Preparation and assessment of prostaglandin E2 formulated with hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose and span 60 sustained release pessaries (vaginal suppositories)

Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) is presented as a composed release pessaries utilizing two-polymer base. Hydroxypropyl methyl cellulose HPMC was used as a viscosity modifier and bioadhesive agent. Furthermore, nonionic surfactant span 60 (Sp 60) with or without cholesterol (CH) mixed with the base was used. The defined pessaries were assessed with regards to hardness, weight variation, softening time test and in vitro release studies. Every one of the formulations demonstrated consistency with pharmacopoeial benchmarks. In vitro expressed PGE2 disintegration was completed in phosphate buffer pH 4.5 utilizing USP XXII basket apparatus. TEM demonstrated that the PEG/Sp 60 bases formed niosomal vesicles upon hydration with water while the WH15/Sp 60 gave rise to emulsions when melted in phosphate buffer pH 4.5. Both types of the novel composed release pessaries (WH15/Sp 60 and WH15/HPMC) indicated moderate release rates for PGE2 when no CH detected and the recipes WH15/30%HPMC and PEGIII/SP60 being used as an effective matrix previously to give PGE2 sorting out the release. The outcomes also demonstrated that the CH addition to either WH15 or PEG base brought about increased PGE2 release rates. No interaction amongst PGE2 and excipients were observed from DSC studies.               KEY WORDS: Pessary, PGE2, WH15, HMPC, Sp 60, Polymer, Sustained release, TEM Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2018, 32(2), 361-370.DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v32i2.1

Solvent free preparation of N-substituted maleanilic acid

Six N-maleanilic acids namely N-(4-carboxy)maleanilic acid (CAMAA), N-(4-bromo)maleanilic acid (BMAA), N-(4-hydroxy)maleanilic acid (HMAA), N-(3-hydroxy)maleanilic acid (mHMAA), N-(4-chloro)maleanilic acid (CMAA) and N-(4-methyl)maleanilic acid (MMAA) were prepared by solvent free reaction between maleic anhydride and a 4-carboxy, 4-bromo, 4-hydroxy, 3-hydroxy, 4-chloro and 4-methyl aniline derivatives in good to excellent yield. FT-IR, 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectra revealed the confirmation of these compounds in good agreement. KEYWORDS: Solvent free, Maleanilic acids, Maleic anhydride, Aniline derivatives Bull. Chem. Soc. Ethiop. 2013, 27(1), 137-141.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/bcse.v27i1.1

Epidemiology and the agreement rate of serological tests in human brucellosis in North East of Iran

Background: Brucellosis still remains a major health problem with different symptoms and various diagnostic methods. Diagnostic methods of brucellosis are usually based on detecting specific antibodies in the patient’s serum. Nowadays, many serological tests are applied for the diagnosis of human brucellosis. Most routine tests are serum agglutination tests based on Wright and 2-Mercaptoethanol (2-ME). Objectives: The aim of this study (cross sectional study) was to evaluate the prevalence of brucellosis and assess the degree of agreement among serum samples of suspected brucellosis serological tests routinely performed in Mashhad, Iran. Patients and Methods: This study was conducted in Mashhad from August 2011 to September 2012. Sera (2 - 3 mL) were collected from 83 cases suspected of brucellosis among 594 patients. Ten serum samples were collected from healthy subjects as control sera. Rose Bengal test for initial screening and Wright and 2 ME as standard tests were conducted to determine antibody titers. Thereafter, IgG and IgM levels were determined by the Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) method. Results: Among 83 serum samples, Rose Bengal test was able to identify 20 (12%) positive specimens; the standard tube agglutination test was able to detect 30 (18%) positive samples, and the ELISA IgG and ELISA IgM were able to trace 42 (21%) and 13 (6.5%) positive samples, respectively. Ten control samples had negative results for the ELISA method. The results were calculated by the Kappa formula. The highest level of agreement was among 1 = KRB-SAT tests and the lowest level of agreement was among tests K ELISA IgM-IgG = 0.30. Conclusions: According to the results, brucellosis has remained endemic in this region. Most cases were detected by ELISA IgG. The highest kappa agreements were between tests KRB-SAT, KRB-IgG and KSAT-IgG, while the lowest levels of agreement were between tests SAT-IgM and ELISA IgM-IgG. Considering that ELISA IgM results are covered by SAT and ELISA IgG test results, applications of this test do not seem necessary. © 2015, Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine Research Center

Apodization Defocused Optical Imaging System with Different Apertures using Hanning Amplitude Filter

The Optical system performance is characterized by the modulus and the phase of the amplitude impulse response (point spread function). An optical system with a nonuniform amplitude across its pupil called an apodized system. The motivation of apodizing a system is to increase the image quality of the system. In this paper, the influence of Hanning amplitude filters on the intensity of incoherent optical systems has been analyzed. A general expression for the PSF in the case of different square size pupil apertures (half diagonal=........

