Selective and Fast Analysis of Chlorinated Paraffins in the Presence of Chlorinated Mono-, Di-, and Tri-Olefins with the R-Based Automated Spectra Evaluation Routine (RASER).

Chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are complex mixtures consisting of various C homologues ( ≈ 10-30) and Cl homologues ( ≈ 2-20). Technical CP mixtures are produced on a large scale (>10 t/y) and are widely used such as plasticizers in plastic and coolants in metalwork. Since 2017, short-chain CPs (C-C) are classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) by the Stockholm Convention but longer-chain CPs are not regulated.

Enzymatic synthesis and formation kinetics of mono- and di-hydroxylated chlorinated paraffins with the bacterial dehalogenase LinB from Sphingobium indicum.

Transformation studies of chlorinated paraffins (CPs) and the effects of CP transformation products on humans, biota and environment are rare. The focus here is on hydroxylation reactions. As for polyhalogenated persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in general, hydroxylation reactions convert lipophilic material to more polar compounds with increased mobility.

Chemical synthesis and characterization of single-chain C-chloroparaffin materials with defined degrees of chlorination.

Technical chlorinated paraffins (CPs) are produced via radical chlorination of n-alkane feedstocks with different carbon chain-lengths (∼C-C). Short-chain CPs (SCCPs, C-C) are classified as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) under the Stockholm Convention. This regulation has induced a shift to use longer-chain CPs as substitutes.

Cannabinoids vs. whole metabolome: Relevance of cannabinomics in analyzing Cannabis varieties.

Cannabis sativa has a long history of domestication both for its bioactive compounds and its fibers. This has produced hundreds of varieties, usually characterized in the literature by chemotypes, with Δ-THC and CBD content as the main markers. However, chemotyping could also be done based on minor compounds (phytocannabinoids and others).

Transformation of short-chain chlorinated paraffins and olefins with the bacterial dehalogenase LinB from Sphingobium Indicum - Kinetic models for the homologue-specific conversion of reactive and persistent material.

Structure, reactivity and physico-chemical properties of polyhalogenated compounds determine their up-take, transport, bio-accumulation, transformation and toxicity and their environmental fate. In technical mixtures of chlorinated paraffins (CPs), these properties are distributed due to the presence of thousands of homologues. We hypothesized that roles of CP dehalogenation reactions, catalyzed by the haloalkane dehalogenase LinB, depend on structural properties of the substrates, e.

Opioid overdose risk during and after drug treatment for heroin dependence: An incidence density case-control study nested in the VEdeTTE cohort.

Introduction And Aims: To corroborate protective effects of a range of drug treatment modalities against overdose mortality risk.

Design And Methods: Nested case-control study, with incidence density sampling, selecting controls retrospectively at each case event. Cases and controls came from a sub-cohort of opioid-dependent patients (n = 4444) from two Italian regions (Lazio and Piedmont).

Do the socioeconomic context and the European geographical area modify parental influences on smoking experimentation among adolescents?

Adolescent smoking is a major public health problem. While the socioeconomic status (SES) of the neighbourhood and that of the family are known to play a role in smoking onset and progression, it is not clear whether it modifies the association between parental influences and adolescent behaviour. The purpose of this study is to investigate family correlates of adolescent smoking experimentation and to explore the modifying role of socioeconomic context and European geographical area in a sample of European adolescents.

The use of multi-national web surveys for comparative analysis: Lessons from the European Web Survey on Drugs.

Background: Most comparative drug policy analyses utilise measures of drug use, often from general population surveys (GPS). However, the limitations of GPS are well-recognised, including the small numbers of people who use illicit drugs sampled. Web surveys offer a potential solution to such issues.

Factors Predicting Patient's Allocation to Short- and Long-Term Therapeutic Community Treatments in the Italian VOECT Cohort Study.

The Evaluation of Therapeutic Community Treatments and Outcomes (VOECT) study was conducted in 131 Italian Therapeutic Communities (TCs) in 2008/2009. All of the patients entering residential treatment for drug or alcohol dependence were invited to participate. Data regarding patient socio-demographic characteristics, drug and alcohol consumption, health and psychopathological status, prior treatments and outcomes, and their motivation score were collected upon enrolment onto the study.

Gender Differences in Heroin Addiction and Treatment: Results from the VEdeTTE Cohort.

Background: Gender differences strongly affect heroin addiction, from risk factors to patterns of consumption, access to treatments, and outcomes.

Objectives: To investigate gender differences in the VEdeTTE cohort of heroin addicts.

Methods: VEdeTTE is a cohort of 10,454 heroin users enrolled between 1998 and 2001 in 115 public drug treatment centres in Italy.

Psychopathological symptoms of patients with heroin addiction entering opioid agonist or therapeutic community treatment.

