Magnifying Glass Research Articles

Assessing contrast sensitivity change in retinal diseases with use of yellow-amber NoIR glasses.

Purpose:The purpose of this study was to assess change of contrast sensitivity (CS) in subjects having retinal diseases with yellow-amber no infrared (NoIR) glasses used as low vision aid (LVA).Methods:We examined CS in 82 low vision (LV) subjects having retinal diseases with Pelli Robson Chart at 1 m distance before and after wearing yellow-amber NoIR glasses. We also found type of retinal affection and macular optical coherence tomography (OCT) features.Results:The distance and near best-corrected visual acuity (BCVA) was, respectively, 0.68 ± 0.17 (median = 0.70) and 0.72 ± 0.25 (median = 0.70) logmar units. The pre-LVA CS was 0.52 ± 0.29 (median = 0.3) and post- LVA was 0.52 ± 0.28 (median = 0.45) logunits (mean reduction = -0.002 ± 0.24; Median reduction = 0; P = 0.909). The pre-LVA and post-LVA CS showed a negative correlation with logmar distance BCVA [r = -0.090; P = 0.317 and r = -0.152; P = 0.090 respectively]. The pre-LVA and post-LVA CS showed a negative correlation with logmar near BCVA [r = -0.114; P = 0.207 and r = -0.054; P = 0.549 respectively]. The CS did not improve in subjects having macular degeneration, pathological myopia, hereditary maculopathy, and diabetic retinopathy. The macular OCT features like fluid, exudates, scars, drusens, traction, and hole did not significantly influence CS both at pre-LVA and post-LVA stage.Conclusion:This is the first study with yellow-amber NoIR glasses which blocks “both ultraviolet and infrared light.” The subjects having macular degeneration, pathological myopia, hereditary maculopathy, and diabetic retinopathy did not improve in CS with filters. The correlation values showed that filters may improve CS in subjects having good baseline BCVA.

Dark Energy Survey Year 3 results: Exploiting small-scale information with lensing shear ratios

Using the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES), we use ratios of small-scale galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements around the same lens sample to constrain source redshift uncertainties, intrinsic alignments and other systematics or nuisance parameters of our model. Instead of using a simple geometric approach for the ratios as has been done in the past, we use the full modeling of the galaxy-galaxy lensing measurements, including the corresponding integration over the power spectrum and the contributions from intrinsic alignments and lens magnification. We perform extensive testing of the small-scale shear-ratio (SR) modeling by studying the impact of different effects such as the inclusion of baryonic physics, nonlinear biasing, halo occupation distribution descriptions and lens magnification, among others, and using realistic N-body simulations of the DES data. We validate the robustness of our constraints in the data by using two independent lens samples with different galaxy properties, and by deriving constraints using the corresponding large-scale ratios for which the modeling is simpler. The results applied to the DES Y3 data demonstrate how the ratios provide significant improvements in constraining power for several nuisance parameters in our model, especially on source redshift calibration and intrinsic alignments. For source redshifts, SR improves the constraints from the prior by up to 38% in some redshift bins. Such improvements, and especially the constraints it provides on intrinsic alignments, translate to tighter cosmological constraints when shear ratios are combined with cosmic shear and other 2pt functions. In particular, for the DES Y3 data, SR improves S8 constraints from cosmic shear by up to 31%, and for the full combination of probes (3×2pt) by up to 10%. The shear ratios presented in this work are used as an additional likelihood for cosmic shear, 2×2pt and the full 3×2pt in the fiducial DES Y3 cosmological analysis.10 MoreReceived 3 June 2021Accepted 7 March 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.105.083529© 2022 American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasCosmological parametersCosmologyDark energyDark matterGravitational lensesLarge scale structure of the UniverseOptical, UV, & IR astronomyGravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Dark energy survey year 3 results: High-precision measurement and modeling of galaxy-galaxy lensing

