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Late Quaternary crustal uplift is well recognized in northeast Sicily, southern Italy, a region also prone to damaging earthquakes such as the 1908 "Messina" earthquake (Mw 7.1), the deadliest seismic event reported within the Italian Earthquake Catalogue. Yet it is still understudied if, within the Milazzo Peninsula, crustal uplift rates are varying spatially and temporally and whether they may be either influenced by (i) local upper‐plate faulting activity or (ii) deep geodynamic processes. To investigate the long‐term crustal vertical movements in northeast Sicily, we have mapped a flight of Middle‐Late Pleistocene marine terraces within the Milazzo Peninsula and in its southern area and refined their chronology, using a synchronous correlation approach driven by published age controls. This has allowed a new calculation of the associated crustal uplift rates, along a north–south oriented coastal‐parallel transect within the investigated area. Our results show a decreasing uplift rate from south to north across the Milazzo Peninsula and beyond, and that the associated rates of uplift have been constant through the Late Quaternary. This spatially varying yet temporally constant vertical deformation helps to constrain the amount of uplift, allowing us to explore which is the driving mechanism(s), proposing a few related scenarios. We discuss our results in terms of tectonic implications and emphasize the importance of using appropriate approaches, as such applying a synchronous correlation method, to refine chronologies of undated palaeoshorelines when used for tectonic investigations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The diagnostic accuracy of colon capsule endoscopy (CCE) depends on a well-cleansed bowel. Evaluating the cleansing quality can be difficult with a substantial interobserver variation., Objectives: Our primary aim was to establish a standard of agreement for bowel cleansing in CCE based on evaluations by expert readers. Then, we aimed to investigate the interobserver agreement on bowel cleansing., Design: We conducted an interobserver agreement study on bowel cleansing quality., Methods: Readers with different experience levels in CCE and colonoscopy evaluated bowel cleansing quality on the Leighton-Rex scale and Colon Capsule CLEansing Assessment and Report (CC-CLEAR), respectively. All evaluations were reported on an image level. A total of 24 readers rated 500 images on each scale., Results: An expert opinion-based agreement standard could be set for poor and excellent cleansing but not for the spectrum in between, as the experts agreed on only a limited number of images representing fair and good cleansing. The overall interobserver agreement on the Leighton-Rex full scale was good (intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) 0.84, 95% CI (0.82-0.85)) and remained good when stratified by experience level. On the full CC-CLEAR scale, the overall agreement was moderate (ICC 0.62, 95% CI (0.59-0.65)) and remained so when stratified by experience level., Conclusion: The interobserver agreement was good for the Leighton-Rex scale and moderate for CC-CLEAR, irrespective of the reader's experience level. It was not possible to establish an expert-opinion standard of agreement for cleansing quality in CCE images. Dedicated training in using the scales may improve agreement and enable future algorithm calibration for artificial intelligence supported cleansing evaluation., Trial Registration: All included images were derived from the CAREforCOLON 2015 trial (Registered with The Regional Health Research Ethics Committee (Registration number: S-20190100), the Danish data protection agency (Ref. 19/29858), and ClinicalTrials.gov (registration number: NCT04049357))., Competing Interests: Benedicte Schelde-Olesen has received honoraria and participated in advisory board meetings for Jinshan Ltd. Anastasios Koulaouzidis is shareholder of iCERV Ltd., has received consultancy fees and travel support from Jinshan Ltd., and has participated in advisory board meetings hosted by Dr FalkPharmaUK, Norgine, Jinshan, and ANKON. Emanuele Rondonotti has received honoraria from Fujifilm and consultancy fees from Medtronic. Xavier Dray has received lecture fees from Alfasigma, Bouchara, Recordati, Fujifilm, Medtronic, Norgine and Sandoz, has received consultancy fees from Norgine and Provepharma and is co-founder and shareholder of Augmented Endoscopy. Stefania Piccirelli has received a travel grant from AnX Robotica and honoraria from Malesci. Ulrik Deding, Ervin Toth, Konstantinos John Dabos, Abraham Eliakim, Cristina Carretero, Begoña González-Suárez, Thomas de Lange, Hanneke Beaumont, Uri Kopylov, Pierre Ellul, Enrique Pérez-Cuadrado-Robles, Alexander Robertson, Irene Stenfors, Alejandro Bojorquez, Gitte Grunnet Raabe, Reuma Margalit-Yehuda, Isabel Barba, Giulia Scardino, Salome Ouazana, Thomas Bjørsum-Meyer declare no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article., (© The Author(s), 2024.)

