الحاويات في هذا القسم

تقديمات حديثة

  • Landscape pattern optimization of small watershed based on water purification (Danjiangkou reservoir area, China)

    Bojun Ma; Kun Sun; Xiaoshuang Wang; Jigen Liu; Guanhua Zhang; Pengcheng Wang; Wenfeng Ding; Jinquan Huang; Yu Zhang; Zhixiang Zhou (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
    In recent years, landscape pattern optimization has been regarded as a cutting-edge science in various fields, and basin hydrology is no exception. Its effect on basin water purification has also been focused on. Based on the analysis of land use types and landscape patterns in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Basin, and combined with the determination of water quality indicators in the Danjiangkou Reservoir Basin, the relationship between the spatial pattern of Landscape Morphology and water quality was studied; It is found that among the basic characteristic indicators of many basins, the main influencing factors of water quality with high Variable importance for the projection (VIP>1) are IJI (Interspersion and Juxtaposition Index), COHE (Patch Cohesion Index), AI (Aggregation Index), PD (Patch Density), ED (Edge Density); Using PLSR (Partial Least Squares Regression) analysis, the main influencing factors of water quality were discussed. It was found that there was a significant negative regression relationship (Rc < 0) with CODMn (permanganate index), TP (Total Phosphorus), TN (Total Nitrogen) and NH4+-N (ammonia nitrogen) in the basin, and the influencing factors were topographic humidity index, topographic relief, slope, and forest area; The landscape patch connectivity index was used to determine the ecological source areas in the Danjiangkou reservoir basin that have improved connectivity and need to be protected; The priority of ecological corridor construction and protection was determined; With the help of the minimum cumulative resistance model, the ecological corridor between various ecological sources is constructed; The ecological grips on the ecological corridor are identified. In order to provide technical support for the optimization of landscape configuration for the purpose of water quality purification in Danjiangkou reservoir area.
  • Economic evaluation of the removal of hydropower dams

    Kristina Ek; Elin Spegel; Jesper Stage (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
    Stricter environmental regulations (e.g. the EU’s Water Framework Directive) will entail many environmental improvement measures in waters that have been affected by hydropower, and dam removals are becoming a more common measure. This paper reviews economic evaluations of dam removals, primarily drawing on studies in the USA, and identifies key, frequently recurring, issues that future evaluations will likely need to consider. The paper also reports on an ex-ante evaluation of the recent removal of the Marieberg Hydropower Plant in the Mörrum River in Sweden. An environmental valuation survey carried out as a key part of this evaluation was conducted as a replication of a previous study, where the policy context was different but the expected ecological outcome similar. The replication study produced comparable results to those of the previous study.
  • Annual consumption and types of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers: Ammonia emission indicators for mitigation strategies in the European Union

    Yuncai Hu; Urs Schmidhalter (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
    Anthropogenic ammonia (NH3) emissions are primarily derived from agricultural activities. NH3 emissions from synthetic nitrogen (N) fertilizers are associated with the annual consumption of various N fertilizers. In this study, the annual consumption of different types of synthetic N fertilizers in the EU countries, derived from the database of the International Fertilizer Association, was analyzed, and the implementation of mitigation measures for NH3 emissions at the national level was assessed. NH3 emissions were estimated using the emission factors of different N fertilizers in cool, temperate and hot climates, and low- and high-pH soils, as the European Environment Agency proposed. The results revealed that the annual consumption of various synthetic N fertilizers (average values from 2016 to 2020) varied markedly in different EU countries. France, Germany, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom had the largest annual consumption of synthetic N fertilizers. NH3 emissions from urea-based fertilizers are the highest in most EU countries. The annual NH3 emissions were associated with the type of synthetic N fertilizer consumed. For example, although the annual synthetic N fertilizer consumption in Germany was 38% and 41.5% higher than those in Spain and Italy, the annual NH3 emissions in Germany were 63% and 20% lower than those in Spain and Italy, respectively, due to the high proportion of urea-based fertilizers with the highest emission factor among the synthetic N fertilizers in Spain and Italy. Thus, mitigation strategies should be tailored to specific types of N fertilizers with high emission factors and proportions to minimize NH3 emissions. Since the NH3 emissions from urea-based fertilizers are the highest in the EU countries, especially in the top five countries, we recommend the addition of urease inhibitors to urea fertilizers as one important strategy for mitigating NH3 emissions.
  • Metals and metaloid preserved in marine sediments of an industrial complex of central Chile. Environmental assessment using different background values

