EC Joint Research Centre Research Articles

1642PD - Measuring the cancer burden in Europe: The European Cancer Information System (ECIS)

BackgroundThe European Commission has a long-term commitment to reducing cancer burden in the EU. Evaluation of the effectiveness of measures implemented is dependent on accurate and comparable data allowing derivation of cancer indicators (incidence, mortality, survival). For this purpose, the EC Joint Research Centre (JRC) in close collaboration with DG SANTE is maintaining a comprehensive cancer information system for Europe. MethodsPopulation-based cancer registries (CRs) are the information source for the computation of cancer burden indicators. In response to the call from the Council to the Commission to act further in harmonising EU cancer registration, the JRC since 2012 has taken an active role in supporting the activities and exploiting the data of the CRs affiliated to the European Network of Cancer Registries (ENCR). ResultsThe JRC has developed and launched in February 2018 the European Cancer Information System (ECIS) as a web-based tool to report and disseminate cancer burden indicators. The ECIS displays historical time series and projections of cancer incidence and mortality, as well as cancer survival indicators. Statistics in the ECIS are derived from the data of about 150 CRs in 34 European countries, detailing up to 58 cancers sites. The database feeding the ECIS is dynamic and is updated as new data become available. ConclusionsECIS permits the exploration of geographical patterns and temporal trends of cancer burden indicators at national and/or regional level. It constitutes an essential tool to promote awareness on cancer burden, to assess and monitor its magnitude and follow trends and changes over time. ECIS is an important step forward in informing the citizens, assisting political decision making and supporting epidemiological research. Legal entity responsible for the studyEuropean Commission. FundingHas not received any funding. DisclosureAll authors have declared no conflicts of interest.

PB2285 RARE ANAEMIA DISORDERS EUROPEAN EPIDEMIOLOGICAL PLATFORM

Background:Rare anaemia (RA) includes a highly heterogeneous group of rare and ultra‐rare haematological conditions. The numbers of RA patients included in clinical research are rarely adequate in one centre or even in one country, thus requiring a European approach. However, the lack of uniform standards for data collection has led to the implementation of a large number of patients’ registries through different approaches, gathering non‐comparable and fragmented data, which hamper collaborative projects and generation of enough robust evidence for translation of results into clinical practice.Aims:To promote basic and clinical research on RA at the EU level by the setting up of a European epidemiological platform for the secure exchange and integration of RA data with the only restriction needed to guarantee patient's rights and confidentially in agreement with EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).Methods:The Rare Anaemia Disorders European Epidemiological Platform (RADeep) is an initiative of the European Reference Network on Rare Hematological Diseases (ERN‐EuroBloodNet), as an umbrella for both new and existing European patients’ registries in RA. RADeep is built in line with the European Commission platform for rare disorders supported by the EC‐Joint Research Centre (EC‐JRC) and with the principles of FAIR data (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). Its primary objective is to assess at the EU level the prevalence, incidence and survival of RA patients stratified by demographics and severity. Secondary objectives include the assessment of RA subgroups a)main clinical manifestations and b)treatments.Results:RADeep legal frame has been established in line with GDPR and EC‐JRC recommendations for secure sharing and re‐use of FAIR data enabling both entering medical data from available sources and re‐use of data with third parties. RADeep solution is implemented ensuring interoperability with existing platforms based on the FAIRification of data to be gathered by the use of international ontologies for diagnosis and phenotype (eg. ORPHA, HPO, ICD) and the implementation of EUPID as the pseudonymization tool provided by the EC‐JRC. EUPID generates a unique global identifier for rare diseases patients avoiding multiple entries while allowing the merge of different European structures databases as biobanks or –OMICs platforms. The common data set (CDS) for RA has been defined including 29 mandatory parameters linked to the primary objective, and 69 optional linked to secondary objectives. Parameters are categorized into subgroups for the gathering of demographic and epidemiological information (eg. diagnosis, country of living), main clinical manifestations (eg. iron overload, organ damage) and treatments (eg. blood transfusion, splenectomy, drugs, clinical trials). RADeep is implemented based on a disease specific multi‐arms structure. While the common frame for RADeep functioning is almost finalized, parallel actions are undertaken for the establishment of disease‐specific committees in charge of defining the arm specific objectives and the expansion of the CDS accordingly. First phase of RADeep implementation will be launched shortly for Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency.Summary/Conclusion:RADeep offers a GDPR‐compliance platform as the European approach for the standardised collection of data regarding the main clinical features of RA, which is fundamental for the establishment of the need and the priorities in the development of research projects, clinical trials, guidelines and health policies that allow the better provision of healthcare to RA patients across EU.