We present and characterize the galaxy-galaxy lensing signal measured using the first three years of data from the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y3) covering 4132 deg2. These galaxy-galaxy measurements are used in the DES Y3 3×2 pt cosmological analysis, which combines weak lensing and galaxy clustering information. We use two lens samples: a magnitude-limited sample and the redmagic sample, which span the redshift range ∼0.2–1 with 10.7 and 2.6 M galaxies, respectively. For the source catalog, we use the metacalibration shape sample, consisting of ≃100 M galaxies separated into four tomographic bins. Our galaxy-galaxy lensing estimator is the mean tangential shear, for which we obtain a total SNR of ∼148 for maglim (∼120 for redmagic), and ∼67 (∼55) after applying the scale cuts of 6 Mpc/h. Thus we reach percent-level statistical precision, which requires that our modeling and systematic-error control be of comparable accuracy. The tangential shear model used in the 3×2 pt cosmological analysis includes lens magnification, a five-parameter intrinsic alignment model, marginalization over a point mass to remove information from small scales and a linear galaxy bias model validated with higher-order terms. We explore the impact of these choices on the tangential shear observable and study the significance of effects not included in our model, such as reduced shear, source magnification, and source clustering. We also test the robustness of our measurements to various observational and systematics effects, such as the impact of observing conditions, lens-source clustering, random-point subtraction, scale-dependent metacalibration responses, point spread function residuals, and B modes.11 MoreReceived 3 June 2021Accepted 9 March 2022DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.105.083528© 2022 American Physical SocietyPhysics Subject Headings (PhySH)Research AreasCosmological parametersDark energyDark matterGravitational lensesLarge scale structure of the UniverseOptical, UV, & IR astronomyGravitation, Cosmology & Astrophysics

Development and Validation of a Homemade and Low-Cost Three-Dimensional Laparoscopic Simulator for Novices.

Background: The aim of this study was to design a low-cost three-dimensional (3D) laparoscopic simulator and validate its training effectiveness. Materials and Methods: We designed a low-cost 3D laparoscopic simulator using magnifying glass and cardboard box. Thirty-two laparoscopic novices were randomly divided into 3D group and two-dimensional (2D) group. The 3D group was trained on 3D simulator four times with 24 hours interval, and the 2D group was trained on 2D simulator. Five standardized laparoscopic tasks were performed by novices in each training. In the second part, subjects were transferred to the opposite simulator for one test after 24 hours of the fourth training. The completing time and errors for each task were recorded to assess the construct validity of simulator. Finally, the face validity and the content validity were evaluated through a closed-ended questionnaire. Results: There was no significant difference between the two groups in demographic or psychometric variables (P > .05). Compared with the 2D group, novices using 3D simulator had a better performance in five laparoscopic tasks, including a faster completing time (P < .001) and lower errors during training (P < .05). Additionally, the increased laparoscopic skill involved with our 3D simulator could be transferred to subsequent performance in 2D simulator (P < .05). Meanwhile, the score of face validity and content validity in our 3D simulator was significantly higher than that in 2D simulator (P < .05). Conclusion: Our 3D laparoscopic simulator effectively improved laparoscopic skills of novice surgeons, suggesting that the low-cost 3D simulator had satisfactory performance to satisfy requirement for novice training.

Dampak Wabah COVID-19 Terhadap Pelayanan Perpustakaan di Indonesia

The Corona Virus outbreak entered Indonesia in early March 2020. This COVID-19 pandemic has had many impacts on several services in Indonesia, including library services. In the world of education, the library is a source of information that is widely chosen to obtain literature. This study uses a descriptive method of literature study. The object of this research is articles, scientific journals and books related to the problems faced in library services. Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) from the government, namely staying at home to reduce the transmission rate of COVID-19 in Indonesia. The public began to seek information through the internet. This journal aims to explain the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on library services in Indonesia, the corona mass has become a magnifying glass that has helped someone to critically look for ways so that they can still get information. Since March 2020 there have been many moments of evaluation and reflection, both online and limited face-to-face, this insight provides ideas about the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on library services in Indonesia.

Dampak Wabah COVID-19 Terhadap Pelayanan Perpustakaan di Indonesia

The Corona Virus outbreak entered Indonesia in early March 2020. This COVID-19 pandemic has had many impacts on several services in Indonesia, including library services. In the world of education, the library is a source of information that is widely chosen to obtain literature. This study uses a descriptive method of literature study. The object of this research is articles, scientific journals and books related to the problems faced in library services. Large-Scale Social Restrictions (PSBB) from the government, namely staying at home to reduce the transmission rate of COVID-19 in Indonesia. The public began to seek information through the internet. This journal aims to explain the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on library services in Indonesia, the corona mass has become a magnifying glass that has helped someone to critically look for ways so that they can still get information. Since March 2020 there have been many moments of evaluation and reflection, both online and limited face-to-face, this insight provides ideas about the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on library services in Indonesia.

