Transdermal drug delivery systems, also known as “patches” have been attracted a great deal of attention for the past few decades since it delivers the drug through the skin in a predetermined and controlled. Transdermal delivery is a viable alternative to conventional oral therapy and provides a controlled drug release by increasing patient compliance and avoiding first-pass metabolism. Donepezil Hydrochloride is an active pharmaceutical ingredient for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) It has been widely used by oral route. But this type of treatment may have some disadvantages when a chronic neurological disorder is present because of the patient’s unwillingness to swallow and forgeting to take or carry pills in the day. So, transdermal patches can be used as an alternative treatment for AD. The aim of this study was to develop a transdermal drug delivery system for controlled release of Donepezil HCl. For this purpose, hydroxyethyl cellulose/sodium alginate/gelatin combined with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and PEG-400 in the formulation of transdermal patches. Transdermal patches were prepared by Franz diffusion cell method. Hydroxyethyl cellulose, sodium alginate and gelatine as matrix-forming agent and transcutol as plasticizer was in the transdermal films. Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy) was used to characterize the films. In vitro drug release studies were performed for donepezil hydrochloride-loaded hydrogels at 7.4. To study the release kinetics, data obtained from in-vitro drug release studies were plotted in various kinetic models which include zero order, first order, Higuchi and Korsmeyer-Peppas. The results in the present investigation confirm the controlled release of Donepezil HCl and sodium alginate content of transdermal patch can extend the release of donepezil. The study demonstrates that the fabricated transdermal system of Donepezil HCl can be considered as a suitable alternative of the oral route. Also studies have shown promising results, further studies are needed for pharmacokinetic evaluation.
In a technical sense, a gravity wall is defined as any structure that resists soil pressure. The gravity wall is typically a permanent structure constructed in the form of a retaining element for the slope. The advantages of this wall type are that the excavation materials can be used in the walls of these walls, the evaluation of the waste materials and the integrity of nature by adapting to the ground conditions of the weight wall. The gravity wall, which is built between the service road of fishing port and the highway, is about 340 meters in length and varies in height and has a maximum height H = 10.50 meters. During the construction of the road, some parts of the gravity wall which had been built, were collapsed in the form of breakage in the wall as a result of the surcharge load effect caused by mass transfer from the road embankment. Damaged parts of the wall were repaired. In this study, bearing capacity and stability analysis were carried out on the failure cross section (Section-A) which has the height of 5.16 meter along the wall route. GEO5 package program are used in the analyses. The parameters used in analyses were obtained from the laboratory studies and literature. The port area is located in the second degree earthquake zone and the seismic effect was considered in the analysis.
The introduction of heavy metal ions into aquatic environment by industrial waste, agricultural waste, and natural disposals is a major environmental concern. Several methods such as precipitation, reverse osmosis, and bioremediation have been used for removal of heavy metals from wastewater and environmental samples but such techniques are expensive, time-consuming, or results in yielding toxic chemicals. Alternatively, adsorption is a preferred method as it combines both environmental and economic advantages. This paper presents the development of adsorbents by chemical modification of cellulose-based natural fibers. Cotton fibers, which are rich in cellulose, were modified by tethering different ligands (including cystamine and polyamines) and measured their efficacy in removing heavy metals (such as Cd(II), Cu(II), Hg(II), Pb(II), and Zn(II) ions) from stimulated contaminated water. The fibers were characterized by FTIR, SEM, EDS, and TGA and their efficacy for removal of heavy metals was investigated using stimulated polluted water with either Cd(II), Hg(II), or Pb(II) metal ions. The results show that the metal-removal capacity of cystamine-modified cotton increased by ~200% and of polyamines-modified cotton by ~400% for Cd(II), and Pb(II) metal ions.
Abscisic acid (ABA) is an important phytohormone that regulates a lot of physiological, biochemical and molecular processes during plants life and response stress conditions. In this paper, Arabidopsis thaliana salt overly sensitive (sos5) mutant which known hyper sensitive to NaCI stress was used to investigate ABA regulation. Because of this, ABA depended genes determined by q-RT PCR method under 2h. 100 mM NaCI stress. Findings indicated that RD29A, RD 29B and RD22 which ABA dependent gene expressions were highly lower than Col-gl (wild type); however ERD1 which ABA in depended gene expression was higher than WT. Based on these results, we suggest that defect of ABA responses gene regulation might be responsible for hypersensitivity to Arabidopsis sos5 mutant under salt stress.
