Haloperidol (Hal) is a well-known typical antipsychotic. Hepatic first pass metabolism leads to its limited oral bioavailability. This study aimed at enhancing transdermal delivery of Hal via spanlastic formulae. Hal-loaded spanlastics of Span®60 and an edge activator (EA) were successfully prepared by ethanol injection method according to a 3.4 full factorial design. In this design, independent variables were X, EA type, and X, Span®60 to EA ratio. Y, percentage entrapment efficiency (EE%); Y, particle size (PS); Y, deformability index (DI); and Y, percentage drug released after 4h (Q4h), were chosen as dependent variables. The Fourier-transform infrared spectral analysis showed no considerable chemical interaction between Hal and the used excipients. Both factors affected significantly all the responses except DI. Desirability of each prepared formula was calculated based on maximizing EE% and Q4h and minimizing PS. Formula F6, with X, Tween®80, and X, 8:2, had the highest desirability value followed by F7, with X, Tween®80, and X, 6:4, and both were chosen as selected formulae (SF) for further investigation. F6 (having more entrapped Hal), F7 (of smaller PS), and Hal solution in propylene glycol were subjected to ex vivo permeation test through newborn rat skin. Both formulae showed marked enhancement in drug permeation compared with drug solution. The significantly higher Q and J of F7 from F6 may indicate that the smaller particle size aided more than higher entrapment in achieving a higher permeation for Hal of 3.5±0.2μg/cm.h. These results are promising for further investigation of this formula.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Among the various methods for evaluating gastric emptying, the real-time ultrasound is safe, does not require intubation, or rely on either radiologic or radionuclide technique. The aim of our work was to measure the gastric emptying in pediatric patients with portal hypertension by using the real-time ultrasound.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Forty patients with portal hypertension with mean age 7 ± 2.8 years and 20 healthy children as a control group underwent gastric emptying study by using real-time ultrasound. The cross-sectional area of the gastric antrum was measured in the fasting state and then each subject was allowed to drink tap water then calculated by using formula area (π longitudinal Χ anteroposterior diameter/4). The intragastric volume was assumed to be directly proportional to the cross-sectional area of the antrum.

RESULTS: The mean gastric emptying half-time volume was significantly delayed in portal hypertension patients (40 ± 6.8 min) compared with the control subjects (27.1 ± 3.6) min (P<0.05). Patients with extrahepatic portal vein obstruction had significant delayed gastric emptying in comparison to patients with portal hypertension due to other etiologies (36.14 ± 4.9 vs 44.41 ± 6.04 min; P<0.01).

CONCLUSION: Ultrasound is a noninvasive and a reliable method for measuring gastric emptying in pediatric patients. Gastric emptying was significantly delayed in patients with portal hypertension. Etiology of portal hypertension may influence gastric emptying time in patients with chronic liver disease.

The efficient design of the supply chain network is crucial for good performance and robust functionality. In this paper, the facility location-allocation problem in the strategic stage of the supply chain planning is addressed. The facility location decision is studied for a 4-layer supply chain, with location decision in 2 layers (plants and distribution centers). The study incorporates tactical decisions along with the facility location decision. These include planning inventory levels, flow of products, and position of the customer order decoupling points. The decisions are studied on a multi-period (dynamic) planning horizon, and the problem is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming model with profit maximization objective. The model is tested on a number of generated instances for the problem, and the optimum solutions are obtained and discussed.

Significant performance gains are achieved in code-division multiple-access communication systems by including knowledge of user cross-correlations in the channel decoder metrics. Within these calculations, the sums of squares of cross-correlations between the bipolar spreading sequences appear frequently. In this contribution we present the hardware design of a correlator and a squarer for such bipolar sequences. Our focus is to explore the potential savings in the amount of hardware needed while maintaining a high speed design. We prove the mathematical concepts leading to such savings and describe our methodology to test the resulting designs for functionality. Both designs pass the tests.