THE METHOD OF CHEMICAL FERMENTATION IN ARTIFICIAL GASTROINTESTINAL JUICE OF ECHINOCOCCUS MULTILOCULARIS LARVOCYST AS A METHOD FOR OBTAINING A URIFIED VIABLE PROTOSCOLEX CULTURE

For the first time in the world, a pure viable culture of E. multilocularis protoscolexes was isolated by digesting the parasite's larvocysts in artificial gastric juice. The article describes a unique biological, biochemical method for obtaining a culture of E. multilocularis protoscolexes purified from the connective and other tissues of the parasite larvocysts, including dead/immature protoscolexes during isolation. Methods based on the digestion of tissues in artificial gastric juice (IGF) have proven themselves well, especially in the laboratory diagnosis of trichinosis. Mixed with IGS at the rate of 1:10 (1 g of larvocyst fragments per 15 ml of solution) of the following composition: tap water – 1000 cm3 (temperature 41–42 oC); concentrated hydrochloric acid (specific gravity 1.2) – 10 cm3; food pepsin – 6.0 g; NaCl – 9.0 g. The developed method guarantees the production of viable protoscolexes of the parasite. The viability of the isolated protoscolexes was assessed by sediment microscopy with a 4×10 lens magnification for their integrity, locomotor activity, and the presence/absence of foreign matter. The method is simple to perform, does not require additional equipment and high material costs, allows you to increase the yield of pure viable E. multilocularis protoscolexes up to 95–98%.

Under the Microscope: The Evolution of Surgical Loupes.

Fine motor movements of the surgeon's hands are limited by the resolution of the eye. Surgical loupes have allowed the profession of surgery to surpass this threshold. This is a review of the historical milestones that lead up to the development of the modern-day loupes. We explore the Greco-Roman history of the magnifying lens, its subsequent application to corrective eyewear centuries later, and the multiple ground-breaking advancements of the compound lens microscope. Moreover, we review the development of pre-modern loupes as each iteration improved through time. The aim of this historical review is to kindle an appreciation for the millennia of development that led to such instrumental modern-day technology.

A comparative assessment of two different front-of-package nutrition label designs: A randomized experiment in Brazil.

This study compares the effectiveness of different front-of-package label designs in a Brazilian sample (n = 1384). Eligible adults were randomized to one of two study arms and viewed images of snacks with either a triangular warning label (TL) or a rectangular ‘high in’ label with a magnifying glass (ML). They responded to a series of questions that captured label usefulness, understanding, and purchase intentions. Compared to participants in the ML arm, those in the TL arm agreed that the TL communicated important information [Mean (SD) - 5.47 (0.07) vs 4.49 (0.08), p-value <0.001], was a useful tool [Mean (SD) - 6.12 (0.06) vs 5.75 (0.07), p-value <0.001], and was easier to understand as measured subjectively [Mean (SD) - 4.96 (0.07) vs 4.44 (0.08), p-value <0.001]. However, both the TL and the ML performed similarly in communicating nutrient information as measured by the objective understanding of nutrient content [57.09% vs 54.65%, p-value 0.259]. The ML performed marginally better at improving purchase intentions [Mean (SD) - 2.57 (0.07) vs 2.79 (0.08), p-value <0.049]. The current study adds to the growing evidence base on the pathways through which FoP labels, particularly ‘high in’ labels, might influence consumer perceptions and behavior. It is also one of the first studies to provide evidence on the utility of the ML design for Brazil.

The Portrait of Cyberchondria-A Cross-Sectional Online Study on Factors Related to Health Anxiety and Cyberchondria in Polish Population during SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic.

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has served as a magnifying glass for cyberchondria, while the internet emerged as one of the main sources of medical information and support. The core ambition of this study was to estimate the level of cyberchondria and describe the socio-demographic, clinical and pandemic-related factors affecting its severity amid the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. A cross-sectional study was performed between 16 May 2020 and 29 December 2020 in Poland within a sample of 538 adult internet users. The online survey tool included a Polish adaptation of the Cyberchondria Severity Scale (CSS-PL) and the Short Health Anxiety Inventory (SHAI), complemented with a set of questions covering sociodemographic, clinical and pandemic-related factors. Participants were clustered according to severity of health anxiety and cyberchondria symptoms. The performed binary logistic regression indicated professional inactivity, having a chronic mental disorder and subjectively limited access to healthcare due to COVID-19 to be key determinants of severe health anxiety and cyberchondria. Cyberchondria might be a remarkable public health issue as large proportion of respondents from the analyzed sample population of internet users met the criteria for severe symptoms. Key determinants of intense cyberchondria corresponded with employment stability, mental resilience and accessibility of healthcare services, which could be greatly challenged amid the pandemic.

