Water-assisted colonoscopy in inflammatory bowel diseases: From technical implications to diagnostic and therapeutic potentials.

Water-assisted colonoscopy (WAC) application in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) endoscopy offers significant technical opportunities. Traditional gas-aided insufflation colonoscopy increases patient discomfort, presenting challenges in the frequent and detailed mucosal assessments required for IBD endoscopy. WAC techniques, including water immersion and exchange, provide superior patient comfort and enhanced endoscopic visualisation.

Space-confined mediation of electron transfer for efficient biomolecular solar conversion.

Solar-converting nanosystems using self-renewing biomaterial resources carry great potential for developing sustainable technologies to ameliorate climate change and minimize reliance on fossil fuels. By mimicking natural photosynthesis, diverse proof-of-concept biosolar systems have been used to produce green electricity, fuels and chemicals. Efforts so far have focused on optimizing light harvesting, biocatalyst loading and electron transfer (ET), however, the long-term performance of best-performing systems remains a major challenge due to the intensive use of diffusive, toxic mediators.

Very rare isolated colonic inflammatory cap polyps in a patient with known long-standing ulcerative colitis.

Inflammatory cap polyps (ICP) are an extremely rare finding during digestive endoscopy, typically presenting as multiple polyps in the form of cap polyposis. Among the few reported cases of ICP, some have been associated with multiple polyposis forms, showing a clinical presentation similar to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which was subsequently ruled out following further diagnostic evaluation. In this report, we present an exceptionally rare case of two isolated ICPs (not in the form of cap polyposis) in a patient with a long-standing, well-established histological diagnosis of IBD located in atypical sites (specifically, the descending and transverse colon), with a characteristic endoscopic appearance.

The interplay between liquid-liquid and ferroelectric phase transitions in supercooled water.

The distinctive characteristics of water, evident in its thermodynamic anomalies, have implications across disciplines from biology to geophysics. Considered a valid hypothesis to rationalize its unique properties, a liquid-liquid phase transition in water below the freezing point, in the so-called supercooled regime, has nowadays been observed in several molecular dynamics simulations and is being actively researched experimentally. The hypothesis of ferroelectric phase transition in supercooled water can be traced back to 1977, due to Stillinger.