Solid State Interaction of Raloxifene HCl with Different Hydrophilic Carriers During Co-grinding and its Effect on Dissolution Rate

This study investigated the effects of different classes of hydrophilic carriers (poly vinyl pyrrolidones [PVPs] [Plasdone K-25 and Plasdone S-630], cellulosic polymers [hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose and hydroxy propyl cellulose], and Sodium Alginate) on the solid state and dissolution rate of Raloxifene hydrochloride (R-HCl). Solid state characterizations of co-ground mixtures and physical mixtures in 1:1 and 1:2 ratios of drug to polymer were performed by employing laser diffractometer for particle size and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) for solid state interactions. The results of particle size studies showed that only co-grinding with PVPs was more effective in the reduction of particle size than the milling of drug alone. DSC study indicated that the crystalline nature of the drug was reduced after co-grinding with PVPs when compared with their corresponding physical mixtures. The hydrophilic carriers other than PVPs did not reduce the crystalline nature of the drug significantly. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were carried out for selected batches to confirm DSC results. Significant enhancement in dissolution rate and extent was observed with co-ground mixtures of drug and PVPs. Plasdone S-630 was found to be a better carrier for R-HCl in terms of achieving improvement in dissolution. In vitro dissolution data can be described by Hixson–Crowell model, indicating the drug release mechanism predominated by erosion.     

An extended cell-average technique for a multi-dimensional population balance of granulation describing aggregation and breakage

This paper focuses on obtaining the numerical solution to a three-dimensional population balance model (PBM) of granulation using the cell-average technique first proposed by [22]. Conventionally, linear grids are used for the solution of PBMs, but the ability to incorporate non-linear grids would be more advantageous given that a larger size range can be covered using fewer number of grids, thus reducing computational overhead. Furthermore, the use of linear representation of grids in PBMs to represent industrial granulation processes that span a wide granule size range is computationally prohibitive and results show that a non-linear grid representation is computationally more efficient with comparable accuracy. Parallelization of the PBM via a multi-core strategy has also been incorporated in order to reduce the simulation time of the model. Incorporating the cell average technique along with parallelization of the overall model lends credence to the overall use of the model for effective granulation process design and analysis.     

Challenges and Developments in Secure Routing Protocols for Healthcare in WBAN: A Comparative Analysis

Wireless Personal Communications - The rise in life expectancy of humans, COVID-19 pandemic and growing cost of medical services has brought up huge challenges for the government and healthcare...     

Visibly Active FeO/ZnO@PANI Magnetic Nano-photocatalyst for the Degradation of 3-Aminophenol

Topics in Catalysis - The water management sector is becoming extremely challenging these days because of poor water quality which is due to the presence of noxious pollutants at an...     

A minimized automaton representation of reachable states

We consider the problem of storing a set S⊂Σ^kas a deterministic finite automaton (DFA). We show that inserting a new string σ∈Σ^k or deleting a string from the set S represented as a minimized DFA can be done in expected time O(k|Σ|), while preserving the minimality of the DFA. The method can be applied to reduce the memory requirements of model checkers that are based on explicit state enumeration. As an example, we discuss an implementation of the method for the model checker Spin.     

An experimental illustration of 3D facial shape analysis under facial expressions

The main goal of this paper is to illustrate a geometric analysis of 3D facial shapes in the presence of varying facial expressions. This approach consists of the following two main steps: (1) Each facial surface is automatically denoised and preprocessed to result in an indexed collection of facial curves. During this step, one detects the tip of the nose and defines a surface distance function with that tip as the reference point. The level curves of this distance function are the desired facial curves. (2) Comparisons between faces are based on optimal deformations from one to another. This, in turn, is based on optimal deformations of the corresponding facial curves across surfaces under an elastic metric. The experimental results, generated using a subset of the Face Recognition Grand Challenge v2 data set, demonstrate the success of the proposed framework in recognizing people under different facial expressions. The recognition rates obtained here exceed those for a baseline ICP algorithm on the same data set.     

A Restricted Second Order Logic for Finite Structures

We introduce a restricted version of second order logic SO^ωin which the second order quantifiers range over relations that are closed under the equivalence relation ≡^kofkvariable equivalence, for somek. This restricted second order logic is an effective fragment of the infinitary logicL^ω_∞ω, but it differs from other such fragments in that it is not based on a fixed point logic. We explore the relationship of SO^ωwith fixed point logics, showing that its inclusion relations with these logics are equivalent to problems in complexity theory. We also look at the expressibility of NP-complete problems in this logic.     

Reparametrized ARX models for predictive control of staged and packed bed distillation columns

This work is aimed at the development of reparametrized ARX type models for high dimensional and distributed parameter systems. To keep data length small while identifying a model with ARX structure, the feasibility of reparametrizing ARX models using the fractional order differential operators and orthonormal basis filters is explored. The identified noise model is further used for developing a novel observer based MPC scheme, which explicitly uses the identified unmeasured disturbance model for the future trajectory predictions. The efficacy of the proposed modeling technique and the MPC scheme is demonstrated by conducting (a) simulation studies on a staged distillation column and (b) experimental evaluations on a laboratory scale packed bed distillation column.     

Contour Inferences for Image Understanding

We present a new approach to the algorithmic study of planar curves, with applications to estimations of contours in images. We construct spaces of curves satisfying constraints suited to specific problems, exploit their geometric structure to quantify properties of contours, and solve optimization and inference problems. Applications include new algorithms for computing planar elasticae, with enhanced performance and speed, and geometric algorithms for the estimation of contours of partially occluded objects in images.     

Absorption-based fiber optic surface plasmon resonance sensor: a theoretical evaluation

In this paper, an optical absorption based fiber optic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor has been studied theoretically. The theoretical treatment is based on Kretschmann’s SPR theory and the Lorentz model that expresses a damped harmonic oscillator is included in the treatment for optical absorption in the sensing layer. The optical source considered is an un-polarized collimated beam. The light is coupled to the fiber using a microscope objective that focuses the beam at the center of the input face of the fiber. The effects of the parameters related to the sensing region, the light source and the optical fiber on the sensitivity and the operating range of the SPR sensor have been studied with the help of numerical calculations and computer simulations. It has been found that the excitation frequency in absorption-based fiber optic SPR sensor is an important parameter. The sensitivity is better for the lower off-resonance excitation frequency. The sensitivity and the operating range of the sensor are better for large value of the core diameter. The optimization of numerical aperture of the fiber, film thickness and the length of the sensing region is required to achieve the maximum sensitivity. Further, the increase in the extinction coefficient of the sample increases the sensitivity of the sensor while the decrease in the width of its absorption spectrum increases the sensitivity. The sensitivity and the operating range of the sensor are better for small values of the refractive index of the absorbing sample.