Ciklodekstrini –primjena u različitim načinima isporuke lijekova

The objective of this review article is to explain the use of cyclodextrin in the different routes of drug administration. The article gives the chemistry of cyclodextrins and addresses the issue of the mechanism of drug release from cyclodextrin complexes. Dilution, competitive displacement, protein binding, change in ionic strength and temperature and drug uptake by tissues are the different release mechanisms of the drug from the drug-cyclodextrin complex discussed here. Use and its limitations in the different drug delivery systems like nasal, ophthalmic, transdermal and rectal drug delivery are explained. The application of the cyclodextrins in the oral drug delivery is detailed in this review. Many studies have shown that cyclodextrins are used as useful additives in the routes of drug administration because of increased aqueous solubility, stability, bioavailability and reduced drug irritation.U ovom revijalnom radu opisana su fizičko-kemijska svojstva ciklodekstrina, različiti načini njihove primjene te mehanizmi oslobađanja ljekovitih tvari iz kompleksa s ciklodekstrinima (razrjeđenje, kompetitivna zamjena, vezanje na proteine, promjena ionske jakosti i temperature te unos ljekovite tvari u tkivo). Opisana je uporaba ciklodekstrina i ograničenja uporabe u različitim sustavima za isporuku lijekova za nazalnu, oftalmičku, transdermalnu, rektalnu te detaljno za peroralnu primjenu. Mnogobrojna istraživanja su potvrdila da su ciklodekstrini korisni sastojci pripravaka za različite načine primjene jer povećavaju vodotopljivost, stabilnost i bioraspoloživost ljekovite tvari, a smanjuju njenu iritabilnost

Discovering the role of SERPINE2 in COPD

SERPINE2 is a genetic marker of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is a complex human disease and has no cure. In COPD patients three distinct pathology features, Emphysema, Chronic bronchitis and bronchus- associated lymphoid tissue or BALT like lesions, are observed. SERPINE2 deficient mouse was studied in Mariani lab to find association of SERPINE2 with COPD. This mouse model emulates the lungs of COPD and mimics the lesions of BALT in COPD, with excessive lymphocytes. A total of six samples, three knock out and three age - matched wild type, were used for differential gene expression analysis by Microarray. Multiple methods (PLIER, RMA and MAS5) were used to extract and normalize the previously generated expression data. Multiple analytical approaches, Significance Analysis of Microarray (SAM) at FDR \u3c 5% and T-Test at P-value \u3c 0.05 + fold change of 1.5 up or down, were used to find significantly differently expressed genes. At FDR \u3c 5%, SAM identified seven genes common and T-Test at P-value \u3c 0.05 + FC of 1.5 identified 26 genes common in all three versions of data methods (PLIER, RMA and MAS5). The combined gene selection approach (SAM and T-Test + FC), identified 12 genes (CD247, CYR61, IGHM, FLNB, FSCN1, NFKBIE, PDE4B, RAC2, STAT1, CLIC5, NRAS and SERPINE2) common in all three versions of data and out of these two were validated by qPCR. DAVID and IPA were used to detect gene ontology and canonical pathways associated with significantly different genes. Both pathway detection approaches detected numerous known and novel COPD related pathways such as inflammation, T and B cell development, lymphocytes and immune response. The genes and pathways detected from the study may serve as potential markers of COPD and may provide insights to study the etiology of COPD

Human Skin Detection Using RGB, HSV and YCbCr Color Models

Human Skin detection deals with the recognition of skin-colored pixels and regions in a given image. Skin color is often used in human skin detection because it is invariant to orientation and size and is fast to process. A new human skin detection algorithm is proposed in this paper. The three main parameters for recognizing a skin pixel are RGB (Red, Green, Blue), HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) and YCbCr (Luminance, Chrominance) color models. The objective of proposed algorithm is to improve the recognition of skin pixels in given images. The algorithm not only considers individual ranges of the three color parameters but also takes into ac- count combinational ranges which provide greater accuracy in recognizing the skin area in a given image.Comment: ICCASP/ICMMD-2016. Published by Atlantic Press. Part of series: AISR ISBN: 978-94-6252-305-0 ISSN: 1951-685

Passivation studies on Cd0.6Zn0.4Te films using CdCl2, MgCl2 and ZnCl2 for top cell application in a multijunction solar cell

