Plasma generation over large areas using a hollow cathode discharge is described in this study. Radio frequency linear hollow cathodes in several arrangements, for operation at reduced gas pressure and suitable for scale-up, are presented. Examples of surface processing and coating by PVD, both by hollow cathode discharge (HCD) and hollow cathode arc (HCA), are given. A non-equilibrium atmosphe...

The study evaluated antioxidant status in patients with peripheral vascular disease (PVD), with and without concomitant diabetes mellitus (DM). 211 participants were divided into standardized 4 groups: patients with PVD and DM (PVD+DM+), patients with PVD without DM (PVD+DM-), patients without PVD with DM (PVD-DM+) and patients without PVD and DM (PVD-DM-). The diagnosis of PVD was established ...

PURPOSE To clarify the relationship between variations in posterior vitreous detachments (PVDs) and visual prognoses in idiopathic epiretinal membranes (ERMs). METHODS In this retrospective, observational, and consecutive case series, we observed variations in PVDs in 37 patients (mean age, 65.7±11.0 years) with ERMs and followed them for 2 years. Three PVD types were found biomicroscopically...

Pseudomonas spp. have the capacity to utilize siderophores produced by diverse species of bacteria and fungi, and the present study was initiated to determine if siderophores produced by rhizosphere microorganisms enhance the levels of iron available to a strain of Pseudomonas putida in this natural habitat. We used a previously described transcriptional fusion (pvd-inaZ) between an iron-regula...

The condensation of energetic metal ions on a surface may cause self-sputtering even in the absence of substrate bias. Charge-stateaveraged self-sputtering yields were determined for both zirconium and gold ions generated by a cathodic vacuum arc. Films were deposited on differently biased substrates exposed to streaming Zr and Au vacuum arc plasma. The self-sputtering yields for both metals we...

To acquire iron, Pseudomonas aeruginosa secretes the fluorescent siderophore pyoverdine (Pvd), which chelates iron and shuttles it into the cells via the specific outer membrane transporter FpvA. We studied the role of iron and other metals in the binding and transport of Pvd by FpvA and conclude that there is no significant affinity between FpvA and metal-free Pvd. We found that the fluorescen...

In this study, Ti, Al and N doped DLC – referred to here after as “(Ti,Al)CN/DLC composite”- coating and pure diamond-like coating (DLC) were produced by cathodic arc deposition technique and the effects of the coating thickness on their tribological properties were evaluated. The coatings were characterized, using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray diffrac...