Objectives: Our novel tool to standardise the evaluation of medicine acceptability was developed using observational data on medicines use measured in a paediatric population included for this purpose (0–14 years). Using this tool, any medicine may be positioned on a map and assigned to an acceptability profile. The present exploration aimed to verify its statistical reliability. Methods: Permutation test has been used to verify the significance of the relationships among measures highlighted by the acceptability map. Bootstrapping has been used to demonstrate the accuracy of the model (map, profiles and scores of acceptability) regardless of variations in the data. Lastly, simulations of enlarged data sets (×2; ×5; ×10) have been built to study the model's consistency. Key findings: Permutation test established the significance of the meaningful pattern identified in the data and summarised in the map. Bootstrapping attested the accuracy of the model: high RV coefficients (mean value: 0.930) verified the mapping stability, significant Adjusted Rand Indexes and Jaccard coefficients supported clustering validity (with either two or four profiles), and agreement between acceptability scores demonstrated scoring relevancy. Regarding enlarged data sets, these indicators reflected a very high consistency of the model. Conclusions: These results highlighted the reliability of the model that will permit its use to standardise medicine acceptability assessments.

Medicines for children often taste bitter, presenting a significant challenge to treatment compliance. However, most studies on paediatric drug development rely on adult volunteers for sensory research, and the level of expertise required from these assessors is unclear. This study aimed to address this gap by investigating perceived bitterness aversion to taste strips impregnated with different concentrations of quinine hydrochloride in 439 school-aged children. Expert (n=26) and naïve (n=65) young adult assessors evaluated quinine solutions as well as taste strips, for methodological bridging purposes. All assessors differentiated the aversiveness of the taste strips in a dose dependent manner. Younger children aged 4-8 years had difficulty discriminating higher bitter concentrations, whereas pre-adolescents 9-11 years and naive adults showed better discrimination at the top of the scale. Naive assessors showed similar bitter perception as children. However, the results were slightly different between strips and solution in adults. These findings highlight the key role that adult panels can play in paediatric formulation development. Taste strips show promise as a safe and pragmatic tool for sensory pharmaceutical evaluations, though further studies are warranted to establish the relationship between age and hedonic taste perception using compounds with diverse physicochemical and sensory qualities.

The validation of a cosmetic product is performed by physical analyses and sensory assessment. However, the recruitment of panelists takes a long time and is expensive. Moreover, to apply the product on the skin, microbiology analyses and safety are required but may not be not enough to avoid inflammatory reaction on the skin. The solution could be the substitution of sensory evaluation by instrumental measurement to predict the sensory profile before the panel. For the study, thirteen different skin care emulsions based on their composition and texture were carried out simultaneously by 12 expert panelists with a quantitative descriptive sensory evaluation profile and by rheological and textural methods. A statistical methodology was the applied to find correlation trends between both data sets. The methodology confirmed that the correlation between sensory assessment and instrumental parameters is a good solution to save time. The multiple factor analysis (MFA) showed the correlation between firmness with no visual residue attribute and the cohesion with sticky 1 min, which are evident but this methodology could be used for finding more complex correlations not found in literature.

For mass transfer applications, CFD codes need the turbulent Schmidt number . The aim of our study is the analysis of some theoretical closure results and analytical formulations for . We will investigate different formulations of from the basic conservation equations for sediment-water mixtures in turbulent open-channel flows based on a two-fluid description and a kinetic model. The kinetic model for turbulent two-phase flows provides which depends on particle Stokes number. Our study show that the two approaches provide that depends on turbulent kinetic energy (TKE), eddy viscosity and particles settling velocity. For the analysis, accurate analytical formulations for TKE and eddy viscosity calibrated by DNS data are presented.