Liquid-Crystal Based Formulations for Topical Drug Delivery

Monoolein, being a biocompatible and bioadhesive penetration enhancer that can form liquid crystalline (LC) phases, possesses remarkable characteristics for addressing drug delivery systems across the biological membrane. A range of formulations based on LC phases were investigated in this study, which includes lamellar, reverse hexagonal, and bicontinuous cubic phases along with an emulsion stabilized by LC phases. Caffeine was chosen as hydophilic model drug to evaluate in vitro release performance. The different monoolein based caffeine formulations were characterized by techniques such as polarized light microscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS). The release experiments, performed through Franz diffusion cells, revealed that the presence of a liquid crystalline (LC) phase prevented burst release in all cases. In addition, taking into consideration that all ingredients are fully biocompatible, the creamy emulsion formulation stabilized by a hexagonal lipid LC phase can be proposed as a challenging preformulation for topical drug delivery.     

On the Prigogine theory of traffic flow: Driver's program independent of concentration

Summary The Prigogine kinetic equation for traffic flow is considered. It is shown that the relaxation term, whose actual form was introduced by Prigogine for reasons of mathematical simplicity, can be derived from two «structural» assumptions. This procedure shows that the relaxation term is effectively able to account for the time spent in a queue by the vehicles. Since the factorization of the desired velocity distribution is uncompatible with the assumption that the program of each driver is independent of the local concentration, a modification of the Prigogine theory was recently introduced by Paveri Fontana replacing the relaxation term by a new term. We prove that the Paveri term implies a vanishing queueing time. We show also that the assumption of an invariant driver's program can be taken into account without introducing the factorization of the desired velocity distribution with no modification of the basic assumptions of the Prigogine model.

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Sommario Si considera l'equazione cinetica del traffico di Prigogine. Si dimostra che il termine di rilassamento, la cui forma fu introdotta da Prigogine per ragioni di semplicità matematica, si può ricavare da due ipotesi «strutturali». Si dimostra cosi che il termine di rilassamento tiene conto del tempo trascorso in coda dal veicolo. Poichè la fattorizzazione della distribuzione della velocità desiderata è incompatibile con l'ipotesi che il programma di ciascun guidatore sia indipendente dalla concentrazione locale, Paveri Fontana introdusse una modificazione della teoria di Prigogine sostituendo il termine di rilassamento con un nuovo termine. Si dimostra che il termine di Paveri implica un tempo di residenza in coda nullo. Si dimostra anche che l'ipotesi di programma invariante si può tenere in conto senza introdurre la fattorizzazione della distribuzione della velocità desiderata e senza modificare le ipotesi fondamentali del modello di Prigogine.

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This work was supported by the Italian Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, under a research contract of the Mathematical Committee.     

Boltzmann-Enskog limit for equilibrium states of systems of hard spheres in the framework of a canonical ensemble

We prove the existence of the Boltzmann-Enskog limit for an equilibrium system of hard spheres. On the basis of analysis of the Kirkwood-Salsburg equations, we show that the limit distribution functions are constants that can be represented as series in density. Published in Ukrainskii Matematicheskii Zhurnal, Vol. 49, No. 9, pp. 1195–1205, September, 1997.     

On the recovery factor in free-molecular flow

The equilibrium temperature in free-molecular flow can be lower than the stagnation temperature, i.e. the recovery factor smaller than one, if two distinct accommodation coefficients are assumed for the tangential and the normal translational energy of the molecules. Moreover the equilibrium temperature turns out to be dependent on a parameter which is a function of these accommodation coefficients and therefore is related to the physical nature of the surface and of the gas. The connection of this theory with a gas-surface interaction model previously proposed by the authors is shown.     

On the kinetic theory of a dense gas of rough spheres

The revised Enskog equation for a dense gas of rough spheres is considered. TheH theorem and the conservation equations are discussed.     

Effect of radiofrequency on the sheath-plasma resonance in a low-density plasma

Summary Bohm's theory on plasma probes has been modified, by taking into account the effect of the applied RF voltage on the ion saturation current, for explaining the experimentally detected behaviour of the plasma sheath resonance frequency in a low-temperature and low-density plasma

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Riassunto La teoria di Bohm sulle sonde nei plasmi è stata modificata, tenendo conto dell'effetto dovuto alla tensione RF applicata sulla corrente ionica di saturazione. Si spiega cosi l'andamento della frequenza di risonanza plasma-guaina ionica, rilevato sperimentalmente, in un plasma a bassa temperatura e bassa densità.

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Резюме Предлагается модификация теории Бома для плазменных зондов, которая учитывает влияние приложенного радиочастотного напряжения на ионный ток насыщения. Предложенная модификация позволяет объяснить экспериментально обнаруженное поведение резонансной частоты плазменной оболочки при низкой температуре и при низкой плотности плазмы.

     

Accurate determination of the limiting anisotropy of rhodamine 101. Implications for its use as a fluorescence polarization standard

The S1-S0 limiting anisotropy of a widely used fluorophore, rhodamine 101, is determined with unprecedented accuracy. From time-resolved and steady-state fluorescence measurements in several solvents, it is shown that the limiting anisotropy of rhodamine 101 is for all practical purposes equal to the theoretical one-photon fundamental anisotropy value of 2/5, both in rigid and in fluid media. This fact, along with the favorable chemical and photophysical properties of rhodamine 101, point to its use as a standard for fluorescence polarization measurements. It is also shown that if the excitation pulse can be considered a delta impulse with respect to the time scale of the anisotropy decay (but not necessarily to the time scale of the intensity decay), then no deconvolution procedure is needed for anisotropy decay analysis.     

Langevin approach to the dynamics of crystal surfaces

Summary A many body Langevin treatment is introduced for calculating the dynamics of crystal surfaces. The method, which is exact and general, provides the space time correlation functions in proximity of a surface. In this paper the treatment is specialized to the (001) face of a simple cubic lattice in the Rosenstock Newell approximation. Formulas are also obtained for the asymptotic behavior of the autocorrelation functions relative to surface atoms.

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Sommario Viene introdotta una trattazione fondata sull'equazione a molti corpi di Langevin per calcolare la dinamica delle superfici cristalline. Il metodo, che è esatto e generale, fornisce le funzioni di correlazione spazio temporali vicino alla superficie. In questo lavoro si specializza la trattazione alla faccia (001) di un reticolo semplice cubico nella approssimazione di Rosenstock Newell. Si ottengono formule per il comportamento asintotico delle funzioni di autocorrelazione relative agli atomi di superficie.

     

On the H-theorem for polyatomic gases

The H-theorem for a classical gas of polyatomic molecules of arbitrarily complex structure is examined. A simple use of time reversal invariance of the equations of dynamics is used to circumvent the objections which were raised by Lorentz against Boltzmann's proof (nonexistence of inverse collisions).