Search results for "Renewable energy sources"

A Systematic Review of Air Quality Sensors, Guidelines, and Measurement Studies for Indoor Air Quality Management

2020

The existence of indoor air pollutants—such as ozone, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and total volatile organic compounds—is evidently a critical issue for human health. Over the past decade, various international agencies have continually refined and updated the quantitative air quality guidelines and standards in order to meet the requirements for indoor air quality management. This paper first provides a systematic review of the existing air quality guidelines and standards implemented by different agencies, which include the Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS); the World Health Organization (WHO); the Occupational Safety and Heal…

Responsive and Minimalist App Based on Explainable AI to Assess Palliative Care Needs during Bedside Consultations on Older Patients

2021

[EN] Palliative care is an alternative to standard care for gravely ill patients that has demonstrated many clinical benefits in cost-effective interventions. It is expected to grow in demand soon, so it is necessary to detect those patients who may benefit from these programs using a personalised objective criterion at the correct time. Our goal was to develop a responsive and minimalist web application embedding a 1-year mortality explainable predictive model to assess palliative care at bedside consultation. A 1-year mortality predictive model has been trained. We ranked the input variables and evaluated models with an increasing number of variables. We selected the model with the seven …

Effects of a Travel Behaviour Change Program on Sustainable Travel

2018

The main objective of the present study is to analyse the effect of a Travel Behaviour Change Program (TBCP) based on health improvement actions, in relation to a potential for an increase in walking and cycling, with reference to particular groups of people defined according to sociodemographics. A TBCP consisting of three persuasion actions based on health improvements was planned and executed in Valencia (Spain). A two-wave panel survey was used to study the effects of taking part in the TBCP. The panel survey collected data related to activity-travel scheduling process before and after the execution of the TBCP. To study the influence of participating in the TBCP, respondents were separ…

Gender Inequalities and Social Sustainability. Can Modernization Diminish the Gender Gap in Political Knowledge?

2020

The gender gap in political knowledge is a classical problem of Western democracies. In the 21st century, political knowledge is still unequally distributed between men and women, as many cross-section studies have shown. This is an indicator of women’s disempowerment and the distance which remains to be covered to achieve an inclusive and sustainable society. Could public policies and gender equality laws change the situation? Using a longitudinal database in which 600,000 survey responses are analysed from 1996 to 2017, this case study of Spain aims to shed some light on this question. It combines sociological and political approaches in line with the development theory of the gender gap …

Predicting First-Year College Student Retention: Validation of the College Persistence Questionnaire in a Spanish Sample

2019

This paper analyzes the factorial and predictive validity of a Spanish adaptation of the College Persistence Questionnaire (SCPQ) on the retention of first year students (FYS) at university. The participants were 490 FYS from two public universities in Southern Europe (Spain). Factorial analysis of the SCPQ (&chi

Reduction of Nitrates in Waste Water through the Valorization of Rice Straw: LIFE LIBERNITRATE Project

2018

An improved and more sustainable waste management system is required for successful development of technologies based on renewable sources. Rice straw is submitted to controlled combustion reactions and the produced ashes are chemically treated to produce silica. After a chemical activation step, the activated silica shows potential as an adsorbent agent and will be used to remove the excess of nitrates in groundwater and wells in the area of Alginet (Valencia, Spain), selected as a vulnerable zone within the Nitrates Directive. The demonstration activity aims to have a local impact on municipalities of 200 inhabitants or fewer, decreasing from current nitrate concentrations close to 50 mg/…

Achieving maximum power transfer in a multi-source renewable system

2014

Characterization of refuse derived fuel production from municipal solid waste: the case studies in Latvia and Lithuania

2020

Abstract The authors determined the morphological composition of refuse derived fuel (RDF) produced in Latvia and Lithuania by manually sorting. The parameters of RDF (moisture, net calorific value, ash content, carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, sulphur, chlorine, metals) was determined using the EN standards. Comparing obtained results with data from literature, authors have found that the content of plastic is higher but paper and cardboard is lower than typical values. Results also show that the mean parameters for RDF can be classified with the class codes: Net heating value (3); chlorine (3); mercury (1), and responds to limits stated for 3rd class of solid recovered fuel. It is recommended …

Damage Indices and Photogrammetry for Decay Assessment of Stone-Built Cultural Heritage: The Case Study of the San Domenico Church Main Entrance Port…

2020

In recent decades, increasing attention is being paid to the multidisciplinary approach that allows the performance of both a preventive conservation and a more invasive restoration action. In this context, the present study aims to acquire information and data from field surveys undertaken in San Domenico Church, Southern Calabria, in order to provide a tool for the recording and the inventory of damage and decay phenomena, and assess their causes and scale. The subsequent calculation of damage indices also provided useful information in order to allow the prioritization of conservation and preservation responses.

Weak and Strong Compensation for the Prioritization of Public Investments: Multidimensional Analysis for Pools

2015

Despite the economic crisis still heavily affecting most of Europe, a possible resumption can be found in the revitalization of public and private investments. These investments should be directed not only towards the strategic areas of infrastructures and production, but also to those which allow for a higher level of the quality of life (sports facilities, parks, etc.). In such cases, the need to balance the reasons of financial sustainability with environmental and social profiles is even more evident. Thus, multicriteria techniques, supporting complex assessments, should be implemented together with a monetary feasibility study (cost-benefit analysis). Multidimensional methods allow for…