Quantitation of Sulfacetamide, Sulfadiazine, Sulfamerazine and Sulfame Thazine in Various Cominations Dsing High-Performance Liquid Chromatography

A reverse phase high-performance liquid chromatography method for the quantitation of sulfacetamide, sulfadiazine, sulfamerazine, and sulfamethazine in various combinations has been developed. The method is simple, accurate, precise and reproducible. The percent relative standard deviations based on 6 injections were 2.1, 0.6, 1.9, and 1.6 for sulfacetamide, sulfadiazine, sulfamerazine, and sulfamethazine, respectively. The ratio of peak heights (drug/internal standard) wer closely related (r value 0.99 or better) to concentrations (± 20% of the standard solution concentrations). The results of synthetic mixtures showed quantitative recovery and method was successfully applied to commercial dosage forms (tablets and suspension). Extraction of sulfa drugs from the dosage forms required a very simple procedure.     

A Study of The Moisture-Uptake Kinetics of a Hygroscopic Pharmaceutical Powder

The moisture-uptake kinetics of a hygroscopic powder, sodium heparin contained in a cylindrical container, was determined using a novel moisture-uptake measuring device under a constant convective air flow. The amount of moisture uptake increased with the increase in the relative humidity of the air. The effect of powder-bed height on the total amount of moisture uptake was found to be significant only at the highest relative humidity (75%) evaluated in this study. However, the percent of weight increase of the powder as a result of moisture uptake decreases as the height of the powder bed increases. The results of this study are explained by the dynamic nature of the moisture-uptake process associated with the instrument.     

Lévy flight artificial bee colony algorithm

Artificial bee colony (ABC) optimisation algorithm is a relatively simple and recent population-based probabilistic approach for global optimisation. The solution search equation of ABC is significantly influenced by a random quantity which helps in exploration at the cost of exploitation of the search space. In the ABC, there is a high chance to skip the true solution due to its large step sizes. In order to balance between diversity and convergence in the ABC, a Lévy flight inspired search strategy is proposed and integrated with ABC. The proposed strategy is named as Lévy Flight ABC (LFABC) has both the local and global search capability simultaneously and can be achieved by tuning the Lévy flight parameters and thus automatically tuning the step sizes. In the LFABC, new solutions are generated around the best solution and it helps to enhance the exploitation capability of ABC. Furthermore, to improve the exploration capability, the numbers of scout bees are increased. The experiments on 20 test problems of different complexities and five real-world engineering optimisation problems show that the proposed strategy outperforms the basic ABC and recent variants of ABC, namely, Gbest-guided ABC, best-so-far ABC and modified ABC in most of the experiments.     

Optical and electrical properties of ZrSe3 single crystals grown by chemical vapour transport technique

Single crystals of the lamellar compound, ZrSe₃, were grown by chemical vapour transport technique using iodine as a transporting agent. The grown crystals were characterized with the help of energy dispersive analysis by X-ray (EDAX), which gave confirmation about the stoichiometry. The optical band gap measurement of as grown crystals was carried out with the help of optical absorption spectra in the range 700–1450 nm. The indirect as well as direct band gap of ZrSe₃ were found to be 1.1 eV and 1.47 eV, respectively. The resistivity of the as grown crystals was measured using van der Pauw method. The Hall parameters of the grown crystals were determined at room temperature from Hall effect measurements. Electrical resistivity measurements were performed on this crystal in the temperature range 303–423 K. The crystals were found to exhibit semiconducting nature in this range. The activation energy and anisotropy measurements were carried out for this crystal. Pressure dependence of electrical resistance was studied using Bridgman opposed anvils set up up to 8 GPa. The semiconducting nature of ZrSe₃ single crystal was inferred from the graph of resistance vs pressure. The results obtained are discussed in detail.     

