Risk assessment of mercury and methyl mercury intake via sardine and swordfish consumption in Algeria

NO ABSTRACT AVAILABLETotal mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) concentrations in the flesh of sardine (Sardina pilchardus) and swordfish (Xiphias gladius) fished in three Algerian coasts were determined by a direct mercury analyzer (DMA). We also assessed the risk to which the consumer was exposed to by calculating the estimated daily intakes (EDIs), target hazard quotient (THQ) and hazard index (HI). The average concentrations of Hg and MeHg in the flesh of sardine were similar (0.04 mg/kg wet weight) and in swordfish were 0.61 mg/kg wet weight; 0.57 mg/kg wet weight, respectively. These concentrations have not surpassed the thresholds set by the Algerian and European regulations. The estimated daily intakes for Hg and MeHg were similar in sardine (0.0064 μg/kg/day) and were 0.098 μg/kg/day and 0.092 μg/kg/day for Hg and MeHg, respectively, in swordfish. These values did not exceed the provisional tolerable weekly intake (PTWI) established by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and by the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA). The target hazard quotient (THQ) and the hazard index (HI) calculated were < 1. Consequently, consumption of these fishes does not pose any risk for the adult groups of the Algerian population regarding mercury, and methylmercury studied

Investigating International Time Trends in the Incidence and Prevalence of Atopic Eczema 1990-2010: A Systematic Review of Epidemiological Studies

The prevalence of atopic eczema has been found to have increased greatly in some parts of the world. Building on a systematic review of global disease trends in asthma, our objective was to study trends in incidence and prevalence of atopic eczema. Disease trends are important for health service planning and for generating hypotheses regarding the aetiology of chronic disorders. We conducted a systematic search for high quality reports of cohort, repeated cross-sectional and routine healthcare database-based studies in seven electronic databases. Studies were required to report on at least two measures of the incidence and/or prevalence of atopic eczema between 1990 and 2010 and needed to use comparable methods at all assessment points. We retrieved 2,464 citations, from which we included 69 reports. Assessing global trends was complicated by the use of a range of outcome measures across studies and possible changes in diagnostic criteria over time. Notwithstanding these difficulties, there was evidence suggesting that the prevalence of atopic eczema was increasing in Africa, eastern Asia, western Europe and parts of northern Europe (i.e. the UK). No clear trends were identified in other regions. There was inadequate study coverage worldwide, particularly for repeated measures of atopic eczema incidence. Further epidemiological work is needed to investigate trends in what is now one of the most common long-term disorders globally. A range of relevant measures of incidence and prevalence, careful use of definitions and description of diagnostic criteria, improved study design, more comprehensive reporting and appropriate interpretation of these data are all essential to ensure that this important field of epidemiological enquiry progresses in a scientifically robust manner

Au delà de la moyenne : la politique de cohésion modifie t-elle la distribution de la croissance en Europe ?

National audienceDepuis plusieurs décennies, l’Europe cherche à réduire les disparités de développement de ses régions. Cette politique, dite de cohésion, mobilise une part croissante du budget européen. Elle repose sur un cofinancement des Etats Membres des projets qu’elle soutient au niveau régional. De plus, avec les élargissements successifs de l’Europe, les régions qu’elle cible évoluent, suscitant un effet de redistribution. Pour ces deux raisons, cette politique fait l’objet d’une attention soutenue des Etats Membres. Or, quelles que soient les méthodes utilisées et les périodes étudiées, les évaluations successives ne mettent en évidence, au mieux, qu’un effet modeste de la politique de cohésion sur le rattrapage de croissance des régions les plus pauvres d’Europe. Dans ce papier, nous nous intéressons au programme dit « objectif 1 » de la politique de cohésion, qui aide les régions les plus pauvres, et attribue des cofinancements sur un critère de niveau de richesse. Elle favorise l’investissement et a pour objectif d’accélérer leur croissance pour permettre aux régions les plus pauvres de rattraper le niveau de richesse moyen. Nous mesurons l’effet de ce programme sur la distribution des taux de croissance et des niveaux d’investissement des régions bénéficiaires. Nous montrons que les régions à fort potentiel de croissance (celles qui auraient connu la plus forte croissance en l’absence de politique) ont bénéficié d’un gain de croissance de l’ordre de 0.4%. A contrario, les régions à faible potentiel de croissance n’ont pas bénéficié significativement de la politique mise en place

A simple steady state model for ion-exchange membranes applied to defluoridation of drinking water by crossed-fluxes dialysis.

