Impact Assessment Of Technologies Research Articles

The Next Evolution of HemoDialysis eXpanded: From a Delphi Questionnaire-Based Approach to the Real Life of Italian Dialysis Units

Introduction: Impact assessment of new technologies in chronic hemodialysis (HD) is challenging due to HD patient frailty, the complexity of HD clinical trials and practice variability among countries. Among the most recent HD innovations, medium cut-off (MCO) dialyzers present an optimized membrane geometry that provides enhanced clearances for middle and large molecular weight uremic toxins (UT). These toxins are poorly cleared by available HD techniques and largely contribute to patient morbidity and mortality. The aim of this paper is to assess the available clinical evidence about MCO membranes and to identify the next steps needed to generate conclusive data on their use in HD. Methods: With this purpose, we first reviewed and compared the current HD technologies aimed to improve the clearance of middle and large UT; subsequently, we used a Delphi questionnaire to identify and discuss the consensus about MCO efficacy within a large sample of the Italian Nephrology community. Results and Conclusions: Our investigation gathered a significant degree of consensus on the beneficial role of MCO membrane and expanded HD. Finally, we used our results to propose future trial designs and clinical investigations aimed to improve evidence quality about the use of these membranes in the present clinical scenario of dialysis units.

Environmental Impact Assessment of Food Irradiation Technology as A Comparative Study with some Other Food Preservation Methods

Environmental Impact Assessment of Food Irradiation Technology as A Comparative Study with some Other Food Preservation Methods

The Life Cycle Assessment on Mixed Incineration of High Heating Value Industrial Solid Waste with Municipal Solid Waste

The industrialization process of China has achieved remarkable economic and social development in recent decades, which companies with excessive production of industrial solid waste (ISW). It took up a large amount of land and led to potential environmental problems such as air, water, soil pollution. With the increasing awareness of environmental protection and the better vision to build a pattern of sustainable economy, the comprehensive utilization of ISW is becoming a challenging and promising research field. In this work, a waste incineration power plant in Guangdong Province, China was selected as the research object. Its novel incineration scheme by mix ISW and MSW was evaluated, which aims to improve power generation efficiency. The comprehensive environmental impact assessment of this refuse incineration-power generation technology was also carried out by life cycle assessment. Results show that for waste incineration power generation system, the numerical order of all normalization indicators is Waste Solids>EP>NOx>ADP>AP>CADP>RI>CADP (fossil fuel) >CO2> SO2>GWP>PED>COD>IWU> Water Use > NH3-N. It shows that the ash reduction and denigration system are the most worthy of optimization. And the contribution of flue gas purification to ECER index reaches 38.98%, which is the most influential link and significantly ahead of other links, as well as the most needed optimization link.

Putting AI ethics to work: are the tools fit for purpose?

Bias, unfairness and lack of transparency and accountability in Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems, and the potential for the misuse of predictive models for decision-making have raised concerns about the ethical impact and unintended consequences of new technologies for society across every sector where data-driven innovation is taking place. This paper reviews the landscape of suggested ethical frameworks with a focus on those which go beyond high-level statements of principles and offer practical tools for application of these principles in the production and deployment of systems. This work provides an assessment of these practical frameworks with the lens of known best practices for impact assessment and audit of technology. We review other historical uses of risk assessments and audits and create a typology that allows us to compare current AI ethics tools to Best Practices found in previous methodologies from technology, environment, privacy, finance and engineering. We analyse current AI ethics tools and their support for diverse stakeholders and components of the AI development and deployment lifecycle as well as the types of tools used to facilitate use. From this, we identify gaps in current AI ethics tools in auditing and risk assessment that should be considered going forward.

