Search results for "Building"
showing 10 items of 1985 documents
Erratum to: State and Politics in Religious Peacebuilding
2017
Measuring the wastewater treatment plants productivity change: Comparison of the Luenberger and Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen Productivity Indicators
2019
Abstract It is essential to assess the productivity of wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) to improve their economic and technical performance over time. In doing so, reliable indexes should be used to avoid biased conclusions leading to unsuccessful policy and managerial measures. Ratio-based indexes are typically employed, but are infeasible when any of the variables are equal or close to zero. To overcome this limitation, this paper presents the innovative approach of applying and comparing two difference-based productivity indicators, Luenberger (LPI) and Luenberger-Hicks-Moorsteen (LHMPI), to evaluate how productivity changes in a sample of WWTPs. Because the LHMPI is an additively com…
Energy intensity of treating drinking water: Understanding the influence of factors
2017
Abstract To provide safe drinking water to urban populations, raw water must be treated in drinking water treatment plants, which are energy-intensive facilities. Previous studies have assessed energy intensity (EI: unit of energy required per unit of treated water) of conventional drinking water treatment plants, but they ignored variations related to water treatment trains. By modeling 179 facilities of four water treatment trains, we explored factors potentially affecting energy intensity, such as removal efficiencies of pollutants and treatment capacities of drinking water treatment plants. We also investigated the economies of scale in energy intensity of drinking water treatment plant…
Evaluation of energy performance of drinking water treatment plants: Use of energy intensity and energy efficiency metrics
2018
Abstract One of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is to provide access to safe and clean drinking water. However, treating raw water in facilities currently involves using a non-negligible amount of energy, and the fossil fuels used are both expensive and emit greenhouse gases when combusted. Previous studies have evaluated the energy performance of drinking water treatment plants by estimating the amount of energy consumed per volume of water. However, such studies have not accounted for differences between treatment technologies and have assumed a common standard water treatment technology. To overcome these limitations, this study employed metafrontier data envelopment ana…
Damage monitoring on carbonate stones: Field exposure tests contributing to pollution impact evaluation in two Italian sites
2017
During the last decades, many studies have been carried out on environmental monitoring in specific sites aiming at their protection and conservation; however, researches focused on the direct implications, in terms of quantitative evaluation of stone deterioration, of these monitoring actions are still scarce. This experimental work aims at monitoring the degradation processes affecting historical buildings constituted by carbonate stones. Specifically, specimens of Carrara marble and two limestones largely used in the Sicilian Baroque architecture, namely Noto and Comiso stones, were exposed outdoor in two Italian sites (Catania and Palermo), which are characterized by different environme…
Three Hours Ahead Prevision of SO2 Pollutant Concentration Using an Elman Neural based Forecaster
2008
Abstract Indoor air quality near the industrial site is tightly joined to pollutant concentration level, since outdoor pollution heavily influences air quality and, consequently, inhabitants health. A pollution management system is essential for health protection. Automatic air quality management systems have became an important research issue with strong implications for inhabitants’ health. In this paper an automatic forecaster based on neural networks for SO 2 concentration prevision is proposed. The analyzed area covers different small towns near the industrial site of Priolo, in the south of the world. Among these towns, Melilli was the first town in Italy that was evacuated for high l…
Analysis of the road traffic-induced pollution in two areas of Sibiu, Romania
2017
The current paper details a computer-aided research of the emission levels in two areas of the city of Sibiu, Romania. The research started from the numbers of motor vehicles passing through key segments of those two areas, located at entry points into the city of Sibiu. Using the software package Synchro Studio 7 and SimTraffic 7, the targeted crossroad areas were modelled and key indicators for the road traffic efficiency and for the emission levels were determined. These emission levels were then compared to real measured pollution values, which allowed both to assess the accuracy of the modelling and the influence of other pollution sources on the emission levels in those areas.
Can crumb rubber modifier effectively replace the use of polymer- modified bitumen in asphalt mixture?
2021
Laboratory scale mechanical performances on six plant produced mixtures; three semi-dense surface courses and three dense binder courses modified with engineered crumb rubber (ECR) using the dry process are presented. The two types of mixtures produced and investigated fulfilled for the most part, the requirements of the Swiss and/or US standards regarding volumetric properties, water sensitivity and rutting. In advanced testing where no requirements exist, the dense ECR mixtures performed similar to the reference polymer modified mixtures and slightly worse for semi-dense mixtures in high temperature tests, where the binder becomes viscous in the rubber-binder composite and its ability to …
Spectroscopic Studies of Oligonucleotide Adducts and Base Sequence Preference of Adducts Formed by the Stereoisomers of 7,8-Dihydroxy-9,10-epoxy-7,8,…
1996
Abstract 5′-d(CCTATAGATATCC) has been reacted with BPDE and the adducts derived from binding of BPDE to the exocyclic amino group of deoxyguanosine (dG) were studied with spectroscopic methods. The major dG-adducts of (+)- and (-)-anti-BPDE and a minor adduct of (+)-syn-BPDE showed the characteristics of trans-adducts. The major products formed with (+)- and (-)-syn-BPDE exhibit cis-adduct characteristics. Annealing of BPDE-modified oligonucleotides to complementary or partially complementary strands results in reduced fluorescence intensity in several cases and in others the intensity is markedly increased. These differences demonstrate that the adduct microenvironment is strongly influenc…
Olive mill wastewaters decontamination based on organo-nano-clay composites
2019
Abstract Green composites for environmental applications were successfully prepared by intercalation of the biosurfactant Quillaja saponin onto montmorillonite mineral clay on varying pH and surfactant/clay ratio. Equilibrium adsorption isotherms were constructed and the system was characterized by performing TGA and XRD analyses. The efficiency of the surfactant-modified clay in the removal of the organic content present in olive mill wastewaters (OMW) was evaluated by means of spectrophotometric measurements. The interest for this cogent issue comes from the consideration that, despite their high pollutant content, OMW can be considered as a potential resource of several organic compounds…