European-wide study on big data for supporting road transport policy

This paper presents the latest achievements of TEMA (Transport Technology and Mobility Assessment) platform, designed to harness the potential of big data to support road transport policies in Europe. The platform relies on datasets of real world driving and mobility patterns collected by means of navigation systems and it is developed by the EC Joint Research Centre since 2012. Previous studies have demonstrated the potential of the platform in assessing real world emissions from conventional fuel vehicles and exploring the impact of the deployment of electrified vehicles in terms of usability, technology potential, energy requirements and infrastructural design. These last studies have been carried out on two pilot regions, i.e. the Italian provinces of Modena and Florence, whilst this article presents the earliest results achieved enlarging the study to a European-wide scale. To this purpose, results from additional fourteen new regions are presented, i.e. Amsterdam (NL), Brussels (BE), Luxembourg (LU), Paris (FR), Lisbon (PT), Krefeld (DE), Warsaw (PL), Bratislava (SK), Vienna (AT), Ljubljana (SI), Zagreb (HR), Budapest (HU), Sofia (BG), Athens (GR). The complete dataset accounts for approximately 2.57 billion records, 139 million driven kilometres and 632,186 monitored vehicles, being one among the most extensive driving datasets ever processed for policy support studies. This work constitutes the first attempt for initiating a continental scale study of driving behaviour in Europe, with the aim of showing how the proposed approach allows for unprecedented opportunities to shape the future of road transport.

A Framework for the Collection of HBM Data in Europe to Study Spatial and Time Trends of Chemical Exposure in European Citizens

The European Joint Programme HBM4EU is the backbone for knowledge on human exposure to environmental chemicals in the EU. It will inform European and national policy makers to take science based decisions for reducing chemical exposure of EU citizens to hazardous compounds. To answer policy questions on current EU-wide exposure to a selection of 8 priority substance groups, we have developed a framework for sampling which is based on existing and planned studies. The aim is to collect human biomonitoring data that will be comparable and hence allow to calculate reference values for Europe, to get information on the regional distribution of the priority chemicals in European citizens, and to evaluate the efficacy of EU and national policies. Current exposure is defined as exposure measured in samples collected between 2014 and 2019. To obtain comparable data from existing national and regional studies of 20 countries fieldwork and sampling protocols were developed to facilitate harmonisation. Biomarker analysis will be quality assured. As the importance and effective prevention of early life exposures is widely recognised, we focus in a first phase of HBM4EU on prepuberty, puberty and reproductive age groups. As such children between 6 and 11 years, teenagers between 12 and 19 years old and young adults between 20 and 39 years of age will be included in the first survey. Data will be collected and shared through the data platform IPCHEM, hosted at the EC Joint Research Centre (Ispra, IT). The survey will be an important step towards a sustainable HBM framework in the EU. At the same time biomolecular and advanced exposure modelling research will be engrafted on this framework to better understand risks and health impact of exposure to environmental chemicals in Europe.

Severe Accident Context Quantification for Long-Term Station Blackout in Boiling Water Reactor Nuclear Power Plants

The realistic study of dynamic accident context is an invaluable tool to address the uncertainties and their impact on safety assessment and management. The capacities of the performance evaluation of teamwork (PET) procedure for dynamic context quantification and determination of alternatives, coordination, and monitoring of human performance and decision-making are discussed in this paper. The procedure is based on a thorough description of symptoms during the accident scenario progressions with the use of thermo-hydraulic (TH) model and severe accident (SA) codes (melcor and maap). The opportunities of PET procedure for context quantification are exemplified for the long-term station blackout (LT SBO) accident scenario at Fukushima Daiichi #1 and a hypothetic unmitigated LT SBO at peach bottom #1 boiling water reactor (BWR) reactor nuclear power plants (NPPs). The context quantification of these LT SBO scenarios is based on the IAEA Fukushima Daiichi accident report, “State-of-the-Art Reactor Consequence Analysis” and TH calculations made by using maap code at the EC Joint Research Centre.

