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Pharmaceutical supply chains and management innovation?
Get PDFYesThis paper aims to evaluate the implementation of innovative programmes within the downstream domain of the pharmaceutical supply chain (PSC), with the aim of informing improved service provision.
A mixed-method approach was used to assess to what extent innovation could be adopted by hospital and community pharmacies to improve the delivery process of pharmaceutical products. Unstructured interviews and 130 questionnaires were collected and analysed to identify factors that facilitate or prevent innovation within PSC processes.
The analysis led to the creation of the innovative pharmaceutical supply chain framework (IPSCF) that provides guidance to health-care organisations about how supply chain management problems could be addressed by implementing innovative approaches. The results also indicated that the implementation of Lean and Reverse Logistics (RL) practices, supported by integrated information technology systems, can help health-care organisations to enhance their delivery in terms of quality (products and service quality), visibility (knowledge and information sharing), speed (response to customers and suppliers needs) and cost (minimisation of cost and waste).
The study’s recommendations have potential implications for supply chain theory and practice, particularly for pharmacies in terms of innovation adoption. The IPSCF provides guidance to pharmacies and health-care organisations to develop more efficient and effective supply chain strategies.
This research contributes to the academic literature as it adds novel theoretical insights to highly complex delivery process innovation
In-Vitro In-Vivo Correlation (IVIVC) of Inhaled Products Using Twin Stage Impinger
Get PDFYesIn vitro dissolution testing as a form of quality control has become a necessity in the pharmaceutical industry.
As such, the need to establish a method that investigates the in vitro dissolution profile of inhaled products
should be taken into account. The prime focus in this study was to examine the in-vitro in-vivo correlation
utilising a modified version of the Twin Stage Impinger and to promote an in vitro dissolution model by
enhancing the Fine Particle Dose (FPD) collection method for dry powder inhalers.
The Twin Impinger was modified by inserting a stainless steel membrane holder disk in the base of the lower
chamber. The design, with optimum drug deposition, was adopted for the dissolution study of budesonide
and salbutamol. Afterwards, the membrane holder system was placed in the bottom of the dissolution vessel.
Phosphate buffer saline (PBS), simulated lung fluid (SLF, Gamble solution) and Phosphate buffer (PB) were
used in the study. The paddle dissolution apparatus, containing 300 mL of the medium, was operated at
75 rpm paddle speed. Samples were collected at defined time intervals and analysed using a validated HPLC
method.
The largest proportion of the budesonide dose was dissolved in PBS compared to PB and SLF. This was due to
the presence of surfactant (0.2% w/v polysorbate), which enhances the wettability and the solubility of the
poorly soluble drug (budesonide). The similarity factors for PBS and PB were 47.6 and 69.7, respectively,
using SLF as a reference, whereas the similarity factor for salbutamol dissolution between PB and SLF was
81.3, suggesting PB is a suitable substitute. Comparison using both the predicted and actual in vivo pharmacokinetics (PK) values of the two drugs, as well as the pattern of their Concentration-Time (c-t) profiles,
showed good similarity, which gave an indication of the validity of this in vitro dissolution method
There's nothing plain about projection radiography! A discussion paper
Get PDFYesObjectives: Unlike the technological advances in cross-sectional imaging, the adoption of CR and DR has
been relatively overlooked in terms of the additional radiographer skills and competences required for
optimal practice. Furthermore, projection radiography is often referred to as basic, plain or other words
suggesting simplicity or entry-level skill requirements. Radiographers’ professional identity is connected
with the discourse expressed via the language used in daily practice and consequently, if the perception
of projection radiography is regarded as simple practice not requiring much reflection or complex
decision-making, apathy and carelessness may arise. The purpose of this narrative review was to raise
projection radiography from its longstanding lowly place and re-position it as a specialist imaging field.
Key findings: Danish pre-registration radiography curricula contain little mention of projection radiography and a low proportion (n ¼ 17/144; 11.8%) of Danish radiography students chose to focus on projection radiography within publicly available BSc. theses between 2016 and 2020 as compared to topics
related to CT and MRI (n ¼ 60/144; 41.7%).
Conclusion: By changing how we as the profession perceive the role and position of projection radiography, we can start to rebuild its lost prestige and demand a greater, more detailed and clinically relevant
educational offering from academic partners. For this to commence, the language and terminology we
use to describe ourselves and tasks undertaken must reflect the complexity of the profession.
Implications for practice: Regardless of imaging modality, every patient should be assured that a radiographer with expertise in acquiring images of diagnostic quality undertakes their examination.
