Investigating staff’s attitudes and willingness to support men and women with mild intellectual disabilities on matters relating to their sexuality

Background: This study explored residential support staff’s attitudes towards sexuality in men and women with an intellectual disability (ID), and whether their attitudes were linked to a willingness to support service users with sexual matters. Method: The Attitudes to Sexuality Questionnaire - Individuals with an Intellectual Disability was used to gather data on 34 support staff’s attitudes. This was supplemented with additional questions on risk issues developed by the author. A semi-structured interview examined staff’s experiences of supporting sexual matters. Result: Liberal attitudes were held, no statistically significant differences were found on attitudes to men and women. Nonetheless, trends were found with more liberal views expressed about men than women on sexual rights and non-reproductive sexual behaviour. Most staff were willing to support the sexuality of service users. A positive association was found between staff’s attitudes and their willingness to support sexuality. Willingness was not associated with feelings of confidence or comfort in dealing with sexual matters. Conclusions: Sexuality is an integral aspect of quality of life. Understanding staff’s values and attitudes towards the sexuality of people with ID is important, as this population of people rely on staff for support on this sensitive topic. Assisting the sexuality of people with ID is a complex and emotive subject worthy of further investigation.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Evaluation of toxic chemical parameters and ecotoxicity levels in bottled mineral waters

Heavy metals, phthalates, characterizing elements, CO2 concentrations and pH and hardness levels were measured in forty samples of bottled mineral waters. In some samples arsenic, manganese, mercury and selenium were present in higher concentrations than permitted by Italian law. No significant release of phthalates from containers in PET was observed. In the same samples, toxicity tests with Daphnia magna were carried out. Toxicity levels, expressed as % of immobile organisms, ranged from 0 to 100%; generally the highest toxicity values were found in the hardwaters

Spatial distribution of fungal microflora in the sediment of a brackish lake (Lake Alimini Grande, Italy) used for fish production and bathing

A study of the distribution of fungal microflora was conducted on the sediment of Lake Alimini Grande in order to contrib- ute to the evaluation of the ecosystem characteristics that can effect the process of decomposition. The isolation and identification of fungal species and ergosterol analysis were performed on sediment samples taken from 33 monitorin stations in autumn and winter .Altogether, 24 strains belong- ing to 8 genera were isolated. Trichoderma spp (41.6%) and Aspergillus spp (20.8%) were the dominant genera: in par- ticular, Trichoderma was present near the Traugnano marsh, whereas Aspergillus was isolated in the area of connection to the sea

Case Study: LifeWatch Italy Phytoplankton VRE

LifeWatch Italy, the Italian node of LifeWatch ERIC, has promoted and stimulated the debate on the use of semantics in biodiversity data management. Actually, biodiversity and ecosystems data are very heterogeneous and need to be better managed to improve the actual scientific knowledge extracted, as well as to address the urgent societal challenges concerning environmental issues. LifeWatch Italy has realized the Phytoplankton Virtual Research Environment (hereafter Phytoplankton VRE), a collaborative working environment supporting researchers to address basic and applied studies on phytoplankton ecology. The Phytoplankton VRE provides the IT infrastructure to enable researchers to obtain, share and analyse phytoplankton data at a level of resolution from individual cells to whole assemblages. A semantic approach has been used to address data harmonisation, integration and discovery: an interdisciplinary team has developed a thesaurus on phytoplankton functional traits and linked its concepts to other existing conceptual schemas related to the specific domain

Mytilus galloprovincialis as a Bioindicator of Microbiological Pollution of Coastal Waters: A Study Conducted in the Salento Peninsula (Italy)

One of the problems dealing with traditional water-monitoring methods is the need to collect water samples at the precise moment that faecal contamination is actually present; for this reason, the use of Mytilus galloprovincialis as an indicator of previously high bacteria concentrations in coastal seawaters was examined. These molluscs are able to integrate the fluctuations in pollutants, they are good representatives of the sampling area because they are sedentary, and they offer the advantage of being resistant to pollution. The research was conducted from September 2001 to October 2002, twice a month, in two coastal areas of Salento (Apulia, Italy), near the discharge channels. We analysed both natural and cultivated mussels. The latter were placed in cages, after checking their starting level of microbiological pollution. Bacteriological analyses were conducted simultaneously on mussels and their ambient water to detect total coliforms, faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci, and Escherichia coli. The abundance of bacteria investigated was always higher within mussels than in the surrounding water where levels were sometimes undetectable. These results confirm the ability of mussels to concentrate and to retain bacteria into their tissues (recorders of present or even past microbiological pollution). Therefore, mussels can enable to detect a bacterial contamination that might be missed by standard water-monitoring methods, and we suggest they be included in routine microbiological investigations of coastal seawaters even in areas where these species aren’t widely distributed

