Industrial action in Western Australia's public sector essential services

Workers in essential services professions protect the safety, health or welfare of a community. Any disruption to the operation of essential services can mean that communities are unable to function effectively. For this reason, additional complications arise when people working in essential fields look to take industrial action. This thesis reflects on the often-competing interests of protecting essential service workers’ liberty to take industrial action (or right to strike) while upholding the life, safety, health or welfare of the community. The purpose of this thesis is to consider whether essential service workers in Western Australia’s Public Sector have sufficient freedom to access their right to strike; or if legislation is overly restrictive in this regard. Secondary purposes to this thesis include consideration of whether Australia’s Federal industrial relations system is more facilitative than Western Australia’s industrial relations system for essential service workers taking industrial action, and, whether some essential service professions should have greater limitations than others when taking industrial action. These issues will be addressed in light of the industrial situation for professions such as policing, teaching, firefighting and nursing. A macro assessment of the historical and present approaches to industrial action taken by essential service professions in Western Australia and Australia will be presented. The macro assessment suggests that industrial actions by core essential services is rarely taken, and, when done, it is reactive and the outcome of sustained frustrations over pay and working conditions. A comparative analysis of Australia’s compliance with international labour obligations on this issue highlights several shortcomings in Western Australia’s labour laws. These shortcomings mean that there is a need for Western Australia to enhance its proactive dispute resolution mechanisms to facilitate better access to the right to strike, and to bring domestic laws into better compliance with international obligations

Docetaxel Liposomes - A formulation Screening Study

Docetaxel (DOC) is a potent anticancer drug with several limitations, including poor solubility and the reported serious side effects, attributed to either the drug itself or the solvent used. Thus, it is interesting to entrap the drug into liposomes in order to solubilize the drug and improve the therapeutic outcome. The fist aim of this study was to establish a small-scale screening method for preparing and characterizing DOC-liposomes. Secondly, the established methods were applied to investigate the effect of lipid composition on the liposomal drug entrapment

The Expanded Role of Chitosan in Localized Antimicrobial Therapy

Chitosan is one of the most studied natural origin polymers for biomedical applications. This review focuses on the potential of chitosan in localized antimicrobial therapy to address the challenges of current rising antimicrobial resistance. Due to its mucoadhesiveness, chitosan offers the opportunity to prolong the formulation residence time at mucosal sites; its wound healing properties open possibilities to utilize chitosan as wound dressings with multitargeted activities and more. We provide an unbiased overview of the state-of-the-art chitosan-based delivery systems categorized by the administration site, addressing the site-related challenges and evaluating the representative formulations. Specifically, we offer an in-depth analysis of the current challenges of the chitosan-based novel delivery systems for skin and vaginal infections, including its formulations optimizations and limitations. A brief overview of chitosan’s potential in treating ocular, buccal and dental, and nasal infections is included. We close the review with remarks on toxicity issues and remaining challenges and perspectives

Metabolic and Energy Cost of Sitting, Standing, and a Novel Sitting/Stepping Protocol in Recreationally Active College Students

International Journal of Exercise Science 9(2): 223-229, 2016. The purpose of this study was to compare the differences in metabolic and energy cost (MEC) of college students while seated, standing, and during a sitting/stepping protocol. Participants were assessed via indirect calorimetry for 20 min in each of the following conditions: 1) seated in a standard office chair, 2) standing in place, and 3) a sitting/stepping protocol in which participants performed 1 min of stepping in place at 90 bpm, sat for 9 min, then repeated the stepping and sitting sequence once more. Participants completed each of the 3 trials in the aforementioned order, preceded with a 3 min acclimation period in each condition. A significant difference in MEC was observed between the 3 conditions, p \u3c 0.001. Pairwise comparisons indicated that the sitting/stepping protocol resulted in significantly greater MEC than the seated and standing conditions (p \u3c 0.001). Additionally, the standing protocol resulted in significantly greater MEC than the seated protocol (p \u3c 0.001). The significant differences and large effect sizes between conditions indicate that interspersing sedentary bouts with brief activity can substantially increase MEC. Broader application of these findings may provide health promotion professionals with novel strategies to reduce sedentary behavior and improve health

Electrospinning of chloramphenicol-containing nanofibrous dressings for treatment of chronic wounds

Background An efficient treatment is crucial to overcome the delayed healing process and high infection rate in chronic wounds. Nanofibrous dressings, having a nano‐sized fiber structure, can enhance cell ingrowth and support the healing process. In addition, nanofibers can deliver active ingredients e.g. antibiotics into the wound to treat wound infection. By incorporating broad‐spectrum antibiotics like chloramphenicol into a nanofibrous dressing, wound infection can be treated whereas systemic side effects are avoided. Active nanofiberforming polymers can be added to achieve more functionalities. Examples are the β‐glucan‐ and chitosan polymers, with their immunostimulating and antimicrobial properties, respectively. Combining these polymers in one dressing might provide a multifunctional and more efficient wound dressing. Goals The goal of this project is to electrospin a multifunctional dressing comprising the active polymers β‐glucan and chitosan. For this, we investigated the effect of the different active ingredients on nanofiber characteristics such as morphology, diameter, swelling index and cytotoxicity. Methods Nanofibers were spun from preformed polymer‐solutions using the needle‐free NanospiderTM technology. Nanofiber morphology and diameter were determined by SEM and the image‐processing program ImageJ. The thickness was measured using a micrometer and swelling index was determined by submerging the nanofibers into artificial wound fluid. Cytotoxicity of the nanofibers was tested using the Cell Counting Kit‐8 (Sigma‐Aldrich). Results and Conclusion Nanofibers comprising 20% chitosan and 20% βG together with the copolymers polyethylene oxide and hydroxypropylmethylcellulose and 1% chloramphenicol were successfully fabricated. All fibers had a randomly distributed fiber structure with a diameter around 100 nm. Nanofibers containing chitosan had a reduced thickness with values from 0.03 mm to 0.05 mm, compared to fibers without chitosan that had a thickness from 0.06 mm to 0.08 mm, but an improved stability upon contact with water. In addition, chitosan containing nanofibers showed a high swelling index, ranging from 700 to 1200 %. Fibers without chitosan disintegrated upon contact with water, the swelling index could therefore not be measured. All fibers showed no cytotoxicity compared to medium as control when tested on human keratinocytes. The incorporation of chloramphenicol neither influenced the fiber morphology nor the swelling index or cytotoxicity, proving that the design of nanofibers containing both active polymers together with chloramphenicol was successful