Reclaiming the prestige of projection radiography may lead students and radiographers to recognize
projection radiography as a demanding specialist field for the benefit of the patients
Investigating The Relationship Between Surface Topology And Functional Characteristics For Injection Moulded Thermoplastic Components
Get PDFBacteria are known to adhere to surfaces, which allows for the formation of
biofilms, possibly causing a surge in hospital-offset infections, perilous
diseases, and in some cases, death. Although certain bacteria are present in
the natural flora of the human skin, some present extreme clinical
significance due to the ability to transmit and adhere, and can be resistant to
antibiotics. They also evolve over time to survive in harsh environmental
conditions.
Current research reveals that design of plastic surfaces containing
submicron structures, is becoming a popular approach to tackle issues
concerning infection transmission, with inspiration being derived from
biomimetics and self-cleaning surfaces, such as the surface of a gecko skin,
and the hydrophobic wax layer of forest leaves. Main barriers to adoption
include that these surfaces alone are difficult to manufacture on 3D products,
expensive to fabricate on a large scale and do not last long when subjected
to environmental wear.
Replication of nano-scale ridges was carried out using micro-injection, and
the various samples were characterised using a range of tools to determine
physical and biomechanical parameters. The sample surfaces were then
cultured with the pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus under several
environmental conditions, and the results were statistically analysed to reveal
that anti-fouling LIPSS (laser induced periodic surface structures) ridges
perform better to reduce bacteria cell-substrate adhesion, when compared to
flat surfaces, or surfaces containing dual structures (anti-fouling ridges
combined with anti-wear walls). It was therefore demonstrated that nanotextured
polymeric surfaces with hydrophobic characteristics have
exceptional non-fouling properties, preventing S. aureus, a very significant bacterial strain, from initial adhesion, a critical primary mechanism in its
ability to proliferate.
Collectively, the findings of this study strongly support the literature,
suggesting that the bacteria struggle to adhere onto polymeric topography
with increased water contact angles and simple nanostructures. However,
the addition of certain anti-wear micro-features increased bacterial adhesion,
reducing the efficacy of the non-fouling nanostructures from preventing
biofilm formation
What were the effects of the post-colonial experience of counterinsurgency on UK forces in southern Iraq? Were the lessons absorbed and implemented?
No full textThis thesis examines the British army and its legacy of counterinsurgency from the 20th century.
It analyses the effects of post-colonial counterinsurgency and the army’s ability to learn from
previous counterinsurgency conflicts to create new doctrine from earlier examples that could
have had lessons for the UK forces in southern Iraq.
Doctrine (both official and unofficial) ranges from endorsed army field manuals to
theory written by experts while on defence fellowships. The army’s ability to create
new doctrine from previous campaigns lessons and how it is diffused across the armed
forces is also assessed.
The conflicts used as post-colonial counterinsurgencies scrutinise Oman and Northern
Ireland. These two case studies provide mixed lessons, that should advance and
expand British counterinsurgency theory and models. The previous historical
occurrences of counterinsurgency have created a British approach which has
established a four-pillar framework which encompasses minimum force, civil-military
co-operation, use of intelligence and tactical flexibility. This approach could identify lessons for a modern British army deployed to Iraq.
If lessons and previous outcomes are analysed to create new doctrine, strategy and
tactics that encompass the four pillars framework, what went wrong in southern Iraq?
Could lessons from earlier campaigns have assisted British efforts
Investigation into the effect of friction decay factor on the modelling and attenuation of stick-slip vibrations of oilwell drilling systems
No full textYesThe self-excited stick-slip oscillations of oilwell drillstrings are attributed to the nonlinear interaction between the drill-bit and the rock formation. Development of more accurate models will lead to improved predictions allowing more potential for successful suppression of the drillstring vibrations, thus reducing damage to the drilling system, prevention of expensive failures and increased output from the oilwell. In this paper, the effect of the transition from static friction to Coulomb friction on modelling of stick-slip phenomenon of oil well drillstring is investigated through an analysis of the so called ‘decay factor’. Based on a distributed-lumped parameter model (DLPM) of the drilling system, the governing equations of motion for the system are obtained. By using different values of decay factor (low, high and medium), the stick-slip vibrations of the drillstring are validated against published data from full-scale drillstrings. The results from the simulation show that lowering the decay factor increases the critical speed and thus reduces the propensity for stick slip motion. However, a reduction in the decay factor also has the effect of inducing worse stick-slip motion once the critical speed has been reached. The results indicate the wider impact of both correct modelling of the decay factor, but also the importance of correct characterisation of the mud viscosity and drill/well contact for more accurate selection of drilling parameters in the field
A spectroscopic analysis of late 16th century domestic wall paintings in the Saracens Head Inn, Nottinghamshire, UK
