Quality of life in workers and stress: gender differences in exposure to psychosocial risks and perceived well-being

Background. Quality of working life is the result of many factors inherent in the workplace environment, especially in terms of exposure to psychosocial risks. Objectives. The purpose of this study is to assess the quality of life with special attention to gender differences. Methods. The HSE-IT questionnaire and the WHO-5 Well-Being Index were administered to a group of workers (74 males and 33 females). The authors also used Cronbach’s alpha test to assess the internal consistency of both questionnaires and the Mann–Whitney test to evaluate the significance of gender differences in both questionnaires. Results. The HSE-IT highlighted the existence of work-related stress in all the population with a critical perception regarding the domain “Relationships.” Furthermore, gender analysis highlighted the presence of two additional domains in the female population: “Demand” ( = 0,002) and “Support from Managers” ( = 0,287). The WHO-5 highlighted a well-being level below the standard cut-off point with a significant gender difference ( = 0.009) for males (18, SD = 6) as compared to females (14, SD = 6,4). Cronbach’s alpha values indicated a high level of internal consistency for both of our scales. Conclusions. The risk assessment of quality of working life should take into due account the individual characteristics of workers, with special attention to gender

Tackling Inequalities in Oral Health: Bone Augmentation in Dental Surgery through the 3D Printing of Poly(ε-caprolactone) Combined with 20% Tricalcium Phosphate

Personalized medicine and overcoming healthcare inequalities have gained significant popularity in recent years. Polymers offer an ideal solution due to their cost-effectiveness, ease of customized 3D printing, and potential for wide-scale expansion. Poly- mers blended with β-tricalcium phosphate (TCP) have been found to synergize with the environ- mental tissues of maxillary bones and promote osteoconductivity. However, little is known about their properties after printing and their ability to maintain their biological role; additionally, limi- tations exist in 3D printing when high TPC concentrations are added. Our study demonstrated that poly ε-caprolactone (PCL)+β-TCP 20% composite can be successfully printed and is a suitable ma- terial for commercial 3D printing. The material also demonstrated biocompatibility, supporting osteoblast adhesion and promoting cell proliferation and differentiation. The composite can also sustain ISO14937:200935 sterilization procedures, which makes it an ideal material for printing medical devices that can be used by clinicians worldwide

Twenty-Year Follow-Up of Excimer Laser Photorefractive Keratectomy: A Retrospective Observational Study

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Ethnic background and risk perception in construction workers: development and validation of an exploratory tool

Among occupational sectors, construction is still one of the branches with the highest reported numbers of work-related injuries and diseases, which can even lead to death and in many cases induce permanent health consequences. The vast majority of these occupational injuries and diseases are preventable; accordingly, an improvement in preventive strategies, also through a better knowledge of the main factors involved in these events, is one of the most important objectives for better occupational health and safety in the construction sector. Considering the individual factors associated with a higher risk of work-related adverse health effects in workers, an inadequate perception of occupational risks is among the most relevant issues. Risk perception can vary according to different cultural backgrounds, highly influenced by ethnicity, and it affects the relations between workers in the work environment, and the way by with they undergo the specific occupational tasks and manage risky situations frequently occurring on construction sites. Accordingly, the aim of the authors was to develop a new tool for the assessment of risk perception in construction workers with different ethnic backgrounds

High-kinetic inductance NbN films for high-quality compact superconducting resonators

Niobium nitride (NbN) is a particularly promising material for quantum technology applications, as entails the degree of reproducibility necessary for large-scale of superconducting circuits. We demonstrate that resonators based on NbN thin films present a one-photon internal quality factor above 10$^5$ maintaining a high impedance (larger than 2k$\Omega$), with a footprint of approximately 50x100 $\mu$m$^2$ and a self-Kerr nonlinearity of few tenths of Hz. These quality factors, mostly limited by losses induced by the coupling to two-level systems, have been maintained for kinetic inductances ranging from tenths to hundreds of pH/square. We also demonstrate minimal variations in the performance of the resonators during multiple cooldowns over more than nine months. Our work proves the versatility of niobium nitride high-kinetic inductance resonators, opening perspectives towards the fabrication of compact, high-impedance and high-quality multimode circuits, with sizable interactions.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure

Genotypic and environmental effects on morpho-physiological and agronomic performances of a tomato diversity panel in relation to nitrogen and water stress under organic farming

