Field Investigation on Ground and Structural Vibrations During Prototype Pile Driving

As the land is very precious in urban areas and coastal regions, many structures are built in close proximity. When the soil is weak and heavy loads are to be carried, pile foundation is adopted for such structures. The impact caused by pile driving is a potential hazard to neighbourhood structures. Berthing structures are constructed using piles and the effect of pile driving on already installed adjacent piles is important. To predict the effect of pile driving on neighbourhood piles, measurement of ground and structural vibrations during prototype pile driving was carried out at a site in the city of Chennai, India. The soil at the site up to a depth of 19 m is mainly fine to medium sand. A driven cast in-situ pile of 600 mm diameter (D) was driven up to a depth of 15.8 m. The 25mm thick mild steel (M.S) tube casing is driven by 4.1t hammer with a drop height of 2.5m. During the pile driving, for every blow of hammer, the acceleration of the ground at various distances 5D, 8.33 D and 25 D from the pile are measured. Piezoelectric acceleration transducers, power amplifiers and taper recorder are used for measurement. The time history of vertical and horizontal ground accelerations as well as time history of vertical acceleration of an already installed pile at a distance of 6.25 m was analysed using PC based data acquisition systems. The time-histories and spectrum of ground and structural accelerations are presented

Prototype Piling in Soft Clay — A Case Study of Ground Vibrations: Field Measurement

Ground vibrations are generated either by natural phenomena or by human activities. Among the natural phenomena, earthquake is the principal source of ground vibrations of most interest. Ground vibrations generated by human activities are called manmade vibrations and these vary greatly in intensity depending on the particular source of vibration. The seismic waves associated with man-made vibrations propagate in the ground and inevitably interact with structures that are above-ground or underground. This interaction induces vibrations in the structure and, in extreme cases, affect its serviceability and integrity seriously. Still, there is no method to quantify the levels of piling vibration. Estimation of amplitudes and frequencies of vibration are based on experience and site testing. Therefore, in order to characterize the ground vibration due to piling, field measurement of ground vibration during prototype pile driving in soft clay was carried out. This paper presents the details of field measurement, instrumentation, collection of vibration data, acquisition and processing of data using PC-based data acquisition system made during the pile driving. The measurement of ground and already installed pile vibrations during prototype pile driving at a construction site in Chennai was carried out. The soil at this site is loose soft clay. The pile was of the type driven casing cast-in-situ pile of 500mm (OD) diameter. The depth of penetration of the pile was 13.25m. A 4 tonne hammer with a drop height of 1m drove the 25mm thick Mild Steel (MS) tube casing. During driving, ground acceleration was measured at a distance of 5D and 25D, where D is the diameter of pile, from the centre of pile. The vertical acceleration of an already installed pile situated at a distance of 37D from the driven pile were recorded. Piezoelectric acceleration transducers, power amplifiers, and tape recorder were used for the measurement. Acceleration signals were recorded using TEAC recorder. The recorded signals were processed using PC-based Data Acquisition System with DASYLAB software. The response time-histories and spectra of ground vibrations are presented and discussed

Evaluation of the Cytotoxic Activity and Anti-Migratory Effect of Berberine–Phytantriol Liquid Crystalline Nanoparticle Formulation on Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer In Vitro

Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the most common form of lung cancer, which is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Berberine is an isoquinoline alkaloid that is commercially available for use as a supplement for the treatment of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. However, the therapeutic benefits of berberine are limited by its extremely low bioavailability and toxicity at higher doses. Increasing evidence suggests that the incorporation of drug compounds in liquid crystal nanoparticles provides a new platform for the safe, effective, stable, and controlled delivery of the drug molecules. This study aimed to formulate an optimized formulation of berberine–phytantriol-loaded liquid crystalline nanoparticles (BP-LCNs) and to investigate the in vitro anti-cancer activity in a human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cell line. The BP-LCN formulation possessing optimal characteristics that was used in this study had a favorable particle size and entrapment efficiency rate (75.31%) and a superior drug release profile. The potential mechanism of action of the formulation was determined by measuring the mRNA levels of the tumor-associated genes PTEN, P53, and KRT18 and the protein expression levels with a human oncology protein array. BP-LCNs decreased the proliferation, migration, and colony-forming activity of A549 cells in a dose-dependent manner by upregulating the mRNA expression of PTEN and P53 and downregulating the mRNA expression of KRT18. Similarly, BP-LCNs also decreased the expression of proteins related to cancer cell proliferation and migration. This study highlights the utility of phytantriol-based LCNs in incorporating drug molecules with low GI absorption and bioavailability to increase their pharmacological effectiveness and potency in NSCLC.</jats:p

Unravelling the Therapeutic Potential of Nano-Delivered Functional Foods in Chronic Respiratory Diseases

