309 research outputs found
Respiratory parameters at varied altitudes in intermittent mining work
Objectives: Workers in the mining industry in altitude are subjected to several risk factors, e.g., airborne silica and low barometric pressure. The aim of this study has been to assess the risks for this work category, evaluating single risk factors as airborne silica, altitude and work shift, and relating them with cardiovascular and ventilatory parameters. Material and Methods: Healthy miners employed in a mining company, Chile, working at varied altitudes, and subjected to unusual work shifts, were evaluated. Cardiovascular and respiratory parameters were investigated. Exposure to airborne silica was evaluated and compared to currently binding exposure limits. Results: At varied altitudes and work shifts, alterations emerged in haemoglobin, ventilation and respiratory parameters, related to employment duration, due to compensatory mechanisms for hypoxia. Haemoglobin increased with altitude, saturation fell down under 90% in the highest mines. The multiple linear regression analysis showed a direct relationship, in the higher mine, between years of exposure to altitude and increased forced vital capacity percent (FVC%), and forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1). An inverse relationship emerged between forced vital capacity (FVC) and years of exposure to airborne silica. In the workplace Mina Subterrànea (MT-3600), statistically significant inverse relationship emerged between the Tiffeneau index and body weight. Conclusions: The working conditions in the mining industry in altitude appeared to be potentially pathogenic; further investigations should be realized integrating risk assessment protocols even in consideration of their undeniable unconventionality
Remote Zones Air Quality. Persistent Organic Pollutants: Sources, Sampling and Analysis
Concern about air quality has been rising since the Industrial Revolution and the so-called “Second Industrial Revolution” characterized by internal combustion engine, electrical technology and above all synthesis of new chemicals. Since then mankind has been facing the consequences of its thoughtless release of pollutants in atmosphere, consequences as reducing smog, acid rains and photochemical smog. Notwithstanding the seriousness of single episodes, these were local, or at most regional, phenomena. Nowadays, the variety of pollutants and the extent of pollution is greater than even in history, and air pollution problems are reaching up to global scale. In the last decades, it was established that manmade chemicals, such as polychlorinated biphenyls, chlorofluorocarbons and volatile chlorinated hydrocarbons, were present even in the remotest zones of the Earth, according to their volatility and half-life. This evidence stimulated the scientific community to monitor air quality of remote zones, areas considered a short time ago as uncontaminated. This chapter deals with different sampling and analysis techniques for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the atmosphere of remote zones. Features, sources and environmental fate of POPs are presented in the first section. The second section focuses on logistic and experimental difficulties connected to surveys in remote zones. The third section focuses on recent developments and improvements concerning sampling and analytical methods for POPs in air. The most significant findings on the presence of POPs in remote zones are shown in the last section
Indoor Air Quality. Volatile Organic Compounds: Sources, Sampling and Analysis
Since the 70s research has found in Europe and in the United States that individuals spend between 70 and 90% of their time indoors. Health studies have found that exposures to a variety of air pollutants indoors can be substantially higher than outdoors, even in urban environment. Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) are often more important, depending by their continue emission from many sources and their diffusion properties. In order to evaluate the occupants discomfort and health effects and developing guidelines and standards, Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) assessment and control is an essential step; IAQ assessment will complain: Sources, Sampling Methods, Analysis and Data Meanin
Simultaneous sampling of vapor and particle-phase carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons on functionalized glass fiber filters
The sampling of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the atmosphere is often performed on filters, which retain only aerosol particles, disregarding the vapor fraction; after the filter, an adsorbent (e.g., polyurethane foam, PUF, or styrene/divinylbenzene, XAD) is sometimes used for sampling vapors not retained from the filter. However, the use of an adsorbent may lead to many disadvantages: contaminations, analysis time and costs, and size problems when developing automated or personal samplers. In this work, a functionalized glass fiber filter for the simultaneous sampling of aerosol particles and vapor fraction is presented for the sampling of PAHs in air. A low sampling efficiency was observed for 3 ring PAHs, but all carcinogenic PAHs (according to IARC) were totally retained on functionalized filters. On the other hand, a comparison with normal filter sampling was performed, and results obtained confirm that > 10% of benzo(a)pyrene can be lost from normal filters. Together with size reduction, another advantage of the functionalized filter is an enhancement in the extraction and purification recovery. © Taiwan Association for Aerosol Research
Aplicación de técnicas psicodiagnósticas para la detección de rasgos predictores de demencia, a una muestra de adultos mayores de 50 años de la ciudad de Córdoba
