Technical approach for a sustainable tourism development. Case study in the Balearic Islands

In this study, the possibility of transforming the current status of tourism in the Balearic Islands (a region in Spain which has been under an enormous environmental pressure from conventional and massive tourism) to a sustainable tourism model is explored. Firstly, a general methodology for the conversion from standard to sustainable tourism is presented. The methodology consists of an initial audit, the selection of objectives and solutions proposed, the application of the selected solutions, an economical evaluation and a review of the obtained results. This methodology is then applied to the conversion of a real case study (“Sa Cova”) and a complete evaluation of the transformation to sustainable tourism is presented, showing an important reduction in the environmental impacts associated with tourism development (especially in areas such as energy consumption, water and waste management). The results presented here can serve as an example for the application of sustainable tourism plans to other similar regions in Spain or other traditional tourist destinations with similar problems.     

Isolating fetal nucleated red blood cells from maternal blood: The baylor experience—1995

In our previous work we have isolated fetal cells from maternal blood and used fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) for chromosome-specific probes to detect aneuploidy. Current efforts in the Baylor College of Medicine programme are focusing on obtaining consistency in flow-sorting methodology and on determining sensitivity and specificity. To this end, systematic evaluation of five glycophorin A (gly A) antibodies all produced agglutination, leading us to abandon the use of gly A antibodies for positive selection of fetal cells. Conversely, we have found LDS-751 to be useful for nuclear selection. CD45 negative selection can best be accomplished by the use of flasks coated with goat antibodies against mouse antibodies. Positive selection by flow sorting for either CD71⁺ cells or gamma-globin-positive cells seems to be successful. Using these two approaches, we have recently detected male (fetal) cells in pregnancies in which the fetus was 46, XY in 10 of 18 and in 12 of 14 cases, respectively.     

Mapping of environmental and technological performance of food and beverage sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina

The objective of this paper is to discuss the mapping methodology implemented in the selection of BAT candidates and to present the results of the mapping of B&H food and beverage sector, prepared as a baseline for the development of national reference documents on Best Available Techniques. The subsectors subject to analysis were: dairy, fish farming, fish processing, fruit and vegetable processing, meat processing, breweries, and slaughterhouses.The sector was mapped from several aspects, including socio-economic, legal, and environmental point of view. The socio-economic aspect focused on understanding the sector’s structure and financial capabilities, pricing for water, energy, and solid waste consumption, as well as employee profiles, in order to better assess the sustainability of decisions taken. Legal mapping focused on relevant regulations, including policies from the following sectors: environment, water use and protection, food safety, agriculture, and veterinary, in order to determine legal requirements from an environmental protection aspect set in the various sector policies. Environmental performance indicators were calculated in order to assess present resource efficiencies and relevant environmental impacts. In addition, the mapping process also addressed the existing level of BAT implementation in the subsectors under consideration.The paper presents a rationale for methodology selection, offers a review of the mapping methodology used, discusses mapping results and provides conclusions in regards to that methodology used and discusses issues that need to be considered in the selection of BAT candidates.     

Co-solvent selection and recovery

The selection and recovery of two or more solvents (i.e. co-solvents) are studied because of their importance in environmentally responsible processing. A particularly challenging problem arises when the contaminants (or solutes) are comprised of a mixture of volatile and nonvolatile compounds. The nonvolatile components present difficulties in solvent selection while the volatile components give rise to solvent recovery challenges. Traditional approaches such as the Kauri-Butanol test and predictions based on solubility parameters from regular solution theory can result in poor solvent selection when some of the contaminants are nonvolatile. A simple, graphical and rigorous procedure based on Gibbs energies of mixing for all binary mixtures of solvents and contaminants is proposed for choosing solvent/contaminant pairs. This selection procedure is based on the choice of solvent resulting in the lowest solvent/contaminant Gibbs free energy of mixing for a given contaminant. Nonvolatile contaminants are often easily separated in a single-stage flash vessel. Volatile contaminants, on the other hand, can form homogeneous or heterogeneous azeotropes with commonly used solvents, give rise to distillation boundaries and result in a challenging co-solvent recovery problem. A systematic procedure for the synthesis, design and economic analysis for co-solvent recovery is presented. Residue curve maps are used to identify distillation boundaries and to generate a conceptual process flow sheet for co-solvent recovery. Equipment sizes for the separators and auxiliaries (i.e. condensers, reboilers, decanters, etc.) are determined and capital investment, installation and operating costs are calculated. The removal of oil-water emulsions from the surface of machined metal parts using n-propyl bromide (NPB) and isopropyl alcohol (IPA) in a closed-loop degreaser is used to illustrate the proposed methodology of co-solvent selection and recovery. Analysis shows that the Kauri-Butanol test and the use of solubility parameters can result in poor solvent selection. In contrast, the proposed methodology shows that NPB is competitive with banned solvents like chlorodifluoro, fluorodichloroethane and trichloroethane and highly regulated solvents such as perchloroethylene, trichloroethylene and is a good solvent for the removal of machining oils while IPA is a good solvent for removing water. Separation of mixtures of NPB/IPA/water is difficult because of the presence of three binary and one ternary azeotrope that create three distinct distillation regions as well as regions of vapor-liquid-liquid behavior. It is shown that these distillation boundaries preclude direct water separation and that a two-distillation sequence with decantation is required to cross boundaries and recover both solvents. A variety of geometric illustrations are presented to elucidate key concepts.     

