Egypt passed a revolution and changed its political system, but many problems are still lacking a solution. Especially in the field of water the North African country has to face many challenges. Most urgent are strategies to manage the limited water resources. About 80% of the available water resources are consumed for agriculture and the rest are for domestic and industrial activities. The management of these resources is inefficient and a huge amount of fresh water is discarded. The shortage of water supply will definitely influence the economic and cultural development of Egypt. In 2010, Egypt was ranked number 8 out of 165 nations reviewed in the so-called Water Security Risk Index published by Maplecroft. The ranking of each country in the index depends mainly on four key factors, i.e. access to improved drinking water and sanitation, the availability of renewable water and the reliance on external supplies, the relationship between available water and supply demands, and the water dependency of each countrys economy. Based on this study, the situation of water in Egypt was identified as extremely risky. A number of programs and developed strategies aiming to efficiently manage the usage of water resources have been carried out in the last few years by the Egyptian Government. But all these activities, however, require the availability of trained and well-educated individuals in water technology fields. Unfortunately, the number of water science graduates are decreasing and also there are few teaching and training courses for water science offered in Egypt. However, there is still a demand for several well-structured and international programs to fill the gap and provide the Egyptian fresh graduates with the adequate and up-to-date theoretical and practical knowledge available for water technology. IWaTec is designed to fill parts of this gap.
Das Ziel des vorliegenden Projektes ist es, die Wirkung niedriger, mittlerer und hoher Dosen ionisierender Strahlung in einem Bereich zwischen 0,2 Gy und 16 Gy auf mikrovaskuläre Endothelzellen (mECs) gewonnen aus unterschiedlichen Normalgeweben zu studieren. Im Besonderen sollen die Interaktionen zwischen mikrovaskulären ECs und Immuneffektorzellen in vitro und im Mausmodell untersucht werden. Wir werden uns auf Herz, Subkutis, Leber (Sievert et al. 2014; Hildebrandt et al. 1998) und die Lunge als Hochrisiko-Organe konzentrieren. Aufklärung der funktionellen und phänotypischen Änderungen von pathogener Relevanz in mikrovaskulären Endothelzellen (mECs) isoliert aus Herz, Haut, Leber und Lunge (Sievert et al. 2014). Interaktion von mECs (nicht bestrahlt und bestrahlt) mit Subpopulationen von Leukozyten. Erfassung der histologischen und immunhistologischen Änderungen von nicht bestrahlten und mit niedrigen Dosen bestrahlten mECs. Vergleichende Proteom- und Transkriptom-Anlalyse von mECs aus nicht bestrahlten Geweben. Integrierung der Daten zu einem Modell über den biologischen Mechanismus der strahleninduzierten Pathogenese (Azimzadeh et al. 2015).
Das Ziel des vorliegenden Projektes ist es, die Wirkung niedriger, mittlerer und hoher Dosen ionisierender Strahlung in einem Bereich zwischen 0,2 Gy und 16 Gy auf mikrovaskuläre Endothelzellen (ECs) gewonnen aus unterschiedlichen Normalgeweben zu studieren. Im Besonderen sollen die Interaktionen zwischen mikrovaskulären ECs und Immuneffektorzellen in vitro und im Mausmodell untersucht werden. Wir werden uns auf Herz, Subkutis, Leber (Hildebrandt et al. 1998) und die Lunge als Hochrisiko-Organe konzentrieren. Aufklärung der funktionellen und phänotypischen Änderungen von pathogener Relevanz in mikrovaskulären Endothelzellen (mECs) isoliert aus Herz, Haut, Leber und Lunge. Interaktion von mECs (nicht bestrahlt und bestrahlt) mit Subpopulationen von Leukozyten. Erfassung der histologischen und immunhistologischen Änderungen von nicht bestrahlten und mit niedrigen Dosen bestrahlten mECs. Vergleichende Proteom- und Transkriptom-Analyse von ECs aus nicht bestrahlten Geweben. Integrierung der Daten zu einem Modell über den biologischen Mechanismus der strahleninduzierten Pathogenese.
