1,720,961 research outputs found
I fattori che limitano lo sviluppo del mercato delle tecnologie di bonifica dei siti contaminati e la validazione della tecnologia innovativa HPSS quale strumento per abbattere le barriere di mercato
No full textIn the first part of the present work the results of the European project Eurodemo are reported, where an analysis of the remediation technologies market has been performed also identifying the bottlenecks which are slackening it at European and local level. Between the strategies to pull down these barriers it is appeared important the development of an European Environmental Technology Verification System (EETV). In fact, the demonstrative and the verification phases of a new techniques are pointed out as significant to boost their enter on the market. In the second part, the work reports the phases of the verification process of an innovative Stabilization/Solidification (S/S) techniques which is based on the High Performance Concrete (HPC) knowhow. The research was focus on the selection and application of the more suitable evaluation tests to measure the S/S performance, such as leaching and physical-mechanical test. The good results of the cross-examination analysis performed pulled down many different barriers both regarding the control authorities and other stakeholders.Il presente lavoro riporta, nella sua prima parte, i risultati principali del progetto europeo Eurodemo nell’ambito del quale si è svolta una analisi del mercato delle tecnologie di bonifica individuando i meccanismi e degli ostacoli che ne stanno rallentando lo sviluppo sia a livello europeo che locale. Tra le strategie per abbattere tali barriere risulta importante l’istituzione di un European Environmental Technology Verification System (EETV), poiché si è evidenziato che la fase dimostrativa e di validazione di una nuova tecnica sono significative per agevolarne l’entrata nel mercato. Nella sua seconda parte (quella sperimentale), il lavoro riporta le fasi del processo di validazione di una innovativa tecnologia di Stabilizzazione/Solidificazione (S/S) che sfrutta le tecniche costruttive dei calcestruzzi ad alte prestazione (High Performance Concrete). Nello specifico la ricerca si è concentrata nell’individuare, selezionare ed applicare i più idonei sistemi valutativi dell’efficacia delle tecniche di S/S, quali test di cessione e prove fisico-meccaniche. I buon esito delle analisi effettuate in contradditorio hanno portato a eliminare molte barriere sia nel confronto con gli enti di controllo che gli altri portatori di interesse
Comparative occupational risk assessment to support the substitution of Substances of Very High Concern: Alternatives assessment for diarsenic trioxide in Murano artistic glass production
No full textIn the framework of REACH Regulation (1907/2006/EC), the assessment of health and environmental risks posed by chemical substitutes of Substances of Very High Concern requires transparent approaches, suitable to provide all stakeholders with the information needed to select safer chemicals and minimize the potential for unintended consequences. A comparative assessment for diarsenic trioxide (As2O3) and proposed chemical alternatives (cerium dioxide CeO2 and blast furnace slag) in Murano artistic glass production was performed. The assessment followed a structured, stepwise framework including a detailed analysis of production processes, development of occupational exposure scenarios and comparative assessment of occupational health risks. Several occupational exposure models were compared and the most suitable ones (MEASE, TRAw and ART models) were applied to the selected scenarios. The study concluded that, from the perspective of occupational health risks, the use of CeO2 together with blast furnace slag represents a safer alternative to As2O3 and, given the correct implementation of Personal Protection Measures, health risks will be controlled for all production phases. The study demonstrated that, due to similar physico-chemical properties of the considered substances, toxicological factors constitutes the main driver of occupational risks, and at the same time allowed to identify critical issues in the comparative assessment procedure. The proposed approach can guide the evaluation of risks of chemical alternatives with the aim of supporting the decision-making process in the transition towards safer productions
The validation of converting pyrite ash‐contaminated soil into End‐of‐Waste by the High‐Performance Solidification/Stabilization process application
