Use Of Refuse Research Articles

Possibilities of landfills and solid waste sites for energy production in Ukraine

Dynamic changes in the energy sector towards the priority of renewable energy are stimulated by the political decisions in the European integrated environment aimed at achieving climate neutrality within the framework of the European Green Deal. The study aims to provide an in-depth investigation of the potential of landfills and solid waste sites for energy production in Ukraine. The study was conducted using general scientific methods, in particular, analysis and synthesis, abstraction, and comparison. The study examined the issues of developing the bioenergy potential of solid waste sites in Ukraine, including organisational, regulatory, technological, financial and investment aspects. The position of various operations for bioenergy waste processing in the solid waste management system, in particular, anaerobic digestion and solid fuel production, was identified, and an analysis of several thermal waste processing technologies was carried out. Among the features and characteristic requirements for the biogas production process using anaerobic methodology, the aspects of technological availability and economic feasibility are highlighted. The study examines the experience of production and use of organic Refuse Derived Fuel and Solid Recovered Fuel produced from solid waste sites, proving the need to optimise the regulatory support for biogas production at solid waste sites storage sites in the national legislative field. The article emphasises the possibility of practical use of Refuse Derived Fuel and Solid Recovered Fuel, in a partial format, to offset the shortage of fossil fuels in Ukraine and actively implement the concept of a sustainable green course for rational waste management. The results obtained can be used to improve the optimisation of strategic programmes for solid waste management in terms of their bioenergy potential

Exploring the extent of refuse use on urban cropping in Zongo of the Wa Municipality, Ghana

Refuse heaps are common scenes in cities in developing countries amidst the springing up of urban cropping but with low yields. However, the linkages between refuse generation and use in urban cropping appear to be little addressed in the existing literature. This paper sought to explore the separation of refuse into biodegradable and non-degradable and the use of the biodegradable portion as compost in urban cropping to improve crop production often linked to urban food availability. Hence, refuse generation at the household levels and refuse at the dumping sites were determined and sorted out using Wa Zongo as a study area. By combining convenience and simple random sampling, fifteen respondents from fifteen houses within a 150-metre radius of a dumping site were interviewed. Descriptive statistics, connecting and classifying, were employed in the data analysis. Findings revealed that more refuse is generated; a greater portion is decomposable; 93.3% of the respondents do not know the use of refuse for cropping; and, 53.3% prefer inorganic fertilizers for farming. To reduce refuse and eliminate the heaps, this study recommends refuse segregation at home and dump sites, biodegradable refuse for the production of compost and the use of public education to achieve this feat.

Refusing Invitations: A Contrastive Pragmatic Study of Jordanian Arabic and Castilian Spanish

Objectives: The study aimed at examining the use of refusals by Jordanian Arabic and Castilian Spanish speakers when declining invitations from their friends, focusing on similarities and differences in terms of head strategies, adjuncts, order, and frequency. Methods: A discourse completion task (DCT) comprising various situations were designed to elicit refusals from the participants. Drawing on Beebe et al’s categorization (1990), the data were categorized into head acts (subdivided into direct and indirect strategies) and adjuncts to refusal. Results: Although the Jordanian and Spanish participants belong to two distant cultures (eastern and western), the findings revealed that they were more similar than different in their refusals. They both showed a stronger tendency for indirectness in refusing invitations, with the Jordanians being more indirect. Both groups commonly utilized the strategies of statement of regret, giving reason, and negative ability, with different degrees of preference and frequency. As for adjuncts, both groups were inclined to employ a high percentage of adjuncts either before or after head strategies of refusal. While the Jordanians preferred the adjuncts of gratitude and swearing, the Spanish participants preferred gratitude and positive opinion. Both groups showed predilection to combine the same typical components in their refusal responses but differ in the order in which these components appeared. The employment of indirect refusal strategies and adjuncts in the Jordanian and Spanish responses pragmatically served to mitigate potentially negative effects of refusal on the inviters. Conclusion: Further research on Jordanian and Spanish refusals in other situations is recommended.

