Drug-Eluting Stents and Balloons—Materials, Structure Designs, and Coating Techniques: A Review

Controlled drug delivery is a matter of interest to numerous scientists from various domains, as well as an essential issue for society as a whole. In the treatment of many diseases, it is crucial to control the dosing of a drug for a long time and thus maintain its optimal concentration in the tissue. Heart diseases are particularly important in this aspect. One such disease is an obstructive arterial disease affecting millions of people around the world. In recent years, stents and balloon catheters have reached a significant position in the treatment of this condition. Balloon catheters are also successfully used to manage tear ducts, paranasal sinuses, or salivary glands disorders. Modern technology is continually striving to improve the results of previous generations of stents and balloon catheters by refining their design, structure, and constituent materials. These advances result in the development of both successive models of drug-eluting stents (DES) and drug-eluting balloons (DEB). This paper presents milestones in the development of DES and DEB, which are a significant option in the treatment of coronary artery diseases. This report reviews the works related to achievements in construction designs and materials, as well as preparation technologies, of DES and DEB. Special attention was paid to the polymeric biodegradable materials used in the production of the above-mentioned devices. Information was also collected on the various methods of producing drug release coatings and their effectiveness in releasing the active substance

Four Variants of Indeterminacy Thesis

The objective of the article is to identify different formulations of indeterminacy thesis and various trials of dealing with it. Indeterminacy thesis was first identified by Quine as a consequence of his theory of meaning. According to the thesis, although we can determine the kind of facts or events of the world, which a particular observation sentence type refers to, we are not able to determine the referents of words the sentence consists of. And that is because of the fact that on the basis of data we normally posses in the process of interpretation we can construct indefinitely many equally good transactions manuals (due to any one of them a reference of a particular word type can be something different than due to any other). In the article four variants of indeterminacy thesis will be identified and the relations between them will be showed. The resulting thesis will be that if we do not want to accept ad hoc and improbable semantic assumptions that at the start undermine the indeterminacy thesis, we should reduce three first variants of the thesis to the fourth one. The last one, however, is such that essentially seems to resist virtually any argument against indeterminacy thesis (granting the general assumptions of semantic theories of which it is a consequence)

Stanisław Wyspiański's stained glass imagination based on the case of Akropolis An attempt at an empirical analysis of the drama

Gdy w 1890 roku Stanisław Wyspiański podróżował po Francji i z zamiłowaniem zwiedzał kolejne gotyckie katedry, fizycznie znajdował się wśród ścian średniowiecznych gmachów, mentalnie przebywał jednak 1300 km na wschód, na Wawelu. To krakowskie wzgórze od zawsze zajmowało szczególne miejsce w sercu artysty, marzył o jego renowacji, snuł plany, wykonywał makiety obrazujące nową postać Zamku. Nieszczęśliwie nie udało mu się wykonać witraży, które przyozdobiłby bazylikę wawelską. Wyspiański niedługo przed swoją śmiercią dokonał jednak czegoś niesamowitego – skonstruował Wawel za pomocą słów, wybudował swoje Akropolis. Synteza sztuk to określenie, które przyświeca temu dramatowi – nie tylko ożywione są w nim dzieła sztuki, a sam tekst jest skonstruowany niczym jeden z witraży, które do dzisiaj podziwiać możemy w krakowskim Kościele św. Franciszka z Asyżu. Akropolis jest nie tylko reprezentacją wyobraźni witrażowej i ejdetycznej Wyspiańskiego, ale też samo w sobie, na poziomie kompozycji czy akcji, przypomina witraż, który w dodatku posiada swój indywidualny, symetryczny rytm. Niniejsza praca podejmuje próbę interpretacji dramatu przez pryzmat witraży, które się nań składają. Dodatkowo, wnioski interpretacyjne zostaną umotywowane badaniami korpusowymi tekstu dramatu w porównaniu z korpusem referencyjnym składającym się z pozostałych utworów Stanisława Wyspiańskiego. Analiza zostanie przeprowadzona za pomocą narzędzi stylometrycznych, głównie programu stylo działającym w środowisku programowania R, oraz w automatycznie zanotowanym i zlematyzowanym korpusie utworzonym w ogólnodostępnym programie do zarządzania korpusami – SketchEngine. W ten sposób jakościowe badania i interpretacja dramatu zostanie zestawiona z badaniami ilościowymi.When, in 1890, Stanisław Wyspiański was travelling in France and passionately visiting successive Gothic cathedrals, he was physically among the walls of the medieval edifices, but mentally he was 1,300 km to the east, on Wawel Hill. This hill in Krakow had always held a special place in his heart, and he dreamt of renovating it, made plans, and produced models depicting the new form of the castle. Unhappily, he did not manage to make the stained-glass windows that would have adorned the Wawel Basilica. However, not long before his death, Wyspiański did something amazing - he constructed Wawel Castle with words, he built his Akropolis. A synthesis of the arts is the term used for this drama - not only are the works of art brought to life in it, but the text itself is constructed like one of the stained glass windows that can still be admired in Krakow's Church of St Francis of Assisi. Akropolis is not only a representation of Wyspiański's stained-glass and ejidetic imagination, but also resembles a stained-glass itself, at the level of composition or action, which, moreover, has its own individual, symmetrical rhythm. This thesis will attempt to interpret the drama through the prism of the stained glass windows that comprise it. In addition, the interpretative conclusions will be motivated by corpus studies of the text of the drama in comparison with a reference corpus consisting of other works by Stanisław Wyspiański. The analysis will be carried out using stylometric tools, mainly the stylo program running in the R programming environment, and in an automatically annotated and anatomised corpus created in the freely available corpus management program, SketchEngine. In this way, qualitative research and interpretation of the drama will be juxtaposed with quantitative research