No full textOne of the major challenges to establishing more sustainable management strategies than landfill disposal of metals-contaminated soils is the lack of End-of-Waste (EoW) criteria defined at the European and national levels. Another limitation stems from the scarcity of information on industrial-scale applications of treatment technologies able to obtain safe and reusable materials from such contaminated waste. In this context, the High-Performance Solidification/Stabilization process was applied for the full-scale remediation of pyrite ash-contaminated soil (ca. 24 000 m3), and a dedicated sampling and analytical protocol was developed and implemented to verify if the treated material obtained complied with the general EoW criteria established by article 6 of the Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC. The results of the leaching, ecotoxicological, and mechanical tests carried out on representative samples of the treated soil showed that this material (ca. 19 000 m3) could be classified as EoW and thus was deemed reusable both in-situ as filler for the excavation and ex-situ as road construction material. These results improve the knowledge of the performance of a state-of-the-art technique for the treatment of metals-contaminated soil. Furthermore, the developed monitoring plan can support future assessments on the compliance of materials obtained from contaminated soil with the general EoW criteria
Uptake of cyclic C6O4 in maize and tomato: Results from a greenhouse study
No full text: Cyclic C6O4 (cC6O4, CAS number 1190931-27-1) is a perfluoralkyl ether used as a polymerization aid in the synthesis of fluoropolymers and produced since 2011 as substitute of PFOA. This work reports the first data on bioaccumulation of cC6O4 on terrestrial plants (maize and tomato). In general, the observed accumulation and translocation of cC6O4 in plants is low or negligible. For maize a bioconcentration factor (BCFdw/dw) of about 39 was observed in the root compartment and much lower (BCFdw/dw = 12) in the aboveground tissues. In tomato the observed BCFs are substantially lower, with a maximum of 2.5 in leaves. The differences observed between the uptake and distribution of cC6O4 in maize and tomato plants are probably due to differences in plant physiology (but also in the experimental design of the tests). Maize plants grown at different concentrations in this study did not show relevant differences in term of biomass and growth, while tomato plants exposed to cC6O4 were subject to a delay in the ripening of the fruits (and relative biomass). The overall results are discussed in comparison with literature data available for legacy PFASs but the comparison is difficult due to differences in the experimental design. It is relevant to note that the concentrations tested in this study are significantly higher than expected environmental concentrations
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Full text link“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Full text linkWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Toxicity and bioaccumulation of the fluorosurfactant cC6O4 in the earthworm Eisenia foetida (Savigny, 1826)
Full text link: Cyclic C6O4 (cC6O4, CAS number 1190931-27-1) is a perfluoralkyl ether PFAS used as a polymerization aid in the synthesis of fluoropolymers and produced in Italy since 2011 as substitute of PFOA. To date, available ecotoxicological information on cC6O4 is related to regulatory requirements and limited to data on aquatic organisms, while the information on the effects for terrestrial organisms is completely lacking. This work reports the first ecotoxicological data of cC6O4 on terrestrial invertebrates: short- and long-term toxicity of cC6O4 on Eisenia foetida (Savigny, 1826), exposed to spiked soil under laboratory conditions, was investigated evaluating the earthworm survival and growth (observed after 7, 14 and 28 days of exposure), and reproduction (observed after an exposure period of 56 days). Furthermore, also bioaccumulation was investigated (28 days of exposure); overall results are discussed in comparison with literature data available for legacy PFAS. cC6O4 did not cause significant mortality on earthworms, for any of the tested concentrations and exposure periods (NOEC: > 1390 mg/kg d.w.), while the reproduction (measured as juveniles production) appears to be a more sensitive endpoint (EC50: 10.4 mg/kg d.w., EC10: 0.8 mg/kg d.w.). The observed adverse effects occur at levels significantly higher than realistic soil concentrations and cC6O4 appears to be less toxic than PFOA and PFOS. As for bioaccumulation, the results indicate a negligible bioaccumulation potential of cC6O4, whose Biota-Soil Bioaccumulation Factors (BSAF) are significantly lower than all other considered PFAS
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Full text linkWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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