Building evidence around ghost gear: Global trends and analysis for sustainable solutions at scale.

Abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) comprises a significant amount of global marine debris, with diverse impacts to marine environments, wildlife, and the fishing industry. Building evidence on ALDFG is critical to holistically understand the marine debris issue, and to inform the development of solutions that reduce amounts of ALDFG sources and recover existing gear. Substantial work has been and continues to be undertaken around the world to collect data on ALDFG, much of which remains unpublished. To provide a global picture of data on ALDFG, we organized a technical session that brought together seven ALDFG leaders to share their expertise in data collection, retrieval, and awareness-raising. This paper summarizes the technical session to highlight: 1) case studies that feature innovative approaches to ALDFG data collection and retrieval; 2) examples of opportunities to fill data gaps and improve our understanding of wildlife ingestion of and entanglement in ALDFG; and 3) awareness-raising through the development of a publicly accessible global ALDFG database.

Sensation loss after superficial parotidectomy: A prospective controlled multicenter trial.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the occurrence of hypoesthesia after superficial parotidectomy depending on preservation of posterior branch of the great auricular nerve (GAN). METHODS: This prospective, controlled, double blind, multicenter trial included 130 patients. The posterior branch was preserved in 93 patients (GAN group), and ligated in 33 patients (non-GAN group). In 4 patients, GAN status was unknown. Included patients underwent sensory testing (TouchTest) and subjective evaluation at 6, 12, and 24 months after surgery. RESULTS: Better improvement of sensation was present in the GAN group. After 12 months, 59% of the patients in the GAN-group showed positive test results in the lobule, versus 24% of the non-GAN group (p = .013). Additionally, after 24 months, 71% of the patients in the GAN-group showed a positive test in the antitragus, versus 31% in the non-GAN group (p = .045). Hypoesthesia equally limited quality of life in both groups (all p > .05). CONCLUSION: Preservation of the posterior branch of the GAN led to significantly better improvement of sensation in the lobule and antitragus, and should be recommended during parotidectomy. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 39: 520-526, 2017.

Frey's syndrome after superficial parotidectomy: role of the sternocleidomastoid muscle flap: a prospective nonrandomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The prevalence of Frey's syndrome (FS) after superficial parotidectomy in correlation to the sternocleidomastoid muscle flap (SCMMF) interposition is analyzed. METHODS: A prospective nonrandomized controlled multicenter trial included 130 patients. During superficial parotidectomy, SCMMF was dissected, if excised specimens' volume exceeded 25 mL (SCMMF group). Follow-up examinations took place after 6, 12, and 24 months and included a Minor's test. RESULTS: SCMMF was dissected in 30 (23.1%) patients. A total of 104, 80, and 68 patients completed the 1st, 2nd, and the 3rd follow-up, respectively. FS was detectable with nonvarying prevalence (46.3%, 45.6%, and 43.4%, respectively) during follow-up. The prevalence was higher in the SCMMF group (59.9%) than in the non-SCMMF group (41.8%; P = .92). The sweating area increased during follow-up (P = .12). Overall, 89.5% of patients characterized FS as not disturbing after 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: FS occurred with a steady and high prevalence after superficial parotidectomy. In particular, SCMMF did not lower the risk of FS.

Segmentation of the optic disk in color eye fundus images using an adaptive morphological approach.

The identification of some important retinal anatomical regions is a prerequisite for the computer aided diagnosis of several retinal diseases. In this paper, we propose a new adaptive method for the automatic segmentation of the optic disk in digital color fundus images, using mathematical morphology. The proposed method has been designed to be robust under varying illumination and image acquisition conditions, common in eye fundus imaging. Our experimental results based on two publicly available eye fundus image databases are encouraging, and indicate that our approach potentially can achieve a better performance than other known methods proposed in the literature. Using the DRIVE database (which consists of 40 retinal images), our method achieves a success rate of 100% in the correct location of the optic disk, with 41.47% of mean overlap. In the DIARETDB1 database (which consists of 89 retinal images), the optic disk is correctly located in 97.75% of the images, with a mean overlap of 43.65%.

Eritema nodoso / Erythema Nodosum

Os autores fazem uma revisão bibliográfica sobre eritema nodoso, incluindo suas diversas causas, manifestações clínicas, investigação e diagnósticos diferenciais. É enfatizada que eritema nodoso pode ser a manifestação cutânea de uma doença sistêmica, logo, essa situação deve ser afastada

Hirsutismo, hipertricose e alopécia / Hirsutism, hypertrichosis and alopecia

Embora as anomalias dos pêlos sejam primariamente um problema cosmético, elas podem representar um sinal cutâneo de uma doença sistêmica. Exemplos são a desnutrição, avitaminoses, emagrecimento excessivo, doença toxêmica, alterações hormonais. No presente trabalho, os autores fazem uma revisão das principais tricoses (alopecia, hipertricose e hirsutismo), enfatizando conceito, epidemiologia, diagnóstico, clínica e tratamento