Introduction: Methadone hydrochloride (MDN) is an effective pharmacological substitution treatment for opioids dependence, adopted in different countries as methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) programmes. However, MDN can exacerbate the addiction problem if it is abused and injected intravenously, and the frequent visits to the MMT centres can reduce patient compliance. The overall aim of this study is to develop a novel extended-release capsule of MDN using the sol-gel silica (SGS) technique that has the potential to counteract medication-tampering techniques and associated health risks and reduce the frequent visits to MMT centres. Methods: For MDN recrystallisation, a closed container method (CCM) and hot-stage method (HSM) were conducted, and MDN crystals were characterised using the polarised light microscope (PLM). MDN crystal thickness was determined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and confocal microscopy (CM) to establish a relationship between MDN crystals thickness and their birefringence colours using the Michel-Levy Birefringence Colour Chart. The experimental series was continued to produce novel silica-based MDN formulations A and B capsules by adding MDN powder at the end and beginning of the SGS process, respectively. The silica-based MDN formulations were characterised by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), SEM, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), PLM and mean grey value (MGV) analyses. The in vitro release studies (n=3) for the silica-based MDN formulations and pure MDN capsules were conducted in a phosphate buffer solution (pH= 7.2) for 7 days. Stability studies were conducted for 1 month by keeping the silica-based MDN capsules under 25°C and 57% RH. Results: The optimal method to produce large numbers of MDN crystals was the CCM, and MDN crystals were characterised as diamond shaped with an intrinsic angle of 62o. The SEM surpassed the CM in measuring MDN crystal thickness, and Mann-Whitney U Test showed statistically significant differences between SEM and confocal thickness measurements (U= 1283, p < 0.05) as the SEM exhibited thinner diamond crystals (6.62 ± 2.9 µm) than the CM measurements (9.6 ± 4.6µm). According to the Michel-Levey birefringence colour chart (using the SEM mean thickness of MDN crystals and their retardation value of 428 nm), most of MDN crystals demonstrated a yellow colour. The FT-IR, SEM, DSC, MGV and PLM analyses of both silica-based MDN formulations revealed that MDN was successfully incorporated inside the silica network producing amorphous material (with no appearance of the melting peak of pure MDN at 233.4°C) with evidence of no physical or chemical interaction between sol-gel silica and MDN. However, the TGA analysis revealed a significantly greater amount of MDN was loaded inside the silica-based MDN formulation B compared to A (t = 2.80, p = 0.009, n=6), as 28.3 ± 0.6 mg of MDN was loaded in the former while 25.6 ± 0.7 mg in the latter. In addition, the silica-based MDN formulation B released 10% more MDN after 7 days than formulation A, and both formulations were stable when stored for 1 month under 57% RH and 25°C. Conclusion: The novel combined use of SEM and PLM techniques shows a potential for the identification of MDN in forensic science as it established a range of birefringence colours of MDN crystals. Moreover, the new silica-based MDN formulation B can help to deter MDN abuse and increase patient adherence to MMT due to its potential to sustain MDN release and reduce the frequent visits to MDN treatment centres.
Background: Giant middle cerebral artery (MCA) aneurysms are surgically challenging lesions. Because of the complexity and variability of these aneurysms, a customized surgical technique is often needed for each case. In this article, we present a modified clip reconstruction technique of a ruptured complex giant partially thrombosed middle cerebral artery aneurysm.
Case description: The aneurysm was exposed using the pterional approach. Following proximal control, the aneurysm sac was decompressed. Then, we applied permanent clips to reconstruct the aneurysm neck. The configuration of the aneurysm mandated a tailored clipping pattern to account for resi
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In today's digital era, the importance of securing information has reached critical levels. Steganography is one of the methods used for this purpose by hiding sensitive data within other files. This study introduces an approach utilizing a chaotic dynamic system as a random key generator, governing both the selection of hiding locations within an image and the amount of data concealed in each location. The security of the steganography approach is considerably improved by using this random procedure. A 3D dynamic system with nine parameters influencing its behavior was carefully chosen. For each parameter, suitable interval values were determined to guarantee the system's chaotic behavior. Analysis of chaotic performance is given using the
... Show MoreCircular thin walled structures have wide range of applications. This type of structure is generally exposed to different types of loads, but one of the most important types is a buckling. In this work, the phenomena of buckling was studied by using finite element analysis. The circular thin walled structure in this study is constructed from; cylindrical thin shell strengthen by longitudinal stringers, subjected to pure bending in one plane. In addition, Taguchi method was used to identify the optimum combination set of parameters for enhancement of the critical buckling load value, as well as to investigate the most effective parameter. The parameters that have been analyzed were; cylinder shell thickness, shape of stiffeners section an
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In this paper, the homotopy perturbation method (HPM) is presented for treating a linear system of second-kind mixed Volterra-Fredholm integral equations. The method is based on constructing the series whose summation is the solution of the considered system. Convergence of constructed series is discussed and its proof is given; also, the error estimation is obtained. Algorithm is suggested and applied on several examples and the results are computed by using MATLAB (R2015a). To show the accuracy of the results and the effectiveness of the method, the approximate solutions of some examples are compared with the exact solution by computing the absolute errors.
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Quality is the key to success in today's world, which is based mainly on competition in the provision of high quality services through the application of the modern management method which is called total quality management in organizations. This includes describing the provision of health services and satisfaction of patients . .  
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The Current status of biomedical waste of solid, liquid and gaseous formulations from medical and educational laboratories in Iraqi universities and research centers was assessed using a well-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was distributed to scientists, researchers, medical technicians and graduate students who are directly involved in laboratoiy daily activities. The responses were analyzed statistically and interpreted accordingly. The results showed diat the frequency of questionnaire respondent's affiliation gave the highest percentage frequency (69.4%) with the questionnaire of Technical Medical Institute/Al-Mansour while constitute die responses of the Dnig Control Department/Ministry of Sciences and Technology gave the l
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Currently and under the COVID-19 which is considered as a kind of disaster or even any other natural or manmade disasters, this study was confirmed to be important especially when the society is proceeding to recover and reduce the risks of as possible as injuries. These disasters are leading somehow to paralyze the activities of society as what happened in the period of COVID-19, therefore, more efforts were to be focused for the management of disasters in different ways to reduce their risks such as working from distance or planning solutions digitally and send them to the source of control and hence how most countries overcame this stage of disaster (COVID-19) and collapse. Artificial intelligence should be used when there is no practica
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Background: Several risk managem-ent standards had been developed including the Project Management Institute, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, actuarial societies, and ISO standards.
Objective: The study aimed at evaluating risk management among managers of model and ordinary primary health care centers in Baghdad City and comparing the risk management among these centers.
Methods: A descriptive comparative des
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The purpose of the research is to study the impact of knowledge management (personalization and coding strategy) in achieving strategic excellence in the environment of Iraqi private banks, and the descriptive and analytical research approach has been adopted, so the researcher adopted positive philosophy according to the deductive approach for the purpose of deriving the first research hypothesis from the theoretical side and the research reached a group of The most important results are that the personalization strategy has made great progress in its ability to influence strategic superiority as a responsive variable, as the civil bank departments were successful in employing the changes that occurred in the personalization str
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Background: Osteoporosis is one of the major public health problems from which more and more people in the world are suffering. There is evidence suggesting that osteoporosis knowledge is one contributor to osteoporosis preventive behavior. Aim of the Study: To assess the knowledge regarding osteoporosis risk factors, prevention, and management in women of reproductive ages. To identify any association between knowledge and studied factors.