Electronic noses for environmental monitoring applications

Electronic nose applications in environmental monitoring are nowadays of great interest, because of the instruments’ proven capability of recognizing and discriminating between a variety of different gases and odors using just a small number of sensors. Such applications in the environmental field include analysis of parameters relating to environmental quality, process control, and verification of efficiency of odor control systems. This article reviews the findings of recent scientific studies in this field, with particular focus on the abovementioned applications. In general, these studies prove that electronic noses are mostly suitable for the different applications reported, especially if the instruments are specifically developed and fine-tuned. As a general rule, literature studies also discuss the critical aspects connected with the different possible uses, as well as research regarding the development of effective solutions. However, currently the main limit to the diffusion of electronic noses as environmental monitoring tools is their complexity and the lack of specific regulation for their standardization, as their use entails a large number of degrees of freedom, regarding for instance the training and the data processing procedures

Air Quality Monitoring, Assessment and Management

Human beings need to breathe oxygen diluted in certain quantity of inert gas for living. In the atmosphere, there is a gas mixture of, mainly, oxygen and nitrogen, in appropriate proportions. However, the air also contains other gases, vapours and aerosols that humans incorporate when breathing and whose composition and concentration vary spatially. Some of these are physiologically inert. Air pollution has become a problem of major concern in the last few decades as it has caused negative effects on human health, nature and properties. This book presents the results of research studies carried out by international researchers in seventeen chapters which can be grouped into two main sections: a) air quality monitoring and b) air quality assessment and management, and serves as a source of material for all those involved in the field, whether as a student, scientific researcher, industrialist, consultant, or government agency with responsibility in this area

Diffuse Connections: Making Sense of Smell in Canadian Diasporic Women\u27s Writing

This dissertation explores the crucial, yet often unacknowledged, role smell plays in Canadian diasporic women’s writing. While some critics discuss scent in their work on taste, memory, and diasporic nostalgia, I argue for considering scent in its specificity and suggest that smell shapes diasporic subjectivities differently than taste. Complicating frameworks that focus primarily on notions of memory, homeland, and nostalgia, I consider how diasporic subjectivities are shaped by a range of feelings connected to experiences in past homelands and present places of habitation, including racialized and gendered forms of olfactory discrimination in the ostensibly tolerant nation of Canada. Appropriating the concept of diffusion from scientific theories of smell, I re-conceptualize diffusion as a model of movement and mixing that complicates narratives of linear diasporic migrations from a single point of origin. I use diffusion to theorize “diffuse connections,” a framework that emphasizes the blending of diasporic experiences across time and space and the intimate intersubjective encounters that emerge through scent. Each chapter explores novels by Canadian diasporic women writers (Shani Mootoo, Hiromi Goto, and Larissa Lai) that represent diasporic subjectivities in terms of diffuse connections

Materials and Energy Recovery from the Final Disposal of Organic Waste

The book is a collection of scientific contributions that highlight how scientific and technological evolution can change the paradigm of organic waste as an environmental problem into a renewable resource of energy and materials. Numerous researchers and research institutions that are located in different countries with varying levels of socio-economic development and other traditions were involved in this work. The materials that were considered include household waste, including human excreta and those generated by typical urban activities. The organic waste was derived from the agro-industrial sector and from packaging labelled as being biodegradable. Problems related to the detoxification of aquatic plants are discussed and the use of these plants for their ability to produce biomethane is documented simultaneously. An organic waste management strategy that was developed in the Albania context is also presented and discussed. Anaerobic digestion is one of the most widely studied technologies in this field, and this process is responsible for the production of biogas or methane, even in fossil resource-rich countries. On the other hand, aerobic fermentation is considered for the degradation of very toxic organic substances that can be dissolved into aqueous solutions that aid in the recovery of valuable materials from electrical and electronic equipment that do not have further use. There are a wide range of arguments and experiences that support the use of waste as a resource through disposal with simultaneous energy enhancement and the production of new materials, thus limiting the use of non-renewable resources for more sustainable development for the benefit of future generations

Proceedings of the European Conference on Agricultural Engineering AgEng2021

This proceedings book results from the AgEng2021 Agricultural Engineering Conference under auspices of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers, held in an online format based on the University of Évora, Portugal, from 4 to 8 July 2021. This book contains the full papers of a selection of abstracts that were the base for the oral presentations and posters presented at the conference. Presentations were distributed in eleven thematic areas: Artificial Intelligence, data processing and management; Automation, robotics and sensor technology; Circular Economy; Education and Rural development; Energy and bioenergy; Integrated and sustainable Farming systems; New application technologies and mechanisation; Post-harvest technologies; Smart farming / Precision agriculture; Soil, land and water engineering; Sustainable production in Farm buildings