[EN] The agricultural scenario of the upcoming decades will face major challenges for the increased and sustainable agricultural production and the optimization of the efficiency of water and fertilizer inputs. Considering the current and foreseen water scarcity in several marginal and arid areas and the need for a more sustainable farming production, the selection and development of cultivars suitable to grow under low-input conditions is an urgent need. In this study, we assayed 42 tomato genotypes for thirty-two morphophysiological and agronomic traits related to plant, fruit, and root characteristics under standard (control) and no-nitrogen fertilization or water deficit (30% of the amount given to non-stressed trials) treatments in two sites (environments), which corresponded to organic farms located in Italy and Spain. A broad range of variation was found for all traits, with significant differences between the applied treatments and the cultivation sites. Dissection of genotypic (0), environmental (E), and treatment (T) factors revealed that the three main factors were highly significant for many traits, although G was the main source of variation in most cases. G x E interactions were also important, while G x T and E x T were less relevant. Only fruit weight and blossom end rot were highly significant for the triple interaction (G x E x T). Reduction of water supply significantly increased the soluble solid content in both locations, whereas both nitrogen and water stress led to a general decrease in fruit weight and total yield. Despite so, several accessions exhibited better performances than the control when cultivated under stress. Among the accessions evaluated, hybrids were promising in terms of yield performance, while overall landraces and heirlooms exhibited a better quality. This suggests the possibility of exploiting both the variation within ancient varieties and the heterosis for yield of hybrids to select and breed new varieties with better adaptation to organic farming conditions, both under optimal and suboptimal conditions. The results shed light on the strategies to develop novel varieties for organic farming, giving hints into the management of inputs to adopt for a more sustainable tomato cultivation.This work has been funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement no. 774244 (Breeding for resilient, efficient and sustainable organic vegetable production; BRESOV).Tripodi, P.; Figás-Moreno, MDR.; Leteo, F.; Soler Aleixandre, S.; Díez Niclós, MJTDJ.; Campanelli, G.; Cardi, T.... (2022). Genotypic and environmental effects on morpho-physiological and agronomic performances of a tomato diversity panel in relation to nitrogen and water stress under organic farming. Frontiers in Plant Science. 13:1-19. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2022.9365961191

Comparison between First- and Second-Generation Cryoballoon for Paroxysmal Atrial Fibrillation Ablation

Introduction. Cryoballoon (CB) ablation has emerged as a novel treatment for pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) for patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (PAF). The second-generation Arctic Front Advance (ADV) was redesigned with technical modifications aiming at procedural and outcome improvements. We aimed to compare the efficacy of the two different technologies over a long-term follow-up. Methods. A total of 120 patients with PAF were enrolled. Sixty patients underwent PVI using the first-generation CB and 60 patients with the ADV catheter. All patients were evaluated over a follow-up period of 2 years. Results. There were no significant differences between the two groups of patients. Procedures performed with the first-generation CB showed longer fluoroscopy time (36.3±16.8 versus 14.2±13.5 min, resp.; p=0.00016) and longer procedure times as well (153.1±32 versus 102±24.8 min, resp.; p=0.019). The overall long-term success was significantly different between the two groups (68.3 versus 86.7%, resp.; p=0.017). No differences were found in the lesion areas of left and right PV between the two groups (resp., p=0.61 and 0.57). There were no significant differences in procedural-related complications. Conclusion. The ADV catheter compared to the first-generation balloon allows obtaining a significantly higher success rate after a single PVI procedure during the long-term follow-up. Fluoroscopy and procedural times were significantly shortened using the ADV catheter

A Comparative Study of the X-Ray Afterglow Properties of Optically Bright and Dark Gamma-Ray Bursts

We have examined the complete set of X-ray afterglow observations of dark and optically bright gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) performed by BeppoSAX through 2001 February. X-ray afterglows are detected in ~90% of the cases. We do not find significant differences in the X-ray spectral shape, in particular no increased X-ray absorption in GRBs without optical transient (dark GRBs) compared to GRBs with optical transient (OTGRBs). Rather, we find that the 1.6-10 keV flux of OTGRBs is on average about 5 times larger than that of the dark GRBs. A Kolmogorov-Smirnov test shows that this difference is significant at 99.8% probability. Under the assumption that dark and OTGRBs have similar spectra, this could suggest that the first are uncaught in the optical band because they are just faint sources. In order to test this hypothesis, we have determined the optical-to-X-ray flux ratios of the sample. OTGRBs show a remarkably narrow distribution of flux ratios, which corresponds to an average optical-to-X-ray spectral index = 0.794 ? 0.054. We find that, while 75% of dark GRBs have flux ratio upper limits still consistent with those of OT GRBs, the remaining 25% are 4-10 times weaker in optical than in X-rays. The significance of this result is ?2.6 ?. If this subpopulation of dark GRBs were constituted by objects assimilable to OTGRBs, they should have shown optical fluxes higher than upper limits actually found. We discuss the possible causes of their behavior, including a possible occurrence in high-density clouds or origin at very high redshift and a connection with ancient, Population III stars