PREPARATION, CHARACTERIZATION, AND IN VITRO RELEASE OF KETOPROFEN LOADED ALGINATE MICROSPHERES

Objective: Ketoprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug which could benefit if fabricated in a sustained delivery system. This work aims to develop the sustained release delivery system for ketoprofen using natural polymers. Methods: Alginate microspheres were prepared employing crosslinking method employing calcium chloride. The formation and compatibility of microspheres was confirmed by FT-IR. The formed microspheres were evaluated for percentage yield, drug content, drug loading, and encapsulation efficiency. In vitro release studies were carried out in phosphate buffer (pH 7.4). Results: FT-IR spectra exhibited the successful compatible encapsulation of ketoprofen in alginate microsphers. The formed microspheres exhibited good drug loading and encapsulation efficiency. The drug release was sustained over a period of 8 hours. There was a better release profile in phosphate buffer in formulations containing 3:1 polymer to drug ratio. Conclusion: It was feasible to prepare alginate-based microspheres capable of sustaining ketoprofen release over an extended period of time. Keywords: Microspheres, Sustained release, Ketoprofen, Alginate

Synthesis of chitosan and glucosamine from crustaceans wastes (shrimp, crab, lobster)

Processing Crustaceans results large amount of shell left overs. Chitin a natural polymer, constitutes the major part of this waste. Optimal application of this material in different fields may bring about a new era of activity based on chitin industry. Practically, large amounts of crustacean left overs is wasted. Glucosamine and chitosan, with a wide application are being made from these wastes. Heating chitin in the presence of sodium hydroxide, under nitrogen leads to formation of chitosan with 70 - 90% purity degree. In presence of concentrated hydrochloric acid, chitin is converted into glucosamine with 60 - 70% purity degree. Chitin and glucosamine are widely used in sewage treatment, glue production. Food industries, cosmetics paper mills, agriculture, medicine, dentistry, pharmaceutics, textile chromatography photograiry etc

Extraction of chitin from crustaceans (shrimp, crab, lobster)

Sea is one of the great resources of food stuffs, chemicals and industrial material. Shrimp, Crab and Lobster having a good taste and Iots of protein are among the most sought after organism. Iran enjoys a vast expand of water bodies including Caspian Sea, Oman Sea and Persian Gulf coasts as well as inland waters. Every year a large quantity of aquatic organisms are being captured in Iran. Chitin is the second most important polysaccharide found in by - products after cellulose, This compound is easily extracted within two stages of demineralization anti deproteinization with 10 - 30% efficiency. Chitin is being used in textiles, paper mills and medical industries to manufacture better quality good. In photography, food industries, pharmacology, chromatography and agriculture, chitin has a very important usage. Chitin is the primary material for synthesis of chitosan and glucosamine, both of which have industrial, chemical and pharmaceutical usage. Up to now, more than 300 use have been reported for chitin in the literature

Systems Statistical Engineering – Hierarchical Fuzzy Constraint Propagation

Driven by a growing requirement during the 21st century for the integration of rigorous statistical analyses in engineering research, there has been a movement within the statistics and quality communities to evolve a unified statistical engineering body of knowledge (Hoerl & Snee, 2010). Systems Statistical Engineering research seeks to integrate causal Bayesian hierarchical modeling (Pearl, 2009) and cybernetic control theory within Beer\u27s Viable System Model (S Beer, 1972; Stafford Beer, 1979, 1985) and the Complex Systems Governance framework (Keating, 2014; Keating & Katina, 2015, 2016) to produce multivariate systemic models for robust dynamic systems mission performance. (Cotter & Quigley, 2018) set forth the Bayesian systemic hierarchical constraint propagation theoretical basis for modeling the amplification and attenuation effects of environmental constraints propagated into systemic variability and variety. In their theoretical development, they simplified the analysis to only deterministic constraints, which models only the effect of statistical risks of failure. Imprecision and uncertainty in the assessment of environmental constraints will induce additional variance components in systemic variability and variety. To make causal Bayesian hierarchical modeling more capable of capturing and representing the imprecise and uncertain nature of environments, we must incorporate rough or fuzzy functions and boundaries to model imprecision and grey boundaries to model uncertainty in constraint propagation at each system level to measure the overall impact on the organization variability and variety. This paper sets forth a proposed research method to incorporate rough, fuzzy, and Grey set theories into Systems Statistical Engineering causal Bayesian hierarchical constraints modeling

A Literature Review On Combining Heuristics and Exact Algorithms in Combinatorial Optimization

There are several approaches for solving hard optimization problems. Mathematical programming techniques such as (integer) linear programming-based methods and metaheuristic approaches are two extremely effective streams for combinatorial problems. Different research streams, more or less in isolation from one another, created these two. Only several years ago, many scholars noticed the advantages and enormous potential of building hybrids of combining mathematical programming methodologies and metaheuristics. In reality, many problems can be solved much better by exploiting synergies between these approaches than by “pure” classical algorithms. The key question is how to integrate mathematical programming methods and metaheuristics to achieve such benefits. This paper reviews existing techniques for such combinations and provides examples of using them for vehicle routing problems

Maximum Torque per Ampere Control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor Using Genetic Algorithm

 Permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) drives have many advantages over other drives, i.e. high efficiency and high power density. Particularly, PMSMs are epoch-making and are intensively studied among researchers, scientists and engineers. This paper deals with a novel high performance controller based on genetic algorithm. The scheme allows the motor to be driven with maximum torque per ampere characteristic. In this paper assuming an appropriate fitness function, the optimum values for d-axis current of motor set points at each time are found and then applied to the controller. Simulation results show the successful operation of the proposed controller

Effectiveness of Accommodation in the Assessment of Iranian EFL Learners

This study has investigated the impact of accommodation on test performance as well as achievement scores of Iranian EFL learners at the intermediate level. Initially, 60 female EFL learners of a language school took a version of PET following the standard procedure of the test with no accommodation. Ten days later, the same 60 learners took the second version of PET with some forms of accommodation including: extended time, setting alteration, test illustration, and response presentation. In the second phase, the 60 participants were divided into two 30-member groups of experimental and control and their equality was checked in terms of language proficiency. The experimental group, in addition to its regular lesson plan, underwent accommodated formative assessment. Consequently, as they finished each session, they took quizzes in the next session and received feedback on their progress in terms of four skills. The accommodation activities used during instruction included extended time, setting, presentation and response. The intervention in the control group was the same except for its accommodation. At the end, both groups sat for the achievement test of the language school to exhibit any possible impact of accommodation on their general achievement. On the whole, accommodation was found to be positively effective on the assessment of Iranian female intermediate learners as it contributed to better understanding of the test, reducing test anxiety, and finally an overall better performance on the achievement test