The feasibility of screen-printing process of hard ferrite magnetic nanoparticles produced by carbon combustion synthesis of oxides (CCSO) is investigated. In CCSO, the exothermic oxidation of carbon generates a smolder thermal reaction wave that propagates through the solid reactant mixture converting it to the desired oxides. The complete conversion of hexaferrites occurs using reactant mixtures containing 11 wt. % of carbon. The BaFe 12 O 19 and SrFe 12 O 19 hexaferrites had hard magnetic properties with coercivity of 3 and 4.5 kOe, respectively. It was shown that the synthesized nanoparticles could be used to fabricate permanent magnet structures by consolidating them using screen-printing techniques. V
Neodymium-doped gadolinium orthophosphate (GdPO 4 :Nd 3+) luminomagnetic sub-micron-stars were prepared by solvothermal method using metal nitrates and phosphoric acid. Monoclinic star shaped in six lobed sub-micron-stars with 600 nm length is obtained with uniform particle size distribution. After heat-treatment at 800°C for 1 hour in air, the stars separate into isolated petal shaped particles and show characteristic emission bands of Nd 3+ with the strongest emission at 1064 nm. The emission intensities and fluorescence decay times are dependent on the Nd 3+ concentration with the highest emission intensity and longest fluorescence decay time of 311 µs at 1064 nm with 0.5 mol% Nd 3+. Under 808 nm excitation with 12 W/cm 2 power density a quantum yield of 9% was obtained for the 1.0 mol% Nd 3+. The presence of paramagnetic Gd 3+ givesmagnetic properties to the phosphorwith a calculated magnetic moment of 1,510 and 107,965 Bohr magneton at 300 and 5 K, respectively.
The imposition and lifting of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to avert the COVID-19 pandemic have gained popularity worldwide and will continue to be enforced until herd immunity is achieved. We developed a linear regression model to ascertain the nexus between the time-varying reproduction number averaged over a time window of six days (R
ts
) and seven NPIs: contact tracing, quarantine efforts, social distancing and health checks, hand hygiene, wearing of facemasks, lockdown and isolation, and health-related supports. Our analysis suggests that the second wave that emerged in Sri Lanka in early October 2020 continued despite numerous NPIs.
The model indicates that the most effective single NPI was lockdown and isolation. Conversely, the least effective individual NPIs were hand hygiene and wearing of facemasks. The model also demonstrates that to mitigate the second wave to a satisfactory level (R
ts
<1), the best single NPI was the contact tracing with stringent imposition (% of improvement of R
ts
was 69.43 against the base case). By contrast, the best combination of two NPIs was the lockdown & isolation with health-related supports (% of improvement was 31.92 against the base case). As such, many health authorities worldwide can use this model to successfully strategize the imposition and lifting of NPIs for averting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Molecular imaging is very promising technique used for surgical guidance, which requires advancements related to properties of imaging agents and subsequent data retrieval methods from measured multispectral images. In this article, an upconversion material is introduced for subsurface near-infrared imaging and for the depth recovery of the material embedded below the biological tissue. The results confirm significant correlation between the analytical depth estimate of the material under the tissue and the measured ratio of emitted light from the material at two different wavelengths. Experiments with biological tissue samples demonstrate depth resolved imaging using the rare earth doped multifunctional phosphors. In vitro tests reveal no significant toxicity, whereas the magnetic measurements of the phosphors show that the particles are suitable as magnetic resonance imaging agents. The confocal imaging of fibroblast cells with these phosphors reveals their potential for in vivo imaging. The depth-resolved imaging technique with such phosphors has broad implications for real-time intraoperative surgical guidance.
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