Study to increase the quality of treated water in the process of water reuse in vehicle washing systems

Final master Work for obtaining the Master degree in Chemical and Biological Engineering.As águas residuais geradas na lavagem de automóveis são um dos recursos efluentes que contribuem efetivamente no aumento da contaminação ambiental devido às características químicas dos resíduos veiculares. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo avaliar e comparar as eficiências de remoção de poluentes provenientes de águas residuais de lavagem de veículos, a fim de otimizar o funcionamento da estação de tratamento em termos de energia e água. No presente trabalho é realizado um estudo de caso na estação Transportes Gama, localizada no Seixal. A estação possui uma estação de tratamento compacta, construída pela ECODEPUR®, com sedimentação primária, flotação, tratamento biológico, filtrações de areia e carvão ativado. A eficiência de cada operação e processo de tratamento foi avaliada analisando diversos parâmetros: pH, demanda química de oxigênio (DQO), sólidos totais (ST), sólidos suspensos totais (SST) e metais (Cu e Zn). Para avaliar o efeito da enzima na eficiência de remoção de todos os parâmetros, foram feitas duas amostragens e testes relativos, a primeira com 30 L/semana de enzimas e a segunda com adição reduzida pela metade. Os principais resultados mostram que o DQO e os metais estão dentro do limite da legislação nacional para lançamento de águas residuais em ambos os testes. No primeiro ensaio a estação de tratamento apresenta uma eficiência total de remoção em torno de 96% de DQO, 61% de ST e cerca de 80% de Cu e 81,5% de Zn. Verificou-se que a redução do volume da enzima teve um pequeno impacto na eficiência de remoção total com 95,6, 58, quase 77 e quase 74% de DQO, TS, Cu e Zn respetivamente, de 3.900 €/ano. A maior parte das águas residuais tratadas é reutilizada na lavagem de veículos, o que representa uma descarga de águas residuais próxima de zero e uma poupança de custos de 6.320 €/ano, contribuindo também para o uso sustentável da água.Wastewater generated from carwash is one of the wastewater resources, which contribute effectively in the increasing of environmental contamination due to the chemical characteristics of the vehicle wastes. The present work aims to evaluate and compare the efficiencies of removal of pollutants from vehicle washing wastewater in order to optimize the treatment plant operation in terms of energy and water. In the present work is conducted a case study on Transportes Gama station, located in Seixal. The station has a compact treatment plant, built by ECODEPUR®, with primary sedimentation, flotation, biological treatment, sand and activated carbon filtrations. The efficiency of each treatment operation and process was evaluated analyzing several parameters: pH, chemical oxygen demand (COD), total solids (TS), total suspended solids (TSS) and metals (Cu and Zn). To evaluate the enzyme effect in the efficiency removal of all parameters, two samplings and relative tests were made, the first with 30 L/week of enzymes and the second with halved amount added. The main results show that the COD and metals are within the limit of the national legislation for wastewater discharge in both tests. In the first assay the treatment plant presents a total removal efficiency around 96% the COD, 61% TS and around 80% Cu and 81.5% Zn. It was verified that the enzyme volume reduction had a small impact on total removal efficiency with 95.6, 58, almost 77 and almost 74% COD, TS, Cu and Zn respectively, of 3,900 €/year. Most of the treated wastewater is reuse in the vehicle washing, which represents a wastewater discharge near zero and a cost saving of 6,320 €/year, contributing also for sustainable use of water.N/

Word senses

Across languages, most frequent words are also highly ambiguous, and carry multiple distinct but related senses of meaning. This chapter aims to explain why words have the particular senses that they do, discussing to what degree word senses are arbitrary cultural conventions or reflections of how speakers conceptualize the world around them. The chapter reviews theoretical proposals about the nature of word senses drawn from linguistics and psychology, and evaluates these proposals against a large recent body of experimental work on the topic. Finally, the chapter suggests that word senses reflect a balance between two communicative pressures: A pressure toward facilitating fast and efficient conversational exchanges, and one toward making languages easier for children to learn

How top-down processing enhances comprehension of noise-vocoded speech:Predictions about meaning are more important than predictions about form