The Process Analysis Method of selecting indicators to quantify the sustainability performance of a business operation

This paper describes a method for assessing the degree of sustainability of a business operation, in terms of indicators related to the sustainability impacts of its particular activities. The Process Analysis Method considers the impact on the capital residing in the three domains: the environment, the economy and the domain of human/social capital. It is found, using the Brundtland definition of sustainability, that these impacts can be related to two business perspectives: (1) Resource efficiency, which measures the effectiveness of conversion of natural, financial, human and social capital; (2) Fairness in benefit which describes how fairly the benefits and disbenefits of changes in the three domains are distributed amongst stakeholders.The method requires a complete review of the activities of the business within an appropriately defined system boundary, in order to make an inventory of activities which affect the capital stores of value; those effects are found to relate to the business perspectives. The effects of these activities on stakeholders are identified, and those which are deemed to be significant are characterised by issues: these determine the selection of indicators whose values are given by metrics. The methodology thus enables the development of a comprehensive set of sustainability indicators and metrics for the particular business operation. The set of indicators will be similar for businesses with similar activities, so the methodology facilitates comparison and benchmarking. Further, the value of a particular indicator can be traced back through the analysis to a particular business process, which is especially helpful in guiding remedial action, since cause is linked to effect by the method.     

Development of multi-criteria decision making model for remanufacturing technology portfolio selection

Remanufacturing represents a business opportunity and in many cases a means to promote environmental sustainability. To help enterprises economically and effectively implement remanufacturing, a multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) model for selecting remanufacturing technology is developed. The model considers remanufacturing technology portfolios. The enterprise benefits associated with each portfolio, including economic and environmental benefits, are evaluated using six main criteria: cost, quality, time, service, resource consumption, and environmental impact. In addition, the synergies among the different types of technologies for each remanufacturing technology portfolio are also considered. The pair-wise comparison approach of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is employed for remanufacturing technology portfolio selection. An illustrative example is provided to lend insights into the application of this methodology.     

A map-based method for exploring responses to different levels of grazing pressure at the landscape scale

At the beginning of the last century European landscapes were a mosaic of open and forested habitats formed by centuries of human use. During the 20th century, however, this mosaic was altered. Changes in grazing pressure from domestic animals have been suggested as one of the drivers of these alterations. This paper presents a methodology developed to calculate an index of potential grazing pressure change at the landscape level. Information about location, type and number of grazing animals is used to produce detailed Geographical Information System (GIS) maps of potential grazing pressure change. Spatial information from these maps can then be geographically linked to vegetation maps such that the effect of grazing pressure changes on vegetation can be statistically analyzed. This methodology was applied to a Norwegian mountain landscape to test if decreased grazing pressure by domestic animals leads to woodland establishment in open habitats. Canonical Correspondence Analyzes (CCA) were performed and the results showed significant effects. Decreased grazing pressure increased the probability of woodland establishment in heathlands. The methodology described in this paper might be a useful tool in planning strategies both for conservation efforts and sustainable resource use.     

