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Caprimulgus europaeus In recent years Update on the distribution of breeding Nightjar in Sicily. there have been numerous observations of Nightjar in areas where it had never previously been observed. In some cases the reason may be a deeper exploration, but in other cases the possible explanation is the expansion of the species. However, it is quite interesting the change in the habitat by this species. The present paper provides an update of its status based on data collected in the fifteen years following the publication of the last Sicilian Atlas of breeding birds.

Since the last century agriculture is strongly promoting the simplification of the landscape. The LIFE Desert Adapt project is been developed across 1000 hectares in Italy, Spain, Portu-gal and has the objective of implementing integrative agroforestry-based land use planning and management, and one of the indicators to evaluate the project effectiveness is birds richness and abundance. Here we present the results of the first assessment and explore the relationships with the main vegetation cover types. We established 68 sampling points where we recorded bird abundance and richness. In total we registered 57 bird species, sampling points surrounded by woodlands presented 50 species, while shrublands presented 45 and herbaceous cover presented 32 species. The agroforestry practices that will take place inside the LIFE project are expected to increase the vegetation complexity inside the farms and consequently enhance bird diversity and abundance, as well as will provide useful information to compare the influence of different management decisions for bird communities. However, the species of birds threatened at the Mediterranean level are those linked to open agricultural systems (such as the alaudidae) and to areas with sparse tree cover (e.g. laniidae). The project will then evaluate the effects of agroforestry practices on bird communities in qualitative terms to also determine which of these do not have a negative effect on avifaunistic communities.

Nel progetto la costruzione di modelli di sviluppo aziendale che adottano tecniche e misure di adattamento capaci di preparare le aree più a rischio.

Aims: The present study aims to provide a comprehensive analytical and biological validation of an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) method for analysis of salivary cortisol and its inactive metabolite cortisone. Variation in cortisol awakening response (CAR) over one week were investigated. Methods: Saliva samples were collected from 19 healthy volunteers. To determine CAR, participants collected saliva samples at three time points: immediately after awakening, 15 and 30 minutes thereafter. The same procedure was repeated each morning over one week period. In addition, all participants filled in diaries containing information about duration of sleep, time of awakening, smoking, and coffee and alcohol intake. Upon collection, the saliva samples were stored at -20°C until analysis. Prior to analysis, the saliva samples were thawed and spiked with internal standard and extracted using solid phase extraction columns (Oasis Prime-HLB). The identification and quantification of cortisol and cortisone were performed using the developed UPLC-MS/MS method, on a Waters Aquity TQ-XS system. Results: The obtained limits of quantification (LoQ) were 1ng/ml for cortisol and 500pg/ml for cortisone. Intra-assay accuracy values of calibration points were between 83-111%. The mean levels of cortisol and cortisone in the total sample were 3.55 ± 1.99 ng/ml and 10.51 ± 3.46 ng/ml, respectively. In the first 30 minutes after awakening, there was a 70% increase in the average cortisol levels (CAR) and a 49% increase in the levels of cortisone. A high intra-individual variability of CAR was observed over the week (CV ranged between 17.9-68.9%), whereas the inter-individual variability of the average CAR equaled 28.2%. Furthermore, the changes in CAR were related to variables from participants’ diaries. Conclusion: The UPLC-MS/MS method has shown to be a sensitive and specific technique for determination of salivary cortisol and cortisone. However, in the clinical context, CAR data should be interpreted with precaution due to high inter- and intra-individual variability.

Within the EU human biomonitoring initiative (HBM4EU), a targeted, multi-national study on occupational exposure to hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) was performed. Cr(VI) is currently regulated in EU under REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals) and under occupational safety and health (OSH) legislation. It has recently been subject to regulatory actions to improve its risk management in European workplaces. Analysis of the data obtained within the HBM4EU chromates study provides support both for the implementation of these regulatory actions and for national enforcement programs and may also contribute to the updating of occupational limit values (OELs) and biological limit values for Cr(VI). It also provides useful insights on the contribution of different risk management measures (RMMs) to further reduce the exposure to Cr(VI) and may support the evaluation of applications for authorisation under REACH. Findings on chrome platers’ additional per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure highlight the need to also pay attention to this substance group in the metals sector. A survey performed to evaluate the policy relevance of the HBM4EU chromates study findings supports the usefulness of the study results. According to the responses received from the survey, the HBM4EU chromates study was able to demonstrate the added value of the human biomonitoring (HBM) approach in assessment and management of occupational exposure to Cr(VI). For future occupational studies, we emphasise the need for engagement of policy makers and regulators throughout the whole research process to ensure awareness, relevance and uptake of the results in future policies. Highlights: Potential policy impact of the HBM4EU chromates study is presented and discussed; Surveyed policy makers confirmed policy relevance of biomonitoring results; Study considered to support national enforcement and further lowering of OELs; Added value of HBM in the management of occupational exposure to Cr(VI) was demonstrated; Close co-operation with regulators to support policy uptake is emphasised. Funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 733032 and received co-funding from the author's organizations and/or Ministries. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

