Science updates

Linking landscape connectivity and the spread of tick-borne Lyme disease

A recent article led by the University of Toronto and co-authored by the JRC examines how wildlife and landscape characteristics interact to influence the spread of Lyme disease.

A JRC article published in Scientific Reports today assesses the quality of wheat forecasts during years with extremely low or high yields, and calls for improvements based on near real-time data fusion.

The Kazakhstan and Russia issues of the JRC MARS Bulletin global outlook series were published today.

According to the Bulletin on Kazakhstan, lower-than-usual temperatures and above-average rainfall in northern and eastern parts of the country affected the yields of spring cereals.

The JRC has worked with five EU funded research consortia, EC department for Research and Innovation, the European Environment Agency and the European Food Safety Authority to produce a paper which identifies research and policy needs to deal with the assessment and management of potential risks posed by chemical mixtures to human health and the environment.

The September edition of the JRC's Anomaly Hotspots of Agricultural Production (ASAP) assessment shows evidence of reduced primera (May-June) production in Central America and reduced production of irrigated summer crops in the Middle-East. Irrigation deficits and drought have also affected crop production in Central and South Asia. Conditions are generally good in East, West and Central Africa, with the exception of heavy floods in Nigeria.

Main findings of the September global overview:

Cities concentrate population, economic output, trade and commerce, cultural and social life.

Projections see future growth, both economic and population, to happen in cities.

Cities are central to many EU policies that directly impact on citizens' life.

The JRC's EU Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (EURL ECVAM) has launched a second call for tender to review alternative methods and models being used for research in the areas of Cardiovascular diseases, Breast Cancer, Immunogenicity testing for advanced therapy medicinal products, Autoimmune diseases an

JRC scientists collected and analysed mechanistic information on the effects of chemicals on eight organs identified as relevant for acute systemic toxicity in humans. The ultimate aim is the replacement of the use of animals in the regulatory assessment of acute oral toxicity.

This knowledge is expected to support the development and application of adverse outcome pathways (AOPs) and mechanistically relevant new approach assessment methodologies.

To continue the provision of the on-demand and fast provision of geospatial information under the Copernicus Emergency Management Service, the JRC has launched a call for tenders.

The submission deadline is 24 October 2018.

The Copernicus Emergency Management Service (CEMS) is one of the six core services offered by Copernicus.

The new IRMM-2019-2029 series of reference materials is designed to serve as the ideal set of "Material Standards" needed for calibrating Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry (TIMS) measurements of nuclear safeguards samples, in particular for the application of the so-called "Modified Total Evaporation (MTE)" and "Double Spike Method (DS)" methods, as described in the respective "Documentary Standards" ASTM C1832 and ASTM C1871a.