Matching Static and Dynamic Compliance of Small‐Diameter Arteries,with Poly(lactide‐co‐caprolactone) Copolymers: In Vitro and In Vivo Studies

Mechanical mismatch between vascular grafts and blood vessels is a major cause of smaller diameter vascular graft failure. To minimize this mismatch, several poly‐l ‐lactide‐co‐ε‐caprolactone (PLC) copolymers are evaluated as candidate materials to fabricate a small diameter graft. Using these materials, tubular prostheses of 4 mm inner diameter are fabricated by dip‐coating. In vitro static and dynamic compliance tests are conducted, using custom‐built apparatus featuring a closed flow system with water at 37 °C. Grafts of PLC monomer ratio of 50:50 are the most compliant (1.56% ± 0.31?mm Hg^?2), close to that of porcine aortic branch arteries (1.56% ± 0.43?mm Hg^?2), but underwent high continuous dilatation (87 µm min^?1). Better matching is achieved by optimizing the thickness of a tubular conduit made from 70:30 PLC grafts. In vivo implantation and function of a PLC 70:30 conduit of 150 µm wall‐thickness (WT) are tested as a rabbit aorta bypass. An implanted 150 µm WT PLC 70:30 prosthesis is observed over 3 h. The recorded angiogram shows continuous blood flow, no aneurysmal dilatation, leaks, or acute thrombosis during the in vivo test, indicating the potential for clinical applications.     

Boxicity of series-parallel graphs

We show that there exist series-parallel graphs with boxicity 3.     

Spectrophotometric studies of the complexes of quadrivalent titanium,zirconium, and hafnium with dibromopyrogallol sulfonphthalein

The characteristics of thee colored chelates of titanium(IV), zirconium(IV), and hafnium(IV) with dibromopyrogallol red have been described. The studies include the determination of molar ratio by two different methods, the range of pH for the stability of the chelates and the evaluation of the conditional stability constants by two methods, i.e., method of Dey and mole ratio method. The λ_max of the ligand was found to be at 430 mμ and that of the chelates of Ti(IV), Zn(IV), Hf(IV) were 560, 550, and 550 mμ, at the pH of study, i.e., 1.5, 0.6, and 1.0, respectively.     

Sectrophotometric determination of vanadium(V) with 7-amino-1-naphthol-3,6-disulphonic acid

Summary Vanadium(V) reacts with 7-amino-1-naphthol-3,6-disulphonic acid (2 R-acid) in the ratio 21, forming a red coloured chelate having maximum absorbance at 470 nm. The composition of the chelate has been found by the continuous variations and the mole ratio methods. The system obeys Beer's law between a range of 1.72 to 30.9 p. p. m. of vanadium and the sensitivity is 0.17g/cm² at pH 2.0, The reagent is found to be fairly selective for vanadium.

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Zusammenfassung Vanadin(V) reagiert mit 7-Amino-l-naphthol-3,6-disulfonsäure im Ver-hältnis 21 und bildet ein rotes Chelat mit dem Absorptionsmaximum bei 470 nm, dessen Zusammensetzung nachJob bestimmt wurde. Zwischen 1,72 und 30,9 ppm V ist das Beersche Gesetz erfüllt. Die Empfindlichkeit beträgt 0,17g/cm² (Sandell) bei pH 2,0. Das Reagens ist für Vanadin ziemlich selektiv.

     

Analysis of DC and analog/RF performance on Cyl-GAA-TFET using distinct device geometry

In this paper, analysis of DC and analog/RF performance on cylindrical gate-all-around tunnel field-effect transistor (TFET) has been made using distinct device geometry. Firstly, performance parameters of GAA-TFET are analyzed in terms of drain current, gate capacitances, transconductance, source-drain conductance at different radii and channel length. Furthermore, we also produce the geometrical analysis towards the optimized investigation of radio frequency parameters like cut-off frequency, maximum oscillation frequency and gain bandwidth product using a 3D technology computer-aided design ATLAS. Due to band-to-band tunneling based current mechanism unlike MOSFET, gate-bias dependence values as primary parameters of TFET differ. We also analyze that the maximum current occurs when radii of Si is around 8 nm due to high gate controllability over channel with reduced fringing effects and also there is no change in the current of TFET on varying its length from 100 to 40 nm. However current starts to increase when channel length is further reduced for 40 to 30 nm. Both of these trades-offs affect the RF performance of the device.     

Determination of gymnemagenin in rat plasma using high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry: application to pharmacokinetics after oral administration of Gymnema sylvestre extract

A sensitive and rapid high‐performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC‐MS/MS) method has been developed and validated for the determination of gymnemagenin (GMG), a triterpene sapogenin from Gymnema sylvestre, in rat plasma using withaferin A as the internal standard (IS). Plasma samples were simply extracted using liquid–liquid extraction with tetra‐butyl methyl ether. Chromatographic separation was performed on Luna C₁₈ column using gradient elution of water and methanol (with 0.1% formic acid and 0.3% ammonia) at a flow rate of 0.8 mL/min. GMG and IS were eluted at 4.64 and 4.36 min, ionized in negative and positive mode, respectively, and quantitatively estimated using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode. Two MRM transitions were selected at m/z 505.70 → 455.5 and m/z 471.50 → 281.3 for GMG and IS, respectively. The assay was linear over the concentration range of 5.280–300.920 ng/mL. The mean plasma extraction recoveries for GMG and IS were found to be 80.92 ± 8.70 and 55.63 ± 0.76%, respectively. The method was successfully applied for the determination of pharmacokinetic parameters of GMG after oral administration of G. sylvestre extract. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of Mass Transport in the Synthesis of Partially Acetylated Dendrimer: Implications for Functional Ligand-Nanoparticle Distributions

Partial acetylation of the amine-terminated poly(amidoamine) dendrimer has been used in the preparation of dendrimer particles conjugated with a wide variety of functional ligands including targeting moieties, therapeutic agents, and dye molecules. The effectiveness of mass transport during the partial acetylation reaction was found to have a major effect on subsequent distributions of dendrimer-ligand components and to be a major source of inconsistency between batches. This study has broad implications for a wide range of nanoparticle-ligand systems because it demonstrates that conjugates with the same mean ligand-particle ratios can have completely different distribution profiles.     

Synthesis of diameter controlled carbon nanotubes using self-assembled catalyst nanoparticles

Vertically-aligned diameter-controlled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are synthesised by the plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) method using multi-layers of self-assembled catalytic ligand-coated iron oxide nanoparticles. We find that the mono-dispersed nanoparticles play a vital role for the production of diameter-controlled CNTs. A new growth model is also proposed based on the experimental results. The present results may make a great contribution to the development and design of mechanical, electronic and biomedical devices, in which diameter-controlled CNTs are utilised.     

An interactive evolutionary multi-objective optimization algorithm with a limited number of decision maker calls

This paper presents a preference-based method to handle optimization problems with multiple objectives. With an increase in the number of objectives the computational cost in solving a multi-objective optimization problem rises exponentially, and it becomes increasingly difficult for evolutionary multi-objective techniques to produce the entire Pareto-optimal front. In this paper, an evolutionary multi-objective procedure is combined with preference information from the decision maker during the intermediate stages of the algorithm leading to the most preferred point. The proposed approach is different from the existing approaches, as it tries to find the most preferred point with a limited budget of decision maker calls. In this paper, we incorporate the idea into a progressively interactive technique based on polyhedral cones. The idea is also tested on another progressively interactive approach based on value functions. Results are provided on two to five-objective unconstrained as well as constrained test problems.