Development of a New Measurement Method to Evaluate the Physical Properties of Granules for Dry Powder Inhalation Produced by New Spouted Bed Type Binderless Granulator

The spouted bed type of binderless granulator is one of the most appropriate methods available for producing granules of dry powder inhalation (DPI) from cohesive fine powder. However the compressive strength of produced granule is too small to be measure by conventional method. In this work a new apparatus was developed to evaluate the strength of such a soft granule. Load and displacement curve of the granule were measured by new method of compressive strength measurement. To observe the compression process of the granule, photographs were taken with a microscopic camera. It was clarified that this measurement method was remarkably useful to evaluate the compressive strength of soft granule

Performance of absorption heat pump using fine particle slurry of LIBR crystal

Paper presented at the 9th International Conference on Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics and Thermodynamics, Malta, 16-18 July, 2012.Absorption heat pump systems (AHP) are one candidate of attractive technologies to upgrade and utilize exhaust heat of low temperature level for refrigeration or heating up without emitting global warming gas. This work is to propose the method to form fine-particle slurry of LiBr crystal and to evaluate the effectiveness of the slurry for advancement of the absorption performance in LiBr/water AHP. It was found that the fine particle slurry of LiBr crystal is formed stably in the solution under a super saturation condition when zeolite powder is suspended. This phenomenon is considered to take place since the crystal grows around the zeolite particles by a function as nucleus. Then almost saturated concentration is maintained due to dissolution of the crystal even if the solution is diluted by absorption of water vapor in the absorber. The theoretical analysis based on heat and mass transfer model predicted that the output power of AHP was improved up to twice when compared with the conventional solution in lower concentration than saturation solubility without containing any fine powder of adsorbent or crystal. The measurement of the slurry properties and experiment on heat transfer of slurry film flowing on a heat transfer plate was carried out, and the effectiveness of the slurry as well as the reasonability of the modeling was confirmed.dc201

Vitamin B6 in acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion

Background The initial presentation of acute encephalopathy with biphasic seizures and late reduced diffusion (AESD) is indistinguishable from that of complex febrile seizures (FS), which poses a great diagnostic challenge for clinicians. Excitotoxicity is speculated to be the pathogenesis of AESD. Vitamin B6 (VB6) is essential for the biosynthesis of gamma-aminobutyric acid, an inhibitory neurotransmitter. The aim of this study is to investigate our hypothesis that VB6 deficiency in the brain may play a role in AESD. Methods We obtained cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples from pediatric patients with AESD after early seizures and those with FS. We measured pyridoxal 5′-phosphate (PLP) and pyridoxal (PL) concentrations in the CSF samples using high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Results The subjects were 5 patients with AESD and 17 patients with FS. Age did not differ significantly between AESD and FS. In AESD, CSF PLP concentration was marginally lower (p = 0.0999) and the PLP-to-PL ratio was significantly (p = 0.0417) reduced compared to those in FS. Conclusions Although it is impossible to conclude that low PLP concentration and PLP-to-PL ratio are causative of AESD, this may be a risk factor for developing AESD. When combined with other markers, this finding may be useful in distinguishing AESD from FS upon initial presentation

Heat and mass transfer through spiral tubes in absorber of absorption heat pump system for waste heat recovery

Heat and mass transfer of a LiBr/water absorption heat pump system (AHP) was experimentally studied during working a heating-up mode. The examination was performed for a single spiral tube, which was simulated for heat transfer tubes in an absorber. The inside and outside of the tube were subjected to a film flow of the absorption liquid and exposed to the atmosphere, respectively. The maximum temperature of the absorption liquid was observed not at the entrance but in the region a little downward from the entrance in the tube. The steam absorption rate and/or heat generation rate in the liquid film are not constant along the tube. Hence the average convective heat transfer coefficient between the liquid film flowing down and the inside wall of the tube was determined based on a logarithmic mean temperature difference between the tube surface temperature and the film temperature at the maximum temperature location and the bottom. The film heat and mass transfer coefficients rose with increasing Reynolds number of the liquid film stream. The coefficients showed opposite trend to the empirical correlation reported for laminar film flow on a straight smooth tube in a refrigeration mode in the past work. The fact can be caused due to a turbulent promotion effect of the liquid in a spiral tube