European technology platform on industrial safety (ETPIS), a vision to gain safety for a sustainable industry growth

International audienceThe paper that will be presented is an extract of the Strategic Research Agenda of the European Technology Platform Industrial Safety (ETPIS). It is a result of a collective work made by researchers from organisations that consider industrial safety as a strategic issue for the sustainable growth of the European Industry. The list of the main organisations involved in the ETPIS, that participate in the preparation and endorse this text is available at www.industrialsafety-tp.org. The paper will describe the rationale, the scope and the organisation of the initiative. It will insist on the structuration and the organisation of a Strategic Research Agenda prepared by more than 150 organisations concerned by industrial safety. In particular, the analysis of the broader situation, regarding industry and safety interactions and issues, led the ETPIS members to propose a RTD strategy that focuses on 6 major challenges. These have been identified wherever there is a clear need to develop basic knowledge in safety sciences. - Developing new risk assessment and risk management methods addressing the complexity of industrial systems - Improving methods and technologies to reduce risks at work and to prevent major accidents - Understanding the impact of human and organisational factors in risk control - Improving knowledge transfer to industry and in particular SMEs, education and training activities - Understanding emergent risks and cross-cutting risk & safety issues - Structural safety. Some industrial stakes are not concerning only one industrial sector, and should also take the knowledge and expertise from several Focus Group. To enable the mobilisation of the critical mass and attract the interested sectors, the TP has decided to create the concept of research HUB.A research HUB is a group of interest aiming at exchanging knowledge and launching projects after having defined a specific research agenda. The research HUB will take benefice from the Focus Groups and mobilise the interested industries. The first research HUB of the TP on Industrial Safety is the NANO-SAFETY HUB addressing the safety issue of nano-technologies and nano-materials

Tone-in-noise detection deficits in elderly patients with clinically normal hearing

One of the most common complaints among the elderly is the inability to understand speech in noisy environments. In many cases, these deficits are due to age-related hearing loss; however, some of the elderly that have difficulty hearing in noise have clinically normal pure-tone thresholds. While speech in noise testing is informative, it fails to identify specific frequencies responsible for the speech processing deficit. Auditory neuropathy patients and animal models of hidden hearing loss suggest that tone-in-noise thresholds may provide frequency specific information for those patients who express difficulty, but have normal thresholds in quiet. Therefore, we aimed to determine if tone-in-noise thresholds could be a useful measure in detecting age-related hearing deficits, despite having normal audiometric thresholds

Salicylate toxicity model of tinnitus

Salicylate, the active component of the common drug aspirin, has mild analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory effects at moderate doses. At higher doses, however, salicylate temporarily induces moderate hearing loss and the perception of a high-pitch ringing in humans and animals. This phantom perception of sound known as tinnitus is qualitatively similar to the persistent subjective tinnitus induced by high-level noise exposure, ototoxic drugs, or aging, which affects ∼14% of the general population. For over a quarter century, auditory scientists have used the salicylate toxicity model to investigate candidate biochemical and neurophysiological mechanisms underlying phantom sound perception. In this review, we summarize some of the intriguing biochemical and physiological effects associated with salicylate-induced tinnitus, some of which occur in the periphery and others in the central nervous system. The relevance and general utility of the salicylate toxicity model in understanding phantom sound perception in general are discussed

Characteristics of somatic tinnitus patients with and without hyperacusis

Objective: Determine if somatic tinnitus patients with hyperacusis have different characteristics from those without hyperacusis. Patients and methods: 172 somatic tinnitus patients with (n = 82) and without (n = 90) hyperacusis referred to the Tinnitus Unit of Sapienza University of Rome between June 2012 and June 2016 were compared for demographic characteristics, tinnitus features, self-administered questionnaire scores, nature of somatic modulation and history. Results: Compared to those without hyperacusis, patients with somatic tinnitus and hyperacusis: (a) were older (43.38 vs 39.12 years, p = 0.05), (b) were more likely to have bilateral tinnitus (67.08% vs 55.56%, p = 0.04), (c) had a higher prevalence of somatic modulation of tinnitus (53.65% vs 36.66%, p = 0.02) and (d) scored significantly worse on tinnitus annoyance (39.34 vs 22.81, p<0.001) and subjective hearing level (8.04 vs 1.83, p<0.001). Conclusion: Our study shows significantly higher tinnitus modulation and worse self-rating of tinnitus and hearing ability in somatic tinnitus patients with hyperacusis versus somatic tinnitus patients without hyperacusis. These differences could prove useful in developing a better understanding of the pathophysiology and establishing a course of treatment for these two groups of patients

