Dose proportionality and comparison of single and multiple dose pharmacokinetics of fexofenadine (MDL 16455) and its enantiomers in healthy male volunteers

The pharmacokinetics and dose proportionality of fexofenadine, a new non-sedating antihistamine, and its enantiomers were characterized after single and multiple-dose administration of its hydrochloride salt. A total of 24 healthy male volunteers (31 +/- 8 years) received oral doses of 20, 60, 120 and 240 mg fexofenadine HCl in a randomized, complete four-period cross-over design. Subjects received a single oral dose on day 1, and multiple oral doses every 12 h on day 3 through the morning on day 7. Treatments were separated by a 14-day washout period. Serial blood and urine samples were collected for up to 48 h following the first and last doses of fexofenadine HCl. Fexofenadine and its R(+) and S(-) enantiomers were analysed in plasma and urine by validated HPLC methods. Fexofenadine pharmacokinetics were linear across the 20-120 mg dose range, but a small disproportionate increase in area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) (< 25%) was observed following the 240 mg dose. Single-dose pharmacokinetics of fexofenadine were predictive of steady-state pharmacokinetics. Urinary elimination of fexofenadine played a minor role (10%) in the disposition of this drug. A 63:37 steady-state ratio of R(+) and S(-) fexofenadine was observed in plasma. This ratio was essentially constant across time and dose. R(+) and S(-) fexofenadine were eliminated into urine in equal rates and quantities. All doses of fexofenadine HCl were well tolerated after single and multiple-dose administration.     

Anionic Clays as Potential Slow-Release Fertilizers: Nitrate Ion Exchange

Several nitrate containing anionic clays were synthesized at different temperatures and the kinetics of NO₃ ^– release were determined to test their suitability as slow-release N fertilizers. A sample (Mg:Al = 2:1) synthesized at 60°C with smaller particle size released 75, 86 and 100% of its NO₃ ^– in 1, 3 and 7 days, respectively when equilibrated with a simulated soil solution. On the other hand, the 175°C/2 hrs sample with larger particle size released 65, 77 and 84% of its nitrate in 1, 3 and 7 days, respectively. Another anionic clay (synthesized at 175°C/24 hrs) of higher charge density (Mg:Al = 2:1) containing NO₃ ^– was equilibrated with a 0.012 N NaCl or Na₂CO₃ to test the role of different anions in releasing the NO₃ ^– anion from the interlayers. The results showed that Cl^– released more NO₃ ^– than did CO₃ ^2– from this anionic clay after all the treatment times probably as a result of the CO₃ ^2– anion blocking the release of NO₃ ^– from the interior of the crystals. When a lower charge density (Mg:Al = 3:1) sample (synthesized at 175°C/48 hrs) was equilibrated with 0.02N solution of anions the release of nitrate was as follows: Cl^– < F^– < SO₄ ⁼ CO₃ ^2–. These results suggest that the divalent SO₄ ⁼ and CO₃ ^2– anions are more effective in the release of NO₃ ^– from this lower charge density anionic clay. Time-resolved structural analysis of NO₃ ^– exchange with CO₃ ^2– in the above anionic clay using synchrotron x-ray diffraction showed that ion exchange is rapid because of small crystal size and lower charge density. Thus the release of NO₃ ^– from anionic clays is an interplay among the type of anions present in soil solution, their concentration, pH of soil solution, the charge density and crystal size of anionic clay etc.     

