1,720,983 research outputs found
Esposizione alle emissioni di un inceneritore per rifiuti solidi urbani e rischio di malformazioni congenite.
No full textAbbiamo preso in esame nella città di Reggio Emilia la possibile relazione tra rischio di malformazioni congenite ed emissioni dell’inceneritore per rifiuti solidi urbani, dotato di sistemi avanzati di abbattimento delle emissioni ed in funzione nel 1968 (ad eccezione di un periodo di interruzione da aprile 2002 a giugno 2005). Abbiamo individuato tutti i casi di malformazioni congenite diagnosticati nei nati e negli aborti di donne residenti nel Comune di Reggio Emilia nel periodo 1998-2006, associando a ciascuno di essi un nato sano ‘di controllo’ utilizzando come variabili di appaiamento l’anno ed il centro di nascita unitamente all’età materna. Il territorio municipale è stato suddiviso in tre aree in base alle concentrazioni ambientali di diossine/furani e metalli pesanti emessi dall’inceneritore, assegnando lo status espositivo in base alla residenza materna nel primo trimestre di gravidanza con l’ausilio di metodiche GIS. Abbiamo quindi calcolato i rischi relativi nei diversi gruppi espositivi, anche in relazione al periodo di funzionamento, utilizzando procedure di regressione logistica condizionale ed aggiustando per titolo di studio materno.I risultati, riferiti ad un numero complessivo di 228 casi e 228 controlli, non hanno evidenziato modificazioni significative del rischio nei diversi gruppi espositivi nell’intero periodo considerato, né sono stati in grado di mostrare variazioni nel tempo dei rischi associate al regime di funzionamento dell’impianto di incenerimento. In particolare, il rischio relativo di malformazione congenita nelle residenti nell’area a maggiore esposizione e in quelle con esposizione intermedia, nei confronti della rimanente popolazione municipale, è risultato rispettivamente pari a 0,67 (I.C. al 95% 0,25-1,77) e 1,55 (0,67-3,58) con un P-trend pari a 0,883, senza indicazioni di un decremento del rischio nel periodo di inattività dell’impianto. Queste osservazioni non sembrano nel complesso indicare il verificarsi di effetti teratogeni a seguito dell’esposizione alle emissioni di un inceneritore per rifiuti solidi urbani tecnologicamente avanzato
Risk of congenital anomalies around a municipal solid waste incinerator
No full textWaste incineration releases into the environment toxic substances having a teratogenic potential, but little epidemiologic evidence is available on this topic. We aimed at examining the relation between exposure to the emissions from a municipal solid waste incinerator (MSWI) and risk of birth defects in a northern Italy community, using geographical information system (GIS) data to estimate exposure and a population-based case-control study design. By modeling the incinerator emissions, we defined in the GIS three areas of increasing exposure according to predicted dioxins concentrations. We mapped the 228 births and induced abortions with diagnosis of congenital anomalies observed during the 1998-2006 period, together with a corresponding series of control births matched for year and hospital of birth/abortion as well as maternal age, using maternal address in the first 3 months of pregnancy to geocode cases and controls
Residence Near High-voltage Power Lines and Risk of Birth Defects
No full textBackground and ObjectiveThe adverse effects on human health of electromagnetic fields are still unclear and congenital anomalies are among the outcomes which have been associated to such exposure. We conducted a case-control study to examine the risk of birth defects associated with maternal exposure to electromagnetic fields from high-voltage power lines during pregnancy in a northern Italy community. Methods We identified all cases of congenital malformations diagnosed during the period 1998-2006 in live- and stillbirths and induced abortions to women living in Reggio Emilia. As a control group, we selected at random a healthy newborn for each case, matched for year of birth, maternal age and hospital of birth. We geocoded each mother’s resident address during the first trimester of pregnancy in a GIS (Geographical Information System) project. We also calculated the cutpoints of magnetic field density of 0.1, 0.2 and 0.4 microtesla (μT) around high-voltage power lines (>132kV) crossing the municipal territory, inputting the corresponding polylines into the GIS to define exposure corridors. We eventually calculated the risk of prevalence of birth defects associated with maternal exposure to magnetic fields from power lines using a conditional logistic regression model and adjusting for some confounding factors.ResultsWe identified 228 cases of birth defects and a corresponding number of control births. Two case and five control mothers had been residing during the first trimester of pregnancy in corridors with magnetic field intensity >0.1 μT. The risk of congenital malformations associated with the maternal residence during the first trimester of pregnancy in the corridors with exposure >0.1 μT was 0.4 (95% CI 0.1-2.3, P = 0.338) after adjustment for maternal age and education. Conclusions These observations do not suggest that exposure to electromagnetic fields during early pregnancy is associated with excess teratogenic risk
Risk of congenital anomalies around a municipal solid waste incinerator: a GIS-based case-control study.
Full text linkBACKGROUND: Waste incineration releases into the environment toxic substances having a teratogenic potential, but little epidemiologic evidence is available on this topic. We aimed at examining the relation between exposure to the emissions from a municipal solid waste incinerator and risk of birth defects in a northern Italy community, using Geographical Information System (GIS) data to estimate exposure and a population-based case-control study design. By modelling the incinerator emissions, we defined in the GIS three areas of increasing exposure according to predicted dioxins concentrations. We mapped the 228 births and induced abortions with diagnosis of congenital anomalies observed during the 1998-2006 period, together with a corresponding series of control births matched for year and hospital of birth/abortion as well as maternal age, using maternal address in the first three months of pregnancy to geocode cases and controls. RESULTS: Among women residing in the areas with medium and high exposure, prevalence of anomalies in the offspring was substantially comparable to that observed in the control population, nor dose-response relations for any of the major categories of birth defects emerged. Furthermore, odds ratio for congenital anomalies did not decrease during a prolonged shut-down period of the plant. CONCLUSION: Overall, these findings do not lend support to the hypothesis that the environmental contamination occurring around an incineration plant such as that examined in this study may induce major teratogenic effects
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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