This paper employs Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment and Data Envelopment Analysis to attribute total (direct and indirect) hazardous waste generation to the different industries and to ...connect total hazardous waste generation to the value added generated by each industry in Spain. In difference with previous studies we include all the industries of the economy and we focus on one specific type of environmental burden: the generation of hazardous waste. The results show that there is a very high concentration in total hazardous waste generation: only three industries accounted for almost 80% of total hazardous waste generation. This concentration also affects the type of hazardous waste generated. Thus, we find two main types of waste that account for 93% of total hazardous waste. Overall, the greatest hazardous waste generating industries are also the least efficient ones and exhibit a high improvement potential. Prevention measures directed to these industries should be implemented.
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•Total hazardous waste generation in Spain in 2016 is estimated.•Only three industries account for 80% of total hazardous waste generation.•Two types of hazardous waste represent 93% of total hazardous waste generation.•Improvement potential in higher in leading hazardous waste generating industries•Prevention measures should be directed to the industries identified.
Financial accessibility as a way of ensuring financial inclusion has received increasing attention. However, most of studies have drawn attention to the likelihood of becoming branchless and not on ...the differential characteristics of branchless municipalities. The aim this paper is to assess financial accessibility in branchless municipalities of the most populated region of Spain, Andalusia, and to examine their distribution across space. To that end, we identify the nearest bank branch for each branchless municipality. In addition, we incorporate socio-economic characteristics of each municipality in order to identify different groups of branchless municipalities. The results obtained suggest that there are substantial differences across branchless municipalities. In particular, we identify two degrees of financial accessibility: moderate and poor. Population dynamics are revealed as a key factor in explaining financial accessibility although this can be ameliorated by a higher per capita income and a greater industrial specialization. From a territorial point of view, we find a high concentration of branchless municipalities across space. Some initiatives should be taken in order to avoid that people become financially excluded. In this sense, local action groups responsible for rural development policies could identify the main negative effects and propose the most suitable alternative services.
Production planning in the blood supply chain is a challenging task. Many complex factors such as uncertain supply and demand, blood group proportions, shelf life constraints and different collection ...and production methods have to be taken into account, and thus advanced methodologies are required for decision making. This paper presents an integrated simulation-optimization model to support both strategic and operational decisions in production planning. Discrete-event simulation is used to represent the flows through the supply chain, incorporating collection, production, storing and distribution. On the other hand, an integer linear optimization model running over a rolling planning horizon is used to support daily decisions, such as the required number of donors, collection methods and production planning. This approach is evaluated using real data from a blood center in Colombia. The results show that, using the proposed model, key indicators such as shortages, outdated units, donors required and cost are improved.
In December 2015 the European Commission adopted the Circular Economy Package that includes legislative proposals on waste as well as long-term targets to reduce landfilling and increase recycling ...and reuse. A detailed and comprehensive accounting of waste arisings forms the quantitative basis for designing adequate policy instruments for a Circular Economy. The aim of this paper is to estimate total waste generation throughout the supply chain in Spain by applying an input-output based hybrid Life Cycle Assessment model. Both the waste generated by direct suppliers and indirect suppliers (that is, suppliers to suppliers) are estimated. The results show that there is high concentrations in total waste generation both in terms of sectors and waste types so the government should concentrate its waste prevention strategy on those sectors and types of waste that have a higher impact on total waste generation.
•Total waste generation throughout the supply chain is estimated.•A high concentration both in terms of sectors and of waste types is found.•Waste prevention strategies should take into account total waste generation.
Morphological studies of small invertebrates often involve the preparation of slides to observe minute body parts under a compound microscope. Preparation should facilitate observation, through ...traditional optical microscopy, of small surface structures on different planes, like pores, spines and setae. Various methods and techniques, using different mounting media that specialists have adopted to observe and preserve small crustaceans, have their advantages and disadvantages. Within the order Bathynellacea, specimens in the family Bathynellidae are particularly challenging due to their small size (0.5 to 2.25 mm body length) and very delicate exoskeleton, which tends to be completely digested when using common clearing mounting media, making future consultations impossible. Permanent slides are fundamental to preserve small specimens for scientific collections, because temporary slide preparations can easily result in the loss of body parts in the passage between slide and vial and vice versa. Dr Eugene Serban worked on Bathynellacea for more than 40 years, improving the preparation and preservation of delicate specimens using a stained glycerol-jelly and double cover slip mounting technique. His method is described here with a variation that speeds up the original procedure and was implemented in most recent years by one of the authors (A.I.C.). The technique provides excellent preservation and visualization of body parts on permanent slides, which do not need curation tasks and can last for many years.
