Relinking expertise : de l'expérience privée à l'expérience médiatique du partage de vidéo en ligne

International audienceAux lendemains du G20 de Toronto en 2010, où plus de mille manifestants anticapitalistes ont été arrêtés, le public canadien découvre sur la toile les récits-vidéos de militants témoignant des brutalités policières et de la violation des droits civils : une manifestante est jetée au sol et tirée par le bras jusqu'à un véhicule de police, un homme âgé perd sa prothèse de jambe... Ces récits-vidéos concurrencent les reportages des grandes rédactions. Les interconnexions tissées au fil des jours grâce aux commentaires, réponses et hyperliens des internautes créent un genre alternatif d'information. Une investigation ethnographique de YouTube et Viméo nous permet d'étudier les différentes stratégies de négociation de l'information privée/publique dans les sphères publiques interconnectées et la gestion de l'accès technique et symbolique à l'identité du producteur et aux contenus dans les médias sociaux. Les appropriations faites par les militants révèlent des circuits locaux d'information et de pouvoir. Nous voulons voir comment ces dynamiques de savoir et de socialité contribuent à la construction d'une expertise informationnelle des militants

The use of life cycle assessment as an early R&D decision tool: bottlenecks and potential solutions

At an ever increasing rate innovative chemistry and technology platforms are reshaping manufacturing environments to become factories of the future as being more productive, lean and flexible. The use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in early process development phases has been challenged many times to assess whether or not this willingness to strive for innovation is an environmentally sustainable one. This paper provides general solutions to two major bottlenecks in applying LCA in R&D decision trees; (1) the lack of sufficient process data in early development phases and (2) the lack of knowledge on the effect of scale and learning on the environmental sustainability of a chemical product or process. The first issue is tackled with the use of multiple linear regression modeling, while for the second bottleneck the concept of deriving experience curves is proposed and illustrated. While this paper has taken a step in the direction of including LCA as a decision making tool in early process development phases, it stresses that more research should be conducted especially on Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM), since it makes little sense to optimize in-house production without a proper procurement and Supply Chain Management (SCM)

The recyclability benefit rate of closed-loop and open-loop systems: a case study on plastic recycling in Flanders

AbstractOver the last few years, waste management strategies are shifting from waste disposal to recycling and recovery and are considering waste as a potential new resource. To monitor the progress in these waste management strategies, governmental policies have developed a wide range of indicators. In this study, we analyzed the concept of the recyclability benefit rate indicator, which expresses the potential environmental savings that can be achieved from recycling the product over the environmental burdens of virgin production followed by disposal. This indicator is therefore, based on estimated environmental impact values obtained through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) practices. We quantify the environmental impact in terms of resource consumption using the Cumulative Exergy Extraction from the Natural Environment method. This research applied this indicator to two cases of plastic waste recycling in Flanders: closed-loop recycling (case A) and open-loop recycling (case B). Each case is compared to an incineration scenario and a landfilling scenario. The considered plastic waste originates from small domestic appliances and household waste other than plastic bottles. However, the existing recyclability benefit rate indicator does not consider the potential substitution of different materials occurring in open-loop recycling. To address this issue, we further developed the indicator for open-loop recycling and cascaded use. Overall, the results show that both closed-loop and open-loop recycling are more resource efficient than landfilling and incineration with energy recovery

LCA-based indicators for recycling: a case study on plastic waste treatment in Flanders

