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.
Impact of buildings in Iraq and other countries on the environment is obvious; this problem began to take scientific and humanitarian dimensions in order to reduce and eliminate this problem. This impact can be seen through the energy, water and raw materials consumed for the establishment, operation and maintenance of these buildings, as well as the emissions of hazardous gases and generations of solid wastes.
This work was conducted to assess the current maintenance managerial practice for the governmental buildings to stand on the main obstacle and extrapolation of measures by means of interviews with experts to determine the effective factors and closed questionnaire to state the features and the need for new
... Show MoreInfrastructure projects take a long time, are complex, multidisciplinary, use different materials and products, and have high risk. These characteristics affect the process of supplying materials. The current paper studies the ability to improve the supply chain process and decrease its cost by identifying the factors that affect it. These factors are used as variables in the mathematical model, which is working under uncertain conditions when the consumption rate of materials is not constant. The information used in this model is obtained from Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Geographical Information System (GIS) techniques and the genetic algorithm is utilized to determine the optimal supplier and the quantities of supplies
... Show More
(6)
(6)
(4)
(3)
(1)
Bringing about urban, economic, and social changes in rural areas similar to those occurring in urban areas aims to reduce urban-rural disparities by providing services in those areas, decentralizing the management of these services, expanding citizen participation in local governance (decentralized administration), and achieving comprehensive development, developing and empowering localities, and keeping pace with new transformations and their impacts on the functions of the center and localities. In fact, the lack of clarity of the role of local government in planning and managing services has hindered development plans, and declined the level of services in rural areas, and has negative
... Show MoreThe current research aims to study the extent to which the Independent High Electoral Commission applies to information security risk management by the international standard (ISO / IEC27005) in terms of policies, administrative and technical procedures, and techniques used in managing information security risks, based on the opinions of experts in the sector who occupy positions (General Manager The directorate, department heads and their agents, project managers, heads of divisions, and those authorized to access systems and software). The importance of the research comes by giving a clear picture of the field of information security risk management in the organization in question because of its significant role in identifying risks and s
... Show More
Absence or hypoplasia of the internal carotid artery (ICA) is a rare congenital anomaly that is mostly unilateral and highly associated with other intracranial vascular anomalies, of which saccular aneurysm is the most common. Blood flow to the circulation of the affected side is maintained by collateral pathways, some of which include the anterior communicating artery (Acom) as part of their anatomy. Therefore, temporary clipping during microsurgery on Acom aneurysms in patients with unilateral ICA anomalies could jeopardize these collaterals and place the patient at risk of ischemic damage. In this paper, we review the literature on cases with a unilaterally absent ICA associa
(9)
(8)
The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of human resource diversity management practices on achieving entrepreneurship in Jordanian public universities. To achieve the aims of the study, a well-designed questionnaire was used for collecting data. The population of the study was (7433) faculty members (including different ranks such as professors, associate professors, assistant professors and lecturers) in Jordanian public universities. The study sample was selected through the use of a random sample, the questionnaire is distributed to a sample (of 400 with the percentage of 5%) selected by using a random sampling (350) copies of the questionnaire were collected, reaching about (87.5%) out of the sum total of the dist
... Show More
The objective of this research is to study the effect of human capital dimensions (knowledge, skills, abilities, value) and his management dimensions (leadership practices, employess engagement, access knowledge, workforce optimization, learning capacity) with the Office of the Inspector General's staff - the Iraqi Ministry of Culture, has depended questionnaire as a tool in data and information related to research collection, as distributed to a sample of (63) individuals were distributed in positions (director, director of the Division of employees) the search data analysis using ready-statistical program (spss) the researcher used hypothesis testing and correlation c
... Show More