Trends in low vision service utilisation: A retrospective study based on general population healthcare claims.

PurposeTo identify parameters associated with the downward trend in the uptake of Low Vision Services (LVS) in the Netherlands.MethodsA retrospective cohort study was conducted based on a Dutch national health insurance claims database (Vektis CV) of all adults (≥18 years) who received LVS from 2015 until 2018. Descriptive statistics were used to assess socio‐demographic, clinical and contextual characteristics and other healthcare utilisation of the study population. General estimating equations trends in characteristics and healthcare utilisation were determined over time.ResultsA total of 49,726 unique patients received LVS, but between 2015 and 2018, the number of patients decreased by 15%. The majority was aged 65 years or older (53%), female (54%), had a middle (38%) or low (24%) socio‐economic status and lived in urban areas (68%). Between 2015–2018, significant downward trends were found for treatment with intravitreal injections and lens‐related diseases for LVS patients. For physical comorbidity, utilisation of ophthalmic care, low vision aids and occupational therapy, a significant upward trend was found over time.ConclusionThe decrease of Dutch LVS patients by 15% between 2015 and 2018 might be explained by a reduced distribution of patients treated with intravitreal injections and patients with lens‐related diseases within the LVS. Compared to 2015, patients were more likely to have physical comorbidity, to see an ophthalmologist and to use low vision aids and occupational therapy in 2016, 2017 and 2018. This might indicate enhanced access to LVS when treated by ophthalmologists or within other medical specialties, or the opposite, i.e., less access when not treated within one of these medical specialties. Future research is needed to examine differences in patterns between LVS users and non‐users further.

Low-vision rehabilitation in Italy: Cross-sectional data from the Device and Aids Registry (D.A.Re).

We are reporting on the characteristics of low-vision adults attending large rehabilitation services which provide data to D.A.Re (Devices & Aids REgister) in Italy. D.A.Re aims to gather information about low-vision aids owned by Italian patients with visual impairment. We included consecutive patients attending low-vision rehabilitation centres providing data to D.A.Re from 2019 to July 2021. Demographic features, self-reported use of technology and aids, vision performance, and the Instrumental Activity of Daily Living (IADL) score were collected. 720 patients were included in the D.A.Re. About half of the patients were affected by Age-related Macular Degeneration (389, 54.9%). Patients reported a long interval between onset of vision disability and access to low-vision rehabilitation, which was over two years in almost 30% of cases. Blindness registration status was almost complete when reported, but almost 40% were unable to report on this. IADL scores were higher for younger people and those with better visual acuity and critical print size (CPS), and lower for visual field restriction (p < 0.01 for all predictors). Of interest, better IADL scores were recorded for those with computer knowledge who used optical aids and software in univariate analyses and multivariate analyses, adjusting for level of visual disability and employment status (p < 0.01 for all predictors). We report on the profile of low-vision patients using rehabilitation services in Italy. Longitudinal data during and after vision rehabilitation were collected. Our results support the validity of the D.A.Re to monitor the use of low-vision devices in Italy.

Early Diagnostics of Vulvar Intraepithelial Neoplasia

Simple SummaryThe spectrum of vulvar disorders is wide and varies from infections, dermatoses, manifestations of hormonal and systemic conditions to vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia (VIN) and invasive cancer. It is not always possible to distinguish vulvar lesions on the basis of macroscopical aspects and the distribution of changes. For definite diagnosis of a vulvar lesion, a biopsy is needed. However, in practice, the decision to perform a biopsy is often delayed due to a lack of specificity of symptoms at the early stages of the neoplastic disease. The aim of this article is to provide clinicians, both gynecologists and dermatologists, with the main features of vulvar precancerous lesions, in order to recognize and treat them on time, thus preventing vulvar cancer. Clinical appearance of VIN is variable with significant variations present in color, surface, and topography. Evaluation of all VIN lesions should be conducted very carefully, because an underlying early invasive squamous cancer appears to be present in a significant percentage of patients.The spectrum of vulvar lesions ranges from infective and benign dermatologic conditions to vulvar precancer and invasive cancer. Distinction based on the characteristics of vulvar lesions is often not indicative of histology. Vulvoscopy is a useful tool in the examination of vulvar pathology. It is more complex than just colposcopic examination and presumes naked eye examination accompanied by magnification, when needed. Magnification can be achieved using a magnifying glass or a colposcope and may aid the evaluation when a premalignant or malignant lesion is suspected. It is a useful tool to establish the best location for biopsies, to plan excision, and to evaluate the entire lower genital system. Combining features of vulvar lesions can help prediction of its histological nature. Clinically, there are two distinct premalignant types of vulvar intraepithelial neoplasia: HPV-related VIN, more common in young women, multifocal and multicentric; VIN associated with vulvar dermatoses, more common in older women and usually unicentric. For definite diagnosis, a biopsy is required. In practice, the decision to perform a biopsy is often delayed due to a lack of symptoms at the early stages of the neoplastic disease. Clinical evaluation of all VIN lesions should be conducted very carefully, because an underlying early invasive squamous cancer may be present.