2018 Summer.Includes bibliographical references.Passivation treatment with the chloride compounds is an important step in the fabrication of II-VI solar cells for improving the device performance. In cadmium telluride solar cells, cadmium chloride passivation treatment incorporates chlorine along the grain boundaries and helps in recrystallization, grain growth, removal of stacking faults and doping grain boundaries as n-type. In cadmium zinc telluride solar cells, the retention of zinc after the cadmium chloride passivation treatment is one of the challenges incurred in fabricating the top cell in a multijunction solar cell. During the passivation treatment, the loss of zinc occurs in the form of volatile zinc chloride compound. The depletion or complete loss of zinc reduces the higher band gap ternary alloy into lower band gap binary compound of CdTe. This impedes the purpose of fabricating a high band gap top cell in a multijunction solar cell. The focus of this study is on passivating Cd0.6Zn0.4Te (CdZnTe) films using three different chloride compounds separately and understanding the effects by studying the material properties of the passivated films and electrical performance of the fabricated devices. In the preliminary experiments, CdZnTe films were deposited by RF sputtering from a single target. Initial characterization of CdZnTe films deposited on plain glass indicated that the films had a strong preferred orientation along {111} plane with a band gap of ~1.72eV. In the cadmium chloride passivation treatment, loss of zinc from the surface and no chlorine along the grain boundaries was observed from transmission electron microscope images and X ray diffraction measurements. No loss of zinc was observed after the magnesium chloride and zinc chloride passivation treatments. Increase in the grain size of the CdZnTe films after magnesium chloride treatment and decrease of the preferred orientation after zinc chloride treatment were the benefits of the individual passivation treatments. Modifying the test structure by adding a cadmium telluride film as a capping layer on the back of RF sputtered CdZnTe and then carrying out the cadmium chloride passivation treatment helped in retaining the zinc. Heavy diffusion of zinc into cadmium sulphide due to cadmium telluride deposition at high temperature and difficulty to isolate the photo current generated by cadmium telluride were few drawbacks of this test structure. Based on the insights gained from the preliminary experiments, two sets of experiments were conducted. In the first set, cadmium sulphide cap as a barrier was deposited on the back of RF sputtered CdZnTe and co-sublimated cadmium telluride and zinc films with a band gap of 1.72 eV. The bulk composition was maintained after the cadmium chloride passivation treatment in the films deposited by both the methods. However the device performance of co-sublimated films was better than the RF sputtered CdZnTe devices. The transmission electron image obtained from the cross section of co-sublimated film fitted with cadmium sulphide cap and then treated with cadmium chloride showed presence of chlorine along the grain boundaries. The zinc chloride passivation treatments with higher substrate temperature compared to the source were the second set of experiments. The zinc loss from RF sputtered CdZnTe films after the cadmium chloride treatment did not occur. The fabricated devices exhibited diode like behavior. The images under scanning electron microscopy showed that the grain size did not increase after the zinc chloride treatment

Development and Evaluation of an Interdisciplinary Periodontal Risk Prediction Tool Using a Machine Learning Approach

Periodontitis (PD) is a major public health concern which profoundly affects oral health and concomitantly, general health of the population worldwide. Evidence-based research continues to support association between PD and systemic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension, among others. Notably PD also represents a modifiable risk factor that may reduce the onset and progression of some systemic diseases, including diabetes. Due to lack of oral screening in medical settings, this population does not get flagged with the risk of developing PD. This study sought to develop a PD risk assessment model applicable at clinical point-of-care (POC) by comparing performance of five supervised machine learning (ML) algorithms: Naïve Bayes, Logistic Regression, Support Vector Machine, Artificial Neural Network and Decision Tree, for modeling risk by retrospectively interrogating clinical data collected across seven different models of care (MOC) within the interdisciplinary settings. Risk assessment modeling was accomplished using Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA) open-sourced tool, which supported comparative assessment of the relative performance of the five ML algorithms when applied to risk prediction. To align with current conventions for clinical classification of disease severity, predicting PD risk was treated as a ‘classification problem’, where patients were sorted into two categories based on disease severity and ‘low risk PD’ was defined as no or mild gum disease (‘controls’) or ‘high risk PD’ defined as moderate to severe disease (‘cases’). To assess the predictive performance of models, the study compared performance of ML algorithms applying analysis of recall, specificity, area under the curve, precision, F-measure and Matthew’s correlation coefficient (MCC) and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. A tenfold-cross validation was performed. External validation of the resultant models was achieved by creating validation data subsets applying random selection of approximately 10% of each class of data proportionately. Findings from this study have prognostic implications for assessing PD risk. Models evolved in the present study have translational value in that they can be incorporated into the Electronic Health Record (EHR) to support POC screening. Additionally, the study has defined relative performance of PD risk prediction models across various MOC environments. Moreover, these findings have established the power ML application can serve to create a decision support tool for dental providers in assessing PD status, severity and inform treatment decisions. Further, such risk scores could also inform medical providers regarding the need for patient referrals and management of comorbid conditions impacted by presence of oral disease such as PD. Finally, this study illustrates the benefit of the integrated medical and dental care delivery environment for detecting risk of periodontitis at a stage when implementation of proven interventions could delay and even prevent disease progression. Keywords: Periodontitis, Risk Assessment, Interprofessional Relations, Machine learning, Electronic Health Records, Decision Support System

A Comparative Evaluation of Salivary Changes and Oral Indices in Pediatric Patients Having Chronic Kidney Disease and Juvenile Diabetes with Healthy Controls