我国酸雨现状特点及对策刍议

本文简要介绍目前国外酸沉降控制对策和我国酸雨现状基本特点,针对大气颗粒物对降水组分和酸度的不同影响,提出致酸物来源、主控制因子确定和酸沉降控制环境目标选择等研究中应注意的问题,依据目前这类问题的研究水平,提出我国现阶段酸沉降控制的研究方法和原则性对策。     

Assessing the environmental impact of metal production processes

Evaluating both new and existing processes for primary metal production to assess their environmental impacts is often difficult due to the many inputs and outputs involved. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a methodology that can be used for such purposes to identify those parts of the metal production life cycle that have significant environmental impacts. LCA has been used by CSIRO Minerals to assess the “cradle-to-gate” environmental impacts of a number of metal production processes practised either currently or potentially in Australia. The metals considered included copper, nickel, aluminium, lead, zinc, steel, stainless steel and titanium, by both pyrometallurgical and hydrometallurgical routes in some instances. The environmental profile included greenhouse and acid rain gas emissions, solid waste emissions and gross energy consumption. The results for various metals are compared in this paper. New process technologies for primary metal production can be expected to reduce the environmental impacts of metal production, and estimates of likely reductions for technologies involving stainless steel, titanium and aluminium are also presented in this paper.     

Life cycle engineering methodology applied to material selection,a fender case study

Materials selection is a multidisciplinary activity, which integrates a large number of knowledge fields and professional domains. In fact a material selection decision should capture not only the functional performance required for the application but should also consider the economical and environmental impacts originated all along the product life cycle. In this paper a life cycle engineering (LCE) approach is proposed to support material selection, integrating the performance of the material for the specific application in technological, environmental and economical dimensions throughout the duration of the product. The methodology proposed compares a set of candidate materials and, through the aggregation of the three dimensions (technical, economical and environmental), identifies the “best material domains”. These “best material domains” are presented in a ternary diagram, which allows a global comparison of the candidate materials and supports an informed decision as regards the selection of the “best material” according to different business scenarios and corporate strategies. The methodology was applied to a case study aiming the use of new metallic materials (high strength steels and aluminium alloys) for an automobile fender currently made of mild steel and the evaluation of potential benefits as regards the global performance of the material.     

居住区水环境质量综合评价实例

通过实例分析居住区水环境质量综合评价指标的选取和隶属函数构成，介绍模糊综合评价计算机程序设计方法，并用Ｃ程序完成本例水环境质量的综合评价，为改善该区住区环境质量提出了参考意见。     

菌根真菌重金属耐性机制研究进展

菌根真菌在自然界中广泛存在,能与大多数陆地植物形成共生体,菌根共生体系对于植物适应各种逆境胁迫具有重要意义.在重金属污染土壤中通常也能发现菌根真菌,某些菌根真菌对重金属表现出较强的耐受性,在污染土壤修复方面显示出应用潜力.本文从生境选择、生理适应、功能基因表达调控等层面综述了菌根真菌重金属耐性机制方面的最新研究进展,并对今后的研究方向进行了展望,旨在推进相关机制研究及菌根技术在重金属污染土壤修复中的应用.     

A life history continuum in the males of a Neotropical ant assemblage: refuting the sperm vessel hypothesis

Animal lifespans range from a few days to many decades, and this life history diversity is especially pronounced in ants. Queens can live for decades. Males, in contrast, are often assumed to act as ephemeral sperm delivery vessels that die after a brief mating flight—a view developed from studies of lekking species in temperate habitats. In a tropical ant assemblage, we found that males can live days to months outside the nest, a trait hypothesized to be associated with female calling, another common mating system. We combined feeding experiments with respirometry to show that lifespan can be enhanced over 3 months by feeding outside the nest. In one focal female calling species, Ectatomma ruidum, feeding enhanced male lifespan, but not sperm content. Extended lifespans outside the nest suggest stronger than expected selection on premating traits of male ants, although the ways these traits shape male mating success remain poorly understood.     

Performance-Based Predictive Models and Optimization Methods for Turning Operations and Applications: Part 3—Optimum Cutting Conditions and Selection of Cutting Tools

This paper presents a summary of recent developments in developing performance-based machining optimization methodologies for turning operations. Four major machining performance measures (cutting force, tool wear/tool life, chip form/chip breakability, and surface roughness) are considered in the present work, which involves the development and integration of hybrid models for single and multi-pass turning operations with and without the effects of progressive tool wear. Nonlinear programming techniques were used for single-pass operations, while a genetic algorithms approach was adopted for multi-pass operations. This methodology offers the selection of optimum cutting conditions and cutting tools for turning with complex grooved tools.     

