Ecological Way Research Articles

EFFECT OF WOOD FRACTIONAL COMPOSITION ON GASIFICATION PROCESS

In many countries of the world, biomass is becoming increasingly important in various sectors, in particular: at thermal and electric stations for the production of heat and electrical energy in district heating systems in chemical and timber industry complexes. It is known that the potential of biomass is ten times higher than the possible needs of mankind for energy, is environmentally friendly and has the ability to recover. Today there is a trend of decentralization of energy, that is, the use of cogeneration plants for generating heat and electricity. Perspective cogeneration units are internal combustion engines operating on synthesis gas. Therefore gasification of wood for the purpose of synthesis gas production is the most promising and ecological way of biomass processing. The calorific value of the synthesis gas produced as a result of the gasification of wood fuels can vary depending on various factors. The main factors affecting the gasification process are as follows: the fractional composition of wood; the amount of air supplied to the gasification chamber; height of the active layer and a number of other factors depending on the fuel that is gasified, and the parameters of the gasifier. Any wood for further thermal processing should be crushed. Depending on the need, the wood is crushed to the technological wood chips of various fractions by chipping machines that are also called wood crushers, or shredders. The choice of chippers depends on the production need. Modern chipping machines allow fine-tuning the raw material by the size of the wood. Taking into account the shortage and the price of energy carriers, the use of comminuted wood waste as a fuel for gas-generating plants and solid-fuel boilers comes to the fore.

A COMPARATIVE ECO-QUEER ANALYSIS OF THE SELECTED POEMS OF ALLEN GINSBERG, THOM GUNN, AND AGHA SHAHID ALI

INTRODUCTION:Ecocriticism is the emerging branch of literary criticism. It starts in the early 1990s and is continuously flourishing due to its contemporary relevance. Basically ecocriticism talks about the connection between literature and the natural environment. It starts in USA in late 1980s with William Rueckert's article Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in appeared in 1978. Rueckert is also the first to use the term ecocriticism. Another founding figure of Ecocriticism in USA is Cheryll Glotfelty, co-editor with Harold Fromm of Ecocriticism Reader: Landmark in Literary Ecology (1996). In UK ecocriticism is known as Green Studies and the founding figure of this approach is Jonathan Bate with his landmark work Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth and the Environmental Tradition (1991). Before Bate, Raymond Williams has already pointed out the importance and use of nature in literature in his work Country and the City (1973).Ecocriticism is inspired by the works of nineteenth century American writers- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Margaret Fuller. In UK it is inspired by Romantic poets of early nineteenth century. All these writers put a lot of emphasis and focus on nature, natural scenes and landscapes. This tendency differentiates them from previous literary traditions like Neo-Classical school of poetry and the Age of Reason in UK and Puritinism and Enlightenment in America.The main focus of ecocriticism is to study how natural world is dealt in the literary works. Physical environment does not only mean the natural landscapes, but all that is naturally given to us like body, sex, complexion, age etc. As (Kerridge, 2006) states, Texts are evaluated in terms of their environmentally harmful or helpful effects. (2006, p. 530). Laurence Coupe, in his work, said that green theory 'debates Nature in order to defend nature' (Coupe, 2013, p. 155). (Garrard, 2012) describes the task of ecocriticism in these lines, The challenge for ecocritics is to keep one eye on the ways in which 'nature' is always in some ways culturally constructed, and the other on the fact that nature really exists, both the object and, albeit distantly, the origin of our discourse (212, p. 10).Now in these days, ecocriticism is incorporating other theoretical areas within its range as Ecofeminism, Deconstruction Ecology, Deep Ecology, Social Ecology, Eco-Marxism, and most recent Queer Ecology. focus of each of these sub-areas, within ecocriticsm, is the study of nature in relation to the particular issues related to their previous fields. Ecofeminism explores the relationship or affinity between nature and females. Similarly Deconstruction Ecology talks about how a focus on nature can deconstruct the anthropocentric view of humanity.The long standing debate of Queer Theory - whether the homosexuality is a cultural construction or natural? - can be discussed more comprehensively and analytically through the help of ecocriticism, by stating the fact that a lot of plants, animals, sea-creatures, birds and almost all the flowers are either homosexual, bisexual, intersexual, autosexual or hermaphrodite, Plants and animals are hermaphroditic before they are bisexual and are bisexual before they are heterosexual. (Morton, 2010, p. 276). So if all these natural beings can be homosexual then why can't human being. In this way queer ecology provides a queer way of thinking environmentally and an ecological way of thinking queerly. It is not that we have to search how environment or nature is used in queer texts, but the very construction and manipulation of queerness and nature is the issue. Sandilands and Erickson describes the task of queer ecology as, Queer, then, is both noun and verb in this project: ours is an ecology that may begin in the experiences and perceptions of non-heterosexual individuals and communities, but is even more importantly one that calls into question heteronormativity itself as part of its advocacy around issues of nature and environment-and vice versa. …