Background and Aim: Chronic Kidney disease is a common condition seen in Juvenile diabetes with 90% of renal impairment patients displaying a wide spectrum of oral manifestations in the hard and soft tissues including changes of the salivary composition and flow rate. There is an increase in the serum cystatin-C, urea and creatinine levels in these patients, which is reflected in the saliva. This study was conducted to assess the changes in salivary levels of cystatin-C, urea, and creatinine as well as oral – Decayed, Missing and Filled Teeth Index (DMFT) and gingival indices in pediatric patients suffering from chronic renal disease and juvenile diabetes and compare them with healthy individuals.Methods: Fifteen patients with juvenile diabetes suffering from chronic renal disease and 15 healthy controls aged 2-18 years were included in the study. Their saliva was analyzed for creatinine, cystatin-C and urea levels using an auto-analyzer and correlated with their existing serum levels. DMFT, gingival index, gingival bleeding and gingival enlargement indices were also assessed. Results: Increased levels of salivary cystatin C, urea (p value <0.001) and creatinine (p value =0.001) were seen in the cases. The deft value was significantly lower (p value <0.001) while the gingival index, gingival bleeding index, and gingival enlargement index were significantly higher in the subjects with renal impairment.  Conclusion: Chronic Kidney disease results in many metabolic changes in the body, necessitating frequent biochemical blood analysis. Saliva, being a non-invasive, simple and rapid adjunctive tool, can be used for diagnosing and staging the disease and to check the progression of the condition.Keywords: Chronic Kidney Disease; Renal Dysfunction; Saliva; Cystatin-C; Diagnosis

Synthesis and characterization of a cysteine xyloglucan conjugate as mucoadhesive polymer

O objetivo deste estudo foi melhorar o potencial mucoadesivo do polímero xiloglicano pela ligação covalente de cisteína como unidade de tiol. O polímero xiloglicano foi quimicamente modificado pela introdução de cloridrato de cisteína como grupo contendo sulfidrila. Prepararam-se diferentes lotes de conjugados cisteína-xiloglicano em pH variando de 2 a 6, avaliando-se a incorporação ótima de tiol, o conteúdo de dissulfeto, o comportamento de inchamento, as propriedades reológicas e mucoadesivas. Os conjugados obtidos foram caracterizados in vitro pela quantificação de grupos tiol, mostrando máxima incorporação na xiloglicana (7.67 ± 0.14 %) em pH 5. O conteúdo de grupos dissulfeto foi máximo (2.83 ± 0.12) em pH 6. O índice de inchamento em % no fim de 4 h foi 83.87 para o xiloglicano e diminuiu para os derivados tiolados. O conteúdo foi mínimo para TH2 (78.26), aumentou pouco até TH5 (83.33) e diminuiu, posteriormente, para TH6 (80.13). Os estudos de mucoadesão revelaram que o conjugado xiloglicano-cisteína aumentou mais que duas vezes comparativamente ao polímero não modificado. A viscosidade do tiômero foi maior do que a do xiloglicano devido à formação das ligações dissulfeto.The aim of this study was to improve the mucoadhesive potential of xyloglucan polymer by the covalent attachment of cysteine as thiol moiety. The parent polymer xyloglucan was chemically modified by introducing sulphydryl bearing compound L-cysteine HCl. Different batches of xyloglucan-cysteine conjugates were prepared at varying reaction pH (2-6) and evaluated for optimum thiol incorporation, disulphide group content, swelling behavior, rheological properties and mucoadhesive properties. The obtained conjugates characterized in vitro by quantification of immobilized thiol groups; showed maximum thiol incorporation on xyloglucan (7.67 ± 0.14 %) at pH 5. The disulphide group content was found maximum (2.83 ± 0.12) at pH 6. The water uptake at end of 4 h was 5.0 for xyloglucan and was found to decrease in thiolated derivatives with increase in thiolation. Mucoadhesion studies revealed that mucoadhesion of xyloglucan-cysteine conjugate increased more than twice compared to the unmodified polymer. The viscosity of thiomer was more than that of xyloglucan because of formation of disulphide bonds

Secure Framework in Data Processing for Mobile Cloud Computing

Generally Mobile Cloud storage enables users to remotely store their data and enjoy the on-demand high quality cloud applications without the burden of local hardware and software management. Though the benefits are clear, such a service is also relinquishing users ‘physical possession of their outsourced data, which inevitably poses new security risks towards the correctness of the data in cloud. In order to address this new problem and further achieve a secure and dependable cloud storage service, we propose in this paper a new secure framework. In addition to providing traditional computation services, mobile cloud also enhances the operation of traditional ad hoc network by treating mobile devices as service nodes, e.g., sensing services. The mobile services or sensed information, such as location coordinates, health related information, should be processed and stored in a secure fashion to protect user’s privacy in the cloud. In this paper, we present a new mobile cloud data processing framework through trust management and private data isolation. Finally, an implementation pilot for improving teenagers’ driving safety, which is called FocusDrive, is presented to demonstrate the solution