Wild rats as urban detectives for latent sources of asbestos contamination.

Based on a large body of evidence asbestos minerals have been classified as carcinogens. Despite the Italian ban on asbestos in 1992 and the subsequent remediation activities, latent sources of contamination may still represent a hazard where asbestos were particularly used. Using wild rats as sentinel animals, this study aimed at uncovering sites with the greatest potential for non-occupational exposure to asbestos in the city of Casale Monferrato (Piedmont Region, Italy), where the largest Italian manufacturing plant of asbestos-cement had been active. During the study period (2013-2015) a total of 40 wild rats were captured from 16 sampling capture points. The lungs of wild rats have been investigated by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). The SEM-EDS detected the presence of asbestos fibers (tremolite/actinolite, amosite, and chrysotile) in rats' lungs from 11 sampling points. The hypothetical rats' home-range and the observed site-specific concentration of asbestos fibers per gram of dry lung tissue were used to identify areas to be targeted by additional search of latent sources of asbestos. In conclusion, our results showed that the use of wild rats as sentinel animals may effectively integrate the strategies currently in use to reduce the exposure to asbestos.

Determination of metabolic equivalents during low- and high-intensity resistance exercise in healthy young subjects and patients with type 2 diabetes.

The purpose of this study was to quantify the metabolic equivalents (METs) of resistance exercise in obese patients with type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and healthy young subjects and to evaluate whether there were differences between sessions executed at low- versus high-intensity resistance exercise. Twenty obese patients with T2DM (62.9±6.1 years) and 22 young subjects (22.6±1.9 years) performed two training sessions: one at vigorous intensity (80% of 1-repetition maximum (1RM)) and one at moderate intensity (60% of 1RM). Both groups carried out three strength exercises with a 2-day recovery between sessions. Oxygen consumption was continuously measured 15 min before, during and after each training session. Obese T2DM patients showed lower METs values compared with young healthy participants at the baseline phase (F= 2043.86; P<0.01), during training (F=1140.59; P<0.01) and in the post-exercise phase (F=1012.71; P<0.01). No effects were detected in the group x intensity analysis of covariance. In this study, at both light-moderate and vigorous resistance exercise intensities, the METs value that best represented both sessions was 3 METs for the obese elderly T2DM patients and 5 METs for young subjects.

Monte Carlo based calibration of an air monitoring system for gamma and beta+ radiation.

Marinelli beaker systems are used to monitor the activity of radioactive samples. These systems are usually calibrated with water solutions and the determination of the activity in gases requires correction coefficients accounting for the different mass-thickness of the sample. For beta+ radionuclides the different distribution of the positrons annihilation points should be also considered. In this work a Monte Carlo simulation based on Geant4 is used to compute correction coefficients for the measurement of the activity of air samples.

Correlates of muscle strength in diabetes: The study on the assessment of determinants of muscle and bone strength abnormalities in diabetes (SAMBA).

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Apart from late motor nerve dysfunction, factors affecting muscle strength in diabetes are largely unknown. This study was aimed at assessing muscle strength correlates in diabetic subjects encompassing a wide range of peripheral nerve function and various degrees of micro and macrovascular complications. METHODS AND RESULTS: Four-hundred consecutive patients with type 1 and 2 diabetes (aged 46.4 ± 13.9 and 65.8 ± 10.3 years, respectively) from the Study on the Assessment of Determinants of Muscle and Bone Strength Abnormalities in Diabetes (SAMBA) were examined for upper and lower body muscle isometric maximal voluntary contraction by dynamometry. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were applied to identify strength correlates. Isometric force at both the upper and lower limbs was significantly lower in subjects with than in those without any complication. At univariate analysis, it was strongly associated with age, diabetes duration, physical activity (PA) level, cardio-respiratory fitness, anthropometric parameters, surrogate measures of complications, and parameters of sensory and autonomic, but not motor (except amplitude) neuropathy. Multivariate analysis revealed that upper and lower body strength correlated independently with male gender and, inversely, with age, autonomic neuropathy score (or individual autonomic function abnormalities), and vibration perception threshold, but not sensory-motor neuropathy score. Diabetes duration and PA level were excluded from the model. CONCLUSIONS: Both upper and lower body muscle strength correlate with measures of diabetic complications and particularly with parameters of sensory and especially autonomic nerve function, independently of diabetes duration and PA level, thus suggesting the involvement of mechanisms other than manifest motor nerve impairment.