A comparative study of deep learning-based network model and conventional method to assess beach debris standing-stock.

The conventional survey of marine debris standing-stock has various drawbacks such as high cost and inaccuracy because the total amount of debris in the whole beach is inferred using the results of the manual investigation in selected narrow areas. To overcome the disadvantages, an automatic detection method using a deep learning-based network model was developed to detect and quantify the beach debris. The network model developed in this study classified items with a precision of 0.

Endowing antifouling properties on metal substrata by creating an artificial barrier layer based on scalable metal oxide nanostructures.

Here, by creating different types of artificial barrier layer against bacterial attachment, anti-biofouling properties were endowed on three metallic surfaces - aluminum, stainless steel and titanium. To each metallic surface, a tailored chemical oxidation process was applied to grow scalable oxide structures with an additional appropriate coating, resulting in three different types of anti-biofouling barrier, a thin water film, an air layer and an oil layer. Fluorescence images of the attached bacteria showed that the water layer improved the anti-biofouling performance up to 8-12 h and the air layer up to 12-24 h, comparable with the lifetime of the air layer.

Effect of a Dose-Escalation Regimen for Improving Adherence to Roflumilast in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

Background: The adverse effects of the phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor roflumilast, appear to be more frequent in clinical practice than what was observed in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) clinical trials. Thus, we designed this study to determine whether adverse effects could be reduced by starting roflumilast at half the dose, and then increasing a few weeks later to 500 µg daily.

Methods: We retrospectively investigated 85 patients with COPD who had taken either 500 µg roflumilast, or a starting dose of 250 µg and then increased to 500 µg.

An exploratory study; the therapeutic effects of premixed activated charcoal-sorbitol administration in patients poisoned with organophosphate pesticide.

Objective: The effects of activated charcoal (AC) mixed with cathartics for gastric decontamination in the management of organophosphate (OP) poisoning remain unknown due to limited clinical evidence. This exploratory study assessed the effectiveness of premixed AC-sorbitol as a treatment for OP poisoning.

Materials And Methods: This retrospective observational case study included patients who either did not receive AC-sorbitol or received a single dose of AC-sorbitol within 24 h after OP ingestion.