Objectives: Drowning is one of the most common causes of accidental deaths in all age groups. This study aims to compare the sociodemographic data, scene of incident findings, clinical characteristics, and autopsy findings of Turkish and foreign victims of drowning in Antalya, one of the most popular global holiday destinations. Study Design: This study is the most extensive case series of drowning in Turkey. Methods: A retrospective examination was made of 7775 autopsies, of which 692 (8.9%) were identified as drowning cases. Results: Almost half of the cases were elderly males of foreign nationality, with a chronic disease and high alcohol consumption, who were found wearing swimming clothes and had died accidentally, mostly in the sea or swimming pools. The majority of Turkish victims were male children and adolescents, found wearing normal daily clothes, who died from a fall or while performing high-risk activities, such as jumping from height. Most of these cases died at the scene of the incident due to an accident or suicide. Conclusions: Such incidences of deaths in Antalya could be reduced with the implementation of precautions, with adjustments made according to the increased risks and, particularly, the mobility of the older age group. Significantly, chronic disease is an important risk factor in cases of drowning.

BACKGROUND: Depression is common and the prevalence increasing worldwide; at least 1 in 10 people will experience depression in their lifetime. It is associated with economic costs at the individual, healthcare and societal level. Recommended treatments include medication and psychological therapies. However, given the long waiting times, and sometimes poor concordance and engagement with these treatments, a greater range of approaches are needed. Evidence for the potential of outdoor swimming as an intervention to support recovery from depression is emerging, but randomised controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating clinical and cost-effectiveness are lacking. This study seeks to investigate the feasibility of conducting a definitive superiority RCT, comparing an 8-session outdoor swimming course offered in addition to usual care compared to usual care only, in adults who are experiencing mild to moderate symptoms of depression. Feasibility questions will examine recruitment and retention rates, acceptability of randomisation and measures, and identify the primary outcome measure that will inform the sample size calculation for a definitive full-scale RCT. This study will also explore potential facilitators and barriers of participation through evaluation questionnaires, focus-group discussions and interviews.
METHODS: To address these aims and objectives, a feasibility superiority RCT with 1:1 allocation will be undertaken. We will recruit 88 participants with mild to moderate symptoms of depression through social prescribing organisations and social media in three sites in England. Participants will be randomised to either (1) intervention (8-session outdoor swimming course) plus usual care or (2) usual care only. Both groups will be followed up for a further 8 weeks.
CONCLUSIONS: If findings from this feasibility RCT are favourable, a fully powered RCT will be conducted to investigate the clinical- and cost-effectiveness of the intervention. Findings from the definitive trial will provide evidence about outdoor swimming for depression for policymakers and has the potential to lead to greater choice of interventions for adults experiencing symptoms of depression.
BACKGROUND: Current controlled trial registration number is ISRCTN 90851983 registered on 19 May 2022.

The level of environmental microplastics in the sea is constantly increasing. They can enter the human body with food, be absorbed through the gut and have negative effects on the organism\'s health after its digestion. To date, microplastics (MPs) are considered new environmental pollutants in the air sea and they are attracting wide attention. The possible toxic effects of MPs isolated at different sea depths of 1, 24 and 78 m were explored in an in vitro model of human gingival fibroblasts (hGFs). MPs isolated from the sea showed different size and were then divided into different sample groups: 1, 24 and 78 m. The results obtained revealed that MPs are able to activate the inflammatory pathway NFkB/MyD88/NLRP3. In detail, the exposure to MPs from 1 and 78 m led to increased levels of inflammatory markers NFkB, MyD88 and NLRP3 in terms of proteins and gene expression. Moreover, cells exposed to MPs showed a lower metabolic activity rate compared to unexposed cells. In conclusion, these findings demonstrate that the inflammation process is stimulated by MPs exposure, providing a new perspective to better understand the intracellular mechanism.

Potassium bromide is a frequently used antiseizure medication with a half-life time of over 25 days. Oral intake of sodium chloride as well as renal function influence this half-life time and may have an influence on the needed dose to get proper serum levels. The hypothesis is that dogs living close to coastal areas require a greater potassium bromide dose than dogs living more inland. The main study objective was to determine the relationship between bromide dose, serum bromide concentration, treatment duration, type of food, concurrent therapies and the proximity of the dog\'s residency to a coastal area. A retrospective cross-sectional study was performed. A total of 658 bromide serum measurements were retrieved from the veterinary faculty\'s laboratory archive, Utrecht University, The Netherlands. Information on the bromide dose, renal function, treatment period, type of food, concurrent therapies and residence was obtained retrospectively from owners of all dogs using a postal survey. A dataset of 220 unique study units was created. The dogs were grouped based on their residence (proximity to the coast > or <50 km). Differences between the groups of dogs regarding bromide dose, serum bromide concentration, treatment duration, type of food and concurrent therapies were analyzed to evaluate the effect of residence on bromide dose and serum concentration.
UNASSIGNED: Although not statistically significant there is a trend that dogs living in close proximity to the sea may require a higher dose of potassium bromide to maintain therapeutic concentrations compared to dogs living more inlands. Additional studies are needed to further explore this observation.

