Fabrication of ultra-high numerical aperture GeO2-doped fiber and its use for broadband supercontinuum generation: publisher's note.

This publisher's note serves to correct Appl. Opt.56, 9315 (2017)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.56.009315.

Screening for Resistance to Meloidogyne enterolobii in Capsicum annuum Landraces From Mexico.

Meloidogyne enterolobii has become an economically important plant parasitic nematode worldwide because of its high aggressiveness, increasing geographic distribution, wide host range, and pathogenicity in pepper (Capsicum annuum) cultivars carrying resistance genes to Meloidogyne incognita, Meloidogyne arenaria, and Meloidogyne javanica. The objectives of this study were to identify landraces of peppers resistant to M. enterolobii and analyze the relationship between resistance indicators and the phenotype parameters of plant height, stem width, leaf length, leaf width, relative chlorophyll, and number of flowers. Ninety landraces of C. annuum were collected from several states of Mexico and were inoculated with 2,000 eggs of M. enterolobii. Eleven resistant landraces were selected and confirmed with a second inoculation experiment. Seventy-five days after inoculation, in both experiments, the resistance of landraces UTC66, UTC90, UTC67, UTC88, and UTC81 to M. enterolobii was consistent. Although genotypes UTC24, UTC79, UTC65, UTC68, UTC69, and UTC25 were susceptible, these landraces had a significantly higher proportion of resistant plants, less root galling, and a lower reproductive index, in comparison with the rest of the 79 genotypes and the susceptible control, which were highly susceptible in both experiments. There was no correlation between resistant indicators and phenotypic parameters, although plant height, relative chlorophyll, and number of flowers were in general significantly affected compared with noninoculated controls, indicating that the nematodes reduce the growth and yield of peppers. Results indicate that all resistant plants from these landraces are promising sources of resistance for the development of pepper cultivars resistant to M. enterolobii.

Factors associated with bronchiectasis in patients with uncontrolled asthma; the NOPES score: a study in 398 patients.

BACKGROUND: Some studies have reported a high prevalence of bronchiectasis in patients with uncontrolled asthma, but the factors associated with this condition are unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence of bronchiectasis in uncontrolled moderate-to-severe asthma and to identify risk factors and their correlation with bronchiectasis in these patients. METHODS: This is a prospective study of data from consecutive patients with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe asthma. Diagnosis of bronchiectasis was based on high-resolution computed tomography. A prognostic score was developed using a logistic regression model, which was used to determine the factors associated with bronchiectasis. RESULTS: A total of 398 patients (60% with severe asthma) were included. The prevalence of bronchiectasis was 28.4%. The presence of bronchiectasis was associated with a higher frequency of chronic expectoration (OR, 2.95; 95% CI, 1.49-5.84; p = 0.002), greater severity of asthma (OR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.29-4.57; p = 0.006), at least one previous episode of pneumonia (OR, 2.42; 95% CI, 1.03-5.69; p = 0.044), and lower levels of FeNO (OR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.97-0.99; p = 0.016). The NOPES score was developed on the basis of these variables (FeNO[cut off point 20.5 ppb], Pneumonia, Expectoration and asthma Severity), and it ranges from 0 to 4 points, where 0 means "no risk" and 4 corresponds to "high risk". The NOPES score yielded an AUC-ROC of 70% for the diagnosis of bronchiectasis, with a specificity of 95%. CONCLUSIONS: Almost a third of the patients with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe asthma had bronchiectasis. Bronchiectasis was related to the severity of asthma, the presence of chronic expectoration, a previous history of pneumonia, and lower levels of FeNO. The NOPES score is an easy-to-use scoring system with a high prognostic value for bronchiectasis in patients with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe asthma.

Thermo-dependence of noxious mechanical heterotopic stimulation-dependent modulation of the spinal dorsal horn response to somatosensory stimulation.

