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Objective: As consumption of psychoactive substances such as alcohol, drugs and certain medicines are likely to endanger the drivers aptitude and impaired driving is still one of the major causes for road accidents, some active steps have to be taken to reach the goal of a 50% reduction in the number of road deaths in the EU. The objective of DRUID is to give scientific support to the EU transport policy to reach the 2010th road safety target by establishing guidelines and measures to combat impaired driving. DRUID will - conduct reference studies of the impact on fitness to drive for alcohol, illicit drugs and medicines and give new insights to the real degree of impairment caused by psychoactive drugs and their actual impact on road safety - generate recommendations for the definition of analytical and risk thresholds - analyse the prevalence of drugs and medicines in accidents and in general driving, set up a comprehensive and efficient epidemiological database.
In den letzten zwei Jahrzehnten konnten große Fortschritte im Bereich der Bewertung von Umweltauswirkungen von Produkten und Dienstleistungen entlang des Lebenszyklus (Ökobilanzierung) erreicht werden. In der Praxis zeigen sich jedoch Probleme aufgrund inkonsistenter, z. B. veralteter, Datenquellen und Daternerhebungsmethoden. MyEcoCost will eine Lösung für die Problematik der inkonsistenten Bewertung entwickeln, basierend auf einem globalen, wissenschaftlich fundierten und automatisierten Ansatz. Das zu entwicklende 'myEco-Cost'-System soll in der Lage sein, den Ressourcenverbrauch unterschiedlicher Produkte, Dienstleistungen und Technologien konsistent zu berechnen. Das Projekt wird Konzepte, Methoden und technische Lösungen innerhalb von allgemeinen Geschäftsprozessen (Produktentwicklung, Produktion, Verkauf, Administration, Entsorgung/Recycling/Wiederverwendung) erforschen, weiterentwickeln und testen. Jede dieser Produktlebenszyklen soll in die Berechnung der ökologischen Kosten (EcoCost) integriert werden. Darüber hinaus sollen durch die rekursive Methodik auch komplexere Wertschöpfungsketten und Elemente des Wirtschaftssystems präziser abgebildet werden. Das Projekt myEcoCost trägt dazu bei, wirtschaftlichen Akteuren, inklusive kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen sowie Konsumenten, einen Zugang zu verbesserten Informationen des Ressourcenverbrauches von Geschäftsprozessen zu ermöglichen. Eine internet-basierte, anwendungsorientierte Architektur des Informationssystems soll so konzipiert werden, dass die Ressourceneffizienz erfasst und eine Verbesserung der Entscheidungsgrundlagen ermöglicht wird. Das Projekt ist in sieben Arbeitspakete (AP) gegliedert: Beschreibung der Anforderungen und der Architektur des Systems (AP 1), Methodik der Ressourcenkostenrechnung (AP 2), Entwicklung des MyEcoCost Systems (AP 3), Entwicklung einer Kommunikations- und Netzwerk-Infrastruktur (AP 4), Validierung des Konzepts und Systems (AP 5), Dissemination und Nutzung (AP 6) und Projektmanagement und Koordination (AP 7). Das Wuppertal Institut leitet die Arbeiten in Arbeitspaket 2, bei dem Richtlinien für die Berechnungsmethodologie des Ressourcenverbrauchs entwickelt werden sollen. Darüber hinaus koordiniert es die Arbeit im Beirat sowie im Bereich der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit. Dadurch wird ein wesentlicher Beitrag zur Verbreitung der Projektergebnisse in der Wissenschaft und der Ergebnisprüfung im Rahmen eines Stakeholderdialoges, geleistet.
Objective: INNOBITE project will transform urban and agricultural residues into high performing resource efficient products for the construction sector. The project finds support in two innovative ideas: (1) adding value to the inorganic fraction of wheat straw and (2) obtaining cellulose nanofibres out of highly recycled paper. Once isolated via environmentally friendly processes, these two renewable compounds will be used as high-performance additives for the development of a new series of bio-composites The incorporation of those natural components will improve current solutions in two construction applications: panels for indoor structures (interior walls, ceiling, flooring) and profiles (decking, fencing) by, respectively, increasing the resistance-to-weight ratio and improving the surface hardness and water absorbency. Other commercial bio-plastics as well as the two major fractions of what straw, cellulose and lignin, will be also incorporated into such materials (cellulose after chemical modification and lignin after being polymerised into both thermosetting and thermoplastic resins), and the resulting products will be finally tested for biodegradability. In the same way as wood, which is at the same time biodegradable and exceptional building material, the use of plant-derived products will increase the biodegradability of the biomaterials without compromising their structural quality. The project will destine more than 10Prozent of the total budget to maximize the effectiveness of the exploitation activities, which will include thorough analysis of the cost effectiveness and environmental credentials of the products/processes developed and of new possible business lines and new business models. Also, the validation of developed technologies under the Environmental Technology Verification programme is expected to have a big impact on the exploitation.