Mediterranean Sea has been proposed as the sixth greatest accumulation zone for marine litter and the most affected regarding to microplastics (MPs). Tarragona (Catalonia, NE Spain) coastal region suffers high pressure due to urbanization, tourism, industrial harbour and petrochemical/plastic industries. The present study aims to quantify and characterize in size, morphology and composition the MPs present in sandy beaches, marine sediments, and surface seawaters of Tarragona coastal region. MPs mean abundance were 1.30 items/m3 in surface seawaters, 32.4 items/kg in marine sediments, and 10.7 items/kg in sandy beaches. Polyester fibres were dominant MPs in bottom sediments and seawater meanwhile polyethylene and polypropylene fragments were the main MPs in beaches. The fibres balls associated with bottom sediments, organic matter and plankton were abundant, masking the real quantity of fibres in each reservoir. The abundance by volume of seawater MPs was higher to those found in oceanic areas and similar to other areas of Mediterranean Sea, corroborating that Western Mediterranean Sea as a region of MPs accumulation. MPs composition and abundance suggested the input of numerous land-base-sources, WWTP (wastewater treatment plants) effluents discharges, and emissaries as the most important. Marine MPs pollution were studied from an integrative point of view, that includes superficial sea water, sand from beaches and sediments. The dynamics of MPs in Tarragona coast were characterized by seawater as the media that receive and facilitate dispersion and fragmentation. The shoreline acts as an intermediate reservoir with constant weathering and active exchange with seawater surface and the sediments acts as a significant sink for medium MPs sizes. It is necessary to develop protocols and guidelines for MPs analysis to obtain harmonized and comparable results.

There is increasing evidence of the health benefits of exposure to natural environments, including green and blue spaces. The association with physical functioning and its decline at older age remains to be explored. The aim of the present study was to investigate the longitudinal association between the natural environment and the decline in physical functioning in older adults. We based our analyses on three follow-ups (2002-2013) of the Whitehall II study, including 5759 participants (aged 50 to 74 years at baseline) in the UK. Exposure to natural environments was assessed at each follow-up as (1) residential surrounding greenness across buffers of 500 and 1000 m around the participants\' address using satellite-based indices of greenness (Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)) and (2) the distance from home to the nearest natural environment, separately for green and blue spaces, using a land cover map. Physical functioning was characterized by walking speed, measured three times, and grip strength, measured twice. Linear mixed effects models were used to quantify the impact of green and blue space on physical functioning trajectories, controlled for relevant covariates. We found higher residential surrounding greenness (EVI and NDVI) to be associated with slower 10-year decline in walking speed. Furthermore, proximity to natural environments (green and blue spaces combined) was associated with slower decline in walking speed and grip strength. We observed stronger associations between distance to natural environments and decline in physical functioning in areas with higher compared to lower area-level deprivation. However, no association was observed with distance to green or blue spaces separately. The associations with decline in physical functioning were partially mediated by social functioning and mental health. Our results suggest that higher residential surrounding greenness and living closer to natural environments contribute to better physical functioning at older ages.

Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) are gaining attention in both academia and industry by offering the possibility of connecting a large number of nodes over extended distances. LoRa is one of the technologies used as a physical layer in such networks. This paper investigates the LoRa links over seawater in two typical scenarios: clear Line-of-Sight (LOS) and obstructed path in two different Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio bands: 868 MHz and 434 MHz. We used three different LoRa devices in the experiments: the Own Developed LoRa Transceiver (ODT) and two commercial transceivers. Firstly we investigated transceivers\' Receive Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and Signal-to-Noise (SNR) measurement chain linearity and provided correction factors for RSSI to correlate it with actual signal levels received at transceivers\' inputs. Next, we carried out field experiments for three different LoRa Spreading Factors, S F ∈ [ 7 , 10 , 12 ] , within a bandwidth of B W = 125 kHz and Coding Rate C R = 4 / 6 . The experiments showed that LoRa links are fully feasible over seawater at distances at least 22 km long, using only low-cost off-the-shelf rubber duck antennas in LOS path condition in both ISM bands. In addition, we showed that LoRa links can be established over 28 km obstructed LOS oversea path in ISM 434 MHz band, but using costly, higher gain antennas. Furthermore, the laboratory experiments revealed that RSSI is linear in a wide range, up to - 50 dBm, whereas the SNR measurement chain goes into saturation for Received Signal Strength (RSS) values higher than - 100 dBm. These findings enabled accurate interpretation of the results obtained in field experiments.