Issues in socially desirable responding and personality research

The four studies presented in this dissertation were designed to examine the influence of socially desirable responding (SDR) on personality research outcomes. The assessment of personality relies heavily on the use of self-report questionnaires. Their validity could be threatened by people being dishonest in their self-descriptions and ascribing more desirable traits to themselves than would be warranted by their behaviour. Scales designed to detect SDR have been around for half a century, but their status continues to be debated. Paulhus (1991) Balanced Inventory of Desirable Responding (BIDR) is perhaps the most prominent of the scales developed to distinguish between those individuals who have distorted their responses and those who have not. The first two studies included in this dissertation mostly deal with the properties of the BIDR. The other two studies are less focused on SDR scales and investigate, more generally, the potential effects of SDR on two phenomena that are of central interest to the general personality discourse personality stability over time and volunteering as participants in psychological research. The data of Studies I and II showed that Paulhus BIDR scales, designed to be indicators of SDR, are not pure measures both the communion management and self-deceptive enhancement scales are, at once, measures of response bias and measures of more substantive individual differences in behaviour. The data further suggested that the communion management and self-deceptive enhancement scales of the BIDR are somewhat accurate measures of communal and agentic bias, respectively. No evidence for a suppressor model of SDR, and only weak evidence for a moderator model, was found in those studies. Concerning research on personality stability, some data in Study I suggested that SDR may add reliable and common variance to a personality questionnaire administered at two different points in time, thus artificially inflating the test-retest correlation of that questionnaire. Furthermore, Study III demonstrated that the maturity-stability hypothesis may be in part, but not entirely, a product of SDR. Study IV suggested that some of the observed personality differences between research volunteers and nonvolunteers may be due to heightened SDR of volunteers. However, those personality differences were by no means exclusively attributable to differences in SDR. In sum, the work presented in this thesis reveals some ambiguity regarding the effects of SDR on personality research, as is true of much of the previous research on SDR. Clear-cut conclusions are difficult to reach, as the data were neither fully consistent with the view that SDR can be ignored, nor with the view that SDR needs to be controlled in some way. The struggle to understand the influence of SDR on personality research continues.

What was behind the bark? : An assessment of decay among urban Tilia, Betula and Acer trees felled as hazardous in the Helsinki City area

Old trees growing in urban environments are often felled due to symptoms of mechanical defects that could be hazardous to people and property. The decisions concerning these removals are justified by risk assessments carried out by tree care professionals. The major motivation for this study was to determine the most common profiles of potential hazard characteristics for the three most common urban tree genera in Helsinki City: Tilia, Betula and Acer, and in this way improve management practices and protection of old amenity trees. For this research, material from approximately 250 urban trees was collected in cooperation with the City of Helsinki Public Works Department during 2001 - 2004. From the total number of trees sampled, approximately 70% were defined as hazardous. The tree species had characteristic features as potential hazard profiles. For Tilia trees, hollowed heartwood with low fungal activity and advanced decay caused by Ganoderma lipsiense were the two most common profiles. In Betula spp., the primary reason for tree removal was usually lowered amenity value in terms of decline of the crown. Internal cracks, most often due to weak fork formation, were common causes of potential failure in Acer spp. Decay caused by Rigidoporus populinus often increased the risk of stem breakage in these Acer trees. Of the decay fungi observed, G. lipsiense was most often the reason for the increased risk of stem collapse. Other fungi that also caused extensive decay were R. populinus, Inonotus obliquus, Kretzschmaria deusta and Phellinus igniarius. The most common decay fungi in terms of incidence were Pholiota spp., but decay caused by these species did not have a high potential for causing stem breakage, because it rarely extended to the cambium. The various evaluations used in the study suggested contradictions in felling decisions based on trees displaying different stages of decay. For protection of old urban trees, it is crucial to develop monitoring methods so that tree care professionals could better analyse the rate of decay progression towards the sapwood and separate those trees with decreasing amounts of sound wood from those with decay that is restricted to the heartwood area.

