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Purpose The methods for assessing the impact of using abiotic resources in life cycle assessment (LCA) have always been heavily debated. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of a common understanding of the problem related to resource use. This article reports the results of an effort to reach such common understanding between different stakeholder groups and the LCA community. For this, a top-down approach was applied. Methods To guide the process, a four-level top-down framework was used to (1) demarcate the problem that needs to be assessed, (2) translate this into a modeling concept, (3) derive mathematical equations and fill these with data necessary to calculate the characterization factors, and (4) align the system boundaries and assumptions that are made in the life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) model and the life cycle inventory (LCI) model. Results We started from the followingdefinition of the problemof using resources: the decrease of accessibility on a global level of primary and/or secondary elements over the very long term or short term due to thenetresult of compromising actions. Thesystem modeldistinguishes accessible and inaccessible stocks in both the environment and the technosphere. Human actions can compromise the accessible stock through environmental dissipation, technosphere hibernation, and occupation in use or through exploration. As abasis for impact assessment, we propose two parameters: the global change in accessible stock as a net result of the compromising actions and the global amount of the accessible stock. We propose three impact categories for the use of elements: environmental dissipation, technosphere hibernation, and occupation in use, with associated characterization equations for two different time horizons. Finally, preliminary characterization factors are derived and applied in a simple illustrative case study for environmental dissipation. Conclusions Due to data constraints, at this moment, only characterization factors for "dissipation to the environment" over a very-long-term time horizon could be elaborated. The case study shows that the calculation of impact scores might be hampered by insufficient LCI data. Most presently available LCI databases are far from complete in registering the flows necessary to assess the impacts on the accessibility of elements. While applying the framework, various choices are made that could plausibly be made differently. We invite our peers to also use this top-down framework when challenging our choices and elaborate that into a consistent set of choices and assumptions when developing LCIA methods.

International audience

International audience

[Departement_IRSTEA]Eaux [TR1_IRSTEA]RIVAGE [ADD1_IRSTEA]Hydrosystèmes et risques naturels; National audience; La prévision du colmatage du géotextile par des particules fines en suspension dans l'eau sans additifs étudiée expérimentalement fait l'objet de cette communication. L'influence de différents paramètres clés est analysée et discutée en détail. La performance de différents systèmes est comparée sur la base de l'analyse des sols retenus et du passant, du temps avant colmatage et des caractéristiques du "cake". Des critères pour la conception du géotextile pour la filtration de particules fines en suspension sont proposés : augmentation significative de concentration de solides en amont du géotextile sur une période relativement courte, perte initiale de fines au travers du géotextile limitée dans le temps et quantité de passants réduite et acceptable vis-à-vis de l'impact sur l'environnement.

Contains fulltext : 88875.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) BACKGROUND: About 10% of twins are born before 32 weeks of gestation and very preterm birth rates are increasing. Preterm twins tend to have more favourable outcomes than singletons of the same gestational age, but fewer data are available for very preterm infants. This study aims to determine whether outcomes differ between very preterm twins and singletons. METHOD: This study was of a population-based cohort of very preterm babies in 10 European regions in 2003. Mortality and morbidity to discharge from hospital were compared for twins and singletons between 24 and 31 weeks of gestation, who were alive at the onset of labour and without lethal congenital anomalies. Clinical characteristics, pregnancy complications and healthcare factors were taken into consideration. RESULTS: Between 28 and 31 weeks of gestation, mortality and oxygen dependency at 36 corrected weeks of gestation were lower for twins than singletons (3.9 versus 6.5% and 7.1 versus 10.4%, respectively), but this advantage disappeared after controlling for medical and healthcare factors. Hypertension, growth restriction and haemorrhaging were less frequent complications of twin birth and more twins received antenatal corticosteroids and were born in level III units. In contrast, between 24 and 27 weeks of gestation, twins had higher adjusted risks of mortality and Grade III/IV intraventricular haemorrhaging [adjusted ORs 1.5 (95% CI 1.1-2.2) and 1.5 (1.0-2.1)]. These adverse outcomes were concentrated among twins from same sex pairs with discordant birthweights. CONCLUSIONS: Between 24 and 27 weeks of gestation, risks of mortality and severe cranial haemorrhaging were higher for twins than singletons if they were from same sex pairs with discordant birthweights. 01 april 2010

