The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of dry and wet mechanochemical synthesis on piroxicam (PX) and saccharin (SA) mixtures. For this purpose, PX and SA mixtures prepared by wet ...mechanochemical processes using three solvents and by dry mechanochemical synthesis were evaluated by mid-and near-infrared spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The mixtures of wet-type products were transformed into PX/SA 1:1 co-crystals. The effect of the solvent was key to the co-crystallization of PX and SA. The products from the dry process were transformed into the amorphous phase. For the sample of the amorphous mixture, two exothermic peaks due to crystallization were observed in the thermal analysis. Bulk PX was ground for the same number of times for transformation, but was not successfully transformed to the amorphous bulk; the same was observed for SA. It is suggested that the mutual existence of PX and SA promotes mutual amorphization.
Background
We introduce a novel operative technique to dissect lymph nodes adjacent to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, referred to as the “native tissue preservation” technique. Using this technique, ...there was no damage to the recurrent laryngeal nerve, which is maintained in its anatomical position.
Methods
From September 2016 to December 2018, minimally invasive esophagectomy was performed in the left lateral decubitus position in 87 patients with esophageal cancer. The native tissue preservation technique for lymphadenectomy around the recurrent laryngeal nerve was used, and all patients were evaluated for recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis.
Results
Minimally invasive esophagectomy was completed in all patients without conversion to thoracotomy. Although an extended lymphadenectomy was performed in all patients, there were no grade II or higher complications (Clavien–Dindo classification) and no incidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis.
Conclusion
The native tissue preservation technique may reduce the incidence of recurrent laryngeal nerve paralysis after minimally invasive esophagectomy with radical lymph node dissection.
This study aims at exploring how an integrated product and service contributes to achieving Innovation of Meaning (IoM) or technology epiphany. Existing IoM studies have focused on intended meaning ...(as defined in new product development) and ignored the received meaning that users reconstruct. The process by which a user assigns meaning to things can not only be static but also dynamic. This study focuses on integrated products and contexts offered by services and analyses the case of Japan’s largest manufacturer of ankle-foot orthoses. The results show that the service guides the users to reconstruct the meaning in dynamic cognitive processes and use the metaphors that contribute to the consistency between products and services.
Purpose
Pulmonary administration of dry drug powder is a considered promising strategy in the treatment of various lung diseases such as tuberculosis and is more effective than systemic medication. ...However, in the pre-clinical study phase, there is a lack of devices for effective delivery of dry powders to the lungs of small rodents. In this study, an administration device which utilizes Venturi effect to deliver dry powders to the lungs homogeneously was developed.
Methods
A Venturi-effect administration device which synchronizes with breathes by use of a ventilator and aerosolizes the dry powders was created. Pulmonary distribution of inhalable dry powders prepared by spray-drying poly(lactic-co-glycolic) acid and an antituberculosis agent rifampicin and anti-tuberculosis effect of the powders on mycobacteria infected rats by administration with the Venturi-effect administration device and a conventional insufflation device were evaluated.
Results
Homogeneous distribution of the dry powders in the lung was achieved by the Venturi-effect administration device due to efficient and recurring aerosolization of loaded dry powders while synchronizing with breathes. Amount of rifampicin delivered to the lungs by the Venturi-effect administration device was three times higher than that by a conventional insufflation device, demonstrating three times greater antimycobacterial activity.
Conclusions
The Venturi-effect administration device aerosolized inhalable antituberculosis dry powders efficiently, achieved uniform pulmonary distribution, and aided the dry powders to exert antituberculosis activity on lung-residing mycobacteria.
Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) has excellent physical properties and has been used in a wide range of applications in various fields. Adsorption research on PTFE is essential as primary research for ...the further application of PTFE. We attempted to adsorb coal tar dyes and model drugs such as lidocaine onto PTFE as a guideline to search for medicines that adsorb onto PTFE. Saturation curves were obtained after analyzing the adsorption of coal tar dyes on PTFE using the Hanes-Woolf plot. In addition, we collected multiple cases of ATR-FTIR spectral changes and/or retention depending on TPM derivatives and other adsorbates. Lidocaine matched some coal tar dye for the apparent spectral changes between the adsorbed molecules and its crystalline powder. The apparent spectral changes are blue-shifted, suggesting a hydrophobic interaction between the dyes/lidocaine and porous PTFE. This work provides a promising strategy for further application of PTFE.
We found adsorption of coal tar dyes onto PTFE under specified conditions.
Purpose
Laparoscopic liver resection is increasingly used to treat patients with hepatic tumor. However, during laparoscopic resection, information obtained by palpation using laparoscopic forceps or ...from intraoperative ultrasonography is extremely limited, which may pose a risk for positive surgical margins. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility and clinical application of near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging to guide laparoscopic liver resection of a liver tumor and secure the surgical margins.
