Using Photoactive Nanoparticles as Photodynamic Antimicrobial Chemotherapeutic (PACT) Agent to Treat Chronic Wounds

The purpose of this study is to use photoactive vitamin nanoparticles as photodynamic antimicrobial chemotherapeutic agent to treat patients with chronic wounds. Chronic wounds are considered as a pandemic health problem which affects millions of people and increases ~10 % annually. According to the American Academy of Dermatology, the expense of treating chronic wounds constitutes over half of the total cost for all skin diseases. The main cause of chronic wounds is due to the existence of biofilms. Biofilms are complex microbial communities containing and are reported to be major factor contributing to multiple chronic inflammatory diseases. Owing to bacterial species with in biofilms being exceptionally resisted to many traditional therapies, Photodynamic Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (PACT) can provide an effective alternative antimicrobial, antifungal, and antiviral treatment for drug-resistant microorganism. PDT uses both light and nontoxic vitamin photosensitizers to destroy specific targeted cells. The main advantage of PACT would be that it is very unlikely for bacteria to develop resistance to reactive oxygen species. However, the main limitation of this technique would be the uptake kinetics of the photo sensitizers in microorganisms. We have developed a unique nano-emulsion to increase the solubility of these otherwise hard to dissolve, hydrophobic vitamins for faster, more effective delivery to the targeted cells. This provides a photodynamic chemotherapeutic regime for the treatment of chronic wound ulcers caused by microbial biofilms

Influence of Diet on Population Growth and Allergen Production in Cultured House Dust Mites - \u3cem\u3edermatophagoides Farinae\u3c/em\u3e and \u3cem\u3edermatophagoides Pteronyssinus\u3c/em\u3e

Dermatophagoides farinae and Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus culture extracts are used for skin testing, immunotherapy and research studies. There is a need to develop an effective culture method so that standardized extracts and allergens can be produced. The purpose of this study was to examine if different diets effect mite population growth and the amount of allergen produced in cultures. Dermatophagoides farinae and Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus were cultured on diets A and B. The density of mites, life stage composition and allergen concentration was determined at two week intervals. Enzyme-linked immune sorbent assays (ELISA) were used to assess group 1 and group 2 allergen concentrations. This study showed that diet is an important factor for culturing of mites. Diet B was found to be better suited to culture Dermatophagoides farinae whereas diet A was better for culturing of Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. Diet A cultures of Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus produced greater concentrations of group 2 allergen than diet B

Implementation of a quality improvement project on smoking cessation reduces smoking in a high risk trauma patient population.

BackgroundCigarette smoking causes about one of every five deaths in the U.S. each year. In 2013 the prevalence of smoking in our institution's trauma population was 26.7 %, well above the national adult average of 18.1 % according to the CDC website. As a quality improvement project we implemented a multimodality smoking cessation program in a high-risk trauma population.MethodsAll smokers with independent mental capacity admitted to our level I trauma center from 6/1/2014 until 3/31/2015 were counseled by a physician on the benefits of smoking cessation. Those who wished to quit smoking were given further counseling by a pulmonary rehabilitation nurse and offered nicotine replacement therapy (e.g. nicotine patch). A planned 30 day or later follow-up was performed to ascertain the primary endpoint of the total number of patients who quit smoking, with a secondary endpoint of reduction in the frequency of smoking, defined as at least a half pack per day reduction from their pre-intervention state.ResultsDuring the 9 month study period, 1066 trauma patients were admitted with 241 (22.6 %) identified as smokers. A total of 31 patients with a mean Injury Severity Score (ISS) of 14.2 (range 1-38), mean age of 47.6 (21-71) and mean years of smoking of 27.1 (2-55), wished to stop smoking. Seven of the 31 patients, (22.5 %, 95 % confidence interval [CI] of 10-41 %) achieved self-reported smoking cessation at or beyond 30 days post discharge. An additional eight patients (25.8 %, 95 % CI 12-45 %) reported significant reduction in smoking.ConclusionsTrauma patients represent a high risk smoking population. The implementation of a smoking cessation program led to a smoking cessation rate of 22.5 % and smoking reduction in 25.8 % of all identified smokers who participated in the program. This is a relatively simple, inexpensive intervention with potentially far reaching and beneficial long-term health implications. A larger, multi-center prospective study appears warranted.Level of evidenceTherapeutic Study, Level V evidence

Reliable Fault Tolerance System for Service Composition in Mobile Ad Hoc Network

A Due to the rapid development of smart processing mobile devices, Mobile applications are exploring the use of web services in MANETs to satisfy the user needs. Complex user needs are satisfied by the service composition where a complex service is created by combining one or more atomic services. Service composition has a significant challenge in MANETs due to its limited bandwidth, constrained energy sources, dynamic node movement and often suffers from node failures. These constraints increase the failure rate of service composition. To overcome these, we propose Reliable Fault Tolerant System for Service Composition in MANETs (RFTSC) which makes use of the checkpointing technique for service composition in MANETs. We propose fault policies for each fault in service composition when the faults occur. Failure of services in the service composition process is recovered locally by making use of Checkpointing system and by using discovered services which satisfies the QoS constraints. A Multi-Service Tree (MST) is proposed to recover failed services with O(1) time complexity. Simulation result shows that the proposed approach is efficient when compared to existing approaches

Fuzzy Based Optimal QoS Constraint Services Composition in Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