International audience; Lobar congenital emphysema is a rare pulmonary malformation corresponding to progressive overinflation of a pulmonary lobe secondary to partial bronchial obstruction. Prenatal diagnosis is mainly based on lung hyperechoic area. Sonographic features are not specific highlighting the interest of fetal MRI or postnatal tomodensitometry. This case report describes prenatal detection including pitfalls and postnatal management.

The rapid increase in mobile phone use in young people has generated concern about pos- sible health effects of exposure to radiofrequency (RF) and extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMF). MOBI-Kids, a multinational case-control study, investigates the potential effects of childhood and adolescent exposure to EMF from mobile communi- cations technologies on brain tumor risk in 14 countries. The study, which aims to include approximately 1,000 brain tumor cases aged 10-24 years and two individually matched controls for each case, follows a common protocol and builds upon the methodological experience of the INTERPHONE study. The design and conduct of a study on EMF expo- sure and brain tumor risk in young people in a large number of countries is complex and poses methodological challenges.This manuscript discusses the design of MOBI-Kids and describes the challenges and approaches chosen to address them, including: (1) the choice of controls operated for suspected appendicitis, to reduce potential selection bias related to lowresponse rates among population controls; (2) investigating a young study population spanning a relatively wide age range; (3) conducting a large, multinational epidemiologi- cal study, while adhering to increasingly stricter ethics requirements; (4) investigating a rare and potentially fatal disease; and (5) assessing exposure to EMF from communication technologies. Our experience in thus far developing and implementing the study protocol indicates that MOBI-Kids is feasible and will generate results that will contribute to the understanding of potential brain tumor risks associated with use of mobile phones and other wireless communications technologies among young people. © 2014.

International audience

International audience

More and more control/command software is being generated automatically from high­level graphical specifications. Such specifications are typically synchronous data­flow models, built on a set of external basic operators to be implemented in a lower­level language. The semantics of the overall model depends therefore on the semantics of the basic operators, which can be expressed in terms of temporal (inductive multi­cycle) definitions. In this paper, we describe a way to specify and verify these operator formally, using theorem­proving techniques. We report on experiments conducted to prove multi­cycle properties on actual embedded basic operators written in C, using the CAVEAT static analyser with a dedicated method.

Objectives To describe the true incidence, prenatal detection rate and fetal outcome of congenital diaphragmatic hernia (CDH) in a systematically registered population over an 18-year period and to determine any change in trends over time. Methods This was a retrospective study of all cases of CDH registered in the Central-Eastern France Birth Defects Registry from 1986 to 2003. All fetuses and infants up to 1 year of age diagnosed with CDH were registered, including miscarriages later than 22 weeks of gestation, stillbirths and terminations of pregnancy (TOP). Routine prenatal screening consisted of three ultrasound examinations and there was no upper limit of gestational age for TOP. Results Five hundred and one cases of CDH were identified from a total of 1 835 022 live births (2.7 cases per 10 000 live births). The overall prenatal detection rate was 54%. There was a significant increase over time in the detection rate mainly for associated CDH and left-sided CDH (P < 0.0001), and in the proportion of neonates delivered in tertiary centers (P < 0.0001). The overall survival rate at discharge was 47% and this increased significantly over time for isolated CDH (P = 0.04), whereas it was lower and remained stable for associated CDH (P = 0.64). The TOP rate for isolated CDH did not vary significantly in contrast to that for associated CDH cases in which the TOP rate increased over time, progressively replacing the neonatal death rate (P = 0.01). Conclusions Over an 18-year period, this large population-based study demonstrated increasing prenatal detection rates for associated CDH and left-sided CDH and confirmed an increasing survival rate mainly for isolated CDH. Copyright  2006 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.