Hungry Listening: Resonant Theory for Indigenous Sound Studies

Stó:lō scholar Dylan Robinson’s Hungry Listening is a treatise on how to approach, engage with, and listen to/with Indigenous ways of knowing. One major premise is simple: musical undertakings that involve Indigenous musics and/or musicians have reified and continue to reify colonizing power structures. Nevertheless, what he offers in response is complex and necessarily impartial, since no one answer exists. The decolonizing work remains in the hands (ears?) of scholars, composers, musicians, music critics, and audiences as they grapple with the varying contexts and functions for past and contemporary Indigenous music-making. More generally, such answers could apply to any rethinking of (Indigenous) art and knowledge production. Robinson’s threading of decolonizing approaches together with his analysis of several different musical settings presents a most provocative springboard.Robinson opens with Canadian composer Murray Schafer’s disparaging depiction of Inuit singing. For those fond of Schafer’s compositions and theoretical ponderings (after all, he did peg soundscape in sound studies), he jarringly, yet effectively, rips open assumptions running through past and recent encounters with Indigenous musics and musicians. Some are blatant, as in Schafer’s depiction; others are couched in good intentions, as in more recent performances in the name of Truth and Reconciliation. His introduction also provides his initial explanation of the hungry listening concept, a phrase creatively adopted from Halq’eméylem to convey the exploitive and selective manner in which Western (art) music is heard and created with formal-aesthetic properties at the forefront. Directly after, he enacts critical Indigenous studies use of refusal and writes to an Indigenous-only readership in a short section.The next two chapters further flesh out hungry listening as an orientation and explore writing about music through performative writing. Robinson’s point that Indigenous musics function in different ways than Western art music is nothing new, yet he also teases out the implications of ignoring such functions in terms of Indigenous sovereignty. Further, in tackling hungry listening as something that ideally should be resisted/refused, he begins to propose pathways for practical and structural change. Between them is an “Event Score,” these appearing throughout in brief interludes of poetic writing engaging places, the senses, and materiality.The bulk of his analyses of musical performances come in the next three chapters. Chapter 3 examines performances bringing early music (Western classical) together with Indigenous music and/or Indigenous musicians, albeit in different ways, while chapter 4 takes on the issue of songs collected by early ethnographers stored in museums. Such songs have been used repeatedly by Western art music composers, often encouraged by the ethnographers that collected them, with little to no regard to their Indigenous functions/meanings/contexts. Providing some egregious examples, Robinson also highlights varying approaches from Indigenous activist-artists in reviving and repatriating such songs and asks composers/music critics/listeners to consider their own responsibility when working with or writing about musics stemming from such collections. Directly after is “Event Score for Responsibility,” a playbook for how a composition inspired by Inuit singing might be enacted more critically and collaboratively. Chapter 5 then grippingly recounts Robinson’s spectator reactions to four specific musical performances, enacting his positionality through performative writing. Here he also tackles affect, whether collective affect is even a possibility, and ultimately asserts “fostering empathy” (232) is not enough to direct structural change.Robinson concludes by revisiting inclusionary and exclusionary approaches modeled after Indigenous multimedia artists for listening, creating, and collaborating. He then offers space to two (non-Indigenous) ethnomusicology scholars to ruminate on decolonial thinking and listening before ultimately offering his own conclusions. Hungry Listening, while sometimes difficult to wade through with its many interdisciplinary references and Halq’eméylem phrases, pushes readers—refusing to placate them.

The Effect of Flipped Classroom on Iranian EFL Learners' Speech Act Production: Does Flip Type Make a Difference?

