Project Context and Objectives. Coeliac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disease that occurs in genetically predisposed people. In Europe 1 in 100 people are affected, but only a small percentage of these (~12%) have been diagnosed. In an autoimmune disease the body produces antibodies that attack its own tissue, in coeliac disease this is triggered by eating gluten, a protein found in wheat, rye and barley and ingredients derived from these cereals. The disease can present and be diagnosed at any age but the most common age of diagnosis is 40 - 50 years. Coeliac disease does run in families, but not in a predictable way. Overall, about 1 in 10 relatives of coeliac patients will themselves have coeliac disease. This means that there is at least a 90% chance that a blood relative will be unaffected. It is not uncommon for a correct diagnosis to take many years and in one study, (Cranney, 2003), the average time for diagnosis was found to be 11 years. For someone with coeliac disease eating gluten causes the lining of the bowel to become damaged. The enzyme tissue transgulaminase modifies the gluten protein, and the immune system attacks the bowel tissue causing inflammation. This leads to the villi in the small intestine, which absorb nutrients into the body, becoming initially inflamed, then flattened. This interferes with the normal absorption of nutrients leading to the many and varied symptoms expressed by coeliac disease sufferers. Symptoms may range from mild to severe, and can include; bloating, diarrhoea, nausea, wind, tiredness, constipation, anaemia, mouth ulcers, headaches, weight loss, hair loss, skin problems, short stature, osteoporosis, depression, infertility, recurrent miscarriages and joint/bone pain. Some symptoms may be confused with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease or wheat intolerance, while others may be put down to stress, or getting older. In some cases this can lead to patients being given unnecessary procedures or drug regimes. The condition is also strongly associated with other autoimmune conditions, such as diabetes mellitus (10% of coeliacs affected), auto-immune thyroiditis and many others, and the likelihood of developing such conditions may increase with the length of time an individual is exposed to dietary gluten, in other words when the condition remains undiagnosed and untreated (Ventura 1999). Coeliac disease is not curable but symptoms can be reversed by strict adherence to a non-gluten diet. The overall objective of CD-MEDICS is the dev...
Project Context and Objectives. 2.1. Technical Background Considering Laser Material Processing Lasers for material processing are mainly used as part of automated production systems. These laser machines are often closed (class 1 according to EN 60825- 1:2007 [1]), however, a class 4 laser is in operation inside the machine. Under standard working conditions, these class 1 systems are safe due to housing and safety interlock circuits that switch off the laser source automatically upon opening the housing. In case of maintenance, service personnel may work under class 4 conditions. Therefore, the safety interlocks have to be bridged. Here, a notable risk of injury by accidental laser irradiation exists. The radiation is able to damage human tissues seriously, depending on the power density on the irradiated surface. This is not only relevant for the protection of the human eyes, for which adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) exists on the market in terms of laser goggles to be able to meet the Maximum Permissible Exposure for the eye (MPEeye), but also for the protection of the human skin, for which the Maximum Permissible Exposure (MPEskin) can be found in [1,2] as well, however almost no adequate PPE is available. Hand-held laser processing devices (HLDs) represent a niche application in the field of industrial laser material processing. Such hand-held systems provide a high degree of freedom and thus a significantly higher potential risk considering the exposition to laser radiation. This means that the HLD operator often works under class 4 conditions. In contrast to the typical usage of automated systems, the laser system user is specifically trained and knows about the potential risks of laser radiation. Safety shielding and sensors reduce the risk of injury to a minimum. However, the risk of irradiating the skin either by the direct beam (binocular working station) or the reflected beam remains. Such risks occur as well if persons have to work close to automated “conventional” laser processes which are not housed due to different reasons. There are two approaches to protect the human skin against the physiological effects of laser irradiation, which are both considered in the following: passive protection by means of materials or material combinations that provide a high level of passive laser resistance active protection by means of materials incorporating sensors that detect laser exposure and are, by means of a safety control, able to deactivate the laser beam autom...
Project Context and Objectives. Over the last 45 years, treatment for childhood and adolescent cancer improved greatly; 5- year survival after childhood cancer is now 80 % in developed countries. Approximately 1 individual in 750 of young adults is a childhood cancer survivor. A clear sense of the number of European childhood cancer long-term survivors is lacking. Estimates are that somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 survivors of childhood cancer are living in Europe. Although overall approximately 80% of children survive cancer, this number conceals considerable variation in survival for long-term survivors across Europe and within European countries and regions. . As survival has improved, so the serious complications of curative therapies become apparent. We have known for many decades that cancer therapies, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, can injure healthy organs, especially in a growing child. By now, we can say that every organ in the body can potentially be damaged, including the brain, and psychological and behavioural functioning. Recent research from the United States shows that the frequency of late complications continues to rise as the length of follow-up increases with, so far, no evidence of a plateau of incidence. However, our ability to follow survivors of childhood cancer for the decades needed into middle age is limited, both in Europe and in the US. So we are not well informed about the excess risks to health of aging survivors added to the health risks experienced by the aging general population. Some late complications of treatment lead to chronic ill health or disability, and thereby constitute a significant burden both on individuals and families, and on health services and society. However, there is considerable opportunity for early identification and appropriate management of complications to improve the survivors’ health and quality of life, and to maximise efficient use of health services. However, medical and social services targeting survivors are not available in most European countries, making it difficult to quantify the needs of survivors and to provide for their needs. Futhermore, child cancer is rare and any one group of complications even more rare, indicating the necessity to assemble very large numbers of survivors to adequately assess their needs. PanCareSurFup is the first European project to propose an integrated group of research and service projects to meet the needs of survivors across Europe. PanCareSurFup, through the participation of ex...
