Menadione-induced oxidative stress accelerates onset of Emory mouse cataract in vivo

This article takes issue with procedural reductionism, which is the inclination to reduce all matters of judgement and responsibility to the following of some procedure or rule. Two scenarios provide content for a discussion of professional discretion in the context of accountability. The author shows that in professional life there will always be situations that stand beyond the rules of procedures and require the unique judgement of the professional at the time. While this judgement may be determined by the facts available in a situation of uncertainty, it cannot be reduced to the facts (including facts about rules and procedures). The moral judgement will still have an essential indeterminancy about it.     

A new binary accelerator system for the sulfur vulcanization of natural rubber latex

Vulcanization of latex products are usually carried out at lower temperatures compared to dry rubber products. It has been suggested that, in latex vulcanization systems where thiourea is used as a secondary accelerator, it acts as a nucleophilic reagent facilitating the cleavage of the sulfur bonds in the primary accelerator like TMTD or CBS at lower temperature. But no conclusive proof is given to such a postulate. In the present study 1-phenyl-2,4-thiobiuret (DTB II) and 1,5-diphenyl-2,4-dithiobiuret (DTB III), which are more nucleophilic than thiourea and which vary in their nucleophilic reactivity, were studied as secondary accelerators along with tetramethyl thiuram disulphide (TMTD) and N-cyclohexylbenzothiazyl sulphenamide (CBS) in the vulcanization of natural rubber latex. These binary systems were found to be very effective in reducing the optimum vulcanization time. Also it was noted that 1-phenyl-2,4-dithiobiuret, which is more nucleophilic, is more reactive (as observed from the reduction in optimum cure time) as a secondary accelerator, indicating a nucleophilic reaction mechanism in the vulcanization reactions under review. The optimum dosages of the secondary accelerators required were derived. Physical properties like tensile strength, 300% modulus, and elongation at break of the latex vulcanizates were also studied. There is a definite advantage with respect to many of these properties for dithiobiuret systems compared to the systems containing TMTD alone or TMTD/thiourea. DTB III gives higher values in many of these physical properties than DTB II. Chemical characterization of the vulcanizates was also carried out to correlate the physical properties with the type of chemical crosslinks formed. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Improving the performance of an active carbon-nitrogen adsorption cryocooler by thermal regeneration

Thermodynamic analysis was done on single and two stage active carbon nitrogen adsorption cryocoolers to study the effect of thermal regeneration on the performance. Heat regeneration within compressors operating in the same temperature range is considered. From the analysis done on 80 K cooler and 117.5 K cooler, it is found that dramatic efficiency improvement is possible with the use of compressor heat regeneration techniques.     

Encapsulation and controlled release in polyacrylamide hydrogels

A novel host–guest system was developed by the encapsulation of simple organic guest molecules in the hydrophilic molecular architecture of crosslinked polyacrylamide hydrogels. The crosslinking agents used for the preparation of the host systems were hexanediol dimethacrylate (HDDMA) and divinyl benzene (DVB). This enabled us to construct hydrogels with different hydrophobic–hydrophilic equilibria. The model guest system used for the studies was benzoic acid. The selections gave simple but excellent host–guest systems with fine polar–apolar balancing. Polyacrylamide hydrogels with encapsulated benzoic acid were prepared with varying crosslink densities (5, 10, 15, and 20 mol %) by the solution polymerization technique. The rate of release of the host from the host–guest assembly was studied in different swelling conditions. The rate of release depended on the interaction forces between the polymer and the solvents. Polar forces, dispersion forces, and hydrogen bonding all played a vital role. The swelling behavior of the host‐polymer system and the host–guest assembly was analyzed and compared by the Flory–Rehner method. The amount of benzoic acid encapsulated in the DVB‐crosslinked polymer was higher than in the HDDMA‐crosslinked polymer, and the rate of release was in the order 5 > 15 > 10 > 20% for the DVB‐crosslinked polymer. The rate of release for the HDDMA‐crosslinked host–guest assembly was in the order 10 > 5 > 15 > 20%. These results were in excellent agreement with those of the Flory–Rehner analysis of the swelling properties. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 93: 1816–1824, 2004     

