scholarly journals Emerging technologies for long-term antimicrobial device coatings: advantages and limitations

2017 ◽  
Vol 242 (8) ◽  
pp. 788-798 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika L Cyphert ◽  
Horst A von Recum

Over the past 20 years, the field of antimicrobial medical device coatings has expanded nearly 30-fold with technologies shifting their focus from diffusion-only based (short-term antimicrobial eluting) coatings to long-term antimicrobial eluting and intrinsically antimicrobial functioning materials. A variety of emergent coatings have been developed with the goal of achieving long-term antimicrobial activity in order to mitigate the risk of implanted device failure. Specifically, the coatings can be grouped into two categories: those that use antibiotics in conjunction with a polymer coating and those that rely on the intrinsic properties of the material to kill or repel bacteria that come into contact with the surface. This review covers both long-term drug-eluting and non-eluting coatings and evaluates the inherent advantages and disadvantages of each type while providing an overview of variety applications that the coatings have been utilized in. Impact statement This work provides an overview, with advantages and limitations of the most recently developed antibacterial coating technologies, enabling other researchers in the field to more easily determine which technology is most advantageous for them to further develop and pursue.

2016 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dr. Kamlesh Kumar Shukla

FIIs are companies registered outside India. In the past four years there has been more than $41 trillion worth of FII funds invested in India. This has been one of the major reasons on the bull market witnessing unprecedented growth with the BSE Sensex rising 221% in absolute terms in this span. The present downfall of the market too is influenced as these FIIs are taking out some of their invested money. Though there is a lot of value in this market and fundamentally there is a lot of upside in it. For long-term value investors, there’s little because for worry but short term traders are adversely getting affected by the role of FIIs are playing at the present. Investors should not panic and should remain invested in sectors where underlying earnings growth has little to do with financial markets or global economy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 244-248
Author(s):  
Michael J. Rosenfeld

Gay rights and marriage equality have advanced so far in the U.S. in the past decade that it would be all too easy to assume that the struggle is over. The opponents of gay rights, however, remain powerful. Readers can take inspiration from how dramatically attitudes toward gay rights have liberalized in the past two decades and how transformative the liberalization of attitudes has been. We live in a world where political lies often seem to have the upper hand. It is worth remembering that despite the many short term advantages that lies can yield in politics, the truth has some long term advantages as well. The way the marriage equality movement prevailed should be a lesson to anyone who wants to make progressive social change.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana P. Goldman ◽  
Darius N. Lakdawalla ◽  
James R. Baumgardner ◽  
Mark T. Linthicum

AbstractMedical innovation has generated significant gains in health over the past decades, but these advances have been accompanied by rapid growth in healthcare spending. Faced with a growing number of high-cost but high-impact innovations, some have argued to constrain prices for new therapies – especially through global caps on pharmaceutical spending and limits on prices for individual drugs. We show that applying this threshold to past innovations would have limited access to many highly valuable drugs such as statins and anti-retrovirals. We also argue that budget caps violate several important principles of health policy. First, budget caps treat healthcare spending as a consumption good, like going to a movie or buying a meal. However, healthcare spending should be viewed as an investment, whose benefits accrue over many years – much like spending on education. Second, budgetary cost is a poor indicator of value, thereby distorting coverage decisions. Third, affordability arguments often use a short-term horizon, thereby missing that long-term health is society’s ultimate goal. Fourth, assessments of benefit should incorporate not just the immediate clinical benefit to patients, but also long-term health improvements, cost savings, and increased productivity. Fifth, global budget caps arbitrarily anchor spending on the status quo, thereby setting too stringent a threshold for socially-desirable innovation. In sum, a solitary focus on short-term costs can be detrimental to population health in the long-run. When medical treatment decisions are properly viewed as investments, budget caps are not the answer; rather, we need to find mechanisms to encourage spending decisions based on long-term value. Only then can we generate health returns to societal investments, while also encouraging the new research and development necessary to extend the gains of recent decades.