The Terrain Is Everything

Considering infections, conventional medicine pays more attention to the agent then to the human organism or terrain (Le Terrain). Some scientists such as Bechamp tried to stress out that the terrain is much more important than the bug and even Pasteur in the last days of his life recognized that. Claude Bernard stated that homeostasis was fundamental to keep people from getting infections. Antibiotics are indeed important to treat severe bacterial infections or specially infections on immune-suppressed patients. However, if we disregard the terrain, people often get sick again. Classical homeopathy is a good, effective and ecological way to treat infections. With the right homeopathic treatment, people gain much more resistance to infections and the recuperation of inter-current infections is more rapid (as Samuel Hahnemann proved) because homeostasis is reached.

Bioclimatic urban design: General, ecological and economic aspect

The need for energy-efficient, bioclimatic and environmental, concept of architectural structures have caused on the one hand, a whole new scientific discipline called bioclimatic design, and on the other hand, it can be said that it is a return to the beginning or to home architecture. This paper analyzes the problem related to the general aspect of bioclimatic urban planning administered concurrently with a review of the two components and is compatible work, without which it cannot even talk about contemporary Bioclimatic urban planning and design. Specifically, these are the environmental and economic aspect, which in contemporary world and the present level of development of science and technological knowledge go together, that we cannot speak on economic approach to the problem and at the same time does not consider the impact of the observed phenomena in an ecological way, or on the environment.

Flipped Inclusion, Between Theoretical and Experimental Didactics

Flipped Inclusion stems from epochal assumptions and has been created to manage, in a simple and ecological way, the world's complex societies. It uses new instrumental approaches to knowledge and their media advantage. The need for an ecological perspective of development, determined by the recognition of a basic awareness of the unique individual, is the result of a series of relations and relationships that emerge from the multi-perspective contrived as well as utilitarian certainties that are typical of the misleading consumerist multi-perspective societies. Through computational and logical inferences as well as semantic and symbolic recognition, the Flipped Inclusion establishes itself as an ethical socio-educational model based on three points: self-esteem, promptness and community/institutions. It is appropriate for social development and is multidimensional and multi-relational for everyone. Flipped Inclusion transforms data into ontology and at the same time converts inter-subjectivity in relation, re-shaping both sense and context.

Experimental Study on Corrosion Behaviour of Concrete Containing Bottom Ash as Partial Replacement of Fine Aggregate

Concrete is a material synonymous with strength and longevity and plays a vital role in the construction activity. Scarcity of natural sand and its fast rising cost have paved way for use of bottom ash, a residue being collected from the thermal power stations, as substitute for sand. Recent research shows that the mechanical properties of concrete containing bottom ash as a partial replacement of fine aggregate is suitable for construction. The various parameters involved are different percentage of bottom ash and grades of concrete. This present experimental study is made on chloride induced corrosion using accelerated corrosion test (ACT) and related durability properties such as water absorption & porosity, water sorptivity and rapid chloride penetration test (RCPT). Compressive strength test is performed in order to ascertain the mechanical property of bottom ash concrete. The above tests were conducted on the concrete specimens and the results were found comparable with the control concrete up to 20% replacement of bottom ash. Utilization of bottom ash in concrete becomes more significant in cost-saving and reducing the quantity of landfill, thus providing an economical and ecological way of conservation of natural resources.

