7th Framework Programme Research Articles

A multi-centre phase IIa clinical study of predictive testing for pre-eclampsia. IMproved PRegnancy Outcomes Via Early Detection (IMPROVED)

1 in 20 first time pregnancies is complicated by pre-eclampsia, the leading cause of maternal death in Europe. No clinically useful early pregnancy screening test exists, consequentially clinicians are unable to offer targeted surveillance or preventative strategies. IMPROVED Consortium members have pioneered a personalised medicine approach in identifying blood-borne biomarkers through recent technological advancements, involving mapping of the blood metabolome and proteome. The Consortium recently received funding under the auspices of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union under the call: HEALTH- 2012-INNOVATION-1.2-1 (Grant Agreement no. Health-F5-2012-305169). The objective is to develop a sensitive, specific, high-throughput and economically viable early pregnancy screening test for pre-eclampsia. We report the design of a multicentre, phase IIa clinical study to assess and refine innovative prototype tests based on emerging metabolomic and proteomic technologies. Participation involves serial maternal phlebotomy, collection of clinical data, and pregnancy outcome data. Participants will attend essential visits at 15 and 20 weeks' gestation, with optional 11 and 34 weeks' gestation. Blood samples will undergo a combination of proteomic and metabolomic tests, and diagnostic performance will be assessed in accord with a pre-approved statistical analysis plan which will report Receiver Operating Curves, and Positive Predictive Values. The study is expected to refine proteomic and metabolomic panels, combined with clinical parameters, and evaluate clinical applicability as an early pregnancy predictive test for pre-eclampsia. If 'at risk' patients can be identified, this will allow stratified care with personalised fetal and maternal surveillance, early diagnosis, timely intervention, and significant health economic savings. The IMPROVED biobank will be accessible to the European scientific community for high quality research into the cause and prevention of adverse pregnancy outcome.

Assessment of doses to game animals in Finland

A study was carried out to assess the dose rates to game animals in Finland affected by the radioactive caesium deposition that occurred after the accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Ukraine in 1986. The aim of this assessment was to obtain new information on the dose rates to mammals and birds under Finnish conditions. Dose rates were calculated using the ERICA Assessment Tool developed within the EC 6th Framework Programme. The input data consisted of measured activity concentrations of 137Cs and 134Cs in soil and lake water samples and in flesh samples of selected animal species obtained for environmental monitoring. The study sites were located in the municipality of Lammi, Southern Finland, where the average 137Cs deposition was 46.5 kBq m−2 (1 October 1987). The study sites represented the areas receiving the highest deposition in Finland after the Chernobyl accident. The selected species included moose (Alces alces), arctic hare (Lepus timidus) and several bird species: black grouse (Tetrao tetrix), hazel hen (Bonasia bonasia), mallard (Anas platurhynchos), goldeneye (Bucephala clangula) and teal (Anas crecca). For moose, dose rates were calculated for the years 1986–1990 and for the 2000s. For all other species, maximal measured activity concentrations were used. The results showed that the dose rates to these species did not exceed the default screening level of 10 μGy h−1 used as a protection criterion. The highest total dose rate (internal and external summed), 3.7 μGy h−1, was observed for the arctic hare in 1986. Although the dose rate of 3.7 μGy h−1 cannot be considered negligible given the uncertainties involved in predicting the dose rates, the possible harmful effects related to this dose rate are too small to be assessed based on current knowledge on the biological effects of low doses in mammals.

Brief communication "Landslide Early Warning System: toolbox and general concepts"

Abstract. We define landslide Early Warning Systems and present practical guidelines to assist end-users with limited experience in the design of landslide Early Warning Systems (EWSs). In particular, two flow chart-based tools coming from the results of the SafeLand project (7th Framework Program) have been created to make them as simple and general as possible and in compliance with a variety of landslide types and settings at single slope scale. We point out that it is not possible to cover all the real landslide early warning situations that might occur, therefore it will be necessary for end-users to adapt the procedure to local peculiarities of the locations where the landslide EWS will be operated.