An integrated laser Raman optical sensor for fast detection of nitrogen and oxygen in a cryogenic mixture

An integrated fiber optic Raman sensor was designed for real-time, nonintrusive detection of liquid nitrogen (LN(2)) in liquid oxygen (LO(2)) at high pressures and high flow rates. This was intended to monitor the quality of LO(2) in oxidizer feed lines during the ground testing of rocket engines. Various issues related to optical diagnosis of cryogenic fluids (LN(2)/LO(2)) in supercritical environment of rocket engine test facility, such as fluorescence from impurity in optical window of feed line, signal-noise ratio, and fast data acquisition time, etc., are well addressed. The integrated sensor employed a frequency doubled 532-nm continuous wave Nd:YAG laser as an excitation light source. The other optical components included were InPhotonics Raman probes, spectrometers, and photomultiplier tubes (PMTs). The spectrometer was used to collect the Raman spectrum of LN(2) and LO(2). The PMT detection unit was integrated with home-built LABVIEW software for fast monitoring of concentration ratios LN(2) and LO(2). Prior to designing an integrated sensor system, its optical components were also tested with gaseous nitrogen (GN(2)) and oxygen (GO(2)).     

Nuclear Data Sheets for A = 211

The evaluated spectroscopic data are presented for 11 known nuclides of mass 211 (Hg, Tl, Pb, Bi, Po, At, Rn, Fr, Ra, Ac, Th). The ²¹¹Pa nuclide is included here but its identification remains uncertain. For ²¹¹Hg, ²¹¹Tl, ²¹¹Ac and ²¹¹Th nuclei, only the ground–state information is available. Their decay characteristics are mostly unknown. ²¹¹Fr is suggested to decay partially through ε decay mode, but its decay scheme remains poorly known. While high–spin excitations, including several isomers, are well studied in ²¹¹Pb, ²¹¹Bi, ²¹¹Po, ²¹¹At, ²¹¹Rn and ²¹¹Fr, the particle–transfer data are available for only ²¹¹Po and ²¹¹Bi.This evaluation was carried out as part of joint IAEA–ICTP workshop for Nuclear Structure and Decay Data, organized and hosted by the IAEA, Vienna and ICTP, Trieste, August 6–17, 2012. This work supersedes previous A=211 evaluation (2004Br45) published by E. Browne which covered literature before January 2003.     

Silver Dopant-Induced Effect on Structural and Optoelectronic Properties of CdSe Thin Films

Thin films of CdSe and silver(Ag)-doped CdSe have been prepared on glass substrates by thermal evaporation in argon gas atmosphere. X-ray diffraction pattern indicates the presence of hexagonal structure with preferred orientation along (100) plane. Elemental composition of the thin films has been analyzed using energy dispersive X-ray analysis. Scanning electron microscopy has been used to investigate the morphology of the thin films. Transmission electron microscope reveals spherical nature of nanoparticles. A decrease in the band gap due to the formation of band tails in the band gap with increase in Ag doping in CdSe lattice has been observed. Photoluminescence spectra indicate redshift in band edge emission peak with increase in Ag doping in CdSe. Electrical conductivity measurements are also studied, and two types of conduction mechanisms taking part in the transport phenomena are observed. Hall measurements indicate n-type behavior of undoped and Ag-doped CdSe thin films.     

A Review of the Common Neurodegenerative Disorders: Current Therapeutic Approaches and the Potential Role of Nanotherapeutics

Neurodegenerative disorders are primarily characterized by neuron loss. The most common neurodegenerative disorders include Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Although there are several medicines currently approved for managing neurodegenerative disorders, a large majority of them only help with associated symptoms. This lack of pathogenesis-targeting therapies is primarily due to the restrictive effects of the blood–brain barrier (BBB), which keeps close to 99% of all “foreign substances” out of the brain. Since their discovery, nanoparticles have been successfully used for targeted delivery into many organs, including the brain. This review briefly describes the pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and their current management approaches. We then highlight the major challenges of brain-drug delivery, followed by the role of nanotherapeutics for the diagnosis and treatment of various neurological disorders.