FORMULATION DESIGN AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ROPINIROLE HYDROCHORIDE MICROSPHERE FOR INTRANASAL DELIVERY

Objective: The objective of this research work to design nasal microspheres of ropinirole hydrochloride (HCL) using different mucoadhesive polymers by adopting the suitable technique. To study the influence of formulation and process variables on microsphere formation and release characteristics. To perform the physicochemical characterization of the prepared microspheres. To carry out in vitro drug release studies and to explore the release behavior using various kinetic models.Methods: Experiments were performed with ropinirole HCL as a drug, chitosan, guar gum, carbopol 974P as a polymer. Span 80 and Tween 80 used light liquid paraffin, concentrated hydrochloric acid as solvent.Result: The in vitro drug release studies were conducted for all the formulations, that is, F1-F21 in 250 ml phosphate buffer pH 6.6 for 12 hrs. Among them, F15 showed 82.7±0.23% drug release and F21 showed 81.2% in 12 hrs in a sustained manner.Conclusion: Microspheres were formulated by emulsion solvent evaporation technique using different polymers. Apart from preventing nasal irritation, the microsphere possesses two major advantages over plain solutions, one is a high solubilization capacity for ropinirole HCL that exceeds their aqueous solubility and thus allows a reduction in the application volume. The results of this work indicate that intranasal microsphere of ropinirole may be beneficial for the treatment of Parkinson's disease

DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF FORSKOLIN BUCCAL MUCOADHESIVE MICROSPHERES

Objective: The objective of the present study was to develop buccal mucoadhesive microspheres of Forskolin (FSK) for hypertension. Methods: The microspheres were prepared by orifice ionic gelation method using different ratios of Sodium alginate and Kondagogu gum. Fourier-transformed infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy study shows that drug and other excipients are compatible with each other. A 22 full factorial design was applied to optimize the formulation considering concentration of Sodium alginate and Kondagogu gum as independent variables; % swelling index and In vitro % muco adhesion as dependent variables. Results: The prepared formulations were characterized for % yield, drug entrapment efficiency, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and in vitro drug release. Microspheres prepared with the ratio of sodium alginate: kondagogu gum (1:1.5) showed swelling index 37±3 % and in vitro mucoadhesion 73±3%. SEM images confirmed that microspheres are a hollow spherical structure to a smooth surface morphology. The drug entrapment efficacy of all the formulations was in the range of 58.42±1.2–79.52±1.5 %. Conclusion: The values of coefficient correlation (r) were calculated and were found to be zero order release from prepared formulation (K2)

Patient Health Record Systems Scope and Functionalities: Literature Review and Future Directions

Background: A new generation of user-centric information systems is emerging in health care as patient health record (PHR) systems. These systems create a platform supporting the new vision of health services that empowers patients and enables patient-provider communication, with the goal of improving health outcomes and reducing costs. This evolution has generated new sets of data and capabilities, providing opportunities and challenges at the user, system, and industry levels. Objective: The objective of our study was to assess PHR data types and functionalities through a review of the literature to inform the health care informatics community, and to provide recommendations for PHR design, research, and practice. Methods: We conducted a review of the literature to assess PHR data types and functionalities. We searched PubMed, Embase, and MEDLINE databases from 1966 to 2015 for studies of PHRs, resulting in 1822 articles, from which we selected a total of 106 articles for a detailed review of PHR data content. Results: We present several key findings related to the scope and functionalities in PHR systems. We also present a functional taxonomy and chronological analysis of PHR data types and functionalities, to improve understanding and provide insights for future directions. Functional taxonomy analysis of the extracted data revealed the presence of new PHR data sources such as tracking devices and data types such as time-series data. Chronological data analysis showed an evolution of PHR system functionalities over time, from simple data access to data modification and, more recently, automated assessment, prediction, and recommendation. Conclusions: Efforts are needed to improve (1) PHR data quality through patient-centered user interface design and standardized patient-generated data guidelines, (2) data integrity through consolidation of various types and sources, (3) PHR functionality through application of new data analytics methods, and (4) metrics to evaluate clinical outcomes associated with automated PHR system use, and costs associated with PHR data storage and analytics