Water is essential for life. This element supposes also a determinant factor in the economy and ecology of the different regions. But water not only has influence in the human life, humans also affect to water cycle. The human activity is responsible of the climate change by which the Mediterranean region is being affected by drought and water shortage. Water shortage in Mediterranea countries is becoming an essential question. The domestic sector accounted for about 24 percent of total water withdrawn in Europe in 2000, which is about 7,320,00ML. In fact, toilet flushing supposes 30Prozent of the domestic use of urban water. The consume of such amount of water could be avoided using dry toilets, it is calculated saving of 50L/cap/day. In addition, it is estimated more than 20 million citizens without access to a safe sanitation in Europe. This situation is critical in rural areas of eastern European, where the most common system in these areas usually consist of pit latrines and septic tanks. Dry toilets are common in Nordic countries but their rustic technology makes them unacceptable in urban or large communities. At present dry toilets implies several factors, such as unpleasant odours and the manual manipulation of the latrine waste, which makes them unviable in most of urban environments. Also, there are other problems of drytoilets such as struvite formation on pipe connections. But this situation can be changed by applying the technical innovations that will be developed in this project. In adittion, the project?s success will allow the possibility to save important drinking water (1,875L/cap/year). This will be of essential importance in the Mediterranean countries, where the drought menace is each time more obvious. The use of dry toilets in rural areas with poor infrastructure will have safe sanitation systems to citizens DRYCLOSET project will develop a new dry toilet with a biocide toilet, low bad odours emissions and low maintenance.
Project main goals: The main purpose of this project is to develop an innovative 400 kWth solar reformer for several applications such as Hydrogen production or electricity generation. Depending of the feed source for the reforming process CO2 emissions can be reduced significantly (up to 40 percent using NG), because the needed process heat for this highly endothermic reaction is provided by concentrated solar energy. A pre-design of a 1 MW prototype plant in Southern Italy and a conceptual layout of a commercial 50 MWth reforming plant complete this project. Key issues: The profitability decides if a new technology has a chance to come into the market. Therefore several modifications and improvements to the state-of-the-art solar reformer technology will be introduced before large scale and commercial system can be developed. These changes are primarily to the catalytic system, the reactor optimisation and operation procedures and the associated optics for concentrating the solar radiation. For the dissemination of solar reforming technology the regions targeted are in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. The potential markets and the impact of infrastructure and administrative restrictions will be assessed. The environmental, socio-economic and institutional impacts of solar reforming technology exploitation will be assessed with respect to sustainable development. The market potential of solar reforming technology in a liberalised European energy market will be evaluated. Detailed cost estimates for a 50 MWth commercial plant will be determined.
Objective: The proposed project is designed to address the problem of pollution of the environment by road vehicles as denned under the Thematic Priority 1.6.2, Sustainable Surface Transport relating to the Work Programme 'Integrating and strengthening the European Research Area'. The research activities of the consortium will be based around state of the art developments in the area of optical fibre sensor and intelligent instrumentation technology to formulate a system for on line monitoring of exhaust emissions from road vehicles. The application of this technology to resolving the problems of atmospheric pollutants and their regional impacts is therefore highly appropriate to the issue identified in the thematic roadmap i.e. 'New technologies and concepts for all surface transport modes'. The consortium which will execute the research programme comprises six members from four EC member states. They include four academic institutions, an SME and an end user (a major European car manufacturer). Their combined expertise and knowledge of the technological and business issues will facilitate the rapid development of the technology into a demonstratable prototype within the three year lifetime of the project. The project's technical objectives are summarised as follows: -. To set up laboratory based test facilities such that the sensor systems may be characterised in a precisely controlled and reproducible manner. Therefore, individual parameters such as optical absorption and scattering may be studied in isolation as well as collectively.. To isolate and identify the optical signals arising from contaminants present in the complex mixtures of exhaust systems of a wide range of vehicles using advanced and novel optical fibre based spectroscopie interrogation techniques. To develop novel optical fibre sensors which are miniature and robust in their construction and may be fitted...
Transmembrane ion channels regulate the movement of ions (particularly Na+, K+, Ca2+ and Cl-) across cellular membranes, and are critical to numerous aspects of neurobiology. Cells express a diverse array of ion-channel proteins that vary widely in their ion selectivity and in their modulation by ligands (such as neurotransmitters) or by membrane voltage. Potassium is the most abundant cellular cation and the imbalance of potassium across the cell membrane is responsible for the maintenance of the membrane potential. Activation of different K+ selective ion channels is essential to control the excitability of nerve and muscle cells. Considerable interest has been focused on the roles of potassium channels in shaping the physiological behaviours of both excitable and non-excitable cells. Pharmacological tools, such as inhibitors have been used to characterize individual classes of channels but for many potassium channels specific blockers are not available. Heterologous expression of ion channel proteins in yeast provides an alternative to animal testing for functional (pharmacological) analysis as well as providing a robust, cell-based system for rapid identification of new lead compounds. K+-channel modulators are valuable pharmacological tools with therapeutic potential.The cloning and characterization of the yeast K+ transport system, and most recently, of the outward rectifying K+channel enabled the generation of yeast mutants lacking those transporters and channels. This advance has made possible new approaches for the analysis of mammalian K+ selective channels by functional complementation of yeast mutants. The development of a yeast-based expression and screening system will play a key role in the development of in-vitro pharmacological tests for chemical and pharmacological agents.The development of a yeast screening systems provides useful tools both for academic and industrial applications in an EC wide strategy.
