Certification and integration of management systems: the experience of Portuguese small and medium enterprises

The purpose of this study was to characterize the situation of Portuguese Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) concerning the certification of their Quality Management Systems (QMS), Environmental Management Systems (EMS) and Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS), in their individually form, to identify benefits, drawbacks and difficulties associated with the certification process and to characterize the level of integration that has been achieved. This research was based on a survey carried out by the research team; it was administered to 46 Portuguese SMEs. Our sample comprised 20 firms (43%) from the Trade/Services activity sector, 17 (37%) from the Industrial sector, 5 (11%) from the Electricity/Telecommunications sector and 4 (9%) from the Construction area. All SMEs surveyed were certified according to the ISO 9001 (100%), a quarter of firms were certified according to the ISO 14001 (26.1%) and a few certified by OHSAS 18001 (15.2%). We undertook a multivariate cluster analysis, which enabled grouping variables into homogeneous groups or one or more common characteristics of the SMEs participating in the study. Results show that the main benefits that Portuguese SMEs have gained from the referred certifications have been, among others, an improvement of both their internal organization and external image. We also present the main difficulties in achieving certification. Overall, 7 of the Portuguese SMEs examined indicated that the main benefits of the IMS implementation management included costs reduction, increased employee training and easier compliance of legislation. The respective drawbacks and difficulties are also presented. Finally, we presented the main integrated items in the certified Portuguese SMEs we examined.     

Quantifying driver cell phone use at signalized intersections using software-defined radio

Objective: This article outlines a data collection process that quantifies driver cell phone use using a software-defined radio (SDR) at a signalized intersection. Cell phone use while driving has been shown to be factor that increases the risk of a crash incident. Both operational and enforcement strategies can be applied at locations where high driver cell phone use is identified.

Methods: A baseline driver cell phone use observation was made at the intersection, where 9,699 vehicles were observed at the intersection of Carlton Road and State Route 31 (Pennington Road) in Ewing, New Jersey. An SDR cell phone detection device created as part of this study was then deployed at the same intersection to determine whether the SDR device could detect an active cell phone signal. The identification of vehicle cell phone activity using the SDR was conducted a sample of 4,000 vehicles. A visual observation, along with a motion detection camera, was made alongside the SDR to visually confirm cell phones use.

Results: Of the 4,000 vehicles sampled using the SDR cell phone detection device, 6.1% of the a.m. peak travel time and 7.6% of the p.m. peak travel time had an active cellular device. A concurrent visual field verification of driver cell phone use showed that approximately 57% (a.m. peak) and 67% (p.m. peak) of the SDR-detected cell phones were visually confirmed to be associated with distracted cell phone use.

Conclusions: Once characterized, the frequency of driver cell phone use can be used to justify changes to signal timing protocols. These adjustments could include extending the signal’s “all-red time” or holding “yellow time” longer in order to properly clear the intersection. These data can also be used to identify locations that may require more enforcement measures to dissuade driver cell phone use. Furthermore, the impact of anti–cell phone campaigns or new laws can be quantified by measuring before and after cell phone use in the near term rather than waiting for crash studies at intersections to be completed and analyzed.     

Tolerance and phytoremediation potential of Calopogonium mucunoides to boron

Soil contamination by trace elements (TEs) is a problem of great concern since the industrial revolution. However, not all TEs are essentially toxic, and several micronutrients such as boron (B) play essential roles during plant development and, in this case, B acts in plants as a structural element. Soil B levels above 3.0 mg dm^–3 may be toxic to many plants and the greatest input of B to the environment occurs through the anthropic way. An environmentally promising alternative is phytoremediation, in which contaminant‐tolerant plants are used to remove or stabilize TEs in soils. Therefore, this work has been carried out to aim C. mucunoides’ tolerance to increasing B concentrations and its potential as a phytoremediator. We found out that C. mucunoides tolerates B doses up to 480 mg dm^?3, the B uptaken is transported at a 1:1 ratio between root and shoot, suggesting that C. mucunoides can be used as a phytostabilizer and phytoextractor due to its potential to be used in phytoremediation techniques because it can tolerate toxic concentrations of B.     

