Is sustainability certification for biochar the answer to environmental risks?

Biochar has the potential to make a major contribution to the mitigation of climate change, and enhancement of plant production. However, in order for biochar to fulfill this promise, the industry and regulating bodies must take steps to manage potential environmental threats and address negative perceptions. The potential threats to the sustainability of biochar systems, at each stage of the biochar life cycle, were reviewed. We propose that a sustainability framework for biochar could be adapted from existing frameworks developed for bioenergy. Sustainable land use policies, combined with effective regulation of biochar production facilities and incentives for efficient utilization of energy, and improved knowledge of biochar impacts on ecosystem health and productivity could provide a strong framework for the development of a robust sustainable biochar industry. Sustainability certification could be introduced to provide confidence to consumers that sustainable practices have been employed along the production chain, particularly where biochar is traded internationally.

Geochemical compositions of Neogene phosphatic brachiopods: Implications for ancient environmental and marine conditions

Isotopic and trace element compositions of Miocene and Pliocene phosphatic brachiopods (Lingulidae and Discinidae) from southern North Sea, the Central Paratethys and the Atlantic coast of Europe were investigated in order to trace past environmental conditions and marine connections between the northern boreal and the southern subtropical-tropical marine basins. The North Sea genus Glottidia yielded low epsilon(Nd) and high delta O-18(PO4) values through the Mio-Pliocene indicating cold habitat temperature where the local seawater was dominated by the Atlantic Ocean. In contrast, the Middle Miocene Lingulidae and Discinidae of the Paratethys inhabited warm subtropical seawater with the possible influence of the Indian Ocean via the Mediterranean, as supported by their average epsilon(Nd) value of -8.3. The combined geochemical data support a thermal and marine separation of the Paratethys from the North Sea with no direct connection or major exchange of water from the Miocene onwards. The temperature in the Paratethys was very similar to that inferred from brachiopods from the Middle Miocene of western France, but the seawater epsilon(Nd) value here is identical to that of contemporaneous Atlantic Ocean. A Late Miocene lingulid brachiopod from southern Portugal has a high delta O-18(PO4), similar to the specimens investigated from the North Sea, reflecting either a deep water habitat or formation after the onset of major global cooling that resulted in an increased delta O-18 value of seawater. The epsilon(Nd) value of -8.4 for this site is compatible with an influence of Mediterranean outflow. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Unexpected genomic variability in clinical and environmental strains of the pathogenic yeast Candida parapsilosis

Invasive candidiasis is the most commonly reported invasive fungal infection worldwide. Although Candida albicans remains the main cause, the incidence of emerging Candida species, such as C. parapsilosis is increasing. It has been postulated that C. parapsilosis clinical isolates result from a recent global expansion of a virulent clone. However, the availability of a single genome for this species has so far prevented testing this hypothesis at genomic scales. We present here the sequence of three additional strains from clinical and environmental samples. Our analyses reveal unexpected patterns of genomic variation, shared among distant strains, that argue against the clonal expansion hypothesis. All strains carry independent expansions involving an arsenite transporter homolog, pointing to the existence of directional selection in the environment, and independent origins of the two clinical isolates. Furthermore, we report the first evidence for the existence of recombination in this species. Altogether, our results shed new light onto the dynamics of genome evolution in C. parapsilosis.

Le gradient entre la pression pulmonaire artérielle diastolique et la pression pulmonaire d'occlusion est important dans l'évaluation des hypertensions pulmonaires post- capillaires