Despite the frequent clinical hyper- or hypothermia cases, thermal-dependence of the endogenous pain modulation system at the spinal cord is not well understood. We evaluate spinal dorsal horn neuronal network responses during mechanical heterotopic noxious stimuli (HNS) at three different body temperatures (34; 37 or 40°C) by measuring lumbar cord dorsum potentials activated by electrical stimulation of the ipsilateral sural nerve in adult thiopental anesthetized rats. A noxious clamp was applied randomly to the tail, right hindpaw, right forepaw, muzzle and left forepaw. HNS induced a decrease of the N wave amplitude and duration at 37°C. This effect was reduced at 40°C for both amplitude (-18.2% for 37-40°C; P<0.0005) and duration (-16.4% for 37-40°C; P<0.0001). P wave did not show neither amplitude nor duration changes at neither 3 tested temperatures. Clinical range changes of temperature could modify pain sensation, moreover, hyperthermia increases nociceptive sensory input to dorsal horn, and could exacerbate pain sensation in individuals with fever.

Fabrication of ultra-high numerical aperture GeO2-doped fiber and its use for broadband supercontinuum generation.

We report the fabrication, characterization, and application (broadband supercontinuum [SC] generation) of ultra-high numerical-aperture heavily (50 mol. %) GeO2-doped optical fiber, obtained through a modified chemical vapor deposition process and rod-in-tube method. The formation of Ge-related diamagnetic defect centers, such as germanium oxygen defect centers (GeODC) with nonbridging lone electron pairs, confirmed by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and optical absorption studies, inducing hypolarizable local dipoles, may be responsible in boosting the nonlinear effects and enhancing stimulated Raman scattering at pumping with high-power pulses, culminating in generation of broadband SC generation. The SC spans toward the Stokes side up to 2.4 µm, under the action of ns-range pulses launched from a smartly Q-switched erbium-doped fiber laser with operation wavelength (1.56 µm) matching the zero-dispersion wavelength of the high GeO2-doped fiber.

Noxious mechanical heterotopic stimulation induces inhibition of the spinal dorsal horn neuronal network: analysis of spinal somatosensory-evoked potentials.

Most of the endogenous pain modulation (EPM) involves the spinal dorsal horn (SDH). EPM including diffuse noxious inhibitory controls have been extensively described in oligoneuronal electrophysiological recordings but less attention had been paid to responses of the SDH neuronal population to heterotopic noxious stimulation (HNS). Spinal somatosensory-evoked potentials (SEP) offer the possibility to evaluate the neuronal network behavior, reflecting the incoming afferent volleys along the entry root, SDH interneuron activities and the primary afferent depolarization. SEP from de lumbar cord dorsum were evaluated during mechanical heterotopic noxious stimuli. Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 12) were Laminectomized (T10-L3). The sural nerve of the left hind paw was electrically stimulated (5 mA, 0.5 ms, 0.05 Hz) to induce lumbar SEP. The HNS (mechanic clamp) was applied sequentially to the tail, right hind paw, right forepaw, muzzle and left forepaw during sural stimulation. N wave amplitude decreases (-16.6 %) compared to control conditions when HNS was applied to all areas of stimulation. This effect was more intense for muzzle stimulation (-23.5 %). N wave duration also decreased by -23.6 %. HNS did not change neither the amplitude nor the duration of the P wave but dramatically increases the dispersion of these two parameters. The results of the present study strongly suggest that a HNS applied to different parts of the body is able to reduce the integrated electrical response of the SDH, suggesting that not only wide dynamic range neurons but many others in the SDH are modulated by the EPM.

Tibolone prevents oxidation and ameliorates cholinergic deficit induced by ozone exposure in the male rat hippocampus.

Oxidative stress is related to the development of central nervous system diseases involving memory processes. Cholinergic system and memory processes are disrupted by ozone exposure. In rats, ozone induces motor disturbances and memory deficits as well as biochemical changes in brain regions related to memory processes. In this work, we analyzed the effect of chronic tibolone (TIB) administration in central nervous system, specifically the content of choline acetyltransferase, acetylcholinesterase, acetylcholine and oxidative stress markers in the hippocampus of male rats exposed to ozone. Our results reveal a neuroprotective effect of TIB treatment on neuronal damage induced by chronic ozone exposure. Furthermore, we suggest that TIB can prevent memory deficits by providing a protective effect against oxidative stress and the cholinergic system disruption induced by ozone exposure. Together, these findings present a potential neuroprotective effect of TIB in processes linked to memory deficits induced by aging or neurodegenerative diseases.

Mathematical decision theory applied to land capability: a case study in the community of madrid.