Ziel des Arbeitspaketes ist die Erarbeitung intelligenter und effizienter Finanzierungslösungen für Investitionen in die Sicherheit von Netzinfrastrukturen mit dem Ziel des Nachweises der Vorteilhaftigkeit solcher Investitionen. Dazu wird exemplarisch das Projekt Desertec untersucht, welches die Idee verfolgt, ein umweltfreundliches Energiegewinnungskonzept durch Solar- und Windkraft in der Sahara zu entwickeln. Das IAS wird die zugrunde liegende Forschungsfrage anhand der Fallstudie Desertec bearbeiten. Dazu wird ein Vorgehen in acht Stufen gewählt: 1. Sichtung der kompletten Literatur zu Sicherheitstechnik/Arbeitsschutz sowie Projektfinanzierung/Risk Sharing; 2. Entwicklung eines Katalogs von Risiken und alternativen Handling-Möglichkeiten; 3. Abstimmung des Katalogs der relevanten Risiken bei Desertec sowie Aufnehmen des Risk-Handling Ansatzes von Desertec; 4. Analyse des Risikokatalogs auf Verbundwirkungen (Klumpenrisiken) und Strukturierung des Risikokatalogs; 5. Entwicklung alternativer Risk-Handling Maßnahmen (präventiv und ex-post); 6. Abschätzung der Kosten-/Nutzenwirkung der alternativen Maßnahmen in Kooperation mit den relevanten Desertec-Firmen; 7. Integration in Business Pläne und Ermittlung der Veränderungen anhand verschiedener Beurteilungskriterien wie Kapitalwert (DCF) oder sonstigen Zielgrößen; 8. Erarbeitung von Handlungsempfehlungen.
Objective: The project will examine the health impacts of greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction policies in urban settings in Europe, China and India, using case studies of 3-4 large urban centres and three smaller urban centres. Sets of realistic interventions will be proposed, tailored to local needs, to meet published abatement goals for GHG Emissions for 2020, 2030 and 2050. Mitigation actions will be defined in four main sectors: power generation/industry, household energy, transport and food and agriculture. The chief pathways by which such measures influence health will be described, and models developed to quantify changes in health-related 'exposures' and health behaviours. Models will include ones relating to outdoor air pollution, indoor air quality and temperature, physical activity, dietary intake, road injury risks and selected other exposures. Integrated quantitative models of health impacts will be based on life table methods encompassing both mortality and morbidity outcomes modelled over 20 year time horizons. Where possible, exposure-response relationships will be based on review evidence published by the Comparative Risk Assessment initiative or systematic reviews. Uncertainties in model estimates will be characterized using a mathematical framework to quantify the influence of uncertainties in both model structure and parameter estimates. Particular attention will be given to economic assessments, both in terms of behavioural choices/uptake of various forms of mitigation measure (with new surveys to address evidence gaps), and in terms of health benefits and costs calculated from societal, health service and household perspectives. A decision analysis framework will be developed to compare different mitigation options. Experts and user groups will be consulted to define the mitigation questions to be examined, and the results will be discussed in consultative workshops scheduled for the final months of the project.
Ausgangslage / Zielstellung / Methodik des Vorhabens: Die REACH-VO ermöglicht rechtliche Begrenzungen der Stoffverwendung. Die Mitgliedstaaten haben die Aufgabe, mittels Dossiers kritische Stoffe für die Anhänge XIV (Zulassung) oder XVII (Beschränkung) vorzuschlagen. Es ist notwendig, diese Dossiers -zumindest in der ersten Phase- mit unterstützung durch Begleitforschung vorzubereiten. Die Dossiererstellung beinhaltet eine Reihe von methodisch neuen und anspruchsvollen Aufgaben. Unter anderem - ist eine vergleichende, integrierte Risikobewertung des Regulierungskandidaten sowie eventueller Ersatzstoffe zu erstellen; - sind methodische Unsicherheiten in der Risikobewertung, (insbesondere bzgl. des Umweltverhaltens und der Exposition des Menschen) zu identifizieren und gegebenenfalls zu minimieren; Diese Fragestellungen sollen an einer ausgewählten Stoffgruppe behandelt werden: - Per- und Polyfluorierte Chemikalien Diese Stoffgruppen ist sowohl für die Umwelt als auch für den Gesundheitsschutz relevant.
