Search results for: injecting drug user

Authors: Peter Edwar Mortada Nasif

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The use of CAD (Computer Aided Design) technology is ubiquitous in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. This has led to its inclusion in the curriculum of architecture schools in Nigeria as an important part of the training module. This article examines the ethical issues involved in implementing CAD (Computer Aided Design) content into the architectural education curriculum. Using existing literature, this study begins with the benefits of integrating CAD into architectural education and the responsibilities of different stakeholders in the implementation process. It also examines issues related to the negative use of information technology and the perceived negative impact of CAD use on design creativity. Using a survey method, data from the architecture department of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Uli University was collected to serve as a case study on how the issues raised were being addressed. The article draws conclusions on what ensures successful ethical implementation. Millions of people around the world suffer from hepatitis C, one of the world's deadliest diseases. Interferon (IFN) is treatment options for patients with hepatitis C, but these treatments have their side effects. Our research focused on developing an oral small molecule drug that targets hepatitis C virus (HCV) proteins and has fewer side effects. Our current study aims to develop a drug based on a small molecule antiviral drug specific for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Drug development using laboratory experiments is not only expensive, but also time-consuming to conduct these experiments. Instead, in this in silicon study, we used computational techniques to propose a specific antiviral drug for the protein domains of found in the hepatitis C virus. This study used homology modeling and abs initio modeling to generate the 3D structure of the proteins, then identifying pockets in the proteins. Acceptable lagans for pocket drugs have been developed using the de novo drug design method. Pocket geometry is taken into account when designing ligands. Among the various lagans generated, a new specific for each of the HCV protein domains has been proposed.

Keywords: drug design, anti-viral drug, in-silicon drug design, hepatitis C virus, computer aided design, CAD education, education improvement, small-size contractor automatic pharmacy, PLC, control system, management system, communication

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Authors: Gayathri Vijayakumar, Preethi Baskaran

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The effluents that are let down by the industries mix with the water bodies and drastically affect the aquatic life, which leads to pollution and bio magnifications. Effluents mostly contain chemicals, heavy metals etc., and cause toxicity to the environment. The pharmaceutical industries too contribute. The by-products and other unwanted waste are discharged without any treatment; these causes DNA damage and affect behavior of aquatic life. The study was conducted on koi carp (Cyprinus carpio) the ornamental variety of common carp. A two week long study was conducted on them using common anti-depressant drug (Diazepam) in various concentrations. These drugs are known to cause behavioral damage and organ malfunctions (muscle twitch). The histopathological study conducted showed permanent muscle twitching and lesions in the fish samples studied. The sociability was also affected in the span of 14 days. Higher concentrations of this drug showed severe damage in the muscle structures. Thus, this drug can cause adverse effects on marine ecosystem and eventually cause bio magnification of drug by running through the food chain.

Keywords: pollution, toxicity, bio-magnifications, koi carp, muscle twitch, diazepam, histopathology

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Authors: Ahmed Slami, Med El Amine Brixi Nigassa, Nassima Labdelli, Sofiane Soulimane, Arnaud Pothier

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Many people suffer from diabetes, a disease marked by abnormal levels of sugar in the blood; 285 million people have diabetes, 6.6% of the world adult population (in 2010), according to the International Diabetes Federation. Insulin medicament is invented to be injected into the body. Generally, the injection requires the patient to do it manually. However, in many cases he will be unable to inject the drug, saw that among the side effects of hyperglycemia is the weakness of the whole body. The researchers designed a medical device that injects insulin too autonomously by using micro-pumps. Many micro-pumps of concepts have been investigated during the last two decades for injecting molecules in blood or in the body. However, all these micro-pumps are intended for slow infusion of drug (injection of few microliters by minute). Now, the challenge is to develop micro-pumps for fast injections (1 microliter in 10 seconds) with accuracy of the order of microliter. Recently, studies have shown that only piezoelectric actuators can achieve this performance, knowing that few systems at the microscopic level were presented. These reasons lead us to design new smart microsystems injection drugs. Therefore, many technological advances are still to achieve the improvement of materials to their uses, while going through their characterization and modeling action mechanisms themselves. Moreover, it remains to study the integration of the piezoelectric micro-pump in the microfluidic platform features to explore and evaluate the performance of these new micro devices. In this work, we propose a new micro-pump model based on piezoelectric actuation with a new design. Here, we use a finite element model with Comsol software. Our device is composed of two pumping chambers, two diaphragms and two actuators (piezoelectric disks). The latter parts will apply a mechanical force on the membrane in a periodic manner. The membrane deformation allows the fluid pumping, the suction and discharge of the liquid. In this study, we present the modeling results as function as device geometry properties, films thickness, and materials properties. Here, we demonstrate that we can achieve fast injection. The results of these simulations will provide quantitative performance of our micro-pumps. Concern the spatial actuation, fluid rate and allows optimization of the fabrication process in terms of materials and integration steps.

