First thing, you need bold titles, headings and sub-headings. You cannot write and essay and go auto-pilot. You need to structure the essay with meaningful headings that tell both you AND the reader what the likely content of that section is. It also helps break the essay into more digestible bitesize pieces for the reader.
Introduction
During the industrial revolution medicine achieved new heights with innovations coupled with scientific breakthroughs forming the basis of the discovery of many modern medical techniques centered on surgery and oral antibiotics with one example being that penicillin discovered by Alexander Fleming . This revolutionary antibiotic offered an effective treatment for infections varying from pneumonia, gonorrhea and rheumatic fever. Plasma has been a more recent development and can provide ‘anti-biotic’ style treatment through external exposure with one example being cold plasma jets providing a safe and effective alternative to anti-biotic to treat multi-drug resistant infections. Figure 1 shows the effective and successful killing of bacteria via plasma on a blood-agar dish seeded with hemolytic Staphylococcus.
Figure 1 Bacterium killing with plasma: The blood-agar dishes seeded with haemolytic Staphylococcus aureus are shown, plasma treated (left) and untreated control (right).
very nice, I like a brief walk down history. Do you have maybe a citeation to support this? A simple one would be the discovery of penicillian and you can use that as a quick example. Then, you can draw a parallel between the conventional use of oral anti-biotics and to the still developing use of plasmas to provide ‘anti-biotic’ style treatments through external exposure.
The advent on plasma technology has combined plasma physics, life science and clinical medicine and now poses the prospect of plasma as a far superior medical applicatory in contrast to traditional methods. Plasma also offers an attractive technological solution to other industries such as the microelectronics industry achieving new heights through integrated circuit fabrication, appertained to the need for mass fabrication of smaller, more powerful circuits for the new generation, Figure 2 shows the result of plasma etching on a semiconductor wafer to produce patterned wafers for integrated circuits.
Figure 2 shows the result of plasma etching on a semiconductor wafer to produce patterned wafers for integrated circuits
very good, objectively mentioning the versatility of plasmas in other industries. You should cite this also. Wherever there is undisputed knowledge, its good to cite so that the readers can look it up themselves. This report will aim to present the use of plasma in the medicinal industry, the current applications and a forecast as to where the field may develop, aiming to explore the questions asked by microbiologists today: what happens to biological cells if exposed to low-temperature plasma? Will they die? Will they survive? If they survive will they be able to repair the damage and recover? What kind of damage? What plasma agent causes the damage? . This report will also explore the success of low temperature plasma in blood coagulation and wound healing as well as other current medical applications. Nice. At this point, I’ve read a lot of words and seen no pictures. This isn’t good. You can put an image of a plasma being used to etch a semiconductor circuit when you mention the example of plasmas being used in other industries. Then you can also say something like this: “Plasma also offers an attractive technological solution to other industries such as the microelectronics industry achieving new heights through integrated circuit fabrication, appertained to the need for mass fabrication of smaller, more powerful circuits for the new generation. Figure 1 (post a picture and caption it) shows the result of plasma etching on a semiconductor wafer to produced patterned wafers for integrated circuits”
Plasma Theory
Plasmas are commonly referred to as the 4th state of matter and comprise of an ionized gas, of which exhibits electron energies much higher than that of ions and neutral species. Energetic electrons enter into collisions with the background gas, causing enhanced levels of dissociation, excitation, and ionization. This allows it the ability to achieve enhanced gas phase chemistry without the need for elevated gas temperatures due to the range of electron collisions (impact ionization, dissociation and attachment) as well as heavy collisions between the neutral and ionized species themselves. Within the plasma, the ions and neutrals remain relatively cold meaning in essence no thermal damage is done to the substrate the plasma is in contact with, making it extremely useful for treatment of high-sensitive materials and specifically biological matter such as tissues and cells good. In addition through tailoring of the plasma parameters and use of different sources, plasmas can behave differently with one example being an arc discharge which creates plasmas that have the ions and neutrals which are extremely hot making it a useful applicatory in plasma cutters. This property of plasma has also been exploited in other sectors for material processing such as etching and deposition. Moreover the thermal energy of plasma allows for high levels of control over the tissue within surgery meaning minimal thermal diffusion. You should make a point that we could make a plasma extremely hot to melt and burn materials if we wished. But this requires a tailoring of the plasma parameters as well as different types of plasma sources. For example, an Arc discharge creates plasmas that have the ions and neutrals extremely hot – and they are used for plasma cutters.