The HBM4EU Chromates study team consists of: Guillaume Antoine1, Rob Anzion2, Manuella Burgart1, Andrea Cattaneo3, Domenico Maria Cavallo3, Flavien Denis1, GiuseppeDe Palma4, Giovanni Forte5, Angela Gambelunghe7, Ogier Hanser1, Emilie Hardy6, Riikka Helenius8, Carina Ladeira9, Henriqueta Louro10, Piero Lovreglio11, Nicole Majery12, Mathieu Melczer1, Philippe Marsan1, Ana Nogueira13, Hermínia Pinhal13, Edna Ribeiro9,Jouko Remes8, Sílvia Reis Santos13, Françoise Schaefers6, Marta Senofonte5, Sally Spankie14, Maurice van Dael2, Henna Veijalainen8, with the correspondent affiliations: 1French National Research and Safety Institute, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France; 2Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, The Netherlands; 3Department of Science and High Technology, University of Insubria, Como, Italy; 4Department of Med-ical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences, and Public Health, University of Bre-scia, Brescia, Italy; 5 Department of Environment and Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Rome, Italy; 6 Department Health Protection, Laboratoire National de Santé (LNS), 1, Rue Louis Rech, 3555 Dudelange, Luxembourg; 7Department of Medicine and Surgery, Uni-versity of Perugia, Perugia, Italy; 8Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Fin-land; 9H&TRC-Health & Technology Research Center, ESTeSL-Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa; Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC), 1169–056 Lisbon, Portugal; 10National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Department of Human Genetics, Lisbon and ToxOmics –Centre for Toxi-cogenomics and Human Health, NOVA Medical School, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal; 11Interdisciplinary Department of Medicine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy; 12Service de Santé Au Travail Multisectoriel (STM), Luxembourg; 13National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Environmental Health Department, Lisbon, Portugal; 14Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM), Edinburgh, EH144AP, UK. This article belongs to the Special Issue Occupational Health Risk Assessment. Work-related exposures in industrial processing of chromate (chrome plating, surface treatment and welding) raise concern regarding the health risk of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)). In this study, performed under the HBM4EU project, we focused on better understanding the determinants of exposure and recognising how risk management measures (RMMs) contribute to a reduction in exposure. HBM and occupational hygiene data were collected from 399 workers and 203 controls recruited in nine European countries. Urinary total chromium (U-Cr), personal inhalable and respirable dust of Cr and Cr(VI) and Cr from hand wipes were collected. Data on the RMMs were collected by questionnaires. We studied the association between different exposure parameters and the use of RMMs. The relationship between exposure by inhalation and U-Cr in different worker groups was analysed using regression analysis and found a strong association. Automatisation of Cr electroplating dipping explained lower exposure levels in platers. The use of personal protective equipment resulted in lower U-Cr levels in welding, bath plating and painting. An effect of wearing gloves was observed in machining. An effect of local exhaust ventilation and training was observed in welding. Regression analyses showed that in platers, exposure to air level of 5 µg/m3 corresponds to U-Cr level of 7 µg/g creatinine. In welders, the same inhalation exposure resulted in lower U-Cr levels reflecting toxicokinetic differences of different chromium species. This research was conducted under the HBM4EU project and was funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement no. 733032 and received co-funding from the author’s organizations and/or Ministries. Luxembourg entered the study at a later stage and thus financed the study at its own means. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