Chlorosis in sugarcane: Associated soil properties,leaf mineral composition,and crop response to iron and manganese

Attempts were made to find out the nature and cause of a widespread sugarcane chlorosis in a cane growing area. Soils from chlorotic and nonchlorotic fields did not differ markedly in pH, CaCO₃, electrical conductivity, organic C, and soil test P, Zn, Cu, and Mn levels, but the chlorotic field soils had relatively more NH₄OAc-extractable K and less clay and DTPA-extractable Fe. Chlorotic and green leaf blades contained about the same concentration of P, S, Mg, Fe, Zn, Cu, and Mo, but the former leaf blades had more K and less Ca and HCl soluble Fe than the green ones. Green leaves of plants that seemed to have naturally recovered in chlorotic fields were higher in Mn. A foliage spray with 2.5% FeSO₄.7H₂O solution resulted in greening of leaves and a field experiment showed marked crop response to Fe and some response to Mn. The results thus suggest that the chlorosis is due to a lime-induced Fe-deficiency with the possibility of some role of Mn in Fe nutrition in calcareous soil conditions.Deceased 22 September 1988     

Effect of alkali on filaments of poly(ethylene terephthalate) and its copolyesters

The alkali hydrolysis of poly(ethylene terephthalate), anionic copolymer of poly(ethylene terephthalate), and block copolymer of poly(ethylene terephthalate)–poly(ethylene glycol) is investigated under a variety of conditions of alkali concentration in aqueous bath, additives, time, and temperature. Measurements of loss in weight, linear density, breaking load, tenacity, elongation to break apart from intrinsic viscosity, fiber density, COOH-end group content, diameter of filaments, and scanning electron micrographs have been analyzed to identify the differences in the action of alkali on these polymer materials.     

Numerical study of thermodiffusion effects on boundary layer flow of nanofluids over a power law stretching sheet

This paper deals with the triple-diffusive boundary layer flow of nanofluid over a nonlinear stretching sheet. In this model, where binary nanofluid is used, the Brownian motion, thermophoresis, and cross-diffusion are classified as the main mechanisms, which are responsible for the enhancement of the convection features of the nanofluid. The boundary layer equations governed by the partial differential equations are transformed into a set of ordinary differential equations with the help of group theory transformations, which is introduced by Blasius (The boundary layers in fluids with little friction, 1950). The variational finite element method is used to solve these ordinary differential equations. We have examined the effects of different controlling parameters, namely the Brownian motion parameter, the thermophoresis parameter, modified Dufour number, nonlinear stretching parameter, Prandtl number, regular Lewis number, Dufour Lewis number, and nanofluid Lewis number on the flow field and heat transfer characteristics. The physics of the problem is well explored for the embedded material parameters through tables and graphs. The present study has many applications in coating and suspensions, movement of biological fluids, cooling of metallic plate, melt-spinning, heat exchangers technology, and oceanography.     

Quantitative Characterization of Indentation Crack Path in a Cubic Zirconia-10 vol% Alumina Composite

Stereological measurements were performed to characterize the indentation crack path in a cubic zirconia-10 vol% alumina (c-ZrO₂-10 vol% Al₂O₃) composite. Cracks were generated using Vickers indentation, and the crack propagation behavior was characterized as a function of the indentation loading/unloading rates. Cracks that were produced by Vickers indentation formed at higher crack velocities as the loading/unloading rates increased. The amount of contact between the crack and the Al₂O₃ particles increased as the indentation rate decreased. The total number of crack-particle interactions per unit crack length also increased as the indentation rate decreased, because of an increase in the number of particles that were fractured per unit crack length, whereas the number of particles that were debonded remained relatively constant as the indentation rate changed. These results suggest that residual thermal mismatch stresses have predominant control of the crack path at lower crack velocities (low indentation loading/unloading rate), whereas elastic mismatch stresses predominate at higher crack velocities (high indentation loading/unloading rate).     

