[Storytelling in prevention: the case-study of accidents at work. How the narrative method can enhance the prevention of occupational injuries.].

Objective: This article aims to analyze the elements of the narrative which, applied to investigations of accidents at work, transform them into stories, making the dynamics of accidents clearer, more complete and emotionally engaging and also capable of being transferred to a non-experts audience.

Method: The theoretical reference identified for the analysis of the accident histories is the work of the Lithuanian semiologist Algirdas Julien Greimas. The title, the dimensions of space and time, the characters (according to the actantial model), the point of view, the structure of the story (following the canonical narrative scheme), and the moral of the tale are the elements of the narration analyzed in this article.

The Community of Practice: A Method for Cooperative Learning of Occupational Health and Safety Inspectors.

Background: Workplace injuries in Italy still occur despite laws and safety norms. We need to understand the causes rooted in the context and social conditions, and need to improve the practice of Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) inspectors of the Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS) of the Italian regional health boards. The aims of this study were to describe the setting up of a Community of Practice (CoP) for the production of best practices for injury prevention and to evaluate the motivation of OSH inspectors for participating in the CoP and the effects of CoP participation on their professional practice.

Injury narratives in occupational safety and health prevention in Italy.

Background: Storytelling is an effective information source when coupled with technical-scientific evidence. It can promote a structured relationship between evidence-based knowledge and field experience of workplace safety and prevention services (WSPS) inspectors. This is key to identifying the causes of workplace injuries and to set priorities for prevention strategies.

[The community of practice as a place of prevention: the value of collective knowledge in occupational safety].

Background: Occupational Health and Safety (OSH) inspectors of the Health Units of Piedmont Region wrote 47 case histories based on data gathered from injury investigations as part of the project "From the injury investigation reports to case histories: creation of a collection of case histories on occupational injuries". Afterwards a Community of Practice (CoP) was initiated with the aim of sharing recommendations for prevention of occupational injuries.

Objective: The aims of the article are: 1) to describe the implementation process of the CoP; 2) to evaluate the benefits of CoP regarding the improvement of professional practice of OSH inspectors.

[Not Available].

Background: Many authors consider narrative descriptions of injuries gathered by OSH inspectors extremely important in identifying causes, setting priorities and drawing up intervention strategies. Narratives provide additional insight regarding complex behaviour, attitudes and interactions, which help to understand the decision patterns and the context of the injury. Storytelling is an effective way of sharing and remembering information.

Risk factors for upper extremity musculoskeletal symptoms among call center employees.

Objectives: To investigate the prevalence of musculoskeletal symptoms in the upper extremity (UE) in a sample of Italian call center (CC) operators, and the relationship between the symptoms and potential workplace risk factors.

Methods: During 2005-2006, 775 workers from seven CCs in the Turin area participated in a questionnaire survey of exposure to ergonomic, organizational and psychosocial factors at work, socio-demographics, lifestyle, symptoms and diseases. Musculoskeletal symptoms were defined as self-reported musculoskeletal symptoms in the UE during the previous 28 days, for which a physician was consulted and/or drugs were taken.

[Testing of interventions for prevention of heat wave related deaths: results among frail elderly and methodological problems].

Objective: to evaluate the impact of a programme based on soft home care services and an offer of social caretaking, compared to one based only on soft home care, for the prevention of heat-related health events among clinically and/or functionally frail elderly.

Design: cluster randomised controlled trial.

Setting And Participants: the study population included 2,612 persons over 75 years of age living alone in the city of Turin, North-West Italy, who were classified as clinically (hospitalization with specific diagnoses before summer 2004) and/or functionally (were receiving a disability pension) frail.

[Working conditions and health problems among call-centre operators: a study on self-reported data in the Piedmont Region (Italy)].

Background: Currently, about 250,000 workers are employed in the call-centre sector in Italy. The nature and the organization of the work exposes workers to a variety of psychosocial and ergonomic hazards, with a potential impact on physical and psychological health.

Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate working conditions and health status among call-centre operators, in order to estimate the prevalence of exposure to psychosocial and ergonomic risk factors, and of potentially work-related health problems.

[Food safety: short guide to Internet resources].

This report provides a brief overview of several reliable Internet resources concerning food toxicology. Some helpful resources have been identified on the basis of quality criteria and relevance. Only international and European sources, presenting an English or an Italian version, have been considered.

Food safety: a guide to Internet resources.

This report provides a brief overview of several reliable Internet resources concerning food toxicology. Some helpful Internet resources have been identified on the basis of quality criteria, of their relevance and the languages availability. The report includes four topic areas, the first provides a brief description of international resources, the second focuses on European resources, the third provides a description of some national resources and the last is a short overview of some databanks available on web.

[Description of home accidents in Piedmont based on current information sources].

Objective: To analyse data from existing sources to assess the distribution over space and time of home accidents in Piedmont.

Design: Analysis of distribution of causes of hospitalisation and deaths following a home accident.

Setting: For non-fatal accidents, we reviewed the database of hospital discharge records (HDR), which includes data from all hospitals in the region.

Expression of type III receptor tyrosine kinases FLT3 and KIT and responses to their ligands by acute myeloid leukemia blasts.

