Opportunity cost based analysis of corporate eco-efficiency: A methodology and its application to the CO2-efficiency of German companies

In this paper, we propose the return-to-cost-ratio (RCR) as an alternative approach to the analysis of operational eco-efficiency of companies based on the notion of opportunity costs. RCR helps to overcome two fundamental deficits of existing approaches to eco-efficiency. (1) It translates eco-efficiency into managerial terms by applying the well-established notion of opportunity costs to eco-efficiency analysis. (2) RCR allows to identify and quantify the drivers behind changes in corporate eco-efficiency. RCR is applied to the analysis of the CO2-efficiency of German companies in order to illustrate its usefulness for a detailed analysis of changes in corporate eco-efficiency as well as for the development of effective environmental strategies. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Solitary and blow-up electrostatic excitations in rotating magnetized electron-positron-ion plasmas

The nonlinear dynamics of a rotating magnetoplasma consisting of electrons, positrons and stationary positive ions is considered. The basic set of hydrodynamic and Poisson equations are reduced to a Zakharov-Kuznetsov (ZK) equation for the electric potential. The ZK equation is solved by applying an improved modified extended tanh-function method (2008 Phys. Lett. A 372 5691) and its characteristics are investigated. A set of new solutions are derived, including localized solitary waves, periodic nonlinear waveforms and divergent (explosive) pulses. The characteristics of these nonlinear excitations are investigated in detail.

Phosphorus Retention in a Constructed Wetland System used to Treat Dairy Wastewater

The aim of this study was to develop an input/output mass balance to predict phosphorus retention in a five pond constructed wetland system (CWS) at Greenmount Farm, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. The mass balance was created using 14-months of flow data collected at inflow and outflow points on a weekly basis. Balance outputs were correlated with meteorological parameters, such as daily air temperature and hydrological flow, recorded daily onsite. The mass balance showed that phosphorus retention within the system exceeded phosphorus release, illustrating the success of constructed wetland systems to remove nutrients from agricultural effluent from a dairy farm. Pond 5 showed the greatest relative retention of 86%. Comparison of retention and mean air temperature highlighted a striking difference in trends between up-gradient and down-gradient ponds, with Ponds 1 and 2 displaying a positive quadratic relationship and ponds 3 through 5 displaying a negative quadratic relationship.

Effects of seawater-neutralised bauxite refinery residue on properties of concrete

Various industrial by-products, such as fly ash, ground granulated blast-furnace slag and silica fume, have been used in concrete to improve its properties. This also enables any environmental issues associated with their disposal. Another material that is available in large quantities and requiring alternative methods of disposal is the Bauxite Refinery Reside (BRR) from the Bayer process used to extract alumina from bauxite. As this is highly caustic and causes many health hazards, Virotec International Ltd. developed a patented technology to convert this into a material that can be used commercially, known as Bauxsol™, for various environmental remediation applications. This use is limited to small quantities of seawater-neutralised BRR and hence an investigation was carried out to establish its potential utilisation as a sand replacement material in concrete. In addition to fresh properties of concrete containing seawater-neutralised BRR up to 20% by mass of Portland cement, mechanical and durability properties were determined. These properties indicated that seawater-neutralised BRR can be used to replace natural sand up to 10% by mass of cement to improve the durability properties of concrete without detrimentally affecting their physical properties. Combining these beneficial effects with environmental remediation applications, it can be concluded that there are specific applications where concretes containing seawater-neutralised BRR could be used.

Remediation technologies for heavy metal contaminated ground water

This is a major review work on ground water remediation since the earlier work of Mulligan et al published in 2001 in Engineering Geology Journal. This work resulted from the joint research project of QUB and University of Malaya on iron removal from groundwater for public water supply.

Applications of colloidal gas aphrons for pollution remediation

This work reviews the use of micron sized bubbles made from aqueous surfactant solution in environmental remediation. This is a novel technique and offers a low cost treatment option.

A burning issue? Governance and anti-incinerator campaigns in Ireland, North and South

The decades of conflict in Northern Ireland created divisions between communities, with few opportunities for cooperation. However, in the 1990s opposition to a proposed cross-border incinerator brought the divided communities together. The 1990s economic boom in the Republic of Ireland generated a waste management crisis as the by-products of rampant consumerism overwhelmed the state's rudimentary waste disposal system. Three Irish anti-incinerator campaigns which have pitted local communities against the Irish state or the Northern Ireland Department of the Environment are examined. Community attempts to gain leverage within the political governance frameworks in operation on both sides of the border are examined and the various ways in which environmental movements respond to the crisis of waste management under different governance regimes are illuminated.