In recent years, computational capability of mobile devices such as Laptops, mobile phones, PDAs, etc., are greatly improved. Implementation of SOA ("Service Oriented Architectures") in mobile ad hoc networks increases the flexibility of using mobile devices. On composing different available services to satisfy end user requirement is a critical challenge in MANETs ("Mobile Ad Hoc Network") due to dynamic topology, Resource heterogeneity, Band width constraint and highly distributed service providers. Existing composition services approaches are not suitable for MANETs due to lack of constraints consideration while choosing services. In this paper, we proposed Fuzzy based optimal QoS constrained Service Composition in MANETs. We consider Energy constraint, hop count, Response time & service throughput as QoS Constraints composing optimal services. We proposed fuzzy logic based system to provide rating to the services for optimal selection of services. We also considered that each node can provide one or more services. The service composition failure rate will be reduced by selecting optimal services in available services. The simulation result demonstrates that the proposed method outperformed than the traditional AODV in terms of average packet delay, energy constraint, throughput and turnaround time

The Cell Surface Estrogen Receptor, G Protein- Coupled Receptor 30 (GPR30), is Markedly Down Regulated During Breast Tumorigenesis

Background: GPR30 is a cell surface estrogen receptor that has been shown to mediate a number of non-genomic rapid effects of estrogen and appear to balance the signaling of estrogen and growth factors. In addition, progestins appear to use GPR30 for their actions. Therefore, GPR30 could play a critical role in hormonal regulation of breast epithelial cell integrity. Deregulation of the events mediated by GPR30 could contribute to tumorigenesis.Methods: To understand the role of GPR30 in the deregulation of estrogen signaling processes during breast carcinogenesis, we have undertaken this study to investigate its expression at mRNA levels in tumor tissues and their matched normal tissues. We compared its expression at mRNA levels by RT quantitative real-time PCR relative to GAPDH in ERα”—positive (n = 54) and ERα”—negative (n = 45) breast cancer tissues to their matched normal tissues.Results: We report here, for the first time, that GPR30 mRNA levels were significantly down-regulated in cancer tissues in comparison with their matched normal tissues (p 0.0001 by two sided paired t-test). The GPR30 expression levels were significantly lower in tumor tissues from patients (n = 29) who had lymph node metastasis in comparison with tumors from patients (n = 53) who were negative for lymph node metastasis (two sample t-test, p 0.02), but no association was found with ERα, PR and other tumor characteristics.Conclusions: Down-regulation of GPR30 could contribute to breast tumorigenesis and lymph node metastasis

Evaluation of oxygen-enrichment system for alternative fuel vehicles

This report presents results on the reduction in exhaust emissions achieved by using oxygen-enriched intake air on a flexible fuel vehicle (FFV) that used Indolene and M85 as test fuels. The standard federal test procedure (FTP) and the US Environmental Protection Agency`s (EPA`s) off-cycle (REP05) test were followed. The report also provides a review of literature on the oxygen membrane device and design considerations. It presents information on the sources and contributions of cold-phase emissions to the overall exhaust emissions from light-duty vehicles (LDVs) and on the various emission standards and present-day control technologies under consideration. The effects of oxygen-enriched intake air on FTP and off-cycle emissions are discussed on the basis of test results. Conclusions are drawn from the results and discussion, and different approaches for the practical application of this technology in LDVs are recommended

Label-free nanoscale characterization of red blood cell structure and dynamics using single-shot transport of intensity equation

We report the results of characterization of red blood cell (RBC) structure and its dynamics with nanometric sensitivity using transport of intensity equation microscopy (TIEM). Conventional transport of intensity technique requires three intensity images and hence is not suitable for studying real-time dynamics of live biological samples. However, assuming the sample to be homogeneous, phase retrieval using transport of intensity equation has been demonstrated with single defocused measurement with x-rays. We adopt this technique for quantitative phase light microscopy of homogenous cells like RBCs. The main merits of this technique are its simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and ease of implementation on a conventional microscope. The phase information can be easily merged with regular bright-field and fluorescence images to provide multidimensional (three-dimensional spatial and temporal) information without any extra complexity in the setup. The phase measurement from the TIEM has been characterized using polymeric microbeads and the noise stability of the system has been analyzed. We explore the structure and real-time dynamics of RBCs and the subdomain membrane fluctuations using this technique

Seljaajusong ja hüdrotsefaalia: üldine ülevaade ning 30 aastat registriandmete kogumist Eestis

Seljaajusong ja hüdrotsefaalia on kesknärvisüsteemi arenguhäired, mis tekivad lootel varajase embrüonaalse arengu käigus. Haiguste summaarne esinemissagedus on üle maailma keskmiselt 1–2 juhtu 1000 elussünni kohta. Teadaolevalt on neuraaltorudefektidel valdavalt mitmeteguriline etioloogia, hõlmates nii geneetilisi variante kui ka keskkonnategureid. 1985. aastal Tallinna Lastehaigla lastekirurgia osakonna baasil loodud Eesti Seljaajusonga ja Vesipeahaigete Seltsi register on võimaldanud saada ülevaate Eesti neuraaltorudefektidega patsientidest. 2017. aasta alguse seisuga oli Eestis elus 127 seljaajusonga ja 234 hüdrotsefaaliaga haiget ning viimase 30 aasta registriandmete põhjal on leitud vastavad sünniprevalentsid. Siiani kogutud andmete analüüsimise ja eelkõige geneetiliste uuringutega sidumise põhjal tuleb rõhutada foolhappe profülaktilise tarvitamise vajadust. Registriandmed on aidanud laiendada ka teadmisi haigustega kaasnevatest probleemidest ning suunata tähelepanu lapseeast täiskasvanuteks sirgunud haigete ravivõimaluste parendamise vajadusele. Lisaks uutele teadmistele neuraaltorudefektide olukorrast Eestis on oluline laiendada teadmisi nende harvikhaiguste suhtes ka rahvusvahelistes uuringutes