Drug based nanoparticle (NP) formulations have gained considerable attention over the past decade for their use in various drug delivery systems. NPs have been shown to increase bioavailability, decrease side effects of highly toxic drugs, and prolong drug release. Furthermore, polymer based, biodegradable nanodelivery has become increasing popular in the field of NP formulation because of their high degree of compatibility and low rate of toxicity. Due to their popularity, commercially available polymers such as poly lactic acid (PLA), poly glycolic acid (PGA) and polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) are commonly used in the development and design of new nano based delivery systems. Nonsteriodal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used for the treatment of pain and inflammation. NSAIDs such as diclofenac and celecoxib function by blocking cyclooxygenase expression and reducing prostaglandin synthesis. Unfortunately, the pharmacological actions of NSAIDs can lead to the development of several adverse side effects such as gastrointestinal ulceration and bleeding. The aim of this study was to formulate and optimize diclofenac or celecoxib entrapped polymer NPs using an emulsion-diffusion-evaporation technique. NP formulations were evaluated based on specific formula parameters such as particle size, zeta potential, morphology, and entrapment efficiency. Effects of stabilizer type, stabilizer concentration, centrifugal force, drug amount, and/or emulsifier (lecithin) on nanoparticle characterization were examined for formula optimization. Results of the formulation studies showed that NPs developed using polylactide-co-glycolide (PLGA) polymers and the stabilizer didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DMAB) demonstrated enhanced stability, drug entrapment, and reduced particle size. These findings demonstrate an effective method for polymer NP formulation of diclofenac or celecoxib. Furthermore, the results reported herein support a novel method of drug delivery that may function to reduce known adverse effects of these pharmacotherapeutic agents.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is encouraging the innovation of long-acting opioid formulations that are manipulation-resistant. The purpose of this commentary is to assess the benefits and limitations of abuse-deterrent opioid formulations (ADFs) and discuss their role in mitigating the current opioid epidemic. ADFs have been created with chemical properties that make it difficult for people who non-medically use prescription drugs to crush and dissolve opioid tablets, as well as by combining opioids with antagonists such as naloxone or naltrexone, which are released only when the dosage form has been manipulated or the drug is taken by a non-intended route. Despite these and other technologies, consensus regarding the effectiveness of these formulations in preventing non-medical use is lacking given the difficulty in obtaining post-marketing data. Researchers also question if the creation of abuse-deterrent drugs will have a positive effect on those struggling with a severe opioid-use disorder, fearing that current opioid users will simply find a new – perhaps more dangerous – drug of choice. Abuse-deterrent opioids are still opioids, and although they may make manipulation more difficult than non-ADF formulations, they are not “abuse proof.” The introduction of ADFs could provide a false sense of security among prescribers and dispensers, and we fear that ADFs may have a minimal impact on non-medical use of prescription opioids. Further epidemiological studies will be required to determine the large-scale impact of abuse-deterrent opioids in preventing opioid use disorder and its downstream consequences.

Glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in the United States accounting for 9-12% of all cases of blindness. Currently, the front line treatment for glaucoma are prostaglandins that may have to be taken up to several times a day. Even with proper treatment, roughly 11% of the patients using the treatment are non-compliant and lose their vision. In this project, ForSight Laboratories has developed a pharmaceutical drug delivering implant with the capability of sustaining long-term release of a prostaglandin as a new way to treat the condition. This project reports the product development of a polymer drug matrix with a controlled release in order to better treat glaucoma. Accompanying product development, a mathematical model was created in order to strengthen the understanding of the dosage profile and to predict long term dosages.

