In situ forming PLGA implant for 90 days controlled release of leuprolide acetate for treatment of prostate cancer

In prostate cancer, hormone therapy via leuprolide acetate drug (LUP) is used to lower the level of testosterone down to castration level to effectively control the development of prostate cancer. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effective parameters in degradation and controlled release of an injectable in situ formed polymeric implant, loaded with leuprolide acetate, in order to achieve an optimum formulation for sustained drug release for 90 days with minimum burst release. The main problem associating with such implants is their high burst release. Designing an injectable implant with sustained and minimum burst release has thus become an attractive challenge in drug delivery field. Effects of type of poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) 75:25 copolymers (RG752, RG756) and addition of nano‐hydroxyapatite (HA) particles on degradation rates of the implants and release profiles were examined in vitro and in vivo in a rabbit animal model. Results showed that implants containing polymers with higher molecular weights had significantly lower weight loss and molecular weight reduction. Adding nanoparticles of hydroxyapatite into poly(lactic‐co‐glycolic acid) implants caused further reduction in degradation rates, leading to a more sustained drug release in vivo, with reduced burst release. Different conventional kinetic models were applied to drug release and degradation data. The degradation data fit well to the first‐order degradation model. Higuchi model was the best kinetic release model fitted to the experimental in vitro release data. This study led to an optimum formulation (RG756:RG752 3:1 + 5% HA) with sustained leuprolide release and testosterone suppression over a 90‐day period with significant decrease of burst release phase (50%, p < 0.001) compared with the conventional Eligard formulation. The histopathology test showed that the formulated implant had no effects of toxicity or tissue necrosis in organs of the animal model. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

岩爆与围岩分类

岩爆是高地应力条件下完整脆性硬质围岩失稳的一种表现型式,岩爆烈度如何影响围岩类别尚不清楚,探索岩爆与围岩分类的关系,对准确判别高地应力条件下的围岩类别有着重要意义。本文以某深埋隧洞围岩分类为依据,对我国水利水电地下洞室围岩分类中岩爆烈度与围岩类别的关系、岩爆判别指标的选取等问题进行了探讨。     

浙江苍岭隧道岩爆工程地质特征分析与防治措施研究

根据在浙江苍岭隧道施工中发生的岩爆,通过现场地质观测资料,具体地分析了其形成的规模、位置、诱发因素以及地质条件,从地质工程的角度,对岩爆发生地段隧道的岩石组成、地质构造、地应力特征以及地下水情况进行了探讨,发现在苍岭隧道施工中发生岩爆的岩石具有岩体结构面发育适中、弹性模量大、P波波速高、地质构造简单、现代水平构造应力强且主压应力轴σ1大角度相交于隧道中轴线和地下水不发育的特征,并在此基础上,提出了掌子面喷水、布设释放地应力锚杆、减少隧道壁聚能结构等有效的岩爆防治措施。     

吹吸扰动对壁湍流相干结构的影响

采用热线风速仪测量受吹吸扰动的壁湍流边界层的流向速度，用傅里叶变换和子波变换研究 吹吸扰动对壁湍流能谱的影响，结果显示施加的低频扰动使边界层内层大尺度结构的能量减 少，小尺度结构的能量有所增强，远离壁面时扰动强度逐步衰减直到在外层中消失；通过VITA 法和子波变换法检测猝发事件，表明该扰动降低了猝发强度，使猝发周期延长，条件平均速 度波形的幅值降低、持续时间变短，说明扰动明显抑制了相干结构的猝发过程. 利用子波变 换可以实现湍谱分析，能有效检测猝发中的湍流结构，是一种客观的分析工具.     

A maximum-efficiency-first multi-path route selection strategy for optical burst switching networks

In this paper, the impact of a path selection on other existing paths in optical burst switching (OBS) networks is studied by analyzing the contention among different traffic streams and the interaction between the route selection and traffic load balance. The results show that there exists a mutual reinforcement interaction among the traffic load of a path, the path burst loss ratio and the contention ability of the path when burst loss ratio based multi-path selection strategies are adopted, which may increase the unbalance of traffic and lead to severe congestion further. A maximum-efficiency-first multi-path selection strategy, which considers the performance of the burst flows and the impact of a path selection on existing OBS paths at the same time by a combined metric of route efficiency, is proposed to maximize the utility of the burst flows and minimize the increment of lost throughput on the path. The performance of the proposed multi-path selection strategy is evaluated through simulation. The results show that the presented strategy obviously outperforms the least burst loss ratio strategy and shortest path first strategy in terms of the burst loss ratio in the practical unbalanced background traffic, especially when the network is heavily loaded.     

