Phakometry and lens tilt and decentration using a custom-developed Purkinje imaging apparatus: validation and measurements

We present a Purkinje imaging system for phakometry and measurement of tilt and decentration of crystalline and intraocular lenses (IOLs). Crystalline lens radii of curvature were estimated by using both a merit function and the equivalent mirror approaches. Tilts and decentrations were estimated by using Phillips's linear analysis. We present a complete validation of the technique through exhaustive computer simulations and control experiments, and measurements in 17 normal eyes (mean age 26.67 +/- 2.31) and nine postcataract surgery eyes (mean age 74 +/- 2.3). Crystalline lens radii ranged from 12.7 to 8.81 mm and from -5.64 to -7.09 mm for anterior and posterior surfaces, respectively. Crystalline lens tilt ranged from 2.8 to -2.87 deg horizontally and from 2.58 to -1 deg vertically. Crystalline lens decentration ranged from 0.09 to 0.45 mm horizontally and from 0.09 to -0.22 mm vertically. IOL tilt ranged from 3.6 to -1.51 deg horizontally and from 5.97 to -1.85 deg vertically. IOL decentration ranged from 0.53 to -0.31 mm horizontally and from 0.13 to -0.96 mm vertically.     

ATP-Responsive and ATP-Fueled Self-Assembling Systems and Materials

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is a central metabolite that plays an indispensable role in various cellular processes, from energy supply to cell-to-cell signaling. Nature has developed sophisticated strategies to use the energy stored in ATP for many metabolic and non-equilibrium processes, and to sense and bind ATP for biological signaling. The variations in the ATP concentrations from one organelle to another, from extracellular to intracellular environments, and from normal cells to cancer cells are one motivation for designing ATP-triggered and ATP-fueled systems and materials, because they show great potential for applications in biological systems by using ATP as a trigger or chemical fuel. Over the last decade, ATP has been emerging as an attractive co-assembling component for man-made stimuli-responsive as well as for fuel-driven active systems and materials. Herein, current advances and emerging concepts for ATP-triggered and ATP-fueled self-assemblies and materials are discussed, shedding light on applications and highlighting future developments. By bringing together concepts of different domains, that is from supramolecular chemistry to DNA nanoscience, from equilibrium to non-equilibrium self-assembly, and from fundamental sciences to applications, the aim is to cross-fertilize current approaches with the ultimate aim to bring synthetic ATP-dependent systems closer to living systems.     

Viscosity and thermal conductivity of halogenated methane and ethane refrigerants

Viscosity and thermal conductivity of liquid halogenated methane and ethane refrigerants from about 200 K to near the critical temperature, at saturation and also at pressures up to 50 MPa, are shown to be satisfactorily correlated on the basis of a scheme developed by Dymond and Assael from consideration of hard-sphere theory. For the 31 refrigerants considered here, from the 1445 viscosity and 1226 thermal conductivity measurements examined only 5.2% were found to deviate by more than 5% from the proposed scheme.     

Proton and photon absorbed-dose conversion coefficients for embryo and foetus from top-down irradiation geometry

Absorbed-dose conversion coefficients are calculated for the embryo of 8 weeks and the foetus of 3, 6 or 9 months when the mother's body is exposed to protons and photons from top-down (TOP) direction. It provides data sets in addition to other standard irradiation geometries published previously. The TOP-irradiation geometry is considered here, because high-energy particles are often peaked from the TOP direction onboard aircrafts. The results show that absorbed-doses from high-energy particles could be underestimated significantly if isotropic (ISO) irradiation geometry is assumed. For protons of 100 GeV, absorbed-doses from TOP irradiation are approximately 2.3-2.9 times higher than the doses from ISO irradiation for different foetal ages. For 10 GeV photons, foetal doses from TOP irradiation are approximately 6.8-12 times higher than the doses from ISO irradiation. The coefficients from TOP-irradiation geometry are given in wide energy ranges, from 100 MeV to 100 GeV for protons and from 50 keV to 10 GeV for photons. They can, therefore, be used in various applications whenever exposure from the TOP-irradiation direction is concerned.     