Author(s):  
Paul D. Miller

Afghanistan has twice been thrust front and center of US national security concerns in the past half-century: first, during the Soviet-Afghan War, when Afghanistan served as a proxy for American efforts to combat Soviet influence; and second, as the frontline state and host for America’s global response to al-Qaida’s terrorist attacks of 2001. In both instances, American involvement swung from intensive investment and engagement to withdrawal and neglect. In both cases, American involvement reflected US concerns more than Afghan realities. And both episodes resulted in short-term successes for American security with long-term consequences for Afghanistan and its people. The signing of a strategic partnership agreement between the two countries in 2012 and a bilateral security agreement in 2013 created the possibility of a steadier and more forward-looking relationship—albeit one that the American and Afghan people may be less inclined to pursue as America’s longest war continues to grind on.


2020 ◽  
Vol 81 (6) ◽  
pp. 1099-1113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan Zhang ◽  
Pingping Luo ◽  
Shuangfeng Zhao ◽  
Shuxin Kang ◽  
Pengbo Wang ◽  
...  

Abstract Accelerated eutrophication, which is harmful and difficult to repair, is one of the most obvious and pervasive water pollution problems in the world. In the past three decades, the management of eutrophication has undergone a transformation from simple directed algal killing, reducing endogenous nutrient concentration to multiple technologies for the restoration of lake ecosystems. This article describes the development and revolution of three remediation methods in application, namely physical, chemical, and biological methods, and it outlines their possible improvements and future directions. Physical and chemical methods have obvious and quick effects to purify water in the short term and are more suitable for small-scale lakes. However, these two methods cannot fundamentally solve the eutrophic water phenomenon due to costly and incomplete removal results. Without a sound treatment system, the chemical method easily produces secondary pollution and residues and is usually used for emergency situations. The biological method is cost-effective and sustainable, but needs a long-term period. A combination of these three management techniques can be used to synthesize short-term and long-term management strategies that control current cyanobacterial blooms and restore the ecosystem. In addition, the development and application of new technologies, such as big data and machine learning, are promising approaches.


Nanomaterials ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly J. Figueroa-Lopez ◽  
Sergio Torres-Giner ◽  
Daniela Enescu ◽  
Luis Cabedo ◽  
Miguel A. Cerqueira ◽  
...  

This research reports about the development by electrospinning of fiber-based films made of poly(3-hydroxybutyrate-co-3-hydroxyvalerate) (PHBV) derived from fermented fruit waste, so-called bio-papers, with enhanced antimicrobial performance. To this end, different combinations of oregano essential oil (OEO) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) were added to PHBV solutions and electrospun into mats that were, thereafter, converted into homogeneous and continuous films of ~130 μm. The morphology, optical, thermal, mechanical properties, crystallinity, and migration into food simulants of the resultant PHBV-based bio-papers were evaluated and their antimicrobial properties were assessed against Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Escherichia coli (E. coli) in both open and closed systems. It was observed that the antimicrobial activity decreased after 15 days due to the release of the volatile compounds, whereas the bio-papers filled with ZnONPs showed high antimicrobial activity for up to 48 days. The electrospun PHBV biopapers containing 2.5 wt% OEO + 2.25 wt% ZnONPs successfully provided the most optimal activity for short and long periods against both bacteria.


1982 ◽  
Vol 15 (02) ◽  
pp. 180-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph LaPalombara

Political scientists are only now, and dimly, beginning to recognize that something called “political risk analysis” (PRA) is very much in vogue in the corporate and banking communities of this country. Any attempt to assess this uncommon development should begin with this question: Why would any banker or corporate manager wish to spend hard cash on anything political scientists might have to say about places overseas where banks and multinational corporations lend or invest their capital? After all, the profession is not exactly distinguished by its ability to make accurate forecasts. Indeed, Sartori has argued that political scientists ought to eschew forecasting entirely in that they are best able to explain what happened as opposed to what may come to pass.Sartori's assertion of course would make historians of us all—and burden us with the historian's smug claim that, if the history examined is too recent, the immediacy of events will distort our vision and bias our judgments. Thus, rather than try to foretell where, say, Germany will move politically next year we should expend (more!) of our resources to establish once and for all what really caused Weimar to collapse and Hitler to come to power.This is not the stuff of political risk analysis. Growing interest in this activity is little based on broad analyses of the past or on long-term forecasts of future events. The potential consumers of political assessments are intelligent, harried bankers and corporate managers who are pressed to make relatively short-term decisions that affect the viability of enterprise and investment-and, equally important, careers-in professions where tenure is unknown.


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