No abstract

In drug eluting stent technologies, an increased demand for better control, higher reliability, and enhanced performances of drug delivery systems emerged in the last years and thus offered the opportunity to introduce model-based approaches aimed to overcome the remarkable limits of trial-and-error methods. In this context a mathematical model was studied, based on detailed conservation equations and taking into account the main physical-chemical mechanisms involved in polymeric coating degradation, drug release, and restenosis inhibition. It allowed highlighting the interdependence between factors affecting each of these phenomena and, in particular, the influence of stent design parameters on drug antirestenotic efficacy. Therefore, the here-proposed model is aimed to simulate the diffusional release, for both in vitro and the in vivo conditions: results were verified against various literature data, confirming the reliability of the parameter estimation procedure. The hierarchical structure of this model also allows easily modifying the set of equations describing restenosis evolution to enhance model reliability and taking advantage of the deep understanding of physiological mechanisms governing the different stages of smooth muscle cell growth and proliferation. In addition, thanks to its simplicity and to the very low system requirements and central processing unit (CPU) time, our model allows obtaining immediate views of system behavior.

No abstract

The simulation of a flame assisted chemical vapor deposition (FACVD) process is here proposed with reference to the growth of silicon thin films through the silane/chlorosilanes/hydrogen/chlorine route. The goal is to design a reactor able to deposit micromorphous or multicrystalline films at the high growth rates necessary for photovoltaic applications. In fact, since FACVD processes can operate in atmospheric conditions and in auto-thermal mode, they present significant energetic advantages with respect to the plasma assisted technology used today. This work is in particular devoted to illustrate the multi-hierarchical modeling procedure adopted to determine the process optimal operating conditions and to design the deposition chamber. Different burner geometries (single, porous or multiple nozzles burner) were investigated in order to exploit the advantages of the two classical stagnation flow and Bunsen stretched flames.