Towards microplastic hotspots detection: A comparative analysis of in-situ sampling and sea surface currents derived by HF radars.

Marine plastic pollution is a global issue affecting ecosystems and various aspects of human life. The scientific community is exploring new monitoring and containment approaches. Because in-situ sampling campaigns are time and resource demanding, there is a focus on integrating different approaches for marine litter monitoring.

The Effect of Therapeutic Exercise and Local Cryotherapy on Lower Limb Enthesitis in Non-Radiographic Axial Spondyloarthritis: A Case Report.

Background: Enthesitis is a common feature of spondyloarthritis and can severely impair the patient's quality of life. International guidelines recommend multidisciplinary management of this condition, combining physical and pharmacological interventions. In this case report, we demonstrate clinical and ultrasonographic improvements by prescribing local cryotherapy and therapeutic exercise alone in an adult woman with non-radiographic axial SpA (nRX-AxSpA) complaining of heel enthesitis.

Pattern Recognition Approaches for Breast Cancer DCE-MRI Classification: A Systematic Review.

We performed a systematic review of several pattern analysis approaches for classifying breast lesions using dynamic, morphological, and textural features in dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-MRI). Several machine learning approaches, namely artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM), linear discriminant analysis (LDA), tree-based classifiers (TC), and Bayesian classifiers (BC), and features used for classification are described. The findings of a systematic review of 26 studies are presented.

Early Assessment of Colorectal Cancer Patients with Liver Metastases Treated with Antiangiogenic Drugs: The Role of Intravoxel Incoherent Motion in Diffusion-Weighted Imaging.

Purpose: To assess the feasibility and effectiveness of quantitative intravoxel incoherent motion (IVIM) of Diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) in the assessment of liver metastases treated with targeted chemotherapy agents.

Methods: 12 patients with unresectable liver metastases from colorectal cancer were enrolled and received neoadjuvant FOLFIRI (5-fluorouracil, leucovorin, irinotecan) plus bevacizumab therapy. DWI was performed for 36 metastases at baseline and after 14 days from starting the treatment.

Integration of DCE-MRI and DW-MRI Quantitative Parameters for Breast Lesion Classification.

Objective: The purpose of our study was to evaluate the diagnostic value of an imaging protocol combining dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI (DCE-MRI) and diffusion-weighted MRI (DW-MRI) in patients with suspicious breast lesions.

Materials And Methods: A total of 31 breast lesions (15 malignant and 16 benign proved by histological examination) in 26 female patients were included in this study. For both DCE-MRI and DW-MRI model free and model based parameters were computed pixel by pixel on manually segmented ROIs.

Risk management in magnetic resonance: failure mode, effects, and criticality analysis.

The aim of the study was to perform a risk management procedure in "Magnetic Resonance Examination" process in order to identify the critical phases and sources of radiological errors and to identify potential improvement projects including procedures, tests, and checks to reduce the error occurrence risk. In this study we used the proactive analysis "Failure Mode Effects Criticality Analysis," a qualitative and quantitative risk management procedure; has calculated Priority Risk Index (PRI) for each activity of the process; have identified, on the PRI basis, the most critical activities and, for them, have defined improvement projects; and have recalculated the PRI after implementation of improvement projects for each activity. Time stop and audits are performed in order to control the new procedures.

Modelling the survival of starter lactic acid bacteria and Bifidobacterium bifidum in single and simultaneous cultures.

The inactivation kinetics at 4 degrees C of Bifidobacterium bifidum, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus, cultured alone or consociated in a laboratory medium (modified MRS broth), were modelled through the Weibull model and a second-order polynomial equation. The initial cell number of S.

Laparoscopic conversion of vertical banded gastroplasty (Mason MacLean) into Roux-en-Y gastric bypass.

Background: Revision of bariatric procedures is required in 10 to 25% of patients either for insufficient weight loss or for complications. Patients undergoing vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG; Mason MacLean) may require revision in up to half of the cases in the long term. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGBP) is considered the procedure of choice for revision of VBG gastroplasty.

Growth of Listeria monocytogenes in fresh-cut coconut as affected by storage conditions and inoculum size.

In this study, the effects of packaging atmosphere (air and modified atmosphere, 65% N2, 30% CO2, and 5% O2), temperature (2, 4, 8, and 12 degrees C) and inoculum size (low inoculum, 102 CFU/g; high inoculum, 5 x 10(5) CFU/g) on the growth of Listeria monocytogenes in minimally processed coconut were investigated. Growth data were fitted to the Gompertz equation, and the sanitary risk time (the time, in days, necessary to observe an increase of 2 log CFU/g in the level of the pathogen) was also calculated. At a higher inoculum level, the health risk was more marked; moreover, as shown by parameter A of the Gompertz equation (maximum increase of cell load data), the sanitary risk time seemed not to be influenced by temperature or by atmosphere type.

Combined effects of temperature, water activity, and pH on Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris spores.

A response surface model was developed to describe the effects of temperature (35 to 55 degrees C), pH (3.5 to 5.5), and water activity (a(w), 0.