The stem cell tyrosine kinase 1 (STK1) protein is the human homologue of the murine FLT3 gene product, a receptor belonging to the FMS/KIT family. FLT3 and KIT with their ligands control the growth and differentiation of early human hemopoietic cells. In the present study, 16 cases of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) were examined by flow cytometry for cell surface expression of FLT3 and KIT receptors.

Flow cytometric detection and quantitative analysis of the GM-CSF receptor in human granulocytes and comparison with the radioligand binding assay.

A flow cytometric method to quantify the Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (GM-CSFr) on human cells is described. The number of GM-CSFr binding sites on human neutrophils was assessed by using different bead standards. Results were compared with those from conventional receptor quantification, which was performed by using the radioligand binding assay.

The effects of human FLT3 ligand on in vitro human megakaryocytopoiesis.

The human homolog of the murine flt3/flk2 gene product is a tyrosine kinase receptor that plays a role in regulating the proliferation and differentiation of cells in the hematopoietic system. Using a plasma-clot clonal assay and a long-term bone marrow culture (LTBMC) system, we studied the effects of the recently cloned human flt3 ligand (FL) alone and in combination with granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-3 (IL-3), or stem cell factor (c-kit ligand [KL]) on human megakaryocytopoiesis. The effects of FL on the primitive megakaryocyte (MK) progenitor cell, the burst-forming unit-megakaryocyte (BFU-MK), and the more differentiated colony-forming unit-megakaryocyte (CFU-MK) were determined.

Effects of human FLT3 ligand on myeloid leukemia cell growth: heterogeneity in response and synergy with other hematopoietic growth factors.

A novel hematopoietic growth factor for primitive hematopoietic progenitor cells, the ligand for the flt3/flk2 receptor, (FL), has been recently purified and its gene has been cloned. In the present study, we investigated the effects of FL on the proliferation and differentiation of normal and leukemic myeloid progenitor cells. We demonstrate that FL is a potent stimulator of the in vitro growth of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-3 (IL-3), or G-CSF-dependent granulocyte-macrophage committed precursors from Lin- CD34+ bone marrow cells of normal donors.

Blood cell redistribution in the lung after administration of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor.

Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), in addition to being a haematopoietic growth factor, has been shown to stimulate in vitro the production of interleukins 1, 6 and 8 (IL-1, IL-6 and IL-8), tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and GM-CSF by polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs), alveolar macrophages (AMs), fibroblasts and endothelial cells of the lung, and the growth and differentiation of resident alveolar macrophages. The aim of this study was to establish whether recombinant GM-CSF (rhGM-CSF), administered subcutaneously at a dose of 5 micrograms.kg-1 for 3 days in five patients with unresectable non-small cell lung cancer before starting chemotherapy, induces an increase in the alveolar cell count, and whether these cellular lung variations may be related to increases in the above-mentioned cytokines.

In vivo effect of human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) on neutrophil GM-CSF receptors.

The effect of in vivo administration of recombinant human granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (rhGM-CSF) on neutrophils GM-CSF receptor, was investigated in patients with neoplastic diseases and normal hematopoiesis. Patients were divided into two groups. Group A received a single dose of rhGM-CSF (5 micrograms/kg/day) and receptor studies were performed 90 min and 48 h after treatment.

Stem cell factor improvement of proliferation and maintenance of hemopoietic progenitors in myelodysplastic syndromes.

Human recombinant stem cell factor (rSCF) was tested for its capability of improving the defective growth of hemopoietic progenitors in 28 cases of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). In vitro growth and response to rSCF were quite variable. However, in most cases, rSCF stimulated CFU-GM growth induced by rG-CSF, rGM-CSF, rIL-3, 5637 conditioned medium (50-1400% enhancement).

Interleukin-3 in vivo: kinetic of response of target cells.

Human recombinant interleukin-3 (IL-3; Sandoz AG, Basel, Switzerland) was administered for 7 days to patients with neoplastic disease and normal hematopoiesis. The purpose of the study was to assess IL-3 toxicity, to identify target cells, to define their kinetics of response at different dose levels, and to determine if IL-3 in vivo increased the sensitivity of bone marrow (BM) progenitors to the action of other hematopoietic growth factors. A total of 21 patients entered the study; the dosage ranged from 0.

Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor and interleukin 3: target cells and kinetics of response in vivo.

Granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and interleukin 3 (IL-3) target cells have been studied in vivo in subjects with normal hemopoiesis. GM-CSF administration elicits a rapid and sustained neutrophilia, monocytosis and eosinophilia due to a direct proliferative stimulus on all progenitors and precursors of the granulomonopoietic lineage. GM-CSF is also a powerful stimulator of erythroid burst forming unit (BFU-E) and megakaryocyte colony forming unit (CFU-MK) proliferation.

Human IGHC locus restriction fragment length polymorphisms in IgG4 deficiency: evidence for a structural IGHC defect.

In man, IgG4 is the least abundant of the four IgG subclasses, and its serum levels vary considerably from one subject to another. Its deficiency has been thought to lead to recurrent infections; nevertheless, it is also commonly found in healthy individuals (1/400 in the Italian population). In 39 subjects with IgG4 serum levels less than 1 microgram/ml, we used 4 different probes (described in the accompanying study, Bottaro et al.