Smart energy systems for smart city districts: case study Reininghaus District

Dense settlement structures in cities have high demands of energy. Usually, these demands exceed the local resource availability. Individually developed supply options to cover these demands differ from place to place and can also vary within the boundaries of a city. In a common sense of European governance, cities are pushed to save energy, increase renewables and reduce import dependency on fossil fuels. There are many innovative concepts and technologies available to tackle these needs. The paper provides a comprehensive methodology for planning and assessing the development of ‘smart’ energy systems leading to complex energy provision technology networks using different on-site as well as off-site resources. The use of the P-graph (process-graph) method allows the optimisation of energy systems by using different energy sources for heating, storing and cooling. This paper discusses this method in the development of an urban brown field, the premises of the Reininghaus District, a former brewery in the city of Graz in Austria. The case study is interesting as it combines on-site energy sources (e.g. solar heat and photovoltaic) with nearby industrial waste heat and cooling at different temperatures and grid-based resources such as existing district heating, natural gas, and electricity. The case study also includes the competition between centralised technologies (e.g. large scale combined heat and power and heat pumps with district heating grids) and decentralised technologies (e.g. small scale combined heat and power, single building gas boilers, solar collectors, etc. in buildings). Ecological assessment with the Energetic Long-Term Analysis of Settlement Structures (ELAS) calculator provides an evaluation of the ecological impact of the developed energy systems. Different scenarios based on two building standards OIB (low energy house standard) and NZE (passive house standard) as well as different prices for key energy resources were developed for an urban development concept for the Reininghaus District. The results of these scenarios show a very wide spectrum of structures of the energy system with strong variations often caused by small changes in cost or prices. The optimisation shows that small changes in the setup of the price/cost structure can cause dramatic differences in the optimal energy system to supply a smart city district. However, decentralised systems with low-temperature waste heat and decentralised heat pumps in the building groups show the financially most feasible and, compared to alternatives, most ecological way to supply the new buildings. The planning process for the development of the Reininghaus District is a complex and therefore lengthy process and shall be concretised over the next decades. Optimal energy technology networks and scenarios resulting from the application of the described methods support the framework energy plan. The accumulated knowledge can be used to form smart energy supply solutions as an integral part for the discussion of the stakeholders (investors, city department) to guide the forming of their action plan through the development of the city quarter.

Perceptions Des Nuisances Environnementales Liées Aux Déchets Solides Ménagers Dans Les Centres Urbains Du Nord-Bénin : Cas Des Villes De Parakou, Djougou, Kandi Et Malanville

The cities of Parakou, Djougou, Kandi and Malanville in the north of Benin have difficulty in eliminating dispose of waste produced by households in ecological way. This research was initiated to analyze the attitudes and understanding of environmental problems related to poor management of DSM by people of north Benin. To achieve this objective, a survey was conducted on the perception of environmental damage related to waste with 585 heads of households from August 2014 to March 2015. The city of residence, gender, age, marital status, level education, income, socio professional category are characteristics that were selected for the statistical analysis Khi2. Results showed 100% a significant statistical link between environmental pollution and city of residence (χ2 = 153.135; DF = 12; Pvalue = 0.000 <0.05). No statistically significant association was found between perceived environmental nuisances and sex (χ2 = 2.035; DF = 4; PValue = 0.729> 0.05) ; age (χ2 = 19.189, DF = 16; P-Value = 0.259> 0.05) ; marital status (χ2 = 20.809, DF = 12; P-Value = 0.053> 0.05 and income of respondents (χ2 = 32.273, DF = 32; P-Value = 0.453> 0.05). However in Djougou, a highly significant associative link was observed between respondents with incomes ranging from 100,001 to 150,000 and the air pollution (χ2 = 11.96, DF = 32; P-value = 0.000 <0.05). It is the same for the pollution of rivers in this income bracket in Parakou (χ2 = 5.85; DF = 24; Pvalue = 0.004 <0.05) and Kandi (χ2 = 6 04; DF = 10; P-value = 0.000 <. 0.05). Moreover, the level of education (χ2 = 14.728, DF = 12; P-Value = 0.257> 0.05) and occupation of the individuals interviewed (χ2 = 59.060, DF = 40; P-Value = 0.026 <0.05) determine their perceptions of environmental damage related to DSM. In total, city of residence, education level and occupation of individuals are the most, significant determiners in the perception of environmental damage related to the solid household waste.

Cytotoxic potentials of biologically fabricated platinum nanoparticles from Streptomyces sp. on MCF-7 breast cancer cells.

Biosynthesis of novel therapeutic nano-scale materials for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications has been enormously developed, since last decade. Herein, the authors report an ecological way of synthesising the platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs) using Streptomyces sp. for the first time. The produced PtNPs exhibited the face centred cubic system. The fourier transform infrared spectrum revealed the existence of amino acids in proteins which serves as an essential reductant for the formation of PtNPs. The spherical morphology of the PtNPs with an average size of 20-50 nm was observed from topographical images of atomic force microscopy and field emission scanning electron microscopy. The X-ray fluorescence spectrum confirms the presence of PtNPs with higher purity. The PtNPs size was further confirmed with transmission electron microscopy analysis and the particles were found to exist in the same size regime. Additionally, PtNPs showed the characteristic surface plasmon resonance peak at 262 nm. Dynamic light scattering studies report that 97.2% of particles were <100 nm, with an average particle diameter of about 45 nm. Furthermore, 3-(4, 5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2, 5-diphenyl-tetrazolium assay based in vitro cytotoxicity analysis was conducted for the PtNPs, which showed the inhibitory concentration (IC50) at 31.2 µg/ml against Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 breast cancer cells.

Conversion of Fe-rich waste sludge into nano-flake Fe-SC hybrid Fenton-like catalyst for degradation of AOII

Permanently increasing in the amount of sludge resulted in the serious environment burden. This work reports a novel carbothermal process for converting the Fe-rich waste sludge into cleaner nano-flake Fenton-like catalyst to relieve the crisis. The transformation of Fe species at different carbothermal temperature was evaluated by XRD analysis. SEM and XPS analyses were involved to characterize the morphology and chemical bonds of the catalysts. Results shown that the resulted catalyst carbonized at 800 °C (Fe-SC-800) was composed of Fe0 and Fe3O4, performing nano-flake-like structure. The Fe-SC-800 has the highest catalytic activity in degradation of AOII in C0 = 200 mg/L. The efficiency achieves at 98% within 30 min at neutral pH, which is ascribed to the hydroxyl radical oxidation. Moreover, no iron is leached and the Fe-SC-800 could be recycled for three times at least. Thus, the Fe rich sludge could be reutilized as a valuable source for eco-friendly catalyst production, constituting an ecological way to manage these sludge wastes and eliminate the sludge and organic pollution to environment.

A virtual reality platform for assessment and rehabilitation of neglect using a kinect.

Unilateral Spatial Neglect (USN) is normally assessed with paper-and-pencil tests. Virtual reality can be an effective neuropsychological tool for a more ecological and functional assessment and rehabilitation of neglect. We developed a 3D Virtual Reality platform - NeuroVirtual 3D - for the assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive deficits, in particular for USN. Within the virtual environments it is possible to interact with virtual objects and execute specific exercises using a Microsoft Kinect. Through the analysis of different grasping tasks it is possible to evaluate in an ecological way the patients' ability to find and handle objects in both sides of the virtual space.

