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  • 1
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    350 Main Street , Malden , MA 02148 , USA , and 108 Cowley Road , Oxford OX4 1JF , UK . : Blackwell Publishing
    Risk analysis 22 (2002), S. 0 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Source: Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: One of the common challenges for life cycle impact assessment and risk assessment is the need to estimate the population exposures associated with emissions. The concept of intake fraction (a unitless term representing the fraction of material or its precursor released from a source that is eventually inhaled or ingested) can be used when limited site data are available or the number of sources to model is large. Although studies have estimated intake fractions for some pollutant-source combinations, there is a need to quickly and accurately estimate intake fractions for sources and settings not previously evaluated. It would be expected that limited source or site information could be used to yield intake fraction estimates with reasonable accuracy. To test this theory, we developed regression models to predict intake fractions previously estimated for primary fine particles (PM2.5) and secondary sulfate and nitrate particles from power plants and mobile sources in the United States. Our regression models were able to predict pollutant-specific intake fractions with R2 between 0.53 and 0.86 and equations that reflected expected relationships (e.g., intake fraction increased with population density, stack height influenced the intake fraction of primary but not secondary particles). Further analysis would be needed to generalize beyond this case study and construct models applicable across source categories and settings, but our analysis demonstrates that inclusion of a limited number of parameters can significantly reduce the uncertainty in population-average exposure estimates.a
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  • 2
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    350 Main Street , Malden , MA 02148 , USA , and 108 Cowley Road , Oxford OX4 1JF , UK . : Blackwell Publishing
    Risk analysis 22 (2002), S. 0 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Source: Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Increasing residential insulation can decrease energy consumption and provide public health benefits, given changes in emissions from fuel combustion, but also has cost implications and ancillary risks and benefits. Risk assessment or life cycle assessment can be used to calculate the net impacts and determine whether more stringent energy codes or other conservation policies would be warranted, but few analyses have combined the critical elements of both methodologies. In this article, we present the first portion of a combined analysis, with the goal of estimating the net public health impacts of increasing residential insulation for new housing from current practice to the latest International Energy Conservation Code (IECC 2000). We model state-by-state residential energy savings and evaluate particulate matter less than 2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5, NOx, and SO2 emission reductions. We use past dispersion modeling results to estimate reductions in exposure, and we apply concentration-response functions for premature mortality and selected morbidity outcomes using current epidemiological knowledge of effects of PM2.5 (primary and secondary). We find that an insulation policy shift would save 3 × 1014 British thermal units or BTU (3 × 1017 J) over a 10-year period, resulting in reduced emissions of 1,000 tons of PM2.5, 30,000 tons of NOx, and 40,000 tons of SO2. These emission reductions yield an estimated 60 fewer fatalities during this period, with the geographic distribution of health benefits differing from the distribution of energy savings because of differences in energy sources, population patterns, and meteorology. We discuss the methodology to be used to integrate life cycle calculations, which can ultimately yield estimates that can be compared with costs to determine the influence of external costs on benefit-cost calculations.
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  • 3
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd
    Risk analysis 19 (1999), S. 0 
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Source: Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Residential building codes intended to promote health and safety may produce unintended countervailing risks by adding to the cost of construction. Higher construction costs increase the price of new homes and may increase health and safety risks through “income” and “stock” effects. The income effect arises because households that purchase a new home have less income remaining for spending on other goods that contribute to health and safety. The stock effect arises because suppression of new-home construction leads to slower replacement of less safe housing units. These countervailing risks are not presently considered in code debates. We demonstrate the feasibility of estimating the approximate magnitude of countervailing risks by combining the income effect with three relatively well understood and significant home-health risks. We estimate that a code change that increases the nationwide cost of constructing and maintaining homes by $150 (0.1% of the average cost to build a single-family home) would induce offsetting risks yielding between 2 and 60 premature fatalities or, including morbidity effects, between 20 and 800 lost quality-adjusted life years (both discounted at 3%)each year the code provision remains in effect. To provide a net health benefit, the code change would need to reduce risk by at least this amount. Future research should refine these estimates, incorporate quantitative uncertainty analysis, and apply a full risk-tradeoff approach to real-world casestudies of proposed code changes.
