Infection Prevention Mask Consisting of Nanofiber Filter and Habutae Silk Fabrics.

To reduce skin irritation and allergic symptoms caused by long-term mask use, we produced a mask with a filter effect by laminating nanofibers on habutae silk fabric, a specialty of Japan's Fukui Prefecture, using the electrospinning method. We investigated the filter characteristics of silk fabrics with different weave structures (habutae, flat crepe, and twill). We found that woven fabrics alone could not sufficiently block particles finer than 1 μm, even when the fabric layers were overlapped.

Development of a compact system for the determination of lead using a liquid core waveguide and a blue diode as a light source.

A simple and compact system was developed for the on-site analysis of lead in environmental water samples. The system consisted of a custom-made blue diode as a light source, a liquid core waveguide (LCW) as spectrophotometric cell and a compact UV-visible spectrometer. It weighed within 1.