Rapid Environmental Impact Assessment of Penicillin G in a Veterinary Product Using an Original Software Method and Monitoring by SPE-Online-UHPLC-MS/MS.

Veterinary antibiotics have become a major concern due to potential environmental effects. This study presents an investigation of the exposure and environmental effects of the veterinary medicinal product in powder form, administered in the drinking water of piglets, chickens and turkeys, containing 250 mg/g penicillin G (benzylpenicillin potassium), performed according to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) guideline and the results obtained by an analytical method based on online solid-phase extraction, ultra-high performance liquid chromatography coupled to a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (SPE-online-UHPLC-MS/MS). The study presents the determination of the environmental risk and through an original, interactive, fast software method, created on the basis of a proprietary calculation algorithm that goes through all the prescriptions and recommendations of the EMEA guide. The results demonstrated that the concentration value for penicillin G determined in surface water by SPE-online-UHPLC-MS/MS is much lower than that predicted by calculation (predictable concentration in surface water, PECsurface water = 37.66 µg/L and the concentration SPE-online-UHPLC-MS/MS = 0.032 µg/L). Both results lead to a sub-unit risk quotient (R) indicating that the treatment carried out with the considered veterinary product does not present any risk to the environment.

Evaluation of the Phytoremediation Potential of the Sinapis alba Plant Using Extractable Metal Concentrations.

Testing the feasibility of soil phytoremediation requires the development of models applicable on a large scale. Phytoremediation mechanisms include advanced rhizosphere biodegradation, phytoaccumulation, phytodegradation, and phytostabilization. The aim of this study was to evaluate the phytoremediation potential of the Sinapis alba. Identification of the factors influencing the extraction process of metals from contaminated soils in a laboratory system suitable for evaluating the phytoavailability of these metals in three solutions (M1-CaCl2, M2-DTPA, and M3-EDTA) included the following: distribution of metals in solution (Kd), soil properties and mobile fractions (SOC, CEC, pH), response surface methodology (RSM), and principal component analysis (PCA). The evaluation of the phytoremediation potential of the Sinapis alba plant was assessed using bioaccumulation coefficients (BACs). The accumulation of heavy metals in plants corresponds to the concentrations and soluble fractions of metals in the soil. Understanding the extractable metal fractions and the availability of metals in the soil is important for soil management. Extractable soluble fractions may be more advantageous in total metal content as a predictor of bioconcentrations of metals in plants. In this study, the amount of metal available in the most suitable extractors was used to predict the absorption of metals in the Sinapis alba plant. Multiple regression prediction models have been developed for estimating the amounts of As and Cd in plant organs. The performance of the predictive models generated based on the experimental data was evaluated by the adjusted coefficient of determination (aR2), model efficiency (RMSE), Durbin-Watson (DW) test, and Shapiro-Wilk (SW) test. The accumulation of the analyzed metals followed the pattern Root > Pods > Leaves > Seeds, stems > Flowers for As and Leaves > Root > Stem > Pods > Seeds > Flowers for Cd in soil contaminated with different metal concentrations. The obtained results showed a phytoremediation potential of the Sinapis alba plant.

Mechanical and Surface Characteristics of Selective Laser Melting-Manufactured Dental Prostheses in Different Processing Stages.

Due to the expansion of the use of powder bed fusion metal additive technologies in the medical field, especially for the realization of dental prostheses, in this paper, the authors propose a comparative experimental study of the mechanical characteristics and the state of their microscale surfaces. The comparison was made from material considerations starting from two dental alloys commonly used to realize dental prostheses: Ni-Cr and Co-Cr, but also technologies for obtaining selective laser melting (SLM) and conventional casting. In addition, to compare the performances with the classical casting technology, for the dental prostheses obtained through SLM, the post-processing stage in which they are in a preliminary finishing and polished state was considered. Therefore, for the determination of important mechanical characteristics and the comparative study of dental prostheses, the indentation test was used, after which the hardness, penetration depths (maximum, permanent, and contact depth), contact stiffness, and contact surface were established, and for the determination of the microtopography of the surfaces, atomic force microscopy (AFM) was used, obtaining the local areal roughness parameters at the miniaturized scale-surface average roughness, root-mean-square roughness (RMS), and peak-to-peak values. Following the research carried out, several interesting conclusions were drawn, and the superiority of the SLM technology over the classic casting method for the production of dental prostheses in terms of some mechanical properties was highlighted. At the same time, the degree of finishing of dental prostheses made by SLM has a significant impact on the mechanical characteristics and especially the local roughness parameters on a miniaturized scale, and if we consider the same degree of finishing, no major differences are observed in the roughness parameters of the surfaces of the prostheses produced by different technologies.