La evaluación psico-diagnóstica con técnicas y escalas psicométricas de los diversos rasgos cognitivos y comportamentales, está teniendo una creciente utilidad clínica, muy particularmente para la detección temprana de trastornos que permiten predecir procesos demenciales. Esta detección, a su turno, facilita la puesta en práctica de abordajes terapéuticos preventivos que brindarán potencialmente un mejor estilo de vida al afectado y su familia. En este contexto, y a modo de actividad de extensión, el objetivo de este trabajo es el de detectar rasgos predictores de demencia, utilizando escalas e inventarios de medición psicodiagnóstica que valoren aspectos cognitivos y conductuales. Para ello, se aplicarán a los evaluados una batería diseñada con distintas pruebas y escalas que permiten la valoración general de los rasgos cognitivos y conductuales del sujeto. Los sujetos que integren la muestra serán los derivados por el Servicio de Psicopatología del Hospital Nacional de Clínicas, todos mayores de 50 años como único criterio de exclusión aplicado. Los datos obtenidos serán procesados para determinar la distribución de la población en los cuadros que eventualmente se presenten y que son reconocidos en la literatura como eventos pre-mórbidos de las demencias. Ante el eventual diagnóstico de “demencia probable” de algún sujeto evaluado, los médicos del Servicio mencionado se encargarán del tratamiento farmacológico. Este servicio de evaluación psico-diagnóstica incluye la formación práctica de alumnos de la Carrera de Psicología de la UCC en base a prácticas de investigación y permite volcar los conocimientos obtenidos en situaciones prácticas relacionadas con la docencia activaFil: Bueno, Adrián Marcelo. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades; ArgentinaFil: Luque, Leticia Elizabeth. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades; Argentin
Aplicación de técnicas psicodiagnósticas para la detección de rasgos predictores de demencia, a una muestra de adultos mayores de 50 años de la ciudad de Córdoba
La evaluación psico-diagnóstica con técnicas y escalas psicométricas de los diversos rasgos cognitivos y comportamentales, está teniendo una creciente utilidad clínica, muy particularmente para la detección temprana de trastornos que permiten predecir procesos demenciales. Esta detección, a su turno, facilita la puesta en práctica de abordajes terapéuticos preventivos que brindarán potencialmente un mejor estilo de vida al afectado y su familia. En este contexto, y a modo de actividad de extensión, el objetivo de este trabajo es el de detectar rasgos predictores de demencia, utilizando escalas e inventarios de medición psicodiagnóstica que valoren aspectos cognitivos y conductuales. Para ello, se aplicarán a los evaluados una batería diseñada con distintas pruebas y escalas que permiten la valoración general de los rasgos cognitivos y conductuales del sujeto. Los sujetos que integren la muestra serán los derivados por el Servicio de Psicopatología del Hospital Nacional de Clínicas, todos mayores de 50 años como único criterio de exclusión aplicado. Los datos obtenidos serán procesados para determinar la distribución de la población en los cuadros que eventualmente se presenten y que son reconocidos en la literatura como eventos pre-mórbidos de las demencias. Ante el eventual diagnóstico de “demencia probable” de algún sujeto evaluado, los médicos del Servicio mencionado se encargarán del tratamiento farmacológico. Este servicio de evaluación psico-diagnóstica incluye la formación práctica de alumnos de la Carrera de Psicología de la UCC en base a prácticas de investigación y permite volcar los conocimientos obtenidos en situaciones prácticas relacionadas con la docencia activaFil: Bueno, Adrián Marcelo. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades; ArgentinaFil: Luque, Leticia Elizabeth. Universidad Católica de Córdoba. Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades; Argentin
Sensitivity and specificity of in vivo COVID-19 screening by detection dogs: Results of the C19-Screendog multicenter study
Trained dogs can recognize the volatile organic compounds contained in biological samples of
patients with COVID-19 infection. We assessed the sensitivity and specificity of in vivo SARS-CoV-
2 screening by trained dogs.
We recruited five dog-handler dyads. In the operant conditioning phase, the dogs were taught to
distinguish between positive and negative sweat samples collected from volunteers’ underarms in
polymeric tubes. The conditioning was validated by tests involving 16 positive and 48 negative
samples held or worn in such a way that the samples were invisible to the dog and handler. In the
screening phase the dogs were led by their handlers to a drive-through facility for in vivo screening
of volunteers who had just received a nasopharyngeal swab from nursing staff. Each volunteer who
had already swabbed was subsequently tested by two dogs, whose responses were recorded as
positive, negative, or inconclusive. The dogs’ behavior was constantly monitored for attentiveness
and wellbeing.
All the dogs passed the conditioning phase, their responses showing a sensitivity of 83-100% and a
specificity of 94-100%. The in vivo screening phase involved 1251 subjects, of whom 205 had a
COVID-19 positive swab and two dogs per each subject to be screened. Screeningsensitivity and
specificity were respectively 91.6-97.6% and 96.3-100% when only one dog was involved, whereas
combined screening by two dogs provided a higher sensitivity. Dog wellbeing was also analysed:
monitoring of stress and fatigue suggested that the screening activity did not adversely impact the
dogs’ wellbeing. This work, by screening a large number of subjects, strengthen recent findings that
trained dogs can discriminate between COVID-19 infected and healthy human subjects and introduce
two novel research aspects: i) assessement of signs of fatigue and stress in dogs during training and
testing, and ii) combining screening by two dogs to improve detection sensitivity and specificity.
Using some precautions to reduce the risk of infection and spillover, in vivo COVID-19 screening by
a dog-handler dyad can be suitable to quickly screen large numbers of people: it is rapid, non-
invasiveand economical, since it does not involve actual sampling, lab resources or waste
management, and is suitable to screen large numbers of people
The Simultaneous Determination of Six Flame Retardants in Water Samples Using SPE Pre-concentration and UHPLC-UV Method
The use of solid sorbents for direct accumulation of organic compounds from water matrices-a review of solid-phase extraction techniques
- …