Copper Oxide Nanoparticles Inhibit the Metabolic Activity of \u3cem\u3eSaccharomyces cerevisiae \u3c/em\u3e

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) are used increasingly in industrial applications and consumer products and thus may pose risk to human and environmental health. The interaction of CuO NPs with complex media and the impact on cell metabolism when exposed to sublethal concentrations are largely unknown. In the present study, the short-term effects of 2 different sized manufactured CuO NPs on metabolic activity of Saccharomyces cerevisiae were studied. The role of released Cu2+ during dissolution of NPs in the growth media and the CuO nanostructure were considered. Characterization showed that the 28 nm and 64 nm CuO NPs used in the present study have different primary diameter, similar hydrodynamic diameter, and significantly different concentrations of dissolved Cu2+ ions in the growth media released from the same initial NP mass. Exposures to CuO NPs or the released Cu2+ fraction, at doses that do not have impact on cell viability, showed significant inhibition on S. cerevisiae cellular metabolic activity. A greater CuO NP effect on the metabolic activity of S. cerevisiae growth under respiring conditions was observed. Under the tested conditions the observed metabolic inhibition from the NPs was not explained fully by the released Cu ions from the dissolving NPs

Effects of various penetration enhancers on percutaneous absorption of piroxicam from emulgels

A suitable emulgel formulation of piroxicam was prepared and its percutaneous permeation was investigated using Wistar rat skin and diffusion cell technique. The concentrations of the drug in receptor phase of diffusion cells were measured using HPLC method. The effect of three types of penetration enhancers (Myrj 52, cineol and Transcutol P) with different concentrations on transdermal permeation of the drug was also evaluated. Flux, Kp and enhancement ratios (ERs) of piroxicam in the presence of enhancers was measured and compared with emulgel base alone and simple commercial gel. The results showed a significant enhancement in the flux from emulgel base compared to hydroalcoholic gel formulation (9.91 folds over simple gel). The highest enhancement ratio (ER=3.11) was observed for Myrj 52 at the concentration of 0.25%. Higher concentrations of Myrj 52did not show any enhancement in the drug flux due to micelle formation and solubilization of the drug by micelles. The increase in solubility, in turn, increases the saturated concentration and reduces the thermodynamic activity of the drug. Transcutol® P with concentrations higher than 0.25% w/w showed burst transportation of the drug through the skin. All concentrations of cineol and Transcutol did not show any enhancing effects over emulgel base alone (ER <1)

Kinetic analysis of drug release from nanoparticles

PURPOSE. Comparative drug release kinetics from nanoparticles was carried out using conventional and our novel models with the aim of finding a general model applicable to multi mechanistic release. Theoretical justification for the two best general models was also provided for the first time. METHODS. Ten conventional models and three models developed in our laboratory were applied to release data of 32 drugs from 106 nanoparticle formulations collected from literature. The accuracy of the models was assessed employing mean percent error (E) of each data set, overall mean percent error (OE) and number of Es less than 10 percent. RESULTS. Among the models the novel reciprocal powered time (RPT), Weibull (W) and log-probability (LP) ones produced OE values of 6.47, 6.39 and 6.77, respectively. The OEs of other models were higher than 10%. Also the number of errors less than 10% for the models was 84.9, 80.2 and 78.3 percents of total number of data sets. CONCLUSIONS. Considering the accuracy criteria the reciprocal powered time model could be suggested as a general model for analysis of multi mechanistic drug release from nanoparticles. Also W and LP models were the closest to the suggested model RPT

Studies on Dissolution Enhancement of Prednisolone, a Poorly Water-Soluble Drug by Solid Dispersion Technique

