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.
Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a multisystem autoimmune disease that affects 43.7 per 100,000 people worldwide, most commonly presenting in childbearing years. SLE pregnancies are complicated by cardiovascular events in up to 7.8% of cases, which translates to a 3.2- to 31.5-fold increase in severe maternal morbidity and a seven-fold increase in maternal mortality, compared to the general obstetric population. The highest risk is reported in cases with concurrent lupus nephritis or antiphospholipid syndrome [1]. These complications are not surprisingly seen; they are the end result of endothelial dysfunction, immune aberration, and placental dysfunction that precedes clinical decompensation by weeks [2,3].The current approach in mana
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The unpredictable and huge data generation nowadays by smart computing devices like (Sensors, Actuators, Wi-Fi routers), to handle and maintain their computational processing power in real time environment by centralized cloud platform is difficult because of its limitations, issues and challenges, to overcome these, Cisco introduced the Fog computing paradigm as an alternative for cloud-based computing. This recent IT trend is taking the computing experience to the next level. It is an extended and advantageous extension of the centralized cloud computing technology. In this article, we tried to highlight the various issues that currently cloud computing is facing. Here
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Topic management is the awareness of how speakers deal with initiating, developing, changing, and ending a topic and how they fix the relationship when a misunderstanding occurs. It is such an important unit of conversation as it includes the transition from one strategy to the other to be accomplished in a systematic and orderly manner. These strategies are impaired in dementia patients thus lead to communication breakdown. This study aims at detecting the dementia patients' topic management strategies in selected speeches and answering the questions of which of these strategies are fully or partially detected in these speeches. The researchers use a qualitative method to examine the speeches of those patients and they adopt an eclectic
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Compression is the reduction in size of data in order to save space or transmission time. For data transmission, compression can be performed on just the data content or on the entire transmission unit (including header data) depending on a number of factors. In this study, we considered the application of an audio compression method by using text coding where audio compression represented via convert audio file to text file for reducing the time to data transfer by communication channel. Approach: we proposed two coding methods are applied to optimizing the solution by using CFG. Results: we test our application by using 4-bit coding algorithm the results of this method show not satisfy then we proposed a new approach to compress audio fil
... Show MoreBackground : Bone infections is one of the most challenging orthopaedic complications, with considerable morbidity. There is significant impact on the life of the patients; socially, financially, physically, and mentally and it could be a limb-threatening complication. Osteomyelitis is a bone infection usually caused by bacteria, including mycobacteria, but mainly Staphylococcus aureus which is the most commonly responsible bacteria . Aim of study: To evaluate our management policy of chronic osteomylitis (C.O.M).
Methods : 32 patients presented with different types &forms of chronic osteomyelitis in many sites of long & flat bones such as tibia , femur, ,humerus ,iliac bones and knee joint , which are not response to previous
Neuron-derived neurotrophic factor [NENF], a human plasma neurotrophic factor, also increases neurotrophic activity in conjunction with Parkinson's disease-related proteins in Neudesin. Although Neudesin (neuron-derived neurotrophic secreted protein) is a member of the membrane-associated progesterone receptor (MAPR) protein subclass, it is not evolutionary related to the other members of the same family. The expression of Neudesin is found in both brain and spinal cord from embryonic stages to adulthood, as w Neudesin levels in Parkinson's patients with osteoporosis disease and Parkinson's patients without osteoporosis disease, as well as the relationship between Neudesin levels, Anthropometric and Clinical Features (Age, Gender, BMI) and
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This research aims to understand complexity management and its impact on the use of the dynamic capabilities of a sample of private colleges. Private colleges are currently facing many crises, changes, unrest and high competitive pressures. Which is sometimes difficult or even impossible to predict. The recruitment of dynamic capabilities is also one of the challenges facing senior management at private colleges to help them survive and survive. Thus, the problem of research was (there is a clear insufficiency of interest in Complexity Management and trying to employ it in improving the dynamic capabilities of Colleges that have been discussed?). A group of private colleges was selected as a
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Sufficient high-quality data are unavailable to describe the management approach and guideline of COVID-19 disease in pediatric and adolescent population which may be due to mild presentation in most of cases and less severe complications than older ages.
World Health Organization was concerned with the establishment of an approved guideline to manage the increasing number of COVID-19 patients worldwide aiming to prevent or lessen COVID-19 global burden.
The clinical features have a wide spectrum starting from uncomplicated mild illness, mild-moderate pneumonia, severe pneumonia, acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, septic shock, and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children.
Many important definitions
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