Modeling Iced Bio-Bandage Design for Skin Burns

Over the years, many designs for biobandage were introduced for different types of burns but in most cases these designs are introduced as a protection means to cover and protect the burned tissue from the bacterial infection not as a treatment means. In this paper a new model for a burns biobandage is introduced not only as a protective means but also as a treatment technique by helping the tissue to rebuild itself as fast as possible. The main objective of this research is to develop a simple cryotherapeutic system to reduce the temperature of the burned tissues to normal temperature of the human body in order to facilitate the tissue healing and regeneration process. A biobandage is proposed to include an iced layer as a cooling source, a cotton layer and a water gel layer for comfort and temperature control, and a plastic layer to seal the ice layer. The optimal combination of these four layers physically work together to reduce inflammation, which in turn makes the heeling or recovery time shorter and reduces pain as a result of decreasing the nerve conductivity. The COMSOL Multiphysics was used to model the cooling process on burned tissue using the proposed iced-biobandage. The calculated temperature profiles along the depth biobandage and burned skin provide a clear vision of the heat flow within each layers. The history of temperature and heat transfer rate at the burned skin surface are monitored for an effective cooling and healing process. A modeling analysis was performed to examine the changes of temperature over a predetermined time and to help in identifying the optimal period for ice cooling process, the analysis shows that the ice layer is effective within a certain period of time and after this period it doesn't add any beneficial effect

Curcumin containing chitosan-pectinate nanoparticulate drug delivery system for colon cancer treatment

Curcumin, the active constituent of the rhizome Curcuma longa has been extensively studied as an anticancer agent for various types of tumours. However, its efficacy as an anticancer agent is constrained due to poor absorption, rapid metabolism, degradation in acidic media and consequently, low oral bioavailability. In the present study, we aim to formulate a curcumin-containing mucoadhesive nanoparticulate delivery system that offers protection to curcumin from the degradative effects of the upper digestive tract system but capable of releasing the payload in the colon for the localised treatment of colorectal cancer. Such a system should have a good surface coverage locally at the tumour site and ideally, capable of traversing the tumour. Thus, nanopariculate delivery is most suited to achieve this objective. The latter was formulated using chitosan and pectin as polymers due to their biodegradability and non-toxicity. The objectives of this study were (i) to fabricate, optimize and characterize the curcumin-containing delivery system; (ii) to evaluate the mucoadhesive propensity, release of curcumin from the carrier, and stability of the formulation in various milieu; (iii) to investigate the in vitro antiproliferative efficacy of the formulation as well as the cellular uptake profiles; and (iv) to proof the concept of the formulation using animal modules. The formulated nanoparticulate system had a z-average of 206.0 nm (± 6.6 nm), zeta potential of +32.8 mV (±0.5 mV), and encapsulation efficiency of 64%. The nanoparticles were more mucoadhesive at alkaline pH compared to acidic pH. Furthermore, more than 80% release of curcumin was achieved in simulated colonic medium as opposed to negligible release in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids, respectively. The nanoparticles were taken-up by HT-29 colorectal cancer cells which ultimately resulted in a tremendous reduction in cell propagation. This anti-proliferative effect of the encapsulated curcumin was similar to that of free curcumin at equivalent doses which confirms that the encapsulation process did not affect the anticancer efficacy of curcumin. The bioavailability of curcumin from the nanoparticles was enhanced by 4-folds after oral administration after 6 hr of treatment. Moreover, the half-life, Cmax, and AUC of curcumin were significantly improved. A lower elimination rate was observed from the formulation compared to equivalent doses of free curcumin. These findings are a strong indication of the potential of the studied formulation for the possible treatment of colon cancer via oral administration