Assessment and control of Bacillus cereus emetic toxin in food

Despite of improving levels of hygiene, the incidence of registered food borne disease has been at the same level for many years: there were 40 to 90 epidemics in which 1000-9000 persons contracted food poisoning through food or drinking water in Finland. Until the year 2004 salmonella and campylobacter were the most common bacterial causes of food borne diseases, but in years 2005-2006 Bacillus cereus was the most common. Similar developement has been published i.e. in Germany already in the 1990´s. One reason for this can be Bacillus cereus and its emetic toxin, cereulide. Bacillus cereus is a common environmental bacterium that contaminates raw materials of food. Otherwise than salmonella and campylobacter, Bacillus cereus is a heat resistant bacterium, capable of surviving most cooking procedures due to the production of highly thermo resistant spores. The food involved has usually been heat treated and surviving spores are the source of the food poisoning. The heat treatment induces germination of the spore and the vegetative cells then produce toxins. This doctoral thesis research focuses on developing methods for assessing and eliminating risks to food safety by cereulide producing Bacillus cereus. The biochemistry and physiology of cereulide production was investigated and the results were targeted to offer tools for minimizing toxin risk in food during the production. I developed methods for the extraction and quantitative analysis of cereulide directly from food. A prerequisite for that is knowledge of the chemical and physical properties of the toxin. Because cereulide is practically insoluble in water, I used organic solvents; methanol, ethanol and pentane for the extraction. For extraction of bakery products I used high temperature (100C) and pressure (103.4 bars). Alternaties for effective extraction is to flood the plain food with ethanol, followed by stationary equilibration at room temperature. I used this protocol for extracting cereulide from potato puree and penne. Using this extraction method it is also possible also extract cereulide from liquid food, like milk. These extraction methods are important improvement steps for studying of Bacillus cereus emetic food poisonings. Prior my work, cereulide extraction was done using water. As the result, the yield was poor and variable. To investigate suspected food poisonings, it is important to show actual toxicity of the incriminated food. Many toxins, but not cereulide, inactivate during food processing like heating. The next step is to identify toxin by chemical methods. I developed with my colleague Maria Andesson a rapid assay for the detection of cereulide toxicity, within 5 to 15 minutes. By applying this test it is possible to rapidly detect which food was causing the food poisoning. The chemical identification of cereulide was achieved using mass spectrometry. I used cereulide specific molecular ions, m/z (+/-0.3) 1153.8 (M+H+), 1171.0 (M+NH4+), 1176.0 (M+Na+) and 1191.7 (M+K+) for reliable identification. I investigated foods to find out their amenability to accumulate cereulide. Cereulide was formed high amounts (0.3 to 5.5 microg/g wet wt) when of cereulide producing B. cereus strains were present in beans, rice, rice-pastry and meat-pastry, if stored at non refrigerated temperatures (21-23C). Rice and meat pastries are frequently consumed under conditions where no cooled storage is available e.g. picnics and outdoor events. Bacillus cereus is a ubiquitous spore former and is therefore difficult to eliminate from foods. It is therefore important to know which conditions will affect the formation of cereulide in foods. My research showed that the cereulide content was strongly (10 to 1000 fold differences in toxin content) affected by the growth environment of the bacterium. Storage of foods under nitrogen atmosphere (> 99.5 %) prevented the production of cereulide. But when also carbon dioxide was present, minimizing the oxygen contant (< 1%) did not protect the food from formation of cereulide in preliminary experiments. Also food supplements affected cereulide production at least in the laboratory. Adding free amino acids, leucine and valine, stimulated cereulide production 10 to 20 fold. In peptide bonded form these amino acids are natural constituents in all proteins. Interestingly, adding peptide bonded leucine and valine had no significant effect on cereulide production. Free amino acids leucine and valine are approved food supplements and widely used as flawour modifiers in food technology. My research showed that these food supplements may increase food poisoning risk even though they are not toxic themselves.

Forest inventory-based large-scale forest biomass and carbon budget assessment: new enhanced methods and use of remote sensing for verification

In recent years, concern has arisen over the effects of increasing carbon dioxide (CO2) in the earth's atmosphere due to the burning of fossil fuels. One way to mitigate increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration and climate change is carbon sequestration to forest vegeta-tion through photosynthesis. Comparable regional scale estimates for the carbon balance of forests are therefore needed for scientific and political purposes. The aim of the present dissertation was to improve methods for quantifying and verifying inventory-based carbon pool estimates of the boreal forests in the mineral soils. Ongoing forest inventories provide a data based on statistically sounded sampling for estimating the level of carbon stocks and stock changes, but improved modelling tools and comparison of methods are still needed. In this dissertation, the entire inventory-based large-scale forest carbon stock assessment method was presented together with some separate methods for enhancing and comparing it. The enhancement methods presented here include ways to quantify the biomass of understorey vegetation as well as to estimate the litter production of needles and branches. In addition, the optical remote sensing method illustrated in this dis-sertation can be used to compare with independent data. The forest inventory-based large-scale carbon stock assessment method demonstrated here provided reliable carbon estimates when compared with independent data. Future ac-tivity to improve the accuracy of this method could consist of reducing the uncertainties regarding belowground biomass and litter production as well as the soil compartment. The methods developed will serve the needs for UNFCCC reporting and the reporting under the Kyoto Protocol. This method is principally intended for analysts or planners interested in quantifying carbon over extensive forest areas.

