Gordana Švonja Parezanović

Rapid urbanization and population growth have intensified anthropogenic pressures on ecological environments, particularly in developing cities, thereby challenging the balance between urban expansion and environmental sustainability. In this context, the quantitative monitoring of spatiotemporal ecological changes has become essential for sustainable urban planning. This study aims to assess the ecological environmental quality of Kabul, Afghanistan, over the 1990–2020 period using the Remote Sensing Ecological Index (RSEI) within the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud-based platform. Long-term Landsat time-series imagery was utilized to derive four key ecological indicators: greenness (NDVI), wetness (WET), dryness (NDBSI), and land surface temperature (LST). Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was applied to integrate these indicators and construct the RSEI model. Satellite images from 1990, 2000, 2010, and 2020 were analyzed at ten-year intervals. The results indicate that ecological environmental quality in Kabul was predominantly concentrated in moderate and high classes throughout the study period, exhibiting a fluctuating yet relatively stable trend. The mean RSEI values were calculated as 0.551, 0.651, 0.547, and 0.506 for the respective years. These findings provide valuable scientific insights for ecological monitoring, urban planning, and the formulation of sustainable development strategies.

This study aims to find the effects of high (75%) and low (30%) humidity conditions and its correlation with formulation composition on dissolution kinetics of lamotrigine (LMT) from prepared immediate-release tablets during one- and four-week periods. Two types of fillers microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) or anhydrous lactose (LAC), disintegrant sodium starch glycolate (NaSG, 0.5% or 4%), and lubricant magnesium stearate (MgST, 0.25% or 5%) were used. A three-factor two-stage complete factorial design (2³) was used to assess the influence of the composition of the tested formulations. The tablets were produced by direct compression and characterized using a disintegration test, a resistance to crushing test, and dissolution tests (pH 1.2 and pH 6.8). Using Design Expert software, it was concluded that in addition to the effect of fillers on pH 6.8, NaSG has a significant impact after exposure to high and low humidity, as well as its interaction with LAC and MCC. In the dissolution medium pH 1.2, under conditions of high humidity, the content of MgST and NaSG and their interaction show a significant influence. The release rate of LMT was affected by humidity as well as type of excipients and their interactions.

Environmental pollution caused by pharmaceuticals and their transformation products (TPs) has become an increasingly important concern, due to the increased use of pharmaceutical formulations exposed to environmental change. Considerable concerns have been raised regarding potential toxic effects of the transformation products of pharmaceutical formulations on human health. Environmental risk assessments are mostly based on one active component, which causes different ecotoxicological effects, albeit the particular component is present in the environment as a part of a multicomponent mixture with different pharmaceuticals and excipients. The purpose of this review was to present the insight and new knowledge recently obtained by studies on the risk of pharmaceutical formulations, including all contained excipients, pharmaceuticals, and their transformation products exposed to the environment. Numerous studies have shown that the level of pharmaceuticals in the environment is below toxic concentration; however, long exposure to very low concentrations can still lead to harmful concentrations in biota. Accordingly, the findings of this study are expected to highlight the existing issues of the effect of pharmaceutical formulations to the environment, including TPs, and help to determine future research directions towards accumulating the data and improving ecological risk assessment.