Design and function of molecular and bioelectronics devices

Further rapid progress of electronics, in particular the increase of computer power and breakthroughs in sensor technology for industrial, medical diagnostics and environmental applications, strongly depends on the scaling of electronic devices, ultimately to the size of molecules. Design of controllable molecular-scale devices may resolve the problem of energy dissipation at the nanoscale and take advantage of molecular self-assembly in the so-called bottom-up approach. This special issue of Nanotechnology is devoted to a better understanding of the function and design of molecular-scale devices that are relevant to future electronics and sensor technology. Papers contained in this special issue are selected from the symposium Nano and Giga Challenges in Electronics and Photonics: From Atoms to Materials to Devices to System Architecture (12-16 March, 2007, Phoenix, Arizona, USA), as well as from original and novel scientific contributions of invited world-renown researchers. It addresses both theoretical and experimental achievements in the fields of molecular and bioelectronics, chemical and biosensors at the molecular level, including carbon nanotubes, novel nanostructures, as well as related research areas and industrial applications. The conference series Nano and Giga Challenges in Electronics and Photonics was launched as a truly interdisciplinary forum to bridge scientists and engineers to work across boundaries in the design of future information technologies, from atoms to materials to devices to system architecture. Following the first two successful meetings in Moscow, Russia (NGCM2002) and Krakow, Poland (NGCM2004), the third Nano and Giga Forum (NGC2007) was held in 2007 hosted by Arizona State University. Besides this special issue of Nanotechnology, two other collections (in the journal Solid State Electronics and the tutorial book in the series Nanostructure Science and Technology Springer) have published additional selected and invited papers from NGC2007. The NGC2007 meeting, which included two days of tutorials (Spring School) and a three day symposium, attracted approximately 400 participants from academic, industrial and governmental research institutions from 41 countries, and covered recent developments in the fabrication and functionality of nano-scale materials, devices and system architecture from advanced CMOS to molecular electronics, photonics, optoelectronics and magnetic materials and devices. The success of the conference would not have been possible without generous support from many sponsors and research institutions, especially from Arizona State University (conference host and co-organizer), International Science and Technology Center (ISTC), National Science Foundation (NSFT), Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), Office of Naval Research, Army Research Office, Computational Chemistry List (CCL), Springer Publisher, City of Tempe, STMicroelectronics, Quarles & Brady LLP, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Canadian Consulate in Phoenix, Salt River Project (SRP) and many other local, national and international and individual supporters. We would like to acknowledge the shared responsibility for this special issue of Nanotechnology on molecular and bioelectronics, and the highly professional support from Dr Nina Couzin, Dr Alex Wotherspoon and the Nanotechnology team from the IOP Publishing. We also acknowledge the exception made in allowing the publication of some material that is outside the normal scope of Nanotechnology.     

Extraction of aldicarb and its metabolites from excreta and gastrointestinal tissue

Carbamate insecticide screens often include aldicarb and its oxidative metabolites, aldicarb sulfoxide (ASX), and aldicarb sulfone (ASN). The rapid hydrolysis and thermal cleavage of the C-N bond within the carbamate functional group of these compounds produces nitrile transformation products. Nitriles are primary transformation products from aldicarb, its sulfoxide, or its sulfone. However, these nitriles are infrequently monitored. The method reported used acetonitrile/water extraction and HPLC postcolumn derivitization to determine aldicarb, ASX, and ASN from avian excreta and from gastrointestinal (GI) tissue. Recoveries of aldicarb, ASX and ASN from excreta were of 79% +/- 5.4, 120% +/- 7.7, and 93% +/- 6.2, respectively. Recoveries from tissue were 70% +/- 5.0, 80% +/- 12.1, and 85% +/- 6.7, respectively. The same extraction procedure and a GC-FPD analysis were used to determine nitrile metabolites from the same tissues. Aldicarb nitrile, ASX nitrile, and ASN nitrile recoveries from excreta were 42% +/- 2.3, 65% +/- 3.6, and 79% +/- 3.3, respectively. Overall recoveries from tissue were 29% +/- 3.4, 72% +/- 8.3, and 83% +/- 11.4, respectively. Since aldicarb, ASX, and ASN are normally detectable in organ tissues for 1-2 days following exposure, determining the presence of nitrile cleavage products provides an important forensic tool for evaluating aldicarb exposures.     

Thermal expansion and heat capacity of GaAs and InAs

Thermal expansion of GaAs and InAs was measured in the temperature ranges from 396 to 1149 and from 441 to 1206 K, respectively. The thermal-expansion coefficients, Debye temperatures, and root-meansquare atomic displacements were calculated. These parameters were found to depend on the root-mean-square atomic weights of the compounds. Based on the published data and our heat capacity measurements on GaAs and InAs, the coefficients appearing in the equation for the temperature dependence of heat capacity in the temperature ranges from 200 K to the melting points of GaAs and InAs were determined     

Structural and mechanical properties and filtration in elastic fissured and porous material

Within the framework of the model of two coexisting homogeneous porous continua the article examines the influence of the state of stress of a material and of the liquid pressure on the effective parameters of the continua, and a system of equations of filtration is obtained that differs from the known system.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 593–600, April, 1984.     

