The control of paracetamol particle size and surface morphology through crystallisation in a spray dryer

The parameters governing the crystallisation of paracetamol using various conventional techniques has been extensively studied, however the factors influencing the drug crystallisation using spray drying is not as well understood. The aim of this work was to investigate the crystallisation of an active pharmaceutical ingredient through evaporative crystallisation using a spray dryer to study the physicochemical properties of the drug and to use semi-empirical equations to gain insight into the morphology and particle size of the dried powder. Paracetamol solutions were spray dried at various inlet temperatures ranging from 60 °C to 120 °C and also from a series of inlet feed solvent compositions ranging from 50/50% v/v ethanol/water to 100% ethanol and solid-state characterisation was done. The size and morphology of the dried materials were altered with a change in spray drying parameters, with an increase in inlet temperature leading to an increase in particle Sauter mean diameter (from 3.0 to 4.4 µm) and a decrease in the particle size with an increase in ethanol concentration in the feed (from 4.6 to 4.4 µm) as a result of changes in particle density and atomised droplet size. The morphology of the dried particles consisted of agglomerates of individual crystallites bound together into larger semi-spherical agglomerates with a higher tendency for particles having crystalline ridges to form at higher ethanol concentrations of the feed.     

Unpatterned Bioactive Poly(Butylene 1,4-Cyclohexanedicarboxylate)-Based Film Fast Induced Neuronal-Like Differentiation of Human Bone Marrow-Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Herein, we present poly(butylene 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate) (PBCE) films characterized by an unpatterned microstructure and a specific hydrophobicity, capable of boosting a drastic cytoskeleton architecture remodeling, culminating with the neuronal-like differentiation of human bone marrow-mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs). We have used two different filming procedures to prepare the films, solvent casting (PBCE) and compression-moulding (PBCE*). PBCE film had a rough and porous surface with spherulite-like aggregations (Ø = 10–20 μm) and was characterized by a water contact angle = 100°. PBCE* showed a smooth and continuous surface without voids and visible spherulite-like aggregations and was more hydrophobic (WCA = 110°). Both surface characteristics were modulated through the copolymerization of different amounts of ether-oxygen-containing co-units into PBCE chemical structure. We showed that only the surface characteristics of PBCE-solvent-casted films steered hBM-MSCs toward a neuronal-like differentiation. hBM-MSCs lost their canonical mesenchymal morphology, acquired a neuronal polarized shape with a long cell protrusion (≥150 μm), expressed neuron-specific class III β-tubulin and microtubule-associated protein 2 neuronal markers, while nestin, a marker of uncommitted stem cells, was drastically silenced. These events were observed as early as 2-days after cell seeding. Of note, the phenomenon was totally absent on PBCE* film, as hBM-MSCs maintained the mesenchymal shape and behavior and did not express neuronal/glial markers.     

12CrNi3钢外锁止套局部表面激光淬火工艺

利用半导体激光宽带对12CrNi3外锁止套局部进行表面淬火处理,并对处理后的零件进行外观检验、显微组织观察、硬度检测分析和摩擦磨损试验。试验结果表明:采取定光斑方式,激光头到工件表面扫描区域中心点距离375 mm(离焦量为0),工件倾斜22°,激光头倾斜18°,温度1350 ℃,扫描速度9 mm/s,单道扫描后表面平整性最好。表面激光淬火硬化层为750～1000 μm,最浅处为443.1 μm,硬化区组织为极细小马氏体组织,硬度达600～700 HV0.2,是基体硬度的2倍左右, 约为渗碳+淬火态硬度的1.3倍,且相变硬化区耐磨性能明显提高。     

二层沟槽织构对机床导轨表面润滑特性的影响

通过构建二层沟槽织构模型，仿真研究沟槽织构表面的流体动力效应。结果表明：沟槽容积相同时，与单层沟槽相比，二层沟槽的平均油膜压力可以达到单层沟槽的2.31倍；保持二层沟槽的量纲一总深度[β]1、第一层沟槽量纲一宽度[α]1不变时，随着第二层量纲一深度[β]2的增大，平均油膜压力先增大后减小，[β]2为4.4时，平均油膜压力达到最大值；第二层沟槽的量纲一宽度[α]2从0.25增大到0.45时，沟槽内的旋涡区也随之增大，平均油膜压力逐渐减小。     

Standing Surface Acoustic Wave (SSAW)‐Based Fluorescence‐Activated Cell Sorter

Microfluidic fluorescence‐activated cell sorters (μFACS) have attracted considerable interest because of their ability to identify and separate cells in inexpensive and biosafe ways. Here a high‐performance μFACS is presented by integrating a standing surface acoustic wave (SSAW)‐based, 3D cell‐focusing unit, an in‐plane fluorescent detection unit, and an SSAW‐based cell‐deflection unit on a single chip. Without using sheath flow or precise flow rate control, the SSAW‐based cell‐focusing technique can focus cells into a single file at a designated position. The tight focusing of cells enables an in‐plane‐integrated optical detection system to accurately distinguish individual cells of interest. In the acoustic‐based cell‐deflection unit, a focused interdigital transducer design is utilized to deflect cells from the focused stream within a minimized area, resulting in a high‐throughput sorting ability. Each unit is experimentally characterized, respectively, and the integrated SSAW‐based FACS is used to sort mammalian cells (HeLa) at different throughputs. A sorting purity of greater than 90% is achieved at a throughput of 2500 events s^?1. The SSAW‐based FACS is efficient, fast, biosafe, biocompatible and has a small footprint, making it a competitive alternative to more expensive, bulkier traditional FACS.     

