3DP printing of oral solid formulations: a systematic review

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a recent technology, which gives the possibility to manufacture personalised dosage forms and it has a broad range of applications. One of the most developed, it is the manufacture of oral solid dosage and the four 3DP techniques which have been more used for their manufacture are FDM, inkjet 3DP, SLA and SLS. This systematic review is carried out to statistically analyze the current 3DP techniques employed in manufacturing oral solid formulations and assess the recent trends of this new technology. The work has been organised into four steps, (1) screening of the articles, definition of the inclusion and exclusion criteria and classi-fication of the articles in the two main groups (included/excluded); (2) quantification and charac-terisation of the included articles; (3) evaluation of the validity of data and data extraction process; (4) data analysis, discussion, and conclusion to define which technique offers the best properties to be applied in the manufacture of oral solid formulations. It has been observed that with SLS 3DP technique, all the characterisation tests required by the BP (drug content, drug dissolution profile, hardness, friability, disintegration time and uniformity of weight) have been performed in the majority of articles, except for the friability test. However, it is not possible to define which of the four 3DP techniques is the most suitable for the manufacture of oral solid formulations, because the selection is affected by different parameters, such as the type of formulation, the physi-cal-mechanical properties to achieve. Moreover, each technique has its specific advantages and disadvantages, such as for FDM the biggest challenge is the degradation of the drug, due to high printing temperature process or for SLA is the toxicity of the carcinogenic risk of the photopoly-merising material

Optimization of Tensile Strengths Response of Plantain Fibres Reinforced Polyester Composites (PFRP) Applying Taguchi Robust Design

This study focuses on the use of control factors(volume fraction of fibers (A), aspect ratio of fibers (B) and fibers orientation (C)) to determine the optimum tensile strength of plantain fibers reinforced polyester resin. Tensile tests was conducted on the replicated samples of plantain empty fruit bunch fiber reinforced polyester composite(PEFB) and plantain pseudo stem fiber reinforced polyester (PPS) respectively using Archimedes principles in each case to determine the volume fraction of fibers. To obtain the optimum properties a Monsanto tensometer were used conduct tensile tests to establish the control factor levels quality characteristics needed to optimize the mechanical properties being investigated. Taguchi robust design technique was applied for the greater the better to obtain the highest signal to noise ratio (SN ratio) for the quality characteristics being investigated employing Minitab 15 software. The optimum values of the control factors are established for empty fruit bunch composites and for pseudo stem fiber composite. The empty fruit bunch fiber reinforced polyester matrix composite has the optimum tensile strength of 40.28MPa , while the pseudo stem plantain fiber reinforced matrix composite has the tensile strength of 30.51MPa. The properties studied depend greatly on the reinforcement combinations of control factors and the composites of empty fruit bunch are stronger in tension than that of pseudo stem. Key Words: composite matrix, plantain fibers, tensile strength, pseudo-stem, empty fruit bunch. Taguchi

Assessment of Morbidity in Malaria and Urinary Schistosomiasis using Some Specific Indicators

The severity of infections with malaria  and  urinary schistosomiasis was assessed in a rural endemic community using  morbidity indicators such as anaemia, haematuria,  proteinuria, leukocyturia and low anthropometry. Parasitological  examinations of  urine and blood specimens  were carried out  for Schistosoma haematobium and Plasmodium sp in addition to measurements for height and weight  of the candidates. One thousand and sixty persons (1060) including 535 males and 525 females between 6 months and 83 years were examined. The overall estimated prevalence of malaria was 62.3%, that  of urinary schistosomiasis was 80.7% and co-infection was 55.1%. Age related peak prevalence of the infections occurred in children of ages 5-9 years for malaria, 10-14 years for urinary schistosomiasis and 5-9 years for co-infection. Heavy intensity (1001-2000 eggs/10ml urine) was predominant in those under 20 years while light intensity (?100 eggs/10ml urine) occurred more in older individuals. Prevalence of the morbidity parameters exceeded 70% with  haematuria being  the highest. Individuals with moderate to high concentration of the parameters and those with co-infection of malaria and S . haematobium infections were found with relatively low haemoglobin  concentration. The later correlated more closely with urinary schistosomiasis (r=0.99) than with malaria (r=0-17). Reduction in weight and height occurred more in children of ages 0-4 who had co-infection. Keywords:  Malaria, urinary schistosomiasis, morbidity parameters, severe infection

Production Losses Associated with Gastro-Intestinal Helminthiasis in Egg-Laying Domestic-Fowl (Gallus Gallus Domesticus: Galliformes) in Poultry Farms in parts of Rivers State, Nigeria

Cases of dead birds, and poorly performing birds, especially egg-layers of the genus Gallus gallus domesticus: Galliformes were observed. Post mortem examination of these birds was routinely carried out over a period of six months (February and July 2013). A total of five hundred birds were examined to ascertain the causes of their death and/or poor egg production. Out of this number, two hundred and seven (207) (i.e. 41.4%) of the posted birds were found with helminthes in their gastro-intestinal tracts. The production implications of this level of infestation and their adverse effects on profitable poultry-production was analyzed. This evaluation was done bearing in mind the adverse-effects of gastro-intestinal helminthes on the egg as well as meat production-propensities of the poultry farms in Rivers State. The production-losses associated with the loss of birds and their products were considered. These were observed and reported to be in millions of naira. Keywords: Domestic fowl, Layers, Helminthiasis, Production loss