Sustainability assessment framework and methodology with trans-disciplinary numerical simulation model for analytical floatovoltaic energy system planning assessments

Floatovoltaics is rapidly emerging as a novel type of sustainable energy technology, in which solar photovoltaic installations are sited directly on open-water spaces. As an agro-renewable energy-generation technology, it makes dual use of water to generate revenue from under-utilised irrigation water surfaces while also offering mutually beneficial layers of land-saving, environmental conservation and water-preservation benefits. Standardised metrics for ground-mounted photovoltaic projects, however, do not properly account for the technology’s extended range of resource-use-efficiencies and impact-effect-positives. Such knowledge gaps hinder evidence-based scientific assessments in regulatory project permissions mandated by law. Technology planning and impact assessment practices can benefit from a computer-aided technique to characterise floatovoltaic performance profiles. This paper introduces a conceptual empirical modelling framework, a holistic system dynamics-thinking methodology and a computer synthesis model to empirically predict the performance and sustainability profiles of prospective floatovoltaic installations. By inherently exploring the techno-economic and techno-environmental externalities of floatovoltaic enterprises, it translates performance profiles into sustainability indicators, articulated as WELF-nexus parameters. The paper details the integrated analytical framework, mathematical modelling formulation and digital computer synthesis model towards quantitative floatovoltaic energy system planning and sustainability assessments. The study’s main finding is that an integrated techno-enviro-economic floatovoltaic assessment methodology can be successfully modelled as a context-sensitive synthesis technique in a system dynamics modelling environment. The proposed technique can find utility in solving real-world problems with assessments in efficiency, feasibility and sustainability for agricultural floatovoltaics.

Impact Assessment of Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture: Application of The Ambitec-TICs Method

An extraordinary moment of agricultural modernization is currently underway due to innovations in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). In this process, management precepts are renewed, fostering significant gains in efficiency, productivity, and sustainable use of natural resources and the environment. The growing supply of ICTs and the extension of connectivity in rural areas, with their transforming roles in productive practices and economic relations, bring about questions regarding their impacts. These technologies include precision positioning systems and large volume databases, electronic sensors of site-specific production and environmental conditions, repositories of relational data, statistical and crop forecasting software, methodologies and processes; web-based information services, among others. The assessment of impacts focused on ICTs for agriculture needs innovative approaches, due to the peculiarities of their applications, the different scales of their socioenvironmental scopes and, at the same time, the verification of effectiveness of institutional investments on research, development, and innovation (RD&I). Based on these premises, the objectives of this work are to present a ‘module of impact indicators for Information and Communication Technologies (Ambitec-TICs)’, and assess its application to six typical technology adoption cases resulting from agricultural RD&I projects. The results detail critical analyses of the contributions of the proposed module for the registration, interpretation, and communication of impacts, with recommendations for technology transfer and accountability in institutional Social Balance documentation.

Role of Clean Technology in Sustainable Manufacturing

Sustainable manufacturing is the backbone for the development of standard of living of the country along with its industrial growth. It is a process for meeting development needs while maintaining the stability, integrity and beauty of natural biotic systems such that societal consumption of natural resources is incommensurate with the rate which the nature can replenish itself. It can be more cost and time efficient, especially for small scale production and customized products. In order to have complete and efficient structure of sustainable manufacture it must produce green products by using clean technologies. The manufacturing industries which can integrate the aspect of clean technologies in their technical and financial decisions will hold an important role in winning the everlasting future race.
 The main objective of this paper is to elaborate the concept and implementation of clean technologies in sustainable manufacturing which includes the process, models and impact assessment of green technologies.
 The ideas presented in this paper will be quite useful for the researchers and industrialists who are interested in the field sustainable manufacturing.

Impact assessment of agricultural technologies on household food consumption and dietary diversity in eastern Ethiopia

Food insecurity remains a major challenge to rural households in Eastern Ethiopia. To improve food and nutrition security of vulnerable households in eastern Ethiopia, several agricultural technologies have been scaled-up by Haramaya University for more than six decades. However, the impact of these technologies on household nutritional outcomes was not systematically studied. This study examined the impact of selected agricultural technologies on household food and nutrition security. Cross-sectional data were generated from 248 randomly selected rural households. Of these, 52% were non-users of improved agricultural technologies disseminated by the university while the remaining 48% sample respondents were users. The data generated from the field were analyzed using Propensity Score Matching (PSM) procedure and descriptive statistics. Results from the econometric analysis result show that households that adopted agricultural technologies had, on average, 8.97 higher Food Consumption Score (FCS) and 1.22 higher Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) compared to those not using improved technologies. This shows that households adopting agricultural technologies are more likely to have higher food security compared to non-users. This suggests that promotion of improved agricultural technologies in the study area can enhance household food and nutrition security. • Improved agricultural technologies play vital role in rural household economies. • Households adopting improved agricultural technologies have higher HDDS and FCS. • Adopter households are more likely to have higher food security status. • Promoting improved agricultural technologies should be a priority for stakeholders.

