Assessment of Moisture Permeability and Closure Systems of High Density Polyethylene Plastic Bottles Used as Primary Packaging Containers for Moisture Sensitive Medicines

Introduction: Moisture permeability and a loose closure system might allow a significant gain of moisture into container and this could lead to significant loss of potency of drug sensitive to moisture and as well promoting the growth of microorganisms. Typical examples of the drugs sensitive to moisture include Tenofovir Disoproxil Fumarate (TDF). Product claimed to be a “Tight container” does not make it a tight container until proved practically. A plastic container is tight if “not more than one of the 10 tested containers exceeds 100 mg per day per L in moisture permeability. Objectives: The goal of this study was to determine rate of moisture permeability of selected High Density Polyethylene plastic bottles for packaging of moisture sensitive medicines in particular Lamivudine/Tenofovir Disoproxil fumarate tablets. Methodology: The determination of rate of moisture permeability was achieved by assessing closure systems of plastics as per USP 37 method, while the difference in absorption pattern was achieved by assessing the spectrum obtained through transmittance by Fourier Transform-Infrared (FT-IR). The plastic bottles were randomly selected from supplier A, B and C. Results: The plastic bottles from supplier A and B had an average moisture permeability of 12.57 and 51.55 mg/day/L with none of the containers exceeding moisture permeability of 100 mg/day/L whereas containers from supplier C had an average of 149.95 mg/day/L with seven of the containers exceeding of 100 mg/day/L. Conclusion: Containers from supplier A and B met the USP specifications hence could be used as primary packaging for moisture sensitive medicines whereas the containers from supplier C did not meet the USP specifications for them to be regarded as “Tight Containers” and hence, unsuitable for packaging of moisture sensitive medicines.

An Analysis of the Impact of Charging for Plastic Shopping Bags to Retailers in Japan

In accordance with a revision of the Containers and Packaging Recycling Law, there is an accelerating trend towards charging for plastic shopping bags （PSBs） in Japan for the purpose of reducing their discharge. The objectives of this research were to gauge, by means of a questionnaire survey, the opinions of retailers with regard to charging for PSBs, and to consider future directions for reducing the quantity of waste discharged. A questionnaire survey on charging for PSBs was conducted for retail stores in Shizuoka City. The survey was carried out in two phases. The results of the first phase （August to October 2008） showed that supermarkets were generally positive, while conversely other retailer types were negative. The results of the second phase （November to December, 2010）, targeting only supermarkets that had introduced charging after the first survey, showed that there was no major confusion and the shift proceeded relatively smoothly. In addition, the number of customers did not decline on account of charging, and the ratio of shoppers bringing their own reusable ＂eco bags＂ jumped dramatically. On these accounts, it is evident that charging for PSBs is an effective means of reducing usage of PSBs. The authors view it as important for the relevant governmental agencies to work towards promoting charging at retailers and simultaneously repeatedly explaining to consumers the necessity for charging.

SCStore： Managing Scientific Computing Packages for Hybrid System with Containers

Managing software packages in a scientific computing environment is a challenging task, especially in the case of heterogeneous systems. It is error prone when installing and updating software packages in a sophisticated computing environment. Testing and performance evaluation in an on-the-fly manner is also a troublesome task for a production system. In this paper, we discuss a package management scheme based on containers. The newly developed method can ease the maintenance complexity and reduce human mistakes. We can benefit from the self-containing and isolation features of container technologies for maintaining the software packages among intricately connected clusters. By deploying the Super Computing application Strore（SCStore） over the WAN connected world-largest clusters, it proved that it can greatly reduce the effort for maintaining the consistency of software environment and bring benefit to achieve automation.