An observational prospective study of topical acidified nitrite for killing methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in contaminated wounds

Background Endogenous nitric oxide (NO) kills bacteria and other organisms as part of the innate immune response. When nitrite is exposed to low pH, NO is generated and has been used as an NO delivery system to treat skin infections. We demonstrated eradication of MRSA carriage from wounds using a topical formulation of citric acid (4.5%) and sodium nitrite (3%) creams co-applied for 5 days to 15 wounds in an observational prospective pilot study of 8 patients. Findings Following treatment with topical citric acid and sodium nitrite, 9 of 15 wounds (60%) and 3 of 8 patients (37%) were cleared of infection. MRSA isolates from these patients were all sensitive to acidified nitrite in vitro compared to methicillin-sensitive S. aureus and a reference strain of MRSA. Conclusions Nitric oxide and acidified nitrite offer a novel therapy for control of MRSA in wounds. Wounds that were not cleared of infection may have been re-contaminated or the bioavailability of acidified nitrite impaired by local factors in the tissue

Groundwater flow code verification ``benchmarking`` activity (COVE-2A): Analysis of participants` work

The Nuclear Waste Repository Technology Department at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) is investigating the suitability of Yucca Mountain as a potential site for underground burial of nuclear wastes. One element of the investigations is to assess the potential long-term effects of groundwater flow on the integrity of a potential repository. A number of computer codes are being used to model groundwater flow through geologic media in which the potential repository would be located. These codes compute numerical solutions for problems that are usually analytically intractable. Consequently, independent confirmation of the correctness of the solution is often not possible. Code verification is a process that permits the determination of the numerical accuracy of codes by comparing the results of several numerical solutions for the same problem. The international nuclear waste research community uses benchmarking for intercomparisons that partially satisfy the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) definition of code verification. This report presents the results from the COVE-2A (Code Verification) project, which is a subset of the COVE project

Oxidation in HVOF-sprayed steel

It is widely held that most of the oxidation in thermally sprayed coatings occurs on the surface of the droplet after it has flattened. The evidence in this paper suggests that, for the conditions studied here, oxidation of the top surface of flattened droplets is not the dominant oxidation mechanism. In this study, a mild steel wire (AISI 1025) was sprayed using a high-velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) torch onto copper and aluminum substrates. Ion milling and Auger spectroscopy were used to examine the distribution of oxides within individual splats. Conventional metallographic analysis was also used to study oxide distributions within coatings that were sprayed under the same conditions. An analytical model for oxidation of the exposed surface of a splat is presented. Based on literature data, the model assumes that diffusion of iron through a solid FeO layer is the rate limiting factor in forming the oxide on the top surface of a splat. An FeO layer only a few thousandths of a micron thick is predicted to form on the splat surface as it cools. However, the experimental evidence shows that the oxide layers are typically 100x thicker than the predicted value. These thick, oxide layers are not always observed on the top surface of a splat. Indeed, in some instances the oxide layer is on the bottom, and the metal is on the top. The observed oxide distributions are more consistently explained if most of the oxide formed before the droplets impact the substrate

Model predictions of dynamic instability threshold for boiling flow systems

Boiling flow systems such as boiling water nuclear reactors and once-through steam generators may be susceptible to dynamic instabilities of various types. The most common among these is a low frequency (0.1 to 2 Hz, typically) oscillatory flow instability of the limit-cycle type termed ''density-wave oscillations (DWO)''. In the present paper, two different computer models have been used to predict the DWO threshold power input for various operating conditions of an experimental system which features an electrically-heated test section assembly and water as the experimental fluid. One of the models, a frequency-domain model, has been in use for quite some time in the nuclear industry. The other is an improved version of a time-domain two-fluid model proposed by us recently