The aim of 2-FUN is to provide decision-makers with a Decision Support System (DSS) that supports the analysis of current and future trends in environmental conditions and pressures causing health problems, and to evaluate and rank the management options of the composing risk factors using a cost-benefit evaluation. The DSS and its associated Geographical Information System (GIS) will offer a wide range of functionalities allowing the generation of results of high concern for health risk assessment: building of long-term environmental and socio-economic scenarios, exposure and effects mapping, provision of uncertainty margins, identification of sensitive pathways and risks, integrated risk indices and monetary values mapping, ranking of risk factors. Specific scientific actions will be set up to feed the DSS with methodologies/databases/models/ software on the following topics: Building future realistic socio-economic, environmental and health scenarios; Integrated exposure, effect and monetary assessment of multi-stressors and multi-routes; Integration of childrens issues in health risk assessments; Environment-related health indicators for relevant ranking and comparison of risk factors and monetary valuation of health effects; Development of uncertainty models for further health management; Implementation of a full-chain approach for health risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis. 2-FUN also proposes to engage in a structural dialogue with all interested parties (stakeholders, policy-makers and researchers) to monitor large environment- and health-focused scientific initiatives and to incorporate stakeholders vision and needs regarding the development of tools for health risk assessment. The DSS will be tested on contrasted case studies covering a wide range of temporal, spatial, sectorial, environmental, societal contexts requiring comprehensive costbenefit analysis and able to provide policy-makers with relevant and easy-to-use information. Prime Contractor: Institut National de l'Environnement Industriel et des Risques; Paris; France.
Background Burden of disease analyses quantify population health and provide comprehensive overviews of the health status of countries or specific population groups. The comparative risk assessment (CRA) methodology is commonly used to estimate the share of the burden attributable to risk factors. The aim of this paper is to identify and address some selected important challenges associated with CRA, illustrated by examples, and to discuss ways to handle them. Further, the main challenges are addressed and finally, similarities and differences between CRA and health impact assessments (HIA) are discussed, as these concepts are sometimes referred to synonymously but have distinctly different applications. Results CRAs are very data demanding. One key element is the exposure-response relationship described e.g. by a mathematical function. Combining estimates to arrive at coherent functions is challenging due to the large variability in risk exposure definitions and data quality. Also, the uncertainty attached to this data is difficult to account for. Another key issue along the CRA-steps is to define a theoretical minimal risk exposure level for each risk factor. In some cases, this level is evident and self-explanatory (e.g., zero smoking), but often more difficult to define and justify (e.g., ideal consumption of whole grains). CRA combine all relevant information and allow to estimate population attributable fractions (PAFs) quantifying the proportion of disease burden attributable to exposure. Among many available formulae for PAFs, it is important to use the one that allows consistency between definitions, units of the exposure data, and the exposure response functions. When combined effects of different risk factors are of interest, the non-additive nature of PAFs and possible mediation effects need to be reflected. Further, as attributable burden is typically calculated based on current exposure and current health outcomes, the time dimensions of risk and outcomes may become inconsistent. Finally, the evidence of the association between exposure and outcome can be heterogeneous which needs to be considered when interpreting CRA results. Conclusions The methodological challenges make transparent reporting of input and process data in CRA a necessary prerequisite. The evidence for causality between included risk-outcome pairs has to be well established to inform public health practice. © The Author(s) 2022
Objectives Within the framework of the burden of disease (BoD) approach, disease and injury burden estimates attributable to risk factors are a useful guide for policy formulation and priority setting in disease prevention. Considering the important differences in methods, and their impact on burden estimates, we conducted a scoping literature review to: (1) map the BoD assessments including risk factors performed across Europe; and (2) identify the methodological choices in comparative risk assessment (CRA) and risk assessment methods. Methods We searched multiple literature databases, including grey literature websites and targeted public health agencies websites. Results A total of 113 studies were included in the synthesis and further divided into independent BoD assessments (54 studies) and studies linked to the Global Burden of Disease (59 papers). Our results showed that the methods used to perform CRA varied substantially across independent European BoD studies. While there were some methodological choices that were more common than others, we did not observe patterns in terms of country, year or risk factor. Each methodological choice can affect the comparability of estimates between and within countries and/or risk factors, since they might significantly influence the quantification of the attributable burden. From our analysis we observed that the use of CRA was less common for some types of risk factors and outcomes. These included environmental and occupational risk factors, which are more likely to use bottom-up approaches for health outcomes where disease envelopes may not be available. Conclusions Our review also highlighted misreporting, the lack of uncertainty analysis and the under-investigation of causal relationships in BoD studies. Development and use of guidelines for performing and reporting BoD studies will help understand differences, avoid misinterpretations thus improving comparability among estimates. © The Author(s) 2023.
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