A direct‐current, cold‐atmospheric‐pressure air plasma microjet (PMJ) sustained in a quasi‐steady gas cavity in a liquid medium is used to inactivate Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) suspended in the liquid. The temperature and the pH value of the liquid change to steady‐state values of about 40 °C and 3.0–4.5, respectively, after 10 min of plasma treatment. The decrease in the pH is attributed to the reaction of NOx produced in the air plasma with water at the gas–liquid interface. The concentrations of NO and NO are measured to be 37 mg · L−1 and 21 mg · L−1, respectively, after a 20 min of plasma treatment. Effective inactivation of S. aureus is found to start after the pH values decreases to about 4.5. This is attributed to the high oxidizing potential of the perhydroxyl radical (HOO•) on the fatty acid in the cell membranes of the microorganisms in the liquid.
A microhollow cathode based, direct-current, atmospheric pressure, (2%) cold plasma microjet was used to inactive antifungal resistants Candida albicans, Candida krusei, and Candida glabrata in air and in water. Effective inactivation was achieved in 10 min in air and 1 min in water. Antifungal susceptibility tests showed drastic reduction of the minimum inhibitory concentration after plasma treatment. The inactivation was attributed to the reactive oxygen species generated in plasma or in water. Hydroxyl and singlet molecular oxygen radicals were detected in plasma-water system by electron spin resonance spectroscopy. This approach proposed a promising clinical dermatology therapy.
Introduction
Complete sterilization of an infected root canal is an important challenge in endodontic treatment. Traditional methods often cannot achieve high-efficiency sterilization because of the complexity of the root canal system. The objective of the study was to investigate in vitro the feasibility of using a cold plasma treatment of a root canal infected with Enterococcus faecalis biofilms.
Methods
Seventy single-root teeth infected with E. faecalis biofilms were divided into 7 groups. Group 1 served as the negative control group (no treatment), and group 7 was the positive control group with teeth treated with calcium hydroxide intracanal medication for 7 days. Groups 2 to 6 included teeth treated by cold plasma for 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 minutes, respectively. The disinfection of the E. faecalis biofilm was evaluated by colony-forming unit (CFU) counting. Scanning electron microscopy was used to evaluate the structural …
The study of interpersonal communication is gaining importance in this current climate of globalization. Students need to develop interpersonal communication skills because they are very important through all aspects of living. Because of this increasingly multicultural environment, cross cultural communication and interpersonal communication skills are very important and must be developed while studying in a foreign country. Over the years, the number of immigrant students attending schools in the United States has increased dramatically. Interpersonal communication is at the centre of human central relationships and psychoanalysis (Amaraju, 2012). Therefore, the number of challenges in school for foreign students increases as a result of the lack of interpersonal communication skills. The importance of interpersonal communication skills and the development of satisfactory relationships with other students is necessary to understand such behaviors in college students and their effect on academic performance. The proposed study will discuss the possible components that might affect the academic performance of immigrant college students and the interpersonal communication skills that might affect a college education experience as a result. The study will also cover the scope of grammar and speaking limitations among members of the immigrant student community, as well as the effect of their seclusion from the mainstream on their academic performance. This proposal includes my methods for gathering information, and the possible challenges to immigrant students in the classroom including bullying and discrimination.
Recently, game theory has gained much interest from many mathematicians as well as economists and psychologists. The simplest and most popular games studied in this field are the 2 X 2 games, which involve two players with two different choices each; each player makes his or her decision individually, but his or her choice will affect the outcome for both that player as well as for the other player. Within these 2 X 2 games, each player has his or her own preference in terms of what outcomes are best for them; for each of the four possible outcomes in these 2 X 2 games, each player also receives a certain payoff, which could be a good or bad payoff. If both players have the same ordering of outcomes, then the game is called symmetric, meaning if the players were switched, the outcomes would be in the same order as initially. In this paper, I show the results I found while researching the connections between these symmetric 2 X 2 games. The twelve total symmetric 2 X 2 games can be shown on a 2D x-y axis; these games can be separated into six different sectors. In each section, the games involved can be manipulated, when transitioning to another game with different payoff preferences, to one common game. When one game is changed to another by simply swapping two of the payoffs, a transition game in between these games appears; by doing a simple operation to these transition games, I was able to find one universal game in each sector. This proves that these are more closely related than mathematicians previously believed. If one has an interest in game theory, wants to learn about an interesting topic in mathematics, or just wants to see what one can do with the power of mathematics, one can read all about the 2 X 2 symmetric games in When Prisoners Enter Battle: Natural Connections in 2 X 2 Symmetric Games
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, we can see both examples of foolish and nerdy characters who have taken their predominant personality traits to an excessive point. This excessiveness – in social frivolity, on one hand, and in book learning, on the other – is not only foolish but also a recipe for social outcasts. Pride and Prejudice explores the consequences of excessive behavior on both the foolish and the nerdy characters.
