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Purpose: A two-step experimental design was used to develop a lornoxicam (LOR)-loaded topical hydrogel patch. We specifically focused on the simultaneous effect of the ion pair formation agent (triethanolamine [TEA]) and the chemical enhancer (cremophor RH40 [RH40]) on flux and conducted physicochemical studies and skin physiology assessments to obtain further information. Methods: Drug-in-adhesive patches were fabricated using a micrometer-adjustable film applicator. The applied Design of Experiments (DoE) approach consisted of the Fractional Factorial Resolution V + design and the Central Composite Face design established by the MODDE®12.0 software. Molecular-level drug-excipient interactions were investigated using infrared (IR) and proton nuclear magnetic resonance (1H NMR) spectroscopy. The effects on skin physiological function was assessed using DermaLab Combo. Results: DoE results revealed that TEA enhanced flux by 3.14-fold, whereas RH40 reduced it by 4.62-fold. The addition of RH40 resulted in the disappearance of the proton peak within the region of 12–13 ppm, suggesting competition for hydrogen bonding with LOR between TEA and RH40. The optimized formulation (4% TEA, 0% RH40, and 0.2% Al(OH)3) increased skin hydration by 6.20-fold. Opposing effects of TEA and RH40 on skin elasticity were observed. Conclusion: Expected flux and adhesion strength for the optimized formulation were 7.18 µg·cm–2·h–1and 11.79 mJ, respectively. Our understanding of the conflicting effects of TEA and RH40 has been advanced. The integrated use of the two-step DoE, physicochemical studies, and skin physiology assessments was proven to be effective in elucidating the simultaneous effects of different permeation-modifying strategies on patches, thus having substantial value for the successful execution of future research endeavors.

The firm’s market capitalization is an ideal proxy of the size of listed firms. Hence, this paper uses the firm’s market capitalization to capture the firm size instead of using other prior proxies to investigate the relationship between the market capitalized scale and corporate capital structure by employing the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) method to conduct analysis based on a sample of the 300 largest listed firms in China from 2010 to 2017. The CSI300 list consists of two subsample (CSI100 and CSI200), divided upon the firm’s market capitalized scales to represent both large-cap and small-cap firms. Our paper contributes to the literature on corporate finance by obtaining some new empirical results to assess the effect of market capitalized scale on corporate capital structure. We find that the market capitalized size has a significantly negative association with corporate leverage. We also find that both the Trade-Off Theory (TOT) and Pecking-Order Theory (POT) can partially explain the capital structure of the listed firms of the CSI300 Index such that the negative relationship between the market capitalized scales and corporate leverage is firmly identified in small-cap firms. Third, we observe that the greater validity of the POT’s predictions is enhanced in small-cap firms such that the greater inverse impact of profitability and the more significant positive effect of growth opportunities on corporate leverage are clearly shown in small-cap firms. Inversely, the more significant adverse effects of non-debt tax shields on corporate leverage are found in large-cap firms and there is no difference in the impact of tangible assets on debt ratios between CSI100’s listed companies and CSI200’s listed enterprises. Academics and practitioners could use our findings to draw better implications while policymakers could use our results to obtain better policies to improve the banking system with small listed companies.

This paper examines the presence of herd behavior in the Vietnamese stock market using the cross-sectional absolute deviation (CSAD) method and by applying quantile regression (QR). We detect herd behavior in the Vietnamese stock market from January 2016 to May 2022. Herd behavior is less pronounced for bullish markets, yet more prominent under other market conditions. Importantly, the paper provides insight into the herd phenomenon during COVID-19’s fourth wave outbreak in Vietnam. We discover that during the fourth wave outbreak investors on the Hanoi Stock Exchange (HNX) do not engage in herding. However, herd behavior does manifest on the Ho Chi Minh Stock Exchange (HOSE) with falling stock prices engender pessimistic herd selling. Knowledge of this empirical evidence of herd behavior in the Vietnamese stock market should prove useful to investors in determining the intrinsic value of stocks, and to policymakers wishing to enhance the efficiency of the equity market.

and importance: Wide resection in the surgical treatment of aneurysms bone cysts is often performed in cases where the tumor is large, recurrent, growing, and intensely invasive. Reshaping the defect after tumor removal is a necessary issue to restore shape and maintain function for the patient.