Effect of dry particle coating on the properties of cohesive pharmaceutical powders

Engineered particles, which have undergone surface modification via dry coating, have been previously shown to have improved flow and handling properties. The improvements in these properties can be applied and are very useful for a number of industrial applications, in this case the pharmaceutical industry. This work investigates the effect of dry particle coating to improve the flowability of cohesive active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) powders and their blends. Improving the flow properties of cohesive API powders can significantly improve their handling and subsequent use for pharmaceutical processes such as formulation and manufacturing processing operations. Although it has been shown that these surface modified powders flow better as indicated by reduced angle of repose and faster or more uniform flow out of a funnel, more quantitative methods of characterization are needed to fully understand the mechanism of coating and extent of improvement. Acetaminophen, ibuprofen and other powders were the APIs considered in this work. They were surface modified via dry coating of nano-additives using several different devices. The study considered the use of both hydrophobic and hydrophilic nano-additives. Since the dry coating process is not easily achieved by simple mixing of the API and nano additives, high and/or sustained levels of shear are required to disperse the silica over the API particle. There is a need to develop a new dry coating process that is reproducible, scalable and continuous so that dry coating can be applied to (1) simplify formulations, (2) enable higher API levels, and (3) improve overall powder and drug product manufacturing performance. In contrast to previous studies that only employed angle of repose to evaluate flow improvement, in this work various quantitative flow characterization techniques are used to assess the changes in flow properties. In addition to use of MAIC and hybridizer which are batch devices, this work also includes development of continuous dry coating methodology which is based on a typical pharmaceutical powder processing device, namely comil. The comil is found to be fast and efficient, as it is a continuous process with little loss of material. The comil has also been scaled up to pilot scale, indicating that it could easily be implemented in existing formulation and manufacturing processes. The powders that have undergone surface modification via dry coating techniques are first analyzed for the extent of coating using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and then the powders are analyzed for their particle size distribution using the Sympatec Helos/Rodos system under varying dispersion conditions to ensure there was no attrition during the coating process. Additionally, a variety of techniques are employed to characterize the powder flow and bulk handling properties, which are important for large scale pharmaceutical manufacturing. Extensive characterization of the powder\u27s flow properties were performed using both novel methods, such as vibrated packed density, as well as industry standard techniques such as shear testing via the Schulze tester, the Freeman FT4 Rheometer and the Hosokawa Powder Tester. Other powder properties such as bulk and tapped densities are also evaluated. The results of these tests are compared with those for untreated API powders in order to examine the enhancement of the powder properties due to the surface modification. This work also clearly illustrates that the pharmaceutical materials undergo significant attrition if the dry coating devices are not optimized. This work intends to position dry coating as a platform technology and show that dry coating based surface modification has the potential to become a routine tool for use in pharmaceutical industry to enable better formulations and aid in manufacturing

A survey of infant hearing screening programs in Santa Clara County hospitals

While convolutional neural networks (CNNs) are very successful in many areas, the state-of-the-art multi-layer CNNs usually require a large amount of computation, which limits their application in scenarios where the computation capability is limited. Since the convolution operation can be done efficiently in the frequency domain, researchers have successfully reduced the amount of computation by applying the fast Fourier transform (FFT) and its inverse to the CNN. Furthermore, the sparse Fourier transform (SFT) algorithm can further reduce the amount of computation by only extracting the salient points in the frequency domain. However, due to this feature, it requires the inputs to be sparse or approximately sparse in the frequency domain. To explore the possibility of applying the SFT to CNN, we simulate the effect of SFT by removing the frequencies with lower power. We refer to this operation as Thresholding. In the experiments, we first inspect the effect of removing low-power frequencies for a sample feature map extracted from intermediate outputs. The result shows that most features are still identifiable to human eyes when 90% of the frequencies are removed; thus, it is possible that CNN can still recognize the features. We then apply the thresholding to each individual layer of VGG-16 and test the accuracy over the ILSVRC2012 dataset. The result shows that thresholding each layer only slightly reduced the accuracy and the reductions are smaller for the top layers (layer close to the output). However, thresholding uniformly on every layer of the network significantly reduced the accuracy. Therefore, we conclude that we should apply SFT to different layers with different configurations to achieve the optimal balance between performance and accuracy. In addition, layer-by-layer fine-tuning and image processing techniques might also help reducing the accuracy loss.U of I Onlyundergraduate senior thesis not recommended for open acces

