The new challenges of end-of-life tyres management systems: A Spanish case study

Directive 2008/98/EC released by the European Union represents a significant step forward in all relevant aspects of waste management. Under the already established, extended produced responsibility (EPR) principle, new policies have been enunciated to continuously achieve better overall environmental performance of key products throughout their life phases. This paper discusses how the directive is being articulated in Spain by the main integrated management system (IMS) for end-of-life (EOL) tyres since its creation in 2006. Focusing on the IMS technological, economic and legal aspects, the study provides a global perspective and evaluation of how the IMS is facing the current issues to resolve, the new challenges that have appeared and the management vision for the coming years.     

Environmental analysis of a construction and demolition waste recycling plant in Portugal – Part II: Environmental sensitivity analysis

Part I of this study deals with the primary energy consumption and CO₂eq emissions of a 350 tonnes/h construction and demolition waste (CDW) recycling facility, taking into account incorporated, operation and transportation impacts. It concludes that the generated impacts are mostly concentrated in operation and transportation, and that the impacts prevented through material recycling can be up to one order of magnitude greater than those generated.However, the conditions considered for the plant’s operation and related transportation system may, and very likely will, vary in the near future, which will affect its environmental performance. This performance is particularly affected by the plant’s installed capacity, transportation fuel and input CDW mass. In spite of the variations in overall primary energy and CO₂eq balances, the prevented impacts are always higher than the generated impacts, at least by a factor of three and maybe even as high as 16 times in particular conditions. The analysis indicates environmental performance for variations in single parameters, except for the plant’s capacity, which was considered to vary simultaneously with all the others. Extreme best and worst scenarios were also generated to fit the results into extreme limits.     

Cultural Relevance for Rural Community Development in China: A Case Study in Bai,Jingpo and Huyaodai Communities of Yunnan Province

Abstract

A three-year study over the Bai, Jingpo and Huayaodai communities in Yunnan Province reveals that the community development is significantly influenced in various ways by such cultural factors as the concepts of development; concepts and traditions of inter-community relationships, consumption, marriage and gender; patterns of decision-making and production, resource and income allocation; as well as the role of information dissemination systems, religion and ritual. Based on the analysis over the interactive relevance between each factor and community development, some strategies and methods for dealing with such a cultural relevance in development projects are recommended.     

Two methods to assess vulnerability to climate change in the Mexican agricultural sector

We applied two methods to assess vulnerability to climate change in Mexico’s agricultural sector. The first one was a principal component analysis (PCA) that weighted each variable separately. For the second one, we integrated the variables in a linear array in which all variables were weighted equally, and then, we used the arithmetic sum of the sub-indices of exposure and sensitivity minus the adaptive capacity to obtain the vulnerability index. We discuss the similarities and differences between two methods with respect to municipal-level maps as the outputs. The application of the method for the agricultural sector in Mexico gave us the spatial distribution of the high- and very-high vulnerability categories, which we propose as a tool for policy. The methods agreed that the very-high vulnerability category is present in 39 municipalities. Also we found that 16 % of the total population in the country is located in high-exposure areas. In addition, 41 % lives in municipalities identified as highly-sensitive. In terms of adaptive capacity, 20 % of the population lives in 1273 municipalities with low-adaptive capacity. Finally, we discuss the need for information regarding vulnerability at the national level to guide policies aimed at reducing exposure and sensitivity and increasing adaptive capacity.     

矿井通风系统多级机站的合理配置

多级机站通风方法自80年代以来在国内许多矿山得到推广应用,其理论日趋成熟,但机站的合理配置仍是一个有待深入研究的问题。为解决这一问题,引入了机站比风压的概念,定量化地解决了机站合理风压确定和矿井通风系统机站级数合理配置的问题。     

The Management of a Large Mediterranean Reservoir: Storage Regimens of the Yesa Reservoir,Upper Aragon River Basin,Central Spanish Pyrenees

Agriculture in Mediterranean countries is mainly based upon the irrigation of productive areas in the lowlands. For this reason, it is necessary to store large volumes of water in reservoirs located in mountain headwaters. These reservoirs have a relatively simple regimen of storage, increasing the water stored during the wet season (from October until May) and reaching the maximum volume shortly before the beginning of the hot, very dry season, when the water is released. This paper considers the storage regimen (inflow and outflow) of the Yesa Reservoir in the Spanish Pyrenees as an example of management of a large reservoir in a mountain Mediterranean environment, subject to a strong interannual variability. On average, the highest water storage level is achieved by retaining the high flows of the Aragón River in autumn and spring. Nevertheless, the irregularity of rainfalls and the existence of changes in the hydrological regimen lead to changes in the patterns of reservoir filling. Two patterns were identified in the Yesa Reservoir: (1) a quick increase of the stored volume in autumn, a stabilization in winter, and a new increase in spring; and (2) a continuous increase from October until May. These patterns are distributed in time over different periods since the construction of the reservoir in 1959, demonstrating the adjustment of the reservoir management to changes in the hydrological regimen.     

Co-composting of paper mill sludge and hardwood sawdust under two types of in-vessel processes

Recycling of organic residues by composting is becoming an acceptable practice in our society. Co-composting dewatered paper mill sludge (PMS) and hardwood sawdust, two readily available materials in Canada, was investigated using uncontrolled and controlled in-vessel processes. The composted materials were characterized for total C and N, water-soluble, acid-hydrolyzable, and non-hydrolyzable N, extractable lipids, and by Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectrophotometry. In the controlled scale process, the loss of organic matter was approximately 65% higher than in the uncontrolled process. After undergoing initial fluctuations in N fractions during the first two days of composting, by the end of the process, concentrations of water-soluble N decreased while those of acid-hydrolyzable and nonhydrolyzable N increased in the controlled process, whereas in the uncontrolled process, water-soluble N increased, but N in the other two fractions decreased continuously, indicating that the biochemical transformations of organic matter were not completed. Data on extractable lipids and FT-IR spectra suggest that the compost produced from the controlled process was bio-stable after 14 days, while the uncontrolled process was not stabilized after 18 days. In addition, FT-IR data suggest the biological activity during composting centered mainly on the degradation of aliphatic structures while aromatic structures were preserved. The co-composting of the PMS and hardwood sawdust can be successfully achieved if aeration, moisture, and bio available C/N ratios are optimized to reduce losses of N.     

论高职高专院校高等数学教学改革——我院高等数学分级教学的实践与探索

通过对当前国内高等数学教学现状的分析,指出了整齐划一的单一教学模式已经严重影响了教学效果,必须采用多样化的分层教学模式,以调动学生学习兴趣,提高教学水平.论述了在我院实行高等数学教学改革的必要性,提出了教学改革的总体思路,并进行了有效的实践与探索.     

Indicators for sustainable energy development in Mexico

This article presents a summary of a study on the application to the Mexican energy sector of a core set of indicators for sustainable energy development (ISED), developed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The study focused on the elaboration of socio‐economic and environmental indicators related to energy production and use, and was aimed at assessing Mexico's existing energy policies and identifying strategies and possible policies that could bring about improvements in major priority areas: energy intensity, atmospheric emissions, energy import dependency and use of renewables. While positive trends have been observed in relation to energy intensity and atmospheric emissions, Mexico is becoming more dependent on imports of gasoline, natural gas and other high‐value secondary energy sources, while exporting significant amounts of primary fuels, such as crude oil. Also, no significant increase has been observed in the use of renewable sources of energy. Social, economic and environmental policies need to be formulated for the energy sector and related investments (public and private) reinforced so that all economic sectors have access to energy from cleaner and more diverse sources.