Etoposide-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) intravitreal implants : In vitro and In vivo evaluation.

Etoposide-loaded poly(lactic-co-glycolic acid) implants were developed for intravitreal application. Implants were prepared by a solvent-casting method and characterized in terms of content uniformity, morphology, drug-polymer interaction, stability, and sterility. In vitro drug release was investigated and the implant degradation was monitored by the percent of mass loss. Implants were inserted into the vitreous cavity of rabbits? eye and the in vivo etoposide release profile was determined. Clinical examination and the Hen Egg Test-Chorioallantoic Membrane (HET-CAM) method were performed to evaluate the implant tolerance. The original chemical structure of the etoposide was preserved after incorporation in the polymeric matrix, which the drug was dispersed uniformly. In vitro, implants promoted sustained release of the drug and approximately 57% of the etoposide was released in 50 days. In vivo, devices released approximately 63% of the loaded drug in 42 days. Ophthalmic examination and HET-CAM assay revealed no evidence of toxic effects of implants. These results tend to show that etoposide-loaded implants could be potentially useful as an intraocular etoposide delivery system in the future

A conforming mixed finite element method for the Navier–Stokes/Darcy coupled problem

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00211-016-0811-4.In this paper we develop the a priori analysis of a mixed finite element method for the coupling of fluid flow with porous media flow. Flows are governed by the Navier–Stokes and Darcy equations, respectively, and the corresponding transmission conditions are given by mass conservation, balance of normal forces, and the Beavers-Joseph-Saffman law. We consider the standard mixed formulation in the Navier–Stokes domain and the dual-mixed one in the Darcy region, which yields the introduction of the trace of the porous medium pressure as a suitable Lagrange multiplier. The finite element subspaces defining the discrete formulation employ Bernardi-Raugel and Raviart-Thomas elements for the velocities, piecewise constants for the pressures, and continuous piecewise linear elements for the Lagrange multiplier. We show stability, convergence, and a priori error estimates for the associated Galerkin scheme. Finally, several numerical results illustrating the good performance of the method and confirming the theoretical rates of convergence are reported

Search for a low mass neutral Higgs boson in Z0 decay

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