1,720,961 research outputs found
Supporting the investigation of health outcomes due to airborne emission by different approaches: current evidence for the waste incineration sector
No full text: Life cycle assessment (LCA) along with a survey on epidemiologic and oxidative potential studies was used for analysing the current evidence of the impact of airborne emissions from municipal solid waste incineration (MSWI) on human health. The correspondence among investigated health outcomes and pollutants was discussed based on the Chemical Abstract Service (CAS) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). LCA indicated the ability of MSWI in avoiding human health impact, about - 2 × 10-4 DALY/tonne together with avoided emissions of particulate matter (PM) and resource depletion, about - 2.5 × 10-3 kg Sbeq/tonne and about - 0.11 kg PM2.5 eq/tonne, respectively. Positive emissions were detected for greenhouses (about 900 kg CO2eq/tonne) and ecotoxicity (about 15,000 CTUe/tonne). Epidemiologic studies performed on population exposed to MSWI reported quite contrasting results. In some of these, hazard ratio (HR) ranging from about 0.7 to 2.2 was reported concerning the incidence of stomach, liver, breast and bladder cancer. Larger agreement was detected concerning the incidence of larynx and lung cancer with HR ranging from about 1 to about 2.6. Direct causal nexuses were not definitively identified. Oxidative potential of PM was characterized by a high Pearson correlation > 0.8 to the presence of CrVI, Cu and Zn. These heavy metals were also identified by both CAS and IARC as toxic (i.e. Cu and Zn) and cancerous (i.e. CrVI) substances affecting the organs of both respiratory and digestive apparatus. In general, even if more research is necessary, LCA, oxidative potential and the epidemiologic survey results showed a high level of accordance. This suggests their integrated exploitation for supporting the investigation of both direct and indirect consequences on environment and health related to waste incineration for both retrospective and predictive studies
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
Is the policy of the European Union in waste management sustainable? An assessment of the Italian context
No full textThe sustainability of the waste management system imposed by EU legislation was assessed using the Italian context as a case study by analysing the period from the year 2007 to the year 2016. An integrated sustainability indicator (ISI) based on environmental, social and economic life cycle approach was used. Since the earlier directives the EU waste management policy was strongly oriented to the implementation of the higher levels of the hierarchy, i.e. preparation for reuse and recycling, and a contemporary ban of disposal activities and in particular of landfill. All this was stated in legal quantitative targets to be achieved within a given scheduled time, demonstrated by continuous implementation of a reliable economic, legal and political framework including, among others, penalties, economic support and extended producer responsibility. Noticeable increase of the amount of waste moved to recycling led to a decrease of main environmental burden due to kgCO2eq and kgPeq. The same activity led to avoided impacts detected for both kgPMeq and human health (DALY). A relevant role related to these benefits was also played by the waste to energy sector. Opposite trend was found for the whole average management costs that change from about 146 €/inhabitant in 2007 to about 218 €/inhabitant in 2016. A general decrease of the ISI of about 10% was also detected indicating an increase of the overall sustainability of the system
How collection efficiency and legal constraints on digestate management can affect the effectiveness of anaerobic digestion of bio-waste: An analysis of the Italian context in a life cycle perspective
No full textThe influence of collection efficiency and of legal regulations on both the technology and the effectiveness of energy and fertilizer recovery from the anaerobic digestion (AD) of bio-waste was investigated in a life cycle perspective for the Italian context. Concerning collection efficiency, some correlation was detected to both the AD technology and the amount of energy and fertilizer recovered. Nine out of 31 CE plants were based on solid anaerobic digestion batch located in those areas with collection efficiency 85% able to recover on average about 130 kg of fertilizer and 275 kWh of electricity per each Mg of bio-waste. Wet AD was also the only adopted for larger size plants from 60,000 Mg/year up to 600,000 Mg/year. Legal constraint on the direct use on land of the digestate caused an average increase of main impacts such as global warming (kgCO2eq), freshwater eutrophication (kgPeq) and human health (DALY) of about 300%. The effect of the quality of the bio-waste returned after the collection showed lower incidence on the overall impacts of about 20%, and mainly limited to global warming (kgCO2eq) and photochemical ozone formation (kgNMVOCeq)
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
Superior visible-light photocatalytic activity of biocarbon derived from sewage sludge in the absence of active phase for hydrogen production
No full textSewage sludge, a bioproduct generated in surplus amount from the domestic wastewater treatment has always been a chief environmental concern. Thermochemical and biological conversion of Sewage sludge into the valuable products can be an effective and efficient alternative strategy than conventional disposal method. Herein, Sewage sludge was pyrolyzed at highest treatment temperature of 700 °C in rotary kiln pilot-scale pyrolysis unit (Stage III) at the UKBRC, University of Edinburgh to obtain biochar, bio-oil and biogas. Basic utility properties of Sewage sludge biochar (SS700) such as CHNS, functional group, crystalline structure, electric conductivity, Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Dioxin/Furan and Polychlorinated Biphenyls were determined and then SS700 was utilized for photocatalytic hydrogen generation. Photocatalytic H2 production of SS700 was studied under visible-light irradiation. The H2 yield was 3331 μmol/g which is higher than its conventional carbon-based competitors (i.e. Graphene, CNTs and C3N4). In order to justification of superior activity of SS700, photocurrent measurements were carried out and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) diffuse reflectance spectra were recorded. The superior activity is attributed to its aromatic carbon structure, high surface area, inorganic materials, electron-conductive nature and hydrophilic surface functional group. This work introduces SS700 as a low-cost, stable, environmentally friendly, and sustainable method which can be a great leap forward toward the more sustainable energy development
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