1,720,956 research outputs found
Microinquinanti organici e inorganici nelle acque superficiali e nei sedimenti della provincia di Rieti. Trend storico (1978 -2003) e valutazioni igienico-sanitarie.
No full textExposure to organic solvents among handicraft car painters: A pilot study in Italy
No full textCar repair painters usually experience long-term exposure to many different solvents. In Italy, the greater part of car painting shops are "handcraft", i.e. 2-5 workers and small premises. Usually workers do not have specific duties, but everyone takes part in all different operations. Moreover, working time is not standardized but varies according to the workload, working methods tend to be traditional, and compliance to individual protection devices is poor. We have hence assessed, on a sample of 8 italian handicraft car painting shops, the exposure levels to solvents, implementing three classic exposure monitoring methods: environmental sampling with charcoal tubes, personal sampling with diffusive charcoal samplers, and urinary determination of unmetabolised solvents. A simple regression analysis was performed to evaluate relationships between the three series of data. The solvents analysed were toluene, ethylbenzene, 1, 2-dichloropropane, n-butylacetate, n-amylacetate, xylene isomers, ethylacetate, and benzene. Benzene was included due to several factors, among others its presence (1% v/v) in the italian unleaded gasoline. Benzene was found in all shops, at levels around or higher than the 8-h timeweighted average limit (8-h TLV-TWA). Other solvents were found in the different shops at various levels, 10(-2)-10(-1) times the 8-h TLV-TWA. Air concentrations of toluene, n-butylacetate, xylenes, and benzene were positively correlated with urinary levels of the parent compounds, while a negative correlation was found for ethylbenzene. The health implications of workers' exposure level was briefly discussed
Operative Modalities and Exposure to Pesticides During Open Field Treatments Among a Group of Agricultural Subcontractors
No full textThis paper reports the results of a field study of occupational pesticide exposure (respiratory and dermal) among a group of Italian agricultural subcontractors. These workers consistently use pesticides during much of the year, thus resulting in a high exposure risk. Ten complete treatments were monitored during spring/summer. Pesticides that were applied included azinphos-methyl, dicamba, dimethoate, terbuthylazine, and alachlor. Several observations were made on worker operative modalities and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) during work. Total potential and actual exposure ranged from 14 to 5700 mu g and from 0.04 to 4600 mu g, respectively. Dermal exposure contributed substantially more than inhalation to the total exposure (93.9-100%). Hand contamination ranged from 0.04 to 4600 mu g and was the major contributor to dermal exposure. Penetration through specific protective garments was less than 2.4% in all cases, although penetration through general work clothing was as high as 26.8%. The risk evaluation, based on comparison between acceptable daily intake and total absorbed doses, demonstrates that it is presumable to expect possible health effects for workers regularly operating without PPE and improper tractors. Comparisons between exposure levels and operative modalities highlighted that complete PPE and properly equipped tractors contributed to a significant reduction in total exposure to pesticides during agricultural activities. In conclusion, monitored agricultural subcontractors presented very different levels of pesticide exposure due to the high variability of operative modalities and use of PPE. These results indicate the need to critically evaluate the efficacy of training programs required for obtaining a pesticide license in Italy
Basso peso alla nascita, abitudini di vita delle madri in gravidanza e consumo di acque sottoposte a clorazione
No full textNumerous environmental factors such as smoking habits, alcohol intake, economic and social status, and by-product chlorination present in drinking water can determine adverse pregnancy outcomes like a low weight birth, small for gestational age or preterm delivery. In 1998 the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Technological Research (MURST) has financed a multicentric study in order to evaluate the association between exposure to by-products chlorination in drinking water during pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes at birth such as preterm delivery and low birth weight. We describe the socio demographics characteristics, personal habits and the health status during pregnancy and exposure to the VOX of 171 women recruited from the Research Unit of Rome and L'Aquila. A case control study with incident cases was performed. Exposure to Chlorination By Products (CBP) and confounding factors for studied outcomes, were assessed by a validated questionnaire. At the same time, collection and analysis of 124 tap water samples were carried out directly at women's home. No association was found between CBPs level and low birth weight or preterm delivery. We found an excess risk statistically significantly between preterm delivery and hypertension (OR = 5.06; IC 95% = 1.70-15.44) an excess risk statistically significantly between low birth weight and smokers (OR = 3.43, IC 95% = 1.15-10.26). The CBPs levels were rather low (range cases = 0.09-6.28 microg/L; range controls = 0.01-6.44 microg/L). The results confirm the literature data and the validity of the epidemiological method adopted. The low CBPs levels, under the Law level, are probably imputable to the good quality of sorgive waters. Considering the CBPs level temporal variability in chlorinated waters, is to be hoped a careful and continues surveillance of the CBPs spike levels for better exposure assessment.Numerous environmental factors such as smoking habits, alcohol intake, economic and social status, and by-product chlorination present in drinking water can determine adverse pregnancy outcomes like a low weight birth, small for gestational age or preterm delivery. In 1998 the Italian Ministry of University and Scientific Technological Research (MURST) has financed a multicentric study in order to evaluate the association between exposure to by-products chlorination in drinking water during pregnancy and adverse pregnancy outcomes at birth such as preterm delivery and low birth weight. We describe the socio demographics characteristics, personal habits and the health status during pregnancy and exposure to the VOX of 171 women recruited from the Research Unit of Rome and L'Aquila. A case control study with incident cases was performed. Exposure to Chlorination By Products (CBP) and confounding factors for studied outcomes, were assessed by a validated questionnaire. At the same time,
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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