Directions of residential mobility can be classified in terms of lateral movement around, and radial distance from, the Central Business District. In this paper, an examination of the explanations of restricted lateral movement, by adopting the argument that all major elements of the migration process have to be examined, is presented. As a result of the findings reported it is concluded that the explanation is one of locational attachments.
The role of income in domestic electricity consumption, compared with the influence of other sociophysical characteristics such as household or dwelling structure, has long been under debate. The major problem is one of multicollinearity among the independent variables. Sequential regression models are used to overcome this problem. The role of income is disaggregated from that of gas usage, dwelling type, dwelling size, and family structure, and found to be less important than some studies would suggest. Much of its influence is indirect, its role often that of a surrogate for other causative influences. The importance of these findings bears on the development of government policies in the electricity conservation area.
RiskBenefit4EU – Partnering to strengthen the risk–benefit assessment within EU using a holistic approach, is a recent European pilot project funded by EFSA and coordinated by Portugal (PT), integrating a multidisciplinary team from health and food institutes, national food safety authorities, R&D institutions and academia from PT, Denmark (DK) and France (FR). The main objectives of RiskBenefit4EU concerns the development of a set of Risk–Benefit Assessment (RBA) tools to assess and integrate food risks and benefits in the areas of microbiological, nutritional and chemical components through the development of a harmonised framework. This pilot project will validate the RBA framework created using a Portuguese case study on cereal-based foods. The research idea for food safety in risk assessment is to create an international network on RBA to promote and disseminate the outputs and knowledge acquired under RiskBenefir4EU, at European level. This network aims to promote knowledge and capacity building on RBA (acquired under RiskBenefit4EU) among European early stage researchers and to apply the harmonised framework on their countries. Health risks associated with consumption of cereal-based foods, an important source of nutrients with beneficial health effects, could increase soon due to climate changes in Europe (dry conditions and increased ambient temperatures could promote an increase in toxins production; occurrence of emergent compounds) so the dissemination and use of the RBA harmonized tools related with ingestion of cereal-based foods and derivatives could contribute to support future food and health policy in Europe. ; Projects GP/EFSA/AFSCO/2017/01-GA02 (EFSA), BioMAN/DAN/01 (INSA), UID/AMB/50017/2013 (CESAM) ; N/A
In spite of recent advances in describing the health outcomes of exposure to nanoparticles (NPs), it still remains unclear how exactly NPs interact with their cellular targets. Size, surface, mass, geometry, and composition may all play a beneficial role as well as causing toxicity. Concerns of scientists, politicians and the public about potential health hazards associated with NPs need to be answered. With the variety of exposure routes available, there is potential for NPs to reach every organ in the body but we know little about the impact this might have. The main objective of the FP7 NanoTEST project ( www.nanotest-fp7.eu ) was a better understanding of mechanisms of interactions of NPs employed in nanomedicine with cells, tissues and organs and to address critical issues relating to toxicity testing especially with respect to alternatives to tests on animals. Here we describe an approach towards alternative testing strategies for hazard and risk assessment of nanomaterials, highlighting the adaptation of standard methods demanded by the special physicochemical features of nanomaterials and bioavailability studies. The work has assessed a broad range of toxicity tests, cell models and NP types and concentrations taking into account the inherent impact of NP properties and the effects of changes in experimental conditions using well-characterized NPs. The results of the studies have been used to generate recommendations for a suitable and robust testing strategy which can be applied to new medical NPs as they are developed.
