Electrospun polyurethane and soy protein nanofibres for wound dressing applications

In this report, a novel wound dressing material has been woven by electrospinning technique and tested for its various properties. For the nanofibre mat, a mixture of polyurethane (PU) and soy protein isolate (SPI) was electrospun in conjugation with zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO Nps) and ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (CipHCl) to produce fibrous mats viz. PU/SPI/ZnO and PU/SPI/CipHCl. An optimum ratio (1 : 1) of PU/SPI was used as suitable polymeric ratio in order to produce homogenous nanofibres without beads having an average diameter in the range of 300–350 nm. The electrospun nanofibre‐based mats were characterised using X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet‐visible spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and scanning electron microscope. The mechanical properties of the nanofibrous mats were tested using universal testing machine. The wettability analysis was done using the contact angle measurement based on the sessile drop test. This study revealed that the electrospun PU/SPI‐based nanofibres are non‐sensitizing, non‐allergic and non‐toxic and that it can be used as a peculiar wound healing material.Inspec keywords: polymer fibres, nanofibres, nanomedicine, biomedical materials, wounds, electrospinning, zinc compounds, II‐VI semiconductors, wide band gap semiconductors, nanoparticles, nanofabrication, X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform spectra, infrared spectra, ultraviolet spectra, visible spectra, thermal analysis, scanning electron microscopy, wetting, contact angle, toxicologyOther keywords: electrospun polyurethane nanofibres, soy protein nanofibres, wound dressing applications, electrospinning, nanofibre mat, soy protein isolate, zinc oxide nanoparticles, ciprofloxacin hydrochloride, X‐ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet‐visible spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, scanning electron microscope, mechanical properties, universal testing machine, wettability, contact angle measurement, sessile drop test, nonsensitizing nanofibres, nonallergic nanofibres, nontoxic nanofibres, wound healing material, wavelength 300 nm to 350 nm, ZnO     

Two-stage procedures for the bounded risk point estimation of the parameter and hazard rate in two families of distributions

Two families of distributions are considered that cover a large number of probability distributions useful in investigations involving reliability studies and survival analyses. The problem of bounded risk point estimation of the parameter and hazard rate function of the two families of distribution is handled. Motivated by Mukhopadhyay and Pepe (2006 Mukhopadhyay, N. and Pepe, W. (2006). Exact Bounded Risk Estimation When the Terminal Sample Size and Estimator Are Dependent: The Exponential Case, Sequential Analysis 25: 85–101.[Taylor &; Francis Online] , [Google Scholar]), Roughani and Mahmoudi (2015 Roughani, G. and Mahmoudi, E. (2015). Exact Risk Evaluation of the Two-Stage Estimation of the Gamma Scale Parameter under Bounded Risk Constraint, Sequential Analysis 34: 387–405.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and Mahmoudi and Lalehzari (2017 Mahmoudi, E. and Lalehzari, R. (2017). Bounded Risk Estimation of the Hazard Rate Function of the Exponential Distribution: Two-Stage Procedure, Sequential Analysis 36: 38–54.[Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), two-stage procedures are developed based on the maximum likelihood estimator (MLE) as well as uniformly minimum variance unbiased estimator (UMVUE). The estimation problem based on the minimum mean square estimator (MMSE) is also considered. We establish that the MMSE of the parameter and hazard rate provides a smaller risk.     

Protein Domain Specific Covalent Inhibition of Human DNA Polymerase β

DNA polymerase β (Pol β) is a frequently overexpressed and/or mutated bifunctional repair enzyme. Pol β possesses polymerase and lyase active sites, that are employed in two steps of base excision repair. Pol β is an attractive therapeutic target for which there is a need for inhibitors. Two mechanistically inspired covalent inhibitors ( 1 , IC₅₀=21.0 μM; 9 , IC₅₀=18.7 μM) that modify lysine residues in different Pol β active sites are characterized. Despite modifying lysine residues in different active sites, 1 and 9 inactivate the polymerase and lyase activities of Pol β. Fluorescence anisotropy experiments indicate that they do so by preventing DNA binding. Inhibitors 1 and 9 provide the basis for a general approach to preparing domain selective inhibitors of bifunctional polymerases. Such molecules could prove to be useful tools for studying the role of wild type and mutant forms of Pol β and other polymerases in DNA repair.     

