The Ligurian Experience in the Management of Lung Cancer: Organizational Models and New Perspectives.

Background: Lung cancer is an oncological threat worldwide, including in Italy. New organizational approaches based on a network of cancer centers and multidisciplinary and technological innovation are required. The experience in the Liguria region, in northwestern Italy, in the management of lung cancer is presented with a focus on the organizational model.

Transfer of beef bacterial communities onto food-contact surfaces.

Introduction: Food spoilage and pathogenic bacteria on food-contact surfaces, especially biofilm-forming strains, can transfer to meats during processing. The objectives of this study were to survey the bacterial communities of beef cuts that transfer onto two commonly used food-contact surfaces, stainless steel (SS) and high-density polyethylene (HDPE) and identify potentially biofilm-forming strains.

Methods: Top round, flank, chuck, and ground beef were purchased from 3 retail stores.

Natural iron-containing minerals catalyze the degradation of polypropylene microplastics: a route to self-remediation learnt from the environment.

Virgin and environmentally aged polypropylene (PP) micropowders (V-PP and E-PP, respectively) were used as reference microplastics (MPs) in comparative photo- and thermo-oxidative ageing experiments performed on their mixtures with a natural ferrous sand (NS) and with a metal-free silica sand (QS). The ferrous NS was found to catalyze the photo-oxidative degradation of V-PP after both UV and simulated solar light irradiation. The catalytic activity in the V-PP/NS mixture was highlighted by the comparatively higher fraction of photo-oxidized PP extracted in dichloromethane, and the higher carbonyl index of the bulk polymer extracted with boiling xylene, when compared with the V-PP/QS mixture.