Young women in science and technology: the importance of choice

Despite significant improvements in the last couple of years, women are still under-represented in science and technology, both in the academic and private sector. This is due to a variety of reasons, mostly related to the role allocated to women in modern society as well as pre-existing prejudices that form glass ceilings while encouraging male presence in the workplace. It is also however, a result of information or lack of, which places young women in difficult position of making a career choice, with little knowledge of available possibilities. What seems to be missing are good role models that could act as inspiration and source of information and guidance, and offer a glimpse into the reality of being a female employed in the field of science and/or technology. Parents, teachers, and career guidance counselors all have a significant role in assisting or hindering the way young women chose their career paths and that choice begins early on from school, all the way through to higher education. Choice, essentially, and factors that determine it as well - as ways of encouraging female participation in science and technology - are the focus of the present article, which is based on results from the European project Information for a choice: empowering young women through learning for scientific and technological career paths, realized under the 6th Framework Program. As this article will show, the promotion through the usage of new technologies, of role models, is crucial in breaking the existing stereotype of women in science, engineering and technology. Science is often rejected as a career choice due to limited information available and positive role models to encourage young girls in participating. Career orientation offered at school through the usage of new technologies is an important step in that direction; however, particularly in countries where the family unit is especially influential in career decisions, parents must be brought in and educated on the possibilities available. Mass media also play an important role in introducing and sustaining stereotypical images of women in particular professional roles, thus, any outreach solutions need to include them.

Space weather in the EU’s FP7 Space Theme

Technological infrastructures in space and on ground provide services on which modern society and economies rely. Space weather related research is funded under the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (FP7) of the European Union in response to the need of protecting such critical infrastructures from the damage which could be caused by extreme space weather events. The calls for proposals published under the topic “Security of space assets from space weather events” of the FP7 Space Theme aimed to improve forecasts and predictions of disruptive space weather events as well as identify best practices to limit the impacts on space- and ground-based infrastructures and their data provision. Space weather related work was also funded under the topic “Exploitation of space science and exploration data”, which aims to add value to space missions and Earth-based observations by contributing to the effective scientific exploitation of collected data. Since 2007 a total of 20 collaborative projects have been funded, covering a variety of physical phenomena associated with space weather, from ionospheric disturbances and scintillation, to geomagnetically induced currents at Earth’s surface, to coronal mass ejections and solar energetic particles. This article provides an overview of the funded projects, touching upon some results and referring to specific websites for a more exhaustive description of the projects’ outcomes.

Value Chain Analysis of CO2 Storage by Using the ECCO Tool: Storage Economics

The ECCO Tool [1,2] has been developed in the “ECCO – European value chain for CO2” project [3]. ECCO was a collaborating project under the 7th framework programme for research of the EU. The ECCO Tool is a software program designed to evaluate quantitatively the post-tax economics of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects for each of the mutually dependent actors along the CCS value chain. The main objective of ECCO is to facilitate robust strategic decision-making regarding early and future deployment of CO2 value chains [4].The tool is designed to have a level of detail that is appropriate for studying the economic feasibility of well- defined CCS projects to be executed by commercial companies, studying whether or not to invest in (part of) the value chain and, if so, under which contractual conditions. The tool integrates cost engineering, transport and well/reservoir physics, planning (including the impact of contracts and physics on the sizing and timing of capex and opex), and full post-tax economics (including macro- and micro-economics).The ECCO Tool is also aimed at giving insight to national and European policy makers on their possible role in “closing the chain”, i.e., how they may contribute, through subsidies, guarantees, regulation or otherwise, to achieve a satisfactory risk and/or reward for the actors involved in a chain. Finally, the tool can also be used by authorities to estimate the potential of CCS in realizing overall policy objectives (e.g. meeting ETS objectives, amount of government stimulation needed, jobs created, etc).The subsurface module consists of three storage options, depleted gas field (DGF), aquifer and storage by enhanced oil recovery (EOR). In order to have a realistic behavior of the subsurface operator, automatic decision algorithms are included in the subsurface module. In order to meet the contractual obligations of the storage operator, e.g. to store a volume of CO2 within a certain period, incremental investments may be needed. These incremental investments depend on physical and contractual state-variables that are calculated as output of the subsurface module. Decision algorithms for incremental investments can be formulated such that the actual decisions are triggered as a function of these state variables.