One of the struggles within conservation biology is to justify the field and its objective to preserve biodiversity. The two main camps arguing in support of conservation biology are intrinsic value theorists and utilitarians. The theoretical problems accompanying these schools of thought and the absence of a solid ethical foundation have called for a new environmental ethic. In this thesis, I propose environmental virtue-based ethics as a constructive alternative to the false dichotomy presented by traditional perspectives in conservation biology. I will demonstrate that because of its ability to account for human interests alongside the wider consideration for biodiversity, while simultaneously avoiding the problems characteristic of the dominating intrinsic and instrumental value theories, Environmental Virtue-based Ethics (EVE) is uniquely poised to justify the goals of conservation biology.
This review examines the role probiotics can play in reducing and inhibiting the growth of biofilms that cause bacterial infections in humans. The use of probiotics as an inhibitory agent against biofilms is a new field of study that requires further research. As of now, there is little research or scientific literature to defend the health claims of several commercially sold probiotics. Also, biofilms are a fairly new field of study even though biofilms are the cause of most bacterial infections. Since biofilms have an increased antibiotic resistance, it has become increasingly more important to find alternative treatments for bacterial infections. However, there have been a couple of studies that have shown positive results for probiotics inhibiting the growth of different types of biofilms such as Lactobacillus acidophilus in patients with dental caries caused by the biofilm formation of Streptococcus mutans. Specifically, the biosurfactant
of the probiotic was used to disrupt the biofilm. Another study was done on patients with Clostridium difficile infection who showed a decline in symptoms when treated with the probiotic yeast Saccharomyces boulardii as an additive to antibiotic treatments . While the oral health and gut health fields have started to utilize the benefits of probiotics, the effect of probiotics on the biofilms that cause infections for patients with medical devices has yet to be studied.
Music is an art form that has been around for centuries as a form of expression, ritual, tradition, and more. Now, it has transformed from art into a business. Today, the music industry
is a $43 billion industry according to Maeve McDermott (2018) in the news article, “The music industry is booming” (McDermott, 2018, para.1). With this industry comes an array of different
music styles and artistry. One of them being black music artists who have dominated the industry since the beginning of Motown and maybe even before then. Every year new black music
emerges such as Beyonce, Childish Gambino, Kanye West, Drake, Travis Scott, Sza, and many more.
This research study was conducted to look at the history of black music and artistry of today and compare it to the Black Arts Movement of the 1960’s and the Hip-Hip Revolution of the 1980’s and 1990’s. Along with this historical and cultural analysis was a survey, which was handed out to participants to see the result to how people responded to black music artists. In the end, the discovery of this research became much more than about music, because it
showed how we consume music as a society and what appeals to us. The survey and interviews conducted in this research have shown that different racial and ethnic groups such as whites,
blacks/African-American, Hispanic/Latinos, Asian/Asian-Americans, and others are listening to
black music artists with interest and at a high percentage. The results of the this study explores the appeal of black music artists to different audiences and shows the progression of black popularity to a wider audience.
In recent times, the small East Asian country of South Korea has exploded onto the global scene of being a recognizable force in an economic, political and cultural sense. The South Korean government in particular, is credited through its common financial backing of cultural programs and its push to constantly increase tourism to the country by enacting forms of soft power, which they believe to be the best choice for South Korea’s further development. Korean popular music is in fact, an encompassing genre of various music styles that all have some influence from Western music. This thesis explored whether or not the country of origin phenomenon has any relevance in attempting to explain whether K-Pop has any effect on the perception of South Korea using qualitative methodology by conducting in-depth interviews. My findings from my research include that K-Pop seems to contribute to a growing interest in other cultural aspects of South Korea, K-Pop appears to have made South Korea a preferred destination for tourists and that future research could be done to measure the relationship between K-Pop music and perception of its country of origin.