Frameworks and tools for risk assessment of manufactured nanomaterials

Commercialization of nanotechnologies entails a regulatory requirement for understanding their environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks. Today we face challenges to assess these risks, which emerge from uncertainties around the interactions of manufactured nanomaterials (MNs) with humans and the environment. In order to reduce these uncertainties, it is necessary to generate sound scientific data on hazard and exposure by means of relevant frameworks and tools. The development of such approaches to facilitate the risk assessment (RA) of MNs has become a dynamic area of research. The aim of this paper was to review and critically analyse these approaches against a set of relevant criteria. The analysis concluded that none of the reviewed frameworks were able to fulfill all evaluation criteria. Many of the existing modelling tools are designed to provide screening-level assessments rather than to support regulatory RA and risk management. Nevertheless, there is a tendency towards developing more quantitative, higher-tier models, capable of incorporating uncertainty into their analyses. There is also a trend towards developing validated experimental protocols for material identification and hazard testing, reproducible across laboratories. These tools could enable a shift from a costly case-by-case RA of MNs towards a targeted, flexible and efficient process, based on grouping and read-across strategies and compliant with the 3R (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) principles. In order to facilitate this process, it is important to transform the current efforts on developing databases and computational models into creating an integrated data and tools infrastructure to support the risk assessment and management of MNs.Commercialization of nanotechnologies entails a regulatory requirement for understanding their environmental, health and safety (EHS) risks. Today we face challenges to assess these risks, which emerge from uncertainties around the interactions of manufactured nanomaterials (MNs) with humans and the environment. In order to reduce these uncertainties, it is necessary to generate sound scientific data on hazard and exposure by means of relevant frameworks and tools. The development of such approaches to facilitate the risk assessment (RA) of MNs has become a dynamic area of research. The aim of this paper was to review and critically analyse these approaches against a set of relevant criteria. The analysis concluded that none of the reviewed frameworks were able to fulfill all evaluation criteria. Many of the existing modelling tools are designed to provide screening level assessments rather than to support regulatory RA and risk management Nevertheless, there is a tendency towards developing more quantitative, higher-tier models, capable of incorporating uncertainty into their analyses. There is also a trend towards developing validated experimental protocols for material identification and hazard testing, reproducible across laboratories. These tools could enable a shift from a costly case-by-case RA of MNs towards a targeted, flexible and efficient process, based on grouping and read-across strategies and compliant with the 3R (Replacement, Reduction, Refinement) principles. In order to facilitate this process, it is important to transform the current efforts on developing databases and computational models into creating an integrated data and tools infrastructure to support the risk assessment and management of MNs. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Effect of solar radiation and flaxseed supplementation on milk production and fatty acid profile of lactating ewes under high ambient temperature

Abstract The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of protection from solar radiation and whole flaxseed supplementation on milk yield and milk fatty acid profile in lactating ewes exposed to high ambient temperature. The experiment was conducted during summer and involved 40 ewes divided into 4 groups. The ewes were either exposed (not offered shade) or protected from solar radiation (offered shade). For each solar radiation treatment, ewes were supplemented with whole flaxseed or not. Milk samples from each ewe were collected at the morning and afternoon milking every week, and analyzed for pH, total protein, casein, fat, and lactose content, somatic cell count, and renneting parameters (clotting time, rate of clot formation, and clot firmness after 30min). At the beginning of the experiment, and then at d 23 and 44, milk samples were analyzed for milk fatty acids using gas chromatography. Flaxseed supplementation significantly increased milk yield, fat, protein, and casein yields, and somatic cell count, and increased fat and lactose contents of milk. A decrease of saturated fatty acids from C6:0 to C16:0 and an increase of C18:1 trans -11 and C18:2 cis- 9, trans -11 was observed in milk from flaxseed-supplemented ewes. Flaxseed supplementation decreased saturated fatty acids content and increased total monounsaturated fatty acids content, the total content of isomers of conjugated linoleic acid, and polyunsaturated fatty acids content in milk. Flaxseed also increased the α-linolenic acid content of milk. As a result, milk from supplemented groups showed an increase in n-3 fatty acid content. Flaxseed supplementation decreased short-chain and medium-chain fatty acids, and increased long-chain fatty acid content of milk. On average, flaxseed supplementation increased the C18:2 cis -9, trans -11/C18:1 trans -11 Δ 9 -desaturase index starting from d 23 of the experiment, in correspondence with the highest C18:2 cis -9, trans -11 content of milk from flaxseed-supplemented ewes. Flaxseed decreased atherogenic and thrombogenic indices of milk. Protection from solar radiation during summer did not improve yield and composition of ewe milk. Nevertheless, milk from ewes exposed to solar radiation showed decreased long-chain fatty acid and polyunsaturated fatty acids contents, and in particular, decreased vaccenic acid, rumenic acid, and total conjugated linoleic acid contents

Regional Moment Tensor Review: An Example from the 2 European–Mediterranean Region

The seismic moment tensor is the complete mathematical representation of the movement on a fault 10 during an earthquake, comprising of the couples of forces that produced it, the description of the fault 11 geometry, and its size by means of the scalar seismic moment M0. 12 The computation of seismic moment tensor has become a widely diffused activity because of the 13 relevance of this kind of data in seismotectonic and geodynamic studies and, in more recent times, 14 because it allows obtaining rapid information about a seismic event immediately after its occurrence. This 15 progress has been possible with the advent of modern standardized instruments since the early 1960s, 16 above all of the very broadband seismographic stations that started to record in the late 1970s. Further- 17 more, time after time, the easier availability of digital data impressed a strong incentive to improve the 18 procedures of source parameter computation.Unpublished1-154IT. Banche datirestricte