A study of magnetic non-linearity and finite length effects in solid iron subjected to a travelling MMF wave

This thesis describes an experimental and analytic study of the effects of magnetic non-linearity and finite length on the loss and field distribution in solid iron due to a travelling mmf wave. In the first half of the thesis, a two-dimensional solution is developed which accounts for the effects of both magnetic non-linearity and eddy-current reaction; this solution is extended, in the second half, to a three-dimensional model. In the two-dimensional solution, new equations for loss and flux/pole are given; these equations contain the primary excitation, the machine parameters and factors describing the shape of the normal B-H curve. The solution applies to machines of any air-gap length. The conditions for maximum loss are defined, and generalised torque/frequency curves are obtained. A relationship between the peripheral component of magnetic field on the surface of the iron and the primary excitation is given. The effects of magnetic non-linearity and finite length are combined analytically by introducing an equivalent constant permeability into a linear three-dimensional analysis. The equivalent constant permeability is defined from the non-linear solution for the two-dimensional magnetic field at the axial centre of the machine to avoid iterative solutions. In the linear three-dimensional analysis, the primary excitation in the passive end-regions of the machine is set equal to zero and the secondary end faces are developed onto the air-gap surface. The analyses, and the assumptions on which they are based, were verified on an experimental machine which consists of a three-phase rotor and alternative solid iron stators, one with copper end rings, and one without copper end rings j the main dimensions of the two stators are identical. Measurements of torque, flux /pole, surface current density and radial power flow were obtained for both stators over a range of frequencies and excitations. Comparison of the measurements on the two stators enabled the individual effects of finite length and saturation to be identified, and the definition of constant equivalent permeability to be verified. The penetration of the peripheral flux into the stator with copper end rings was measured and compared with theoretical penetration curves. Agreement between measured and theoretical results was generally good.

The spatial patterns of beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposits in elderly non-demented patients and patients with Alzheimer’s disease

The spatial patterns of diffuse, primitive, classic and compact beta-amyloid (Abeta) deposits were studied in the medial temporal lobe in 14 elderly, non-demented patients (ND) and in nine patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In both patient groups, Abeta deposits were clustered and in a number of tissues, a regular periodicity of Abeta deposit clusters was observed parallel to the tissue boundary. The primitive deposit clusters were significantly larger in the AD cases but there were no differences in the sizes of the diffuse and classic deposit clusters between patient groups. In AD, the relationship between Abeta deposit cluster size and density in the tissue was non-linear. This suggested that cluster size increased with increasing Abeta deposit density in some tissues while in others, Abeta deposit density was high but contained within smaller clusters. It was concluded that the formation of large clusters of primitive deposits could be a factor in the development of AD.

Atom transfer radical polymerisation - towards the synthesis of a fully-functional photorefractive polymer

Atom transfer radical polymerisation (ATRP) of styrene in xylene solution initiated with 1-phenylethyl bromide and mediated by CuBr/N-propyl-2- pyridinemethanimine catalyst complex was studied. The polymerisation was ill-controlled, yielding polymers with broad molecular weight distributions and values of number average molecular weight considerably higher than the theoretical values calculated from 100% initiator efficiency. The degree of control afforded over the polymerisation was enhanced by use of a more soluble catalyst complex, CuBr/N-octyl-2-pyridinemethanimine. Furthermore, the use of a more polar solvent, diglyme, generated a homogeneous catalyst complex that facilitated the production of polymers having narrow molecular weight distributions (1.10 < PDi < 1.20). The kinetics of the atom transfer radical polymerisation of methyl methacrylate at 90°C in diglyme solution initiated with ethyl-2-bromoisobutyrate and mediated by CuBr/N-octyl-2-pyridinemethanimine was studied and the orders of the reaction were established. The effect on the rate of polymerisation of the ratio of CuBr:N-octyl-2-pyridinemethanimine was also determined. The temperature dependencies of the rate of polymerisation of methyl methacrylate in diglyme solution and xylene solution were studied, and were found to be non-linear and dependent upon the polarity of the solvent. The use of highly polar aprotic solvents, such as N,N-dimethylformamide and dimethylsulphoxide, was found to be detrimental to the degree of control afforded over the polymerisation of methyl methacrylate. This was circumvented by use of a 5-fold excess, over that conventionally used, of catalyst complex. The atom transfer radical polymerisation of (4-nitrophenyl)-[3-[N-[2- (methacryloyloxy)ethyl]carbazolyl]]diazene in dimethyl sulphoxide solution was studied. Although homopolymerisation yielded only oligomers, copolymerisation of this monomer with methyl methacrylate was found to be readily achievable. Keywords: ATRP, Styrene; Methyl methacrylate; Polar solvents; Fully-functional photorefractive polymer. 2

