Preparation of theophylline-hydroxypropylmethylcellulose matrices using supercritical antisolvent precipitation: a preliminary study

Several controlled release systems of drugs have been elaborated using a supercritical fluid process. Indeed, recent techniques using a supercritical fluid as a solvent or as an antisolvent are considered to be useful alternatives to produce fine powders. In this preliminary study, the effect of Supercritical Anti Solvent process (SAS) on the release of theophylline from matrices manufactured with hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC) was investigated. Two grades of HPMC (HPMC E5 and K100) as carriers were considered in order to prepare a sustained delivery system for theophylline which was used as a model drug. The characterization of the drug before and after SAS treatment, and the coprecipitates with carriers, was performed by X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The dissolution rate of theophylline, theophylline-coprecipitates, and matricial tablets prepared with coprecipitates were determined. The physical characterizations revealed a substantial correspondence of the drug solid state before and after supercritical fluid treatment while drug-polymer interactions in the SAS-coprecipitates were attested. The dissolution studies of the matrices prepared compressing the coprecipitated systems showed that the matrices based on HPMC K100 were able to promote a sustained release of the drug. Further, this advantageous dissolution performance was found to be substantially independent of the pH of the medium. The comparison with the matrices prepared with untreated substances demonstrated that matrices obtained with SAS technique can provide a slower theophylline release rate. A new mathematical model describing the in vitro dissolution kinetics was proposed and successfully tested on these systems.     

Supercritical Antisolvent Precipitation of Ethyl Cellulose

Supercritical antisolvent (SAS) technique is an appropriate process to obtain micro- and nanoparticles. The application of this process has, until now, been explored in a variety of different fields including: explosives, polymers, pharmaceutical compounds, colouring matter, superconductors, catalysts, and inorganic compounds. Biocompatible and biodegradable polymers are playing more and more important roles in pharmaceutical areas such as tissue engineering and drug delivery. Formulation of these polymers into suitable solid-state forms plays an important role in safety, stability, and efficiency of the products. Ethyl cellulose is commonly used as drug carrier in controlled delivery systems. In this work, particles of ethyl cellulose have been precipitated by SAS using CO₂ as antisolvent and dichloromethane (DCM) as solvent. We studied the effects of concentration on the particle size distribution (PSD) of the precipitates. Ethyl cellulose size-controlled particles have been produced in the micrometer range 3.8–5.0 μm, and an increase of the mean particle diameter (MPD) was observed with the increase of the concentration of the solution.     

离子束溅射法制备碳氮薄膜及其结构表征

采用离子束溅射沉积技术,对不同氮离子束能量情况下制备的氮化碳薄膜,进行了拉曼(Raman)和红外光谱(FT-IR)分析,并采用透射电子显微镜(TEM)分析其表面形貌,研究所制备薄膜的化学组成和键合结构。结果显示:随着氮离子束能量增大,氮碳薄膜的沉积速率减小,薄膜结构中sp2含量增大,薄膜有序度增加,另外薄膜结构的团簇尺寸大幅下降,团簇趋于均匀分布。     

聚苯胺薄膜的制备及其C—V特性研究

报导了采用PECVD技术制备聚苯胺薄膜及沉积条件对薄膜沉积速率的影响,红外吸收光谱和电容－电压法表征了薄膜的组成及介电特性。     

Reduction of Yarn Packing Defects Using Six Sigma Methods: A Case Study

This article originated when an Indian textile company identified packing rejection of yarn cones as its major quality problem and decided to use Six Sigma methods to correct the problem. At the end of its manufacturing process, yarn is wound into conical-shaped packages called cones, and it is shipped to customers in this format. Customers were rejecting cones due to unacceptable weight variation. Pareto charts revealed the major “counts” (a measure of yarn fineness) that were experiencing this problem. Technological deliberations led to identifying variation in yarn length, yarn count, empty yarn container weight, and moisture content of yarn as the critical parameters for this rejection. Statistical hypothesis testing established that the observed weight was significantly more than the set weight of yarn at the assembly winding stage. In addition, a significant difference in gross yarn weight between left and right sides of a machine was found at this stage. This occured despite the attachment of electronic length measuring devices (LMDs) on all assembly winding machines. The gage capability analysis of LMDs, performed on the yarn length at two assembly winding machines, revealed inadequate capability. In addition, for the polyester yarn of count 4/12^'s, a relation was found between gross yarn weight and length of yarn through regression analysis. This relationship was used to arrive at the optimum parameter level.     