Project Context and Objectives. Patterns of unsustainable production and consumption have been recognized as main causes of climate change. The renewed Sustainable Development Strategy 2006 of the EU states that “the main challenge is to gradually change our current unsustainable consumption and production patterns and the non-integrated approach to policy-making” (European Council 2006, p.2). Despite cross-cutting multidisciplinary research and policy efforts in most European states it has not been possible to achieve significant changes in consumption and production which would reverse or slow down the devastating projections outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change (IPCC) Fourth Assessment Report (2007) for our ecosystem. This was also recognized by the progress report on the EU’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2008, which concluded that “although a wide range of actions is being initiated, there is only limited evidence in the area of sustainable consumption and production (SCP) that countries are scratching beyond the surface of this fundamental objective” (ECORY p.8). One year later the 2009 Review of the EU´s Sustainable Development Strategy highlights the fact that “despite considerable efforts to include action for sustainable development in major EU policy areas, unsustainable trends persist and the EU still needs to intensify its efforts” (p.15). While some reductions can be made through recent initiatives including carbon trading and other flexible mechanisms agreed upon under the Kyoto protocol, with some countries overachieving agreed-upon goals (see: European Environmental Agency, 2009), in the long term it is vital to enhance the efforts of individuals, organisations, and societies at large to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through changes in the patterns of production of goods and services as well as regarding their consumption. Governments have also started to recognize that climate change and its consequences need to be addressed by changing peoples´ behaviour and everyday practices and that technological fixes alone will not be enough. Even where they can play a role, the environmental effectiveness of technological “solutions” is contingent upon the way in which users engage with and deploy them (Midden, Kaiser & XxXxxxxx, 2007). Recently, various studies have been conducted that significantly increased our understanding of factors influencing environmental behaviour and related GHG emissions, and ways to mitigate climate change via behaviour cha...
Project Context and Objectives. The main objective of the iCap project is to develop new CO2 capture technologies that individually and combined will enable highly efficient and cost effective production of electrical power from fossil fuels with near zero emissions. The target is to reduce the CO2 capture energy penalty to 4-5% points, about half of the penalty today, and to reduce the associated CO2 avoidance cost to 15€/tonne CO2. Thereby the barriers for CCS deployment worldwide can be removed and the technology deployment accelerated. This will be achieved by focusing on post combustion technologies that can be used both for retrofit and for green field plants. The technologies to be developed are highly innovative. Phase change solvents are used to concentrate up the CO2 captured, whereby the desorption heat requirement can be dramatically lowered while simultaneously opening for the use of low-grade heat. In addition, the high CO2 concentrations enables high pressure desorption and thus a reduction in recompression costs. Combined SO2 and CO2 removal gives a high degree of process intensification with significant capital cost reduction. Combined with low regeneration heat requirement it opens for CO2 capture technology deployment in areas where SO2 control is not installed. High flux post combustion membranes offer a solvent free and low efficiency penalty alternative and are particularly attractive in combination with the new power cycles developed. Continuous industry lead evaluation and costing of the processes will ensure the most effective progress of the project. Finally participation of CSLF countries, China and Australia ensures exposure to and attention in these increasingly important geographical areas. iCap is split into five work packages. The three main technology development work packages on phase change solvents (WP1), membranes (WP4) and combined SO2/CO2 processes (WP3) form the main body. All new thermodynamic modelling needed for these capture methods is performed in WP2. The techno-economic evaluations in WP5 relate the separation techniques to the power processes for integration, optimization, costing, and for validation of efficiency and energy savings to be achieved. There are strong interdependencies between the WPs, e.g. the power processes may pose individual and specific boundaries for integration of the separation processes which in turn may put limitations on the separation process development in order to achieve the full potential in improved energy ef...
Project Context and Objectives. 3.2.1 The Scenario Analysis Team sits within the Performance, Information and Analysis Group (PIAG). The team comprises 4 permanent staff and is responsible for maintaining and developing a range of tools to support decision making within NOMS. The key tool developed and maintained by the team is the Operational Framework, a whole system model containing strategic management information which is used to assess the impact of operational changes and provide an evidence base for commissioning decisions. The Operational Framework has been used to provide cost and other analytical input to support the comprehensive spending review and the team is now using this and other analysis to support NOMS in implementing required business change. As NOMS looks to improve its ability to influence strategy and make commissioning decisions in an increasingly resource constrained environment, the Scenario Analysis Team are looking to develop and expand the decision support tools to enable the organisation to make the best possible commissioning decisions in an increasingly robust, holistic and evidence-driven way.
Project Context and Objectives. In the recent past, Europe has been struggling with low achievement in mathematics and science education and a high rate of dropouts. Consequently, the European Union has defined the advancement of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related skills as one of the priorities for 2020. At the same time higher education and research institutions are struggling to recruit highly qualified and motivated scientists. From this challenging situation the idea was born to create an online portal that addresses both issues. On the one hand, science teaching can be made more exciting by providing access to real lab equipment and other resources from the world of science. On the other hand scientific institutions may attract young students into following a scientific career by showing them the excitement of their labs. The GLOBAL excursion project set out to address these issues and develop a portal, the Virtual Science Hub, short ViSH, where teachers and scientists can exchange resources and provide students access to scientific infrastructures such as microscopes, telescopes, etc. Thus the ViSH addresses the need of teachers to engage students in science teaching and the need from the scientific institutions to disseminate their work to a broad audience and the specific target group of adolescents in order to get them interested in science and possibly to engage in a scientific career in the future. The Cornerstones of the GLOBAL excursion project The GLOBAL excursion’s objective was to link pupils and teachers with scientists and science communicators via e-infrastructures and advance state-of-the-art of e-Infrastructures in education. To reach this goal the project built on three cornerstones:
Project Context and Objectives
