Does performance evaluation help public managers? A Balanced Scorecard approach in urban waste services

The urban waste market has evolved significantly in the past decades, which among other changes, has led to the creation of new utilities and new business models. However, very few things have changed for the users. Urban waste collection remains mainly under the responsibility of local authorities and the charges paid by the users in most countries are very low compared to the provision costs. This situation forces the injection of public money into the system, encouraging the ‘quiet-life’ within the utilities and, therefore, inefficiency. The present study intends to analyze the potential for the application of the Balanced Scorecard (BSc) methodology into the waste utilities. After a comprehensive revision of the urban waste sector in Portugal, the methodology of BSc and its application in local public services is described and discussed. Focusing on implementation rather than on strategy, a set of performance indicators is proposed to be utilized in the different management models of waste utilities in Portugal: the municipalities, semi-autonomous utilities, municipal companies and mixed companies. This implementation is then exemplified through four case studies, one for each type of utility. This paper provides a flexible framework proposal to be applied to waste utilities operating both in Portugal and abroad.     

Epidemiology of musculoskeletal symptoms among Korean hospital nurses.

We investigated the epidemiology of musculoskeletal symptoms (MSS) among a complete cross-section of 330 nurses from a large Korean hospital, by means of a questionnaire survey (response rate: 97.9%). The prevalence of MSS at any body site was 93.6%, with symptoms most commonly reported at the shoulder (74.5%), lower back (72.4%), neck (62.7%), lower legs (52.1%) and hand/wrist (46.7%). Logistic regression indicated that nurses who undertook manual handling of patients were 7.2 times as likely to report MSS (OR 7.2, 95%CI 1.2-42.3, P = .0275), while nurses suffering from periodic depression experienced a 3.3-fold MSS risk (OR 3.3, 95%CI 1.3-8.3, P = .0104). Overall, our study suggests that Korean nurses incur a very high MSS burden when compared internationally. A greater commitment is needed to improve physical conditions, occupational tasks and psychosocial work issues among nurses in this country.     

Interactions between shear rates and biofilms affecting exploratory behaviour by cyprids ofElminius modestus (Cirripedia)

The behaviour ofElrninius modestur Darwin cyprids suggests interaction between surface bacterial films acclimated to contrasting shear regimes and the range of shear rates over which observations were made. Exploratory behaviour is encouraged by filmed surfaces rather than biologically clean surfaces. Increasing shear rates encourage attachment to all surfaces, but cyprids detach from high-shear-acclimated films less often than from either low-shear-acclimated films, or clean surfaces. Furthermore, numbers of attaching cyprids are consistently lower on low-shear-acclimated films than on high-shear films.     

Evaluation of bioremediation effectiveness on crude oil-contaminated sand

A treatability study was conducted using sea sand spiked with 3% or 6% (w/w) of Arabian light crude oil to determine the most effective bioremediation strategies for different levels of contamination. The sea sand used in the study was composed of gravel (0.1%), sand (89.0%), and silt and clay (10.9%). The water content of the sea sand was adjusted to 12.6% (w/w) for the study. Different combinations of the following treatments were applied to the sand in biometer flasks: the concentration of oil (3% or 6%), the concentration of a mixture of three oil-degrading microorganisms (Corynebacterium sp. IC-10, Sphingomonas sp. KH3-2 and Yarrowia sp. 180, 1x10(6) or 1x10(8) cells g-1 sand), the concentration of the surfactant Tween 80 (1 or 10 times the critical micelle concentration), and the addition of SRIF in a C:N:P ratio of 100:10:3. Three biometer flasks per combination of experimental conditions were incubated, and the performance of each treatment was examined by monitoring CO2 evolution, microbial activity, and oil degradation rate. The results suggest that the addition of inorganic nutrients accelerated the rate of CO2 evolution by a factor of 10. The application of oil-degrading microorganisms in a concentration greater than that of the indigenous population clearly increased biodegradation efficiency. The application of surfactant slightly enhanced the oil degradation rate in the contaminated sand treated with the higher concentration of oil-degrading microorganisms. The initial CO2 evolution rate was shown to efficiently evaluate the treatability test by providing significant data within a short period, which is critical for the rapid determination of the appropriate bioremediation approach. The measurements of microbial activity and crude oil degradation also confirmed the validity of the CO2 evolution rate as an appropriate criterion.     