Mytilus galloprovincialis as a bioindicator of microbiological pollution of coastal waters: A study conducted in the Salento Peninsula (Italy)

One of the problems dealing with traditional water-monitoring methods is the need to collect water samples at the precise moment that faecal contamination is actually present; for this reason, the use of Mytilus galloprovincialis as an indicator of previously high bacteria concentrations in coastal seawaters was examined. These molluscs are able to integrate the fluctuations in pollutants, they are good representatives of the sampling area because they are sedentary, and they offer the advantage of being resistant to pollution. The research was conducted from September 2001 to October 2002, twice a month, in two coastal areas of Salento (Apulia, Italy), near the discharge channels. We analysed both natural and cultivated mussels. The latter were placed in cages, after checking their starting level of microbiological pollution. Bacteriological analyses were conducted simultaneously on mussels and their ambient water to detect total coliforms, faecal coliforms, faecal streptococci, and Escherichia coli. The abundance of bacteria investigated was always higher within mussels than in the surrounding water where levels were sometimes undetectable. These results confirm the ability of mussels to concentrate and to retain bacteria into their tissues (recorders of present or even past microbiological pollution). Therefore, mussels can enable to detect a bacterial contamination that might be missed by standard water-monitoring methods, and we suggest they be included in routine microbiological investigations of coastal seawaters even in areas where these species aren't widely distributed

Viral indicators of Hygienic–Sanitary Quality: Detection of somatic Coliphages in the Souther Adriatic Sea.

One of the objectives of microbiological water quality studies is to identify and minimise public health risks from exposure to bathing waters. Water-related diseases, particularly those caused by viral pathogens, are still of major concern. Gastrointestinal symptoms experienced by bathers following immersion in surface waters are mainly due to viral, rather than bacterial, infection. However, there does not appear to be a correlation between the number of pathogenic viruses present in the water matrices and Escherichia coli, the parameter most frequently used to establish microbial water quality. This study describes the spatial and temporal distribution of somatic coliphages compared with conventional bacterial indicators (E. coli and Enterococci) in the waters off San Cataldo (South Adriatic Sea, Lecce—Italy), a beach resort near the city of Lecce subject to high anthropogenic impact. Our results indicate that somatic coliphages are less sensitive to environmental factors (temperature and dilution) than the classical indicators of faecal contamination. These findings suggest that somatic coliphages could be used as potential indicators for evaluating the quality of coastal seawaters and treated wastewaters discharged into the sea, in order to provide a more accurate analysis of the hygienic-sanitary quality of this water matrix

Dynamics of microbial autochthon populations and human impact on the harbour of Otranto (Lecce, Italy)

The purpose of our investigation was to assess the water quality around the harbour of Otranto (Lecce, Italy) through an approach that integrates the determination of the classic parameters within traditional microbiological monitoring (the faecal contamination indexes—total coliforms, faecal coliforms, and faecal streptococcus) with the study of autochthon microbiological populations dynamics (hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria and bioluminescent bacteria). The analysis of our data shows that the faecal contamination indexes have values below the limits fixed by the 76/160/EEC directive for the bathing waters, marking the good microbiological quality of these waters. The density of the hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria has been shown to be much higher in the areas designated for the ships' berthing and for the transit of the crafts; therefore, this parameter has shown itself to be useful in the assessment of hydrocarbon contamination in harbour areas. The bioluminescent component of the epibacteria community was set as a marker for the biological quality of the seawater: the relative abundance of the bioluminescent bacteria in the impacted sites is below 5%

Rotavirus detection in environmental water samples by tangential flow ultrafiltration and RT-nested PCR

Environmental monitoring was conducted in Otranto (Italy), from January 2006 to April 2007, to monitor the circulation of rotaviruses in various water matrices (raw and treated sewage, surface waters and seawater) and to identify any correlation with the traditional bacteriological indices (faecal coliforms). The viruses were detected using tangential flow ultrafiltration and reverse transcriptase-nested polymerase chain reaction, whilst detection of feaecal coliform was performed according to standard methods. The results showed widespread viral contamination, particularly in spring, of the matrices tested, with the exception of seawater, which at all times tested negative for the presence of rotaviruses. The typing of the rotavirus strains identified the circulation in the studied area of only two genotypes: G1 (22%) and G2 (78%). The bacterial recoveries confirmed the presence of faecal pollution indicators in all examined samples, sometimes with high values. A very weak correlation was found between the presence of faecal coliforms and the circulation of rotaviruses in the environment. The presence of rotaviruses in the environmental water samples may constitute a potential health risk for the local population