Search results for "Disposal"
showing 10 items of 1300 documents
Methodological considerations for interrupted time series analysis in radiation epidemiology: an overview
2021
Interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) is a method that can be applied to evaluate health outcomes in populations exposed to ionizing radiation following major radiological events. Using aggregated time series data, ITSA evaluates whether the time trend of a health indicator shows a change associated with the radiological event. That is, ITSA checks whether there is a statistically significant discrepancy between the projection of a pre-event trend and the data empirically observed after the event. Conducting ITSA requires one to consider specific methodological issues due to unique threats to internal validity that make ITSA prone to bias. We here discuss the strengths and limitations of …
Portability in analytical chemistry: a green and democratic way for sustainability
2019
International audience; Recent advances in portability of analytical equipment have been considered to enlighten the advantages offered by portable instrumentation on greening the analytical methods. Their use drastically reduces sampling, sample stockage, and transport, thus avoiding environmental side effects and risks, also improving decision-making. The fact that portable instrumentation is, in general, less expensive than bench instruments and apparatuses makes also available the analytical tools for extended sectors of the population, thus making accessible the advantages derived from analytical methods. The role of sensor technology and portable miniaturized systems has been consider…
Recovering coronavirus from large volumes of water
2021
The need for monitoring tools to better control the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is extremely urgent and the contamination of water resources by excreted viral particles poses alarming questions to be answered. As a first step to overcome technical limitations in monitoring SARS-CoV-2 along the water cycle, we assessed the analytical performance of a dead end hollow fiber ultrafiltration coupled to different options for secondary concentrations to concentrate viral particles from large volume of spiked tap water, seawater and surface water together with two quantitative RT-qPCR detection kits. Spiking the porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV), an enveloped virus surrogat…
Strategies for waste recycling : the mechanical performance of concrete based on limestone and plastic waste
2022
Recycling is among the best management strategies to avoid dispersion of several types of wastes in the environment. Research in recycling strategies is gaining increased importance in view of Circular Economy principles. The exploitation of waste, or byproducts, as alternative aggregate in concrete, results in a reduction in the exploitation of scarce natural resources. On the other hand, a productive use of waste leads to a reduction in the landfilling of waste material through the transformation of waste into a resource. In this frame of reference, the paper discusses how to use concrete as a container of waste focusing on the waste produced in limestone quarries and taking the challenge…
Evaluation of lens absorbed dose with Cone Beam IGRT procedures
2015
The purpose of this work is to evaluate the absorbed dose to the eye lenses due to the cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) system used to accurately position the patient during head-and-neck image guided procedures. The on-board imaging (OBI) systems (v.1.5) of Clinac iX and TrueBeam (Varian) accelerators were used to evaluate the imparted dose to the eye lenses and some additional points of the head. All CBCT scans were acquired with the Standard-Dose Head protocol from Varian. Doses were measured using thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs) placed in an anthropomorphic phantom. TLDs were calibrated at the beam quality used to reduce their energy dependence. Average dose to the lens due to …
Cost–benefit analysis of water-reuse projects for environmental purposes: A case study for Spanish wastewater treatment plants
2011
Water reuse is an emerging and promising non-conventional water resource. Feasibility studies are essential tools in the decision making process for the implementation of water-reuse projects. However, the methods used to assess economic feasibility tend to focus on internal costs, while external impacts are relegated to unsubstantiated statements about the advantages of water reuse. Using the concept of shadow prices for undesirable outputs of water reclamation, the current study developed a theoretical methodology to assess internal and external economic impacts. The proposed methodological approach is applied to 13 wastewater treatment plants in the Valencia region of Spain that reuse ef…
The superior effect of nature based solutions in land management for enhancing ecosystem services
2017
The rehabilitation and restoration of land is a key strategy to recover services -goods and resources- ecosystems offer to the humankind. This paper reviews key examples to understand the superior effect of nature based solutions to enhance the sustainabilit y of catchment systems by promoting desirable soil and landscape functions. The use of concepts such as connectivity and the theory of system thinking framework allowed to review coastal and river management as a guide to evaluate other strategies to achieve sustainability. In land management NBSs are not mainstream management. Through a set of case studies: organic farming in Spain; rewilding in Slovenia; land restoration in Iceland, s…
P-recovery in a pilot-scale struvite crystallisation reactor for source separated urine systems using seawater and magnesium chloride as magnesium so…
2019
[EN] Practical recovery of a non-renewable nutrient, such as phosphorus (P), is essential to support modern agriculture in the near future. The high P content of urine, makes it an attractive source for practicing the recovery of this crucial nutrient. This paper presents the experimental results at pilot-plant scale of struvite crystallisation from a source-separated urine stream using two different magnesium sources, namely magnesium chloride and seawater. The latter was chosen as sustainable option to perform P-recovery in coastal areas. Real seawater was used to assess in a more realistic way its efficiency to precipitate P as struvite, since its composition (with noticeable concentrati…
Economic valuation of environmental benefits from wastewater treatment processes: An empirical approach for Spain
2009
Economic research into the design and implementation of policies for the efficient management of water resources has been emphasized by the European Water Framework Directive (Directive 2000/60/EC). The efficient implementation of policies to prevent the degradation and depletion of water resources requires determining their value in social and economic terms and incorporating this information into the decision-making process. A process of wastewater treatment has many associated environmental benefits. However, these benefits are often not calculated because they are not set by the market, due to inadequate property rights, the presence of externalities, and the lack of perfect information…
Quotas regulation is necessary but not sufficient to mitigate the impact of SCUBA diving in a highly visited marine protected area.
2021
Abstract When effectively managed, Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) can produce wide ecosystem benefits that can foster, directly and indirectly, local economies. Tourism is one of the sectors mainly benefited by the effect of conservation. SCUBA diving represents an important tourism activity, especially in the context of MPAs, where it is one of the few activities often fostered rather than limited, for its capacity to integrate environmental and socio-economic sustainability. However, SCUBA diving can also produce negative impacts on the environment when tourism frequentation exceeds a sustainable threshold, these potentially generating negative effects on the sector itself. In this study, …