Authorizing a tradition: Theory, criticism and (self-) canonization in French Caribbean writing

As critics have noted, Antillean literature has developed in tandem with a strong (self-) critical and theoretical body of work. The various attempts to theorize Antillean identity (négritude, antillanité, créolité) have been controversial and divisive, and the literary scene has been characterized as explosive, incestuous and self-referential. Yet writers aligned with, or opposed to, a given theory often have superior visibility. Meanwhile writers who claim to operate outside the boundaries of theory, such as Maryse Condé, are often canny theoretical operators who, from prestigious academic or cultural positions, manipulate readers’ responses and their own self-image through criticism. While recent polemics have helped to raise the critical stock of the islands generally, they have particularly enhanced the cultural capital of Chamoiseau and Condé, whose literary antagonism is in fact mutually sustaining. Both writers, through a strong awareness of (and contribution to) the critical field in which their work is read, position themselves as canonical authors.

Mushroom: An Oracular Sound Processor

Composers of digital music today have a bewildering variety of sound-processing tools and techniques at their disposal. At their best, these tools allow composers to hone a sound to perfection. However, they can also lead us into a routine which bypasses avenues of experimentation, simply because the known tools work so well and their sonic output is so attractive. An alternative strategy is oracular sound processing. An oracular sound processor creates a derived version of its input whose characteristics could not have been fully predicted, while affording the user little or no parametric control over the process.

The interactions of coal with CO2 and its effects on coal structure

The interactions of coal with CO2 at pressures of up to 30 bar concerning mechanisms of diffusion, the strength of interactions, and the irreversibility of uptake for the permanent disposal of CO2 into coal fields have been studied. Differential scanning calorimetry was used to investigate coal/CO2 interactions for North Dakota, Wyodak, Illinois No. 6, and Pittsburgh No. 8 coals. It was found that the first interactions of CO2 with coals led to strongly bound carbon dioxide on coal. Energy values attributed to the irreversible storage capacity for CO2 on coals were determined. The lowest irreversible sorption energy was found for North Dakota coal (0.44 J/g), and the highest value was for the Illinois No. 6 coal (8.93 J/g). The effect of high-pressure CO2 on the macromolecular structure of coal was also studied by means of differential scanning calorimetry. It was found that the temperature of the second-order phase transition of Wyodak coal decreases with an increase in CO2 pressure significantly, indicating that high-pressure CO2 diffuses through the coal matrix, causes significant plasticization effects, and changes the macromolecular structure of the Wyodak coal. Desorption characteristics of CO2 from the Pittsburgh No. 8 coal were studied by temperature-programmed desorption mass spectrometry. It was found that CO2 desorption from the coal is an activated process and follows a first-order kinetic model. The activation energy for CO2 desorption from the Pittsburgh No. 8 coal increased with the preadsorbed CO2 pressure, indicating that CO2 binds more strongly and demands more energy to desorb from the Pittsburgh No. 8 coal at higher pressures.

Bioaccessibility of trace elements in soils in Northern Ireland

Assessment of elevated concentrations of potentially toxic elements (PTE) in soils and the association with specific soil parent material have been the focus of research for a number of years. Risk-based assessment of potential exposure scenarios to identified elevated PTE concentrations has led to the derivation of site- and contaminant-specific soil guideline values (SGVs), which represent generic assessment criteria (GACs) to identify exceeded levels that may reflect an unacceptable risk to human health. A better understanding of the ‘bioavailable’ or ‘bioaccessible’ contaminant concentrations offers an opportunity to better refine contaminant exposure assessments. Utilizing a comprehensive soil geochemical dataset for Northern Ireland provided by the Tellus Survey (GSNI) in conjunction with supplementary bioaccessibility testing of selected soil samples following the Unified BARGE Method, this paper uses exploratory data analysis and geostatistical analysis to investigate the spatial variability of pseudo-total and bioaccessible concentrations of As, Cd, Co, Cr. Cu, Ni, Pb, U, V and Zn. The paper investigates variations in individual element concentrations as well as cross-element correlations and observed lithological/pedological associations. The analysis of PTE concentrations highlighted exceeded levels of GAC values for V and Cr and exceeded SGV/GAC values for Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn. UBM testing showed that for some soil parent materials associated with elevated PTE concentrations e.g. the Antrim Lava Group with high Ni concentrations, the measured oral bioaccessible fraction was relatively low. For other soil parent materials with relatively moderate PTE concentrations, measured oral bioaccessible fraction was relatively high (e.g. the Gala Sandstone Group of the Southern Uplands-Down Longford Terrain). These findings have implications for regional human health risk assessments for specific PTEs.