用分布式混合试验系统模拟结构的倒塌行为

采用分布式混合试验系统模拟四层钢结构框架在强震下的倒塌行为。变形集中的首层作为试验对象,而上部结构作为数值子结构。各子结构通过协调器满足界面上的平衡和协调条件,并被协调器的输入输出接口封装起来。采用柔性的试验方案,可以在当前有限控制精度的限制下,灵活地处理边界条件。试验结果与日本E-D efense振动台足尺试验结果进行了对比,得到了类似的倒塌机制,证明混合试验有能力进行结构倒塌模拟,而误差主要来自于模型简化。     

Organotin contamination in South American coastal areas

Organotin compounds (OTs) were used in antifouling paints for more than four decades. However, due to their widespread intensive use and high toxicity, undesirable effects in non-target marine organisms have been detected since the early 1980s. Consequently, the International Maritime Organization banned new maritime applications of these products on January 1, 2003 and their presence on ship hulls from January 1, 2008. Although extensively studied in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Asia, environmental levels and effects of organotin contamination are still poorly known for South America. Thus, the current review aimed to present the actual status of this problem in South America by summarizing and comparing the available data in the literature. An overview of the OTs concentrations in sediment and biota and their effects, mainly imposex in marine gastropods, are presented. This work showed that in Atlantic coastal areas of South America there are “hot spots” of OTs contamination, similar to that observed in industrialized countries of Northern Hemisphere. On the other hand, the number of accomplished studies in the Pacific coast is extremely low. Despite the limitation on studies about OTs environmental levels and their related effects, the available data pointed out for a widespread TBT contamination along the South American coastal areas. Therefore, the establishment of baselines of organotin contamination in the Pacific coast and the implementation of temporal trend studies in the South American coastal areas is crucial to verify the effectiveness of local regulations and OTs global ban, and to map the most sensitive areas related to present and future antifouling impacts.     

Monitoring, fault detection and operation prediction of MSW incinerators using multivariate statistical methods

This work proposes the application of two multivariate statistical methods, principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square (PLS), to a continuous process of a municipal solid waste (MSW) moving grate-type incinerator for process control - monitoring, fault detection and diagnosis - through the extraction of information from historical data. PCA model is built for process monitoring capable of detecting abnormal situations and the original 16-variable process dimension is reduced to eight, the first 4 being able to capture together 86% of the total process variation. PLS model is constructed to predict the generated superheated steam flow rate allowing for control of its set points. The model retained six of the original 13 variables, explaining together 90% of the input variation and almost 98% of the output variation. The proposed methodology is demonstrated by applying those multivariate statistical methods to process data continuously measured in an actual incinerator. Both models exhibited very good performance in fault detection and isolation. In predicting the generated superheated steam flow rate for its set point control the PLS model performed very well with low prediction errors (RMSE of 3.1 and 4.1).     

Feeding the world sustainably: knowledge governance and sustainable agriculture in the Argentine Pampas

This article discusses the role of knowledge governance arrangements in the mainstreaming of sustainable practices, in particular, in the creation, sharing and use of integrated and contextualized knowledge. That is, knowledge which accounts for the social, economic, institutional, and ecological dimensions of potentially sustainable practices, and which considers the need to adapt generic practices to the sustainability requirements of specific places. An actor-centered approach is proposed for the study of the historical evolution of knowledge governance arrangements in order to understand their role in the adoption of sustainable practices. The approach is applied to explain the rapid adoption of no-till agriculture in the Argentine Pampas. A radical knowledge governance transformation occurring in this region during the 1990s led to increasing knowledge exchange and pushing sustainability practices to the top of key actors’ agendas. This embracing of no-till agriculture illustrates the crucial role played by farmers’ associations as boundary organizations: linking farmers with actors specialized in the generation of scientific knowledge and technology. This case reveals that sustainability transitions can be fostered through knowledge governance arenas characterized by: (a) promoting public–private collaboration through boundary organizations, (b) assigning private actors a leading role in the adoption of sustainability practices at the production unit scale, (c) fostering the public sector competence in regional and socio-ecological research, and (d) addressing the heterogeneous needs of knowledge users. However, the case also shows that the success of no-till agriculture in the Pampas is pushing the agriculturization of surrounding areas where this practice is largely unsustainable. This finding suggests that present knowledge governance arrangements fail to contextualize practices that are potentially sustainable.     

