3D Printing of Continuous Wire Polymer Composite for Mechanical and Thermal Applications

Recently, continuous fiber reinforcement has been combined with 3D printing techniques such as fused filament fabrication to create stronger and stiffer printed composite components. The continuous nature of the reinforcing material can improve both mechanical and thermal properties of the polymeric material significantly. However, several parameters can affect the printed composite properties such as filler volume fraction, type of polymer matrix and filler treatment. The work presented in this study addresses the effect of reinforcing polymers with continuous metal wire on the composites properties and the potential applications for these composites. In the first part of this study we presented a novel 3D printing technique in which metal wires were combined with polymer matrixes in order to improve both mechanical and thermal properties of the printed components. In the second part, we investigated the tensile and bending properties of the continuous wire polymer composites which was superior compared to the base polymer. In addition, we studied the effect of introducing continuous wires to the polymer matrix on the effective thermal conductivity which was found to increase significantly. In addition, we investigated the use of the fabricated composites as a novel fabrication technique for low-temperature heating elements and explored this technology for de-icing and anti-icing applications

Theranostic Gelatin Nanoparticles for Antigen Delivery and Combined Strategies for Transcutaneous Application

Transcutaneous application of vaccines is a promising strategy to enhance the effectiveness of vaccination using a reachable route of administration. Additionally, replacing the conventional needles with skin mechanical penetration techniques as microneedles or skin laser microporation will offer great advantages. This transcutaneous delivery techniques are pain-free and will help to avoid the hazards of needles. For the delivery of antigens, nanocarriers are so promising to enhance and modulate their immune response. The nanocarriers offer merits such as antigen protection from degradation, and controlling the release rate of the antigen. Additionally, due to the particulate nature of the nanocarriers, they can potentially display the antigen in a way that better mimics pathogens. For this aim, ovalbumin as a model antigen has been delivered using functionalized theranostic gelatin nanoparticles to bone marrow-derived dendritic cells (BMDCs). The nanoparticles were rendered fluorescent by using a novel imaging agent (gold and silver alloy nanoclusters) that emits near-infra red light. This was beneficial to study the nanoparticles uptake by BMDCs and also to image the nanoparticles within the skin tissue. Finally, the developed theranostic nanocarriers induced the maturation of the BMDCs and enhanced the proliferation of both helper T cells (CD4+) and cytotoxic T cells (CD8+). This indicates the potential efficacy of the delivery system for vaccination either against allergy or viruses and tumors

Stability-Indicating Micelle-Enhanced Spectrofluorimetric Method For Determination of Tamsulosin Hydrochloride In Dosage Forms.

A rapid, simple and highly sensitive spectrofluorimetric method is developed for the determination of Tamsulosin hydrochloride (Tams.HCl) in pharmaceutical formulations. The proposed method is based on investigation of the fluorescence spectral behavior of Tams.HCl in a sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) micellar system. In aqueous solution of Tris buffer of pH 7±0.2, SDS causes marked enhancement in the fluorescence intensity of Tams.HCl (about +110%). The fluorescence intensity is measured at 328 nm after excitation at 280 nm and the fluorescence-concentration plots are rectilinear over the range 0.1-1.2 µg ml-1, with lower detection limit of 0.027 µg ml-1 and quantification limit of 0.09 µg ml-1. The method is successfully applied to the analysis of the studied drug in its commercial capsules, and the results are in good agreement with those obtained with the official method. The application of the proposed method is extended to stability studies of Tamsulosin hydrochloride after exposure to different forced degradation conditions, such as acidic, alkaline and oxidative conditions, according to ICH guidelines

Solutions of Some Difference Equations Systems and Periodicity

In this article, analysis and investigation have been conducted on the periodic nature as well as the type of the solutions of the subsequent schemes of rational difference equations with a nonzero real numbers initial conditions

Performance evaluation of dynamic source routing protocol with variation in transmission power and speed

Mobile ad-hoc network (MANET) is a set of mobile wireless nodes (devices) which is not rely on a fixed infrastructure. In MANETs, each device is responsible for routing its data according to a specific routing protocol. The three most common MANET routing protocols are: dynamic source routing protocol (DSR), optimized link state routing protocol (OLSR), and ad-hoc on-demand distance vector (AODV). This paper proposes an efficient evaluation of DSR protocol by testing the MANETs routing protocol with variation in transmission power at different speeds. The performance analysis has been given using optimized network engineering tools (OPNET) modeler simulations and evaluated using metrics of average end to end delay and throughput. The results show that the throughput increases as the transmission power increases up to a certain value after which the throughput decreases, also the network work optimally at a certain transmission power which varied at different speed

Diffusion-weighted images and its application in the clinical diagnostic testing of endometrial focal lesions

Background: Numerous endometrial disorders can create several difficulties for the radiologist due to the overlapping of imaging characteristics and diverse endometrial pathologies. The most frequently utilized imaging tool for diagnosing and characterizing endometrial focal lesions is magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with diffusion weighted images (DWI).Objective: We conducted this study to determine the efficacy of MRI with DWI in improving the diagnostic accuracy of endometrial focal lesions, especially in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant focal endometrial masses.Patients and Methods: This study recruited 36 women (21 postmenopausal and 15 premenopausal) who experienced vaginal bleeding and had endometrial thickness and focal endometrial lesions with a distinct echo pattern on ultrasound (US) examination. The age of patients was between 27 to 85 years, with an average of 45.2 years. Ethics Committee approval was obtained in addition to written informed consent from all included patients.Results: The 36 patients included in this study, were classified according to their lesions histopathological results; Benign group (15 lesions; 41.67%) and malignant group (21 lesions; 58.33%). The most common benign lesion was endometrial polyp (9/15) while the most common malignant lesion was endometrial carcinoma (21/21). In the current study MRI with diffusion could correctly diagnose 33 lesions out of 36 lesions, achieving (91.6%) sensitivity, (100%) specificity, (100%) positive predictive value (PPV), (95.6%) negative predictive value (NPV) and accuracy (97.05 %).Conclusion: Integrating DWI and ADC mapping at a high b value in pelvic MRI examination improves the sensitivity, specificity, and precision of diagnosing endometrial focal lesions