No full textNoThe mural paintings in the late medieval Saracens Head Inn, Southwell, Nottinghamshire, UK, represent an unusual survival of domestic Tudor artwork in this region. Stylistic dating puts the range of the paintings as c. 1580–1620. The artistic design and archaeological context of the paintings has been studied and paint samples extracted for microscopic, SEM-EDXS, and Raman spectroscopic analysis. In addition, portable Raman analysis was utilized. The paintings, which were only discovered in the 1980s and 1990s, hidden below later plaster, were conserved and a degree of undocumented retouching was applied. The analysis, though restricted by excessive fluorescence from many of the samples, has revealed the broad pigment palette used by the original Tudor artist(s) as well as identifying the modern pigments introduced during conservation work
COSMOS next generation - A public knowledge base leveraging chemical and biological data to support the regulatory assessment of chemicals
No full textYesThe COSMOS Database (DB) was originally established to provide reliable data for cosmetics-related chemicals within the COSMOS Project funded as part of the SEURAT-1 Research Initiative. The database has subsequently been maintained and developed further into COSMOS Next Generation (NG), a combination of database and in silico tools, essential components of a knowledge base. COSMOS DB provided a cosmetics inventory as well as other regulatory inventories, accompanied by assessment results and in vitro and in vivo toxicity data. In addition to data content curation, much effort was dedicated to data governance - data authorisation, characterisation of quality, documentation of meta information, and control of data use. Through this effort, COSMOS DB was able to merge and fuse data of various types from different sources. Building on the previous effort, the COSMOS Minimum Inclusion (MINIS) criteria for a toxicity database were further expanded to quantify the reliability of studies. COSMOS NG features multiple fingerprints for analysing structure similarity, and new tools to calculate molecular properties and screen chemicals with endpoint-related public profilers, such as DNA and protein binders, liver alerts and genotoxic alerts. The publicly available COSMOS NG enables users to compile information and execute analyses such as category formation and read-across. This paper provides a step-by-step guided workflow for a simple read-across case, starting from a target structure and culminating in an estimation of a NOAEL confidence interval. Given its strong technical foundation, inclusion of quality-reviewed data, and provision of tools designed to facilitate communication between users, COSMOS NG is a first step towards building a toxicological knowledge hub leveraging many public data systems for chemical safety evaluation. We continue to monitor the feedback from the user community at [email protected]
Consumer reactions to nudity in print advertising: Comparing same-gender and opposite-gender effects
Get PDFYesIt is often assumed that exposure to nude stimuli in advertising influences consumer behavior positively. However, the empirical evidence concerning the effects of nudity on consumer reactions is inconclusive. The goal of this study is to disentangle the effects of opposite-gender and same-gender nudity on female and male consumers' reactions. This study, thereby, offers a framework for the appropriate choice of seminude or fully clothed human stimuli based on advertisers' objectives and consumer–model gender interactions. The empirical data were derived from a large-scale market research initiative from Germany with 61,399 consumer evaluations of 147 real ads from 16 product categories. Female consumers show positive same-gender results for both seminude and fully clothed female models, indicating strong homophily, but nonsignificant opposite-gender effects on information search, positive attitude change, integration of brand into consideration set, and purchase intentions. In contrast, male consumers demonstrate a significantly positive and equally strong influence of opposite-gender and same-gender seminude stimuli on all of the four variables
Experimental observation of turbulent structure at region surrounding the mid-channel braid bar
No full textNoRiver morphological processes are among the most complex and least understood phenomenon in nature. Recent research indicates that the braiding of marine waterways of the estuary zone occurs at an aspect ratio similar to the alluvial braided river. The instability of complex sporadic fluvial processes at river-sea interface is responsible for bar formation in alluvial as well as in marine waterbodies Due to the lack of knowledge of flow characteristics around bar, the flow structure around the sand bar is analyzed. The bursting events play the crucial role in understanding the fluvial characteristics in the vicinity of submerged structure. The study of bursting events around the mid-channel bar is only done by the present author. The effect of submergence ratio on the turbulence behavior in the proximity of bar is analyzed in this study. The flow turbulence generated by the mid-channel bar is also analyzed in detail. The extreme turbulent burst is segregated from low intensity turbulent events by using the hole size concept. The effect of hole size on the parameter Dominance Function is analysed which is not yet studied by any researcher for
mid-channel bar. The Momentum Dominance Function (MDF) parameter increases with increase in the Hole Size. This indicates that the magnitude of upward flux increases with increase in the hole size. The effect of bar height on the turbulent burst which is not yet studied by any researchers is analyzed in the present research. The joint probability distribution of bursting events is modeled using the Gram-Charlier bivariate joint probability function. The joint probability distribution gives the details of probabilistic structure of flow in the vicinity of bar. The effect of bar is predominant only in the lower flow layer. The joint probability distribution graph becomes more eccentric toward the dominant quadrants with increase in the submergence ratio. This indicates
that the probability of dominant events further increases with increase in the submergence ratio