Background: The relationship between substance use disorders and psychiatric pathology is still an open question. The main aim of the present study was to verify whether the five psychopathological dimensions identified through the SCL-90 tool in a previous study carried out on patients with heroin addiction entering an outpatient opioid agonist treatment (OAT) were also observable in those entering a residential treatment community (TC). Further aims were to look at differences in the psychopathological profiles of patients entering a TC versus an OAT treatment and at the correlation between gender and the observed psychopathology.

Favourite alcohol advertisements and binge drinking among adolescents: a cross-cultural cohort study.

Aims: To investigate the association between having a favourite alcohol advertisement and binge drinking among European adolescents.

Design: Data were obtained from a longitudinal observational study on relationships between smoking and drinking and film tobacco and alcohol exposures.

Setting: State-funded schools.

Portrayal of alcohol consumption in movies and drinking initiation in low-risk adolescents.

Objectives: To investigate the hypothesis that exposure to alcohol consumption in movies affects the likelihood that low-risk adolescents will start to drink alcohol.

Methods: Longitudinal study of 2346 adolescent never drinkers who also reported at baseline intent to not to do so in the next 12 months (mean age 12.9 years, SD = 1.

Bayesian QTL analyses using pedigreed families of an outcrossing species, with application to fruit firmness in apple.

Proof of concept of Bayesian integrated QTL analyses across pedigree-related families from breeding programs of an outbreeding species. Results include QTL confidence intervals, individuals' genotype probabilities and genomic breeding values. Bayesian QTL linkage mapping approaches offer the flexibility to study multiple full sib families with known pedigrees simultaneously.

Smoking in movies and adolescent smoking initiation: longitudinal study in six European countries.

Background: Longitudinal studies from the U.S. suggest a causal relationship between exposure to images of smoking in movies and adolescent smoking onset.

Hepatitis C prevalence in injecting drug users in Europe, 1990-2007: impact of study recruitment setting.

Monitoring injecting drug users' (IDUs) health is challenging because IDUs form a difficult to reach population. We examined the impact of recruitment setting on hepatitis C prevalence. Individual datasets from 12 studies were merged.

Alcohol consumption in movies and adolescent binge drinking in 6 European countries.

Objective: The goal of this study was to investigate whether the association between exposure to images of alcohol use in movies and binge drinking among adolescents is independent of cultural context.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey study in 6 European countries (Germany, Iceland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, and Scotland) was conducted. A total of 16 551 pupils from 114 public schools with a mean (± SD) age of 13.

High youth access to movies that contain smoking in Europe compared with the USA.

Background: Based on evidence that exposure to smoking in movies is associated with adolescent smoking, the WHO has called on countries to assign a rating that restricts youth access to such movies.

Objective: To evaluate youth access to movies that portray smoking in European countries and compare with that in the USA.

Methods: The authors identified the most commercially successful movies screened in six European countries (Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and UK) and the USA between 2004 and 2009.

Smoking in movies and adolescent smoking: cross-cultural study in six European countries.

Aim: To investigate whether the association between exposure to smoking in movies and smoking among youth is independent of cultural context.

Method: Cross-sectional survey of 16,551 pupils recruited in Germany, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland and Scotland with a mean age of 13.4 years (SD=1.

Personality disorders among patients accessing alcohol detoxification treatment: prevalence and gender differences.

Background: Alcohol abuse and dependence are frequently associated with psychiatric disorders and personality disorders (PDs) with differences among gender. However, only few studies investigated gender differences in PDs among alcoholics. The aim of this study was to investigate PDs in a sample of patients accessing inpatient alcohol detoxification treatment and to describe gender differences in prevalence and comorbidity of PDs.

Towards the differentiation of non-treated and treated corundum minerals by ion-beam-induced luminescence and other complementary techniques.

Differentiation of treated and non-treated gemstones is a chief concern for major jewellery import companies. Low-quality corundum specimens coming from Asia appear to be often treated with heat, BeO or flux in order to enhance their properties as precious minerals. A set of corundum samples, rubies and sapphires from different origins, both treated and non-treated has been analysed at the Centre Européen d'Archéométrie, with ion-beam-induced luminescence (IBIL) and other complementary techniques such as Raman, proton-induced X-ray emission (PIXE), and proton-induced gamma-ray emission (PIGE).

Multi-disciplinary investigation of the tomb of Menna (TT69), Theban Necropolis, Egypt.

The archaeometrical survey of the tomb of Menna (TT69), which took place in November-December 2007, is part of the extended research program that aims to study and preserve this tomb in all its aspects. Menna was a high official who served as an overseer of Cadastral surveys during the reigns of pharaohs Tuthmosis IV and Amenhotep III (ca. 1419-1370 BC).

Static mechanical allodynia (SMA) is a paradoxical painful hypo-aesthesia: observations derived from neuropathic pain patients treated with somatosensory rehabilitation.

The present study aimed at investigating the time span it takes to remove a static mechanical allodynia (SMA) in humans suffering from chronic peripheral neuropathic pain. Forty-three subjects were included in the study and, during somatosensory rehabilitation, their SMA territory was precisely mapped. They then underwent distant vibrotactile counter stimulation (DVCS) treatment.