This study investigated the effect of two types of flipped classroom on the Iranian upper-intermediate EFL learnerschr('39') appropriate use of refusals, apologies and requests. The participants of the study included 60 upper-intermediate EFL learners from a language institute in Tehran, Iran. The participants were selected based on convenience sampling in the form of three intact classes. Then, the three classes were randomly assigned to three groups namely, traditional flipping group, debate-oriented flipping group and non-flipping group. The three groups were exposed to 14 treatment sessions. Speech act instruction was offered to the flipping groups through explicit flipped instruction and to the non-flipping group through explicit non-flipped instruction. Moreover, a Multiple Choice Discourse Completion Test (WDCT) was administered to the participants to measure their speech act production ability at the pre-treatment and post-treatment, phases of the study. The results revealed that both types of flipped instruction had a significantly positive effect on the EFL learnerschr('39') use of the speech acts (F=10.622, p<.0.05; F=19.358, p<.0.05; F=18.785, p<.0.05). Accordingly, EFL teachers are recommended to use flipping methods in an attempt to enhance EFL learnerschr('39') appropriate use of speech acts.

The Use of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) in the Power Industry

Abstract The paper presents the concept of use of fuels produced from production waste (RDF). The usefulness of RDF processed into pellets used in the chemical and power industry was also analyzed. The paper presents the results of research on the quality and content of selected elements in RDF pellets. The values of individual indexes are within the ranges typical for fuels manufactured from plastics. The tested material’s humidity was identified as low, as well as the content of chlorine, sulfur and other elements. In the working condition, the calorific value of the tested sample was 25.260 MJ·kg−1 and was above the range of typical values for RDF (13-20 MJ·kg−1). The moisture content in the tested material was 1% and it was within the required range. In the laboratory tests, the content of chlorine and sulfur was also determined.

Impact of flipped classroom on EFL learners' appropriate use of refusal: achievement, participation, perception

With the emergence of innovative mobile-based tools, new opportunities have been made to enhance the quality of language learning. Keeping this in mind, the current study aimed to investigate the impact of a flipped classroom on enhancing EFL learners’ pragmatic competence. To this end, 60 EFL learners from two universities in Iran were assigned into flipped and conventional groups. In the flipped group, the course materials were posted through Telegram app before the class, and the class time was mostly devoted to communicative activities. To elicit the required data, multiple sources of data collection, including a Discourse Completion Test (DCT), a study log, the teacher's field notes, a Learning Experience Questionnaire (LEQ), a written self-report survey, and a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) questionnaire, were used. Both parametric and non-parametric statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the participants of the flipped group were more engaged with the course contents and significantly outperformed their counterparts in the conventional group in the post-test. The results of the questionnaires suggested that most participants of the flipped group enjoyed learning English in a flipped learning environment, and willingly accepted Telegram as a suitable platform in learning language. The authors present insights into the impact of flipped classrooms on appropriate use of English refusals, the participants' perception of the flipped learning experience, their level of participation inside and outside the class, their impression of the online platform, Telegram, and offer implications for practice.

Mining Wastes in the Buryat Republic and Prospects of their Use

Case study of prospects of use of mining wastes in the Buryat Republic. High quality heavy weight concretes can be produced with the use of refuse from the tungsten and molybdenum refining plant. Brown coals, being one of overburden rocks of coal pits, are a good raw material for organic-mineral fertilizers, as well as for new sorbents. Ash and slag wastes generated by burning of solid fuels are widely used in production of construction materials. Separation of ashes into magnetic and non-magnetic, which allows to expand their application scope, is deemed promising.