Time to Listen: Most Regular Patrons of Music Venues Prefer Lower Volumes

High sound levels are a feature of nightclubs and live music venues, and therefore pose a risk to patrons’ hearing. As a result, these venues are often a focus area for hearing health promotion, and particular emphasis is placed on motivating patrons to take steps to reduce their noise exposure. In the current study, we approached this issue from a different angle. We asked whether sound levels in music venues accurately reflect the preferences of regular patrons, and examined their attitudes and preferences toward sound levels and protective listening behaviors. The study examined results from 993 regular patrons of nightclubs and live music venues, collected as part of an Australian online hearing health survey. Participants were asked about their participation at the two target venues, experiences of hearing difficulties, and risk perceptions. They were also asked about their preferences in relation to typical venue sound levels and beliefs about other attendees’ preferences. Results showed that while participants generally rated their hearing as good, the majority had experienced hearing difficulties following sound exposure at music venues. The majority of regular patrons were dissatisfied with current sound levels, with around three-quarters of participants reporting preferences below the levels typically experienced at music venues. Participants were generally aware of the risk posed by high sound levels and those who regarded themselves to be at greater risk from attending music venues were more likely to prefer lower sound levels. These findings have important consequences for the development of hearing health initiatives within entertainment venues. Rather than motivating patrons to change their behavior, encouraging venues to meet their patrons’ needs and preferences may be a more successful strategy. Venue operators may find that this approach has a positive impact not only on the hearing health of patrons, but also on the economic health of their venue. Ultimately, reducing the hearing risk in music venues may best be achieved not by telling people what to do, but by listening to what they actually want

Shipping and nitrogen toning effects on postharvest shelf life of vegetative annuals

Vegetative annuals are currently popular in the ornamental horticulture industry. Many crops are newly domesticated species and little is known about how they perform during shipping or in the retail environment. Nine species and 21 cultivars were grown and underwent simulated shipping after harvest or nitrogen toning two weeks before harvest. Shipping was not found to affect the number of flowers on all but two cultivars post ship. Nitrogen toning affected vegetative growth of most Bracteantha bracteata (bracteantha) cultivars at harvest. All species had an effect due to toning postharvest. Bractenatha and Diascia ÃÂhybrida (diascia) were chosen for further study due to their performance during these experiments. The effect of thidiazuron (TDZ) as a foliar spray and nitrogen toning on leaf yellowing and plant growth of bracteantha were evaluated. The two treatments were then combined to see how the two treatments worked together. It was found TDZ decreased leaf yellowing but its effects can be negated if the plants were not toned. Nitrogen toning reduced vegetative growth of the bracteantha without affecting the number of flowers on the plants. Diascia was found to have flower abscission in response to shipping. Further trials were conducted using 1- methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) an ethylene inhibitor. The effects of shipping duration and temperature were investigated. 1-MCP was found to hold flowers on treated plants longer postharvest than those not treated. Plants shipped for one day had no differences from the control but shipping for two days had a negative effect on plant quality. Postharvest shelf life was decreased when diascia was shipped at 24 ðC when compared to cooler shipping temperatures. These results indicate shipping for no longer than one day and at less than 24 ðC is recommended for diascia

Pelayo : an epic of the olden Moorish time

Sin mención de imprenta ni lugar de impresió

Institutional Repository and Archives Partnerships and Futures

A reality of dwindling resources in archives, as well as in higher education more broadly, is that the ability to purchase and maintain a specialized archives management and content management software is often out of reach. For Marshall University Special Collections, the solution to make finding aids and other digital archival materials accessible online required evaluating software already available at the university. Marshall Digital Scholar (MDS), an instance of the bepress institutional repository software, was chosen for its immediate availability, robust discovery services within the repository and through outside search engines, statistic tracking capability, metadata flexibility, support for multiple file types, and its availability to researchers on and off campus

Reading Comprehension Poster

This poster presents research based information about reading comprehension. The goal of this research was to provide basic information about reading comprehension, how to use reading comprehension and how to assess a student’s progress. Peer-reviewed journal articles and other resources were used to obtain information used on the poster. Throughout the readings, statistics indicate that adults who live in poverty struggle with reading. Direct instruction (i.e. explicit teaching), modeling (i.e. demonstrating the task), and a think-aloud (i.e. verbally thinking through the reading process) were suggested to be useful strategies to implement in the classroom to improve reading. Research also suggested that having students’ create their own questions when analyzing a passage was effective for students who struggle with reading comprehension. In conclusion, reading comprehension is an imperative reading skill. If one cannot comprehend what they read it could lead to struggles with daily activities later in life