Natural rubber–isotactic polypropylene thermoplastic blends

Thermoplastic elastomers, prepared by melt blending of natural rubber (NR) and isotactic polypropylene (PP) through a dynamic vulcanization technique, were developed during the later 1970s. However, they have certain drawbacks due to thermal degradation and higher molecular weight of NR. In the study reported here, NR was masticated to different levels prior its addition to isotactic polypropylene to improve the flow properties and to reduce the incompatibility resulting from molecular weight mismatch of NR/PP thermoplastic blends. Mixing energy curves of uncrosslinked blends and those of dynamically vulcanized blends crosslinked using different cure systems were compared. The mixing energy curves of blends containing NR of different molecular weight (M _n) and two grades of PP (injection and film grades) were also compared. Technological and processing properties of the dynamically vulcanized (sulphur and peroxide cure systems) and unvulcanized blends were compared with those of the samples containing unmasticated NR. The results indicated that a number average molecular weight in the range 4 × 10⁵ for NR increased the procoessability without significantly affecting the technological properties of NR/PP thermoplastic blends. Among the three cure systems studied Luperox 101 and dicumyl peroxide gave better technological properties than the sulphur‐cured samples. Two antioxidants, viz. quinoline (TDQ) and imidazole (MBI) type, were tried in NR/PP blends. It was found that TDQ imparts better aging resistance compared to MBI. The improvement in processability due to the reduction in molecular weight of natural rubber by mastication is more noticeable in the case of peroxide vulcanized blends compared to sulphur vulcanized samples. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 92: 2063–2068, 2004     

Qualitative and quantitative analysis in sandalwood oils using near infrared spectroscopy combined with chemometric techniques

Sandalwood oil is an essential oil which finds very wide application in the flavor and fragrance, pharmaceutical industry. The objective of this study is to use the potential of near infrared spectroscopy as a rapid analytical technique for the qualitative and quantitative assessment of purity in sandalwood oils. The quality and efficacy of sandalwood oils, even though come from the same species, are somewhat different according to growing conditions (origin) and poor extraction methods. Classification of sandal oils based on their NIR spectra is performed by principal component analysis, hierarchical cluster analysis and self organising map (Kohonen neural network). All these techniques clearly differentiate the oils according to the area from which the sandalwood has been cut. Support vector machine regression (SVM R) is used to predict the purity of the oils.     

Analysis of unsteady flow of blood conveying iron oxide nanoparticles on melting surface due to free convection using Casson model

Iron oxide nanoparticles have great importance in future biomedical applications because of their intrinsic properties, such as low toxicity, colloidal stability, and surface engineering capability. So, blood containing iron oxide nanoparticles are used in biomedical sciences as contrast agents following intravenous administration. The current problem deals with an analysis of the melting heat transfer of blood consisting iron nanoparticles in the existence of free convection. The principal equations of the problem are extremely nonlinear partial differential equations which transmute into a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations by applying proper similarity transformations. The acquired similarity equalities are then solved numerically by Runge‐Kutta Felhsberg 45th‐order method. The results acquired are on the same level with past available results. Some noteworthy findings of the study are: the rate of heat transfer increases as the Casson parameter increases and also found that the temperature of the blood can be controlled by increasing or decreasing the Prandtl number. Hence, we conclude that flow and heat transfer of blood have significant clinical importance during the stages where the blood flow needs to be checked (surgery) and the heat transfer rate must be controlled (therapy).     

Investigations on Forced Convection in Compact Passages With Surface Irregularities

Two-dimensional, fully developed, convective heat transfer in compact passages is investigated numerically, incorporating the effects of the surface irregularities, to analyze the influence of these irregularities on fluid flow and heat transfer. This analysis helps to bring out the differences in the performance evaluation if regular cross sections are assumed in analyzing compact and mini channels. Forced convection in compact passages with an apparent rectangular shape is analyzed using a finite-difference method. The calculation is validated experimentally using Michelson interferometry. The numerical results for the channel, incorporating surface irregularities, are compared with those assuming a regular cross-sectional geometry. The results indicate that the coefficient of friction and the Nusselt number calculated for channels, considering the irregular cross section, are less than those predicted using an assumption of regular geometry. The results provide some insight into the reasons for the observed deviations in the comparisons. The observations are attributed to the influence of the surface irregularities on the relative dominance of the surface area to the cross-sectional area, which gets pronounced in compact passages. The findings suggest that some of the observed deviations in the performance of compact passages, compared to theoretical results, may be due to the use of regular geometries to define domain shapes while performing theoretical analysis.     

Shigella and the fluorinated quinolones

An 8-year-old girl presented with marked shortening of the right forearm due to destruction of both the radius and ulna secondary to neonatal osteomyelitis. A one-bone forearm operation was performed to achieve a stable forearm. Two years later, the one-bone forearm was lengthened for 6 months by callus distraction (callotasis) achieving 12 cm of extra length. The patient was last followed up at the age of 16. The appearance and functional outcome of the right upper limb had been improved and she was independent in all activities of daily living.