Adenoma of the Ceruminous Gland (Ceruminoma)

Tumor arising from the ceruminous glands of the external ear canal (EAC) are very rare and can present a diagnostic dilemma because of their varied clinical and histologic manifestations. To our knowledge, this is the first report to present a case of ceruminoma in pediatric age. We discuss the origin of these tumors and the importance of wide excision and of the immunohistochemistry for the diagnosis

Addressing climate change with behavioral science: a global intervention tournament in 63 countries

Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions’ effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior—several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people’s initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors

ANAEROBIC DIGESTION AS A PROCESS FOR THE DECONTAMINATION AND VALORIZATION OF ACTIVATED SLUDGES RESULTING FROM PLANTS TREATING WASTEWATERS CONTAMINATED BY XENOBIOTIC COMPOUNDS

Xenobiotic compounds accumulate in sewage sludges resulting from wastewater treatment plants serving both civil and industrial areas. The opportunity to use anaerobic digestion for the decontamination and beneficial disposal of the contaminated sludge from the Fusina’s wastewater treatment plant (Italy) was investigated in mesophilic and thermophilic microcosms monitored through an integrated chemical, microbiological and ecotoxicological procedure. The 10 months sludge incubation at 35°C resulted in an extensive production of a methane-rich biogas, a marked reduction of pathogenic cultivable bacteria and, importantly, a marked biodegradation of the sludge-carried organic pollutants, including some polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, to which corresponded a relevant sludge detoxification. The sludge decontamination seemed strictly correlated to the activity of methanogenic bacteria and was not affected by the presence of exogenous yeast extract or molasses. Lower sludge bioremediation and biomethanisation extents were observed under thermophilic conditions

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo and post-treatment quality of life

Benign paroxysmal positional vertigo is probably the most common cause of vertigo. It is characterized by acute short-lived episodes of severe vertigo in association with change in the position of the head. This condition is benign, and after the repositioning procedure, the cure rate is between 70 to 80%. Numerous studies describe the association between vertigo and social handicap and emotional disturbance. In our study, we report for the first time the level of anxiety and social consequences, tested with the Hamilton anxiety scale and vertigo handicap questionnaire, in a group of patients who had suffered only from positional vertigo and were clinically cured when the questionnaires and test were administered. The important role played by psychological factors in maintaining or increasing the social consequences and perception of vertigo is revealed in this study

A physicochemical-biotechnological approach for an integrated valorization of olive mill wastewater

An integrated physicochemical\u2013biotechnological approach for a multipurpose valorization of olive mill wastewaters was studied. More than 60% of the wastewater natural polyphenols were recovered through a solid phase extraction procedure, by employing Amberlite XAD16 resin as the adsorbent and ethanol as the biocompatible desorbing phase. Thereafter, the dephenolized effluent was fed to a mesophilic anaerobic acidogenic packed-bed biofilm reactor for the bioconversion of the organic leftover into volatile fatty acids (VFAs). A VFAs concentration of 19 gCOD L1 was obtained, representing more than 70% of the COD occurring in the anaerobic effluent. The biotechnological process was assessed by means of bio-molecular analyses, which showed that the reactor packed bed was mostly colonized by bacteria of the Firmicutes phylogenetic group. The biorefinery scheme developed in this study allowed the obtainment of 1.59 g of polyphenols per liter of wastewater treated and 2.72 gCOD L1 day1 of VFAs

Meningiomas of the Internal Auditory Canal: Two Case Reports

Meningiomas represent 3 to 12% of the tumors that involve the cerebellopontine angle and internal auditory canal (IAC). Intracanalicular meningiomas, however, are rare. Only 10 well-documented cases have been reported in the English literature. The differential diagnosis includes acoustic neuromas, facial nerve neuromas, hemangiomas, lipomas, and meningiomas. We report two new cases of intracanalicular meningioma. Both patients had unilateral tinnitus. In case 1, the patient also experienced sensorineural hearing loss with unilateral tinnitus. In case 1, the lesion appeared hyperintense on T1-weighted and hypointense on T2-weighted magnetic resonance images. In case 2, the patient had an enhancing lesion in the right IAC. The tumors were moderately cellular, and meningeal whorls and meningothelial inclusions were present. Immunohistochemical staining revealed the tumors to be positive for epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and negative for S-100 protein. The radiologic findings that help distinguish a meningioma from other lesions are reviewed

Recovery of VFAs from anaerobic digestion of dephenolized olive mill wastewaters by electrodialysis

open5siElectrodialysis (ED) is applied for the first time as a separation-concentration step of the Volatile Fatty Acids (VFAs) enriched effluent resulting from fermentation of olive mill wastewaters. The process would represent a key step of an integrated multi-purpose biorefinery scheme including the biotechnological production of polyhydroxyalkanoates from acidified bioresidues. A feasibility study is introduced by testing separation efficiency of membranes with synthetic model solutions of different compositions (sodium acetate and NaCl, or acetic-propionic-butyric acids with NaCl) and with actual OMW (a complex mixture of sodium salts of acetic, propionic, isobutyric, butyric, isovaleric, valeric, isocaproic, caproic, eptanoic acids, NaCl and other electrolytes). Experiments were performed at room temperature in a lab-scale 2-compartments ED stack, containing Neosepta AMX-CMX membranes, at constant current density (31 A/m2). Membrane resistance was tested by performing additional ED experiments according to a proper protocol developed in this work. Removal of VFAs from actual OMW is feasible; no evidence of remarkable damages nor losses of membrane performance were observed after dedicated trials. Under the operative conditions investigated, VFAs removals ranged from 30 to 35%, resulting in a concentration factor between 1.2 and 1.5 with respect to the initial mother solution. Chloride removal was remarkably high and it was greatly favoured at the beginning of operation; competition between chloride and acidic anions was remarkable as far as chloride concentration was high, whereas acidic anions transport across the membrane increased after NaCl removal overcame 50%. Removal and concomitant concentration of VFAs were accomplished by a slight fractionation of acids with respect to the initial solution; the main outcome of which was an enrichment of acetate in the concentrate. Transport of each acidic anion across the membranes was affected by the concomitant role of concentration and diffusivity, which can shift the natural order imposed by the steric hindrance of the species.embargoed_20171218Alberto, Scoma; Felipe, Varela-Corredor; Lorenzo, Bertin; Carlo, Gostoli; Serena, BandiniAlberto, Scoma; Felipe, Varela-Corredor; Lorenzo, Bertin; Carlo, Gostoli; Serena, Bandin