Search

(1) Background: This study aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of non-thermal plasma (NTP) therapy in accelerating wound healing in patients who have undergone laparoscopic and open surgeries. (2) Methods: NTP was applied using a needle-type reactor with an irradiance of 0.5 W/cm2 on the surgical wounds of fifty patients after obtaining informed consent. Three NTP treatments, each lasting three minutes, were administered hourly. (3) Results: The pilot study showed that NTP-treated surgical wounds healed completely without any signs of infection, dehiscence, pain, or itching. Notably, patients reported minimal pain after the NTP treatment. Visual assessments conducted twenty-four hours after surgery revealed no redness or fluid discharge. Comparisons with traditionally sutured wounds indicated that NTP-treated wounds healed at a rate equivalent to seven days. (4) Conclusions: The application of NTP in laparoscopic and open wounds proved safe and effective, expediting the wound healing process and eliminating clinical risks post-surgery. Significantly, NTP facilitated a healing rate within twenty-four hours, equivalent to seven days for suture-treated wounds, significantly reducing the hospitalization time to a single day. These findings highlight the potential of NTP to be a transformative approach for promoting postoperative recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a model of the typical dielectric barrier plasma discharge at atmospheric pressure, structured as an equivalent electric circuit whose elements are identified with, and deducted from, the main influential variables of the process, namely, the applied gas, the geometry of the reactor, the breakdown parameters, as well as the power supply associated to the dielectric barrier discharge cell. Considering a parallel-plate reactor and a high-voltage sinusoidal power supply, an electrical comprehensive Simulink/MATLAB model has been developed in order to reveal the interaction between these two elements. The main components of this discharge model are as follows: 1) a double dielectric capacitance; 2) a voltage-controlled current source; and 3) a gas capacitance associated to the ionized gas. A sinusoidal voltage of up to 15 kV peak to peak at frequencies of 12.5 and 47 kHz has been applied to the discharge electrodes. The electrical model is based on the power law proposed by Roth, which defines the V --I behavior during the discharge startup. A series of simulations has been carried out in order to estimate the total current and voltage consumed during each discharge and to identify those parameters which are not measurable during the process. Finally, both the experimental and simulated voltage and current results in helium, argon, and nitrogen, as well as their Q--V graphics, are shown, and a comparison between them is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a model (which is structured as an equivalent electric circuit whose elements are identified and deducted from the nature of the medium, the ionization and expansion process of the streamers that convey the prebreakdown current, and the energy associated to the electric breakdown in water) and a simulation of a pulsed corona discharge (PCD). Considering this, a coaxial reactor and an inexpensive and compact high-voltage pulsed-power. supply (PPS) system were designed and constructed with the purpose of carrying out the PCD experimentally. The simulation results enable the prediction of the behavior of the discharge. The coaxial reactor is constituted by a cylindrical chamber and a straight central rod. The PPS operates within the 100-2000-Hz repetition rate and 0-30-kV amplitude ranges. All the system has been tested, and the first electrical results, voltage, and current waveforms, are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AC machines supplied in parallel by a common voltage source inverter are sometimes used in industrial drives and railway traction applications. This reduction of power and control electronics leads to a reduction of cost, weight, and dimensions that is very useful for on-board systems. But this common supply imposes common voltages to all machines and the possibilities of independent behavior are reduced. In this paper, a graphical modeling is suggested to model such parallel drives for a railway application. A weighted control is then systematically deduced from this modeling and different possibilities of control are highlighted. Experimental results are provided to compare two of the deduced controls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new system to ignite and to sustain a plasma discharge for different reactor configurations, using a single-series parallel high-frequency resonant converter. The different operation modes are analyzed, and their performance is verified in two applications: an equilibrium plasma discharge (electric arc) and a nonequlibrium plasma discharge (electric barrier at atmospheric pressure) with intensity current and voltage amplitude varying from 135 mA and 1050 V to 600 mA and 502 V, and operating the reactors at 60 Hz, 14 kHz, and 40 kHz. The principal features and results are remarked, such as its ease of adaptation to several regimes of discharge, by simply changing the operational frequency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]