Search results for "Environmental engineering"
showing 10 items of 2674 documents
Modeling of perched leachate zone formation in municipal solid waste landfills.
2010
The paper presents a 1D mathematical model for the simulation of the percolation fluxes throughout a landfill for municipal solid waste (MSW). Specifically, the model was based on mass balance equations, that enable simulation of the formation of perched leachate zones in a landfill for MSW. The model considers the landfill divided in several layers evaluating the inflow to and outflow from each layer as well as the continuous moisture distribution. The infiltration flow was evaluated by means of the Darcy’s law for an unsaturated porous medium, while the moisture distribution evaluation has been carried out on the basis of the theory of the vertically distributed unsaturated flow. The solu…
Brominated flame retardants and toxic elements in the meat and liver of red deer (Cervus elaphus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), and moose (Alces alces) fr…
2017
In order to evaluate the contamination status of terrestrial biota in Latvia, muscle and liver tissues of red deer (Cervus elaphus), wild boar (Sus scrofa), and moose (Alces alces) were analyzed for the content of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE), hexabromocyclododecane (HBCD), tetrabromobisphenol A (TBBPA), as well as cadmium and lead. The highest mean concentrations of PBDEs (46.6pgg-1 wet weight (w.w.)), cadmium (0.95mgkg-1 w.w.), and lead (0.22mgkg-1 w.w.) were observed in the tissues of moose, while the wild boar samples contained the highest levels of HBCD, with the mean concentration equal to 264pgg-1 w.w. in muscle tissues. Generally low mean concentrations of TBBPA from 0.52 t…
Investigation of committed radiation dose rate and relationships between alkaline metals concentrations in mushroom Xerocomus badius / Badanie wchłon…
2012
Abstract The fruiting bodies of fungi sprout from mycelium are capable of accumulating significant amounts of trace elements, both metals and metalloids. Content of these elements in fruiting bodies may exceed their concentration in the substrate where fungi develop. Among the elements the radioactive nuclides are also present. In this work health risk caused by increased radioactivity dose absorbed with Xerocomus badius bay bolete consumption was estimated. In analysis concentrations of radioactive isotopes 137Cs and 40K were taken into consideration. It was found that moderate ingestion of bay bolete does not create health risk due to increased radioactive substances intake. The amount of…
Long-term no-tillage application increases soil organic carbon, nitrous oxide emissions and faba bean (Vicia faba L.) yields under rain-fed Mediterra…
2018
The introduction of legumes into crop sequences and the reduction of tillage intensity are both proposed as agronomic practices to mitigate the soil degradation and negative impact of agriculture on the environment. However, the joint effects of these practices on nitrous oxide (NO) and ammonia (NH) emissions from soil remain unclear, particularly concerning semiarid Mediterranean areas. In the frame of a long-term field experiment (23 years), a 2-year study was performed on the faba bean (Vicia faba L.) to evaluate the effects of the long-term use of no tillage (NT) compared to conventional tillage (CT) on yield and NO and NH emissions from a Vertisol in a semiarid Mediterranean environmen…
Influence of carbon to nitrogen ratio on nitrous oxide emission in an Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge Membrane BioReactor plant
2018
Abstract In this study a University of Cape Town (UCT) Integrated Fixed Film Activated Sludge (IFAS) Membrane BioReactor (MBR) wastewater treatment plant was monitored in terms of nitrous oxide (N2O) emissions. The short term effect on the N2O emission due to the influent carbon-to-nitrogen (C/N) ratio variation (C/N ratios of 2, 5 and 10 gCOD/gN) was evaluated. Since in a previous study, the effect of the C/N ratio was studied in the same system without biofilm (UCT-MBR configuration) the main aim here was to investigate the role of biofilms on N2O emissions. Under all the investigated C/N ratios, the N2O fluxes and the average emission factors were lower than that of previous studies with…
The SMAP and Copernicus Sentinel 1A/B microwave active-passive high resolution surface soil moisture product
2019
Abstract Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) mission of NASA was launched in January 2015. Currently, SMAP has an L-band radiometer and a defunct L-band radar with a rotating 6-m mesh reflector antenna. On July 7th, 2015, the SMAP radar malfunctioned and became inoperable. Consequently, the production of high-resolution active-passive soil moisture product got hampered, and only ~2.5 months (April 15th, 2015 to July 7th, 2015) of data remain available. Therefore, during the SMAP post-radar phase, many ways were examined to restart the high-resolution soil moisture product generation of the SMAP mission. One of the feasible approaches was to substitute the SMAP radar with other available SAR…
Special Issue: Water Management Strategies in Irrigated Areas
2016
The 2015 edition of the United Nations World Water Development Report highlighted that ‘water is at the core of sustainable development’. Water has upgraded the quality of human life, and any progress to achieve a more sustainable world will deal with the maintenance and/or the improvement of water management. Water demand has grown at more than twice the population rate in the XX century. By 2025, it is estimated that about 1.8 billion people will live in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity, and two-thirds of the world population could be under stress conditions.
Economic analysis on the use of wired and wireless recharging systems
2017
Wireless charging systems for electric vehicles have some advantages respect the wired ones, not obliging the user to connect physically the vehicle to the electric charging station. However, at the same time, they have disadvantages linked to issues of electromagnetic compatibility and low efficiency. This study considers some scenarios for which both wired and wireless recharging systems can be adopted, with the aim of estimate the efficiency that must be guaranteed by wireless systems, so that its realization could be more favorable with respect to wired one. The estimation is developed by means of classical economic indexes, in the framework of Italian end European markets. Results repo…
Profit change and its drivers in the English and Welsh water industry: is output quality important?
2014
Abstract The assessment of profit change over time and its drivers is essential to analyse firms' financial performance. This paper investigates profit change and its components for the 10 English and Welsh water and sewerage water companies over the period 1991–2008 and for three regulatory sub-periods. Profit changes and their drivers are computed following two approaches, namely: without controlling for water and sewerage quality issues, and after decomposing the output effect into high quality and low quality output effect. In both cases, profit change is decomposed into various factors such as quantity and price effect, technical change, efficiency change, resource mix, product mix, an…
Comparison of testing acute toxicity on embryo of zebrafish, Brachydanio rerio and RTG-2 cytotoxicity as possible alternatives to the acute fish test
1995
Abstract The present study compares two possible alternative methods to replace the acute fish test. Fertilized eggs of zebrafish, Brachydanio rerio were used to investigate the acute toxicity of chemicals. Different toxicological endpoints such as coagulation of the eggs, development of gastrulation, number of somites, development of organs, circulation, heartbeat, otolithanlage and pigmentation have been examined during the embryonic development of zebrafish within the first 48 h. Differences to the normal development were measured by these endpoints. Chemicals have been examined in a preliminary approach with respect to their cytotoxicity on the RTG-2 cells (Rainbow Trout Gonad). The vit…