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.
The pervaporation using a commercial hydrophilic ceramic membrane supplied from PERVATECH was conducted. The dehydration of ethanol/ water system was used as a model for the pervaporation study. Pervaporation experiments of ethanol/water system were carried out in the temperature range of 303-343K, ethanol concentration in the feed 10-90 vol. % and the feed flow rate in the range of 0.5-10 L/min. In this work, the effect of operation parameters on permeates fluxes as well as permeates separation factors have been studied. The Water flux is strongly dependent on the temperature; it increased with increasing in temperature, which in turn decreased the selectivity of membrane to water molecules.
In addition water flux was decr
... Show MoreThe limitations of conventional cement mortar as a widely used construction material include low tensile capacity, high permeability, and susceptibility to chemical degradation. The increasing demand for durable and sustainable construction materials has led to increased attention in modifying cementitious materials through nanotechnology. This study investigates the influence of nano-silica (NS) and nano-alumina (NA) on the physical, strength-related, and durability characteristics of cement mortar to determine the optimum nanomaterial type and dosage for performance enhancement. Six mortar mixes, in addition to a reference mix, were designed and prepared by adding 1%, 1.5%, and 2% of the cement weight with NS and NA separately, an
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In this paper, we have extracted Silica from rice husk ash (RHA) by sodium hydroxide to produce sodium silicate. 3-(chloropropyl)triethoxysilane (CPTES) functionalized with sodium silicate via a sol-gel method in one pot synthesis to prepare RHACCl. Chloro group in compound RHACCl replacement in iodo group to prepere RHACI. The FT-IR clearly showed absorption band of C-I at 580 cm-1. Functionalized silica RHACI has high surface area (410 m2/g) and average pore diameter (3.8 nm) within mesoporous range. X-ray diffraction pattern showed that functionalized silica RHACI has amorphous phase .Thermogravemitric analysis (TGA) showed two decomposition stages and SEM morphology of RHACI showed that the particles have irregu
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The aims of research is to identify the role of strategic human resource management Practices in organizational performance improvement in the Baghdad soft drinks company, as well as the implications of the results for both managers and practitioners.
In order to achieve the objectives of the research, the researcher designed questionnaire included (40) items to collect the initial data from the research sample consisting of (53) Single. In light of that has been collecting and analyzing data and test hypotheses using the statistical package for Social Sciences (SPSS21), and use a number of statistical methods to achieve the goal of the research, including the means, standard deviations and simple correla
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The present research aims to identify and define the basic dimensions of the information management strategy and the administrative creativity in the Faculty of Management and Economics / the University of Kirkuk, as well as the role played by the dimensions of the information technology management strategy in achieving the administrative innovation in the college and the research problem was formulated in several questions. The research problem was formulated in several questions centered on the correlation between the research variables, and the research was based on a major hypothesis and five sub-hypotheses emerged from which it was subjected to several tests to ensure its validity. The researcher used the descriptive-analyti
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Attempts were made to improve solubility and the liquisolid technology dissolving of medication flurbiprofen. Liquisolid pill was developed utilizing transcutol-HP, polyethylene glycol 400, Avecil PH 102 carrier material and Aerosil 200 layer coating material. Suitable excipient amounts were determined to produce liquisolid powder using a mathematical model. On the other hand, flurbiprofen tablet with the identical composition, directly compressed, was manufactured for comparison without the addition of any unvolatile solvent. Both powder combination characterizations and after-compression tablets were evaluated. The pure drug and physical combination, and chosen liquisolid tablets were studied in order to exclude interacting with t
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This research aims at answering many questions raised by the research problem concerning the view of the organizations under consideration for the concept of smart leadership and its most important dimensions, as well as the view of crisis management and its concept and most important methods through research objectives that define and clarify the smart leadership with its dimensions and methods of crisis management.
For the purpose of reaching the results of the research and testing the assumptions about the relationship between smart leadership and methods of crisis management, the researcher adopted a questionnaire, designed especially to be a criterion for the research, as the main tool for data coll
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There is no doubt that the field of education and teaching (in any country and whatever its ruling system varies “d”) is considered one of the most specific and sensitive field, because it is related to the building of human. And as the human is a purpose (aim) and the means in the same time and he is the strategist capital, so he way of his rearing, education, choosing the educator, methods of working and the aims are considered serious matters.
The educational process has aim determined by the society for him self through its working establishments in this field and these are the official and public establishments. And as he feels that the establishments have failed to achieve its d
... Show MoreThis study investigates the impact of spatial resolution enhancement on supervised classification accuracy using Landsat 9 satellite imagery, achieved through pan-sharpening techniques leveraging Sentinel-2 data. Various methods were employed to synthesize a panchromatic (PAN) band from Sentinel-2 data, including dimension reduction algorithms and weighted averages based on correlation coefficients and standard deviation. Three pan-sharpening algorithms (Gram-Schmidt, Principal Components Analysis, Nearest Neighbour Diffusion) were employed, and their efficacy was assessed using seven fidelity criteria. Classification tasks were performed utilizing Support Vector Machine and Maximum Likelihood algorithms. Results reveal that specifi
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