Keywords: COMSOL software, piezoelectric, micro-pump, microfluidic

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Authors: Nagat M. Saeed, Mabruka S. Elashheb, Fatma M. Ben Rabaha, Aisha M Edrah

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The aim of the study was to determine the type and pattern of antibiotic susceptibility of the pathogenic microorganisms causing chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM), which could lead to better therapeutic decisions and consequently avoidance of appearance of resistance to specific antibiotics. Most frequently isolated agents were Pseudomonas aeruginosa 28.5%; followed by Staphylococcus aureus 18.2%; proteus mirabilis 13.9%; Providencia stuartti 6.7%; Bacteroides melaninogenicus, Aspergillus sp., candida sp., 4.2% each; and other microorganisms were represented in 3-0.2%. Drug sensitivities pattern of Pseudomonas aeruginosa showed that ciprofloxacin was active against the majority of isolates (93.9%) followed by ceftazidime 86.2%, amikacin 76.2% and gentamicin 40.8%. However, Staphylococcus aureus isolates were resistant to penicillin 72.7%, erythromycin 28.6%, cephalothin 18.2%, cloxacillin 8.3% and ciprofloxacin was active against 96.2% of isolates. The resistance pattern of proteus mirabilis was 55.6% to ampicillin, 47.1% to carbencillin, 29.4% to cephalothin, 14.3% to gentamicin and 4.8% to amikacin while 100% were sensitive to ciprofloxacin. We conclude that ciprofloxacin is the best drug of choice in the treatment of CSOM caused by the common microorganisms.

Keywords: otitis media, chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM), microorganisms, drug sensitivity

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Authors: Arianna Zhu, Thomas Bakupog

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Taxol (generic name paclitaxel) is an antineoplastic drug used to treat breast, lung, and ovarian cancer. It performs exceptionally well against a wide variety of tumors, including B16 melanoma, L1210 and P388 leukemias, MX-1 mammary tumors, and CX-1 colon tumor xenografts. However, despite taxol’s efficacy in antitumor activity, its aqueous solubility is extremely poor, decreasing its bioavailability and making it difficult for the body to absorb. The objective of this study is to improve the solubility of taxol, thus increasing the bioavailability of the drug in preventing cancer. By modifying the structure of taxol, four novel taxol derivatives were created with improved solubilities. Two of the derivatives were given an additional hydrogen donor and acceptor and thus showed a pronounced positive change in solubility. The results of this work solve the issue of taxol’s inadequate solubility and show potential in increasing the absorption of the drug.

Keywords: Taxol, Solubility, improving bioavailability, logP

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Authors: Paresh Patel, Harshit Patel

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Superficial fungal skin infection is among the most common skin disease. The drug administration through skin has received attention due to several advantages: Avoidance of significant pre-systemic metabolism, drug levels within the therapeutic window, drugs with short biological half-lives, decreased side effects, the non-invasive character, and very high acceptance.

Keywords: transdermal spray, ketoconazole, Eudragit® RLPO, therapeutic window

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Authors: Aliya Grig, Konstantin Sokolov, Igor Shatalin

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The report describes the methodology for collecting data and building an ML model for determining the personality psychotype using profiling and personality traits methods based on several short messages of a user communicating on an arbitrary topic with a chitchat bot. In the course of the experiments, the minimum amount of text was revealed to confidently determine aspects of personality. Model accuracy - 85%. Users' language of communication is English. AI for a personalized communication with a user based on his mood, personality, and current emotional state. Features investigated during the research: personalized communication; providing empathy; adaptation to a user; predictive analytics. In the report, we describe the processes that captures both structured and unstructured data pertaining to a user in large quantities and diverse forms. This data is then effectively processed through ML tools to construct a knowledge graph and draw inferences regarding users of text messages in a comprehensive manner. Specifically, the system analyzes users' behavioral patterns and predicts future scenarios based on this analysis. As a result of the experiments, we provide for further research on training AI models to be empathetic, creating personalized communication for a user

Keywords: AI, empathetic, chatbot, AI models

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Authors: Yuan Yang, Mickey Lam

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Oral dissolvable films have been considered as a unique alternative approach to conventional oral dosage forms. The films could be administrated via the gastrointestinal tract as conventional dosages or through sublingual/buccal mucosa membranes, which could enhance drug bioavailability by avoiding the first-pass effect and improving permeability due to high blood flow and lymphatic circulation. This work has described a state-of-art technic using nano-emulsion/nano-suspension as a precursor for the film to enhance the bioavailability of BCS class II drugs. The drug molecules are consequentially processed through the emulsification, gelation, and film-casting processes. The gelation process is critical to stabilizing the nano-emulsion for the film-casting as well as controlling the drug release process. Furthermore, the size of the nanoparticle on the film has a strong correlation with the size of the micelles in the precursor and the condition of the gelation process. It has been discovered that nanoparticle from 200 nm to 300 nm has shown the highest permeability for sublingual administration. In one example shown in work, the bioavailability of a low solubilize drug has been increased from 10% to 24% via sublingual administration of the film. The increasing of the bioavailability was thought to be associated with the enhancement of the diffusion process of the drug in the saliva layer above the mucosa membrane and the fact that the presents of the emulsifier help lose the rigid junction of the mucosa cells.

Keywords: oral dissolvable film, nano-suspension, nano-emulsion, bioavailability

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Authors: Yu-Ming Wang, Jia-Hong Jian

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The Internet and digital publication technologies have brought dramatic impacts on how people collect, organize, disseminate, access, store, and use information. More and more governments, schools, and organizations spent huge funds to develop digital libraries. A digital library can be regarded as a web extension of traditional physically libraries. People can search diverse publications, find out the position of knowledge resources, and borrow or buy publications through digital libraries. People can gain knowledge and students or employees can finish their reports by using digital libraries. Since the considerable funds and energy have been invested in implementing digital libraries, it is important to understand the evaluative criteria from the users’ viewpoint in order to enhance user acceptance. This study develops a list of user acceptance criteria for digital libraries. An initial criteria list was developed based on some previously validated instruments related to digital libraries. Data were collected from user experiences of digital libraries. The exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were adopted to purify the criteria list. The reliabilities and validities were tested. After validating the criteria list, a user survey was conducted to collect the comparative importance of criteria. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was utilized to derive the importance of each criterion. The results of this study contribute to an e understanding of the criteria and relative importance that users evaluate for digital libraries.

