Application of processed organic municipal solid waste on agricultural land - a scenario analysis

Source separation, composting and anaerobic digestion, with associated land application, are increasingly being considered as alternative waste management strategies to landfilling and incineration of municipal solid waste (MSW). Environmental life cycle assessments are a useful tool in political decision-making about waste management strategies. However, due to the diversity of processed organic MSW and the situations in which it can be applied, the environmental impacts of land application are very hard to determine by experimental means. In the current study, we used the agroecosystem model Daisy to simulate a range of different scenarios representing different geographical areas, farm and soil types under Danish conditions and legislation. Generally, the application of processed organic MSW resulted in increased emissions compared with the corresponding standard scenarios, but with large differences between scenarios. Emission coefficients for nitrogen leaching to the groundwater ranged from 0.03 to 0.87, while those for nitrogen lost to surface waters through tile drains ranged from 0 to 0.30. Emission coefficients for N2O formation ranged from 0.013 to 0.022 and for ammonia volatilization from 0.016 to 0.11. These estimates are within reasonable range of observed values under similar conditions. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis showed that the estimates were not very sensitive to the mineralization dynamics of the processed organic MSW. The results show that agroecosystem models can be powerful tools to estimate the environmental impacts of land application of processed MSW under different conditions. Despite this, agroecosystem models have only been used to a very limited degree for this purpose

Monadic Second-order Logic for Parameterized Verification

Much work in automatic verification considers families of similar finite-state systems. But an often overlooked property is that sometimes a single finite-state system can be used to describe a parameterized, infinite family of systems. Thus verification of unbounded state spaces can take place by reduction to finite ones. The purpose of this article is to introduce Monadic Second-order Logic as a practical means of carrying out such reductions. The logic is a highly succinct alternative to the use of regular expressions. We have built a tool that acts as a decision procedure and translator to DFAs. The potential applications are numerous. We discuss text processing, Boolean circuits, and distributed systems. Our main example is an automatic proof of properties for the ``Dining Philosophers with Encyclopedia'' example by Kurshan and MacMillan. We establish these properties for the parameterized case without the use of induction

SPS tune measurements

The SPS tune measurement system allows to measure the tunes of hadrons and leptons during the multi cycle. The system consists of several front end detectors and readout electronics in a VME chassis (BOSC system [1]) and kickers for beam excitation. The report summarizes the system layout and gives measurement examples. First results of multi FFT acquisitions during lepton cycles are given

Tune Measurements in the SPS as a Multicycling Machine

Throughout the operation cycle of the SPS different particles are accelerated : High intensity protons, leptons and heavy ions. For each particle type a measurement of the betatron tunes along the acceleration cycle is required. The paper describes the different excitation and data analysis methods used in order to minimize beam blow-up during the measurements (protons) or in order to optimize the time resolution (leptons). Measurement examples are given

Inertial amplification of continuous structures: Large band gaps from small masses

Wave motion in a continuous elastic rod with a periodically attached inertial-amplification mechanism is investigated. The mechanism has properties similar to an "inerter" typically used in vehicle suspensions, however here it is constructed and utilized in a manner that alters the intrinsic properties of a continuous structure. The elastodynamic band structure of the hybrid rod-mechanism structure yields band gaps that are exceedingly wide and deep when compared to what can be obtained using standard local resonators, while still being low in frequency. With this concept, a large band gap may be realized with as much as twenty times less added mass compared to what is needed in a standard local resonator configuration. The emerging inertially enhanced continuous structure also exhibits unique qualitative features in its dispersion curves. These include the existence of a characteristic double-peak in the attenuation constant profile within gaps and the possibility of coalescence of two neighbouring gaps creating a large contiguous gap.Comment: Manuscript is under review for journal publicatio

Beyond the Lines: Exploring the Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on NCAA Student-Athlete Health

Emerging research has highlighted a link between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and various health concerns experienced by NCAA student-athletes. Building on prior work (Kaier, Cromer, Davis, & Strunk, 2015), we hypothesized that ACEs would significantly predict student-athletes’ biopsychosocial (BPS) health and that spirituality would serve as a protective factor against the effect of ACEs on BPS health outcomes. Division I, II, and III NCAA student-athletes (N = 477) representing 20 sports across 53 universities completed an online quantitative survey (k = 133) that assessed for ACEs, injury/physical health concerns, anxiety, depression, stress, social support, substance use, and spirituality. Nearly two-thirds (64.5%) of student-athletes endorsed at least one ACE. Structural Equation Models (SEMs) yielded significant positive relationships between ACEs and anxiety, depression, perceived stress, injury/health problems, and substance use, and a negative relationship with social support while controlling for sex, race, school, and division. Additionally, spirituality had a significant negative effect on anxiety, depression, perceived stress, injury/health problems, and substance use, and a positive effect on social support. SEM moderation analyses indicated that spirituality only moderated the relationship between ACEs and substance use. Specifically, at average and high levels of spirituality, the relationship between ACEs and substance use was stronger. Clinical implications, study limitations, and future research directions are discussed