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  • 4
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishing Ltd
    Ground water 38 (2000), S. 0 
    ISSN: 1745-6584
    Source: Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Geosciences
    Notes: Missing from most wellhead protection area (WHPA) delineation studies is a measure of the uncertainty associated with model predictions. A quantitative representation of that uncertainty can be used by regulators to implement different degrees of protection for areas with different degrees of certainty.Uncertainty analysis was performed for one- and five-year WHPA delineation for two municipal wells within a buried-valley glacial-outwash aquifer in southwestern Ohio. An approximation of the three-point Gauss-Hermite quadrature formula was used. This method is an alternative to simple Monte Carlo random sampling, typically requiring fewer model runs. It results in model-prediction expected values and variances and quantifies parameter main and two-way interactive effects. This study explored the collective impact of the uncertainties associated with six model parameters. Parameter probability density functions (PDFs) were based on field data and modified using a ground water flow model to ensure that all combinations of parameter values, within their PDFs, yielded an acceptable model calibration.The one-year WHPA for the upgradient well had a high degree of associated uncertainty represented by the difference in size between the WHPA low and high 95% confidence interval limits. The large uncertainty was due to the uncertainties associated with model parameter values, especially effective porosity and horizontal hydraulic conductivity. River conductance also had a substantial impact on the WHPA predictions. The WHPAs for the downgradient well and the five-year WHPA for the upgradient well were limited by upgradient hydrogeologic boundaries; their prediction was, therefore, less sensitive to the uncertainties inherent in the model parameters.
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  • 5
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Bingley : Emerald
    International journal of sustainability in higher education 1 (2000), S. 252-266 
    ISSN: 1467-6370
    Source: Emerald Fulltext Archive Database 1994-2005
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering , Education
    Notes: Colleges and universities that are interested in reducing their environmental impacts are faced with the difficulties of providing incentives for sustainable behavior and attempting to quantify the gains that policies would provide. In this paper, we use a case study to demonstrate the benefits as well as the difficulties encountered with one type of incentive program, a revolving loan fund. During the five-year tenure of the case study fund, the program yielded a 34 percent return on conservation investments, with associated decreases in resource usage, ambient air emissions, and water consumption. Using a past damage function study, we estimate that the reduced emissions result in over US$100,000 of avoided environmental externalities per year. Although the economic returns and environmental benefits were significant, participation declined rapidly after the initial rollout of the program and relatively non-technical conservation measures were generally the focus of projects. Through surveys of both participating and non-participating facility directors, we determined that lack of knowledge of effective conservation measures and limitations in staff availability were the key barriers preventing more extensive participation. Increased flow of information, through such actions as frequent facility director correspondence and independent energy audits of facilities, would be likely to encourage sustainable resource consumption in future applications of revolving loan funds and other campus greening efforts.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 6
    ISSN: 1539-6924
    Keywords: risk-tradeoff analysis ; building codes ; housing ; health effects ; QALY
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Energy, Environment Protection, Nuclear Power Engineering
    Notes: Abstract Residential building codes intended to promote health and safety may produce unintended countervailing risks by adding to the cost of construction. Higher construction costs increase the price of new homes and may increase health and safety risks through “income” and “stock” effects. The income effect arises because households that purchase a new home have less income remaining for spending on other goods that contribute to health and safety. The stock effect arises because suppression of new-home construction leads to slower replacement of less safe housing units. These countervailing risks are not presently considered in code debates. We demonstrate the feasibility of estimating the approximate magnitude of countervailing risks by combining the income effect with three relatively well understood and significant home-health risks. We estimate that a code change that increases the nationwide cost of constructing and maintaining homes by $150 (0.1% of the average cost to build a single-family home) would induce offsetting risks yielding between 2 and 60 premature fatalities or, including morbidity effects, between 20 and 800 lost quality-adjusted life years (both discounted at 3%) each year the code provision remains in effect. To provide a net health benefit, the code change would need to reduce risk by at least this amount. Future research should refine these estimates, incorporate quantitative uncertainty analysis, and apply a full risk-tradeoff approach to real-world case studies of proposed code changes.
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 7
    Electronic Resource
    Electronic Resource
    Springer
    Molecular biology reports 14 (1990), S. 137-137 
    ISSN: 1573-4978
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Type of Medium: Electronic Resource
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  • 8
    ISSN: 1617-4623
    Keywords: Immunofluorescence ; Polymerase chain reaction ; Protein sorting ; Protein/RNA interactions ; Protoplast transfection
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Biology
    Notes: Summary Pre-mRNA processing in eukaryotic cells requires the participation of multiple protein factors and ribonucleoprotein particles. One class of proteins involved in this process are RNA-binding proteins, which contain a domain of ca. 90 amino acids with a characteristic ribonucleoprotein consensus sequence (RNP-CS). A PCR approach that is suitable for the characterization of RNP-CS-type proteins is described. Fifteen different RNA-binding domains were amplified from Nicotiana tabacum (tobacco) using oligonucleotide primers specific for the sequences (K/R)G(F/Y)(G/A)FVX(F/Y) and (L/I/V)(F/Y)(V/I)(G/K)(N/G)L, which are conserved in known RNP-CS proteins. Using the tobacco domains as probes, cDNAs encoding two RNA-binding proteins, each containing two RNP-CS-type domains, were characterized in N. plumbaginifolia. The proteins, designated CP-RBP30 and CP-RBP31, are targeted to chloroplasts as demonstrated by expression of epitope-tagged cDNAs in transfected protoplasts, followed by indirect immunofluorescence. High levels of mRNA for each protein were found in leaves but not in roots, and expression of the CP-RBP31 mRNA was strongly regulated by light. The N. plumbaginifolia proteins described in this work are distinct from chloroplast RNA-binding proteins characterized recently in tobacco and spinach.
