Amphipod crustaceans have been widely used as invertebrate models in ecotoxicology due to their importance in the food chain. However, few studies have evaluated the genotoxic effects of pollutants in this model using the comet assay. The main obstacle to using amphipods in the comet assay is the difficulty in obtaining enough blood cells from a single individual. In this study, we evaluated the genotoxic effects of the water-soluble fraction (WSF) of heavy oil on the brackish/freshwater amphipod Quadrivisio aff. lutzi, which is common in the coastal lagoons of southeastern Brazil, using hemocytes obtained from single amphipods (without pooling) after optimizing hemolymph extraction. The comet assay revealed significantly higher DNA damage levels (2- to 6-fold higher) in treated amphipods compared to untreated ones with a sublethal concentration of 17.6 % of the WSF within 72 h of treatment. Two independent experiments confirmed an "up and down" pattern of DNA damage, measured as the % of DNA contained in the tail of the comets. Elevations in DNA damage levels were observed at the 6 and 48 h time points, while very low levels of DNA damage were observed at the 24 and 72 h time points. Furthermore, the comet assay revealed gender variability in the levels of DNA damage after short-term exposure.
587 Background: Biliary tract cancer, including cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder carcinoma, have low incidence and poor prognosis. Despite representing a heterogeneous group, the studies encompass these malignancies as the same entity. There are few phase III trials that evaluate treatment sequencing in the metastatic setting. The ABC 02 trial showed an increase in overall survival (OS) with Gemcitabine and Cisplatin (GemCis) in first line and the ABC 06 trial an increase in OS in second-line Folfox. Recently, the TOPAZ 1 trial demonstrated benefit of first-line immunotherapy. The primary objective of this study was OS in patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma according to treatment. The secondary objective was to analyze the patients characteristics. Methods: Retrospective analysis of medical records from two private institutions. Patients were eligible if they had advanced intra or extra cholangiocarcinoma or gallbladder carcinoma, undergoing chemotherapy from January of 2015 to January of 2021. Results: Database included 82 patients with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma, extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma or gallbladder carcinoma, 54%, 23% and 23%, respectively. Median age was 65 years old, with an equal proportion between sexes. 75% had metastasis at diagnosis and 12 patients (14%) underwent more than two lines of treatment. Median OS was 288 days. GemCis was the most common first line protocol (62%), followed by Gemcitabine and Oxaliplatin (17%). There was no difference in OS between the regimens, regardless of the primary site. Folfiri and Folfox were used in the same proportion in second line (17% for each), but with a significant increase in OS for Folfiri (485 days vs. 368 days, p=0.02), regardless of the primary site. According to univariate analysis of factors associated with mortality, the significant variables were: surgery for primary site (HR 0.49 [95% CI 0.28-0.85]; p=0.01), metastasis at diagnosis (HR 1.89 [95% CI 1.10-3.25]; p=0.02), liver metastasis at diagnosis (HR 1.69 [95% CI 1.02-2.80]; p=0.04), and more than two lines of treatment (HR 0.41 [95% CI 0.21-0.80]; p=0.009). Conclusions: Despite being retrospective and not using first-line immunotherapy, this study was able to demonstrate no difference in OS between first-line regimens with GemCis or Gemcitabine and Oxaliplatin. However, when analyzing second-line sequencing, Folfiri demonstrated benefit independent of the primary site.
Integrate health and safety issues of workplace into design of new installations is a challenge for design engineers. The integration of ergonomics studies into design process is a proven strategy to achieve this challenge. The case presented reports the experience ergonomics integration after the basic project for new chemical laboratory facilities for petroleum research center at a Brazilian petroleum industry. The evaluation was based on usability concepts and identification of usual work situations; it was developed over the actual activities of 23 laboratories about to be transferred to a new building under construction. Due to the late integration of ergonomics into the design process, there were limited possibilities of interfering in design decisions, but still, many contributions were made to improve work conditions regarding equipment specification as laboratory bonnets, workbenches, dispensers for contaminated material and work stations. The main recommendations made to improve work conditions at the new petroleum research facilities. The experience related may be applied by design engineers to improve new facilities projects; ergonomists working in laboratory environments. The recommendations presented shows that ergonomic studies are not related to worker needs, but to activity needs. Upon confronting the basic project with the activities to be performed in the new space, it was ascertained that distributing equipment according only to security norms creates incompatibilities if the activity to be developed is not taken into account. Those incompatibilities may cause accidents, hinder access for equipment maintenance, provide insufficient space for contaminated material disposal and provide super estimated or overestimated space to develop laboratorial activities. The earlier integration of ergonomics studies into the design process can prevent most of those incompatibilities. The consequence of late integration entails in the impossibility of correcting problems reproduced and which consume time and resources in reviewing project aspects. The significance of this paper is to relate the experience, so it can be applied by design engineers at future developments of new petroleum research laboratories and stimulate the integration of ergonomics into the design process so health and safety issues can be integrated in design process.
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