Thesis (M.S.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 86-102). / vii, 102 leaves, bound ill. 29 cm

The aim of this project was to investigate a range of medicinal herbs which have radical scavenging and antioxidant activities and then apply novel mass spectrometric techniques to investigate and analyse active components responsible for their pharmaceutical actions. A sensitive electron capture negative ionization of gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (ECNI-GC-MS) method was developed to assess hydroxyl radical production, as indicated by 3.4-dihydroxyphenylacetic acid (DOPAC) production, which allows excellent evaluation of hydroxyl radical scavenging and antioxidant activity of a number of medicinal Chinese herbs. Melatonin is an effective multiple radical scavenger and antioxidant and has been used in this study for the comparison of radical scavenging activity with medicinal herbs. To analyse active compounds from herbal extracts, mass spectrometric techniques were used to separate components that suppressed hydroxyl radical production from Dimocarpus longan Lour, determine known ginsenosides from ginseng extracts as well as to identify and quantify melatonin in ten herbal extarcts. The results obtained indicated that 1) the utilization of alumina in the ECNI-GC-MS method diminished interferences from ???noise??? products in a Fenton-type reaction, which allows obtaining pure final hydroxyl radical product and this method demonstrated optimal sensitivity and reliability; 2) Aqueous extracts of all herbs analysed showed different levels of hydroxyl radical scavenging activity. Dimocarpus longan Lour, Chrysanthemum morifolium Ramat, Lonicera hypoglauca Miq, Ginkgo biloba L, Rehmannia flutinosa and Libosch Cornus officinalis Sieb all exhibited stronger inhibitory effect on hydroxyl radical production than melatonin. 3) Aqueous extract of Dimocarpus longan Lour. showed the greatest inhibitory effect on hydroxyl radical production among the other herbs tested. The active fractions of this herb eluted just after the void volume using HPLC suggesting that the active compounds responsible for radical scavenging activity are polar and water soluble. They may belong to phenol group of chemicals. 4) Herbal extracts using non-polar solvents showed no effect on hydroxyl radical production suggesting active compounds in those herbs are water soluble. 5) Different species and origins of ginseng were compared for their radical scavenging activity. Chinese fresh ginseng (Oriental ginseng) showed higher activity than Korean ginseng tablet and American ginseng. Seven known active ginsenosides were identified using HPLC-MS-MS. 6) Melatonin was found at varying concentrations in ten herbs, which may contribute to the radical scavenging activity of herbs, on the other hand, it may provide the justification of clinical use and food resources, particularly for those herbs contain high level of melatonin.

Decision support systems (DSS) are traditionally designed to optimise the outcomes of a decision. This thesis explores how DSS design can also be driven by the optimisation of the decision process leading to the decision, and how it may enhance the human uptake and use of DSS. It identifies which tasks could be simplified by decision support, and how to build DSS that are likely to be readily adopted and so improve decision outcomes. It tests the hypotheses that: (a) The analysis of specific process attributes of a given clinical decision task, as well as the information needs of its users, improves the design of DSS and enhances systems?impact and acceptance. (b) The complexity of the decision task is the key process attribute that, in conjunction with the information seeking of users, shapes the outcome of the design process. The work is applied to the domain of antibiotic prescribing in critical care. To explore the first hypothesis, the key attributes of prescribing decisions associated with specific prescribing subtasks and different decision-makers and decision contexts are identified and then analysed. Based on our findings, an information-processing model of decision support for an antibiotic-prescribing task is proposed. The second hypothesis is addressed by applying and comparing metrics for decision complexity including minimum message length, cognitive effort assessment and clinical algorithm structure analysis to the prescribing task. A framework is developed to select clinical decision tasks that may benefit from automation, by characterizing decision support as a process of complexity reduction for users, and these ideas are tested in the context of antibiotic prescribing for ventilator-associated pneumonia. The hypotheses are then tested by applying the task complexity framework to the design of a DSS for antibiotic prescribing in critical care. A web-based experiment and a clinical trial of the DSS are described, both of which study the acceptability and effectiveness of the system and verify the usefulness of the design framework. Specifically, in a before-after controlled trial, with no difference in patient mortality or severity of presentation between the two periods, the use of the DSS was associated with statistically significant improvements in patient outcomes and a reduction in antibiotic usage. The length of stay and total consumption of antibiotics decreased respectively from 7.15 to 6.22 days (P=0.02) and from 1767 to 1458 defined daily doses/1000 patient days (P=0.04). The introduction of a hand-held computer-based DSS was associated with less administration of ???broad-spectrum?antibiotics. The relative impact of the uptake of the DSS on the prescribing quality was quantified. Clinicians chose to use guidelines for one third, and pathology data or the DSS for about two thirds of cases for which they were available to assist their prescribing decisions. When used, the DSS plus pathology data improved the agreement of decisions with those of an expert panel - from 65% to 97% (P=0.002). The impact of the DSS was more significant on prescribing decisions of higher complexity. The level of decision complexity appeared to affect the choice of decision support type. Prescribing guidelines were accessed more often for lower complexity decisions, whereas the infection risk DSS plus pathology data were preferred for decisions of higher complexity. The need for measurement of the effectiveness of a DSS in improving decisions, as well as their likely rate of adoption in the clinical environment, was demonstrated. The thesis concludes with a proposal to apply the framework described to the modelling of the DSS adoption and to include task complexity and user information seeking as determinants of the design and evaluation of clinical DSS.

