An Overview of packaging sustainability topics

This thesis presents the global challenges behind the need of sustainable development. It links packaging to this need and describes the way packaging can positively contribute to this process. It presents industry examples of green packaging that claim to or may actually contribute to sustainable development. It monitors the understanding of packaging professionals for what is called packaging sustainability through a custom made on-line survey. Finally it presents a comparison of environmental impacts for different polymer materials used for the production of rigid containers (HDPE, PP, PET, PVC and PLA) through an analysis of Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) data for different life stages

Elucidating the Role of Translocator Protein in Prostate Cancer: Implications as a Therapeutic Target for Advanced Disease

BackgroundProstate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer related death in men. Current therapies for metastatic prostate cancer can only prolong progression, as most men eventually succumb to metastasis and then death. Therefore, there is continued urgency to identify novel therapeutic targets for advanced disease. Previous reports have identified an increase in Translocator Protein (TSPO) expression in numerous cancer models, including prostate. Functionally, TSPO has been implicated in the regulation of apoptosis and cell proliferation. Here, the role of TSPO in advanced prostate cancer is evaluated in an effort to establish the potential value of TSPO as a therapeutic target in advanced disease.Methodology and Principle FindingsImmunohistochemical analysis using tissue microarrays was used to determine the expression profile of TSPO in human prostate cancer tissues. We observed that TSPO expression increases with disease progression, as prostate cancer metastases had the highest expression. To demonstrate the effect of TSPO ligands PK11195 and lorazepam in prostate cancer, we utilized cell proliferation assays, cell death ELISAs, and a prostate cancer mouse xenograft study. Our findings provide the first evidence of the anti-tumor effects of lorazepam acting on TSPO. To determine the effect of modulating TSPO expression, we performed overexpression and knockdown studies. These studies provided further evidence that lorazepam is acting through TSPO, as overexpression of TSPO conferred increased susceptibility to lorazepam while TSPO knockdown decreased susceptibility. Lastly, we investigated the role of TSPO multimers in prostate cancer. We found that TSPO multimers can be induced by reactive oxygen species and may be formed through a di-tyrosine covalent bond. Conclusions and SignificanceTSPO expression increases with prostate cancer progression. The benzodiazepine lorazepam exerts its anti-cancer effects through its binding to TSPO. Collectively, these data suggest that TSPO is an excellent therapeutic target for advanced disease and that our preclinical results demonstrating that the already existing FDA-approved drug lorazepam has anti-tumor effects could be easily translated to the prostate cancer patient population. These studies could lead to a significant change in the management of prostate cancer by providing a treatment option with minimal toxicity for use in advanced disease and could ultimately prevent prostate cancer deaths

Planning the petrochemical industry in Kuwait using economic and safety objectives

Kuwait, one of the major oil producing countries in the Middle East, is in the process of globalizing its operation in petroleum and petrochemical production. Kuwaiti officials have expressedin terest in acceleratingd evelopmento f the country's relatively small petrochemical industry. The development is to produce new valuable chemicals from the available basic feedstock chemicals. Two of the important planning objectives for a petrochemical industry are the economic gain and the industrial safety involved in the development. For the economic evaluation of the industry, and for the proposed final product chemicals in the development, a long-range plan is needed to identify trends in chemical prices. The chemical prices are related to the oil price, which is considered an important motivator for the whole petrochemical industry. Price trend modelling is performed to be able to forecast these prices for the planning horizon. Safety, as the second objective, is considered in this study as the risk of chemical plant accidents. Risk, when used as an objective fimction, has to have a simple quantitative form to be easily evaluated for a large number of possible plants in the petrochemical network. The simple quantitative form adopted is a risk index that enables the number of people affected by accidents resulting in chemical releases to be estimated. The two objectives, when combined with constraints describing the desired or the possible structure of the industry, will form an optimization model. For this study, the petrochemical planning model consists of a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) model to select the best routes from the basic feedstocks available in Kuwait to the desired final products with multiple objective functions. The economic and risk objectives usually have conflicting needs. The presence of several conflicting objectives is typical when planning. In many cases, where optimization techniques are utilized, the multiple objectives are simply aggregated into one single objective function. Optimization is then conducted to get one optimal result. However, many results are obtained for different aggregations of the objectives and eventually a set of solutions is obtained. Other tools, such as strategic tools, are used to select the best solution from the set. This study, which is concerned with economic and risk objectives, leads to the identification of important factors that affect the petrochemical industry. Moreover, the procedure, of modelling and model solution, can be used to simplify the decisionmaking for complex or large systems such as the petrochemical industry. It presents the use of simple multiple objective optimization tools within a petrochemical planning tool formulated as a mixed integer linear programming model. Such a tool is particularly useful when the decision-making task must be discussed and approved by officials who often have little experience with optimization theories