Smart Infrastructure and Technology Systems Ethics

Smart infrastructure and systems are being rolled out without commensurate technology impact assessments and stakeholder consultations. Consequentially, the benefits of innovation are potentially being concentrated to only a privileged parcel of the population and, whether unintended or not, this may create systems of oppression against minorities. The value of inclusive approaches to systems development is not new, and the benefits of user-centered, participatory, and co-design processes have been widely documented. However, the dominant model of systems design remains in support of processes that engineers and technologists largely lead. We have also witnessed a reverse engineering process taking place, a hacking of the populace as a <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">living lab</i> to fit the technology we conceive of in our social imaginaries informed by diverse experiences. At times it feels like one giant experiment in the hope of a better future by pursuing technologies and technological progression because the capability and resources exist, and we can innovate “at speed.” This speed of progression can often inhibit collaborative and participatory processes, resulting in (un-)anticipated collateral damage.

Life cycle impact assessment of semiconductor packaging technologies with emphasis on ball grid array

Environmental impact assessment studies have completely and rapidly focused on the shift from economic to environmental competitiveness in semiconductor packaging industries under the trend of small size and diverse semiconductor products. This study has two main objectives, namely, (1) to adopt traditional life cycle impact assessment (LCIA) for investigating the environmental damage of three packaging technologies, namely, ball grid array (BGA), flip chip (FC), and lead frame (LF). Two commonly used materials in 2017, namely, gold and copper wires, were analyzed. The functional unit was defined on the basis of the packaging volume (1 mm3); (2) to identify influential parameters for developing two parametric LCIA equations for the BGA. Results show that the semiconductor back-end industry should gradually replace gold wires with copper wires without affecting the function of products and should promote the low impact packaging technology (LF) while satisfying the customer’s demands. Tree influential parameters (packaging volume, wire mass, and lead counts) of LCIA are identified by regression analysis, and the lead count can be considered a worthwhile alternative parameter for allocation and establishing the parametric tool when the packaging volume of the product is unavailable. The parametric tool can reduce the time cost of collecting LCI data and avoid the analysis errors and uncertainty caused by the distribution. The research can serve as a guide for the PCRs (LCA-PCR) of the semiconductor industry for suitable alternative allocation principles and functional units.

Environmental impact assessment of gold underground leaching technology

The research assessed an impact of the underground gold mining (GM) on snow cover, surface and ground water of the industrial site and the adjacent area. It has been established that the water of observation wells located downstream the terrain contains specific pollutants typical for the GM technology. The snow cover contains dust, heavy metals, arsenic and some light organochlorine compounds, which are components of GM solutions. The article also gives recommendations on monitoring and assessment of the environmental impact of the PoE technology.

Life cycle impact assessment of different manufacturing technologies for automotive CFRP components

A comparative life cycle assessment analysis among pressure bag molding and bag molding with autoclave for the manufacturing of car components in carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) was carried out. Four scenarios were analyzed: i) autoclave bag molding with aluminum mold, ii) autoclave bag molding with CFRP mold and plastic master, iii) autoclave bag molding with CFRP mold and medium density fiberboard master, and iv) pressure bag molding with aluminum mold. The collected data for life cycle inventory derives from an Italian manufacturer of CFRP car components, scientific references and Ecoinvent database. Cumulative energy demand, global warming potential, ReCiPe midpoint and endpoint methods were used as impact and damage categories for quantifying the environmental impacts of the different manufacturing processes investigated. The results showed that the pre-impregnated composite fibers with thermoset polymer matrix, used as input material for the four investigated scenarios, represents the main source of total environmental impact, due to the use of polyacrylonitrile as a precursor for carbon fibers. The comparison among the environmental assessments of the different scenarios demonstrated that the most impacting process is the autoclave bag molding with composite mold and polyurethane master, whilst the most sustainable process is the autoclave bag molding with aluminum mold.

