip (SoC) platform
connected directly to data streams coming from the scanner, which can perform
event building, filtering, coincidence search and Region-Of-Response (ROR)
reconstruction by the programmable logic and visualization by the integrated
processors. The platform significantly reduces data volume converting raw data
to a list-mode representation, while generating visualization on the fly.Comment: IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 17 May 201
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