Red ceramics enhancement by hazardous laundry water cleaning sludge

Permanently increasing number of industrial and municipal wastes accumulated in the dumps, inevitably leads to contamination of soils, surface waters and subterranean waters, the atmosphere and is a perceptible factor of climate change on our planet.This paper is one more proof that waste utilization, as a valuable source of components for new materials production, is environmentally and economically the best way for their management.The purposes of the research were the next: to develop eco-friendly ceramics that include and immobilize hazardous laundry sludge after cleaning of extremely polluted industrial uniforms with high contents of As, Ba, Cd, Pb, Cr, Hg, Cu, Zn and grease, oil, resin, tar, paints, organic volatile compounds, etc.; to improve the mechanical properties of red ceramic, using laundry sludge; to demonstrate a possibility of natural raw materials extraction decrease, partially replacing them with laundry sludge. This sludge was introduced in the traditional clay-sand mix in the amount of 0, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15 and 20 wt. %. After sintering of these composites at temperatures 1000°, 1050°, 1100°, 1150 °C the maximum values of flexural strength resistance of the ceramics was 15.6 MPa, values of linear shrinkage ranged from 4.5 to 14.1%, water absorption values – from 13.0 to 20.3%, and density values ranged from 1.65 to 1.83 g/cm3. All these characteristics of the mechanical properties of the developed materials significantly exceed the properties of ceramics from traditional clay-sand mixes without laundry sludge. The leaching and solubility values of the heavy metals immobilized within these ceramics are hundreds of times lower than threshold levels set by the national standards of Brazil. This study showed that industrial laundry sludge can be safely used as additive to ceramics in proportions of 10–20% wt. %, enhancing the mechanical properties of the materials and constituting an ecological way to manage these wastes.

ECOLOGICAL LIFESTYLE, THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF THE OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF THE CONCEPT

Based on the analysis of approaches to the empirical study of the environmental aspects of lifestyle are presented the basic principles that distinguish ecological way of life off the set of environmental practices that need to be taken into account in empirical measurement, namely: systematicity, conceptuality, contextual conformity and processuality. The article provides a theoretical basis and operational definition as an ecological way of life in general and the principles that distinguish it from other concepts of environmental sociology.

The Diversity Of Weeds In Organic Linseed And Flax Crop

The flax is grown in the world for many years. The area of linseed in the world is much more than that of fibre flax. The seeds of ecologically grown linseed have high value as the row material for food, medicine, fodder, oil production. The cold pressed oil and seeds of ecologically grown linseed are especially popular in EU, Canada and USA. The quality of the finished linen product is often dependent upon growing conditions and harvesting techniques. The organic textile trend is starting to develop worldwide, while in Lithuania it is still almost non-existent. Therefore, the chance for Lithuanian farmers appears to export the ecological seed and fiber, not only use them in local market. Lithuanian farmers are in luck for the advices how to grow flax in ecological way. Therefore, in 2007- 2009 some investigations were carried out at the Upytė Experimental Station of the Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry (Panevėžys district, Lithuania). The results of our investigation showed that it is possible to grow and harvest fibre flax and linseed in organic farms without any pesticides. The incidence of weeds is one of the biggest problems in organic growing of flax and linseed.

Embodied water accounting and renewability assessment for ecological wastewater treatment

For water accounting of wastewater treatment, existing studies focused on either direct water loss caused by evaporation/evapotranspiration by natural process or indirect water cost induced by economic inputs. As an extension of our previous work (Shao and Chen, 2013), both the direct and indirect water losses as embodied water are accounted for in the present study. A set of improved indicators have also been devised to assess the efficiency and renewability of wastewater treatment. After accounting and analyzing the embodied water of a pilot constructed wetland wastewater treatment system as an ecological engineering in Beijing, a comparison has been carried out between the case system and a traditional wastewater treatment plant based on the proposed indicators. The traditional wastewater treatment technology is illustrated however superior to the ecological way in terms of water use context. The present framework is capable of providing clear guidance for prioritizing options of wastewater treatment technologies by evaluating water trade-off, beyond the usual practice on treatment efficiencies and quality standards in effluents.

