Good Practice Guidance and Uncertainty Management in National Greenhouse Gas Inventories EMISSIONS FROM WASTE INCINERATION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The incineration of municipal waste involves the generation of climate-relevant emissions. These are mainly emissions of CO2 (carbon dioxide) as well as N2O (nitrous oxide), NOx ( oxides of nitrogen) NH3 (ammonia) and organic C, measured as total carbon. CH4 (methane) is not generated in waste incineration during normal operation. It only arises in particular, exceptional, cases and to a small extent (from waste remaining in the waste bunker), so that in quantitative terms CH4 is not to be regarded as climate-relevant. CO2 constitutes the chief climate-relevant emission of waste incineration and is considerably higher, by not less than 10 2, than the other emissions. Formulas (1) and (2) are to be used for the purpose of compiling an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, taking the following into account: The incineration of 1 Mg of municipal waste in MSW incinerators is associated with the production/release of about 0.7 to 1.2 Mg of carbon dioxide (CO2 output). The proportion of carbon of biogenic origin is usually in the range of 33 to 50 percent. The climate-relevant CO2 emissions from waste incineration are determined by the proportion of waste whose carbon compounds are assumed to be of fossil origin. The allocation to fossil or biogenic carbon has a crucial influence on the calculated amounts of climate-relevant CO2 emissions. Annex 1 contains a description of a method to calculate the energy credit for the use of waste as a substitute fo

Impact of sex and depressed mood on the central regulation of cardiac autonomic function

Cardiac autonomic dysregulation has been implicated in the comorbidity of major psychiatric disorders and cardiovascular disease, potentially through dysregulation of physiological responses to negative stressful stimuli (here, shortened to stress response). Further, sex differences in these comorbidities are substantial. Here, we tested the hypothesis that mood- and sex-dependent alterations in brain circuitry implicated in the regulation of the stress response are associated with reduced peripheral parasympathetic activity during negative emotional arousal. Fifty subjects (28 females) including healthy controls and individuals with major depression, bipolar psychosis and schizophrenia were evaluated. Functional magnetic resonance imaging and physiology (cardiac pulse) data were acquired during a mild visual stress reactivity challenge. Associations between changes in activity and functional connectivity of the stress response circuitry and variations in cardiovagal activity [normalized high frequency power of heart rate variability (HFn)] were evaluated using GLM analyses, including interactions with depressed mood and sex across disorders. Our results revealed that in women with high depressed mood, lower cardiovagal activity in response to negative affective stimuli was associated with greater activation of hypothalamus and right amygdala and reduced connectivity between hypothalamus and right orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. No significant associations were observed in women with low levels of depressed mood or men. Our results revealed mood- and sex-dependent interactions in the central regulation of cardiac autonomic activity in response to negative affective stimuli. These findings provide a potential pathophysiological mechanism for previously observed sex differences in the comorbidity of major depression and cardiovascular disease