Les hypertensions pulmonaires post-capillaires sont définies par une pression artérielle moyenne (PAPm) ≥ 25mmHg et une pression pulmonaire d'occlusion (PAPO) > 15mmHg. Une augmentation de la PAP peut être soit passive, transmission rétrograde de l'augmentation de la pression du coeur gauche ( gradient transpulmonaire GTP ≤ 12mmHg), soit active, élévation hors de proportion de la PAP due à une augmentation du tonus vasculaire et un remodelage vasculaire (GTP > 12mmHg). Le gradient entre la pression artérielle diastolique (PAPd) et la PAPO, qui est normal (≤ 5mmHg) dans les HP post-capillaires, n'est actuellement plus utilisé dans le diagnostic et l'évaluation des HP dans la dernière classification de 2008 (Dana Point 2008). But : - analyse des données cliniques, échocardiographiques et hémodynamiques des HP post-capillaires des patients référés dans un centre de référence d'HP - évaluer le rôle du gradient PAPd-PAPO dans la prise en charge des HP Méthode : Nous avons analysé de manière rétrospective les données cliniques, hémodynamiques et échocardiographiques des patients qui ont été diagnostiqué pour une HP au moyen d'un cathétérisme cardiaque entre janvier 2009 et juin 2011 au centre de référence d'HP du Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV). Résultats: - 40% des patients ont les critères pour une HP post-capillaire - 33% des patients ont une HP qui répond à la définition d'HP "hors de propotion" avec un GTP > 12mmHg - 74% des patients avec HP post-capillaire ont une cardiopathie gauche associée avec des signes échocardiographiques de dysfonction diastolique - Sur les 27 patients avec une HP du groupe 2, 44% ont plusieurs facteurs de risque (FR) pour une HP - 75% de ces patients avec une cardiopathie gauche ainsi qu'un autre FR pour une HP ont un gradient PAPd-PAPO > 5 mmHg versus 8% de ceux qui n'ont pas d'autre FR (p-value 0.0075) Conclusion : Les HP post-capillaires sont fréquentes chez les patients adressés au centre de référence d'HP pour une suspicion d'HP. Dans notre cohorte 85% des patients avec HP post-capillaire ont une HP hors de proportion dont 44% ont un FR non cardiaque susceptible d'être à l'origine de l'HP. Le gradient PAPd-PAPO semble être un meilleur facteur discriminant que le GTP pour la caractérisation et la classification des HP.

Towards a dynamic model of e-commerce: environmental, technological and organisational drivers of B2C along time

Despite the important benefits for firms of commercial initiatives on the Internet, e-commerce is still an emerging distribution channel, even in developed countries. Thus, more needs to be known about the mechanisms affecting its development. A large number of works have studied firms¿ e-commerce adoption from technological, intraorganizational, institutional, or other specific perspectives, but there is a need for adequately tested integrative frameworks. Hence, this work proposes and tests a model of firms¿ business-to-consumer (called B2C) e-commerce adoption that is founded on a holistic vision of the phenomenon. With this integrative approach, the authors analyze the joint influence of environmental, technological, and organizational factors; moreover, they evaluate this effect over time. Using various representative Spanish data sets covering the period 1996-2005, the findings demonstrate the suitability of the holistic framework. Likewise, some lessons are learned from the analysis of the key building blocks. In particular, the current study provides evidence for the debate about the effect of competitive pressure, since the findings show that competitive pressure disincentivizes e-commerce adoption in the long term. The results also show that the development or enrichment of the consumers¿ consumption patterns, the technological readiness of the market forces, the firm¿s global scope, and its competences in innovation continuously favor e-commerce adoption.

Computational analysis of the genetic and environmental contributions to disease-related human phenotypes: From predicting adverse lipid response of HIV patients receiving antiretroviral therapy to genome-wide association studies of cardiovascular and lipid related disorders

