The contactless removal of small particles from surfaces by irradiation with intense laser pulses – dubbed laser cleaning – has been used and studied for nearly two decades. Nevertheless, its applicability and the mechanisms involved are still under debate. Here we give first a brief overview on relevant processes, and then present measurements of the velocities of colloidal model particles aft...

After its investigation of cross-contamination from arthroscopic shavers, the US Food and Drug Administration issued an alert to hospitals about medical device reprocessing methods. In response to this, a team of risk management and instrument room personnel at a university hospital undertook a project that tested the manufacturer's recommended cleaning methods for surgical instruments with the...

The cement industry is the major source of cement dust which contains heavy metals like nickel, cobalt, lead, chromium, arsenic and hazardous substances like dioxins and furans. Exposure to these substances can cause health problems to human, animals and vegetation. A continuous pilot scale quartz sand filter was constructed and uses to study the effect of important design parameters (temperatu...

Surgical instruments are often strongly contaminated with patients' blood and tissues, possibly containing pathogens. The reuse of contaminated instruments without adequate cleaning and sterilization can cause postoperative inflammation and the transmission of infectious diseases from one patient to another. Thus, based on the stringent sterility requirements, the development of highly efficien...

In retrospective radon measurements, the 22-y half life of (210)Pb is used as an advantage. (210)Pb is often considered to be relatively immobile in glass after alpha recoil implanted by (222)Rn progenies. The diffusion of (210)Pb could, however, lead to uncertain wrong retrospective radon exposure estimations if (210)Pb is mobile and can escape from glass, or lost as a result of cleaning-induc...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to assess the feasibility of conducting biological tetrachloroethylene (perchloroethylene, PCE) exposure assessments of dry cleaning employees in conjunction with evaluation of possible PCE health effects. METHODS Eighteen women from four dry cleaning facilities in southwestern Ohio were monitored in a pilot study of workers with PCE exposure. Personal...

Objective This study evaluated the effect of different filling pastes and cleaning agents on the root dentin of primary teeth using Fourier-transformed Raman spectroscopy (FT-Raman), micro energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence (µ-EDXRF) and scanning electron microscopic (SEM) analysis. Material and Methods Eighty roots of primary teeth were endodontically prepared and distributed into 4 groups...

Single-metal high-temperature solid sorbents for syngas cleaning using Mn, Ca, Fe, Cu, or Mo supported on γ-Al2O3 were synthesized, characterized, and tested in a fixed-bed reactor. H2S SO2 concentrations the gas after treatment at T = 400 to 700 °C compared with thermodynamic calculations. The Mn-based sorbent showed best ability achieve low sulfur residual gas, especially temperatures above 6...

Low temperature plasma assisted nit riding treatments of 316 stainless steel produce a complex layer constituted by tow different metastable f.c.c. solid solution denoted ( γ N1 and γ N2 ). About the formation of these double layers, different hypothesis was proposed in the literature. For verifying these hypotheses, the effects of differentes conditions such as nit riding temperature, cleaning...

This study aims at investigating Salmonella environmental contamination of trucks and lairage pens and evaluating the efficiency of an improved cleaning and disinfection protocol to reduce Salmonella environmental contamination. During four days, the lairage of two French pig slaughterhouses were sampled twice a day when pigs were present and once at the end of the week after the cleaning proto...