Effectiveness of domestic rural wastewater treatment in soil-plant system

The characteristics of Polish rural agglomerations indicate that only 32% of these areas are villages typified by compact buildings where the use of a collective sewage system is economically justified. In other areas, it is necessary to apply solutions that allow for the sewage utilization in place of their creation and safe discharge into the environment, e.g. in the form of home systems based on biological processes, e.g. in soil-plant systems. The purpose of the work was to determine the soil-plant efficiency of wastewater treatment with the use of so-called energy plants. The experiment was conducted in 2012–2014 in lysimeters at a depth of 130 cm and 100 cm in diameter. These were submerged in the ground, filled with sand clay and equipped with installations enabling the drainage of gravity water in the form of lysimeter effluents. Two species of plants were used: Miscanthu giganteus and Sida hermaphrodita (L.) Rusby. They were irrigated with pre-treated domestic sewage (variant I – 1200 mm • year−1 and variant II – 1600 mm • year−1). For irrigation, sewage from a group of buildings inhabited by six families was used. Raw domestic sewage was discharged into the tank, consisting of four chambers, which constituted a relatively good level of pre-cleaning. For the irrigation of plants in the experiment, pre-treated sewage was used. In order to determine the effectiveness of wastewater treatment in the soil-plant environment, the concentrations of the following components were determined in the effluents: TSS, BOD5, COD, Ntot. The quantities of pollutants contained in the sewage were characterized by considerable variability, especially in relation to COD (390.6– 1583.0 mg O2 • dm−3) and Ntot (47.0–250.2 mg N • dm−3)

PET-CT evaluation of solitary pulmonary nodules: with or without a radiologist?

BACKGROUND: CT scan provides information about the anatomy and morphology, may confirm whether the change is single or has multifocal character and may suggest the probability of malignancy. Due to increased metabolism, at PET examination malignant tissues usually show a greater uptake of 18F-FDG than benign changes and healthy tissue. In several cases, PET-CT is described only by a specialist in nuclear medicine without consulting a radiologist. The aim of this study is to evaluate the accuracy of PET with assessment performed by a single nuclear medicine specialist and multidisciplinary assessment by both nuclear medicine and radiology specialists. MATERIALS AND METHODS: PET-CT was performed in 58 consecutive patients referred from John Paul II Hospital in Cracow because of radiologically diagnosed solitary pulmonary nodule (SPN) with diameter > 1 cm. An histopatological specimen was obtained in 37 patients. In 17 cases PET-CT images were evaluated by a single nuclear medicine specialist (group A), while for the remaining 20 cases, the image evaluation was performed shoulder-to-shoulder by a nuclear medicine specialist and a radiologist (group B). ANALYSIS OF DATA: Overall PET sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value and accuracy were calculated on the basis of anatomopathologic results. These data were also calculated separately for groups A and B. RESULTS: The histopatologic examination demonstrated the non neoplastic character of 7/37 lesions. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive and negative predictive values for group A were 85.7%, 100%, 100%, 33.3% and 88% while for group B were 92.8%, 83.3%, 92.8%, 83.3% and 90% respectively. CONCLUSION: PET-CT is an accurate diagnostic method to assess the nature of solitary pulmonary nodules. The consultation with radiologist does not substantially affect the PET-CT diagnostic accuracy, but can lead to a higher negative predictive value

Associations of psychoactive substances and steroid hormones in hair: Findings relevant to stress research from a large cohort of young adults

