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A common source of concern about digital pathology (DP) is that limited resolution could be a reason for an increased risk of malpractice. A frequent question being raised about this technology is whether it can be used to reliably detectThe method we propose is based on the Warthin-Starry (W-S) silver stain which allows faster detection of HP in virtual slides. A software tool, based on regular expressions, performed a specific search to select 679 biopsies on which a W-S stain was done. From this dataset 185 virtual slides were selected to be assessed by WSI and compared with microscopy slide readings. To determine whether HP infections could be accurately diagnosed with machine learning. AI was used as a service (AIaaS) on a neural network-based web platform trained with 468 images. A test dataset of 210 images was used to assess the classifier performance.In 185 gastric biopsies read with DP we recorded only 4 false positives and 4 false negatives with an overall agreement of 95.6%. Compared with microscopy, defined as the "gold standard" for the diagnosis of HP infections, WSI had a sensitivity and specificity of 0.95 and 0.96, respectively. The ROC curve of our AI classifier generated on a testing dataset of 210 images had an AUC of 0.938.This study demonstrates that DP and AI can be used to reliably identify HP at 20X resolution.

Background Recent reports showed that the protective effect of flexible sigmoidoscopy (FS) screening was maintained up to17 years, although differences were reported by sex. Objective To assess long-term reduction of colorectal cancer (CRC) incidence and mortality after a single FS screening. Design Parallel randomized controlled trial. (ISRCTN registry number: 27814061). Setting 6 centers in Italy. Participants Persons aged 55 to 64 years expressing interest in having FS screening if invited, recruited from 1995 to 1999 and followed until 2012 (incidence) and 2014 to 2016 (mortality). Intervention Eligible persons were randomly assigned (1:1 ratio) to either the once-only FS screening group or control (usual care) group. Measurements Incidence and mortality rate ratios (RRs) and rate differences. Results A total of 34 272 persons (17 136 in each group) were included in the analysis; 9911 participants had screening in the intervention group. Median follow-up was 15.4 years for incidence and 18.8 years for mortality. Incidence of CRC was reduced by 19% (RR, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.71 to 0.93]) in the intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis, comparing the intervention with the control group, and by 33% (RR, 0.67 [CI, 0.56 to 0.81]) in the per protocol (PP) analysis, comparing participants screened in the intervention group with the control persons. Colorectal cancer mortality was reduced by 22% (RR, 0.78 [CI, 0.61 to 0.98]) in the ITT analysis and by 39% (RR, 0.61 [CI, 0.44 to 0.84]) in the PP analysis. Incidence of CRC was statistically significantly reduced among both men and women. Colorectal cancer mortality was statistically significantly reduced among men (ITT RR, 0.73 [CI, 0.54 to 0.97]) but not among women (ITT RR, 0.90 [CI, 0.59 to 1.37]). Limitation Self-selection of volunteers from the general population sample targeted for recruitment may limit generalizability. Conclusion The strong protective effect of a single FS screening for CRC incidence and mortality was maintained up to 15 and 19 years, respectively. Primary funding source Italian Association for Cancer Research, Italian National Research Council, Istituto Oncologico Romagnolo, Fondo "E. Tempia," University of Milan, and Local Health Unit ASL-Torino.

Chitosan is a biopolymer with unequalled properties such as biodegradability, nontoxicity, and antimicrobial activity. It is a carbohydrate polymer derived from the deacetylation of the chitin component of the shells of crustacean; hence, it is a renewable material widely available as a byproduct of the food industry. Owing to its extremely interesting properties, chitosan has been extensively applied to textile fibers to confer various functional properties such as • antimicrobial activity with a green chemistry approach for aesthetic, hygienic, and medical applications; • antifelting properties for wool fabrics; • increasing uptake of ionic dyes in dyeing processes; • removal of dyes and other organic pollutants from wastewaters; • removal of heavy metal ions from contaminated wastewaters. A fundamental problem that arises in order to obtain durable chitosan coatings on textiles is due to the low wash fastness of the biopolymer; hence, thermal treatments or cross-linking agents are needed to obtain strong bonding with the fibers. Wet thermal curing involves energy consumption and possible fiber degradation, whereas the most of cross-linking agents such as dialdehydes are toxic. Therefore, many research works were aimed to investigate safer grafting methods with physical means such as UV irradiation or with green chemicals.

