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B Truong,1,* N Rich-Garg,2,* BD Ehst,1 AA Deodhar,2 JH Ku,2 K Vakil-Gilani,2 A Danve,2 A Blauvelt,1,3 1Department of Dermatology, Oregon Health and Science University, 2Division of Arthritis and Rheumatic Diseases, Oregon Health and Science University, 3Oregon Medical Research Center, Portland, OR, USA *These authors contributed equally to this work Innovation: What is already known about the topic: psoriasis (PsO) is a common skin disease with major impact on quality of life (QoL). Patient-reported data on QoL from large number of PsO patients with and without psoriatic arthritis (PsA) are limited. What this study adds: In a large cohort referred to a university psoriasis center, patients with PsO and concomitant PsA (~30% in this group) had greater degrees of skin and nail involvement and experienced greater negative impacts on QoL. Despite large numbers of patients with moderate-to-severe disease, use of systemic therapy by community practitioners was uncommon. Background: PsO and PsA are common diseases that have marked adverse impacts on QoL. The disease features and patient-reported QoL data comparing PsO and PsA patients are limited. Objective: To identify and compare demographics, clinical disease characteristics, and QoL scores in a large cohort of PsO patients with and without PsA. Methods: All PsO patients seen in a psoriasis specialty clinic, named the Center of Excellence for Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis, were enrolled in an observational cohort. Demographic, QoL, and clinical data were collected from patient-reported questionnaires and from physical examinations performed by Center of Excellence for Psoriasis and Psoriatic Arthritis dermatologists and a rheumatologists. Cross sectional descriptive data were collected and comparisons between patients with PsO alone and those with concomitant PsA are presented. Results: A total of 568 patients were enrolled in the database. Mean age of PsO onset was 28 years and mean disease duration was 18 years. Those with family history had an earlier onset of PsO by ~7 years. Mean body surface area involvement with PsO was 14%. Mean body mass index was 30.7. Prevalence of PsA was 29.8%. PsA patients had a higher mean body surface area compared to patients with PsO alone (16.7% vs 13.4%, P

M Korani1, SM Rezayat1,2,4, K Gilani3, S Arbabi Bidgoli4, S Adeli11Department of Pharmacology, Faculty of Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences; 2Department of Nanotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences; 3Department of Pharmaceutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences; 4Department of Toxicology & Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAUPS), Tehran, IranAbstract: Silver has been used as an antimicrobial agent for a long time in different forms, but silver nanoparticles (nanosilver) have recently been recognized as potent antimicrobial agents. Although nanosilver is finding diverse medical applications such as silver-based dressings and silver-coated medical devices, its dermal and systemic toxicity via dermal use has not yet been identified. In this study, we analyzed the potential toxicity of colloidal nanosilver in acute and subchronic guinea pigs. Before toxicity assessments, the size of colloidal nanosilver was recorded in sizes

In this paper, we study the productivity advantage of a variety of scenarios in a robotic cell by comparing their cycle times. The robotic cell is made up of several machines and a single gripper robot in the centre of the cell, which loads, unloads and moves the parts. Considering deterministic robot travelling, loading and unloading time elements and stochastic part process time element, this paper focuses on examining the scenarios composed of the single part type part sequencing methods and the robot moves in a cell. First, the decrease (increase) virtual robotic cell, in which its machines are virtually arranged in order of processing time regardless of their physical location, is introduced to calculate the cycle time. Second, a flow-graph based model is developed to analyse the cycle times for the scenarios when the part processing time element is stochastic. A robotic cell composed of three machines and a robot in the centre of the cell is used as a base example throughout the paper to illustrate the application of the models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The in vitro growth of the plants is affected by different chemical and environmental factors in addition to their genetics. Therefore, the basic requirements of the present study was to standardize the different physical and chemical factors to evaluate the in vitro growth potential of Daucus carota var. sativus under different concentrations of NaCl. For this purpose, Daucus carota was cultured on 1.0 mg/l BAP +0.2 mg/l 2,4-D in MS basal medium. Different concentrations of NaCl were used to evaluate the maximum tolerance of salt stress for carrot in terms of its in vitro growth. It was observed that 0.1 mg/l NaCl stress gave the maximum, i:e 70% growth of carrot in vitro cell lines, at 25±2°C in 16 hr photoperiod. The data were analyzed statistically through ANOVA technique using SPSS programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and the purpose of the study: This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of different concentrations of Nanosilver solution against Iranian strain of Leishmania major (MRHO/IR/75/ER) both in vitro and in vivo on BALB/c mice model for the first time. Methods: this is an interventional study which