Emergy,nutrients balance,and economic assessment of soybean production and industrialization in Brazil

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the soybean production and industrial processing stages in Brazil using the emergy accounting methodology and economic cost and revenue estimation in order to assess the environmental and economic inputs to the soybean chain and to evaluate the amount of emergy and nutrients exported to European countries. The main findings of this work were that the agricultural stage uses the highest amount of resources. The emergy exchange ratio shows that farmers are delivering around six times more emergy in the soybean that is being sold than the emergy they are receiving with the money paid for it. Results demonstrate that producing raw soybean and soy meal for international markets makes Brazil lose a great amount of emergy and nutrients. Besides that, soybean production is nowadays providing low profitability to farmers because of low prices for soybean products and high prices for the chemicals used in soybean farming. Therefore, at present conditions, exporting soybean as a commodity results in low profit per unit of area.     

Environmental practices and firm performance: an empirical analysis in the Spanish hotel industry

The impact of environmental practices on firm performance raises an ongoing debate in which the review of the existing literature yields no conclusive results. Different methods have been used to study this relationship and most of the analyses have focused on manufacturing companies. This paper examines the link between environmental practices and firm performance in the Spanish hotel industry using two methods: a cluster analysis and a regression analysis. First, three groups were defined according to their environmental proactivity, and hotels showing a stronger commitment to environmental practices proved to reach higher performance levels. Second, through the regression analysis, findings showed that environmental practices impact significantly on several performance variables.     

Now you see me,now you don’t: iridescence increases the efficacy of lizard chromatic signals

The selective forces imposed by primary receivers and unintended eavesdroppers of animal signals often act in opposite directions, constraining the development of conspicuous coloration. Because iridescent colours change their chromatic properties with viewer angle, iridescence offers a potential mechanism to relax this trade-off when the relevant observers involved in the evolution of signal design adopt different viewer geometries. We used reflectance spectrophotometry and visual modelling to test if the striking blue head coloration of males of the lizard Lacerta schreibeiri (1) is iridescent and (2) is more conspicuous when viewed from the perspective of conspecifics than from that of the main predators of adult L. schreibeiri (raptors). We demonstrate that the blue heads of L. schreiberi show angle-dependent changes in their chromatic properties. This variation allows the blue heads to be relatively conspicuous to conspecific viewers located in the same horizontal plane as the sender, while simultaneously being relatively cryptic to birds that see it from above. This study is the first to suggest the use of angle-dependent chromatic signals in lizards, and provides the first evidence of the adaptive function of iridescent coloration based on its detectability to different observers.     

Integrated environmental assessment of biodiesel production from soybean in Brazil

This paper presents the results of an environmental impact assessment of biodiesel production from soybean in Brazil. In order to achieve this objective, environmental impact indicators provided by Emergy Accounting (EA), Embodied Energy Analysis (EEA) and Material Flow Accounting (MFA) were used. The results showed that for one liter of biodiesel 8.8 kg of topsoil are lost in erosion, besides the cost of 0.2 kg of fertilizers, about 5.2 m² of crop area, 7.33 kg of abiotic materials, 9.0 tons of water and 0.66 kg of air and about 0.86 kg of CO₂ were released. About 0.27 kg of crude oil equivalent is required as inputs to produce one liter of biodiesel, which means an energy return of 2.48 J of biodiesel per Joule of fossil fuel invested. The transformity of biodiesel (3.90E + 05 seJ J^?1) is higher than those calculated for fossil fuels as other biofuels, indicating a higher demand for direct and indirect environmental support. Similarly, the biodiesel emergy yield ratio (1.62) indicates that a very low net emergy is delivered to consumers, compared to alternatives. Obtained results show that when crop production and industrial conversion to fuel are supported by fossil fuels in the form of chemicals, goods, and process energy, the fraction of fuel that can actually be considered renewable is very low (around 31%).     

Wind energy in the Isthmus of Tehuantepec: conflicts and social implications

Social acceptance is fundamental, and directly affects the installation of wind farms. In this paper, the factors that have had the greatest influence on the development of wind energy in the Itsmo region of Tehuantepec, Mexico are identified. The data were collected face to face through a semi-structured questionnaire of 31 people: owners, municipal authorities, opposition groups, and academic members. The results of the interview highlight the social impact, the lack of application, and concerning ILO Convention 169, the abuse of community rights. As a result, people interviewed perceive that the environmental impact of the installation, and operation of wind farms has been ambivalent: positive due to the intrinsic benefits that wind energy generates compared to other energy sources, and negative in terms of affectation by the noise, and the landscape. However, the income received by the owners of land in which wind facilities are located is lower compared to other parts of the world. In general, the facts show a disintegration between the authorities (federal, state, and municipal), universities are isolated from wind projects, communities are not consulted in projects, and large companies are the main beneficiaries.