Bayesian fisheries stock assessment: integrating and updating knowledge

In this thesis the use of the Bayesian approach to statistical inference in fisheries stock assessment is studied. The work was conducted in collaboration of the Finnish Game and Fisheries Research Institute by using the problem of monitoring and prediction of the juvenile salmon population in the River Tornionjoki as an example application. The River Tornionjoki is the largest salmon river flowing into the Baltic Sea. This thesis tackles the issues of model formulation and model checking as well as computational problems related to Bayesian modelling in the context of fisheries stock assessment. Each article of the thesis provides a novel method either for extracting information from data obtained via a particular type of sampling system or for integrating the information about the fish stock from multiple sources in terms of a population dynamics model. Mark-recapture and removal sampling schemes and a random catch sampling method are covered for the estimation of the population size. In addition, a method for estimating the stock composition of a salmon catch based on DNA samples is also presented. For most of the articles, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulation has been used as a tool to approximate the posterior distribution. Problems arising from the sampling method are also briefly discussed and potential solutions for these problems are proposed. Special emphasis in the discussion is given to the philosophical foundation of the Bayesian approach in the context of fisheries stock assessment. It is argued that the role of subjective prior knowledge needed in practically all parts of a Bayesian model should be recognized and consequently fully utilised in the process of model formulation.

Studies on the assessment of the adequacy of anesthesia

Several hypnosis monitoring systems based on the processed electroencephalogram (EEG) have been developed for use during general anesthesia. The assessment of the analgesic component (antinociception) of general anesthesia is an emerging field of research. This study investigated the interaction of hypnosis and antinociception, the association of several physiological variables with the degree of intraoperative nociception, and aspects of EEG Bispectral Index Scale (BIS) monitoring during general anesthesia. In addition, EEG features and heart rate (HR) responses during desflurane and sevoflurane anesthesia were compared. A propofol bolus of 0.7 mg/kg was more effective than an alfentanil bolus of 0.5 mg in preventing the recurrence of movement responses during uterine dilatation and curettage (D C) after a propofol-alfentanil induction, combined with nitrous oxide (N2O). HR and several HR variability-, frontal electromyography (fEMG)-, pulse plethysmography (PPG)-, and EEG-derived variables were associated with surgery-induced movement responses. Movers were discriminated from non-movers mostly by the post-stimulus values per se or normalized with respect to the pre-stimulus values. In logistic regression analysis, the best classification performance was achieved with the combination of normalized fEMG power and HR during D C (overall accuracy 81%, sensitivity 53%, specificity 95%), and with the combination of normalized fEMG-related response entropy, electrocardiography (ECG) R-to-R interval (RRI), and PPG dicrotic notch amplitude during sevoflurane anesthesia (overall accuracy 96%, sensitivity 90%, specificity 100%). ECG electrode impedances after alcohol swab skin pretreatment alone were higher than impedances of designated EEG electrodes. The BIS values registered with ECG electrodes were higher than those registered simultaneously with EEG electrodes. No significant difference in the time to home-readiness after isoflurane-N2O or sevoflurane-N2O anesthesia was found, when the administration of the volatile agent was guided by BIS monitoring. All other early and intermediate recovery parameters were also similar. Transient epileptiform EEG activity was detected in eight of 15 sevoflurane patients during a rapid increase in the inspired volatile concentration, and in none of the 16 desflurane patients. The observed transient EEG changes did not adversely affect the recovery of the patients. Following the rapid increase in the inhaled desflurane concentration, HR increased transiently, reaching its maximum in two minutes. In the sevoflurane group, the increase was slower and more subtle. In conclusion, desflurane may be a safer volatile agent than sevoflurane in patients with a lowered seizure threshold. The tachycardia induced by a rapid increase in the inspired desflurane concentration may present a risk for patients with heart disease. Designated EEG electrodes may be superior to ECG electrodes in EEG BIS monitoring. When the administration of isoflurane or sevoflurane is adjusted to maintain BIS values at 50-60 in healthy ambulatory surgery patients, the speed and quality of recovery are similar after both isoflurane-N2O and sevoflurane-N2O anesthesia. When anesthesia is maintained by the inhalation of N2O and bolus doses of propofol and alfentanil in healthy unparalyzed patients, movement responses may be best avoided by ensuring a relatively deep hypnotic level with propofol. HR/RRI, fEMG, and PPG dicrotic notch amplitude are potential indicators of nociception during anesthesia, but their performance needs to be validated in future studies. Combining information from different sources may improve the discrimination of the level of nociception.