BFCNet: a CNN for diagnosis of ductal carcinoma in breast from cytology images

Pattern Analysis and Applications - Fine Needle Aspiration Cytology (FNAC) is a quick and minimally invasive technique used to diagnose breast cancer, specifically ductal carcinoma. The incidence...     

Synthesis of thinned concentric ring array antenna in predefined phi‐planes using binary firefly and binary particle swarm optimization algorithm

A binary firefly algorithm inspired by the behavior of artificial fireflies has been applied to thin a planar concentric ring array antenna to minimize the peak sidelobe level in a number of predefined ϕ‐planes. Two different cases comprising two different design specifications for the optimized thinned array have been considered. In the first case, the array is thinned to reduce the peak sidelobe level while keeping the first null beamwidth and half power beamwidth of the array below their specified values in all the defined ϕ‐planes. In the second case, peak sidelobe level of the array is reduced regardless of any pre‐specified values of first null beamwidth and half power beamwidth. To illustrate the superiority of binary firefly algorithm, the thinning of the array for the two different cases has been compared with binary particle swarm optimization algorithm. Results clearly show the superiority of binary firefly algorithm in finding optimum solutions for both cases. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Synthesis and characterization of conducting poly(aniline‐co‐diaminodiphenylsulfone) copolymers

Polyaniline, poly(aniline‐co‐4,4′‐diaminodiphenylsulfone), and poly(4,4′‐diaminodiphenylsulfone) were synthesized by ammonium peroxydisulfate oxidation and characterized by a number of techniques, including infrared spectroscopy, ultraviolet–visible absorption spectroscopy, ¹H‐NMR, thermogravimetric analysis, and differential scanning calorimetry. These copolymers had enhanced solubility in common organic solvents in comparison with polyaniline. The conductivities of the HCl‐doped polymers ranged from 1 S cm^?1 for polyaniline to 10^?8 S cm^?1 for poly(4,4′‐diaminodiphenylsulfone). The copolymer compositions showed that block copolymers of 4,4′‐diaminodiphenylsulfone (r₁ > 1) and aniline (r₂ < 1) formed and that the reactivity of 4,4′‐diaminodiphenylsulfone was greater than that of aniline. The results were explained by the effect of the ? SO₂? group present in the polymer structure. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 90: 2337–2347, 2003     

Repositing honey incorporated electrospun nanofiber membranes to provide anti-oxidant,anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory microenvironment for wound regeneration

Topical application of honey for tissue regeneration, has recently regained attention in clinical practice with controlled studies affirming its efficacy and indicating its role in regeneration over repair. Parallely, to overcome difficulties of applying raw honey, several product development studies like nanofibrous matrices have been reported. However, one approach concentrated on achieving highest possible honey loading in the nanofiber membranes while other studies have found that only specific honey dilutions result in differential cellular responses on wound healing and re-epithelization. From these results, it can be suggested that high honey loading provides optimum external microenvironment, low-loaded membranes could provide a more conducive internal microenvironment for tissue regeneration. With this hypothesis, this paper sought to evaluate ability of low-honey loaded nanofibers to modulate the anti-oxidant, anti-biofilm and anti-inflammatory properties which are important to be maintained in wound micro-environment. A loading-dependent reduction of biofilm formation and anti-oxidant activity was noted in different concentration ranges investigated. After scratch assay, a certain honey loading (0.5%) afforded the maximum re-epithelization. Since there is lack of methods to determine anti-inflammatory properties of nanofiber membranes during epithelial healing process, we performed anti-inflammatory assessment of nano-fibers by evaluating the expressions of pro-inflammatory markers-Cycloxygenase-2 (COX-2) and Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and to confirm the optimized concentration. Considering the role of COX-2 and IL-6, the novel methodology used in this study can also be developed as an assay for anti-inflammatory matrices for wound healing.

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MR fingerprinting of the prostate

Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine - Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging (mpMRI) has been adopted as the key tool for detection, localization, characterization,...