GIVING TWO ANSWERS TO THE SAME QUESTION: APPLYING SURVEY RE-INTERVIEWING TECHNIQUES IN QATAR.

In order to evaluate the quality of its survey data, SESRI implemented since 2010 a system of re-interviewing a sub-sample of respondents. These re-interviews usually take place not more than six days from the date of the first interview for the original survey production. Results from these interviews are used as an instrument to analyze non-sampling error and to estimate response inconsistencies, to identify reasons for discrepancies for selected questions for the same respondents, as well as to determine interviewer cheating. Applying the Gross Difference Rate (GDR), Index of Inconsistency (IOI) and Reliability Rate (RR) to estimate variances in respondents’ answers, this paper presents the results of the re-interviewing study of the 2012 Qataris’ Attitudes Towards the Foreign Workers in Qatar. The results are intended for researchers and data collection organizations to improve the quality of data they collect and use

Dual buoyant/mucoadhesive macroporous polypropylene microparticles for gastric delivery of repaglinide

Preparation and characterization of dual buoyant/mucoadhesive polypropylene microparticles (MPs) loaded with repaglinide (REP) for gastric drug delivery in order to augment the weak mucoadhesion in the stomach.Porous foam powder MPs were prepared using coating polymers with variable permeability (Eudragit L100, Eudragit RSPO) alone or in combination by the soaking method. Thiolated Eudragit L100 (Eudragit L100-SH) was also synthesized and tried in an attempt to enhance the mucoadhesive properties of MPs. All formulae were characterized for their yield, flow properties, particle size, encapsulation efficiency (EE %), morphology, and drug release and its mechanistics. Possible interactions inside MPs matrix were also elucidated using FTIR study. The suitability of the selected formulae for gastroretention was evaluated by in vitro buoyancy and ex-vivo mucoadhesion studies.All REP-loaded MPs demonstrated a passable powder flow, high yield values, promising floatation and mucoadhesion. Encapsulation efficiency % values were nearly tripled upon addition of Eudragit polymers. Compared to the Eudragit free REP loaded foam powder, all formula showed more sustained release features. Eudragit L100-SH was synthesized and confirmed by FTIR. Furthermore, its incorporation, alone or in combination, exhibited a significant increase in mucoadhesion strength compared to the unmodified one.Dual buoyant/mucoadhesive MPs loaded with REP encourage planning for future in-vivo performance studies for the management of diabetes

Morphological and molecular characterization of somaclonal variations in tissue culture-derived banana plants

AbstractIn this study, 40000 tissue culture-derived banana plants (vitroplants) at different growth stages, i.e. acclimatization, nursery and open field of banana (Musa spp.) cultivar ‘Grand Naine’ were screened for somaclonal variations using morphological investigations and molecular characterization. The total detected variants were grouped into 25 off-types (two of them died) in addition to the normal plant. Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was carried out to study the differences among the normal cultivar ‘Grand Naine’ and its 23 variants using 17 arbitrary primers. Cluster analysis results revealed that ‘winged petiole’ and ‘deformed lamina’ were more related to the normal plant. However, ‘Giant plant’ and ‘weak plant’ related to each other and clustered with normal plant. According to principal coordinate analysis, most of the variants were aggregated nearly, whereas ‘variegated plant’ was separated apart from the other variants. This may reflect the genetic difference between ‘variegated plant’ and the other variants. The results obtained from both molecular and morphological analyses were in contiguous with better resolution when using the PCOORDA analysis than cluster analysis. Thus, it can be said that molecular markers can be used to eliminate the undesirable somaclonal variants from the lab without additional culture of the vitroplants in the field in order to save time and efforts

Evaluation of ki-67 as independent risk factor and its role in the incidence of local recurrence/distant metastasis in luminal A and luminal B (her2 negative) breast cancer: a retrospective analysis from a single cancer center

