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.
Psychological damage is one of the damages that can be compensated under the fault of negligence in the framework of English law, where the latter intends to include an enumeration of civil errors on the basis of which liability can be determined, and aims under each of these errors to protect a specific interest (for example, defamation protects Among the damage to reputation and inconvenience are the rights contained on the land), and the same is true for the rest of the other errors. Compensation for psychological damage resulting from negligence has raised problems in cases where the psychological injury is "pure", that is, those that are not accompanied by a physical injury, which required subjecting them to special requirements by the
... Show MoreObjective: To review and identify the major drivers for COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Methods: A scoping review of studies of COVID-19 vaccine perceptions and barriers to using the COVID-19 vaccines. Two search engines, including PubMed and Google Scholar, were purposefully searched. Results: Eight studies from different countries were reviewed to categorize factors influencing people's acceptance of COVID-19 according to the Health Belief Model (HBM). Perceived susceptibility, and severity of the disease (COVID-19), in addition to perceived benefits of COVID-19 vaccination and "cues to action", can enhance vaccination acceptance. In contrast, perceived barriers to the COVID-19 vaccine can increase people's hesitancy to be vaccinated
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The research aims to present a proposed strategy for the North Oil Company, and the proposed strategy took into account the surrounding environmental conditions and adopted in its formulation on the basis and scientific steps that are comprehensive and realistic, as it covered the main activities of the company (production and exploration activities, refining and refining activities, export and transport of oil, research and development activity, financial activity, information technology, human resources) and the (David) model has been adopted in the environmental analysis of the factors that have been diagnosed according to a
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يهدف البحث الى تقديم استراتيجية مقترحة لشركة نفط الشمال ، وأخذت الاستراتيجية المقترحة بنظر الاعتبار الظروف البيئية المحيطة واعتمدت في صياغتها على اسس وخطوات علمية تتسم بالشمولية والواقعية ، اذ انها غطت الانشطة الرئيسية في الشركة (نشاط الانتاج والاستكشاف , نشاط التكرير والتصفية , التصدير ونقل النفط , نشاط البحث والتطوير , النشاط المالي , تقنية المعلومات , الموارد البشرية ) وقد اعتمد نموذج (David) في التحليل البيئي
... Show More<span lang="EN-US">The use of bio-signals analysis in human-robot interaction is rapidly increasing. There is an urgent demand for it in various applications, including health care, rehabilitation, research, technology, and manufacturing. Despite several state-of-the-art bio-signals analyses in human-robot interaction (HRI) research, it is unclear which one is the best. In this paper, the following topics will be discussed: robotic systems should be given priority in the rehabilitation and aid of amputees and disabled people; second, domains of feature extraction approaches now in use, which are divided into three main sections (time, frequency, and time-frequency). The various domains will be discussed, then a discussion of e
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The goal of this paper is to design a robust controller for controlling a pendulum
system. The control of nonlinear systems is a common problem that is facing the researchers in control systems design. The Sliding Mode Controller (SMC) is the best solution for controlling a nonlinear system. The classical SMC consists from two phases. The first phase is the reaching phase and the second is the sliding phase. The SMC suffers from the chattering phenomenon which is considered as a severe problem and undesirable property. It is a zigzag motion along the switching surface. In this paper, the chattering is reduced by using a saturation function instead of sign function. In spite of SMC is a good method for controlling a nonlinear system b
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In this paper, a mathematical model was built for the supply chain to reduce production, inventory, and transportation in Baghdad Company for Soft Drink. The linear programming method was used to solve this mathematical model. We reduced the cost of production by reduced the daily work hours, the company do not need the overtime hours to work at the same levels of production, and the costs of storage in the company's warehouses and agents' stores have been reduced by making use of the stock correctly, which guarantees reducing costs and preserving products from damage. The units transferred from the company were equal to the units demanded by the agents. The company's mathematical model also achieved profits by (84,663,769) by re
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This study was designed to look for certain biochemical markers(serum uric acid and serum peroxynitrite) in women presented with obesity and to compare the level of these markers with non-obese women. A total number of 63 women were recruited from outpatients and private clinics to admit in this study. The patients were grouped into non obese women (Group I) and obese women (Group II). The anthropometric and blood pressure were determined and venous blood was obtained from each patient for determination of C-reactive protein, uric acid and peroxynitrite. The results showed that there were no significant differences in age or in concomitant or associated diseases in both groups except rheumatoid arthritis which account 80% of group I and 25%
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* Khalifa E. Sharquie1, Hayder Al-Hamamy2, Adil A. Noaimi1, Mohammed A. Al-Marsomy3, Husam Ali Salman4, American Journal of Dermatology and Venereology, 2014 - Cited by 2