Social life cycle assessment of product value chains under a circular economy approach: A case study in the plastic packaging sector

Environmental and economic impact assessment of products have a long record, while social performance analysis of products have less references in the scientific literature due its particularities and the adaptations needed for the features of the studied subject. In addition, there is a lack of a methodological framework of its application in the analysis of value chains, with the aim of estimating the impacts of technical innovations from the social point of view. This paper describes the theoretical framework and impact assessment approach for the Social Life Cycle Assessment of product value chains under a circular economy approach by applying a scoring system in different subcategories and indicators, considering the plastic packaging sector as a case study. Twelve subcategories have been chosen, because of their relevance to the case study, related to the impacts on the labor conditions, consumers'' well-being, end-of-life of the product, local community conditions, technology and suppliers, among others. The validation of the methodology in the plastic packaging sector is done by considering the main stakeholders involved in the value chain and the particularities of the sector

Modulación del comportamiento de las células B en respuesta a estimulación por quimioquinas y antígenos: mecanismos moleculares

Tesis doctoral inédita leida en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología Molecular. Fecha de lectura: 23-04-201

Detección e intervención específica en personas con trastorno mental grave en campos de refugiados

Debido a las guerras y crisis humanitarias que asolan el mundo millones de personas se ven obligadas a abandonar sus hogares buscando un lugar más seguro. Se calcula que en el mundo hay unos 70 millones de desplazados forzosamente de los cuales alrededor de 26 millones son refugiados y la mitad de ellos menores de edad. Proceden en su mayoría de países de Oriente Próximo y Medio, África y el Sudeste asiático y asientan de manera mayoritaria en países limítrofes. Los trastornos mentales graves que se presentan con mayor frecuencia son la ansiedad, la depresión y el trastorno por estrés postraumático con tasas de incidencia variables entre 40-70%, 50-70% y 20-40% respectivamente. Estas diferencias se deben por una parte a la aplicación de métodos de cribado diferentes y por otra, a las diferencias entre refugiados. Entre estas últimas destacan tanto factores individuales como colectivoscomunitarios. Dado que no existe un único instrumento de screening de trastornos mentales graves en campos de refugiados se proponen las características que debería de tener una de ellas, con diferentes apartados. Debería de poder aplicarse en el idioma local. Finalmente, se deben tener en consideración las características socio-culturas de cada refugiado.Due to wars and humanitarian crises that plague the world, millions of people are forced to leave their homes in search of a safer place. It is estimated that there are near 70 million forcibly displaced people in the world, of which about 26 million are refugees and half of them are minors. Most of them come from countries in the Near and Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia, and mostly settle in neighboring countries. The most frequent mental disorders are anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder with incidence rates varying between 40-70%, 50-70%, and 20-40% respectively. These differences are due, on the one hand, to the application of different screening methods and, on the other, to differences between refugees. Both individual and collective-community factors stand out among the latter. Given that there is no screening instrument for severe mental disorders in refugee camps, the characteristics that one of them should have are proposed. It should be applicable in the local language. Finally, the sociocultural characteristics of each refugee must be considered.Máster Universitario en Acción Humanitaria Sanitaria (M161

Circular economy in the european construction sector: a review of strategies for implementation in building renovation

Building renovation was declared a key point for sustainable development, however, the renovation rate of residential buildings in the European Union is insufficient to meet the climate and energy targets set. This paper analyses the main circular economy models used in the construction sector, as well as the situation of the building renovation market, to set a framework for circular economy models in building renovation. Of all the existing strategies in this sector, design, material recovery, building renovation and end-of-life actions would be the best, respectively. It also includes a market analysis consisting of a literature review covering PEST perspectives (political, economic, social and technical) and a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), concluding with a market gap analysis. The results of these analyses allow the development of a series of suggestions and strategies to be followed in order to solve the main barriers that hinder the implementation of the circular economy in the building´s renovation sector. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Environmental assessment of a nano-technological aerogel-based panel for building insulation

