Photosensitizing potential of ciprofloxacin at ambient level of UV radiation

Ciprofloxacin is a widely used fluoroquinolone drug with broad spectrum antibacterial activities. Clinical experience has shown incidences of adverse effects related to skin, hepatic, central nervous system, gastrointestinal and phototoxicity. India is a tropical country and sunlight is abundant throughout the day. In this scenario exposure to ambient levels of ultraviolet radiation (UV-R) in sunlight may lead to harmful effects in ciprofloxacin users. Phototoxicity assessment of ciprofloxacin was studied by two mouse fibroblast cell lines L-929 and NIH-3T3. Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) like singlet oxygen (1O2), superoxide anion radical (O2*-) and hydroxyl radical (*OH) was studied under the exposure of ambient intensities of UV-A (1.14, 1.6 and 2.2 mW cm(-2)), UV-B (0.6, 0.9 and 1.2 mW cm(-2)) and sunlight (60 min). The drug was generating 1O2, O2*- and *OH in a concentration and dose-dependent manner. Sodium azide (NaN3) and 1,4-diazabicyclo 2-2-2-octane (DABCO) inhibited the generation of 1O2. Superoxide dismutase (SOD) inhibited 90-95% O2*- generation. The drug (5-40 microg mL(-1)) was responsible for linoleic acid peroxidation. Quenching study of linoleic acid peroxidation with SOD (25 and 50 U mL(-1)) confirms the involvement of ROS in drug-induced lipid peroxidation. The generation of *OH radical was further confirmed by using specific quenchers of *OH such as mannitol (0.5 M) and sodium benzoate (0.5 M). 2'-deoxyguanosine (2'-dGuO) assay and linoleic acid peroxidation showed that ROS were mainly responsible for ciprofloxacin-sensitized photo-degradation of guanine base. L-929 cell line showed 29%, 34% and 54% reduced cell viability at higher drug concentration (300 microg mL(-1)) under UV-A, UV-B and sunlight, respectively. 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay in NIH-3T3 cell line at higher drug concentration (300 microg mL(-1)) showed a decrease in cell viability by 54%, 56% and 59% under UV-A, UV-B and sunlight, respectively. Results of neutral red uptake assay (NRU) in L-929 cell line were in accordance with MTT assay. The NIH-3T3 cell line showed a higher photosensitizing potential than L-929. The phototoxicity end point shows a time- and concentration-dependent statistically significant (P<0.001) damage. Ciprofloxacin produced ROS by Type I and Type II photodynamic reactions, interacted with nucleic acid moiety and inhibited cell viability. Further, UV-induced photo-peroxidation of linoleic acid accorded the involvement of ROS in the manifestation of drug phototoxicity. Appearance of ciprofloxacin-induced phototoxicity at the ambient level of sunlight is a real risk for the people of India and for those of other tropical countries. We suggest that sunlight exposure should be avoided (especially peak hours) during ciprofloxacin treatment.     

Physics studies with brilliant narrow-width γ-beams at the new ELI-NP Facility

The Extreme Light Infrastructure Nuclear Physics (ELI-NP) Facility in Magurele is a European research centre for ultrahigh intensity lasers, laser–matter interaction, nuclear science and material science using laser-driven radiation beams. It is the first project within the European Strategic Forum for Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) agenda financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The nuclear physics research programme of the facility is focussed on studies with brilliant narrow-width γ-beams and experiments in extreme laser fields.     

First observation of edge localized modes mitigation with resonant and nonresonant magnetic perturbations in ASDEX Upgrade

First experiments with nonaxisymmetric magnetic perturbations, toroidal mode number n=2, produced by newly installed in-vessel saddle coils in the ASDEX Upgrade tokamak show significant reduction of plasma energy loss and peak divertor power load associated with type-I edge localized modes (ELMs) in high-confinement mode plasmas. ELM mitigation is observed above an edge density threshold and is obtained both with magnetic perturbations that are resonant and not resonant with the edge safety factor profile. Compared with unperturbed type-I ELMy reference plasmas, plasmas with mitigated ELMs show similar confinement, similar plasma density, and lower tungsten impurity concentration.     

Synthesis and characterization of sodium vanadium oxide gels: the effects of water (n) and sodium (x) content on the electrochemistry of Na(x)V2O5·nH2O

Sodium vanadium oxide gels, Na(x)V(2)O(5)·nH(2)O, of varying sodium content (0.12 < x < 0.32) were prepared by careful control of an ion exchange process. The water content (0.23 > n > 0.01) and interlayer spacing were found to be inversely proportional to the sodium level (x), thus control of sodium (x) content provided a direct, chimie douce approach for control of hydration level (n) and interlayer spacing, without the need for high temperature treatment to affect dehydration. Notably, the use of high temperatures to modify hydration levels can result in crystallization and collapse of the interlayer structure, highlighting the distinct advantage of our novel chimie douce synthesis strategy. Subsequent to synthesis and characterization, results from an electrochemical study of a series of Na(x)V(2)O(5)·nH(2)O samples highlight the significant impact of interlayer water on delivered capacity of the layered materials. Specifically, the sodium vanadium oxide gels with higher sodium content and lower water content provided higher capacities in lithium based cells, where capacity delivered to 2.0 V under C/20 discharge ranged from 170 mAh/g for Na(0.12)V(2)O(5)·0.23H(2)O to 300 mAh/g for Na(0.32)V(2)O(5)·0.01H(2)O. The capacity differences were maintained as the cells were cycled.     