Chemical modification can be used to improve the properties of wood. Effect of melamine formaldehyde modification on the physical and mechanical properties of Scots pine and Chestnut was investigated in this study. Wood samples were impregnated with melamine formaldehyde (MF) resin under 3 bar pressure for 10 or 30 min and were cured at a temperature of 150 °C for 20 min in an oven. Weight percent gain, water uptake, volumetric swelling, Brinell hardness, modulus of rupture and modulus of elasticity values of the samples were determined according to relevant standards. Modification with MF reduced the water uptake and the volumetric swelling of the woods. Anti-swelling efficiency of the modification were approximately 66 % and 57 % in chestnut and scots pine, respectively. MOE increased in scots pine (3% 17 %) while unchanged in chestnut but MOR decreased significantly by modification in both chestnut (2.5% 17.9%) and scots pine (26.2% 32.7%). Also, MF modification increased the Brinell hardness of the wood, slightly.
Earthquake response of an arch dam should be calculated under ground motion effects. This study presents three-dimensional linear earthquake response of an arch dam. Thereby, we considered different ground motion effects and also foundation conditions in the finite element analyses. For this purpose, the Type 3 double curvature arch dam was selected for application. All numerical analyses are carried out by SAP2000 program for empty reservoir cases. In the scope of this study, linear modal time-history analyses are performed using three dimensional finite element model of the arch dam and arch dam-foundation interaction systems. According to numerical analyses, maximum horizontal displacements and maximum normal stresses are presented by dam height in the largest section. These results are evaluated for rigid and various elastic foundation conditions. Furthermore, near-fault and far-field ground motion effects on the selected arch dam are taken into account by different accelerograms obtained from the Loma Prieta earthquake at various distances.
In this study, the effects of combustion properties on oriental beech (Fagus orientalis L.) wood species which treated with liquid nitrogen and impregnated with boric acid. The dipping method was used for the impregnation and liquid nitrogen process. The combustion test was performed according to the procedure defined in the ASTM-E 69 standards and during the test the mass reduction, temperature were determined for each 30 seconds. According to the test results, it was found that the samples treated with liquid nitrogen retention was increase. Moreover, sample treated with liquid nitrogen and impregnated with boric acid was more successfully to combustion retardant than samples only impregnated with boric acid
Electrodialysis ED is a separation process commercially used on a large scale for production of drinking water from water bodies and treatment of industrial effluents (Ruiz and et al., 2007). ED system contains ion exchange membranes and ions are transported through ion selective membranes from one solution to another under the influence of electrical potential difference used as a driving force. ED has been widely used in the desalination process and recovery of useful matters from effluents. The performance of ED, depends on the operating conditions and device structures such as ion content of raw water, current density, flow rate, membrane properties, feed concentration, geometry of cell compartments (Chang and et al., 2009, Mohammadi and et al., 2004).The efficiency of ED systems consist in a large part on the properties of the ion exchange membranes. Fouling of ion exchange membranes is one of the common problems in ED processes (Lee and et al., 2009, Ruiz and et al., 2007). Fouling is basically caused by the precipitation of foulants such as organics, colloids and biomass on the membrane surface or inside the membrane and fouling problem reduces the transport of ions. The fouling problemsare occasion to increase membrane resistance, loss in selectivity of the membranes and affect negatively to membrane performance (Lee and et al., 2002, Lindstrand and et al., 2000a,Lindstrand and et al., 2000b). Membrane fouling leads to high energy consumption and poor separation efficiency. Therefore some methods such as pretreatment of the feed solution, turbulence in the compartments, zeta potential control, pH and flow rate optimization, modification of the membrane properties and pulsed voltage have been studied to reduce fouling in ED systems. Also some reducing methods such as chemical methods require additional chemicals, more energy or instruments and those requirements increase the operation and investment cost (Chang and et al., 2009, Lee and et al., 2002, Park and et al., 2003). The fouling problem has been disqualified also by electrodialysis reversal systems EDR. EDR is similar to ED but the direction of ion flow is reversed periodically to break fouling progress by reversing the polarity of the applied electric current. This process is not use only for the removal of fouling but also for removing salts in desalination systems. EDR does not require additional chemicals and it increases membrane life (Bouhidel and Rumeau, 2004, Strathmann, 2010).Fouling of membranes is one of the major problems in ED systems. For this reason there is a need to understand the fouling factors and fouling formation. This study includes brief
The use of icons in the visual communication of computer languages has recently increased in quantity and complexity with the widespread proliferation of icons in mobile dispositives such as smart phones, ipads, etc. Icon designers and analysts, however, seem to underestimate the semiotic and rhetorical implications in the representation of icons, the subsumed syntax leading to easy or difficult dialogue in iconic communication, the need for an architectural representation of iconic contents. I shall analyse terminological phallacies and conceptual limitations of present interpretations in icons usability and provide a possible further interpretation on the basis of semiotic, linguistic, rhetorical assumptions and related syntax. In particular I shall propose a syntactic interpretation based on the relation between metaphors and metonymies in iconic representation needed to validate the results of comprehension tests.
