Occupational accidents among immigrant workers in the Fabriano areas.

BACKGROUND: The growing contribution of immigrant workers to the national economy particularly affects the trend of accidents at work. Objectives: The aim of this study was to describe the trend of work accidents in the Local Health Area No. 6 - Fabriano (Marche Region), during the period 2000-2003; to define the frequency for each job sector, age, gender, type of work, severity, month, day and week and time of day; to calculate the incidence rate for each year taken into consideration. METHODS: The sources of information used were: 1) The "New Informative Flows" database set up by Italian National Institute of Insurance for Occupational Injury (INAIL), Italian Superior Institute for Work Prevention and Safety (ISPESL) and Regional Governments, and the "EPIWORK software", for the total number of occupational accidents among immigrant workers. 2) The local Jobs and Training Centre of Fabriano. We used three different correction indexes to evaluate the number of hired workers so as to estimate the rate of accident incidence among immigrant workers. RESULTS: The total number of occupational accidents reached its peak in 2001 as a result of the rise in the number of employed people. After this date, the trend started to reverse and in 2002 an increase in the number of employed people--although smaller compared to the previous year--was accompanied by a reduction in the overall number of accidents, a reduction that became even more evident in 2003. Occupational accidents among immigrant workers gradually rose and peaked in 2002. The sectors with high rates of accidents were the mechanical engineering and metallurgic sectors and the construction industry. Accidents occurred mainly among young people (18 to 34years old). As for gender, there was a marked prevalence of men (83.3%) over women (16.7%). Most accidents had a prognosis of 8 to 30 days. The number ofoccupational accidents with a prognosis of 8 to 30 days fell progressively for workers in general but gradually rose for immigrant workers with a peak in 2001. The overall number of occupational accidents that caused permanent invalidity fell by 52.3% for the workforce in general, and by 25% among immigrant workers. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that immigrant workers employed in the Fabriano area had a higher risk of accidents at work

Reproductive status is associated with the severity of fibrosis in women with hepatitis C.

Chronic hepatitis C is the main cause of death in patients with end-stage liver disease. Prognosis depends on the increase of fibrosis, whose progression is twice as rapid in men as in women. Aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of reproductive stage on fibrosis severity in women and to compare these findings with age-matched men.A retrospective study of 710 consecutive patients with biopsy-proven chronic hepatitis C was conducted, using data from a clinical database of two tertiary Italian care centers. Four age-matched groups of men served as controls. Data about demographics, biochemistry, liver biopsy and ultrasonography were analyzed. Contributing factors were assessed by multivariate logistic regression analysis.Liver fibrosis was more advanced in the early menopausal than in the fully reproductive (P<0.0001) or premenopausal (P = 0.042) group. Late menopausal women had higher liver fibrosis compared with the other groups (fully reproductive, P<0.0001; premenopausal, P = <0.0001; early menopausal, P = 0.052). Multivariate analyses showed that male sex was independently associated with more severe fibrosis in the groups corresponding to premenopausal (P = 0.048) and early menopausal (P = 0.004) but not late menopausal pairs. In women, estradiol/testosterone ratio decreased markedly in early (vs. reproductive age: P = 0.002 and vs. premenopausal: P<0.0001) and late menopause (vs. reproductive age: P = 0.001; vs. premenopausal: P<0.0001). In men age-matched with menopausal women, estradiol/testosterone ratio instead increased (reproductive age group vs. early: P = 0.002 and vs. late M: P = 0.001).The severity of fibrosis in women worsens in parallel with increasing estrogen deprivation and estradiol/testosterone ratio decrease. Our data provide evidence why fibrosis progression is discontinuous in women and more linear and severe in men, in whom aging-associated estradiol/testosterone ratio increase occurs too late to noticeably influence the inflammatory process leading to fibrosis

AKTIP interacts with telomeric DNA, TRF1 and TRF2.

<p>(A) ChIPs from HPFs, uninfected HeLa cells and shAKTIP-11-infected HeLa cells reveal interactions between AKTIP and telomeric DNA. Chromatin was immunoprecipitated with an anti-AKTIP antibody or control IgGs; slot-blots were hybridized with TTAGGG or ALU repeat probes. (B) ChIP quantification after normalization to the input (levels shown in A). Bars show the mean values of two experiments ± SD; the amount of telomeric DNA precipitated from uninfected HeLa cells is significantly higher than that obtained from shAKTIP-11-infected cells (*p<0.05 in the Student t test). (C, D) AKTIP-GST pulls down TRF1 (C) and TRF2 (D) from 293T cell extracts. In, input; M, MW markers.</p

AKTIP downregulation impairs telomere replication.

<p>Ctr or shAKTIP HeLa cells were synchronized at the G1/S boundary with a double thymidine block and harvested at the indicated times. (A) Scatter plots showing the proportions of cells in S phase in asynchronous cultures (As) and in cultures analyzed at various times after release from the double thymidine block. Prior to harvest at each time point, the cells were incubated with BrdU for 30 min. (B) ChIP analysis on synchronized HeLa cells incubated with BrdU for 1 h before harvesting. Precipitations were performed with an anti-TRF1 antibody. IgG antibody was used as negative control. Inputs represent 10 and 1% of genomic DNA. Dot-blot analysis was performed using telomeric or ALU repeat-specific probes. Precipitated DNA was analyzed by Western blotting with an anti-BrdU antibody. (C, D) Quantification of the data expressed in arbitrary units (A.U.) of unlabeled (C) or BrdU-labeled (D) precipitated telomeric DNA at the different time points of analysis, each normalized to input samples. The graphs show three independent experiments, with error bars indicating the SD.</p

AKTIP directly binds TRF1 and TRF2.

<p>(A) A tridimensional molecular model for AKTIP. The arrows point to the starting sites of the disordered N- and C-terminal regions (not depicted); the variant Asp residue and His-Pro-Leu motif are represented as sticks and indicated by red and purple arrows, respectively (see also <a href="http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pgen.1005167#pgen.1005167.s005" target="_blank">S5 Fig</a>). (B) Schematic organization of the AKTIP protein; the AKTIP truncations used for GST pulldown are indicated below the scheme. (C, D) In vitro mapping the AKTIP regions that interact with TRF1 or TRF2 using bacterially purified proteins; the UEV domain of AKTIP binds both TRF1 and TRF2.</p

AKTIP downregulation impairs DNA replication.

<p>(A) FACS analysis of 10 dpi ctr and shAKTIP-11 HPFs incubated with BrdU for 30 min, fixed, and then stained for BrdU and DNA (with PI). AKTIP depletion results in an S phase block; percents of cells in different cell cycle phases are reported in the upper right corner of each panel. (B, C) PCNA localization in unsynchronized mock, 10 dpi ctr, 10 dpi shAKTIP-11, HU-treated and APC-treated HPFs. Examples (B) and quantification of PCNA positive nuclei (C) from unextracted or Triton X-100-extracted HPFs. Bars are the mean values ± SD of samples analyzed in duplicate. ** and * indicate significant difference from control with p<0.01 and p<0.05 in the Student t test. (D, E) Distribution of nuclei with different S phase PCNA staining patterns. Bars in the graph (E) are the mean values ± SD of samples analyzed in duplicate; colours in E are as in the representative images shown in D; distributions of ctr and shAKTIP nuclei are significantly different in the Student t test with p<0.05. (F) AKTIP-GST pulls down PCNA and RPA70 from 293T cell extracts.</p