Mieux Evaluer la Vulnérabilité et la Résilience Territoriales pour Améliorer la Gestion de Crise: le Cas de la Province de Varèse, Italie

La mise en place de procédures de gestion de crise, telles que les systèmes d'alarmes, l'échange d'information entre les acteurs, la préparation des services d'intervention constitue un élément fort de résilience territoriale vis-à-vis de tous les types d'aléas. Pourtant, un état des lieux des grands types de politiques de gestion des risques existantes, ainsi que des indicateurs de vulnérabilité le plus souvent utilisés, montre que : -D'une part, les facteurs de résilience, définie comme la capacité des populations à faire face à une situation de crise et à retrouver une situation d'équilibre, sont trop rarement pris en compte; -D'autre part, l'analyse de la vulnérabilité est souvent limitée à l'évaluation des morts ou des dommages économiques potentiels, ce qui ne permet pas de rendre compte de la complexité de la vulnérabilité territoriale. L'enjeu réside donc dans la mise en place d'un véritable outil d'aide à la décision permettant de fournir aux acteurs intervenant lors de la gestion de crise, les informations nécessaires à l'amélioration des procédures en place. Il est alors indispensable d'introduire une analyse approfondie de la vulnérabilité et de la résilience territoriales au sein de l'analyse de risque, afin de mieux comprendre la répartition spatiale des zones considérées comme critiques du point de vue des possibilités de gestion de crise. L'expérience menée dans le cadre de la Province de Varèse, Italie, permet d'illustrer la méthodologie développée pour répondre à cet enjeu. En Italie, la province (située entre la région et la commune, à l'instar des départements français) a pour compétence la mise en place du plan opérationnel d'intervention en cas d'urgence. Le territoire de Varèse est confronté à un ensemble d'aléas naturels (inondations, mouvements de terrain, incendies) et technologiques (risque industriel notamment). Si la Province de Varèse connaissait déjà bien la répartition des zones de risque au sein de son territoire, son objectif était d'optimiser la répartition des services d'intervention en cas de crise (i.e. pompiers, services médicaux, police, etc.) et d'améliorer les procédures de gestion de crise en place. Cela supposait donc une meilleure évaluation des facteurs de vulnérabilité et des facteurs de résilience pour chaque commune, afin de faire ressortir la répartition spatiale des zones les plus critiques. La méthodologie développée, ses avantages et ses limites sont développés dans l'article. L'intérêt de cette expérience réside donc dans : - le développement d'indicateurs de vulnérabilité et de résilience permettant de rendre compte des capacités de gestion de crise; - dans la mise en place d'une procédure d'évaluation des risques identique pour chaque commune, ce qui permet d'améliorer la comparabilité des résultats, ainsi que la communication entre les divers acteurs de gestion des risques ; - l'existence du processus participatif ayant permis aux acteurs de concernés, non seulement de mieux connaître la situation des risques à l'échelle provincial, mais également de mieux se connaître entre eux, ce qui constitue un atout non négligeable pour améliorer la gestion de crise et donc renforcer la résilience territoriale.JRC.G.7-Traceability and vulnerability assessmen

Techno-economic analysis of hydrogen production using biomass gasification. A small scale power plant study

Hydrogen has the potential to be a clean alternative to the fossil fuels currently used. This is especially true if hydrogen is manufactured from renewable resources such as biomass. However, hydrogen from biomass faces techno and economic challenges especially in the small size required for the decentralized hydrogen production. In this purpose, a techno economic analysis was carried out on small scale (100kWth) system. The plant is mainly composed of gasifier (double bubbling fluidized bed reactor) coupled with a Portable Purification Unit (PPS: catalytic filter candles, Water Gas Shift and Pressure Swing Absorption). This work focuses on system costs to identify barriers to the development of this technology. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to study hydrogen production cost as a function of capital cost, operating cost and hydrogen production efficiency. The results showed that although efficiency of the production system is the main factor to fall production cost, it cannot be able to reduce costs to favorable level alone. In other words, PPS cost recognized as the major cost is requisite to go down. Therefore, the 50% reduction of PPS cost and the variation of steam to biomass from 1 to 1.5 allow the special cost to fluctuate between 12.75-9.5 €/kg

Non-Conventional Yeasts Whole Cells as Efficient Biocatalysts for the Production of Flavors and Fragrances

The rising consumer requests for natural flavors and fragrances have generated great interest in the aroma industry to seek new methods to obtain fragrance and flavor compounds naturally. An alternative and attractive route for these compounds is based on bio-transformations. In this review, the application of biocatalysis by Non Conventional Yeasts (NCYs) whole cells for the production of flavor and fragrances is illustrated by a discussion of the production of different class of compounds, namely Aldehydes, Ketones and related compounds, Alcohols, Lactones, Terpenes and Terpenoids, Alkenes, and Phenols