Iced Bio-Bandage Design for Skin Burns

In this paper a new model for a burns biobandage is introduced not only as a protective means but also as a treatment technique by helping the tissue to rebuild itself as fast as possible. The main objective of this research is to develop a simple cryotherapeutic system to reduce the temperature of the burned tissues to normal temperature of the human body in order to facilitate the tissue healing and regeneration process. A biobandage is proposed to include an iced layer as a cooling source, a cotton layer and a water gel layer for comfort and temperature control, and a plastic layer to seal the ice layer. The optimal combination of these four layers physically work together to reduce inflammation, which in turn makes the heeling or recovery time shorter and reduces pain as a result of decreasing the nerve conductivity. The COMSOL Multiphysics was used to model the cooling process on burned tissue using the proposed iced-biobandage. A modeling analysis was performed to examine the changes of temperature over a predetermined time and to help in identifying the optimal period for ice cooling process

Experimental Investigation of the Heat Flux from Laminar Premixed Ethanol/Air and Hydrogen/Ethanol/Air Flames to Walls Using Thermographic Phosphors

Premixed impinging flame jets have been widely used in both industrial and domestic applications because of their advantages in offering high heat transfer rates and simple handling. Nevertheless, for the process of flame impingement on walls, the interaction between the combustion process and heat transfer to the wall is also not sufficiently understood, thus many of the impingement heating systems are not utilized at optimal conditions. In addition, the fuels used in previous work concentrate almost exclusively on methane or natural gas, while other important fuels like ethanol or hydrogen were rarely or never investigated. Furthermore, most recent studies focus on only one geometry, flame impingement normal to a flat surface. Therefore, there is little work on ethanol / air flames that strike normally or at an angle to flat surfaces. Moreover, investigations on ethanol/air flames impinging normally on cylindrical surface have not been reported yet. In this experimental study, the thermographic phosphor method was implemented to study the heat flux at the stagnation point on the impingement surface. For that purpose, light emitting diodes (LED) were used to excite the phosphorescence of solgel deposited chromium-doped alumina (Cr3:Al2O3, ruby) on both sides of solid walls in different experiments. The phosphorescence lifetimes depend on temperature, so they were evaluated to extract the impingement surface temperatures. The heat fluxes were calculated using a one-dimensional conduction equation. Laminar premixed flames that were investigated are ethanol-air flames and hydrogen-ethanol-air flames. The burner exit diameter is 30 mm. Three different types of configurations were studied for impinging flames. These are flame impinging upwards normally on a flat surface, flame striking at different angles on a flat surface and flames impinging upwards normally on cylindrical surfaces (Tube). In the case of ethanol/air flames impinging normally on a flat surface, the following parameters were investigated: impingement surface thermal conductivity, cold gas velocity of the air/fuel jet, equivalence ratio of the air/fuel jet, surface-to-burner distance, oxygen amount in oxidizer and enrichment of the mixture ethanol/air with hydrogen. It was found that using zirconia as an impingement surface material instead of alumina under identical operational conditions reduces the heat flux measurement errors from approximately 13% to 2.3%. In a stoichiometric condition, the experimental results were compared with simulated results. It was observed that the results obtained experimentally have smaller values than those obtained from simulation. The highest heat flux was obtained at the equivalence ratio of 1.0. The lowest heat flux was obtained at the lowest applied equivalence ratio of 0.75. The heat flux increased when the plate-to-burner distance was decreased. The use of an oxidizer with a lower percentage of nitrogen than in air enhanced the heat flux. Also, it was found that when hydrogen volume fraction increases, the heat flux increases, and this effect is more significant at high cold gas velocity. In the investigation of the angle dependent heat flux on the flat plat of stoichiometric