A New FP7 Project Demonstrating CO2 Capture Technologies

The OCTAVIUS project (Optimisation of CO2 Capture Technology Allowing Verification and Implementation at Utility Scale) has started on March 1st 2012 for a period of 5 years, as part of the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission. Gathering 15 European and 2 South African partners, OCTAVIUS was conceived as contributing to demonstration of integrated concepts for zero emission power plants covering all the components needed for power generation as well as CO2 post-combustion capture and compression facilities.This paper presents the objectives of the project, its main expected outcomes and the results obtained within the first six months period.

The HCM-Associated Cardiac Troponin T Mutation K280N Increases the Energetic Cost of Tension Generation in Human Cardiac Myofibrils

A novel homozygous mutation in the TNNT2 gene encoding cardiac troponin T (cTnT K280N) was identified in one HCM patient undergoing cardiac transplantation. mRNA and Mass Spectrometry analyses revealed expression of the mutant alleles without evidence of haploinsufficiency. Kinetics of contraction and relaxation of myofibrils from a frozen left ventricular sample of the K280N HCM patient were compared to those of “control” myofibrils (from donor hearts, from aortic stenosis patients, and from HCM patients negative for sarcomeric protein mutations). Preparations, mounted in a force recording apparatus (15 °C), were maximally Ca2+-activated (pCa 4.5) and fully relaxed (pCa 9) by rapid (<10 ms) solution switching. The rate constant of active tension generation following maximal Ca2+ activation (kACT) was markedly faster in K280N myofibrils (ca. 1.7 s−1) compared to controls (0.7-1 s−1). The rate constant of isometric relaxation (slow kREL) was 2-3-fold faster in K280N myofibrils than in controls, evidence that the apparent rate with which cross-bridges leave the force generating states is accelerated in the mutant preparations. The results suggest that the energy cost of tension generation is increased in the K280N sarcomeres. Simultaneous measurements of maximal isometric ATPase and Ca2+-activated force in Triton-permeabilized left ventricular muscle strips from the K280N sample demonstrated that tension cost was much higher in the K280N than in control myocardium. Replacement of the mutant protein by exchange with wild-type recombinant human Tn in the K280N myofibrils reduced both kACT and slow kREL close to control values. This indicates that the HCM-associated TNNT2 mutation K280N primarily alters apparent cross-bridge kinetics and impairs sarcomere energetics. Supported by the 7th Framework Program of the European Union, “BIG-HEART” grant agreement 241577.

Hypothetical Impact Scenarios for CO2 Leakage from Storage Sites

Underground CO2 storage facilities are designed to contain CO2 permanently and the expected performance scenario is that no CO2 leakage from the storage complex will occur. However, it is necessary to assess the possible environmental impacts of CO2 leakage in the unlikely event that a storage system evolves differently from the design aim. The RISCS project is being undertaken under the European Union's 7th Framework Programme to research these potential impacts. To help focus RISCS research and aid communication of the results, a set of reference terrestrial and marine European receptor environments and associated impact scenario descriptions were defined systematically by evidence-based expert elicitation.

Purinergic Signaling in Bone

Purinergic Signaling in Bone

Biomonitoring of selected trace elements in women, men and children from Slovenia

Little information is available on exposure of general population to metals at low levels. As a part of a research project PHIME within the EU 6th Framework programme and National Human Biomonitoring programme, several studies following the same protocol were conducted to find out to what extent the Slovenian population of women in childbearing age, women 50–60 years, men and children 6–11 years is exposed to environmental chemicals including Hg, Pb, Cd and As and on the other hand to estimate their supply with essential elements (Se, Zn, Cu). Hair, blood and urine were collected from all participants, breast milk from lactating mothers. Most of the subjects had the levels for non-essential toxic metals below the reference levels and the levels for essential elements Zn, Cu and Se within the reference intervals. Concentrations of metals and As did not differ between genders, while significantly higher levels of Se were observed in men and significantly higher levels of Cu in women. Comparing women of different ages, higher Hg levels and lower Cd and Pb levels were found in blood of younger women (20–35) than in older women (50–60). Se levels were higher in older women, while Cu and Zn levels were higher in younger women. In compare to children, women (both, younger and older) and men showed higher Cd, Pb, Se and Zn concentration in blood. Hg concentration was higher in women (20–35) and men than in children. Looking at the difference between different geographical areas where subjects were recruited, we found higher Cd and Pb levels in blood of rural children than in children from urban area. Hg in blood and urine was in contrary, higher in children from urban area than in children from rural area. In adults, As was observed to be the highest in urban area. Levels of essential elements differed between different areas in Slovenia as well. The present study has provided the basis to establish preliminary reference values for the selected population, depending on different parameters assessed by questionnaires. When additional subjects from other areas of Slovenia are recruited, the connection to the environmental database will be established using GIS modelling tools.