Keywords: digital library, user acceptance, analytic hierarchy process, factor analysis

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Authors: Nadia A. Mohamed, Zakaria El-Khayat, Wagdy K. B. Khalil, Mehrez E. El-Naggar

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Drug nephrotoxicity is still a problem for patients who have taken drugs for elongated periods or permanently. Ultrasound-assisted sol−gel method was used to prepare hollow structured poroussilica nanoemulsion loaded with sodium salicylate as a model drug. The work was extended to achieve the target of the current work via investigating the protective role of this nanoemulsion model as anti-inflammatory drug or ginger for its antioxidant effect against cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity in male albino rats. The results clarify that the nanoemulsion model was synthesized using ultrasonic assisted with small size and well stabilization as proved by TEM and DLS analysis. Additionally, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), Serum creatinine (SC) and Urinary total protein (UTP) were increased, and the level of creatinine clearance (Crcl) was decreased. All those were met with disorders in oxidative stress and downregulation in the expression of the nephrin gene. Also, histopathological changes of the kidney tissue were observed. These changes back to normal by treatment with silica nanoparticles loaded sodium salicylate (Si-Sc-NPs), ginger or both. Conclusions oil/water nanoemulsion of (Si-Sc NPs) and ginger showed a protective and promising preventive strategy against nephrotoxicity due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, and that offers a new approach in attenuating drug induced nephrotoxicity.

Keywords: sodium salicylate nanoencapsulation, nephrin mRNA, drug nephrotoxicity, cisplatin, experimental rats

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Authors: Rui Sang, Fei Deng, Alexander Engel, Ewa M. Goldys, Wei Deng

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In this study, we brought together X-ray induced photodynamic therapy (X-PDT) and chemo-drug (5-FU) for the treatment on colorectal cancer cells. This was achieved by developing a lipid-polymer hybrid nanoparticle delivery system (FA-LPNPs-VP-5-FU). It was prepared by incorporating a photosensitizer (verteporfin), chemotherapy drug (5-FU), and a targeting moiety (folic acid) into one platform. The average size of these nanoparticles was around 100 nm with low polydispersity. When exposed to clinical doses of 4 Gy X-ray radiation, FA-LPNPs-VP-5-FU generated sufficient amounts of reactive oxygen species, triggering the apoptosis and necrosis pathway of cancer cells. Our combined X-PDT and chemo-drug strategy was effective in inhibiting cancer cells’ growth and proliferation. Cell cycle analyses revealed that our treatment induced G2/M and S phase arrest in HCT116 cells. Our results indicate that this combined treatment provides better antitumour effect in colorectal cancer cells than each of these modalities alone. This may offer a novel approach for effective colorectal cancer treatment with reduced off-target effect and drug toxicity.

Keywords: pdt, targeted lipid-polymer nanoparticles, verteporfin, colorectal cancer

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Authors: B. Yermekbayeva, A. Gulyayaev, T. Nurgozhin, C. Bektur

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Cytisine aminophosphonate under the name "Cytafat" was approved for clinical trials in Republic of Kazakhstan as a putative liver protecting drug for the treatment of acute toxic hepatitis. A method of conducting the clinical trial is a double blind study. Total number of patients -71, aged from 16 to 56 years. Research on healthy volunteers determined the maximal tolerable doze of "Cytafat" as 200 mg/kg. Side effects when administered at high dozes (100-200 mg/kg) are tachycardia and increase of arterial blood pressure. The drug is tested in the treatment of 28 patients with a syndrome of hepatocellular failure (a poisoning with substitutes of alcohol, rat poison, or medical products). "Cytafat" was intravenously administered at a dose of 10 mg/kg in 200 ml of 5 % glucose solution once daily. The number of administrations: 1-3. In the comparison group, 23 patients were treated intravenously once a day with “Essenciale H” at a dose of 10 ml. 20 patients received a placebo (10 ml of glucose intravenously). In all cases of toxic hepatopathology the significant positive clinical effect of the testing drug distinguishable from placebo and surpassing the alternative was observed. Within a day after administration a sharp reduction of cytolitic syndrome parameters (ALT, AST, alkaline phosphatase, thymol turbidity test, GGT) was registered, a reduction of the severity of cholestatic syndrome (bilirubin decreased) was recorded, significantly decreased indices of lipid peroxidation. The following day, in all cases the positive dynamics was determined with ultrasound study (reduction of diffuse changes and events of reactive pancreatitis), hepatomegaly disappeared. Normalization of all parameters occurred in 2-3 times faster, than when using the drug "Essenciale H" and placebo. Average term of elimination of toxic hepatopathy when using the drug "Cytafat" -2,8 days, "Essenciale H" -7,2 days, and placebo -10,6 days. The new drug "Cytafat" has expressed cytoprotective properties.

