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Antibiotics represent essential drugs to contrast the insurgence of bacterial infections in humans and animals. Their extensive use in livestock farming, including aquaculture, has improved production performances and food safety. However, their overuse can implicate a risk of water pollution and related antimicrobial resistance. Consequently, innovative strategies for successfully removing antibiotic contaminants have to be advanced to protect human health. Among them, photodegradation TiO2-driven under solar irradiation appears not only as a promising method, but also a sustainable pathway. Hence, we evaluated several composite TiO2 powders with H2TCPP, CuTCPP, ZnTCPP, and SnT4 porphyrin for this scope in order to explore the effect of porphyrins sensitization on titanium dioxide. The synthesis was realized through a fully non-covalent functionalization in water at room conditions. The efficacy of obtained composite materials was also tested in photodegrading oxolinic acid and oxytetracycline in aqueous solution at micromolar concentrations. Under simulated solar irradiation, TiO2 functionalized with CuTCPP has shown encouraging results in the removal of oxytetracycline from water, by opening the way as new approaches to struggle against antibiotic's pollution and, finally, to represent a new valuable tool of public health.

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The refinement axiom for entropy has been provocative in providing foundations of information theory, recognised as thoughtworthy in the writings of both Shannon and Jaynes. A resolution to their concerns has been provided recently by the discovery that the entropy measure of a probability distribution has a dual measure, a complementary companion designated as "extropy". We report here the main results that identify this fact, specifying the dual equations and exhibiting some of their structure. The duality extends beyond a simple assessment of entropy, to the formulation of relative entropy and the Kullback symmetric distance between two forecasting distributions. This is defined by the sum of a pair of directed divergences. Examining the defining equation, we notice that this symmetric measure can be generated by two other explicable pairs of functions as well, neither of which is a Bregman divergence. The Kullback information complex is constituted by the symmetric measure of entropy/extropy along with one of each of these three function pairs. It is intimately related to the total logarithmic score of two distinct forecasting distributions for a quantity under consideration, this being a complete proper score. The information complex is isomorphic to the expectations that the two forecasting distributions assess for their achieved scores, each for its own score and for the score achieved by the other. Analysis of the scoring problem exposes a Pareto optimal exchange of the forecasters' scores that both are willing to engage. Both would support its evaluation for assessing the relative quality of the information they provide regarding the observation of an unknown quantity of interest. We present our results without proofs, as these appear in source articles that are referenced. The focus here is on their content, unhindered. The mathematical syntax of probability we employ relies upon the operational subjective constructions of Bruno de Finetti.

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Solitary small intestine hemangiomas are rare and usually present with overt bleeding or chronic anemia. Diagnosis is usually difficult because traditional imaging techniques often lack accuracy. Capsule endoscopy is a new diagnostic tool that has showed greater sensitivity than other methods to reveal causes of bleeding in the small intestine. A case of hemangioma of the ileum in a 13-year-old boy is presented. Capsule endoscopy allowed diagnosis and planning of surgical treatment.

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OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of capsule endoscopy in the detection of causes of obscure gastrointestinal bleeding. METHODS: Fifteen patients, nine males and six females, mean age 46 years (range 20-75 years), were investigated. All patients had undergone upper and lower gastrointestinal endoscopy with no evidence of causes of bleeding. Indication for capsule endoscopy was overt bleeding in 10 patients (eight with melaena and two with rectal bleeding) and anaemia in five patients. RESULTS: Diagnosis was made in four out of 10 patients with overt bleeding (40%) and in four out of five (80%) in the group with anaemia. The overall detection rate was 53%. Of the eight patients with melaena, two had angiodysplasia, one showed a diffuse inflammation of the jejunum and ileum probably related to associated portal hypertension, and five had a normal examination. Of the two patients with rectal bleeding, one had a polyp in the terminal ileum and the other a normal examination. Of the five patients with anaemia, one had jejunal carcinoma, three had Crohn's disease and one had a normal endoscopy. CONCLUSION: Wireless capsule endoscopy is safe, effective, non-invasive, and provides definitive diagnosis in about one-half of patients presenting with obscure gastrointestinal bleeding and previous negative endoscopic examinations.

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