175 research outputs found
Assessment of Portuguese firefighters’ lifestyle: results from an online survey
Firefighters are an occupational group exposed to multiple agents, such as heat, fatigue, noise and chemical substances. Exposure to these agents can have a severe impact on their health. In addition, lifestyle behaviors may also affect their health and well-being. As such, the aim of this study was to assess health-related lifestyle behaviors in Portuguese firefighters. Data was obtained via an online survey using an adapted version of the FANTASTIC Lifestyle Assessment Inventory that included questions on relationships with family and friends, physical activity, nutrition, tobacco and alcohol consumption, sleep and stress, career and shifts. The access link to the survey was disseminated through collaboration with the National School of Firefighters. Data was collected between April 24th and May 27th 2021. From the 861 participating firefighters, the majority were men and had less than 40 years old. Around half were married and were firefighters for more than ten years. The majority referred to have people to talk about important things and to give and receive affection. Regarding physical activity the majority did not practice physical activity in the professional context. Only a quarter reported to have healthy eating habits and the majority reported the consumption of high-calorie foods and to be exceeding their ideal weight. More than a third reported smoking and around 16% reported driving motor vehicles after consuming alcohol. Around 40% reported to consume more than 3 caffeine drinks per day. Around a tenth reported to almost never have good quality sleep and only around 78% reported to have difficulties sleeping. About 43% didn’t have capacity to manage stress in their day to day life and about 57% were not able to relax in their free time. Around 40% reported not being happy with their work and a third reported to do periodic medical exams.This work was developed within the project “Leadership
process and firefighters occupational health: Development
of an intervention program” funded by Foundation for
Science and Technology (PCIF/SSO/0054/2018).N/
The deconfining phase transition in full QCD with two dynamical flavors
We investigate the deconfining phase transition in SU(3) pure gauge theory
and in full QCD with two flavors of staggered fermions. The phase transition is
detected by measuring the free energy in presence of an abelian monopole
background field. In the pure gauge case our finite size scaling analysis is in
agreement with the well known presence of a weak first order phase transition.
In the case of 2 flavors full QCD we find, using the standard pure gauge and
staggered fermion actions, that the phase transition is consistent with weak
first order, contrary to the expectation of a crossover for not too large quark
masses and in agreement with results obtained by the Pisa group.Comment: 23 pages, 11 figures, 4 tables (minor typos corrected, references
updated, accepted for publication on JHEP
Localization for Random Unitary Operators
We consider unitary analogs of dimensional Anderson models on
defined by the product where is a deterministic
unitary and is a diagonal matrix of i.i.d. random phases. The
operator is an absolutely continuous band matrix which depends on a
parameter controlling the size of its off-diagonal elements. We prove that the
spectrum of is pure point almost surely for all values of the
parameter of . We provide similar results for unitary operators defined on
together with an application to orthogonal polynomials on the unit
circle. We get almost sure localization for polynomials characterized by
Verblunski coefficients of constant modulus and correlated random phases
Evolution of occupational asthma: Does cessation of exposure really improve prognosis?
SummaryAimTo assess the evolution of occupational asthma (OA) depending on whether the patient avoids or continues with exposure to the offending agent.MethodsStudy in patients diagnosed with OA using a specific inhalation challenge. Patients underwent the following examinations on the same day: clinical interview, physical examination, forced spirometry, methacholine test and determination of total IgE. Clinical improvement, deterioration or no change were defined according to the changes seen on the GINA severity scale at the time of diagnosis.ResultsOf the 73 patients finally included, 55 had totally ended exposure and 18 continued to be exposed at work. Clinical improvement was observed in 47% of those who had terminated exposure and in 22% of those who remained exposed; clinical deterioration was observed in 14% and 17% respectively (p = 0.805). Logistical regression analysis, including the type of agent and the persistence or avoidance of exposure among the variables, did not show any predictive factors of clinical evolution. Similarly, the changes in FEV1 and in bronchial hyperresponsiveness were not associated with the avoidance or continuation of exposure to the causative agent.ConclusionsAvoiding exposure to the causative agent in patients with OA does not seem to improve prognosis in this disease. Despite these findings, there is insufficient evidence to recommend a change in current management guidelines
Simulations of neutron background in a time projection chamber relevant to dark matter searches
Presented here are results of simulations of neutron background performed for
a time projection chamber acting as a particle dark matter detector in an
underground laboratory. The investigated background includes neutrons from rock
and detector components, generated via spontaneous fission and (alpha, n)
reactions, as well as those due to cosmic-ray muons. Neutrons were propagated
to the sensitive volume of the detector and the nuclear recoil spectra were
calculated. Methods of neutron background suppression were also examined and
limitations to the sensitivity of a gaseous dark matter detector are discussed.
Results indicate that neutrons should not limit sensitivity to WIMP-nucleon
interactions down to a level of (1 - 3) x 10^{-8} pb in a 10 kg detector.Comment: 27 pages (total, including 3 tables and 11 figures). Accepted for
publication in Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research - Section
Observational diagnostics of gas in protoplanetary disks
Protoplanetary disks are composed primarily of gas (99% of the mass).
