Mechanism of Virus Inactivation by Cold Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma and Plasma-Activated Water

ABSTRACT Viruses cause serious pathogenic contamination that severely affects the environment and human health. Cold atmospheric-pressure plasma efficiently inactivates pathogenic bacteria; however, the mechanism of virus inactivation by plasma is not fully understood. In this study, surface plasma in argon mixed with 1% air and plasma-activated water was used to treat water containing bacteriophages. Both agents efficiently inactivated bacteriophages T4, ϕ174, and MS2 in a time-dependent manner. Prolonged storage had marginal effects on the antiviral activity of plasma-activated water. DNA and protein analysis revealed that the reactive species generated by plasma damaged both nucleic acids and proteins, consistent with the morphological examination showing that plasma treatment caused the aggregation of bacteriophages. The inactivation of bacteriophages was alleviated by the singlet oxygen scavengers, demonstrating that singlet oxygen played a primary role in this process. Our findings provide a potentially effective disinfecting strategy to combat the environmental viruses using cold atmospheric-pressure plasma and plasma-activated water. IMPORTANCE Contamination with pathogenic and infectious viruses severely threatens human health and animal husbandry. Current methods for disinfection have different disadvantages, such as inconvenience and contamination of disinfection by-products (e.g., chlorine disinfection). In this study, atmospheric surface plasma in argon mixed with air and plasma-activated water was found to efficiently inactivate bacteriophages, and plasma-activated water still had strong antiviral activity after prolonged storage. Furthermore, it was shown that bacteriophage inactivation was associated with damage to nucleic acids and proteins by singlet oxygen. An understanding of the biological effects of plasma-based treatment is useful to inform the development of plasma into a novel disinfecting strategy with convenience and no by-product

Gas Plasma Pre-Treatment Increases Antibiotic Sensitivity and Persister Eradication in Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a major cause of serious nosocomial infections, and recurrent MRSA infections primarily result from the survival of persister cells after antibiotic treatment. Gas plasma, a novel source of ROS (reactive oxygen species) and RNS (reactive nitrogen species) generation, not only inactivates pathogenic microbes but also restore the sensitivity of MRSA to antibiotics. This study further found that sublethal treatment of MRSA with both plasma and plasma-activated saline increased the antibiotic sensitivity and promoted the eradication of persister cells by tetracycline, gentamycin, clindamycin, chloramphenicol, ciprofloxacin, rifampicin, and vancomycin. The short-lived ROS and RNS generated by plasma played a primary role in the process and induced the increase of many species of ROS and RNS in MRSA cells. Thus, our data indicated that the plasma treatment could promote the effects of many different classes of antibiotics and act as an antibiotic sensitizer for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant bacteria involved in infectious diseases

Mathematical models for the population dynamics and management of the carrot weevil, Listronotus oregonensis (LeConte) (Coleoptera:Curculionidae)

The time-varying survival rates of the carrot weevil, Listronotus oregonensis, were estimated by a new method. This method precluded the possibility of negative simulation survival rates. Analysis of carrot weevil population dynamics indicated that the egg mortality was density dependent with Anaphes sordidatus, an egg parasitoid, as a major density dependent factor. Larval mortality was less density dependent. Based on the mortality information, a simulation model for carrot weevil population dynamics was established. The simulation precision, evaluated by comparing simulated and observed egg and larval population dynamics, was satisfactory. Sensitivity analysis indicated that A. sordidatus had a large influence on carrot weevil population dynamics. The economic threshold for carrot weevil control in early carrots was 5 eggs/100 carrots at the peak population density. It ranged from 3.8 to 5.3 eggs/100 carrots in mid-season carrots depending on the selling price. A decision model showed that the best sowing date was after June 5 when risks were not considered. For risk aversion growers, sowing carrots between May 20 and May 31 was the best choice

Reform and discontent : the causes of the 1989 Chinese student movement

The central argument of this thesis is that a series of China's state policies, before and during the reform era, were conducive to the rise of the 1989 Chinese Student Movement (CSM). The most important of these were (1) leftist policies during Mao's era which fostered the formation of pro-democratic yet impractical intellectuals and created a university ecology that was remarkably conducive to student movements, and (2) the state-led reform which over produced students on the one hand, and blocked upward mobility channels for intellectuals and students on the other hand. These and other conducive factors to the rise of the 1989 CSM were not simply state mistakes. To a large extent, they were characteristic of the regime.The thesis does not reject non-state centered factors such as anomic feelings toward uncertainties brought by the reform, the conflict between reformers and hardliners within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the rise of civil society during the eighties, the impact of Western ideologies following the open door policy or the intrinsic character of Chinese culture, that have all been hitherto proposed to explain the rise of the CSM. Rather, it incorporates these explanations under a state-centered paradigm in light of a general model (the DSSI model) that I am proposing to explain the general causes, and to a lesser extent, the dynamics of large scale social movements

An Intelligent Artificial Neural Network Modeling of a Magnetorheological Elastomer Isolator

Recently, magnetorheological elastomer (MRE) has been paid increasingly attention for vibration mitigation devices with the benefits of low power cost, fail safe performances, and fast responses. To make full use of the striking advantages of MRE device, a highly precise model should be developed to predict its dynamic performances. In the work, an MRE isolator in shear–squeeze mixed mode is developed and tested under dynamic loadings. The nonlinear performances in various displacement amplitude and currents are shown. An artificial neural network model with a back-propagation algorithm is proposed to characterize the nonlinear hysteresis of MRE isolator for its implementation in vibration control applications. This model utilized the displacement, velocity, and applied current as inputs and output force as output. The results show that the proposed model has high modeling accuracy and can well portray the complicated behaviors of MRE isolator with different excitations, which shows a fundamental basis for structural vibration control