Innovative polymer nanoparticles for energy storage and anti-counterfeiting applications

La nanociencia y la nanotecnología representan uno de los campos más interesantes de la ciencia moderna, con un carácter altamente multi- e interdisciplinar, ya que combina diferentes disciplinas como la química, la biología, la física y la ingeniería, aprovechando sus principios y procesos. Los nanomateriales han estado presentes en la naturaleza y en la vida desde tiempos ancestrales. Sin embargo, no es hasta la revolución industrial cuando se desarrollan nuevas herramientas tecnológicas que propiciarán en el futuro un gran interés por el estudio de los nanomateriales. Una de las grandes características de los nanomateriales es que presentan propiedades diferentes al disminuir su tamaño a nivel nanométrico ya que poseen una mayor área superficial. Las nanopartículas poliméricas (PNPs) han recibido recientemente mucho interés y tienen un papel clave en diversas áreas como fotónica, electrónica, sensores, medicina, control de la contaminación y tecnología ambiental. La transformación del polímero disponible a granel en un material polimérico de tamaño nanométrico ha proporcionado la aparición de propiedades nuevas e interesantes sin cambiar la composición del polímero. Con el fin de desarrollar nuevos dispositivos de alta tecnología para diversas aplicaciones, los investigadores necesitan controlar mejor la estructura y la función de las nanopartículas poliméricas comprendiendo el papel del tamaño, la forma y la composición. La interfaz de investigación en la que las nanopartículas poliméricas se encuentran con la química analítica, la biomedicina, la construcción, la electroquímica y otros campos ofrece ricas oportunidades para revelar nuevas propiedades químicas, médicas y biológicas de los nanomateriales y descubrir muchas funciones y aplicaciones nuevas de estos materiales. Las nanopartículas poliméricas, por tanto, representan una plataforma para poder desarrollar nuevas aplicaciones, estudiando nuevas rutas sintéticas para obtener las propiedades óptimas para cada aplicación deseada. En la tesis, se describen los avances recientes en la síntesis de nuevas nanopartículas poliméricas con propiedades avanzadas mediante diferentes estrategias. Las estrategias sintéticas incluyen la síntesis química y física para la producción controlada de nanopartículas poliméricas con morfologías bien definidas. En concreto, se desarrollaron diferentes tipos de nanopartículas con altas prestaciones en aplicaciones en almacenamiento de energía y en el campo de la antifalsificación. Los beneficios tecnológicos que se han desarrollado en la tesis doctoral residen en el diseño de los nuevos nanomateriales con potenciales aplicaciones que además pueden aportar valor a tecnologías y productos ya existentes, como además dar soluciones a problemas medioambientales y sociales actuales. Estas nuevas rutas sintéticas y pruebas de concepto creadas en la presente tesis doctoral generan nuevo conocimiento que da valor tanto a nivel académico como industrial.

Designing a Fibrin Scaffold for Lung Resident Mesenchymal Stem Cell Therapy in Emphysema Patients

Based on promising results seen in regenerative therapies for wound healing, this study explores the use of delivering stem cells through a fibrin hydrogel for the treatment of emphysema. To determine an optimal formulation of the biopolymer fibrin, gene expression of lung resident mesenchymal stem cells (LR-MSCs) was studied in three different scaffold formulations. In addition, mechanical modeling was completed to correlate any uncharacteristic behavior with a change in mechanical properties. The results from the study indicated that 3 mg/mL fibrinogen with 500U thrombin may be optimal; however, additional testing needs to be completed to validate mechanical modeling and demonstrate the potency potential of LR-MSCs on secondary cell lines

An assessment of cross-contamination issues in the context of chemical and pharmaceutical processes using a continuous oscillatory baffled reactor

Past research in oscillatory baffled reactors has shown that there are significant technological and business advantages in using such reactor technology in fine chemical and pharmaceutical industries: shorter reaction times, fewer by-products, uniform product quality and higher yields, while at the same time with a significant saving in space, capital and running costs. This project focused on the robustness and adaptability of the continuous oscillatory baffled reactor (COBR) for a large spectrum of chemical reactions that are performed in very different fields of industry: from cosmetics and fine chemicals to pharmaceutical products. In particular, the emphasis was on cross contamination issues which may occur when different reactions are performed in a tandem fashion in this reactor. The experimental results indicate that the COBR is well suited to a broad spectrum of chemical reactions, as well as for crystallization operations. During the continuous production of a fine chemical and two active pharmaceutical ingredients in tandem the conditions inside the reactor remained stable and were easily controlled. The minimal amounts of contaminants present and the high quality of the products obtained are a testament to the consistent operation and robust nature of the COBR. The three production phases were interspersed with a well-defined cleaning procedure. The established cleaning protocol is simple, efficient and fast, while the amount of waste generated is minimized. The cleaning kinetics is of first order, which is consistent with previous work. The results reported in this thesis show that the COBR, which incorporates quality-by-design principles, is a suitable alternative to current mixing technologies and can be readily assimilated into a variety of fine chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing processes

