BACKGROUND Hospitals are faced with increasingly resistant strains of micro-organisms. When it comes to disinfection, individual parts of electronic equipment of angiology diagnostics such as patient couches of computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners prove to be very hard to disinfect. Disinfectants of choice are therefore expected to possess properties such as ra...

The Canadian poultry production industry contributes nearly $10 billion to the Canadian economy and employs nearly 50,000 workers. However, modern poultry facilities are highly contaminated with airborne dust. Although there are many bioaerosols in the poultry barn environment, endotoxin is typically attributed with the negative respiratory symptoms observed in workers. These adverse respirator...

The effect of device geometry and film characteristics on the performance of several passive flutter-induced dispersion DPI prototypes was investigated. Device resistance measurements indicated that the type of films, type of device geometry and specific device dimensions significantly affects the airflow resistance of the device. It was found that airflow resistance was positively correlated t...

In this work three capsule-based dry powder inhalers, available for generics product development, were compared. Two technologically different dry powder formulations were used in order to relate the capsule piercing position and motion in the device to their aerodynamic performance. A "pierce and inhale" design, in which the capsules pierced with RS01, HandiHaler or Turbospin devices were aero...

To gain insight into the potential for aerosolization of viruses in wastewater systems, we investigated the partitioning of MS2 and Phi6 bacteriophages in synthetic sludge and anaerobically digested sludge from a wastewater treatment plant. We evaluated partitioning among the liquid, solids, and material surfaces of porcelain, concrete, polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and polypropylene. In all cases,...

This study aimed to determine the aerosolization behavior of a nanodispersion of budesonide, prepared using microfluidic reactors. The size and morphology of budesonide nanoparticles were characterized by photon correlation spectroscopy (PCS) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Processing/formulation parameters for formation of the nanoparticles were studied to determine their effects o...

Conventional parenteral injection of vaccines is limited in its ability to induce locally-produced immune responses in the respiratory tract, and has logistical disadvantages in widespread vaccine administration. Recent studies suggest that intranasal delivery or vaccination in the respiratory tract with recombinant viral vectors can enhance immunogenicity and protection against respiratory dis...