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.
A novel method for Network Intrusion Detection System (NIDS) has been proposed, based on the concept of how DNA sequence detects disease as both domains have similar conceptual method of detection. Three important steps have been proposed to apply DNA sequence for NIDS: convert the network traffic data into a form of DNA sequence using Cryptography encoding method; discover patterns of Short Tandem Repeats (STR) sequence for each network traffic attack using Teiresias algorithm; and conduct classification process depends upon STR sequence based on Horspool algorithm. 10% KDD Cup 1999 data set is used for training phase. Correct KDD Cup 1999 data set is used for testing phase to evaluate the proposed method. The current experiment results sh
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The smart city concept has attracted high research attention in recent years within diverse application domains, such as crime suspect identification, border security, transportation, aerospace, and so on. Specific focus has been on increased automation using data driven approaches, while leveraging remote sensing and real-time streaming of heterogenous data from various resources, including unmanned aerial vehicles, surveillance cameras, and low-earth-orbit satellites. One of the core challenges in exploitation of such high temporal data streams, specifically videos, is the trade-off between the quality of video streaming and limited transmission bandwidth. An optimal compromise is needed between video quality and subsequently, rec
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This study investigated a novel application of forward osmosis (FO) for oilfield produced water treatment from the East Baghdad oilfield affiliated to the Midland Oil Company (Iraq). FO is a part of a zero liquid discharge system that consists of oil skimming, coagulation/flocculation, forward osmosis, and crystallization. Treatment of oilfield produced water requires systems that use a sustainable driving force to treat high-ionic-strength wastewater and have the ability to separate a wide range of contaminants. The laboratory-scale system was used to evaluate the performance of a cellulose triacetate hollow fiber CTA-HF membrane for the FO process. In this work, sodium chloride solution was used as a feed solution (FS) with a concentratio
... Show MoreThe method of operational matrices based on different types of polynomials such as Bernstein, shifted Legendre and Bernoulli polynomials will be presented and implemented to solve the nonlinear Blasius equations approximately. The nonlinear differential equation will be converted into a system of nonlinear algebraic equations that can be solved using Mathematica®12. The efficiency of these methods has been studied by calculating the maximum error remainder ( ), and it was found that their efficiency increases as the polynomial degree (n) increases, since the errors decrease. Moreover, the approximate solutions obtained by the proposed methods are compared with the solution of the 4th order Runge-Kutta meth
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the study including isolation and identification of candida spp causing UTIs from patintes coming to al-yarmouk hospital
The developments in forensic DNA technology have led us to perform this study in Iraqi population as reference database of autosomal Short Tandem Repeat (aSTR) DNA markers . A total of 120 unrelated individuals from Wasit province were analyzed at 15 STR DNA markers. Allele frequencies of DNA typing loci included in the AmpFlSTR1 IdentifilerTM PCR Amplification Kit panel from Applied Biosystems (D3S1358, vWA, FGA, D8S1179, D21S11, D18S51, D5S818, D13S317, D7S820, TH01, TPOX, CSF1PO, D19S433, D2S1338, D16S539) and several forensic efficiency statistical parameters were estimated from all the sample. the combined Matching Probability (CMP) using the 15 STR genetic loci in Iraqi population was estimated at 1 in 2.08286E-18 and the Combined
... Show MoreObjectives: To evaluate levels of nurses' knowledge about substance abuse at psychiatric teaching hospitals in Baghdad city. Methodology: A descriptive analytical study conducts to meet study objectives during the period from 1-11-2014 To 10-5-2015 The study conduct at 4 teaching hospitals in three department (Baghdad Al Rusafa ,Al Karkh, Medical city) they includ Baghdad teaching hospital, Al Rashad teaching hospital, Ibn Rshud teaching hospital , and Al Kadhumeeain teaching hospital which select according to the study. A random sample of 100 nurses are working in teaching psychiatric hospitals , Al Rashad (6
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