A Novel Manufacturing Method for Sustained Release Products and Modelling Dissolution

A novel processing method for the manufacturing of slow-release particles is proposed. The method is based on the wet milling of active compounds and the selected biodegradable polymers combined with subsequent drying.

In the proposed method the dissolution barrier is processed in one step compared to traditional methods consisting of several steps. The experimental dissolution curves of natural polymer (native potato starch and lignin) coated salts were compared with unmilled and milled salts.

The dissolution process model was developed in order to characterize and to design sustained release particles. Models were verified with the existing dissolution data.

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Analysis of Solar Still Combined with Heat Pump

 This work concerns a second prototype of solar still combined with a heat pump HP. It is characterized by having separated by a partition, the steam generator compartment of the HP from the compartment evaporator (where the condensate is collected).

The results of the test measures concern three configurations with HP according to whether the distiller is fixed to the south or constantly oriented to the sun and it is placed outside (in the sun) or inside (no sun).

The measurements concerning the water temperatures at the condenser, the wet and ambient air, and the relative humidity.

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Diagnosis of Bloodstream Infections by Mass Spectrometry: Present and Future

Rapid identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the causative agent(s) of bloodstream infections may impact on the clinical outcome of patients, which is directly related to the prompt administration of an effective antimicrobial therapy.

Empirical antimicrobial therapy is chosen on the basis of clinical and epidemiological data and it is administered immediately after blood sampling but, in a significant number of cases, it has to be streamlined on the basis of the microbiological report.

Rapid identification has a clinically relevant impact on the timely selection of an appropriate antimicrobial therapy, especially in low-prevalence areas for antimicrobial resistance.

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Nanotechnology in Preparation of Semipermeable Polymers

Chemical engineering as a branch of engineering applies physical, chemical and life sciences with applied mathematics and economics to design large-scale processes for converting raw materials into useful forms and products. Advancement in chemical engineering helps in optimizing the industrial outputs.

Chemical Engineering Journal is an open access international peer reviewed publication that publishes recent advances on these topics. Seven research articles and a review article have been published in volume 6 issue 2 of the journal. Ahamed et al. in their research article described the synthesis of aminoguanidyl-chitosan imprinted polymers (AGCIPs) for the recovery of precious metals like gold and silver from aqueous solution.

The author found that AGCIPs are effective in absorbing gold and silver from the solutions and also the polymer can be regenerated for reusing up to five times without change in the adsorption capacity.

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Cu or Fe Modified Cs2HPMo12O40 as Catalysts for Selective Oxidation of Methacrolein

The Cu2+ or Fe3+ substituted Cs2HPMo12O40 was synthesized to study the effect of transitional metal cations on selective catalytic oxidation of methacrolein by polyoxometalates. Adding of Cu2+ could reduce acidity and enhance oxidizing ability of the catalyst.

The catalytic experiments showed that the addition small amount of Cu2+ to the catalyst could increase the conversion of methacrolein from 65% to 96% and the selectivity to methacrylic acid to 55%, at 300-340°C.

It is found adding of Cu2+ could promote the reduction process of catalysts should be the main reason of the performance enhancement. Adding of Fe3+ to the catalyst could induce some new weak acidic sites due to the formation of iron aqua complexes.

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Isotopic Abundance Analysis of Biofield Treated Benzene, Toluene and p-Xylene Using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)

Benzene, toluene and p-xylene are derivatives of benzene, generally produced from crude petroleum and have numerous applications in industry. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the impact of biofield treatment on isotopic abundance of these benzene derivatives by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).

Benzene, toluene and p-xylene samples were divided into two parts: control and treatment. Control part was remained as untreated and treatment part was subjected to Mr. Trivedi’s biofield treatment. Control and treated samples were characterized using GC-MS.

GC-MS data revealed that isotopic abundance ratio of 13C/12C or 2H/1H (PM+1/PM) of treated samples were significantly increased from un-substituted to substituted benzene rings (where, PM- primary molecule, PM+1- isotopic molecule either for 13C/12C and/or 2H/1H).

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Statistical Analysis of the Catalyst and Activator Level on In Situ Polymerization of Laurolactam during Reactive Melt Blending

In the present paper, in situ ring opening anionic polymerization of laurolactam towards polyamide 12 (PA12) was investigated, during reactive melt blending. The reaction was taken place in an internal mixer, in the presence of sodium caprolactam (catalyst), and toluene diisocyanate (activator).