DeltaSA tool for source apportionment benchmarking, description and sensitivity analysis

DeltaSA is an R-package and a Java on-line tool developed at the EC-Joint Research Centre to assist and benchmark source apportionment applications. Its key functionalities support two critical tasks in this kind of studies: the assignment of a factor to a source in factor analytical models (source identification) and the model performance evaluation. The source identification is based on the similarity between a given factor and source chemical profiles from public databases. The model performance evaluation is based on statistical indicators used to compare model output with reference values generated in intercomparison exercises. The references values are calculated as the ensemble average of the results reported by participants that have passed a set of testing criteria based on chemical profiles and time series similarity. In this study, a sensitivity analysis of the model performance criteria is accomplished using the results of a synthetic dataset where “a priori” references are available. The consensus modulated standard deviation punc gives the best choice for the model performance evaluation when a conservative approach is adopted.

Results of the REIMEP-17 interlaboratory comparison for the measurement of the U and Pu amount content and isotope amount ratios in the synthetic dissolved spent nuclear fuel solution

Reliable measurements are needed for the verification measures of States’ declarations of their nuclear activities in line with international agreements and the EURATOM Treaty. Laboratories carrying out measurements of nuclear material need to follow stringent quality control concepts and are required to demonstrate their measurement capabilities on a regular and timely basis to legal and safeguards authorities. This includes participation in interlaboratory comparisons (ILCs). In the frame of the Regular European Interlaboratory Measurement Evaluation Programme (REIMEP), a new ILC (REIMEP-17) was jointly organized by the EC—Joint Research Centre—Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (JRC-IRMM) and EC—Joint Research Centre—Institute for Transuranium Elements (JRC-ITU) for EURATOM and IAEA safeguards laboratories, nuclear plant operators and nuclear material laboratories. The focus in REIMEP-17 was on measurements of the uranium and plutonium amount contents and isotope amount ratios in synthetic dissolved spent nuclear fuel solutions. Participants received two test samples, REIMEP-17A and REIMEP-17B, with different uranium and plutonium amount contents. Laboratories were requested to report the results with associated uncertainties applying their standard measurement procedures and had the possibility to benchmark those results against the independent assigned (reference) values and the ones listed in the International Target Values for Measurement Uncertainties in Safeguarding Nuclear Materials (ITV2010). It can be concluded that the participants in REIMEP-17 performed well for the measurements of uranium and plutonium amount content in compliance with the respective ITV2010 values. In particular, the measurement performance for the isotope amount ratios was very satisfactory for both REIMEP-17 test samples. This confirms the measurement capabilities of laboratories in the field of nuclear material analysis and demonstrates that the stringent ITV2010 values are achievable targets under state-of-practice conditions. On the other hand, the spread of results for the minor uranium isotope amount ratios was larger. Moreover, for some of the measurands, differences in the measurement uncertainty estimations provided by laboratories were observed even when using the same instrumental technique. A summary of the participant results is presented and discussed in this paper.

Non-destructive bulk analysis of the Buggenum sword by neutron resonance capture analysis and neutron diffraction

Two neutron based techniques, neutron resonance capture analysis (NRCA) and time-of-flight neutron-diffraction (TOF-ND) have been used to determine the elemental composition and structure of a precious and very well preserved all-metal sword from the Bronze Age. This Buggenum sword was on loan from the National Museum of Antiquities (NMA) in Leiden (NL). NRCA and TOF-ND experiments have been carried out at a number of more or less identical positions of the sword. The tin-bronze ratio and the relative amounts of some minor elements (Sb, As, Ag, In) have been determined. The results of neutron diffraction measurements showed considerable tin-segregation, and clear indications of hardening on the edges of the blade. In addition, radiographs using Bremsstrahlung revealed the construction of the hilt–blade connection. The work was carried out at the EC Joint Research Centre IRMM in Geel (B) and at the ISIS facility of the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (UK).