The last decades, waste management strategies are shifting from waste disposal to recycling, considering waste as resources. To quantitatively monitor the progress in this transition, a wide range of indicators has been developed. One of these indicators developed by the European Commission is the recyclability benefit rate (RBR), defined as the ratio of the environmental benefits that can be achieved from recycling over the environmental losses related to virgin production and disposal. These environmental benefits and losses are expressed in terms of environmental impacts obtained through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). To assess the usefulness of this indicator, we applied it on two cases of plastic waste treatment in Flanders, Belgium: closed-loop recycling (case A) and open-loop recycling (case B). The environmental impact of resource consumption is quantified as the Cumulative Exergy Extraction of the Natural Environment (CEENE). Case A considers plastic waste from electronic appliances. The recycled plastic is of good quality and can be used in products similar to the original product. The average RBR of case A is 58%. Case B considers plastic household waste. The recycled plastic is of lower quality, making it only useable for other products, e.g. street benches, in which it substitutes other materials, e.g. wood. Here, the indicator had to be further adapted for open-loop recycling. The outcome is an average RBR of 13%. This value is rather low because more mass of the recycled plastic is needed to meet the same quality requirements as the substituted material. By further developing the indicator for open-loop recycling, it was possible to quantify the environmental sustainability of plastic recycling in Flanders. These quantitative results may be useful for policy makers, e.g. in legislation on subsidies and levies

Phyla- and Subtype-Selectivity of CgNa, a Na+ Channel Toxin from the Venom of the Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone Condylactis Gigantea

Because of their prominent role in electro-excitability, voltage-gated sodium (NaV) channels have become the foremost important target of animal toxins. These toxins have developed the ability to discriminate between closely related NaV subtypes, making them powerful tools to study NaV channel function and structure. CgNa is a 47-amino acid residue type I toxin isolated from the venom of the Giant Caribbean Sea Anemone Condylactis gigantea. Previous studies showed that this toxin slows the fast inactivation of tetrodotoxin-sensitive NaV currents in rat dorsal root ganglion neurons. To illuminate the underlying NaV subtype-selectivity pattern, we have assayed the effects of CgNa on a broad range of mammalian isoforms (NaV1.2–NaV1.8) expressed in Xenopus oocytes. This study demonstrates that CgNa selectively slows the fast inactivation of rNaV1.3/β1, mNaV1.6/β1 and, to a lesser extent, hNaV1.5/β1, while the other mammalian isoforms remain unaffected. Importantly, CgNa was also examined on the insect sodium channel DmNaV1/tipE, revealing a clear phyla-selectivity in the efficacious actions of the toxin. CgNa strongly inhibits the inactivation of the insect NaV channel, resulting in a dramatic increase in peak current amplitude and complete removal of fast and steady-state inactivation. Together with the previously determined solution structure, the subtype-selective effects revealed in this study make of CgNa an interesting pharmacological probe to investigate the functional role of specific NaV channel subtypes. Moreover, further structural studies could provide important information on the molecular mechanism of NaV channel inactivation

The public health benefit and burden of mass drug administration programs in Vietnamese schoolchildren : impact of mebendazole

Background: Mass anthelmintic drug administration is recommended in developing countries to address infection by soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH). We quantified the public health benefit of treatment with mebendazole in eight million Vietnamese children aged 5–14 years from 2006 to 2011. This was compared to the environmental impact of the pharmaceutical supply chain of mebendazole, as the resource use and emissions associated with pharmaceutical production can be associated with a public health burden, e.g. through emissions of fine particulate matter. Methodology: Through Markov modelling the disability due to STH was quantified for hookworm, Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura. For each worm type, four levels of intensity of infection were included: none, light, medium and heavy. The treatment effect on patients was quantified in Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs). The public health burden induced by the pharmaceutical supply chain of mebendazole was quantified in DALYs through Life Cycle Assessment. Principal findings: Compared to ‘no treatment’, the modelled results of five-year treatment averted 116,587 DALYs (68% reduction) for the three worms combined and largely driven by A. lumbricoides. The main change in DALYs occurred in the first year of treatment, after which the results stabilized. The public health burden associated with the pharmaceutical supply chain was 6 DALYs. Conclusions: The public health benefit of the Mass Drug Administration (MDA) averted substantially more DALYs than those induced by the pharmaceutical supply chain. These results were verified in a sensitivity analysis. The starting prevalence for each worm was the most sensitive model parameter. This methodology is useful for policymakers interested in a holistic approach towards the public health performance of MDA programs, enveloping both the treatment benefit received by the patient and the public health burden associated with the resource consumption and environmental emissions of the pharmaceutical production and supply chain