Genetic variants influence the risk to develop certain diseases or give rise to differences in drug response. Recent progresses in cost-effective, high-throughput genome-wide techniques, such as microarrays measuring Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs), have facilitated genotyping of large clinical and population cohorts. Combining the massive genotypic data with measurements of phenotypic traits allows for the determination of genetic differences that explain, at least in part, the phenotypic variations within a population. So far, models combining the most significant variants can only explain a small fraction of the variance, indicating the limitations of current models. In particular, researchers have only begun to address the possibility of interactions between genotypes and the environment. Elucidating the contributions of such interactions is a difficult task because of the large number of genetic as well as possible environmental factors.In this thesis, I worked on several projects within this context. My first and main project was the identification of possible SNP-environment interactions, where the phenotypes were serum lipid levels of patients from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) treated with antiretroviral therapy. Here the genotypes consisted of a limited set of SNPs in candidate genes relevant for lipid transport and metabolism. The environmental variables were the specific combinations of drugs given to each patient over the treatment period. My work explored bioinformatic and statistical approaches to relate patients' lipid responses to these SNPs, drugs and, importantly, their interactions. The goal of this project was to improve our understanding and to explore the possibility of predicting dyslipidemia, a well-known adverse drug reaction of antiretroviral therapy. Specifically, I quantified how much of the variance in lipid profiles could be explained by the host genetic variants, the administered drugs and SNP-drug interactions and assessed the predictive power of these features on lipid responses. Using cross-validation stratified by patients, we could not validate our hypothesis that models that select a subset of SNP-drug interactions in a principled way have better predictive power than the control models using "random" subsets. Nevertheless, all models tested containing SNP and/or drug terms, exhibited significant predictive power (as compared to a random predictor) and explained a sizable proportion of variance, in the patient stratified cross-validation context. Importantly, the model containing stepwise selected SNP terms showed higher capacity to predict triglyceride levels than a model containing randomly selected SNPs. Dyslipidemia is a complex trait for which many factors remain to be discovered, thus missing from the data, and possibly explaining the limitations of our analysis. In particular, the interactions of drugs with SNPs selected from the set of candidate genes likely have small effect sizes which we were unable to detect in a sample of the present size (<800 patients).In the second part of my thesis, I performed genome-wide association studies within the Cohorte Lausannoise (CoLaus). I have been involved in several international projects to identify SNPs that are associated with various traits, such as serum calcium, body mass index, two-hour glucose levels, as well as metabolic syndrome and its components. These phenotypes are all related to major human health issues, such as cardiovascular disease. I applied statistical methods to detect new variants associated with these phenotypes, contributing to the identification of new genetic loci that may lead to new insights into the genetic basis of these traits. This kind of research will lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying these pathologies, a better evaluation of disease risk, the identification of new therapeutic leads and may ultimately lead to the realization of "personalized" medicine.

Environmental data mining and modeling based on machine learning algorithms and geostatistics

The paper presents some contemporary approaches to spatial environmental data analysis. The main topics are concentrated on the decision-oriented problems of environmental spatial data mining and modeling: valorization and representativity of data with the help of exploratory data analysis, spatial predictions, probabilistic and risk mapping, development and application of conditional stochastic simulation models. The innovative part of the paper presents integrated/hybrid model-machine learning (ML) residuals sequential simulations-MLRSS. The models are based on multilayer perceptron and support vector regression ML algorithms used for modeling long-range spatial trends and sequential simulations of the residuals. NIL algorithms deliver non-linear solution for the spatial non-stationary problems, which are difficult for geostatistical approach. Geostatistical tools (variography) are used to characterize performance of ML algorithms, by analyzing quality and quantity of the spatially structured information extracted from data with ML algorithms. Sequential simulations provide efficient assessment of uncertainty and spatial variability. Case study from the Chernobyl fallouts illustrates the performance of the proposed model. It is shown that probability mapping, provided by the combination of ML data driven and geostatistical model based approaches, can be efficiently used in decision-making process. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coliform density in oyster culture waters and its relationship with environmental factors

The objective of this work was to evaluate the total and thermotolerant coliform densities in the oyster culture water of Cananeia, SP, Brazil, correlating these densities with environmental variables and tidal variations. Superficial water samples were collected in two tide conditions (spring and neap) from three areas of Cananéia municipality (Mandira, Itapitangui and Cooperostra). The three studied areas showed good conditions for the culture regarding coliform densities. The two tidal conditions differed significantly as to total coliform concentration; however, the same procedure was not performed for thermotolerant coliforms. No correlation was observed between water temperature, pH, and concentrations of total and thermotolerant coliforms. Coliform density was positively correlated with rainfall and negatively correlated with salinity. Spring and neap tides differed significantly as to coliform number. Simple diagnosis of environmental conditions of the crop fields is insufficient to assess water quality of shellfish cultivation. A continuous monitoring program of planted areas is necessary both for the assessment of water quality potential for marine culture and for ensuring safe consumption of seafood, besides constituting an important tool to understand the relationships between contamination and the involved environmental variables.