Keywords: cytisine, cytoprotection, hepatopathy, hepatoprotection

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Authors: Mazita Mohd Diah, Anton V. Dolzhenko, Tin Wui Wong

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Nanoparticles, being small with a large specific surface area, increase solubility, enhance bioavailability, improve controlled release and enable precision targeting of the entrapped compounds. In this study, chitosan as polymeric permeation enhancer was conjugated to a polar pro-drug, carboxymethyl-5-fluorouracil (CMFU) to increase the skin drug permeation. Chitosan-CMFU conjugate was synthesized using chemical conjugation process through succinate linker. It was then transformed into nanoparticles via spray drying method. The conjugation was elucidated using Fourier Transform Infrared and Proton Nuclear Magnetic Resonance techniques. The nanoparticle size, size distribution, zeta potential, drug content, skin permeation and retention profiles were characterized. The conjugation was denoted using 1H NMR by new peaks at signal δ = 4.184 ppm (singlet, 2H for CH2) and 7.676-7.688 ppm (doublet, 1H for C6) attributed to CMFU in chitosan-CMFU NMR spectrum. The nanoparticles had profiles of particle size: 93.97 ±35.11 nm, polydispersity index: 0.40 ± 0.14, zeta potential: +18.25 ±2.95 mV and drug content: 6.20 ± 1.98 % w/w. Almost 80 % w/w CMFU in the form of nanoparticles permeated through the skin in 24 hours and close to 50 % w/w permeation occurred in first 1-2 hours. Without conjugation to chitosan and nanoparticulation, less than 40 % w/w CMFU permeated through the skin in 24 hours. The skin drug retention likewise was higher with chitosan-CMFU nanoparticles (15.34 ± 5.82 % w/w) than CMFU (2.24 ± 0.57 % w/w). CMFU, through conjugation with chitosan permeation enhancer and processed in nanogeometry, had its skin permeation and retention degree promoted.

Keywords: carboxymethyl-5-fluorouracil, chitosan, conjugate, skin permeation, skin retention

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Authors: Anika Chebrolu

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Mono-targeted drugs can be of limited efficacy against complex diseases. Recently, multi-target drug design has been approached as a promising tool to fight against these challenging diseases. However, the scope of current computational approaches for multi-target drug design is limited. DeepLig presents a de-novo drug discovery platform that uses reinforcement learning to generate and optimize novel, potent, and multitargeted drug candidates against protein targets. DeepLig’s model consists of two networks in interplay: a generative network and a predictive network. The generative network, a Stack- Augmented Recurrent Neural Network, utilizes a stack memory unit to remember and recognize molecular patterns when generating novel ligands from scratch. The generative network passes each newly created ligand to the predictive network, which then uses multiple Graph Attention Networks simultaneously to forecast the average binding affinity of the generated ligand towards multiple target proteins. With each iteration, given feedback from the predictive network, the generative network learns to optimize itself to create molecules with a higher average binding affinity towards multiple proteins. DeepLig was evaluated based on its ability to generate multi-target ligands against two distinct proteins, multi-target ligands against three distinct proteins, and multi-target ligands against two distinct binding pockets on the same protein. With each test case, DeepLig was able to create a library of valid, synthetically accessible, and novel molecules with optimal and equipotent binding energies. We propose that DeepLig provides an effective approach to design multi-targeted drug therapies that can potentially show higher success rates during in-vitro trials.

Keywords: drug design, multitargeticity, de-novo, reinforcement learning

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Authors: Michel Berthiaume, Daniel Chamberland-Tremblay, Elaine Paiva Mosconi, Jérôme Blanchet-Brisson

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This presentation documents the overall failure of North-American universities to build an effective IT Policies communication with their primary users: the students. A sample of 12 universities was selected. A set of indicators based on usability principles to assess the content of IT Policies vas devised. Then, IT Policies were rated according to the indicators and the results analyzed to build an overall picture of the potential of communication problems in policy communication. The initial finding is that network security professionals in Universities have to reach a delicate balance between asset protection, asset valorization and user security awareness.

Keywords: computer security, IT policy, security awareness, network user rules

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Authors: Thomas Geninatti, Bruno Giacomo, Alessandro Grattoni

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Nanofluidic devices have been investigated for over a decade as promising platforms for the controlled release of therapeutics. The nanochannel drug delivery system (nDS), a membrane fabricated with high precision silicon techniques, capable of zero-order release of drugs by exploiting diffusion transport at the nanoscale originated from the interactions between molecules with nanochannel surfaces, showed the flexibility of the sustained release in vitro and in vivo, over periods of time ranging from weeks to months. To improve the implantable bio nanotechnology, in order to create a system that possesses the key features for achieve the suitable release of therapeutics, the next generation of nDS has been created. Platinum electrodes are integrated by e-beam deposition onto both surfaces of the membrane allowing low voltage (<2 V) and active temporal control of drug release through modulation of electrostatic potentials at the inlet and outlet of the membrane’s fluidic channels. Hence, a tunable administration of drugs is ensured from the nanochannel drug delivery system. The membrane will be incorporated into a peek implantable capsule, which will include drug reservoir, control hardware and RF system to allow suitable therapeutic regimens in real-time. Therefore, this new nanotechnology offers tremendous potential solutions to manage chronic disease such as cancer, heart disease, circadian dysfunction, pain and stress.

