The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in environmental performance over time of canola production due to changes to management and production practices on the Canadian prairies. ...Selected environmental impacts of canola production in 2010 and in 1990 in the Gray, Black, and Dark Brown/Brown soil zones of Western Canada were quantified (1990 analysis was limited to Alberta due to data availability). The life cycle assessment (up to the farm gate) was carried out on a per-tonne-of-canola basis. There were limited differences in impacts across soil zones for the 2010 production system. Differences across soil zones were generally more pronounced for the 1990 production system. The production and use of fertilizers (both production and field emissions) and the use of farm equipment (for tillage, harvest, etc.) were the major contributors, accounting for up to 95% of the environmental impacts of canola production in both time periods. Overall, the environmental impacts of producing one tonne of canola were reduced between the 1990 and 2010 time periods. Over the past two decades, the on-farm fuel use and fertilizer applied per tonne of canola decreased, which led to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved ecosystem quality (acidification being the exception). The improvements in the environmental profile of canola production between 1990 and 2010 were due to a combination of factors, particularly the advances in crop management practices including tillage and large-scale adoption of herbicide tolerant hybrid canola, that have led to increases in average yields and in efficiency of inputs use.
•Examined changes in environmental impacts of canola production over past two decades•Production/use of fertilizers and use of field equipment were major contributors.•Environmental profile of canola production per tonne has improved over time.•Reduced tillage and equipment and fertilizer use per tonne have led to improvements.•Improved crop management practices and increased yields have led to reduced impacts.
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•Uniform III–V heterostructures selectively grown on non-planar 300mm Si substrate were studied using SIMS.•SIMS protocols were developed to obtain 2D depth profiles of III–V ...materials in 3D architectures.•3D reconstructions of individual confined InGaAs layers were obtained using ToF-SIMS and atom-probe.
Future nanoelectronic devices will integrate ultra-thin multilayers of various materials in 3D architecture. The depth and lateral resolution become critical for the analysis of the chemical composition of such materials. 2D composition depth profiling with high resolution for arrays of III–V trenches has been studied using magnetic sector secondary ion mass spectrometry. The averaged SIMS profiles were compared with 3D reconstructions of individual trenches containing confined InGaAs layers using higher spatial techniques: time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and atom probe tomography.
A novel compartmental model that includes vaccination strategy, permanence in hospital wards and tracing of infected individuals has been implemented to forecast hospital overload caused by COVID-19 ...pandemics in Italy. The model parameters were calibrated according to available data on cases, hospital admissions, and number of deaths in Italy during the second wave, and were validated in the timeframe corresponding to the first successive wave where vaccination campaign was fully operational. This model allowed quantifying the decrease of hospital demand in Italy associated with the vaccination campaign. Clinical relevance This study provides evidence for the ability of deterministic SIR-based models to accurately forecast hospital demand dynamics, and support informed decisions regarding dimensioning of hospital personnel and technologies to respond to large-scale epidemics, even when vaccination campaigns are available.
Corrosion currents of dental amalgams in Ringer solution, Ringer lactate solution and an artificial saliva were determined as a function of flow rate using the linear polarization technique. The ...obtained results show that corrosion is far more intense in Ringer solutions than in saliva. Also, flow rate dependence is evident for Ringer solutions but not for saliva in the range investigated.