CIGALA: A FP7 INNOVATIVE ACTIVITY TO TACKLE THE THREAT OF IONOSPHERIC SCINTILLATION TO GNSS OPERATIONS IN LATIN AMERICA

Drifting ionospheric electron density irregularities may lead to the scintillation of transionospheric radio waves, as in the case of signals broadcast from artificial satellites. Scintillations can not only degrade signal quality but also cause receiver loss of lock on GNSS satellites, therefore posing a major threat to GNSS based applications demanding high levels of accuracy, availability and integrity. The problem is particularly acute in Latin America and will be further amplified with the next solar maximum, expected to occur in the 2012-2014 time frame. The CIGALA (Concept for Ionospheric Scintillation Mitigation for Professional GNSS in Latin America) project, led by Septentrio N.V. and cofunded by the European GNSS Supervisory Authority (GSA) through the European 7th Framework Program, will tackle this problem. The aim of the CIGALA project is to develop ionospheric scintillation mitigation countermeasures to be implemented in Septentrio's professional multi frequency multi-constellation GNSS receivers, to be tested in Latin America. The project will leverage research and development activities coordinated between European and Brazilian experts and will involve a wide scale ionospheric measurement and test campaigns that will be conducted in Brazil with the support of several local academic and industrial partners. The overall strategy adopted and the current status of the project is presented and preliminary results discussed.

The American Way: Private Military Contractors &amp; US Law after 9/11

Although increased reliance on private military contractors began with U.S. involvement in the Kosovo conflict, the post-9/11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq prompted an exponential growth in the private military industry, increasing not only the sheer size of the industry but the types of services as well. 'Inherently governmental functions' were being performed by private entities, but with little regulations in place for vetting, monitoring and holding accountable either the company or its personnel. This Report, as part of the National Reports Series in the Priv-War Project supported within the 7th Framework Programme by the European Commission DG Research, provides a comprehensive discussion of the use of private military and security contractors (PMSCs) by the United States since 9/11 and applicable U.S. law, regulations, and policies, with particular attention paid to the use of such firms in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Report describes the incorporation of contractors into the larger military presence and provides a detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis of the use of contractors, specifically, the number of contractor personnel working overseas, the governmental agencies with which they are involved, the cost of contractor operations, and the various roles played by contractors. The Report also covers the entire universe of mechanisms that regulate, govern, and hold accountable the private contractor firms and their personnel, by examining the statutes and guidelines that provide for both the process of contracting with the U.S. government and the oversight of military contractors, as well as the criminal and civil legal regimes that attempt to hold PMSCs and their personnel accountable for misconduct or negligence in situations of armed conflict and post-armed conflict.

Regulating private human suborbital flight at the international and European level: Tendencies and suggestions