Fertility in Namibia : Changes in fertility levels in North-Central Namibia 1960-2001, including an assessment of the impact of HIV

The aim of this study was to estimate the development of fertility in North-Central Namibia, former Ovamboland, from 1960 to 2001. Special attention was given to the onset of fertility decline and to the impact of the HIV epidemic on fertility. An additional aim was to introduce parish registers as a source of data for fertility research in Africa. Data used consisted of parish registers from Evangelical Lutheran congregations, the 1991 and 2001 Population and Housing Censuses, the 1992 and 2000 Namibia Demographic and Health Surveys, and the HIV sentinel surveillances of 1992-2004. Both period and cohort fertility were analysed. The P/F ratio method was used when analysing census data. The impact of HIV infection on fertility was estimated indirectly by comparing the fertility histories of women who died at an age of less than 50 years with the fertility of other women. The impact of the HIV epidemic on fertility was assessed both among infected women and in the general population. Fertility in the study population began to decline in 1980. The decline was rapid during the 1980s, levelled off in the early 1990s at the end of war of independence and then continued to decline until the end of the study period. According to parish registers, total fertility was 6.4 in the 1960s and 6.5 in the 1970s, and declined to 5.1 in the 1980s and 4.2 in the 1990s. Adjustment of these total fertility rates to correspond to levels of fertility based on data from the 1991 and 2001 censuses resulted in total fertility declining from 7.6 in 1960-79 to 6.0 in 1980-89, and to 4.9 in 1990-99. The decline was associated with increased age at first marriage, declining marital fertility and increasing premarital fertility. Fertility among adolescents increased, whereas the fertility of women in all other age groups declined. During the 1980s, the war of independence contributed to declining fertility through spousal separation and delayed marriages. Contraception has been employed in the study region since the 1980s, but in the early 1990s, use of contraceptives was still so limited that fertility was higher in North-Central Namibia than in other regions of the country. In the 1990s, fertility decline was largely a result of the increased prevalence of contraception. HIV prevalence among pregnant women increased from 4% in 1992 to 25% in 2001. In 2001, total fertility among HIV-infected women (3.7) was lower than that among other women (4.8), resulting in total fertility of 4.4 among the general population in 2001. The HIV epidemic explained more than a quarter of the decline in total fertility at population level during most of the 1990s. The HIV epidemic also reduced the number of children born by reducing the number of potential mothers. In the future, HIV will have an extensive influence on both the size and age structure of the Namibian population. Although HIV influences demographic development through both fertility and mortality, the effect through changes in fertility will be smaller than the effect through mortality. In the study region, as in some other regions of southern Africa, a new type of demographic transition is under way, one in which population growth stagnates or even reverses because of the combined effects of declining fertility and increasing mortality, both of which are consequences of the HIV pandemic.

Methodological perspectives for register-based health system performance assessment : Developing a hip fracture monitoring system in Finland