Chronic inflammation of the respiratory tract is one of the most concerning public health issues, as it can lead to chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs), some of which are more detrimental than others. Chronic respiratory diseases include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, lung cancer, and pulmonary fibrosis. The conventional drug therapies for the management and treatment of CRDs only address the symptoms and fail to reverse or recover the chronic-inflammation-mediated structural and functional damage of the respiratory tract. In addition, the low efficacy and adverse effects of these drugs have directed the attention of researchers towards nutraceuticals in search of potential treatment strategies that can not only ameliorate CRD symptoms but also can repair and reverse inflammatory damage. Hence, there is a growing interest toward investigating the medicinal benefits of nutraceuticals, such as rutin, curcumin, zerumbone, and others. Nutraceuticals carry many nutritional and therapeutic properties, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, anticancer, antidiabetic, and anti-obesity properties, and usually do not have as many adverse effects, as they are naturally sourced. Recently, the use of nanoparticles has also been increasingly studied for the nano drug delivery of these nutraceuticals. The discrete size of nanoparticles holds great potential for the level of permeability that can be achieved when transporting these nutraceutical compounds. This review is aimed to provide an understanding of the use of nutraceuticals in combination with nanoparticles against CRDs and their mechanisms involved in slowing down or reversing the progression of CRDs by inhibiting pro-inflammatory signaling pathways.</jats:p

Berberine-Loaded Liquid Crystalline Nanoparticles Inhibit Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Proliferation and Migration in Vitro

Abstract Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is reported to have a high incidence rate and is one of the most prevalent types of lung cancer contributing towards 85 percent of all incidences of lung cancer. Berberine is a potent isoquinoline alkaloid which offers a broad range of therapeutical and pharmacological actions against cancer. However, extremely low water solubility and poor oral bioavailability have largely restricted its therapeutic applications. To overcome these limitations, we synthesized Berberine-loaded liquid crystalline nanoparticles (LCNs) and investigated them in vitro for their antiproliferative and antimigratory properties in human lung epithelial cancer cell line (A549). 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT), Trypan blue staining, and colony forming assays were used to evaluate the anti-proliferative activity, while scratch wound healing assay and a modified Boyden chamber assay were employed to determine the anti-migratory activity. We also investigated critical proteins associated with lung cancer. The developed nanoparticles (NPs) were found to have an average particle size of 181.3 nm with spherical shape, high entrapment efficiency (75.35 %) and have shown sustained release behaviour. The most remarkable findings reported with Berberine-loaded LCNs were significant suppression of proliferation, inhibition of colony formation, inhibition of invasion or migration via Epithelial Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) related proteins associated with cancer progression. Further in-depth investigations into anti-cancer mechanistic research will expand and strengthen the current findings of Berberine-LCNs as a potential NSCLC treatment option.</jats:p

Entrapment of curcumin into monoolein-based liquid crystalline nanoparticle dispersion for enhancement of stability and anticancer activity

Rengarajan Baskaran,1 Thiagarajan Madheswaran,2 Pasupathi Sundaramoorthy,1 Hwan Mook Kim,1 Bong Kyu Yoo1 1College of Pharmacy, Gachon University, Incheon, South Korea; 2College of Pharmacy Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, South Korea Abstract: Despite the promising anticancer potential of curcumin, its therapeutic application has been limited, owing to its poor solubility, bioavailability, and chemical fragility. Therefore, various formulation approaches have been attempted to address these problems. In this study, we entrapped curcumin into monoolein (MO)-based liquid crystalline nanoparticles (LCNs) and evaluated the physicochemical properties and anticancer activity of the LCN dispersion. The results revealed that particles in the curcumin-loaded LCN dispersion were discrete and monodispersed, and that the entrapment efficiency was almost 100%. The stability of curcumin in the dispersion was surprisingly enhanced (about 75% of the curcumin survived after 45&nbsp;days of storage at 40&deg;C), and the in vitro release of curcumin was sustained (10% or less over 15&nbsp;days). Fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) analysis using a human colon cancer cell line (HCT116) exhibited 99.1% fluorescence gating for 5&nbsp;&micro;M curcumin-loaded LCN dispersion compared to 1.36% for the same concentration of the drug in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), indicating markedly enhanced cellular uptake. Consistent with the enhanced cellular uptake of curcumin-loaded LCNs, anticancer activity and cell cycle studies demonstrated apoptosis induction when the cells were treated with the LCN dispersion; however, there was neither noticeable cell death nor significant changes in the cell cycle for the same concentration of the drug in DMSO. In conclusion, entrapping curcumin into MO-based LCNs may provide, in the future, a strategy for overcoming the hurdles associated with both the stability and cellular uptake issues of the drug in the treatment of various cancers. Keywords: liquid crystalline nanoparticle, anticancer activity, curcumin, monoolein, cellular uptake, cell cycle distributio