Formulation development and optimization of a novel Cremophore EL-based nanoemulsion using ultrasound cavitation

In the present study, response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite design (CCD) was employed to investigate the influence of main emulsion composition variables, namely drug loading, oil content, emulsifier content as well as the effect of the ultrasonic operating parameters such as pre-mixing time, ultrasonic amplitude, and irradiation time on the properties of aspirin-loaded nanoemulsions. The two main emulsion properties studied as response variables were: mean droplet size and polydispersity index. The ultimate goal of the present work was to determine the optimum level of the six independent variables in which an optimal aspirin nanoemulsion with desirable properties could be produced. The response surface analysis results clearly showed that the variability of two responses could be depicted as a linear function of the content of main emulsion compositions and ultrasonic processing variables. In the present investigation, it is evidently shown that ultrasound cavitation is a powerful yet promising approach in the controlled production of aspirin nanoemulsions with smaller average droplet size in a range of 200-300 nm and with a polydispersity index (PDI) of about 0.30. This study proved that the use of low frequency ultrasound is of considerable importance in the controlled production of pharmaceutical nanoemulsions in the drug delivery system.     

Detecting an induced subdivision of K4

In this article, we propose a polynomial-time algorithm to test whether a given graph contains a subdivision of K₄ as an induced subgraph. This continues the study of detecting an induced subdivision of H for some fixed graph H, which is still far from being complete. Our result answers a question by Chudnovsky et al. and Lévêque et al.     

Pair correlation of roots of rational functions with rational generating functions and quadratic denominators

For any rational functions with complex coefficients A(z),B(z), and C(z), where A(z), C(z) are not identically zero, we consider the sequence of rational functions H _m (z) with generating function ∑H _m (z)t ^m =1/(A(z)t ²+B(z)t+C(z)). We provide an explicit formula for the limiting pair correlation function of the roots of $\prod_{m=0}^{n}H_{m}(z)$ , as n→∞, counting multiplicities, on certain closed subarcs J of a curve $\mathcal{C}$ where the roots lie. We give an example where the limiting pair correlation function does not exist if J contains the endpoints of $\mathcal{C}$ .     

Interactions of proteins and cells on functional group gradient surfaces

Charge gradient and comb-like polyethylene oxide (PEO) gradient surfaces were prepared on low density polyethylene (PE) sheets by corona discharge treatment with gradually increasing power and the following graft copolymerization of chargeable functional group- and PEO-containing vinyl monomers, respectively. Those gradient surfaces were used to investigate protein or cell interactions in relation to the surface functional groups and their density of polymeric materials.     

Detrended fluctuation analysis and Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy of electroencephalogram signals

We measured the electroencephalogram (EEG) of young students in the relaxed state and in the state of the mathematical activities. We applied the detrended fluctuation analysis and Kolmogorov–Sinai entropy (KSE) in the EEG signals. We found that the detrended fluctuation functions follow a power law with Hurst exponents larger than 1/2. The Hurst exponents enhanced at all EEG channels in the state of mathematical activities. The KSE in the relaxed state is larger than those in the state of the mathematical activities. These indicate that the entropy is enhanced in the disorder state of the brain.