scholarly journals On the applicability of loose logs driving on small rivers in modern conditions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
А.Ю. Виноградов ◽  
А.А. Ржавцев ◽  
И.В. Бачериков ◽  
С.В. Хвалев ◽  
В.А. Обязов ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effective ◽  
Fish Population ◽  
Small Rivers ◽  
Safe Method ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Wood Transport

Авторы собрали и проанализировали существующую информацию по вопросу сплава древесины по малым рекам. Приведенные данные указывают на то, что сплав по воде наиболее экономически выгоден. Рассмотрены различные аспекты влияния молевого сплава на водный объект и на популяцию рыб. Проведен анализ положительного и отрицательного воздействия, в том числе во временном разрезе. Исходя из собранной информации сделаны конкретные выводы и сформулированы рекомендации по использованию молевого сплава как наиболее выгодного и безопасного способа транспортировки леса. The authors collected and analyzed available information on the problem of loose log transport on small rivers. These data indicate that water trasnsport is the most cost effective. Various aspects of the influence of the wood transport on the water and on the fish population are considered. The analysis of positive and negative impacts, including in the context of time, was carried out. On the basis of the collected information, specific conclusions are made and recommendations are formulated for the use of loose log transport on small rivers, as the most profitable and safe method of transporting wood.

scholarly journals A Review of the Applications and Biodegradation of Polyhy-droxyalkanoates and Poly(lactic acid) and Its Composites

Polymers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1544
Author(s):  
Jet Yin Boey ◽  
Lydia Mohamad ◽  
Yong Sen Khok ◽  
Guan Seng Tay ◽  
Siti Baidurah
Keyword(s):  
Food Packaging ◽  
Synthesis Process ◽  
Poly Lactic Acid ◽  
Packaging Materials ◽  
The Past ◽  
Food Packaging Materials ◽  
Potential Alternative ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Available Information ◽  
Potential Food

Overconsumption of plastic goods and improper handling of petroleum-derived plastic waste have brought a plethora of negative impacts to the environment, ecosystem and human health due to its recalcitrance to degradation. These drawbacks become the main driving force behind finding biopolymers with the degradable properties. With the advancement in biopolymer research, polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) and poly(lacyic acid) (PLA) and its composites have been alluded to as a potential alternative to replace the petrochemical counterpart. This review highlights the current synthesis process and application of PHAs and PLA and its composites for food packaging materials and coatings. These biopolymers can be further ameliorated to enhance their applicability and are discussed by including the current commercially available packaging products. Factors influencing biodegradation are outlined in the latter part of this review. The main aim of this review article is to organize the scattered available information on various aspects of PHAs and PLA, and its composites for packaging application purposes. It is evident from a literature survey of about 140 recently published papers from the past 15 years that PLA and PHA show excellent physical properties as potential food packaging materials.

Abdominal ultrasound scans for diagnostic imaging of the liver

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (Sup6) ◽  
pp. S30-S35
Author(s):  
Gerri Mortimore ◽  
JP Mayes
Keyword(s):  
Nurse Practitioners ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Abdominal Ultrasound ◽  
Liver Function Tests ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Sound Waves ◽  
Clinical Background ◽  
Line Imaging ◽  
The Right ◽  
Available Information

Ultrasound is a common first-line imaging investigation that uses sound waves to produce an image (sonogram) of the internal organs. It is easy, quick and cost-effective to perform and safe, non-invasive and generally painless for the patient. Abdominal ultrasound in particular visualises the hepatobiliary system. It is used to investigate abdominal pain, abnormal liver function tests, distension and jaundice, as well as to screen for hepatocellular carcinoma and abdominal aortic aneurysm. Ultrasound requests should include relevant clinical background information to ensure the patient receives the right test and help the sonographer rule out differential diagnoses. Before the test, patients should be given all available information and asked to fast for 6–8 hours, although clear fluids are permitted. The scan usually procedure takes 15–30 minutes but may be extended depending on pathology identified. The sonogram displays the comparative echogenicity of the liver and adjacent organs in real time. Increased echogenicity, a coarse echotexture and a saw-tooth liver edge are indicative of liver pathology. Ultrasound can also allow the assessment of the portal venous system to exclude portal vein thrombus or elevated portal velocities. Advanced clinical nurse practitioners can order ultrasounds in line with local hospital trust guidance, which may include Ionising Radiation Medical Exposure Regulations (IRMER) training.

scholarly journals Quantitative estimations of aquifer properties from resistivity in the Bolivian highlands

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-124
Author(s):  
Etzar Gómez ◽  
Viktor Broman ◽  
Torleif Dahlin ◽  
Gerhard Barmen ◽  
Jan-Erik Rosberg
Keyword(s):  
Hydraulic Conductivity ◽  
Saline Water ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Unconsolidated Sediments ◽  
Aquifer System ◽  
Transient Electromagnetic ◽  
Rock Formations ◽  
Hydrogeological Characteristics ◽  
Electrical Soundings ◽  
Available Information

