Modeling and simulation of drug delivery from a new type of biodegradable polymer micro-device

In this paper, modeling and simulation of a new type of controlled drug delivery micro-device based on biodegradable polymers is reported. The micro-device consists of micro-chambers arrays for drug storage to achieve linear release. The micro-chambers are fabricated with polyanhydrides (CPP-SA) using the UV-LIGA technology and the controlled release process are the combined results of the design of the micro-chambers and the biodegradable characteristics of the polymer. This type of drug delivery system has some unique advantages in controlled long-term drug delivery, such as larger loading volume than the matrices release systems, easier control for the release rate, etc. It is necessary to optimize the structure for the long-term and zero-order drug release. Based on the Monte Carlo erosion model, the drug release model is founded for the drug delivery system and using the new model, the drug release profiles from the delivery systems with different structures are simulated. The simulated results indicate that the effect of the drug delivery is dependent on the micro-structure of the delivery system and the simulated drug profiles of coaxial rings micro-cavity shape equal to zero-order released model approximatively. The simulated results are very important to the application research of the new biodegradable polymer micro-device.     

Growth and properties of hydrogen-free DLC films deposited by surface-wave-sustained plasma

Hydrogen-free diamond-like carbon (DLC) films were deposited by a new surface-wave-sustained plasma physical vapor deposition (SWP-PVD) system in various conditions. Electron density was measured by a Langmuir probe; the film thickness and hardness were characterized using a surface profilometer and a nanoindenter, respectively. Surface morphology was investigated using an atomic force microscope (AFM). It is found that the electron density and deposition rate increase following the increase in microwave power, target voltage, or gas pressure. The typical electron density and deposition rate are about 1.87 × 10¹¹–2.04 × 10¹² cm^− 3 and 1.61–14.32 nm/min respectively. AFM images indicate that the grain sizes of the films change as the experimental parameters vary. The optical constants, refractive index n and extinction coefficient k, were obtained using an optical ellipsometry. With the increase in microwave power from 150 to 270 W, the extinction coefficient of DLC films increases from 0.05 to 0.27 while the refractive index decreases from 2.31 to 2.11.     

Natural convection heat transfer of water on a horizontal downward facing stainless steel disk in a gap under atmospheric pressure conditions

An experimental study on natural convection heat transfer on a horizontal downward facing heated surface in a water gap has been carried out under atmospheric pressure conditions. A total of 7204 experimental data points are correlated using Rayleigh versus Nusselt number correlations in various forms, based on different independent variables. The effects of different characteristic lengths and film temperatures are discussed. The buoyancy force acts as a resistance force for natural convection heat transfer on a downward facing horizontal heated surface in a confined space. For the estimation of the natural convection heat transfer under the present conditions, empirical correlations in which Nusselt number is expressed as a function of Rayleigh number, or Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers both, may be used. However, the best accuracy is provided by an empirical correlation which expresses the Nusselt number as a function of the Rayleigh and Prandtl numbers, as well as the gap width-to-heated surface diameter ratio; and uses the temperature difference between the heated surface and the ambient fluid in the definition of Rayleigh number. The characteristic length is the gap size and the film temperature is the average fluid temperature.     

Influence of channel-height on heat transfer in rectangular channels with skewed ribs at different bleed conditions

An infrared imaging system is used to measure detailed distributions of local heat transfer coefficient from rectangular channels with two opposite wide walls roughened by 45° staggered ribs of twenty test cases. Nusselt number (Nu) contours over the ribbed surfaces are presented for five sets of channels with an identical rib-floor configuration, but different channel-heights where the complex Nu distributions without bleed and then with bleeds from the scanned rib-floor or from the ribbed wall opposite to the scanned rib-floor or from the smooth sidewall are analyzed to examine the synergetic effects of variable channel-heights and different bleed conditions on heat transfer. Spatially averaged heat transfer results for the entire set of test channels are generated with the thermal performance factors compared to establish the heat transfer correlations with applications to the design of coolant channels in a gas turbine blade.     

Poisson image fusion based on Markov random field fusion model

In this paper, we present a gradient domain image fusion framework based on the Markov Random Field (MRF) fusion model. In this framework, the salient structures of the input images are fused in the gradient domain, then the final fused image is reconstructed by solving a Poisson equation which forces the gradients of the fused image to be close to the fused gradients. To fuse the structures in the gradient domain, an effective MRF-based fusion model is designed based on both the per-pixel fusion rule defined by the local saliency and also the smoothness constraints over the fusion weights, which is optimized by graph cut algorithm. This MRF-based fusion model enables the accurate estimation of region-based fusion weights for the salient objects or structures. We apply this method to the applications of multi-sensor image fusion, including infrared and visible image fusion, multi-focus image fusion and medical image fusion. Extensive experiments and comparisons show that the proposed fusion model is able to better fuse the multi-sensor images and produces high-quality fusion results compared with the other state-of-the-art methods.