Dams and Floods

The possible mitigation of floods by dams and the risk to dams from floods are key problems. The People’s Republic of China is now leading world dam construction with great success and efficiency. This paper is devoted to relevant experiences from other countries, with a particular focus on lessons from accidents over the past two centuries and on new solutions. Accidents from floods are analyzed according to the dam’s height, storage, dam material, and spillway data. Most of the huge accidents that have been reported occurred for embankments storing over 10 hm³. New solutions appear promising for both dam safety and flood mitigation.     

Formulation and Release Kinetics of Sustained Release Phenylpropanolamine Hydrochloride Granules and Tablets

Abstract

Sustained release phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride (PPH) granules and tablets were prepared using HPMC, HPMC and SCMC, Eudragit RS, Eudragit RS+L or HPMC + Eudragit RS matrices. The release pattern of PPH from the prepared granules and tablets was found to be in the following order HPMC > HPMC + SCMC > RS > RS + 1> HPMC + RS. The results revealed that, although the drug concentration was kept constant in all the prepared granules and tablets, the drug release from these formulations was clearly different and depends mainly on the type of matrix used. The presence of Eudragit L with Eudragit RS and Eudragit RS with HPMC resulted in a marked decrease in the drug release compared with that obtained from the matrix containing HPMC or Eudragit RS alone. The release data of PPH from the prepared granules and tablets were treated mathematically according to zero order, first order, Langenbuchar, modified Langenbucher and Higuchi models. The results revealed that no one model was able adequately to describe the drug release profiles from these formulations. In-vivo studies in human volunteers showed that, the peak urinary excretion of PPH occurred over a sustained period from 2 to 6.5 hr in case of HPMC + SCMC tablets and from 2 to 10 hr in case of either RS+L or HPMC + RS tablets.     

热和化学亚胺化对ODPA/ODA聚酰亚胺薄膜性能的影响

以4,4'-二胺基二苯醚(ODA)和3,3',4,4'-二苯醚四酸二酐(ODPA)为单体,采用两步法,分别经热亚胺化和化学亚胺化过程制备了两种聚酰亚胺(PI)薄膜,并对两种薄膜的性能进行了表征.傅立叶红外光谱(FT-IR)表明两种薄膜均已完全亚胺化.化学亚胺化的PI薄膜的玻璃化温度、热稳定性均高于热亚胺化的薄膜.拉伸性能测试表明热亚胺化的薄膜具有较高的断裂伸长率,而化学亚胺化的薄膜的拉伸强度、弹性模量较大.     

Thermal conductivity and specific heat of n-decane at various temperatures and pressures

Results are shown of experiments in which the thermal conductivity and the specific heat at constant pressure of n-decane were measured under pressures from 1 to 140 bars and at temperatures from 40 to 330°C.Translated from Inzhenerno-Fizicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 24, No. 6, pp. 1033–1038, June, 1973.     

Stress tensor and elastic properties for hard and soft spheres

Properties determined from the microscopic stress tensor are discussed for the related systems of a steeply repulsive pair potential and hard spheres. The microscopic stress tensors determined from the local conservation law for momentum are different in these two cases. Consequences are discussed for both fluid and solid phases.     

Advances in refrigeration and freezing of meat and meat products

The refrigeration technology used by the US meat industry is discussed. A need for new technology has resulted from the poor handling of products such as livers and kidneys, the demand for leaner beef, and the introduction of the process where meat is removed from unchilled carcasses (hot boning).     

Chemical composition and molecular structure of fibers from transgenic flax producing polyhydroxybutyrate,and mechanical properties and platelet aggregation of composite materials containing these fibers

In order to improve the properties of flax fibers so that they interact better with the matrix material in composites, several lines of transgenic flax were produced over-expressing the bacterial polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB) synthesis genes. Infra-red spectrophotometry revealed that the cellulose in fibers from the transgenic plants was more highly structured than in fibers from the control plants and PHB was strongly bound to the cellulose of the fibers by covalent ester and hydrogen bonds. The composite containing fibers from transgenic plants was significantly stronger and stiffer than the composites containing fibers from the control plants. Scanning electron microscopy of the fracture surface of composite sheets indicated that fibers from transgenic plants adhered to the polypropylene matrix significantly better. The composite containing fibers from transgenic plants induced almost no platelet aggregation and so may therefore be useful in the construction of biomedical devices that come in contact with blood.     