Introduction: Prednisolone is a class II substance according to the Biopharmaceutics Classification System. It is a poorly water soluble agent. The aim of the present study was to improve dissolution rate of a poorly water-soluble drug, prednisolone, by a solid dispersion technique. Methods: Solid dispersion of prednisolone was prepared with PEG 6000 or different carbohydrates such as lactose and dextrin with various ratios of the drug to carrier i.e., 1:10, 1:20 and 1:40. Solid dispersions were prepared by coevaporation method. The evaluation of the properties of the dispersions was performed using dissolution studies, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and x-ray powder diffractometery. Results: The results indicated that lactose is suitable carriers to enhance the in vitro dissolution rate of prednisolone. The data from the x-ray diffraction showed that the drug was still detectable in its solid state in all solid dispersions except solid dispersions prepared by dextrin as carrier. The results from infrared spectroscopy showed no well-defined drug–carrier interactions for coevaporates. Conclusion: Solid dispersion of a poorly water-soluble drug, prednisolone may alleviate the problems of delayed and inconsistent rate of dissolution of the drug

Disabilities and Activities of Daily Living Among Veterans With Old Hip Disarticulation and Transpelvic Amputation

Background: The Iran-Iraq imposed war lasted eight years and was one of the longest wars of the last century. Twenty-three years have passed since the war ended, but little has been discussed about the long-term results of war amputations in the literature. Objectives: In this long-term study, we have evaluated the activities of daily living among veterans with hip or hemipelvis amputations. Patients and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on Iran-Iraq war veterans with hip or hemipelvis amputations in Iran. Eighty-four (96.5%) veterans out of 87 registered veterans with hip or hemipelvis amputations participated in the study. The degree of independence for activities of daily living (ADL) was assessed by the Barthel index. The degree of independence for instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) was assessed by the Lawton-Brody scale. Results: The average follow-up time was 26.6 ± 3.7 years. The average age of veterans was 44.1±7 years old. Of 84 amputees, 57 (67.85%) had limitations in at least one domain of the ADL. The most common single item that affected the patients was ascending and descending stairs seen in 45 (78.9%) veterans, followed by eating seen in 4 (7.01%) veterans. In addition, 70 (83.33%) had limitations in at least one domain of the IADL. The most common single item that affected the veterans was shopping seen in 56 (80%), followed by responsibility for own medications seen in 13 (18.57%) veterans. Spearman correlation coefficient of the sum scores of ADL and IADL showed an intermediate to strong correlation (r = 0.58). Conclusions: Increasing dependency in ADL is accompanied by increasing dependency in IADL. In the past, the duty of health care providers was saving the life of veterans due to injuries while at present, because these injuries occurred in young and healthy individuals, the need for increased function is being highlighted

Absorbing boundary conditions for the Westervelt equation

The focus of this work is on the construction of a family of nonlinear absorbing boundary conditions for the Westervelt equation in one and two space dimensions. The principal ingredient used in the design of such conditions is pseudo-differential calculus. This approach enables to develop high order boundary conditions in a consistent way which are typically more accurate than their low order analogs. Under the hypothesis of small initial data, we establish local well-posedness for the Westervelt equation with the absorbing boundary conditions. The performed numerical experiments illustrate the efficiency of the proposed boundary conditions for different regimes of wave propagation

Validity and Cross-Cultural Adaptation of the Persian Version of the Oxford Elbow Score

Oxford Elbow Score (OES) is a patient-reported questionnaire used to assess outcomes after elbow surgery. The aim of this study was to validate and adapt the OES into Persian language. After forward-backward translation of the OES into Persian, a total number of 92 patients after elbow surgeries completed the Persian OES along with the Persian DASH and SF-36. To assess test-retest reliability, 31 randomly selected patients (34%) completed the Persian OES again after three days while abstaining from all forms of therapeutic regimens. Reliability of the Persian OES was assessed by measuring intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) for test-retest reliability and Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used to test the construct validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was 0.92 showing excellent reliability. Cronbach's alpha for function, pain, and social-psychological subscales was 0.95, 0.86, and 0.85, respectively. Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was 0.85 for the overall questionnaire and 0.90, 0.76, and 0.75 for function, pain, and social-psychological subscales, respectively. Construct validity was confirmed as the Spearman correlation between OES and DASH was 0.80. Persian OES is a valid and reliable patient-reported outcome measure to assess postsurgical elbow status in Persian speaking population

Experimental and Numerical Investigation on Thermal Management of an Outdoor Battery Cabinet