The resources of health systems are limited. There is a need for information concerning the performance of the health system for the purposes of decision-making. This study is about utilization of administrative registers in the context of health system performance evaluation. In order to address this issue, a multidisciplinary methodological framework for register-based data analysis is defined. Because the fixed structure of register-based data indirectly determines constraints on the theoretical constructs, it is essential to elaborate the whole analytic process with respect to the data. The fundamental methodological concepts and theories are synthesized into a data sensitive approach which helps to understand and overcome the problems that are likely to be encountered during a register-based data analyzing process. A pragmatically useful health system performance monitoring should produce valid information about the volume of the problems, about the use of services and about the effectiveness of provided services. A conceptual model for hip fracture performance assessment is constructed and the validity of Finnish registers as a data source for the purposes of performance assessment of hip fracture treatment is confirmed. Solutions to several pragmatic problems related to the development of a register-based hip fracture incidence surveillance system are proposed. The monitoring of effectiveness of treatment is shown to be possible in terms of care episodes. Finally, an example on the justification of a more detailed performance indicator to be used in the profiling of providers is given. In conclusion, it is possible to produce useful and valid information on health system performance by using Finnish register-based data. However, that seems to be far more complicated than is typically assumed. The perspectives given in this study introduce a necessary basis for further work and help in the routine implementation of a hip fracture monitoring system in Finland.

Agricultural expansion and climate change in the Taita Hills, Kenya: an assessment of potential environmental impacts

The indigenous cloud forests in the Taita Hills have suffered substantial degradation for several centuries due to agricultural expansion. Currently, only 1% of the original forested area remains preserved in this region. Furthermore, climate change imposes an imminent threat for local economy and environmental sustainability. In such circumstances, elaborating tools to conciliate socioeconomic growth and natural resources conservation is an enormous challenge. This dissertation tackles essential aspects for understanding the ongoing agricultural activities in the Taita Hills and their potential environmental consequences in the future. Initially, alternative methods were designed to improve our understanding of the ongoing agricultural activities. Namely, methods for agricultural survey planning and to estimate evapotranspiration were evaluated, taking into account a number of limitations regarding data and resources availability. Next, this dissertation evaluates how upcoming agricultural expansion, together with climate change, will affect the natural resources in the Taita Hills up to the year 2030. The driving forces of agricultural expansion in the region were identified as aiming to delineate future landscape scenarios and evaluate potential impacts from the soil and water conservation point of view. In order to investigate these issues and answer the research questions, this dissertation combined state of the art modelling tools with renowned statistical methods. The results indicate that, if current trends persist, agricultural areas will occupy roughly 60% of the study area by 2030. Although the simulated land use changes will certainly increase soil erosion figures, new croplands are likely to come up predominantly in the lowlands, which comprise areas with lower soil erosion potential. By 2030, rainfall erosivity is likely to increase during April and November due to climate change. Finally, this thesis addressed the potential impacts of agricultural expansion and climate changes on Irrigation Water Requirements (IWR), which is considered another major issue in the context of the relations between land use and climate. Although the simulations indicate that climate change will likely increase annual volumes of rainfall during the following decades, IWR will continue to increase due to agricultural expansion. By 2030, new cropland areas may cause an increase of approximately 40% in the annual volume of water necessary for irrigation.

Assessment and mitigation of agricultural water pollution

Yhteenveto: Maatalouden aiheuttama vesistönkuormitus ja sen vähentäminen

Assessment of In-House Natural Product and Synthetic Compound Libraries Based on In vitro Inhibition of Cholinesterases

The first line medication for mild to moderate Alzheimer s disease (AD) is based on cholinesterase inhibitors which prolong the effect of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in cholinergic nerve synapses which relieves the symptoms of the disease. Implications of cholinesterases involvement in disease modifying processes has increased interest in this research area. The drug discovery and development process is a long and expensive process that takes on average 13.5 years and costs approximately 0.9 billion US dollars. Drug attritions in the clinical phases are common due to several reasons, e.g., poor bioavailability of compounds leading to low efficacy or toxic effects. Thus, improvements in the early drug discovery process are needed to create highly potent non-toxic compounds with predicted drug-like properties. Nature has been a good source for the discovery of new medicines accounting for around half of the new drugs approved to market during the last three decades. These compounds are direct isolates from the nature, their synthetic derivatives or natural mimics. Synthetic chemistry is an alternative way to produce compounds for drug discovery purposes. Both sources have pros and cons. The screening of new bioactive compounds in vitro is based on assaying compound libraries against targets. Assay set-up has to be adapted and validated for each screen to produce high quality data. Depending on the size of the library, miniaturization and automation are often requirements to reduce solvent and compound amounts and fasten the process. In this contribution, natural extract, natural pure compound and synthetic compound libraries were assessed as sources for new bioactive compounds. The libraries were screened primarily for acetylcholinesterase inhibitory effect and secondarily for butyrylcholinesterase inhibitory effect. To be able to screen the libraries, two assays were evaluated as screening tools and adapted to be compatible with special features of each library. The assays were validated to create high quality data. Cholinesterase inhibitors with various potencies and selectivity were found in natural product and synthetic compound libraries which indicates that the two sources complement each other. It is acknowledged that natural compounds differ structurally from compounds in synthetic compound libraries which further support the view of complementation especially if a high diversity of structures is the criterion for selection of compounds in a library.

