Together We Go Farther: Improving Access to Cancer Screening Through a Multidisciplinary, One-Stop-Shop Approach.

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Despite significant scientific advances in cancer treatment in recent decades, Black Americans still face marked inequities in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment. Redressing these persistent inequities will require innovative strategies for community engagement. Radiologists, as experts in cancer screening and diagnosis for multiple malignancies, including breast, lung, and colon, are ideally suited to lead and implement community-based strategies to address local cancer disparities. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Through an established academic-community partnership in West Philadelphia built over the course of multiple prior community healthcare events, the authors piloted a novel radiology-led multidisciplinary approach to improve access to cancer screening for the predominantly Black, medically-underserved residents. Using a "one-stop-shop" framework to provide a comprehensive suite of screening and ancillary services in the heart of the community, the authors sought to remove as many impediments to screening as possible. RESULTS: Approximately 350 participants attended the health fair, and a total of 232 screening tests or assessments were completed. Data from this event suggest that this inclusive approach, as well as the use of a health fair "passport" to incentivize engagement, can successfully improve access to screening and follow-up in an underserved community. CONCLUSION: This "one-stop-shop" community approach can be replicated by radiology-led teams in other settings as a high-value, scalable opportunity to reduce disparities in access to cancer screening.

A comparative study on wavelet denoising for high noisy CT images of COVID-19 disease.

Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), detected in Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, is a pandemic disease and affecting all people in the world. Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test is the standard clinical tool for the diagnosis of COVID-19. Computed Tomography (CT) is an alternative method to RT-PCR test for the diagnosis of COVID-19 due to some disadvantages of the RT-PCR test. In this method, the target is to determine coronavirus pneumonia from CT images. However, high noise decreases the image quality, so a noise reduction filter is used. The wavelet functions are widely used to reduce noise in images. In this study, a performance comparison of the different wavelet functions in CT image denoising is proposed. Significant remarks are obtained from the analysis to improve the quality for CT exams of COVID-19 disease.

Comparison of sulfidogenic up-flow and down-flow fluidized-bed reactors for the biotreatment of acidic metal-containing wastewater.

Biotreatment of Cu- and Zn-containing synthetic wastewater was studied in sulfate-reducing up-flow (UFBR) and down-flow fluidized-bed reactors (DFBR) at 35 degrees C. The robustness of the systems was studied by stepwise increasing feed metal concentrations (total metal concentrations 25-300 mg/L) and decreasing feed pH (down to 2.0). Lactate was used as a carbon and energy source for sulfate reducing bacteria. After start-up, sulfate reduction and COD oxidation efficiencies were 60-86% and 87-95% in UFBR and, 40-88 and 55-95% in DFBR, respectively. Optimum COD/sulfate ratio for sulfate reduction was 0.85 and 1.25 for UFBR and DFBR, respectively. Approximately 70% and 55% of the electrons produced from lactate oxidation were used for sulfate reduction in UFBR and DFBR, respectively. Sulfide production and metal precipitation capacity of UFBR were higher than those of DFBR, although down-flow regime gave the possibility of metal recovery. Metals were precipitated more than 99% in both reactors. XRF analyses showed that metals were precipitated as metal-sulfides.

Separate recovery of copper and zinc from acid mine drainage using biogenic sulfide.

Precipitation of metals from acid mine drainage (AMD) using sulfide gives the possibility of selective recovery due to different solubility product of each metal. Using sulfate reducing bacteria to produce sulfide for that purpose is advantageous due to in situ and on-demand sulfide production. In this study, separate precipitation of Cu and Zn was studied using sulfide produced in anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR). ABR fed with ethanol (1340 mg/L chemical oxygen demand (COD)) and sulfate (2000 mg/L) gave a stable performance with 65% sulfate reduction, 85% COD removal and around 320 mg/L sulfide production. Cu was separately precipitated at low pH (pH<2) using sulfide transported from ABR effluent via N(2) gas. Cu precipitation was complete within 45-60 min and Zn did not precipitate during Cu removal. The Cu precipitation rate increased with initial Cu concentration. After selective Cu precipitation, Zn recovery was studied using ABR effluent containing sulfide and alkalinity. Depending on initial sulfide/Zn ratio, removal efficiency varied between 84 and 98%. The low pH of Zn bearing AMD was also increased to neutral values using alkalinity produced by sulfate reducing bacteria in ABR. The mode of particle size distribution of ZnS and CuS precipitates was around 17 and 46 microm, respectively.

Performance of sulfidogenic anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) treating acidic and zinc-containing wastewater.

The applicability of anaerobic baffled reactor (ABR) was investigated for the treatment of acidic (pH 4.5-7.0) wastewater containing sulfate (1000-2000 mg/L) and Zn (65-200mg/L) at 35 degrees C. The ABR consisted of four equal stages and lactate was supplemented (COD/SO(4)(2-)=0.67) as carbon and energy source for sulfate reducing bacteria (SRB). The robustness of the system was studied by decreasing pH and increasing Zn, COD, and sulfate loadings. Sulfate-reduction efficiency quickly increased during the start-up period and reached 80% within 45 days. Decreasing feed pH, increasing feed sulfate and Zn concentrations did not adversely affect system performance as sulfate reduction and COD removal efficiencies were within 62-90% and 80-95%, respectively. Although feed pH was steadily decreased from 7.0 to 4.5, effluent pH was always within 6.8-7.5. Over 99% Zn removal was attained throughout the study due to formation of Zn-sulfide precipitate.