was conducted on the infected macrophages by L. major amastigotes in vitro. In order to confirm the in vitro results, various concentration of Nanosilver solution were administered topically on skin lesions caused by L. major in 78 inbred BALB/c mice as test or interventional and 52 mice as control groups once or twice daily for 14 days. Results and major conclusion: Results of this study showed that different concentration of Nanosilver reduced proliferation of L. major amastigotes compared with the control wells but the differences were not statistically significant. Also, different concentrations of Nanosilver did not decrease the lesion sizes and amastigote counts in the BALB/c mice significantly. Secondary infection was significantly decreased in Nanosilver- treated groups compared with control groups (p<0.01). In conclusion, Nanosilver seems to be effective for control of secondary infection of localized cutaneous leishmaniasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The ability of supercritical fluids (SCFs), such as carbon dioxide, to dissolve and expand or extract organic solvents and as result lower their solvation power, makes it possible the use of SCFs for the precipitation of solids from organic solutions. The process could be the injection of a solution of the substrate in an organic solvent into a vessel which is swept by a supercritical fluid. The aim of this study was to ascertain the feasibility of supercritical processing to prepare different particulate forms of fluticasone propionate (FP), and to evaluate the influence of different liquid solvents and precipitation temperatures on the morphology, size and crystal habit of particles. Method: The solution of FP in organic solvents, was precipitated by supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) at two pressure and temperature levels. Effects of process parameters on the physicochemical characteristics of harvested microparticles were evaluated. Results: Particle formation was observed only at the lower selected pressure, whilst at the higher pressure, no precipitation of particles was occurred due to dissolution of FP in supercritical antisolvent. The micrographs of the produced particles showed different morphologies for FP obtained from different conditions. The results of thermal analysis of the resulted particles showed that changes in the processing conditions didn't influence thermal behavior of the precipitated particles. Evaluation of the effect of temperature on the size distribution of particles showed that increase in the temperature from 40 °C to 50 °C, resulted in reduction of the mean particle size from about 30 µm to about 12 ?m. Conclusion: From the results of this study it may be concluded that, processing of FP by supercritical antisolvent could be an approach for production of diverse forms of the drug and drastic changes in the physical characteristics of microparticles could be achieved by changing the type of solvent and temperature of operation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives:99mTc-MAG3 is a standard radiotracer for renal dynamic functional study. Despite its properties for clinical uses, it has numerous technical limitations. 99mTc-EC is also a tubular radiotracer for renal imaging, which has not been used worldwide. In this study, the use of 99mTc-EC and 99mTc-MAG3 for renal functional study were compared. Methods: Thirty five patients (20 male, 15 female; mean age of 34.63 ± 10.69 years) were entered in the study. About 10 mCi of 99mTc-EC and 99mTc-MAG3 were administered in different days within 7 days intervals, and serial images were obtained for 30 minutes. Serum creatinine and visual scintigraphic findings of all patients, were within normal limits.. Results: In this study, the renal uptake of 99mTe-EC was. significantly higher than 99mTc-MAG3 (6.20% vs. 4.39% of the injected dose), while the hepatic activity of 99mTc-EC was significantly lower (307 vs 439 mean pixel count, p<0.0001). Also the absolute values for some other quantitative parameters such as right and left kidney transit times and ERPF were different for each radiotracer. In spite of these differences most quantitative parameters (except for right kidney transit time, liver uptake and Tmax of both kidneys) showed good correlations for both agents. Conclusion: The calculated ERPF with 99mTc-EC as compared to 99mTc-MAG3 is in closer proximity to the true values, Also the use of 99mTc-EC compared to 99mTc-MAG3 in clinic due to simplicity of preparation, higher stability, higher renal uptake, and lower hepatobiliary activity is better. Therefore the use of 99mTc-EC as an appropriate substitute or ever preferred radiopharmaceutical for 99mTc- MAG3 radiopharmaceutical for renal function studies is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of mechanical milling time on physicochemical properties and stability of Cefotaxime sodium (CS). CS was micronized by ball milling in five period of time: 30, 60, 120, 240, and 360 min. The powder properties of the samples were examined by HPLC assay, laser diffraction, helium densitometery, IR spectrophotometery, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scaning electron microscopy (SEM), differential scanning calorimetery (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Karl-Fisher titrimetery. The results showed that ball milling was not an appropriate method for particle size reduction to make solid dosage form such as dry powder inhaler formulation (DPI) of CS and by increase in milling time, degradation of CS increased. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]