Residue Derived Fuels as an Alternative Fuel for the Hellenic Power Generation Sector and their Potential for Emissions ReductionConstantinos S. Psomopoulos

The European Union Landfill Directive (1999/31 EC) promotes more environmental friendly waste management options, by reducing the amount of wastes and more specific of biodegradable wastes, disposed of in landfills. The EU member states are adopting the mechanical-biological treatment process for municipal solid waste and non-hazardous industrial wastes to comply with the abovementioned Directive's targets on landfill diversion, and produce waste derived fuels such as refuse derived fuel and solid recovered fuel. Waste derived fuels present high calorific values depending on their synthesis and are being used both in dedicated waste-to-energy plants and as fuel substitutes in industrial processes. In this paper the refuse derived fuel and solid recovered fuel production and utilisation options in European Union are presented, and the possibilities in Greece based on the waste production and National Plan for Waste Management of the Ministry of Environment is attempted. The existing and ongoing studies on co-combustion and co-gasification with brown coal support the use of refuse derived fuel and solid recovered fuel as fuel on Hellenic Power Sector, adopting in the existing lignite power plants adequate Air Pollution Control systems. If the co-combustion or co-gasification of these alternative fuels is adopted from the Hellenic Power Sector a reduction on emissions is expected that cannot be neglected.

Municipal solid waste: alternative source of energy to the cement kilns in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India

Rapid urbanisation has resulted in large-scale municipal solid waste (MSW) generation in India. Scientific and environment friendly disposal of MSW is a challenge for the municipal local bodies. A survey has been conducted regarding municipal solid waste generation from 342 local bodies in the State of Madhya Pradesh. Total generation of the MSW in the State is estimated around 4,500 MT/day containing around 55% incinerable waste with around 45% moisture content. There are nine major cement industries in the State, with clinker production capacity of more than 20 million MT/year. Coal is a primary fuel for clinker production and the process takes place at 1,400 to 1,450°C. The MSW is being practiced as alternative fuel and raw material (AFR) in the form of refuse derived fuel (RDF) by the cement industries. The stack emission and the engineering properties of the clinker are found unaffected after the use of refuse derive fuel (RDF) as a co-fuel. Hence, the MSW to RDF may be considered as environmentally safe option for its disposal and the better alternative source of energy, for the cement industries.

Expanding Urban American Indian Youths' Repertoire of Drug Resistance Skills: Pilot Results from a Culturally Adapted Prevention Program

This article examines changes in the drug resistance strategies used by urban American Indian (UAI) middle school students during a pilot test of a substance use prevention curriculum designed specifically for UAI youth, Living in 2 Worlds (L2W). L2W teaches four drug resistance strategies (refuse, explain, avoid, leave [R-E-A-L]) in culturally appropriate ways. Data come from 57 UAI students (53% female; mean age = 12.5 years) who participated in L2W during an academic enrichment class for Native youth at two Phoenix schools. Students completed a pre-test questionnaire before the L2W lessons and a post-test 7 months later. Questions assessed the use of R-E-A-L and alternative strategies commonly reported by UAI youth (change the subject, use humor). Tests of mean differences from pre-test to post-test showed significant increases in use of refuse, explain, and leave, and an expanding R-E-A-L repertoire. Use of more passive strategies (avoid, use humor) did not change significantly, except for change the subject, which increased. Changes in the use of strategies did not differ significantly by gender, age, school grades, parental education, or length of urban residence. The L2W curriculum appears effective in teaching culturally relevant communication strategies that expand UAI youths' repertoire of drug resistance skills.

On the realization of refusal strategies by Persian and Kurdish speakers

The present study investigated the use of refusal by Persian and Kurdish speakers (PSs and KSs) as well as the frequency and shift of semantic formulas with regard to types of eliciting acts and status of the interlocutor. A group of 278 participants, including 136 PSs and 142 KSs, with the age range of 18–28 were asked to fill out a written Discourse Completion Test (DCT). The gathered data were coded and analyzed according to the taxonomy of refusals developed by Beebe, Takahashi, and Uliss-Weltz (1990). The results revealed that ‘direct refusal’, ‘regret’, ‘excuse and reason’, ‘wish’, and ‘postponement’ were the most frequently used strategies. Moreover, differences were observed in the frequency and shift of semantic formulas used by PSs and KSs. For instance, KSs displayed a higher level of frequency shift in their use of several semantic formulas regarding status level. They were also found to use a greater variety of strategies. Additionally, ‘Swearing’ was found to be a new category of semantic formulas which is not included in the classification of refusal strategies adopted as theoretical framework. As a culture specific strategy, ‘Swearing’ functioned as a type of face work technique used to soften the face threat existing in the speech act of refusal. The findings of the study can help reduce misunderstandings and breakdowns in communication that may take place in the conversations between Persian and Kurdish interlocutors. They can also contribute to our understanding of refusal as a universal speech act and to the general concern to reduce miscommunication.

