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: Ruptured uterus is a catastrophic event to both
mother and her fetus. Apart from maternal and fetal mortality
rates, the incidence of rupture of uterus is often taken as an
index of the standard of obstetric care.
Objective: To determine the frequency, causes, management
outcome of ruptured uterus at Al Batool maternity hospital.
Method: The study was conducted in the department of
obstetrics and gynecology at Al Batool maternity hospital
Mosul-Iraq over a period of three years from October 1st 2002
to August 30th 2005. All the cases of uterine rupture presented
during the study period were recorded and managed in the
department. Data was recorded on designed forms.
Results: Thirty nine cas
This study is concerned with the reality of total quality management and its role in achieving the excellence performance of the employees of the Institute of Technology / Baghdad, excellence performance is described by the extent to which the organization is able to invest the effort of the human resource to achieve its Objectives by adopting the principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) according to some of its basic dimensions in proportion to the reality and Possibilities Institute, the aim is to study to know the reality of total quality management ,and indicate the levels of excellence performance in the Institute of Technology / Baghdad,
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The entrance process re-engineering one of the main entrances of administrative and technology appropriate to keep pace with scientific progress and the continuing changes in business environment and for the purpose of achieving the goal sought by the organizations in the pursuit of rapid developments and renewable energy in the market competition by changing its operations and activities of the radical change which contributes to an effective contribution to reducing the cost of product or service taking into account the quality improvement in the management of change to keep the increase value and speed of placing on the market to meet customer needs and desires to achieve a
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A Geographic Information System (GIS) is a computerized database management system for accumulating, storage, retrieval, analysis, and display spatial data. In general, GIS contains two broad categories of information, geo-referenced spatial data and attribute data. Geo-referenced spatial data define objects that have an orientation and relationship in two or three-dimensional space, while attribute data is qualitative data that can be counted for recording and analysis. The main aim of this research is to reveal the role of GIS technology in the enhancement of bridge maintenance management system components such as the output results, and make it more interpretable through dynamic colour coding and more sophisticated vi
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الغرض من البحث دراسة تأثير ادارة المعرفة (استراتيجية الشخصنة والترميز) في تحقيق التفوق الاستراتيجي في بيئة المصارف الاهلية العراقية ، وتم اعتماد منهج البحث الوصفي والتحليلي ، لذا اعتمد الباحث الفلسفة الوضعية وفق المنهج الاستنباطي لغرض اشتقاق فرضية البحث الاولى من الجانب النظري وتوصل البحث الى مجموعة من النتائج اهمها ان استراتيجية الشخصنة حققت تقدماً كبيراً في قدرتها على التأثير في التفوق الاستراتيجي بوصف
... Show MorePurpose: clarify the integrative relationship of strategic leadership skills and effective management and the role of those skills combined or individually in achieving effective management.
Research design: The researchers used the quantitative method by surveying a class sample from the heads of the executive departments in a group of Iraqi private banks, consisting of (106) individuals according to the (VUCA Prime) methodology for effective management and the ten skills model for Johansen. The questionnaire was analyzed using a model of the structural equation.
Findings: The most prominent results of the research were the presence of a weak ro
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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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Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Iraq have experienced low performance due to the limited usage of accounting information systems (AIS) and the inability to exploit knowledge of management capabilities (KMC). These deficiencies have led to competitive pressures in the marketplace that have adversely affected their sales and production. This study investigates the role of AIS in terms of operation support, knowledge support, regulatory support, and the role of KMC, including knowledge acquisition, knowledge transfer, and knowledge utilized to enhance organizational performance in Iraqi SMEs. The target population was managers and owners in SMEs using AIS in Iraq’s cities. A non-probability purposive sampling technique was use
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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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