Formulation of topical non-steroidal anti-inflammatory agents

Reversed-pahse high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) methods were developed for the assay of indomethacin, its decomposition products, ibuprofen and its (tetrahydro-2-furanyl)methyl-, (tetrahydro-2-(2H)pyranyl)methyl- and cyclohexylmethyl esters. The development and application of these HPLC systems were studied. A number of physico-chemical parameters that affect percutaneous absorption were investigated. The pKa values of indomethacin and ibuprofen were determined using the solubility method. Potentiometric titration and the Taft equation were also used for ibuprofen. The incorporation of ethanol or propylene glycol in the solvent resulted in an improvement in the aqueous solubility of these compounds. The partition coefficients were evaluated in order to establish the affinity of these drugs towards the stratum corneum. The stability of indomethacin and of ibuprofen esters were investigated and the effect of temperature and pH on the decomposition rates were studied. The effect of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide on the alkaline degradation of indomethacin was also followed. In the presence of alcohol, indomethacin alcoholysis was observed and the kinetics of decomposition were subjected to non-linear regression analysis and the rate constants for the various pathways were quantified. The non-isothermal, sufactant non-isoconcentration and non-isopH degradation of indomethacin were investigated. The analysis of the data was undertaken using NONISO, a BASIC computer program. The degradation profiles obtained from both non-iso and iso-kinetic studies show that there is close concordance in the results. The metabolic biotransformation of ibuprofen esters was followed using esterases from hog liver and rat skin homogenates. The results showed that the esters were very labile under these conditions. The presence of propylene glycol affected the rates of enzymic hydrolysis of the ester. The hydrolysis is modelled using an equation involving the dielectric constant of the medium. The percutaneous absorption of indomethacin and of ibuprofen and its esters was followed from solutions using an in vitro excised human skin model. The absorption profiles followed first order kinetics. The diffusion process was related to their solubility and to the human skin/solvent partition coefficient. The percutaneous absorption of two ibuprofen esters from suspensions in 20% propylene glycol-water were also followed through rat skin with only ibuprofen being detected in the receiver phase. The sensitivity of ibuprofen esters to enzymic hydrolysis compared to the chemical hydrolysis may prove valuable in the formulation of topical delivery systems.

SAS/OWA:ordered weighted averaging in SAS optimization

This paper explores the use of the optimization procedures in SAS/OR software with application to the ordered weight averaging (OWA) operators of decision-making units (DMUs). OWA was originally introduced by Yager (IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern 18(1):183-190, 1988) has gained much interest among researchers, hence many applications such as in the areas of decision making, expert systems, data mining, approximate reasoning, fuzzy system and control have been proposed. On the other hand, the SAS is powerful software and it is capable of running various optimization tools such as linear and non-linear programming with all type of constraints. To facilitate the use of OWA operator by SAS users, a code was implemented. The SAS macro developed in this paper selects the criteria and alternatives from a SAS dataset and calculates a set of OWA weights. An example is given to illustrate the features of SAS/OWA software. © Springer-Verlag 2009.

New oil modified acrylic polymer for pH sensitive drug release:experimental results and statistical analysis