HBM4EU chromates study team: Kukka Aimonen8, Guillaume Antoine1, Rob Anzion9, Manuella Burgart1, Andrea Cattaneo11, Domenico M. Cavallo11, Alcina Costa12, Giuseppe De Palma13, Flavien Denis1, Giovanni Forte3, Angela Gambelunghe14, Ogier Hanser1, Carina Ladeira15, Elisabeth Leese16, Risto Lehtinen8, Henriqueta Louro7 Piero Lovreglio17, Nicole Majery18, Philippe Marsan1, Mathieu Melczer1, Armandida Miranda12, Edna Ribeiro15, Françoise Schaefers4, Marta Senofonte3, Filomena Seuanes12, Maurice van Dael9, Riitta Velin8 1French National Research and Safety Institute, Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France 2Department of Public Health, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy 3 Department of Environment and Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, 00161 Rome, Italy 4Department of Health Protection, Laboratoire National de Santé (LNS), Dudelange, Luxembourg 5Centre for Environment and Health, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven (University of Leuven), Kapucijnenvoer 35, 3000, Leuven, Belgium 6Nofer Institute of Occupational Medicine, Lodz, Poland 7National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Department of Human Genetics and Environmental Health Lisbon, Portugal 8Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, Helsinki, Finland 9Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboudumc, Nijmegen, the Netherlands 10NOVA NOVA National School of Public Health, Public Health Research Centre, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, 1600–560 Lisbon, Portugal; Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC), 1169–056 Lisbon, Portugal. 11Department of Science and High Technology, University of Insubria, Como, Italy 12National Institute of Health Dr. Ricardo Jorge, Department of Health Promotion, Lisbon, Portugal 13Department of Medical and Surgical Specialties, Radiological Sciences and Public Health, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy 14Departement of Medicine and Surgery, University of Perugia, Perugia, Italy 15H&TRC- Health & Technology Research Center, ESTeSL- Escola Superior de Tecnologia da Saúde de Lisboa, Instituto Politécnico de Lisboa; Comprehensive Health Research Center (CHRC), 1169–056 Lisbon, Portugal 16Health and Safety Executive, Buxton, SK17 9JN, United Kingdom 17Interdisciplinary Departement of Medecine, University of Bari, Bari, Italy 18Service de Santé Au Travail Multisectoriel (STM), Luxembourg Occupational exposures to hexavalent Chromium (Cr(VI)) can occur in welding, hot working stainless steel processing, chrome plating, spray painting and coating activities. Recently, within the human biomonitoring for Europe initiative (HBM4EU), a study was performed to assess the suitability of different biomarkers to assess the exposure to Cr(VI) in various job tasks. Blood-based biomarkers may prove useful when more specific infor-mation on systemic and intracellular bioavailability is necessary. To this aim, concentrations of Cr in red blood cells (RBC-Cr) and in plasma (P–Cr) were analyzed in 345 Cr(VI) exposed workers and 175 controls to understand how these biomarkers may be affected by variable levels of exposure and job procedures. Compared to controls, significantly higher RBC-Cr levels were observed in bath plating and paint application workers, but not in welders, while all the 3 groups had significantly greater P–Cr concentrations. RBC-Cr and P–Cr in chrome platers showed a high correlation with Cr(VI) in inhalable dust, outside respiratory protective equipment (RPE), while such correlation could not be determined in welders. In platers, the use of RPE had a significant impact on the relationship between blood biomarkers and Cr(VI) in inhalable and respirable dust. Low correlations between P–Cr and RBC-Cr may reflect a difference in kinetics. This study showed that Cr-blood-based biomarkers can provide information on how workplace exposure translates into systemic availability of Cr(III) (extracellular, P–Cr) and Cr(VI) (intracellular, RBC-Cr). Further studies are needed to fully appreciate their use in an occupational health and safety context. Highlights: Suitability of blood biomarkers was evaluated to assess occupational Cr(VI)exposure; Bath platers and painters had higher Red Blood Cells-Cr levels compared to controls; Bath platers, painters and welders had higher plasma-Cr levels compared to controls; Red Blood Cells- and Plasma-Cr were highly correlated with inhalable Cr(VI) in platers; Blood-Cr biomarkers can provide information on systemic and intracellular availability. This work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 733032 and received co-funding from the author’s organizations and/or Ministries. Luxembourg entered the study at a later stage and thus financed the study at its own means. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion

Exposure to hexavalent chromium [Cr(VI)] may occur in several occupational activities, e.g., welding, Cr(VI) electroplating and other surface treatment processes. The aim of this study was to provide EU relevant data on occupational Cr(VI) exposure to support the regulatory risk assessment and decision-making. In addition, the capability and validity of different biomarkers for the assessment of Cr(VI) exposure were evaluated. The study involved nine European countries and involved 399 workers in different industry sectors with exposures to Cr(VI) such as welding, bath plating, applying or removing paint and other tasks. We also studied 203 controls to establish a background in workers with no direct exposure to Cr(VI). We applied a cross-sectional study design and used chromium in urine as the primary biomonitoring method for Cr(VI) exposure. Additionally, we studied the use of red blood cells (RBC) and exhaled breath condensate (EBC) for biomonitoring of exposure to Cr(VI). Personal measurements were used to study exposure to inhalable and respirable Cr(VI) by personal air sampling. Dermal exposure was studied by taking hand wipe samples. The highest internal exposures were observed in the use of Cr(VI) in electrolytic bath plating. In stainless steel welding the internal Cr exposure was clearly lower when compared to plating activities. We observed a high correlation between chromium urinary levels and air Cr(VI) or dermal total Cr exposure. Urinary chromium showed its value as a first approach for the assessment of total, internal exposure. Correlations between urinary chromium and Cr(VI) in EBC and Cr in RBC were low, probably due to differences in kinetics and indicating that these biomonitoring approaches may not be interchangeable but rather complementary. This study showed that occupational biomonitoring studies can be conducted successfully by multi-national collaboration and provide relevant information to support policy actions aiming to reduce occupational exposure to chemicals. This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 733032 and received co-funding from the author's organizations and/or Ministries. Luxembourg entered the study at a later stage and thus financed the study at its own means. Sí

Visible light communication (VLC) is a promising candidate to face the bandwidth limitation problems of traditional radio communication system. The use of a light emitting diode (LED), directly modulated, as a transmitter of the wireless telecommunication link permits the installation of VLC-based systems in practically all human-attended settings (home, office, markets). However, a drawback of VLC systems remains the receiver side, due to the lack of photovoltaic devices for this specific application. Organic electronics based on solution processed technologies has the great potential to be applied in VLC systems, building effective, scalable and low-cost photodetectors. We have investigated the effect of the device architecture on optical and electrical device performance, using both P3HT:PCBM and PTB7:PC70BM bulk-heterojunction active layers. We have established that both materials and structures could affect greatly the device properties, and we have provided an analytical representation of the spectral matching between light source and detector. In particular, the most promising device, based on a P3HT:PCBM blend, has demonstrated high performance, especially using an inverted structure. In this configuration, a device cut-off frequency of ~1.0 MHz has been achieved, paying the way to organic photodetector application on VLC-based telecommunication systems in 5G scenarios.

INTRODUCTION: Phthalates, a group of ubiquitous industrial chemicals, have been widely used in occupational settings, mainly as plasticizers in a variety of applications. Occupational exposure to different phthalates has been studied in several occupational settings using human biomonitoring (HBM). AIM: To provide a comprehensive review of the available literature on occupational exposure to phthalates assessed using HBM and to determine future data needs on the topic as part of the HBM4EU project. METHODS: A systematic search was carried out in the databases of Pubmed, Scopus, and Web of Science for articles published between 2000 and September 4, 2019 using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. A total of 22 studies on the occupational HBM of phthalates was considered suitable for review. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Among the reviewed studies, 19 (86%) focused on DEHP, an old phthalate that is now subject to authorization and planned to be restricted in the EU. Concentrations of MEHHP, one of its metabolites, varied up to 13-fold between studies and across sectors when comparing extreme geometric means, ranging from 11.6 (similar to the general populations) to 151 μg/g creatinine. Only 2 studies focused on newer phthalates such as DiNP and DPHP. Concerning the geographical distribution, 10 studies were performed in Europe (including 6 in Slovakia), 8 in Asia, and 4 in North America, but this distribution is not a good reflection of phthalate production and usage levels worldwide. Most HBM studies were performed in the context of PVC product manufacturing. Future studies should focus on: i) a more uniform approach to sampling timing to facilitate comparisons between studies; ii) newer phthalates; and iii) old phthalates in waste management or recycling. CONCLUSION: Our findings highlight the lack of recent occupational HBM studies on both old and new phthalate exposure in European countries and the need for a harmonized approach. Considering the important policy actions taken in Europe regarding phthalates, it seems relevant to evaluate the impact of these actions on exposure levels and health risks for workers. ispartof: INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HYGIENE AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH vol:229 ispartof: location:Germany status: published