DE L'INTÉGRATION DES PROBLÉMATIQUES RSE DANS LES PROJETS SI : ÉMERGENCE D'UNE APPROCHE HYBRIDE

Cet article aborde la question de l'articulation des problématiques partenariales et du champ de la RSE autour des questions liées à la mise en place et au monitoring des systèmes d'information dans les organisations. Il aborde notamment l'utilité du développement d'une démarche dyadique permettant d'associer la RSE au SI, par l'intermédiaire de la prise en compte des parties prenantes, et le SI à la RSE, par la contribution de celui-ci à la production de moyens et d'informations, utiles à la prise de décision et à l'atteinte de l'efficience. Cette contribution, avant tout exploratoire, propose de développer un cadre théorique renouvelé, que nous pouvons qualifier d'hybride, permettant d'expliciter l'influence des parties prenantes sur l'implémentation d'un SI efficient et d'ouvrir un champ de recherche renouvelé autour de la question de la mise en oeuvre des mécanismes de contrôle et de la RSE. Mots clefs : Système d'information financier (FI-S), parties prenantes, responsabilité sociale des entreprises (RSE), design, implémentation

Synthesis of comments on the final report ESPON 1.1.1, “The role, specific situation and potentials of urban areas as nodes in a polycentric development”

Following the ESDP and its objectives of a more balanced territorial development of the EU space, this TPG explores the concept of polycentrism, both theoretically and empirically. It concludes on policy recommendations to improve polycentrism at micro, meso and macro level, but also point out the possible contradictions between polycentrism strategy implemented simultaneously at each level. It is a document with strategic orientation, as it assembles on the one hand elements of diagnostic, regarding the situation of the cities and of the continental urban pattern, the exchange flows and how polycentrism is taken into account by national policies, and on the other hand recommendations for implementing the polycentrism principles at the different European, national and regional scales.Co-financed by the European Community through the Interreg III ESPON Programmepeer-reviewe

First steps toward harmonized human biomonitoring in Europe : demonstration project to perform human biomonitoring on a European scale

'Reproduced with permission from Environmental Health Perspectives'Background: For Europe as a whole, data on internal exposure to environmental chemicals do not yet exist. Characterization of the internal individual chemical environment is expected to enhance understanding of the environmental threats to health. Objectives: We developed and applied a harmonized protocol to collect comparable human biomonitoring data all over Europe. Methods: In 17 European countries, we measured mercury in hair and cotinine, phthalate metabolites, and cadmium in urine of 1,844 children (5–11 years of age) and their mothers. Specimens were collected over a 5-month period in 2011–2012. We obtained information on personal characteristics, environment, and lifestyle. We used the resulting database to compare concentrations of exposure biomarkers within Europe, to identify determinants of exposure, and to compare exposure biomarkers with healthbased guidelines. Results: Biomarker concentrations showed a wide variability in the European population. However, levels in children and mothers were highly correlated. Most biomarker concentrations were below the health-based guidance values. Conclusions: We have taken the first steps to assess personal chemical exposures in Europe as a whole. Key success factors were the harmonized protocol development, intensive training and capacity building for field work, chemical analysis and communication, as well as stringent quality control programs for chemical and data analysis. Our project demonstrates the feasibility of a Europe-wide human biomonitoring framework to support the decision-making process of environmental measures to protect public health.The research leading to these results received funding for the COPHES project (COnsortium to Perform Human biomonitoring on a European Scale) from the European Community’s Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007–2013] under grant agreement 244237. DEMOCOPHES (DEMOnstration of a study to COordinate and Perform Human biomonitoring on a European Scale) was co-funded (50%:50%) by the European Commission LIFE+ Programme (LIFE09/ENV/BE/000410) and the partners. For information on both projects as well as on the national co-funding institutions, see http://www.eu-hbm.info/. The sponsors had no role in the study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report