Quality Improvement of an Injection-Molded Product Using Design of Experiments: A Case Study

This paper was originated by a problem that occurred in an injection-molding project. The mold design team reported that the machine produced excessive flash on the molded part, the Bulldog, of Kettering University's mascot. The investigation of the manufacturing process problem required the understanding of many factors that influenced excessive flashing. After discussion and input from the team, a simple four-factor full-factorial design with duplicate measurements was used for the experiment. The analysis revealed that factors A (pack pressure), C (injection speed), and D (screw RPM) and also the interactions AC and CD were significant. The settings for A, C, and D were obtained. The confirmation runs showed that the setting of A at low level (150 psi), C at low level (0.5 in./sec), and D at high level (200 rpm) produced Bulldogs with zero flash.     

SrAl2O4:Eu2+发光材料的合成工艺研究

以碳粉作还原剂,SrCO3、Al2O3、Eu2O3为原料,在还原气氛下采用固相烧结法合成了SrAl2O4:Eu2+发光材料;对合成物进行了X射线粉晶衍射、荧光光谱测定;并初步探讨了Eu2+的含量、制备工艺过程中的焙烧温度、保温时间、冷却方式等因素对合成样品发光性能的影响.     

Surface Characteristics,Copper Release,and Toxicity of Nano‐ and Micrometer‐Sized Copper and Copper(II) Oxide Particles: A Cross‐Disciplinary Study

An interdisciplinary and multianalytical research effort is undertaken to assess the toxic aspects of thoroughly characterized nano‐ and micrometer‐sized particles of oxidized metallic copper and copper(II) oxide in contact with cultivated lung cells, as well as copper release in relevant media. All particles, except micrometer‐sized Cu, release more copper in serum‐containing cell medium (supplemented Dulbecco's minimal essential medium) compared to identical exposures in phosphate‐buffered saline. Sonication of particles for dispersion prior to exposure has a large effect on the initial copper release from Cu nanoparticles. A clear size‐dependent effect is observed from both a copper release and a toxicity perspective. In agreement with greater released amounts of copper per quantity of particles from the nanometer‐sized particles compared to the micrometer‐sized particles, the nanometer particles cause a higher degree of DNA damage (single‐strand breaks) and cause a significantly higher percentage of cell death compared to cytotoxicity induced by micrometer‐sized particles. Cytotoxic effects related to the released copper fraction are found to be significantly lower than the effects related to particles. No DNA damage is induced by the released copper fraction.     

Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV)-Based Assessment of Concrete Bridge Deck Delamination Using Thermal and Visible Camera Sensors: A Preliminary Analysis

Infrared and visible cameras were mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to image bridge deck surfaces and map likely concrete delaminations. The infrared sensor was first tested on laboratory validation experiments, to assess how well it could detect and map delaminations under controlled conditions. Field tests on two bridge deck surfaces further extend the validation dataset to real-world conditions for heterogeneous concrete surfaces. Performance of the mapping instrument and algorithms were evaluated through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, giving acceptable results. To improve the performance of the mapping by reducing the rate of false positives, i.e., areas wrongly mapped as being affected by delamination, visible images were jointly analyzed with the infrared imagery. The potential for expanding the method to include other products derived from the visible camera data, including high density 3D point locations generated by photogrammetric methods, promises to further improve the performance of the method, potentially making it a viable and more effective option compared to other platforms and systems for imaging bridge decks for mapping delaminations.     

A:Al2O3（A=Cr,Fe,Ni）晶体生长及其缺陷研究

报道了A:Al2O3(A=Cr,Fe,Ni)晶体光学浮区法生长工艺,研究了旋转速率、生长速率对晶体质量的影响,制备出了φ6~8 mm、长度为60~80 mm的A:Al2O3晶体.A:Al2O3晶体的生长方向为<001>方向,X射线双晶摇摆曲线表明A:Al2O3晶体具有良好的晶体质量.通过X射线衍射、扫描电镜、偏光显微镜对晶体中的生长缺陷进行了研究,结果表明,A:Al2O3晶体的主要缺陷为小角度晶界、包裹体和溶质尾迹.研究了A:Al2O3晶体的光谱性能,并对A:Al2O3晶体的介电性能进行了测量,室温下1000 kHz时A:Al2O3晶体表现出较高的介电系数εr(12.1~15.7)和较小的介电损耗tanδ(0.0020~0.0002).     