Background and study aims Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems could make the optical diagnosis (OD) of diminutive colorectal polyps (DCPs) more reliable and objective. This study was aimed at prospectively evaluating feasibility and diagnostic performance of AI-standalone and AI-assisted OD of DCPs in a real-life setting by using a white light-based system (GI Genius, Medtronic Co, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States). Patients and methods Consecutive colonoscopy outpatients with at least one DCP were evaluated by 11 endoscopists (5 experts and 6 non-experts in OD). DCPs were classified in real time by AI (AI-standalone OD) and by the endoscopist with the assistance of AI (AI-assisted OD), with histopathology as the reference standard. Results Of the 480 DCPs, AI provided the outcome "adenoma" or "non-adenoma" in 81.4% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 77.5-84.6). Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, and accuracy of AI-standalone OD were 97.0% (95% CI 94.0-98.6), 38.1% (95% CI 28.9-48.1), 80.1% (95% CI 75.2-84.2), 83.3% (95% CI 69.2-92.0), and 80.5% (95% CI 68.7-82.8%), respectively. Compared with AI-standalone, the specificity of AI-assisted OD was significantly higher (58.9%, 95% CI 49.7-67.5) and a trend toward an increase was observed for other diagnostic performance measures. Overall accuracy and negative predictive value of AI-assisted OD for experts and non-experts were 85.8% (95% CI 80.0-90.4) vs. 80.1% (95% CI 73.6-85.6) and 89.1% (95% CI 75.6-95.9) vs. 80.0% (95% CI 63.9-90.4), respectively. Conclusions Standalone AI is able to provide an OD of adenoma/non-adenoma in more than 80% of DCPs, with a high sensitivity but low specificity. The human-machine interaction improved diagnostic performance, especially when experts were involved., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interest Paggi S and Amato A: speaker honoraria from Fujifilm Co. Rondonotti E: speaker honoraria from Fujifilm Co., Medtronic Co. consultancy. Radaelli F: Speaker honoraria from Fujifilm Co; research grant from Fujifilm Co; endoscopy equipment loan from Medtronic Co. Hassan C: Medtronic Co, Fujifilm Co and Odin Co. consultancy. All the other authors declare no conflict of interest., (The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial-License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).)