Characterization of Liposomes Using Quantitative Phase Microscopy (QPM)

The rapid development of nanomedicine and drug delivery systems calls for new and effective characterization techniques that can accurately characterize both the properties and the behavior of nanosystems. Standard methods such as dynamic light scattering (DLS) and fluorescent-based assays present challenges in terms of system’s instability, machine sensitivity, and loss of tracking ability, among others. In this study, we explore some of the downsides of batch-mode analyses and fluorescent labeling, while introducing quantitative phase microscopy (QPM) as a label-free complimentary characterization technique. Liposomes were used as a model nanocarrier for their therapeutic relevance and structural versatility. A successful immobilization of liposomes in a non-dried setup allowed for static imaging conditions in an off-axis phase microscope. Image reconstruction was then performed with a phase-shifting algorithm providing high spatial resolution. Our results show the potential of QPM to localize subdiffraction-limited liposomes, estimate their size, and track their integrity over time. Moreover, QPM full-field-of-view images enable the estimation of a single-particle-based size distribution, providing an alternative to the batch mode approach. QPM thus overcomes some of the drawbacks of the conventional methods, serving as a relevant complimentary technique in the characterization of nanosystems

A new preparation method for preparation of liposomes-in-hydrogels primed for treatment of skin diseases

Poster presented at the Liposome Research Days 2014: Living Innovation, at the Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen, 4-7 August 2014Liposomes are spherical vesicles that form spontaneously when phospholipids are dispersed in an aqueous medium. However, to get liposomes with a more unimodal size distribution, liposomes are usually processed further to reduced size and lammellarity, typically by extrusion, sonication or homogenization. Liposome formulations for topical application needs a vehicle to assure the desirable retention and adhesion of the drug-loaded liposomes onto the skin, and for this, hydrogels are regarded as promising systems. The hydrogel “soluble beta-glucan” (SBG) has caught our attention since it also promotes wound healing on its own. Dual asymmetric centrifuge (DAC) utilizes a unique combination of two contra rotating movements of the sample-holder, which results in shear forces that efficiently homogenize and gives a size reduction of liposomes. We have investigated the use of DAC for both use in liposome size reduction and for further mixing of liposomes into hydrogels

The vaginal-PVPA: A vaginal mucosa-mimicking in vitro permeation tool for evaluation of mucoadhesive formulations

Drug administration to the vaginal site has gained increasing attention in past decades, highlighting the need for reliable in vitro methods to assess the performance of novel formulations. To optimize formulations destined for the vaginal site, it is important to evaluate the drug retention within the vagina as well as its permeation across the mucosa, particularly in the presence of vaginal fluids. Herewith, the vaginal-PVPA (Phospholipid Vesicle-based Permeation Assay) in vitro permeability model was validated as a tool to evaluate the permeation of the anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen from liposomal formulations (i.e., plain and chitosan-coated liposomes). Drug permeation was assessed in the presence and absence of mucus and simulated vaginal fluid (SVF) at pH conditions mimicking both the healthy vaginal premenopausal conditions and vaginal infection/pre-puberty/post-menopause state. The permeation of ibuprofen proved to depend on the type of formulation (i.e., chitosan-coated liposomes exhibited lower drug permeation), the mucoadhesive formulation properties and pH condition. This study highlights both the importance of mucus and SVF in the vaginal model to better understand and predict the in vivo performance of formulations destined for vaginal administration, and the suitability of the vaginal-PVPA model for such investigations

The isolated perfused human skin flap model: A missing link in skin penetration studies?

Manuscript. Published version available in http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejps.2016.10.003 Development of effective (trans)dermal drug delivery systems requires reliable skinmodels to evaluate skin drug penetration. The isolated perfused human skin flap remainsmetabolically active tissue for up to 6 h during in vitro perfusion. We introduce the isolated perfused human skin flap as a close-to-in vivo skin penetration model. To validate the model's ability to evaluate skin drug penetration the solutions of a hydrophilic (calcein) and a lipophilic (rhodamine) fluorescence marker were applied. The skin flaps were perfused with modified Krebs- Henseleit buffer (pH 7.4). Infrared technology was used to monitor perfusion and to select a well-perfused skin area for administration of the markers. Flap perfusion and physiological parameters were maintained constant during the 6 h experiments and the amount of markers in the perfusate was determined. Calcein was detected in the perfusate, whereas rhodamine was not detectable. Confocal images of skin cross-sections shoved that calcein was uniformly distributed through the skin, whereas rhodamine accumulated in the stratum corneum. For comparison, the penetration of both markers was evaluated on ex vivo human skin, pig skin and cellophanemembrane. The proposed perfused flapmodel enabled us to distinguish between the penetrations of the two markers and could be a promising close-to-in vivo tool in skin penetration studies and optimization of formulations destined for skin administratio