Errata has been inserted on p. 136 and 162. / Bibliography: p. 263-280. / xxiii, 280 p. : ill. ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Presents the results of two investigations into the characteristics of electron beams for application in radiation therapy. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Physics and Mathematical Physics, 1997?

Master of Dental Surgery / It has been considered for the purpose of this review unnecessary to discuss in detail the Morphology of the dental pulp and dentine, as this may be found in any recognised text-book, but to concentrate on the clinical problems involved. The materials discussed are those in current usage for exposed pulp preservation, whilst other materials may be touched upon and it is the endeavour of the author to review as many results as possible in this field and to draw sound conclusion from statements made. The field of corticosteroids in dentistry is comparatively new and here it is the aim to provide a basis from which further research may be undertaken. Thus, this thesis is divided into two distinct sections. The first section dealing with non-corticoid drugs and the second sections dealing with cortico-steriods and their combinations, exclusively, utilising the commercial product Ledermix as their prime example. However, when considering pulp therapy one must delve into the past to understand the thought and effort that has gone into this realm of dentistry and to note the lack of the true scientific attitude by some into this work. This may then allow us to look again at our own statements to note how much controversy there was, and still is concerning a question such as “should an attempt on the pulp once exposed ever be made to maintain its vitality?” It will be shown at a later stage that the pulp has marvellous recuperating powers if treated in a conservative manner, something which was hardly considered even early this century. Castognola, Quigleyand Berman have all reviewed this subject before. However, my aim is to bring together all of their information as a preface to the important work of considering the immediate study being carried out in this field. The first attempted vital capping was carried out by Philip Pfaff in 1756 with a small piece of gold foil adapted to the base of the cavity. Then in 1826 it was reported that Lenoard Koeker cauterized the exposed pulp with a hot iron wire and placed silver or lead caps over the exposures. It then appeared that little further was written concerning pulp capping until the middle of the 19th century when Albrecht (1856) utilised opiates, caustics and eugenol on the exposed pulp. McKown (1859) recommended cotton soaked in creosote and tannic acid, whilst Taft (1859) was in favour of cauterizing recently exposed pulps with nitric acid and placing a filling immediately. These results were purely a subjective evaluation. In fact Mc Kown’s results were produced on one of his own teeth. The history of pulp preservation really begins in the early 1860’s. Allport (1866) and Atkinson (1866-1868) suggested amputation of all projecting cornua of exposed pulps and placement of a temporary filling until it was healthy. Allport used the b lood clot formed during operation as his means of capping. J Foote (1866) also, believed the blood clot to be the best means of covering the pulp. This certainly appeared to be a reasonable assumption, considering medical knowledge of the day.