Listeners quickly learn to understand speech that has been distorted, and this process is enhanced when comprehension is constrained by higher-level knowledge. In three experiments, we investigated whether this knowledge enhances comprehension of distorted speech because it allows listeners to predict (1) the meaning of the distorted utterance, or (2) the lower-level wordforms. Participants listened to question-answer sequences, in which questions were clearly-spoken but answers were noise-vocoded. Comprehension (Experiment 1) and learning (Experiment 2) were enhanced when listeners could use the question to predict the semantics of the distorted answer, but were not enhanced by predictions of answer form. Form predictions enhanced comprehension only when questions and answers were significantly separated by time and intervening linguistic material (Experiment 3). Together, these results suggest that high-level semantic predictions enhance comprehension and learning, with form predictions playing only a minimal role

Canvis climàtics sobtats: la recerca més dinàmica sobre el clima

En aquest treball es presenta la importància de l'anàlisi dels canvis ràpids en el clima, especialment pel que fa a la seva aplicació en l'estudi del canvi climàtic d'origen antròpic. S'analitzen els canvis sobtats més pròxims en el temps i dels quals es té més informació experimental i es fa referència als possibles mecanismes que porten a aquests tipus de transformacions climàtiques. Finalment, s'acaba discutint la relació entre l'escalfament global i els canvis climàtics ràpids.This work is devoted to the analysis of the importance of abrupt climatic changes in the context of the research on human induced climatic change. The most recent abrupt climatic changes from which we have a great deal of experimental information are analyzed and also it is discussed what are the possible mechanisms that induce such rapid changes in climate. Finally some discussion is done about the relationship between global warming and abrupt climatic changes

Knowing How You Know: Toddlers Reevaluate Words Learned From an Unreliable Speaker

There has been little investigation of the way source monitoring, the ability to track the source of one’s knowledge, may be involved in lexical acquisition. In two experiments, we tested whether toddlers (mean age 30 months) can monitor the source of their lexical knowledge and reevaluate their implicit belief about a word mapping when this source is proven to be unreliable. Experiment 1 replicated previous research (Koenig & Woodward, 2010): children displayed better performance in a word learning test when they learned words from a speaker who has previously revealed themself as reliable (correctly labeling familiar objects) as opposed to an unreliable labeler (incorrectly labeling familiar objects). Experiment 2 then provided the critical test for source monitoring: children first learned novel words from a speaker before watching that speaker labeling familiar objects correctly or incorrectly. Children who were exposed to the reliable speaker were significantly more likely to endorse the word mappings taught by the speaker than children who were exposed to a speaker who they later discovered was an unreliable labeler. Thus, young children can reevaluate recently learned word mappings upon discovering that the source of their knowledge is unreliable. This suggests that children can monitor the source of their knowledge in order to decide whether that knowledge is justified, even at an age where they are not credited with the ability to verbally report how they have come to know what they know

Threat of war on cognitive development of refugee children

War trauma is often accompanied by poor living conditions in the new environment in a manner preserving or even deteriorating the negative influences of war. Several researchers have investigated the refugee experiences of displaced children. Often they have focused on the detrimental effects of war on psychological well-being, mental health, educational settings, social adaptation, quality of nutrition, financial difficulties, safety and language learning experiences. Each of these effects has been proven to negatively affect cognitive abilities; however, the current study reviews the key studies to reveal the cognitive and linguistic outcomes of holding refugee status in the early childhood period. Doing this, we aim to reveal the adverse conditions that affect refugee children’s three core abilities of executive functions, namely working memory, inhibitory control and shifting. In addition to cognitive outcomes, we present the factors that may affect these children’s mother tongue development and their experiences with the language spoken in the host country in the context of schooling. This study suggests that refugee children should be assessed for their cognitive and language abilities after arriving in the country of resettlement so that their needs can be identified and addressed effectively. Caretakers should also be given both psychological and financial support to enrich their children’s language and cognitive input. Also, the outcomes of the research in this field should be effectively shared with different stakeholders from the caregivers and teachers of the refugee children to the NGOs and policymakers responsible to take solid actions to counter the adverse effects of displacement

Can item effects explain away the evidence for unconscious sound symbolism? An adversarial commentary on Heyman, Maerten, Vankrunkelsven, Voorspoels and Moors (2019)

status: Published onlin