Many forms of electronic equipment such as battery packs and telecom equipment must be stored in harsh outdoor environment. It is essential that these facilities be protected from a wide range of ambient temperatures and solar radiation. Temperature extremes greatly reduce lead-acid based battery performance and shorten battery life. Therefore, it is important to maintain the cabinet temperature within the optimal values between 20oC and 30oC to ensure battery stability and to extend battery lifespan. To this end, cabinet enclosures with proper thermal management have been developed to house such electronic equipment in a highly weather tight manner, especially for battery cabinet. In this paper, the flow field and temperature distribution inside an outdoor cabinet are studied experimentally and numerically. The battery cabinets house 24 batteries in two configurations namely, two-layer configuration and six-layer configuration respectively. The cabinet walls are maintained at a constant temperature by a refrigeration system. The cabinet’s ability to protect the batteries from an ambient temperature as high as 50oC is studied. An experimental facility is developed to measure the battery surface temperatures and to validate the numerical simulations. The differences between the experimental and computational fluid dynamic (CFD) results are within 5%

Nonlinear Acoustics in Underwater and Biomedical Applications: Array Performance Degradation and Time Reversal Invariance

This dissertation describes a model for acoustic propagation in inhomogeneous flu- ids, and explores the focusing by arrays onto targets under various conditions. The work explores the use of arrays, in particular the time reversal array, for underwater and biomedical applications. Aspects of propagation and phasing which can lead to reduced focusing effectiveness are described. An acoustic wave equation was derived for the propagation of finite-amplitude waves in lossy time-varying inhomogeneous fluid media. The equation was solved numerically in both Cartesian and cylindrical geometries using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method. It was found that time reversal arrays are sensitive to several debilitating factors. Focusing ability was determined to be adequate in the presence of temporal jitter in the time reversed signal only up to about one-sixth of a period. Thermoviscous absorption also had a debilitating effect on focal pressure for both linear and nonlinear propagation. It was also found that nonlinearity leads to degradation of focal pressure through amplification of the received signal at the array, and enhanced absorption in the shocked waveforms. This dissertation also examined the heating effects of focused ultrasound in a tissue-like medium. The application considered is therapeutic heating for hyperther- mia. The acoustic model and a thermal model for tissue were coupled to solve for transient and steady temperature profiles in tissue-like media. The Pennes bioheat equation was solved using the FDTD method to calculate the temperature fields in tissue-like media from focused acoustic sources. It was found that the temperature-dependence of the medium's background prop- erties can play an important role in the temperature predictions. Finite-amplitude effects contributed excess heat when source conditions were provided for nonlinear ef- fects to manifest themselves. The effect of medium heterogeneity was also found to be important in redistributing the acoustic and temperature fields, creating regions with hotter and colder temperatures than the mean by local scattering and lensing action. These temperature excursions from the mean were found to increase monotonically with increasing contrast in the medium's properties.Office of Naval Research (Code 321-TS

Geographies of Absence: Radicalization and the Shaping of the New Syrian Territoriality

In November 2015, the United States and the Russian Federation convened the main international stakeholders engaged in the Syrian conflict to broker the Vienna Accords. The unfolding political process culminated in the issuing of UN Security Council Resolution 2254. Since then the situation has evolved rapidly, ushering in a new outlook for the resolution of the six-year-old civil war. The conflicting parties in Syria have not yet fathomed the momentum of this deal. Some progress has been made as part of successive attempts to establish a “cessation of hostilities,” but there have not yet been any major breakthroughs because the negotiating parties, supported by regional allies, are resisting the process every step of the way. The war has created new geographic realities: governance structures, political economies, and cultural paradigms. These geographies will not be easily bypassed. Dealing with the fragmented situation will hinder the prospects of a top-down solution, particularly because none of the negotiating parties has full control over its constituency. This article focuses on understanding this new geography. Arguing that the emergence of radicalized actors on the scene is not an accidental feature of the conflict dynamics, it shows how, instead, the territorial patterns of control by the different actors have used and exploited the territory to advance their positioning. Subsequently the article argues that these patterns, intended or not, have fostered the radicalization of the armed actors on all sides, imposing in the meantime asymmetrical patterns of territoriality that will seriously undermine the top-down approach of the Geneva process