Gaps and Research Needs

As emphasized above, two important workshops held in 2001 identified a number of data gaps and research needs to advance the state-of-the-science for assessing the potential for dit.161719 30 Moreover, participants in a 2003 roundtable discussion emphasized that a number of important research efforts are currently underway in the areas of DIT, examining immune system responses following developmental exposures to known immunotoxicants.38... 

H.A. Tilson, Developmental neurotoxicity of endocrine disruptors and pesticides. Identification of important gaps and research needs. Environ. Health Perspect. 106 807, 1998. 

The dearth of full supply chain, multi-impact LCA studies for wool textiles was noted in a review of published wool LCA studies (Henry, 2011), which also identified significant data gaps and research needs for more meaningfiil assessment of the environmental performance of wool supply chains. A subsequent LCA study (Bevilacqua... 

In chemistry, there was clearly a great need to move ahead and bridge the gap between the earlier, entirely empirical approach of teaching and research and that incorporating the new trends of chem-... 

To fill this gap, we will need to increase our nuclear energy R D to cover the complete spectrum of research needs. . . from power generation. .. to non-proliferation. .. to waste disposal. The Department s Nuclear Energy Research Advisory Committee - NER4C - is currently working on an analysis of nuclear R D needs. We hope that this effort will further inform and focus our nuclear energy R D needs and help us fill our portfolio gaps. 

EPA Exposure Assessment Workshops - Level I and II. In April 1982, the EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) organized two workshops designed to assess and identify current techniques (i.e., data, protocols, predictive models) used in performing exposure assessments, enumerate technical information gaps, and recommend prioritized research topics to satisfy current and anticipated needs. The Level I workshop was comprised of... 

Identify gaps between the needs of decisionmakers and scientific research priorities and strategies for bridging these gaps, including ways to increase the professional connection between scientists and decisionmakers, and ... 

The New never grows from nowhere, but is rooted in the Old and Unexpected. The latter is a function of curiosity and emotional not rational involvement in the subject. We hope that the following chapters will stimulate emotion and thought, and provoke new systematic and empirical research. The dilemma is that in one sense, we as humans abhor speculation and the unknown, but that in another sense, as scientists, we need the speculative as life needs water. Curiosity drives us and fills the gap. And fortunately, theories pass over, but the frog persists, as Jean Rostand expressed so succinctly the relation between conjecture and refutation [ Les theories passent, la grenouille reste. Carnets d un biologiste]. 

As many as 10% of children have a medication-responsive psychiatric disorder (Riddle et ah, 1998) and there has been a dramatic increase in the use of psychotropic medication to treat mental disorders in youth (Rappley et ah, 1999). Multiple factors account for this increase, including scientific advances in fields such as epidemiology, nosology, neuroscience, drug development, and clinical measurements, and efforts to educate the public about the benefits of early, effective treatment. Despite large gaps between research and practice, many medications are used in children on the basis of a small amount of scientific data. Factors that contribute to this situation are societal desires for rapid, effective treatment, acceptance of medication as a therapeutic modality, and a reimbursement climate in which there is increased pressure for brief treatment. Clearly there is a need to balance clinical and administrative pressures with a resort to treatment based on the best available data. 

The first human hver transplantations were performed in 1963 by Starzl and colleagues. Until the application of immune system suppressants, the long-term survival rate of transplant recipients was poor. Continued improvements in surgical techniques, organ preservation, and immune suppression led to I-year survival rates of 85% to 90%. The most common indications for the need for a hver transplantation are chronic hepatitis, alcoholic hver disease, and cirrhosis. The widening gap between the need for transplant material and the supply has caused the medical research community to search for alternatives to transplantation. 

The committee s attention to those limitations and uncertainties is important for two reasons. First, full disclosure of limiting factors gives scientists and the public a fuller understanding of the reliability and credibility of biomonitoring results. It provides risk assessors with information needed to characterize risk conclusions fully, as called for by the National Research Council risk-assessment paradigm (NRC 1983 1994). Second, and equally important, the kinds of uncertainty define data gaps for immediate attention and related long-term research needs. 

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