Trash to treasure: leaf-cutting ants repair nest-mound damage by recycling refuse dump materials

Animals adjust their behaviors in response to changing environmental conditions because the costs and benefits of such behaviors change as conditions change. The reuse of materials from waste (i.e., recycling) rarely occurs in social insects because it may imply significant health risks and behavioral difficulties. However, the benefit of reusing may exceed its costs under certain circumstances. For the first time, we document that ants refuse materials to repair nest-mound damage. We conducted a series of field measurements and experiments to test the hypotheses that fluctuations in this behavior in the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex lobicornis depend on 1) seasonal changes in the tendency to reject refuse (a proxy of changes in their pathogen levels), and/or 2) seasonal foraging restrictions. We 1) measured the rejection of foraging ants toward experimental refuse piles among seasons and 2) analyzed how mound condition, temperatures of fungus chamber and soil surface, and foraging activity explained this behavior using a classification tree, a powerful recursive partitioning method. Foraging ants showed similar rejection levels toward refuse piles in different seasons. Colonies repaired mound damage with refuse materials only during the hottest season and when they had low foraging rates, suggesting that ants recycle their refuse by a hierarchical set of decisions dependent on the risk of fungal damage and foraging restrictions. Repairing the mounds is essential during summer, when temperatures inside damaged mounds are lethal to their fungus cultures. However, these high temperatures also restrict the foraging activity, reducing the collection of building materials. Thus, colonies with lower foraging rates apparently use their refuse to repair mounds because this substrate requires less searching and carrying time. The use of refuse did not affect the colony growth rate. This illustrates how ants integrate information about food, hygienic and nest conditions through a novel and plastic behavior: recycling of their discarded materials.

Pragmatic Transfer in Iraqi EFL Learners' Refusals

The present study deals with pragmatic transfer of Iraqi EFL learners' refusal strategies as reflected by their responses to a modified version of 12- items written discourse completion task; and compare with two groups ,namely Iraqi native speakers of Arabic and American native speakers of English. The task consisted of three requests, three offers, three suggestions, and three invitations. Each one of these situations included one refusal to a person of higher status, one to a person of equal status, and one to a person of lower status. Data analyzed according to frequency types of refusal strategies and interlocutor's social status. It is found that the frequency of use of refusals by Iraqi EFL learners is different from that of Americans, though they do share some similarities. Iraqi EFL learners are apt to express refusals with care and/or caution represented by using more statements of reason/explanation, statements of regret, wish and refusal adjuncts in their refusals than Americans. Americans are more sensitive to their interlocutor's higher and equal status, whereas Iraqi EFL learners to lower status. Evidences proved the existence of little difference between IEFL males and females in refusal frequency and refusal adjuncts.

School-based smoking prevention programs with the promise of long-term effects.

I provide a systematic review of trials of school-based smoking prevention programs that had at least 15 sessions, preferably with some in high school, that reported significant short-term effects, and that included long-term follow-up. This is supplemented with a description of some other programs that produce short-term effects that portend large long-term effects. I conclude that school-based programs can have long-term effects of practical importance it they: include 15 or more sessions over multiple years, including some in high school; use the social influence model and interactive delivery methods; include components on norms, commitment not to use, intentions not to use, and training and practice in the use of refusal and other life skills; and use peer leaders in some role. School-based programs of this type can reduce smoking onset by 25–30%, and school plus community programs can reduce smoking onset by 35–40% by the end of high school. Some early childhood programs that do not have smoking prevention as their main aim, including home nursing, the Good Behavior Game, the Positive Action program and others, seem to change the developmental trajectories of children so that they are less likely to engage in multiple problem behaviors, including smoking, as adolescents. This review makes it clear that effective school-based smoking prevention programs exist and can be adopted, adapted and deployed with success – and should be.