ethanol/air flames, it was found that the heat flux in the decreased as the inclination angle was reduced. The maximum heat flux was obtained at the inclination angle of 90°. In comparison to heat transfer to flat plates, in heat transfer to cylindrical surfaces higher heat fluxes are found. In almost all experimental results, the measured heat flux indicates the change of the flame stabilization mechanism from a burner stabilized to a stagnation plate stabilized flame with increasing cold gas velocity.Experimentelle Untersuchungen des Wärmestroms von Laminaren Vorgemischten Ethanol/Luft- und Wasserstoff/Ethanol/Luft-Flammen an Wänden unter Einsatz von Thermographischen Phosphoren Vormischflammen werden zum Heizen sowohl industriell als auch iin Privathaushalten vielfältig eingesetzt. Ihre Vorteile liegen in einer hohen Wärmeübertragungsrate und einer einfachen Handhabung. Dennoch ist der Prozess der der Wechselwirkung zwischen Verbrennungsprozess und Wärmeübertragung an die Wand weiterhin nicht ausreichend verstanden, weswegen die meisten Anwendungen nicht unter den günstigsten Bedingungen betrieben werden. Hinzu kommt, dass sich frühere Arbeiten fast ausschließlich mit der Verbrennung von Methan oder Erdgas, hingegen andere wichtige Brennstoffe wie Ethanol oder Wasserstoff selten oder gar nicht untersuchtwurden. Desweiteren befassen sich die meisten bisherigen Studien mit einer eingeschränkten Geometrie, der senkrechten Strömung der Flamme auf eine ebene Oberfläche. Daher gibt es kaum Arbeiten zu Ethanol/Luft-Flammen, die in verschiedenen Winkeln auf eine ebene Oberfläche treffen. Untersuchungen zum Auftreffen einer Ethanol/Luft-Flamme auf eine gekrümmte Oberfläche sind bisher nicht berichtet worden. In dieser weitgehend experimentellen Arbeit werden thermograpische Phosphore eingesetzt, um die Wärmestromdichte am Staupunkt einer auf eine Oberfläche treffenden Flamme zu untersuchen. Hierzu werden beide Seiten der später durch die Flamme beheizten Oberfläche mit einem dünnen, polykristallinen Rubin-Film im Sol-Gel-Verfahren beschichtet. Die Phosphoreszenz von Rubin (mit Chrom dotierter Korund; Cr3:Al2O3) wird durch Leuchtdioden angeregt. Die Lebensdauer der Phosphoreszenz ist temperaturabhängig, sodass sich hieraus die Oberflächentemperaturen bestimmen lassen. Die Wärmestromdichte kann hieraus unter Annahme eindimensionaler Wärmeleitung ermittelt werden. Laminare, vorgemischte Ethanol/Luft- und Wasserstoff/Ethanol/Luft-Flammen werden hier untersucht, die von unten nach oben brennen und einen darüber befindlichen Probekörper heizen. Der Brennerdurchmesser beträgt 30mm. Es werden drei Geometrien untersucht: Ebene Platte senkrecht zur Flamme, ebene Platte mit vorgegebenem Winkel zur Flamme sowie zylindrische Rohre senkrecht zur Flamme. Im Falle der senkrecht angeströmten Platte wurden folgende Parameter untersucht: Plattenmaterial mit unterschiedlicher Wärmeleitfähigkeit, Strömungsgeschwindigkeit des Kaltgases, das Brennstoff/Luft-Verhältnis, der Abstand von Brenner und Platte, der Sauerstoffgehalt des Oxidators und die Zusammensetzung des Brennstoffs durch Zugabe von Wasserstoff zum Ethanol. Es stellte sich heraus, dass der Wechsel des Plattenmaterials von Aluminiumdioxid zu Zirkoniumdioxid den Fehler der Wärmestromdichtenmessungen von 13% auf 2,3% reduziert. Die experimentell bestimmten Wärmestromdichten der stöchiometrischen Verbrennung wurden mit Simulationsergebnissen verglichen wobei die Werte des Experiments unter denen der Modellierung lagen. Die höchste Wärmestromdichte wurde bei einem Äquivalenzverhältnis von 1,0 ermittelt (stöchiometrische Verbrennung) und die niedrigste bei dem niedrigsten gewählten Äquivalenzverhältnis von 0,75. Die Wärmestromdichte erhöhte sich mit abnehmendem Abstand von Brenner zu Platte. Wurde der Stickstoffgehalt der Luft reduziert, so erhöhte sich die Wärmestromdichte ebenfalls. Ebenso konnte die Wärmestromdichte durch Zugabe von Wasserstoff erhöht werden, wobei dieser Effekt bei höheren Strömungsgeschwindigkeiten stärker war. Zur Untersuchung des winkelabhängigen Wärmeübergangs auf ebene Platten von stöchiometrischen Ethanol/Luft-Flammen zeigte sich eine Abnahme der Wärmestromdichte bei Abnahme des Winkels. Im Vergleich zu der ebenen Platte zeigen die Messungen am Zylinder eine höhere Wärmestromdichte, wenn die Flamme am Staupunkt stabilisiert ist. In nahezu allen Messreihen ist der Wechsel von einer brennerstabilisierten Flamme zu einer staupunktstabilisierten Flamme bei Erhöhung der Strömungsgeschwindiugkeit zu erkennen