We study the ability choices and pricing strategies of physicians in a duopolistic market where consumers base their decisions on anecdotes. The consumers are aware of only some of the physicians and ...estimate their abilities by taking a sample from the patients a physician has previously treated. In this setting, situations arise where physicians have incentives to choose a low level of ability even when it is costless. Namely, more information availability leads to more ability differentiation and a lower average level in equilibrium. Conversely, an equilibrium where both physicians choose a maximum ability is possible when information on at least one of the physicians is not readily available.
Water quality is a major concern globally and in headwater catchments of developing countries it is often poorly managed. In these catchments, having scarce and heterogeneous information hinders the ...development of water quality assessments and predictive models to support management. To address this issue, the authors propose a framework of three stages that allows for: (i) conducting a comprehensive assessment of water quality; (ii) the development of a mountain stream water quality model based on said assessment; and (iii) the simulation of scenarios with the model to resolve conflicts between uses and quality of water. The framework involves multivariate analyses of principal components and clusters and follows a novel modeling protocol mainly designed for mountainous streams in developing countries. Applied to an Andean catchment in Colombia, the first stage of the framework revealed the catchment’s most significant water quality constituents and the most polluted season. The problematic constituents in this catchment include pathogens, nutrients, organic matter, and metals such as the highly toxic Cr and Pb, while water pollution is the highest during the driest months of the year (i.e., January to March). In the second stage, the model was calibrated reproducing the concentrations of pathogens, organic matter, and most nutrients, and showed a predictive capacity. This capacity was measured with an objective function to be minimized based on a normalized root mean square error. It increased only 14% when verified with a different dataset. In addition, during the third stage of the proposed framework, the simulation of alternative scenarios showed that centralized treatment is not sufficient to make water safe for potabilization and agriculture in the catchment. For this reason, improving water quality in the sub-basins at the highest altitudes is required. The proposed framework can be applied in other headwater catchments where information is limited, and where an improved management of water quality is needed.
Radiochromic film has become an important tool to verify dose distributions for intensity‐modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and quality assurance (QA) procedures. A new radiochromic film model, EBT3, has ...recently become available, whose composition and thickness of the sensitive layer are the same as those of previous EBT2 films. However, a matte polyester layer was added to EBT3 to prevent the formation of Newton's rings. Furthermore, the symmetrical design of EBT3 allows the user to eliminate side‐orientation dependence. This film and the flatbed scanner, Epson Perfection V750, form a dosimetry system whose intrinsic characteristics were studied in this work. In addition, uncertainties associated with these intrinsic characteristics and the total uncertainty of the dosimetry system were determined. The analysis of the response of the radiochromic film (net optical density) and the fitting of the experimental data to a potential function yielded an uncertainty of 2.6%, 4.3%, and 4.1% for the red, green, and blue channels, respectively. In this work, the dosimetry system presents an uncertainty in resolving the dose of 1.8% for doses greater than 0.8 Gy and less than 6 Gy for red channel. The films irradiated between 0 and 120 Gy show differences in the response when scanned in portrait or landscape mode; less uncertainty was found when using the portrait mode. The response of the film depended on the position on the bed of the scanner, contributing an uncertainty of 2% for the red, 3% for the green, and 4.5% for the blue when placing the film around the center of the bed of scanner. Furthermore, the uniformity and reproducibility radiochromic film and reproducibility of the response of the scanner contribute less than 1% to the overall uncertainty in dose. Finally, the total dose uncertainty was 3.2%, 4.9%, and 5.2% for red, green, and blue channels, respectively. The above uncertainty values were obtained by minimizing the contribution to the total dose uncertainty of the film orientation and film homogeneity.
PACS number(s): 87.53.Bn
Remote lakes are usually unaffected by direct human influence, yet they receive inputs of atmospheric pollutants, dust, and other aerosols, both inorganic and organic. In remote, alpine lakes, these ...atmospheric inputs may influence the pool of dissolved organic matter, a critical constituent for the biogeochemical functioning of aquatic ecosystems. Here, to assess this influence, we evaluate factors related to aerosol deposition, climate, catchment properties, and microbial constituents in a global dataset of 86 alpine and polar lakes. We show significant latitudinal trends in dissolved organic matter quantity and quality, and uncover new evidence that this geographic pattern is influenced by dust deposition, flux of incident ultraviolet radiation, and bacterial processing. Our results suggest that changes in land use and climate that result in increasing dust flux, ultraviolet radiation, and air temperature may act to shift the optical quality of dissolved organic matter in clear, alpine lakes.
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