Total mercury, organic mercury and selenium in liver and kidney of a South American coastal dolphin

Selenium and total and organic mercury were determined in the liver and kidney of franciscana dolphin (Pontoporia blainvillei) incidentally caught in fishing nets along two Brazilian coastal areas (southeast and south). Regional differences in the concentrations of these contaminants were observed in P. blainvillei. Liver showed the highest organic and total mercury. In general, samples of individuals collected at the southern of Brazil had the highest concentrations of selenium and total and organic mercury. No significant gender differences were observed. Growth stage influenced the accumulation of these contaminants in both organs, and hepatic concentrations increased with the body length, according to the sampling area. Molar mercury and selenium concentrations in liver were significantly correlated, with a Se:Hg ratio close to 4. The among-site differences we found may be related to differences in preferred prey, bioavailability in the marine environment, environmental conditions, or these individuals may belong to distinct populations.     

Seabird mortality induced by land‐based artificial lights

Artificial lights at night cause high mortality of seabirds, one of the most endangered groups of birds globally. Fledglings of burrow‐nesting seabirds, and to a lesser extent adults, are attracted to and then grounded (i.e., forced to land) by lights when they fly at night. We reviewed the current state of knowledge of seabird attraction to light to identify information gaps and propose measures to address the problem. Although species in families such as Alcidae and Anatidae can be grounded by artificial light, the most affected seabirds are petrels and shearwaters (Procellariiformes). At least 56 species of Procellariiformes, more than one‐third of them (24) threatened, are subject to grounding by lights. Seabirds grounded by lights have been found worldwide, mainly on oceanic islands but also at some continental locations. Petrel breeding grounds confined to formerly uninhabited islands are particularly at risk from light pollution due to tourism and urban sprawl. Where it is impractical to ban external lights, rescue programs of grounded birds offer the most immediate and employed mitigation to reduce the rate of light‐induced mortality and save thousands of birds every year. These programs also provide useful information for seabird management. However, these data are typically fragmentary, biased, and uncertain and can lead to inaccurate impact estimates and poor understanding of the phenomenon of seabird attraction to lights. We believe the most urgently needed actions to mitigate and understand light‐induced mortality of seabirds are estimation of mortality and effects on populations; determination of threshold light levels and safe distances from light sources; documentation of the fate of rescued birds; improvement of rescue campaigns, particularly in terms of increasing recovery rates and level of care; and research on seabird‐friendly lights to reduce attraction.     

An indicator tool for assessing local vulnerability to climate change in the Mexican agricultural sector

To propose specific adaptation strategies in the agricultural sector based on vulnerability to climate variability and climate change at the local level, we built a vulnerability index using an indicator tool at a fine spatial scale. This index was applied as a case study in the municipality of Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico, at the basic census area (BCA) level. We used a total of 37 variables organized into three groups with equal weighting: exposure (13), sensitivity (13), and adaptive capacity (11). From the 20 rural BCAs located in the study area, eight were categorized as having very low vulnerability; five had low vulnerability; two had medium vulnerability because of the lack of basic services (sewers, water, and electricity) and a high rural population density; three had high vulnerability due to a high frequency of days with temperatures below 5 °C and the lack of basic services; and two had very high vulnerability, characterized by a high percentage of production units (PUs) with losses due to climate factors, a high rural population density, and a high frequency of days with temperatures below 5 °C. Approximately 50 % of the municipal rural population lives in BCAs vulnerable to climate change. This methodology allowed us to identify the most susceptible agricultural areas at the local level and the variables that require more attention so that we can propose adaptation strategies and minimize vulnerability due to climate change.