Browsing by Author "Louw, Michele"
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- ItemThe design and production of honey-encapsulated particles and a cost-effective nebuliser to help quantify cilia function(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2022-04) Louw, Michele; Van den Heever, DJ; De Jongh, Cornell; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Engineering. Dept. of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering.ENGLISH SUMMARY: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) was identified as the third leading cause of death in 2019, following ischaemic heart diseases and strokes, respectively, and making up 6% of total deaths [1]. In 2019, 3.32 million people died as a result of COPD, and 80% of the deaths recorded were from low- and middle-income countries [1]. COPD is normally caused by a rare genetic condition or by external factors, some of which include inhalation of harmful particles, smoke and indoor or outdoor pollution. The low- and middle-income classes are largely affected by COPD due to insufficient ventilation in their homes. As electricity may not be readily available in the areas where they live, biomass fuel and coals are generally used for cooking and as a source of heat [2]. The exposure of people of any age to these poorly ventilated areas, could also result in asthma, a very common lung disease, which affected as many as 262 million people worldwide in 2019. In 2021, asthma was classified as the most common chronic disease amongst children. This thesis entails the design and development of a diagnostic test to assist in the determination of the severity of damage in lung function from chronic lung diseases. It investigates the possibility of finding a more cost-effective and safer option for diagnostic testing than the current cilia function test on the market. An air valve was designed with CAD to turn a common everyday plastic bottle into an air compressor that can be used to nebuliser medication into the lungs. Two different prototypes were made as the first device designed had parts that kept failing. The second prototype, which had an added safety feature of an air release valve should the bottle exceed 100 psi, also did not function properly as the valve could not be made airtight. Even though these designs were not 100% successful, this study shows that the device is still a possibility if the flaws are fixed. Given their natural fluorescence, honey micro-particles were designed and produced for the diagnostic test using the water-in-oil-in-water solvent evaporation method. Eight unique experiments were performed to determine the optimal method of encapsulating honey in the desired size of 50-100 m. A comparative experiment was also performed against a contrast medium already used for diagnostics in x-ray scans to determine whether it could be used as an effective alternative. The micro-particles produced were in the desired size range and a drug loading efficiency of 49.235 % was reached, indicating that almost half of the particle’s weight consisted of honey.