Dechlorination ability of municipal waste incineration fly ash for polychlorinated phenols

Pathways of pentachlorophenol dechlorination have been investigated on municipal waste incineration fly ash at 200 degrees C under nitrogen atmosphere. Thermodynamic calculations have been carried out for these dechlorination conditions using the method of total Gibbs energy minimization for the whole system consisting of gaseous components, i.e., chlorinated phenols, phenol, hydrogen chloride and the Cu3Cl3 trimer and of solid Cu2O and CuCl2 components. The effects of water, temperature and of the amounts of the reaction components on the thermodynamic equilibrium have been discussed and the experimental results compared with the calculated thermodynamic data.     

YouTube,Social Norms and Perceived Salience of Climate Change in the American Mind

This online experiment explored how contextual information embedded in new media channels such as YouTube may serve as normative social cues to users. Specifically, we examined whether the number of views listed under a YouTube video about climate change would elicit inferences regarding how “others” feel about the climate issue and, consequently, might influence perceptions of issue salience. Participants in this experiment were exposed to a YouTube video about climate change using two experimental conditions, one providing a small number of views under the video and the second listing a large number of views. Results suggest that the “number of views” cue did, indeed, influence participant perceptions of the importance assigned by other Americans to the issue of climate change. Further, compared to low self-monitoring participants, high self-monitoring participants registered an increase in their own judgment of issue importance.     

Cross-cultural comparison of concrete recycling decision-making and implementation in construction industry

Waste management is pressing very hard with alarming signals in construction industry. Concrete waste constituents major proportions of construction and demolition waste of 81% in Australia. To minimize concrete waste generated from construction activities, recycling concrete waste is one of the best methods to conserve the environment. This paper investigates concrete recycling implementation in construction. Japan is a leading country in recycling concrete waste, which has been implementing 98% recycling and using it for structural concrete applications. Hong Kong is developing concrete recycling programs for high-grade applications. Australia is making relatively slow progress in implementing concrete recycling in construction. Therefore, empirical studies in Australia, Hong Kong, and Japan were selected in this paper. A questionnaire survey and structured interviews were conducted. Power spectrum was used for analysis. It was found that “increasing overall business competitiveness and strategic business opportunities” was considered as the major benefit for concrete recycling from Hong Kong and Japanese respondents, while “rising concrete recycling awareness such as selecting suitable resources, techniques and training and compliance with regulations” was considered as the major benefit from Australian respondents. However, “lack of clients’ support”, “increase in management cost” and “increase in documentation workload, such as working documents, procedures and tools” were the major difficulties encountered from Australian, Hong Kong, and Japanese respondents, respectively. To improve the existing implementation, “inclusion of concrete recycling evaluation in tender appraisal” and “defining clear legal evaluation of concrete recycling” were major recommendations for Australian and Hong Kong, and Japanese respondents, respectively.