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  <front>
    <journal-meta>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="iso-abbrev">Pharmacophore</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">pharmacophorejournal.com</journal-id>
      <journal-id journal-id-type="publisher-id">Pharmacophore</journal-id>
      <journal-title-group>
        <journal-title>Pharmacophore</journal-title>
      </journal-title-group>
      <issn pub-type="epub">2229-5402</issn>
    </journal-meta>
    <article-meta>
      <article-id pub-id-type="publisher-id">pharmacophorejournal.com-6900</article-id>
      <article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.51847/pkyYsQrE8h</article-id>
      <article-categories>
        <subj-group subj-group-type="heading">
          <subject>Original research</subject>
        </subj-group>
      </article-categories>
      <title-group>
        <article-title>Predicting Pediatric Liquid Palatability Using Sweeteners, Bitterness, Viscosity, and Acceptability Data</article-title>
      </title-group>
                    <contrib-group>
                      <contrib contrib-type="author">
              <name>
                <surname>Tran</surname>
                <given-names>Minh</given-names>
              </name>
                              <xref rid="aff1" ref-type="aff">1</xref>
                                                            <xref rid="cor1" ref-type="corresp" />
                          </contrib>
                      <contrib contrib-type="author">
              <name>
                <surname>Pham</surname>
                <given-names>Duc</given-names>
              </name>
                              <xref rid="aff1" ref-type="aff">1</xref>
                                        </contrib>
                  </contrib-group>
                  <aff id="aff1">
            <label>1</label>Department of Intelligent Pharmaceutical Engineering, Faculty of Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
          </aff>
                          <author-notes>
            <corresp id="cor1">
              <bold>Address for correspondence:</bold> Prof. Wael Abu Dayyih, Department of
              Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, Mutah University, Al-Karak 61710, Jordan.
                              E-mail: <email xlink:href="minh.tran@gmail.com">minh.tran@gmail.com</email>
                          </corresp>
          </author-notes>
                    <pub-date pub-type="epub">
        <day>28</day>
        <month>06</month>
        <year>2026</year>
      </pub-date>
      <volume>17</volume>
      <issue>3</issue>
      <fpage>12</fpage>
      <lpage>21</lpage>
      <permissions>
        <copyright-statement>
          Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Pharmacophore
        </copyright-statement>
        <copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
        <license>
          <ali:license_ref xmlns:ali="http://www.niso.org/schemas/ali/1.0/"
            specific-use="textmining" content-type="ccbyncsalicense">
            https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/</ali:license_ref>
          <license-p>This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of
            the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows
            others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate
            credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.</license-p>
        </license>
      </permissions>
      <abstract>
        <title>A<sc>BSTRACT</sc></title>
        <p>Pediatric adherence is strongly shaped by whether a child can tolerate the taste, texture, and aftertaste of an oral medicine. Liquid formulations are especially complex because bitterness, sweetness, viscosity, and aroma are experienced together rather than as isolated attributes. Current palatability development often depends on expert judgment, small sensory panels, and iterative reformulation. These approaches can identify unacceptable products, but they do not reliably predict how a planned change in sweetener, bitterness masking, or viscosity would affect future child acceptability. This predictive modeling article proposes a machine learning framework for estimating pediatric liquid palatability from sweetener characteristics, API bitterness, viscosity, and prior acceptability data. The intended outputs are a predicted acceptability score, a rejection-risk indication, and interpretable formulation guidance. A gradient-boosted regression and classification framework is proposed for curated formulation records containing sweetener identity and concentration, electronic-tongue or sensory bitterness measurements, rheological descriptors, and historical pediatric or caregiver acceptability observations. The model is conceptual and is intended to guide study design rather than report experimental findings. Conceptually, the model could identify whether bitterness intensity, sweetener potency, sweetener concentration, viscosity, or their interactions are most responsible for a predicted palatability limitation. It would be expected to support virtual screening of formulation variants before pediatric panel testing. Predictive palatability modeling could reduce reliance on late-stage trial-and-error in pediatric liquid formulation development. A standardized dataset linking objective measurements with human acceptability outcomes would be essential for reliable implementation.</p>
      </abstract>
      <kwd-group>
                <kwd>Pediatric palatability</kwd>
                <kwd>Predictive modeling</kwd>
                <kwd>Liquid formulations</kwd>
                <kwd>Electronic tongue</kwd>
                <kwd>Sweeteners</kwd>
                <kwd>Viscosity</kwd>
              </kwd-group>
    </article-meta>
  </front>
</article>