In land evaluation science, a standard data set is obtained for each land unit to determine the land capability class for various uses, such as different farming systems, forestry, or the conservation or suitability of a specific crop. In this study, we used mathematical decision theory (MDT) methods to address this task. Mathematical decision theory has been used in areas such as management, finance, industrial design, rural development, the environment, and projects for future welfare to study quality and aptness problems using several criteria. We also review MDT applications in soil science and discuss the suitability of MDT methods for dealing simultaneously with a number of problems. The aim of the work was to show how MDT can be used to obtain a valid land quality index and to compare this with a traditional land capability method. Therefore, an additive classification method was applied to obtain a land quality index for 122 land units that were compiled for a case study of the Community of Madrid, Spain, and the results were compared with a previously assigned land capability class using traditional methods based on the minimum requirements for land attributes.

Standing laparoscopic peritoneal flap hernioplasty of the vaginal rings does not modify the sperm production and motility characteristics in intact male horses.

Laparoscopic hernioplasty techniques have been developed in the recent years to avoid the recurrence of inguinal hernias and to spare the testicles for breeding purposes in stallions. However, there have been no previous comprehensive and systematic studies of the reproductive outcomes and prognoses for stallions after inguinal hernioplasty. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the possible effects of one of these techniques (standing laparoscopic peritoneal flap hernioplasty) on the sperm production and motility characteristics of six healthy stallions that received this procedure based on 1-year follow-ups. There were no significant differences in the measured sperm variables (assessments based on the DSO, MOT, PMOT, VSL, VCL and VAP) during 1-year follow-ups.

[Bilateral central femoral dislocation after seizure. Antiprotrusive ring and dual mobility cup as a therapeutic option. Apropos of a case]. / Luxación bilateral central femoral tras crisis convulsiva. Anillo antiprotrusivo y cotilo de doble movilidad como opción terapéutica. A propósito de un caso.

INTRODUCTION: seizures can trigger fractures and dislocations. Injuries depend on the severity, duration and type of seizure. We present a case report of a male patient who presented with a bilateral central dislocation fracture of the hip following an episode of seizure. A case rarely described in the literature with complex and unusual management. CASE REPORT: a 77-year-old man with a history of moderate cognitive impairment suffered a bilateral central dislocation of the hip in the context of a generalized epileptic seizure. Clinically on arrival at the emergency department, the patient presented shortening of the right lower extremity compared to the contralateral, external rotation and joint locking on log roll test in both extremities. An imaging study and clinical optimization were performed prior to surgery. It was performed in two stages. First the left hip on the 8th day of admission, and the right hip on the 15th. In both surgeries the same procedure was performed, with implantation of an antiprotrusive ring and a double mobility cup prosthesis with an uncemented femoral stem. In the immediate postoperative period, the patient did not present any complications associated with the surgery. At 24-month follow-up, the patient performed full weight bearing with a Harris hip score (HHS) of 77 on the right hip and 79 on the left; 12 points on the WOMAC scale. No postoperative complications have occurred so far. CONCLUSIONS: these injuries are uncommon in our daily practice, where multiple options are available to address them. In our patient, the use of arthroplasty and antiprotrusive rings offers advantages over fracture synthesis techniques, such as early mobilization with moderate functional results and few postoperative complications.

INTRODUCCIÓN: las crisis convulsivas pueden desencadenar fracturas y luxaciones. Las lesiones dependen de la severidad, duración y el tipo de crisis. Presentamos un caso clínico de un varón que presentó una fractura luxación central bilateral de cadera tras episodio de crisis convulsiva. Un caso pocas veces descrito en la literatura con un manejo complejo y poco habitual. CASO CLÍNICO: paciente de 77 años con antecedentes de deterioro cognitivo moderado que sufrió una luxación bilateral central de cadera en contexto de una crisis convulsiva generalizada. Clínicamente, a su llegada a urgencias, el paciente presentaba un acortamiento de la extremidad inferior derecha en comparación con la contralateral, rotación externa y bloqueo articular a la realización del log roll test en ambas extremidades. Se realizó estudio de imagen y optimización clínica previo a cirugía. Se realizó en dos tiempos: primero la cadera izquierda al octavo día de ingreso y la cadera derecha al decimoquinto. En ambas cirugías se realizó el mismo procedimiento mediante implantación de anillo antiprotrusivo y prótesis con cotilo de doble movilidad con vástago femoral no cementado. En el postoperatorio inmediato, el paciente no presentó ninguna complicación asociada a la cirugía. En el seguimiento a los 12 meses, el paciente realiza carga completa con un Harris hip score (HHS) de 77 cadera derecha y 79 en la izquierda; 12 puntos en la escala WOMAC. No ha presentado complicaciones postoperatorias hasta el momento. CONCLUSIONES: estas lesiones son poco comunes en nuestra práctica diaria, donde disponemos de múltiples opciones para abordarlas. En nuestro paciente, el empleo de la artroplastía y de anillos antiprotrusivos nos ofrecen ventajas respecto a las técnicas de síntesis de la fractura, como una movilización precoz y evitar desarrollo prematuro de una artrosis postraumática, con resultados buenos, funcionales y pocas complicaciones postoperatorias.

