In spite of the still increasing number of engineered nanomaterial (ENM) applications, large knowledge gaps exist with respect to their environmental fate, especially after release into air. This review aims to summarize the current knowledge of emissions and behavior of airborne engineered nanomaterials. The whole ENM lifecycle is considered from the perspective of possible releases into the atmosphere. Although in general, emissions during use phase and end-of-life seem to play a minor role compared to entry into soil and water, accidental and continuous emissions into air can occur especially during production and some use cases such as spray application. Implications of ENMs on the atmosphere as e.g., photo-catalytic properties or the production of reactive oxygen species are reviewed as well as the influence of physical processes and chemical reactions on the ENMs. Experimental studies and different modeling approaches regarding atmospheric transformation and removal are summarized. Some information exists especially for ENMs, but many issues can only be addressed by using data from ultrafine particles as a substitute and research on the specific implications of ENMs in the atmosphere is still needed.

Risk analysis is a process dedicated to describe scenarios leading to hazards and potential accidents on an industrial facility. In order to realize a risk analysis, experts refer to different resources (hazard studies, expertise, etc.) which are often difficult to exploit because they are not sufficiently structured and formalized. This paper presents an ongoing project that aims to develop an industrial risk analysis support system. Our approach consists of three main phases. The first is to develop a knowledge base of industrial safety based on ontologies. The second phase is to index safety-related resources by concepts of the developed ontologies, which led to the realization of an information retrieval system. Given the nature of knowledge available at industrial organizations, the third phase aims to develop a case-based reasoning (CBR) system, associated to the developed ontologies, in order to help experts realize risk analysis studies using already existing ones.

Acquisition de connaissances d’adaptation à partir d’une base de cas hétérogène Adaptation knowledge acquisition from a heterogeneous case base