Toxicity of Heavy Metals

Heavy metals are elements who exist naturally in the environment, but rapid urbanization and industrialization led to increased levels of these metals. These metals can reach the human body through food, water or air, where they have the property to accumulate in various tissues and organs for long periods of time and to produce serious effects on certain organs and the proper functioning of the body. Studies have also shown that heavy metals can have important effects, including on plants or animals. Their toxicity is dependent on factors such as dose, route of exposure, time of exposure, level of concentration, as well as age, gender, genetics, and nutritional status of exposed individuals. There is a growing interest from researchers to detect various physical, physical-chemical or microbiological methods to reduce or eliminate the presence of these metals, especially from surface or wastewater, which are mainly responsible for food contamination. This chapter present the main characteristics of heavy metals, the sources of contamination of exposure, as well as their toxicity on some environmental segments and especially on living organisms

Dermatoscopic Features of Naevi During Pregnancy-A Mini Review

Changes in melanocytic naevi and development of new naevi have been reported in pregnant women. The association between pregnancy and melanoma is a controversial topic. We conducted this review to identify the dermatoscopic changes that occur in naevi during pregnancy that could facilitate in distinguishing benign from suspicious lesions. Medline, Scopus, and Embase datasets were reviewed for clinical studies on dermatoscopic characteristics of melanoma and naevus in pregnancy. Six cohort studies with a total of 258 patients with 1,167 skin lesions that were examined fulfilled the conditions to be included in the review. None of the patients developed melanoma. Development of new naevi, when reported, was observed in less than half of the participants. The most frequent observed dermatoscopic change among the studies was the increase in the number of dots. Development of new vessels, hypo- and hyperpigmentations and changes in the pigment network were common described changes. The included studies were heterogeneous not allowing head-to-head comparisons between them. Robust and larger studies of dermatoscopic evaluation of naevi in pregnant women are needed to determine high-risk dermatoscopic characteristics

Sexual behaviour, attitudes and knowledge about sexually transmitted infections: A cross-sectional study in Romania

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are serious public health problems. Little is known about sex knowledge, attitudes, and sexual behaviors among young adults in Romania; an effective preventive campaigns should be based on an appropriate understanding of these factors. The aim of the present study was to obtain data about sexual behavior, attitudes, and knowledge about STIs among university students aged 18-25 in Romania. 3872 persons completed an internet-based questionnaire, advertised on Facebook, regarding sexual behavior, attitudes, and knowledge about STIs from January 28 to February 28, 2016. 6.01% of the respondents had no sexual experience; of the remaining (N=3639, 945 men and 2694 women) 94% were heterosexual, 1.5% homosexual, and 4.6% bisexual. 53.7% of the respondents started their sexual activity between 14 and 18 years of age; only 2.3% become sexually active before 14 years of age. 30% of both sexes reported multiple sexual partners during the previous year. 25.9% of men and 23.3% of women used no contraception at sexual onset, the proportion being higher among those with an early sexual debut. 98% of the respondents knew that HIV could be contracted sexually, 75.8% knew that gonorrhea and 61.1% that Chlamydia trachomatis were sexually transmitted, and approximately one third knew that trichomoniasis and hepatitis B or C were STIs. We found a relatively high proportion of students engaged in risky sexual behaviors and insufficient knowledge about STIs. The results are important in planning future sexual education campaigns and they call for new preventive strategies.</p

Sexual behaviour, attitudes and knowledge about sexually transmitted infections: A cross-sectional study in Romania

Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are serious public health problems. Little is known about sex knowledge, attitudes, and sexual behaviors among young adults in Romania; an effective preventive campaigns should be based on an appropriate understanding of these factors. The aim of the present study was to obtain data about sexual behavior, attitudes, and knowledge about STIs among university students aged 18-25 in Romania. 3872 persons completed an internet-based questionnaire, advertised on Facebook, regarding sexual behavior, attitudes, and knowledge about STIs from January 28 to February 28, 2016. 6.01% of the respondents had no sexual experience; of the remaining (N=3639, 945 men and 2694 women) 94% were heterosexual, 1.5% homosexual, and 4.6% bisexual. 53.7% of the respondents started their sexual activity between 14 and 18 years of age; only 2.3% become sexually active before 14 years of age. 30% of both sexes reported multiple sexual partners during the previous year. 25.9% of men and 23.3% of women used no contraception at sexual onset, the proportion being higher among those with an early sexual debut. 98% of the respondents knew that HIV could be contracted sexually, 75.8% knew that gonorrhea and 61.1% that Chlamydia trachomatis were sexually transmitted, and approximately one third knew that trichomoniasis and hepatitis B or C were STIs. We found a relatively high proportion of students engaged in risky sexual behaviors and insufficient knowledge about STIs. The results are important in planning future sexual education campaigns and they call for new preventive strategies.</p

Byproducts from the Vegetable Oil Industry: The Challenges of Safety and Sustainability

Food loss and food waste are a global challenge as about one third of all food produced around the globe is lost or wasted at some point in the food supply chain, from the farm to the fork. Vegetable oils generate a considerable amount of waste and byproducts, and such byproducts represent valuable opportunities for the food industry. Given the obvious benefits of using byproducts, special attention should be paid to the safety issues, especially when it comes to reintroducing them into the food chain. In this study, the quality and safety of several vegetable oil industry byproducts were evaluated in order to further consider them as potential ingredients in functional foods. Microbiological tests, mycotoxin assessments, and a heavy metal analysis were performed. The microbiological analysis showed reduced contamination with spoilage microorganisms, and a lack of contamination with pathogenic bacteria. All of the samples noted levels of deoxynivalenol, and, with a few exceptions, the heavy metal levels were below the maximum allowed limits. This study also notes the lack of regulation for this category of products. This not only puts the possibility of capitalizing on many food byproducts at risk, but also their widespread use as ingredients for the production of new functional products and their safe consumption

