No abstract

In this paper, the air purification effect of positively and negatively charged ions generated by discharge plasma at atmospheric pressure is reported. We have developed a novel ion generation device which consists of a cylindrical glass tube and attached inner and outer mesh electrodes. With the application of AC voltage between the electrodes, positively charged ions and negatively charged ions have been generated at atmospheric pressure. The ion densities of 3.0×104–7.0×104 counts/cm3 have been obtained with the AC voltage of 1.8–2.3 kV (effective value). We have examined the air purification properties of this device. By the operation of this device, the initial oxygen nitride (NO) density of 10 ppm in 1 m3 (in cigarette smoke) was decreased to 1 ppm after 30 min. The number of suspended germs in air has been significantly reduced by the use of this type of ion generation device.

Recently, there has been much effort to find effective ingredients which can prevent or retard cutaneous skin aging after topical or systemic use. Here, we investigated the effects of the atomic hydrogen surrounded by water molecules, H(H2O)m, on acute UV-induced responses and as well as skin aging. Interestingly, we observed that H(H2O)m application to human skin prevented UV-induced erythema and DNA damage. And H(H2O)m significantly prevented UV-induced MMP-1, COX-2, IL-6 and IL-1β mRNA expressions in human skin in vivo. We found that H(H2O)m prevented UV-induced ROS generation and inhibited UV-induced MMP-1, COX-2 and IL-6 expressions, and UV-induced JNK and c-Jun phosphorylation in HaCaT cells. Next, we investigated the effects of H(H2O)m on intrinsically aged or photoaged skin of elderly subjects. In intrinsically aged skin, H(H2O)m application significantly reduced constitutive expressions of MMP-1, IL-6, and IL-1β mRNA. Additionally, H(H2O)m significantly increased procollagen mRNA and also decreased MMP-1 and IL-6 mRNA expressions in photoaged facial skin. These results demonstrated that local application of H(H2O)m may prevent UV-induced skin inflammation and can modulate intrinsic skin aging and photoaging processes. Therefore, we suggest that modifying the atmospheric gas environment within a room may be a new way to regulate skin functions or skin aging.

We present the status of the Virgo analysis pipeline dedicated to the search for coalescing binary signals, focusing on methods based on prior knowledge of the signal waveform. The pipeline includes two partially independent search methods: the multi-band template analysis (MBTA), which is original of Virgo and exploits the chirping behaviour of the signal, and a distributed implementation of the classical matched filter procedure (Merlino), based on robust MPI code. We discuss the application of the search methods to the analysis of data acquired during the Virgo commissioning run C5, which allowed us to perform tests and partially validate the methods and code.

A novel atmospheric pressure plasma device releasing atomic hydrogen has been developed. This device has specific properties such as (1) deactivation of airborne microbial-contaminants, (2) neutralization of indoor OH radicals and (3) being harmless to the human body. It consists of a ceramic plate as a positive ion generation electrode and a needle-shaped electrode as an electron emission electrode. Release of atomic hydrogen from the device has been investigated by the spectroscopic method. Optical emission of atomic hydrogen probably due to recombination of positive ions, H + (H 2 O)n, generated from the ceramic plate electrode and electrons emitted from the needle-shaped electrode have been clearly observed in the He gas (including water vapour) environment. The efficacy of the device to reduce airborne concentrations of influenza virus, bacteria, mould fungi and allergens has been evaluated. 99.6% of airborne influenza virus has been deactivated with the operation of the device compared with the control test in a 1 m 3 chamber after 60 min. The neutralization of the OH radical has been investigated by spectroscopic and biological methods. A remarkable reduction of the OH radical in the air by operation of the device has been observed by laser-induced fluorescence spectroscopy. The cell protection effects of the device against OH radicals in the air have been observed. Furthermore, the side effects have been checked by animal experiments. The harmlessness of the device has been confirmed.