In the context of the FAST20XX project (Future High-Altitude High-Speed Transport) that started in 2009 under the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union (EU), the authors reexamined the legal status of private human suborbital flight, and researched whether it might be regulated as aviation or as spaceflight.International space law is ambiguous as to accommodating suborbital activities. While some provisions of the UN outer space treaties would seem to exclude them, generally there is not any explicit condition in terms of reaching orbit as a requirement for application. International air law presents equal difficulties in dealing with this activity. The classic definition of “aircraft” as contained in the Annexes to the Chicago Convention does not really encompass the kind of rocket-powered vehicles that are envisaged here. As a result, it is unclear whether the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), or both could be involved in an eventual international regulation of suborbital flight.In the absence of a uniform international regime, each state has the sovereign right to regulate human suborbital flights operating within its airspace. So far, two practical solutions have been realised or proposed, and will be analyzed.On the one hand, the USA granted power for regulation and licensing over private human suborbital flight to the Office of Commercial Space Transportation of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA/AST). Subsequent regulations by the FAA have set out a series of requirements for companies that want to operate these flights, enabling a market to develop. On the other side of the Atlantic, both the European Space Agency (ESA) and a group of representatives of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) of the European Union (EU) seem to rather regard this activity as aviation, potentially subject to the regulation and certification competences of EASA, although recent developments may indicate a changed view.Due to these differences, it is uncertain when this activity will be considered aviation and when it will be considered as spaceflight. However, the characterization as either of these has important consequences for the industry and for a stable regulatory landscape.In the longer term, from an international and a European perspective, the best solution for regulation may be to create a sui generis legal regime specifically addressing the particular nature of suborbital flight. Suborbital transportation is neither aviation nor spaceflight; it is rather something in between. A new legal regime would be able to combine notions of both air and space law, in order to overcome and resolve the current deficiencies of each discipline.

Validation of ADS reactivity monitoring techniques in the Yalina-Booster subcritical assembly

The development of a reactivity monitoring system for subcritical reactors is a major task prior to industrial scale accelerator driven system (ADS) construction. Within the 6th European Framework Program, the IP-EUROTRANS project has performed a series of experiments at the Yalina-Booster subcritical assembly located at the Joint Institute for Power and Nuclear Research (JIPNR) of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, using a continuous (D, T) (fusion) neutron source in pulsed and continuous mode with short interruptions (beam trips). In this paper, the implementation and results of three different monitoring techniques intended to operate with continuous neutron sources will be presented, namely the source-jerk technique, the prompt decay constant technique and the current-to-flux technique. The results will be compared with the values of the reactivity obtained using the pulsed source in PNS experiments, discussed in detail in another paper.

Comparison of different trapping methods for surveillance of mosquito vectors of West Nile virus in Rhône Delta, France

Five trapping methods were compared for monitoring potential vectors of the West Nile virus in four areas in the Camargue Plain of France: carbon dioxide traps, bird-baited traps, gravid traps, resting boxes, and human landing catches. A total of 73,721 specimens, representing 14 species, was trapped in 2006. Results showed significant differences in species and abundance between the type of traps. Many more specimens were collected using CO(2) traps than any other method, with an average of 212 specimens per night per trap (p<0.05). Culex pipiens was the most abundant species collected (36.8% of total with CO(2) traps), followed by Aedes caspius (22.7%), Anopheles hyrcanus (18.3%), Culex modestus (18.3%), and Aedes detritus (3.2%). Bird-baited traps captured only eight specimens per night per trap on average, mainly Cx. pipiens (89.9%). The species collected and their abundance are influenced by the trap location, at ground or canopy level. Culex pipiens was twice as abundant in the canopy as on the ground, whereas it was the opposite for Ae. caspius, An. hyrcanus, and Ae. detritus. Culex modestus was equally abundant at both levels. Resting boxes and gravid traps were much less efficient, capturing around 0.3 specimens per night per trap. Results are discussed in relation to West Nile virus surveillance.