The LIFE certification methodology as a diagnostic tool of the environmental management system of the automotive industry

We conducted a diagnosis of the environmental management system of the Brazilian auto parts industry, using the LIFE certification methodology (lasting initiative for earth) as a diagnostic tool. This certification recognizes enterprises that develop conservation actions for biodiversity for the purpose of minimizing and/or mitigating their own negative impact on the environment. Through this method, it was possible to quantify and qualify the environmental impact and investigate the existence of conservation actions, as well as evaluate them quantitatively and qualitatively. Therefore, we used this methodology to demonstrate its potential as an economic instrument of environmental management through its application within an EMS certified to the ISO 14001 series. It was shown that there are many benefits of using sustainable environmental resources (possibility to return to ISE-Corporate Sustainability Index-Bovespa) and for the final disposal of waste from production. The main results indicated that the LIFE methodology allows companies to incorporate actions to biodiversity conservation transversally into their EMSs, which can increase the efficiency of enterprise management. We believe that the use of this management model by other companies will enable the intensification of conservation actions in protected areas in their regions.     

Methodology for selection of best available techniques (BAT) at the sector level

Best Available Techniques (BAT) are an essential reference element in the establishment of permit conditions for industrial installations in the European Union and elsewhere. BAT are the techniques with the lowest impact on the environment without compromising the economic health of the (industrial) enterprises concerned. BAT can be selected at the plant level but in many European regions, including the Flanders region of Belgium, BAT need to be determined at the sector level. BAT evaluation is usually done by expert judgement. Here, a methodology is described that allows expert judgement in a straightforward and transparent way. Central to this methodology are scores given on technical feasibility, on cross media environmental performances and on economic feasibility. The practicality of this approach was shown in 10 BAT studies of which 2 are discussed in more detail here.     

环境内分泌干扰物筛选和测试研究中的鱼类实验动物

环境内分泌干扰物的筛选与测试方法的研究是近年来环境科学领域的热点问题．在水生态毒理学研究中，目前的研究重点之一是发展方法学，如基于鱼类实验动物的离体或活体测试方法．对内分泌干扰物鱼类筛选测试的科学基础、内分泌干扰物的生物性标志、筛选测试方法以及用于内分泌干扰物筛选测试的几种主要鱼类实验动物进行了介绍，同时提出了建立适合我国实际情况的内分泌干扰筛选测试鱼类实验动物，并提出系统的鱼类实验动物培育和筛选测试方法体系的必要性．     

Role of sampling for crop-loss assessment and nematode management

Reliable sampling of nematode communities in crop-loss assessment provides basic characterization of the population dynamics and damage potential of given species in a particular host—cultivar environment. Loss assessments for annual plants may be based on samples taken at: (1) time of planting; (2) mid-season (where nematicide or resistant-cultivar treatments are used); and (3) at harvest. Population levels at, or shortly after, harvest are most useful in projecting nematode hazards for a subsequent crop, especially where survival rates are known. Root symptoms, root-gall or root-necrosis indices, taken at mid-season or at harvest also can be correlated with yield losses caused by Meloidogyne spp. and associated fungi. A composite sample of 20 to 50 soil cores (2.5 cm diameter × 20 cm deep) collected in a stratified or systematic pattern over a 1- to 2-ha area provides nematode population estimates within about 30–50% of the mean. The major problems encountered in relating these estimates to potential hazards and eventual crop losses are related to the striking variation in crop-nematode responses as influenced by environment, cultivar, and general crop-management practices. Relative precision in crop-loss assessment should be improved as more research on crop-nematode responses and sampling methodology is completed.     

Optimum autonomous photovoltaic solution for the Greek islands on the basisof energy pay-back analysis

Although autonomous photovoltaic (PV) systems are identified as renewable energy technologies able to satisfy the electrification needs of remote consumers, they are strongly accused of their life-cycle energy requirements. To support the specific systems' sustainable character one should be able to ensure minimum period of energy pay-back. In this context, an optimum sizing methodology is developed for stand-alone PV-battery systems in order to obtain configurations of minimum energy content. The proposed methodology is applied to three representative islands across the Greek territory and the results obtained are favourably compared with the up to now – commonly used – diesel-electric generator solution.     

A mathematical programming tool for LCI-based product design and case study for a carpet product

Products are produced by a series of energy-intensive transformations of raw materials such as crude oil. The life cycle inventory (LCI) of mass and energy usage in these supply chains is one measure of overall environmental performance. In this paper, we present a methodology to examine the life cycle choices available for a product and optimize these choices based on criteria derived from mass and energy efficiency. A two-phase framework for production path construction followed by optimal path selection was developed. This framework can be applied to improve the overall LCI energy characteristic of a product when there are different production and recycling options for different product constituents. The scope of the life cycle is from raw material extraction through the production system and does not include the use and disposal phases. The approach is illustrated in a case study of the EcoWorx™ carpet system of Shaw Industries, which includes the inclusion of several recycled material options.