Articles

A growing number of synthetic plastics derived from fossil fuels are produced, and improper plastic waste management has caused a lot of pollution problems. There are many microplastics in the environment, and they disintegrate slowly in soil and water. The properties of microplastics (MPs) include long residence times, high stability, high fragmentation potential, and the ability to adsorb other contaminants. Invertebrates and planktonic organisms are easily able to accumulate microplastics in aquatic species. Therefore, microplastics (MPs) must be removed from the water and other media. This paper aims to review the occurrence, raw polymers and additives, and remediation methods for removing microplastics from the environment. Several methods are available for removing contaminants, including sorption, filtration and chemical treatments. Various removal methods are discussed along with their methods, efficiency and advantages.

Objectives: To examine the effect of dietary supplements on diabetic risk progression, blood glucose level, and lipid profiles.Methods: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study was conducted at Rajavithi hospital, Thailand. Participants with prediabetes were randomly allocated to three arms of dietary supplements: placebo (PL) or curcumin plus fish oil and vitamin D (CFD), or curcumin plus fish oil (CF) for 24 weeks. Primary outcomes were the progression of glycemic status and the progression to overt diabetes at 24-week and 36-week follow-ups. Secondary outcomes were changes in glycemic profiles (fasting plasma glucose, 75 g OGTT 2-h plasma glucose or HbA1C), body weight, BMI and lipid profiles.Results: A total of forty-seven participants (PL, n = 16; CFD, n = 15; CF, n = 16) were included in the study. At the 24-week follow-up, the participants with worsening glycemic status in the intervention groups were lower, CFD, CF and Placebo, 14.29%, 13.33% and 31.25%, respectively. However, the primary outcome, progression of glycemic status, was statistically different, with p - value = 0.046 (p < 0.05) when excluding previous diabetes in the study. As well as the incidence of type 2 diabetes at 24-week follow-up was not statistically different between the three groups, 14.29%, 13.33%, and 12.5%, p - value = 0.699 (p < 0.05) in CFD, CF, PL group, respectively. The secondary outcomes also failed to demonstrate the effect of dietary supplements on blood glucose, lipid profiles, weight, BMI and blood chemistry.Conclusion: The combined dietary supplements which contained curcumin-fish oil-vitamin D,could lower the glycemic status progression in prediabetes at six months follow-up and were well-tolerated among the participants.

A large systematic review and meta-regression analysis found that sperm counts all over the world appeared to be declining rather than stabilizing. The decline in male sperm counts does not necessarily translate to a decline in male fertility. The cause of declining sperm counts remains unknown; however, several potential causative factors have been identified: 1. Chronic diseases: diabetes mellitus, hypertension; hyperlipidemia, hyperuricemia and skin Diseases & metabolic syndrome. 2. Environmental factors: bisphenol a; phthalates; heavy metals and heat. 3. Lifestyle: obesity, diet, tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, stress, reduced sleep & sedentary life. Addressing these causes is required to stop or decrease male fertility decline. Action to improve semen quality such as prevention & treatment of chronic disease, decreasing unhealthy lifestyle behaviors such as smoking, poor diet, or lack of physical activity & eliminating toxic environmental chemicals.

The Anterolateral Ligament (ALL) [1,2] is a ligamentous structure of the knee whose definition as a ligament has been disputed in the past, however in the last decade more and more anatomical studies have concluded that its definition as a separate ligament is the most accurate. In this case report we present our findings from the dissection of a formalinized cadaver which we find are consistent with the anatomical characteristics of the anterolateral ligament and with that we aim to further its morphological definition.

