Antimicrobial silver coating using PVD-PECVD system

Physical Vapor Deposition - Plasma Enhanced Chemical Vapor Deposition (PVD-PECVD) systems are used exclusively for deposition and doping of carbonaceous films. However, this technique presents promising characteristics for the deposition of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) on textiles, which meet the industrial demand for a more versatile and efficient methodology than the Magnetron Sputtering (MS) technique. In this regard, cotton textiles were coated with Ag-NP films produced by PVD-PECVD, and compared in terms of technical Physical vapor deposition - plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PVD-PECVD) system has been used exclusively for deposition and doping of carbonaceous films [silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs)] on cotton fabrics and the findings are compared, in terms of technical efficiency and microbial inhibition, with those of the magnetron sputtering (MS) technique. It is found that the proposed technique presents promising characteristics for the deposition of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) on textiles, which meet the industrial demand.efficiency and microbial inhibition, with findings in the literature for the MS technique

Antimicrobial silver coating using PVD-PECVD system

197-206Physical vapor deposition - plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PVD-PECVD) system has been used exclusively for deposition and doping of carbonaceous films [silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs)] on cotton fabrics and the findings are compared, in terms of technical efficiency and microbial inhibition, with those of the magnetron sputtering (MS) technique. It is found that the proposed technique presents promising characteristics for the deposition of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) on textiles, which meet the industrial demand

ELM: the status of the 2010 eukaryotic linear motif resource

Linear motifs are short segments of multidomain proteins that provide regulatory functions independently of protein tertiary structure. Much of intracellular signalling passes through protein modifications at linear motifs. Many thousands of linear motif instances, most notably phosphorylation sites, have now been reported. Although clearly very abundant, linear motifs are difficult to predict de novo in protein sequences due to the difficulty of obtaining robust statistical assessments. The ELM resource at http://elm.eu.org/ provides an expanding knowledge base, currently covering 146 known motifs, with annotation that includes >1300 experimentally reported instances. ELM is also an exploratory tool for suggesting new candidates of known linear motifs in proteins of interest. Information about protein domains, protein structure and native disorder, cellular and taxonomic contexts is used to reduce or deprecate false positive matches. Results are graphically displayed in a ‘Bar Code’ format, which also displays known instances from homologous proteins through a novel ‘Instance Mapper’ protocol based on PHI-BLAST. ELM server output provides links to the ELM annotation as well as to a number of remote resources. Using the links, researchers can explore the motifs, proteins, complex structures and associated literature to evaluate whether candidate motifs might be worth experimental investigation

Treatment of oral leukoplakia with photodynamic therapy: A pilot study

Aim of the Study: Oral leukoplakia (OL) is the most common potentially malignant disorder that may transform into oral carcinoma. By treating leukoplakia in its incipient stage, the risk of occurrence of oral carcinoma can be prevented. In this aspect, photodynamic therapy (PDT) can serve as a useful treatment modality. The aim of the study is to treat patients with OL using PDT in which 5-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is used as a photosensitizer. Materials and Methods: Five patients with OL were included in the study. They were treated with 10% ALA mediated PDT (light source: Xenon lamp, power: 0.1 W, wavelength: 630 ± 5 nm, total dose: 100 J/cm 2 per session) for 6-8 sessions. Follow-up was done for a period of 1 year. Results: One month (4 weeks) after ALA-PDT, the response was evaluated based on clinical examination. It was as follows: Complete response: Two patients; partial response: Two patients; and no response: One patient. There was no recurrence in any of the cases. Conclusion: There was satisfactory reduction in the size of the OL lesion without any side-effects. Thus, ALA mediated PDT seems to be a promising alternative for the treatment of OL

Macrophages adhesion rate on Ti-6Al-4V substrates: polishing and DLC coating effects

Abstract Introduction Various works have shown that diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings are able to improve the cells adhesion on prosthesis material and also cause protection against the physical wear. On the other hand there are reports about the effect of substrate polishing, in evidence of that roughness can enhance cell adhesion. In order to compare and quantify the joint effects of both factors, i.e, polishing and DLC coating, a commonly prosthesis material, the Ti-6Al-4V alloy, was used as raw material for substrates in our studies of macrophage cell adhesion rate on rough and polished samples, coated and uncoated with DLC. Methods The films were produced by PECVD technique on Ti-6Al-4V substrates and characterized by optical profilometry, scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The amount of cells was measured by particle analysis in IMAGE J software. Cytotoxicity tests were also carried out to infer the biocompatibility of the samples. Results The results showed that higher the surface roughness of the alloy, higher are the cells fixing on the samples surface, moreover group of samples with DLC favored the cell adhesion more than their respective uncoated groups. The cytotoxity tests confirmed that all samples were biocompatible independently of being polished or coated with DLC. Conclusion From the observed results, it was found that the rougher substrate coated with DLC showed a higher cell adhesion than the polished samples, either coated or uncoated with the film. It is concluded that the roughness of the Ti-6Al-4V alloy and the DLC coating act complementary to enhance cell adhesion

