PMED Special Issue: Plasma Agriculture and Food Safety

Guest Editor

Christopher M. Sales
Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering
Drexel University
Philadelphia, PA

Submission Deadline: October 1, 2020

Plasma is an emerging technology in agriculture and the food industry. Ensuring global food security requires sustainable agricultural practices that can meet the demands of increased food production due to the continued growth the world’s population, while also reducing the negative environmental impacts of food production. In addition, consumers are now demanding higher levels of food quality and safety to promote healthier lifestyles.

This special issue is open to submissions for papers describing innovative plasma technologies and solutions being researched and developed to enhance sustainable agriculture practices and to improve food quality and safety.

Suggested topics include:
- The development of plasma to increase food production yields, such as enhancement of seed germination or the use of plasma-activated fertilizer
- Plasma performance and other process requirements compared with alternative approaches used in agriculture and the food industry
- Environmental remediation of soil, water, or air in agriculture or food systems
- Non-thermal plasma use for new agricultural products
- Plasma disinfection/sterilization of foods, packaging, and food production equipment

PMED Special Issue: Sterilization and Prevention of infectious Diseases

Guest Editors

Michael Keidar
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
The George Washington University

Eric Robert
GREMI UMR 7344 CNRS/Université d'Orléans
Orléans, France

Submission Deadline: December 1, 2020

The current COVID‐19 pandemic has generated worldwide awareness for the need to decontaminate the environment and to reduce the risk of transmission of the virus. Due to SARSCoV‐2 (the virus that causes COVID‐19) being newly introduced into the human realm, there is still much uncertainty with regard to spreading of the virus and ways of decontamination.

Plasma has been shown as effective tool against various viruses and bacteria. This issue is open for papers reporting on the development of new, innovative disinfecting solutions or processes likely to be operated in hospitals, care institutions and in any public places where water and soap or hydroalcoholic gels are not convenient or available. People, patients, patient environments and any surfaces or rooms may be targets for disinfection. While papers with a special focus on the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, any report on the potentialities of plasma technology to fight against methicillin resistant strains is relevant.

Ziele und Zweck

Technology has always played an important role in medicine and there are many journals today devoted to medical applications of ionizing radiation, lasers, ultrasound, magnetic resonance and others. Plasma technology is a relative newcomer to the field of medicine. Experimental work conducted at several major universities, research centers and companies around the world over the recent decade demonstrates that plasma can be used in variety of medical applications. It is already widely used surgeries and endoscopic procedures. It has been shown to control properties of cellular and tissue matrices, including biocompatibility of various substrates. Non-thermal plasma has been demonstrated to deactivate dangerous pathogens and to stop bleeding without damaging healthy tissue. It can be used to promote wound healing and to treat cancer. Understanding of various mechanisms by which plasma can interact with living systems, including effects of reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species and charges, has begun to emerge recently. The aim of the Plasma Medicine journal will be to provide a forum where the above topics as well as topics closely related to them can be presented and discussed. Existing journals on plasma science and technology are aimed for audiences with primarily engineering and science background. The field of Plasma Medicine, on the other hand, is highly interdisciplinary. Some of prospective readers and contributors of the Plasma Medicine journal are expected to have background in medicine and biology. Others might be more familiar with plasma science. The goal of the proposed Plasma Medicine journal is to bridge the gap between audiences with such different backgrounds, without sacrificing the quality of the papers be their emphasis on medicine, biology or plasma science and technology.