Small-scale encapsulation method for novel drug substances with associated characterization of highly diluted samples

One of the biggest challenges in the development of novel active ingredients is the lack of available drug substances in early stages of development. Nevertheless, in many cases an early decision must be made whether the active ingredient can be delivered to the desired site of action by a suitable carrier system or not. Therefore, it is desirable to manufacture carrier systems in a very small scale avoiding unnecessary material waste. Following this idea, polymer-based nanoparticles were manufactured acting as drug carriers. They were produced using a microfluidic system to keep the required quantities of utilized substances as small as possible. The microfluidic system was especially designed for this application controlling the respective volumetric flow rates of the used liquids by applying air pressure. This allows to tune the desired microfluidic mixing ratio very precisely without any time delay. In addition, the drug loading of produced particles was optimized, with particular attention paid to the type and concentration of utilized stabilizers. By specific adjustments to the mentioned factors, the drug loading could be maximized. Furthermore, particle concentrations of the prepared suspensions were investigated. For this purpose, a microfluidic device was developed precisely determining the number of particles contained by the produced and highly diluted nanosuspensions.Eines der größten Probleme bei der Etablierung von neuartigen Wirkstoffen ist der Mangel an verfügbareren Substanzen in frühen Entwicklungsabschnitten. Da dennoch häufig in Frühphasen der Entwicklung eine Entscheidung gefällt werden muss, ob sich der Wirkstoff mit Hilfe eines geeigneten Trägersystems an den gewünschten Wirkort transportieren lässt, ist es wünschenswert Trägersysteme im Kleinstmaßstab herzustellen. Hierzu wurden polymerbasierte Nanopartikel als Wirkstoffträger verwendet, welche mittels eines mikrofluidischen Systems hergestellt wurden, um die einzusetzenden Substanzmengen so gering wie möglich zu halten. Das dazu verwendete mikrofluidische System wurde speziell für diesen Einsatz entworfen und ist luftdruckgetrieben, wodurch die jeweiligen Volumenströme der verwendeten Flüssigkeiten gesteuert werden. Dadurch kann sehr präzise und ohne zeitliche Verzögerung ein gewünschtes mikrofluidisches Mischungsverhältnis erreicht werden. Außerdem wurde für die hergestellten Partikel die Wirkstoffbeladung optimiert, wobei ein besonderes Augenmerk auf den Typ und die Konzentration der verwendeten Stabilisatoren gelegt wurde. Durch gezielte Anpassungen konnte die Wirkstoffbeladung maximiert werden. Des Weiteren wurden die hergestellten Suspensionen bezüglich ihrer Partikelkonzentration untersucht. Hierfür wurde ein mikrofluidisches Element entwickelt, mit dem sich gerade bei hochverdünnten Nanosuspensionen die Anzahl an enthaltenen Partikeln präzise ermitteln lässt

DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW GENERATION OF BONE CEMENTS USING NANOTECHNOLOGY

undamental and applied research on the reinforcement of polymeric materials using nanotechnology is of tremendous potential importance to many industrial and scientific areas, such as the biomedical, automobile and aeronautical industries. In the biomedical industry, there is a sustained interest to develop novel bone cements with enhanced mechanical properties. Bone cement is a self-polymerizing composite material of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) which has been used in joint replacement surgeries since the 1950s. Bone cement fills the space between the prosthesis and bone to stabilize the implant and transmit functional loading. Joint replacement failure is due to a number of factors, one of which is known to be bone cement mantle failure resulting from the cement’s poor mechanical properties. The aim of this research was to test the efficacy of using nanotechnology to improve the mechanical properties of PMMA based bone cement. This was accomplished through a range of different investigations. Focusing on nanostructured titania (n-TiC\u3e2) initially, titania nanofibers (n-Ti02 fiber) and nanotubes (n-TiC\u3e2 tube) were introduced into a commercial PMMA matrix with the achievement of increased fracture toughness (Kic), flexural strength (FS) and flexural modulus (FM) of the resulting nanocomposites. The n-TiC\u3e2 fiber/tubes were surface treated to improve dispersion and ensure compatibility with the PMMA matrix using the bifunctional monomeric coupling agent, methacrylic acid (MA). MA has two distinct centers of reactivity, one links with the inorganic nanofiller through a molecular bridge, while the other establishes a covalent bond with the polymer chain. On the basis of the determined mechanical properties, an optimum composition was found at 2 wt% loading of n-Ti02 in which provided a significant increase in Kic (10-20%), FS (20-40%) and FM (96-122%) when compared with the unfilled PMMA matrix (P\u3c0.05, one way ANOVA). These improvements were attributed to a high level of interaction and strong chemical adhesion between the n-TiC\u3e2 and PMMA matrix. However, both the n-TiC\u3e2 fibers and tubes did not provide sufficient radiopacity to the PMMA matrix at their optimum level of loading in the composites, which restricts the application of the resulting composites as bone cements. Secondly, the n-TiC\u3e2 tubes were modified through an in-situ integration process incorporating strontium into tube at the time of the tube synthesis. The modified n-TiC\u3e2 tubes were shown to provide reasonably higher radiopacity to the PMMA matrix than the unmodified tubes at the same level of loading, attributed to the presence of the highly radiopaque strontium atom. While keeping the KiC values of the nanocomposites the same as those reinforced by n-TiC\u3e2 tubes, the strontium modified tubes were shown to enhance the in vitro biocompatibility of the PMMA matrix with rat calvariar osteoblast cells. Finally, the functionalized n-TiC\u3e2 fibers and tubes were introduced into a clinically used commercial radiopaque bone cement CMW®1, with the n-TiC\u3e2 acting as a reinforcing phase. Mechanical and other important physical characteristics of the reinforced cements were analyzed according to the universal bone cement standard ISO 5833. Based on the determined mechanical properties of the reinforced cements, the optimum composition was found at 1 wt% loading of the n-Ti02 fibers and tubes separately. The observed optimum loading provided a significant increase in Kic (63-73%), FS (20-42%) and FM (22-56%) of the reinforced cements when compared to the as received CMW®1 cement IV (P\u3c0.05, one way ANOVA). In addition, the setting and rheological characteristics of the curing cement as well as its in vitro biocompatibility were shown to remain unaltered at the optimized small loading (1%). This study demonstrated a novel pathway to augment the mechanical properties of PMMA based bone cement by providing an enhanced interfacial interaction and strong adhesion between functionalized n-TiC\u3e2 and PMMA matrix. This approach enhanced the effective load transfer within the cement while providing excellent biocompatibility. From the studied experimental outcomes, it is considered that nanotechnology using modified n-TiC\u3e2 provides a new vehicle to improve the mechanical properties of acrylic bone cement

Technique for the Determination of Migratable Primary Aromatic Amines Applied to Multi-Laminate Pouches Utilizing Polyurethane Adhesives

Primary aromatic amines (PAAs) are toxic reaction products of polyurethane chemistry and form from unreacted isocyanate monomers and water. This issue is prevalent when considering polyurethane adhesive applications in food contact materials (FCM’s) and food contact articles (FCAs). EU standards state that a maximum migration level of the total sum of PAAs may be no more than 10 ng g-1 of food. Testing for migration and quantification of PAAs has not been standardized, but this research tests a published optimized method for migration testing and quantification of compounds utilizing strong cationic exchange solid phase extraction (SCX-SPE) and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) coupled with an orbi-trap detector running in positive ionization mode with parallel reaction monitoring (PRM) for the detection of 19 known PAAs. Configurations of laminated biaxially oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BOPET), Linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), and aluminum foil were processed at Clemson University in a controlled environment utilizing a solvent-free lamination process comparing aliphatic and aromatic isocyanate-based adhesives, and the role of aluminum foil as a barrier. Pouches were made out the laminated materials and a 3% acetic acid in water food simulant was used for migration testing. Pouches were stored at 60°C for 10 days. R2 values gathered from UHPLC were found to be in a linear range of 0.9976 to 1, the limit of detection (LOD) for the known PAAs ranged from 0.78 to 6.25 ng/ml. The compound aniline was the only PAA found in all tested pouches, with values ranging from 5.52 to 32.38 ng/ml, respectively. Values were reported in higher quantities with films including foil and aromatic-based adhesives, and lowest with aliphatic-based adhesives and no foil. It was found that all pouches had a total detected value of PAAs below 10 ng g-1, and all values of all detected PAAs after migration testing are reported. The need for recommended future work with this research is also outlined