A continuum model for intermittent deformation of single crystal micropillars

Strain bursts are often observed during compression tests of single crystal micropillars. In this work, we formulate a new continuum model that accounts for the strain bursts within the framework of crystal plasticity. The strain bursts are separated from the loading stage (nearly elastic loading) by introducing a dimensionless constant in the continuum model, and are detected by load serrations. The boundary conditions in the context of micropillar compression are studied and they are shown to be changing and unpredictable as plastic deformation proceeds. To evaluate the validity of our model, finite element simulations of the uniaxial compression tests on nickel micropillars are performed. Our simulations produce clearly visible strain bursts during the plastic flow and the produced intermittent flows are comparable with the experimental observations. For the bulk crystal, a series of strain bursts is identified in the course of plastic flow, despite an apparently smooth stress–strain response. We also show that the intermittent flow is intensified in the micrometer-scale due to both increasing numbers of the successive strain bursts and increasing amplitude of the strain burst, when the specimen size decreases. Finally, we show that the occurrences of the strain bursts are always associated with negative values of the second-order work.     

Interaction function of coupled bursting neurons

The interaction functions of electrically coupled Hindmarsh–Rose(HR) neurons for different firing patterns are investigated in this paper.By applying the phase reduction technique,the phase response curve(PRC) of the spiking neuron and burst phase response curve(BPRC) of the bursting neuron are derived.Then the interaction function of two coupled neurons can be calculated numerically according to the PRC(or BPRC) and the voltage time course of the neurons.Results show that the BPRC is more and more complicated with the increase of the spike number within a burst,and the curve of the interaction function oscillates more and more frequently with it.However,two certain things are unchanged:Φ = 0,which corresponds to the in-phase synchronization state,is always the stable equilibrium,while the anti-phase synchronization state with Φ = 0.5 is an unstable equilibrium.     

Constraining Lorentz invariance violation from the continuous spectra of short gamma-ray bursts

In some quantum gravity theories, a foamy structure of space-time may lead to Lorentz invariance violation(LIV). As the most energetic explosions in the Universe, gamma-ray bursts(GRBs) provide an effect way to probe quantum gravity effects. In this paper, we use the continuous spectra of 20 short GRBs detected by the Swift satellite to give a conservative lower limit of quantum gravity energy scale MQG. Due to the LIV effect, photons with different energy have different velocities. This will lead to the delayed arrival of high energy photons relative to low energy ones. Based on the fact that the LIV-induced time delay cannot be longer than the duration of a GRB,we present the most conservative estimate of the quantum gravity energy scales from 20 short GRBs. The strictest constraint, M_(QG) 5.05 × 10~(14) GeV in the linearly corrected case, is from GRB 140622 A. Our constraint on MQG,although not as tight as previous results, is the safest and most reliable so far.     

光突发交换边缘路由器性能分析

本文详细分析了各种因素对光突发交换边缘路由器的性能的影响.结果显示,不同服务等级的时延要求可以通过控制组装的最大时延得以保证;不同等级数据包长的大范围变动会导致信道分配的不公平性;边缘节点越多,丢包率越高;在总输出容量一定的情况下,增加输出数据信道数可以在获得低的丢包率的同时达到较高的通道利用率,但随着边缘节点数的增加,增加输出信道数对丢包率的改善作用下降.     

Structure and micro-mechanical properties of helium-implanted layer on Ti by plasma-based ion implantation

The present paper concentrates on structure and micro-mechanical properties of the helium-implanted layer on titanium treated by plasma-based ion implantation with a pulsed voltage of −30 kV and doses of 3, 6, 9 and 12 × 10¹⁷ ions/cm², respectively. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy are employed to characterize the structure of the implanted layer. The hardnesses at different depths of the layer were measured by nano-indentation. We found that helium ion implantation into titanium leads to the formation of bubbles with a diameter from a few to more than 10 nm and the bubble size increases with the increase of dose. The primary existing form of Ti is amorphous in the implanted layer. Helium implantation also enhances the ingress of O, C and N and stimulates the formations of TiO₂, Ti₂O₃, TiO, TiC and TiN in the near surface layer. And the amount of the ingressed oxygen is obviously higher than those of nitrogen and carbon due to its higher activity. At the near surface layer, the hardnesses of all implanted samples increases remarkably comparing with untreated one and the maximum hardness has an increase by a factor of up to 3.7. For the samples implanted with higher doses of 6, 9 and 12 × 10¹⁷ He/cm², the local displacement bursts are clearly found in the load-displacement curves. For the samples implanted with a lower dose of 3 × 10¹⁷ He/cm², there is no obvious displacement burst found. Furthermore, the burst width increases with the increase of the dose.