Survey on the presence of floating microplastics, trace metals and metalloids in seawater from Southern Italy to the United States of America.

The presence of microplastics (MPs), trace metals (TM) and metalloids (Ms) in surface seawater is a severe emerging issue of global concern. Information about the distribution of these pollutants is often lacking, and large-scale studies come with uncertainties because of difficult comparisons of results obtained using different methods to collect and process data. This study presents a comprehensive investigation of microplastics (MPs), trace metals (TM) and metalloids (Ms) in surface seawater during two transatlantic sampling campaigns, covering approximately 17,000 nautical miles.

On the characteristics of natural hydraulic dampers: An image-based approach to study the fluid flow behaviour inside the human meniscal tissue.

The meniscal tissue is a layered material with varying properties influenced by collagen content and arrangement. Understanding the relationship between structure and properties is crucial for disease management, treatment development, and biomaterial design. The internal layer of the meniscus is softer and more deformable than the outer layers, thanks to interconnected collagen channels that guide fluid flow.

Polybutylene Succinate Processing and Evaluation as a Micro Fibrous Graft for Tissue Engineering Applications.

A microfibrous tubular scaffold has been designed and fabricated by electrospinning using poly (1,4-butylene succinate) as biocompatible and biodegradable material. The scaffold morphology was optimized as a small diameter and micro-porous conduit, able to foster cell integration, adhesion, and growth while avoiding cell infiltration through the graft's wall. Scaffold morphology and mechanical properties were explored and compared to those of native conduits.

Gastro-Resistant Microparticles Produced by Spray-Drying as Controlled Release Systems for Liposoluble Vitamins.

In the present study, gastro-resistant microparticles (MPs) were produced using the spray-drying technique as controlled-release systems for some model liposoluble vitamins, including retinyl-palmitate, retinyl-acetate, β-carotene, cholecalciferol and α-tocopherol. The gastroprotective action of three different gastro-resistant excipients, the anionic methacrylic copolymer (Eudraguard Biotic, E1207), the cellulose acetate phthalate (CAP) and whey proteins (WPs), was compared. The latter was used to produce a novel delivery system manufactured with only food-derived components, such as milk, and showed several improvements over the two synthetic gastro-resistant agents.

Identification of microplastics using 4-dimethylamino-4'-nitrostilbene solvatochromic fluorescence.

In this work, we introduce the use of 4-dimethylamino-4'-nitrostilbene (DANS) fluorescent dye for applications in the detection and analysis of microplastics, an impendent source of pollution made of synthetic organic polymers with a size varying from less than 5 mm to nanometer scale. The use of this dye revealed itself as a versatile, fast and sensitive tool for readily discriminate microplastics in water environment. The experimental evidences herein presented demonstrate that DANS efficiently absorbs into a variety of polymers constituting microplastics, and its solvatochromic properties lead to a positive shift of the fluorescence emission spectrum according to the polarity of the polymers.

High Resolution Micro-Computed Tomography Reveals a Network of Collagen Channels in the Body Region of the Knee Meniscus.

The meniscus is an integral part of the human knee, preventing joint degradation by distributing load from the femoral condyles to the tibial plateau. Recent qualitative studies suggested that the meniscus is constituted by an intricate net of collagen channels inside which the fluid flows during loading. The aim of this study is to describe in detail the structure in which this fluid flows by quantifying the orientation and morphology of the collagen channels of the meniscal tissue.

Long-pulse diagnostic calorimeter for the negative ion source testbed BATMAN upgrade.

The RF-driven negative ion source testbed BATMAN upgrade is being developed at IPP Garching in the framework of the ion source development for ITER and DEMO neutral beam injection systems. The testbed has recently been enhanced to allow for steady state operation with a focus on beam optics studies. The previous titanium sublimation pumps and inertial calorimeter limited the beam pulse length to about 6 s every 3 min.

Simulation of the gas density distribution in the accelerator of the ELISE test facility.

In multiaperture electrostatic accelerators of negative ion sources, the plasma discharge is sustained by injecting gas in the plasma source, in a dynamic equilibrium with the gas flowing out through the accelerator. In this work, we present a three-dimensional numerical simulation of the gas flow inside the accelerator system of the large negative ion source ELISE at Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik Garching. ELISE has 640 apertures per electrode and lateral gaps between the electrode support structures that also contribute to the total gas conductance.

