Technologies and Health

18 Oct Municipal Solid Waste: What to do with the biodegradables?

Belgium Academies (ARB)
2010
Geen abstract, enkel deze draak van een samenvatting: The paper deals with the biodegradable part of waste generated by citizens in urban environments. This is essentially household waste and gardening waste. Assimilated to this category of waste is almost all that comes from restaurants, canteens and food shops inasmuch as its composition is similar to that of house hold waste. In the European Union, people generate currently 523 kg per inhabitant and per year of municipal solid waste (MSW). Hazards and nuisances associated with dumping are deemed unacceptable. Very specific and mandatory regulations make landfilling very difficult to manage. The trend is, accordingly, to reduce as far as possible the residual amount of waste to dump. Today, in most developed countries, local programs aim to separate household hazardous wastes (chemical cleaners, pesticides, paints, batteries, oils, etc…) and to recover certain materials (metals, paper, cardboard, plastics, glass, textiles, etc…) at the source. There remains however currently 204 kg/inhabitant. year of biodegradable waste in MSW, and it is responsible for most of the waste’s related disturbances in urban environments. For the European Union with its 500 million inhabitants, this makes 102 million Mg (1Mg = 1 metric tonne) of biodegradable MSW, i.e. approximately 20% of all biodegradable waste generated by economic activities each year in the EU. This justifies fully the present report.
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18 Oct Predictive Genetic Diagnostics as an Instrument for the Prevention of Illnesses

National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech)
2010
The early diagnosis of treatable illnesses plays an ever greater role in modern medicine. Predictive genetic diagnostics in conjunction with rapidly developing analytical methods and the sequencing of entire genomes presents uncharted territory in this respect. A key task of the National Academy of Sciences is to take up such topics and problems in particular, which constitute uncharted territory for society, and present scientific recommendations for responding to them. With the statement on hand, the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, acatech, which is the German Academy of Engineering Sciences, and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (representing the Association of German Academies of Sciences) take up a topic of both extraordinary social relevance and one that is under controversial public discussion. The statement comprehensively illuminates the broad topic of predictive genetic diagnostics from various sides. Against the backdrop of the current state of knowledge, the chances and limits of predictive genetic diagnostics are examined as well as its medical, ethical, economic and legal dimensions explored.
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18 Oct Pre-Implantation Diagnostics (PID) – the Impact of a Limited Approval in Germany

National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech)
2011
Pre-implantation diagnostics (PID) is a diagnosis procedure that makes it possible for parents, who have a high risk of giving birth to a child with a serious hereditary disease, to give birth to a child who is not affected by the respective disease. In Germany, PID was considered to be prohibited pursuant to the Embryo Protection Law of 1990. The German Federal Supreme Court has argued in a ruling of July 6, 2010, that a prohibition of PID cannot be inferred with the requisite certainty from the Embryo Protection Law. Hence the lawmaker is called upon to take a clear-cut stand as to the question of the permissibility of PID. With the publication on hand, Leopoldina, which is the National Academy of Sciences, acatech, which is the German Academy of Science and Engineering, and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences (representative for the Association of German Academies of Sciences) take on this current question and take an ad-hoc stand as to the question of pre-implantation diagnostics.
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18 Oct Statement: Synthetic Biology

National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech)
2009
Based on the disciplines of biology, molecular biology, chemistry, biotechnology as well as information technology and engineering sciences, a new field of research is evolving, called synthetic biology. It has attracted special attention recently, also on an international basis. Synthetic biology can make an essential contribution to the gaining of knowledge in basic research. Beyond that, it opens up options for biotechnological applications in the medium term, i.e. in the area of new and improved diagnostic agents, vaccines and drugs as well as the development of new biosensors and biomaterials or even biofuels. Concurrently, the research area opens up new questions, e.g. about legal aspects in the context of biological safety or the protection from abuse; likewise, questions about the economic use and ethical aspects. Against this backdrop, the German Research Foundation (DFG), acatech, which is the German Academy for Science and Engineering, and the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina have pooled their strengths and crafted a joint statement on possible opportunities and risks of synthetic biology.
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18 Oct White biotechnology and synthetic biology

