Solar energy driven photocatalytic membrane modules for water reuse in agricultural and food industries. Pre-industrial experience using s-triazines as model molecules by Ignazio Renato Bellobono, Franca Morazzoni, Riccardo Bianchi, Emilia Simona Mangone, Rodica Stanescu, Cristina Costache, Paola Maria Tozzi

“…A membrane module, utilizing photocatalytic membranes, has been employed in a pilot plant, in conditions of solar irradiation, to investigate photomineralisation of atrazine, propazine, terbutylazine, symazine, prometryn, and ametryn, as model molecules of s-triazine herbicides, at a standard concentration (1.0 ppm) simulating those of contaminated aquifers, by using ozone as oxygen supplier. …”
Get full text

A qualitative study exploring depressed participants’ experiences of receiving Augmented Depression Therapy (ADepT) by Rebecca Watson, Kim A Wright, Nigel Reed, Barney Dunn, Emily Widnall, Kalliopi Demetriou, Laura Warbrick, Katie Marchant, Nicole Geschwind, Isabella Magner-Parsons, Rachel Barter

“…Objectives The current study aimed to explore participants’ views on the acceptability, impact and mechanisms of change of Augmented Depression Therapy (ADepT), a novel wellbeing-focused and recovery-oriented psychological therapy for depression.Design A semi-structured qualitative interview design was used, with data analysed using the framework approach.Participants 20 participants with anhedonic depression who had received up to 20 sessions of ADepT, sampled from a pilot randomised controlled trial of ADepT versus Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).Setting A primary care psychological therapy clinic in Devon, UK, with interviews occurring between May 2018 and February 2020.Results Participants found the wellbeing focus of ADepT acceptable. …”
Get full text

Daily Chronic Intermittent Hypobaric Hypoxia Does Not Induce Chronic Increase in Pulmonary Arterial Pressure Assessed by Echocardiography by Jeremias Götschke, Pontus Mertsch, Nikolaus Kneidinger, Diego Kauffmann-Guerrero, Jürgen Behr, Rudolf Maria Huber, Frank Reichenberger, Katrin Milger

“…However, effects of daily CIHH on PAP are unknown. In this pilot study, we included 8 healthy subjects working at (2650 m) each workday for 8-9 h while living and sleeping at LA and 8 matched control subjects living and working at LA. …”
Get full text

Studies on Microbial Quality, Protein Yield, and Antioxidant Properties of Some Frozen Edible Insects by Peter Kurdi, Patspon Chaowiwat, Jirathit Weston, Chanida Hansawasdi

“…Furthermore, 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) of field cricket subcritical water (121 or 135°C for 15 or 30 minutes) hydrolysates were also measured on a pilot basis. These tests revealed higher antioxidant activities in treated samples than in the untreated control. …”
Get full text

Theoretical and Practical Issues That Are Relevant When Scaling Up hMSC Microcarrier Production Processes by Valentin Jossen, Cedric Schirmer, Dolman Mostafa Sindi, Regine Eibl, Matthias Kraume, Ralf Pörtner, Dieter Eibl

“…Recent publications focusing on microcarrier-based stirred bioreactors have demonstrated the successful use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and suspension criteria (NS1u, NS1) for rapidly scaling up hMSC expansions from mL- to pilot scale. Nevertheless, one obstacle may be the formation of large microcarrier-cell-aggregates, which may result in mass transfer limitations and inhomogeneous distributions of stem cells in the culture broth. …”
Get full text

Validation of the Food Safe Zone questionnaire for families of individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome by Elisabeth M. Dykens, Elizabeth Roof, Hailee Hunt-Hawkins, Theresa V. Strong

“…Methods Our team developed 20 FSZ items that were revised for clarity and completeness in an iterative feedback process with stakeholders, including parents, PWS specialists, and individuals with PWS. The FSZ was pilot tested, descriptive findings were reviewed by additional stakeholders, and then administered to 624 parents in a large-scale study. …”
Get full text

From Nasion to Sellion: repositioning landmarks for radioprotection-tailored 3D cephalometric analysis by Marco Serafin, Benedetta Baldini, Elisa Boccalari, Salvatore Bocchieri, Sergio Sambataro, Chiarella Sforza, Giuseppe Baselli, Gianluca Martino Tartaglia, Alberto Caprioglio

“…Purpose The present study aimed to three-dimensionally evaluate the correlation between cephalometric measurements utilizing Sellion in place of Nasion.Material and methods A pilot study using 25 CBCTs was carried out to determine the required sample size, reaching a minimum of 136 patients was required to validate the correlation between Nasion(N)- and Sellion(Se)-related measurements. …”
Get full text

Association between time consumption of electronic screens with eating behaviors and academic performance for pupils in elementary schools by Mohammed A. S. Al-Wily, Luay A. M. Al-Waly

“…The questionnaire tool’s validity was confirmed via 13 expert panels. A pilot study was conducted to measure reliability from December 28 to 30, 2023. …”
Get full text

Reliability, Objectivity, Validity and Reference Levels of the Austrian Balance Check (ABC)—A Novel Balance Field Test for Children, Adolescents and Young Adults to Assess Static B... by Gerald Jarnig, Reinhold Kerbl, Mireille N. M. van Poppel

“…To develop an effective field test to assess static balance with minimal cost, little spatial requirement and short testing time, a cross-sectional pilot study was conducted in three different school types (primary school, secondary school, and high school) and the reliability, objectivity and validity of the novel Austrian Balance Check (ABC) were assessed, with the generation of age- and gender-specific reference values. …”
Get full text

