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Improved Design (improved + design)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	50%
Engineering	50%

Selected Abstracts

Road traffic accidents and the elderly

GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2009
Suzan Abou-Raya
Aim: To identify and evaluate the causes and characteristics of road traffic accidents (RTA) and to analyze injury patterns in elderly road traffic victims in order to apply appropriate measures for the prevention of RTA in the elderly. Methods: Two hundred and fifty-eight elderly road traffic victims admitted to the Emergency and Traumatology Departments of our institution were enrolled. Complete data about the circumstances surrounding the accident, mechanism of injury, specific injury, comorbid conditions and drug history were recorded. All subjects underwent a physical and mental function examination. Results: The majority of road traffic victims were pedestrians. Most elderly pedestrian accidents were due to falls. Accidents by elderly car drivers occurred frequently at intersections. Craniocerebral and extremity injuries formed the majority of the injuries in pedestrian and cyclist victims whereas chest injuries were commoner in car accident victims. Medical problems and medication usage was common among RTA victims. Conclusion: The fragility of elderly car occupants and pedestrians should be taken into consideration and strategies aimed at the road-user safety including periodic medical screening, improvement of road structure and facilities, and the improved design of motor vehicles should be implemented. [source]

Skin delivery of 5-fluorouracil from ultradeformable and standard liposomes in-vitro

JOURNAL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACOLOGY: AN INTERNATI ONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCE, Issue 8 2001
Gamal M. M. El Maghraby
The potential use of ultradeformable and standard liposomes as skin drug delivery systems was investigated in-vitro. An improved experimental design gave a good measure for skin deposition of drug. This avoided the contamination that can occur due to incomplete washing of the donor before direct determination of the amount of drug in the skin. The design used aqueous ethanolic receptor which is believed to diffuse into skin, disrupting deposited liposomes (if any) and thus releasing both bound and free drug. The receptor fluid was refined by testing different concentrations of ethanol. The applied dose was also optimized. Using the improved design and the optimum dose, an ultradeformable formulation was compared with four traditional liposomes for skin delivery of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). The best receptor was 50% aqueous ethanol and the optimum dose was 20 ,L. The ultradeformable formulation was superior to standard liposomes in the skin delivery of 5-FU. Of the traditional liposomes, the non-rigid preparation was the best. However, stabilization of the liposome membrane with cholesterol abolished the benefit of this non-rigid preparation. It was concluded that ultradeformable vesicles are promising agents for skin delivery of drugs. [source]

An improved design of harmonic suppression for microstrip patch antennas

MICROWAVE AND OPTICAL TECHNOLOGY LETTERS, Issue 1 2007
M. K. Mandal
Abstract Harmonic suppression is an important factor for active microstrip patch antennas radiating harmonic frequencies. Here, a novel compact low pass filter (LPF) having high filter selectivity and wide stop band is used on the microstrip feed line of the patch antenna. The 15 dB LPF stopband exist over 10 GHz while implementing area is 0.1464,g × 0.1789,g at the cutoff frequency of 3.55 GHz. The fundamental antenna operating frequency falls in the passband of the LPF. The other harmonics falls in the LPF stopband and thus attenuated. An example shows up to fourth harmonic are suppressed while total occupying area remains compact. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Microwave Opt Technol Lett 49: 103,105, 2007; Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI 10.1002/mop.22049 [source]

Nurse-initiated thrombolysis: a systematic review of the literature

NURSING IN CRITICAL CARE, Issue 1 2004
Andrew Smallwood
Summary ,,This article aims to review, in a systematic manner, the current published evidence base for nurse-initiated thrombolysis ,,Reasons for this evolution in nursing practice are outlined ,,Themes emerging from the review are identified ,,Methodological issues are discussed ,,This article outlines a conceptual framework for practice evolution ,,Further research is needed to improve the strength of the evidence base by studies with improved design [source]

A finite element-based approach for whole-system simulation of packaging systems for their improved design and operation

PACKAGING TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, Issue 4 2009
Ben James Hicks
Abstract The introduction of legislation to minimize packaging waste requires consumer goods manufacturers to use lighter-weight materials and increase the use of recycled materials. This is demanding that machinery manufacturers provide highly flexible machines and tooling capable of handling these materials and new package designs. However, the ability of manufacturers to achieve this is all but prevented by a lack of fundamental understanding of machine,material interactions and an ability to generate such understanding. One way to overcome this is to use advanced simulation tools to represent the whole system including machine, process, materials and product. A finite element-based simulation has been created to represent the in-process behaviour of a packing system. The simulation focuses on the critical transition between flattened and erected states of a carton. In order to successfully simulate such a complex process, there are a number of major challenges concerning the representation of packaging materials and their properties, changing material behaviour during processing, machinery simulation and process modelling (simulating the interfacial interactions that take place during processing). The application of the whole-system simulation for the purposes of improved design and operation are discussed with respect to four activities: design and set-up of tooling, determination of optimal process settings, specification of material properties and the design of the pack. In all cases, a strong correlation was observed between the theoretical results and those obtained practically, thereby enabling quantitative understanding and quantitative rules to be generated. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]