National Academy of Technologies of France (NATF)
2012
Biotechnology is the application of S&T to living organisms. White biotechnology (Bio-Based Industries - BBl) uses renewable carbon sources  in fermentation processes to produce food compounds, fuels, specialties and chemical commodities, and plastics.  Synthetic biology (SB) introduces engineering principles into biotechnology, promoting the emergence of a true bio-economy.  Although endowed with a well-developed agriculture and BBI-related research, there are only about a dozen companies engaged in applications of SB to BBl in France, including start-ups, intermediate enterprises, and Total, resulting in few industrial realisations. The sector is considered risky by investors.  A consistent effort to train  engineers and PhD-students in these areas is essential.  Regarding risks, traditional BBI-products must be distinguished from SB-products in specific sectors. Upstream from industrial SB-applications on a large scale, research on the security, safety, ethics, toxicology and ecotoxicology is vital.  The academic SB community self-regulates its conduct in an effort of openness, transparency, anticipation and prevention of potential risks. Working-group leader: Pierre Monsan, director “Toulouse White Biotechnology” and NATF Fellow.
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18 Oct Engineering Power – Vol. 13(1)

Croatian Academy of Engineering (HATZ)
2018
This issue is dedicated to the scientific work in the field of biomechanical engineering in the Laboratory for Numerical Mechanics at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb. Our work concerns modeling of soft tissue behavior, particularly abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) development. We addressed the problem of intraluminal thrombus enlargement within abdominal aortic aneurysm. Our main goal was to develop a theoretical and computational biochemomechanical model of evolving properties of ILT incorporated into an initially healthy artery. We showed that thrombus-laden lesions can either arrest or rupture depending on the biochemical (e.g., concentration of elastases) and biomechanical (stiffness of fibrin) properties of the ILT. These computational results suggest that ILT should be accounted for when predicting a potential enlargement or rupture risk of AAAs and highlight some specific needs for further experimental and computational research. The scientific work within our group concerned the very first growth and remodelling model that addresses together the mechanobiology, biochemistry, and biomechanics of thrombus-laden AAAs. The herein presented results are the result of fruitful cooperation with Jay D Humphrey’s group from Yale University, USA, Gerhard Holzapfel’s group from TU Graz, Austria, Seungik Baek from Michigan State University, USA and Ivo Lovričević, Medical School, University of Zagreb. The scientific work in our group was supported by grants from the Croatian Science Foundation project IP-2014-09-7382 and Installation Grant to I. Karšaj.
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18 Oct To free Prometheus – Technologies for humanity

National Academy of Technologies of France (NATF)
2011
In this book, edited on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the NATF, 25 Fellows express their personal viewpoints on a variety of subjects. The 4 main themes are: Human Life “Homo Sapiens”, Man in his Environment, Innovation in its Context, Prospective and Ethical Issues.
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17 Oct Annual Report 2014

Real Academia de Ingenieria (Spain) (RAI)
2015
 
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17 Oct Resource Efficiency – Facts and Trends Towards 2050.

Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering (IVA)
2015
A report from IVA project Resource Efficient Business Models – Greater Competitiveness, 2015 36 pp.
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17 Oct Big Data: a change of paradigm (Report only in French)

National Academy of Technologies of France (NATF)
2015
Big Data implies a revolution in IT, reaching from technology to applications and practices, enabling the analysis of vast pools of "digital traces". Data manipulation from smartphones and connected objects opens up new service opportunities and cost reductions of IT-systems. While it is a major issue for sciences, politics and citizens, this report looks at the impact on businesses: mastering these methods permits a new immediacy in customer relationships. Big data is a disruptive data-analysis methodology, replacing classic approaches by iterative loops and using detected patterns for operational effectiveness. It is a new way of massive parallel data-centred programming and of designing algorithms, due to treatment on a myriad of machines, high-performance requirements, and development of algorithms through learning. It is a major challenge and paradigm shift for Governments and companies, deserving strong support in terms of training and awareness.
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