Persistence of Unintegrated HIV DNA Associates With Ongoing NK Cell Activation and CD34+DNAM-1brightCXCR4+ Precursor Turnover in Vertically Infected Patients Despite Successful Antiretroviral Treatment

none11noThe quantification of proviral DNA is raising interest in view of clinical management and functional HIV eradication. Measures of all unintegrated HIV DNA (uDNA) forms in infected reservoir cells provides information on recent replication events that is not found from other proviral DNA assays. To evaluate its actual relevance in a cohort of perinatally-infected adult HIV patients (PHIV), we studied how peripheral blood mononuclear cell uDNA levels correlated with total HIV DNA (tDNA) and with overall replication or innate immune control parameters including NK cell activation/exhaustion and lymphoid turnover. Twenty-two PHIV were included, with successfully controlled HIV (HIV RNA <50 copies/mL) on combined antiretroviral therapy for mean of 8.7 ± 3.9 years. uDNA accounted for 16 [5.2-83.5] copies/µg and was strongly correlated with tDNA (ρ=0.700, p=0.001). Flow cytometric analysis of peripheral NK cells showed that CD69 expression was directly correlated uDNA (p=0.0412), but not with tDNA. Interestingly, CD56-CD16+NK cells which include newly described inflammatory precursors and terminally differentiated cells were directly correlated with uDNA levels (p<0.001), but not with tDNA, and an inverse association was observed between the proportion of NKG2D+ NK cells and uDNA (ρ=-0.548, p=0.015). In addition, CD34+DNAM-1brightCXCR4+ inflammatory precursor frequency correlated directly with uDNA levels (ρ=0.579, p=0.0075). The frequencies of CD56-CD16+ and CD34+DNAM-1brightCXCR4+ cells maintained association with uDNA levels in a multivariable analysis (p=0.045 and p=0.168, respectively). Thus, control of HIV-1 reservoir in aviremic patients on ART is an active process associated with continuous NK cell intervention and turnover, even after many years of treatment. Quantification of linear and circular uDNA provides relevant information on the requirement for ongoing innate immune control in addition to ART, on recent replication history and may help stratify patients for functional HIV eradication protocols with targeted options.openTaramasso, Lucia; Bozzano, Federica; Casabianca, Anna; Orlandi, Chiara; Bovis, Francesca; Mora, Sara; Giacomini, Mauro; Moretta, Lorenzo; Magnani, Mauro; Di Biagio, Antonio; De Maria, AndreaTaramasso, Lucia; Bozzano, Federica; Casabianca, Anna; Orlandi, Chiara; Bovis, Francesca; Mora, Sara; Giacomini, Mauro; Moretta, Lorenzo; Magnani, Mauro; Di Biagio, Antonio; De Maria, Andre

Prevalence of Viral Hepatitis in Unselected, Consecutively Enrolled Patients Hospitalised for SARS-CoV-2

Diagnosing people living with chronic viral hepatitis is challenging due to the absence of symptoms as long as liver decompensated cirrhosis come out. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the prevalence of HBV and/or HCV infections in a non-selected population, hospitalised for SARS-CoV-2 infection in a tertiary care hospital in Northern Italy. During the study period 1,429 patients were admitted to hospital for SARS-CoV-2 infection, serologic tests for HBV and/or HCV were available for 382 (27%) patients and 3 were excluded due to their previous known serologic status. Among 379 patients, 235 (62%) were male, median age was 70 years (range 21-103), 360 (95%) were Caucasian. Among them, 372/379 (98%) were screened for HBsAg, 320/379 (84%) for HBcAb. HBsAg was positive in 2/372 (0.5%, 95% CI 0.0006-0.02) patients (only in one HBV-DNA was performed that was negative), while HBcAb was found positive in 55/320 (17%, 95% CI 0.13-0.22). Among 370/379 (98%) patients screened for HCV, 11/370 (3%, 95% CI 0.02-0.05) had positive HCV-Ab. Five out of 11 (45%) were tested for HCV-RNA that resulted positive in two patients (0.5%, 95% CI 0.0006-0.02). Considering this data, even though the screening was performed in only 27% of study population, a tailored screening in people with known risk factors for hepatitis might be preferable to universal screening in low prevalence areas. Also a prompt diagnostic workout should begin in case of clinical or laboratory suspicion of hepatitis and in those starting immunosuppressive treatments

Identification of low intratumoral gene expression heterogeneity in neuroblastic tumors by genome-wide expression analysis and Game Theory

BACKGROUND. Neuroblastic tumors (NTs) are largely comprised of neuroblastic (Nb) cells with various quantities of Schwannian stromal (SS) cells. NTs show a variable genetic heterogeneity. NT gene expression profiles reported so far have not taken into account the cellular components. The authors reported the genome-wide expression analysis of whole Minors and microdissected Nb and SS cells. METHODS. The authors analyzed gene expression profiles of 10 stroma-poor NTs (NTs-SP) and 9 stroma-rich NTs (NTS-SR) by microarray technology. Nb and SS cells were. isolated by laser microdissection from NTs-SP and NTs-SR and probed with microarrays. Gene expression data were analyzed by the Significance Analysis of Microarrays (SAM) and Game Theory (GT) methods, the latter applied for the first time to microarray data evaluation. RESULTS. SAM identified 84 genes differentially expressed between NTs-SP and NTs-SR, whereas 50 were found by GT. NTs-SP mainly express genes associated with cell replication, nervous system development, and antiapoptotic pathways, whereas NTs-SR express genes of cell-cell communication and apoptosis. Combining SAM and GT, the authors found 16 common genes driving the separation between NTs-SP and NTs-SR. Five genes overexpressed in NTs-SP encode for nuclear proteins (CENPE, EYA1, PBK TOP2A, TFAP2B), whereas only 1 of 11 highly expressed genes in NTs-SR encodes for a nuclear receptor (NR4A2). CONCLUSIONS. The results showed that NT-SP and NT-SR gene signatures differ for a set of genes involved in distinct pathways, and the authors demonstrated a low intratumoral heterogeneity at the mRNA level in both NTs-SP and NTs-SR. The combination of SAM and GT methods may help to better identify gene expression profiling in NTs