Nano silver functionalized surfaces

A green synthesis of Ag nanosolhas been developed and optimized, achieving key-properties for large-scale production. .The bactericidal properties of Ag were improved by mixing Ag and TiO2nanosolsfor application under UV irradiation .The suspension were applied to ceramic and glass surfaces and preserved the nano-scale structure and reactivity also after heating treatments (up to 1100?C) .The coated surfaces were tested over Escherichia Coli (gram negative bacteria) and in all cases were detected an high antibacterial activity even after 24 hour

Production of Table Potatoes in Europe - A Multinational Gross Margin Analysis

This paper examines different cropping practices, cost structures and gross margins for conventional table potato cropping in 6 different regions within the European Union: Czech Republic, Denmark, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Slovakia. Findings from this study show that potato cropping practices varies significantly between the various countries with major differences in yield and costs. Italy and Denmark are the two regions with highest gross margins due to high yields and revenues. Poland is by far the largest potato producing country among the 6 countries. However, the production is primarily based on small scale farming with low yields and economic revenues.Table potatoes, gross margins, cropping practices, cost structure, Crop Production/Industries,

Assessing occupational risk in designs of production processes of nano-materials

Abstract Building safe production places can protect workers more effectively than managing risks in a plant that has been conceived without taking into account safety upfront. In this paper, we describe an approach to assessing potential risks already at the stage of design of production processes of nano-enabled products. In a chemical plant, risk results from the combination of hazard of the chemicals and exposure of workers to them. Toxicological profiles of novel nanomaterials, however, are generally unknown; in addition, the impossibility of measuring exposure in a plant that does not exist yet exacerbates the challenge of designing safe production processes. This paper describes a simple method to formulate realistic hypotheses about the toxicity of untested nanoparticles and derives a simplified model of exposure that enables non-specialists (e.g., managers, engineers) to analyze potential risks in projects of future production plants. As an example of analysis of risk in the absence of experimental data, the paper describes the procedure to generate maps of risks of two envisaged production chains of antibacterial textiles: 1) sonochemical synthesis and deposition of bactericidal nanoparticles, and 2) spray deposition of suspension of bactericidal nanoparticles

Experimental features affecting the transparency of YAG materials

The important role played by the processing on the transparency of ceramic materials is often underestimated. In the literature a high level of transparency has been reported by many authors that for years focused their research on the development of polycrystalline YAG for laser applications,but the description of the experimental process is seldom thoroughly described. A detailed description of the powder treatment and shaping and of other important information that are necessary to reproduce the described results, is often missing. In order to be transparent a ceramic material must exhibit a very low concentration of defects such as secondary or grain boundary phases and residual pores. In order to fulfill this requirement specific experimental conditions must be combined together. Powders need to be nanometric or at least sub-micrometric and extremely pure. On the other hand, nanometric powders aggregate easily and the poor packing that may derived can lead to residual porosity. In addition, very fine powders are difficult to handle and tend to absorb water on the surface. Finally, the powder manipulation (weighting operations, solvent removal, spray drying, shaping, etc), easily introduces impurities. In case of transparent materials all these features must be controlled because they lead to the formation of defects that works as light scattering sources thus decreasing the transparency. This work describes the results obtained with YAG based ceramics under different experimental conditions of powder treatment and shaping. Commercial powders are used for the reactive sintering in a clean atmosphere and under high vacuum of YAG materials doped with Nd, Yb or Er. These dopants have been selected as the more appropriate for high power lasers. The powder treatment (ball milling duration and speed, suspension concentration, solvent/powder ratio, type and amount of dispersant) the solvent removal technique (spray drying conditions, rotavapor temperature, etc.) are described in detail as well as the conditions adopted during shaping. The influence of the powder process on the powder packing during shaping by pressing is also reported. Finally, the influence of the pre-sintering and sintering cycles is also described