Assessing Fingerprint Individuality Using EPIC: A Case Study in the Analysis of Spatially Dependent Marked Processes

Fingerprint individuality refers to the extent of uniqueness of fingerprints and is governed by the distribution of fingerprint features, termed minutiae, in a population. This article develops a flexible class of marked point processes for minutiae and associated methodology for assessing fingerprint individuality. Inference is carried out in a Bayesian MCMC framework. The flexibility of the model fit to different kinds of minutiae patterns is demonstrated using real fingerprints. Evidence of a Paired Impostor Correspondence (EPIC) is developed as a measure of fingerprint individuality and its value is obtained using a simulation procedure based on the fitted models. This article has supplementary material online.     

Fault Diagnosis Improvement Using Dynamic Fault Model in Optimal Sensor Placement: A Case Study of Steam Turbine

Health data are collected dominantly through sensors mounted on different locations in the system. Optimization of sensor network has a significant influence on the reliability of system health prognostics process. In this research, the effect of sensors reliability is studied on their placement optimization. Sensors are considered in this study as components in system failure model. This study is aimed to use ‘Priority AND’ gate for evaluating the effect of time dependencies of sensors as well as components failure on the optimal sensor placement. Because of that, PAND gate is added to the fault tree between all sensors and their corresponding components to develop the failure model of each sensor placement scenario. For calculating the probability of top event, a Monte Carlo‐based algebraic approach is proposed. In algebraic approach, temporal operator ‘BEFORE’ is proposed for calculating the probability of ‘PAND’ gate. The result of using ‘BEFORE’ operator is an analytical solution for probability of each cut sequence. Because of the complexity of analytical solution in practical problems, a Monte Carlo simulation is utilized on the solution in this research. Then the probability of each cut sequence is calculated. Consequently, the probability of top event for each scenario is obtained. Finally, all scenarios are ranked based on top event probabilities. As a case study, optimization of sensor placement has been demonstrated on steam turbine and results are discussed. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Failure Mode Effect and Criticality Analysis of Conventional Milling Machine Using Fuzzy Logic: Case Study of RCM

The purpose of this paper is to select the appropriate maintenance strategies for each failure mode of functionally significant item of conventional milling machine. In order to describe the criticality analysis of conventional milling machine, this paper presents a study on reliability‐centered maintenance with fuzzy logic and its comparison with conventional method. On the basis of fuzzy logic, failure mode and effect analysis is introduced integrating with fuzzy linguistic scale method. After that, weighted Euclidean distance formula and centroid defuzzification is used for calculating risk priority number. The results indicate that based on risk priority number, value criticality ranking was decided, and appropriate maintenance strategies were suggested for each failure mode. It also reflects that a more accurate ranking can be performed by the application of fuzzy logic using linguistic rule to failure mode and effect analysis. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Surface Modification of Fluorine-Doped Tin Oxide Thin Films Using Femtosecond Direct Laser Interference Patterning: A Study of the Optoelectronic Performance

Transparent conductive oxides (TCOs) are used in solar cells not only to extract photogenerated carriers but also to allow sunlight to reach the photoactive material. Therefore, controlling the electrical and optical properties of such oxides is crucial for the optimization of the efficiency of solar cells. Herein, direct laser interference patterning (DLIP) method is used to control the surface morphology, optical and electrical properties of fluorine-doped tin oxide (FTO) by applying femtosecond laser pulses. The topography characterization reveals periodic line-like microstructures with a period of 3.0 μm and average heights between 20 and 185 nm, depending on the applied laser fluence levels. Laser-induced periodic surface structures are observed on the valleys of the texture aligned perpendicularly to the laser radiation polarization. A relative increase in the average total and diffuse optical transmittance up to 5% and 500%, respectively, is obtained in the 400–800 nm spectral range as a consequence of the generated micro- and nanostructures. Calculations of two figures of merit suggest that the texturing of FTO might enhance the efficiency of solar cells, in particular dye-sensitized (DSSCs). The findings of this study confirm that DLIP is a convenient technique for structuring electrodes for highly efficient optoelectronic devices.