Keywords: nanochannel membrane, drug delivery, tunable release, personalized administration, nanoscale transport, biomems

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Authors: Lian Zeng

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Double-Spear 1-H2-1 (DS1-H2-1) is an oncolytic virus and an innovative biological drug candidate. The chemical composition of the drug product is a live attenuated West Nile virus (WNV) containing the human T cell costimulator (CD86) gene. After intratumoral injection, the virus can rapidly self-replicate in the injected site and lyse/kill the tumor by repeated infection among tumor cells. We also established xenograft tumor models in mice to evaluate the drug candidate's efficacy on those tumors. The results from preclinical studies on transplanted tumors in immunodeficient mice showed that DS1-H2-1 had significant oncolytic effects on human-origin cancers: it completely (100%) shrieked human glioma; limited human neuroblastoma growth reached as high as 95% growth inhibition rate (%TGITW). The safety data of preclinical animal experiments confirmed that DS1-H2-1 is safe as a biological drug for clinical use. In the preclinical drug efficacy experiment, virus-drug administration with different doses did not show abnormal signs and disease symptoms in more than 300 tested mice, and no side effects or death occurred through various administration routes. Intravenous administration did not cause acute infectious disease or other side effects. However, the replication capacity of the virus in tumor tissue via intravenous administration is only 1% of that of direct intratumoral administration. The direct intratumoral administration of DS1-H2-1 had a higher rate of viral replication. Therefore, choosing direct intratumoral injection can ensure both efficacy and safety.

Keywords: oncolytic virus, WNV-CD86, immunotherapy drugs, glioma, neuroblastoma

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Authors: Nalinee Sophatsathit

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The objectives of memorabilia of Suan Sunandha are to develop a general knowledge presentation about the historical royal garden through interactive graphic simulation technique and to employ high-functionality context in enhancing interactive user navigation. The approach infers non-intrusive display of relevant history in response to situational context. User’s navigation runs through the virtual reality campus, consisting of new and restored buildings. A flash back presentation of information pertaining to the history in the form of photos, paintings, and textual descriptions are displayed along each passing-by building. To keep the presentation lively, graphical simulation is created in a serendipity game play so that the user can both learn and enjoy the educational tour. The benefits of this human-computer interaction development are two folds. First, lively presentation technique and situational context modeling are developed that entail a usable paradigm of knowledge and information presentation combinations. Second, cost effective training and promotion for both internal personnel and public visitors to learn and keep informed of this historical royal garden can be furnished without the need for a dedicated public relations service. Future improvement on graphic simulation and ability based display can extend this work to be more realistic, user-friendly, and informative for all.

Keywords: interactive user navigation, high-functionality context, situational context, human-computer interaction

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Authors: Kehinde Agbele, Longe Olumide, Daniel Ekong, Dele Seluwa, Akintoye Onamade

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One major problem of most existing information retrieval systems (IRS) is that they provide even access and retrieval results to individual users specially based on the query terms user issued to the system. When using IRS, users often present search queries made of ad-hoc keywords. It is then up to IRS to obtain a precise representation of user’s information need, and the context of the information. In effect, the volume and range of the Internet documents is growing exponentially and consequently causes difficulties for a user to obtain information that precisely matches the user interest. Diverse combination techniques are used to achieve the specific goal. This is due, firstly, to the fact that users often do not present queries to IRS that optimally represent the information they want, and secondly, the measure of a document's relevance is highly subjective between diverse users. In this paper, we address the problem by investigating the optimization of IRS to individual information needs in order of relevance. The paper addressed the development of algorithms that optimize the ranking of documents retrieved from IRS. This paper addresses this problem with a two-fold approach in order to retrieve domain-specific documents. Firstly, the design of context of information. The context of a query determines retrieved information relevance using personalization and context-awareness. Thus, executing the same query in diverse contexts often leads to diverse result rankings based on the user preferences. Secondly, the relevant context aspects should be incorporated in a way that supports the knowledge domain representing users’ interests. In this paper, the use of evolutionary algorithms is incorporated to improve the effectiveness of IRS. A context-based information retrieval system that learns individual needs from user-provided relevance feedback is developed whose retrieval effectiveness is evaluated using precision and recall metrics. The results demonstrate how to use attributes from user interaction behavior to improve the IR effectiveness.

Keywords: context, document relevance, information retrieval, personalization, user search behaviors

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Authors: Jacob Green, Cecilia Cabrera, Maximilian Jakobs, Andrea Dimitracopoulos, Mark van der Wilk, Ryan Greenhalgh

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Predicting drug properties is key in drug discovery to enable de-risking of assets before expensive clinical trials and to find highly active compounds faster. Interest from the machine learning community has led to the release of a variety of benchmark datasets and proposed methods. However, it remains unclear for practitioners which method or approach is most suitable, as different papers benchmark on different datasets and methods, leading to varying conclusions that are not easily compared. Our large-scale empirical study links together numerous earlier works on different datasets and methods, thus offering a comprehensive overview of the existing property classes, datasets, and their interactions with different methods. We emphasise the importance of uncertainty quantification and the time and, therefore, cost of applying these methods in the drug development decision-making cycle. To the best of the author's knowledge, it has been observed that the optimal approach varies depending on the dataset and that engineered features with classical machine learning methods often outperform deep learning. Specifically, QSAR datasets are typically best analysed with classical methods such as Gaussian Processes, while ADMET datasets are sometimes better described by Trees or deep learning methods such as Graph Neural Networks or language models. Our work highlights that practitioners do not yet have a straightforward, black-box procedure to rely on and sets a precedent for creating practitioner-relevant benchmarks. Deep learning approaches must be proven on these benchmarks to become the practical method of choice in drug property prediction.