Objective: Epidemiological studies increasingly use hair samples to assess people’s cumulative exposure to steroid hormones, but how the use of different psychoactive substances may affect steroid hormone levels in hair is, so far, largely unknown. The current study addresses this gap by establishing the substance exposure correlates of cortisol, cortisone, and testosterone in hair, while also accounting for a number of relevant covariates. Method: Data came from a large urban community-sample of young adults with a high prevalence of substance use (N = 1002, mean age=20.6 years, 50.2% female), who provided 3 cm of hair samples. Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) quantified cortisol, cortisone, and testosterone, as well as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, “Ecstasy”), cocaine, several opioids, and their respective metabolites. Multiple linear regression models with covariates were used to predict steroid hormone levels from substance exposure in a four-step approach: In the full sample, low and high substance hair concentrations (median split) were first tested against no use for each substance individually (step 1) and for all substances together (step 2). Then, within the participants with any substance in hair only, the continuous hair concentration of each substance in pg/mg (step 3) and finally of all substances together, were regressed (step 4). Results: Low, high, and continuous levels of THC in hair were robustly associated with higher levels of cortisol (sig. in step 1 low THC: β = 0.29, p = .021; high THC: β = 0.42, p = .001; step 2: low THC: β = 0.27, p = 0.036, and high THC: β = 0.40, p = .004, and step 4: β = 0.12, p = .041). Participants with high MDMA levels had higher levels of cortisone without adjusting for other substances (step 1: β = 0.34, p = .026), but this effect was not significant in the other models. While high THC levels were associated with lower levels of testosterone in step 2 (β = -0.35, p = .018), MDMA concentration was positively related to testosterone concentration with and without adjusting for other substances (step 3: β = 0.24, p = .041; step 4: β = 0.17, 95%, p = .015) in male participants. Conclusion: The use of psychoactive substances, especially of cannabis and ecstasy, should be considered in studies investigating steroid hormones in hair

Applying Beamforming to Reduce Parasitic Noise for Fault Detectionfor Fault Detection

The propeller blades of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) are prone to damage and wear and tear, which can cause prone to damage and wear and tear, which can cause mechanical stress on the components, performance mechanical stress on the components, performance degradation and a decreased flight stability. The aim is to degradation and a decreased flight stability. The aim is to automate the maintenance process of the propeller blades automate the maintenance process of the propeller blades without the need of interacting with the UAS by means of without the need of interacting with the UAS by means of acoustics. Previous studies with with single microphones showed first results for UAS but lacked robustness regarding showed first results for UAS but lacked robustness regarding environmental noise. This approach often fails when used laboratory conditions. This approach often fails when used in noisy environments like an openin noisy environments like an open--air field. Our new approach deploys multiple microphones and a new approach deploys multiple microphones and a new algorithm aiming for improved accuracy

Clinical and Cost-Effectiveness of PSYCHOnlineTHERAPY: Study Protocol of a Multicenter Blended Outpatient Psychotherapy Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial for Patients With Depressive and Anxiety Disorders

Introduction: Internet- and mobile-based interventions (IMIs) and their integration into routine psychotherapy (i.e., blended therapy) can offer a means of complementing psychotherapy in a flexible and resource optimized way. Objective: The present study will evaluate the non-inferiority, cost-effectiveness, and safety of two versions of integrated blended psychotherapy for depression and anxiety compared to standard cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Methods: A three-armed multicenter cluster-randomized controlled non-inferiority trial will be conducted comparing two implementations of blended psychotherapy (PSYCHOnlineTHERAPYfix/flex) compared to CBT. Seventy-five outpatient psychotherapists with a CBT-license will be randomized in a 1:1:1 ratio. Each of them is asked to include 12 patients on average with depressive or anxiety disorders resulting in a total sample size of N = 900. All patients receive up to a maximum of 16 psychotherapy sessions, either as routine CBT or alternating with Online self-help sessions (fix: 8/8; flex: 0–16). Assessments will be conducted at patient study inclusion (pre-treatment) and 6, 12, 18, and 24 weeks and 12 months post-inclusion. The primary outcome is depression and anxiety severity at 18 weeks post-inclusion (post-treatment) using the Patient Health Questionnaire Anxiety and Depression Scale. Secondary outcomes are depression and anxiety remission, treatment response, health-related quality of life, patient satisfaction, working alliance, psychotherapy adherence, and patient safety. Additionally, several potential moderators and mediators including patient characteristics and attitudes toward the interventions will be examined, complemented by ecological day-to-day digital behavior variables via passive smartphone sensing as part of an integrated smart-sensing sub-study. Data-analysis will be performed on an intention-to-treat basis with additional per-protocol analyses. In addition, cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analyses will be conducted from a societal and a public health care perspective. Additionally, qualitative interviews on acceptance, feasibility, and optimization potential will be conducted and analyzed. Discussion: PSYCHOnlineTHERAPY will provide evidence on blended psychotherapy in one of the largest ever conducted psychotherapy trials. If shown to be non-inferior and cost-effective, PSYCHOnlineTHERAPY has the potential to innovate psychotherapy in the near future by extending the ways of conducting psychotherapy. The rigorous health care services approach will facilitate a timely implementation of blended psychotherapy into standard care