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / This research report is based on integration of strategy formulation and implementation in the Greater Sekhukhune District Department of Basic Education, Limpopo Province. The purpose of this research is to investigate the key drivers in the formulation and implementation of strategies and how can they be integrated to achieve the formulated goals and objectives of Greater Sekhukhune District Department of Basic Education. This report deals only with qualitative research method. The major findings of the study are that there are key drivers of strategy formulation and key drivers of strategy implementation and their outcomes. The key drivers of strategy formulation are the vision and mission statements, long-term objectives, and generation and selection of grand strategies; whereas the key drivers of strategy implementation are leadership, organizational culture and organizational structure .The integration of these key drivers is essential for the implementation of strategies, leading to improved service delivery to various stakeholders. The report concludes that in order to approach strategy formulation and strategy implementation in an integrated manner, the following should take place : (1) managers and staff members who are responsible for strategy implementation should also be involved in strategy formulation processes ; (2)organizational culture should be changed to create a conducive environment for the managers and the employees to be motivated to render quality services at service points ; (3) leadership and management to guide vision and mission of the district; (4) organizational structure to ‘fit’ implementation of strategies for efficiency and effectiveness of the integration of strategy formulation and implementation to achieve formulated goals and objectives.

Thesis (MBA) --University of Limpopo, 2010 / This research report is based on integration of strategy formulation and implementation in the Greater Sekhukhune District Department of Basic Education, Limpopo Province. The purpose of this research is to investigate the key drivers in the formulation and implementation of strategies and how can they be integrated to achieve the formulated goals and objectives of Greater Sekhukhune District Department of Basic Education. This report deals only with qualitative research method. The major findings of the study are that there are key drivers of strategy formulation and key drivers of strategy implementation and their outcomes. The key drivers of strategy formulation are the vision and mission statements, long-term objectives, and generation and selection of grand strategies; whereas the key drivers of strategy implementation are leadership, organizational culture and organizational structure .The integration of these key drivers is essential for the implementation of strategies, leading to improved service delivery to various stakeholders. The report concludes that in order to approach strategy formulation and strategy implementation in an integrated manner, the following should take place : (1) managers and staff members who are responsible for strategy implementation should also be involved in strategy formulation processes ; (2)organizational culture should be changed to create a conducive environment for the managers and the employees to be motivated to render quality services at service points ; (3) leadership and management to guide vision and mission of the district; (4) organizational structure to ‘fit’ implementation of strategies for efficiency and effectiveness of the integration of strategy formulation and implementation to achieve formulated goals and objectives.

acase@tulane.edu

Contextual information retrieval (CIR) is a critical technique for today’s search engines in terms of facilitating queries and returning relevant information. Despite its importance, little progress has been made in its application, due to the difficulty of capturing and representing contextual information about users. This thesis details the development and evaluation of the contextual SERL search, designed to tackle some of the challenges associated with CIR from the World Wide Web. The contextual SERL search utilises a rich contextual model that exploits implicit and explicit data to modify queries to more accurately reflect the user’s interests as well as to continually build the user’s contextual profile and a shared contextual knowledge base. These profiles are used to filter results from a standard search engine to improve the relevance of the pages displayed to the user. The contextual SERL search has been tested in an observational study that has captured both qualitative and quantitative data about the ability of the framework to improve the user’s web search experience. A total of 30 subjects, with different levels of search experience, participated in the observational study experiment. The results demonstrate that when the contextual profile and the shared contextual knowledge base are used, the contextual SERL search improves search effectiveness, efficiency and subjective satisfaction. The effectiveness improves as subjects have actually entered fewer queries to reach the target information in comparison to the contemporary search engine. In the case of a particularly complex search task, the efficiency improves as subjects have browsed fewer hits, visited fewer URLs, made fewer clicks and have taken less time to reach the target information when compared to the contemporary search engine. Finally, subjects have expressed a higher degree of satisfaction on the quality of contextual support when using the shared contextual knowledge base in comparison to using their contextual profile. These results suggest that integration of a user’s contextual factors and information seeking behaviours are very important for successful development of the CIR framework. It is believed that this framework and other similar projects will help provide the basis for the next generation of contextual information retrieval from the Web.

