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Two novel separation methods have been presented for the concurrent assessment of flumethasone pivalate (FP) and clioquinol (CL) in their combinations in ear drop formulations or in the presence of phenoxyethanol preservative (PEP) in their cream formulations. The first method is an innovative thin-layer chromatographic (TLC) method. The optimal separation was accomplished via silica gel aluminum plates F254, with a mixture of benzene, ethyl acetate and formic acid (5:5:0.2, in volumes) as the mobile system. In Method II, a new ultra-high-performance liquid chromatographic method (UHPLC) with a photodiode array detector (PDA) was presented. A reversed-phase inertsil ODS 5 µm C 18 packed column (100 Å, 4.6 mm internal diameter (I.D.) × 50 mm) at 30 °C was employed. Elution was completed in 3 min. Unfortunately, greener solvents were tested as a mobile phase, but an asymmetric peak for CL was noted. In addition, the new UHPLC method has a priority over the old HPLC one by Sayed et al., 2014, in terms of quickness and avoiding interference from the PEP preservative. Concerning the TLC method, the novel TLC method has the advantage of preventing the interference of PEP. This paper represents the first analytical approach for the concurrent assay of FP and CL in the presence of the preservative phenoxyethanol in the cream formulation.

Background: The use of antihypertensive medications controls blood pressure (BP) and reduces the incidence of complications. This study explored the prescribing patterns and trends of antihypertensive medications utilization, as well as perceived barriers, facilitators, and strategies for managing hypertension from physicians' perspective in primary healthcare centers in Qatar. The study also assessed BP control among hypertensive patients. Methods: The first phase is a retrospective chart review. The second phase is a mixed-method explanatory sequential design study. Results: Between 2018 and 2021, the most prescribed antihypertensives were calcium channel blockers (CCBs) (22.9%, 26.5%, 32.5%, and 33.0% respectively). Angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors prescribing decreased from 27.0% in 2017 to 18.0% in 2021 and thiazide diuretics prescribing decreased from 19.0% in 2017 to 8.0%. While CCBs prescribing increased from 21.0% in 2017 to 33.0% in 2021, and angiotensin receptor blockers prescribing increased from 20.0% in 2017 to 26.0% in 2021. Majority of patients had controlled blood pressure ranging from 56.9% to 81.9% across the years from 2018 to 2020. Patients with dyslipidemia, heart failure, and Qatari citizens were more likely to have controlled BP (adjusted OR=1.448, 2.417, 1.481 respectively). In phase 2, seven components loaded: physicians' knowledge and skills, confidence in their role and identity, ability to remember to prescribe antihypertensives as per the guidelines, beliefs about consequences, goals, and intentions, perceived environmental context resources, and perceived social influences. Fourteen themes emerged. Examples include physicians' sources of knowledge about hypertension management, role in hypertension management, confidence about prescribing decisions, optimism regarding antihypertensives prescriptions yielding positive outcomes, goals when managing hypertension, methods to ensure their prescribing of antihypertensives is appropriate, emotions and experiences when prescribing antihypertensives, barriers and facilitators when prescribing antihypertensives and strategies to improve hypertension management in Qatar. Conclusions: Several barriers, facilitators and strategies were discussed to improve antihypertensive prescribing. Overall, prescribing patterns of antihypertensives were found to be similar to what is published in the literature. Majority of physicians reported following hypertension management guidelines. Further studies are needed to fully assess antihypertensives prescribing appropriateness.

Background Routine utilization of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) is an effective strategy to optimize patient care and reduce practice variation. Healthcare professionals’ failure to adhere to CPGs introduces risks to both patients and the sustainability of healthcare systems. The integration of theory to investigate adherence provides greater insight into the often complex reasons for suboptimal behaviors. Aim To determine the coverage of literature surrounding the use of theory in studies of CPG adherence, report the key findings and identify the knowledge gaps. Method In April 2021, three bibliographic databases were searched for studies published since January 2010, adopting theory to investigate health professionals’ adherence to CPGs. Two reviewers independently screened the articles for eligibility and charted the data. A narrative approach to synthesis was employed. Results The review includes 12 articles. Studies were limited to primarily investigations of physicians, quantitative designs, single disease states and few countries. The use of behavioral theories facilitated pooling of data of barriers and facilitators of adherence. The domains and constructs of a number of the reported theories are captured within the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF); the most common barriers aligned with the TDF domain of environmental context and resources, fewer studies reported facilitators. Conclusion There is emerging use of behavioral theories investigating physicians’ adherence to CPGs. Although limited in number, these studies present specific insight into common barriers and facilitators, thus providing valuable evidence for refining existing and future implementation strategies. Similar investigations of other health professionals are warranted.

