Using social network and stakeholder analysis to help evaluate infectious waste management: A step towards a holistic assessment

Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of a solid waste management scheme requires an accurate analysis and integration of several determining features. In addition to the technical aspects, any such system shows a complex interaction of actors with varying stakes, decision-making power and influence, as well as a favourable or disabling environment. When capitalizing on the knowledge and experience from a specific case, it is also crucial that experts do not “forget” or underestimate the importance of such social determinants and that they are familiar with the methods and tools to assess them. Social network analysis (SNA) and stakeholder analysis (SA) methods can be successfully applied to better understand actors’ role and actions, analyse driving forces and existing coordination among stakeholders, as well as identify bottlenecks in communication which affect daily operations or strategic planning for the future way forward. SNA and SA, appropriately adjusted for a certain system, can provide a useful integration to methods by assessing other aspects to ensure a comprehensive picture of the situation. This paper describes how to integrate SNA and SA in order to survey a solid waste management system. This paper presents the results of an analysis of On-Nuch infectious waste incinerator in Bangkok, Thailand. Stakeholders were interviewed and asked to prioritize characteristics and relationships which they consider particularly important for system development and success of the scheme. In such a way, a large quantity of information about organization, communication between stakeholders and their perception about operation, environmental and health impact, and potential alternatives for the system was collected in a systematic way. The survey results suggest that stakeholders are generally satisfied with the system operation, though communication should be improved. Moreover, stakeholders should be strategically more involved in system development planning, according to their characteristics, to prevent negative reactions.     

Sewage sludge drying by energy recovery from OFMSW composting: Preliminary feasibility evaluation

In this paper an original energy recovery method from composting is analyzed. The integrated system exploits the heat available from the aerobic biochemical process in order to support the drying of sewage sludge, using a specific solar greenhouse. The aim is to tackle the problem of organic waste treatment, with specific regard to food waste. This is done by optimizing the energy consumption of the aerobic process of composting, using the heat produced to solve a second important waste management problem such as the sewage waste treatment. Energy and mass balances are presented in a preliminary feasibility study. Referring to a composting plant with a capacity of 15,000 t/y of food waste, the estimation of the power from recovered heat for the entire plant resulted about 42 kW. The results demonstrated that the energy recoverable can cover part of the heat necessary for the treatment of sludge generated by the population served by the composting plant (in terms of food waste and green waste collection). The addition of a renewable source such as solar energy could cover the residual energy demand. The approach is presented in detail in order for it to be replicated in other case studies or at full scale applications.     

Patterns of body mass senescence and selective disappearance differ among three species of free-living ungulates

Declines in survival and reproduction with age are prevalent in wild vertebrates, but we know little about longitudinal changes in behavioral, morphological, or physiological variables that may explain these demographic declines. We compared age-related variation in body mass of adult females in three free-living ungulate populations that have been the focus of long-term, individual-based research: bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis) at Ram Mountain, Canada; roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) at Trois Fontaines, France; and Soay sheep (Ovis aries) on St. Kilda, Scotland. We use two recently proposed approaches to separate contributions to age-dependent variation at the population level from within-individual changes and between-individual selective disappearance. Selective disappearance of light individuals in all three populations was most evident at the youngest and oldest ages. In later adulthood, bighorn sheep and roe deer showed a continuous decline in body mass that accelerated with age while Soay sheep showed a precipitous decrease in mass in the two years preceding death. Our results highlight the importance of mass loss in explaining within-individual demographic declines in later adulthood in natural populations. They also reveal that the pattern of senescence, and potentially also the processes underlying demographic declines in late life, can differ markedly across related species with similar life histories.     