Psychoactive substances in seriously injured drivers in Denmark

This study assesses the presence of a number of psychoactive substances, including alcohol, based on blood samples from 840 seriously injured drivers admitted to five selected hospitals located in five different regions of Denmark. The study was a part of the EU 6th framework program DRUID (Driving Under the Influence of Drugs, Alcohol and Medicines). Blood samples were screened for 30 illegal and legal psychoactive substances and metabolites as well as ethanol. Danish legal limits were used to evaluate the frequency of drivers violating the Danish legislation while limit of quantification (LOQ) was used for monitoring positive drivers. Tramadol is not included in the Danish legislation therefore the general cut off, as decided in the DRUID project was used. Overall, ethanol (18%) was the most frequently identified compound (alone or in combination with other drugs) exceeding the legal limit, which is 0.53g/l in Denmark. The percentage of seriously injured drivers testing positive for medicinal drugs at levels above the Danish legal limit was 6.8%. Benzodiazepines and Z-drugs (6.4%) comprised the majority of this group. One or more illegal drugs (primarily amphetamines and cannabis) were found to be above the Danish legal limit in 4.9% of injured drivers. Young men (median age 31 years) were over-represented among injured drivers who violated Danish law for alcohol and drugs.Diazepam (4.4%), tramadol (3.2%), and clonazepam (3.0%) were the medicinal drugs most frequently detected at levels above LOQ, whereas amphetamines (5.4%) (amphetamine [5.2%] and methamphetamine [1.5%]), tetrahydrocannabinol (3.7%), and cocaine (3.3%), including the metabolite benzoylecgonine, were the most frequently detected illegal drugs. A driver could be positive for more than one substance; therefore, percentages are not mutually exclusive. Poly-drug use was observed in 112 (13%) seriously injured drivers. Tramadol was detected above DRUID cutoffs in 2.1% of seriously injured drivers. This is 3.5 times that observed in a Danish survey of randomly selected drivers. Moreover, illegal and medicinal drug levels above the Danish legal limit were present more than 10 times as frequently as in injured drivers, whereas ethanol was present more than 30 times as frequently than in randomly selected drivers. The results indicate that there is an increased risk in traffic when driving under the influence of psychoactive drugs, especially alcohol in young male drivers.

Strategies for Protection of Wooden Underwater Cultural Heritage in the Baltic Sea Against Marine Borers. The EU Project ‘WreckProtect’

Marine borers constitute a great danger to historical shipwreck in marine environments as they are able to decompose wood material in just a few years. Recently, there have been indications that the marine borer Teredo navalis is spreading into the brackish Baltic sea, where thousands of invaluable historical wrecks for centuries have had unique preservation conditions. The WreckProtect project was a coordination and support action funded by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Program. The main objective of the project was to develop tools for predicting the spread of marine borers into the Baltic and to evaluate methods for in situ protection of the historical wreck and submerged settlements. This paper gives a summary final report of the project and an overview of results.

The European Legal Framework for Automotive On-Board Networks

This paper is based on research in the framework of the EVITA project, an EC-funded project under the 7th Framework Program. The objective of this project, ended in 2011, was to design, to verify, and to prototype a modular, (cost-) efficient security solution for automotive onboard networks in order to protect data within such networks against compromise and, in doing so, to enable secure communication among cars and between cars and infrastructure. The aim of the legal research within the project was to provide guidance in relation to legal issues encountered within the scope of automotive on-board networks. This paper gives an overview of these legal issues and reports on the results of the legal research within the EVITA project.

EGNOS-BASED MULTI-SENSOR ACCURATE AND RELIABLE NAVIGATION IN SEARCH-AND-RESCUE MISSIONS WITH UAVS

Abstract. This paper will introduce and describe the goals, concept and overall approach of the European 7th Framework Programme's project named CLOSE-SEARCH, which stands for 'Accurate and safe EGNOS-SoL Navigation for UAV-based low-cost SAR operations'. The goal of CLOSE-SEARCH is to integrate in a helicopter-type unmanned aerial vehicle, a thermal imaging sensor and a multi-sensor navigation system (based on the use of a Barometric Altimeter (BA), a Magnetometer (MAGN), a Redundant Inertial Navigation System (RINS) and an EGNOS-enabled GNSS receiver) with an Autonomous Integrity Monitoring (AIM) capability, to support the search component of Search-And-Rescue operations in remote, difficult-to-access areas and/or in time critical situations. The proposed integration will result in a hardware and software prototype that will demonstrate an end-to-end functionality, that is to fly in patterns over a region of interest (possibly inaccessible) during day or night and also under adverse weather conditions and locate there disaster survivors or lost people through the detection of the body heat. This paper will identify the technical challenges of the proposed approach, from navigating with a BA/MAGN/RINS/GNSS-EGNOSbased integrated system to the interpretation of thermal images for person identification. Moreover, the AIM approach will be described together with the proposed integrity requirements. Finally, this paper will show some results obtained in the project during the first test campaign performed on November 2010. On that day, a prototype was flown in three different missions to assess its high-level performance and to observe some fundamental mission parameters as the optimal flying height and flying speed to enable body recognition. The second test campaign is scheduled for the end of 2011.