Biokoncentracja rtęci i metali ciężkich przez korę platana klonolistnego

Continuous civilization progress, urbanization, and growing level of industrialization cause the fact that the contents of mercury and heavy metals in the natural environment is increasing, posing a threat to proper ontogenesis of all living organisms. Thus it is justified to monitor and control the accumulation of the above-mentioned elements in the environment. The main goal of our research was to determine whether maple-leaf plane tree (Platanus x acerifolia) may be used as a bioindicator of the air pollutants. This tree may be found all across Central Europe, it is quite resistant to different environment pollutions, and, what is very important, it sheds the bark every autumn. The research covered a determination of the analytical procedure capable of quantitive analysis of the contents of some given heavy metals: copper, zinc, iron, mercury and sulfur. The results and correctness of the procedure of the preparation of the bark samples for the analysis were confirmed by the research of a certified material (BCR-062 Olive leaves). Particular attention was put to the influence of the separated stages of the sample preparation (washing, drying, grinding down), especially for the mercury analysis due to the fact that this element is characterized by high volatility. To broaden the analysis, the samples were taken from different parts of the trees: limbs, trunks, and roots, as well as from different places, such as high-traffic streets, parks, and from different cities of Poland and Europe. Total mercury contents were measured by means of automatic Mercury Analyzer MA-2. The quantification determination of the transient-metal ions was performed on a emission spectrometer with inductively coupled plasma VARIAN VISTA-MPX.Ciągły rozwój cywilizacyjny, urbanizacja, postępujące uprzemysłowienie sprawiają, iż zawartość rtęci i metali ciężkich w środowisku naturalnym wzrasta i stwarza zagrożenie dla prawidłowego rozwoju wszystkich organizmów. Wydaje się więc celowe, aby monitorować i kontrolować akumulowanie wspomnianych pierwiastków w naszym środowisku. Celem badań było określenie, czy platan klonolistny (Platanus x acerifolia) może służyć jako bioindykator zanieczyszczeń powietrza. Drzewo to występuje prawie w całej Europie Środkowej, jest stosunkowo odporne na zanieczyszczenia środowiska, a jego cechą charakterystyczną jest zrzucanie kory. Przeprowadzone badania obejmowały opracowanie procedury analitycznej pozwalającej na analizę ilościową zawartości wytypowanych metali ciężkich: miedzi, cynku, żelaza, manganu, rtęci oraz dodatkowo siarki. Wyniki i poprawność stosowanej procedury przygotowania próbek kory do analizy potwierdzono badaniami materiału certyfikowanego (BCR-062 Olive leaves). Zwrócono szczególną uwagę na wpływ poszczególnych etapów przygotowania próbek (mycie, suszenie, rozdrabnianie itd.), co zwłaszcza w przypadku rtęci ma bardzo duże znaczenie z uwagi na jej dużą lotność. Ponadto przebadano próbki pochodzące z różnych części drzewa: konary, pień i korzenie. Kolejną zmienną były miejsca pobrania próbek, kora drzew rosnących przy ruchliwych ulicach, w parkach, pobrane w różnych miastach Polski i Europy. Całkowitą zawartość rtęci oznaczono, wykorzystując automatyczny analizator rtęci Merkury Analyzer MA-2. Pozostałe metale ciężkie oznaczono na spektrometrze emisyjnym z indukcyjnie sprzężoną plazmą VISTA - MPX firmy VARIAN