Objective: We aimed to assess the relationship between the Ki-67 index and the risk of recur- rences and survival in patients with breast cancer (BC) that had positive estrogen receptor (ER), positive proges- terone receptor (PR), and negative human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2). Patients and Methods: A total of 108 patients who visited the Clinical Oncology Department at Assuit Univer- sity Hospital between 2015 and 2018 were involved in the study. The level of Ki-67 was measured and patients were divided into low Ki-67 (n=62) and high Ki-67 (n=46) groups using 14% as the cut-off value. The Cox-regression hazard model was used for both Univariate and Multivariate analyses. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used for the survival analysis. Results: Age, menopausal status, performance status (PS), pathological type, tumor stage (T), nodal stage (N), grade (G), and TNM stage were all analysed in relation to the Ki-67 index; the only statistically significant variable was the T stage (p=0.043). Patients with high Ki-67 level had a greater mortality rate than those with low levels (p=0.004). In comparison to low index groups, the mean disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were lower in the high index groups (DFS: 48.41± 4.19 months vs. 64.53± 2.48 months and OS: 54.74± 3.59 months vs. 66.54± 1.99 months with p=0.001 and 0.002, respectively). When compared to the low index group, the high Ki-67 group had a significantly higher incidence of local recurrence (LR) and metastasis (p=0.001). Conclusions: In patients with positive ER/PR and HER2, negative HER2 BC, the level of Ki-67 strongly inversely correlates with LR/metastasis, DFS, and OS

Liquid chromatographic-tandem mass spectrometric assay for simultaneous quantitation of tofacitinib, cabozantinib and afatinib in human plasma and urine

Purpose: To develop a simple, adequately sensitive, and practical liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric method to simultaneously quantify three tyrosine kinase inhibitors, viz, tofacitinib (TOF), cabozantinib (CBZ) and afatinib (AFB) after their extraction from both human plasma and urine.Methods: Blood and urine samples were obtained from healthy volunteers who admitted to not being on any medications. The investigated analytes were chromatographically separated on a C18 column (Luna®-PFP 100Å column, 50 mm × 2.0 mm i.d., 3.0 μm) with the aid of a mobile phase containing A; acetonitrile (ACN) and B; 0.01 M ammonium formate buffer (pH 4.1) pumped at a rate of 0.3 mL.min-1 in the ratio A:B, 50:50 v/v. Analyte monitoring was achieved by tandem mass spectrometry interfaced with an electrospray ionization source with the aid of multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode for analytes quantification.Results: The proposed method permitted a specific and sensitive determination of the investigated TKIs in the linear range of 1.0 - 100 ng mL-1 with correlation coefficient (r2) of 0.9991, 0.9997, and 0.9998 for TOF, CBZ and AFB, respectively. The method was validated with regard to its limits of quantification (ranging from 0.91 to 1.24 ng mL-1 for the 3 analytes), intra- and inter assay accuracy (in the range -1.85 to 1.22 %) and precision (0.71 - 5.12 %). The method was also validated in terms of recovery from both studied matrices, robustness and matrix effect.Conclusion: The results obtained reveal that the developed method is simple, specific and highly efficient for routine determination of the studied analytes in human plasma and urine. It can be reliably applied for high throughput analysis of clinical samples containing the investigated analytes.Keywords: Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, Tofacitinib, Cabozantinib, Afatinib, LC-MS/MS, human plasm

Liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric method for determination of drug content uniformity of two commonly used dermatology medications in a split-tablet dosage form