Curcumin containing chitosan-pectinate nanoparticulate drug delivery system for colon cancer treatment

Curcumin, the active constituent of the rhizome Curcuma longa has been extensively studied as an anticancer agent for various types of tumours. However, its efficacy as an anticancer agent is constrained due to poor absorption, rapid metabolism, degradation in acidic media and consequently, low oral bioavailability. In the present study, we aim to formulate a curcumin-containing mucoadhesive nanoparticulate delivery system that offers protection to curcumin from the degradative effects of the upper digestive tract system but capable of releasing the payload in the colon for the localised treatment of colorectal cancer. Such a system should have a good surface coverage locally at the tumour site and ideally, capable of traversing the tumour. Thus, nanopariculate delivery is most suited to achieve this objective. The latter was formulated using chitosan and pectin as polymers due to their biodegradability and non-toxicity. The objectives of this study were (i) to fabricate, optimize and characterize the curcumin-containing delivery system; (ii) to evaluate the mucoadhesive propensity, release of curcumin from the carrier, and stability of the formulation in various milieu; (iii) to investigate the in vitro antiproliferative efficacy of the formulation as well as the cellular uptake profiles; and (iv) to proof the concept of the formulation using animal modules. The formulated nanoparticulate system had a z-average of 206.0 nm (± 6.6 nm), zeta potential of +32.8 mV (±0.5 mV), and encapsulation efficiency of 64%. The nanoparticles were more mucoadhesive at alkaline pH compared to acidic pH. Furthermore, more than 80% release of curcumin was achieved in simulated colonic medium as opposed to negligible release in simulated gastric and intestinal fluids, respectively. The nanoparticles were taken-up by HT-29 colorectal cancer cells which ultimately resulted in a tremendous reduction in cell propagation. This anti-proliferative effect of the encapsulated curcumin was similar to that of free curcumin at equivalent doses which confirms that the encapsulation process did not affect the anticancer efficacy of curcumin. The bioavailability of curcumin from the nanoparticles was enhanced by 4-folds after oral administration after 6 hr of treatment. Moreover, the half-life, Cmax, and AUC of curcumin were significantly improved. A lower elimination rate was observed from the formulation compared to equivalent doses of free curcumin. These findings are a strong indication of the potential of the studied formulation for the possible treatment of colon cancer via oral administration

Blockchain-Based Traceability and Management for Additive Manufacturing

Additive Manufacturing (AM) is a major advancement in the digitization of manufacturing and production operations. Additive manufacturing uses three dimensional digital design, software and hardware equipment to precisely deposit layered materials for on-demand product manufacturing. The distinct advantages in enabling additive manufacturing includes cost efficiency, reduced time-to-market, flexibility and precise customization. However, several challenges such as trusted traceability, certification for quality compliance, and protecting intellectual property need to be addressed. Blockchain-based distributed ledgers provide tremendous advantages for product traceability and ensure trust among participating stakeholders. In this paper, we propose a blockchain-based solution for product traceability produced using additive manufacturing, guaranteeing secure and trusted traceability, accessibility, and immutability of transactions, and data provenance among supply chain stakeholders. Our proposed solution utilizes Ethereum smart contracts to govern and trace transactions initiated by participants involved in the manufacturing process. Decentralized storage of Inter-Planetary File Systems is used to store and share design files, IoT device records, and additional product specifications. We provide the system architecture, implementation, and detailed algorithms that demonstrate the working principles of our proposed solution for secure AM. Furthermore, we present detailed security and cost analysis of the solution highlighting its efficiency with respect to key security and performance requirements