Background Systematic reviews with or without meta-analyses (SR/MAs) are strongly encouraged to work from a protocol to facilitate high quality, transparent methodology. The completeness of reporting of a protocol (PRISMA-P) and manuscript (PRISMA) is essential to the quality appraisal (AMSTAR-2) and appropriate use of SR/MAs in making treatment decisions. Objectives The objectives of this study were to describe the completeness of reporting and quality of SR/MAs, assess the correlations between PRISMA-P, PRISMA, and AMSTAR-2, and to identify reporting characteristics between similar items of PRISMA-P and PRISMA. Methods We performed a systematic review of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus SR/MAs of hypoglycemic agents with publicly available protocols. Cochrane reviews, guidelines, and specific types of MA were excluded. Two reviewers independently, (i) searched PubMed and Embase between 1/1/2015 to 20/3/2019; (ii) identified protocols of included studies by searching the manuscript bibliography, supplementary material, PROSPERO, and Google; (iii) completed PRISMA-P, PRISMA, and AMSTAR-2 tools. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation, and multivariable linear regression. Results Of 357 relevant SR/MAs, 51 had available protocols and were included. The average score for PRISMA-P was 15.8±3.3 (66%; maximum 24) and 25.2±1.1 (93%; maximum 27) for PRISMA. The quality of SR/MAs assessed using the AMSTAR-2 tool identified an overall poor quality (63% critically low, 18% low, 8% moderate, 12% high). The correlation between the PRISMA-P and PRISMA was not significant (r = 0.264; p = 0.06). Correlation was significant between PRISMA-P and AMSTAR-2 (r = 0.333; p = 0.02) and PRISMA and AMSTAR-2 (r = 0.555; p Conclusion Adherence to protocol reporting guidance was poor while manuscript reporting was comprehensive. Protocol completeness is not associated with a completely reported manuscript. Independently, PRISMA-P and PRISMA scores were weakly associated with higher quality assessments but insufficient as a surrogate for quality. Critical areas for quality improvement include protocol description, investigating causes of heterogeneity, and the impact of risk of bias on the evidence synthesis.

BackgroundThe heterocyclic compounds are extremely important with wide array of synthetic, pharmaceutical, and industrial applications. Heterocyclic-containing compounds have been reported for their broad spectrum of biological activities including antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiprotozoal, and anthelmintic activity.Main textSeveral techniques have been used for the quantitation of heterocyclic compounds in pharmaceutical samples such as high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) either equipped with UV-visible or fluorescence, in addition to liquid chromatography-mass spectroscopy, UV-visible spectrophotometry, and electrochemical techniques. This article reviewed several published methods that have been applied to detect and quantify some pharmaceutical drugs containing heterocyclic compounds focusing on four drugs: brinzolamide, timolol maleate, flumethasone pivalate, and clioquinol.ConclusionFrom literature reviews, HPLC is the most widely used analytical technique for the quantitative analysis of the four selected drugs.

This paper proposes an OFDM system to be used in the ECG Patient Monitoring System (ECG-PMS) for wireless telemedicine applications. The system needs a level of transmitted power at the patient site, and achieves a high BER performance at the hospital base station. This achieved by implementing a wavelet-based OFDM system that uses channel estimation based on the improved Data-Aided technique called Forward Error Correction coding Decoded Pseudo Pilot (FDPP). The performance of wavelet-based OFDM systems and Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT)-based OFDM system using FDPP-based as well as Hard Decision Pseudo Pilot channel estimation techniques are compared. The system model was studied using MATLAB software in which the average BER was addressed for randomized data, and the difference between the transmitted and received signals provide a measure of the ECG signal quality. A better BER performance achieved by using OFDM-DWT(haar) system than OFDM_FFT system, thus our system requirements achieved successfully

International audience; Prechlorination is used in seawater desalination processes to control the biofouling in both thermal desalination plants and membrane desalination plants. A large diversity of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) is formed during seawater pretreatment processes using chlorination, including the regulated trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). Nitrogenous DBPs (N-DBPs) generally form in much smaller amounts than regulated DBPs, but have been a growing concern over the past decade because of their greater health risk. High levels of nitrogen-containing compounds in algal organic matter (AOM) can lead to the formation of significant quantities of N-DBPs during algal bloom events. Moreover, the presence of high concentrations of bromide and iodide ion in seawater favors the formation of brominated and iodinated byproducts that are often more toxic than their chlorinated analogues. The aim of this work is to assess the formation and the behavior of halogenated byproducts along the treatment train of full-scale desalination plants. In the first campaign of this work, one thermal multi-stage flash distillation (MSF) plant and one reverse osmosis (RO) plant were studied, both located on the Red Sea coast of Saudi Arabia. Results show that DBPs formed during the pre-chlorination step are efficiently removed along the treatment processes (MSF or RO). Future work will focus on DBPs produced during algal bloom events.

In this research work, many samples of metal-oxide -silicon were laboratory prepared by thermal evaporation techniques. Some silicon samples were left in the air for a predefined time for SiO 2 to grow naturally, while others were thermally coated with measured thickness of SiO. A number of the samples were coated with nickel while others with aluminum and one sample was coated with indium. Various tests and measurements were conducted; these include transmittance tests with a range of wave length and for different thicknesses. The ideality factors of the samples and the potential barrier height were calculated from 1-V and C-V characteristics. The photo generated current of the samples were also measured at photoconductive mode under reverse voltage. Quantum efficiency measurement indicated that native oxide samples showed higher quantum efficiency than those thermally deposited samples. Detectivity measurement showed that thermally deposited oxide samples had low detectivity as compared to native oxide samples.

The energy band diagram and space charge regions of Schottky barrier (SB) solar cells are different from normal pn solar cells. Many facts and theories must be studied and developed to assist understanding and implementing SB solarcells. Few samples of SB devices were prepared by thermal deposition under vacuum then tested and studied carefully. An interfacial layer was introduced between metal and semiconductor. I-V and C-V are measured, drawn and discussed in details. The current transportation mechanism of the prepared samples is found to be of thermal mechanism type. The current transportation depends on the potential barrier height. From C-V characteristics, it is found that the potential barrier height is decreased as the interfacial oxide becomes thicker.