Reconstruction of the Terminal of an Abandoned Fractured Unipolar Coronary Sinus Lead: a Feasible Solution to Restore Effective Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

AbstractComplications related to coronary sinus lead are not infrequent in recipients of cardiac resynchronization devices. We describe the case of a patient with a biventricular implantable cardioverter defibrillator with persistent phrenic nerve stimulation, previous coronary sinus lead fracture, and severe left subclavian vein stenosis. The reimplantation of a new coronary sinus lead on the left side, ipsilateral to the original implant, was unsuccessful. In order to avoid more complex and risky procedures, we performed the repair of the fractured abandoned lead with the reconstruction of the unipolar lead terminal. Effective biventricular pacing was obtained with satisfactory electrical parameters and it was maintained at twelve months follow-up

Validation of colorimetric assays for hydrogen peroxide, nitrate and nitrite ions in complex plasma-treated water solutions

AbstractLiquids treated with cold plasma emerged as 'redox drugs' in biomedicine, as sources of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species targeting cellular functions, including wound healing and cancer progression. The use of cell culture media as starting liquid, however, challenges the identification of plasma‐generated chemistry, limited by the presence of many reactive species and organic compounds. Available detection methods need, therefore, to be confirmed in these liquids to avoid inaccurate results. In this research, robustness, linearity, accuracy and specificity of three colorimetric assays are investigated to detect H2O2, NO2− and NO3−, predominant plasma‐induced products. The results clearly highlight the presence of some factors affecting the detection in cell culture media like high concentrations of chlorides found interfering with the detection of NO3− in the medium

Deposition and etching of fluorocarbon thin films in atmospheric pressure DBDs fed with Ar–CF4–H2 and Ar–CF4–O2 mixtures

The deposition and etching of plasma-polymerized fluorocarbon thin films were studied in filamentary dielectric barrier discharges (FDBDs) fed with Ar–CF4–H2 and Ar–CF4–O2 mixtures, respectively. The etching/ polymerization competition was investigated as a function of the feed composition. Hydrogen addition to CF4 promotes thin films deposition, with a maximum deposition rate at 20% H2, and reduces the F/C ratio of the deposit, while the oxygen addition promotes the etching of the plasma-deposited film. It is demonstrated that fluorine atoms can perform the etching of the fluoropolymer also without ion bombardment. The correlation between the trend of the etch rate and the trend of the surface chemical composition of fluoropolymers etched in Ar–CF4–O2 mixtures allows to enhance hypotheses on the reaction mechanism and on the role of the different active species involved in plasma–surface interactions

ZnO/ionic liquid catalyzed biodiesel production from renewable and waste lipids as feedstocks

A new protocol for biodiesel production is proposed, based on a binary ZnO/TBAI (TBAI = tetrabutylammonium iodide) catalytic system. Zinc oxide acts as a heterogeneous, bifunctional Lewis acid/base catalyst, while TBAI plays the role of phase transfer agent. Being composed by the bulk form powders, the whole catalyst system proved to be easy to use, without requiring nano-structuration or tedious and costly preparation or pre-activation procedures. In addition, due to the amphoteric properties of ZnO, the catalyst can simultaneously promote transesterification and esterification processes, thus becoming applicable to common vegetable oils (e.g., soybean, jatropha, linseed, etc.) and animal fats (lard and fish oil), but also to waste lipids such as cooking oils (WCOs), highly acidic lipids from oil industry processing, and lipid fractions of municipal sewage sludge. Reusability of the catalyst system together with kinetic (Ea) and thermodynamic parameters of activation (∆G‡ and ∆H‡) are also studied for transesterification reaction

Atmospheric Pressure PECVD of Fluorocarbon Coatings from Glow Dielectric Barrier Discharges

The influence of air and water vapour on the deposition process of fluoropolymers in argonhexafluoropropene (Ar-C3F6) filamentary dielectric barrier discharges was investigated by adding known concentrations of these contaminants to the feed gas. The obtained results show that Ar-C3F6 DBDs allow in depositing thin films with a XPS F/C ratio as high as 1.7. Under the experimental conditions investigated, contaminant addition slightly affects the F/C ratio of the coatings, and does not cause appreciable O- and N-uptake, but induces a decrease of the deposition rate. Preliminary results from the OES investigation of the gas phase and the GC-MS analysis of the gas effluent are also reported

Deposition of Hydrocarbon Films by Means of Helium‐Ethylene Fed Glow Dielectric Barrier Discharges