Mobility promotes and jeopardizes biodiversity in rock-paper-scissors games

Biodiversity is essential to the viability of ecological systems. Species diversity in ecosystems is promoted by cyclic, non-hierarchical interactions among competing populations. Such non-transitive relations lead to an evolution with central features represented by the `rock-paper-scissors' game, where rock crushes scissors, scissors cut paper, and paper wraps rock. In combination with spatial dispersal of static populations, this type of competition results in the stable coexistence of all species and the long-term maintenance of biodiversity. However, population mobility is a central feature of real ecosystems: animals migrate, bacteria run and tumble. Here, we observe a critical influence of mobility on species diversity. When mobility exceeds a certain value, biodiversity is jeopardized and lost. In contrast, below this critical threshold all subpopulations coexist and an entanglement of travelling spiral waves forms in the course of temporal evolution. We establish that this phenomenon is robust, it does not depend on the details of cyclic competition or spatial environment. These findings have important implications for maintenance and evolution of ecological systems and are relevant for the formation and propagation of patterns in excitable media, such as chemical kinetics or epidemic outbreaks.Comment: Final submitted version; the printed version can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature06095 Supplementary movies are available at http://www.theorie.physik.uni-muenchen.de/lsfrey/images_content/movie1.AVI and http://www.theorie.physik.uni-muenchen.de/lsfrey/images_content/movie2.AV

Dilatometry in the Gleeble: What did you really measure?

The Gleeble is an oft-used tool for welding metallurgy research. Besides producing synthetic weld specimens, it is used to determine phase transformation temperatures and kinetics via dilatometry. Experimental data and an FEM model are used to examine measured dilatation errors because of non-uniform heating of the dilatometer and other sources such as sample elastic and plastic deformation. Both isothermal and constant heating/cooling rate scenarios are considered. Further errors which may be introduced when the dilatation is incorrectly assumed to be linearly related to the volume fraction transformed are also discussed

Bonding mechanism from the impact of thermally sprayed solid particles

Power particles are mainly in solid state prior to impact on substrates from high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) thermal spraying. The bonding between particles and substrates is critical to ensure the quality of coating. Finite element analysis (FEA) models are developed to simulate the impingement process of solid particle impact on substrates. This numerical study examines the bonding mechanism between particles and substrates and establishes the critical particle impact parameters for bonding. Considering the morphology of particles, the shear-instability–based method is applied to all the particles, and the energy-based method is employed only for spherical particles. The particles are given the properties of widely used WC-Co powder for HVOF thermally sprayed coatings. The numerical results confirm that in the HVOF process, the kinetic energy of the particle prior to impact plays the most dominant role in particle stress localization and melting of the interfacial contact region. The critical impact parameters, such as particle velocity and temperature, are shown to be affected by the shape of particles, while higher impact velocity is required for highly nonspherical powder

Particle Velocity and Deposition Efficiency in the Cold Spray Process

Copper powder was sprayed by the cold-gas dynamic method. In-flight particle velocities were measured with a laser-two-focus system as a function of process parameters such as gas temperature, gas pressure, and powder feed rate. Particle velocities were uniform in a relatively large volume within the plume and agreed with theoretical predictions. The presence of the substrate was found to have no significant effect on particle velocities. Cold-spray deposition efficiencies were measured on aluminum substrates as a function of particle velocity and incident angle of the plume. Deposition efficiencies of up to 95% were achieved. The critical velocity for deposition was determined to be about 640 meters per second. This work investigates both the in-flight characteristics of copper particles in a supersonic cold-spray plume and the build-up of the subsequent coating on aluminum substrates. Velocities were found to be relatively constant within a large volume of the plume. Particle counts dropped off sharply away from the central axis. The presence of a substrate was found to have no effect on the velocity of the particles. A substantial mass-loading effect on the particle velocity was observed; particle velocities begin to drop as the mass ratio of powder to gas flow rates exceeds 3%. The measured variation of velocity with gas pressure and pre-heat temperature was in fairly good agreement with theoretical predictions. Helium may be used as the driving gas instead of air in order to achieve higher particle velocities for a given temperature and pressure. Coating deposition efficiencies were found to increase with particle velocity and decrease with gun- substrate angle. There did not appear to be any dependence of the deposition efficiency on coating thickness. A critical velocity for deposition of about 640 mk appears to fit the data well. The cold-spray technique shows promise as a method for the deposition of materials which are thermally sensitive or may experience rapid oxidation under typical thermal spray conditions. High deposition efficiencies are achievable for certain coating-substrate conditions. Work remains to determine the material and microstructural properties which govern the coating process

Evolutionary fates within a microbial population highlight an essential role for protein folding during natural selection

Physicochemical properties of molecules can be linked directly to evolutionary fates of a population in a quantitative and predictive manner.Reversible- and irreversible-folding pathways must be accounted for to accurately determine in vitro kinetic parameters (KM and kcat) at temperatures or conditions in which a significant fraction of free enzyme is unfolded.In vivo population dynamics can be reproduced using in vitro physicochemical measurements within a model that imposes an activity threshold above which there is no added fitness benefit