Whole Health coaching to rural Veterans through telehealth: Advantages, gaps, and opportunities.

Background: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is one of the largest providers of telehealth in the United States and continues to lead the way in transforming healthcare services. VHA has been implementing its Whole Health (WH) initiative since 2018, a proactive practice empowering patients to take charge of their health and well-being. A key facilitator of the WH initiative is the WH coach who partners with Veterans to achieve their health-related goals. A gap exists in the literature regarding the understanding of WH coaches' use of telehealth to engage rural-residing Veterans. COVID-19 unexpectedly interrupted in-person VHA delivery of care, including WH coaching which primarily relied on in-person delivery and focused less on telehealth. During the pandemic, WH coaches had to adapt and integrate different modalities to engage their Veteran patients. We examined WH coaches' approaches to extending coaching to rural Veterans via technology, emphasizing the advantages of telehealth, existing gaps in telehealth delivery, and opportunities for telehealth as a coaching modality. Methods: This project was implemented as part of a larger mixed methods evaluation regarding WH coaching for rural Veterans; this manuscript presents the findings from the qualitative data from the larger study. The qualitative dataset is comprised of data collected using three different qualitative methods: four focus groups (n = 11; 3-4 participants per group), in-depth individual interviews (n = 9), and open-ended responses from a national web-based survey (n = 140). Focus group, in-depth interview, and open-ended survey data were collected sequentially and separately analyzed following each wave of data collection. Findings from the three analyses were then collaboratively merged, compared, reorganized, and refined by the evaluation team to create final themes. Results: Three final themes that emerged from the merged data were: (1) Advantages of Telehealth; (2) Telehealth Gaps for Rural Veterans, and (3) Strategies for Bridging Telehealth Gaps. Themes explicate telehealth advantages, gaps, and opportunities for rural Veteran WH coaching. Conclusion: Findings highlight that video telehealth alone is not sufficient for meeting the needs of rural Veterans. Digital technologies hold promise for equalizing health access gaps; however, both human factors and broadband infrastructure constraints continue to require WH coaches to use a mix of modalities in working with rural Veterans. To overcome challenges and bridge gaps, WH coaches should be ready to adopt a blended approach that integrates virtual, in-person, and lower-tech options.

ESMO Consensus Guidelines for management of patients with colon and rectal cancer. a personalized approach to clinical decision making.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the most common tumour type in both sexes combined in Western countries. Although screening programmes including the implementation of faecal occult blood test and colonoscopy might be able to reduce mortality by removing precursor lesions and by making diagnosis at an earlier stage, the burden of disease and mortality is still high. Improvement of diagnostic and treatment options increased staging accuracy, functional outcome for early stages as well as survival. Although high quality surgery is still the mainstay of curative treatment, the management of CRC must be a multi-modal approach performed by an experienced multi-disciplinary expert team. Optimal choice of the individual treatment modality according to disease localization and extent, tumour biology and patient factors is able to maintain quality of life, enables long-term survival and even cure in selected patients by a combination of chemotherapy and surgery. Treatment decisions must be based on the available evidence, which has been the basis for this consensus conference-based guideline delivering a clear proposal for diagnostic and treatment measures in each stage of rectal and colon cancer and the individual clinical situations. This ESMO guideline is recommended to be used as the basis for treatment and management decisions.

Ehrenfest dynamics is purity non-preserving: a necessary ingredient for decoherence.