Submitted in partial compliance with the requirements of the Master’s Degree in Technology: Homoeopathy, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2018. / Aim: The aim of this qualitative study was to determine the homeopathic symptomatology that would arise from a homeopathic drug proving of Anthropoides paradiseus 30CH after it was administered to healthy individuals and to compare the homeopathic symptomatology with selected avian remedies. These avian remedies were Corvus Corax, Acridotheres tristis, Peregrine eagle and Geococcyx californianus. Objectives : Objective 1 The first objective was to determine the proving symptomatology of Anthropoides paradiseus 30CH. This was done as a randomized, double blind placebo controlled homeopathic drug proving in the 30th Hahnemannian potency in 30 healthy volunteers of which 6 were on placebo. Objective 2 : To perform a comparative analysis with selected existing remedies, namely Corvus Corax (Raven), Acridotheres tristis (India myna), Peregrine eagle (Peregrine eagle) and Geococcyx californianus (Roadrunner) all in the avian group. Methodology : The homeopathic drug proving of Anthropoides paradiseus 30CH, was conducted as a double-blind placebo controlled randomized trial with thirty volunteers between the ages of 18 and 75 years old. Provers had a full homoeopathic case history and physical exam performed and thereafter they received their symptom recording journals and the test drug or placebo. Twenty-four of the volunteers received the verum powders whilst the remaining six were administered a placebo (ratio of 4:1). The double-blind design was employed; neither the supervisor, researcher nor the provers themselves knew who received the verum or placebo. The provers recorded their symptoms over a 5 week period. Provers began journaling one week before taking the active drug substance or placebo in order to establish their symptom baseline, and continued recording their symptoms for four weeks after having started the active drug or placebo regime. After the 5 weeks of recording their symptoms, the provers attended a follow-up consultation. After all the journals were collected from the provers, the extraction and collation of the data was conducted, and thereafter the data was presented in Materia Medica and repertory formats. The Results: The homoeopathic drug proving of Anthropoides paradiseus produced a variety of symptoms. The main symptoms belonged to both the mental/emotional and the physical sphere. The symptoms of the mental sphere of this remedy included anxiety, disorientation, mood swings and irritability. The characteristic physical symptoms includes polyuria, polyphagia, polydipsia, headaches, muscle pain and spasms, post-nasal drip, hay-fever, and bloating. Other possible uses might be for the treatment of chest pain, nausea and abdominal cramping. The comparative analysis of the selected avian remedies, namely Falco peregrinus, Corvus corax, Geococcyx californianus and Acridotheres tristis, and Anthropoides paradiseus revealed common mental emotional themes of detachment, a drugged or floating sensation and on the physical sphere the group analysis revealed the following common symptoms: numbness, obstruction, dryness and appetite fluctuations. The conclusion : It was discovered that Anthropoides paradiseus 30CH produced symptoms that can be used in the treatment of attention deficit disorder, mood swings, anxiety, pre-diabetes, hay fever, sinusitis, muscle pain and spasms, gastroenteritis and headaches. It was also determined that the remedy, according to the correlating themes, belonged to the AIDS miasm. The conclusion of the group comparison generated the following themes and symptoms: detachment, drugged sensation, restriction, neurological symptoms, obstruction, dryness and appetite fluctuations. / M

Herbs have been the basis for medical treatments through much of human history, and even now such herbalism is still widely practiced around the world. Most frequently and traditionally, water is used as the extraction solvent for preparing medicinal herbs to generate decoction or infusion for medicinal purpose. In other words, in most cases, multiple chemical components in water extracts should be responsible for therapeutic (toxic and side, if any) effects of medicinal herbs. Phytochemical analysis of water extracts for quality control of medicinal herbs is therefore important to ensure their safeties and efficacies. Unfortunately, however, it is not given enough attention in the modern research whereas the relative current studies are intensively focused on organic solvent-extracts of medicinal herbs. In this project, analysis of medicinal herbs’ water extracts is thus focused. Various analytical approaches have been exhaustively developed for qualitative and quantitative analysis of chemicals in water extracts of medicinal herbs. However, many research challenges in methodology still exist. Polysaccharides and small molecules are two most important kinds of chemcials in water extracts of medicinal herbs, so they also widely regarded as markers for quality evaluation. For analysis of small molecules, the levels of quantitative determination are always far unsatisfactory, normally less than 10%. For analysis of polysaccharides, the existed problems are even more serious in both sample preparation and chemical analysis. Ethanol precipitation is always the first step for crude polysaccharide preparation. But it is just directly used without optimization and its capacity has never been evaluated. Following that, chemical analysis of natural polysaccharide also suffers severe methodological bottlenecks and many drawbacks occurre in qualitative and quantitative characterization. Besides, polysaccharides and small molecules in medicinal herbs are always individually investigated but hardly studied together before. Concerning these issues, here several approaches and stratigies were accordingly proposed to improve the current situations using decoctions of some traditional Chinese medicines (TCMs) as the research objects and examples. In detail, first, a quantitative method was developed for quality evaluation of Huang-Lian-Jie-Du-Tang. In this study, quantitative levels of small molecules were greatly improved, compared with the current analogous studies for quality evaluation of medicinal herbs. Then, shifting to polysaccharides, availability of ethanol precipitation for natural polysaccharide precipitation was critically evaluated. Parameters which could affect the ethanol precipitation results, such as structural features, molecular size of polysaccharide, and ethanol concentration were systematically investigated. Successively, a novel and rapid HPGPC-based strategy for quality control of saccharide-dominant medicinal herbs was proposed using Dendrobium officinale as the example. Polysaccharides in the decoction of Dendrobium officinale were qualitatively and quantitatively determined. The methodological superiority of the developed method compared with conventional approaches was highlighted. To facilitate this study, research on chemistry, bioactivity and quality control of Dendrobium was systematically reviewed in advance. After that, small molecules and polysaccharides in in Angelicae Sinensis Radix and Chuanxiong Rhizoma were compared together. Lastly, effects of ginseng polysaccharides on the in vivo pharmacokinetics of ginsenoside Rg1 on induced immunosuppressive model rats was investigated to provide a chemically holistic view for Du-Shen-Tang. By these studies, the above mentioned predicament in chemical analysis on both small molecuels and polysaccharides in water extracts of medicinal herbs were methodologically improved to varying degrees. Concerning small molecules and polysaccharides from multiple perspectives, the successive studies are helpful for enhancing quality evaluation and scientific understanding of medicinal herbs’ decoctions.

