1,720,962 research outputs found
Reproductive outcomes following environmental exposure to DDT
No full textWe used official statistics of births and stillbirths in 1945-1954 to evaluate reproductive outcomes in the general population following use of DDT during a 1946-1950 anti-malarial campaign in the Italian region of Sardinia. Due to the disruption of registration systems in the World War II years, data in the pre-DDT years were available only for 1945-1946. Such a short period of observation, and social conditions in the war and post-war years, do not allow exclusion of adverse effects of DDT on birth rate; however, we did not observe an effect. The stillbirth rate, infant mortality rate, and male/female ratio in newborns were apparently unaffected following widespread but focused use of DDT in Sardinia, Italy
Cancer mortality among men occupationally exposed to dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
No full textSeveral studies have evaluated cancer risk associated with
occupational and environmental exposure to dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
(DDT). Results are mixed. To further
inquire into human carcinogenicity of DDT, we conducted a
mortality follow-up study of 4,552 male workers, exposed to
DDT during antimalarial operations in Sardinia, Italy,
conducted in 1946 to 1950. Detailed information on DDT use
during the operations provided the opportunity to develop
individual estimates of average and cumulative exposure.
Mortality of the cohort was first compared with that of the
Sardinian population. Overall mortality in the cohort was
about as expected, but there was a deficit for death from
cardiovascular disease and a slight excess for nonmalignant
respiratory diseases and lymphatic cancer among the unexposed
subcohort. For internal comparisons, we used Poisson
regression analysis to calculate relative risks of selected
malignant and nonmalignant diseases with the unexposed
subcohort as the reference. Cancer mortality was decreased
among DDT-exposed workers, mainly due to a reduction in
lung cancer deaths. Birth outside from the study area was a
strong predictor of mortality from leukemia. Mortality from
stomach cancer increased up to 2-fold in the highest quartile
of cumulative exposure (relative risk, 2.0; 95% confidence
interval, 0.9-4.4), but no exposure-response trend was
observed. Risks of liver cancer, pancreatic cancer, and
leukemia were not elevated among DDT-exposed workers.
No effect of latency on risk estimates was observed over the 45
years of follow-up and within selected time windows. Adjusting
risks by possible exposure to chlordane in the second part
of the antimalarial operations did not change the results. In
conclusion, we found little evidence for a link between
occupational exposure to DDT and mortality from any of the
cancers previously suggested to be associated
Causes of death among lead smelters in relation to the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase polymorphism
No full textOBJECTIVE: To assess, by updating a follow-up mortality study of a lead smelters cohort in Sardinia, Italy, the adverse health effects following occupational lead exposure in relation to the glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) polymorphism. Method: The 1973-2003 mortality of 1017 male lead smelters were followed-up, divided into two subcohorts according to the G6PD phenotype: whether G6PD deficient (G6PD-) or wild-type (wtG6PD). Deaths observed in the overall cohort and the two subcohorts were compared with those expected, on the basis of the age-, sex- and calendar year-specific mortality in the general male population of the island. Directly standardised mortality rates (sr) in the two subcohorts were also compared.
RESULTS: Cardiovascular mortality was strongly reduced among production and maintenance workers, which is most related to the healthy worker effect. However, the sr for cardiovascular diseases was substantially lower among the G6PD- subcohort (5.0x10(-4)) than among the wtG6PD subcohort (33.6x10(-4); chi2 = 1.10; p = NS). Neoplasms of the haemopoietic system exceeded the expectation in the G6PD- subcohort (SMR = 388; 95% CI 111 to 1108). No other cancer sites showed any excess in the overall cohort or in the two subcohorts. No death from haemolytic anaemia occurred in the G6PD- subcohort.
CONCLUSION: With due consideration of the limited statistical power of our study, previous results suggesting that in workplaces where exposure is under careful control, expressing the G6PD- phenotype does not convey increased susceptibility to lead toxicity are confirmed. The observed excess risk of haematopoietic malignancies seems to have most likely resulted from chance
Long term lithium treatment and survival from external causes including suicide
No full textConsistent with previous studies, our group provided a preliminary report stating that mortality of patients with affective disorders is higher than expected unless lithium prophylaxis is controlled for several years. The objective of this study was to analyze whether specific causes of mortality are diminished during prolonged lithium treatment. Causes of death registered from January 1, 1980, to December, 2002 among 1411 consecutive outpatients admitted to the lithium clinic, Department of Neurosciences, University of Cagliari, from January 1, 1980, to June, 2000 were coded according to the International Classification of Diseases, 9th revision. Survival analysis was performed by means of Cox proportional hazard modeling, adjusted for age and gender. Prolonged attendance at the lithium clinic favored survival to death from external causes. Patients who attended for less than 2 years had an increased risk of dying from external causes compared with patients who attended for 2 years or more. Risk was highest (hazard ratio, 15.8; 95% confidence interval, 2.1–119.0) at 3 years, based on 16 events and only 1, respectively. Among external causes, suicide accounted for the majority of cases (80%). Among patients under controlled treatment for at least 2 years, only 1 committed suicide during regular attendance, whereas 9 committed suicide an average of 28 months (interquartile range, 9.5-45.4) after abandoning the lithium clinic
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
THE SARDINIA IDDM STUDY: 1. EPIDEMIOLOGY AND GEOGRAFICAL DISTRIBUTION OF IDDM IN SARDINIA DURING 1989 TO 1994
No full textClassic Kaposi's sarcoma in southern Sardinia, Italy
No full textThe first examination of classical Kaposi's sarcoma incidence in southern Sardinia (Italy) in 1998-2002 found the highest rate recorded in the island of 2.49 per 100 000 per year (standardised)
Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia: a cluster in SW Sardinia (Italy)
No full textIn response to public concern about an increase in the incidence of leukemia among children in southwestern Sardinia (Italy), incident cases of childhood cancer (ages 0-14) were ascertained among residents in the province of Cagliari, which comprises all of southern Sardinia, in 1974-89. Completeness of the ascertainment of leukemia cases was validated by comparison with estimates derived from official statistics of mortality and survival curves. A significant excess risk of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (cALL) was found for children residing in the town of Carbonia. The risk was highest in 1983-85, when seven cases occurred versus 0.8 expected. No birth-cohort effect was observed. The cALL incidence rate was significantly higher among children born and residing in Carbonia than among children born in Carbonia but residing elsewhere. However, the cALL cases did not cluster within the town of Carbonia. The proximity of the largest industrial settlement in the region of Sardinia raised the suspicion that environmental pollution was responsible for the observed excess. Information about industrial emissions from this settlement prior to the appearance of the cALL cluster was not sufficient to reject or confirm the hypothesis
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
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