We discuss the evolution of purity in mixed quantum/classical approaches to electronic nonadiabatic dynamics in the context of the Ehrenfest model. As it is impossible to exactly determine initial conditions for a realistic system, we choose to work in the statistical Ehrenfest formalism that we introduced in Alonso et al. [J. Phys. A: Math. Theor. 44, 396004 (2011)]. From it, we develop a new framework to determine exactly the change in the purity of the quantum subsystem along with the evolution of a statistical Ehrenfest system. In a simple case, we verify how and to which extent Ehrenfest statistical dynamics makes a system with more than one classical trajectory, and an initial quantum pure state become a quantum mixed one. We prove this numerically showing how the evolution of purity depends on time, on the dimension of the quantum state space D, and on the number of classical trajectories N of the initial distribution. The results in this work open new perspectives for studying decoherence with Ehrenfest dynamics.

Non-adiabatic effects within a single thermally averaged potential energy surface: thermal expansion and reaction rates of small molecules.

At non-zero temperature and when a system has low-lying excited electronic states, the ground-state Born-Oppenheimer approximation breaks down and the low-lying electronic states are involved in any chemical process. In this work, we use a temperature-dependent effective potential for the nuclei which can accommodate the influence of an arbitrary number of electronic states in a simple way, while at the same time producing the correct Boltzmann equilibrium distribution for the electronic part. With the help of this effective potential, we show that thermally activated low-lying electronic states can have a significant effect in molecular properties for which electronic excitations are oftentimes ignored. We study the thermal expansion of the Manganese dimer, Mn(2), where we find that the average bond length experiences a change larger than the present experimental accuracy upon the inclusion of the excited states into the picture. We also show that, when these states are taken into account, reaction-rate constants are modified. In particular, we study the opening of the ozone molecule, O(3), and show that in this case the rate is modified as much as a 20% with respect to the ground-state Born-Oppenheimer prediction.

Surface plasmon excitations in cylindrical nanorods by electron-hole pair creation.

In this work we study the effect of the excitation of surface plasmons in a metallic cylindrical nanorod by a suddenly created electron-hole pair, using a classical model for the emerging electron and a quantum-mechanical model for the plasmon field in the cylinder. The electron and the hole interact independently with the plasmon field, generating electron density oscillations. Two different trajectories for the emerging electron (parallel to the axis and radial) are studied in an aluminum nanorod. The average number of excited plasmons indicates how important is the role of the hole in the excitation process. We found that the results can be very different according to the trajectory of the emerging electron. We also found that the distinction between intrinsic and extrinsic process is sometimes not applicable.

Isolation and characterization of Streptococcus parauberis from vacuum-packaging refrigerated seafood products.

Streptococcus parauberis is known as an etiological agent of mastitis in cows and for producing streptococcosis in farmed fish, although its presence in foods has seldom been reported. In this work, two bacterial isolates were recovered from a spoiled vacuum-packaged refrigerated seafood product. Both isolates were identified by 16S rRNA gene sequencing, exhibiting 99% homology with respect to S. parauberis. Both isolates were also characterized by Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization Time-of-Flight Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS). Genetic analysis revealed the clonal homogeneity of the isolates and their grouping together with other S. parauberis strains in a different cluster with respect to Streptococcus uberis strains. Proteomic analysis by MALDI-TOF MS allowed for the identification of five mass peaks in the range of 2200-6000 m/z that resulted to be specific to the species S. parauberis and allowed its rapid and direct identification with respect to other pathogenic and spoilage bacteria potentially present in seafood and other food products. This study represents, to our knowledge, the first report of S. parauberis in seafood in general and in vacuum-packed food products in particular. Moreover, it provides a rapid method based on MALDI-TOF MS for the identification of S. parauberis.

Development of a new antibody for detecting natural killer enhancing factor (NKEF)-like protein in infected salmonids.

The main cellular responses of innate immunity are phagocytic activity and the respiratory burst, which produces a high amount of reactive oxygen species. Natural killer enhancing factor (NKEF) belongs to the peroxiredoxin family that has an antioxidant function and enhances cytotoxic cell activity. This molecule may play a key role in macrophage and cytotoxic cell communication during the innate immune response of fish against pathogens. In fish, the NKEF gene has been characterized in some species as showing an up-regulation in infected fish, suggesting a trigger effect upon NK-like cells. To detect and localize this molecule in salmonids at protein level, a monospecific polyclonal antibody was generated. A probable NKEF-like protein epitope region was identified and characterized using bioinformatic tools, and the sequence was chemically synthesized using Fmoc strategy, analysed by RP-HPLC and its molecular weight confirmed by mass spectrometry. The synthetic peptide was immunized and antibodies from ascitic fluid were obtained. The resulting antibody is a versatile tool for detecting NKEF by different immune techniques such as ELISA, Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Analysis of NKEF-like protein is a useful method for characterizing immune properties of this molecule in fish during response to pathogens.