In this paper, comfort and strength performance of conventional and lightweight seat design which is developed by using EPP (expanded poly propylene) material is investigated by using FEA (finite elements analysis) method. The main goal is to contribute to reducing CO2 emissions on passenger cars by providing weight reduction on car seats. To accomplish that, a special designed part made of EPP material, which has lower density and higher strength performance in compliance with PU (Polyurethane), is embedded in original car seats made of PU material, and the resulting composite material reinforces the structure and gives the similar performance compared to PU design, and in the meantime supporting metal frame’s weight inside car seats is also reduced. In parallel with design optimization, a comparative analysis of strength and comfort performances between conventional seat design and lightweight seat design is studied correspondingly. Highly nonlinear contact analyses are performed with the dummy named “Manikin” (human model) to analyze comfort performance by looking at the pressure distribution on surface of seats. The results indicate that after design optimization by using new material technology, nearly same comfort and strength performance are achieved and weight of the car seats can be reduced remarkably
A method of simple harmonic motion (SHM) experiment is proposed. The SHM of a load-spring system is observed through the use of force sensor to measure the force acting on the spring. The data will then be further analyzed to derive the kinematic of load. Through the enforcement of Newton’s second law of motion, this method is able to produce two out of three kinematic quantities; and. It will then be completed through numerical approach such as Euler method and central finite difference. The experimental data are used to determine appropriate initial conditions for numerical approach, and initial phase angle for constructing the theoretical kinematics. The result was further validated through the ellipse trajectory in phase-space. Hence, the experiment proved to be capable of producing simple harmonic motion without raising the complexity level. It can also produce all of the necessary quantities needed to provide SHM kinematics in the form of both graphs and equations. Keywords : simple harmonic motion, oscillation, force sensor, Euler method, phase space
In Algeria, often, serious imbalances of the forest ecosystems caused by the badly led exploitations, the repeated fires, the overgrazing involve the disappearance of the timbered state on vast territories. Within the framework of the plantation and restoration programs of these degraded forests, we plan to contribute to it by tests of controlled mycorrhization of forest tees in nursery. But to realize these tests, it is necessary to know beforehand the natural symbiotic status of the studied species. We present there, the first stage of our work which consisted in establishing the mycorrhizal status of main spontaneous or introduced forest species into Algerian North-east. The study was carried out in El Tarf province and related to all the species of pine, oaks and other leafy trees existing in this area. The results show that all the species observed have either ectomycorrhizas (ECM) or arbuscular endomycorrhizas (AM) or both at the same time. In addition, the introduced species of the Acacia or Casuarina genus carry AM and also nitrogen fixing nodules. It should be noted the remarkable diversity of ectomycorrhizal morphotypes associated to the pines and to the oaks and also that of the endomycorhizals fungi spores occur in the rhizosphere of other species. Lastly, it is significant to note the omnipresence of Cenococcum geophilum mycorrhiza in all the stations and the majority of the ectomycorrhizal trees.