Keywords: activity (QSAR), ADMET, classical methods, drug property prediction, empirical study, machine learning

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Authors: Pooja Mongia Raj, Rakesh Raj, Alpana Ram

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Background: The use of multiparticulate drug delivery systems in preference to single unit dosage forms for colon targeting purposes dates back to 1985 when Hardy and co-workers showed that multiparticulate systems enabled the drug to reach the colon quickly and were retained in the ascending colon for a relatively long period of time. Methods: Site-specific colonic drug delivery system (nanoparticles) of 5-ASA were prepared and coated with pH sensitive polymer. Chitosan nanoparticles (CTNP) bearing 5-Amino salicylic acid (5-ASA) were prepared, by ionotropic gelation method. Nanoparticulate dosage form consisting of a hydrophobic core enteric coated with pH-dependent polymer Eudragit S-100 by solvent evaporation method, for the effective delivery of drug to the colon for treatment of ulcerative colitis. Results: The mean diameter of CTNP and ECTNP formulations were 159 and 661 nm, respectively. Also optimum value of polydispersity index was found to be 0.249 [count rate (kcps) was 251.2] and 0.170 [count rate (kcps) was 173.9] was obtained for both the formulations respectively. Conclusion: CTNP and Eudragit chitosan nanoparticles (ECTNP) was characterized for shape and surface morphology by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) appeared to be spherical in shape. The in vitro drug release was investigated using USP dissolution test apparatus in different simulated GIT fluids showed promising release. In vivo experiments are in further proceeding for fruitful results.

Keywords: colon targeting, nanoparticles, polymer, 5-amino salicylic acid, edragit

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Authors: Rady A., Elsheshai A., Elsawy M., Nagui R.

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Background and Aim: Metabolic syndrome affect around 20% of general population , authors have incriminated antipsychotics as serious risk factor that may provoke such derangement. The aim of our study is to assess metabolic syndrome in patients presenting psychotic features (delusions and hallucinations) whether schizophrenia or mood disorder and compare results in terms of drug naïf, on medication and healthy control. Subjects and Methods: The study recruited 40 schizophrenic patients, half of them drug naïf and the other half on antipsychotics, 40 patients with mood disorder with psychotic features, half of them drug naïf and the other half on medication, 20 healthy control. Exclusion criteria were put in order to exclude patients having already endocrine or metabolic disorders that my interfere with results obtain to minimize confusion bias. Metabolic syndrome assessed by measuring parameters including weight, body mass index, waist circumference, triglyceride level, HDL, fasting glucose, fasting insulin and insulin resistance Results: No difference was found when comparing drug naïf to those on medication in both schizophrenic and psychotic mood disorder arms, schizophrenic patients whether on medication or drug naïf should difference with control group for fasting glucose, schizophrenic patients on medication also showed difference in insulin resistance compared to control group. On the other hand, patients with psychotic mood disorder whether drug naïf or on medication showed difference from control group for fasting insulin level. Those on medication also differed from control for insulin resistance Conclusion: Our study didn’t reveal difference in metabolic syndrome among patients with psychotic features whether on medication or drug naïf. Only patients with Psychotic features on medication showed insulin resistance. Schizophrenic patients drug naïf or on medication tend to show higher fasting glucose while psychotic mood disorder whether drug naïf or on medication tend to show higher fasting insulin. This study suggest that presence of psychotic features themselves regardless being on medication or not carries a risk for insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome. Limitation: This study is limited by number of participants and larger numbers in future studies should be included in order to extrapolate results. Cohort longitudinal studies are needed in order to evaluate such hypothesis.

Keywords: schizophrenia, metabolic syndrome, psychosis, insulin, resistance

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Authors: Ubaka Chukwuemeka Michael, Ukwe Chinwe Victoria

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Background: The use of antipsychotic monotherapy remains the standard for schizophrenic disorders so also a prescription switch from older typical to newer atypical classes of antipsychotics on the basis of better efficacy and tolerability. However, surveys on the quality of antipsychotic drug use and substitution in developing countries are very scarce. This study was intended to evaluate quality and factors that drive the prescription and substitution of antipsychotic drugs among schizophrenic patients visiting a regional psychiatric hospital. Methods: Case files of patients visiting a federal government funded Neuropsychiatric Hospital between July 2012 and July 2014 were systematically retrieved. Patient demographic characteristics, clinical details and drug management data were collected and subjected to descriptive and inferential data analysis to determine quality and predictors of utilization. Results: Of the 600 case files used, there were more male patients (55.3%) with an overall mean age of 33.7±14.4 years. Typical antipsychotic agents accounted for over 85% of prescriptions, with majority of the patients receiving more than 2 drugs in at least a visit (80.9%). Fluphenazine (25.2%) and Haloperidol (18.8%) were mostly given as antipsychotics for treatment initiation while Olazenpine (23.0%) and Benzhexol (18.3%) were the most currently prescribed antipsychotics. Nearly half (42%, 252/600) of these patients were switched from one class to another, with 34.5% (207/600) of them switched from typical to atypical drug classes. No demographic or clinical factors influenced drug substitutions but a younger age and being married influenced being prescribed a polypharmacy regimen (more than 2 drugs) and an injectable antipsychotic agent. Conclusion: The prevalence of antipsychotic polypharmacy and use of typical agents among these patients was high. However, only age and marital status affected the quality of antipsychotic prescriptions among these patients.

