Diffusion of Steroids in Porous Sol-Gel Glass: Application in Slow Drug Delivery

Samples of porous sol-gel glass, after being stabilized at 750°C, were impregnated with progesterone, estradiol, estrone, and hydrocortisone. Diffusion coefficients for those steroids inside the pores filled with pure ethanol, ethanol-water mixture or physiological solution were determined. It is shown that permeability is favored for steroids having fewer hydroxyl and carbonyl groups. Solvents that readily dissolve steroids increase the diffusion rate and thus the amount of delivered material. The flow of steroids in small pores is less restricted than in larger pores.     

Heat transfer in RF plasma sintering: Modeling and experiments

The mechanisms of heat transfer from an argon RF plasma, generated in a water-cooled quartz tube, to a sintering sample immersed into the plasma and to the walls of the plasma torch have been studied both analytically and experimentally for pressures from 1 to 50 torr. The model, based on the assumption of chemical equilibrium in a two-temperature plasma with rotational symmetry, includes the influence of the magnetic field and of the Knudsen number on the thermal conductivity of the plasma. At pressures below 20 torr heat transfer to the sintering sample is enhanced compared to heat transfer to the wall of the plasma torch. This nonsymmetry is attributed to the Hall parameter and Knudsen number effect. The relative importance of the two effects is a function of the pressure. A comparison with experiments, based on calorimetric and indirect heat transfer measurements for a range of pressures and power levels, indicates satisfactory agreement with analytical predictions, with the exception of larger discrepancies at higher power levels and relatively low pressures. For pressures below 5 torr, the chemical equilibrium assumption becomes questionable, i.e., the sintering model underestimates the heat transfer to the sintering sample.     

两片掺铒玻璃样品级联荧光光谱的实验研究

介绍一种掺铒玻璃样品的制作方法，实验测量了单片及两片掺铒玻璃样品的荧光特性.结果表明：两片掺铒玻璃样品级联的荧光强度比单片掺铒玻璃样品的荧光强度高，半值宽度与高浓度单片样品的半值宽度近似相等；在两片掺铒玻璃样品级联的形式中，浓度高的样品靠近抽运光源时的荧光强度比浓度低的样品靠近抽运光源时的荧光强度高；两种低浓度样品组合的荧光强度相对于其单片样品荧光强度的增幅比两种高浓度样品组合的荧光强度相对于其单片样品荧光强度的增幅要高. 关键词： 掺铒玻璃样品 级联 荧光光谱强度 半值宽度     

Quantitative theory of thermal fluctuations and disorder in the vortex matter

A metastable supercooled homogeneous vortex liquid state exists down to zero fluctuation temperature in systems of mutually repelling objects. The zero temperature liquid state therefore serves as a (pseudo) ‘fixed point’ controlling the properties of vortex liquid below and even around the melting point. Based on this picture, a quantitative theory of vortex melting and glass transition in Type II superconductors in the framework of Ginzburg-Landau approach is presented. The melting line location is determined and magnetization and specific heat jumps are calculated. The point-like disorder shifts the line downwards and joins the order-disorder transition line. On the other hand, the disorder induces irreversible effects via replica symmetry breaking. The irreversibility line can be calculated within the Gaussian variational method. Therefore, the generic phase diagram contains four phases divided by the irreversibility line and melting line: liquid, solid, vortex glass and Bragg glass. We compare various experimental results with the theoretical formula.     

Liquid chromatographic determination of dimethadione and trimethadione in human serum on octadecyl treated microporous glass columns

Summary The liquid chromatographic determination of trimethadione (TMO) and its methabolite, dimethadione (DMO) were studied by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) on octadecyl-modified microporous glasses, prepared with toluene solution containing octadecyl-dimethylchlorosilane, using two types of microporous glass with various mean pore diameters and/or specific surface areas. Using acetonitrile-water mixtures as eluents, TMO and DMO in human serum were separated on the glasses studied, but with different degrees of resolution. In this present study, we report the development of a rapid and selective HPLC method for the simultaneous analysis of TMO and DMO in human serum.     