Effect of Skin Protectants on the Total Inward Leakage of N95 Respirators: Testing with an Advanced Static Headform by Xinyi Niu, Sergey A. Grinshpun, Michael Yermakov, Roman Jandarov, Iliya Rivkin

“…Skin protectants are becoming increasingly popular and effective in providing a protective barrier for the skin that reduces direct contact between a wearer’s face and respirator. Recent pilot studies involving human subjects have examined the effect of skin protectants on the performance of respirators/masks through fit testing, but their findings are heavily impacted by between-subject variability. …”
Get full text

Impact of strict IGF1 control on quality-of-life scores in patients with acromegaly by Chaitanya Gandhi, Marie-Claire Denis, Daniel Holmes, Juan Rivera, Stan van Uum, Shereen Ezzat, Constance Chik

“…Hemoglobin A1c and liver enzymes did not differ and repeat MRI of the sella at 6 months showed no change.ConclusionsIn this pilot study, stricter control of modest IGF1 elevations led to symptomatic improvement as measured by the PASQ score. …”
Get full text

The new urban wastewater treatment directive from the perspective of the receiving rivers’ quality by Máté Krisztián Kardos, Miklós Patziger, Zsolt Jolánkai, Adrienne Clement

“…The present study, applied for the Central-European country Hungary as a pilot, examines the impact of the UWWTD recast on receiving water quality. …”
Get full text

An action research study on the needs and perspectives of medical students and junior residents on peer physical examination guidelines to respect medical students’ autonomy and pr... by Emily Suzuki, Nobutoshi Nawa, Eriko Okada, Yu Akaishi, Ayako Kashimada, Mitsuyuki Numasawa, Kumiko Yamaguchi, Kazuki Takada, Masanaga Yamawaki

“…The interviews identified 5 themes relating to participants’ needs and concerns. In a pilot survey, students’ refusal rate for being a model patient varied depending on body region and 74.2% had a desire to be informed of any abnormal findings confidentially. …”
Get full text

Two-Dimensional and Three-Dimensional Biomechanical Factors During 90° Change of Direction are Associated to Non-Contact ACL injury in Female Soccer Players by Stefano Di Paolo, Alberto Grassi, Filippo Tosarelli, Matteo Crepaldi, Laura Bragonzoni, Stefano Zaffagnini, Francesco Della Villa

“… # Hypothesis/Purpose The purpose of the present pilot study was to prospectively investigate the biomechanical predictors of ACL injury during a COD task in female football players using both gold standard 3D motion capture and a qualitative scoring system based on 2D video-analysis…”
Get full text

How Much Time Should Be Waited and What Are the Main Findings to Evaluate the Hepatocellular Carcinoma Response to Regorafenib? A Real-Life Experience by Gustavo Hideki Kawanami, Leopoldo Katsuda, Thiara Barcelos Rocha, Fabio da Silva Yamashiro, Leonardo Pelafsky, Xingshun Qi, Fernando Gomes Romeiro

“…The knowledge of the main adverse events described in the pilot clinical trials can avoid unnecessary withdrawal of regorafenib. …”
Get full text

How, What, and Where You Sample Environmental DNA Affects Diversity Estimates and Species Detection by Anish Kirtane, Leif Howard, Caitlin E. Beaver, Margaret E. Hunter, Gordon Luikart, Kristy Deiner

“…These results underscore the need for pilot studies before conducting biodiversity inventory and monitoring, and a need for a greater understanding of not just how much, but also what, eDNA is captured depending on method choice, considering both spatial and particle size heterogeneity.…”
Get full text

Comparison of AOPs Efficiencies on Phenolic Compounds Degradation by Lourdes Hurtado, Deysi Amado-Piña, Gabriela Roa-Morales, Ever Peralta-Reyes, Eduardo Martin del Campo, Reyna Natividad

“…In this work, a comparison of the performances of different AOPs in the phenol and 4-chlorophenol (4-CP) degradation at lab and pilot scale is presented. It was found that, in the degradation of phenol, the performance of a coupled electro-oxidation/ozonation process is superior to that observed by a photo-Fenton process. …”
Get full text

Injectable Chitosan Hydrogel Particles as Nasal Packing Materials After Endoscopic Sinus Surgery for Treatment of Chronic Sinusitis by Yusuke Yamashita, Kei Hosoya, Yukio Fujiwara, Yoichi Saito, Masahiro Yoshida, Shoji Matsune, Kimihiro Okubo, Takayuki Takei

“…Additionally, we applied the injectable chitosan hydrogel particles as nasal packing materials to patients with bilateral chronic sinusitis undergoing ESS in a pilot clinical study. Concerning symptom scores, though the results narrowly missed statistical differences (<i>p</i> < 0.05), the average scores of our chitosan hydrogel were superior to those of a commercially available wound dressing (especially <i>p</i> = 0.09 for nasal bleeding). …”
Get full text

Home intravenous diuretic administration for heart failure management: A scoping review. by Morgan B Krauter, Katherine S McGilton, Stuti S Patel, Karen Harkness, Tracey J F Colella

“…Studies varied in design, including feasibility, pilot, observational, and pre/post-intervention evaluations. …”
Get full text

An Innovative Clinic-Based Intervention to Improve Adolescent Access to Sexual and Mental Health Services: The Total Teen Program by Whitney Garney, Gan Han, Christi Esquivel, Kristen Garcia, Kobi V. Ajayi, Kelly Wilson

“…Researchers developed the Total Teen (TT) program to improve access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and mental health (MH) services in settings providing adolescents and young adults (12-25) health services. This pilot study assessed the TT’s impact on care across three settings: school-based health clinics, a federally qualified health center, and an adolescent health clinic for 12 weeks. …”
Get full text