Patterns of CT lung injury and toxicity after stereotactic radiotherapy delivered with helical tomotherapy in early stage medically inoperable NSCLC

To evaluate toxicity and patterns of radiologic lung injury on CT images after hypofractionated image-guided stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) delivered with helical tomotherapy (HT) in medically early stage inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC)

For water, food, tables, and health: the colonial ceramic culture of Guadeloupe, French West Indies

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston UniversityGuadeloupe has a long French colonial past: it became a French West Indian colony in 1635 and is now a region of France. Compared to Martinique, its ties with France were more tenuous. Unlike in Saint-Domingue, its Creole population- both among masters and slaves- was proportionally larger and formed the core of its society. These qualities make it an ideal site to examine the formation of French Creole culture during the colonial period. Ceramics can help by shedding light on local practices in managing water, cooking, formal dining, and health and hygiene. My analysis is based on the concept of ceramic culture and fits within the broader framework of interpretive archaeology. Considering ceramics as a coherent segment of material culture and focusing on a detailed understanding of what they did for their users enhances their analysis. In Guadeloupe, this approach led me to introduce a new class of ceramics for early modern societies-the water ceramics-and study how water was stored in the domestic sphere. Guadeloupe offered a good terrain for applying this concept. The data came from four sites in the historic capital of Basse-Terre, including the fort of Charles Houel, an influential early leader; and a middling house built in the late eighteenth century, where both white and mixed-race families lived with their slaves. I also analyzed 145 probate inventories covering the years 1774 to 1833. Their rich socio-economic and spatial information allowed me to compare how different economic classes used each type of ceramic object, and how masters and slaves interacted inside the Creole home. Female servants held some important, but historically unacknowledged roles: they managed the water supply of their masters and, with coarse earthenware cookware, invented an array of Creole dishes that form the base of French Antillean cuisine. French faiences helped the Creole elite fashion itself at social events. Objects such as chamber pots, barber's bowls, and drug pots, as well as Antillean folk medical practices, suggest that Guadeloupeans were less afraid of water than the French, and had better hygienic habits- at least, they bathed and shaved more

Dual analysis of host and pathogen transcriptomes in ostreid herpesvirus 1-positive Crassostrea gigas

Ostreid herpesvirus type 1 (OsHV-1) has become a problematic infective agent for the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas. In particular, the OsHV-1 \u3bcVar subtype has been associated with severe mortality episodes in oyster spat and juvenile oysters in France and other regions of the world. Factors enhancing the infectivity of the virus and its interactions with susceptible and resistant bivalve hosts are still to be understood, and only few studies have explored the expression of oyster or viral genes during productive infections. In this work, we have performed a dual RNA sequencing analysis on an oyster sample with a high viral load. High sequence coverage allowed us to thoroughly explore the OsHV-1 transcriptome and identify the activated molecular pathways in C.gigas. The identification of several highly induced and defence-related oyster transcripts supports the crucial role played by the innate immune system against the virus and opportunistic microbes possibly contributing to subsequent spat mortality

Migrant workers and psychological health: A systematic review

Migrant workers show an increase in the incidence of serious, psychotic, anxiety, and post-traumatic disorders due to a series of socio-environmental variables, such as loss of social status, discrimination, and separations from the family. The purpose is to elaborate a systematic review and highlight the prevailing psychological pathologies of these workers and categories most at risk. Our research included articles published from 2009 to 2019 on the major databases (Pub Med, Cochrane Library, and Scopus) using a combination of some keywords. The online search indicated 1.228 references. Using inclusion and exclusion criteria, we analyzed 127 articles, in particular 12 reviews and 115 original articles. Principal emerging disorders from the research are depressive syndrome (poor concentration at work, feeling down, or anger and somatization), anxiety, alcohol or substance abuse, and poor sleep quality. This causes low life conditions, which is also due to marginalization from the social context and strenuous work; in fact, migrant workers may suffer verbal or physical abuse, and they are often employed in dangerous, unhealthy jobs. It is therefore essential to increase the role of occupational medicine and promote wellbeing for this vulnerable job categor

Urban noise and psychological distress: A systematic review

Chronic exposure to urban noise is harmful for auditory perception, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and nervous systems, while also causing psychological annoyance. Around 25% of the EU population experience a deterioration in the quality of life due to annoyance and about 5–15% suffer from sleep disorders, with many disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) lost annually. This systematic review highlights the main sources of urban noise, the relevant principal clinical disorders and the most effected countries. This review included articles published on the major databases (PubMed, Cochrane Library, Scopus), using a combination of some keywords. The online search yielded 265 references; after selection, the authors have analyzed 54 articles (5 reviews and 49 original articles). From the analysis, among the sources of exposure, we found the majority of items dealing with airports and wind turbines, followed by roads and trains; the main disorders that were investigated in different populations dealt with annoyance and sleep disorders, sometimes associated with cardiovascular symptoms. Regarding countries, studies were published from all over the world with a slight prevalence from Western Europe. Considering these fundamental health consequences, research needs to be extended in such a way as to include new sources of noise and new technologies, to ensure a health promotion system and to reduce the risk of residents being exposed

Health risk assessment related to hydrogen peroxide presence in the workplace atmosphere - analytical methods evaluation for an innovative monitoring protocol

ObjectivesHydrogen peroxide (HP) accounts for 15% of the total global chemical revenue. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the HP concentration immediately dangerous to human life or health is 75 ppm. Operators exposed to HP should pay attention when choosing the monitoring technique that should be specific and sensitive enough to discriminate the exposure levels from background concentrations. In order to assess the long- and short-term exposure to HP in disinfection processes, the authors compared 6 industrial hygiene monitoring methods to evaluate their efficiency in measuring airborne HP concentrations.Material and MethodsAirborne HP concentrations were evaluated using an on-fiber triphenylphosphine solid-phase microextraction method, and they were compared with those obtained using a 13-mm Swinnex titanium oxysulfate filter holder and 4 portable direct-reading electrochemical sensors. A survey carried out in wood pulp bleaching, food and beverage disinfection processing, and in a hospital department to reduce the risk of spreading nosocomial infections, was performed during routine operations to access the risk of HP occupational exposure.ResultsThrough the generation of HP gaseous dynamic atmospheres (0.1–85 ppm), the authors evaluated the consistency of the results obtained using the 6 methods described. The monitoring campaigns showed that the increase in HP could be relatively high (until 67 ppm) in food and beverage processing.ConclusionsIn the authors’ opinion, the current 8-h time-weighted average limits of 1 ppm for HP do not reflect the actual risk; a short-term exposure limit would, therefore, provide a much better protection