Determination of precompression and compression force levels to minimize tablet friability using simplex

Pilot simplex experiments for improving the tablet strength of three aspirin tablet formulations based on precompression and compression forces were presented. As each simplex moved towards the direction of the optimum, the friability was being minimized and the crushing strength was concomittantly being maximized. Because it followed a systematic direction, simplex process would locate a local optimum rapidly. The appropriate levels of precompression and compression forces that produced tablets with the desired strength were attained in five trials. By contrast, random search for this force combination required at least ten trials. Simplex technique is a cost and time effective means for determining the precompression and compression forces that will reduce the friability or increase the hardness of a tablet formulation. Results appeared to also indicate that crushing strength might be a more reliable measure of tablet strength than friability.     

Verf?rbung grau und wei? pigmentierter Beschichtungen auf Acrylharzbasis auf Tropenh?lzern

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Measurement of the tunnel rate in SIS' tunnel junctions as function of bias voltage

Cryogenic detectors with superconducting tunnel junctions can provide an energy resolution improved by at least one order of magnitude compared with standard semiconductor detectors. While the detection principle was already demonstrated many years ago, the past years were dedicated to the transition from the laboratory sample to practical detectors. Our most favored detector design gives rise to tunnel junctions with electrodes of unequal energy gaps. In such hetero tunnel junctions bias conditions can be established which cause a negative signal current. We report the experimental verification of this effect, and we discuss the yield of charge signal of cryogenic detectors based upon superconducting tunnel junctions.     

Microstructure-related fracture toughness and fatigue crack growth behaviour in toughened, anhydride-cured epoxy resins

Fracture toughness and fatigue crack propagation (FCP) of plain and modified anhydride-cured epoxy resin (EP) were studied at ambient temperature. Liquid carboxyl-terminated acrylonitrile-butadiene (CTBN) and silicon (SI) rubber dispersions were used as tougheners for the EP. The morphology of the modified EP was characterized by dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The fracture toughness, K_c, of the compositions decreased with increasing deformation rate. K_c of the EP was slightly improved by CTBN addition and practically unaffected by incorporation of the SI dispersion when tests were performed at low cross-head speed, v. Both modifiers improved K_c at high v, and also the resistance to FCP, by shifting the curves to higher stress intensity factor ranges, ΔK, by comparison with the plain EP. It was established that both fracture and fatigue performance rely on the compliance, J_R, at the rubbery plateau, and thus on the apparent molecular mass between crosslinks, M_c. The failure mechanisms were less dependent upon the loading mode (fracture, fatigue), but differed basically for the various modifiers. Rubber-induced cavitation and shear yielding of the EP were dominant for CTBN, whereas crack bifurcation and branching controlled the cracking in SI-modified EP. The simultaneous use of both modifiers resulted in a synergistic effect for both the fracture toughness at high deformation rate and the FCP behavior.     

Catching the wave [gravity wave communication]

In 1873, when James Clerk Maxwell published his treatise unifying electromagnetic theory, he stated that light was electromagnetic in nature and he predicted that electromagnetic waves of greater length might exist. A dozen years later, Heinrich Hertz constructed apparatus with which he generated and received these longer waves, and he demonstrated that their behavior was identical to that of light. In the century following Hertz, these longer waves, which we now call radio waves, have been utilized to provide a vast worldwide communication system. In his theory of general relativity, published in 1915, Albert Einstein postulated the existence of gravity waves that propagate at the speed of light. If these waves could be used for communication purposes, they would open a whole new spectrum for exploitation, independent of the electromagnetic spectrum. Why is it that today, three quarters of a century later, we don't have gravity-wave transmitting and receiving stations? The article examines the reasons for this and then determines quantitatively how far we are from adding gravity waves to our communications repertoire     

IV. Referate

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Hereditary macular dystrophies

BACKGROUND: Orthostatic hypotension is a common phenomenon in the elderly. Hormonal changes during orthostatic stress have been described in elderly normotensive people and in those with essential hypertension. However, the hormonal response in elderly people who have systolic hypertension during orthostasis has not yet been quantified. METHODS: In this study we investigated 14 non-diabetic men, aged 60 to 75 years, with untreated systolic hypertension who were subjected to 45 degrees passive head-up incline on a tilt table for 15 min. Their hormonal profile and hemodynamic changes were analyzed before and after the stress. RESULTS: In the supine position, plasma levels of norepinephrine, atrial natriuretic peptide and aldosterone were in the normal range, while the plasma renin activity was low. Immediately upon tilt the systolic blood pressure fell but it reverted to baseline values after 15 min of orthostasis. At that time the cardiac output decreased while the systemic vascular resistance and the plasma norepinephrine concentration rose. The atrial natriuretic peptide appeared to fall, and the renin-aldosterone level did not change. CONCLUSION: The physiologic response to orthostatic stress in elderly people with systolic hypertension is comparable to that of elderly normotensive people and those with essential hypertension, i.e. a decrease in cardiac output and an increase in plasma norepinephrine levels. The atrial natriuretic peptide appeared to fall appropriately. The response of the renin-aldosterone system mimicked that in elderly patients with low renin essential isolated hypertension. These observations may have a bearing on the management of elderly people with systolic hypertension who also have orthostatic symptoms; they may not require a different approach from that needed for others of the same age group.