Interaction of Liposomal Drug Delivery Systems with Cells and Tissues: Microscopic Studies

Liposomes , as drug carriers, can be administered into the body by several routes e.g. intravenously, intraperitoneally, intramuscularly, intratracheally and topically among others. Radiolabelled markers are suitable to monitor the distribution and elimination of liposomes, but the tissue deposition of intact liposomes, the mode and sites of drug release from the liposomes and liposome-cell interactions cannot be investigated morphologically. Microscopic techniques could provide information regarding the intact state of liposomes and possibly the dynamics of liposomes in tissues provided that they can be identified with certainty in vivo. This is a formidable problem and in spite of several attempts, there is still a lot of work and new ideas needed to overcome this problem. This paper gives a detailed review of liposome markers used in light and electron microscopy. The use of markers or the technique involved in the identification of liposomes in cells or t issues is discussed. The feasibility of using colloidal iron, a new electron dense marker, as a marker for intravenously injected liposomes was investigated in mice. Intact multilamellar vesicles containing colloidal iron were identified in the liver, spleen and lung of mice injected with liposomes. The liver and the spleen are organs for the storage of iron containing proteins (ferritin, hemosiderin), therefore studying the disposition of colloidal iron from the liposomes was not possible. However, in organs not containing iron, e.g. lung, the presence of colloidal iron can easily be recognized. The colloidal iron marker may be suitable to label liposomes targeted to the brain , heart or certain tumors

Damping of Bogoliubov Excitations in Optical Lattices

Extending recent work to finite temperatures, we calculate the Landau damping of a Bogoliubov excitation in an optical lattice, due to coupling to a thermal cloud of such excitations. For simplicity, we consider a 1D Bose-Hubbard model and restrict ourselves to the first energy band. For energy conservation to be satisfied, the excitations in the collision processes must exhibit ``anomalous dispersion'', analogous to phonons in superfluid $^4\rm{He}$. This leads to the disappearance of all damping processes when $U n^{\rm c 0}\ge 6t$, where $U$ is the on-site interaction, $t$ is the hopping matrix element and $n^{\rm c 0}(T)$ is the number of condensate atoms at a lattice site. This phenomenon also occurs in 2D and 3D optical lattices. The disappearance of Beliaev damping above a threshold wavevector is noted.Comment: 4pages, 5figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Magnetic Fluctuations and Correlations in MnSi - Evidence for a Skyrmion Spin Liquid Phase

We present a comprehensive analysis of high resolution neutron scattering data involving Neutron Spin Echo spectroscopy and Spherical Polarimetry which confirm the first order nature of the helical transition and reveal the existence of a new spin liquid skyrmion phase. Similar to the blue phases of liquid crystals this phase appears in a very narrow temperature range between the low temperature helical and the high temperature paramagnetic phases.Comment: 11 pages, 16 figure

Non exponential relaxation in fully frustrated models

We study the dynamical properties of the fully frustrated Ising model. Due to the absence of disorder the model, contrary to spin glass, does not exhibit any Griffiths phase, which has been associated to non-exponential relaxation dynamics. Nevertheless we find numerically that the model exhibits a stretched exponential behavior below a temperature T_p corresponding to the percolation transition of the Kasteleyn-Fortuin clusters. We have also found that the critical behavior of this clusters for a fully frustrated q-state spin model at the percolation threshold is strongly affected by frustration. In fact while in absence of frustration the q=1 limit gives random percolation, in presence of frustration the critical behavior is in the same universality class of the ferromagnetic q=1/2-state Potts model.Comment: 7 pages, RevTeX, 11 figs, to appear on Physical Review

Space-Time Approach to Scattering from Many Body Systems

We present scattering from many body systems in a new light. In place of the usual van Hove treatment, (applicable to a wide range of scattering processes using both photons and massive particles) based on plane waves, we calculate the scattering amplitude as a space-time integral over the scattering sample for an incident wave characterized by its correlation function which results from the shaping of the wave field by the apparatus. Instrument resolution effects - seen as due to the loss of correlation caused by the path differences in the different arms of the instrument are automatically included and analytic forms of the resolution function for different instruments are obtained. The intersection of the moving correlation volumes (those regions where the correlation functions are significant) associated with the different elements of the apparatus determines the maximum correlation lengths (times) that can be observed in a sample, and hence, the momentum (energy) resolution of the measurement. This geometrical picture of moving correlation volumes derived by our technique shows how the interaction of the scatterer with the wave field shaped by the apparatus proceeds in space and time. Matching of the correlation volumes so as to maximize the intersection region yields a transparent, graphical method of instrument design. PACS: 03.65.Nk, 3.80 +r, 03.75, 61.12.BComment: Latex document with 6 fig

Theory of the Fano Resonance in the STM Tunneling Density of States due to a Single Kondo Impurity

The conduction electron density of states nearby single magnetic impurities, as measured recently by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), is calculated, taking into account tunneling into conduction electron states only. The Kondo effect induces a narrow Fano resonance in the conduction electron density of states, while scattering off the d-level generates a weakly energy dependent Friedel oscillation. The line shape varies with the distance between STM tip and impurity, in qualitative agreement with experiments, but is very sensitive to details of the band structure. For a Co impurity the experimentally observed width and shift of the Kondo resonance are in accordance with those obtained from a combination of band structure and strongly correlated calculations.Comment: 4 pages, ReVTeX + 4 figures (Encapsulated Postscript), submitted to PR

Low-energy electron impact dissociative recombination and vibrational transitions of N₂⁺

Cross sections and thermal rate coefficients are computed for electron-impact dissociative recombination and vibrational excitation/de-excitation of the N+2 molecular ion in its lowest six vibrational levels, for collision energies/temperatures up to 2.3 eV/5000 K