Experimental and modeling researches of dust particles in the HL-2A tokamak

The investigation of dust particle characteristics in fusion devices has become more and more imperative.In the HL-2A tokamak,the morphologies and compositions of dust particles are analyzed by using scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy(EDX) with mapping.The results indicate that the sizes of dust particles are in a range from 1 μm to 1 mm.Surprisingly,stainless steel spheres with a diameter of 2.5μm-30 μm are obtained.The production mechanisms of dust particles include flaking,disintegration,agglomeration,and arcing.In addition,dynamic characteristics of the flaking dust particles are observed by a CMOS fast framing camera and simulated by a computer program.Both of the results display that the ion friction force is dominant in the toroidal direction,while the centrifugal force is crucial in the radial direction.Therefore,the visible dust particles are accelerated toriodally by the ion friction force and migrated radially by the centrifugal force.The averaged velocity of the grain is on the order of~100 m/s.These results provide an additional supplement for one of critical plasma-wall interaction(PWI) issues in the framework of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor(ITER) programme.     

Kinetic Evidence for a Non‐Langmuir‐Hinshelwood Surface Reaction: H/D Exchange over Pd Nanoparticles and Pd(111)

The mechanism of hydrogen recombination on a Pd(111) single crystal and well‐defined Pd nanoparticles is studied using pulsed multi‐molecular beam techniques and the H₂/D₂ isotope exchange reaction. The focus of this study is to obtain a microscopic understanding of the role of subsurface hydrogen in enhancing the associative desorption of molecular hydrogen. HD production from H₂ and D₂ over Pd is investigated using pulsed molecular beams, and the temperature dependence and reaction orders are obtained for the rate of HD production under various reaction conditions designed to modulate the amount of subsurface hydrogen present. The experimental data are compared to the results of kinetic modeling based on different mechanisms for hydrogen recombination. We found that under conditions where virtually no subsurface hydrogen species are present, the HD formation rate can be described exceptionally well by a classic Langmuir–Hinshelwood model. However, this model completely fails to reproduce the experimentally observed high HD formation rates and the reaction orders under reaction conditions where subsurface hydrogen is present. To analyze this phenomenon, we develop two kinetic models that account for the role of subsurface hydrogen. First, we investigate the possibility of a change in the reaction mechanism, where recombination of one subsurface and one surface hydrogen species (known as a breakthrough mechanism) becomes dominant when subsurface hydrogen is present. Second, we investigate the possibility of the modified Langmuir–Hinshelwood mechanism with subsurface hydrogen lowering the activation energy for recombination of two hydrogen species adsorbed on the surface. We show that the experimental reaction kinetics can be well described by both kinetic models based on non‐Langmuir–Hinshelwood‐type mechanisms.     

Phonon Dispersion in Equiatomic Li-Based Binary Alloys

The computations of the phonon dispersion curves （PDC） of four equiatomic Li-based binary alloys, namely Li0.5Na0.5, Li0.5K0.5, Li0.5Rb0.5 and Li0.5Cs0.5, to second order in the local model potential is discussed in terms of the real-space sum of Born von Karman central force constants. Instead of the concentration average of the force constants of metallic Li, Na, K, Rb and Cs, the pseudo-alloy atom （PAA） is adopted to compute directly the force constants of four equiatomic Li-based binary alloys. The exchange and correlation functions due to Hartree （H） and Ichimaru-Utsumi （IU） are used to investigate the influence of screening effects. The phonon frequencies of four equiatomic Li-based binary alloys in the longitudinal branch are more sensitive to the exchange and correlation effects in comparison with the transverse branches. However, the frequencies in the longitudinal branch are suppressed due to IU-screening function than the frequencies due to static H-screening function.     

Investigation of stress relaxation mechanisms for ductility improvement in SS316L

Stress relaxation during plastic deformation has been reported to improve ductility and alter the mechanical properties of metallic materials. The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of various mechanisms responsible for this in stainless steel SS 316L. The fractography of the tested samples is analysed using an image analyser and the void fraction at failure is correlated with the corresponding mechanisms. The parametric studies on stress relaxation at different pre-strain and relaxation time correlate well with the fractography results supporting the proposed mechanisms. TEM investigation of dislocation structures and void characterisation further confirm the role of dislocation annihilation. Moreover, a novel indentation technique combining micro- and nano-indentation techniques is used to verify the role of stress homogenisation mechanism.     

Parallel Correlation Studies of Fluctuations and the Impact of Perturbations in the Magnetic Configuration

The plasma turbulence in the boundary of fusion relevant experiments is known to have a quasi two‐dimensional nature: the scale lengths perpendicular to the magnetic field are in the order of mm to cm, but parallel to the magnetic field, the correlation lengths are in the order of several meters. Recent parallel correlation studies with Langmuir probes at the JET tokamak over very long connection lengths (23 m and 66 m probe tip separation along the magnetic field) showed a correlation of less than 50%, in contrast to the finding of 80–90% correlation in other devices at measurements with smaller probe tip separations. However, it was not clear if this is a genuine physical property of the electrostatic turbulence in the scrape‐off layer or whether perturbations in the magnetic configuration had caused an additional decorrelation by a time‐dependent misalignment of the two probe tips along the connecting field line. In this contribution we analyze the effect of such perturbations in the magnetic configuration on the parallel correlation measurements in a simple model and compare the results with those of the measurements at JET.     

Novel Electrochemical Biosensing for Detection of Neglected Tropical Parasites of Animal Origin: Recent Advances

Parasitic diseases are among neglected disease of human and animals, especially in tropical and sub tropical regions. In the era of artificial intelligence, the novel biosensing diagnostic platform is needed for an early control measure implementation. This goal can be successfully achieved by onsite application of electrochemical biosensors. They are being developed towards point of care diagnostics; however commercial availability is scanty. The recent developments during last one decade in terms of the electrode surface modification for rapid diagnosis of important emerging/re-emerging parasites is presented. The information would help future improvement in the electrochemical biosensing of parasites.