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Nanoscale ZrRGOCuFe layered double hydroxide composites for enhanced photocatalytic degradation of dye contaminant
Get PDFYesCoprecipitation method was used to prepare non-stoichiometric pristine copper and iron layered double hydroxide (LDH) doped with zirconium and embedded with reduced graphene oxide. The composite materials (ZrRGOCuFe LDHs) were studied for the photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dye as a model contaminant from an aqueous solution. These composites were fully characterized by X-rays diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDX), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Photoluminescence (PL), Raman spectroscopy and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS). The results of Raman, Photoluminescence and Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy revealed the presence of oxygen defects level in the composites. Such defects are believed to be essential for boosting the catalytic potential of the composites. The secondary pollution manifested by transition metal ions is usually tackled by inducing heterogeneous catalysis. Herein, pristine CuFe LDH has been doped with Zr and RGO moieties to realize heterogeneous catalysis within ZrRGOCuFe LDH dopants. An admirable band ranging between 1.74 and 2.0 eV was obtained for the doped materials. The remarkable photodegradation efficiency of 95.2% was achieved by using heterogeneous photocatlyst Zr0.6RGOCuFe LDH within 75 min at a pH of 7, photocatalyst dosage of 1.0 g/L and methylene blue dye solution of 10 ppm under visible light irradiation. The total organic content (TOC) analysis has revealed removal of 92% organic content. Moreover, the catalyst has the potentia to maitain sufficient stability and reusability capacity even after three successive cycles. The reaction kinetics and proposed photocatalytic mechanism were also explained in detail
Diffusion brazing of IN738 to SiC ceramic with Ag-Cu-Ti powder: Effect of bonding time on metallurgical and mechanical properties
Get PDFYesDiffusion brazing of SiC ceramic to IN738 using an Ag-Cu-Ti powder-mixture as an interlayer was carried out for the first time. The impact of the bonding time (30 and 45 min) on metallurgical features and shear strength of the joints was assessed. The results revealed that raising the bonding time resulted in expanding of the brazing layer from 46.98 µm to 55.31 µm. Besides, increasing the bonding time also enhanced the shear strength of the SiC/Ag-Cu-Ti/IN738 joints
Demystifying Corporate Inertia Towards Transition to Circular Economy: A Management Frame of Reference
Get PDFYesWe examine corporate inertia towards circularity transition using organisational case studies, observations, and qualitative interviews with business executives. The study explores how the values and beliefs of business leaders and managers promote or inhibit internal and external stakeholder engagement to enable transition to circular business models. We focus on four large UK food companies, conducting interviews with 11 senior managers. Rather than a lack of awareness of the circular economy (CE), the results demonstrate that business leaders are not persuaded by the short-to medium-term business case for a CE. There is misalignment between values and beliefs of business executives and the circularity values and goals of their organisations. The misaligned values and beliefs inhibit relevant stakeholder engagement for transitions to a CE with responsibility shifted to civil society and public institutions. Management commitment to circularity transitions are at best a sophisticated form of circularity greenwashing. The study further suggests a general lack of collective disposition to foster collaborations with sectoral and supply chain partners to engender circularity transitions due to the absence of any standard systems for CE performance indicators. Circularity education and training play a positive mediatory role in changing negative assumptions, including the promotion of managers' engagement with other relevant stakeholders to build synergies and strategies for CE systems. The findings contribute to understanding the dynamics of corporate inertia regarding transitions to CE and highlight the relevance of aligning the personal values and beliefs of top management with organisational, sectoral, and supply chain partners’ values and goals
Diverse roles of microRNA-145 in regulating smooth muscle (dys)function in health and disease
Get PDFYesMicroRNAs are short, non-coding RNAs that target messenger RNAs for degradation. miR-145 is a vascular-enriched microRNA that is important for smooth muscle cell (SMC) differentiation. Under healthy circumstances, SMC exist in a contractile, differentiated phenotype promoted by miR-145. In cases of disease or injury, SMC can undergo reversible dedifferentiation into a synthetic phenotype, accompanied by inhibition of miR-145 expression. Vascular disorders such as atherosclerosis and neointimal hyperplasia are characterised by aberrant phenotypic switching in SMC. This review will summarise the physiological roles of miR-145 in vascular SMC, including the molecular regulation of differentiation, proliferation and migration. Furthermore, it will discuss the different ways in which miR-145 can be dysregulated and the downstream impact this has on the progression of vascular pathologies. Finally, it will discuss whether miR-145 may be suitable for use as a biomarker of vascular disease
Organizational non-compliance with principles-based governance provisions and corporate risk-taking
No full textNoThis paper examines how risk-taking is affected by non-compliance with a ‘comply or explain’ based system of corporate governance. Using System Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) estimates to control for various types of endogeneity, the results of this study show that non-compliance with the UK Corporate Governance Code is positively associated with total, systematic, and idiosyncratic risk. However, profitability moderates the impact of non-compliance on firms' risk-taking. The findings of this study further reveal that the impact of non-compliance with various provisions of the UK Corporate Governance Code is not uniform. That is, non-compliance with board independence provisions is associated with higher risk-taking. However, non-compliance with committees' chair independence is associated with lower risk-taking. These findings have implications for investors, policy makers, and corporations regarding the usefulness of compliance with a prescribed code of corporate governance
A non-randomised feasibility study of an intervention to optimise medicines at transitions of care for patients with heart failure
Get PDFYesHeart failure affects 26 million people globally, and the optimal management of medicines is crucial for patients, particularly when their care is transferred between hospital and the community. Optimising clinical outcomes requires well-calibrated cross-organisational processes with staff and patients responding and adapting to medicines changes. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility of implementing a complex intervention (the Medicines at Transitions Intervention; MaTI) co-designed by patients and healthcare staff. The purpose of the intervention was to optimise medicines management across the gaps between secondary and primary care when hospitals handover care. The study objectives were to (1) assess feasibility through meeting specified progression criteria to proceed to the trial, (2) assess if the intervention was acceptable to staff and patients, and (3) determine whether amendment or refinement would be needed to enhance the MaTI.