Analysis of Environmental Impacts of Solar Energy Technologies in Rwanda: GigaWatt

Nowadays Rwanda's target is to transit from a developing country to a middle-income country. One of the objectives to achieve this is the government encouraging private companies and individuals to invest in solar energy use either solar home system, mini-grid or grid-connected technology. The main objective of the study was to investigate the environmental impact assessment of solar energy technologies in Rwanda and its related plant performances. The assessment of the Rwamagana solar power plant (GigaWatt) was defined as a case study. In this study, the data and information were collected from the rural community of Rwamagana district, power plant and Rwanda energy group (REG). The Rwanda national electrification framework shows that solar energy technology is the third after hydropower, thermal and peat technologies. Solar PV modules used to produce electricity of 8.5 MW to the national grid while more than 14,970 solar home systems are installed in different parts of Rwanda. As shown in the presented results, there were no global warming emissions associated with generating electricity from solar energy technologies while Rwamagana solar power plant used larger utility-scale solar photovoltaic panels to raise the land degradation and habitat loss. The paper is concluded focusing on the ways to avoid negative and enhance the positive impacts of solar energy technology in the selected power plant.

Bioeconomy futures: Expectation patterns of scientists and practitioners on the sustainability of bio‐based transformation

AbstractEconomic sectors relying on the use of biological organisms, processes, and principles to create products and services are expected to experience accelerated growth due to innovation in the bioeconomy. Associated benefits and risks for sustainable development are increasingly subject to societal debate. We compiled expectation patterns from a global survey with bioeconomy experts and a systematic literature review identifying areas of consensus and controversy across dimensions of the sustainable development goals (SDG). Positive connotations dominated in both expert opinions and the scientific literature, but the level of consensus varied across sectors of the bioeconomy and in relation to applied methodological approaches (scientific literature) and type of employer (experts). In both sources, we found more differentiated views on potential impacts of bioeconomic development pathways on sustainability in more established bioeconomy‐related discourses, which indicates that expectation patterns in more recent fields of bio‐based innovation are subject to early “hype cycle” dynamics. Our findings suggest the need to systematically mainstream sustainability risk appraisals across relevant application contexts in technology impact assessments for the bioeconomy.

Ocena oddziaływania na środowisko technologii przetwarzania organicznych odpadów komunalnych na dodatki do paliw płynnych

Ocena oddziaływania na środowisko technologii przetwarzania organicznych odpadów komunalnych na dodatki do paliw płynnych

Economic Analysis of Impact Assessment of Production Technology of Paddy Cultivation in Nasik Region of Maharashtra in India

The study had assessed the impact assessment of production technology of paddy cultivation in Nasik region of Maharashtra for the year 2016-17, based on the data of costs and returns. Analytical techniques like benefit-cost ratio (BCR), technology adoption index, yield gap, were exercised to have the extent of economic impact of improved paddy technology. High adopter group earned the net profit of ` 2298.09/ha (BCR=1.32) compared to ` 3629.3/ha ( BCR= 1.06) for low adopter group. Average technology adoption index was 71.57 per cent indicating that the farmers adopting recommended production technology of paddy could get yield of 41.63q/ha. Factor share analysis showed that contribution of Char-sutri method to the total yield was the highest yield (i.e. 32.84 per cent) which was followed by urea (19.76 per cent), doses of manures (12.02 per cent), intercultural operation, planting distance, transplanting time contributes about 8.09 per cent etc. respectively. Estimates of yield gap analysis proved existence of yield gap in all level which ranged from 41 percent (low adopter) to 23 percent (high adopter). So, reduction or bridging up the yield gap may be utmost priority to increase the overall production and income of the farmers.

CGIAR modeling approaches for resource‐constrained scenarios: II. Models for analyzing socioeconomic factors to improve policy recommendations

AbstractInternational crop‐related research as conducted by the CGIAR uses crop modeling for a variety of purposes. By linking crop models with economic models and approaches, crop model outputs can be effectively used as inputs into socioeconomic modeling efforts for priority setting and policy advice using ex‐ante impact assessment of technologies and scenario analysis. This requires interdisciplinary collaboration and very often collaboration across a variety of research organizations. This study highlights the key topics, purposes, and approaches of socioeconomic analysis within the CGIAR related to cropping systems. Although each CGIAR center has a different mission, all CGIAR centers share a common strategy of striving toward a world free of hunger, poverty, and environmental degradation. This means research is mostly focused toward resource‐constrained smallholder farmers. The review covers global modeling efforts using the IMPACT model to farm household bio‐economic models for assessing the potential impact of new technologies on farming systems and livelihoods. Although the CGIAR addresses all aspects of food systems, the focus of this review is on crop commodities and the economic analysis linked to crop‐growth model results. This study, while not a comprehensive review, provides insights into the richness of the socioeconomic modeling endeavors within the CGIAR. The study highlights the need for interdisciplinary approaches to address the challenges this type of modeling faces.

