Scattering of epithermal argon by /111/ silver surfaces - A comparison of theory and experiment

Scattering distributions for argon incident on fresh epitaxial silver film

Research on gas-surface interactions, 1966-1967. Part 1 - Project summary final report, 11 Aug. 1966 - 11 Oct. 1967

High intensity shock tube driven molecular beam for gas-surface interaction

Research in gas-surface interaction. part ii- a shock tube driven molecular beam for gas-surface interaction experiments final report, 1964-1965

Shock tube driven molecular beam for gas-surface interaction experiment

Diabetes insipidus secondary to nivolumab-induced neurohypophysitis and pituitary metastasis

A 62-year-old patient with metastatic hypopharyngeal carcinoma underwent treatment with nivolumab, following which he developed symptoms suggestive of diabetes insipidus. Nivolumab was stopped and therapy with methylprednisolone was started. During corticosteroid therapy, the patient presented himself in poor health condition with fungal infection and glycemic decompensation. Methylprednisolone dose was tapered off, leading to the resolution of mycosis and the restoration of glycemic compensation, nevertheless polyuria and polydipsia persisted. Increase in urine osmolarity after desmopressin administration was made diagnosing central diabetes insipidus as a possibility. The neuroradiological data by pituitary MRI scan with gadolinium was compatible with coexistence of metastatic localization and infundibuloneurohypophysitis secondary to therapy with nivolumab. To define the exact etiology of the pituitary pathology, histological confirmation would have been necessary; however, unfortunately, it was not possible. In the absence of histological confirmation, we believe it is likely that both pathologies coexisted

Legionella anisa or Legionella bozemanii? Traditional and molecular techniques as support in the environmental surveillance of a hospital water network

Understanding the actual distribution of different Legionella species in water networks would help prevent outbreaks. Culture investigations followed by serological agglutination tests, with poly/monovalent antisera, still represent the gold standard for isolation and identification of Legionella strains. However, also MALDI-TOF and mip-gene sequencing are currently used. This study was conducted to genetically correlate strains of Legionella non pneumophila (L-np) isolated during environmental surveillance comparing different molecular techniques. Overall, 346 water samples were collected from the water system of four pavilions located in a hospital of the Apulia Region of Italy. Strains isolated from the samples were then identified by serological tests, MALDI-TOF, and mip-gene sequencing. Overall, 24.9% of water samples were positive for Legionella, among which the majority were Legionella pneumophila (Lpn) 1 (52.3%), followed by Lpn2-15 (20.9%), L-np (17.4%), Lpn1 + Lpn2-15 (7.1%), and L-np + Lpn1 (2.3%). Initially, L-np strains were identified as L. bozemanii by monovalent antiserum, while MALDI-TOF and mip-gene sequencing assigned them to L. anisa. More cold water than hot water samples were contaminated by L. anisa (p < 0.001). PFGE, RAPD, Rep-PCR, and SAU-PCR were performed to correlate L. anisa strains. Eleven out of 14 strains identified in all four pavilions showed 100% of similarity upon PFGE analysis. RAPD, Rep-PCR, and SAU-PCR showed greater discriminative power than PFGE

Limestones coated with photocatalytic TiO2 to enhance building surface with self-cleaning and depolluting abilities

Natural stones with self-cleaning and depolluting abilities are appealing to preserve building façades in polluted urban sites and simultaneously to provide air-purification. Coating with photocatalytic Titanium dioxide is promising at this purpose; nonetheless, stone coating issues need better insights to support large-scale applications. In this paper, photocatalytic surfaces of two limestones having different roughnessess and porosities, are investigated by comparing coatings obtained from either water and alcohol based colloidal suspensions of TiO2 nanoparticles, which were synthetized by sol gel and hydrothermal process and sprayed with different loads on the stone surface. A commercial water-based TiO2 sol was also used. The study aims to assess the role of the substrates, the nature of the titania dispersions and the TiO2 loads, in determining characteristics and properties of the photocatalytic stone surfaces, in order to obtain suited coatings for real applications on buildings. Colorimetry detected negligible colour changes on both stone surfaces due to the coatings. A photodegradation test of Rhodamine B recorded a high self-cleaning efficiency on the coated surfaces, irrespective of the stones, the alcohol and water based suspensions, and their TiO2 loads. Conversely, the efficiency in a NOx abatement test was dependent on the porosity and roughness of the stones. ESEM-EDS on the applied coatings and XRD on the TiO2 nanopowders identified critical issues in the coating morphology and presence of by-products relating to the preparation of the sols, which may have implications in the durability performances. The overall results showed that all the obtained coatings were able to deliver photocatalytic surface of both limestones, which have a potential to be implemented as eco-efficient materials on buildings. Nonetheless, higher air purification ability issued for the limestone with higher porosity and roughness and the experimental TiO2 water-based sol performed better than the alcoholic and commercial ones as regards the coating morphology and absence of by-products