Extreme atmospheric-marine events, known as medicanes (short for "Mediterranean hurricanes"), have affected the Mediterranean basin in recent years, resulting in extensive coastal flooding and storm surges, and have occasionally been responsible for several casualties. Considering that the development mechanism of these events is similar to tropical cyclones, it is plausible that these phenomena are strongly affected by sea surface temperatures (SSTs) during their development period (winter and autumn seasons). In this study, we compared satellite data and the numerical reanalysis of SSTs from 1969 to 2023 with in situ data from dataloggers installed at different depths off the coast of southeastern Sicily as well as from data available on Argo floats on the Mediterranean basin. A spectral analysis was performed using a continuous wavelet transform (CWT) for each SST time series to highlight the changes in SSTs prior to the occurrence of Mediterranean Hurricanes as well as the energy content of the various frequencies of the SST signal. The results revealed that decreases in SST occurred prior to the formation of each Mediterranean hurricane, and that this thermal drop phenomenon was not observed in intense extra-tropical systems. The spectral analyses revealed that high CWT coefficients representing high SST energy contents were observed before the occurrence of a Mediterranean hurricane. This information may provide a useful fingerprint for distinguishing Mediterranean hurricanes from common seasonal storms at the onset of these events., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

In this work, we analyze 12 meteorological events that occurred in the Mediterranean Sea during the period November 2011-November 2021 from a seismic point of view. In particular, we consider 8 Medicanes and 4 more common storms. Each of these events, in spite of the marked differences between them, caused heavy rainfall, strong wind gusts and violent storm surge with significant wave heights usually >3 m. We deal with the relationships between these meteorological events and the features of microseism (the most continuous and widespread seismic signal on Earth) in terms of spectral content, space-time variation of the amplitude and source locations tracked employing two different methods (amplitude decay-based grid search and array techniques). By comparing the positions of the microseism sources with the areas of significant storm surges, we observe that the microseism locations align with the actual locations of the storm surges for 10 out of 12 events analyzed (two Medicanes present very low intensity in terms of meteorological parameters and the microseism amplitude does not show significant variations during these two events). We also perform two analyses that allowed us to obtain both the seismic signature of these events, by using a method that exploits the coherence of continuous seismic noise, and their strength from a seismic point of view, called Microseism Reduced Amplitude. In addition, by integrating the results obtained from these two methods, we are able to "seismically" distinguish Medicanes and common storms. Consequently, we demonstrate the possibility of creating a novel monitoring system for Mediterranean meteorological events by incorporating microseism information alongside with other commonly employed techniques for studying meteorological phenomena. The integration of microseism with the data provided by routinely used techniques in sea state monitoring (e.g., wave buoy and HF radar) has the potential to offer valuable insights into the examination of historical extreme weather events within the context of climate change., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: The administration of biological drugs in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is increasingly moving from intravenous to subcutaneous formulations., Aims: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of vedolizumab subcutaneous administration after switching from intravenous administration in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients in corticosteroid-free clinical remission., Methods: An observational, multicentre, prospective study was conducted by the Italian Group for the study of IBD (IG-IBD). UC patients in clinical remission (pMAYO < 2) not receiving steroids for > 8 months before the switch, and with at least 6 months of follow-up were included. Switch from intravenous to subcutaneous vedolizumab was defined as successful in patients not experiencing a disease flare (pMAYO ≥ 2) or needing oral steroids or stopping subcutaneous vedolizumab during the 6 months of follow-up after the switch., Results: Overall, 168 patients were included. The switch was a success in 134 patients (79.8%). Vedolizumab retention rate was 88.7% at month six. C-reactive protein and faecal calprotectin values did not change after the switch (p = 