The inhibitory and antimicrobial effects of silver particles have been known since ancient times. In the last few years, a major health problem has arisen due to pathogenic bacteria resistance to antimicrobial agents. The antibacterial activities of new materials including hydroxyapatite (HAp), silver-doped hydroxyapatite (Ag:HAp) and various types of antibiotics such as tetracycline (T-HAp and...

BACKGROUND Aldosterone, synthesized in the adrenal cortex by the enzyme CYP11B2, induces positive sodium balance and predisposes to hypertension. Various investigators, using genomic DNA analyses, have linked -344T polymorphism in the human CYP11B2 (hCYP11B2) gene to human hypertension. hCYP11B2 gene promoter has 3 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in linkage disequilibrium: T/A at -663, T/C at -...

The aim of this work was to prepare hydroxyapatite coatings (HAp) by a sol-gel method on Ti6Al4V alloy and to study the bioactivity, biocompatibility and corrosion protection behaviour of these coatings in presence of simulated body fluids (SBFs). Thermogravimetric/Differential Thermal Analyses (TG/DTA) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) have been applied to obtain information about the phase transfor...

To prevent soiling of marble exposed outdoors, the use of TiO₂ nano-particles has been proposed in the literature by two main routes, both raising durability issues: (i) direct application to marble surface, with the risk of particle leaching by rainfall; (ii) particle incorporation into inorganic or organic coatings, with the risk of organic coating degradation catalyzed by TiO₂ photoactivity....

Synthetic tissue scaffolds have a high potential impact for patients experiencing osteogenesis imperfecta. Using electrospinning, tissue scaffolds composed of hydroxyapatite/polycaprolactone (HAp/PCL) composite nanofibers were fabricated with two different HAp concentrations-1% and 10% of the solid scaffold weight. After physico-chemical scaffold characterization, rat bone marrow stromal cells ...

This study was focused on the preparation of metal and polymer-mediated porous crystalline hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanocomposites for environmental applications. Four different nano HAp systems were synthesized, namely, microwave irradiated HAp (M1), Zn doped HAp (M2), Mg-doped HAp (M3) and sodium alginate incorporated HAp (M4), and characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform in...

Phosphorus (P) losses from pastures fertilized with poultry litter contribute to the degradation of surface water quality in the United States. Dietary modification and manure amendments may reduce potential P runoff losses from pastures. In the current study, broilers were fed a normal diet, phytase diet, high available phosphorus (HAP) corn diet, or HAP corn + phytase diet. Litter treatments ...

Bone tissue is a composite material composed of hydroxyapatite (HAp) and collagen matrix. As HAp is a crystalline structure, an X-ray diffraction method is available to measure the lattice strain of HAp crystals. However, mineral particles of HAp in bone have much lower crystallinity than usual crystalline materials, which show a diffusive intensity profile of X-ray diffraction. It is not easy ...

Humans around the world rely on a diversity of energy sources to provide heat for cooking and home comfort. Each of the energy sources utilized has a series of impacts on the environment and human health from extraction or harvest through combustion. At the household level, fuels that are considered to be clean, including gas, oil, and purchased electricity, yield lower levels of particulate em...