Vaccine Hesitancy Under the Magnifying Glass: A Systematic Review of the Uses and Misuses of an Increasingly Popular Construct

ABSTRACT Resistance to vaccines has hindered attempts to contain and prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases for centuries. More recently, however, the term “vaccine hesitancy” has been used to describe not necessarily outright resistance but also a delay in acceptance or uncertainty regarding vaccines. Given concerns about hesitancy and its impact on vaccine uptake rates, researchers increasingly shifted the focus from resistance to vaccines toward vaccine hesitancy. Acknowledging the urgency to accurately assess the phenomenon, it is critical to understand the state of the literature, focusing on issues of conceptualization and operationalization. To carry out this systematic review, we collected and analyzed all published empirical articles from 2000 to 2021 that explicitly included quantitative self-report measures of vaccine hesitancy (k = 86). Using a mixed-method approach, the review demonstrates and quantifies crucial inconsistencies in the measurement of the construct, lack of clarity in regard to the determination of who should or should not be defined as hesitant, and overreliance on unrepresentative samples. Crucially, our analysis points to a potential systematic bias toward exaggerating the level of hesitancy in the population. Modeling a vaccine hesitancy co-citation network, the analysis also points to the existence of insular academic silos that make it harder to achieve a unified measurement tool. Theoretical and practical implications for academics, practitioners, and policymakers are discussed.

Weakly supervised attention-based models using activation maps for citrus mite and insect pest classification

Citrus juices and fruits are commodities with great economic potential in the international market, but productivity losses caused by mites and other pests are still far from being a good mark. Despite the integrated pest mechanical aspect, only a few works on automatic classification have handled images with orange mite characteristics, which means tiny and noisy regions of interest. Attention-based models have gained prominence in deep learning research, and, along with weakly supervised learning algorithms, they have improved tasks performed with some label restrictions. In this context, this work proposes an attention-based activation map approach developed to improve the classification of tiny regions called Two-Weighted Activation Mapping, which also produces locations using feature map scores learned from class labels. We apply our method in a two-stage network process called Attention-based Multiple Instance Learning Guided by Saliency Maps. We analyze the proposed approach in two challenging datasets, the Citrus Pest Benchmark, captured directly in the field using magnifying glasses, and the Insect Pest, a large pest image benchmark. We evaluate and compare our models with weakly supervised methods, such as Attention-based Deep MIL and WILDCAT. The results show that our classifier is superior to literature methods, surpassing them in all scenarios by at least 16 percentage points. Moreover, our approach infers bounding box locations for salient insects, even training without location labels.

Characteristics of Visual Impairment and the Impact of Low Vision Assessment in a Tertiary Academic Hospital in Jordan.

PurposeThis project aims to describe the characteristics of patients with visual impairment referred from a tertiary academic hospital in Jordan for a comprehensive low vision evaluation and to study its impact on their functional needs.MethodsA retrospective analysis of the records of 108 patients from the ophthalmology clinic at Jordan University Hospital over the period from January 2014 to December 2018 was performed. Gathered information included age, gender, clinical diagnosis, family history of ocular disease, and type of low vision aid prescribed and its impact on patients’ functional needs.ResultsThe mean age was 44.64 years (range 4–88). Most participants were in the 19–60 years age group (50.0%). Fifty percent of the participants were the offspring of consanguineous marriages. The main cause of visual impairment in this cohort was retinitis pigmentosa, followed by diabetic retinopathy. The majority of low vision aids were prescribed for near distance tasks, and reading spectacles were the most prescribed visual aid. Eighty-nine percent of patients reported functional improvement and retained their visual aids upon follow-up.ConclusionRetinitis pigmentosa was the main cause of visual impairment in this cohort of patients referred from a tertiary academic hospital for low vision assessment. We report a consanguinity rate of 50%. The overwhelming majority of patients reported functional improvement and retained their visual aids upon follow-up. Awareness and integration of low vision services into a multidisciplinary approach and improving referral protocols is essential to better address the needs of patients with visual impairment. Familial counselling regarding consanguineous marriages and emerging research to treat inherited retinal diseases should be pursued.

