Reconceiving the Tournament of Lawyers: Tracking, Seeding, and Information Control in the International Labor Markets of Elite Law Firms

This report covers many aspects of path and trajectory generation for industrial robots. Path generation in Cartesian space is discussed, with the limitation that only linear motion is considered. Path generation in joint space is also discussed and in particular representation of the joint path using cubic splines is presented. Different algorithms for spline generation are also discussed and tested on an example.The last step, the trajectory generation is also covered. Two preliminary algorithms that gives limited speed and acceleration in Cartesian space and in joint space are given. It is also indicated that there is more to be done in order to reach an optimal trajectory. At the end of the report a simple spline toolbox for MatLab is described

Hydrophobization of Track Membrane Surface by Magnetron Sputter Deposition of Ultra-high Molecular Weight Polyethylene

Method for the formation of polymer coatings on the poly(ethylene terephthalate) track-etched membrane surface by magnetron sputter deposition of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene in a vacuum is considered. The surface morphology and chemical structure of nanoscale coatings have been investigated. It is shown that the application of the ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene-like coatings leads to hydrophobization of the membrane surface, the degree of which depends on the coating thickness. Besides, the usage of this modification method leads to smoothing of structural inhomogeneity of the membrane surface, a decrease in pore diameter, and alteration of pore shape. The investigation of the chemical structure of deposited coatings by XPS method showed that they contain a significant concentration of oxygen-containing functional groups. The composite membranes of the developed sample can be used in the process of desalination of seawater by the method of membrane distillation

Atmospheric pressure plasma and depositions of antibacterial coatings

Healthcare-associated infections (HCAI) are complications of healthcare that result in elevated patient morbidity and mortality. HCAI present a huge financial burden for patients, hospitals and insurers due to extended hospitalisation and associated care. According to the estimations, in the US alone, HCAI affects approximately 2 million patients annually, of whom approximately 90.000 patients die, with an estimated annual cost estimated to range from 28 billion to 45 billion US$. [1] European Union is facing the similar situation, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and control (ECDC) advice that approximately 4.1 million acute care patients acquire a HCAI annually, with 37.000 deaths directly attributed to HCAI. With increasing prevalence of HCAI across European countries and threatening development of antimicrobial resistance to widely used antibiotics, there is a recognised need for novel approach in battle against this healthcare burden [2]. One of the approaches involves a development and fabrication of materials with antimicrobial properties. Usually, these are coatings with integrated antibacterial agent that is responsible for the elimination of microorganisms that come into contact with active surface. There is a variety of different antibacterial compounds integrated in such coatings, such as different antibiotics, chemical compounds, peptides. Recently, metal nanoparticles (NPs) have been increasingly used in designing coatings with antibacterial properties due to their large surface-to-volume ration, physiochemical properties and biological multi-target mechanism of actions. Besides all beneficial properties of NPs their emergence of cytotoxicity is limiting their practical applications in human body. [3-4] To overcome this drawback it is important to design a new class of antibacterial coatings with firmly embedded NPs that allows controlled release of antimicrobial agent into the microenvironment. Atmospheric pressure plasma technology has shown a big promise as an alternative and cost-efficient method for deposition of coatings with antibacterial properties. This contribution explores the potential of plasma-assisted approach for fabrication of antibacterial coatings, containing different metal NPs on medical textiles. Plasma-assisted deposition of coatings was carried out with so-called ˝sandwich technique˝, where nanoparticles were embedded between two layers in order to tailor the desirable ion release and to prolong antibacterial effect of fabrics. Antibacterial effects of different nano-coatings were tested against G+ and G- bacterial species, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, respectively. Besides antibacterial properties, potential cytotoxic effects were also studied. The study demonstrates that atmospheric pressure plasma can be an efficient technique for deposition of antibacterial coatings containing metal NPs. Medical textiles with plasma-assisted nano-coatings showed effective antibacterial properties. The choice of proper metal antimicrobial agent and optimal concentration of NPs should be considered in regards to potential cytotoxic effects when these materials would be used in medical environments.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

DEPOSITION OF NANOSIZED POLYMER FILMS ONTO TRACK-ETCHED MEMBRANE SURFACE OBTAINED BY PLASMA POLYMERIZATION OF HEXAMETHYLDISILAZANE

The structure, surface and electrochemical properties of polypropylene track-etched membrane with a polymer layer obtained by plasma polymerization of hexamethyldisilazane have been studied.205-20

Atmospheric-pressure plasma spray deposition of silver/HMDSO nanocomposite on polyamide 6,6 with controllable antibacterial activity

"Paper presented at the ICON2019 conferences in Çorlu, Tekirdağ, Turkey April 17-19, 2019"Novel coatings containing silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with strong bonding and controllable antibacterial activity on polyamide 6,6 fabric were produced by dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasmaassisted deposition at atmospheric pressure and hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) layers. Silver ion release was tuned using a “sandwich” coating structure to prolong the antibacterial effect. The novel spray-assisted deposition increased deposition rates of AgNPs using atmospheric pressure DBD plasma treatment when an HMDSO layer was applied. An increase in AgNPs deposition in plasma treated samples and antimicrobial activity against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli) for samples with an additional HMDSO layer was observed. These coatings allow the development of new and safe wound dressings able to switch the antimicrobial effect against Gram- positive and Gram-negative bacteria by washing the dressing at high temperature (75 oC) before application.This work was funded by European Regional Development funds (FEDER) through the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program (POCI) – COMPETE and by National Funds through Portuguese Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT) under the project UID/ CTM/00264/2019. Ana Ribeiro acknowledges FCT for its doctoral grant SFRH/BD/137668/2018. Andrea Zille also acknowledges fnancial support of the FCT through an Investigator FCT Research contract (IF/00071/2015) and the project PTDC/CTM-TEX/28295/2017 fnanced by FCT, FEDER, and POCI in the frame of the Portugal 2020 program

Antibacterial nanocomposites based on Ag NPs and HMDSO deposited by atmospheric pressure plasma

The development of new multifunctional coatings with antimicrobial properties has a special interest in several applications for pharmaceutical and medical products. This work reports on the deposition of antimicrobial coatings based on silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) embedded in an organosilicon film onto woven and nonwoven textiles. The Ag nanoparticles admixed with hexamethyldisiloxane (HMDSO) vapours are introduced by means of an atomizer system in the remote discharge of an atmospheric pressure plasma source operating in argon. The chemical properties and the surface morphology of the coatings with antimicrobial potential are discussed.This work was performed within the M-ERA-NET project PlasmaTex, contract 31/2016/ UEFISCDI. The financial support from the Ministry of Research and Innovation under the Nucleus contract 4N/2016 is gratefully acknowledged.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

USING THE PLASMA CHEMICAL METHODS FOR DEPOSITION OF FLUORINATED POLYMER COATINGS ONTO TRACK-ETCHED MEMBRANE SURFACE

The structure, surface and electrochemical properties of track-etched membranes from poly(ethylene terephthalate) with fluorinated polymer coatings obtained by plasma chemical methods have been studied.206-20