Effect of moisture on impact toughness of sugar-coated tablets manufactured by the dusting method

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effect of moisture on the impact toughness of sugar-coated tablets manufactured by the dusting method. We demonstrated that moisture plays an important role in the impact toughness of sugar-coated tablets. Moisturizing the sugar-coating layer resulted in enhancement of impact toughness of sugar-coated tablets, while reducing moisture in the sugar-coating layer resulted in weakening of the impact toughness. This was due to the characteristics of sucrose, the main ingredient of the sugar-coating layer, which is a soft and non-fragile material at high moisture levels, but hard and fragile at low moisture levels. We also demonstrated that friability as an indicator of impact toughness changed with time, and friability should be measured at 14 d after manufacture. This is due to moisture movement from outer sugar-coating layer into the inner sugar-coated tablets. Incorporating microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) in the subcoating layer resulted in sugar-coating layers with high resistance against impact even though moisture content of sugar-coated tablets was low. We confirmed the high impact toughness of the sugar-coated tablets with MCC whose moisture content was low from the results of both free fall and friability tests. We suggest that the dusting method using dusting powder containing MCC is a useful method for the production of sugar-coated tablets containing moisture sensitive drugs.     

Enhancement of water solubility of fullerene by cogrinding with mixture of cycloamyloses, novel cyclic alpha-1,4-glucans, via solid-solid mechanochemical reaction

Improvement of solubility for fullerene (C60) was studied by cogrinding with cycloamyloses using a ball mill in the solid state. Cycloamylose is a novel cyclic alpha-1,4-glucan produced from synthetic amylose by enzymatic reaction. Although sample solutions showed a pale yellow for the initial period of cogrinding with cycloamyloses and C60, the color varied to brown after 48 h. Subsequently, the solubility of C60 was improved markedly to 560 (microg/ml) at 96 h. From powder X-ray diffraction analysis, the peak intensity of crystalline C60 decreased as the cogrinding time was extended. The UV-VIS absorption spectrum of C60 shows absorption bands at 262 and 340 nm in water with cycloamyloses, and 258 and 328 nm in n-hexane. These results suggested that C60 molecules were dispersed into cycloamyloses micellar system and the red-shift of the UV-VIS spectra was due to an intermolecular interaction between C60 and cycloamyloses.     

Elliptic Apostol sums and their reciprocity laws

We introduce an elliptic analogue of the Apostol sums, which we call elliptic Apostol sums. These sums are defined by means of certain elliptic functions with a complex parameter having positive imaginary part. When , these elliptic Apostol sums represent the well-known Apostol generalized Dedekind sums. Also these elliptic Apostol sums are modular forms in the variable . We obtain a reciprocity law for these sums, which gives rise to new relations between certain modular forms (of one variable).

     

The DIVAM sequence: selective excitation of signals from both rigid and mobile domains in a fluoropolymer

Simulations have been carried out on z-magnetizations produced by (and hence of the resulting spectra from) the dipolar filter (DF) and the recently suggested "Discrimination Induced by Variable-Amplitude Minipulses" (DIVAM) pulse sequences [S. Ando et al., Polymer 42 (2001) 8137; Magn. Reson. Chem. 40 (2002) 97]. The strengths of dipolar interactions have been modelled by introducing different values for transverse relaxation times. The DF case has been extended by allowing the pulse angles to be smaller than 90 degrees. The pulse intervals have also been used as variables. For the DIVAM case, the variables are similarly the minipulse nutation angles and minipulse intervals. The computations show that DIVAM is superior to DF in terms of selectivity for spectra of heterogeneous materials such as semi-crystalline polymers. The effects of the pulse sequences on 19F spectra of poly(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) and of a copolymer of vinylidene fluoride and trifluoroethylene (p(VDF/TrFE)) are presented, together with fits of the experimental results by the simulations.     

