Twin screw granulation – review of current progress

Twin screw granulation (TSG) is a new process of interest to the pharmaceutical community that can continuously wet granulate powders, doing so at lower liquid concentrations and with better product consistency than found by a high shear batch mixer. A considerable body of research has evolved over the short time since this process was introduced but generally with little comparison of results. A certain degree of confidence has been developed through these studies related to how process variables and many attributes of machinery configuration will affect granulation but some major challenges still lay ahead related to scalability, variations in the processing regimes related to degree of channel fill and the impact of wetting and granulation of complex powder formulations. This review examines the current literature for wet granulation processes studied in twin screw extrusion machinery, summarizing the influences of operational and system parameters affecting granule properties as well as strives to provide some practical observations to newly interested users of the technique.     

Protecting local access telecommunications networks: Toward a minimum-cost solution

The problem of designing fibre-optic networks for local-access telecommunications generates (at least) three non-trivial subproblems. In the first of these subproblems one must determine how many fibre-optic cables (fibres) are required at either end of a street. In the next subproblem a minimum-cost network must be designed to support the fibres. The network must also provide distinct paths from either end of the street to the central exchange(s). Finally, the fibre-optic cables must be placed in protective covers. These covers are available in a number of different sizes, allowing some flexibility when covering each section of the network. In this paper we describe a dynamic programming (DP) formulation for finding a minimum-cost (protective) covering for the network (the third of the subproblems). This problem is a generalised set covering problem with side constraints and is further complicated by the introduction of fixed and variable welding costs. The DP formulation selects covers along each arc (in the network), but cannot exactly model the fixed costs and so does not guarantee optimality. We also describe an integer programming (IP) formulation for assessing the quality of the DP solutions. The cost of the networks constructed by the IP model is less than those designed using the DP model, but the saving is not significant for the problems examined (less than 0.1%). This indicates that the DP model will generally give very good solutions. Furthermore, as the problem dimensions grow, DP gives significantly better solution times than IP.     

Platinum Binuclear Complexes as Phosphorescent Dopants for Monochromatic and White Organic Light‐Emitting Diodes

Efficient blue‐, green‐, and red‐light‐emitting organic diodes are fabricated using binuclear platinum complexes as phosphorescent dopants. The series of complexes used here have pyrazolate bridging ligands and the general formula C^∧NPt(μ‐pz)₂PtC^∧N (where C^∧N = 2‐(4′,6′‐difluorophenyl)pyridinato‐N,C^2′, pz = pyrazole ( 1 ), 3‐methyl‐5‐tert‐butylpyrazole ( 2 ), and 3,5‐bis(tert‐butyl)pyrazole ( 3 )). The Pt–Pt distance in the complexes, which decreases in the order 1 > 2 > 3 , solely determines the electroluminescence color of the organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). Blue OLEDs fabricated using 8 % 1 doped into a 3,5‐bis(N‐carbazolyl)benzene (mCP) host have a quantum efficiency of 4.3 % at 120 Cd m^–2, a brightness of 3900 Cd m^–2 at 12 V, and Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE) coordinates of (0.11, 0.24). Green and red OLEDs fabricated with 2 and 3 , respectively, also give high quantum efficiencies (～ 6.7 %), with CIE coordinates of (0.31, 0.63) and (0.59, 0.46), respectively. The current‐density–voltage characteristics of devices made using dopants 2 and 3 indicate that hole trapping is enhanced by short Pt–Pt distances (< 3.1 Å). Blue electrophosphorescence is achieved by taking advantage of the binuclear molecular geometry in order to suppress dopant intermolecular interactions. No evidence of low‐energy emission from aggregate states is observed in OLEDs made with 50 % 1 doped into mCP. OLEDs made using 100 % 1 as an emissive layer display red luminescence, which is believed to originate from distorted complexes with compressed Pt–Pt separations located in defect sites within the neat film. White OLEDs are fabricated using 1 and 3 in three different device architectures, either with one or two dopants in dual emissive layers or both dopants in a single emissive layer. All the white OLEDs have high quantum efficiency (～ 5 %) and brightness (～ 600 Cd m^–2 at 10 V).     

Effects of SiN passivation and high-electric field on AlGaN-GaN HFET degradation

The authors report on the effects of silicon nitride (SiN) surface passivation and high-electric field stress (hot electron stress) on the degradation of undoped AlGaN-GaN power HFETs. Stressed devices demonstrated a decrease in the drain current and maximum transconductance and an increase in the parasitic drain series resistance, gate leakage, and subthreshold current. The unpassivated devices showed more significant degradation than SiN passivated devices. Gate lag phenomenon was observed from unpassivated devices and removed by SiN passivation. However, SiN passivated devices also showed gate lag phenomena after high-electric field stress, which suggests possible changes in surface trap profiles occurred during high-electric field stress test.     