Abstract Resistivity data constitute the largest part of the available information to assess the hydrogeological characteristics of the aquifer system near Oruro, in the central part of the Bolivian Altiplano. Two aquifers are part of this system; top unconsolidated sediments storing fresh water in their granular voids, overlying fractured hard rock formations where saline water was detected in connection to some faults. This study proposes an indirect and cost-effective way to estimate aquifer hydraulic properties for the groundwater management in the region. Hydraulic conductivity and transmissivity in the top aquifer were estimated using an empirical linear relationship between hydraulic conductivity and resistivity. This latter parameter, as well as the aquifer thickness, were obtained from the inverted models corresponding to the geoelectrical tests performed in the study area (electrical resistivity tomography, transient electromagnetic soundings and vertical electrical soundings). The highest estimated transmissivity values are ∼4.0 × 10−2 m2/s located in the centre of the study area, the lowest values are ∼3.4 × 10−3 m2/s, located around thermal intrusions to the south and where the top of the bedrock is shallow (∼20 m depth) to the west. The methodology presented in this study makes wider use of resistivity measurements to identify promising groundwater production sites.

Generic Issues Program Overview and Update

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack W. Foster ◽  
John V. Kauffman
Keyword(s):  
Effective Means ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Nuclear Regulatory Commission ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Body ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Potential Safety ◽  
Construction Operation ◽  
Regulatory Commission ◽  
Available Information

The United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has a Generic Issues Program (GIP) to address Generic Issues (GI). A GI is defined as “a regulatory matter involving the design, construction, operation, or decommissioning of several, or a class of, NRC licensees or certificate holders that is not sufficiently addressed by existing rules, guidance, or programs.” This rather legalistic definition has several practical corollaries: First, a GI must involve safety. Second, the issue must involve at least two plants, or it would be a plant-specific issue rather than a GI. Third, the potential safety question must not be covered by existing regulations and guidance (compliance). Thus, the effect of a GI is to potentially change the body of regulations and associated guidance (e.g., regulatory guides). The GIP was started in 1976, thus it is a relatively mature program. There have been approximately 850 issues processed by the program to date. More importantly, even after 30 years, new GIs continue to be proposed. The entire set of Generic Issues (GIs) is updated annually in NUREG-0933, “A Prioritization of Generic Safety Issues.” GIs tend to involve complex questions of safety and regulation. The efficient and effective means of addressing these issues is very important for regulatory effectiveness. If an issue proves to pose a genuine, significant safety question, then swift, effective, enforceable, and cost-effective action needs to be taken. Conversely, if an issue is of little safety significance, the issue should be dismissed in an expeditious manner, avoiding unnecessary expenditure of resources and regulatory burden or uncertainty. This paper provides an overview of the 5-stage program, from identification through the regulatory assessment stage. The paper also includes a discussion of the program’s seven criteria, sources of proposed GIs, recent improvements, publicly available information, historical performance, and status of current GIs.

A comparative study of greywater from domestic and public buildings

2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Santos ◽  
C. Matos ◽  
F. Taveira-Pinto
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Potable Water ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Public Buildings ◽  
Correct Definition ◽  
Cost Effective Treatment ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
Definition Of

Greywater (GW) can be an important resource for urban water consumption, replacing potable water for purposes that do not require drinking water quality. If applied on a large scale, this practice will reduce the potable water demand and the wastewater produced in urban areas, minimizing the negative impacts and costs of water extraction and wastewater treatment. A correct characterization of GW is important to assess its potential for a direct reuse or, if not possible, to make a correct definition of a feasible and cost-effective treatment system. This article aims to contribute to the characterization of GW produced in washbasins and showers in domestic and public buildings. A compilation of several works on GW collection and sampling produced by the authors is presented. Samples were taken from GW produced in showers and washbasins in households, changing rooms and in a restaurant. Results are compared with values presented in similar studies and compared with standards and guidelines published in different countries.

scholarly journals Resilience Assessment Framework for Nature Based Solutions in Stormwater Management and Control: Application to Cities with Different Resilience Maturity

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (23) ◽  
pp. 10040
Author(s):  
Paula Beceiro ◽  
Ana Galvão ◽  
Rita Salgado Brito
Keyword(s):  
Stormwater Management ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Economic Benefits ◽  
Assessment Framework ◽  
Urban Resilience ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Control Application ◽  
Available Information ◽  
And Control ◽  
Resilience Assessment

