Physical and Chemical Characterization of Therapeutic Iron Containing Materials: A Study of Several Superparamagnetic Drug Formulations with the β-FeOOH or Ferrihydrite Structure

The effectiveness of therapeutically used iron compounds is related to their physical and chemical properties. Four different iron compounds used in oral, intravenous, and intramuscular therapy have been examined by X-ray powder diffraction, iron-57 Mössbauer spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, BET surface area measurement, potentiometric titration and studied through dissolution kinetics determinations using acid, reducing and chelating agents. All compounds are nanosized with particle diameters, as determined by X-ray diffraction, ranging from 1 to 4.1 nm. The superparamagnetic blocking temperatures, as determined by Mössbauer spectroscopy, indicate that the relative diameters of the aggregates range from 2.5 to 4.1 nm. Three of the iron compounds have an akaganeite-like structure, whereas one has a ferrihydrite-like structure. As powders the particles form large and dense aggregates which have a very low surface area on the order of 1 m²?g^?1. There is evidence, however, that in a colloidal solution the surface area is increased by two to three orders of magnitude, presumably as a result of the break up of the aggregates. Iron release kinetics by acid, chelating and reducing agents reflect the high surface area, the size and crystallinity of the particles, and the presence of the protective carbohydrate layer coating the iron compound. Within a physiologically relevant time period, the iron release produced by acid or large chelating ligands is small. In contrast, iron is rapidly mobilized by small organic chelating agents, such as oxalate, or by chelate-forming reductants, such as thioglycolate.

     

The influence of cell geometry on the Godunov scheme applied to the linear wave equation

By studying the structure of the discrete kernel of the linear acoustic operator discretized with a Godunov scheme, we clearly explain why the behaviour of the Godunov scheme applied to the linear wave equation deeply depends on the space dimension and, especially, on the type of mesh. This approach allows us to explain why, in the periodic case, the Godunov scheme applied to the resolution of the compressible Euler or Navier–Stokes system is accurate at low Mach number when the mesh is triangular or tetrahedral and is not accurate when the mesh is a 2D (or 3D) cartesian mesh. This approach confirms also the fact that a Godunov scheme remains accurate when it is modified by simply centering the discretization of the pressure gradient.     

A non-ideal portal frame energy harvester controlled using a pendulum

A model of energy harvester based on a simple portal frame structure is presented. The system is considered to be non-ideal system (NIS) due to interaction with the energy source, a DC motor with limited power supply and the system structure. The nonlinearities present in the piezoelectric material are considered in the piezoelectric coupling mathematical model. The system is a bi-stable Duffing oscillator presenting a chaotic behavior. Analyzing the average power variation, and bifurcation diagrams, the value of the control variable that optimizes power or average value that stabilizes the chaotic system in the periodic orbit is determined. The control sensitivity is determined to parametric errors in the damping and stiffness parameters of the portal frame. The proposed passive control technique uses a simple pendulum to tuned to the vibration of the structure to improve the energy harvesting. The results show that with the implementation of the control strategy it is possible to eliminate the need for active or semi active control, usually more complex. The control also provides a way to regulate the energy captured to a desired operating frequency.     

Enhancement of high harmonics generated by field steering of electrons in a two-color orthogonally polarized laser field

We demonstrate enhancement by 1 order of magnitude of the high-order harmonics generated in argon by combining a fundamental field at 1300 nm (10(14) W cm(-2)) and its orthogonally polarized second harmonic at 650 nm (2 × 10(13) W cm(-2)) and by controlling the relative phase between them. This extends earlier work by ensuring that the main effect is the combined field steering the electron trajectory with negligible contribution from multiphoton effects compared to the previous schemes with 800/400 nm fields. We access a broad energy range of harmonics (from 20 eV to 80 eV) at a low laser intensity (far below the ionization saturation limit) and observe deep modulation of the harmonic yield with a period of π in the relative phase. Strong field theoretical analysis reveals that this is principally due to the steering of the recolliding electron wave packet by the two-color field. Our modeling also shows that the atto chirp can be controlled, leading to production of shorter pulses.     

Spectral theory and L∞-time decay estimates for Klein–Gordon equations on two half axes with transmission: The tunnel effect

Consider two copies N₁, N₂ of the interval [0, ∞]. Consider Klein-Gordon equations with (different) constant coefficients on ? × N_j ( = time × space). Assume the coincidence of the values of the solution at the boundary points of the N_j for all times and a transmission condition relating its first (one-sided) space derivatives at these points. Under a symmetry condition, we extend the spatial part of the equation and the transmission conditions to a self-adjoint operator (by Friedrichs extension) and reformulate our problem in terms of an abstract wave equation in a suitable Hilbert space. We derive an expansion of the solution in generalized eigenfunctions of this self-adjoint extension and show, that the L^∞-norms (in space) of the solution and its first k space derivatives at the time t decay for t → ∞ at least as const. t^¼, if the initial conditions satisfy a compatibility condition of order k derived in this paper. The loss of decay rate in comparison with the full line case (const. t^?½, cf. [28]) is caused by the tunnel effect. Further we show that an abstract wave equation in a Hilbert space with a Friedrichs extension as spatial part can always be derived from a stationarity principle for an associated action-type functional. This yields a physical legitimation of our model by the principle of stationary action and moreover a criterion for the physical interpretability of all models created by the linear interaction concept [4, 6, 8, 10], in particular for the coupling of media of different dimension (alternative to [13, 16] for similar models).     

Perfect imaging through a disordered waveguide lattice

It is experimentally demonstrated that perfect imaging is possible in disordered wave guiding media, provided that the disorder is off-diagonal, i.e., that only the spacing varies randomly between the otherwise identical lattice sites. On-diagonal disorder or Kerr nonlinearity destroys the imaging.     

Gompertz zero-inflated cure rate regression models applied to credit risk data

In the financial market, it is important to consider that there is a proportion of customers that have settled their debt in time zero, immediately recovering their ability to pay. In this context, in this paper, we propose a survival analysis methodology that allows the insertion of times equal to zero in scenarios where credit risk is observed. The proposed model addresses the survival analysis model of the zero-inflated cure rate which incorporates the heterogeneity of three subgroups (individuals having events in the initial time, and individuals not susceptible and susceptible to the event). In our proposal, all available survival data of customers are modeled considering that the number of competitive causes follows a Poisson distribution and the baseline risk function follows a Gompertz distribution. The model parameter estimation is obtained by the maximum likelihood estimation procedure and simulation studies are conducted to evaluate the estimators' performance. The studied methodology will be applied to a credit database provided by a financial institution in Brazil.     

Simultaneous pH and Temperature Measurements Using Pyranine as a Molecular Probe

Steep variations in concentration and temperature frequently occur in small fluid compartments such as those found in cells or microfluidic devices. A quantitative characterization of concentration and temperature gradients is therefore required before these systems can be fully understood. Although different spatially resolved fluorescence methods have been developed to measure either the temperature or the concentration of ions such as proton or calcium, often concentration measurements depend on temperature and vice versa. Here, we describe a method allowing simultaneous measurement of pH and temperature. This method is based on the detection of the blinking of the fluorescent pH indicator pyranine, a process due to its alternating between a basic form and an acidic form. Fluorescence correlation spectroscopy allows measuring both the protonation and deprotonation rates of pyranine, and each pair of rates can be uniquely related to a pair of pH and temperature values. We show, however, that the relationship between rates, pH and temperature, is very sensitive to the presence of other acid-base molecules in solution. We also show that it is influenced by the overall ionic strength of the solution, in a manner that depends on buffer composition.