Keywords: antipsychotics, drug substitution, pharmacoepidemiology, polypharmacy

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Authors: Yogita Patil-Sen

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Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles (SPIONs) have become increasingly important materials for separation of specific bio-molecules, drug delivery vehicle, contrast agent for MRI and magnetic hyperthermia for cancer therapy. Hyperthermia is emerging as an alternative cancer treatment to the conventional radio- and chemo-therapy, which have harmful side effects. When subjected to an alternating magnetic field, the magnetic energy of SPIONs is converted into thermal energy due to movement of particles. The ability of SPIONs to generate heat and potentially kill cancerous cells, which are more susceptible than the normal cells to temperatures higher than 41 °C forms the basis of hyerpthermia treatement. The amount of heat generated depends upon the magnetic properties of SPIONs which in turn is affected by their properties such as size and shape. One of the main problems associated with SPIONs is particle aggregation which limits their employability in in vivo drug delivery applications and hyperthermia cancer treatments. Coating the iron oxide core with thermally responsive lipid based nanostructures tend to overcome the issue of aggregation as well as improve biocompatibility and can enhance drug loading efficiency. Herein we report suitability of SPIONs and silica coated core-shell SPIONs, which are further, coated with various lipids for drug delivery and magnetic hyperthermia applications. The synthesis of nanoparticles is carried out using the established methods reported in the literature with some modifications. The nanoparticles are characterised using Infrared spectroscopy (IR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM). The heating ability of nanoparticles is tested under alternating magnetic field. The efficacy of the nanoparticles as drug carrier is also investigated. The loading of an anticancer drug, Doxorubicin at 18 °C is measured up to 48 hours using UV-visible spectrophotometer. The drug release profile is obtained under thermal incubation condition at 37 °C and compared with that under the influence of alternating magnetic field. The results suggest that the nanoparticles exhibit superparamagnetic behaviour, although coating reduces the magnetic properties of the particles. Both the uncoated and coated particles show good heating ability, again it is observed that coating decreases the heating behaviour of the particles. However, coated particles show higher drug loading efficiency than the uncoated particles and the drug release is much more controlled under the alternating magnetic field. Thus, the results demonstrate that lipid coated SPIONs exhibit potential as drug delivery vehicles for magnetic hyperthermia based cancer therapy.

Keywords: drug delivery, hyperthermia, lipids, superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONS)

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Authors: Yuhan Lin, Rohan Kekatpure, Cassidy Yeung

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In Digital Marketing, robust quantification of View-through attribution (VTA) is necessary for evaluating channel effectiveness. VTA occurs when a product purchase is aided by an Ad but without an explicit click (e.g. a TV ad). A lack of a tracking mechanism makes VTA estimation challenging. Most prevalent VTA estimation techniques rely on post-purchase in-product user surveys. User surveys enable the calculation of channel multipliers, which are the ratio of the view-attributed to the click-attributed purchases of each marketing channel. Channel multipliers thus provide a way to estimate the unknown VTA for a channel from its known click attribution. In this work, we use Convex Optimization to compute channel multipliers in a way that enables a mathematical encoding of the expected channel behavior. Large fluctuations in channel attributions often result from overfitting the calculations to user surveys. Casting channel attribution as a Convex Optimization problem allows an introduction of constraints that limit such fluctuations. The result of our study is a distribution of channel multipliers across the entire marketing funnel, with important implications for marketing spend optimization. Our technique can be broadly applied to estimate Ad effectiveness in a privacy-centric world that increasingly limits user tracking.

Keywords: digital marketing, survey analysis, operational research, convex optimization, channel attribution

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Authors: Wantana Amatariyakul, Chumnong Amatariyakul

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The research aims to examine the spread of drugs in higher education, especially amphetamine which is rapidly increasing in Thai society, its causes and effects, including the sociological perspective, in order to explain, prevent, control, and solve the problems. The students who participated in this research are regular students of Rajamangala University of Technology Isan, Khon Kaen Campus. The data were collected using questionnaires, group discussions, and in-depth interviews. The quantity data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean and standard deviation and using content analysis to analyzed quality data. The result of the study showed that the students had the results of examination on level of knowledge and understanding on drug abuse projected that the majority of sample group attained their knowledge on drug abuse respectively. Despite their uncertainty, the majority of samples presumed that amphetamine, marijuana and grathom (Mitragyna Speciosa Korth) would most likely be abused. The reason for first drug abuse is because they want to try and their friends convince them, as well as, they want to relax or solve the problems in life, respectively. The bad effects appearing to the drug addicts shows that their health deteriorates or worsens, as well as, they not only lose their money but also face with worse mental states. The reasons that respondents tried to avoid using drugs or refused drugs offered by friends were: not wanting to disappoint or upset their family members, fear of rejection by family members, afraid of being arrested by the police, afraid of losing their educational opportunity and ruining their future respectively. Students therefore defended themselves against drug addiction by refusing to try all drugs. Besides this, the knowledge about the danger and the harm of drugs persuaded them to stay away from drugs.