Methods
A preliminary study in 25 patients was conducted. NIR imaging was used intraoperatively during laparoscopic liver resection. The liver tumors were preoperatively labeled by intravenously injecting the patients with indocyanine green dye (0.5 mg/kg), an NIR fluorescence agent. During the surgical procedure, the PINPOINT Endoscopic Fluorescence Imaging System was used to assess the surgical margin by using real-time endoscopic high-definition visible and NIR fluorescence imaging.
Results
All tumors were identified and resected laparoscopically by using the PINPOINT system, and all resections successfully secured the surgical margin. The pathological findings of all tumors indicated negative margins, defined as R0.
Conclusions
This technique showed the potential to improve the intraoperative identification and demarcation of tumors. Its use could potentially reduce the number of positive resection margins.
Side effects and excessive potentiation of drug efficacy caused by polypharmacy are becoming important social issues. The apparent partition coefficient of indomethacin (log P′IND) increases in the ...presence of lidocaine, and this is used as a physicochemical model for investigating polypharmacy. We examined the changes in log P′IND caused by clinically used local anestheticslidocaine, tetracaine, mepivacaine, bupivacaine, and dibucaineand by structurally similar basic drugsprocainamide, imipramine, and diltiazem. The quantitative structure–activity relationship study of log P′IND showed that the partition coefficient values (log P LA) and the structural entropic terms (ΔS obs, log f) of the additives affect log P′IND. These results indicate that the local anesthetics and structurally similar drugs function as phase-transfer catalysts, increasing the membrane permeability of indomethacin via heterogeneous intermolecular association. Therefore, we expect that the potency of indomethacin, an acidic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, will be increased by concurrent administration of the other drugs.
Innovation of meaning (IoM) is one of the streams that has attracted attention in design thinking research. Inside‐out envisioning aims to assist non‐designer employees practice IoM in a similar ...manner to how visionary executives and designers perform. The process starts with exposing their intrinsic visions to innovate the dominant social or organizational meanings. This makes the employees' creativity that comes from intrinsic goals and values an important driving force of inside‐out envisioning. Thus, it is crucial to foster an organizational culture that encourages employees to engage in inside‐out envisioning and enhance their creativity. This study explores whether inclusion, as an organizational culture, is an antecedent of creativity in inside‐out envisioning. Inclusion refers to a state in which an individual's uniqueness is valued by other group members and externalized to improve group performance. Based on data from a survey conducted with 1104 Japanese employees, this study reveals that inclusion significantly impacts creativity in inside‐out envisioning. A multigroup analysis demonstrates differences in the effects of the mediating variables of this relationship based on the successful experience of inside‐out envisioning. This study concludes that it is important for design thinking researchers to study inclusion more deeply as a way to implement inside‐out envisioning.
Certain combinations of acidic and basic drugs can cause significant changes in physicochemical properties through the formation of ionic liquids, eutectic mixtures, or deep eutectic solvents. In ...particular, combining indomethacin and lidocaine is known to result in apparent increases in both the partition coefficients (hydrophobicity) and aqueous solubilities (hydrophilicity). The physicochemical interactions between drugs change the water solubility of the drugs and affect the bio-availability of active pharmaceutical ingredients. Therefore, we need to clarify the mechanism of changes of water solubility of drugs through the physicochemical interactions. In the present study, we identified a thermodynamic factor that regulates the dissolution of a basic drug, in the presence of various acidic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The results demonstrated that enthalpy–entropy compensation plays a key role in the dissolution of drug mixtures and that relevant thermodynamic conditions should be considered.
Eutectic mixtures are often used in the design and delivery of drugs. In this study, we examined the peritectic mixture of lidocaine (LDC) and ibuprofen (IBP) using differential scanning calorimetry, ...Raman spectroscopy, and microscopy. The obtained phase diagram showed that as the mixture was heated, first LDC melted at 293 K, then IBP dissolved in the liquefied LDC at 310 K, and finally all remaining crystals melted. In the
H NMR spectra, the signals of the carboxyl group in IBP and amide or amine group in LDC shifted to the low magnetic field in the IBP/LDC mixtures, because of the intermolecular interaction between these moieties. Using FTIR spectroscopy, the kinetic "reaction" order of the melting process in the mixtures with excess LDC, equimolar, and excess IBP was determined to be +1/2, -1/2, and 0, respectively. The 2 contacts between the liquidus line and the higher melting line at 310 K at IBP molar fractions of 1/3 and of 2/3 were explained on the basis of the site percolation theory.
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