Needs and challenges for assessing the environmental impacts of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs).

The potential environmental impact of nanomaterials is a critical concern and the ability to assess these potential impacts is top priority for the progress of sustainable nanotechnology. Risk assessment tools are needed to enable decision makers to rapidly assess the potential risks that may be imposed by engineered nanomaterials (ENMs), particularly when confronted by the reality of limited hazard or exposure data. In this review, we examine a range of available risk assessment frameworks considering the contexts in which different stakeholders may need to assess the potential environmental impacts of ENMs. Assessment frameworks and tools that are suitable for the different decision analysis scenarios are then identified. In addition, we identify the gaps that currently exist between the needs of decision makers, for a range of decision scenarios, and the abilities of present frameworks and tools to meet those needs

Combining mobile-health (mHealth) and artificial intelligence (AI) methods to avoid suicide attempts: the Smartcrises study protocol

The screening of digital footprint for clinical purposes relies on the capacity of wearable technologies to collect data and extract relevant information’s for patient management. Artificial intelligence (AI) techniques allow processing of real-time observational information and continuously learning from data to build understanding. We designed a system able to get clinical sense from digital footprints based on the smartphone’s native sensors and advanced machine learning and signal processing techniques in order to identify suicide risk. Method/design: The Smartcrisis study is a cross-national comparative study. The study goal is to determine the relationship between suicide risk and changes in sleep quality and disturbed appetite. Outpatients from the Hospital Fundación Jiménez Díaz Psychiatry Department (Madrid, Spain) and the University Hospital of Nimes (France) will be proposed to participate to the study. Two smartphone applications and a wearable armband will be used to capture the data. In the intervention group, a smartphone application (MEmind) will allow for the ecological momentary assessment (EMA) data capture related with sleep, appetite and suicide ideations. Discussion: Some concerns regarding data security might be raised. Our system complies with the highest level of security regarding patients’ data. Several important ethical considerations related to EMA method must also be considered. EMA methods entails a non-negligible time commitment on behalf of the participants. EMA rely on daily, or sometimes more frequent, Smartphone notifications. Furthermore, recording participants’ daily experiences in a continuous manner is an integral part of EMA. This approach may be significantly more than asking a participant to complete a retrospective questionnaire but also more accurate in terms of symptoms monitoring. Overall, we believe that Smartcrises could participate to a paradigm shift from the traditional identification of risks factors to personalized prevention strategies tailored to characteristics for each patientThis study was partly funded by Fundación Jiménez Díaz Hospital, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI16/01852), Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional de Drogas (20151073), American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP) (LSRG-1-005-16), the Madrid Regional Government (B2017/BMD-3740 AGES-CM 2CM; Y2018/TCS-4705 PRACTICO-CM) and Structural Funds of the European Union. MINECO/FEDER (‘ADVENTURE’, id. TEC2015–69868-C2–1-R) and MCIU Explora Grant ‘aMBITION’ (id. TEC2017–92552-EXP), the French Embassy in Madrid, Spain, The foundation de l’avenir, and the Fondation de France. The work of D. Ramírez and A. Artés-Rodríguez has been partly supported by Ministerio de Economía of Spain under projects: OTOSIS (TEC2013–41718-R), AID (TEC2014–62194-EXP) and the COMONSENS Network (TEC2015–69648-REDC), by the Ministerio de Economía of Spain jointly with the European Commission (ERDF) under projects ADVENTURE (TEC2015– 69868-C2–1-R) and CAIMAN (TEC2017–86921-C2–2-R), and by the Comunidad de Madrid under project CASI-CAM-CM (S2013/ICE-2845). The work of P. Moreno-Muñoz has been supported by FPI grant BES-2016-07762

Small Data Surveillance v. Big Data Cybersurveillance

This Article highlights some of the critical distinctions between small data surveillance and big data cybersurveillance as methods of intelligence gathering. Specifically, in the intelligence context, it appears that collect-it-all tools in a big data world can now potentially facilitate the construction, by the intelligence community, of other individuals\u27 digital avatars. The digital avatar can be understood as a virtual representation of our digital selves and may serve as a potential proxy for an actual person. This construction may be enabled through processes such as the data fusion of biometric and biographic data, or the digital data fusion of the 24/7 surveillance of the body and the 360° surveillance of the biography. Further, data science logic and reasoning, and big data policy rationales, appear to be driving the expansion of these emerging methods. Consequently, I suggest that an inquiry into the scientific validity of the data science that informs big data cybersurveillance and mass dataveillance is appropriate. As a topic of academic inquiry, thus, I argue in favor of a science-driven approach to the interrogation of rapidly evolving bulk metadata and mass data surveillance methods that increasingly rely upon data science and big data\u27s algorithmic, analytic, and integrative tools. In Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579 (1993), the Supreme Court required scientific validity determinations prior to the introduction of scientific expert testimony or evidence at trial. I conclude that to the extent that covert intelligence gathering relies upon data science, a Daubert-type inquiry is helpful in conceptualizing the proper analytical structure necessary for the assessment and oversight of these emerging mass surveillance methods