Keywords: drugs, higher education, drug addiction, spread of drugs

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Authors: Mario Hanna Louis Hanna

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The use of CAD (pc Aided layout) generation is ubiquitous inside the structure, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. This has led to its inclusion in the curriculum of structure faculties in Nigeria as an important part of the training module. This newsletter examines the moral troubles involved in implementing CAD (pc Aided layout) content into the architectural training curriculum. Using current literature, this study begins with the advantages of integrating CAD into architectural education and the responsibilities of various stakeholders in the implementation process. It also examines issues related to the terrible use of records generation and the perceived bad effect of CAD use on design creativity. The use of a survey technique, information from the architecture department of Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu Uli college changed into accumulated to serve as a case observe on how the problems raised have been being addressed. The object draws conclusions on what guarantees a hit moral implementation. Tens of millions of human beings around the sector suffer from hepatitis C, one of the international's deadliest sicknesses. Interferon (IFN) is a remedy alternative for patients with hepatitis C, but these treatments have their aspect outcomes. Our research targeted growing an oral small molecule drug that goals hepatitis C virus (HCV) proteins and has fewer facet effects. Our contemporary study targets to broaden a drug primarily based on a small molecule antiviral drug precise for the hepatitis C virus (HCV). Drug improvement and the use of laboratory experiments isn't always best high-priced, however also time-eating to behavior those experiments. instead, on this in silicon have a look at, we used computational strategies to recommend a particular antiviral drug for the protein domain names of discovered in the hepatitis C virus. This examines used homology modeling and abs initio modeling to generate the 3-D shape of the proteins, then figuring out pockets within the proteins. Proper lagans for pocket pills were advanced the usage of the de novo drug design method. Pocket geometry is taken into consideration while designing ligands. A few of the various lagans generated, a different for each of the HCV protein domains has been proposed.

Keywords: drug design, anti-viral drug, in-silicon drug design, Hepatitis C virus (HCV) CAD (Computer Aided Design), CAD education, education improvement, small-size contractor automatic pharmacy, PLC, control system, management system, communication.

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Authors: Mohammad Aziz Shah Mohamed Arip, Aslina Ahmad, Fauziah Mohd Sa'ad, Samsiah Mohd Jais, Syed Sofian Syed Salim

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This experimental study evaluates the effect of using Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Multidimensional Self-Concept Model (MSCM) in a drug prevention programme to increase resiliency and reduce aggression among at-risk youth in Malaysia. A number of 60 (N=60) university students who were at-risk of taking drugs were involved in this study. Participants were identified with self-rating scales, Adolescent Resilience Attitude Scale (ARAS) and Aggression Questionnaire. Based on the mean score of these instruments, the participants were divided into the treatment group, and the control group. Data were analyzed using t-test. The finding showed that the mean score of resiliency was increased in the treatment group compared to the control group. It also shows that the mean score of aggression was reduced in the treatment group compared to the control group. Drug Prevention Programme was found to help in enhancing resiliency and reducing aggression among participants in the treatment group compared to the controlled group. Implications were given regarding the preventive actions on drug abuse among youth in Malaysia.

Keywords: drug prevention programme, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), multidimensional self concept model (MSCM), resiliency, aggression, at-risk youth

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Authors: Romi Dey

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Introduction: One of the most important criteria for technology to sustain and grow is through it’s elaborate and intuitive design methodology and design thinking. Designing for enterprise applications that cater to Just in Time Technology is one of the most challenging and detailed processes any User Experience Designer would come across. Description: The basic principles of Design, when applied to tailor to these technologies, creates an immense challenge and that’s how a set of redefined and revised design principles that can be applied to designing any Just In Time manufacturing solution. Findings: The thorough process of understanding the end user, their existing pain points which they’ve faced in the real world, their responsibilities and expectations, the core needs and last but not the least the demands, creates havoc nurturing of the design methodologies for the Just in Time solutions. With respect to the business aspect, design and design principles play a strong role in any form of innovation. Conclusion: Innovation and knowledge about the latest technologies are the keywords in the manufacturing industry. It becomes crucial for the product development team to be precise in their understanding of the technology and being sure of end users expectation.

Keywords: design thinking, enterprise application, Just in Time, user experience design

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Authors: Frederick Monyepao

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Crack cocaine first appeared on the scene in the form of cocaine freebasing in the late 1970s. Stockbrokers, investment bankers, rock stars, Hollywood elites, and a few pro athletes were regular users of the substance. As criminogenic factors associated with substance abuse began to surface, congress passed new legislation. The laws led to the increase of health coverage insurances and the expansion of hospitals. By the mid-1980s, crack use spread into America's inner cities among impoverished African Americans and Latinos. While substance abuse increased among minority communities, legislation pertaining to substance abuse evolved. The prison industry also expanded the number of cells available. A qualitative approach was taken, drawing from a range secondary sources for contextual analysis. This paper traces out the continued marginalisation and racist undertones towards minorities as perpetuated by certain drug policies. It was discovered that the new legislation on crack was instrumental in the largest incarcerations the United States ever faced. Drug offenders increased in prisons eightfold from 1986 to 2000. The paper concludes that American drug control policies are consistently irrational and ineffective when measured by levels of substance use and abuse. On the contrary, these policies have been successful as agents of social control in maintaining the stratification patterns of racial/ethnic minorities and women. To move beyond prohibition, radical law and policy reform may require a change in narratives on substance use.

Keywords: crack, drug policy, minorities, racism, substance abuse

Procedia PDF Downloads 283