This study assesses the life-cycle environmental implications linked to the energy efficiency improvement by a nano-technological aerogel based panel insulation solution. A cradle to grave approach has been taken for the environmental evaluation of the product life-cycle, including its integration in an existing residential building for the evaluation of the building''s use phase. The model developed has been also assessed in the 5 European climate zones, evaluating the different performance due to the different weather conditions and the effect of increasing the thickness used. Also, an evaluation of the impacts achieved depending on the heating source used, together with the comparative analysis with other traditional insulation materials complete the paper. This innovative aerogel based panel takes advantage of nanotechnology to increase its lifetime and reduce its thickness, in-building installation time and cost in comparison to conventional insulating materials. As a result, due to its low thermal conductivity (0.015 W/mK), only 10 mm aerogel based insulation panel is needed to achieve the same level of insulation of 25 mm thickness of standard Expanded Polystyrene Panel. This difference increases when the passive house requirements of façade thermal insulation are considered with thermal transmittance values in the range between 0.1 and 0.15 W/(m2K). From the results, a reasonable thickness of insulation material is available only with Aeropan in comparison to Expanded Polystyrene, Extruded Polystyrene and Mineral Wool, demonstrating its suitability in the accomplishment of passive house requirements with a significant reduction of the space needed. Thus, net life-cycle environmental benefits were found in all scenarios making this product suitable for the retrofitting of existing buildings by both, external or internal thermal insulation, minimizing at the same time the space occupied by the insulation solution

The effects of energy consumption of alumina production in the environmental impacts using life cycle assessment

Purpose Aluminium industry emits around 1–2% of the world’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Up to one-third of those are linked to the thermal energy consumed during its initial process: the alumina refining (Bayer process). Previous studies consider the Bayer process a single stage despite its being made of several reaction stages. This work presents a disaggregated energy analysis of the Bayer process that facilitates to find relationships between the main variables in regular alumina production and the environmental impacts. Methods Two different thermodynamic simulations of the Bayer process were carried out using Aspen V11 software. The results of these simulations were validated with referenced data, and afterwards, they were used to perform a life cycle assessment. ISO 14040 and 14,044 standards were followed during the analysis. LCA was implemented on SimaPro 9.0, and ReCiPe 2016 Midpoint (H) method was used to calculate environmental impacts. The influence of bauxite mineral form, type of fuel (energy input), and the distance from the mine to the plant was analysed throughout the study. Results and discussion As expected, the type of fuel was revealed as the most crucial factor in the environmental impact of alumina production, with potential savings of up to 75.5% of CO2-equivalent emissions. Nonetheless, the tendency is diverse for other indicators, such as marine eutrophication or terrestrial acidification. On the other hand, while bauxite transportation always has the same impact on the different environmental indicators, bauxite mineral form affects differently depending on the fuel, causing variations in the CO2-eq emissions from 7.7 to 51.3%. Conclusions Results indicated that the electrification of heat-demanding processes and the use of renewable power is the most effective approach for reducing environmental impacts. This strategy, however, must be considered in combination with others, as interdependent effects exist on the type of mineral used. These results provide strong evidence of the potential for environmentally friendly strategies in the metal industry, including new processes, alternative fuels, or mineral switching to promote more sustainable aluminium production

Necrosis Avascular de la cabeza femoral.

Introducción. La necrosis avascular de la cabeza femoral representa una patología de creciente incidencia y con factores de riesgo claramente establecidos, siendo los más importantes el consumo de corticoides y alcohol. Para su diagnóstico se emplean la radiología simple y la RM, clasificando las caderas en estadios según las clasificaciones de Arlet-Ficat y Steinberg. El tratamiento varía en función del estadio, disponiendo de medidas físico-farmacológicas y quirúrgicas. El objeto de este estudio es la valoración de los resultados obtenidos en un grupo de caderas preartrósicas tratadas mediante perforaciones, aporte de médula ósea y sustituto óseo o injerto no vascularizado. Material y métodos. Se realiza un estudio transversal con 24 caderas (16 hombres y 8 mujeres) intervenidas quirúrgicamente entre 2008 y 2016. La media de edad en el momento actual de 42,1 ±12,1 años (16-64) con necrosis avascular de la cabeza femoral en estadio preartrósico. Las caderas se clasificaron siguiendo la clasificación de Arlet-Ficat: una estadio I, once estadio II, ocho estadio III y tres estadio IV. Trece fueron tratadas con sustituto óseo y once con injerto óseo procedente de banco. Se reevaluó a las caderas clínica y radiológicamente tras la intervención quirúrgica. Resultados. El seguimiento de los pacientes tratados con sustituto óseo fue de 65,1 ± 19,9 (24-96) meses con un empeoramiento radiológico en el 15,4% (2) y sin progresión radiológica en el 23,1% (3). El 61,5% (8) de las caderas necesitaron una prótesis total de cadera. El tiempo de supervivencia de estas cabezas tras la intervención quirúrgica fue de 23,5 ± 15,11 (2-54) meses. En el grupo de caderas tratadas con injerto óseo el seguimiento fue de 24,1 ± 29,5 (2-96) meses con un empeoramiento radiológico en el 9% (1) y sin progresión radiológica en el 63,6% (7). El 27,3% (3) de las caderas requirieron una prótesis total de cadera. El tiempo de supervivencia de estas cabezas femorales tras la cirugía fue de 12,3 ± 5,5 meses (7-18). En ambas técnicas cuando se produjo una mejoría radiológica también fue clínica. Conclusiones. Los resultados obtenidos en este estudio son similares a los presentes en la literatura. No se ha podido establecer si una técnica es superior a la otra por la imposibilidad de realizar una estadística inferencial

Sustainability of non-residential buildings and relevance of main environmental impact contributors’ variability. A case study of food retail stores buildings

European tertiary sector represents about 13% of EU-28 final energy consumption. As an example, food retail stores sector amounts about 3% of EU members’ electricity consumption. Furthermore, currently, fluorinated gases, which are the most used refrigerants for space conditioning and refrigeration systems, involve 2% of EU emissions, having risen since 1990 by 60%. Specifically, commercial refrigeration is responsible for 35% of EU-27 CO2-eq emissions related to refrigerants. A methodology based on Life Cycle Assessment standards is presented in this study to assess the energy and environmental implications of non-residential buildings, adapted to particularities of food retail stores buildings, in terms of Primary Energy Demand, carbon footprint and water demand. Relying on a reference building, constructive improvements are tested and evaluated. Then a sensitivity analysis of several configurations of food retail stores are studied considering their building location, refrigerant typology and schedule. Results show that electricity and refrigerants are the main contributors and sensitive to potential improvements. In fact, static calculations reveal that a food retail store may involve, in terms of Global Warming Potential, about 800 kgCO2- eq/m2 year, more than 20 times higher than a regular building. Thus, future scenarios are estimated through a dynamic calculation methodology. Due to optimal dimensioning and configuration of the refrigeration system, together with refrigerant replacement, an 80% of Global Warming Potential minimization can be reached. Furthermore, temporal dynamic assessment can present a variability of environmental impacts estimation from static Life Cycle Assessment of more than 15%, by considering a wider approach towards sustainability assessment of non-residential buildings

Análisis y propuesta de mejora de la Oficina Virtual del Ayuntamiento de Aldaia

La aplicación de las nuevas tecnologías de la información y comunicación en las Administraciones Públicas han transformado la forma en que los ciudadanos se relacionan con ellas. Como señala la Ley de Procedimiento Administrativo Común, la tramitación electrónica no puede ser una forma especial de gestión sino que debe ser la actuación habitual de las Administraciones. Nos encontramos en pleno periodo de cambio en el que la Administración Electrónica no deja de crecer cada día más, por lo que cada vez estamos más cerca de conseguir una Administración sin papeles. El propósito de este trabajo es conocer el grado de implantación de la Administración electrónica en el Ayuntamiento de Aldaia. Para ello analizaremos los beneficios que nos aporta, la normativa aplicable en cada nivel y el desarrollo de los distintos Planes de Acción para modernizar las Administraciones Públicas. En concreto se hace un análisis de la Administración Electrónica del Ayuntamiento de Aldaia, específicamente sobre su Oficina Virtual. La Oficina Virtual de Aldaia es un Portal que tiene por objeto ofrecer a los usuarios una serie de servicios e informaciones relacionadas con la Entidad. El análisis consistirá en detectar las posibles carencias de la Oficina para posteriormente analizarlas y así mismo poder proponer una serie de mejoras que puedan ayudar a mejorar la calidad de los servicios ofrecidos.<br /

Implantación del personal directivo profesional: el caso concreto de Castilla-La Mancha

Desde la regulación de la figura del personal directivo profesional en el Estatuto Básico del Empleo Público en 2007, en el que se dejaba a las Comunidades Autónomas el desarrollo de la misma, han pasado muchos años y tenemos unos resultados discretos de implantación en Castilla-La Mancha y en las distintas entidades locales que la integran. La falta de experiencias aplicables en el panorama nacional y los ejemplos internacionales que sí existen, pero que se aplican en organizaciones públicas distintas en cuanto a características, régimen y funcionamiento respecto a la administración española, hace que la implantación de la figura de personal directivo profesional y con ella, la modernización de la organización y el cambio de cultura administrativa orientada a una gestión eficaz, eficiente, con un horizonte de cumplimiento de objetivos medibles y evaluable en términos de transparencia y rendición de cuentas, sea aún muy escasa y puntual.<br /