Isotope dilution–thermal ionisation mass spectrometric analysis for tin in a fly ash material

Isotope dilution–thermal ionisation mass spectrometry (ID–TIMS) analysis has been applied to the determination of tin in a fly ash sample supplied by the EC Joint Research Centre (Ispra, Italy). The proposed procedure includes the silica gel/phosphoric acid technique for tin thermal ionisation activation and a strict heating protocol for isotope ratio measurements. Instrumental mass discrimination factor has been previously determined measuring a natural tin standard solution. Spike solution has been prepared from 112Sn-enriched metal and quantified by reverse isotope dilution analysis. Two sample aliquots were spiked and tin was extracted with 4.5 M HCl during 25 min ultrasound exposure time. Due to the complex matrix of this fly ash material, a two-step purification stage using ion-exchange chromatography was required prior TIMS analysis. Obtained results for the two sample–spike blends (10.11 ± 0.55 and 10.50 ± 0.64 μmol g −1) are comparable, both value and uncertainty. Also a good reproducibility is observed between measurements. The proposed ID–TIMS procedure, as a primary method and due to the lack of fly ash reference materials certified for tin content, can be used to validate more routine methodologies applied to tin determination in this kind of samples.

The potential of remote sensing for monitoring rural land use changes and their effects on soil conditions

The paper reviews the principles of existing remote sensing techniques and new methods considered particularly suitable for monitoring rural land use changes and their effects on soil conditions. Conventional classification methods in combination with local field surveys are operationally used in national as well as in supra-national environmental and agricultural inventories established by the EU such as the European Commission's CORINE programme (Coordination of Information on the Environment) and the MARS project (Monitoring Agriculture with Remote Sensing). The `Environmental Mapping and Modelling Unit' (EMAP) of the EC Joint Research Centre, in cooperation with other partners, is investigating the use of operational earth observation satellites and airborne hyperspectral data (imaging spectrometry) for mapping and monitoring of vegetation and soil characteristics. In the context of previous experiments, approaches such as spectral mixture analysis have been developed which can already be routinely applied to large regions. Problems related to the standardised retrieval of remotely sensed primary parameters (such as reflectance), concepts for the thematic interpretation of reflectance data, and the definition of satellite-derived land degradation indices are discussed. On this basis, the requirements for the design of an operational satellite observatory for environmental monitoring are presented.

The Commission of the European Communities' (EC) demonstration and thermie programmes for photovoltaic (PV) applications

The PV Demonstration and THERMIE programmes of the European Commission have played a major role in encouraging the application of photovoltaic technology in Europe. The Demonstration programme began in 1979 and both it and the subsequent THERMIE programme have been managed ever since by DGXVII, the Directorate for Energy. More than 140 projects have been offered support, giving an installed capacity of over 5.7 MWp. The projects have been spread over a range of applications including rural electrification, telecommunication systems and grid-connected power generation. All have been monitored using comparable procedures at either a basic (global) or more complex (analytical) level depending on the system size. To facilitate the comparison of different systems, the data from all projects are analysed by the EC's Joint Research Centre (JRC) at Ispra in Italy. This article discusses the aim and scope of the programmes, and highlights some of the lessons learned in the area of rural electrification. The range of projects is described and broken down into sectors. The future of the programme is summarized and priorities are discussed.

European Community research in major industrial hazards

The purpose of this paper is to present and discuss EC 1 1 In this paper, EC refers to the European Communities. CEC refers to the Commission of the European Communities, i.e. the institution that administers EC research and makes proposals for EC policies and legislation. JRC refers to the EC's Joint Research Centre, the largest part of which is at Ispra in Italy. research in major industrial hazards (MIH). Within this paper and within the EC's research and legislative activities, the following definition of MIH is used: ‘dangerous events having the potential to give rise to serious injury or damage beyond the vicinity of the workplace but which occur as a result of industrial technology rather than naturally occurring phenomena’. In general, such major hazards in the chemical and petrochemical sectors are associated with four types of hazardous inventories, which can be grouped as follows: 1. large quantities of flammable/explosive substances, mainly hydrocarbons and derivatives; 2. large quantities of unstable or very reactive substances, peroxides, nitrates, liquid hydrogen and oxygen; 3. large quantities of common toxic chemicals such as chlorine and ammonia; and 4. small quantities of very toxic chemicals. To put the EC research in context, the discussion is extended to cover related EC legislation (since one of the purposes of the research is to serve EC policy-making) and also European research that is outside EC programmes.