0.07 and p = 0.28, respectively). Ten of the 19 patients who stopped subcutaneous formulation switched back to intravenous formulation recapturing clinical remission in 80%. Side effects were observed in 22 patients (13.1%)., Conclusion: Effectiveness of switching from intravenous to subcutaneous vedolizumab formulation in UC patients in steroid-free clinical remission is confirmed in a real-world setting., Competing Interests: Conflicts of Interest and source of funding Davide Giuseppe Ribaldone Lecture fees and Advisory Board per Janssen-Cilag, Takeda, Galapagos, Biogen. Laura Parisio Nothing to declare. Angela Variola Lecture fees and Advisory Board per Janssen-Cilag, Takeda, Pfizer, Ferring, MSD, Zambon, Abbvie, Celltrion. Fabrizio Bossa Lecture fees and Advisory Board per Janssen-Cilag, Takeda, Galapagos, Biogen, Abbvie, MSD, Celltrion, Mundipharma. Fabiana Castiglione Consultant for Abbvie, Fresenius, Sandoz, Galapagos, Pfizer, Takeda, Janssen, Biogen, Celltrion. Manuela Marzo Nothing to declare. Nicole Piazza Nothing to declare. Annalisa Aratari Advisory Board for Galapagos. Consultant for Abbvie, Galapagos, Pfizer, Takeda, Janssen. Edoardo Vincenzo Savarino Speaker for Abbvie, Agave, AGPharma, Alfasigma, Aurora Pharma, CaDiGroup, Celltrion, Dr Falk, EG Stada Group, Fenix Pharma, Fresenius Kabi, Galapagos, Janssen, JB Pharmaceuticals, Innovamedica/Adacyte, Malesci, Mayoly Biohealth, Omega Pharma, Pfizer, Reckitt Benckiser, Sandoz, SILA, Sofar, Takeda, Tillots, Unifarco. Consultant for Abbvie, Agave, Alfasigma, Biogen, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celltrion, Diadema Farmaceutici, Dr. Falk, Fenix Pharma, Fresenius Kabi, Janssen, JB Pharmaceuticals, Merck & Co, Nestlè, Reckitt Benckiser, Regeneron, Sanofi, SILA, Sofar, Synformulas GmbH, Takeda, Unifarco. He received research support from Pfizer, Reckitt Benckiser, SILA, Sofar, Unifarco, Zeta Farmaceutici. Giorgia Bodini Nothing to declare. Mauro Mastronardi Lecture fees and Advisory Board per Takeda, Galapagos, Biogen, AuroraPharma Abbvie. Silvia Mazzuoli Lecture fees and Advisory Board per Janssen, Galapagos, Takeda, Abbvie, MSD, Pfizer. Federica Micheli Nothing to declare. Silvia Mazzuoli Nothing to declare. Marta Ascolani Nothing to declare. Chiara Viganò Lecture fees and Advisory Board for Janssen-Cilag, Takeda, Galapagos, Pfizer, Celltrion, Alfasigma. Maria Cappello Lecture fees and Advisory Board for Takeda, Janssen-Cilag, Biogen, Galapagos, Pfizer. Cristina Bezzio Lecture fees and Consultant for Ferring, Takeda, Janssen, Abbvie, Galapagos, Pfizer. Nothing to declare. Rachele Ciccocioppo Advisory Board for Galapagos, Takeda; scientific consultant for Revalma, and lecture fee from Fresenius-Kabi and Takeda. Giulia Scardino Nothing to declare. Ennio Sarli Nothing to declare. Daniela Pugliese Lecture fees and Advisory Board per Janssen-Cilag, Takeda, Galapagos, Biogen, MSD, Pfizer. Franco Scaldaferri Lecture fees and Advisory Board per Janssen-Cilag, Takeda, Galapagos, Ferring, Sandoz, MSD, Pfizer, Celltrion. Daniele Napolitano Nothing to declare. Alessia Todeschini. Andrea Geccherle Nothing to declare. Nicoletta Colaci Nothing to declare. Maria Guerra. Nothing to declare. Monica Annese Nothing to declare. Anna Testa Lecture fees and Consultant for Takeda, Janssen, Abbvie, Galapagos, Pfizer. Anna Caiazzo Nothing to declare. Francesco Simone Conforti Nothing to declare. Stefano Festa Advisory Board for Janssen-Cilag. Consultancy fees for Takeda, Pfizer. Greta Lorenzon Nothing to declare. Antonella Marra Nothing to declare. Ambra Magiotta Nothing to declare. Flavia Baccini Nothing to declare. Arnaldo Amato Nothing to declare. Anxhela Poshnjari Nothing to declare. Marta Vernero Nothing to declare. Flavio Caprioli Consultant to Abbvie, MSD, Takeda, Janssen, Roche, Celgene, Bristol-Meyers Squibb, Galapagos, Gilead, Pfizer, Mundipharma, Galapagos, Biogen, Ferring, Eli-Lilly, Nestlè. Lecture fees from Abbvie, Ferring, Takeda, Allergy Therapeutics, Janssen, Pfizer, Biogen, Sandoz, Tillotts Pharma. Unrestricted research grants from Giuliani, Sofar, MSD, Takeda, Abbvie, Celltrion, Pfizer. Gian Paolo Caviglia Nothing to declare., (Copyright © 2023 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Several scoring systems have been developed for both upper and lower GI bleeding to predict the bleeding severity and discriminate between low-risk patients, who may be suitable for outpatient management, and those who would likely need hospital-based interventions and are at high risk for adverse outcomes. Risk scores created to identify low-risk patients (namely the Glasgow Blatchford Score and the Oakland score) showed very good discriminative performances and their implementation has proven to be effective in reducing hospital admissions and healthcare burden. Conversely, the performances of risk scores in identifying specific adverse events to define high-risk patients are less