PhD / Electrostatics of aerosols for inhalation is a relatively new research area. Charge properties of these particles are largely unknown but electrostatic forces have been proposed to potentially influence lung deposition. Investigation on the relationship between formulation and aerosol charging is required to understand the fundamental mechanisms. A modified electrical low pressure impactor was employed to measure the particles generated from metered dose inhalers and dry powder inhalers. This equipment provides detailed size and charge information of the aerosols. The particles were sized by impaction onto thirteen stages. The net charges in twelve of the size fractions were detected and recorded by sensitive electrometers. The drug deposits were quantified by chemical assay. The aerosol charge profiles of commercial metered dose inhalers were product-dependent, which was due to differences in the drug, formulation, and valve stem material. The calculated number of elementary charges per drug particle of size ≤ 6.06 μm ranged from zero to several ten thousands. The high charge levels on particles may have a potential effect on the deposition of the aerosol particles in the lung when inhaled. New plastic spacers marketed for use with metered dose inhalers were found to possess high surface charges on the internal walls, which was successfully removed by detergent-coating. Detergent-coated spacer had higher drug output than the new ones due to the reduced electrostatic particle deposition inside the spacer. Particles delivered from spacers carried lower inherent charges than those directly from metered dose inhalers. Those with higher charges might be susceptible to electrostatic forces inside the spacers and were thus retained. The electrostatic low pressure impactor was further modified to disperse two commercial Tubuhaler® products at 60 L/min. The DPIs showed drug-specific responses to particle charging at different RHs. The difference in hygroscopicity of the drugs may play a major role. A dual mechanistic charging model was proposed to explain the charging behaviours. The charge levels on drug particles delivered from these inhalers were sufficiently high to potentially affect deposition in the airways when inhaled. Drug-free metered dose inhalers containing HFA-134a and 227 produced highly variable charge profiles but on average the puffs were negatively charged, which was thought to be due to the electronegative fluorine atoms in the HFA molecules. The charges of both HFAs shifted towards neutrality or positive polarity with increasing water content. The spiked water might have increased the electrical conductivity and/or decreased the electronegativity of the bulk propellant solution. The number of elementary charges per droplet decreased with decreasing droplet size. This trend was probably due to the redistribution of charges amongst small droplets following electrostatic fission of a bigger droplet when the Raleigh limit was reached.

This study attempts to trace the locus of responsibility for the decision making associated with policy determination in the Australian Capital Territory further education system. Generally the study is restricted to the decade of the Seventies, during which period the administrative organisation of the system moved from the large, centralised New South Wales State technical education system to a small, regional system with local control. In chronological sequence this field study considers the content and effect of a number of reports, files and papers generated during this period under study, and shows the nature of influences on the emergence and structure of the A.C.T. further education system. In particular, the shift of responsibility for policy determination, and executive management of the system, is followed through as a function of the recommendations contained in the various documents considered. By tracing the movement of executive responsibility through the early years of operation of the A.C.T. further education system it is possible to detect the focus of power and influence within and imposed upon the system, and to consider the decision-making strategies adopted in the determination of policy. From these it is possible to extrapolate and assess, to some extent, the stage of evolution which has been reached and possible directions in which "natural selection" factors may influence further developments. This field study should provide a first step, at least, toward the association and amalgamation of many documents which have (or should have) significantly influenced the nature of the present A.C.T. further education system. The study concludes with some discussion of current issues and suggestions for further (related) research.

Cette thèse a pour objet la modélisation de poutres composites piézoélectriques et l`application au contrôle passif des vibrations. Une première partie présente un modèle de poutre du type Euler-Bernoulli électromécanique. Le modèle est construit à partir d'un principe variationel mixte qui, sans introduire des degrés de liberté supplémentaires, tienne compte des effets 3D des champs électromécaniques et du potentiel électrique induit. Une deuxième partie propose des techniques numériques et expérimentales pour l'analyse modale et la déduction d'un modèle d'ordre réduit pour des poutres avec actionneurs piézoélectriques distribués. Enfin, des applications au contrôle passif de vibrations au moyen de circuits électriques sont étudiées. Dans de tels systèmes, l'énergie mécanique est dissipée dans des réseaux résistifs-inductifs. Chaque partie comprend des validations numériques et expérimentales. Un premier prototype d'un système pour le contrôle passif distribué est proposé.