The main goal of this work is to obtain the plasma electron temperature Te by optical emission spectroscopy of low pressure microwave argon plasma, as a function of working pressure and microwave power. A plasma system was designed and constructed in our laboratory using a magnetron of domestic microwave oven with power 800W without any commercial part. The applied voltage on the magnetron electrical circuit is changed for the purpose of obtaining the variable values of the microwave power. The spectral detection is performed with a spectrometer of wavelength range (200−1000nm). The working pressure and magnetron applied voltage were 0.3-3.0mbar and 180-240V, respectively. Two methods had been applied to estimate the electron temperatu

This study is to evaluate plasma levels of several cytokines in preeclamptic pregnancies compared to those of healthy pregnancies. Ninety pregnant women with preeclampsia (37 mild & 53 severe) and thirty healthy pregnant women were enrolled in the study. Blood samples were taken and plasma levels of IL-8, IL-10, and IFN-? were measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Preeclamptic women and their severe cases but not mild cases had significantly (P<0.05) increased levels of plasma IL-8, and IFN-? as compared with healthy pregnancies. By contrast, plasma levels of IL-10 was significantly (P<0.05) increased in healthy pregnant women as compared to all groups of preeclampsia. Preeclampsia is associated with an imbalance betwe

This study illustrates in vitro effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on the treatment of Leishmania. In addition, the study evaluated the effect of drug treatment (pentostam) and the combination treatment of pentostan and CAP at different doses and incubation time 24 h in order to assess the most effective treatment. The duration of the cold plasma doses was 1 min, 2 min and 3 min, while the pentostam doses were 2.5 µg/ml and 5 µg/ml. The combinations therapies included combining the three cold plasma doses with the pentostam doses to test 6 combinations of treated in vitro. The maximum growth inhibition was given by combination treated 46% and 44% for donovani and tropica leishamnia respectively; these results give an indi

Experimental results on harmonic distortions in 13.56 MHz RF Argon glow discharge using different grounded electrodes areas and electrodes spacing are presented. The experiment is carried out at four pressure values. RF power values used are between 20 and 90 watts. The results indicate significant increase in distortions at two specific values of the cone angle enclosing the two electrodes within its geometrical volume. The computation of the cone head angle gave the symmetry discharge or asymmetry as well as when the angle is small the condition is near symmetry discharge associated with decrease in the nonlinearity.

Bacteriocin is an important antimicrobial peptide that can be used in industrial and medical fields due to its characteristics of antibacterial, food preservation and anticancer activities. Fifty isolates of Bacillus sp were collected from different soil samples which were already recognized via morphological and biochemical identification process. The isolates were screened for bacteriocin production effective against Staphylococcus spp in order to select the highest producing isolate. The isolate NK16 showed the maximum bacteriocin production (80 AU/ml) which was further characterized as Bacillus subtilis NK 16 through using API identification system (API 20E and API 50CHB). Then, next step was to detect the optimal conditions for maximum

In the current research, we investigated the absorption spectrum for R590 and C480 dyes in ethanol solvent for different dye solution concentrations of 10-4, 10-5 and 10-6M. These dyes have been prepared and studied before and after gamma irradiation (first, second ionization) using cesium-137 source with absorbed doses of 18.36 Gy (time exposure of 10 days) and 73.44 Gy (with time exposure of 40 days). We noticed that the absorption intensity was decreased with decreasing concentration, before gamma irradiation while the absorption spectrum peak shifted towards the short wavelength (blue shift). It was also found that the intensity of absorption spectrum increased and shifted the absorption spectrum peak towards the long wavelength (red

Short Multi-Walled Carbon Nanotubes functionalized with OH group (MWCNTs-OH) were used to synthesize flexible MWCNTs networks. The MWCNTs suspension was synthesized using Benzoquinone (BQ) and N, N Dimethylformamide alcohol (DMF) in specific values and then deposited on filter paper by filtration from suspension (FFS) method. Polypyrrole (PPy) conductive polymer doped with metallic nanoparticles (MNPs) prepared using in-situ chemical polymerization method. To improve the properties of the MWCNTs networks, a coating layer of (PPy) conductive polymer, PPy:Ag nanoparticles, and PPy: Cu nanoparticles were applied to the network. The fabricated networks were characterized using an X-ray diffractometer (XRD), UV-Vis. spectrometer, and Ato