Proposition d'un outil en ligne sur la prévention des biodéchets pour les collectivités locales en Europe

International audienceThe European community cannot address the issue of bio-waste solely in terms of collection and waste management, as such activities generate costs. Today, waste prevention in Europe must involve waste reduction and prevention at a local level, targeting all producers of bio-waste, not only consumers and households, and promoting the use of a number of waste reduction practices including composting, mulching, grinding, use of slow-growing plant species, using bio-waste as animal feed, reducing food wastage and the use of ramial wood chips. The Miniwaste project, supported by the European Life+ program (2010-2012), aims to provide evidence that it is possible to significantly reduce the production of bio-waste generated in the European Union, as well as provide tools and points of further reflection on bio-waste prevention. The partnership (Rennes Métropole, Irstea, City of Brno, LIPOR in Porto, and ACR+) wishes to set up a computerised tool for local authorities within Europe. This project will help users to conduct a bio-waste management programme including territorial diagnosis, the implementation and monitoring of specific preventive actions and the evaluation of these actions. The overall structure will be based on three different modules: 1-A decision making assistance module that includes a territorial diagnosis chart offering several scenarios associated with different potential possible actions in the field of bio-waste prevention: Composting (home, community, apartment blocks, vermi-composting, catering services), food waste (household,restaurant), smart gardening and animal feeding. The territorial diagnosis is produced on the scale chosen by the user in order to get homogeneous data. It could be a neighbourhood, district, town, etc. For a given sector, the decision making module consists in entering data of 15 territorial indicators in terms of population, current waste management and current preventive actions on the territory, etc. Meanwhile, a calculation of potential waste reduction is processed by the computer using an algorithm. The result of the diagnosis is displayed for the whole territory and for each sector according to the list defined. Corresponding to the results, synthetic worksheets are proposed as a real decision making tool with the following information: target, type of waste concerned, linked indicators, main actions, participants involved, materials necessary, personnel necessary, an estimate of cost, and expected results. With such information (diagnosis and worksheets), the users are able to choose one or several preventive actions to implement in their territory. 2-Some guidelines to implement the actions and especially some data sheets proposing activity indicators and impact indicators: depending on the preventive actions chosen, the user can download the corresponding procedural sheet which explains step by step how to implement the actions in detail. Moreover, a data sheet is available with a list of relevant indicators (awareness, number of composters, etc.) 3-A results display module, producing graphs to help visualise the results. This web tool will be available on the Miniwaste website by subscription, from 2013 (www.miniwaste.eu). More information will be provided and a tool demonstration will be organized during the final conference scheduled in Rennes in November 2012

Invariant natural killer T cells and immunotherapy of cancer.

Contains fulltext : 69606.pdf (publisher's version ) (Closed access)Invariant CD1d restricted natural killer T (iNKT) cells are regulatory cells that express a canonical TCR-Valpha-chain (Valpha24.Jalpha18 in humans and Valpha14.Jalpha18 in mice) which recognizes glycolipid antigens presented by the monomorphic CD1d molecule. They can secrete a wide variety of both pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines very swiftly upon their activation. Evidence for the significance of iNKT cells in human cancer has been ambiguous. Still, the (pre-)clinical findings reviewed here, provide evidence for a distinct contribution of iNKT cells to natural anti-tumor immune responses in humans. Furthermore, clinical phase I studies that are discussed here have revealed that the infusion of cancer patients with ligand-loaded dendritic cells or cultured iNKT cells is well tolerated. We thus underscore the potential of iNKT cell based immunotherapy in conjunction with established modalities such as surgery and radiotherapy, as adjuvant therapy against carcinomas

Multicenter International Study of the Consensus Immunoscore for the Prediction of Relapse and Survival in Early-Stage Colon Cancer

Background: The prognostic value of Immunoscore was evaluated in Stage II/III colon cancer (CC) patients, but it remains unclear in Stage I/II, and in early-stage subgroups at risk. An international Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) study evaluated the pre-defined consensus Immunoscore in tumors from 1885 AJCC/UICC-TNM Stage I/II CC patients from Canada/USA (Cohort 1) and Europe/Asia (Cohort 2). METHODS: Digital-pathology is used to quantify the densities of CD3+ and CD8+ T-lymphocyte in the center of tumor (CT) and the invasive margin (IM). The time to recurrence (TTR) was the primary endpoint. Secondary endpoints were disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), prognosis in Stage I, Stage II, Stage II-high-risk, and microsatellite-stable (MSS) patients. RESULTS: High-Immunoscore presented with the lowest risk of recurrence in both cohorts. In Stage I/II, recurrence-free rates at 5 years were 78.4% (95%-CI, 74.4−82.6), 88.1% (95%-CI, 85.7−90.4), 93.4% (95%-CI, 91.1−95.8) in low, intermediate and high Immunoscore, respectively (HR (Hi vs. Lo) = 0.27 (95%-CI, 0.18−0.41); p < 0.0001). In Cox multivariable analysis, the association of Immunoscore to outcome was independent (TTR: HR (Hi vs. Lo) = 0.29, (95%-CI, 0.17−0.50); p < 0.0001) of the patient’s gender, T-stage, sidedness, and microsatellite instability-status (MSI). A significant association of Immunoscore with survival was found for Stage II, high-risk Stage II, T4N0 and MSS patients. The Immunoscore also showed significant association with TTR in Stage-I (HR (Hi vs. Lo) = 0.07 (95%-CI, 0.01−0.61); P = 0.016). The Immunoscore had the strongest (69.5%) contribution χ2 for influencing survival. Patients with a high Immunoscore had prolonged TTR in T4N0 tumors even for patients not receiving chemotherapy, and the Immunoscore remained the only significant parameter in multivariable analysis. CONCLUSION: In early CC, low Immunoscore reliably identifies patients at risk of relapse for whom a more intensive surveillance program or adjuvant treatment should be considered