Screening effect diverts the swimming directions from diaphototactic to positive phototactic in a disk-shaped green flagellate Mesostigma viride

We found diaphototactic behavior (i.e. the cells swim perpendicularly with respect to the incident light) in a strain with colorless eyespot of a unicellular disk-shaped green flagellate Mesostigma viride. Lacking pigments completely in the eyespot, the screening effect in this strain was due only to the central part of the chloroplast whose cross section was thin. The diaphototaxis was most obvious when unilateral green stimulus light (520-580 nm) was given, whereas positive phototaxis appeared when given blue light (430-490 nm). The choice between diaphototaxis and (ordinary) phototaxis depended entirely on the transmission (%T) of the cell body against each wavelength of the stimulus: the green light penetrated well (%T > 90%), whereas the blue light was considerably shaded by the chloroplast (50% < %T < 70%). The fraction of positive phototactically behaving cells against each wavelength was in proportion to the front-to-back contrast value obtained at each individual wavelength. The fraction of diaphototaxis was inversely proportional to it. In addition, bilateral stimulus irradiations to wild-type cell with colored eyespot provided useful information about the principle of the diaphototactic steering.     

Photolysis of regioisomeric diazides of 1,2-diphenylacetylenes studies by matrix-isolation spectroscopy and DFT calculations

A series of diazides of 1,2-diphenylacetylenes was photolyzed in matrices at low temperature and transient photoproducts were characterized by using IR, UV/vis methods combined with ESR studies. Theoretical calculations were also used to understand the experimental findings. The introduction of phenylethynyl groups on phenyl azides has little effect on the photochemical pathway. Thus, upon photoexcitation, (phenylethynyl)phenyl azides afforded the corresponding triplet nitrene, which is in photoequilibrium with the corresponding azacycloheptatetraene. In marked contrast, azidophenylethynyl groups exhibited a dramatic effect not only on the photochemical pathway of phenyl azides but also on the electronic and molecular structure of the photoproducts. The patterns of the effect depended upon the relative position of azide groups in the diphenylacetylene unit. Whenever two azide groups were situated in a conjugating position with respect to each other, as in p,p'-, o,o'-, and p,o'-bis(azides), the azides always resulted in the formation of a quinoidal diimine diradical in which unpaired electrons were extensively delocalizedin the pi-conjugation. The situation changed rather dramatically when azide groups were introduced in the meta position. Thus, the formation of azacycloheptatetraene was noted in the photolysis of the m.m'-isomer. ESR studies indicated the generation of a quintet state that was shown to be a thermally populated state with a very small energy gap of ca. 100 cal mol(-1). The m,p'-isomer was shown to be an excellent precursor for the high-spin quintet dinitrene. The IR spectra of the photoproduct showed no bands ascribable to azacycloheptatetraene. The observed spectra were in good agreement with that calculated for the quintet state. Strong EPR signals assignable to the quintet state were observed, along with rather weak signals due to mononitrenes. Moreover, the quintet bis(nitrene) was rather photostable under these conditions.     

New Microporous and Mesoporous Materials: Elucidation of Their Structures by Electron Microscopy

We have recently published three papers (P. Wagner et al., Phys. Chem. 103 (1999) 8245; S. Inagaki et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 121 (1999) 9611; A. Carlsson et al., J. Electron Microscopy 48 (1999) 795) that herald a new approach to structural solutions in micro- and mesoporous solid state materials. Among these materials are the first hybrid inorganic–organic mesoporous materials, synthesized using the organosilane compound 1,2-bis(trimethoxysilyl) ethane (BTME). Both organic and inorganic fragments are distributed completely uniformly at the molecular scale in the mesoporous walls. Two distinct phases with two- and three-dimensional (2d- and 3d-) hexagonal periodic pore-arrangements have been detected. We have also recently reported another new cubic hybrid phase with a decaoctahedral crystal morphology. Two new approaches for solving the structures of porous materials from either electron diffraction (ED) or high-resolution electron microscope (HREM) observations have also been developed. The former was successfully applied by combining direct methods for structural analysis of the new microporous crystal SSZ-48, which crystallizes only in very small crystals. The latter technique was applied to 3d-structural analysis of the mesoporous material MCM-48. The structure solutions, in the latter case, are obtained uniquely without preassumed models or parameterization, unlike previous reports.