Gli effetti del salicilato sulla funzione uditiva: neurotossicità ed acufene

Il salicilato, precursore dell’aspirina, è un farmaco antipiretico, analgesico ed anti-in ammatorio molto diffuso nella pratica clinica. Gli effetti del salicilato sulla funzione uditiva sono noti ed includono, quando somministrato ad alti dosaggi, acufene ed ipoacusia. In periferia, la somministrazione acuta di salicilato induce una riduzione d’ampiezza dei prodotti di distorsione delle otoemissioni acustiche (DPOAE) e del potenziale d’azione composto (CAP), prevalentemente per le basse (<10 kHz) e per le alte (>20 kHz) frequenze; è interessante come questa alterazione corrisponda alla tonalità dell’acufene indotto sperimentalmente nell’animale, che varia tra i 12 e i 16 kHz. La somministrazione cronica induce invece un aumento transitorio dell’ampiezza dei DPOAE ed una up-regulation dell’mRNA e dell’espressione proteica della prestina. In vitro la tossicità del sodio salicilato si evidenzia prevalentemente a livello dei neuroni del ganglio spirale inducendo, a dispetto delle ben note proprietà antiossidanti, un rilascio paradosso di radicale superossido che avvia la catena apoptotica. A livello centrale, il salicilato ha la capacità di alterare la trasmissione GABA e serotonino-mediata inducendo iperattività in speci che popolazioni neuronali. Molto interessanti sono gli effetti a livello della corteccia uditiva e dell’amigdala laterale dove è stata documentata, in seguito alla somministrazione sperimentale di salicilato, una variazione delle frequenze caratteristiche neuronali con una conseguente alterazione della tonotopia siologica, specialmente per le frequenze centrali (10-20 kHz). Nell’uomo gli effetti ototossici del salicilato, oltre ad ipoacusia transitoria ed acufene, includono una diminuita discriminazione verbale e dif coltà nell’integrazione temporale

Prevalence, risk factors and clinical correlates of COPD in a rural setting in Tanzania

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) causes substantial burden of disease in developed countries, but there are limited data from Africa. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of COPD in Tanzania and identify the risk factors associated with it. This was a cross-sectional descriptive survey involving adults aged 35 years. We collected data on symptoms and risk factors using the Burden of Obstructive Lung Diseases questionnaire. Spirometry was performed and COPD diagnosed based on post-bronchodilator forced expiratory volume in 1 s/forced vital capacity <70%. We also measured indoor and outdoor carbon monoxide (CO) levels. A total of 869 participants (49.1% females) completed the questionnaires. Of these, 57.1% completed post-bronchodilator spirometry. Of the 25.2% ever-smokers, only 5.4% were current smokers. COPD prevalence was estimated at 17.5% (21.7% in males and 12.9% in females). COPD was associated with a history of cough, phlegm production and wheezing. 51.7% of COPD patients reported cough and 85% had mild to moderate airway limitation. Females had a higher rate of exacerbation. Pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) was reported in 10% of patients. Only 1.7% of patients who were diagnosed as COPD had ever received any medication, with only one female COPD patient having received an inhaler. 99.5% of the population used biomass fuels for cooking. The majority of households had CO levels up to 20 ppm. The prevalence of COPD in Tanzania is high, with a peak at a relatively young age and a preponderance in males. A history of TB, cigarette smoking and male sex are important risk factors. Indoor air pollution coupled with use of biomass fuel for cooking and heating may be an important risk factor for developing COPD in rural Tanzania. However, these factors need to be studied further

Inefficient Involvement of Insula in Sensorineural Hearing Loss

The insular cortex plays an important role in multimodal sensory processing, audio-visual integration and emotion; however, little is known about how the insula is affected by auditory deprivation due to sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). To address this issue, we used structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine if the neural activity within the insula and its interregional functional connectivity (FC) was disrupted by SNHL and if these alterations were correlated clinical measures of emotion and cognition. Thirty-five SNHL subjects and 54 Controls enrolled in our study underwent auditory evaluation, neuropsychological assessments, functional and structure MRI, respectively. Twenty five patients and 20 Controls underwent arterial spin labeling scanning. FC of six insula subdivisions were assessed and the FC results were compared to the neuropsychological tests. Interregional connections were also compared among insula-associated networks, including salience network (SN), default mode network (DMN), and central executive network (CEN). Compared to Controls, SNHL subjects demonstrated hyperperfusion in the insula and significantly decreased FC between some insula subdivisions and other brain regions, including thalamus, putamen, precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, mid-cingulate cortex, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, rolandic operculum. Anxiety, depression and cognitive impairments were correlated with FC values. Abnormal interactions among SN, DMN, and CEN were observed in SNHL group. Our result provides support for the “inefficient high-order control” theory of the insula in which the auditory deprivation caused by SNHL contributes to impaired sensory integration and central deficits in emotional and cognitive processing