Plasma Sources
Non-thermal atmospheric plasma jets play a crucial role in many plasma applicators due to providing plasmas of which are not bound or confined by electrodes . This property makes APPJ’s of extreme value within biomedical applications, and as such “cold” plasma jets have been generated and developed by several investigators in order to inactive bacteria on the surface of skin/tissue. This has been tested via a plasma pencil, a plasma pulsed device and the results are shown in Fig. 3
Figure 3 Photographs of petri dishes showing the effects of the cold plume, generated by the plasma pencil, on E. coli cells. Operating gas is helium. Top petri dish is control; bottom petri dishes were treated for (left) 30 s and (right) 120 s
APPJ’s were also identified to have properties useful in sterilization of medical tools due to their ability to kill microorganisms and protein-based matter when operated with a helium/oxygen mixture. This again is an important use due to the frequently contaminated medical tools which are regularly used and required within both dental and medical sectors.
Research undertaken on plasma
Plasma technology has been cultivated through medical research such as electro surgery , tissue engineering , surface modification of biocompatible compounds and the sterilization of heat sensitive materials and instruments . This subsequently achieved the rise of international conferences with the latest being the International Conference of Plasma Medicine. Following from this was the publication of “Plasma processes and Polymers” and featured in the editorial was a summary of the rising multidisciplinary field that bridges engineering, physics and biology “ Recent demonstrations of plasma technology of treatment of living cells, tissues and organs are creating a new field ay the intersection of plasma science and technology with biology and medicine-plasma medicine. Testing of plasma on eukaryotic (mammalian cells) has shown that at low power, short exposures of mammalian cells to “cold” plasma can lead to cell detachment without causing necrotic effects as shown in Fig. this sounds cool, do you have a reference for this and maybe a graph/image showing this?. Although these preliminary results lacked in-depth investigations, they indicated cold plasma to pose beneficial changes making it a useful tool within practical medical applications, including but not limited to the removal of tissue and the acceleration of wound healing.
Another of testing conducted by German and Russian researchers showed a 10min exposure with low temprture plasma successfully killed drug resistant bacteria in rats also increasing rate of wound healing. They concluded “The findings suggest that cold plasmas might be a promising method to treat chronic wound infections where other approaches fail.” Dr Svetlana Ermolaeva who conduced the experiment identified low temperature plasmas of 35-40 degrees as an “attractive option of treating infections- ”Cold plasmas are ale to kill bacteria by damaging microbial DNA and surface structures without being harmful to human tissues. Importantly we have shown that plasma is able to kill bacteria growing biofilms in wounds, although thicker biofilms show some resistance to treatment”
please don’t copy and paste entire sentences from a source. There are some circumstances where you can, and you must use quotation marks, but this is not one of them. Read what they did, understand it, then conclude it back in this essay IN YOUR OWN WORDS. Put the reference immediately afterward. A study carried out by Stoffels, involved a Chinese hamsters ovarian cell where CHO-K1 was used as a model. The substrate was exposed to RF-driven low-power small-volume cold plasma generated on the tip of a hypodermic needle molded electrode. He identified “necrosis”[ ] occurred for powers generated greater than 0.2W and exposure exceeding 10seconds. “Necrosis” is cell death as a result of injury incurred and during this period, the cells membranes are damaged and the cytoplasm is released causing inflammation in the affected areas [ ]. Once more lower exposure to the plasma resulted in “apoptosis”. Apoptosis is an internally triggered cell mechanism of cell destruction, known as “programmed cell death”. During apoptosis, the cell internal contents remain within the cell wall, therefore avoiding inflammation. Also identified was that if the power level and exposure time were reduced by 50mW and 1s, the cells partly detached from the sample, took a more rounded shape and did not undergo apotheosis [43]. In addition, no necrotic zone was observed in the exposed sample [ ]. Fig 1 shows this interesting finding by showing CHO-L; cells before and after plasma exposure.
Always cite where you got the image from and a very brief description of what the image is showing – whether or not you’ve already done it in the main text. A brief description must always be immediately underneath the picture.
Plasma use in wound healing
Another use for plasma in the medicinal industry is wound healing. This is composed of the healing of the dermal and epidermal tissue; the inflammatory phase; the proliferative phase; the remodeling phase. The conventional treatment of wounds typically antibiotics, can be limited due to resistant strains forming leading to anti-biotic resistance. Theoretically this can be resolved through the advent of plasma, however the use was investigated due to the toxicity of cold plasma. Studies which were performed but not published showed that at low power, cold plasma had no “irreversibly detrimental effects” on the DNA of mammalian cells .