The Experimental Development of Bread with Enriched Nutritional Properties Using Organic Sea Buckthorn Pomace

In this study, sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides L.) pomace resulting from juice extraction was dried and ground in order to obtain a powder that was further used in bread making. Sea buckthorn pomace, an invaluable by-product of the industry, contains bioactive compounds and dietary fibers that promote health. Dried by-products of sea buckthorn are rich sources of nutritional and bioactive compounds, offering great potential for use as nutraceuticals in animal feed, ingredients in functional food, and the pharmaceutical industry. The utilization of sea buckthorn by-products promotes a circular and sustainable economy by implementing innovative methods and strategic approaches to recover high-value products and minimize waste in multiple ways. For this purpose, three organic sea buckthorn varieties were used, namely Mara (M), Clara (C), and Sorana (S). Further, 6%, 8%, and 10% pomace powder were added to wheat flour to prepare functional bread, and its effects on structural, nutritional, and sensorial characteristics were investigated. The volume, porosity, and elasticity of the obtained bread samples were slightly lower compared to the control sample (white bread). The nutritional characteristics revealed that the developed bread presented higher antioxidant activity, polyphenolic content, and crude fiber compared to the control sample. The acceptability test showed that consumer preferences were directed toward the bread samples containing 8% sea buckthorn powder, regardless of the variety, while the addition of 10% pomace powder led to major sensorial changes. The results of this study showed that sea buckthorn pomace powder can be successfully incorporated into bread in order to obtain a food product with enhanced properties

Real-time computer-aided diagnosis of focal pancreatic masses from endoscopic ultrasound imaging based on a hybrid convolutional and long short-term memory neural network model

Differential diagnosis of focal pancreatic masses is based on endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) guided fine needle aspiration biopsy (EUS-FNA/FNB). Several imaging techniques (i.e. gray-scale, color Doppler, contrast-enhancement and elastography) are used for differential diagnosis. However, diagnosis remains highly operator dependent. To address this problem, machine learning algorithms (MLA) can generate an automatic computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) by analyzing a large number of clinical images in real-time. We aimed to develop a MLA to characterize focal pancreatic masses during the EUS procedure. The study included 65 patients with focal pancreatic masses, with 20 EUS images selected from each patient (grayscale, color Doppler, arterial and venous phase contrast-enhancement and elastography). Images were classified based on cytopathology exam as: chronic pseudotumoral pancreatitis (CPP), neuroendocrine tumor (PNET) and ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The MLA is based on a deep learning method which combines convolutional (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) neural networks. 2688 images were used for training and 672 images for testing the deep learning models. The CNN was developed to identify the discriminative features of images, while a LSTM neural network was used to extract the dependencies between images. The model predicted the clinical diagnosis with an area under curve index of 0.98 and an overall accuracy of 98.26%. The negative (NPV) and positive (PPV) predictive values and the corresponding 95% confidential intervals (CI) are 96.7%, [94.5, 98.9] and 98.1%, [96.81, 99.4] for PDAC, 96.5%, [94.1, 98.8], and 99.7%, [99.3, 100] for CPP, and 98.9%, [97.5, 100] and 98.3%, [97.1, 99.4] for PNET. Following further validation on a independent test cohort, this method could become an efficient CAD tool to differentiate focal pancreatic masses in real-time

Intelligent Diagnosis of Thyroid Ultrasound Imaging Using an Ensemble of Deep Learning Methods

Background and Objectives: At present, thyroid disorders have a great incidence in the worldwide population, so the development of alternative methods for improving the diagnosis process is necessary. Materials and Methods: For this purpose, we developed an ensemble method that fused two deep learning models, one based on convolutional neural network and the other based on transfer learning. For the first model, called 5-CNN, we developed an efficient end-to-end trained model with five convolutional layers, while for the second model, the pre-trained VGG-19 architecture was repurposed, optimized and trained. We trained and validated our models using a dataset of ultrasound images consisting of four types of thyroidal images: autoimmune, nodular, micro-nodular, and normal. Results: Excellent results were obtained by the ensemble CNN-VGG method, which outperformed the 5-CNN and VGG-19 models: 97.35% for the overall test accuracy with an overall specificity of 98.43%, sensitivity of 95.75%, positive and negative predictive value of 95.41%, and 98.05%. The micro average areas under each receiver operating characteristic curves was 0.96. The results were also validated by two physicians: an endocrinologist and a pediatrician. Conclusions: We proposed a new deep learning study for classifying ultrasound thyroidal images to assist physicians in the diagnosis process

DMTs and Covid-19 severity in MS: a pooled analysis from Italy and France

We evaluated the effect of DMTs on Covid-19 severity in patients with MS, with a pooled-analysis of two large cohorts from Italy and France. The association of baseline characteristics and DMTs with Covid-19 severity was assessed by multivariate ordinal-logistic models and pooled by a fixed-effect meta-analysis. 1066 patients with MS from Italy and 721 from France were included. In the multivariate model, anti-CD20 therapies were significantly associated (OR&nbsp;=&nbsp;2.05, 95%CI&nbsp;=&nbsp;1.39–3.02, p&nbsp;&lt;&nbsp;0.001) with Covid-19 severity, whereas interferon indicated a decreased risk (OR&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.42, 95%CI&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.18–0.99, p&nbsp;=&nbsp;0.047). This pooled-analysis confirms an increased risk of severe Covid-19 in patients on anti-CD20 therapies and supports the protective role of interferon