The Psychometric Properties of the Drug Abuse Screening Test

Background: Substance abuse is a critical problem in most countries, especially in developing ones. Earlydetection is the pre-requisite of early control, for which reliable and valid tools are required. In the presentstudy, we aimed at measuring the psychometric properties of the 10-item Drug Abuse Screening Test (DAST-10)in Iranian individuals.Methods: After translation and back-translation of the questionnaire, 244 adults were recruited from TehranMegacity, Iran, and completed the questionnaires. Participants were recruited by a multistage randomizedcluster sampling method. Reliability was determined by Cronbach’s alpha. Also, construct validity wasevaluated using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and exploratory factor analysis (EFA).Findings: The internal consistency using Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the total score of the Persianversion of DAST-10 was 0.93. EFA evoked only one factor for DAST-10. The CFA for 1-factor models forDAST-10 indicated an acceptable fit for the proposed models.Conclusion: The results prove desirable reliability and validity of the Persian version of the DAST which canbe utilized as a screening instrument for drug abuse among Iranian adults

Bridged Carbon Fabric Membrane with Boosted Performance in AC Line Filtering Capacitors

High frequency responsive capacitors with lightweight, flexibility, and miniaturization are among the most vital circuit components because they can be readily incorporated into various portable devices to smooth out the ripples for circuits. Electrode materials no doubt are at the heart of such devices. Despite tremendous efforts and recent advances, the development of flexible and scalable high frequency responsive capacitor electrodes with superior performance remains a great challenge. Herein, a straightforward and technologically relevant method is reported to manufacture a carbon fabric membrane glued by nitrogen doped nanoporous carbons produced through a polyelectrolyte complexation induced phase separation strategy. The as obtained flexible carbon fabric bearing a unique hierarchical porous structure, and high conductivity as well as robust mechanical properties, serves as the free standing electrode materials of electrochemical capacitors. It delivers an ultrahigh specific areal capacitance of 2632 F cm amp; 8722;2 at 120 Hz with an excellent alternating current line filtering performance, fairly higher than the state of the art commercial ones. Together, this system offers the potential electrode material to be scaled up for AC line filtering capacitors at industrial level

Heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials derived from poly(ionic liquid)s and their composites for battery and catalytic applications

In the past decade, there has been significant interest in heteroatom-doped porous carbons, driven by the distinctive and adjustable physical and chemical properties that they exhibit across scales, from the atomic to the macroscopic level. Particularly, attributes such as conductivity, electron density, high specific surface area, hierarchical pore structure, and oxidation resistance offer a wide range of characteristics for diverse applications. The development of multimodal, hierarchical pore sizes, ranging from micropores to macropores, ensures balanced diffusion resistance and a high surface area for active site accommodation. However, their synthesis usually involves multiple steps or complicated processing to incorporate both hierarchically porous structures and heteroatoms in carbon materials. This PhD thesis explores poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) for preparation of heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials, driven by the growing demand for functional carbons in industry and academia. The aim of this thesis is to develop straightforward synthetic approaches to introduce various heteroatoms and different pore sizes in the carbonous structure and study their diverse functions. Here, we propose and explore fabrication methods based on two precursors. First, PILs were examined as both the carbon and heteroatom source, serving as a sacrificial template for porous carbons. Second, the delicate structure of wood was employed as a carbon source to generate macropores, while being coated with PILs to introduce heteroatoms or iron-based nanoparticles and create additional micropores. Moreover, the application of these carbonaceous materials was studied in two areas, i.e., batteries and artificial enzymes. This research is likely to contribute to a deeper understanding of synthetic methodologies of heteroatom-doped porous carbon materials and their physiochemical properties for various applications

Gas Transport in a Polymer of Intrinsic Microporosity (PIM-1) Substituted with Pseudo-Ionic Liquid Tetrazole-Type Structures

We report a side group modification strategy to tailor the structure of a polymer of intrinsic microporosity (PIM-1). PIM-1 with an average of ∼50% of the repeat units converted to tetrazole is prepared, and a subsequent reaction then introduces three types of pseudo-ionic liquid tetrazole-like structures (PIM-1-ILx). The presence of pseudo-ionic liquid functional groups in the PIM-1 structure increases gas selectivities for O2/N2 and CO2/N2, while it decreases pure-gas permeabilities. The overall gas separation performance of PIM-1-ILx is close to the 2008 Robeson upper bound. Since the tetrazoles are versatile groups for building a wide variety of ionic liquids, the modification method can be expanded to explore a broad spectrum of functional groups

Fabrication of chitosan/agarose scaffolds containing extracellular matrix for tissue engineering applications

One of the most effective approaches for treatment of cartilage involves the use of porous three-dimensional scaffolds, which are useful for improving not only cellular adhesion but also mechanical properties of the treated tissues. In this study, we manufactured a composite scaffold with optimum properties to imitate nasal cartilage attributes. Cartilage extracellular matrix (ECM) was used in order to improve the cellular properties of the scaffolds; while, chitosan and agarose were main materials that are used to boost the mechanical and rheological properties of the scaffolds. Furthermore, we explored the effect of the various weight ratios of chitosan, agarose, and ECM on the mechanical and biomedical properties of the composite scaffolds using the Taguchi method. The resulting composites display a range of advantages, including good mechanical strength, porous morphology, partial crystallinity, high swelling ratio, controlled biodegradability rate, and rheological characteristics. Additionally, we performed the cytotoxicity tests to confirm the improvement of the structure and better cell attachments on the scaffolds. Our findings illustrate that the presence of the ECM in chitosan/agarose structure improves the biomedical characteristics of the final scaffold. In addition, we were able to control the mechanical properties and microstructure of the scaffolds by optimizing the polymers' concentration and their resulting interactions. These results present a novel scaffold with simultaneously enhanced mechanical and cellular attributes comparing to the scaffolds without ECM for nasal cartilage tissue engineering applications. © 201

Fabrication of chitosan/polyvinylpyrrolidone hydrogel scaffolds containing PLGA microparticles loaded with dexamethasone for biomedical applications

One of the most effective approaches for treatment of chronic rhinosinusitis is the use of hydrogel scaffolds with the sustained release of a given required drug. With this in mind, first, we synthesized and characterized poly (lactide-co-glycolide) (PLGA) micro and nano particles loaded with dexamethasone (DEX). We observed a 7-day release of DEX from nanoparticles, while the microparticles showed a 22-day release profile. Due to their slower rate of release, the PLGA microparticles loaded with DEX (PLGADEX microparticles) were specifically chosen for this study. As a second step, chitosan/polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) based hydrogels were prepared in various weight ratios and the PLGADEX microparticles were optimized in their structure based on variable gelation times. The morphological studies showed PLGADEX microparticles homogenously dispersed in the hydrogels. Moreover, the effect of weight ratio in the presence and absence of optimum percentage of PLGADEX microparticles was studied. The resultant hydrogels demonstrated a range of advantages, including good mechanical strength, porous morphology, amorphous structure, high swelling ratio, controlled biodegradability rate, and antibacterial activity. Additionally, a cytotoxicity analysis confirmed that the hydrogel scaffolds do not have adverse effects on the cells; our release studies in the hydrogel with the highest PVP content also showed 80 release after 30 days. Based on these results we were able to predict and control some of the mechanical properties, including the microstructure of the scaffolds, as well as the drug release, by optimizing the polymers - microparticle concentration, plus their resulting interactions. This optimized hydrogel can become part of a suitable alternative for treatment of allergic rhinitis and chronic sinusitis. © 2020 Elsevier B.V