LCA study of a plasma television device

Purpose: Nowadays, there is one television device for every four human beings, making television one of the most popular pieces of electrical and electronic equipment in our society, with the so-called flat-screen technologies gaining more and more market share. For one such technology, the plasma display panel (PDP), no complete life cycle assessment (LCA) studies have existed thus far, and therefore, the question as to their environmental performance, especially as compared with LCD technology, is still open. This paper describes a detailed LCA study of a PDP television, including a first comparison of it with the two competing technologies, the cathode ray tube and the liquid crystal display technologies. Methods: An LCA study from cradle to grave—i.e., from the extraction of the various resources used in the production to the final recycling or disposal activities—has been established taking the complete life cycle of one PDP television as the functional unit. Results: Analysis of the complete life cycle of a PDP television shows that the distribution stage is of no importance. Of the remaining life cycle stages, the importance of the use phase depends on the actual production mix used for the electricity consumed. A fossil-based electricity mix, such as the Union for the Coordination of Transmission of Electricity (UCTE)-mix, causes an impact in the use phase about two times higher than in the production phase. The production phase is dominated by the printed wiring boards and their various components—responsible for more than three quarters of the impact of this first life stage. Last but not least, in the end-of-life (EoL) phase, substantial environmental benefits are possible through a modern recycling system. A comparison of the PDP with competing technologies shows the PDP technology to be the more environmentally friendly one, based on the impact per square-inch of screen. All technologies show thereby a similar picture—production and use having high impacts, distribution being irrelevant, and EoL resulting in an ecological benefit. Conclusions: Hence, it is advisable to use electronic devices such as a PDP television as long as possible, because within the manufacturing stage, the production of the electronics is by far the most important production part. Some of this high environmental impact in electronics can be recovered in an up-to-date recycling system. The second most important life stage is the use phase, which depends on the production mix of the electricity consumed; the more non-renewable sources used for its production, the higher the impact of the use phase will appear. Hence, electronic devices should be used specifically and be turned off when not in us

Numerical modelling of oil spill in inland waters

Water Qualit

What Is the Optimal Duration of Adjuvant Mitotane Therapy in Adrenocortical Carcinoma? An Unanswered Question

A relevant issue on the treatment of adrenocortical carcinoma (ACC) concerns the optimal duration of adjuvant mitotane treatment. We tried to address this question, assessing whether a correlation exists between the duration of adjuvant mitotane treatment and recurrence-free survival (RFS) of patients with ACC. We conducted a multicenter retrospective analysis on 154 ACC patients treated for ≥12 months with adjuvant mitotane after radical surgery and who were free of disease at the mitotane stop. During a median follow-up of 38 months, 19 patients (12.3%) experienced recurrence. We calculated the RFS after mitotane (RFSAM), from the landmark time-point of mitotane discontinuation, to overcome immortal time bias. We found a wide variability in the duration of adjuvant mitotane treatment among different centers and also among patients cared for at the same center, reflecting heterogeneous practice. We did not find any survival advantage in patients treated for longer than 24 months. Moreover, the relationship between treatment duration and the frequency of ACC recurrence was not linear after stratifying our patients in tertiles of length of adjuvant treatment. In conclusion, the present findings do not support the concept that extending adjuvant mitotane treatment over two years is beneficial for ACC patients with low to moderate risk of recurrence

A Viable Hypomorphic Allele of the Essential IMP3 Gene Reveals Novel Protein Functions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, the essential IMP3 gene encodes a component of the SSU processome, a large ribonucleoprotein complex required for processing of small ribosomal subunit RNA precursors. Mutation of the IMP3 termination codon to a sense codon resulted in a viable mutant allele producing a C-terminal elongated form of the Imp3 protein. A strain expressing the mutant allele displayed ribosome biogenesis defects equivalent to IMP3 depletion. This hypomorphic allele represented a unique opportunity to investigate and better understand the Imp3p functions. We demonstrated that the +1 frameshifting was increased in the mutant strain. Further characterizations revealed involvement of the Imp3 protein in DNA repair and telomere length control, pointing to a functional relationship between both pathways and ribosome biogenesis

Interactions polymeres hydrosolubles/particules: role dans le phenomene de colmatage de membranes d'ultrafiltration utilisees pour la production d'eau potable

