Systematic review and meta-analysis on the use of LCA to assess the environmental impacts of the composting process

Following the industrial revolution, major economic and populational growth took place, and, therefore, solid waste generation increased exponentially. Nowadays, waste management still generates major impacts because the current wide offer of waste management strategies includes many solutions that produce suboptimal results, such as landfill or waste incineration. From a circular economy perspective, composting is a potentially sustainable option to treat the organic fraction of solid waste and has the advantage of recycling many organic compounds that can be reintroduced into the natural processes. This study aimed to provide a meta-analysis using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method to evaluate the impacts of composting by performing a systematic literature review of the diversity of approaches and assessing environmental impacts. The results of the impact assessment were highly dependent on the choices made over the system boundary and the functional units. The most cited environmental impacts were GlobalWarming Potential, Acidification Potential, Eutrophication Potential, Photochemical Oxidation Potential, and Ozone Layer Depletion, as gaseous emissions from the transport and decomposition represent the main contributors to these categories. Using a smaller dataset and evaluating the use of the CML method and the most cited impacts categories, it was found that In-vessel Composting and Home Composting were considered the best environmental options among the studied composting methods. Composting environmental impacts were also highly related to the use of non-renewable energy sources, which puts composting at a disadvantage when compared with the use of anaerobic digestion. Such results emphasize the benefits of using these waste management technologies as complementary instead of substitutes.This work received funding from COMPETE 2020—Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational Program, Portugal 2020 and FEDER, through the project BioComp 2.0—Integrated Approach to the Valorisation of Water Hyacinth, and the financial support of CIMO (Centro de Investigação de Montanha) (UIDB/00690/2020) and SUSTEC (Laboratório Associado para a Sustentabilidade e Tecnologia em Regiões de Montanha) through national funds Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)/Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Ensino Superior (MCTES).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Quantum optics in the phase space - A tutorial on Gaussian states

In this tutorial, we introduce the basic concepts and mathematical tools needed for phase-space description of a very common class of states, whose phase properties are described by Gaussian Wigner functions: the Gaussian states. In particular, we address their manipulation, evolution and characterization in view of their application to quantum information.Comment: Tutorial. 23 pages, 1 figure. Updated version accepted for publication in EPJ - ST devoted to the memory of Federico Casagrand

Information and entropy in quantum Brownian motion: Thermodynamic entropy versus von Neumann entropy

We compare the thermodynamic entropy of a quantum Brownian oscillator derived from the partition function of the subsystem with the von Neumann entropy of its reduced density matrix. At low temperatures we find deviations between these two entropies which are due to the fact that the Brownian particle and its environment are entangled. We give an explanation for these findings and point out that these deviations become important in cases where statements about the information capacity of the subsystem are associated with thermodynamic properties, as it is the case for the Landauer principle.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Appearance of acute segmental testicular infarction at CEUS: Preliminary study on 15 consecutive patients

22nd European Congress of Radiology - Vienna 4-8 marzo 201

Intra-operative use of PET probe for localization of FDG avid lesions

Localizing positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) findings in heavily scarred surgical fields can be challenging. A high energy gamma probe (PET probe) can be used to guide surgery in those difficult areas. We describe our experience localizing and removing fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) avid lesions in different body areas. Between 2004 and 2007, we used the PET probe to localize and remove 12 lesions from 9 patients. The lesions were removed confirming ex vivo and tumor bed FDG activity. Five patients had lesions in previously operated and sometimes radiated fields. One patient had FDG avid spots in the retroperitoneum. Two lymphoma patients had been previously treated and had new FDG avid spots in a background of scarred nodes. The last patient had a core biopsy suspicious for lymphoma but a repeat CT was non-specific. One patient with gastric cancer patient, two patients with melanoma patients and two patients with breast cancer had 10 metastatic lesions easily identified and removed. After a median follow-up of 14 months all five patients are alive. The two patients with lymphoma had their FDG avid lymph nodes easily identified and biopsied. In one patient with melanoma and one patient with suspected lymphoma, the preoperative scan revealed no FDG avid lesions. The PET probe confirmed this finding in the operating room. Clinical applications of PET probe guided surgery include restaging for previously treated lymphoma patients, localization and resection of metastatic FDG avid nodules especially in previously operated or radiated fields and biopsy of PET findings difficult to localize