Macro- and microplastics abundances were determined in the Adriatic Sea following the MSFD TG10 protocol. The studied areas included populated gulfs, river outlets and offshore waters in five ...Adriatic countries. The use of small ships enabled us to detect small sized plastics (2.5–5 cm) and record average macroplastics densities of 251 ± 601 items km−2, one order of magnitude higher than previously considered. Results from manta net tows for microplastics revealed an average abundance of 315,009 ± 568,578 items km−2 (217 ± 575 g km−2). We found significantly higher microplastics abundances in nearshore (≤4 km) than in offshore waters (>4 km) and this trend seems to affect also the small sized macro plastic fragments (2.5–5 cm). The dominant polymers were polyethylene and polypropylene while the presence of some rare polymers and waxes used in food and dentistry indicated waste water treatment plants as potential sources of microplastics.
•Average macroplastics densities found one order of magnitude higher than previously considered.•About 49% of macroplastic items had sizes in the range of 2.5–5 cm.•Macroplastics compositional differences indicate the shape and type of polymer as controlling factors.•Microplastics, mesoplastics and small-sized fragments were decreasing offshore.•Polymers with sole uses in dentistry provide evidence that WWTPs are sources of microplastics.
Objectives – To investigate the prevalence of active epilepsy in Croatia.
Material and methods – Patient data collected by means of questionnaires completed by primary healthcare physicians; ...epilepsy was previously confirmed in the patients by neurologists or neuropaediatricans.
Results – One hundred and twenty‐seven of 180 (71%) physicians provided the requested information. The total sample was 212 069 people and of these 1022 had active epilepsy. Prevalence rates (per 1000) for the following age‐groups were: age 0–7: 3.5; age 8–18: 6.4; age 19–45: 5.0; age 46–65: 4.7; age >65: 4.4. The age‐adjusted prevalence rates for the standard populations were 4.9/1000 (European population) and 5.0/1000 (WHO world population).
Fifty‐one physicians (29%) stated only the number of patients they considered as having active epilepsy but without the requested details. If their patients were also included, the estimated crude prevalence rate would be 5.5/1000.
Conclusions – It is likely that the prevalence of active epilepsy in Croatia is between 4.8 and 5.5/1000; this is in keeping with findings from other European countries.
Oxcarbazepine (OXC) is generally accepted as a drug without risk of severe drug-induced hepatotoxicity, but according to recently reported pharmacovigilance data this statement has been challenged. ...However, in the literature there have been no reports of acute OXC-induced hepatotoxicity without systemic manifestations of Drug Rash with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptoms (DRESS) syndrome. We present a female with seizures one month after delivery who had borderline elevated liver enzymes prior to the initiation of OXC treatment. Two weeks after introducing OXC, highly elevated liver enzymes were found. After discontinuation of OXC the enzymes continued to rise for another week, and afterward gradually decreased. The causal relationship with OXC intake was determined to be highly probable. Two years later, the transitory elevation of liver enzymes was observed during the treatment of acute tonsilopharingitis with amoxicillin + clavulanic acid. The repeated elevation of liver enzymes related to use of different drugs might indicate patients susceptibility for drug induced liver injuries. We suggest that monitoring of liver function tests would be clinically rational for early detection of acute OXC-induced liver hepatotoxicity in the patients with clinical and/or laboratory features which might be interpreted as possible risk factors of the increased susceptibility to drug induced liver injuries.
A novel method to reconstruct the energy of hadronic showers in the CMS High Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) is presented. The HGCAL is a sampling calorimeter with very fine transverse and ...longitudinal granularity. The active media are silicon sensors and scintillator tiles readout by SiPMs and the absorbers are a combination of lead and Cu/CuW in the electromagnetic section, and steel in the hadronic section. The shower reconstruction method is based on graph neural networks and it makes use of a dynamic reduction network architecture. It is shown that the algorithm is able to capture and mitigate the main effects that normally hinder the reconstruction of hadronic showers using classical reconstruction methods, by compensating for fluctuations in the multiplicity, energy, and spatial distributions of the shower's constituents. The performance of the algorithm is evaluated using test beam data collected in 2018 prototype of the CMS HGCAL accompanied by a section of the CALICE AHCAL prototype. The capability of the method to mitigate the impact of energy leakage from the calorimeter is also demonstrated.
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