Love and limblessness: male heterosexuality, disability, and the Great War

Tens of thousands of British men were permanently wounded as a result of war service. Their return home sparked debates about the wounded male body, female accountability for war-injuries, and the ideology, performance, and practice of masculinity. Other historians have shown how ‘broken heroes’ from the First World War were constituted into ‘men’ in four contexts: physical appearance, occupation, sport, and Britishness. This article explores a fifth dimension: sexuality. It explores debates about the need for war-disabled men to establish stable marital relationships and investigates some attempts to encourage this, including encouraging women to take the initiative in proposing marriage and the establishment of The League for the Marrying of Broken Heroes

Community engagement: The ‘last mile’ challenge for European research e-infrastructures

Europe is building its Open Science Cloud; a set of robust and interoperable e-infrastructures with the capacity to provide data and computational solutions through cloud-based services. The development and sustainable operation of such e-infrastructures are at the forefront of European funding priorities. The research community, however, is still reluctant to engage at the scale required to signal a Europe-wide change in the mode of operation of scientific practices. The striking differences in uptake rates between researchers from different scientific domains indicate that communities do not equally share the benefits of the above European investments. We highlight the need to support research communities in organically engaging with the European Open Science Cloud through the development of trustworthy and interoperable Virtual Research Environments. These domain-specific solutions can support communities in gradually bridging technical and socio-cultural gaps between traditional and open digital science practice, better diffusing the benefits of European e-infrastructures

Increased frequency of rheumatoid arthritis and allergic rhinitis among pesticide sprayers and associations with pesticide use

Objective: The aim of this study was to identify diseases linked with the pesticide sprayer occupation and explore possible associations with exposure history data. Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among pesticide sprayers (n = 80) and the general population (n = 90) in Thessaly (Greece). Medical history, demographic characteristics and detailed exposure history were recorded by conducting personal interviews. Lifetime exposure indicators were calculated for several pesticide chemical subclasses. Moreover, organophosphate metabolite levels were quantified in urine samples of all participants by using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Multinomial analysis was used to determine associations between occupational pesticide exposure and diseases or disorders. Results: In the pesticide sprayers group, significantly higher frequencies for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and allergic rhinitis were observed compared with the control group (p = 0.002 and p = 0.024 respectively). Within the pesticide sprayers group, high lifetime pesticide exposure was associated with increased risk for reporting RA (OR: 43.07 95% CI: 3.09-600.67) and allergic rhinitis (OR: 9.72 95% CI: 2.31-40.89), compared with low pesticide exposure. Exposure to organophsphate, guanidine and quinone pesticides were associated with RA while organophosphates, pyrethroids and paraquat were associated with allergic rhinitis. Despite the higher levels of certain pesticide metabolites observed among participants with rheumatoid arthritis, the differences were not statistically significant. One metabolite (diethylthiophosphate) was found to be significantly increased in allergic rhinitis cases (p = 0.037). Conclusions: The results from the current study suggest a possible association of occupational pesticide exposure with RA and allergic rhinitis that should be further investigated. © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Analysis of 20 year data for the assessment of dietary exposure to chemical contaminants in the region of Thessaly, Greece

Food safety is a key issue for the modern consumer who is often exposed through diet to a variety of hazardous agents. The presence of chemical contaminants in food is an important risk factor with potential serious consequences in consumer's health. Therefore, assessing the extend of consumer's exposure to chemical contaminants is an important parameter in the context of food hazard analysis. Dietary exposure is determined by correlating the eating habits of a population group with the levels of contaminants in food. The purpose of this study was to assess the dietary exposure of the general population to a variety of chemical contaminants by combining questionnaire-based food consumption data with concentration of certain chemicals in foodstuffs. In a sample of 403 people living in Thessaly, their nutritional habits were recorded using the Nutrition Frequency Questionnaire, through a telephone interview. Regarding the data collection on the residues of various chemical pollutants (toxic metals, mycotoxins, biotoxins, dioxins, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides, veterinary drugs) in foodstuffs of the Greek market, studies and reports from 2000 to 2020 were used. The combination of the daily consumption of food and beverages, with their contamination concentrations in chemical pollutants, led to the assessment of the dietary intake of chemical pollutants. The analysis of the results showed that the examined sample maintains several elements of the Mediterranean diet, such as the daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products. Chemical contaminants in food produced/marketed in Greece were generally below the acceptable limits, while cereals, fish, fruit, vegetables and alcohol seem to contribute mostly to the human chemical exposure. Gender and age affected the overall dietary intake of pollutants, with women presenting the highest overall nutritional exposure compared to men in all categories of pollutants. Elderly individuals (ages +65) showed a higher, in general, intake of the contaminants evaluated. This study reveals the necessity for monitoring the levels of various chemical contaminants in all food groups, in order to have a valid base of assessing the risk of human exposure. © 2022 Elsevier Lt

Target analysis of volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath for lung cancer discrimination from other pulmonary diseases and healthy persons

The aim of the present study was to investigate the ability of breath analysis to distinguish lung cancer (LC) patients from patients with other respiratory diseases and healthy people. The population sample consisted of 51 patients with confirmed LC, 38 patients with pathological computed tomography (CT) findings not diagnosed with LC, and 53 healthy controls. The concentrations of 19 volatile organic compounds (VOCs) were quantified in the exhaled breath of study participants by solid phase microextraction (SPME) of the VOCs and subsequent gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Kruskal–Wallis and Mann–Whitney tests were used to identify significant differences between subgroups. Machine learning methods were used to determine the discriminant power of the method. Several compounds were found to differ significantly between LC patients and healthy controls. Strong associations were identified for 2-propanol, 1-propanol, toluene, ethylbenzene, and styrene (p-values < 0.001–0.006). These associations remained significant when ambient air concentrations were subtracted from breath concentrations. VOC levels were found to be affected by ambient air concentrations and a few by smoking status. The random forest machine learning algorithm achieved a correct classification of patients of 88.5% (area under the curve—AUC 0.94). However, none of the methods used achieved adequate discrimination between LC patients and patients with abnormal computed tomography (CT) findings. Biomarker sets, consisting mainly of the exogenous monoaromatic compounds and 1-and 2-propanol, adequately discriminated LC patients from healthy controls. The breath concentrations of these compounds may reflect the alterations in patient’s physiological and biochemical status and perhaps can be used as probes for the investigation of these statuses or normalization of patient-related factors in breath analysis. © 2020 by the authors

MR imaging features and tumor biomarkers of screen-detected and non-screen detected breast cancers: preliminary results of a comparative study

Purpose: To investigate differences in clinical features, MRI findings and tumor biomarker characteristics in screen-detected (SCD) and non-screendetected (NSCD) cancers. Material and methods: A total of 62 women (mean age, 48.4 years; range, 33–68 years) with biopsy confirmed breast cancer who underwent preoperative breast MRI were retrospectively evaluated by two expert radiologists. The women were divided into two groups according to the mode of cancer detection (Group A: screen- detected, Group B: non-screen/symptomatic cancer) and clinical, histopathological, MRI characteristics and biomarker features in each group were evaluated. Results: NSCD tumors had significantly greater size (3.5 cm vs. 2.1 cm) and Ki-67 expression (68.4% vs. 41.7%) in comparison to SCD cancers. NSCD cancers were less likely to have strongly positive progesterone receptors (Pr) and more likely to have Ki-67 &gt; 15% or positive nodal status (47.4% vs. 8.3%). Increased breast density (ACR C and D: 78.9% vs. 50%ACR A and B) and intense background parenchymal enhancement (BPE, moderate/marked: 42.1% vs. 8.3% minimal/mild) were significantly more frequent in NSCD cases. Conclusion: NSCD cancers had higher prevalence of poor prognostic characteristics in comparison to SCD tumors, including larger tumor size, higher Ki-67 index, and positive nodes. Increased fibroglandular tissue and intense BPE were both strongly associated with NSCD cancers, supporting their use as potential MR biomarkers in breast cancer risk models. © 2018 Elsevier Inc

Spatial and temporal distribution of p,p′-DDE (1‑dichloro‑2,2‑bis (p‑chlorophenyl) ethylene) blood levels across the globe. A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Although p,p′‑DDT (1,1,1‑trichloro-2,2‑bis (p‑chlorophenyl)‑ethane) has been banned for decades in most countries, its major metabolite p,p′-DDE (1‑dichloro‑2,2‑bis (p‑chlorophenyl) ethylene) is still detected in the vast majority of human blood samples. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to quantitatively estimate the geographical distribution of DDE blood levels and record time-trends for specific countries and continents, exploiting available data from the scientific literature. Methods: A literature search was performed in SCOPUS and PUBMED databases. Studies were screened at 2 levels applying different sets of inclusion/exclusion criteria. Blood levels of DDE along with other variables of interest were extracted, and a meta-analysis of random effects was conducted, by using the package metafor within the statistical programming language R. Results were expressed as pooled geometric means (GM [95% confidence intervals, CIs]). Results: A total of 418 papers were included in the quantitative synthesis that contained data for 854 population subgroups, and analyzed a total of 195,595 samples. Overall global DDE concentrations dropped from 5207 (95% CI: 3616–7499) ng/g lipids during 1951–1969 to 207 (95% CI: 159–269) ng/g lipids for studies reporting sampling after 2000. Analyses for studies published from 2001 and onward revealed geographical differences regarding DDE burden. Discussion: The significant decline in DDE blood levels after its restriction is demonstrated in our results. Differences in decrease trends were observed in different parts of the globe, which can be explained by deferred implementation of environmental policies. In some countries DDE concentrations remain high, and systematic biomonitoring is proposed. © 2019 Elsevier B.V