Pharmaceutical industry experimental formulations

This problem, which is commonly experienced in the pharmaceutical industry when fine medicinal formulations are to be directly compressed into, for example, tablets (Section 6.2.2), can be overcome by utilizing either a very low densification speed, which may be unprofitable because it reduces the equipment capacity (above), or by keeping the compact for some time (dwell time. Section 6.2.2) at maximum pressure. The latter (curve (2) in Fig. 10.16c) is more often used because it allows fast densification and, overall, a short pressing cycle. When holding the compact for some time at the maximum pressure, additional de-aeration and conversion of elastic deformation occur, resulting in less expansion (s in Fig. 10.16c). Dwell time and re-expansion are interrelated and the optimum must be determined experimentally. Even very short dwell times of a fraction of a second produce surprising improvements. 

The optical microscope is a valuable tool in the laboratory and has numerous applications in most industries. Depending on the type of data that is required to solve a particular problem, optical microscopy can provide information on particle size, particle morphology, color, appearance, birefringence, etc. There are many accessories and techniques for optical microscopy that may be employed for the characterization of the physical properties of materials and the identification of unknowns, etc. Utilization of a hot-stage accessory on the microscope for the characterization of materials, including pharmaceutical solids (drug substances, excipients, formulations, etc.), can be extremely valuable. As with any instrument, there are many experimental conditions and techniques for the hot-stage microscope that may be used to collect different types of data. Often, various microscope objectives, optical filters, ramp rates, immersion media, sample preparation techniques, microchemical tests, fusion methods, etc., can be utilized. 

In 2003, I wrote a book, Applied Statistical Designs for the Researcher (Marcel Dekker, Inc.), in which I covered experimental designs commonly encountered in the pharmaceutical, applied microbiological, and healthcare-product-formulation industries. It included two sample evaluations, analysis of variance, factorial, nested, chi-square, exploratory data analysis, nonpara-metric statistics, and a chapter on linear regression. Many researchers need more than simple linear regression methods to meet their research needs. It is for those researchers that this regression analysis book is written. 

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