New Compact Microstrip Filters Based on Quasi Fractal Resonator

This paper presents new microstrip devices  as single band bandpass and multi band bandstop filters. The proposed filters use  slotted patch microstrip resonator based on quasi fractal geometry, simulated by AWR12 software package. Both filters have quasi elliptic frequency response, designed at centre frequency of  2.437 GHz for bandpass filter and at band frequencies of  2.434, 4.032, 4.976 and 5.638 GHz GHz respectively, for multi bandstop filter. All filters are employed using RT/Duroid 6010.8 LM substrate of  dielectric constant and 1.27 mm dielectric thickness. Simulation results show that the designed quasi fractal bandpass filter has very narrow fractional bandwidth of 0.38 %  which is very rare in microstrip filter design. On the other hand,  the projected bandstop filter offers multi  narrow rejection bands that is  useful in broadband wireless schemes influencing from fixed interferences. Both filters  present satisfactory S11 and S21 responses besides smallness properties that stand for interesting features of the newest wireless applications. The simulated and measured frequency responses for both designed filters are in good agreement

Estimation of the Degree of Diversity for Some Iraqi Wheat Varieties through ISSR, SRAP and RAPD Markers

DNA-based molecular markers such as Inter Simple Sequence Repeat (ISSR), Sequence-Related Amplified polymorphism (SRAP) and Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) were used in this study to examine the genetic differences among sixteen Iraqi wheat varieties. Seventy three primers out of 177 were reproducible and showed clear amplified bands. The degree of genetic diversity, Polymorphism information content (PIC) and resolving power (RP) were estimated. All the studied molecular markers were informative and showed good ability to classify and distinguish 16 wheat varieties. Total number of polymorphic bands is 134, 221 and 55 for ISSR, SRAP and RAPD respectively. PIC and RP values were 0.259, 0.264 and 0.262 and 9.06, 7.87 and 2.7

Effect of replacement of fish meal by soybean meal in red pacu (Piaractus brachypomus) diet on growth performance and intestine morphology

An 8-week feeding trial was conducted to evaluate the effect of fish meal replacement by soybean meal on growth and intestine morphology in red pacu (Piaractus brachypomus). Five isonitrogenous and isocaloric diets formulated containing 32.04±0.46 crude protein and 17.26 ± 0.31 KJ gross energy g-1 diet. The control diet was formulated to contain 50% fish meal, whereas in the other four diets soybean meal was included at 16.5, 33, 49.5 and 66% to replace 25 (SMP25), 50 (SMP50), 75 (SMP75) and 100% (SMP100) of the fish meal protein. One hundred and ninety fish (with average weight 1.8±0.07g) were randomly distributed into five treatments (each treatment included 3 replicates). After 8 weeks of feeding, weight gain and specific growth rate in SMP25 and SMP50 diets were significantly higher than other treatments (P<0.05). Feed consumed in fish fed SMP50 diet were significantly higher than other treatments (P<0.05). Feed convention ratio in SMP100 diet was significantly higher than fish fed other treatments. No differences in inflammation and atrophy were observed among different treatments but villous length were significantly higher in SMP25 and SMP50 treatments (P<0.05). The results of the present study indicated that soybean meal can be replaced up to 50% of fish meal protein in red pacu diet and this may allow production an economical diet without negative effect in growth performance

Screening of electrocoagulation process parameters for treated palm oil mill effluent using minimum-runs resolution IV design

The present study aimed at the screening of parameters for electrocoagulation treatment of treated palm oil mill efuent using minimum-runs resolution IV design. The responses examined include: chemical oxygen demand removal (%), total suspended solids removal (%) and turbidity reduction (%), and the varied dependent factors comprise: electrical current density (mA/cm2), time (min), pH, electrolyte concentration (g/L), stirring speed (rpm), electrode spacing (mm) and electrode confguration (monopolar or dipolar). The statistical results revealed that the current density has a signifcant infuence on the treatment performance at two-level interactions with pH, electrode spacing and electrode concentration and at three-level correlations with time and pH. Thus, the most important factors afecting the removal efciency of the organic compounds were found to be pH, time, electrode spacing, electrolyte concentration and electrode confguration at a P value less than 0.05, respectively, in the descending order of signifcance. Therefore, the optimized electrocoagulation process could be reached with current density equal to 5 mA/cm2, electrolysis time of 5 min, electrode spacing of 5 mm and using monopolar electrode confguration. This combination provided the maximum ability of the process for chemical oxygen demand (68.84%), total suspended solids (93.27%) and turbidity reduction (92.88%) predictions, with the corresponding experimental values of 69.27, 97.59 and 96.91%, respectively

The association between increased carotid intima-media thickness and SYNTAX Score in coronary artery disease: A single center study

Background: Carotid artery lesions frequently coexist with coronary arterial disease (CAD). The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) and the extent of CAD and whether CIMT could be predictive of severity of coronary atherosclerosis. Methods: Coronary angiography and carotid ultrasound evaluations of 100 consecutive patients with CAD who had undergone elective coronary angiography were reviewed. IMT was measured at both carotid arteries. CIMT and severity of CAD relationship based on SYNTAX score was assessed. The relation between CIMT and cardiovascular risk factors was determined. Results: Mean overall SYNTAX score was 15.76 + 4.82. Mean right CIMT was 0.86 ± 0.29 and mean left CIMT was 0.83 ± 0.24. There were no significant correlation between the SYNTAX score and CIMT (r: 10, P: 30). There was significant relationship between hypertension,diabetes and CIMT (P: 0.01). Conclusion: we found no relationship between CIMT and SYNTAX score in patients who underwent coronary angiography. Diabetes mellitus and hypertension are related to increased carotid intima-media thickness. © 2018