Solvent-free direct formulation of poorly-soluble drugs to amorphous solid dispersion via melt-absorption

To improve the dissolution properties of poorly water soluble active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), a solvent-free melt-absorption process was applied to directly load the APIs into mesoporous SBA-15 silica powder as an amorphous solid dispersion. Two model compounds, poorly aqueous soluble ibuprofen (IBU) and fenofibrate (FEN), were individually mixed with SBA-15 powder and heated above their respective melting points. Upon cooling, the physicochemical and solid-state properties of the solid dispersions were investigated by N₂ adsorption, DSC, XRD, SEM and solid-state NMR. The molten API was found to be absorbed into the pores, confined within the nano-channels of SBA-15, and re-solidified to an amorphous solid dispersion. Due to the amorphous properties, the APIs showed a significant enhancement in dissolution rate as compared with the untreated crystalline APIs. Although the amorphous forms were not at thermodynamic equilibrium, the APIs exhibited excellent solid-state physical stability even under accelerated stress conditions. In comparison with APIs loaded using a co-spray drying process (previous work), the melt-absorption process required no organic solvent, produced powders with a coarser size distribution and more desirable flow properties. This solvent-free direct melt-absorption process can be used to formulate a wide range of poorly soluble drugs to be amorphous solid dispersions.     

Cesium halides/Methylammonium double cation perovskite film for efficient and stable carbon-based perovskite solar cells

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - The substitution with mixed cation in perovskite has advantages in improving the overall performance and stability of the perovskite solar...     

Investigation of structural,mechanical and magnetic characterization of electroplated W deposited NiMo thin films

Journal of Materials Science: Materials in Electronics - In the current research work, NiMo thin films were successfully co-deposited with W on the copper substrate (NiMoW) by varying the plating...     

Quick fix for obstacles emerging in management recruitment measure using IOT-based candidate selection

In this paper, decision-making tool is developed for the identification of the optimal aspirant for the recruitment procedure. It is developed using the IoT-based smart sensor architecture and Visual Studio programming language. The ideal candidates are determined by using the objective function, which is extracted from the sequence of the pairwise comparison performed using the combination of MCDM algorithms. Later, after the pairwise comparison, the process is extended to the next step, that is to allocate ranking for the best suitable candidate. This makes the tool more feasible and accurate. To identify the ranking of the finest aspirant, the combination of two MCDM technologies is used that is TOPSIS and GRA. In TOPSIS, mainly two artificial alternatives are used that is positive ideal alternative and negative ideal alternative. The Grey relational grade reduced by Grey theory (Tsai et al. in Int J 11:45–53, 2003) will be used to make an integrated and authentic evaluation system for identifying who is the best aspirant among all the candidates applied for the job of a professor.     

Optimization of cutting parameters in micro end milling operations in dry cutting condition using genetic algorithms

Micro end milling with fine grained carbide end mills is an economical way to machine small and medium lots of micro components. Considering the sensitivity of the slender end mills which are very costly compared to conventional end mills, it is imperative that the machining parameters are chosen appropriately so as to ensure maximum tool life and minimum possible production cost without violating any of the imposed constraints. Unlike in conventional end milling operations the tool life in micro end milling operations increases with axial depth of cut till it equals the tool diameter and this makes it even difficult to ascertain the appropriate depth of cut to machine a specific component. In this paper the influence of depth of cut on tool life is illustrated and depth of cut is also considered as one of the decision variables in the optimization problem. More over in this paper Genetic Algorithms (GA) based on natural laws of evolution is used to optimize the cutting parameters. Finally a test case is presented to give a clear picture of the application of the optimization algorithm.     

Compact inductive energy storage pulse power system

An inductive energy storage pulse power system is being developed in BARC, India. Simple, compact, and robust opening switches, capable of generating hundreds of kV, are key elements in the development of inductive energy storage pulsed power sources. It employs an inductive energy storage and opening switch power conditioning techniques with high energy density capacitors as the primary energy store. The energy stored in the capacitor bank is transferred to an air cored storage inductor in 5.5 μs through wire fuses. By optimizing the exploding wire parameters, a compact, robust, high voltage pulse power system, capable of generating reproducibly 240 kV, is developed. This paper presents the full details of the system along with the experimental data.     

Sources and impacts of pharmaceutical components in wastewater and its treatment process: A review

Pharmaceutical compounds and their derivatives are major pollutants in the environment, as their metabolites affect the terrestrial as well as aquatic organisms in one or another way. In recent times, many papers have discussed the treatment procedures for single pharmaceutical and mixture of pharmaceutical components, but only few papers have discussed the fate and the exposure of pharmaceutical contaminants in our environment. In this paper, we discuss the sources and the forms of pharmaceutical products and their resultant in the environment and their addition to the microbial and to human communities. A detailed discussion of various treatment techniques from conventional to current techniques, their advantages and disadvantages is given here. Researchers are finding the techniques in order to completely degrade the contaminants and their transformed products from the environment. Among the technique, s nanotechnology was found to be an efficient technique, and the combination of nanotechnology with other conventional technologies gives higher removal efficiency.     

A simple method for concentrating and detecting viruses in wastewater

A simple method has been developed for routine analysis of sewage and sewage effluents for detecting viruses using adsorption at pH 3 on a 0·45 μm 47 mm diameter membrane filter and elution at pH 8. It was tested on viruses added to autoclaved sewage. Homogenizing the sample for 4 min in a Waring blender and clarification by centrifugation at 1800 g and later at 9230 g facilitated easy filtration without any loss of virus. Retention of the eluant for 30 min on the millipore membrane and then elution in situ under suction provided a sterile eluate with 100 per cent recovery of viruses.

Viruses added to fecal suspensions with 600 mg I⁻¹ BOD were completely recovered when the sample pH was adjusted to 3 and its salt concentration increased by adding 1200 mg l⁻¹ of Mg²⁺ as the chloride. This procedure eliminated the need for passing the samples through ion exchange resins for removing membrane coating components. In a 1 yr programme of monitoring of raw sewage from a middle income group community in Nagpur, a maximum of 3150 PFU/1 during monsoon and 11575 PFU/1 during winter was obtained.

High efficiency and reproducibility of the method allowed the use of sample volumes of 40 ml of raw sewage and 320 ml of treated effluent for the detection of viruses.     

Voltage regulation of a stand-alone self-excited induction generator using STATCON with one cycle control technique for wind energy conversion system

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the simple voltage regulation scheme using a three-phase static VAr compensator (STATCON) for a stand-alone self-excited induction generator (SEIG) that uses variable-speed wind generation system. Most of the loads are inductive and need an equal amount of leading VArs, which is generated by the STATCON and injected at point of common coupling instantaneously. The one cycle control technique is considered and modified to implement for VAr compensation of SEIG voltage regulation. To emphasis the controller characteristics, a STATCON is designed for a 3-Ø, 0.75?kW, 415?V, 1.8?A Induction Machine and tested in simulation using MATLAB/SIMULINK software.