Wastewater treatment plants as a source of microplastics in river catchments

It is now well established that the oceans contain significant accumulations of plastic debris but only very recently have studies began to look at sources of microplastics (MPs) in river catchments. This work measured MPs up- and downstream of six wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in different catchments with varying characteristics and found that all led to an increase in MPs in rivers. Nevertheless, the data collected indicated that there were other important sources of MPs in the catchments studied and that these may include atmospheric deposition, agricultural land to which sewage sludge has been applied, and diffuse release of secondary MPs following the breakdown of larger plastic items. MPs were comprised mainly of fibres, fragments, and flakes with pellets and beads only dominating at one site. Variation in MP pollution occurred over time and this difference was greater at some sites than others. A key research need is the further study of MP sources in river catchments to facilitate management efforts to reduce their presence in freshwater and marine environments

Congenital Intercostal Lung Herniation Combined with an Unusual Morgagni's Hernia

A 70-year-old male visited urgent care due to coughing for 1 month and left chest pain. He had no history of trauma. The initial chest computed tomography (CT) showed the 7th left intercostal lung herniation. A follow-up CT showed an intercostal lung herniation combined with a bowl herniation, which had developed due to a Morgagni's hernia. An emergency operation was performed due to the incarceration of the bowl and lung. The primary repair of the diaphragm was performed and the direct approximation of the 7th intercostal space was determined. We concluded that the defect of the diaphragm and the intercostal muscle was a congenital lesion, and the recurrent coughing was the aggravating factor of herniation

Extended Reality-Enhanced Mental Health Consultation Training: Quantitative Evaluation Study.

The use of extended reality (XR) technologies in health care can potentially address some of the significant resource and time constraints related to delivering training for health care professionals. While substantial progress in realizing this potential has been made across several domains, including surgery, anatomy, and rehabilitation, the implementation of XR in mental health training, where nuanced humanistic interactions are central, has lagged. Given the growing societal and health care service need for trained mental health and care workers, coupled with the heterogeneity of exposure during training and the shortage of placement opportunities, we explored the feasibility and utility of a novel XR tool for mental health consultation training. Specifically, we set out to evaluate a training simulation created through collaboration among software developers, clinicians, and learning technologists, in which users interact with a virtual patient, "Stacey," through a virtual reality or augmented reality head-mounted display. The tool was designed to provide trainee health care professionals with an immersive experience of a consultation with a patient presenting with perinatal mental health symptoms. Users verbally interacted with the patient, and a human instructor selected responses from a repository of prerecorded voice-acted clips. In a pilot experiment, we confirmed the face validity and usability of this platform for perinatal and primary care training with subject-matter experts. In our follow-up experiment, we delivered personalized 1-hour training sessions to 123 participants, comprising mental health nursing trainees, general practitioner doctors in training, and students in psychology and medicine. This phase involved a comprehensive evaluation focusing on usability, validity, and both cognitive and affective learning outcomes. We found significant enhancements in learning metrics across all participant groups. Notably, there was a marked increase in understanding (P<.001) and motivation (P<.001), coupled with decreased anxiety related to mental health consultations (P<.001). There were also significant improvements to considerations toward careers in perinatal mental health (P<.001). Our findings show, for the first time, that XR can be used to provide an effective, standardized, and reproducible tool for trainees to develop their mental health consultation skills. We suggest that XR could provide a solution to overcoming the current resource challenges associated with equipping current and future health care professionals, which are likely to be exacerbated by workforce expansion plans. [Abstract copyright: ©Katherine Hiley, Zanib Bi-Mohammad, Luke Taylor, Rebecca Burgess-Dawson, Dominic Patterson, Devon Puttick-Whiteman, Christopher Gay, Janette Hiscoe, Chris Munsch, Sally Richardson, Mark Knowles-Lee, Celia Beecham, Neil Ralph, Arunangsu Chatterjee, Ryan Mathew, Faisal Mushtaq. Originally published in JMIR Medical Education (https://mededu.jmir.org), 02.04.2025.

Restricted growth of Schwann cells lacking Cajal bands slows conduction in myelinated nerves

Nerve impulses are propagated at nodes of Ranvier in the myelinated nerves of vertebrates. Internodal distances have been proposed to affect the velocity of nerve impulse conduction; however, direct evidence is lacking, and the cellular mechanisms that might regulate the length of the myelinated segments are unknown. Ramon y Cajal described longitudinal and transverse bands of cytoplasm or trabeculae in internodal Schwann cells and suggested that they had a nutritive function. Here we show that internodal growth in wild-type nerves is precisely matched to nerve extension, but disruption of the cytoplasmic bands in Periaxin-null mice impairs Schwann cell elongation during nerve growth. By contrast, myelination proceeds normally. The capacity of wild-type and mutant Schwann cells to elongate is cell-autonomous, indicating that passive stretching can account for the lengthening of the internode during limb growth. As predicted on theoretical grounds, decreased internodal distances strikingly decrease conduction velocities and so affect motor function.We propose that microtubule-based transport in the longitudinal bands of Cajal permits internodal Schwann cells to lengthen in response to axonal growth, thus ensuring rapid nerve impulse transmission