Single-walled carbon nanotubes loaded hydroxyapatite-alginate beads with enhanced mechanical properties and sustained drug release ability.

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) containing biomaterial with enhanced mechanical properties for the potential orthopedic application were synthesized and investigated. X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence analysis were indications of the formation of calcium-deficient (Ca/P = 1.65) hydroxyapatite (HA) with a small carbonate content under influence of microwave irradiation.

Effects of hydrodynamic retardation and interparticle interactions on the self-assembly in a drying droplet containing suspended solid particles.

Self-assembly of particles, suspended in a drying droplet, were studied by the Monte Carlo method. The Brownian diffusion of particles was simulated accounting for the effect of hydrodynamic retardation and interparticle interactions. The model allowed for explaining formation of the "coffee ring" patterns even without accounting for the radial flows towards the three-phase contact line.

Theoretical description of metabolism using queueing theory.

A theoretical description of the process of metabolism has been developed on the basis of the Pachinko model (see Nicholson and Wilson in Nat Rev Drug Discov 2:668-676, 2003) and the queueing theory. The suggested approach relies on the probabilistic nature of the metabolic events and the Poisson distribution of the incoming flow of substrate molecules. The main focus of the work is an output flow of metabolites or the effectiveness of metabolism process.

Evidence of entropically driven C60 fullerene aggregation in aqueous solution.

In the present work, we report the first experimental evidence of entropically driven C60 fullerene aggregation in aqueous solution, occurring with nearly zero enthalpy change.