Search results for "Environmental engineering"
showing 10 items of 2674 documents
Cadmium and lead in infant cereals — electrothermal-atomic absorption spectroscopic determination
1999
Because infant cereals are an important component of the infant diet from the fourth month of life onwards and therefore contribute to the dietetic intake of metals by infants, cadmium and lead were measured in samples of cereals commercially available in Spain. For this purpose an electrothermal atomic absorption (ET-AAS) method for determining cadmium and lead in these products was studied. The ET-AAS instrumental conditions and temperature/time furnace program were selected. The analytical parameters of the method (linearity, detection and quantification limits and precision) show its usefulness in measuring cadmium and lead in infant cereal products. The method was applied to eight diff…
Occurrence of biomarkers of pesticide exposure in non-invasive human specimens.
2015
Biomonitoring has been used in many types of investigations, including national programmes and epidemiological studies, to explore the occurrence of biomarkers of pesticide exposure in the general population or relevant groups. This review discusses recent studies that measure levels of biomarkers of pesticide exposure in non-invasive human specimens such as urine, breast milk, meconium and hair. Specific and non-specific metabolites of organophosphate and pyrethroid insecticides have been widely investigated in urine, where some of the suitable biomarkers present rates of detection higher than 80%, which stand for an ongoing chronic exposure to traces of these chemicals. Hair is a promisin…
Transparency in two municipalities of great population of the Valencian Community: between mimetic isomorphism and the generation of legitimity
2020
Este trabajo de investigación tiene como objetivo fundamental la realización de un análisis sobre los elementos que han justificado la calidad de los procesos de asunción de la transparencia en los ayuntamientos de Alicante y València (2008-2017). En concreto, se partirá del neo-institucionalismo sociológico y de los índices de Transparencia Internacional para caracterizar esta herramienta de buen gobierno y la importancia relativa en ambos ayuntamientos. Entre algunos de los resultados preliminares que hemos obtenido, podemos destacar tanto el papel isomórfico de la legislación como la necesidad de mejorar la reputación de las instituciones estudiadas para implementar dichas políticas. The…
Evaluation of Chemical Composition of Essential Oils Derived from Different Pelargonium Species Leaves
2019
Abstract Plants have been used for their aromatic and medicinal purposes for centuries. The genus Pelargonium contains about 250-280 species and cultivated around the world for the production of essential oils and absolutes. Pelargonium species are remarkable for their odour diversity, from fresh, lemon and minty scent, through floral, rose, fruity up to spicy and camphoreous smell as well as many health beneficial properties, that is why their essential oils are widely used in perfume, cosmetic, food and pharmaceutical industries. The aim of this study was to determine variability in populations of Pelargonium genus by evaluating their differences in quantitative and qualitative essential …
Aerobic granular sludge treating high strength citrus wastewater: Analysis of pH and organic loading rate effect on kinetics, performance and stabili…
2017
Abstract In the present paper, the feasibility of citrus wastewater treatment with aerobic granular sludge sequencing batch reactors (AGSBR) was investigated. Two AGSBRs (named R1 and R2, respectively) were operated for 90 days under different organic loading rates (OLR) and pH in two experimental periods. The OLR ranged approximately between 3.0 kg TCOD m−3d−1 and 7 kg TCOD m−3d−1 during Period I, whereas between 7 kg TCOD m−3d−1 and 15 kg TCOD m−3d−1 during Period II. pH was maintained at 7.0 and 5.5 in R1 and R2, respectively. The results revealed that under high OLR and unbalanced feast/famine regime (Period I), the development of fast-growing microorganisms (fungi and filamentous bacte…
Wastewaters from citrus processing industry as natural biostimulants for soil microbial community
2020
Abstract Citrus fruit processing wastewaters (CWWs), being rich in organic matter, may be a valuable resource for agricultural irrigation and, possibly, for the improvement of soil organic carbon (TOC). This issue is becoming crucial for soils of arid and semiarid environments increasingly experiencing water scarcity and continuous decline of TOC towards levels insufficient to sustain crop production. However, before using CWWs in agriculture their effects on the soil living component have to be clarified. Therefore, in this study we assessed the impact of CWWs on soil chemical and biochemical properties. Under laboratory conditions, lemon, orange and tangerine wastewaters were separately a…
Challenges and opportunities for citrus wastewater management and valorisation: A review.
2022
Citrus wastewaters (CWWs) are by-products of the citrus fruit transformation process. Currently, more than 700 million of m³ of CWWs per year are produced worldwide. Until nowadays, the management of CWWs is based on a take-make-use-dispose model. Indeed, after being produced within a citrus processing industry, CWWs are subjected to treatment and then discharged into the environment. Now, the European Union is pushing towards a take-make-use-reuse management model, which suggests to provide for the minimization of residual pollutants simultaneously with their exploitation through a biorefinery concept. Indeed, the recovery of energy nutrients and other value-added products held by CWWs may…
Calidad de salas para música clásica
2013
Finding a parameter which allows establishing if a concert room is good for orchestral classical music performances or not is one of the main interests in room acoustics. However, rooms are usually characterized by average values of some acoustic parameters. From the optimal values mostly recognized, specialists can consider a room adequate or not for a certain use. In recent works, we have obtain we have obtained a model for classifying a room for classical music performances, from the reverberation time (T30), the lateral energy factor coefficient (LFC) and the listener envelopment (LEV). From this model, we can determine the quality maps for these rooms. In this paper, we show the qualit…
Climate change engenders a better Early Warning System development across Sub-Saharan Africa: The malaria case
2022
It is expected that diseases are likely to spread to newer areas, and high-income countries may experience some illnesses that may have been restricted to low or middle-income countries. In addition, following the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the present study noted that climate change is likely to have many effects on the spatial and temporal distribution of malaria in many Sub-Saharan African countries. This study examines climate change effects on the geographical distribution of malaria occurrence and how extreme climatic events may perhaps be determining factors in the range of vectors for human diseases in SSA in the nearest future. Here, the study appraisals the symbiot…
SISALv2: a comprehensive speleothem isotope database with multiple age–depth models
2020
Characterizing the temporal uncertainty in palaeoclimate records is crucial for analysing past climate change, correlating climate events between records, assessing climate periodicities, identifying potential triggers and evaluating climate model simulations. The first global compilation of speleothem isotope records by the SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis) working group showed that age model uncertainties are not systematically reported in the published literature, and these are only available for a limited number of records (ca. 15 %, n = 107/691). To improve the usefulness of the SISAL database, we have (i) improved the database’s spatio-temporal coverage and (ii) create…