The effect of catalyst and activator contents on initiation time of the reaction and the residual monomer was carried out in this study. Solvent extraction method was used in order to remove the residual monomer. The experimentation is further undergone to statistical analysis to extract the absolute optimal values of activator- catalyst content in synthesized polyamide 12.

Two-factor design in Response Surface Method (RMS) is suitably applied for validation analysis of experimental data. The optimum content of catalyst and activator was obtained 2.53% and 1.15%, which offers the polyamide 12 with minimum residual monomer equal to 1.26%.

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Statistical Analysis of the Catalyst and Activator Level on In Situ Polymerization of Laurolactam during Reactive Melt Blending

In the present paper, in situ ring opening anionic polymerization of laurolactam towards polyamide 12 (PA12) was investigated, during reactive melt blending. The reaction was taken place in an internal mixer, in the presence of sodium caprolactam (catalyst), and toluene diisocyanate (activator).

The effect of catalyst and activator contents on initiation time of the reaction and the residual monomer was carried out in this study. Solvent extraction method was used in order to remove the residual monomer. The experimentation is further undergone to statistical analysis to extract the absolute optimal values of activator- catalyst content in synthesized polyamide 12.

Two-factor design in Response Surface Method (RMS) is suitably applied for validation analysis of experimental data. The optimum content of catalyst and activator was obtained 2.53% and 1.15%, which offers the polyamide 12 with minimum residual monomer equal to 1.26%.

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A Novel Capillary Zone Electrophoresis Method for Simultaneous Separation and Determination of Nalbuphine Hydrochloride and its Related Antagonist Compounds

In the present study, we introduced a novel, reliable, sensitive and highly precise capillary zone electrophoresis (CZE) method for simultaneous separation and determination of nalbuphine hydrochloride (NLB) and its related antagonist compounds naloxone hydrochloride (NLX) and naltrexone hydrochloride (NLT) in bulk drug, pharmaceuticals and human biological fluids.

The separation conditions using CZE were optimized and the separation process was carried out using fused silica capillary of total and effective lengths 57 and 50 cm, respectively. The applied running buffer was acetate buffer 20 mmol L-1 of pH=3.8 at a potential 15 kV.

The applied internal solution (IS) was phenylethylamine (PEA). The developed method displayed an excellent separation of the investigated drugs with linear concentration ranges of 5-200, 20-240 and 10-280 μg mL-1 for NLB, NLX and NLT, respectively.

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Modelling and Simulation of Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit

This study presents the dynamic model for an industrial Universal Oil Product (UOP) fluid catalytic cracking unit on basis of mass and energy balance and the transfer functions are found.

The riser and regenerator are simulated by using Matlab/Simulink software. The dynamic behaviour of the process is carried out by measuring the temperature response of the riser and regenerator to step change in gas oil flow rate, gas oil temperature, catalyst flow rate, air flow rate and air temperature.

The simulator is validated by comparing the steady-state behaviour of the system with those in the literature and plant data and the results are found to be in good agreement. The results of simulation show that the process is strongly influenced by the catalyst flow rate, and any increase in the amount of coke on the catalyst and regenerator temperature would be compensated by a larger rate of consumption of the oxygen.

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Development and Validation of a New HPLC Method for In-vitro Studies of Haloperidol in Solid Lipid Nanoparticles

A simple and sensitive HPLC method was developed and validated for the study of in-vitro drug release from haloperidol loaded solid lipid nanoparticles (SLNs). The method was also used for the analysis of drug for detection of shelf life of developed SLNs.

Chromatogram separation was achieved using C18 column as stationary phase. The mobile phase consisted of 100 mM/L potassium dihydrogen phosphate–acetonitrile-TEA (10:90:0.1, v/v/v) and the pH was adjusted with o-phosphoric acid to 3.5. Flow rate of mobile phase was 2 ml/minute and eluents were monitored at 230 nm using UV/VIS detector. The method was validated for linearity, precision, accuracy, reproducibility, limit of detection (LOD) and limit of quantification (LOQ).

Linearity for haloperidol was in the range of 1-60 μg/mL. The value of LOD and LOQ was found to be 0.045 and 0.135 μg/ml respectively. The drug loaded SLNs showed sustained drug release with maximum value of 95.52 ± 5.21% in 24 h. The shelf life of SLNs formulation was found to be 2.31 years at 4°C.

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