Tablet Excipients to the Year 2001: A Look into the Crystal Ball

The future for tablet excipients is reviewed from a number of viewpoints: new materials, formulation development, quality, regulatory aspects, logistics, and production. The field of excipients is changing rapidly in response to economic, regulatory, and scientific pressures. As our understanding of drug delivery improves, so will the demands we place on excipients and on their quality, both chemical and functional. In order to fully optimize drug delivery systems, a better understanding of excipients and their properties and limitations is required. The materials science approach to the study of excipients will help to increase our understanding of excipients and how best to use them. But excipients are only one part of the very complex mechanism whereby new medicinal products are brought to the marketplace. It is important that the processes of formulation design and development are properly integrated to obtain optimized drug delivery systems as early as possible. Developments in related fields such as manufacturing technology, logistics, and analytical techniques will also influence the field of excipients.     

Computational medicine: bioelectric field problems

Applications of large-scale computer modeling and simulation to a class of bioelectric field problems in a variety of biomedical research areas, from single cells to full human structures, are described. The authors focus on a specific subset of bioelectric field problems that have applications in electrocardiography and electroencephalography. The physics and physiology of bioelectric volume conductors are introduced. A specific computational example and the authors' view on the future direction of computational medicine are presented     

Thermal stability of Al/AlGaAs and Al/GaAs/AlGaAs (MBE) Schottky barriers

Outstanding stability has been observed in Al/Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As and Al/GaAs/Al/sub x/Ga/sub 1-x/As (x=0.25) Schottky barriers prepared by depositing Al in situ by MBE on annealing up to 400 degrees C. Conventionally evaporated barriers have been fabricated and compared with epitaxial ones. The changes in barrier height and ideality factor induced by annealing are reported.<>     

Pocket pagers in lots of one CIM

The Fusion program, a method for agile, flexible computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) at Motorola's Paging Products Group, is discussed. Fusion's CIM and automated assembly system can manufacture a wide variety of different products on the same production line. The development of the Fusion program and how it differs from its predecessor, the Bandit program, are described     

Gas-phase modification of rare-earth intermetallic compounds

Recent work concerning the interstitial modification of permanent magnet alloys based on rare-earth iron intermetallic compounds is reviewed. The crystal structure of the new materials is discussed, then the thermodynamic and statistical aspects of the low-temperature interstitial modification process are considered. Finally, reaction kinetics and thermal stability of the new compounds are discussed and future prospects assessed.     

Computer analysis,design and simulation of horizontal ground heat exchangers

This paper presents a new computerized procedure for dealing with the design of horizontal ground heat exchangers (HGHE). The computer program is based on the transient model of coupled nonlinear partial differential equations governing heat and mass flow in soils. The model is two-dimensional and delineates the operation of ground heat storage with the HGHE and such phenomena as freezing/thawing and drying/rewetting of soil moisture. Comprehensive climatological data, such as ambient temperature, solar radiation, wind velocity, rainfall, snowfall, snow characterstics, and water vapour pressure is used to simulate conditions at the ground surface over any required length of time. The package can be applied to any geographical location by changing climatic and soil data input. The designer has the possibility of selecting any of 12 types of soils from sand to clay, 12 commercial heat pumps, nine different configurations of the HGHE, 16 plastic pipes for ground coils, and 13 ground coil fluids. The program, however, does not calculate the length of the HGHE but it evaluates the thermodynamic performance of a ground heat pump system and provides comprehensive data on thermal and hydraulic conditions in ground heat storage. The length of the ground heat exchanger is obtained from a line source theory model or from site dimensions and pipe spacing. Computed results for ground heat exchanger operation correlate fairly well with experimental data. Simulation of temperature and moisture content in the ground for natural conditions (no heat extraction/deposition) showed a fair agreement with field data. The entire computer program is user-friendly, interactive, menu-driven, and written in FORTRAN 77.     

A portable cryo-storage system for low-temperature scanning electron microscopy,suitable for international transport of cryo-specimens

A cryo-specimen storage system for low-temperature scanning electron microscopy (LTSEM) specimens is described, which: liberates multi-specimen experiments from sampling restrictions imposed by the rate at which LTSEM specimens can be examined in the SEM; provides security against experiment loss resulting from breakdown of the SEM or cryo-system; enables collection of specimens in the field or in laboratories remote from the SEM laboratory; and facilitates international air transport of LTSEM specimens. The components of the system, which has a capacity of 98 stub-mounted specimens, are readily made in a laboratory workshop. The details of the design may be altered to suit particular specimen types or experimental approaches.     

A simple and effective precoding scheme for noise whitening onintersymbol interference channels

A precoding scheme for noise whitening on intersymbol interference (ISI) channels is presented. This scheme is compatible with trellis-coded modulation and, unlike Tomlinson precoding, allows constellation shaping. It can be used with almost any shaping scheme, including the optimal SVQ shaping, as opposed to trellis precoding, which can only be used with trellis shaping. The implementation complexity of this scheme is minimal-only three times that of the noise prediction filter, hence effective noise whitening can be achieved by using a high-order predictor     

Influence of doping on the electronic structure of (La,Sr)2CuO4

High-statistics (>4 × 10⁸ counts), room-temperature measurements of the electron-positron momentum density of La_2?x Sr _x CuO₄ have been performed for samples with Sr concentrations of x=0.0, 0.1, 0.13, and 0.2. These spectra have been analyzed in conjunction with theoretical calculations of the electron-positron momentum density. The metallic samples show features consistent with the presence of a Fermi surface, but its evolution with increasing Sr concentration does not follow the predictions of band theory. These results may indicate the effects of electron-electron correlation on the electron momentum distribution in the Cu-O plane.