RESUMEN
The evaluation, visualization of environmental data from long-term monitoring, and making them accessible in a processed form in user-friendly interfaces on the Internet are important tasks of our time. The pollution of groundwater resources in settlements is a global phenomenon, the mitigation of which requires a number of environmental measures. In this study, water quality changes following the construction of a sewerage network were examined in the course of long-term monitoring between 2013 and 2022, during which 40 municipal groundwater wells were regularly sampled. Classifying the monitoring data into pollution categories based on water quality index (WQI) and degree of contamination index (Cd), a high degree of contamination was found in the period before the installation of the sewerage network (2014), as the majority of the wells were classified as contaminated and heavily contaminated. In the monitoring period following the installation of the sewerage network, a significant positive change was found in the case of most of the water chemical parameters tested (EC, NH4+, NO2-, NO3-, PO43-). Based on interpolated maps, it was found that an increasing part of the area shows satisfactory or good water quality. This was confirmed by the discriminant analysis as well, as it is possible to determine with an accuracy of 80.4% whether the given sample originates from the period before or after the installation of the sewerage network based on the given water chemical parameters. However, 8 years after setting up the sewerage network, the concentration of inorganic nitrogen forms and organic matter remains high, indicating that the accumulated pollutants in the area are still present. To understand the dynamics of purification processes, additional, long-term monitoring is necessary. Making these data available to members of the society can contribute to appropriate environmental measures and strategies.
RESUMEN
Vaginal drug delivery systems can provide a long-term and constant liberation of the active pharmaceutical ingredient even for months. For our experiment, FDM 3D printing was used to manufacture the vaginal ring samples from thermoplastic polyurethane filament, which enables fast manufacturing of complex, personalized medications. 3D printing can be an excellent alternative instead of industrial manufacturing, which is complicated and time-consuming. In our work, the 3D printed vaginal rings were filled manually with jellified metronidazole or chloramphenicol for the treatment of bacterial vaginosis. The need for manual filling was certified by the thermogravimetric and heatflow assay results. The manufactured samples were analyzed by an Erweka USP type II Dissolution Apparatus, and the dissolution profile can be distinguished based on the applied jellifying agents and the API's. All samples were considered non-similar based on the pairwise comparison. The biocompatibility properties were determined by prolonged MTT assay on HeLa cells, and the polymer could be considered non-toxic. Based on the microbiological assay on E. coli metronidazole and chitosan containing samples had bactericidal effects while just metronidazole or just chitosan containing samples bacteriostatic effect. None of these samples showed a fungistatic or fungicide effect against C. albicans. Based on our results, we successfully manufactured 3D printed vaginal rings filled with jellified metronidazole.
RESUMEN
One of the most promising emerging innovations in personalized medication is based on 3D printing technology. For use as authorized medications, 3D-printed products require different in vitro tests, including dissolution and biocompatibility investigations. Our objective was to manufacture implantable drug delivery systems using fused deposition modeling, and in vitro tests were performed for the assessment of these products. Polylactic acid, antibacterial polylactic acid, polyethylene terephthalate glycol, and poly(methyl methacrylate) filaments were selected, and samples with 16, 19, or 22 mm diameters and 0%, 5%, 10%, or 15% infill percentages were produced. The dissolution test was performed by a USP dissolution apparatus 1. A 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide dye (MTT)-based prolonged cytotoxicity test was performed on Caco-2 cells to certify the cytocompatibility properties. The implantable drug delivery systems were characterized by thermogravimetric and heatflow assay, contact angle measurement, scanning electron microscopy, microcomputed tomography, and Raman spectroscopy. Based on our results, it can be stated that the samples are considered nontoxic. The dissolution profiles are influenced by the material properties of the polymers, the diameter, and the infill percentage. Our results confirm the potential of fused deposition modeling (FDM) 3D printing for the manufacturing of different implantable drug delivery systems in personalized medicine and may be applied during surgical interventions.