The topic of the present study was the antibacterial finishing of cotton fabrics by ultraviolet grafting of chitosan biopolymer on fiber surface. A first part, carried out at laboratory level, deals with the optimization of process parameters, followed by a deep characterization of treated samples, revealing the effectiveness of the treatment. Therefore, the applied method was carefully monitored, laboratory apparatus were used and just samples of small surface were prepared by UV-grafting of pure chitosan in inert atmosphere, on dried samples, as recommended for radical curing. To test the feasibility of the proposed treatment even at semi-industrial level, in the second step of the study larger fabric samples were impregnated by foulard with a commercial chitosan solution and then were irradiated, both dried and wet, with an high power UV lamp, in air. Moreover, samples add-on was significantly reduced in order to hold down the finishing cost. White and dyed samples were treated and evaluated in terms of conferred antibacterial activity, yellowing or color changes and final hand. Eventually, treatment fastness to domestic laundering was tested. Obtained results confirmed the previous laboratory results: a strong antibacterial activity with good washing fastness was achieved by irradiation of the samples even wet and in air. It was obtained with a chitosan add-on percentage lowered till 0.3 wt% with a negligible affection of color or hand properties of the fabric.

High amounts of short fiber by-products not suitable for spinning are produced from silk manufacturing. These high protein content materials (about 94% wt) are suitable as a source of purified fibroin for biopolymer applications. An application not yet thoroughly studied is the use of fibroin solutions as a functional textile auxiliary for permanent finishing of wool garments. The aim of this work was to obtain sheath/core bicomponent fibers by coating wool fibers with thin films of silk fibroin. A polyfunctional chemical to graft fibroin onto the wool fiber surfaces without damaging the physical and chemical properties was searched to obtain wash-resistant finishing. Bifunctional as well as trifunctional epoxides were investigated. The finishing of wool with fibroin confers to the fabric innovative shine and handfeel effects, associated with an improvement of shrink resistance (antifelting) properties. The best operating conditions to obtain wool fabrics with homogeneous fibroin coating were determined.

The use of antimicrobial compounds in textiles has grown dramatically over the last decades. The potential application field is wide. It ranges from industrial textiles exposed to weather such as awnings, screens and tents; upholstery used in large public areas such as hospitals, hotels and stations; fabrics for transports; protective clothing and personal protective equipment; bed sheets and blankets; textiles left wet between processing steps; intimate apparel, underwear, socks and sportswear. Another large field of application is in filtration and disinfection of air and water for white rooms, hospitals and operating theatres, food and pharmaceutical industries, water depuration, drinkable water supplying and air-conditioning systems. The present chapter is a review of recent research works related to antimicrobial finishes for textile materials. Several examples of antimicrobial treatments (e.g. traditional pad-dry-cure technique, exhaustion bath, encapsulation, electrospinning, cross-linking, etc.) were reported. The antimicrobial agents were divided by their origin from synthesis or from natural sources. Quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), Triclosan, metals (including metal oxides and salts), polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB), N-halamines and conjugated polymers (i.e. polypyrrole) were listed as synthetic biocides in textile applications. Extracts from plants (e.g. aromatic compounds, essential oils and dyes), antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) and chitosan were considered among natural-based biocides.

The use of UV-absorbers in the dyeing of polyester to improve lightfastness is well known. In analogous manner, in this study the effect of ultraviolet (UV) absorbers on light fastness of acrylic yarns dyed in conventional dyeing process has been investigated. Under optimised dyeing conditions, the samples were dyed with a selection of basic dyes. Consequently, the samples were post-treated with five types of UV-absorbers. Regarding the photo-fading, the postdyeing treatment was evaluated from the reflection spectra in terms of the L, a, b, color coordinates and by measuring the difference ΔE between untreated and treated samples. Samples were subjected to Xenotest and FTIR-ATR spectroscopy, while the morphological structure of the dyed fibres was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). After the treatment, the acrylic fibres did not present any structural modifications and the specimens showed optimal values of light fastness.