In vivo Raman spectroscopic characteristics of different sites of the oral mucosa in healthy volunteers

Made available in DSpace on 2019-08-28T18:55:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2019Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)ObjectivesInvestigate the biochemistry of in vivo healthy oral tissues through Raman spectroscopy. We aimed to characterize the biochemical features of healthy condition in oral subsites (buccal mucosa, lip, tongue, and gingiva) of healthy subjects. More specifically, we investigated Raman spectral characteristics and biochemical content of in vivo healthy tissues on Brazilian population. This characterization can be used to better define normal tissue and improve the detection of oral premalignant conditions in future studies.Materials and methodsFor spectroscopic analysis a Raman spectrometer (Kaiser Optical Systems imaging spectrograph Holospec, f / 1.8i-NIR) coupled with a laser 785nm, 60mW was used. Raman measurements were obtained by means of an optical fiber (EMVision fiber optic probe) coupled between the laser and the spectrometer. Three spectra per site were acquired from the lip, buccal mucosa, tongue, and gingiva of ten healthy volunteers. This resulted in 30 spectra per oral sub-site and in total 120 spectra.ResultsWe report detailed biochemical information on these subsites and their relative composition based on deconvolution studies of their spectra. Finally, we also report classification efficiency of 61, 83, 41, and 93% for buccal, gingiva, lip, and tongue respectively after applying multivariate statistical tools.ConclusionsWe quantitated the contribution of various biochemicals in terms of percentage, and this will enable comparison not only across anatomical sites but also across studies. Raman spectroscopy can rapidly probe tissue biochemistry of healthy oral regions. Moreover, the study suggests the possibility of using Raman spectroscopy combined with signal processing and multivariate analysis methods to differentiate the oral sites in healthy conditions and compare with pathological conditions in future studies.Clinical relevanceThe spectral characterization of the healthy condition of oral tissues by a noninvasive, label-free, and real-time analytical techniques is important to create a spectral reference for future diagnosis of pathological conditions.[Carvalho, Luis Felipe C. S.; Chagas, Maurilio; Soares, Luis Eduardo S.] Univap Inst Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento, Lab Dent & Appl Mat, Ave Shishima Hifumi 2911, BR-12244000 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, Brazil[Carvalho, Luis Felipe C. S.] Universidade de Taubaté (Unitau) Unitau, Fac Odontol, Rua Operarios 53, BR-12020270 Taubate, SP, Brazil[Carvalho, Luis Felipe C. S.] Ctr Univ Braz Cubas, Mogi Das Cruzes, SP, Brazil[Nogueira, Marcelo Saito] Tyndall Natl Inst, Lee Maltings Complex, Cork T12 R5CP, Ireland[Bhattacharjee, Tanmoy] Univap Inst Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento, Lab Nanosensors, Ave Shishima Hifumi 2911, BR-12244000 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, Brazil[Neto, Lazaro P. M.; Mendes, Thiago O.; Martin, Airton A.] Univ Brasil UnBr, Biomed Engn Innovat Ctr, Biomed Vibrat Spect Grp, Rua Carolina Fonseca 235, BR-08230030 Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil[Daun, Lucas; Rajasekaran, Ramu] Univap Inst Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento, Ave Shishima Hifumi 2911, BR-12244000 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, Brazi

SLiMSearch: a webserver for finding novel occurrences of short linear motifs in proteins, incorporating sequence context

Short, linear motifs (SLiMs) play a critical role in many biological processes. The SLiMSearch (Short, Linear Motif Search) webserver is a flexible tool that enables researchers to identify novel occurrences of predefined SLiMs in sets of proteins. Numerous masking options give the user great control over the contextual information to be included in the analyses, including evolutionary filtering and protein structural disorder. User-friendly output and visualizations of motif context allow the user to quickly gain insight into the validity of a putatively functional motif occurrence. Users can search motifs against the human proteome, or submit their own datasets of UniProt proteins, in which case motif support within the dataset is statistically assessed for over- and under-representation, accounting for evolutionary relationships between input proteins. SLiMSearch is freely available as open source Python modules and all webserver results are available for download. The SLiMSearch server is available at: http://bioware.ucd.ie/slimsearch.htm