This exploratory study investigated the expansion of an established systematized group dreamwork method (Shuttleworth-Jordan, 1995) to incorporate artwork. The rationale for the addition of artwork was situated firstly, in a poetic Jungian understanding of the image as a holistic "place" of gnosis or transformative healing and, secondly, in an argument that in order to carry the gnostic potential of the image into the lived world, a dreamwork method should involve all four styles of consciousness (thinking, intuition, sensation and feeling). It was considered that the verbal interpretive Shuttleworth-Jordan method would be enhanced by the incorporation of a visual artwork process in order more fully to open the potential of the method for incorporating the nonverbal intuitive, sensation and feeling styles of consciousness. In order to compare the established method (dreamwork Without Art) and the proposed method (dreamwork With Art), two dreamwork workshops were conducted in which all participants experienced all four conditions of the study: Dream Presenter Without Art, Dream Presenter With Art, Group Member Without Art, Group Member With Art. Two levels of assessment were utilized: a quantitative analysis (involving rating scales completed after each dreamwork session), supported by a qualitative analysis (involving written questionnaires completed at the end of the workshops and follow-up interviews conducted a week after completion of the workshops). The results suggested that the incorporation of artwork in the Shuttleworth-Jordan (1995) group dreamwork method enhanced the established method in that a consistent trend of increased involvement in the dreamwork process and increased dreamwork effectiveness was reflected, while no deleterious effects were noted which might detract from the effectiveness of the existing model which had been established in previous research studies. Finally, a refined step-by-step group dreamwork method incorporating artwork was proposed, which included qualitative feedback from the present study.

The study examined rape counselling, with particular emphasis on countertransference reactions experienced by the counsellors of rape survivors. Four subjects participated in semi-focused, open-ended interviews, which were taped and transcribed verbatim. The phenomenon of countertransference was discussed, and countertransference reactions identified and examined. The management of empathic strain, in order to sustain empathic inquiry and therapeutic efficacy, was discussed. The main results of the study included the identification of common victim themes, and the feelings evoked in the counsellor in the therapeutic relationship. These included feelings of anger, hopelessness, helplessness and sadness, particularly in the counselling of children, who may be HIV positive as a result of the attack, and victims of chronic abuse. Challenges of rape counselling included shortcomings in the system, and rape myths which trivialize the crime and blame the victim. The need for education and enlightenment of both the public and magistrates on the deleterious effects of rape was emphasized by all subjects.

Upconversion nanoparticles (UCNPs) have been utilized for biological applications. Unlike conventional linear excitation molecules, UCNPs are excited by 980nm and emit photon in visible and near infrared region. The unique photophysical property offers superior penetration depth and lower photo-cytotoxicity. With the aid of various vectors such as target-specific peptides and photosensitizers, the UCNPs can precisely interact selectively with designated proteins (Cyclin D1 and Polo-like Kinase 1) and cancer cells so as to achieve theranostic effect. This thesis illustrated the upconversion mechanism and anti-cancer effect by UCNPs conjugated with peptides. Two research studies focus on Cyclin D1 or Polo-like kinase 1 (Plk1) specific peptides coated UCNPs function as key cell cycle inhibitors, in vitro imaging agent and in vivo tumor suppressor. Apart from inorganic nanomaterials, graphitic phase carbon nitride (g-C3N4) nanoparticles coupled with porphyrin moieties act as cancer directional photodynamic therapy agents was also described in the aspects of detailed photophysical measurements and in vitro theranostic studies.