The feasibility of the MaTI was tested in three healthcare areas in the North of England between July and October 2017. Feasibility was measured and assessed through four agreed progression to trial criteria: (1) patient recruitment, (2) patient receipt of a medicines toolkit, (3) transfer of discharge information to community pharmacy, and (4) offer of a community pharmacy medicines review/discussion or medicines reconciliation. From the cardiology wards at each of the three NHS Acute Trusts (sites), 10 patients (aged ≥ 18 years) were recruited and introduced to the 'My Medicines Toolkit' (MMT). Patients were asked to identify their usual community pharmacy or nominate a pharmacy. Discharge information was transferred to the community pharmacy; pharmacists were asked to reconcile medicines and invited patients for a medicines use review (MUR) or discussion. At 1 month following discharge, all patients were sent three questionnaire sets: quality-of-life, healthcare utilisation, and a patient experience survey. In a purposive sample, 20 patients were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview about their experiences of the MaTI. Staff from hospital and primary care settings involved in patients' care were invited to participate in a semi-structured interview. Patient and staff interviews were analysed using Framework Analysis. Questionnaire completion rates were recorded and data were descriptively analysed.
Thirty-one patients were recruited across three sites. Eighteen staff and 18 patients took part in interviews, and 19 patients returned questionnaire sets. All four progression to trial criteria were met. We identified barriers to patient engagement with the intervention in hospital, which were compounded by patients' focus on returning home. Some patients described not engaging in discussions with staff about medicines and lacking motivation to do so because they were preoccupied with returning home. Some patients were unable or unwilling to attend a community pharmacy in person for a medicines review. Roles and responsibilities for delivering the MaTI were different in the three sites, and staff reported variations in time spent on MaTI activities. Staff reported some work pressures and staff absences that limited the time they could spend talking to patients about their medicines. Clinical teams reported that recording a target dose for heart failure medicines in patient-held documentation was difficult as they did not always know the ideal or tolerable dose. The majority of patients reported receiving the patient-held documentation. More than two-thirds reported being offered a MUR by their community pharmacists.
Delivery of the Medicines at Transitions Intervention (MaTI) was feasible at all three sites, and progression to trial criteria were met. Refinements were found to be necessary to overcome identified barriers and strengthen delivery of all steps of the intervention. Necessary changes to the MaTI were identified along with amendments to the implementation plan for the subsequent trial. Future implementation needs to take into account the complexity of medicines management and adaptation to local context.This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) (Programme Grants for Applied Research (Grant Reference Number RP-PG-0514-20009)). The study is also supported by the NIHR Yorkshire and Humber Patient Safety Translational Research Centre
Using experience-based co-design with patients, carers and healthcare professionals to develop theory-based interventions for safer medicines use
Get PDFYesBackground: Experience-Based Co-Design (EBCD) is a participatory design method which was originally developed and is still primarily used as a healthcare quality improvement tool. Traditionally, EBCD has been sited within single services or settings and has yielded improvements grounded in the experiences of those delivering and receiving care.
Method: In this article we present how EBCD can be adapted to develop complex interventions, underpinned by theory, to be tested more widely within the healthcare system as part of a multi-phase, multi-site research study.
We begin with an outline of co-design and the stages of EBCD. We then provide an overview of how EBCD can be assimilated into an intervention development and evaluation study, giving examples of the adaptations and research tools and methods that can be deployed. We also suggest how to appraise the resulting intervention so it is realistic and tractable in multiple sites. We describe how EBCD can be combined with different behaviour change theories and methods for intervention development and finally, we make suggestions about the skills needed for successful intervention development using EBCD.