Porosity in ancient glass from Syria (c. 800 AD) using gas adsorption and atomic force microscopy

Gas adsorption and atomic force microscopy have been used to quantify and compare the porosity, surface area and surface characteristics of five samples from Raqqa in northern Syria dating to ca. 8th century AD . High‐quality high‐pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) glass was also analysed to compare the results with these characteristics of modern glass. All five ancient samples were found to have some porosity across the microporous (up to 2 nm) and the mesoporous (2–50 nm) range. The reasons for this porosity are not entirely clear at present but are likely to be due to the manufacturing methods used, including the raw materials. A correlation was found between glass chemical composition (especially the total alkali) and pore size, inferring that the melting temperature is one of the parameters that affects the development of pores. The work in this paper presents the preliminary findings from the study of porosity in ancient glass. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

玻璃转变研究进展

玻璃转变是凝聚态物理基础理论中的一个重要问题和难题，是涉及动力学和热力学的众多前沿问题．玻璃转变的理论一直在不断的发展和更新．从20世纪50年代出现的自由体积理论到现在还在不断完善的模态耦合理论及其他众多理论，都只能解决玻璃转变中的某些问题．一个完整的玻璃转变理论仍需要人们作艰苦的努力．为了澄清混淆不清的玻璃转变概念，文章就玻璃转变的概念、研究内容和有关理论的发展进行简述．在分析了几个占主导地位的玻璃转变理论后，阐述了玻璃转变中需要进一步深入研究的问题．     

Er3+-Yb3+共掺磷酸盐玻璃放大器的大信号增益与量子效率理论分析

研究大信号工作状态下的Er^3 -Yb^3 共掺磷酸盐玻璃波导放大器的增益与量子转换效率。从量子转换效率的定义出发，得出了增益、抽运光功率以及量子转换效率三者之间关系的解析表达式。通过数值求解大信号工作状态下的Er^3 -Yb^3 共掺系统的速率方程与光功率传输方程，讨论了Er^3 浓度、Yb^3 浓度、Yb^3 与Er^3 浓度比率、抽运光功率以及放大器长度等因素对量子转换效率的影响。结果表明提高Er^3 浓度与增加放大器长度均有助于提高量子转换效率，高Er^3 浓度掺杂需要相应的高Yb^3 浓度与之相匹配以减小由于高浓度Er^3 掺杂引起的上转换效应，Yb^3 浓度的提高将降低器件的量子转换效率，Yb^3 -Er^3 浓度之比取1～2较好。     

Investigations on temperature dependent structural evolution of NaPO3 glass

The understanding of molecular level structural information of phosphate glasses is very much essential. The unique microwave-absorbing ability of NaH₂PO₄·2H₂O was found to be very useful for preparing crystal and glassy sodium super ionic conductors (Nasicon's) as a component of batch mixtures. In this work NaPO₃ glass was prepared by both conventional melt quench and microwave heating from NaH₂PO₄·2H₂O as a starting material. The structure of NaPO₃ glass and their structural evolution upon heating through glass transition were probed by combination of complementary techniques like differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) and thermo-Raman spectroscopy.This revised version was published online in November 2005 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Order in amorphous di‐n‐alkyl itaconate polymers,copolymers, and blends

The presence of a main‐chain correlation distance (d_II) in the poly(di‐n‐alkyl itaconate)s was confirmed with small‐angle X‐ray scattering/wide‐angle X‐ray scattering measurements taken over the temperature range of 293–478 K. Data for a series of alkyl acrylate polymers were also obtained for comparison. The intensity of the itaconate d_II peak was significant and indicated a greater level of nanophase formation than in analogous systems. In the lower members of the series, nanophase formation appeared to be further enhanced in the temperature range above the glass‐transition temperature (T_g). This was ascribed to the rapidly increasing main‐chain mobility in this region. Macroscopically phase‐separated itaconate blends displayed the individual d_II nanospacings of each homopolymer component. Copolymers, on the other hand, showed more interesting behavior. Poly(methyl‐co‐di‐n‐butyl itaconate) followed an average behavior in which the d_II spacing and T_g changed progressively with the comonomer content. In contrast, the side‐chain pairing in poly(methyl‐co‐di‐n‐octyl itaconate) generated d_II spacings characteristic of separate methyl and octyl nanodomains. The observation of the dioctyl nanodomains, along with the dioctyl side‐chain lower T_g relaxation event, confirmed the concept of independent side‐chain‐domain relaxation in these polymers. The temperature behavior of the poly(methyl‐co‐di‐n‐octyl itaconate) small‐angle X‐ray scattering profiles and scattering correlation lengths indicated that the two nanodomains were not completely structurally independent. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 42: 4000–4016, 2004