Ultrasonographic screening of urinary schistosomiasis infected patients in Agulu community, Anambra state, southeast Nigeria

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The pathology of <it>Schistosoma haematobium </it>infection in 60 infected primary school children in Agulu community, Anambra State, southeast Nigeria, with over 50 ova/10 ml urine was assessed.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The ultrasonographic examination was done using a sector scanner with convex probe. World Health Organisation method was used for classification and scoring of lesions. T-test and Coefficient of determination were used in analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The pathologic effects due to <it>S. haematobuim </it>identified among the study group included irregularity of the bladder wall (25%), thickening of the bladder wall (10%) and massing of the bladder wall (3.3%). About 4(6.7%) and 1(1.7%) of the patients had the right pelvis and left pelvis of their kidney moderately dilated respectively. Identified bladder wall lesions had 69 scores while kidney dilation had 30 scores. The number of individuals with lesions correlated with intensity of infection. Male pupils (65.2%) had more lesions than females (34.8%). The difference observed in lesion distribution among males and females was found to be significant (df = 6, p < 0.05). All bladder and kidney lesions responded favorably to treatment with praziquantel (40 mg/kg-body weight).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Health education campaign including showing the community members evidence of damages to the organs (from the ultrasound pictures) will go a long way in the control and prevention of the disease in this community.</p

Modeling and Optimization of Performance of Four Stroke Spark Ignition Injector Engine

The performance of an engine whose basic design parameters are known can be predicted with the assistance of simulation programs into the less time, cost and near value of actual. This paper presents a comprehensive mathematical model of the performance parameters of four stroke spark ignition engine. The essence of this research work is to develop a mathematical model for the analysis of engine performance parameters of four stroke spark ignition engine before embarking on full scale construction, this will ensure that only optimal parameters are in the design and development of an engine and also allow to check and develop the design of the engine and it’s operation alternatives in an inexpensive way and less time, instead of using experimental method which requires costly research test beds. To achieve this, equations were derived which describe the performance parameters (sfc, thermal efficiency, mep and A/F). The equations were used to simulate and optimize the engine performance of the model for various engine speeds. The optimal values obtained for the developed bivariate mathematical models are: sfc is 0.2833kg/kwh, efficiency is 28.77% and a/f is 20.75. Keywords: Bivariate models, Engine performance, Injector engine, Optimization, Performance parameters, Simulation, Spark ignitio

Evaluation of the Side Effects of Cisplatin Drug in a Nephrotoxicity Model of Wistar Rats

This study critically assessed the observable side effects of cisplatin (anti-tumor) drug in a Portulaca oleracea treated nephrotoxicized wistar rats. Twenty four albino female rats were grouped into four-groups A, B, C, &amp; D. Group A served as the control group; group C and D were all nephrotoxicized using 2ml/kg cisplatin and treated with 400mg/kg and 800mg/kg doses of Portulaca oleracea methanolic extract respectively. Group B were nephrotoxicized but remained untreated. Significant Increase in serum creatinine (P&lt;0.05) in group B rats showed presence of nephrotoxicity and results further showed recovery (significant decrease at P&lt;0.05) in serum creatinine level of groups C &amp;D rats due to the administration of portulaca oleracea. Physically observable features were examined in the rats at the 4th &amp; 7th day of drug administration which showed the presence of side effects (ototoxicity, loss of appetite, black stool, dizziness, fever, etc) which were seen to be increasing with prolonged administration. This research posits seemingly untreatable side effect of cisplatin chemotherapy which increases with increased chemotherapy duration and decreased side effects in the combination of portulaca oleracea in cisplatin chemotherapy. Keywords: chemotherapy, cisplatin and nephrotoxicity

An Integrated Model for Monitoring Nodes in Computer Networks

Monitoring complex computer network environment is now a very challenging task for network administrators despite the various existing monitoring applications for networks that are faced with the issues of centralized monitoring, which causes network traffic, reduces network bandwidth, and are unable to concurrently run two or more network services. This research paper was designed to tackle the problems exhibited by the existing network monitoring application by integrating different network monitoring services in a single model using the power of agent’s distributed processing and monitoring services. Data about the existing and proposed model was gathered using key informant interview approach, and observation of the existing software. Iterative software model was adopted as the software development life cycle based on its strengths and suitability. The proposed model was developed using use-case and sequence diagrams. Suitable programming languages and development environment such as Java, JavaScript, Hypertext Preprocessor, Hypertext markup language and MySQL were used in coding the software prototype. The functionality of the proposed system was tested and results showed that the proposed system has 100% anomaly network intrusion detection rate and better functional features as compared to the existing network monitoring applications observed