Risk Governance of Emerging Technologies Demonstrated in Terms of its Applicability to Nanomaterials

Nanotechnologies have reached maturity and market penetration that require nano-specific changes in legislation and harmonization among legislation domains, such as the amendments to REACH for nanomaterials (NMs) which came into force in 2020. Thus, an assessment of the components and regulatory boundaries of NMs risk governance is timely, alongside related methods and tools, as part of the global efforts to optimise nanosafety and integrate it into product design processes, via Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) concepts. This paper provides an overview of the state-of-the-art regarding risk governance of NMs and lays out the theoretical basis for the development and implementation of an effective, trustworthy and transparent risk governance framework for NMs. The proposed framework enables continuous integration of the evolving state of the science, leverages best practice from contiguous disciplines and facilitates responsive re-thinking of nanosafety governance to meet future needs. To achieve and operationalise such framework, a science-based Risk Governance Council (RGC) for NMs is being developed. The framework will provide a toolkit for independent NMs' risk governance and integrates needs and views of stakeholders. An extension of this framework to relevant advanced materials and emerging technologies is also envisaged, in view of future foundations of risk research in Europe and globally

Think Again – Supplying War: Reappraising Military Logistics and Its Centrality to Strategy and War

This article argues that logistics constrains strategic opportunity while itself being heavily circumscribed by strategic and operational planning. With the academic literature all but ignoring the centrality of logistics to strategy and war, this article argues for a reappraisal of the critical role of military logistics, and posits that the study and conduct of war and strategy are incomplete at best or false at worst when they ignore this crucial component of the art of war. The article conceptualises the logistics–strategy nexus in a novel way, explores its contemporary manifestation in an age of uncertainty, and applies it to a detailed case study of UK operations in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001

The political and military history of the campaign of Waterloo.

Mode of access: Internet

The political and military history of the campaign of Waterloo;

Mode of access: Internet

Bactericidal effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles: an overview of the toxicity mechanism

International audienceBactericidal effects of NP-TiO2 under dark condition are still the subject of debate. As an example, some authors found that NP-TiO2 have no effect on the laboratory model strain E. coli while others found for this strain EC50 values differing from 10 magnitude orders. Such contradictory results may be explained by multiple causal factors, including differences in the intrinsic characteristics of NP-TiO2 and bacterial cells used in these studies, exposure conditions for toxicity assessment and even the method used to assess the toxicity, the latter being often inappropriate for nanoparticle toxicity assessment. Increasing knowledge about exposition parameters which trigger NP toxicity and associated molecular mechanisms would contribute to properly evaluate and predict NP effects/fate in the environment.In our study, analysis of the interactions between nanoparticles (NPs) and bacteria highlighted the paramount role played by interfacial electrostatic interactions (NP-cell vs. NP-NP interactions) in determining the extent of NP toxicity and the importance of physico-chemical parameters such as pH and ionic strength in controlling these interactions. In condition of interaction, we showed that nanoparticles causes E.coli membrane depolarization and loss of membrane integrity leading to higher cell permeability. A transcriptomic analysis highlighted that deregulated genes are involved in the response to osmotic stress, metabolism of various cell envelope components and the uptake/metabolism of other endogenous and exogenous compounds. In addition, a significant number of deregulated genes encode proteins localized in the membrane and periplasmic space. All in all, results indicate that the primary effect of NP-TiO2 is initiated at the cell envelope level (membrane depolarization, loss of integrity) triggering an osmotic stress response in bacteria. These results are supported by the observed massive leakage of intracellular K+/Mg