MR-FLIP: a new method that combines a functional lumen imaging probe with anatomical information for spatial compliance assessment of the anal sphincter muscles.

AIM: Continence results from a complex interplay between anal canal (AC) muscles and sensorimotor feedback mechanisms. The passive ability of the AC to withstand opening pressure - its compliance - has recently been shown to correlate with continence. A functional lumen imaging probe (FLIP) is used to assess AC compliance, although it provides no anatomical information. Therefore, assessment of the compliance specific anatomical structures has not been possible, and the anatomical position of critical functional zones remains unknown. In addition, the FLIP technique assumes a circular orifice cross-section, which has not been shown for the AC. To address these shortcomings, a technique combining FLIP with a medical imaging modality is needed. METHOD: We implemented a new research method (MR-FLIP) that combines FLIP with MR imaging. Twenty healthy volunteers underwent MR-FLIP and conventional FLIP assessment. MR-FLIP was validated by comparison with FLIP results. Anatomical markers were identified, and the cross-sectional shape of the orifice was investigated. RESULTS: MR-FLIP provides compliance measurements identical to those obtained by conventional FLIP. Anatomical analysis revealed that the least compliant AC zone was located at the proximal end of the external anal sphincter (EAS). The cross-sectional shape of the AC was found to deviate only slightly from circularity in healthy volunteers. CONCLUSION: The proposed method is equivalent to classical FLIP. It establishes for the first time direct mapping between local tissue compliance and anatomical structure, which is key to gaining novel insights into (in)continence. In addition, MR-FLIP provides a tool for better understanding conventional FLIP measurements in the AC by quantifying its limitations and assumptions.

On the instability and constraints of the interaction between number representation and spatial attention in healthy humans: A concise review of the literature and new experimental evidence.

The relationship between number and space representation is still one of the most debated topics in studies of mathematical cognition. Here we offer a concise review of two important behavioral effects that have pointed out the use of a spatially left-to-right oriented mental number line (MNL) in healthy participants: the SNARC effect and the attentional SNARC effect (Att-SNARC). Following a brief summary of seminal investigations on the introspective properties of the MNL, we review recent empirical evidence and theories on the functional origin of the SNARC effect, where upon left/right response choices faster reaction times are found for small numbers with left-side responses and for large numbers with right-side responses. Then we offer a summary of the studies that have investigated whether the mere perception of visual Arabic numbers presented at central fixation can engender spatially congruent lateral shifts of attention, ie, leftward for small numbers and rightward for large ones, ie, the Att-SNARC effect. Finally, we summarize four experiments that tested whether the Att-SNARC depends on an active rather than passive processing of centrally presented digit cues. In line with other recent studies, these experiment do not replicate the original Att-SNARC and show that the mere perception of Arabic numerals does not trigger automatic shifts of attention. These shifts are instead found when the task requires the explicit left/right spatial coding of digit cues, ie, Spatial Att-SNARC (Fattorini et al., 2015b). Nonetheless, the reliability of the Spatial Att-SNARC effect seems not as strong as that of conventional SNARC effects where left/right codes are mapped onto responses rather than directly mapped on digit cues. Comparing the magnitude of digits to a numerical reference, ie, "5," also produced a Magnitude Comparison Att-SNARC that was weaker than the spatial one. However, the reliability of this Magnitude Comparison Att-SNARC should be considered with caution because, like in a study by Zanolie and Pecher (2014), we recently failed to replicate this effect in a separate behavioral-event-related potentials study in preparation (Fattorini et al., 2015a). All together the results from the present series of experiments support the hypothesis that spatial coding is not an intrinsic part of number representation and that number-space interaction is determined by the use of stimulus- or response-related spatial codes in the task at hand.

Occupational stress, job insecurity and perception of the health status in Italian teachers with stable or temporary employment.

The object of this study is to analyse job stress and insecurity and the perception of symptoms (health status) of 374 teachers (30 women and 74 men) with stable or temporary employment in schools in Pescara, a town in Central Italy. Job strain and job insecurity were analysed by an Italian version of the Karasek?s questionnaire, the perception of the health status by a 12 item test, and state and trait anxiety by STAI I and STAI II. There were no significant differences depending on the type of school. The young women with temporary contracts showed only higher levels of job insecurity than the women with stable employment, while those over 50 years old also showed more elevated values of job strain. Men with temporary contracts showed higher levels of both job insecurity and state and trait anxiety. The following highly significant correlations were observed: a) in women, job strain and perception of symptoms vs STAI I and STAI II (p<0.001); b) in men, job strain, job insecurity and perception of symptoms vs STAI II; job strain vs perception of symptoms as well as a negative correlation of decision latitude vs job insecurity, STAI I and STAI II (p<0.01). These results highlight differences in the perception of job insecurity between men and women. In particular, the decision latitude (skill decision + decision authority) plays an important role in men; temporary employment is mainly related to anxiety in men, while anxiety enhances the perception of poor health status mainly in women.

