Combining methods for detection of bycatch hotspot areas of marine megafauna species in and around critical rookeries and foraging areas.

Bycatch, the incidental catch of non-target species, threatens marine megafauna such as sea turtles and sea birds in the Mediterranean region. Identifying bycatch hotspots is essential to guide mitigation measures and target audiences. In the Mediterranean Sea, South Ionian Sea in Greece is a major marine habitat, including critical nesting areas, for sea turtles, and an important breeding and foraging habitat for sea birds.

Cellular and biochemical heterogeneity contributes to the phenotypic diversity of transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia.

Transfusion-dependent thalassemia (TDT) is a type of protein aggregation disease. Its clinical heterogeneity imposes challenges in effective management. Red blood cell (RBC) variables may be clinically relevant as mechanistic parts or tellers of TDT pathophysiology.

Wastewater Surveillance of SARS-CoV-2: A Comparison of Two Concentration Methods.

Wastewater surveillance is crucial for the epidemiological monitoring of SARS-CoV-2. Various concentration techniques, such as skimmed milk flocculation (SMF) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) precipitation, are employed to isolate the virus effectively. This study aims to compare these two methods and determine the one with the superior recovery rates.

The impact of climate change on sea turtles: Current knowledge, scientometrics, and mitigation strategies.

Sea turtles are one of the most significant groups of marine species, playing a key role in the sustainability and conservation of marine ecosystems and the food chain. These emblematic species are threatened by several natural and anthropogenic pressures, and climate change is increasingly reported as one of the most important threats to sea turtles, affecting sea turtles at all stages of their life cycle and at both their marine and coastal habitats. The effect of climate change is expressed as global warming, sea-level rise, extreme storms, and alterations in predation and diseases' patterns, posing a potentially negative impact on sea turtles.

Towards non-invasive monitoring of non-melanoma skin cancer using spatially offset Raman spectroscopy.

BCC (basal cell carcinoma) and SCC (squamous cell carcinoma) account for the vast majority of cases of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC). The gold standard for the diagnosis remains biopsy, which, however, is an invasive and time-consuming procedure. In this study, we employed spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS), a non-invasive approach, allowing the assessment of deeper skin tissue levels and collection of Raman photons with a bias towards the different layers of epidermis, where the non-melanoma cancers are initially formed and expand.

Simulation of the transport of marine microplastic particles in the Ionian Archipelago (NE Ionian Sea) using a Lagrangian model and the control mechanisms affecting their transport.

The Mediterranean Sea is among the most affected areas of our planet by microplastic (MP) pollution. However, some regions are still underrepresented in the current literature. This work studied the fate of microplastics (MPs) released from major populated areas within the NE Ionian Sea, an area that contains highly significant biodiversity.

Defocused Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy in Media of Different Optical Properties for Biomedical Applications Using a Commercial Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy Device.

In this study, we show how defocused spatially offset Raman spectroscopy (SORS) can be employed to recover chemical information from media of biomedical significance within sealed plastic transfusion and culture bags using a commercial SORS instrument. We demonstrate a simple approach to recover subsurface spectral information through a transparent barrier by optimizing the spatial offset of the defocused beam. The efficiency of the measurements is assessed in terms of the SORS ratio and signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) through a simple manual approach and an ordinary least squares model.