The environmental effectiviness of alternative agri-environmental policy reforms : theoretical and empirical analysis

Selostus: Maatalouden ympäristöpolitiikan reformien tehokkuus ravinnepäästöjen vähentämisessä - teoreettinen ja empiirinen analyysi

Evaluation des risques liés aux nanomatériaux pour la population générale et pour l'environnement : rapport d'expertise collective

Une expertise collective sur l'évaluation des risques liés aux nanomatériaux pour la population générale et pour l'environnement a identifié plusieurs centaines de produits de grande consommation contenant des nanomatériaux, présents dans notre quotidien : textiles, cosmétiques, alimentaires, équipements sportifs, matériaux de construction... Des études nouvelles suggèrent la possibilité de risques pour la santé et pour l'environnement de certains produits. Face à cette situation d'incertitude, l'Afsset recommande d'agir sans attendre au nom du principe de précaution et de 1) Rendre obligatoire la traçabilité des nanomatériaux. Cela passe par une obligation de déclaration par les industriels, 2) la mise en place un étiquetage clair qui mentionne la présence de nanomatériaux dans les produits et informe sur la possibilité de relargage à l'usage, 3) d'aller jusqu'à l'interdiction de certains usages des nanomatériaux pour lesquels l'utilité est faible par rapport aux dangers potentiels, 4) l'harmonisation des cadres réglementaires français et européens pour généraliser les meilleures pratiques : déclaration, autorisation, substitution. En particulier, une révision de REACh s'impose pour prendre en compte les nanomatériaux manufacturés de manière spécifique et quel que soit leur tonnage. L'expertise fait également des recommandations pour construire une méthode renouvelée d'évaluation des risques sanitaires qui soit adaptée aux spécificités des nanomatériaux. Pour cela l'Afsset a testé les méthodologies classiques d'évaluation des risques sur 4 produits particuliers et courants : la chaussette antibactérienne (nanoparticules d'argent), le ciment autonettoyant et le lait solaire (nanoparticules de dioxyde de titane), la silice alimentaire à l'état nanométrique. Ces 4 produits représentent bien les voies d'exposition de l'homme (cutanée, inhalation, ingestion) et la possibilité de dispersion environnementale. Ces travaux font apparaître une urgence à faire progresser les connaissances sur les expositions et les dangers potentiels des nanomatériaux. Aujourd'hui, seuls 2% des études publiées sur les nanomatériaux concernent leurs risques pour la santé et l'environnement. Le premier effort devra porter sur la normalisation des caractéristiques des nanomatériaux. Les priorités de la recherche devront cibler la toxicologie, l'écotoxicologie et la mesure des expositions. Enfin, l'Afsset prévoit de s'autosaisir pour définir en 2 ans, avec son groupe de travail, un outil simplifié d'évaluation des risques. Il s'agit d'une grille de cotation des risques qui permet de catégoriser les produits en plusieurs gammes de risques. Face à ce chantier considérable, une mise en réseau entre les organismes européens et internationaux pour se partager le travail est nécessaire. Elle a commencé autour de l'OCDE qui coordonne des travaux d'évaluation des risques et de l'ISO qui travaille à la mise en place de nouvelles normes. [Auteurs]

Building Environmental Management System for Laboratory Products Manufacturing Company according ISO 14001-standard

Tutkielman tavoitteena on rakentaa toimiva ympäristöjärjestelmä Thermo Fisher Scientific Oy:lle. Tutkimuksen tarkoituksena on myös löytää kahdelle täysin erilaiselle toiminnalle yhtenäinen ympäristöjärjestelmä, jonka avulla pystytään ottamaan huomioon molempien toimipaikkojen hieman erilaiset vaatimukset. Lisäksi tavoitteena on muodostaa ympäristöjärjestelmälle oma organisaatio, jonka avulla ympäristöjärjestelmän integrointi yrityksen prosesseihin voidaan suorittaa sujuvasti. Aluksi tutkimusongelmaa lähestytään teoreettisesta näkökulmasta,jossa tarkastellaan ympäristöjärjestelmän historiaa, rakennetta, etuja sekä ISO 14001–standardin rakennetta ja sen etenemistä ympäristöjärjestelmän rakentamisen yhteydessä aina kolmannen osapuolen sertifiointiin asti. Empiria osa alkaa alustavalla ympäristökatselmuksella, jossa selvitetään ympäristöasioiden hoidon nykytaso ja luodaan pohja koko ympäristöjärjestelmän luomiselle, jonka vankimpana perustana on ympäristöpolitiikka. Johdon hyväksymä ympäristöpolitiikka varmistaa johdon sitoutumisen järjestelmään. Ympäristöjärjestelmän toimintarakenteen muodostaminen kahdelle erilaiselle toiminnalle onnistui tutkimuksessa kiitettävästi. Se miten ympäristöjärjestelmä toimii todellisuudessa, tullaan näkemään käytännön kokemuksien yhteydessä.