[Updating in occupational health for health care workers]. / Aggiornamenti in tema di tutela della salute occupazionale dei lavoratori della sanità.

The board of the Thematic Section on Preventive Medicine for Health Care Workers of the Italian Society of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene (SIMLII) programmed a national conference on occupational risks of health care workers to be held in late 2009. Main topics will be: a) biohazards; b) biomechanical risk; c) psychosocial factors. Three different working groups were established to tackle critical aspects and suggest practical recommendations to occupational health professionals. Preliminary issues are presented while final results will be presented at the conference on September 2009.

[Fireman at work]. / Il Vigile del Fuoco al Lavoro.

The objectives of the research are to identify, through procedures and tools psychosocial investigation, appropriate measures for the improvement of health surveillance and training, in order to promote higher standards of welfare in a population of workers exposed to systematically emergency. For the survey data was used questionnaire "The fireman to work" consists of 52 items, administered anonymously. The areas of the questionnaire include: 1) structural data. 2) labor: organizational (working at the place of residence, age, role, status); 3) interpersonal relationships: interpersonal relations horizontal and vertical (colleagues, employees, above); 4) organizational climate. 5) safety, health and welfare at work. 6) habits and lifestyles. The number of questionnaires returned and the results valid for the analysis was around 50%; Also with a percentage of returns oscillating between 0% of Bologna and 100% of Padua. Therefore it was not possible to consider the questionnaires (3741) as representative of the population in question. However the study is of great importance since is the first survey of its kind carried out in our country.

People and the labour market: integration and differences.

This survey aims at identifying methods and procedures to prevent possible gender discrimination at the workplace. It is intended to: a) establish whether mobbing is present in the companies involved in this survey; b) verify whether the aetiology and mobbing dynamics are the same for men and women. This survey involved 887 persons in eight companies, operating in different economic sectors, and located in the VIII, IX and X Municipalities, in the south east area of Rome. The collected data seem to exclude the presence of evident psychological terrorism, even though there can be sound reasons for it to develop: bad job organization, lack of personnel policy and an increase in the stress level, all of which are the most common elements paving the way for mobbing. The results of the survey reveal a highly dysfunctional working situation even though they do not comply with the characteristic criteria of psychological violence, known as mobbing. In Italy, a major organizational restructuring (privatisation, mergers, etc), as well as the introduction of new types of jobs, has contributed to turn mobbing from an occasional phenomenon into a social problem about which everyone is concerned (anti-mobbing centres, specialized clinics, bills, etc). This study focuses on some aspects of the organizational work structure which would otherwise usually be disregarded at the risk of causing uneasiness and/or stress pathologies.

Effect of occupational stress and anxiety on natural killer lymphocyte activity of men and women employed in a university.

The aim of this study is the immune response of the staff of a university and a museum (referent group). 46 women and 40 men with similar mean age (44 years) were investigated. The first group of women (A) worked in libraries, B in offices in contact with students, C as secretaries and D in a museum. One group of men (E) was composed of employees of the university, one worked in a library temporarily located underground (F) and the last group (G) in a museum. STAI I and II (state and trait anxiety, respectively), and occupational stress were measured by questionnaires. Blood samples were collected for determining NK cytotoxic activity vs human erythroleukaemia cells and the lymphocyte subsets CD45+, CD45+-CD3+, CD45+-CD3+-CD4+, CD45+-CD3+-CD8+, CD45+-CD3-CD8+, CD3+-CD16+-56+ and CD3+-CD19+. Group B showed significantly higher score of occupational stress and STAI I (but not of STAI II) than the other groups of women. Group F of men showed higher levels of occupational stress and both STAI I and II than groups E and G. Group B of women and F of men also showed significantly lower values of blood cytotoxic activity. The scores of STAI I and II were negatively correlated with the cytotoxic activity expressed per ml of blood and/or total lymphocytes. and/or NK CD45+-CD16+-CD56+ cells. In conclusion, this study shows that occupational stress may increase anxiety which is negatively correlated with blood cytotoxic activity. This is a useful tool for determining the health effects of stress.