The Microbiological Etiology of Fracture-Related Infection

Purpose: Fracture-related infection (FRI) is an important complication related to orthopaedic trauma. Although the scientific interest with respect to the diagnosis and treatment of FRI is increasing, data on the microbiological epidemiology remains limited. Therefore, the primary aim of this study was to evaluate the microbiological epidemiology related to FRI, including the association with clinical symptoms and antimicrobial susceptibility data. The secondary aim was to analyze whether there was a relationship between the time to onset of infection and the microbiological etiology of FRI. Methods: FRI patients treated at the University Hospitals of Leuven, Belgium, between January 1st 2015 and November 24th 2019 were evaluated retrospectively. The microbiological etiology and antimicrobial susceptibility data were analyzed. Patients were classified as having an early ( 10 weeks) FRI. Results: One hundred ninety-one patients with 194 FRIs, most frequently involving the tibia (23.7%) and femur (18.6%), were included. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequently isolated pathogen, regardless of time to onset (n=61; 31.4%), followed by S. epidermidis (n=50; 25.8%) and non-epidermidis coagulase-negative staphylococci (n=35; 18.0%). Polymicrobial infections (n=49; 25.3%), mainly involving Gram negative bacilli (GNB) (n=32; 65.3%), were less common than monomicrobial infections (n=138; 71.1%). Virulent pathogens in monomicrobial FRIs were more likely to cause pus or purulent discharge (n=45;54.9%; p=0.002) and fistulas (n=21;25.6%; p=0.030). Susceptibility to piperacillin/tazobactam for GNB was 75.9%. Vancomycin covered 100% of Gram positive cocci. Conclusion: This study revealed that in early FRIs, polymicrobial infections and infections including Enterobacterales and enterococcal species were more frequent. A time-based FRI classification is not meaningful to estimate the microbiological epidemiology and cannot be used to guide empiric antibiotic therapy. Large multicenter prospective studies are necessary to gain more insight into the added value of (broad) empirical antibiotic therapy

Streamlining life cycle assessments: an emerging need for simplification

At an ever increasing rate innovative chemistry and technology platforms are reshaping manufacturing environments to become factories of the future by being more productive, lean and flexible. The use of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) in early process development phases has been challenged many a time to assess whether or not this willingness to strive for innovation is an environmentally sustainable one, often due to a lack of process data. This study takes the streamlining of LCA one step further and proposes an optimal complexity of modelled product systems in terms of their optimal set of predictor variables. Out of more than 2,800 Basic Operations (BOs) in pharmaceutical synthesis steps, candidate predictor variables were identified to forecast the environmental burden (in this case natural resource consumption) of a production step per unit of output. By means of backwards stepwise linear regression modelling, combinations of candidate predictors were tested and evaluated based on their predictive power (R²) and the model uncertainty. It was proven that at least the amount of organic solvents used, the molar efficiency and the time duration of the synthesis step should be included in the model (R² = 0.87) as being the most significant predictor variables. Including additional predictors however imposes no guarantee to contribute to the predictive power and eventually weakens the model interpretation and its simplicity. The results of the study were evaluated in the light of the product-specific versus product group approach debate. Should LCAs be generalized to such an extent that an extensively diversified product group is to be represented with an averaged burden, while fairly simplified and streamlined methods can represent product-specific impact assessments with a reasonable need for data, time and knowledge? The trade-off between simplicity and accuracy will be dealt with quantitatively in the oral presentation. Ideally, an organization should be able to derive its environmental impacts from readily available Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) data, linking supply chains back to the cradle of resource extraction, excluding the need for an approximation with product group averages. While this study has taken a step in that direction, more research should be conducted especially on how efforts towards sustainable development should be addressed with care to valorise them efficiently in the supply chain and its sectors, beyond any company borders