Development of computational models for the production of fermented African locust beans using petri net

Production of iru, a fermented condiment from African locust bean is characterized by low productivity and drudgery. The hierarchical timed coloured Petri nets (HTCPN) formalisms were used to design computational models on unit operations of the iru production process. The developed models for the traditional iru production process (TIPP) and mechanized iru production process (MIPP) were simulated using CPN tools varying production scenarios. In this paper, the simulation results revealed that the measured quantities of 16, 32, 48, 80 kg of raw locust bean (iyere) gave production times of 4644, 5094, 5559 and 6493 mins and 4540, 4728, 4910 and 5267 mins for TIPP and MIPP, respectively. The production ratios of iyere:iru (per kg) for the TIPP were observed to be 16:12.8; 32:25.6; 48:38.4 and 80: 64; and for MIPP were 16:12.64; 32:25.28; 48:37.92 and 80:63.2; respectively. The resource (water) usage ratio of TIPP to MIPP (in percentage) was 6.7:10 for the washing operation; 56.67:60 for the long-cooking operation and 23:23 for the short-cooking operation, respectively. The individual dehulling and sieving operations in the TIPP took 1.70 and 11.7, respectively. Meanwhile, combined operations of dehulling and sieving in the MIPP gave 7.00. Conclusively, the mechanized process was found to utilize lesser quantity of water and shorter production time. Hence, more iru was obtained from traditional process. The developed computational models could serve as reference models for future process automation, further studying and improving iru production

Optimizing Pharmacology Studies in Pregnant and Lactating Women Using Lessons from HIV: A Consensus Statement

Information on the extent of drug exposure to mothers and infants during pregnancy and lactation normally becomes available years after regulatory approval of a drug. Clinicians face knowledge gaps on drug selection and dosing in pregnancy and infant exposure during breastfeeding. Physiological changes during pregnancy often result in lower drug exposures of antiretrovirals, and in some cases a risk of reduced virologic efficacy. The International Maternal Pediatric Adolescent AIDS Clinical Trials (IMPAACT) network and the World Health Organization (WHO)–convened Pediatric Antiretrovirals Working Group collaboratively organized a workshop of key stakeholders in June 2019 to define key standards to generate pharmacology data for antiretrovirals to be used among pregnant and lactating women; review the antiretroviral product pipeline; describe key gaps for use in low-income and middle-income countries; and identify opportunities to undertake optimal studies allowing for rapid implementation in the clinical field. We discussed ethical and regulatory principles, systemic approaches to obtaining data for pregnancy pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) studies, control groups, optimal sampling times during pregnancy, and pharmacokinetic parameters to be considered as primary end points in pregnancy PK/PD studies. For lactation studies, the type of milk to collect, ascertainment of maternal adherence, and optimal PK methods to estimate exposure were discussed. Participants strongly recommended completion of preclinical reproductive toxicology studies prior to phase III, to allow study protocols to include pregnant women or to allow women who become pregnant after enrolment to continue in the trial. The meeting concluded by developing an algorithm for design and interpretation of results and noted that recruitment of pregnant and lactating women into clinical trials is critical