Search

As part of an International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) international epidemiological study of workers in the pulp and paper industry, previously unpublished exposure measurements were assembled in a database. This article summarizes the results of 3,873 measurements carried out in the production departments of paper and paperboard mills and recycling plants in 12 countries. In the paper and paperboard mills, most of the agents were measured in the pulping and refining departments and in on-machine coating and winding of paper/paperboard. Exposures to asbestos, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, fungal spores, bacteria, nitrogen dioxide, minerals dusts, paper dust, sulphuric acid and different solvents sometimes exceeded exposure limit values. In the re-pulping and de-inking departments of recycling plants high exposures to formaldehyde, fungal spores, bacteria and paper dust were observed. High exposures to asbestos, bioaerosols, carbon monoxide and paper dust were found in many departments; ammonia, formaldehyde, mineral and paper dust and solvents were found in coating machines; and diphenyl and polychlorobiphenyls (PCBs) were found in some special circumstances. Measurements in the newsprint and uncoated paper machine departments revealed only a few elevated exposures. In nearly all departments, measurements of epichlorohydrin, PCBs, sulphur dioxide, hydrogen sulphide and mercaptans tended to be low, often even below their detection limits. In spite of some uncertainties in the measurement data, the study provides new insights into the level and variation of occupational exposures of production workers in the paper and paperboard industry.

Purpose: The Cervical Spine Research Society Europe (CSRS-E) actively promotes scientific activities, the annual meeting being the most evident of them. The publication rate of oral and poster presentations at the annual meeting could be a measure for the success of the promotional activities. The publication rates of abstracts presented at the annual European meetings of the CSRS are unknown. The quality of the abstracts presented at a conference is reflected by the publication rate. A high publication rate is usually interpreted as representative of high scientific value of the conference., Methods: Poster and podium presentations from the 2007 to 2012 annual meetings were identified. Pubmed was used to search for the abstract title and/or the combination of authors to verify whether the data were published in a peer-reviewed journal. Abstracts were considered published if the data presented at the meeting were identical to that in the publication. The journals in which the data were published were identified, as well as the origin of the research centre., Results: From 2007 to 2012 826 abstracts were featured at the CSRS Europe annual meetings. There were 236 podium presentations and 590 poster presentations. 42 % of the podium presentations resulted in a publication, and 28 % of the poster presentations led to a publication. Overall, 32 % of accepted abstracts effectuated a publication in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. Abstracts from European research groups had a publication rate of 29 % compared to 34 % for abstracts from non-European research groups. Spine, European Spine Journal, Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques and J Neurosurgery Spine were the most common publication journals for the abstracts. The mean impact factor of the journals in which was published was 2.2., Conclusion: 42 % of the abstracts that were accepted for podium presentation at the CSRS Europe resulted in a publication in peer-reviewed MEDLINE indexed journals. Publication rates are at the high end of the publication rate spectrum of abstracts accepted for European scientific meetings.

The European paper wasp, Polistes dominulus Christ, is an abundant wasp species in South and Central Europe which dispersed to the north in recent times. Polistes dominulus exhibits an energy-extensive mode of life, spending much time resting at the nest, which should be reflected in adaptations regarding gas exchange and standard metabolism. We analysed the resting metabolism (CO2 emission) of Polistes dominulus workers in the ambient temperature range an individual may be exposed to during a breeding season (T a = 2.4-40.6 °C) via flow through respirometry. Behaviour and endothermic activity were assessed by infrared thermography. With rising T a, CO2 release followed an exponential increase from 27 to 149 and 802 nl g(-1) min(-1) at T a = 3, 20 and 35 °C, respectively. Measurements of the thermal regime at the nest showed that resting P. dominulus are most of the time in the lower range of their standard metabolic curve. A comparison with a "highly energetic" wasp like Vespula sp. revealed that Polistes dominulus not only optimises behaviour but also reduces metabolism to save energy. The CO2 emission patterns changed with ambient temperature, from discontinuous (≤ 25 °C) to cyclic (25-36 °C) and continuous gas exchange at higher temperatures. A pronounced break appeared in the data progression regarding cycle frequency and CO2 emission per gas exchange cycle between 15 and 10 °C. This striking change in gas exchange features indicates a physiological adaptation to special respiratory requirements at low temperatures.

Glaucoma, a chronic progressive neuropathy and the most frequent cause of irreversible blindness worldwide, is commonly treated by medication or surgery aimed at lowering intraocular pressure. In view of the limited therapeutic options, the European Glaucoma Society (EGS) sponsored two Think Tank Meetings with the goal of assessing the current status and the overall perspectives for neuroprotective treatment strategies in glaucoma. The results of the meetings are summarized in this EGS White Paper.

Based on current data and experience, the joint working group of the European Society of Minimally Invasive Neurological Therapy (ESMINT) and the European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR) make suggestions on trial design and conduct aimed to investigate therapeutic effects of mechanical thrombectomy (MT). We anticipate that this roadmap will facilitate the setting up and conduct of successful trials in close collaboration with our neighbouring disciplines.

