We have been studying dry surface decontamination technology with low-pressure arc plasma (LPAP). The dependence of the decontamination performance on Co distribution in the test piece was investigated. The Co removal ratio became lower when Co was distributed more deeply in the metal oxide film, although all the metal oxide film was removed. However, a Co removal ratio exceeding 90% was eventu...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the effects of gut decontamination on endotoxin, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) levels, and the associated lung injury in a rat model of bowel ischemia. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA Gut ischemia induces disruption of the intestinal mucosal barrier, allowing translocation of bacteria and endotoxin into the blood, which may trigger a systemic inflammatory response and lung injury....

BACKGROUND Initial management of acute poisoning in South African (SA) hospitals such as gastric decontamination and use of antidotes has not been evaluated relevant to current international guidelines. OBJECTIVES The objective of this study was to conduct a toxicovigilance survey of SA hospital admissions to assess the spectrum of acute poisonings, current practices in gastric decontaminatio...

UNLABELLED The blue wavelengths within the visible light spectrum are intrinisically antimicrobial and can photodynamically inactivate the cells of a wide spectrum of bacteria (Gram positive and negative) and fungi. Furthermore, blue light is equally effective against both drug-sensitive and -resistant members of target species and is less detrimental to mammalian cells than is UV radiation. Bl...

This study investigates the effects of five decontamination methods on the filter quality (qf) of three commercially available electret masks-N95, Gauze and Spunlace nonwoven masks. Newly developed evaluation methods, the overall filter quality (qf,o) and the qf ratio were applied to evaluate the effectiveness of decontamination methods for respirators. A scanning mobility particle sizer is uti...

In the event of a wide area release and contamination of a biological agent in an outdoor environment and to building exteriors, decontamination is likely to consume the Nation's remediation capacity, requiring years to cleanup, and leading to incalculable economic losses. This is in part due to scant body of efficacy data on surface areas larger than those studied in a typical laboratory (5×10...

We consider the problem of decontaminating an infected network using as few mobile cleaning agents as possible and avoiding recontamination. After a cleaning agent has left a vertex v, this vertex will become recontaminated if m or more of its neighbours are infected, where m ≥ 1 is a threshold parameter of the system indicating the local immunity level of the network. This network decontaminat...