Kinetic modeling of virus transport at the field scale

Bacteriophage removal by soil passage in two field studies was re-analyzed with the goal to investigate differences between one- and two-dimensional modeling approaches, differences between one- and two-site kinetic sorption models, and the role of heterogeneities in the soil properties. The first study involved removal of bacteriophages MS2 and PRDI by dune recharge, while the second study represented removal of MS2 by deep well injection. In both studies, removal was higher during the first meters of soil passage than thereafter. The software packages HYDRUS-ID and HYDRUS-2D, which simulate water flow and solute transport in one- and two-dimensional variably saturated porous media, respectively, were used. The two codes were modified by incorporating reversible adsorption to two types of kinetic sites. Tracer concentrations were used first to calibrate flow and transport parameters of both models before analyzing transport of bacteriophages. The one-dimensional one-site model did not fully describe the tails of the measured breakthrough curves of MS2 and PRD1 from the dune recharge study. While the one-dimensional one-site model predicted a sudden decrease in virus concentrations immediately after the peaks, measured data displayed much smoother decline and tailing. The one-dimensional two-site model simulated the overall behavior of the breakthrough curves very well. The two-dimensional one-site model predicted a more gradual decrease in virus concentrations after the peaks than the one-dimensional one-site model, but not as good as the one-dimensional two-site model. The dimensionality of the problem hence can partly explain the smooth decrease in concentration after peak breakthrough. The two-dimensional two-site model provided the best results. Values for k(att2) and k(det2) could not be determined at the last two of four monitoring wells, thus suggesting that either a second type of kinetic sites is present in the first few meters of dune passage and not beyond the second monitoring well, or that effects of soil heterogeneity and dimensionality of the problem overshadowed this process. Variations between single collector efficiencies were relatively small, whereas collision efficiencies varied greatly. This implies that the nonlinear removal of MS2 and PRD1 is mainly caused by variations in interactions between grain and virus surfaces rather than by physical heterogeneity of the porous medium. Similarly, a two-site model performed better than the one-site model in describing MS2 concentrations for the deep well injection study. However, the concentration data were too sparse in this study to have much confidence in the fitted parameters.     

Detection and Molecular Characterization of Gemycircularvirus from Environmental Samples in Brazil

Gemycircularvirus (GemyCV) is a group of viruses which has been recently proposed as a new viral genus detected in fecal and environmental samples around the world. GemyCVs have been detected in human blood, brain tissue, cerebrospinal fluid, and stool sample. In the present study, we demonstrate for the first time, through molecular detection and characterization, the presence of GemyCVs in environmental samples from Brazil. Our results show a percentage of positivity ranging from 69 (25/36) to 97 % (35/36) in river water samples collected in Manaus, Amazon region, and wastewater from a wastewater treatment plant located in Rio de Janeiro, respectively, revealing GemyCVs as an important environmental contaminant.     

Novel polyol initiator from polyurethane recycling residue

Flexible polyurethane foams can be advantageously treated by two-phase glycolysis in order to recover polyols with improved quality. The bottom phase obtained, which contains highly toxic reaction by-products and the excess glycol, presents an environmental and economic problem which should be solved. The main purpose of this work is the development of process for the valorization of these by-products, converting them in non-dangerous and profitable substances. For this process, most of the glycol can be recovered by means of vacuum distillation in order to reuse it in the glycolysis. On the other hand, the vacuum residue, containing the isocyanate part of the glycolysis by-products, was assayed as initiator in the synthesis of new polyols. Propoxylation of the initiator was carried out in different experimental conditions to obtain several polyether-polyols. Rigid polyurethane foams with suitable technical properties were synthesized with those polyols synthesized with the dangerous glycolysis by-products.     

Wastewater treatment to enhance the economic viability of microalgae culture

Microalgae culture is still not economically viable and it presents some negative environmental impacts, concerning water, nutrient and energy requirements. In this context, this study aims to review the recent advances on microalgal cultures in wastewaters to enhance their economic viability. We focused on three different culture concepts: (1) suspended cell systems, (2) cell immobilization, and (3) microalgae consortia. Cultures with suspended cells are the most studied. The nutrient removal efficiencies are usually high for wastewaters of different sources. However, biomass harvesting is difficult and a costly process due to the small cell size and lower culture density. On the other hand, the cell immobilization systems showed to be the solution for this problem, having as main limitation the nutrient diffusion from bulk to cells, which results in a reduced nutrient removal efficiency. The consortium between microalgae and bacteria enhances the growth of both microorganisms. This culture concept showed to be a promising technology to improve wastewater treatment, regarding not only nutrient removal but also biomass harvesting by bioflocculation. The aggregation mechanism must be studied in depth to find the process parameters that would lead to an effective and cheap harvesting process.     

Occurrence and distribution of pharmaceuticals in wastewater from households, livestock farms, hospitals and pharmaceutical manufactures

Twenty-four pharmaceuticals were measured in wastewater from 12 municipal wastewater treatment plants (M-WWTPs), four livestock WWTPs (L-WWTPs), four hospital WWTPs (H-WWTPs) and four pharmaceutical manufacture WWTPs (P-WWTPs). The total concentration of pharmaceuticals in the influent samples was highest in the L-WWTPs followed by the P-WWTPs, H-WWTPs and M-WWTPs. The effluents had different patterns of pharmaceuticals than their corresponding influents because of the different fate of each compound in the WWTPs. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) were the most dominant in the influents from the M-WWTPs and P-WWTPs, while antibiotics were dominantly detected in the L-WWTP. In the H-WWTP influents, NSAIDs, caffeine and carbamazepine were dominant. In the P-WWTPs, the distribution of pharmaceuticals in the effluents varied with sampling sites and periods. The M-WWTP influents had the highest daily loads, while the effluents showed somewhat similar levels in all source types.