    Jorge Valdés Saavedra; Eduardo Quiroga (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
    This work examines the distribution of metals(oid) in coastal sediments of the Concon-Quintero industrial complexes (central Chile), and evaluates the environmental condition of this zone, using some environmental indexes and different global and local background values.The Index of geoaccumulation and the Enrichment Factor were different depending on the background values used to calculate them. Only Mo and Pb, simultaneously show both an enrichment, and some degree of pollution problem, with all backgrounds utilized. Three of the four background values used in this work to calculates the Pollution Load Index suggests a polluted condition of the bottom environment. The spatial distribution, the results of environmental indices and the comparison with local environmental legislation suggests that Pb is introduced to the marine system by industrial activities. The result of both, SQG and m-ERM-Q suggest that metals preserved in the sediments are a threat to the benthic life, especially in the Concon-Ritoque zone, where the highest values were recorded.These results suggest a notorious influence of the Aconcagua river on the metal accumulation in the coastal zone.
  • Development of a methodology for the evaluation of environmental equity at urban level with high spatial resolution. Case study in Valencia (Spain)

    Clara Bosch-Checa; Maria Joaquina Porres de la Haza; Eloina Coll-Aliaga; Victoria Lerma-Arce; Edgar Lorenzo-Sáez (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
    Detecting vulnerable areas or areas with less favourable conditions than the rest of the city is essential for public administrations to achieve sustainable development. This paper describes the development of a methodology to obtain the most vulnerable neighbourhoods at an urban scale based on a series of geo-referenced economic, social and environmental variables. In addition, a network of NO2 passive sensors has been deployed to introduce air quality as an environmental variable in the developed methodology. This allows us to identify the neighbourhoods with the worst air quality to determine the areas in the city where vulnerable groups and poor air quality conditions coincide. Finally, results are analysed to see if there is a direct relationship between vulnerable neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods with poorer air quality.Then, the developed methodology has been applied in Valencia (Spain) as a case study. Thus, the methodology developed has been allowed to identify the most vulnerable neighbourhoods based on facilities, demography and socioeconomic variables. This would allow public decision-makers to use available resources to reduce vulnerability efficiency. Finally, cross-referencing vulnerability and air quality results give the location of vulnerable neighbourhoods with the worst air quality, allowing the identification of environmental inequities at an urban level with high spatial resolution. In the pilot case of Valencia, it is concluded that there is no direct relationship between vulnerable neighbourhoods and neighbourhoods with high NO2 levels, although 14.28% meet both conditions.
  • Application of machine learning in sanitation management prediction: Approaches for achieving sustainable development goals

    Achara Taweesan; Thammarat Koottatep; Thongchai Kanabkaew; Chongrak Polprasert (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
    Due to lack of understanding about the different conditions of sanitation systems and complexity, mostly in Asia and Africa, the occurrence of unsafely managed sanitation still exists, leading to severe environmental and health impacts. Because of the complexity of this problem, machine learning tools were applied to develop an effective model for health protection and safe sanitation management as a promising way to approach sustainable development goals. This study aimed to examine the incidences of ineffective sanitation management on the prevalence of diarrhea infections using machine learning tools. The prevailing conditions for safely sanitation management were identified, and the effective model to protect the impacts of ineffective sanitation management on the prevalence of diarrhea infections was proposed. Based on information collected from about 1000 households with relatively high diarrhea infections during the period of 2017–2021, factors relating to sanitation facilities for health protection and safe sanitation management were examined. Diarrhea infections and no diarrhea infection were recognized based on actual conditions of the surveyed households and incidences from ground-based observation. Classification tree model as J48 in WEKA was applied for analytic predictive tool using 70:30 ratio of training and validating dataset. The findings showed that the tree model obtained from the training data was with 73% accuracy prediction, while that from the validation data was with 70% accuracy. The correlation of personal hygiene (such as washing hand before meal and drinking water from natural water sources) and sanitation facilities (such as open defecation and distance from on-site sanitation facilities to open drains or storm sewer) was significant with inverse relationship for safely sanitation management and public health protection.
  • Spatiotemporal heterogeneity and influencing factors of human activity intensity in the Guangxi Beibu Gulf Zone, China