Available from INIST (FR), Document Supply Service, under shelf-number : T 79268 / INIST-CNRS - Institut de l'Information Scientifique et TechniqueSIGLEFRFranc

An integrated "process modelling-life cycle assessment" tool for the assessment and design of water treatment processes

International audienceThe application of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to the design of water treatment plants is hampered by: (1) a large diversity of unit processes, (2) the high variability of the operation conditions in relation with the water quality input, and (3) the range of possible technical solutions to fulfil the treatment needs. For a consistent prospective assessment, the LCA should be based on the simulated functioning of the unit processes rather than on average data, as it is most often the case when no real data are available. Here, a novel, integrated and flexible process modelling-life cycle assessment (PM-LCA) tool for design and LCA of water treatment technologies is presented. The tool (EVALEAU) was developed in UmbertoA (R) (v5.5) using the Python language for code scripting. A library of unit process (UP) modules was built. Each module is a detailed and highly parameterized model of a specific water treatment process, which is further linked with the software PHREEQCA (R) for water chemistry calculation. Input data are: water composition, design, operation parameters, including literature or user-defined values. The modules are linked to Ecoinvent datasets (v2.2) for background processes. By combining the modules, water treatment chains can be designed and evaluated in UmbertoA (R) with a high level of detail and specifications. A sensitivity analysis toolbox (Morris method) was included for the identification of the process parameters mainly affecting the impact results. The tool was successfully applied to the test bed case of an existing drinking water plant located in the Paris region. The conventional LCA results, based on average recorded data, were compared with the results obtained using the PM-LCA tool. Modelling results for technical parameters were also compared with data collected on site. An overall good agreement between simulations and real data was obtained, proving the relevance of the developed tool. Sensitivity analysis indicated that ozone production and transfer into water are the main technological parameters influencing climate change (taken as example since it is of high interest for stakeholders), which have therefore to be fine-tuned. The EVALEAU tool successfully solves the challenge of linking LCA results to the related engineering design choices, from the assessment and eco-design perspectives. The concepts and methodologies embedded within the tool provide the user with complementary views of the designed system, in terms of potable water quality, design and operation parameters and environmental impacts generated over its life cycle

Translation Analysis at the Genome Scale by Ribosome Profiling

International audienceRibosome profiling is an emerging approach using deep sequencing of the mRNA part protected by the ribosome to study protein synthesis at the genome scale. This approach provides new insights into gene regulation at the translational level. In this review we describe the protocol to prepare polysomes and extract ribosome protected fragments before to deep sequence them

RiboTools: a Galaxy toolbox for qualitative ribosome profiling analysis.

International audienceRibosome profiling provides genome-wide information about translational regulation. However, there is currently no standard tool for the qualitative analysis of Ribo-seq data. We present here RiboTools, a Galaxy toolbox for the analysis of ribosome profiling (Ribo-seq) data. It can be used to detect translational ambiguities, stop codon readthrough events and codon occupancy. It provides a large number of plots for the visualisation of these events

Formalization of a technical procedure for process ecodesign dedicated to drinking water treatment plants

Nowadays rigorous methodologies for performing ecodesign of process plants are still missing in current industrial practices and in the literature. The use of a fully integrated Process Modelling and Life Cycle Assessment (PM-LCA) tool combined with appropriate mathematical analysis methods seems to be an audacious approach. A technical procedure for process ecodesign is formalized in this paper in order to address this issue. The proposed methodological approach is applied to a drinking water treatment plant. The EVALEAU tool, a PM-LCA integrated simulator based on a computational library of models for water treatment processes, is used including a tool box for sensitivity analysis. At first, a ground modelling scenario, representing the regular functioning of the plant is established and validated. An in-depth analysis of this plant model highlights the major environmental issues. Secondly, several technological solutions are tested in alternative modelling scenarios, which are derived from the ground one. Interesting technological solutions are then combined in one optimal scenario, which manages to decrease the environmental impacts (e.g. reduces "Climate Change" by 17.2%). At the same time, operational costs are increased by 10.8% showing opposite behaviour. Compared with field reality, the solutions proposed are realistic and demonstrate that the studied plant functioning is close to the optimum. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved