Occupational exposure to saw dust: a case study

ABSTRACT: Occupational exposure to saw dust is associated with the development of oncological diseases, namely nasopharyngeal cancers (about 44% are from nasal cavity and paranasal sinus cancers), in the wood and furniture industries, about 55.000, according to the (Associação das Indústrias de Madeira e Mobiliário de Portugal) AIMMP. It should be noted that since 1995 these dusts have been classified as carcinogenic, by The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). The main objective of this study is to evaluate the exposure to saw dust, quantifying its concentration, comparing with values stipulated by existing legislation and standardization. In order to reach the objectives described above, total dust sampling was performed following the NIOSH0500 methodology, in several jobs, in three different carpentries. From the samplings performed, an average value of saw dust concentration was obtained in each workstation. After analyzing the values obtained in the measurements, performed in the real work context, it was verified there was legal non-compliance in the Garlopa workstation and values of the order of magnitude of the NP 1796 exposure limit values ELV, in the Manual Polishing workstation, in some of the Carpentry Workshops. However, if we consider the Scientific Committee on Occupational Exposure Limit (SCOEL) ELV we can state that only the Trimmer complies with the established ELV. Thus, corrective and/or preventive measures should be implemented by employers and preventive measures should be receptive by workers by implementing/complying to ensure the health and well-being of all, will be proposed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Adenosine A1-A2A receptor-receptor interaction: contribution to guanosine-mediated effects

Guanosine, a guanine-based purine nucleoside, has been described as a neuromodulator that exerts neuroprotective effects in animal and cellular ischemia models. However, guanosine's exact mechanism of action and molecular targets have not yet been identified. Here, we aimed to elucidate a role of adenosine receptors (ARs) in mediating guanosine effects. We investigated the neuroprotective effects of guanosine in hippocampal slices from A2AR-deficient mice (A2AR-/-) subjected to oxygen/glucose deprivation (OGD). Next, we assessed guanosine binding at ARs taking advantage of a fluorescent-selective A2AR antagonist (MRS7396) which could engage in a bioluminescence resonance energy transfer (BRET) process with NanoLuc-tagged A2AR. Next, we evaluated functional AR activation by determining cAMP and calcium accumulation. Finally, we assessed the impact of A1R and A2AR co-expression in guanosine-mediated impedance responses in living cells. Guanosine prevented the reduction of cellular viability and increased reactive oxygen species generation induced by OGD in hippocampal slices from wild-type, but not from A2AR-/- mice. Notably, while guanosine was not able to modify MRS7396 binding to A2AR-expressing cells, a partial blockade was observed in cells co-expressing A1R and A2AR. The relevance of the A1R and A2AR interaction in guanosine effects was further substantiated by means of functional assays (i.e., cAMP and calcium determinations), since guanosine only blocked A2AR agonist-mediated effects in doubly expressing A1R and A2AR cells. Interestingly, while guanosine did not affect A1R/A2AR heteromer formation, it reduced A2AR agonist-mediated cell impedance responses. Our results indicate that guanosine-induced effects may require both A1R and A2AR co-expression, thus identifying a molecular substrate that may allow fine tuning of guanosine-mediated responses

Modesty, liberty, equality: Negotiations of gendered principles of piety among Muslim women who cover

This article draws on a qualitative research study with Muslim women who cover to investigate how they represent the Islamic virtue of modesty. The article details findings that Muslim women elaborate modesty as an autonomous labour of ethical self-regulation and a relational virtue that is concerned with devotion to family and the de-sexualisation of day-to-day social interactions. It argues from analysis of representational content and dynamics that these accounts of modesty involve processes of affirming as well as resisting the liberal norms of equality, sexuality and agency that define Muslim veiling in the eyes of others

Social representations and the politics of participation

Recent work has called for the integration of different perspectives into the field of political psychology (Haste, 2012). This chapter suggests that one possible direction that such efforts can take is studying the role that social representations theory (SRT) can play in understanding political participation and social change. Social representations are systems of common-sense knowledge and social practice; they provide the lens through which to view and create social and political realities, mediate people's relations with these sociopolitical worlds and defend cultural and political identities. Social representations are therefore key for conceptualising participation as the activity that locates individuals and social groups in their sociopolitical world. Political participation is generally seen as conditional to membership of sociopolitical groups and therefore is often linked to citizenship. To be a citizen of a society or a member of any social group one has to participate as such. Often political participation is defined as the ability to communicate one's views to the political elite or to the political establishment (Uhlaner, 2001), or simply explicit involvement in politics and electoral processes (Milbrath, 1965). However, following scholars on ideology (Eagleton, 1991; Thompson, 1990) and social knowledge (Jovchelovitch, 2007), we extend our understanding of political participation to all social relations and also develop a more agentic model where individuals and groups construct, develop and resist their own views, ideas and beliefs. We thus adopt a broader approach to participation in comparison to other political-psychological approaches, such as personality approaches (e.g. Mondak and Halperin, 2008) and cognitive approaches or, more recently, neuropsychological approaches (Hatemi and McDermott, 2012). We move away from a focus on the individual's political behaviour and its antecedents and outline an approach that focuses on the interaction between psychological and political phenomena (Deutsch and Kinnvall, 2002) through examining the politics of social knowledge

Introduction: Examined Live – An Epistemological Exchange Between Philosophy and Cultural Psychology on Reflection

Besides the general agreement about the human capability of reflection, there is a large area of disagreement and debate about the nature and value of “reflective scrutiny” and the role of “second-order states” in everyday life. This problem has been discussed in a vast and heterogeneous literature about topics such as epistemic injustice, epistemic norms, agency, understanding, meta-cognition etc. However, there is not yet any extensive and interdisciplinary work, specifically focused on the topic of the epistemic value of reflection. This volume is one of the first attempts aimed at providing an innovative contribution, an exchange between philosophy, epistemology and psychology about the place and value of reflection in everyday life. Our goal in the next sections is not to offer an exhaustive overview of recent work on epistemic reflection, nor to mimic all of the contributions made by the chapters in this volume. We will try to highlight some topics that have motivated a new resumption of this field and, with that, drawing on chapters from this volume where relevant. Two elements defined the scope and content of this volume, on the one hand, the crucial contribution of Ernest Sosa, whose works provide original and thought-provoking contributions to contemporary epistemology in setting a new direction for old dilemmas about the nature and value of knowledge, giving a central place to reflection. On the other hand, the recent developments of cultural psychology, in the version of the “Aalborg approach”, reconsider the object and scope of psychological sciences, stressing that “[h]uman conduct is purposeful”

Thinking through time: From collective memories to collective futures

In this chapter I look at the links between collective memory and the imagination of collective futures. Drawing on works on imagination and autobiographical memory, I first discuss the role of past experiences in imagining the future. I then explore the consequences of such a perspective for collective memories and collective futures, which will lead me to argue that the former provides the basis for the latter. Three case studies are presented, each illustrating a different type of relation between collective memory and collective imagination: 1) collective memory as a frame of reference to imagine the future; 2) collective memory as a source of experiences and examples to imagine what is likely, possible or desirable; and 3) collective memory as generalisable experience from which representations of the world – Personal World Philosophies – are constructed and in turn used to imagine the collective future. This will lead me to the conclusion that representations of the world are characterised by “temporal heteroglossia”, the simultaneous presence of multiple periods of time, and that they mediate the relation between collective memory and collective imagination, allowing us to “think through time”

Ambiguity and the dialogical self: In search for a dialogical psychology.

It is intuitively felt that ambiguity plays a crucial role in human beings’ everyday life and in psychologists’ theoretical and applied work. However, ambiguity remains essentially non-problematised in psychological science since its foundation. This article analyses positivist and social constructionist perspectives on ambiguity in the context of their epistemological and ontological fundamental assumptions. The relational thesis of social constructionism is further analysed and it is argued that it constitutes a “weak thesis” concerning the relational constitution of human beings. In the second part, a dialogical alternative is elaborated. In this perspective, ambiguity is placed in the context of relationship and both are brought to an ontological ground. Therefore, it is argued, ambiguity is a fundamental property of human experience and plays a fundamental role in the consti­ tution of (inter)subjective processes. The impact of this thesis on dialogical perspective on self is elaborated