Life Cycle Assessment guidelines for the sustainable production and recycling of aggregates:The Sustainable Aggregates Resource Management project (SARMa)

The mining/quarrying industry is a sector of industry where there are very few Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tools, and where the role of LCA has been poorly investigated. A key issue is the integration of three inter-dependent life cycles: Project, Asset and Product. Given the unique features of mining LCAs, this Note from the Field presents a common methodology implemented within the Sustainable Aggregates Resource Management (SARMa) Project (www.sarmaproject.eu) in order to boost adoption of LCA in the aggregate industry in South Eastern Europe. The proposed methodology emphasises the importance of resource efficiency and recycling in the context of a Sustainable Supply Mix of aggregates for the construction industry. Through its adoption, aggregate producers, recyclers, and governmental planners would gain confidence with LCA tools and conduct consistent and meaningful life cycle analyses of natural and recycled aggregates. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The link between the learning organisation and curriculum innovation:A comparative study of public and private primary schools in Greece

This article examines the relationship between the learning organisation and the implementation of curriculum innovation within schools. It also compares the extent of innovative activity undertaken by schools in the public and the private sectors. A learning organisation is characterised by long-term goals, participatory decision-making processes, collaboration with external stakeholders, effective mechanisms for the internal communication of knowledge and information, and the use of rewards for its members. These characteristics are expected to promote curriculum innovation, once a number of control factors have been taken into account. The article reports on a study carried out in 197 Greek public and private primary schools in the 1999-2000 school year. Structured interviews with school principals were used as a method of data collection. According to the statistical results, the most important determinants of the innovative activity of a school are the extent of its collaboration with other organisations (i.e. openness to society), and the implementation of development programmes for teachers and parents (i.e. communication of knowledge and information). Contrary to expectations, the existence of long-term goals, the extent of shared decision-making, and the use of teacher rewards had no impact on curriculum innovation. The study also suggests that the private sector, as such, has an additional positive effect on the implementation of curriculum innovation, once a number of human, financial, material, and management resources have been controlled for. The study concludes by making recommendations for future research that would shed more light on unexpected outcomes and would help explore the causal link between variables in the research model.

Production and Processing of Spider Silk Proteins

Natural spider silk fibers have impressive mechanical properties (outperforming many man-made fibers) and are, moreover, biocompatible, biodegradable, and produced under benign conditions (using water as a solvent at ambient temperature). The problems associated with harvesting natural spider silks inspired us to devise a method to produce spider silk-like proteins biotechnologically (the first subject tackled in this highlight); we subsequently discuss their processing into various materials morphologies, and some potential technical and biomedical applications.

Whey proteins have beneficial effects on intestinal enteroendocrine cells stimulating cell growth and increasing the production and secretion of incretin hormones

Whey protein has been indicated to curb diet-induced obesity, glucose intolerance and delay the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Here the effects of intact crude whey, intact individual whey proteins and beta-lactoglobulin hydrolysates on an enteroendocrine (EE) cell model were examined. STC-1 pGIP/neo cells were incubated with several concentrations of yogurt whey (YW), cheese whey (CW), beta-lactoglobulin (BLG), alpha-lactalbumin (ALA) and bovine serum albumin (BSA). The findings demonstrate that BLG stimulates EE cell proliferation, and also GLP-1 secretion (an effect which is lost following hydrolysis with chymotrypsin or trypsin). ALA is a highly potent GLP-1 secretagogue which also increases the intracellular levels of GLP-1. Conversely, whey proteins and hydrolysates had little impact on GIP secretion. This appears to be the first investigation of the effects of the three major proteins of YW and CW on EE cells. The anti-diabetic potential of whey proteins should be further investigated.

Biosecurity and Emerging Plant Health Problems in Turf Production and Maintenance

Recent research has supported the view that the distributions of many pests and diseases have extended towards higher latitudes over the last 50 years. Probably driven by a combination of climate change and trade, this extension to the ranges of hundreds of plant pathogens may have serious implications not only for agriculture, horticulture and forestry, but also for turf production &maintenance. Here we review our data relating to the current status of three emerging pest and disease problems across North West Europe (rapid blight, Labyrinthula sp. , the root knot nematode, Meloidogyne minor and the pacific stem gall nematode, Anguina pacificae ) and discuss the factors which may be involved in their spread and increasing impact on the turf industry. With turf production and maintenance becoming an increasingly international business, we ask if biosecurity and the promotion of plant health in turf production fields and associated sport facilities should be a greater priority for the industry. We also examine if a lack of effective biosecurity measures in the materials supply chain has led to increased plant health problems.

Design, production and characterisation of granular adsorbent material for arsenic removal from contaminated wastewater

The objective of this research was to design granulated iron oxide for the adsorption of heavy metals from wastewater. Polyvinyl acetate (PVAc) was chosen as a suitable binder; as it is water insoluble. Initial experiments on selection of suitable solvent of the polymer were carried out using three solvents namely; methanol, acetone and toluene. Based on the initial tests on product yield and mechanical strength, acetone was selected as the solvent for the polyvinyl acetate binder. Design of experiment was then used to investigate the influence of granulation process variables; impeller speed, binder concentration and liquid to solid ratio on the properties of the granular materials. The response variables in the study were granules mean size, stability in water and granule strength. The results showed that the combination of high impeller speed and high binder concentration favour the formation of strong and stable granules. Results also showed that leaching of the binder into the simulated was water was negligible. Trial adsorption experiments carried out using the strongest and most stable iron oxide granules produced in this work showed removal efficiency of around 70% of synthetic arsenic solutions with initial concentration of 1000 ppb.