Exposure determinants of cadmium in European mothers and their children

© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. This is an open access article under the CCBY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).The metal cadmium (Cd) is a widespread environmental pollutant with documented adverse effects on the kidneys and bones from long-term environmental exposure, but with insufficiently elucidated public health consequences such as risk of cardiovascular disease, hormone-related cancer in adults and developmental effects in children. This study is the first pan-European human biomonitoring project that succeeded in performing harmonized measurements of Cd in urine in a comparable way in mother–child couples from 16 European countries. The aim of the study was to evaluate the overall Cd exposure and significant determinants of Cd exposure. A study population of 1632 women (24–52 years of age), and 1689 children (5–12 years of age), from 32 rural and urban areas, was examined within a core period of 6 months in 2011–2012. Women were stratified as smokers and non-smokers. As expected, smoking mothers had higher geometric mean (gm) urinary cadmium (UCd; 0.24 µg/g crea; n=360) than non-smoking mothers (gm 0.18 µg/g crea; n=1272; p<0.0001), and children had lower UCd (gm 0.065 µg/g crea; n=1689) than their mothers at the country level. Non-smoking women exposed to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) at home had 14% (95% CI 1–28%) higher UCd than those who were not exposed to ETS at home (p=0.04). No influence of ETS at home or other places on UCd levels was detected in children. Smoking women with primary education as the highest educational level of the household had 48% (95% CI 18–86%) higher UCd than those with tertiary education (p=0.0008). The same observation was seen in non-smoking women and in children; however they were not statistically significant. In children, living in a rural area was associated with 7% (95% CI 1–13%) higher UCd (p=0.03) compared to living in an urban area. Children, 9–12 years had 7% (95% CI 1–13%) higher UCd (p=0.04) than children 5–8 years. About 1% of the mothers, and 0.06% of the children, exceeded the tolerable weekly intake (TWI) appointed by EFSA, corresponding to 1.0 µg Cd/g crea in urine. Poland had the highest UCd in comparison between the 16 countries, while Denmark had the lowest. Whether the differences between countries are related to differences in the degree of environmental Cd contamination or to differences in lifestyle, socioeconomic status or dietary patterns is not clear.Financially supported by the 7th EU framework programe(DGResearch – No. 244237-COPHES),LIFE+ 2009(DG Environment – LIFE09ENV/BE000410-DEMOCOPHES),with addi- tional co-funding from DEMOCOPHES partners

Aux coutures de l'Europe, défis et enjeux juridiques de la coopération transfrontalière: Une stratégie pour l'aire métropolitaine franco-belge

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Effects of various processes of fractionation, grinding and storage of peas on the digestibility of pea starch in chickens

International audienceDigestibility of pea starch was measured in 3 week-old chickens. In the first experiment, pure starch fractions introduced at a 200 g/kg dietary level were studied. Digestibility of high amylose pea starch was 75.2%, while that of normal peas and maize was 94.4 and 98.8%, respectively. The digestibility of starch of 3 mm ground unfractionated seeds from normal pea genotype, tested in the same experiment, was 76.1%. In the second experiment, pea cotyledon fractions separated into fine (100 μm) particles were studied at 480 g/kg dietary inclusion. Mean starch digestibilities were 95.7 and 84.4% for fine and coarse particle fractions, respectively. In the third experiment, whole seeds were either dehydrated (6.6% final water content) or slightly moistened (17.5% final water content) before grinding, which resulted in a three-fold increase in the mechanical energy supplied by grinding in the case of moistened seeds. After grinding, peas were introduced at a 480 g/kg level in diets. Dehydration resulted in either no change or 10% increase in the pea starch digestibility, while moistening resulted in 6.9–19.8% increases. In the fourth experiment, storage conditions of pea seeds for 5 weeks were tested. Temperature, water content of seeds and their physical state (ground vs. unground) during storage had no effect on their starch digestibility. In all experiments metabolisable energy values were also measured and showed good agreement with starch digestibilities. It was concluded that the variations in starch digestibility of ground peas result from interactions between the resistance of pea starch granules and the accessibility defect in coarse particles, and that these interactions depend on the amount of mechanical energy supplied by grinding

Protection des plages par un dispositif attenuateur de houle

Available from INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : AR 16622 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueSIGLEMinistere de la Recherche et de l'Espace (MRE), 75 - Paris (France)FRFranc

Questionable Efficacy of Therapeutic Antibodies in the Treatment of Anthrax

International audienceInhalational anthrax caused by Bacillus anthracis, a spore-forming Gram-positive bacterium, is a highly lethal infection. Antibodies targeting the protective antigen (PA) binding component of the toxins have recently been authorized as an adjunct to antibiotics, although no conclusive evidence demonstrates that anthrax antitoxin therapy has any significant benefit. We discuss here the rational basis of anti-PA development regarding the pathogenesis of the disease. We argue that inductive reasoning may induce therapeutic bias. We identified anthrax animal model analysis as another bias. Further studies are needed to assess the benefit of anti-PA antibodies in the treatment of inhalational anthrax, while a clearer consensus should be established around what evidence should be proven in an anthrax model