Heterocoagulation-spray drying process for the inclusion of ceramic pigments

The improvement of the physico-chemical resistance of hematite pigment in ceramic bodies has been pursued through its inclusion into a transparent and refractory matrix of silica or zirconia. The inclusion process was accomplished by heterocoagulation followed by spray-drying. The heterocoagulation process was optimised through an electrokinetic technique, that measured the potential of both matrix and pigment as a function of pH and of different amounts of dispersing agents. Suspensions of pigment and matrix were designed in order to achieve the maximum surface charges. The heterocoagulated mix was then spray-dried in order to avoid any separated coagulation of pigment and matrix and to obtain a well granulated powder suitable for application in ceramic bodies. A stable red-coloured ceramic pigment for low firing applications was obtained starting from amorphous silica as matrix and hematite as colorant

Synthesis of Cr-doped CaTiSiO5 pigments by spray drying

Cr-doped CaTiSiO5 were synthesized by spray drying of an aqueous solution of precursor salts plus further calcining the resulting powders. The samples were prepared by conventional ceramic method as well for comparison study as ceramic pigments. The evolution of the present crystalline phases with applied thermal treatments has been studied by X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRPD) and thermal analysis (DTA/TG). The powder morphology and particle size distribution were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and laser diffraction. The color efficiency of pigments was evaluated by colorimetric analysis (CIE Lab system). Results showed clearly efficiency of the spray dried procedure compared with the solid state reaction process. The produced powders consisted spherical particles with brad size distribution (<3?m), developing typical brown color. UV-VIS-NIR spectroscopy reveals the existence of Cr(III) as a majority phase occupies basically octahedral sites substituting Ti(IV), which must be responsible for the brown color of this pigment. Furthermore, Cr(IV) ions were found in octahedral coordination substituting Ti(IV) and small amount of tetravalent chromium substitutes for tetrahedral Si(IV)

Minimal disease activity in patients with psoriatic arthritis treated with ustekinumab: results from a 24-week real-world study

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is a chronic inflammatory joint disease affecting around 40% of psoriasis patients. Minimal disease activity (MDA) criteria have been proposed to identify a state of low disease activity, one of the principal goals of treatment for psoriatic disease. This study investigated treatment with ustekinumab (UST) in the context of a real-world setting. Thirty-four PsA patients who had failure or inadequate response to conventional synthetic disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs or to anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha were enrolled. Demographic and clinical features, MDA criteria, and the impact of psoriatic skin manifestations on patients' quality of life (QoL) using the dermatology life quality index (DLQI) questionnaire were evaluated at baseline and after 24-week treatment. Adverse events were recorded. At week 24, 70.5% of patients (n = 24) achieved MDA. A sub-analysis of dermatological indices of the MDA criteria showed that the psoriasis area severity index score was significantly improved and body surface area was significantly decreased at 24 weeks compared with that at baseline (both p < 0.001). For the rheumatologic indexes, tender joint count, swollen joint count, and tender entheseal points were all significantly improved at 24 weeks of therapy (all p < 0.01 vs. baseline). Mean DLQI value decreased approximately fourfold, and there were no safety concerns. The achievement of MDA as well as the significant improvement in DLQI and lack of adverse events in the context of a real-life setting shown here confirms the efficacy and safety of UST in PsA

Malayaite Ceramic Pigments: a Combined Optical Spectroscopy and Neutron/X-ray Diffraction Study

Ceramic pigments based on the Cr-doped malayaite structure were synthesized by solid state reaction and characterized by optical spectroscopy and combined X-ray and neutron powder diffraction in order to elucidate the still unclear chromium substitution mechanisms. The results show that coloration is actually due to simultaneous occurrence of Cr4+ and Cr3+ ions in the crystal lattice. Spectroscopy data confirm that Cr4+ is replacing Sn4+ in the octahedral site and, in minor amount, Si4+ in the tetrahedral site. In addition, neutron powder diffraction data suggest that Cr3+ substitution for octahedral Sn4+ is charge balanced by formation of oxygen vacancies with no preference over the different oxygen sites. Upon incorporation of Cr ion, the SnO6 octahedra exhibit an off-centre displacement of central cation which in turn induces a rearrangement of both the octahedral and tetrahedral coordination shells