Nevertheless, relatively few observational constraints exist for the gas in
disks. In this review, I discuss several observational diagnostics in the UV,
optical, near-IR, mid-IR, and (sub)-mm wavelengths that have been employed to
study the gas in the disks of young stellar objects. I concentrate in
diagnostics that probe the inner 20 AU of the disk, the region where planets
are expected to form. I discuss the potential and limitations of each gas
tracer and present prospects for future research.Comment: Review written for the proceedings of the conference "Origin and
Evolution of Planets 2008", Ascona, Switzerland, June 29 - July 4, 2008. Date
manuscript: October 2008. 17 Pages, 6 graphics, 134 reference
Brain aging and Parkinson's disease: new therapeutic approaches using drugs delivery systems
ABSTRACT
The etiology and pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease (PD) is unknown, aging being the
strongest risk factor for brain degeneration. Understanding PD pathogenesis and how
aging increases the risk of disease would aid the development of therapies able to slow
or prevent the progression of this neurodegenerative disorder. In this review we provide
an overview of the most promising therapeutic targets and strategies to delay the loss of
dopaminergic neurons observed both in PD and aging. Among them, handling alphasynuclein
toxicity, enhancing proteasome and lysosome clearance, ameliorating
mitochondrial disruptions and modifying the glial environment are so far the most
promising candidates. These new and conventional drugs may present problems related
to their labile nature and to the difficulties in reaching the brain. Thus, we highlight the
latest types of drug delivery system (DDS)-based strategies for PD treatment, including
DDS for local and systemic drug delivery. Finally, the ongoing challenges for the
discovery of new targets and the opportunities for DDS-based therapies to improve and
efficacious PD therapy will be discussed
Lorentz breaking Effective Field Theory and observational tests
Analogue models of gravity have provided an experimentally realizable test
field for our ideas on quantum field theory in curved spacetimes but they have
also inspired the investigation of possible departures from exact Lorentz
invariance at microscopic scales. In this role they have joined, and sometime
anticipated, several quantum gravity models characterized by Lorentz breaking
phenomenology. A crucial difference between these speculations and other ones
associated to quantum gravity scenarios, is the possibility to carry out
observational and experimental tests which have nowadays led to a broad range
of constraints on departures from Lorentz invariance. We shall review here the
effective field theory approach to Lorentz breaking in the matter sector,
present the constraints provided by the available observations and finally
discuss the implications of the persisting uncertainty on the composition of
the ultra high energy cosmic rays for the constraints on the higher order,
analogue gravity inspired, Lorentz violations.Comment: 47 pages, 4 figures. Lecture Notes for the IX SIGRAV School on
"Analogue Gravity", Como (Italy), May 2011. V.3. Typo corrected, references
adde
Impact of tetanus-diphtheria-acellular pertussis immunization during pregnancy on subsequent infant immunization seroresponses : follow-up from a large randomized placebo-controlled trial
Background: Pertussis immunization during pregnancy results in high pertussis antibody concentrations in young infants but may interfere with infant immune responses to post-natal immunization. Methods: This phase IV, multi-country, open-label study assessed the immunogenicity and safety of infant primary vaccination with DTaP-HepB-IPV/Hib and 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13). Enrolled infants (6\u201314 weeks old) were born to mothers who were randomized to receive reduced-antigen-content diphtheria-tetanus-three-component acellular pertussis vaccine (Tdap group) or placebo (control group) during pregnancy (270/7\u2013366/7 weeks\u2019 gestation) with crossover immunization postpartum. All infants received 2 or 3 DTaP-HepB-IPV/Hib and PCV13 doses according to national schedules. Immunogenicity was assessed in infants pre- and 1 month post-primary vaccination. The primary objective was to assess seroprotection/vaccine response rates for DTaP-HepB-IPV/Hib antigens 1 month post-primary vaccination. Results: 601 infants (Tdap group: 296; control group: 305) were vaccinated. One month post-priming, seroprotection rates were 100% (diphtheria; tetanus), 6598.5% (hepatitis B), 6595.9% (polio) and 6594.5% (Hib) in both groups. Vaccine response rates for pertussis antigens were significantly lower in infants whose mothers received pregnancy Tdap (37.5\u201377.1%) versus placebo (90.0\u201399.2%). Solicited and unsolicited adverse event rates were similar between groups. Serious adverse events occurred in 2.4% (Tdap group) and 5.6% (control group) of infants, none were vaccination-related. Conclusions: Pertussis antibodies transferred during pregnancy may decrease the risk of pertussis infection in the first months of life but interfere with the infant's ability to produce pertussis antibodies, the clinical significance of which remains unknown. Safety and reactogenicity results were consistent with previous experience
Metagenes Associated with Survival in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer
NSCLC (non-small cell lung cancer) comprises about 80% of all lung cancer cases worldwide. Surgery is most effective treatment for patients with early-stage disease. However, 30%–55% of these patients develop recurrence within 5 years. Therefore, markers that can be used to accurately classify early-stage NSCLC patients into different prognostic groups may be helpful in selecting patients who should receive specific therapies
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