Dans cette étude, on propose un nouveau modèle simple d'état d'équilibre pour un procédé de dialyse ionique croisée. Il permet le calcul d'un coefficient global de transfert de matière des ions fluorures qui dépend de l'épaisseur et des caractéristiques de la membrane ainsi que des conditions hydrodynamiques. Une fois identifié, le coefficient global de transfert est utilisé pour concevoir une unité de traitement composée de plusieurs cellules. Trois membranes anioniques (AFN, ACS, et AM3) ont été testées pour défluorurer l'eau potable, dans une cellule composée de deux compartiments séparés par l'une des membranes. Les chlorures sous la forme de NaCl ont été utilisés comme contre-ions… Des essais préliminaires ont démontré que la membrane AFN est la meilleure pour enlever les fluorures suivie de la membrane AM3. Les résultats confirment ceux obtenus par des travaux précédents. Un rapport de concentration Cl-/F- a été déterminé ; sa valeur est environ 100. pour la détermination des coefficients de transfert de matière, des essais ont été réalisés avec les membranes choisies (AFN et AM3). Le débit d'entrée variait entre 0,1 et 0,8 L/h. La concentration en ions fluorures dans le compartiment alimentation est 10-3 M. Le modèle a été appliqué à des données expérimentales pour la détermination des coefficients de transfert. Ainsi, 0,024 cm/s ont été obtenus pour la membrane AFN et 0,0129 cm/s pour la membrane AM3. En utilisant ces valeurs, le nombre de cellules nécessaires pour atteindre une concentration inférieure à 1 mg/L a été calculé pour les deux membranes selon le débit appliqué.In this study, a new simple steady state model is proposed for a crossed-fluxes ionic dialysis process. It allows calculation of a global fluoride ions mass transfer coefficient which depends on the membrane thickness and characteristics and on hydrodynamic conditions. Once identified, the global mass transfer coefficient is used to design a treatment unit including several cells. Three anionic membranes (AFN, ACS and AM3) were tested for fluoride ions removal from drinking water, in a cell composed of two compartments separated by one of the membranes. Chloride in NaCl form was used as a counter-ion. Preliminary tests have demonstrated that the AFN is the best membrane for fluoride removal, followed by the AM3 membrane. This result was obtained by previous works. An optimal concentration ratio Cl-/F- was determined. Its value is about 100. For the determination of mass transfer coefficients, tests were performed with the chosen membranes (AFN and AM3). The inlet flow rate was varied between 0,1 and 0,8 L/h. The fluoride ions concentration in the feed compartment was 10-3 M. The model was applied to the experimental data for mass transfer coefficients determination. Thus 0.0204 cm/s was obtained for AFN membrane and 0.0129 cm/s for AM3 membrane. Using these values the number of required cells to reach a concentration below 1 mg/L was calculated for the two membranes, according to the applied flow rate. MOTS- Keywords: ion fluorure ; défluoruration ; membranes échangeuses d'anions ; modélisation ;eau; Fluoride ion; Defluoridation; Anion exchange membrane; Modelling; Water. Journal des Sciences Pour l\'Ingénieur. Vol. 8 2007: pp.32-4

From Ontology to NL: Generation of Multilingual User-Oriented Environmental Reports

Natural Language Generation (NLG) from knowledge bases (KBs) has repeatedly been subject of research. However, most proposals tend to have in common that they start from KBs of limited size that either already contain linguistically-oriented knowledge structures or to whose structures different ways of realization are explicitly assigned. To avoid these limitations, we propose a three layer OWL-based ontology framework in which domain, domain commu- nication and linguistic knowledge structures are clearly separated and show how a large scale instantiation of this framework in the environmental domain serves multilingual NLG

From Ontology to NL: Generation of Multilingual User-Oriented Environmental Reports

Natural Language Generation (NLG) from knowledge bases (KBs) has repeatedly been subject of research. However, most proposals tend to have in common that they start from KBs of limited size that either already contain linguistically-oriented knowledge structures or to whose structures different ways of realization are explicitly assigned. To avoid these limitations, we propose a three layer OWL-based ontology framework in which domain, domain commu- nication and linguistic knowledge structures are clearly separated and show how a large scale instantiation of this framework in the environmental domain serves multilingual NLG

Generation of Multilingual Personalized Environmental Bulletins from an OWL-based Ontology

In this paper, we tackle the problem of generation of user-oriented multilingual environmental information from ontologies in the context of a personalized environmental decision support service. We present a unified multiple layer ontology framework modeled in OWL that consists of three ontology layers: the domain ontology, the domain communication ontology, and the communication ontology. The domain ontology contains factual application-neutral concept configurations and relations. The domain communication ontology models data aggregation, qualitative interpretation of numerical data, user tailored warnings and recommendations triggered by an environmental condition given in a specific context, etc., while the communication ontology specifies knowledge needed for the tasks involved in the generation process, and is populated using a pipeline of SPARQL queries. We show how a large scale instantiation of this framework in the environmental domain serves multilingual NLG