European Union Governance Response to Corporate Social Responsibility and the French Case Study

This dissertation explores the European Union (EU) strategy on corporate responsibility in relation to sustainability reports and due diligence processes in human rights. The focus is on the French position in the area, as it was the first member state to legislate on the duty of vigilance. The aim is to examine the interaction with the EU and the member states in this issue-area using France as a case study. Considering this tension, the European Union Governance was chosen as the theoretical approach. This is a case study analysis within the qualitative analyses of content, given that the data comes mainly from legislation and policy documents. The theoretical framework is relevant for the case study data analysis that uses the Explanation-Building strategy, with a focus on the examination of legal and policy documents enabling them to answer the research questions, and provide recommendations. This dissertation scrutinises a phenomenon that culminated in legislation, necessitating the reliance on theoretical propositions to construct an explanatory framework based on the collected data. The findings reveal the EU Governance responds to corporate responsibility through France's pioneering initiative in implementing more mechanisms to hold corporations accountable. This holistic view allows us to see that there is tension between the bloc and the member states, but French pioneering has not diminished the EU's efforts and long work in the area. Furthermore, a look at the European scenario shows that the majority of member countries still lack legislation that holds corporations accountable. The advancement of European legislation in the area, with i.e. the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, generates the legal obligation for states to implement legislation more strictly about business. The study provides insights into the French initiative and the EU's Governance Response to Corporate Responsibility, suggesting the potential for harmonising corporate practices with human rights standards

Achieving Accurate Valve Deployment in Complex Anatomies

The Portico valve (Abbott) is a transcatheter, self-expanding, resheathable device with intra-annular positioning of the bovine leaflets, which has proven safety and performance in several studies.1,2 The major advantages of this device include its low profile and flexibility, making it easier to overcome potential challenges related to tortuous and calcified vessels, as well as horizontal aortic anatomy. The next-generation delivery system (FlexNav, Abbott) recently took its first step into the clinical arena, offering additional improvements in deliverability and accurate valve deployment in complex anatomies

Prenatal and postnatal drug exposure: focus on persistent central effects

Clinical studies indicate significant use of prescription, nonprescription and social/recreational drugs by women during pregnancy; however, limited knowledge exists about the detrimental effects that this practice may have on the developing central nervous system of the fetus. Importantly, few experimental and clinical data are available on how gestational exposure could exacerbate the effects of the same or a different drug consumed by the offspring later in life. The present review summarizes recent findings on the central toxicity elicited by several classes of drugs, administered prenatally and postnatally in experimental animals and humans, focusing on prescription and nonprescription analgesics, anti-inflammatory agents, alcohol and nicotine

Implementation of a Sentinel-2 Based Exploratory Workflow for the Estimation of Above Ground Biomass

Molisse, G., Emin, D., & Costa, H. (2022). Implementation of a Sentinel-2 Based Exploratory Workflow for the Estimation of Above Ground Biomass. In 2022 IEEE Mediterranean and Middle-East Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium, M2GARSS 2022 - Proceedings (pp. 74-77). Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://doi.org/10.1109/M2GARSS52314.2022.9839897 ----Funding Information: This study was carried out in the framework of the MAIL project, which was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 823805.This work presents a Sentinel-2 based exploratory workflow for the estimation of Above Ground Biomass (AGB) in a Mediterranean forest. Up-to-date and reliable mapping of AGB has been increasingly required by international commitments under the climate convention, and in the last decades, remote sensing-based studies on the topic have been widely investigated. After the generation of several vegetation and topographic features, the proposed approach consists of 4 major steps: 1) Feature selection 2) AGB prediction with k-Nearest Neighbour (kNN), Random Forest (RF), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), and Artificial Neural Networks (ANN); 3) hyper-parameters fine-tuning with Bayesian Optimization; and finally, 4) model explanation with the SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) package. The following results were obtained: 1) before hyper-parameters optimization, the Deep Neural Network (DNN) yielded the best performance with a Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) of 42.30 t/ha; 2) after hyper-parameters fine-tuning with Bayesian Optimization, the Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB) model yielded the best performance with a RMSE of 37.79 t/ha; 3) model explanation with SHAP allowed for a deeper understanding of the features impact on the model predictions. Finally, the predicted AGB throughout the study area showed an average value of 83 t/ha, ranging from 0t/ha to 346.56 t/ha.authorsversionpublishe

Assessment of the Energy Requirements for CO2 Storage by Carbonation of Industrial Residues. Part 1: Definition of the Process Layout

Abstract Mineral carbonation is an ex situ CO 2 storage option that could allow to fix large amounts of CO 2 in a solid and thermodynamically stable form. Its feasibility has been proven at lab-scale both employing natural minerals or alkaline industrial residues. However the energy requirements of this process can be quite significant depending on the type of material and operating conditions adopted and thus represent a crucial factor for its full scale applicability. The focus of this paper is the assessment of the energy requirements of CO 2 storage by accelerated carbonation of alkaline materials applying the direct aqueous route. From the analysis of the main studies on energy penalties associated to the carbonation process large differences were observed on the assumptions made, the selected layout and operating conditions, in particular for alkaline residues. In addition most of the evaluations were carried out considering only experimental tests performed with high liquid to solid ratios (slurry phase route) while specific evaluations for tests with liquid to solid ratios lower than 1 (wet route) were not carried out. The overall aim of this study is to estimate the energy duties required to store the CO 2 emissions of a small-medium size power plant (20 MW) by carbonation of different types of residues (steel slags and waste incineration residues) applying either the slurry phase or wet routes. In this paper the layouts of the proposed carbonation processes are presented and discussed

Bicuspid Valve Sizing for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation: The Missing Link

Transcatheter aortic valve implantation (TAVI) is a well-recognized and established therapy for severe aortic stenosis, with expanding indications toward younger patients with low surgical risk profile. As bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) affects ~1-2% of the population, it may be speculated that an increasing number of patients with degenerated BAV may eventually need TAVI during the course of the disease. On the other hand, BAV represents a challenge due to its peculiar anatomical features and the lack of consensus on the optimal sizing strategy. The aim of this paper is to review the peculiar aspects of BAV and to discuss and compare the currently available sizing methods. Special attention is given to the role of pre-procedural imaging, mostly with multislice computed tomography, and to the aspects that operators should evaluate in order to ensure an optimal procedural planning and avoid procedural-related complications

Vulnerability to cognitive, neurotoxic and neuroinflammatory effects of toxins that induce Parkinson's disease after administration of amphetamine-related drugs in mice

Clinical observations report a higher propensity to develop Parkinson’s disease (PD) in amphetamine users. 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is an amphetamine-related drug which may have neuroinflammatory and neurotoxic effects. The present study was aimed at evaluating in mice whether administration of MDMA during adolescence might influence neurotoxicity towards dopaminergic neurons and neuroinflammatory effects of 1-methyl-4- phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP), a toxin known to induce PD in humans, in motor, limbic and cortical areas, and consequently affects cognitive performance. Mice received MDMA (10 mg/kg, twice a day/a week) for 9 weeks, followed by MPTP (20 mg/kg × 4 administrations), starting 2 weeks after MDMA discontinuation. Activation of astroglia and microglia by GFAP and CD11b immunohistochemistry in motor areas, as substantia nigra compacta (SNc) and striatum, limbic and cortical areas, as hippocampus and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), was assessed. Degeneration of dopaminergic neurons by tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) immunohistochemistry in SNc and striatum was also evaluated. Neurochemical evaluations were paired with assessment of cognitive performance by means of the novel object recognition (NOR) and spontaneous alternation in a Y-maze tests. MPTP administration to MDMA-pretreated mice elicited a stronger increase in CD11b and GFAP levels in motor, limbic and cortical areas, and a stronger decrease of TH-positive neurons and fibers in motor areas, compared with either substance administered alone. Furthermore, NOR performance in the same group was lower, compared with mice that received either substance alone. Results demonstrate that MDMA administration during adolescence influence negatively MPTP effects on motor, limbic and cortical areas and result in cognitive impairment

From built environment to health inequalities: An explanatory framework based on evidence

The Health in All Policies strategy aims to engage every policy domain in health promotion. The more socially disadvantaged groups are usually more affected by potential negative impacts of policies if they are not health oriented. The built environment represents an important policy domain and, apart from its housing component, its impact on health inequalities is seldom assessed. Methods: A scoping review of evidence on the built environment and its health equity impact was carried out, searching both urban and medical literature since 2000 analysing socio-economic inequalities in relation to different components of the built environment. Results: The proposed explanatory framework assumes that key features of built environment (identified as density, functional mix and public spaces and services), may influence individual health through their impact on both natural environment and social context, as well as behaviours, and that these effects may be unequally distributed according to the social position of individuals. Conclusion: In general, the expected links proposed by the framework are well documented in the literature; however, evidence of their impact on health inequalities remains uncertain due to confounding factors, heterogeneity in study design, and difficulty to generalize evidence that is still very embedded to local contexts

Evaluating by LCA the environmental impact savings related to the use of waste incineration bottom ash in porcelain tiles manufacturing: The role of metals recovery

The implementation of circular economy concepts in industrial manufacturing is being promoted in many Countries, in particular by the EU. The evaluation of the economic and environmental savings related to the decrease of the amounts of waste sent to final disposal and also of the impacts of the extraction of raw materials, are of particular relevance to companies. In particular, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and footprint analysis are being increasingly applied with the aim of attaining Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) to prove to potential customers how “greener” the products achieved employing circular routes are compared to those attained via traditional linear processes. It should be noted however, that the environmental advantages that can be achieved can vary significantly according to the specific characteristics of the system in question, such as the current strategies applied for managing the waste, the types and amounts of raw materials that are replaced and the distance of supply of each type of material (both for the waste and raw materials). A type of waste material that is currently being increasingly used outside of landfills is waste incineration bottom ash. This material is employed as aggregates or sand substitutes in concrete or asphalt mixtures, as aggregates in unbound applications, or as raw material in cement or recently also ceramics manufacturing. In any case, the bottom ash is first treated to recover ferrous and non-ferrous metals and may undergo different treatments such as particle size separation, crushing, washing, natural weathering and/or binder addition, in view of the intended application. In this study, we focused on the relevance of some of the input parameters and assumptions on the environmental impacts resulting for a cradle to gate LCA case study concerning a manufacturing process employing waste incineration bottom ash. Specifically, data from a company in Central Italy that has started a production line of porcelain stoneware tiles using waste incineration bottom ash in partial replacement of feldspar sands was employed to evaluate the environmental impacts related to the manufacturing of the new product, comparing them to those of the same type of tiles produced using only quarried material. From the comparison of the environmental performances related to the production of the two types of products (stoneware tiles with and without bottom ash) assessed employing the EPD 2018 method and Simapro 9.1.1 software, the production of the tile containing the bottom ash compared to that obtained by the traditional process would in particular involve a significant decrease of the following impacts: mineral consumption and eutrophication (70%), photochemical smog and acidification (40-45%) and climate change (25%). In particular, the results showed that the reduction of the impacts is not so much linked to the impacts avoided for the extraction and transport of feldspar replaced by bottom ash, as to the recovery of ferrous and non-ferrous metals from the bottom ash implemented in the tiles manufacturing plant. It is evident hence that the results are strongly dependent on the assumptions made regarding the amounts of iron and aluminum that can be recovered and the processes assumed for their recovery. In particular, the substitution of primary steel and aluminum production were considered, although the impacts related to secondary steel and aluminum production were accounted for and substitution ratios lower than 1 were considered. It should be highlighted that for the analyzed case study it was considered that the bottom ash would be treated for metal recovery at the plant and would be diverted from landfills. If instead pre-treated bottom ash intended for reuse as aggregates were employed in the tile production process, the potential environmental benefits that could be achieved would be significantly lower. At the Conference the results of the study, and in particular the effects of the assumptions made on ferrous and non-ferrous metals recovery, with regard to amounts, quality and utilization/substitution scenarios, as well as of the management options for the bottom ash and transport distances, will be assessed in terms of their overall effect on the environmental impact savings of the examined circular economy process