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.
Solubility problem of many of effective pharmaceutical molecules are still one of the major obstacle in theformulation of such molecules. Candesartan cilexetil (CC) is angiotensin II receptor antagonist with very low water solubility and this result in low and variable bioavailability. Self- emulsifying drug delivery system (SEDDS) showed promising result in overcoming solubility problem of many drug molecules. CC was prepared as SEDDS by using novel combination of two surfactants (tween 80 and cremophore EL) and tetraglycol as cosurfactant, in addition to the use of triacetin as oil. Different tests were performed in order to confirm the stability of the final product which includes thermodynamic study, determination of self-emulsificat
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Genetic algorithms (GA) are a helpful instrument for planning and controlling the activities of a project. It is based on the technique of survival of the fittest and natural selection. GA has been used in different sectors of construction and building however that is rarely documented. This research aimed to examine the utilisation of genetic algorithms in construction project management. For this purpose, the research focused on the benefits and challenges of genetic algorithms, and the extent to which genetic algorithms is utilised in construction project management. Results showed that GA provides an ability of generating near optimal solutions which can be adopted to reduce complexity in project management and resolve difficult problem
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In the present work, the thermo-fluid characteristics of a heat exchanger formed of helical coiled tubes immersed in cold water are investigated experimentally. Two types of helical coiled tube are tested, a conventional vertical single helical coiled tube and a new triple vertical helical coiled tube in parallel connection called as meshed coils. The effect of hot water flow rates inside the tubes (ranges from 2.67 to 7.08 l/min), and its inlet temperatures (namely 50, 60, 70 and 80 °C) are investigated. The experimental results show that increasing the flow rate inside the meshed coils leads to decrease the temperature difference between inlet and outlet. An enhancement of heat transfer for meshed coils compared to single coil has been n
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Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is a prevalent clinical condition, that affects millions of individuals worldwide. Objective: To assess the level of soluble HLA-E (sHLA-E) as a biomarker in the diagnosis and immunopathogenesis of GERD patients. Methods: The case-control prospective study included 40 GERD patients who were consulted at the Gastroenterology Unit of AlKindy Teaching Hospital, as along with 40 healthy control subjects. The study period extended from January 2023 to May 2024. Blood was drawn from both groups and serum was separated to assesssHLA-E using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Results: There was a statistically significant difference in sHLA-E levels between GERD patients and healthy cont
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Recent years have seen an explosion in graph data from a variety of scientific, social and technological fields. From these fields, emotion recognition is an interesting research area because it finds many applications in real life such as in effective social robotics to increase the interactivity of the robot with human, driver safety during driving, pain monitoring during surgery etc. A novel facial emotion recognition based on graph mining has been proposed in this paper to make a paradigm shift in the way of representing the face region, where the face region is represented as a graph of nodes and edges and the gSpan frequent sub-graphs mining algorithm is used to find the frequent sub-structures in the graph database of each emotion. T
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يهدف هذا البحث الى التطرق الى صورة العربي كما يعرضها ادب اليافعين العبري في رواية " نادية " للكاتبة العبرية " كاليلا رون فيدر " . والتي تعد من الاديبات العبريات اللواتي تطرقن بصورة مباشرة الى موضوع ما خلف الجدار ، والصراع العربي – الإسرائيلي وانعكاساته على المجتمع الإسرائيلي بصورة عامة والمجتمع العربي بصورة خاصة . ينقسم هذا البحث إلى ثلاثة فصول، تطرق الفصل الأول إلى "ادب اليافعين"، و تاريخه ، مميزاته والفئ
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