Purpose: To develop and validate a simple, efficient and reliable Liquid  chromatographic-mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method for the quantitative determination of two dermatological drugs, Lamisil® (terbinafine) and Proscar® (finasteride), in split tablet dosage form.Methods: Thirty tablets each of the 2 studied medications were randomly selected. Tablets were weighed and divided into 3 groups. Ten tablets of each drug were kept intact, another group of 10 tablets were manually split into halves using a tablet cutter and weighed with an analytical balance; a third group were split into quarters and weighed. All intact and split tablets were individually dissolved in a water: methanol mixture (4:1), sonicated, filtered and further diluted with mobile phase. Optimal chromatographic separation and mass spectrometric detection were achieved using an Agilent 1200 HPLC system coupled with an Agilent 6410 triple quadrupole mass spectrometer. Analytes were eluted through an Agilent eclipse plus C8 analytical column (150 mm × 4.6 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase composed of solvent A (water) containing 0.1% formic acid and 5mM ammonium formate pH 7.5, and solvent B (acetonitrile mixed with water in a ratio A:B 55:45) at a flow rate of 0.8 mL min-1 with a total run time of 12 min. Mass spectrometric detection was carried out using positive ionization mode with analyte quantitation monitored by multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) mode.Results: The proposed analytical method proved to be specific, robust and  adequately sensitive. The results showed a good linear fit over the concentration range of 20 - 100 ng mL-1 for both analytes, with a correlation coefficient (r2) ≥ 0.999 and 0.998 for finasteride and terbinafine, respectively. Following tablet splitting, the drug content of the split tablets fell outside of the proxy USP  specification for at least 14 halves (70 %) and 34 quarters (85 %) of FIN, as well as 16 halves (80 %) and 37 quarters (92.5 %) of TBN. Mean weight loss, after splitting, was 0.58 and 2.22 % for FIN half- and quarter tablets, respectively, and 3.96 and 4.09 % for TBN half- and quarter tablets,respectively.Conclusion: The proposed LC-MS/MS method has successfully been used to provide precise drug content uniformity of split tablets of FIN and TBN. Unequal distribution of the drug on the split tablets is indicated by the high standard deviation beyond the accepted value. Hence, it is recommended not to split non-scored tablets  especially, for those medications with significant toxicityKeywords: Tablet splitting, Finasteride, Terbinafine, Drug content uniformity,  LC-MS/M

Nanosuspension: An Emerging Trend for Bioavailability Enhancement of Etodolac

Etodolac (ET) (poorly soluble drug) nanosuspensions were prepared by both pH shift method and antisolvent techniques in order to increase its dissolution rate. Various stabilizers were used, namely, Tween 20 and 80, HPMC, PVP K44, PVA, PEG 400, NaCMC, and β-cyclodextrin. The prepared nanosuspensions were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and scanning electron microscope (SEM) and evaluated for their particle size, particle size distribution, and in vitro dissolution rate. In general, it was found that the antisolvent method for the preparation of ET nanosuspensions reduced the drug particle size to a higher extent compared to the pH shift method. The dissolution rate of ET in distilled water was markedly enhanced in the nanosized system, as more than 65% of drug dissolved in 10 min from all the nanosuspension formulations except F5 (stabilized with PVP K44) and F8 (stabilized with Tween 20), as compared to less than 20% of crude drug. Nanoparticles prepared by antisolvent method using Tween 80 as a stabilizer were selected for further in vivo study. The in vivo test demonstrated that nanoparticles of ET were well absorbed with a percentage drug absorption value 2.7 times more than that of micrometric size of crude ET

Optimized superpixel and AdaBoost classifier for human thermal face recognition

Infrared spectrum-based human recognition systems offer straightforward and robust solutions for achieving an excellent performance in uncontrolled illumination. In this paper, a human thermal face recognition model is proposed. The model consists of four main steps. Firstly, the grey wolf optimization algorithm is used to find optimal superpixel parameters of the quick-shift segmentation method. Then, segmentation-based fractal texture analysis algorithm is used for extracting features and the rough set-based methods are used to select the most discriminative features. Finally, the AdaBoost classifier is employed for the classification process. For evaluating our proposed approach, thermal images from the Terravic Facial infrared dataset were used. The experimental results showed that the proposed approach achieved (1) reasonable segmentation results for the indoor and outdoor thermal images, (2) accuracy of the segmented images better than the non-segmented ones, and (3) the entropy-based feature selection method obtained the best classification accuracy. Generally, the classification accuracy of the proposed model reached to 99% which is better than some of the related work with around 5%