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Genetic variants of the inosine triphosphate pyrophosphatase gene (ITPA), resulting in decreased enzymatic activity of the corresponding enzyme, ITPase, are known to correlate with a decreased risk ...

A decreasing time trend for occupational injuries and sickness absence would be the effect of the new legislation (D.Lgs. 626/94 and successive laws) on prevention in occupational settings. Conversely, the reduction of INPS disability would reflect a health improvement due to non-occupational causes.The aim of the study was to investigate the efficacy of the new legislation among employees in industry (where the law was mainly applied), via the time trend of three standardized rates in the Veneto Region.The numerator for the rate of occupational accidents (cases occurring in industry workers in the Veneto Region, broken down for sex, age and calendar years) was supplied by INAIL. The denominator for the above rate, as well as numerators and denominators for disability and sickness absence were supplied by INPS. Data were available from 1994 to 2002 for accidents and disability, and from 1997 to 2002 for sickness absence. In every year from 1994 to 2002, the rates were standardized for age and sex with the direct method, using an internal "standard" population. The time trend of year-specific standardized rates was analyzed by Joinpoint regression software.Among industrial workers in the Veneto Region, occupational accidents increased by 0.4% yearly, while disability decreased by 2.56% from 1994 to 2002. Sick absence increased up to 1999, then decreased.This epidemiological pattern is difficult to explain. The increase in accidents could be due to the increase of non-European Union workers and/or to the fact that accidents on the way to or from work were recognized as occupational accidents by INAIL starting from 2000. Both these phenomena could have contributed to increase the rate that was otherwise diminishing. On the other hand, this same situation could be due to insufficient efficacy of the legislation (D.Lgs. 626/94 and successive laws) for preventing occupational accidents and diseases.

Techniques to improve endurance and access time are applied to 2.5V high-density flash memory. A 4Mb flash product is used as a test vehicle for an erase method that extends the program/erase (P/E) endurance beyond 106 cycles. An embedded /spl mu/ROM controller with optimized algorithms (zero P/E array stress) minimizes erase time (parallel sector erase) and reduces testing time (BIST techniques). A 20MB/s read data throughput at 2.5V is obtained in OE synchronized data transfer mode. Dynamic redundancy enhances repair capability.

Swimming larvae of Phallusia mamillata are known to have "button cells" of endodermal origin between the ventral surface of the pharynx and the epidermis, that are stainable by various techniques. By immunofluorescence with anti-tubulin antibody and confocal laser microscopy, we obtained a bright reaction at one pole of the cells, suggesting the presence of a cap of tubulin and of microtubules overlaying the nucleus. During metamorphosis the microtubule-rich pseudopods at their base reach the epidermis, especially in the area near the adhesive papillae. Then they emigrate through the epidermis and become roundish again.

In ascidians determination of the nervous system is known to occur at the gastrula stage, when the chorda-endoderm and ectoderm come in contact. In situ hybridization with beta-tubulin cDNA showed that tubulin transcripts were concentrated in presumptive neural cells at the early gastrula stage and continued to increase in these cells throughout neurulation. In the young larvae, the tubulin transcripts were also detectable in the adhesive papillae cells, in mesenchyme cells, muscle cells and button cells. The results suggest that expression of tubulin mRNA could be used as a marker for neural determination at early stages and, at later stages, as a marker for all cell types that elaborate many microtubules.

Summary In the eggs of Ascidia malaca incorporation of [ 3 H]thymidine in both pronuclei begins immediately

By the use of 125I-ConA it is shown that in the egg of Ascidia malaca a 2- to 4-fold increase of Con A receptors occurs at the time the fertilized egg completes maturation.

A fluorescent conjugate of Dolichos lectin has been used to investigate the surface of eggs and early embryos of Ascidia malaca. Unfertilized eggs show a patchy distribution of fluorescence. After fertilization, this pattern is retained until about the time of the emission of the second polar body, when the fluorescence becomes localized at the vegetal pole. This localization is retained in early development and by the 64-cell stage, binding is displayed by the two micromeres and the posterior vegetal macromeres.

Larvae of Ascidia malaca, both before and after hatching, were treated with L-thyroxine solutions. The effect of the thyroid hormone was to induce the onset of metamorphosis and then to cause the rate at which body reorganization occurred to increase. In treated larvae the resorption of the tail occurred only few hours after hatching, and a beating heart appeared form 10 to 15 h earlier than in the control larvae. These results are discussed in the context of a probable relationship between the occurrence of a hormonal metamorphic factor and the button cells of the trunk.

In May 1988, the hepatitis A antibody (anti-HAV) and hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers were studied by radioimmunoassay in 484 apparently healthy children between the ages of 7 and 12, attending a primary school in Naples, Italy. The overall anti-HAV prevalence was 11.2%, increasing from 5.2 in 7-year-old children to 28.2% in children between the ages of 11 and 12 years old. The overall prevalence of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and of other HBV markers were 0.8 and 6.8 respectively. Compared with a similar previous study conducted in Naples in 1980, the results show a significant reduction in the prevalence of anti-HAV in each of the two age-groups (P less than 0.01), in the prevalence of any HBV marker in the 11 to 12-year-old group, as well as in the total population (P less than 0.05). The findings of the present study indicate that today, children in Naples are less exposed to the hepatitis A virus than in the past, most likely because of improvements in both the socioeconomic conditions and in health education during recent years. These same reasons, as well as decreased family size and a lower prevalence of HBeAg among HBsAg carriers could explain the decline, although to a lesser degree, of exposure to HBV infection.

STUDIES with certain carbohydrate-binding proteins of plant origin (as concanavalin A and wheat germ agglutinin) have indicated that some surface properties of embryonic1,2 and of virally transformed cells3–6 are different from those of adult cells. The interpretation of the differences in terms of structural organization of the cell surface is, however, still controversial (see for example refs. 7 and 8).