Cities face unprecedented demographic, environmental, economic, social, and spatial challenges. In recent years, the implementation of nature-based solutions (NBS) is becoming more relevant in cities to improve urban resilience and to cope with climate change. NBS represent cost effective solutions that simultaneously provide environmental, social, and economic benefits and help build resilience. A comprehensive and multi-dimension Resilience Assessment Framework (RAF) to evaluate the NBS contribution to urban resilience, focused on NBS for stormwater management and control, was developed. This RAF is aligned with the RESCCUE RAF and the main assessment frameworks focused on NBS and urban resilience. This RAF for NBS is driven by the definition of resilience objectives and is able to evaluate short- and long-term changes, considering a comprehensive definition of the urban resilience and addressing the environmental, social, and economic capabilities. Regarding the initial resilience maturity and the available information in the city, three analysis degrees were proposed for the RAF application, namely, the essential, complementary, and comprehensive degrees, for which a pre-defined selection of metrics is proposed. This paper aims to present the application of the RAF essential analysis degree and its extensive validation regarding cities with different resilience maturity and available information. The application to seven cities with different resilience and NBS challenges allowed an in-depth validation of the pre-defined metrics included in the RAF essential analysis. In this sense, the analysis of the resilience maturity of the participating cities is presented, the main challenges and consolidated aspects in the cities are identified, and the cities ready to apply the complementary analysis degree are recognized. To conclude, to validate the essential analysis degree, the assessment of the main requirements of the RAF for NBS are verified, based on the RAF metrics results for the cities. In this light, the main requirements of the RAF for NBS were aggregated in three main categories, namely, NBS aspects, resilience capabilities, and the performance, risk and cost analysis.

UAS Imaging Applications to Monitor Restored Peatlands

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauri Ikkala ◽  
Hannu Marttila ◽  
Anna-Kaisa Ronkanen ◽  
Jari Ilmonen ◽  
Maarit Similä ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ghg Emissions ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Visual Assessment ◽  
Field Work ◽  
Unmanned Aerial Systems ◽  
Labor Costs ◽  
Natural Function ◽  
Restoration Success ◽  
Peatland Restoration ◽  
Negative Impacts

<p>Peatlands are globally threatened by the increasing exploitation. Majority of peatlands in Finland are <em>severely degraded </em>by land use and drainage activities. <strong>Peatland restoration</strong> is an effective way to increase biodiversity, return natural function of peatlands in catchment hydrology and reduce negative impacts of drainage.</p><p>Restoration activities recover the wet and open habitats crucial for many valuable species and peatlands ability to store water and nutrients. Restoration activates peat forming processes, and thus reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and returns peatlands to act as carbon sinks.</p><p><em>Restored sites are monitored</em> to determine whether the restoration has succeeded and to gather the experiences to further develop restoration methods. The traditional restoration monitoring demands intensive field work with high labor costs and special ecological expertise. Evaluation is mainly based on visual assessment at present. In addition, monitoring typically cannot cover the entire restored site.</p><p>There is strong need to develop unbiased indicators and new cost-effective methods producing <em>spatially representative high-quality information on restoration success</em>. We will study new technical possibilities for evaluation of peatland restoration success with unmanned aerial systems (UAS).</p><p>The latest image processing techniques and their use in mapping and analyzing peatland areas are to be studied. UAS provides prospects not only to ease the demanding restoration field work but also to transform the discrete nature of conventional single data points into a spatial continuum over the whole restored peatland.</p>

scholarly journals Estimating fish population abundance by integrating quantitative data on environmental DNA and hydrodynamic modelling

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keiichi Fukaya ◽  
Hiroaki Murakami ◽  
Seokjin Yoon ◽  
Kenji Minami ◽  
Yutaka Osada ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Dna ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Population Monitoring ◽  
Fish Population ◽  
Abundance Estimation ◽  
Population Abundance ◽  
Jack Mackerel ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Quantitative Measurements ◽  
Japanese Jack Mackerel

AbstractWe propose a general framework of abundance estimation based on spatially replicated quantitative measurements of environmental DNA in which production, transport, and degradation of DNA are explicitly accounted for. Application to a Japanese jack mackerel (Trachurus japonicus) population in Maizuru Bay revealed that the method gives an estimate of population abundance comparable to that of a quantitative echo sounder method. These findings indicate the ability of environmental DNA to reliably reflect population abundance of aquatic macroorganisms and may offer a new avenue for population monitoring based on the fast, cost-effective, and non-invasive sampling of genetic information.

scholarly journals Trends in the Cost-effectiveness of Chemoprevention for Breast Cancer—2001 to 2015

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (02) ◽  
pp. 104 ◽  
Author(s):  
Austin M Coe ◽  
Katherine D Crew ◽  
◽  
◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
High Risk ◽  
Low Cost ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Chemopreventive Agents ◽  
High Risk Women ◽  
Costs Of Treatment ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Available Information

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among US women and costs of treatment are estimated to be over $16.5 billion annually. The use of chemopreventive agents for the primary prevention of breast cancer has been an available option for women at high risk for breast cancer since 1998, however, uptake has been low. Cost-effectiveness analyses are used to determine whether a given intervention will be beneficial for a specific population while maintaining costs below a standard threshold for health systems. A number of cost-effectiveness analyses on the use of the chemopreventive drugs, tamoxifen and raloxifene, among women at high risk for breast cancer have been published over the past 15 years. These studies have used diverse methodologies to determine which, if any, high-risk women would benefit from the use of chemoprevention. The results of these cost-effectiveness analyses have been highly varied, with about half finding that chemoprevention is cost-effective for women who meet high-risk criteria for breast cancer. The sparse literature available in this field highlights the need for a more comprehensive analysis of the cost-effectiveness of chemoprevention that takes into account the most recently available information on costs and outcomes.

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