Poly (vinyl alcohol) hydrogels for pH dependent colon targeted drug delivery

Oral drug administration is convenient with pH dependent drug delivery system since the drug has to pass through different pH environments in gastro intestinal (GI) tract. The pH dependent swelling/shrinking behavior of hydrogel drug carrier controls the drug release without affecting the function of drug. pH dependent hydrogels of poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) were prepared by cross linking with maleic acid (MA). The hydrogels were characterized by attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, DSC, porosimetry, SEM, TEM, biocompatibility study and by measuring their swelling behavior in water, simulated gastric fluid (SGF) and intestinal fluid (SIF). Swelling of the hydrogels was found to be highest in SIF (pH: 7.5) and lowest in SGF (pH: 1.2) resembling that required in colon targeted drug delivery systems. Since the swelling behavior of the gel is pH dependent, these hydrogels were studied for colon targeted drug delivery in an in-vitro set-up resembling the condition of GI tract. The ratio of PVA and MA in the hydrogel was varied to study the effect on the drug diffusion rate. For drug delivery study, vitamin B₁₂ and salicylic acid were used as model drugs. The hydrogel, loaded with model drugs vitamin B₁₂ and salicylic acid also demonstrated colon specific drug release with a relatively higher drug release in SIF (pH: 7.5) than that in SGF (pH: 1.2).     

Quantitative Analysis of the Degradation Behavior of Silicon Solar Cell Irradiated by 1 MeV Electron Beams Using Photocarrier Radiometry Combined with Lock-in Carrierography

Silicon solar cells with cover glass irradiated by 1 MeV electron beams at various fluences were investigated using photocarrier radiometry (PCR) combined with lock-in carrierography (LIC, spectrally gated dynamic photoluminescence). The minority carrier transport properties (i.e., minority carrier lifetime τ, diffusion coefficient D, surface recombination velocities S) and the degradation of these properties were studied using PCR. The relative damage coefficient obtained by LIC was consistent with the PCR measurement. The local series resistance of the solar cell before and after irradiation was characterized by LIC. The results showed that the series resistance increased with electron fluences.     

Evaluation of Fatigue Crack Orientation Using Non-collinear Shear Wave Mixing Method

In this paper, a non-collinear shear wave mixing technique is proposed for evaluation of fatigue crack orientation. Numerical analysis of the nonlinear interaction of two shear waves with crack is performed using two-dimensional finite-element simulations. The simulation results show that the nonlinear interaction of the two shears waves with cracks leads to the generation of transmitted and reflected sum-frequency longitudinal waves (SFLW), moreover the propagation direction of reflected SFLW is correlated with the orientation of crack, which can be used for crack orientation evaluation. Non-collinear wave-mixing experiments were conducted on specimens with fatigue crack. The experimental results show that the directivity of the generated SFLW agrees well with the simulation results, and non-collinear shear wave mixing has potential use in fatigue crack orientation evaluation.     

Behavior of square concrete columns reinforced with Prefabricated Cage System

Behavior of normal strength concrete columns reinforced with a new reinforcement, termed Prefabricated Cage System (PCS) is investigated. A total of 16 small-scale PCS and rebar reinforced column specimens were constructed and tested under monotonic axial displacement. The experimental results indicate that the overall behavior of rebar and PCS reinforced specimens are comparable prior to achieving the peak column load. In general, PCS specimens are more ductile and absorb more energy than similar rebar specimens after the peak load is reached. The effect of different parameters, such as the steel tube thickness, number of longitudinal reinforcements, transverse steel spacing, and crossties on the specimens’ strength and deformation capacity are investigated. A confined concrete model is proposed and used to predict the load–displacement response. The theoretical load–displacement relations obtained from the proposed model are compared with those obtained from the Mander et al. (J Struct Eng 114(8):1804–1826, 1988) confinement model.     

Col4a3-/- Mice on Balb/C Background Have Less Severe Cardiorespiratory Phenotype and SGLT2 Over-Expression Compared to 129x1/SvJ and C57Bl/6 Backgrounds

Alport syndrome (AS) is a hereditary renal disorder with no etiological therapy. In the preclinical Col4a3^-/- model of AS, disease progression and severity vary depending on mouse strain. The sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) is emerging as an attractive therapeutic target in cardiac/renal pathologies, but its application to AS remains untested. This study investigates cardiorespiratory function and SGLT2 renal expression in Col4a3^-/- mice from three different genetic backgrounds, 129x1/SvJ, C57Bl/6 and Balb/C. male Col4a3^-/- 129x1/SvJ mice displayed alterations consistent with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Female, but not male, C57Bl/6 and Balb/C Col4a3^-/- mice exhibited mild changes in systolic and diastolic function of the heart by echocardiography. Male C57Bl/6 Col4a3^-/- mice presented systolic dysfunction by invasive hemodynamic analysis. All strains except Balb/C males demonstrated alterations in respiratory function. SGLT2 expression was significantly increased in AS compared to WT mice from all strains. However, cardiorespiratory abnormalities and SGLT2 over-expression were significantly less in AS Balb/C mice compared to the other two strains. Systolic blood pressure was significantly elevated only in mutant 129x1/SvJ mice. The results provide further evidence for strain-dependent cardiorespiratory and hypertensive phenotype variations in mouse AS models, corroborated by renal SGLT2 expression, and support ongoing initiatives to develop SGLT2 inhibitors for the treatment of AS.     

Optimization of abrasive water jet cutting of ductile materials

Full factorial design of experiments was developed in order to investigate the effects of jet pressure, abrasive mixing rate, cutting feed, and plate thickness upon three response variables, surface finish of cutting wear zone, percentage proportion of striation free area, and maximum width of cut. The set of sixteen experiments was performed on each of the following two ductile materials: AISI 4340 (high strength low alloy steel, hardened to 49HRc) and Aluminum 2219. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was performed on experimental data in order to determine the significance of effects of different parameters on the performance measures. It was found that cutting feed and thickness were highly influential parameters, while abrasive mixing rate is influential upon surface roughness only. Strong interaction was found between jet pressure and workpiece material. Multi-criteria numerical optimization was performed in order to simultaneously maximize/minimize different combinations of performance measures.     

DCAF: An MPEG-21 Dynamic Content Adaptation Framework

Universal Multimedia Access aims at providing a gratifying end user-experience by either adapting the content, be it static or dynamic, to suit the usage environment or adapting the usage environment, be it client- or server-centric, to suit content. This paper presents our MPEG-21 Dynamic Content Adaptation Framework, acronym DCAF, which uses a fusion of Genetic Algorithms and Strength Pareto Optimality to adapt content in order to suit the usage environment.

Subharmonic Resonance Behavior for the Classical Hydrogen Atomic System

Previously unexplored resonance conditions are shown to exist for the classical hydrogen atomic system, where the electron is treated as a classical charged point particle following the nonrelativistic Lorentz-Dirac equation of motion about a stationary nucleus of opposite charge. For circularly polarized (CP) light directed normal to the orbit, very pronounced subharmonic resonance behavior is shown to occur with a variety of interesting properties. In particular, only if the amplitude of the CP light exceeds a critical value, will the resonance continue without radius and energy decay. A perturbation analysis is carried out to illustrate the main features of the behavior. The present phenomena adds to a growing list of other nonlinear dynamical behaviors of this simple system, that may well be important for more deeply understanding classical and quantum connections.