A new era of stroke treatment may have begun with mechanical thrombectomy (MT) by fully deployed closed-cell self-expanding stents (stent-triever). Multiple case series and the first randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have now been published. More studies are under way involving large numbers of patients, which in turn has resulted in less strict "pragmatic" study protocols. Problems with current trials include a lack of standardisation in the conduct of the recanalisation procedure, the definition of primary endpoints such as the grade of arterial recanalisation and tissue reperfusion, and the post-surgical care provided. In Part 1 of this two part series, we outline the current situation and the major research questions.

The development of new molecular and neurobiological methods, computer-assisted quantification techniques and neurobiological investigation methods which can be applied to the human brain, all have evoked an increased demand for post-mortem tissue in research. Psychiatric disorders are considered to be of neurobiological origin. Thus far, however, the etiology and pathophysiology of schizophrenia, depression and dementias are not well understood at the cellular and molecular level. The following will outline the consensus of the working group for neuropsychiatric brain banking organized in the Brainnet Europe II, on ethical guidelines for brain banking, clinical diagnostic criteria, the minimal clinical data set of retrospectively analyzed cases as well as neuropathological standard investigations to perform stageing for neurodegenerative disorders in brain tissue. We will list regions of interest for assessments in psychiatric disorder, propose a dissection scheme and describe preservation and storage conditions of tissue. These guidelines may be of value for future implementations of additional neuropsychiatric brain banks world-wide.

Background: Understanding the increasing trends in Italy may inform new prevention strategies and better treatments. We investigated trends and risk factors of dementia, stroke, and ischemic heart disease (IHD) in Italy with the second-oldest population globally, compared to European and high-income countries and the world., Methods: We analyzed the Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD) 2019 estimates on incidence and burden (i.e., disability and death combined) of the three conditions in both sexes. We also analyzed the burden attributable to 12 modifiable risk factors and their changes during 1990-2019., Results: In 2019, Italy had 186,108 new dementias (123,885 women) and 94,074 new strokes (53,572 women). Women had 98% higher crude dementia and 24% higher crude stroke burdens than men. The average age-standardized new dementia rate was 114.7 per 100,000 women and 88.4 per 100,000 men, both higher than Western Europe, the European Union, high-income countries, and the world. During 1990-2019, this rate increased in both sexes (4%), despite a decline in stroke (- 45%) and IHD (- 17%) in Italy. Dementia burden attributable to tobacco decreased in both sexes (- 12.7%) during 1990-2019, while high blood glucose and high body mass index combined burden increased (25.4%). Stroke and IHD had similar trends., Conclusions: While decreases in new strokes and IHDs are encouraging, new approaches to their joint prevention are required to reverse the rising dementia trends, especially among women. Life course approaches to promoting holistic brain health should be implemented at the community, national, and international levels before the growing trends become overwhelming., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany.)

The European continent has one of the longest life expectancies in the world, but still faces a significant challenge to meet the health targets set by the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations for 2030. To improve the understanding of the rationale that guides health outcomes in Europe, this study assesses the direction and magnitude effects of the drivers that contribute to explain life expectancy at birth across 30 European countries for the period 2008-2018 at macro-level. For this purpose, an aggregated health production function is used allowing for spatial effects. The results indicate that an increase in the income level, health expenditure, trade openness, education attainment, or urbanisation might lead to an increase in life expectancy at birth, whereas calories intake or quantity of air pollutants have a negative impact on this health indicator. This implies that health policies should look beyond economic factors and focus also on social and environmental drivers. The results also indicate the existence of significant spillover effects, highlighting the need for coordinated European policies that account for the synergies between countries. Finally, a foresight analysis is conducted to obtain projections for 2030 under different socioeconomic pathways. Results reveal significant differences on longevity projections depending on the adoption, or not, of a more sustainable model of human development and provides valuable insight on the need for anticipatory planning measures to make longer life-spans compatible with the maintenance of the welfare state., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

From both the methodological point of view and standardization of methodology, little attention has been paid to the estimation of direct costs in evaluation of healthcare technologies. The objective is to revise the recommendations on direct costs provided in European economic evaluation guidelines and to identify the commonalities and divergences among them. To achieve this, a comprehensive search through several online databases was performed resulting in 41 documents from 26 European countries, be they economic evaluation guidelines or costing guidelines. The results show a large disparity in methodologies used in estimation of direct costs to be included in economic evaluations of health technologies recommended by European countries. A lack of standardization of cost estimation methodologies influences arbitrariness in selecting costs of resources included in economic evaluations of medicinal products or any other technologies and, therefore, in decision making process necessary to introduce new technology. In addition, this heterogeneity poses a major challenge for identifying factors that could affect the variability of unit costs across countries., (© 2021. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.)