Integrated municipal solid waste management scheme of Hong Kong: A comprehensive analysis in terms of global warming potential and energy use

The climate and energy nexus have drawn global attention towards sustainable solutions for synthetic processes, such as waste management. Innovative policies can amend waste management systems to be more sustainable, as in Hong Kong, where besides the conventional landfilling, alternatives like incineration and biological treatment methods are being considered to develop an integrated system. However, the outcomes appear uncertain and need to be analysed for best possible integration. This study proposes a customized methodology for impact assessment of these waste treatment technologies and evaluates five integrated scenarios in terms of net greenhouse gas emissions (GHEs) and energy use by applying classified modelling approaches. The baseline results revealed that compared to the landfilling alone, integration of landfilling with combined anaerobic digestion and composting (ADC) reduced up to 56% of net GHEs. Incineration with ADC saved up to 87% GHEs and ranked as the best-case scenario in both impact categories. Considering carbon sequestration as a credit suggested that landfill-linked scenarios were suitable for GHEs saving, while landfilling alone remained the worst case. The uncertainty propagation and sensitivity analysis revealed that some key parameters can alter the ranking order of scenarios, when variated by the reported uncertainty. The study provides useful modelling insights into the critical nature of these technologies and can be considered as a decision-making tool locally, as well as a generic calculation template.

Impact assessment of high soil CO2 on plant growth and soil environment: a greenhouse study.

To ensure the safety of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology, insight into the potential impacts of CO2 leakage on the ecosystem is necessary. We conducted a greenhouse experiment to investigate the effects of high soil CO2 on plant growth and the soil environment. Treatments comprised 99.99% CO2 injection (CG), 99.99% N2injection (NG), and no injection (BG). NG treatment was employed to differentiate the effects of O2 depletion from those of CO2 enrichment. Soil CO2 and O2 concentrations were maintained at an average of 53% and 11%, respectively, under CG treatment. We verified that high soil CO2 had negative effects on root water absorption, chlorophyll, starch content and total biomass. Soil microbial acid phosphatase activity was affected by CG treatment. These negative effects were attributed to high soil CO2 instead of low O2 or low pH. Our results indicate that high soil CO2 affected the root system, which in turn triggered further changes in aboveground plant tissues and rhizospheric soil water conditions. A conceptual diagram of CO2 toxicity to plants and soil is suggested to act as a useful guideline for impact assessment of CCS technology.

A spatial framework for ex-ante impact assessment of agricultural technologies

Traditional agricultural research and extension relies on replicated field experiments, on-farm trials, and demonstration plots to evaluate and adapt agronomic technologies that aim to increase productivity, reduce risk, and protect the environment for a given biophysical and socio-economic context. To date, these efforts lack a generic and robust spatial framework for ex-ante assessment that: (i) provides strategic insight to guide decisions about the number and location of testing sites, (ii) define the target domain for scaling-out a given technology or technology package, and (iii) estimate potential impact from widespread adoption of the technology(ies) being evaluated. In this study, we developed a data-rich spatial framework to guide agricultural research and development (AR&D) prioritization and to perform ex-ante impact assessment. The framework uses “technology extrapolation domains”, which delineate regions with similar climate and soil type combined with other biophysical and socio-economic factors that influence technology adoption. We provide proof of concept for the framework using a maize agronomy project in three sub-Saharan Africa countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania) as a case study. We used maize area and rural population coverage as indicators to estimate potential project impact in each country. The project conducted 496 nutrient omission trials located at both on-farm and research station sites across these three countries. Reallocation of test sites towards domains with a larger proportion of national maize area could increase coverage of maize area by 79–134% and of rural population by 14–33% in Nigeria and Ethiopia. This study represents a first step in developing a generic, transparent, and scientifically robust framework to estimate ex-ante impact of AR&D programs that aim to increase food production and reduce poverty and hunger.