The present work provides a detailed study of helium-ethylene dielectric barrier glow discharges. The effect of ethylene concentration, total gas flow rate, excitation frequency and applied voltage have been investigated in order to clarify both discharge operational mode, and coating composition. The discharge has been characterized by means of electrical measurements and optical emission spectroscopy, while the stable species contained in the gas effluent have been sampled and analyzed using gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection to achieve indications on the reactive fragments generated inside the discharge. It has been observed that polyethylene-like coatings can be obtained for a wide range of electrical conditions, and the deposition rates have been found to range between 20 and 80 nm.min-1

GC‐MS Investigation of Hexamethyldisiloxane–Oxygen Fed Cold Plasmas: Low Pressure Versus Atmospheric Pressure Operation

This study deals with the investigation by means of gaschromatography-mass spectrometry of the exhaust gas of a rf low pressure glow discharge and of an atmospheric pressure filamentary DBD fed with HMDSO, O2 and Ar. The influence of feed composition on monomer depletion and on the quali-quantitative distribution of stable by-products formed by recombination of plasma intermediates is investigated. Without O2 addition to the feed almost comparable values of HMDSO depletion are observed both at low and atmospheric pressure. Oxygen addition does not influence the monomer depletion at low pressure while it induces a slight decrease of the depletion at atmospheric pressure. Whatever the working pressure, O2 controls the overall chemistry of the plasma, since it influences the concentration of by-products (e.g. silanes, silanols, linear and cyclic methylsiloxanes). At atmospheric pressure evidences of the importance of methyl abstraction from HMDSO molecule have been obtained, while at low pressure the prevalence of Si-O bond rupture, of fragmentation and oligomerization reactions is observed. The comparison of results from the GC-MS investigation of the exhaust gas with FT-IR spectra of the deposited coatings allows to enhance hypotheses on the formation of silanols in the gas phase and in the deposit

Effect of Gas Impurities on the Operation of Dielectric Barrier Discharges Fed with He, Ar, and Ar‐C3F6

The influence of N2, O2, air, and water vapor feed gas impurities on the operation of an atmospheric pressure parallel plate DBD fed with helium and argon was investigated. The addition of increasing amounts of these impurities, under fixed excitation frequency and applied voltage, is responsible above certain thresholds of two distinct phenomena, namely the transition from a homogeneous to a filamentary appearance of the discharge and the contraction of the discharge volume. Among the different contaminants N2 shows the highest threshold limit values, O2 and H2O the lowest ones, while air generally exhibits an intermediate behavior. The effect of feed gas impurities was also studied on the PE-CVD of fluoropolymers from Ar-C3F6 fed filamentary DBDs. Contaminants addition results in a decrease of the input power and of the deposition rate as well as in a change of the film morphology, however it does not influence significantly the chemical composition of the fluoropolymer film, the monomer depletion and the distribution of by-products in the exhaust gas

Fluorination of Polymers by Means of He/CF4‐Fed Atmospheric Pressure Glow Dielectric Barrier Discharges

He/CF4-fed GDBDs were used to fluorinate PP and PET. The effect of various process parameters on the polymers surface composition and morphology, as well as on their wettability was investigated inside the GDBD existence domain. An extensive surface fluorination of treated polymers due to the grafting of F atoms and CFx radicals was observed. The increase of CF4 concentration in the feed, of treatment duration, and of excitation frequency resulted in an increase of the fluorination degree corresponding to F/C ratios as high as 1.18 and 1.22 for PP and PET, respectively. The emission spectra of GDBDs fed by helium in mixture with CF4, CHF3, C2F6 and C3F8 were compared

Photocatalytic inactivation of Escherichia coli bacteria in water using low pressure plasma deposited TiO2 cellulose fabric

Fabrics obtained from cellulose spinning, extracted from Spanish broom, were coated with TiO2 film, through the low pressure plasma sputtering technique, in order to get antibacterial activity. The obtained fabrics were used for the photocatalytic degradation of Escherichia coli, by irradiation with UV-light emitting diodes (UV-LED), in a batch photocatalytic reactor. Before and after functionalization treatments, cellulosic substrates were chemically characterized by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses. Water Contact Angle (WCA) measurements allowed obtaining information about the hydrophilicity of the materials, while their antibacterial efficiency was determined at several initial concentrations (from 103 up to 108 CFU mL−1) of bacteria in distilled water, bottled water and synthetic wastewater. It was found that photocatalytic reactions were capable of achieving up to 100% bacterial inactivation in 1 h of treatment, following a pseudo-first order kinetic model. No bacterial regrowth was observed after photocatalytic treatments in almost all experimental conditions. In contrast, during photolytic treatment (i.e. in the absence of the TiO2 coated fabrics) bacteria recovered their initial concentration after 3 h in the dark. Finally, the reusability of the plasma modified fibers to inactivate bacteria was studied