Fabrication of Alginate-Based O/W Nanoemulsions for Transdermal Drug Delivery of Lidocaine: Influence of the Oil Phase and Surfactant

Transdermal drug delivery of lidocaine is a good choice for local anesthetic delivery. Microemulsions have shown great effectiveness for the transdermal transport of lidocaine. Oil-in-water nanoemulsions are particularly suitable for encapsulation of lipophilic molecules because of their ability to form stable and transparent delivery systems with good skin permeation. However, fabrication of nanoemulsions containing lidocaine to provide an extended local anesthetic effect is challenging. Hence, the aim of this study was to address this issue by employing alginate-based o/w nanocarriers using nanoemulsion template that is prepared by combined approaches of ultrasound and phase inversion temperature (PIT). In this study, the influence of system composition such as oil type, oil and surfactant concentration on the particle size, in vitro release and skin permeation of lidocaine nanoemulsions was investigated. Structural characterization of lidocaine nanoemulsions as a function of water dilution was done using DSC. Nanoemulsions with small droplet diameters (d < 150 nm) were obtained as demonstrated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and cryo-TEM. These nanoemulsions were also able to release 90% of their content within 24-h through PDMS and pig skin and able to the drug release over a 48-h. This extended-release profile is highly favorable in transdermal drug delivery and shows the great potential of this nanoemulsion as delivery system.     

Nucleation of Hematite: A Nonclassical Mechanism

Hematite (α-Fe₂O₃) is thermodynamically stable under ambient conditions, of vast geological importance, and widely used in applications, for example, as corrosion protection and as a pigment. It forms at elevated temperatures, whereas room-temperature reactions typically yield metastable akaganéite or ferrihydrite. The mechanistic key changes underlying this observation were explored in the present study. The entropic contribution to the prenucleation hydrolysis reaction categorically implies the presence of prenucleation clusters (PNCs) as fundamental precursors. The formation of hematite is then due to a change in the reaction mechanism above approximately 50 °C, whereby the reaction limitation towards oxolation in phase-separated clusters is overcome. A model that rationalizes the occurrence of hematite, akaganéite, and ferrihydrite based on the chemistry of olation PNCs is proposed. Supersaturation and the temperature dependence of olation and oxolation rates from monomeric precursors are irrelevant in this nonclassical mechanism.     

Confined Crystallization of Spin‐Crossover Nanoparticles in Block‐Copolymer Micelles

Nanoparticles of the spin‐crossover coordination polymer [FeL(bipy)]_n were synthesized by confined crystallization within the core of polystyrene‐block‐poly(4‐vinylpyridine) (PS‐b‐P4VP) diblock copolymer micelles. The 4VP units in the micellar core act as coordination sites for the Fe complex. In the bulk material, the spin‐crossover nanoparticles in the core are well isolated from each other allowing thermal treatment without disintegration of their structure. During annealing above the glass transition temperature of the PS block, the transition temperature is shifted gradually to higher temperatures from the as‐synthesized product (T_1/2↓=163 K and T_1/2↑=170 K) to the annealed product (T_1/2↓=203 K and T_1/2↑=217 K) along with an increase in hysteresis width from 6 K to 14 K. Thus, the spin‐crossover properties can be shifted towards the properties of the related bulk material. The stability of the nanocomposite allows further processing, such as electrospinning from solution.     

Scaling of the temperature-dependent resistivity in SrFe2−xNixAs2

We show that the zero-field normal-state resistivity of temperature-dependent resistivity ρ(T) of SrFe_2?xNi_xAs₂ can be reproduced by the expression ρ(T) = ρ₀ + c T exp(?2Δ/T). ρ(T) can be scaled using both this expression where the energy scale Δ, c and the residual resistivity ρ₀ are scaling parameters and a recently proposed model-independent scaling method (H.G. Luo, Y.H. Su, T. Xiang, Phys. Rev. B 77 (2008) 014529). The scaling parameters have been calculated and the compositional variation of 2Δ(x) has been determined. This dependence show almost a linear decreasing in the underdoped regime similar to that reported for cuprates. The existence of a universal metallic ρ(T) curve in a wide temperature range which, however, is restricted for the underdoped compounds to temperatures above a structural and anitiferromagnetic transition is interpreted as an indication of a single mechanism which dominates the scattering of the charge carriers in SrFe_2?xNi_xAs₂ (x = 0–0.3).     

Decision Trees and the Second Law

Every system, left unto itself, tends towards disorder. Disorder frequently appears in the form of queues-machines, materials or customers waiting for service or waiting to be served. This article suggests a method of measuring disorder, and shows how this may be used in the analysis of complex decision type of systems.     

Eine Temperaturabhängigkeit der Feldelektronenemission bei sehr geringen Stromdichten

Low current density field electron emission between 1 and 10^?6 A/cm² was measured for clean tungsten as a function of temperature between 300 and 1350° K. A strong increase in temperature dependence was found with decreasing current density. Measurements are interpreted according to calculations ofMurphy, Good andMüller. Agreement is better if the work function temperature dependence is also considered.     

U(4) spin gauge theory over a Riemann-Cartan space-time

A spin gauge theory based on the groupU(4) is investigated in a general relativistic context including the possibility of nonzero torsion. The language of Clifford bundles over a space-time with metric and metric compatible torsion is used as a convenient tool for the study of fields defined on space-time possessing Clifford multiplication properties. A Dirac-type representation is investigated in detail and the geometric implications for spin gauge theory are pointed out.