CLINICAL PROFILE, PRESCRIPTION PATTERNS, AND ADVERSE DRUG REACTIONS IN PATIENTS WITH VITILIGO: A PROSPECTIVE STUDY

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to assess clinical profile (age of onset, age of presentation, gender, site of involvement, severity (stage), type of vitiligo, triggering factors, and associated diseases), prescription patterns (monotherapy, combination therapy, oral, topical, and therapeutic categories of drugs prescribed) and to monitor and report adverse drug reactions (based on World Health Organization [WHO] causality assessment scale) in vitiligo patients. Methods: A hospital-based prospective observational study was carried out by evaluating and assessing the clinical profile and prescription patterns of 85 patients who attended dermatology venereology and leprosy (DVL) outpatient department at Sri Padmavathi Medical College for Women, SVIMS, Tirupati, over a period of 6 months from June 2019 to December 2019. Results: In our study, forty four (51.77%) patients were female, vitiligo vulgaris is the most common morphological type observed in twenty seven (31.76%) patients. 31–50 years was the predominant age group. The mean age of onset and presentation was 38.35 (standard deviation of 18.37) and 43.27 (standard deviation of 17.96) years, respectively. Forty-one (48.23%) patients were having Stage 1 vitiligo. Fifty (58.85%) patients were having vitiligo at more than 1 site. Twelve (14.11%) patients were having a positive family history of vitiligo. Thirty-seven (43.53%) patients had triggering factors. Associated diseases were found in thirty (35%) patients. Combination therapy was given to sixty one (71.77%) patients. Topical medications were given to fifty two (61.18%) patients. During the study, we did not have a single patient complaining of any adverse drug reaction. Conclusion: Longer the time after appearance of vitiligo, lesser the number of patients attending follow-up. If vitiligo is diagnosed at the earliest stage, more are the chances for complete repigmentation. Patients with a poor economic background are less bothered about their skin condition and are not using medications properly

Revisiting pseudo-Dirac neutrinos

We study the pseudo-Dirac mixing of left and right-handed neutrinos in the case where the Majorana masses M_L and M_R are small when compared with the Dirac mass, M_D. The light Majorana masses could be generated by a non-renormalizable operator reflecting effects of new physics at some high energy scale. In this context, we obtain a simple model independent closed bound for M_D. A phenomenologically consistent scenario is achieved with M_L,M_R ~ 10^{-7} eV and M_D ~ 10^{-5}-10^{-4} eV. This precludes the possibility of positive mass searches in the planned future experiments like GENIUS or in tritium decay experiments. If on the other hand, GENIUS does observe a positive signal for a Majorana mass \geq 10^{-3} eV, then with very little fine tuning of neutrino parameters, the scale of new physics could be in the TeV range, but pseudo-Dirac scenario in that case is excluded. We briefly discuss the constraints from cosmology when a fraction of the dark matter is composed of nearly degenerate neutrinos.Comment: 17 pages, no figures, references added, to be published in PL

A Murine Model to Study Epilepsy and SUDEP Induced by Malaria Infection

One of the largest single sources of epilepsy in the world is produced as a neurological sequela in survivors of cerebral malaria. Nevertheless, the pathophysiological mechanisms of such epileptogenesis remain unknown and no adjunctive therapy during cerebral malaria has been shown to reduce the rate of subsequent epilepsy. There is no existing animal model of postmalarial epilepsy. In this technical report we demonstrate the first such animal models. These models were created from multiple mouse and parasite strain combinations, so that the epilepsy observed retained universality with respect to genetic background. We also discovered spontaneous sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) in two of our strain combinations. These models offer a platform to enable new preclinical research into mechanisms and prevention of epilepsy and SUDEP

Менталитет славян и интеграционные процессы: история, современность, перспективы

Приведены основные результаты исследований философов, социологов, экономистов, историков, культурологов, правоведов и политологов по истории и теории славянского менталитета, его интегрирующей роли в объединении славянских государств. Для научных работников и преподавателей высших учебных заведений, политиков и журналистов, для аспирантов и студентов, изучающих социально-гуманитарные дисциплины

A Synthetic Prediction Market for Estimating Confidence in Published Work

[First paragraph] Concerns about the replicability, robustness and reproducibility of findings in scientific literature have gained widespread attention over the last decade in the social sciences and beyond. This attention has been catalyzed by and has likewise motivated a number of large-scale replication projects which have reported successful replication rates between 36% and 78%. Given the challenges and resources required to run high-powered replication studies, researchers have sought other approaches to assess confidence in published claims. Initial evidence has supported the promise of prediction markets in this context. However, they require the coordinated, sustained effort of collections of human experts and typically rely on availability of a ground truth. They are limited by human participants\u27 narrow view of the literature and cognitive biases, the compounded effects of which are poorly understood in market settings