Structural studies and electrical properties of recycled glasses from glass and incinerator wastes

The electrical behaviour of different glass compositions obtained from mixing waste glass deriving from a community glass recycling program and silicate waste from the incineration of municipal solid residues (from Reggio Emilia city) have been investigated as a function of temperature and frequency. The electrical and dielectric properties were related to structural studies performed on the same glassy materials. As the amount of incinerator wastes increases, on account of lower alkali and higher alkaline-earth content in the final glass composition, conductivity and dielectric losses decrease approaching the behaviour of type E glass fibres, so envisaging a possible use of waste-containing glasses in the production of high voltage insulators.     

Preparation and in vitro release of dual-drug resinates containing equivalent content dextromethorphan and diphenhydramine

The dual-drug resinate containing equivalent content of dextromethorphan hydrobromide (DTM) and diphenhydramine hydrochloride (DPH) was developed and characterized. To achieve this specific resinate, a procedure of simultaneous dual-drug loading using loading solutions composed of different proportions of DTM and DPH was performed and a dual-drug loading diagram was constructed to determine the equivalent drug loading solution (ELS) and also the estimated equivalent drug content (EQC). The effects of resin crosslinkage, overall drug concentration of the loading solution, and temperature during drug loading on the values of ELS and EQC were assessed. The increased overall drug concentration from 0.25 to 1.0% w/v elevated the EQC values from 18 to 35% w/w for low crosslinked resins (Dowex 50W × 2 and × 4), and from 18 to 27% w/w for high crosslinked resin (Dowex 50W × 8). It also changed the values of ELS from 0.50 to 0.48 for the low crosslinked resins, and 0.50 to 0.55 for the high crosslinked resin. For the high crosslinked resin, the applied heat from 35 to 65°C further increased the values of EQC from 27 to 32% w/w, and changed the values of ELS in the reverse direction from 0.55 to 0.48. However, the heat did not exert significant effects on the values of EQC and ELS for the low crosslinked resins. Different batches of dual-drug resinates prepared from the determined ELS provided the resultant resinates with equivalent contents of DTM and DPH which were very close to the estimated EQC. The drug release from the resinates was performed in 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4 N of KCl solutions. The increased ionic strength generally accelerated the release of both drugs except for 0.4 N KCl solution in which the drug release from the resinates of high crosslinkage was decreased. The congestion on the outward movement of drugs through the high crosslinked matrix might cause the delay of drug release. In conclusion, the release study demonstrated that the dual-drug resinate using a suitable crosslinked resin could be used for extended delivery of two combined drugs with the equivalent therapeutic dose.     

Characteristics of industrial and laboratory meat and bone meal ashes and their potential applications

This paper reports the characterization of four meat and bone meal (MBM) ashes obtained from specific incineration (laboratory) and from co-incineration (industrial process). Three out of the four MBM ashes were mainly composed of calcium phosphates (hydroxyapatite and whitlockite). Their compositions (major and trace) were in the range for natural phosphate rocks. Trace element contents, including heavy metals, were below 0.6% and industrial ashes contained much more heavy metals than laboratory ash. The amounts of leached elements were low, especially for laboratory ash. According to the European classification of waste to be landfilled, the laboratory ash can be classified as an inert waste. Two industrial ashes are mostly inert. Only one ash is highly leachable and needs a stabilization treatment to be classified at least in the category of hazardous waste. It seems, from these results, that possibilities other than landfilling could be considered to give economic value to these ashes.     

Planar geometry for trapping and separating ions and charged particles

A planar quadrupole ion trap is proposed. We have demonstrated an extremely large operating range by trapping ions and particles with mass-to-charge ratio ranging from 10(2) to 10(9) at frequencies from 2.8 x 10(6) to 60 Hz at an operating pressure of 1.1 x 10(-4) to 760 Torr, respectively, using a trap radius of r1 = 1 mm. We have also performed mass spectrometry with a resolution of 1.2 amu with mass-to-charge range from 50 to 150. Our geometry is simple enough to be integrated into existing integrated circuits and microelectromechanical system devices, opening up the possibility of many novel hybrid applications and experiments.