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  • 9
    ISSN: 1435-0157
    Keywords: Key words contamination ; groundwater statistics ; numerical modeling ; statistical modeling
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Geosciences
    Description / Table of Contents: Résumé Des modèles mathématiques sont couramment utilisés par les gestionnaires pour effectuer des prévisions concernant l'écoulement souterrain et les concentrations de polluant en des points et des instants variés. Cependant les incertitudes liées à ces prédictions sont souvent négligées bien que l'hypothèse d'une telle incertitude soit prise en compte dans la formulation de la réglementation. Une méthode pour quantifier l'incertitude sur les prédictions du modèle, basée sur les incertitudes collectives sur les valeurs d'entrée des paramètres du modèle, recourt à une approximation par la formule de quadrature de Gauss–Hermite. L'approximation de Gauss–Hermite est un substitut acceptable d'un simple tirage de Monte Carlo, parce qu'il nécessite de faire peu tourner le modèle et fournit une analyse immédiate de sensibilité des effets principaux des paramètres et des interactions deux à deux. Par exemple, un modèle à quatre paramètres, avec une incertitude liée à chacun d'eux, doit tourner seulement 33 fois pour réaliser l'analyse de Gauss–Hermite. Pour une application à un modèle de transport de polluant, l'approximation de Gauss–Hermite soutient bien la comparaison avec la méthode complète, tout en économisant un temps de traitement considérable. Par comparaison, un échantillonnage hypercube peut être plus souple, mais il est plus complexe à utiliser dans certaines conditions et ne peut pas fournir aussi facilement l'analyse de sensibilité détaillée que fournit l'approche de Gauss–Hermite.
    Abstract: Resumen Los modelos numéricos son herramientas habituales de gestión utilizadas para realizar predicciones sobre la evolución en espacio y tiempo del flujo de agua subterránea y la concentración de contaminantes. Sin embargo, la incertidumbre asociada a estas predicciones suele pasarse por alto, a pesar de que una evaluación de esta incertidumbre es crítica para la toma de decisiones. Un método para cuantificar la incertidumbre en las predicciones de los modelos numéricos, basado en la incertidumbre asociada a los parámetros de entrada al modelo, consiste en usar una aproximación de la fórmula de la cuadratura de Gauss–Hermite de tres puntos. La aproximación de Gauss–Hermite es un buen sustituto para las simulaciones de Monte Carlo, porque requiere un número menor de ejecuciones del modelo y proporciona de manera inmediata un análisis de sensibilidad de cada parámetro y de sus interacciones dos a dos. Por ejemplo, un modelo con cuatro parámetros, cada uno con una incertidumbre asociada, debe ejecutarse sólo un total de 33 veces para completar un análisis de Gauss–Hermite. Para una aplicación de un modelo de transporte de contaminantes, la aproximación de Gauss–Hermite da resultados comparables con los del método habitual, con una reducción considerable en tiempo de ordenador. Como comparación, la simulación por Hipercubo Latino puede ser más flexible, pero en muchos casos su uso es más complejo y no puede generar de manera tan simple un análisis de sensibilidad tan detallado como el que el método de Gauss–Hermite permite.
    Notes: Abstract  Computer models are commonly used by regulators and managers to make predictions regarding groundwater flow and contaminant concentrations at various locations and times. However, the uncertainty associated with those predictions is often overlooked, despite the fact that an assessment of such uncertainty is critical in the formulation of policy decisions. One method of quantifying the uncertainty of model predictions, based on the collective uncertainties of the model parameter input values, is to use an approximation of the three-point Gauss–Hermite quadrature formula. The Gauss–Hermite approximation is a convenient substitute for simple Monte Carlo sampling, because it requires fewer model runs and provides an immediate sensitivity analysis of parameter main effects and two-way interactions. For example, a model with four parameters, each with its own associated uncertainty, needs to be run only 33 times to complete the Gauss–Hermite analysis. For an application to a contaminant-transport model, the Gauss–Hermite approximation compares well to the full method, with considerable savings in computing effort. By comparison, Latin hypercube sampling can be more flexible, but it is more complex to use in some circumstances and cannot as easily generate the detailed sensitivity analysis that the Gauss–Hermite approach offers.