Life is pleasant--and memory helps to keep it that way!

People's recollections of the past are often positively biased. This bias has 2 causes. The 1st cause lies in people's perceptions of events. The authors review the results of several studies and present several new comparative analyses of these studies, all of which indicate that people perceive events in their lives to more often be pleasant than unpleasant. A 2nd cause is the fading affect bias: The affect associated with unpleasant events fades faster than the affect associated with pleasant events. The authors review the results of several studies documenting this bias and present evidence indicating that dysphoria (mild depression) disrupts such bias. Taken together, this evidence suggests that autobiographical memory represents an important exception to the theoretical claim that bad is stronger than good. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts (TIPS) in children

The transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt procedure is an accepted treatment for adults with complications of portal hypertension. We performed a retrospective review of all pediatric TIPS placements performed at the University of California, San Francisco between 1990 and 1996. Twelve procedures were attempted in nine children, with a mean age (+/- SD) of 9.4 +/- 3.9 years (range, 5 to 15 years) and a mean weight of 31 +/- 18 kg (range, 16 to 70 kg). The indications for TIPS placement were portal hypertension complicated by chronic variceal hemorrhage not controlled with sclerotherapy (n = 7) and hypersplenism with thrombocytopenia (n = 2). TIPS placement was successfully completed initially in seven of nine (78%) patients. Unfavorable vascular anatomy was the cause of failure in two cases. The seven patients who underwent successful TIPS placement were followed up for an average of 136 days (range, 1 to 800 days); two still have patent shunts, three underwent liver transplantation, one had a splenorenal shunt after stenosis, and one died of underlying liver disease. Variceal bleeding was controlled in four of five patients who successfully underwent TIPS placement. Shunt occlusion occurred in four patients; patency was restored by transjugular shunt revision in three, and a splenorenal shunt was performed in one.     

Viral dynamics of primary viremia and antiretroviral therapy in simian immunodeficiency virus infection

Mathematical modeling of viral replication dynamics, based on sequential measurements of levels of virion-associated RNA in plasma during antiretroviral treatment, has led to fundamental new insights into human immunodeficiency virus type 1 pathogenesis. We took advantage of the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV)-infected macaque model to perform detailed measurements and mathematical modeling during primary infection and during treatment of established infection with the antiretroviral drug (R)-9-(2-phosphonylmethoxypropyl)adenine (PMPA). The calculated clearance half-life for productively infected cells during resolution of the peak viremia of primary infection was on the order of 1 day, with slightly shorter clearance half-lives calculated during PMPA treatment. Viral reproduction rates upon discontinuation of PMPA treatment after 2 weeks were approximately twofold greater than those obtained just prior to initiation of treatment in the same animals, likely reflecting accumulation of susceptible target cells during treatment. The basic reproductive ratio (R0) for the spread of SIV infection in vivo, which represents the number of productively infected cells derived from each productively infected cell at the beginning of infection, was also estimated. This parameter quantifies the extent to which antiviral therapy or vaccination must limit the initial spread of virus to prevent establishment of chronic disseminated infection. The results thus provide an important guide for efforts to develop vaccines against SIV and, by extension, human immunodeficiency virus.     

Current practice in software quality and the impact of certification schemes

The paper presents the findings of a survey that investigated the level of quality management practice within some 150 UK companies from a sample of 500. It provides a snapshot of practice at the time of the survey, and assesses the impact of government quality initiatives particularly, the TickIT scheme at that time. The survey methodology is described, together with the results and conclusions. The sample has been graded by size of company, which the authors consider to have a significant effect upon the adoption of quality practices. The survey highlights the need to encourage small companies to adopt quality practices and to assist them with the short-term costs incurred.     

Event-related desynchronization (ERD) patterns during verbal memory tasks: effect of age

Event-related desynchronization (ERD) was studied in 10 young (mean age = 19.1) and 10 older (mean age = 62.8) subjects during a verbal recognition task. The attention load of the task varied according to the difficulty of discriminating between targets and distractors. EEG recorded from 29 electrodes was used to compute ERD from 14 source derivations in 125 ms intervals. Thereafter, it was displayed as spatiotemporal maps. The results show that attention influences the characteristics of EEG desynchronization. In young subjects, ERD is more pronounced and more widespread when the attentional load is high. In the elderly, differences between the two attention conditions are less marked. ANOVA reveals main effects of attention and time. The significant 'attention x time x age group' interaction confirms the presence of different brain activation patterns in the two age groups in relation to attention load.