Applications in the textile field of sol-gel processes were widely investigated since coatings of fabrics by materials of nanometric size obtained by sol-gel methods represent a functional surface modification attracting even more attention. However, few experiences of the use of nanostructured coatings are reported for leather finishing. In the experiments reported in the present chapter, a nabuk leather was finished by a sol-gel process to confer hydro and oil-repellency. The silica component could act as a protective coating, improving the rubbing performance of the substrate and conferring a certain grade of hydrorepellency, while the oil repellency was due to a fluorocarbon component. The coatings were applied at low add-on of finishing agent with the aim to keep possibly unvaried the esthetic and hand characteristics of the original leather. Contact angle and sorption time measurements of water and oil drops were carried out on the treated samples and compared with the untreated one. A similar comparison was made by testing color fastness to rubbing and change of esthetic appearance. Finally, chemical surface characterization was carried out by Fourier Transform Infrared in Attenuated Total Reflectance (FTIR-ATR) analysis.

In this work, various textile fabrics were coated with silicone and fluorocarbon-based resins by photo-curing using ultraviolet irradiation. A great number of large fabric samples were impregnated by padding with commercial finishing agents and then irradiated in air with a high power, semi-industrial UV source. The add-on of various finishing agents was kept low to reduce the treatment cost. White and dyed samples of different textile composition were treated and evaluated in terms of conferred repellency, yellowing, or color changes. Most relevant process parameters were investigated, utilizing the thermal process normally adopted at industrial level as reference. The results were statistically evaluated by ANOVA using Minitab 16 software, in order to identify the most influential parameters and to evaluate the real possibility of replacing the thermal treatment with UV curing.

Ultraviolet (UV) radiations can act in different ways on the functionalization of textiles, through pre- or posttreatments, in order to modify their behavior in dyeing and finishing processes. In cotton fiber, unlike the wool, the UV absorption is not due to any of the structural groups of the normal cellulosic chains and can only be attributed to "impurities" or "faults" bearing carbonyl and/or carboxyl groups. In fact, UV irradiation coupled with mild oxidation can improve some properties of the cotton fibers such as pilling resistance, water swelling, and dyeability. Therefore, the process of differential dyeing with direct and reactive dyes assisted by UV irradiation was studied and interesting differential chromatic effects were obtained by a UV post-treatment capable to fade dyeing. On the other hand, the surface modification of cotton fabrics by UV curing and UV grafting with suitable chemicals was pursued to obtain finishing treatments able to confer oil and/or water repellency. Finally, antimicrobial finishing by chitosan UV grafting was proposed as valid environmental friendly method to confer a satisfactory washing-resistant antimicrobial activity to cotton fabrics even with low polymer add-on

Total organic carbon (TOC) removal from Methylene Blue aqueous solutions in the presence of coal fly ash was experimented comparing adsorption alone with oxidation potentially catalyzed by ash carried out with oxygen or ozone-enriched oxygen flow. The experiments were performed in continuous stirred tank reactor with fixed amounts of ash and dye solution, while gaseous flow was continuously bubbled in the solution. The results of TOC removal from 20 mg/L Methylene Blue aqueous solution showed that in the case of adsorption alone the removal yield rose from 62 to 90% increasing ash dosage from 4.0 to 8.0 g/L. However, in oxygen flow only the removal with 4.0 g/L increased up to 72% and attained about 80% with ozone-enriched oxygen, yielding the best final values of TOC removed per unit mass of ash of 2.19 and 2.38 mg/g, respectively. The kinetic results have been satisfactorily fitted by a pseudo-second-order model yielding a kinetic constant which strongly increased in adsorption alone increasing ...

The modification of the surface energy of textile fibers to improve functional properties such as the wettability was reviewed. This modification can be achieved by physical or chemical methods or by the combination of both. Applications of plasma treatment to improve the wettability of natural and synthetic fibers were considered and some methods of wettability measurement were mentioned. Subsequently the methods aimed to confer water and oil repellency were discussed and the treatment by UV curing of fluorochemicals was explained in detail. Finally the sol-gel techniques useful to modify the surface properties of textiles were introduced and the results of water and oil repellency achievable by sol-gel were presented