Search results for "cost(s)"
showing 10 items of 332 documents
Improving the sustainability of transportation: environmental and functional benefits of right-turn by pass lanes at roundabouts
2015
The functional performances of conventional roundabouts (single-lane and multi-lane) and innovative roundabouts (spiral, flower, C and turbo) can be improved through right-turn bypass lanes controlled by stop, yield or free-flow signs. The article presents evaluations of the emissions of air pollutants (carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particle pollution (PM10 and PM2.5)), fuel consumption and construction, management, energetic and environmental costs in roundabouts without or with bypass lanes (controlled by stop, yield or free-flow). The suggested methodology has a general character and can be applied as a multi-parametric criterion for choosing road intersections, although, in the prese…
Coûts de la sclérose en plaques en France
2014
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is one of the 30 chronic conditions specifically listed by the French healthcare system as a long-term disease (affections de longue duree [ALD]) for which the main health insurance fund (Caisse nationale d'assurance maladie des travailleurs salaries [CNAMTS]) provides full (100%) coverage of healthcare costs. The CNAMTS insures 87% of the French population (52,359,912 of the 60,028,292 inhabitants). The objectives of this study were to evaluate the direct and indirect medical costs of MS among the entire population insured by the CNAMTS in France in 2004. The CNAMTS provided us with access to the ALD database of patients with MS that contains different MS-related ex…
The relevance of the design characteristics to the optimal operation of wastewater treatment plants: Energy cost assessment
2018
Operational parameters of the wastewater treatment process do not always fit the design ones for several reasons, such as the seasonality or an inaccurate estimation of the population connected. This fact has an effect on the performance of the Wastewater Treatment Plants (WWTPs) and their energy costs. The aim of this paper is to develop a cost function for the energy cost that takes into account the mismatching between the design and the operational inflow. For this purpose, a performance index is constructed in order to represent how far the operational inflow is from the design one, and will be included in the cost model. Moreover, three cost functions, depending on the size of the plan…
Low cost-sensors as a real alternative to on-line nitrogen analysers in continuous systems.
2009
This paper is focused on the evaluation of the applicability of low-cost sensors (pH and ORP) versus nutrient analysers for controlling biological nitrogen removal in WWTPs. A nutrient removal pilot plant located in Carraixet WWTP (Valencia, Spain) that is equipped with a significant number of nutrient analysers and low-cost sensors was used. The relations between reliable, cheap on-line sensors such as pH and ORP (located in anaerobic, anoxic and aerobic zones) and the nitrification/denitrification processes are provided. The nitrification process can be evaluated by measuring the pH difference between the first and last aerobic zones. The denitrification process can be evaluated by measur…
Biological nitrogen removal from municipal landfill leachate: low-cost nitrification in biofilters and laboratory scale in-situ denitrification.
2002
The slow leaching of nitrogen from solid waste in landfills, resulting in high concentrations of ammonia in the landfill leachate, may last for several decades. The removal of nitrogen from leachate is desirable as nitrogen can trigger eutrophication in lakes and rivers. In the present study, a low-cost nitrification-denitrification process was developed to reduce nitrogen load especially in leachates from small landfills. Nitrification was studied in laboratory and on-site pilot aerobic biofilters with waste materials as filter media (crushed brick in upflow filters and bulking agent of compost in a downflow filter) while denitrification was studied in a laboratory anoxic/anaerobic column …
The contingent equilibrium during imbalanced volcano tourism demand through fee estimation: An empirical analysis of tourism in Mt. Etna
2022
Volcanic sites can be considered strategic areas for conservation and protection policies, but such policies may involve considerable costs However, not only are volcanic sites often integral to the tourism industry and, hence, of potential significant benefit to local economies in general; entrance fee income from tourists can also contribute to management and conservation costs in particular. Nevertheless, seasonal variations in tourism demand, resulting in over-and under-tourism situations, may impact on both the level of income generated as well as on the sustainability of sites Therefore, based on a case study of Mt Etna in Italy, this study considers establishing appropriate entry fee…
Estimating the environmental and resource costs of leakage in water distribution systems: A shadow price approach.
2016
Water scarcity is one of the main problems faced by many regions in the XXIst century. In this context, the need to reduce leakages from water distribution systems has gained almost universal acceptance. The concept of sustainable economic level of leakage (SELL) has been proposed to internalize the environmental and resource costs within economic level of leakage calculations. However, because these costs are not set by the market, they have not often been calculated. In this paper, the directional-distance function was used to estimate the shadow price of leakages as a proxy of their environmental and resource costs. This is a pioneering approach to the economic valuation of leakage exter…
Electrocoagulation treatment of peat bog drainage water containing humic substances
2015
Abstract Electrocoagulation (EC) treatment of 100 mg/L synthetic wastewater (SWW) containing humic acids was optimized (achieving 90% CODMn and 80% DOC removal efficiencies), after which real peat bog drainage waters (PBDWs) from three northern Finnish peat bogs were also treated. High pollutant removal efficiencies were achieved: Ptot, TS, and color could be removed completely, while Ntot, CODMn, and DOC/TOC removal efficiencies were in the range of 33–41%, 75–90%, and 62–75%, respectively. Al and Fe performed similarly as the anode material. Large scale experiments (1 m3) using cold (T = 10–11 °C) PBDWs were also conducted successfully, with optimal treatment times of 60–120 min (applying…
The cost of headache disorders in Europe: the Eurolight project
2011
Background and purpose: Headache disorders are very common, but their monetary costs in Europe are unknown. We performed the first comprehensive estimation of how economic resources are lost to headache in Europe. Methods: From November 2008 to August 2009, a cross-sectional survey was conducted in eight countries representing 55% of the adult EU population. Participation rates varied between 11% and 59%. In total, 8412 questionnaires contributed to this analysis. Using bottom-up methodology, we estimated direct (medications, outpatient health care, hospitalization and investigations) and indirect (work absenteeism and reduced productivity at work) annual per-person costs. Prevalence data…
Configurable low-cost plotter device for fabrication of multi-color sub-cellular scale microarrays.
2014
We report on the construction and operation of a low-cost plotter for fabrication of microarrays for multiplexed single-cell analyses. The printing head consists of polymeric pyramidal pens mounted on a rotation stage installed on an aluminium frame. This construction enables printing of microarrays onto glass substrates mounted on a tilt stage, controlled by a Lab-View operated user interface. The plotter can be assembled by typical academic workshops from components of less than 15 000 Euro. The functionality of the instrument is demonstrated by printing DNA microarrays on the area of 0.5 squared centimeters using up to three different oligonucleotides. Typical feature sizes are 5 μm diam…