Risk communication: against the gods or against all odds?: problems and prospects of accounting for black swans

Recent academic and policy preoccupations with ‘Black Swans’ underscore the predicament of capturing and communicating risk events when information is absent, partial, incomplete or contingent. In this article we wish to articulate some key thematic and theoretical points of concurrence around which academic and practitioner interests in risk communication under conditions of ‘high uncertainty’ intersect. We outline the historical context and recent debate concerning the limits to ‘risk thinking’ spurred by Black Swans, and in particular how this calls for a more holistic approach to risk communication. In order to support a more critical foresight agenda, we suggest incorporating ‘adaptive governance’ principles to decenter focal risk communication concerns on the mitigation of short-term security threats, which critics argue can also lead to other unforeseen dangers. Finally, we welcome further interdisciplinary inquiry into the constitution and use of risk communication under high uncertainty

Management of Health and Safety Risks at Large Events

This chapter details and guides managers and researchers to consider organisational culture, risk management systems, procedures, principles, and processes to manage larger events successively and effectively without any potential tragedies, harms, and risks. It begins with the conceptual understanding of events and how the event organising involves managing health and safety risks. Health and safety management in such situations consists of organised efforts and procedures for identifying workplace hazards and reducing accidents and exposure to harmful situations and substances. The events are organised with different purposesm and each event has a unique blending of durations, seating, management, and people. This is further followed by risk management planning, which assists event organisers in devising and conducting events in the safest possible manner while mitigating losses. HSE England commissioned a study in 2012 and found a range of potential risks and remedies at major events. The main risk identified were design and construction, public health and safety risks, airborne and communicable diseases, non-infectious risk, respiratory diseases, road traffic accident, crowd control, strain on healthcare, workplace violence, fires, etc. Managing a safe event involves planning, assessing risks, precautions measure and corrective and perverting actions, contingency, emergency planning and procedures, effective communications, managing crowd and resources, review, and reflection. The primary legislation covering occupational health and safety in Britain is the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which makes employers responsible for the management of health and safety. It sets out the general duties which employers have towards employees and members of the public, and employees have to themselves and to each other. The last section discusses main principles of a H&S risk management policy followed by some case studie

Peace Architecture

In the sixties the green and the peace movements alerted the international community of the deterioration of the environment and of the danger of nuclear conflicts. Since then, the green movement has been transformed into political parties, departments, jobs, environmental impact assessments and several international regimes. The first publication of the Club of Rome in 1972, Limits of Growth, had a catalyzing effect for raising life and death questions that confront mankind and claiming that planetary planning was the most important business on earth (Meadows 1972). The peace movement, on the other hand, evolved differently. There were some peak moments such as the peace marches in the eighties, but the impacts were weaker and less decisive. One explanation is that the peace movement had to cope with the strong bureaucracies of foreign offices and of defense departments that claimed the expertise. Another explanation is that a great deal of the peace movement does not define peace as a collective good. Being removed from the embedded conflict gives a false sense of apartness making some conflicts seem irrelevant to societies at peace. The possibility of cruise missiles hitting peaceful countries caused huge peace marches; the snipers in Sarajevo did not. A third reason is that costs of violence continue to be underestimated because of inadequate estimates of the price of failed conflict prevention (Reychler 1999a)

Emergency Medical Response in Mass Casualty Tunnel Incidents—with Emphasis on Prehospital Care

Responding to mass casualty incidents in a tunnel environment is problematic not least from a prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) perspective. The aim of this review was to 1) categorize preconditions for emergency response in tunnel environments based on Haddon’s matrix and 2) identify specific EMS knowledge of providing prehospital care. Twenty eight articles, reports and book chapters were selected for further analysis. Firstly, sorting the data from each included article was done according to Haddon’s matrix. The result covers human factors, technical factors, physical environmental factors and socioeconomic environmental factors all related to preconditions for emergency response. To describe the EMS’s knowledge the data was also sorted according to command and safety, communication, assessment, and triage treatment and transport, also known as CSCATT. Few studies, especially of high quality, actually provide detailed information regarding emergency response to tunnel incidents and those that do, often have a main focus on management by the rescue service. While many incidents studied were caused by fires in tunnels, thus requiring rescue service in action, the subsequent EMS response issues that have taken place appear to have been given limited attention. To optimize the survival rates and health of the injured, as well as to provide a safe and effective work environment for the emergency services, there is a need to explore the event phase