     

Influence of weight on the content of trace metals in tissues of Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lamarck, 1819): a forecast model

Fifty seven samples of Mytilus galloprovincialis (Lamarck, 1819) collected along the breakwater barriers of Fano (station 1) and Pesaro (station 2), Adriatic Sea, Marche Region, central Italy, were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrometry and Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations in the soft tissues were measured. The aims of this work were the statistical analysis of Cd-weight, Cu-weight, Pb-weight, Zn-weight relationships, and the building of a tendency function that allows assessing with a good approximation the concentrations of a metal in different weight organisms. In Mytilus galloprovincialis the content of Cd proportionally grew with the weight and therefore its concentration was independent from this factor; while the concentration of Pb decreased as the weight increased. In both cases the accuracy of multiple regression models improved considering the variable ‘site’, while the same approach appeared not reliable for Cu and Zn, that were two essential metals. Our results showed that a tendency function was reliable, solid and able to predict to a very satisfying extent the concentration of non-physiological metals, like Cd and Pb; while it did not show a good approximation with real Cu and Zn contents.     

Consequence analysis by means of characteristic curves to determine the damage to buildings from bursting spherical vessels

Since the damage suffered by buildings as a consequence of explosions usually affect the people inside them, it is important to take it into account when performing consequence analysis. The aim of this paper is to provide a methodology to estimate consequences to buildings from pressure waves produced by spherical vessel burst. This is done by combining characteristic overpressure–impulse–distance curves [González Ferradás, E., Diaz Alonso, F., Sanchez Perez, J.F., Miñana Aznar, A., Ruiz Gimeno, J. and Martinez Alonso, J., 2006, Characteristic overpressure–impulse–distance curves for vessel burst, Process Safety Progress, 25(3): 250–254] with PROBIT equations. The main advantage of this methodology is that it allows an overview of all the magnitudes involved, as damage is shown in the same graph as the overpressure, impulse and distance. In this paper diagrams and equations are presented to determine minor damage to buildings (broken windows, displacement of doors and window frames, tile displacement, etc.), major structural damage (cracks in walls, collapse of some walls) and collapse (the damage is so extensive that the building is partially or totally demolished).     

Evaluation of Cu-PPHs as active catalysts for the SCR process to control NOx emissions from heavy duty diesel vehicles

Copper based catalysts supported on mesoporous materials, which were in turn based on a surfactant expanded zirconium phosphate for the formation of silica galleries in the interlayer space, were prepared by the impregnation method. They were then characterised and tested in the selective catalytic reduction of NO with ammonia as active catalysts for the control of the NOx emissions from heavy duty vehicles. Copper catalysts displayed a high catalytic performance, even in the presence of 14% (v/v) of H2O and 100 ppm of SO2. They also displayed improved catalytic behaviour when compared to a CuZSM5 catalyst.     

Kinetics of particulate organic matter removal as a response to bioflocculation in aerobic biofilm reactors.

Recent research has identified that the major fraction of chemical oxygen demand in domestic wastewaters is in particulate form. The research presented herein develops the kinetics of particle removal as a response to bioflocculation at the surface of aerobic biofilms. This study focuses on the removal of particles that are maintained in aqueous suspension after 30 minutes of gravity settling. It is helpful to consider the particulate organics removal process in biofilms as the sum of four steps, namely (1) external transport of the particles to the biofilm surface, (2) bioflocculation, (3) organic particulate hydrolysis, and (4) diffusion and reaction of the solubilized organics by the bacterial cells comprising the biofilm. Organic (native corn starch) and inorganic particle (Min-U-Sil 10 [U.S. Silica Company, Berkeley Springs, West Virginia]) suspensions, with micronutrients, were continuously fed to a rotating disc biofilm reactor to verify a first-order kinetic expression that has been used to describe bioflocculation and to demonstrate that bioflocculation is the primary particle removal mechanism. Extracellular polymeric substances were extracted and quantified to describe the role they play in the bioflocculation process.