PCDD/F Emissions from Co-Combustion of RDF with Peat, Wood Waste, and Coal in FBC Boilers

The use of refuse derived fuel (RDF) as additional fuel in multifuel fluidized bed boilers (FBC) is a promising way for rational waste management. Several combustion experiments using RDF as additional fuel have been carried out in the research program of combustion and gasification technologies in Finland under the title Liekki 2. The size of fluidized bed combustors used in these experiments ranged from 15 kWth up to 117 MWth. The chlorine content of fuel rose up to 0.35% as a measured dry base (db). The emissions of the toxic PCDD/F compounds were found to follow fuel-Cl content trendwise, as expected. However, quantitatively the relative emission levels varied with the factor of 103 at the same Cl- content in fuel. Using statistical analysis correlations between PCDD/F emissions and combustion conditions (Tg, CO etc.) as well as fuel and ash properties were found. Most of the earlier measurements in commercial plants have been conducted usually after an electrostatic precipitator (ESP), which has made it difficult to relate emission results to corresponding combustion conditions. According to the laboratory scale fluidized bed reactor (15 kWth) using normal (primary and secondary) and staged (primary + secondary + tertiary) combustion air feeding, it was found that in the staged condition (higher vertical temperature profile) the total amount of PCDD/F compounds (gas and particles) decreased, but the amount of PCDD/F in solid phase increased. Although the required European emission level of PCDD/F (0.1 ng/m3n I-TEQ, in 11% O2) can be achieved, the detailed formation and destruction mechanisms of PCDD/F in combustion conditions are not known well enough for quantitative determination of the emissions.

Control/Promotion of the Refuse Methanogenic Fermentation

Although practiced for more than 7 millennia, the landfill disposal of refuse has, as yet, with few exceptions, been merely regarded as a low-cost disposal option and its exploitation potential has been largely ignored. Today, however, a number of possibilities are under consideration including the production of energy, chemical feedstock, value-added chemicals, carbon dioxide and protein; the use of refuse as an anaerobic filter for the co-disposal of industrial wastewater and sludge; and the restoration of impoverished soils by fresh or composted refuse addition. Development of these technologies, however, necessitates a comprehensive understanding of the fundamental microbiology and biochemistry of refuse catabolism. Existing fundamental knowledge underpinning these technologies will be considered in a series of review articles. In the first, control/exploitation of the solid-state refuse methanogenic fermentation is examined with specific reference to the effects of first-tier variable manipulations.

Control of Refuse Incinerator Particulate Emissions

One of the critical factors involved in the use of refuse as a source of heat energy is the requirement to remove particulate matter from the hot flue gases. The paper describes how this can be accomplished using electrostatic precipitators. Special design features of precipitators for this application are outlined including pre-collector devices to cope with low bulk density paper char which can otherwise pass through the precipitator. Performance data from various parts of the world are discussed, illustrating how the electrostatic precipitator can be designed to cope with the local emissions legislation.

Recent Developments in the Use of Municipal Refuse as a Fuel

The increase in the price of fuel since the Near East war of 1973 has led to renewed interest in refuse as a fuel, starting with more accurate knowledge of its calorific value. No further large power plant has been built but there have been incinerators supplying steam for heating purposes. The use of refuse as supplementary fuel for boiler plant and for cement production and as fuel for burning sewage sludge. Experiments are in progress on refuse in pelletised form for general sale and on pyrolysis and hydrolysis. In the USA there is interest in gas production from refuse landfills.