Correction to: EGFR/Ras-induced CCL20 production modulates the tumour microenvironment

The article ‘EGFR/Ras-induced CCL20 production modulates the tumour microenvironment’, written by Andreas Hippe, Stephan Alexander Braun, Péter Oláh, Peter Arne Gerber, Anne Schorr, Stephan Seeliger, Stephanie Holtz, Katharina Jannasch, Andor Pivarcsi, Bettina Buhren, Holger Schrumpf, Andreas Kislat, Erich Bünemann, Martin Steinhoff, Jens Fischer, Sérgio A. Lira, Petra Boukamp, Peter Hevezi, Nikolas Hendrik Stoecklein, Thomas Hoffmann, Frauke Alves, Jonathan Sleeman, Thomas Bauer, Jörg Klufa, Nicole Amberg, Maria Sibilia, Albert Zlotnik, Anja Müller- Homey and Bernhard Homey, was originally published electronically on the publisher’s internet portal on 30 June 2020 without open access. With the author(s)’ decision to opt for Open Choice the copyright of the article changed on 16 September 2021 to © The Author(s) 2021 and the article is forthwith distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL

Challenges and Recommendations for Magnetic Hyperthermia Characterization Measurements

The localized heating of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) via the application of time-varying magnetic fields – a process known as magnetic field hyperthermia (MFH) – can greatly enhance existing options for cancer treatment; but for broad clinical uptake its optimization, reproducibility and safety must be comprehensively proven. As part of this effort, the quantification of MNP heating – characterized by the specific loss power (SLP), measured in W/g, or by the intrinsic loss power (ILP), in nHm2/kg – is frequently reported. However, in SLP/ILP measurements to date, the apparatus, the analysis techniques and the field conditions used by different researchers have varied greatly, leading to questions as to the reproducibility of the measurements. To address this, we report here on an interlaboratory study (across N = 21 European sites) of calorimetry measurements that constitutes a snapshot of the current state-of-the-art within the MFH community. The data show that although there is very good intralaboratory repeatability, the overall interlaboratory measurement accuracy is poor, with the consolidated ILP data having standard deviations on the mean of ca. ± 30% to ± 40%. There is a strong systematic component to the uncertainties, and a clear rank correlation between the measuring laboratory and the ILP. Both of these are indications of a current lack of normalization in this field. A number of possible sources of systematic uncertainties are identified, and means determined to alleviate or minimize them. However, no single dominant factor was identified, and significant work remains to ascertain and remove the remaining uncertainty sources. We conclude that the study reveals a current lack of harmonization in MFH characterization of MNPs, and highlights the growing need for standardized, quantitative characterization techniques for this emerging medical technology.Multifunctional Nanoparticles for Magnetic Hyperthermia and Indirect Radiation Therap

Human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in eleven countries: diagnostic pattern across time, 1993–2002

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to describe the diagnostic panorama of human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies across 11 countries. METHODS: From data collected for surveillance purposes, we describe annual proportions of deaths due to different human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies in eleven EUROCJD-consortium countries over the period 1993–2002, as well as variations in the use of diagnostic tests. Using logistic models we quantified international differences and changes across time. RESULTS: In general, pre-mortem use of diagnostic investigations increased with time. International differences in pathological confirmation of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, stable over time, were evident. Compared to their counterparts, some countries displayed remarkable patterns, such as: 1) the high proportion, increasing with time, of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in the United Kingdom, (OR 607.99 95%CI 84.72–4363.40), and France (OR 18.35, 95%CI 2.20–152.83); 2) high, decreasing proportions of iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in France, (OR 5.81 95%CI 4.09–8.24), and the United Kingdom, (OR 1.54 95%CI 1.03–2.30); and, 3) high and stable ratios of genetic forms in Slovakia (OR 21.82 95%CI 12.42–38.33) and Italy (OR 2.12 95%CI 1.69–2.68). CONCLUSION: Considerable international variation in aetiological subtypes of human transmissible spongiform encephalopathies was evident over the observation period. With the exception of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in France and the United Kingdom, these differences persisted across time

Characterization of Carbonic Anhydrase IX Interactome Reveals Proteins Assisting Its Nuclear Localization in Hypoxic Cells

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