Modeling of time to corrosion-induced cover cracking in reinforced concrete structures

Service life of the concrete structures depends on the protective action provided by the cover concrete against the susceptibility of the reinforcement to the corrosive environment. Depending on the level of the oxidation of metallic iron, corrosion products may have much greater volume than the original iron that gets consumed by the process of corrosion. This volume expansion is mainly responsible for exerting the expansive radial pressure at the steel-concrete interface and development of hoop tensile stresses in the surrounding concrete resulting ultimately in the through cracking of the cover concrete. This cover cracking would indicate the loss of the service life for the corrosion-affected structures. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to develop analytical models for predicting the time to cover cracking by considering the residual strength of the cracked concrete and the stiffness provided by the combination of the reinforcement and expansive corrosion products. The problem is modeled as a boundary value problem wherein the governing equations are expressed in terms of the radial displacement and the analytical solutions are presented considering a simple 2-zone model for the cover concrete viz. cracked or uncracked. The analytical models are then evaluated through their ability to reproduce available experimental trends and subsequently a sensitivity analysis has also been carried out to show the influence of the various variable parameters of the proposed models with reference to the experimental trends.     

An investigation of phase transformation behavior in sputter-deposited PtMn thin films

Sputter-deposited, equiatomic PtMn thin films have application in giant magnetoresistive spin valves, tunneling magnetoresistive spin valves, and magnetic random access memory. However, the as-deposited films are found to be a disordered A1 phase in a paramagnetic state rather than an antiferromagnetic phase with L1₀ structure, which is needed for device operation. Therefore, a postannealing step is required to induce the phase transformation from the asdeposited A1 face-centered-cubic phase to the antiferromagnetic L1₀ phase. The A1 to L1₀ metastable transformation was studied by x-ray diffraction and differential-scanning calorimetry. An exothermic transformation enthalpy of −12.1 kJ/mol of atoms was determined. The transformation kinetics were simulated using the Johnson-Mehl-Avrami analysis.     

Observer-invariant histopathology using genetics-based machine learning

Prostate cancer accounts for one-third of noncutaneous cancers diagnosed in US men and is a leading cause of cancer-related death. Advances in Fourier transform infrared spectroscopic imaging now provide very large data sets describing both the structural and local chemical properties of cells within prostate tissue. Uniting spectroscopic imaging data and computer-aided diagnoses (CADx), our long term goal is to provide a new approach to pathology by automating the recognition of cancer in complex tissue. The first step toward the creation of such CADx tools requires mechanisms for automatically learning to classify tissue types—a key step on the diagnosis process. Here we demonstrate that genetics-based machine learning (GBML) can be used to approach such a problem. However, to efficiently analyze this problem there is a need to develop efficient and scalable GBML implementations that are able to process very large data sets. In this paper, we propose and validate an efficient GBML technique——based on an incremental genetics-based rule learner. exploits massive parallelisms via the message passing interface (MPI) and efficient rule-matching using hardware-implemented operations. Results demonstrate that is capable of performing prostate tissue classification efficiently, making a compelling case for using GBML implementations as efficient and powerful tools for biomedical image processing.     

Identification of pole-like structures from mobile lidar data of complex road environment

Pole-like structures (PLSs) located in road environment are important roadway assets. They play a vital role in road safety inspection and road planning. The use of light detection and ranging (lidar) based mobile mapping technology for mapping of PLSs is an important area of research as it holds the potential for automation. Point cloud data of rural, peri-urban, and urban road environment are used in this study, which pose special challenge in view of the complexity of terrain, unlike well-planned roads, which have been the subject of interest in existing literature for identification of PLSs. A new five-step method is proposed in this article. The first two steps, i.e. ground filtering and voxelization of filtered non-ground points, are used for data size reduction. Next three steps are used to extract PLSs from reduced data. The proposed method was tested on point cloud data of three test sites having different levels of complexities. PLSs including partially occluded pole, tilted pole, pole situated very close to other objects, and vertical pole attached to tilted pole were accurately identified. Average correctness and completeness, respectively of 92.6% and 94.9%, were achieved in three different complex test sites, i.e. urban, peri-urban, and rural sites, respectively. Computation complexity shows that our proposed method delivers fast and computationally efficient solution for identifying the PLSs from volumetric mobile lidar point cloud. Impact of PLSs on road safety and road planning is also addressed for these selected test sites.