Beamlet scraping and its influence on the beam divergence at the BATMAN Upgrade test facility.

For the ITER fusion experiment, two neutral beam injectors are required for plasma heating and current drive. Each injector supplies a power of about 17 MW, obtained from neutralization of 40 A (46 A), 1 MeV (0.87 MeV) negative deuterium (hydrogen) ions.

Neutron measurements at the ELISE neutral beam test facility and implications for neutron based diagnostics at SPIDER.

Along the route to the development of a neutral beam injector for ITER, the Padua based Source for Production of Ion of Deuterium Extracted from Rf plasma (SPIDER) and megavolt ITER injector and concept advancement facilities will make use of neutron diagnostics to quantify the homogeneity of the neutral beam profile by measuring the map of the neutron emission from the beam dump with the close-contact neutron emission surface mapping (CNESM) system. Neutrons are here produced from beam-target reactions between the deuterium beam and the deuterons previously adsorbed in the calorimeter. In order to aid the interpretation of the diagnostic data, a dedicated experiment on neutron emission from beam-target reactions with beam parameters approaching those expected at SPIDER has been performed at the Extraction from a Large Ion Source Experiment (ELISE) neutral beam test facility.

Deuterium results at the negative ion source test facility ELISE.

The ITER neutral beam system will be equipped with large radio frequency (RF) driven negative ion sources, with a cross section of 0.9 m × 1.9 m, which have to deliver extracted D ion beams of 57 A at 1 MeV for 1 h.

Preliminary results concerning the simulation of beam profiles from extracted ion current distributions for mini-STRIKE.

The Radio Frequency (RF) negative hydrogen ion source prototype has been chosen for the ITER neutral beam injectors due to its optimal performances and easier maintenance demonstrated at Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik, Garching in hydrogen and deuterium. One of the key information to better understand the operating behavior of the RF ion sources is the extracted negative ion current density distribution. This distribution-influenced by several factors like source geometry, particle drifts inside the source, cesium distribution, and layout of cesium ovens-is not straightforward to be evaluated.

Towards 20 A negative hydrogen ion beams for up to 1 h: Achievements of the ELISE test facility (invited).

The large-scale RF-driven ion source of the test facility extraction from a large ion source experiment is aimed to deliver an accelerated ion current of 20 A D(-) (23 A H(-)) with an extracted electron-to-ion ratio below one for up to 1 h. Since the first plasma pulses for 20 s in volume operation in early 2013, followed by caesiation of the ion source, substantial progress has been achieved in extending the pulse length and the RF power. The record pulses in hydrogen are stable 400 s pulses with an extracted ion current of 18.

Neutron measurements from beam-target reactions at the ELISE neutral beam test facility.

Measurements of 2.5 MeV neutron emission from beam-target reactions performed at the ELISE neutral beam test facility are presented in this paper. The measurements are used to study the penetration of a deuterium beam in a copper dump, based on the observation of the time evolution of the neutron counting rate from beam-target reactions with a liquid scintillation detector.

First negative ion beam measurement by the Short-Time Retractable Instrumented Kalorimeter Experiment (STRIKE).

The Source for Production of Ion of Deuterium Extracted from Rf plasma (SPIDER) test facility is under construction in Padova to optimise the operation of the beam source of ITER neutral beam injectors. The SPIDER beam will be characterised by the instrumented calorimeter STRIKE, whose main components are one-directional carbon-fibre-carbon-composite tiles. A small-scale version of the entire system has been employed in the BAvarian Test MAchine for Negative ions (BATMAN) testbed by arranging two prototype tiles in the vertical direction.

Optical emission spectroscopy at the large RF driven negative ion test facility ELISE: instrumental setup and first results.

One of the main topics to be investigated at the recently launched large (A(source) = 1.0 × 0.9 m(2)) ITER relevant RF driven negative ion test facility ELISE (Extraction from a Large Ion Source Experiment) is the connection between the homogeneity of the plasma parameters close to the extraction system and the homogeneity of the extracted negative hydrogen ion beam.

A method for optimizing waste collection using mathematical programming: a Buenos Aires case study.

