Monitoring of people and workers exposure to the electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields in an Italian national cancer Institute

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The paper reports the electric, magnetic and electromagnetic fields (<it>emf</it>) measurements carried out in the <it>Regina Elena National Cancer Institute (NCI)</it>. Several devices, used in diagnostics and in medical cures, can represent sources of <it>emf </it>for the workers and for the public subjected to the treatments. The aim is to evaluate their exposition, in order to assess the compliance with the law.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The investigations have been carried out in the departments of: intensive care, physiotherapy, MR presstherapy and in the surgical rooms. The measurements have been performed using broad band probes in the frequency ranges 5 Hz÷30 kHz and 100 kHz-3 GHz.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The variability of the magnetic induction (B(μT)) levels is between 0,05 μT and 80 μT. The statistical distribution shows that most of the measurements are in the range 0,05<B = 0,5 μT and the 89% of the B(μT) levels are within the 3 μT.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The measurement of the <it>emf </it>levels in the <it>NCI </it>is recommended because of the presence of the oncological patients; their long stay near the equipments and their day-long exposure represent additional risk factors for which a prudent avoidance strategy have to de adopted.</p

Assessing phonological awareness in Italian children with and without developmental dyslexia: The contribution of a new pseudo-word blending task

The current study investigated the capacity of a new test assessing phonological awareness to detect differences between Italian children with and without developmental dyslexia. Specifically, the task involves blending of a list of pseudo-words, and excludes lexical knowledge as a source of task performance. Fifty-four third to fifith Italian graders were presented a battery of tests assessing phonological awareness, reading, writing, and verbal short-term memory abilities. A multivariate analysis of covariance, with age as a covariate, revealed that proficient readers outperformed students with developmental dyslexia in all cognitive measures considered, except verbal short-term memory. Moreover, high concordance was found between the new pseudo-word blending task, and well-known word blending, writing, and reading tests, respectively. In conclusion, the new phonological awareness task seems to be a useful tool for the detection of poor blending abilities of Italian children and thus it could be used to screen phonological awareness in primary schools. Implications for school psychology research and practice, including across linguistic contexts, are emphasized; for example, the new blending task could aid discrimination of proficient and dyslexic readers speaking other languages characterized by a transparent orthography, such as Greek, Spanish, Turkish

Prova di fusione fonemica di non-parole: un nuovo strumento per la valutazione della consapevolezza fonologica dei bambini

Il presente studio è stato condotto principalmente con l’intento di veri! care la validità convergente di un nuovo compito di fusione fonemica di Non-Parole, oltreché la capacità del medesimo strumento di discriminare l’ef! cienza della consapevolezza fonologica di un gruppo di bambini con sviluppo tipico e con diagnosi di dislessia. A 34 bambini frequentanti le classi terza-quinta della scuola primaria è stata proposta una batteria di prove atte a valutare la consapevolezza fonologica e la letto-scrittura. I risultati di tale studio suggeriscono che il nuovo test qui proposto correla con diversi indici di efficienza della letto-scrittura e di consapevolezza fonologica. Inoltre il compito di fusione di Non-Parole qui proposto è in grado di cogliere le differenze di prestazione dei bambini dislessici e di quelli con sviluppo tipic

Rapidly growing subcutaneous mass in an infant

Fibrous hamartoma of infancy (FHI) is a benign mesenchymal tumor of young children. It has a broad clinical differential diagnosis and is often clinically confused for vascular and malignant soft tissue neoplasms. Recognition of the unique histologic features of FHI, a triphasic population of mature adipose tissue, mature fibrous tissue, and immature mesenchymal tissue, will ensure the correct diagnosis. In this report we present a case of this rare entity, including the associated clinical, radiologic, and histologic findings

Rapidly growing subcutaneous mass in an infant

Fibrous hamartoma of infancy (FHI) is a benign mesenchymal tumor of young children. It has a broad clinical differential diagnosis and is often clinically confused for vascular and malignant soft tissue neoplasms. Recognition of the unique histologic features of FHI, a triphasic population of mature adipose tissue, mature fibrous tissue, and immature mesenchymal tissue, will ensure the correct diagnosis. In this report we present a case of this rare entity, including the associated clinical, radiologic, and histologic findings

Prova di Fusione Fonemica di Non-Parole: un nuovo strumento per la valutazione della consapevolezza fonologica dei bambini dislessici

Il presente studio è stato condotto principalmente con l’intento di veri! care la validità convergente di un nuovo compito di fusione fonemica di Non-Parole, oltreché la capacità del medesimo strumento di discriminare l’ef! cienza della consapevolezza fonologica di un gruppo di bambini con sviluppo tipico e con diagnosi di dislessia. A 34 bambini frequentanti le classi terza-quinta della scuola primaria è stata proposta una batteria di prove atte a valutare la consapevolezza fonologica e la letto-scrittura. I risultati di tale studio suggeriscono che il nuovo test qui proposto correla con diversi indici di efficienza della letto-scrittura e di consapevolezza fonologica. Inoltre il compito di fusione di Non-Parole qui proposto è in grado di cogliere le differenze di prestazione dei bambini dislessici e di quelli con sviluppo tipic

Risk of hematological malignancies from CT radiation exposure in children, adolescents and young adults

Over one million European children undergo computed tomography (CT) scans annually. Although moderate- to high-dose ionizing radiation exposure is an established risk factor for hematological malignancies, risks at CT examination dose levels remain uncertain. Here we followed up a multinational cohort (EPI-CT) of 948,174 individuals who underwent CT examinations before age 22 years in nine European countries. Radiation doses to the active bone marrow were estimated on the basis of body part scanned, patient characteristics, time period and inferred CT technical parameters. We found an association between cumulative dose and risk of all hematological malignancies, with an excess relative risk of 1.96 (95% confidence interval 1.10 to 3.12) per 100 mGy (790 cases). Similar estimates were obtained for lymphoid and myeloid malignancies. Results suggest that for every 10,000 children examined today (mean dose 8 mGy), 1-2 persons are expected to develop a hematological malignancy attributable to radiation exposure in the subsequent 12 years. Our results strengthen the body of evidence of increased cancer risk at low radiation doses and highlight the need for continued justification of pediatric CT examinations and optimization of doses.This work was partly supported by the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/20011-2017) (grant number 269912 - EPI-CT: Epidemiological study to quantify risks for paediatric computerised tomography and to optimise doses) (A.K., E.C., M.H., M.-O.B., A.J., H.O., H.E., C.J., M.B., M.K. and K.K.). In Spain, this study was partially supported by grants (E.C. and M.B.B.) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III-ISCIII from the Spanish Government (reference: PI16/00120) cofunded by FEDER funds/European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)—a way to build Europe. Additionally, complementary Spanish funding was received from the Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear (E.C.) and M.B.B. was the recipient of a fellowship of the Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Epidemiología y Salud Pública (CIBERESP) for a short stay abroad at Newcastle University. ISGlobal also acknowledges support from the grant CEX2018-000806-S funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program and from the Secretariat of Universities and Research of the Department of Business and Knowledge of the Generalitat of Catalonia through AGAUR (the Catalan Agency for Management of University and Research Grants) (Project 2017 SGR 1487) to EC