Postgraduate pharmacist development- an evaluation of Jordanian pharmacist experiences to inform and shape an evidence-based professional development policy

Building capacity for developing skills as leadership, teamwork, and continuous academic support has become essential for fulfilling a successful pharmacy career. This study aims to assess Jordanian pharmacists’ views on professional development, namely: the continuous education infrastructure, strategies and programs for personal development, leadership skills, incentive schemes, drug information resources and digital services. As well as exploring options for better academic support delivered to pharmacists. To capture participant’s views, an online validated and reliable survey was developed. Non-probability sampling design was used. Participants were qualified pharmacists working at Royal Medical Services (RMS) and Community Pharmacists (CP). Comparison and descriptive statistics were used to report the results. A total of 271 pharmacists participated, 144 from RMS (8% more than the needed sample) and 127 CP (7% more than the needed sample). There was a strong desire amongst both RMS and PC groups for continuous educational training particularly in the following areas, first: Advanced counselling and communication skills (means = 8.99±0.145, CI 95% = 3.70–4.28 and 9.37±0.096, CI 95% = 4.18–4.56). Second: Personal development skills (mean = 8.92±0.142, CI 95% = 3.64–4.20 and 9.02±0.145, CI 95% = 3.73–4.30). Third, Pharmaceutical health promotion (mean = 8.05±0.180, CI 95% = 2.70–3.41 and 8.57±0.159, CI 95% = 3.26–3.89). Only 19.4% and 18.1% of the RMS and CPs respectively reported the presence of a written policy for personal development and leadership in their workplace. There were few incentives for pharmacists to participate in research. Few pharmacists used the available drug information and toxicology centers. The professional and continuous personal development of pharmacists support an evolving healthcare system. This study emphasizes the need for a tailored and documented postgraduate educational strategy, personal development, and leadership skills training in Jordan. Implementing a well-defined scheme of incentives should be encouraged to engage pharmacists in continuous professional development programs and pharmaceutical research. Such strategy and training should enhance both professional and personal performance

The Character of Women in the Abbasid Literature

     كانت مشاركة المرأة العباسية تلبية لنداء الحضارة المنفتحة على أنواع المعارف المختلفة، وكذلك استجابتها للثقافة الواسعة والتمازج الثقافي آنذاك، وهذا يشير إلى قدرة المرأة العقلية ونشاطها الفكري الذي جعلها تأخذ دور رائد في النتاج الأدبي، وكونت لنفسها مكانة معرفية وبرعت في ميادين الشعر والنثر، فكان بيانها مشرقاً وأدبها جميلاً. وتمثلت إشكالية البحث في بيان مشاركة المرأة في الحياة الثقافية والاجتماعية وبراعتها في الأدب. أما أهداف البحث فهي تتلخص في التطرق إلى إنجازات المرأة في ميادين الأدب وبيان براعتها وقدرتها في قول الشعر والنثر في موضوعاتهما المختلفة، وأتبعت الباحثة في دراسة النصوص واستقراء المعاني والصور على المنهج الوصفي التحليلي لهذه الدراسة، للبحث عن إنجازات المرأة في العصر العباسي، ولقد توصلنا إلى نتائج أبرزها أن النساء في العصر العباسي قد ساهمن بشكل فعّال ومؤثر في النهضة الأدبية في عصرهن، وكانت لهن بصمة ونصيب لا يمكن لأحد نكرانه في النتاج الأدبي وتشجيع من لديهم الموهبة والقدرة على إنتاج الأدب.The participation of Abbasid women was in response to the call of a civilization that was open to different types of knowledge, as well as its response to the wide culture and cultural mixing at the time. Bright and beautiful literature. The problematic of the research was the statement of women\u27s participation in cultural and social life and their prowess in literature. As for the objectives of the research, they are summed up in addressing the achievements of women in the fields of literature and showing their ingenuity and ability to say poetry and prose on their various topics. The most prominent results are that women in the Abbasid era have contributed effectively and influential to the literary renaissance of their era, and they had an imprint and an undeniable share in the literary production and encouraged those who had the talent and ability to produce literature. Keywords: maidservants, free women