Conclusion: EBCD has been recognised as being a collaborative approach to improving healthcare services that puts patients and healthcare staff at the heart of initiatives and potential changes. We have demonstrated how EBCD can be integrated into a research project and how existing research approaches can be assimilated into EBCD stages. We have also suggested where behaviour change theories can be used to better understand intervention change mechanisms
How can the potential of the duocarmycins be unlocked for cancer therapy?
No full textNoThe duocarmycins belong to a class of agent that has fascinated scientists for over four decades. Their exquisite potency, unique mechanism of action, and efficacy in multidrug-resistant tumour models makes them attractive to medicinal chemists and drug hunters. However, despite great advances in fine-tuning biological activity through structure-activity relationship studies (SARS), no duocarmycin-based therapeutic has reached clinical approval. In this review, we provide an overview of the most promising strategies currently used and include both tumour-targeted prodrug approaches and antibody-directed technologies
Applying a new technique, the interferon gamma liposomal delivery system to improve drug delivery in the treatment of Lung Cancer
Get PDFLung cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide, with most patients
suffering from an advanced unresectable or metastatic non-small cell lung
cancer. The mortality trends are mostly related to patterns of tobacco use,
specifically from cigarettes. Tobacco is the basic etiological agent found as a
consequence of the inhalation of tobacco smoke. Published data show the use
of interferons (IFNs) in the treatment of lung tumours due to their potential in
displaying antiproliferative, anti-angiogenic, immunoregulatory, and proapoptotic
effects. Type1 IFNs have been employed as treatments for many types of cancer,
both for haematological cancers and solid tumours. The IFN-γ (naked) functions
as an anticancer agent against various forms of cancer. Hence, this study aimed
to investigate the genoprotective and genotoxic effects of IFN-γ liposome (nano)
on 42 blood samples from lung cancer patients, compared to the same sample
size from healthy individuals. The effectiveness of IFN- γ liposome against
oxidative stress was also evaluated in this study. A concentration of 100U/ml
of IFN-γ liposome was used to treat the lymphocytes in: Comet and
micronucleus assays, Comet repair, Western blotting and real-time polymerase
chain reaction (qPCR) were based on a preliminary test for the optimal dose.
The lymphocytes from lung cancer patients presented with higher DNA damage
levels than those of healthy individuals. IFN-γ liposome was not found to induce any DNA damage in the lymphocytes. Also, it caused a significant reduction in
DNA damage in the lymphocytes from lung cancer patients in; Comet, Comet
repair and micronucleus assays. Furthermore, the 100U/ml of IFN-γ liposome
significantly reduced the oxidative stress caused by H2O2 and appeared to be
effective in both groups using the Comet and micronucleus assays. Results
from; Comet, Comet repair and micronucleus assays were consistent.
The data obtained indicated that IFN-γ in both forms (naked INF-γ and INF-γ
nano-liposome) may potentially be effective for the treatment of lung cancer and
showed the ability of IFN-γ liposome to reduce the DNA damage more than the
naked form.
The IFN-γ in both forms has also shown anti-cancer potential in the lymphocytes
from lung cancer patients by regulating the expression of p53, p21, Bcl-2 at
mRNA and protein levels by up-regulating the p53 and p21 to mediate cell cycle
arrest and DNA repair in lung cancer patients.
The findings of this study are consistent with the view that the naked IFN-γ and
liposome could have a significant role in cancer treatment, including lung cancer.Mutah University in Jorda
Developing city-level sustainability indicators in the MENA region with the cases of Benghazi and Amman
Get PDFThe development of a methodological framework for local and institutional
sustainability assessment can be helpful for planners and urban governments.
The aim of this research is to develop an approach to local and institutional
sustainability assessment (ALISA). It is designed to assist in the clarification,
formulation, preparation, selection, and ranking of key indicators to facilitate the
assessment of city sustainability at the local and institutional level in the Middle
Eastern and North African (MENA) cities.
The ALISA methodological framework is developed using joint documentary and
analysed data in the two case studies of Benghazi and Amman. The data for this
also includes focus-group discussions, semi-structured interviews, and
questionnaires that reflect the approach required in order to develop a combined
framework that assists the development of sustainability indicators.
The initial list of proposed sustainability indicators for Benghazi contains 37
indicators. This list was developed based on logical information and procedure
which has been supported by consultants and specialists in sustainability and
urbanization from the University of Benghazi in the form of workshops as well as
searching through the literature on sustainable development. Similarly, with
support from consultants and specialists in sustainability and urbanization from
the Applied science University a list of 36 indicators was also developed in
Amman.
Both lists were given to the local communities in Benghazi and Amman to be
ranked based on priority to identify two final lists of sustainability indicators. The
results indicated that economic and social indicators were highly ranked in
Benghazi and Amman, respectively