A method is proposed that uses operations research techniques to optimize the routes of waste collection vehicles servicing dumpster or skip-type containers. The waste collection problem is reduced to the classic travelling salesman problem, which is then solved using the Concorde solver program. A case study applying the method to the collection system in the southern zone of Buenos Aires is also presented.

Impact of SLCO1B1 (OATP1B1) and ABCG2 (BCRP) genetic polymorphisms and inhibition on LDL-C lowering and myopathy of statins.

Statins are the preferred class of drugs for treating patients with atherosclerosis and related coronary heart disease. Treatment with statins leads to significant low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) lowering, resulting in reductions in major coronary and vascular events. Statins are generally well tolerated and safe; however, their use is complicated by infrequent, but often serious, muscular adverse events.

Casopitant: in vitro data and SimCyp simulation to predict in vivo metabolic interactions involving cytochrome P450 3A4.

Casopitant [1-piperidinecarboxamide,4-(4-acetyl-1-piperazinyl)-N-((1R)-1-(3,5-bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl)-ethyl)-2-(4-fluoro-2-methylphenyl)-N-methyl-(2R,4S), GW679769] has previously been shown to be a potent and selective antagonist of the human neurokinin-1 receptor, the primary receptor of substance P, both in vitro and in vivo, with good brain penetration properties. On the basis of this mode of action it was evaluated for the prevention of chemotherapy-induced and postoperative nausea and vomiting, and for the chronic treatment of anxiety, depression, insomnia, and overactive bladder. Casopitant is shown to be a substrate, an inhibitor, and an inducer of CYP3A4, and, because of this complex behavior, it was difficult to identify the primary mechanism by which it may give rise to drug-drug interactions (DDIs) of clinical relevance.

Scale-invariant transition probabilities in free word association trajectories.

Free-word association has been used as a vehicle to understand the organization of human thoughts. The original studies relied mainly on qualitative assertions, yielding the widely intuitive notion that trajectories of word associations are structured, yet considerably more random than organized linguistic text. Here we set to determine a precise characterization of this space, generating a large number of word association trajectories in a web implemented game.

Enhanced confinement and quasi-single-helicity regimes induced by poloidal current drive.

Enhanced confinement regimes with quasihelical symmetry are reproducibly obtained in the modified reversed field pinch eXperiment (RFX)-mod by reducing the level of internal chaos through the combination of a smooth magnetic boundary (through a virtual shell scheme) and the oscillating poloidal current drive technique. The plasma moves from a chaotic multiple helicity towards a quasi-single-helicity regime with a magnetic island showing high temperature and soft x-ray emissivity. The chaos reduction involves also the plasma outside the island allowing for a global enhanced confinement with an improvement up to 50%.

Active-feedback control of the magnetic boundary for magnetohydrodynamic stabilization of a fusion plasma.

Stable operation with control on magnetohydrodynamic modes has been obtained in the modified reversed field experiment employing a set of 192 feedback controlled saddle coils. Improvements of plasma temperature, confinement (twofold), and pulse length (threefold) and, as a consequence of the magnetic fluctuation reduction, strong mitigation of plasma-wall interaction and mode locking are reported.

[Diagnostic reliability of ultrasonography in the preoperative staging of the N parameter in head and neck neoplasms].

The demonstration of metastatic involvement of neck nodes is a crucial step in the staging of patients with head and neck tumors. Diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity of US in the detection of lymph node metastases were evaluated in 48 patients with this type of malignancy. The patients subsequently underwent surgical node dissection.

[SPECT with 99m-TC HM PAO in the study of classical hemicrania].

Five patients presenting with migraine attacks underwent Electroencephalography (EEC), Computed Tomography (CT) and Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT) with 99mTc-HM PAO. EEG and SPECT were subsequently repeated in the intercritical period. We observed that: two patients only showed non-specific abnormalities in EEG; scans were normal in all patients; all subjects exhibited diffuse cortical hypoperfusion.

[Ultrasonography in the preoperative staging of carcinoma of the breast].

Data relative to 51 patients operated for breast carcinoma were retrospectively reviewed. All patients had undergone US and mammographic evaluation of max diameter of the neoplastic nodule. The above data were correlated with pathologic measurements of the surgical specimens.