Premenstrual asthma and leukotriene variations in the menstrual cycle.

BACKGROUND: Several authors have reported an increase in leukotriene C4 in the premenstrual phase in women with severe premenstrual asthma, indicating that antileukotrienes could be used in treatment. OBJECTIVE: To analyse the role of leukotrienes in premenstrual asthma. METHODS: A questionnaire on respiratory symptoms and peak flow during one complete menstrual cycle was given to women of fertile age to define them as asthmatics who suffered from premenstrual asthma or not. Premenstrual asthma (PMA) was defined as a clinical or functional deterioration (≥20%) in the premenstrual phase compared with the preovulatory phase. Blood samples to measure leukotriene C4 were taken during the preovulatory and premenstrual phases. RESULTS: Blood samples were taken in 62 asthmatic women, 34 of whom (54.3%) presented PMA criteria, all with a premenstrual deterioration of between 20 and 40%. There was no difference in leukotriene C4 levels between the preovulatory and premenstrual phases in the women who suffered from PMA (1.50ng/mL vs. 1.31ng/mL; p=0.32) and those who did not (1.40ng/mL vs. 1.29ng/mL; p=0.62). Neither were there any differences in leukotriene levels between women with or without PMA. The results were similar for each category of asthma severity. CONCLUSIONS: Our data show that leukotriene C4 does not appear to be involved in the pathogenesis of premenstrual asthma, or support the use of anti-leukotrienes in the specific treatment of premenstrual asthma, at least in women with a moderate premenstrual deterioration. No differences appeared in any of the categories of asthma severity.

Meeting the Needs of Rural Veterans: A Qualitative Evaluation of Whole Health Coaches' Expanded Services and Support during COVID-19.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore perspectives of Whole Health (WH) coaches at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) on meeting the needs of rural Veterans during the COVID-19 pandemic. The evaluation design employed a qualitative description approach, employing focus groups and in-depth interviews with a convenience sample of WH coaches across the VHA system. Fourteen coaches who work with rural Veterans participated in either one of three focus groups, individual interviews, or both. The focus group data and in-depth interviews were analyzed separately using thematic analysis, and findings were then merged to compare themes across both datasets. Four primary themes were identified: bridging social risk factors for rural Veterans, leveraging technology to stay connected with Veterans at-a-distance, redirecting Veterans to alternate modes of self-care, and maintaining flexibility in coaching role during COVID-19. One overarching theme was also identified following a post-hoc analysis driven by interdisciplinary team discussion: increased concerns for Veteran mental health during COVID-19. Coaches reported using a variety of strategies to respond to the wide-ranging needs of rural Veterans during the pandemic. Implications of findings for future research and practice are discussed.

Disposable FFP2 and Type IIR Medical-Grade Face Masks: An Exhaustive Analysis into the Leaching of Micro- and Nanoparticles and Chemical Pollutants Linked to the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the worldwide production and use of disposable plastic face masks (DPFMs). The release of micro- and nanopollutants into the environment is one of the impacts derived from regulated and unregulated disposal of DPFMs. This study focuses on the emission of pollutants from medical-grade DPFMs when submerged in deionized water, simulating regulated and unregulated disposal of these masks. Three brands of FFP2 and three brands of Type IIR medical masks, produced in various countries (UK, EU, and non-EU), were investigated. Field emission gun scanning electron microscopy (FEG-SEM) was used to obtain high-resolution images of the micro- and nanoparticles, and 0.02 µm pore size inorganic membranes were used to retain and subsequently analyze smaller particle size nanoparticles (>20 nm) released from the DPFMs. Particles and fibers in the micro- and nanoscale were found in all six DPFM brands. SEM with energy-dispersive spectroscopy analysis revealed the presence of particles containing different heavy metals like lead, mercury, and arsenic. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis confirmed the leaching of trace heavy metals to water (antimony up to 2.41 µg/L and copper up to 4.68 µg/L). Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis identified polar organic species related to plastic additives and contaminants such as polyamide-66 monomers and oligomers.