Understanding Social Behaviour in a Health-Care Facility from Localization Data: A Case Study.

The most frequent form of dementia is Alzheimer's Disease (AD), a severe progressive neurological pathology in which the main cognitive functions of an individual are compromised. Recent studies have found that loneliness and living in isolation are likely to cause an acceleration in the cognitive decline associated with AD. Therefore, understanding social behaviours of AD patients is crucial to promote sociability, thus delaying cognitive decline, preserving independence, and providing a good quality of life.

Aluminium levels in Italian diets and in selected foods from aluminium utensils.

In Italy, data on aluminium concentration in food items are scarce although aluminium containers are widely used to cook, to freeze or to wrap foods (foil) and it is known that aluminium can migrate from containers to foods. Therefore, an experimental study was carried out to quantify aluminium exposure from ingestion of actual total diets and from migration from containers to foods in conditions representative of the actual use. Samples of 24 h diets were collected, homogenized, lyophilized and the amount of aluminium was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry.

Optimization and comparison of three different methods for the determination of Rn-222 in water.

Three different systems for the determination of radon in water have been examined: liquid scintillation counting (LSC), degassification followed by Lucas cell counting (LCC) and gamma counting (GC). Particular care has been devoted to the sampling methodologies of the water. Comparative results for several environmental samples are given.

[Trace elements: biological role and nutritional aspects for humans].

The methodological approaches generally adopted to ascertain the essentiality of trace elements present in human beings at levels of the order of magnitude of 1 micrograms g-1 or less are illustrated. An element is recognized as essential when it has a well defined function (as stabilizer, structural, hormonal or as enzymatic cofactor) and when it is always present in tissues and organs in well defined concentration ranges, when it induces reproducible physiological effects, when it is possible to prevent and treat consequences due to its deficiency by its supplementation. For the trace elements Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, I, Mn, Se and Zn a short summary of their biological functions in humans is presented.

Levels of some trace elements in selected autopsy organs, and in hair and blood samples from adult subjects of the Italian population.

This study, which is part of a research program for the determination of trace element reference levels in various human tissues for the Italian population, presents the concentrations of Se, Hg, Cr, Cs, Sc, Rb, Zn, Fe, Co, and Sb in lung, liver, spleen, and kidney autopsy samples taken from 14 adult subjects of the Italian population who died from accidental causes. Concentrations of the same trace elements are given also for blood and hair samples taken from subjects of the general Italian population and of a population group living in a small coastal town that has an average annual fish consumption well above the national average. The analytical method used was Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis.

A study of the mechanisms and sites of action of desferrioxamine in thalassaemia major.

The effects of slow subcutaneous (s.c.) infusions of desferrioxamine (Desferal: DF) on iron metabolism and excretion were studied in 6 thalassaemia major patients in the course of a ferrokinetic study with 59Fe as a label; s.

Results of a survey on radioactivity of building materials in Italy.

A program is underway in Italy to identify construction materials with high radioactivity contents and to evaluate the resulting indoor exposure on a nationwide scale. Building materials surveyed include those of natural origin and those employing particular by-products such as fly ash and phosphogypsum. The survey currently emphasizes natural building materials, which are widely used in many areas having particular geological features.

Standardization requirements for the in vivo counting techniques of gamma - and soft X-ray radionuclides.

The techniques for the in vivo counting of the internal body burden of radionuclides for radiation protection purposes can be divided into two broad categories according to the energy of the measured radiation: (a) measurement of internal contamination due to radionuclides emitting gamma-rays with energies above 100 keV; (b) measurement of internal contamination due to radionuclides emitting soft gamma-or X-rays with energies below 100 keV. The subdivision into two categories is mainly dictated by the many different problems encountered in counting low levels of X-ray emitting radionuclides (such as plutonium isotopes) in man. A mandatory requirement to obtain a reasonable sensitivity of the counting systems for both categories requires a sensible reduction of the normal background due to cosmic rays and to the natural radioactivity present in the human environment (soil, building materials, air, etc).

Long-term 238Pu and 239Pu retention and organ distribution in mice at low doses.

The 238Pu and 239Pu distribution in femur, liver, kidneys and testes and the retention function in the skeleton and liver have been studied in about 50 (C57 BL X C3H) F1 male mice. Groups of about 5-10 male mice were sacrificed from 10 to 800 days postinjection to cover their entire life span. All animals were injected intravenously with monomeric solutions of plutonium (1% trisodium citrate at pH 6.

The concentration of some trace elements in human milk from Italy.

The concentration of some trace elements has been measured in samples of breast milk collected from several subjects over a period of about 1-3 months starting 15 days post-partum. A decrease of Zn concentration during the lactation period was observed in all subjects. The marked relation existing between dietary intake and milk content of trace elements is confirmed by the finding that Cs concentration in diet, fresh waters and human milk samples from Latium were one to two orders of magnitude higher than those measured in a small town in the south of Italy.