Objective: Human use and exploitation of the biosphere is increasing at such a pace and scale that the sustainability of major ecosystems is threatened, and may not be able to continue to function in ways that are vital to the existence of humanity. Re-framing environmental resource use has led to the emergence of the concepts of ecosystem services (ES) and natural capital (NC). This discourse indicates not only a change in our understanding of planetary functions at the ecosystem scale, but also a fundamental shift in how we perceive the relationship between people and the ecosystems on which they depend. OPERAs (OPERATIONAL POTENTIAL OF ECOSYSTEMS RESEARCH APPLICATIONS) aims to improve understanding of how ES/NC contribute to human well-being in different social-ecological systems in inland and coastal zones, in rural and urban areas, related to different ecosystems including forests and fresh water resources. The OPERAs research will establish whether, how and under what conditions the ES/NC concepts can move beyond the academic domain towards practical implementation in support of sustainable ecosystem management. OPERAs will use a meta-analysis (systematic review) of existing ES/NC practice to identify knowledge gaps and requirements for new policy options and instruments. New insights, and improved or novel tools and instruments, will be tested in practice in exemplar case studies in a range of socio-ecological systems across locales, sectors, scales and time. Throughout this iterative process, available resources and tools will be brought together in a Resource Hub, a web-based portal that will be co-developed by scientists and practitioners representing different interests and perspectives on the development, communication and implementation of the ES/NC concepts. The Resource Hub will provide the main interface between OPERAs and a Community of Excellence (CoE) for continued practice that will benefit from OPERAs outcomes.
Objective: The RAMSES project will develop a rigorous, analytical framework for the implementation of adaptation strategies and measures in EU and international cities. It will develop a set of innovative methods and tools that will quantify the impacts of climate change and the costs and benefits of adaptation to climate change and thus provide the evidence to enable policy makers to design adaptation strategies. It integrates the assessment of impacts and costs to provide a much more coherent approach than currently exists. As major centres of population, economic importance, greenhouse gas emissions and infrastructure, RAMSES focuses on adaptation issues in cities. RAMSES will deliver: 1. A strategic frame for evidence-based adaptation decision-making. A pragmatic and standardised framework for decision making using comparable climate change impact assumptions, impact and adaptation costs while taking account of uncertainty. This will apply and combine smart and unconventional scientific methodologies. 2. Multi-level analysis as local administrative units, cities will be used to develop adaptation (and more generally sustainable development) strategies from the bottom-up/top-down, that can be aggregated to consider costs at the national, EU and international levels. 3. Quantification of adaptation costs a framework for assessment of full economic costs and benefits of adaptation (to date a woefully under-researched area). 4. Policy relevance and acceptance of adaptation measures city case studies and stakeholder engagement will ensure the relevance of the framework for policy makers and ensure adaptation measures become better accepted by other stakeholders. The frameworks will be converted into a user-friendly guide for stakeholders who need to prioritize adaptation and mitigation decisions. This reduces costs and enhances understanding and acceptance of adaptation. The data will be fed into the European Clearinghouse Mechanism to increase transparency/stakeholder access.
Sustainable governance of our biological resources demands reliable scientific knowledge to be accessible and applicable to the needs of society. The fact that current biodiversity observation systems and environmental datasets are unbalanced in coverage and not well integrated brings the need of a new system which will facilitate access to this knowledge and will effectively improve the work in the field of biodiversity observation in general. In light of the new Intergovernmental science-policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), such a network and approach are imperative for attaining efficient processes of data collation, analysis and provisioning to stakeholders. A system that facilitates open access to taxonomic data is essential because it will allow a sustainable provision of high quality data to partners and users, including e-science infrastructure projects as well as global initiatives on biodiversity informatics. EU BON proposes an innovative approach in terms of integration of biodiversity information system from on-ground to remote sensing data, for addressing policy and information needs in a timely and customized way. The project will reassure integration between social networks of science and policy and technological networks of interoperating IT infrastructures. This will enable a stable new open-access platform for sharing biodiversity data and tools to be created. EU BONs 30 partners from 18 countries are members of networks of biodiversity data-holders, monitoring organisations, and leading scientific institutions. EU BON will build on existing components, in particular GBIF, LifeWatch infrastructures, and national biodiversity data centres.
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