Abortion and the experience of US citizenship in Jodi Picoult's A Spark of Light

The following paper will focus on Jodi Picoult's handling of abortion in her novel A Spark of Light (2018). I will argue that the author uses abortion as a magnifying glass which exposes the experience of “second-class citizenship” that many American women are forced to embody. Particular emphasis will be given to the influence of religion within American society, the implications of racist thinking in relation to the broader concept of biopolitics, the legacy of the Reaganite Right, and the dominance of fetal or infantile images in the public sphere. The conclusion will stress that Picoult's novel deserves the widest possible audience, as it critically engages with the material conditions of citizenship, and shows how abortion, biopolitics, and civil rights can be re-thought, re-negotiated and re-politicized.

Quantum correlations, entanglement spectrum, and coherence of the two-particle reduced density matrix in the extended Hubbard model

We study the ground state properties of the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model at half-filling from the perspective of its particle reduced density matrix. We focus on the reduced density matrix of $2$ fermions and perform an analysis of its quantum correlations and coherence along the different phases of the model. Specifically, we study its (i) entanglement entropy, (ii) $\ell_1$ norm of coherence, (iii) irreducible two-body cumulant matrix and (iv) entanglement spectrum. Our results show that these different properties are complementary to each other depending on the phase of the system, exhibiting peculiar behaviors such as discontinuities, maximum or minimum values at the quantum phase transitions, thus providing a qualitative view of the phase diagram of the model. In particular, in the superconducting region, we obtain that the entanglement spectrum signals a transition between a dominant singlet (SS) to triplet (TS) pairing ordering in the system. Moreover, from the analysis of the dominant eigenvector in the reduced state, we can relate the SS-TS transition to the spatial separation between the fermion pairs in the two different pairing orderings. The entanglement gap is also able to highlight a transition - at a few-body level - in the groundstate wavefunction, not discussed previously in the literature. While other quantifiers are less sensitive to few-body defects in the wavefunction, the entanglement gap can work as a magnifying glass for these, capturing such small fluctuations.

A PLETHORA OF MICROPLASTIC POLLUTION STUDIES: THE NEED FOR A FORENSIC APPROACH

Microplastic pollution has been under the magnifying glass for several years now. Existing data relating to microplastics on surface waters suggest that they are globally widespread, but there are several gaps of knowledge in relation to understand how many there are in different locations, what is their composition, where do they come from and where they are going. What we need is a global collaborative effort to collect this information on a large scale. To date, standardized methodologies for the sampling and analysis of microplastics are still lacking, which therefore hinders the comparison of the reported data. This review summarizes the currently used methodologies for sampling and identifying microplastics in surface water, with the intention of contributing to the establishment of standardized and harmonized protocols. In addition, we focus our attention on the great potential that environmental forensic sciences have to face the delicate and insidious challenge of microplastic pollution, urging future research to go in this direction, in order to develop a rigorous and robust forensic method for microplastics study.

Symmetry-resolved dynamical purification in synthetic quantum matter

When a quantum system initialized in a product state is subjected to either coherent or incoherent dynamics, the entropy of any of its connected partitions generically increases as a function of time, signalling the inevitable spreading of (quantum) information throughout the system. Here, we show that, in the presence of continuous symmetries and under ubiquitous experimental conditions, symmetry-resolved information spreading is inhibited due to the competition of coherent and incoherent dynamics: in given quantum number sectors, entropy decreases as a function of time, signalling dynamical purification. Such dynamical purification bridges between two distinct short and intermediate time regimes, characterized by a log-volume and log-area entropy law, respectively. It is generic to symmetric quantum evolution, and as such occurs for different partition geometry and topology, and classes of (local) Liouville dynamics. We then develop a protocol to measure symmetry-resolved entropies and negativities in synthetic quantum systems based on the random unitary toolbox, and demonstrate the generality of dynamical purification using experimental data from trapped ion experiments [Brydges et al., Science 364, 260 (2019)]. Our work shows that symmetry plays a key role as a magnifying glass to characterize many-body dynamics in open quantum systems, and, in particular, in noisy-intermediate scale quantum devices.