Grain Boundary Sliding and Strain Rate Sensitivity of Coarse and Fine/Ultrafine Grained 5083 Aluminum Alloys

Metallurgical and Materials Transactions A - The viscoplastic behavior of coarse and bimodal fine/ultrafine grained (F/UFG) Al5083 alloy was investigated between 20 °C and...     

In vitro and in vivo evaluation of paclitaxel–lapatinib-loaded F127 pluronic micelles

The aim of this study was to evaluate the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of paclitaxel–lapatinib-loaded Pluronic micelles. Lapatinib and pluronic sensitize the cancerous cells to paclitaxel via efflux pump inhibition. In addition, pluronic polymers can trigger intrinsic apoptosis pathways. Furthermore, micellar system can passively target the chemotherapeutic agents by enhanced permeability and retention effect. The paclitaxel–lapatinib-loaded micelles were characterized in means of encapsulation efficacy and size. The in vitro analyses were performed by MTT assay and uptake studies. Real-time imaging and in vivo anti-tumor efficacy studies were also performed. The prepared micelles have acceptable encapsulation ratio and size. Hemolysis assay confirmed that the micelles are hemo-compatible. MTT assay demonstrated that drug-loaded micelles have superior cytotoxicity compared with the naked drugs. The confocal microscopy and flowcytometry analyses showed that micelles are mainly internalized by endocytosis. According to the results of the in vivo imaging, the micelles are accumulated within liver. In vivo anti-tumor efficacy studies confirmed that tumor inhibition of drug-loaded micelles was significant compared to Intaxel^®.     

Experimental Confirmation of Design Techniques for Effective Bow-Tie Antenna Lengths at THz Frequencies

We present on the relationship between the bow-tie antenna length and its THz spectral emission response. Three well-known approaches for predicting accurate antenna length for a given central frequency were utilized and their validity was experimentally tested. It is shown that the simple quasi-static approach compare to other approximations is valid for frequencies up to ~1.5 THz. The bow-tie THz photoconcudtive (PC) emitter designed using this approximation exhibits THz radiation having the most accurate central frequency compared to the design frequency. Interestingly, the THz PC emitter utilized from this design technique also possesses the optimum radiation bandwidth.     

An effective characterization procedure for petroleum reservoir fluids using molecular type methods and cubic equations of state

Two eminent molecular type composition methods (paraffins, naphthenes, and aromatics [PNA] and saturates, aromatics, and polynuclear aromatics [SAP]) are employed to construct new characterization procedures for predicting the phase behaviour of petroleum fluids using a modified Peng–Robinson equation of state. The PNA and SAP methods divide a petroleum fraction into (PNA) and (SAP) homologous groups, respectively. Two generalized models are developed to predict the physical properties ($\mathrm{Mw},\mathrm{SG},T_b$) and equation of state (EOS) parameters ($T_c,P_c,\omega$) for both PNA and SAP sub-fractions. Each generalized model covers 18 different correlations in a single mathematical form that enables the model to return 18 outputs for PNA and SAP sub-fraction parameters. A new lumping method is also developed to convert triple PNA or SAP pseudo-components into single characterized fractions. Accordingly, seven different characterization procedures are introduced and compared with one another. The first two procedures are completely constructed based on the proposed models, and the other procedures encompass the models already developed. The results obtained from the simulation of the differential liberation test for 12 diverse reservoir fluids and bubble pressure prediction for 40 oil samples revealed that the first two methods (1 and 2) could enhance the abilities of the traditional characterization procedures for reservoir fluid modelling. The mean value of average absolute relative deviations (AARDs) over a total of 52 oil samples is about 6.5% for the proposed methods and is about 13.2% for the best previously existing methods. Moreover, an efficient workflow is provided for the parameter tuning process, which is notably capable of reducing the level of prediction errors using only three adjustable parameters.