We report results of an experimental study, complemented by detailed statistical analysis of the experimental data, on the development of a more effective control method of drug delivery using a pH sensitive acrylic polymer. New copolymers based on acrylic acid and fatty acid are constructed from dodecyl castor oil and a tercopolymer based on methyl methacrylate, acrylic acid and acryl amide were prepared using this new approach. Water swelling characteristics of fatty acid, acrylic acid copolymer and tercopolymer respectively in acid and alkali solutions have been studied by a step-change method. The antibiotic drug cephalosporin and paracetamol have also been incorporated into the polymer blend through dissolution with the release of the antibiotic drug being evaluated in bacterial stain media and buffer solution. Our results show that the rate of release of paracetamol getss affected by the pH factor and also by the nature of polymer blend. Our experimental data have later been statistically analyzed to quantify the precise nature of polymer decay rates on the pH density of the relevant polymer solvents. The time evolution of the polymer decay rates indicate a marked transition from a linear to a strictly non-linear regime depending on the whether the chosen sample is a general copolymer (linear) or a tercopolymer (non-linear). Non-linear data extrapolation techniques have been used to make probabilistic predictions about the variation in weight percentages of retained polymers at all future times, thereby quantifying the degree of efficacy of the new method of drug delivery.

The methaemoglobin forming and GSH depleting effects of dapsone and monoacetyl dapsone hydroxylamines in human diabetic and non-diabetic erythrocytes in vitro

The respective methaemoglobin forming and GSH depleting capabilities of monoacetyl dapsone hydroxylamine (MADDS-NHOH) and dapsone hydroxylamine (DDS-NHOH) were compared in human diabetic and non-diabetic erythrocytes in vitro with a view to select the most potent agent for future oxidative stress and antioxidant evaluation studies. Administration of both metabolites to non-diabetic erythrocytes over the 20 min period of the study resulted in significantly more methaemoglobin formation at all four time points compared with the diabetic erythrocytes (P<0.0001). At all four time points, significantly more methaemoglobin was formed in response to MADDS-NHOH in non-diabetic cells compared with the effects of DDS-NHOH on diabetic erythrocytes (P<0.0001). At the 5 and 10 min time points, significantly more methaemglobin was formed in non-diabetic cells in the presence of MADDS-NHOH compared with DDS-NHOH (P<0.05). At the 5 min time point only, significantly more methaemoglobin was formed in the presence of MADDS-NHOH in diabetic cells compared with that of DDS-NHOH (P<0.01). However, compared with diabetic control GSH levels, the presence of DDS-NHOH caused a significant depletion in GSH at 5, 10 and 20 min time points in diabetic cells (P<0.001). In addition, the presence of DDS-NHOH caused a significant reduction in GSH levels in diabetic cells in comparison with those of non-diabetics at the 5, 10 and 20 min, (P<0.005). DDS-NHOH was also associated with a significant depletion of GSH levels in diabetic cells compared with those of non-diabetic control erythrocytes (P<0.0001). The presence of MADDS-NHOH in diabetic erythrocytes led to a significant reduction in GSH levels at the 20 min time point compared with those of non-diabetics (P<0.001), but there were no significant differences at the 5, 10 and 15 min points. Due to its greater GSH-depleting action, DDS-NHOH will be selected for future use in the oxidative stress assessment in diabetic erythrocytes. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Linear dispersive pre-defined peak amplitude modulation of spectrally modulated airy-based pulses

Spectrally modulated Airy-based pulses peak amplitude modulation (PAM) in linear dispersive media is investigated, designed, and numerically simulated. As it is shown here, it is possible to design the spectral modulation of the initial Airy-based pulses to obtain a pre-defined PAM profile as the pulse propagates. Although optical pulses self-amplitude modulation is a well-known effect under non-linear propagation, the designed Airy-based pulses exhibit PAM under linear dispersive propagation. This extraordinary linear propagation property can be applied in many kinds of dispersive media, enabling its use in a broad range of experiments and applications. © 2013 Optical Society of America.

Mode-locked fiber lasers with significant variability of generation regimes

We demonstrate a great variability of single-pulse (with only one pulse/wave-packet traveling along the cavity) generation regimes in fiber lasers passively mode-locked by non-linear polarization evolution (NPE) effect. Combining extensive numerical modeling and experimental studies, we identify multiple very distinct lasing regimes with a rich variety of dynamic behavior and a remarkably broad spread of key parameters (by an order of magnitude and more) of the generated pulses. Such a broad range of variability of possible lasing regimes necessitates developing techniques for control/adjustment of such key pulse parameters as duration, radiation spectrum, and the shape of the auto-correlation function. From a practical view point, availability of pulses/wave-packets with such different characteristics from the same laser makes it imperative to develop variability-aware designs with control techniques and methods to select appropriate application-oriented regimes. © 2014 The Authors.