神经网络全局势函数在多相催化中的应用

当今的多相催化研究需要新的技术和方法从原子尺度上表征活性中心结构和反应中间体。本文作者课题组近期开发了理论模拟新技术来探索催化剂活性位点结构，即基于神经网络势函数的大规模原子模拟（LASP）软件中实现的全局神经网络势函数计算方法。本文介绍了该方法可以显著降低催化体系的计算代价，而维持与密度泛函理论同一级别的计算精度，从而解决多相催化中的许多复杂问题。本文对神经网络势函数方法的实现细节和目前已实现的应用场景进行了详细介绍。神经网络势函数可以用来预测材料晶体结构，理解高压氢化条件下TiO₂表面的结构演化和确定三元氧化物ZnCrO晶相中合成气制甲醇活性位点。最后文章分析了神经网络势函数的局限性和今后可能的三个研究方向，即材料性质预测、多元素体系神经网络势函数构造和化学反应拟合。     

Preparation of transparent Y2O3 ceramic via gel casting: Realization of high solid volume via surface modification

In this article, isocyanate was adopted to modify Y₂O₃ powder for the purpose of preparing transparent Y₂O₃ ceramics via gel casting. The modification could enhance the hydration resistance of Y₂O₃ powder through the steric hindrance effect. The coating mechanism can be proved by the infrared spectrum of the surface-modified Y₂O₃ powder. Modification could not only prevent Y₂O₃ particles from reacting with water, but also prevents agglomeration between particles. The viscosity of the slurry with a solid content of 52.7 vol% is only 0.48 Pa·s at the shear rate of 100 s⁻¹, which is suitable for preparing high-density compacts by gel casting. The transmittance of the sample (1840°C × 8 h, 1 mm thickness) at 1100 nm reaches 75%. The microstructure of the sintered body is dense with the average grain size of 6.5 μm without obvious impurities nor pores. Five mol% ZrO₂-doped Y₂O₃ transparent ceramic fairing with the diameter of 5 cm without defects was successfully fabricated by gel casting (52.7 vol% solid volume) and vacuum sintering (1840°C × 8 h).     

Reduction of temperature influence in stress measurement using surface SH‐wave acoustoelasticity

Stress measurements are required to prevent collapse accidents of structures. Surface SH‐wave acoustoelasticity can measure principal stress difference nondestructively and easily. Currently, surface SH‐wave acoustoelasticity can measure with high precision using a T‐type surface SH‐wave sensor in ideal environments such as in the laboratory. However, in actual environments, it cannot be measured with high precision due to change in the temperature of the specimen. In this paper, temperature dependence of surface SH‐wave acoustoelastic constants was verified to investigate the influence of specimen temperature on surface SH‐wave acoustoelasticity. In addition, the measuring system of surface SH‐wave acoustoelasticity using a cross T‐type surface SH‐wave sensor to reduce the influence of specimen temperature was developed.     

改进的卷积神经网络单幅图像超分辨率重建

针对经典的基于卷积神经网络的单幅图像超分辨率重建方法网络较浅、提取的特征少、重建图像模糊等问题，提出了一种改进的卷积神经网络的单幅图像超分辨率重建方法，设计了由密集残差网络和反卷积网络组成的新型深度卷积神经网络结构。原始低分辨率图像输入网络，利用密集残差学习网络获取更丰富的有效特征并加快特征梯度流动，其次通过反卷积层将图像特征上采样到目标图像大小，再利用密集残差学习高维特征，最后融合不同卷积核提取的特征得到最终的重建图像。在Set5和Set14数据集上进行了实验，并和Bicubic、K-SVD、SelfEx、SRCNN等经典重建方法进行了对比，重建出的图像在整体清晰度和边缘锐度方面更好，另外峰值信噪比（PSNR）平均分别提高了2.69?dB、1.68?dB、0.74?dB和0.61?dB。实验结果表明，该方法能够获取更丰富的细节信息，得到更好的视觉效果，达到了图像超分辨率的增强任务。     

Diagnosis of the surface morphology of laser-ablated materials using the weighted- DCT approach in laser speckle interferometry for application to plasma facing materials

To implement on-line, real-time monitoring for the surface morphology of Plasma-Facing Materials (PFMs) in tokamak, we developed a Laser Speckle Interferometry measurement approach. A laser ablation method was used to simulate the erosion process during Plasma-Wall Interactions in a tokamak. In the present investigation, we evaluated the results of laser ablation morphology changes on the surface of Mo material reconstructed by four different approaches (Flood-fill, Quality-guided, Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT) and Weighted-DCT). The morphology results measured by the weighted-DCT approach are very close to the measurement results from confocal microscopy with an average error rate within 7%. It is verified that the weighted-DCT algorithm has high accuracy and can efficiently reduce the influence of noise pollution coming from laser ablation, which is used as a proxy for erosion from plasma wall interaction. Additionally, the CPU computer time has been shortened. This is of great significance for the real-time monitoring of PFMs’ morphology in the Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) in the future.