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  • 10
    ISSN: 1435-0157
    Keywords: Key words atrazine ; contamination ; groundwater protection ; hydrochemical modeling ; statistical modeling
    Source: Springer Online Journal Archives 1860-2000
    Topics: Geosciences
    Description / Table of Contents: Résumé Une étude de terrain réalisée entre octobre 1989 et juillet 1992, sur une zone de 4,1 km2 dans la partie sud centrale du Wisconsin (États-Unis), s'est intéressée à la distribution de l'atrazine et des ses composés métaboliques chlorés dans les eaux souterraines ; ces données ont été replacées dans le système d'écoulement souterrain. MODFLOW et PATH3D ont été utilisés pour évaluer l'aptitude de la roche réservoir à la contamination. Les temps de parcours depuis l'aquifère vers la surface de la roche ont été estimés entre moins de 3 mois et plus de 512 ans. La distribution spatiale des estimations montre que l'accroissement du temps de parcours vers la roche peut provenir de la présence de paquets d'eau d'origine plus proches de la surface, de plus grandes profondeurs de la roche et de conductivités hydrauliques plus faibles. Les temps de parcours estimés dans les puits domestiques sont inversement proportionnels aux concentrations en atrazine et en atrazine déséthylée observées dans l'eau de ces puits. L'impact potentiel de l'usage à long terme de l'atrazine sur la qualité de l'eau de l'aquifère a été analysé au moyen de MT3D dans deux scénarios. Des incertitudes associées aux prévisions de concentrations en atrazine pour des profondeurs et des durées variées ont été estimées. Pour l'eau souterraine peu profonde, des dépassements généraux de la limite courante d'action préventive du Wisconsin ont été prédites, mais avec une large incertitude résultant de l'incertitude sur l'estimation des valeurs des paramètres d'entrée. Toutefois, les simulations indiquent qu'il est très peu probable que des entrées modérées au niveau de la surface piézométrique produisent des dépassements des normes du Wisconsin plus profondément dans l'aquifère.
    Abstract: Resumen Se llevó a cabo un estudio de campo, entre octubre 1989 y julio 1992, en un área de 4.1 km2 situada en la zona sur-central de Wisconsin, EEUU. El objetivo del estudio era examinar las distribuciones de atrazina y sus metabolitos en el agua subterránea, tratando de relacionarlas con el sistema de flujo. Se usaron MODFLOW y PATH3D para evaluar la susceptibilidad del acuífero a la contaminación. El tiempo de tránsito desde el nivel freático a la superficie rocosa se estima entre 〈0.25 y 〉512 años. La distribución espacial de las estimaciones muestra que los tiempos de tránsito más elevados pueden deberse a la presencia de cuerpos de agua subsuperficiales, mayores distancias a la roca y conductividades hidráulicas menores. Los tiempos estimados para alcanzar pozos particulares están inversamente relacionados con las concentraciones de atrazina y atrazina desetilada observadas en dichos pozos. Usando MT3D, se estudió el impacto potencial del uso continuado de atrazina sobre la calidad del agua del acuífero bajo dos hipótesis. Se estimaron las incertidumbres asociadas a la predicción de la concentración de atrazina a varias profundidades y en distintos tiempos. El agua más superficial violaba el límite legal de Wisconsin en amplias zonas, pero con unas incertidumbres asociadas muy grandes, provenientes de la incertidumbre en la estimación de parámetros. Las simulaciones indican, sin embargo, que aportaciones moderadas de atrazina en la superficie freática difícilmente producirán que en las aguas más profundas los valores lleguen a alcanzar los valores límite vigentes en Wisconsin.
    Notes: Abstract  A field study from October 1989 through July 1992, conducted on a 4.1-km2 area in south-central Wisconsin, USA, examined the distributions of atrazine and its chlorinated metabolites in groundwater and related those distributions to the groundwater flow system. MODFLOW and PATH3D were used to assess bedrock-aquifer susceptibility to contamination. Estimated travel time from water table to bedrock surface ranges from 〈0.25 to 〉512 yr. Spatial distribution of the estimates demonstrates that increased travel time to bedrock can result from the presence of shallow surface-water bodies, greater depths to bedrock, and smaller hydraulic conductivities. Estimated travel times to local domestic wells are inversely related to atrazine and desethylated atrazine concentrations observed in water from those wells. The potential impact of long-term atrazine use on aquifer water quality was investigated using MT3D in two best-case scenarios. Uncertainties associated with predicted atrazine concentrations at various depths and times were estimated. For shallow groundwater, widespread violations of Wisconsin's current preventive action limit were predicted, but with large uncertainty stemming from uncertain estimates of input parameter values. The simulations indicate, however, that moderate inputs at the water table are very unlikely to produce violations of Wisconsin's standards deeper in the aquifer.
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