accurate, and whether their integration into routine clinical practice has a tangible impact on patient management remains unproven. This review describes the existing risk score systems for GI bleeding, emphasizes key research findings, elucidates the circumstances in which their utilization can be beneficial, examines their constraints when considering routine clinical application, and discuss future development., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest All the Authors certify that they have NO affiliations with or involvement in any organization or entity with any financial or non-financial interest in the subject matter or materials discussed in this manuscript., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Inland and offshore sediments from Southern Italy were studied in order to evaluate the occurrence and nature of microplastics (MPs). Inland sediments were collected in the Bradano and Basento rivers (Apulo-Lucanian region, Southern Italy), while offshore sediments were collected on the continental shelf near Bari (Adriatic Sea) and Metaponto (Ionian Sea). MPs were detected and characterized using optical microscopy, micro-Fourier-Transform Infrared spectroscopy (μ-FTIR) and micro-Raman analyses. The number of MPs present varied between 144 and 1246 kg -1 of dry sediment (468.8 ± 410,7 MPs kg -1 ) with a predominance of black fibers; no correlation emerged between MPs and sediment grain size. In river sediments, the occurrence of MPs is associated with local pollution, whereas the offshore occurrence of MPs depends on seasonal river flow and submarine canyons. Compositional analyses suggest that the main source of MPs in the studied sediments is sewage discharge from residential areas., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Salmonella is the second most frequent bacterial pathogen involved in human gastrointestinal outbreaks in the European Union; it can enter the food-production chain from animal or environmental sources or from asymptomatic food operators. European food legislation has established microbiological criteria to ensure consumer protection. Salmonella is listed under both process hygiene criteria and food safety criteria. Each EU member state designates an agency to organize or perform controls and other official activities. This paper describes the official control plans performed by competent authorities in Northern Italy in the three-year period 2019-2021. A total of 4413 food samples were delivered to the IZS Food Safety laboratories for Salmonella detection, of which 36 (0.8%) tested positive. Salmonella was most frequently detected in poultry meat samples (25/36 positive samples) followed by other meat products and pork products. The official controls for the protection of consumer health apply the EU's farm-to-fork approach: the samples were collected during production (food production plants), from products on the market, and from collective catering (restaurants, cafeterias, canteens). This manuscript will provide information about the presence of Salmonella in foodstuffs that can help competent authorities to set control plans based on risk assessments.

Background and Aims: The purpose of this study was to present data on the safety of anti- severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccination in a cohort of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients of an ongoing multicenter study (ESCAPE-IBD) sponsored by the Italian Group for the study of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04769258)., Methods: Anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was administrated to 809 IBD patients. Interviews were conducted to report adverse events related to vaccination. Of these 809, 346 patients were surveyed on the pandemic burden and the main reason for hesitancy in coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination. The chi-square test was used to compare categorical variables. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between disease-related characteristics and the onset of adverse events., Results: About 45% of patients had at least one side effect, following the first dose (10%), the second (15%), and both doses (19%). All the adverse events were mild and lasted only a few days. Logistic regression analysis revealed that female sex ( P  < 0.001), younger age ( P  = 0.001), seroconversion ( P  = 0.002), and comorbidity ( P  < 0.001) were significantly associated with adverse events. The survey showed that the main concerns were the possibility of adverse event (33%). Almost all patients (99%) felt safer having been vaccinated at their IBD reference center., Conclusion: The vaccine reactions experienced in IBD patients were mostly self-limited. We found high acceptance and good safety of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in our cohort., (Copyright © 2023 Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.)