Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity of Ag/WO3 Nanoparticles and its Antibacterial Activity Under Ambient Light and in The Dark

Nanomaterial such as metals and metal oxide photocatalysts have emerged as important tools for removing contaminants from wastewater and as antibacterial agents to prevent infections; this is mainly due to their stability under different irradiation conditions. Herein, the catalytic and antimicrobial activities of nanocrystalline silver (Ag), supported on tungsten oxide (WO3) nanoparticles prepared using the deposition-precipitation synthesis technique, are studied. The synthesized material was characterized as XRD, XPS, TEM, and TEM-EDS to investigate their physio-chemical properties. HRTEM, XPS analysis shows that the photocatalyst has a large sheet-like morphology with well-dispersed small metallic Ag particles (<3 nm) on the WO3 nanoparticle's surface, with most particles near the edges. Ultraviolet–visible spectra analysis observed a large redshift in the absorbing band edge and decreased bandgap energy from 2.6 to 2.1 eV. Photocatalytic analysis at different concentrations of 1% Ag/WO3 under visible light indicated a high degradation efficiency. The largest degradation efficiency of Methylene Blue (MB) under visible light irradiation was (∼80%) in 120 min at 1 g/L catalyst dosage. The photodegradation of MB under visible light as a function of catalyst dose followed the pseudo-first-order kinetics. In addition, the catalyst shows high degradation efficiency and significant dose-dependent inhibition of Gram-negative E. Coli and the Gram-positive S. aureus. Furthermore, the catalyst showed excellent stability and recyclability

The Assessment of a Two-Handed Pinch Force: Quantifying Different Anthropometric Pinch Grasp Patterns for Males and Females

In industrial applications, it is essential to describe and estimate the distinctive nature or features of grip force so as to optimize tool, machine grip, and/or handle designs. Most of the industrial machine\u27s handles require two hands pinch grip force exertion, however, most of the existing research focused on one hand pinch grip force. Each different machine handle\u27s design requires definitely different anthropometric grasp types based on the machine handle shape. This study is therefore aims at examining and investigating the influence of pinch grip pattern, pinch grip width, gender, lean body mass (LBM), body mass index (BMI), and hand dimensions on pinch grip forces by conducting two-hand experiment using a custom-designed measuring tool. Three different types of anthropometric pinch grasp patterns were tested, which are: lateral (key), chuck, and pulp-2. Pinch grips were tested for static maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) forces using a two hands in a snap-type action at two different widths (3.8 cm and 6.8 cm) among forty-six volunteers. The two-handed pinch grip force was also quantified by developing regression models for each anthropometric pinch grasp pattern. The results showed that the pinch grip force was affected by: the pinch grasp pattern, pinch grip width, gender, and hand dimensions. Chuck and lateral pinch forces were not significantly different from each other. Pulp-2 pinch had the lowest pinch forces for males and females. Individuals\u27 medical indexes were calculated to study their significance on the pinch grip force. It was noticed that the LBM index has a significant effect on the pinch grip force compared to the BMI

Pacing Spikes All Over

Ventricular safety pacing (VSP) is used to avoid cross talk by delivering ventricular stimulus shortly after an atrial-paced event if ventricular-sensed event occurs. Although VSP is a protective feature that exists for decades in different pacing devices, there are some reports of unfavorable outcomes of this algorithm. More so, health care providers sometimes face difficulties in interpreting and dealing with VSP strips. This case report discusses an important pacemaker algorithm and encourages further attention to possible pitfalls and hence avoids unnecessary interventions

Bell's disk polynomials and parallel disk iteration

SIGLETIB: in RN 6361 (1986,2) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekDEGerman

Vascular access mortality and hospitalization among hemodialysis patients in Palestine

Vascular access complications are common in patients with end-stage kidney disease who are receiving maintenance hemodialysis (HD) and are responsible for an enormous burden of morbidity and mortality among these patients. Differences in the all-cause mortality rate and hospitalization between dialysis catheter use and arteriovenous (AV) vascular access use have not been documented in our HD population. We performed a 12-month prospective analysis of our HD patients from four dialysis centers. We examined all-cause mortality and hospitalization in patients being dialyzed through HD catheters as compared to patients with AV access. A total of 382 patients were included in the study. Of these, 88 had catheters and 294 had AV accesses. Seventy-eight percent of all catheters were temporary nontunneled dialysis catheters. The overall gross mortality rate for all patients was 14.7%. Gross mortality was significantly lower among AV access group compared to the catheter group (12.2% vs. 22.7%; P = 0.015). Catheter use was associated with a relative hazard ratio (HR) of 1.85 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.13–3.03] compared with use of an AV access. Hospitalization rate was also significantly lower among patients with AV access versus patients who used catheters (27.6% vs. 46.6%; P = 0.006). The risk of hospitalization was also higher in catheter users with a relative HR of 1.69 (95% CI, 1.26–2.26) compared with use of AV access. In our HD population where the majority of catheters were temporary nontunneled catheters, dialysis catheter use was associated with higher mortality and increased hospitalization rates compared with AV access. These results emphasize the urgent need to minimize the use of dialysis catheters, in order to reduce mortality and hospitalization rates among HD patients