On Some Applications of Nanoparticles Synthesized in the Gas Phase by Magnetron Discharges

For the seventies, scientists focused their researches to find techniques to produce high quality films. One of the ideas, for example, was to generate an ionized cluster beam (ICB) formed by inert gas condensation (IGC) from evaporation of material. This method generates non-agglomerated nanoparticles to be deposited onto any substrate. However, the synthesis of spherical and well-dispersed nanoparticles remains, today, a major technological issue. Several trials have been performed with magnetron sputtering that has the advantage of producing very pure atomic vapour from a wide variety of solid materials or composites, and therefore in this configuration offers the possibility to synthesize nanoparticles in a gaz phase with potential numerous applications. In this paper, we describe several results of our laboratory and we show how it is possible to synthesize non-agglomerated nanoparticles with a narrow size distribution in the nm range. Detailed examples of Ag, TiO2, Au, Y, C, Co and Fe are given. We illustrate their current use in applications including catalyst to produce aligned Multi-Wall Carbon Nanotubes, seeding layer to promote anatase TiO2 crystallisation for photocatalytic material, superhydrophobic material and nanoparticle for nanomedecine.

Validity and reliability of Sarcopenia Quality of Life® Indonesia questionnaire in sarcopenic patients

Background:Sarcopenia significantly impairs quality of life(QoL).The Sarcopenia Quality of Life®(SarQol®)questionnaire provides a sarcopenia-specific instrument for the assessment of QoL.The aim of this study was to cross-culturally adapt the SarQol®to an Indonesian language questionnaire and to confirm its validity and reliability as a tool to measure QoL in Indonesian-speaking elderly patients with sarcopenia.Methods:This cross-sectional study translated and cross-culturally adapted the SarQol®questionnaire,followed by evaluating the psychometric properties of the final cross-culturally adapted SarQol®Indonesia questionnaire.Results:Fifty-nine elderly Indonesian subjects(29 sarcopenic and 30 nonsarcopenic)with a mean age of 72.2±6.3 years were included in this study.SarQol®Indonesia questionnaire overall provides a good discriminative value[60.61±14.34 vs.73.60±13.17,p=0.001],good internal consistency(Cronbach'sαcoefficient=0.896 and McDonald'sωcoefficient=0.906,both with good correlation to the questionnaire individual domains),acceptable construct validity,and good test-retest reliability(intraclass correlation coefficient:0.962[95%confidence interval:0.883-0.987]).Conclusions:The SarQol®Indonesia questionnaire provides a conceptual and literally equivalent questionnaire content to its original source with good discriminative value,good internal consistency,acceptable construct validity,and good test-retest reliability.The SarQol®Indonesia questionnaire is ready to be used to measure QoL in Indonesian elderly sarcopenic individuals.