Revision of the EU Green Public Procurement Criteria for Street Lighting and Traffic Signals - Preliminary Report

Lighting is used on more than 1.6 million km of roads in EU28 countries, accounting for some 35 TWh of electricity consumption (1.3% of total electricity consumption) and costing public authorities almost €4000 million each year. A broad review of relevant technical, policy, academic and legislative literature has been conducted. This report examines the current market situation and the potential for reducing environmental impacts and electricity costs by assessing the recent developments in road lighting technology, particularly LEDs. Particularly important areas identified relate to energy efficiency, light pollution, product durability and, specifically for longer lasting and rapidly evolving new LED technologies, reparability and upgradeability. The information in this report shall serve as a basis for discussion with stakeholders about the further development and revision of EU GPP criteria for street lighting and traffic signals.JRC.B.5-Circular Economy and Industrial Leadershi

Early Lumen-Apposing Metal Stent Dysfunction Complicating Endoscopic Ultrasound-Guided Gastroenterostomy: A Report of Two Cases

Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided gastroenterostomy using a lumen-apposing metal stent has emerged as a novel technique in the palliative treatment of malignant gastric outlet obstruction. Endoscopic ultrasonography-guided gastroenterostomy seems to have the potential to provide long-lasting patency in a minimally invasive manner. Low reintervention rates have been described. We report two cases with early lumen-apposing metal stent dysfunction, compromising patency. One case showed food impaction after three weeks, and hyperplastic tissue overgrowth with a buried distal flange six weeks after stent placement. The latter was successfully treated by argon plasma coagulation, stent removal, and deployment of a larger-diameter lumen-apposing metal stent. The second case showed a narrowed luminal diameter of the stent and jejunal pressure ulcerations after three weeks. The narrowing was successfully treated by balloon dilation. Eight weeks later, hyperplastic tissue overgrowth at the distal flange of the stent and a gastro-colonic fistula were diagnosed, followed by extensive reconstructive surgery

Detection of anti-Mi-2 autoantibodies before dermatomyositis-specific manifestations.

status: publishe

Nationwide Harmonization Effort for Semi-Quantitative Reporting of SARS-CoV-2 PCR Test Results in Belgium.

From early 2020, a high demand for SARS-CoV-2 tests was driven by several testing indications, including asymptomatic cases, resulting in the massive roll-out of PCR assays to combat the pandemic. Considering the dynamic of viral shedding during the course of infection, the demand to report cycle threshold (Ct) values rapidly emerged. As Ct values can be affected by a number of factors, we considered that harmonization of semi-quantitative PCR results across laboratories would avoid potential divergent interpretations, particularly in the absence of clinical or serological information. A proposal to harmonize reporting of test results was drafted by the National Reference Centre (NRC) UZ/KU Leuven, distinguishing four categories of positivity based on RNA copies/mL. Pre-quantified control material was shipped to 124 laboratories with instructions to setup a standard curve to define thresholds per assay. For each assay, the mean Ct value and corresponding standard deviation was calculated per target gene, for the three concentrations (10, 10 and 10 copies/mL) that determine the classification. The results of 17 assays are summarized. This harmonization effort allowed to ensure that all Belgian laboratories would report positive PCR results in the same semi-quantitative manner to clinicians and to the national database which feeds contact tracing interventions