[Questionnaire for the mobbing risk: CDL2.0]. / Uno strumento per la valutazione del rischio mobbing: CDL2.0.

The aim of the study is to develop and validate a questionnaire able to evaluate the risk of mobbing at the workplace. A multiple-choice questionnaire has been developed which contains, among the different items, only one revealing a mobbing situation. The questionnaire has been administered to two groups (group A--243 subjects in a mobbing situation and group B--63 subjects without exposure to mobbing) and the differences in the scores obtained have been analysed. The questionnaire has proved to be valid and reliable. The results show that the presence of five mobbing actions is sufficient to define the workplace situation as potentially at risk for mobbing. The study reveals some limits in the selection of the two samples thus needing some adjustment. However, the questionnaire, also in the present form, can be considered a tool able to detect the mobbing situations.

Acoso moral (mobbing): un nuevo riesgo en la medicina del trabajo / Moral harassment: a new risk in occupational medicine

Los riesgos psicosociales se están constituyendo en una de las principales causas de alteración de la salud en los puestos de trabajo. En los últimos años, el "riesgo relacional o interpersonal" - mobbing - se ha ido incrementando debido a los cambios macroeconómicos y por el cambio en la tipología del trabajo y en los riesgos laborales derivados. Cada trabajador, independientemente de las características de su propia personalidad y del propio carácter, puede ser objeto de acoso moral. Los primeros efectos derivados del mobbing son observables sobre la salud de la víctima que, casi siempre, después de un intervalo variable, se altera con manifestaciones en la esfera neuropsíquica, Las consecuancias sociales pueden ser devastadoras. El costo del mobbing no se limita a los aspectos individuales, sino que se refleja generalmente a nivel de la empresa. La gestión del fenómeno de mobbing es multidisciplinaria. A nivel asistencial, el rol del médico del trabajo, del psiquiatra y del psicólogo son interdependientes y deben por lo tanto ser integrados en una estructura funcional unitaria...

Acoso moral (mobbing): un nuevo riesgo en la medicina del trabajo / Moral harassment: a new risk in occupational medicine

Los riesgos psicosociales se están constituyendo en una de las principales causas de alteración de la salud en los puestos de trabajo. En los últimos años, el "riesgo relacional o interpersonal" - mobbing - se ha ido incrementando debido a los cambios macroeconómicos y por el cambio en la tipología del trabajo y en los riesgos laborales derivados. Cada trabajador, independientemente de las características de su propia personalidad y del propio carácter, puede ser objeto de acoso moral. Los primeros efectos derivados del mobbing son observables sobre la salud de la víctima que, casi siempre, después de un intervalo variable, se altera con manifestaciones en la esfera neuropsíquica, Las consecuancias sociales pueden ser devastadoras. El costo del mobbing no se limita a los aspectos individuales, sino que se refleja generalmente a nivel de la empresa. La gestión del fenómeno de mobbing es multidisciplinaria. A nivel asistencial, el rol del médico del trabajo, del psiquiatra y del psicólogo son interdependientes y deben por lo tanto ser integrados en una estructura funcional unitaria...(AU)

[Effects of monotonous computer work on performance]. / Effetti della monotonia del compito in attività lavorative ai VDT.

A monotonous, automated task of prolonged duration performed on a computer is likely to increase the propensity to sleep. Present research shows the physiological effect is not perceived by the subjects in terms of drowsiness or a change of mood. This augments the risk of this effect causing unforeseeable bouts of sleep during the performance of the task.

[Health status of journalists and organization of work in a national daily newspaper]. / Indagine sullo stato di salute dei giornalisti e sulla organizzazione del lavoro in un quotidiano nazionale.

A multidisciplinary investigation was performed on 173 reporters (53 men and 20 women) of a newspaper. The microclimate and illumination conditions of the main seat, in which the use of VDT was beginning, were satisfactory, although not all the instruments were correctly adjusted. A very low percentage of reporters working in the main center was suffering from arterial hypertension indicating the presence of the "healthy worker effect". The values of plasma cortisol and arterial blood pressure of 10 reporters of the main seat, except two cases, changed normally during the evening hours. It is to point out that among the reporters there was significant correlation between spondylosis and astigmatism. The psychological investigation evidenced that the reporters were aggressive, eager of success and with constant attention. The EMG biofeedback demonstrated in the reporters with a more prolonged period of employment nervous tension and difficulty in relaxing. Particularly, in the reporters of the main center, the Stait-Trait Anxiety Inventory was more altered than in those of the peripheral seats.