Assessment of insect occurrence in boreal forests based on satellite imagery and field measurements.

The presence/absence data of twenty-seven forest insect taxa (e.g. Retinia resinella, Formica spp., Pissodes spp., several scolytids) and recorded environmental variation were used to investigate the applicability of modelling insect occurrence based on satellite imagery. The sampling was based on 1800 sample plots (25 m by 25 m) placed along the sides of 30 equilateral triangles (side 1 km) in a fragmented forest area (approximately 100 km2) in Evo, S Finland. The triangles were overlaid on land use maps interpreted from satellite images (Landsat TM 30 m multispectral scanner imagery 1991) and digitized geological maps. Insect occurrence was explained using either environmental variables measured in the field or those interpreted from the land use and geological maps. The fit of logistic regression models varied between species, possibly because some species may be associated with the characteristics of single trees while other species with stand characteristics. The occurrence of certain insect species at least, especially those associated with Scots pine, could be relatively accurately assessed indirectly on the basis of satellite imagery and geological maps. Models based on both remotely sensed and geological data better predicted the distribution of forest insects except in the case of Xylechinus pilosus, Dryocoetes sp. and Trypodendron lineatum, where the differences were relatively small in favour of the models based on field measurements. The number of species was related to habitat compartment size and distance from the habitat edge calculated from the land use maps, but logistic regressions suggested that other environmental variables in general masked the effect of these variables in species occurrence at the present scale.

Local systems, global impacts : Using life cycle assessment to analyse the potential and constraints of industrial symbioses

Human activities extract and displace different substances and materials from the earth s crust, thus causing various environmental problems, such as climate change, acidification and eutrophication. As problems have become more complicated, more holistic measures that consider the origins and sources of pollutants have been called for. Industrial ecology is a field of science that forms a comprehensive framework for studying the interactions between the modern technological society and the environment. Industrial ecology considers humans and their technologies to be part of the natural environment, not separate from it. Industrial operations form natural systems that must also function as such within the constraints set by the biosphere. Industrial symbiosis (IS) is a central concept of industrial ecology. Industrial symbiosis studies look at the physical flows of materials and energy in local industrial systems. In an ideal IS, waste material and energy are exchanged by the actors of the system, thereby reducing the consumption of virgin material and energy inputs and the generation of waste and emissions. Companies are seen as part of the chains of suppliers and consumers that resemble those of natural ecosystems. The aim of this study was to analyse the environmental performance of an industrial symbiosis based on pulp and paper production, taking into account life cycle impacts as well. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a tool for quantitatively and systematically evaluating the environmental aspects of a product, technology or service throughout its whole life cycle. Moreover, the Natural Step Sustainability Principles formed a conceptual framework for assessing the environmental performance of the case study symbiosis (Paper I). The environmental performance of the case study symbiosis was compared to four counterfactual reference scenarios in which the actors of the symbiosis operated on their own. The research methods used were process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) (Papers II and III) and hybrid LCA, which combines both process and input-output LCA (Paper IV). The results showed that the environmental impacts caused by the extraction and processing of the materials and the energy used by the symbiosis were considerable. If only the direct emissions and resource use of the symbiosis had been considered, less than half of the total environmental impacts of the system would have been taken into account. When the results were compared with the counterfactual reference scenarios, the net environmental impacts of the symbiosis were smaller than those of the reference scenarios. The reduction in environmental impacts was mainly due to changes in the way energy was produced. However, the results are sensitive to the way the reference scenarios are defined. LCA is a useful tool for assessing the overall environmental performance of industrial symbioses. It is recommended that in addition to the direct effects, the upstream impacts should be taken into account as well when assessing the environmental performance of industrial symbioses. Industrial symbiosis should be seen as part of the process of improving the environmental performance of a system. In some cases, it may be more efficient, from an environmental point of view, to focus on supply chain management instead.  

Water quality assessment in water protection planning

Yhteenveto: Veden laadun arviointi vesiensuojelun suunnittelussa