Polishing and deburring of machine parts in plasma of glow discharge between solid and liquid electrodes

The most effective way of materials processing in economicaland ecological way is utilizing of the low temperature plasma. Modes of operation, in which the speed of polishing was increased in more than 2 - 2,5 times in comparison to electrical erosion method, were found. Roughness was about 0,16 - 0,08 micrometers.

English

The herbicides application can be reduced with alternative methods, as pathogenic fungi use, that produces several secondary compounds in growth medium, which has phytotoxicity. Thus, the aim of this study was to determine the allelopathic activity of culture filtrate produced by pathogenic fungi: Fusarium solani , Macrophomina phaseolina Fusarium graminearum and Diplodia maydis, on germination and development of horseweed ( Conyza canadensis ), hairy beggarticks ( Bidens pilosa ) and wild poinsettia ( Euphorbia heterophylla ). This effect was also tested on soybean and corn crops. The experimental design was completely randomized with twenty treatments (four filtrates of fungi culture, with 0, 5, 10, 15 e 20% concentrations) and four replications. Data were submitted to analysis of variance and regression. The results indicated that filtered of Fusarium solani culture presented a negative effect on horseweed, hairy beggarticks and wild poinsettia without affecting negatively soybeans crop. Diplodia maydis provided some reduction on horseweed and wild poinsettia growth without causing damage to maize crop.The while Macrophomina phaseolina filtrate decreased a seedlings growth of wild poinsettia without affecting negatively corn. This suggests filtrates can be used to control weeds in a sustainable ecological way as well as an alternative to reduce herbicides application, thus, protecting the environment.

Development of 3D VGA tools: an application in a case of weak heritage in Valparaiso, Chile

In the last ten years, isovist analysis has emerged as a fundamental method for reflecting a person’s visual experience in cities and buildings. However, until now, most studies have used a two-dimensional planar perspective, neglecting the three-dimensional nature of vision. This paper presents a method to construct 3D isovists that give a more realistic account of a person’s visual experience in hilly urban scenarios where a person can see places that are not directly accessible. The paper aims to contribute to the construction of objective methods to represent the environment in a more ecological way. The method was tested in the city of Valparaiso, a heritage city that spreads across thirty hills forming a natural amphitheater and whose charm comes largely from the visual experience that arises from observing distant parts of the city that are not directly accessible. The results show that three-dimensional isovists are capable of capturing the underlying visual properties of ravines and urban viewpoints in Valparaiso.

Liberalization of the Interurban Coach Market in Germany: Do Attitudes and Perceptions Drive the Choice between Rail and Coach?

In January 2013 the interurban passenger transport market in Germany was liberalized and several coach carriers emerged offering an alternative to the Deutsche Bahn, a state owned rail monopoly. The coach carriers have attempted to position themselves not just through lower prices but also through product differentiation, for example marketing their services as the most ecological way to travel. Hence, it is important to consider attitudes and perceptions when analyzing this market. One year after liberalization we conducted a stated-choice experiment among students and employees at the Technical University of Berlin, where participants had to choose between different interurban public transport alternatives (regional and intercity trains or interurban coaches). Additionally, the experiment gathered perception and attitudinal indicators used to construct latent variables. Our results show that attitudes and perceptions indeed affect the way individuals choose between different transport modes and, therefore, they must be taken into account when analyzing the interurban passenger market in Germany.

Arts and health as an ecopsychological practice: Developing a conversation

Abstract What place does therapy have in a world that is facing an ecological emergency? Once we come to see ourselves as cells of the whole system that we call the environment, it becomes impossible to ignore the well-being of the planet as we work to improve our clients’ well-being and our own. Bernie Neville, client-centred ecopsychologist, explains to Helen Varney, public health sociologist, how therapy can be imagined in a larger context, locating it within the ecological way of thinking. For the ecopsychologist and for the sociologist too the experience of the powerful, shared moment in therapy is one that is shared with the wider human community and with the universe itself. If we are looking for evidence of the benefit of arts and health for individuals and their communities, we should look more deeply into such experiences.