Further studies were conducted by Laroussi and co workers to assess whether non thermal plasma would have an affect on cell regeneration . They used planaria (flat worms) due to their regenerative capabilities and were held in culture and posed an inexpensive experimental model. A post pharyngeal cut (tails of worms were sliced off) was undertaken in order for the anterior section of the worm to have the ability to feed. In order for maximized regeneration potential, the worms were fed at a controlled rate of twice per week, and were exposed to plasma for 10s, 20s, 30s and 40s. The findings were as followed; nearly all the worms survived the exposure and most lived throughout the following 14 days . Laroussi saw no evidence that regeneration of worms exposed to plasma treatment differed from regeneration in controlled worms. He concluded that exposure to plasma, did not accelerate nor hinder the cell regeneration in planaria. Figure 4 below shows the progress of the planaria showing the worms regeneration;
Figure 4 Photographs of a worm having part of its tail cut exposed to plasma for 40 s, and then left in conditions to grow back. (a) After 1 day, (b) after 4 days, (c) after 7 days, and (d) after 14 days. The photos show that the worm was able to grow back in a normal way [16]
Applications of plasma technology in the medical field
Plasma technology has enabled the ability to clean/cauterize wounds with the absence of severe burns which is an issue posed through traditional surgery. Historically, excessive blood loss acquired via a cut and/or wound would be treated through cauterization which comprises of heat to “burn” the wounded area to coagulate the blood and prevent further bleeding. This method has been used since ancient times initially described by scientist Abu Al-Qasim Al-Zahrawi in his medical encyclopedia entitled Kitab al-Tasrif . As technology has developed other means of cleaning wounds have been established such as electro surgery, which is used to cut soft tissue and/or arrest blood flow. As a result of its elevated temperature, thermal plasma has also been used successfully as an electrosurgical method to help coagulate blood .Plasma offers the cleaning of wounds using chemically active plasma, which achieves the same objective of cauterizing without burning and thus causing inferior damage to cells. One example of this is an Argon beam coagulator. Nonetheless the use and testing of plasma has not come without faults, with investigators using scanning electron microscopes (SEM) to assess damages that plasma may have on cell morphology. This assessed any visible change to the outer structure of the cell and as such any changes were attributed to the impact of a specific plasma agent. Through using SEM images, Laroussi , showed that after exposure to plasma, E.coli cells underwent severe morphological changes such as lysis. Laroussi narrowed down the causes of the damages to either membrane rupture as a result of a charge build up on the cells or the chemical attack of radicals present such as O and OH.
Forecast for plasma within the medicinal industry
In the medicinal industry, plasmas are looking to be applied in the form of kinetic dissection, micro layer vaporization, and surface sealing which aims to allow surgeons to create clean and dry tissue planes and open adhered areas on or near sensitive structures, perform more complete disease removal from surface tissue, layer by layer and dry and seal areas with small vessels and oozing surfaces, reducing the risk of leakage and complications, respectively.
The medicinal industry within the UK is thought to be worth £8.4bn with a large portion £3.9bn solely spent on research and development. While investment in plasma research within the UK has remained static, the US have been extremely more invested in the application and new plasma start ups such as Advanced Plasma Solutions which provide an investment programs in an attempt to raise finance. In my opinion the advent of plasma in the UK medical industry will not be something, which will be achieved in the near future. This is based on the lack of investment and current UK companies invested in plasma technology within the medical field. I do however feel that the emergence of US companies invested in plasma technology will have a knock on effect if there is a continual success within patients and as the technology becomes more readily available. Should the continuation of plasma success within the US continue I can foresee plasma usage in the UK within my lifetime so long as the application is successful, further research is confirmatory of its safety and the practicality in regards to costs in sufficient. ok, now I want your own opinion. How much of this spending and research do you think has been on plasmas? When was the last time you went to the hospital or dentist, did you see much in the way of plasma technology? What problems do you think are associated with trying to get a full scale application of plasmas in the hospitals? Do you think plasmas have a future in medicine?. Plasma research has developed dramatically within the last decade and there has been an immergence of companies specializing in plasma surgery such as Plasma Surgical . Through use of the Plasma Jet technique, a bipolar electrode system with low flow argon as a process gas is used to “cut or coagulate tissue in a well-defined and localized matter, surgeons are [also] able to remove unwanted tissue from sensitive fields of which would be unachievable through more traditional methods”. The imergence of these companies can only be seen as a positive for the future of plasma in the medicinal industry and success of plasma surgeries will have a knock on affect with the immergence of more to come. This assignment has reviewed plasma in the medicinal industry, plasma sources, the tests and research conducted as well as its success in current applications, whilst still not a common use in the medicinal industry, plasma theory and research has shown positive signs and as stated before I believe it will inevitably play a key role in the future to come.
You are missing:
• A title, the header on this document doesn’t count
• Sub-headings and section titles.
• A reference section, references are extremely important as it allows people to conclude your work with their own research
• Meaningful images. Either you haven’t explained the images properly or I cannot see why they are relevant. I just see cells. What is the different between cells a, b, c, d and why? What is the plasma treatment doing? You must write it more clearly.
• For the paper you kept writing from, you mention liberally the use of plasmas for medicine. But how? This means you are missing a section which talks about exactly HOW a plasma is created and applied for medicine: plasma sources. In your plasma theory section, you should also have a section of types of plasma sources, especially those geared for medicine such as APPJ’s (atmospheric pressure plasma jets).
References:
https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/whatischemistry/landmarks/flemingpenicillin.html
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101215092248.htm