Evaluating spray drift from Uncrewed Aerial Spray Systems: A machine learning and variance-based sensitivity analysis of environmental and spray system parameters.

Uncrewed Aerial Spray Systems (UASS), commonly called drones, have become an important application technique for plant protection products in Asia and worldwide. As such, environmental variables and spray system parameters influencing spray drift deserve detailed investigations. This study presents the data analysis of 114 UASS drift trials conducted between December 2021 and December 2022 in China. Study design was based on the ISO 22866:2005 protocol for spray drift trials and considered different UASS platforms, nozzles, and release heights, and specifically continuously measured weather conditions. The relative importance of the environmental variables and spray system parameters was evaluated by a random forest (RF) feature importance analysis, a Sobol sensitivity analysis and partial dependence plots. This approach was preferred to linear ranking techniques such as ANOVA (analysis of variance) due to the non-linearity of the system. In addition, partial dependence plots are proposed to visualize the relationship between specific input parameters within the system. Drift deposition curves calculated from the 114 trials show good agreement with previous UASS trials reported in the literature. As reported in previous studies, spray drift following UASS applications is lower than for manned aerial vehicles, greater than for ground spray applications, and similar to drift observed from orchard air blast applications. In addition, 9 trials were conducted on corn fields in order to evaluate the potential effect of crop cover on spray drift. Spray drift was observed to be reduced over the cropped soil, suggesting that plant cover might possibly reduce spray drift. These findings could help supporting drift mitigation policies, stewardship advice and product labelling around the world.

Hyaluronic acid functionalization improves dermal targeting of polymeric nanoparticles for management of burn wounds: In vitro, ex vivo and in vivo evaluations.

Owing to its intricate pathophysiology, impaired wound healing is one of the substantial challenges in the treatment of burn wounds (BWs). Despite the variety of conventional therapies available, morbidities associated with BWs have not subsided. Therefore, aim of the present study was to design an advanced nanotechnology-composited therapy for effectual management of BWs. Hyaluronic acid (HA)-functionalized curcumin (CUR) and quercetin (QUE) co-loaded nanoparticle (HA-CUR-QUE-CSNPs) were fabricated, optimized, characterized and evaluated for successful co-encapsulation of drugs, morphology, stability, drug release, cell proliferation, penetration across the skin, localization in the epidermis and dermis, and in vivo wound healing efficacy. Fabricated HA-functionalized CSNPs exhibited ultra-small size (177 ± 11 nm), good zeta potential (+37.0 ± 3.2 mV), high encapsulation efficiency (EE) (QUE ∼84% and CUR ∼64%) and loading capacity (LC) (QUE ∼38% and CUR ∼43%), and spherical shape with uniformly rough surface. HA-functionalized CSNPs showed a triphasic release pattern with Fickian diffusion kinetics, a time-mannered progression in MC3T3-E1 cells proliferation, improved penetration of CUR (2414 µg/cm2) and QUE (1984 µg/cm2) through stratum corneum, and good localization of drugs in the epidermis and dermis. A superior wound healing efficacy (98% wound closure rate at day 28) with marked histological signs of minimal infiltration of inflammatory cells, re-epithelization, ECM formation, fibroblast infiltration at wound site, granulation tissue formation, angiogenesis, and collagen deposition were also evidenced. This study concludes that HA-functionalization of polymeric NPs could be a promising approach to maximize skin penetration efficiency, localization of drugs in skin tissues, tissue regeneration and BWs healing.

Rising horizon in circumventing multidrug resistance in chemotherapy with nanotechnology.

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is one of the key barriers in chemotherapy, leading to the generation of insensitive cancer cells towards administered therapy. Genetic and epigenetic alterations of the cells are the consequences of MDR, resulted in drug resistivity, which reflects in impaired delivery of cytotoxic agents to the cancer site. Nanotechnology-based nanocarriers have shown immense shreds of evidence in overcoming these problems, where these promising tools handle desired dosage load of hydrophobic chemotherapeutics to facilitate designing of safe, controlled and effective delivery to specifically at tumor microenvironment. Therefore, encapsulating drugs within the nano-architecture have shown to enhance solubility, bioavailability, drug targeting, where co-administered P-gp inhibitors have additionally combat against developed MDR. Moreover, recent advancement in the stimuli-sensitive delivery of nanocarriers facilitates a tumor-targeted release of the chemotherapeutics to reduce the associated toxicities of chemotherapeutic agents in normal cells. The present article is focused on MDR development strategies in the cancer cell and different nanocarrier-based approaches in circumventing this hurdle to establish an effective therapy against deadliest cancer disease.