Prenatal diagnosis of septal agenesis with normal pituitary function

Septal agenesis is a rare brain malformation that is characterized by partial or complete absence of the septum pellucidum, either isolated or associated with other brain anomalies. We report a case presenting with septal agenesis and normal optic chiasm and pituitary function in a fetus at 19 weeks of gestation. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A study of osteological and molecular differences in populations of Aphanius fasciatus Nardo 1827, from the central Mediterranean (Teleostei, Cyprinodontidae)

Nine populations of Aphanius fasciatus Nardo, 1827 from the central Mediterranean were analysed by examining the mitochondrial control region and the morphology of the bony elements of the skull and vertebral column, to study the degree of intraspecific differentiation of A. fasciatus considering the level of isolation of the different populations and the palaeogeographic history of the central Mediterranean area. Both the molecular and morphological analyses differentiate between the populations, even if the topologies of the two trees are different. Molecular and osteological investigations have consistently demonstrated a well-supported differentiation of the south-eastern Sicilian populations both within the same group (Tigano et al. in Ital J Zool 71:1124–1133, 2004a; Tigano et al. in Abstract volume XI European Congress of Ichthyology, Tallin, Estonia, 2004b), and from the populations from western Sicily, Tunisia and the island of Malta. The molecular results show that the nine populations are characterised by haplotypes that are well defined in relation to a probably limited gene flow; while, as regards the morphological data the differentiation found could be explained in terms of the geographic isolation of the various populations, although the influence of environmental factors, which differ greatly between the various sites where the populations live, cannot be ruled out.     

TNT in Komposten und Flüssigkultur

The formation of aromatic amines was investigated using a summarized test (NEDA-test) during the composting of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) contaminated soil. In this test, the aromatic amines were diazolated and then coupled to N-1-Naphthyl-ethylenediamine-dihydrochloride (NEDA) to yield an azo dye which can be monitored photometrically. The test was calibrated for known TNT-metabolites with an active amine-group. Liquid samples from composting- and liquid-culture-experiments were analyzed by HPLC for these known metabolites. Moreover, the samples were monitored by the NEDA-test and the expected extinction of the TNT-metabolites found with amine function were extrapolated with the help of calibration curves. It was shown that substantial differences are obvious between the monitored and extrapolated values. After separation into polar and non-polar aromatic amines, it became clear that these differences are made by the polar aromatic amines. Polar aromatic amines, which are not detectable by presently available analytical tests, were generated during the composting of TNT-contaminated soils. Contaminated stagnant water, which was generated during anaerobization of a compost prephase, was treated aerobically for 70 days in a biofermenter. During this treatment TNT and its known metabolites were eliminated almost entirely. Simultaneously, the toxicity in the Lumis Tox-test decreased drastically. In striking contrast, the sum of aromatic amines decreased only to a minor extent. Moreover, the percentage of polar compounds from total amount of aromatic amines increased drastically from 48% to more than 95%. At present, the chemical identification of these polar compounds is still missing and is the object for further research.     

Impact and adaptation opportunities for European agriculture in response to climatic change and variability

Climate change, involving changes in mean climate and climatic variability, is expected to severely affect agriculture and there is a need to assess its impact in order to define the appropriate adaptation strategies to cope with. In this paper, we projected a scenario of European agriculture in a +2°C (above pre-industrial levels) world in order to assess the potential effect of climatic change and variability and to test the effectiveness of different adaptation options. For this purpose, the outputs of HadCM3 General Circulation Model (GCM) were empirically downscaled for current climate (1975–2005) and a future period (2030–2060), to feed a process-based crop simulation model, in order to quantify the impact of a changing climate on agriculture emphasising the impact due to changes in the frequency of extreme events (heat waves and drought). The same climatic dataset was used to compare the effectiveness of different adaptations to a warmer climate strategies including advanced or delayed sowing time, shorter or longer cycle cultivar and irrigation. The results indicated that both changes in mean climate and climate variability affected crop growth resulting in different crop fitting capacity to cope with climate change. This capacity mainly depended on the crop type and the geographical area across Europe. A +2°C scenario had a higher impact on crops cultivated over the Mediterranean basin than on those cultivated in central and northern Europe as a consequence of drier and hotter conditions. In contrast, crops cultivated in Northern Europe generally exhibited higher than current yields, as a consequence of wetter conditions, and temperatures closer to the optimum growing conditions. Simple, no-cost adaptation options such as advancement of sowing dates or the use of longer cycle varieties may be implemented to tackle the expected yield loss in southern Europe as well as to exploit possible advantages in northern regions.