Determination of N-nitrosodiethanolamine in trolamine by GC-FID method

This study investigated the possibility of determination of N-nitrosodiethanolamine in triethanolamine by GC-FID methods. Triethanolamine is a component of many pharmaceuticals, including Lamiderm and Ketoprofen. According to the 5th European Pharmacopoeia, the maximum permissible concentration of N-nitrosodiethanolamine is 25 ppb. N-nitrosodiethanolamine is characterized by high volatility and low concentration in real samples. Thus, vacuum distillation was applied for the preconcentration of an analyte. Chromatographic separation was performed using a J&W Scientific DB-WAX (30 m x 0.251 mm; DF = 0.25 µm) capillary column. The method was linear from 8 ppb to 1 ppm (R2 = 0.9995). According to the definition of the International Union of Pure Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), the detection limit (S/N = 3) of the present method for N-nitrosodiethanolamine is 7 ppm. The proposed GC-FID method is an efficient method for the separation and quantitative determination of N-nitrosodiethanolamine

Chemical modification of silica surface by bonding ketoimine groups for SPE

The applicability of silica gels, modified with ketoimine groups, in solid-phase extraction was tested. The surface characteristics of the modified silica was determined by elemental analysis, NMR spectra for the solid phases (29Si CP MAS NMR), analysis of pore size distribution of the silica support, and nitrogen adsorptiondesorption. The newly proposed sorbents with ketoimine groups were used for extraction of endocrine-disruptor compounds, extracted from water and powder milk. The properties of the sorbents were compared with commercial C18 ones

Soft Contact Lenses as Drug Delivery Systems: A Review

This review describes the role of contact lenses as an innovative drug delivery system in treating eye diseases. Current ophthalmic drug delivery systems are inadequate, particularly eye drops, which allow about 95% of the active substance to be lost through tear drainage. According to the literature, many interdisciplinary studies have been carried out on the ability of contact lenses to increase the penetration of topical therapeutic agents. Contact lenses limit drug loss by releasing the medicine into two layers of tears on either side of the contact lens, eventually extending the time of contact with the ocular surface. Thanks to weighted soft contact lenses, a continuous release of the drug over an extended period is possible. This article reviewed the various techniques to deliver medications through contact lenses, examining their advantages and disadvantages. In addition, the potential of drug delivery systems based on contact lenses has been extensively studied

Occurrence and Distribution of UV Filters in Beach Sediments of the Southern Baltic Sea Coast

The interest in UV filters’ occurrence in the environment has increased since they were recognized as “emerging contaminants” having potentially adverse impacts on many ecosystems and organisms. Increased worldwide demand for sunscreens is associated with temperature anomalies, high irradiance, and changes in the tourist market. Recently, it has been demonstrated that personal care products, including sunscreens, appear in various ecosystems and geographic locations causing an ecotoxicological threat. Our goal was to determine for the first time the presence of selected organic UV filters at four beaches in the central Pomeranian region in northern Poland and to assess their horizontal and vertical distribution as well as temporal variation at different locations according to the touristic pressure. In this pioneering study, the concentration of five UV filters was measured in core sediments dredged from four exposed beaches (Darłowo, Ustka, Rowy, and Czołpino). UV filters were detected in 89.6% of collected cores at detection frequencies of 0–22.2%, 75–100%, 0–16.7%, and 2.8–25% for benzophenone-1 (BP-1), benzophenone-2 (BP-2), benzophenone-3 (BP-3), and enzacamene (4-MBC), respectively. In terms of seasonality, the concentration of UV filters generally increased in the following order: summer > autumn > spring. No detectable levels of 3-BC (also known as 3-benzylidene camphor) were recorded. No differences were found in the concentration of UV filters according to the depth of the sediment core. During the summer and autumn seasons, all UV filters were detected in higher concentrations in the bathing area or close to the waterline than halfway or further up the beach. Results presented in this study demonstrate that the Baltic Sea coast is not free from UV filters. Even if actual concentrations can be quantified as ng·kg−1 causing limited environmental threat, much higher future levels are expected due to the Earth’s principal climatic zones shifting northward