In this article, we made a research on the subject of Time and Growth. In the life, the Growth is seen as the increase of mass which operates during a certain period. In physics, it is the same. By the Growth, a physical body gets its density increased. The goal of this article is to calculate or predict the energy and force that a physical system can have at its total Growth. To study the Growth, we have defined some equations which help to evaluate the Growth internal force and energy. By the same way, we have also discovered that all physical systems in the Universe are connected by the same interaction. This interaction leads to the loss of density or mass. The Time is the consequence of its manifestation. For studying the effect of this interaction, we have calculated the density of the Universe. We found that the density of the Universe is equal to the density of a photon. In other words, the Universe is a huge photon. That means, like a photon, the Universe does not know the Time. It also means that the Universe is eternal. Its Expansion (not its growth) is due by the fact that, at the moment small systems inside to it grow, the Universe maintains its density constant like a photon. Do not confuse Growth and Expansion. The Growth is the increase of the density; and the Expansion is the increase of the volume without the change of density. The Universe does not know the Growth, it knows the Expansion. All these conclusions are detailed in the development of this article.

‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’, the age-old quote by Hippocrates is evidently proved in today’s life management as probiotics have become a valuable part of human day-to-day life [1]. 

Climate change is increasing the frequency of climate-related disasters, creating greater risks of hunger and the breakdown of food systems. The sustainability of our planet is currently a major concern for the global community and has been a central theme for a number of major global initiatives in recent years. Climate change has prevalent, multi-faceted, and temporal impacts on food security. Higher temperatures, water scarcity, extreme events like droughts and floods and greater CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere have already begun to impact staple crops around the world. The warming climate is already taking a toll on human health, causing widespread hunger and illness that will grow exponentially worse, and will pose a major threat to human well-being. In this article, an attempt has been made to discuss some critical issues relevant to the four dimensions of food security and to provide broader perspectives on climate change and its impacts on the food system, food security and human well-being.“Humanity is facing a rare challenge. But it is a common challenge. There are no sides in the fight for climate justice” (Kofi Annan’s message prior to the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen 2009).

Understanding the magnitude of the local magnetic fields generated by neurons is critical to assessing the feasibility of novel magnetic field sensors to record in vivo neuronal activities at cellular resolution. However, the strength of the magnetic fields induced by individual neurons and neuronal networks has not been systematically studied. This step is critical for evaluating and benchmarking the ability of different magnetic field sensors to record neuronal activities with far better spatial and temporal resolution. Herein, FEM exemplary models and open-source computational libraries are used to calculate the magnetic fields generated by individual neurons and neuronal networks at micrometer distances. Our theoretical results show that the magnetic field generated by a single-neuron action potential can be detected by ultra-high sensitivity sub-pT magnetic field sensors, which opens the door to future in vivo decoding of neuronal activities through custom neural networks. We anticipate that the identification of single-neuron signals with high-sensitivity magnetic devices will allow the interface of nanoscale devices to interpret biological signals supported by machine-learning techniques capable of monitoring and predicting the localized activities underlying brain computations.

Diverticula can affect all segments of the gastrointestinal tract, from the esophagus to the colon. In order of decreasing, the jejunoileal location is the least frequent location [1] and has  a prevalence of less than 2% of the population [2]. This location was first described by Sommering in 1794 [3]. More than two-thirds of small bowel diverticula occur in the jejunum. They appear mainly after the age of 60 with higher prevalence in males and rarely occur in patients under the age of 40 [4]. Jejunal diverticula are in general multiple and bigger than ileal ones [5]. Most of them are asymptomatic and do not require surgical treatment. Clinical presentations are diverse and not specific with no pathognomonic clinical symptoms.

Lymphomas are common hematological malignancies with an increasing incidence in recent years. The main site of extranodal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is the gastrointestinal tract, representing 40% of cases. The most common site of gastrointestinal lymphoma is the stomach, followed by the small intestine, accounting for 25% - 50% and 20% - 30%, respectively [1,2]. Primary colorectal lymphoma is a rare disease, accounting for 0.2% to 1% of all colorectal malignancies [1]. Males are more commonly affected with a peak incidence in the sixth and seventh decades of life [3]. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is the most commonly described subtype of colonic lymphoma [1].