    Yuchu Xie; Yu Zhang; Jinling Luo; Liqiong Bi; Kai Tong (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
    Quantitatively investigating and assessing the spatiotemporal variation in the human activity intensity (HAI) and its influencing factors are crucial for coordinating regional human–land relationships and protecting the eco-environment. However, the scale, variation pattern, and driving factors of the human activity intensity in the Guangxi Beibu Gulf Zone have not yet been determined. To bridge this gap, this study focused on evaluating and analyzing the spatiotemporal variation characteristics of the HAI from 2000 to 2020 by a quantitative model based on multi-period land use data, field survey data, and statistical data. Moreover, the socioeconomic and geographical determinants were investigated using the PCA method and Geodetector model. The results showed that (1) the overall HAI value was relatively high and increased from 18.97% in 2000 to 20.06% in 2020. The HAI value in Haicheng District was always the highest and peaked at 60.78% in 2020. (2) Spatially, approximately 19.88% of the area exhibited high HAI values, and these areas were mainly distributed in urban districts, county seats, towns, and farming areas. In contrast, the areas with low HAI values were mainly concentrated in mountainous areas and natural reserves. (3) The HAI exhibited a significant spatial agglomeration effect, and HAI hot spots were concentrated mainly in areas with intense change, such as economic development zones, industrial parks, urban suburbs, and towns with added counties. (4) The HAI was affected by various influencing factors, and the explanatory power of multiple factors for the HAI change was greater than that of a single factor.
  • Pollutant load estimation and load reduction target (LRT) projection for total maximum daily load (TMD) allocation on tropical rivers

    Nura Bello; Nor Rohaizah Jamil; Ley Juen Looi; Keng Yap Ng (Elsevier, 2024-06-01)
    Pollutant load may be defined as the mass of a substance that passes a particular point of a river in a specified amount of time. Meanwhile, estimation of pollutant loading and identification of their sources is crucial to environmental management and planning. For the first time (in this study), Flow rate measurement was used to estimate daily pollutant loading from Intermittent water quality concentration data, using a 2-dymensional Water Quality Analyser (WQA). Subsequently, Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) was determined using the Load duration approach, while Load Reduction Targets were projected for the future, the using regression option of trend analysis available in the WQA. Out of the ten parameters used for the study, BOD, NH3, and TSS have been identified as the most critical pollutants in the area, which require average load reduction of 3898.88 kg-day, 1053.28 kg-day, and 444,716.50 kg-day respectively, to achieve water quality class II, until 2030. Moreover, the study reveals that the load reduction target for BOD and TSS would decrease in the future, while that of NH3 increases (p < 0.001). This is even as significant variability also exists for the projected load reduction target over the months throughout the projected period (p < 0.01). It was concluded that WQA provides a cost and time effective, and a reliable means for estimation of Pollutant load and projection of Load Reduction Target. The study recommends source identification for the critical pollutants into the river and allocation of TMDLs using the dynamic flow approach.
  • Diseño de una política territorial de conservación y desarrollo basada en la sustentabilidad. El caso del municipio de Villaflores, Chiapas, México

    Margarita Haydee Huerta Silva; Manuel Roberto Parra Vázquez; Elena Ianni (El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, 2024-02-01)
    La intención globalmente aceptada de alcanzar un desarrollo sostenible parece cada vez más lejana. Este artículo propone que las tensiones entre conservación y desarrollo podrían ser resueltas por los actores locales en un contexto de descentralización. El objetivo de esta investigación fue valorar las capacidades locales para diseñar participativamente proyectos de desarrollo territorial fundamentados en criterios de sustentabilidad. Para ello se realizó un estudio de caso sobre el ciclo de la política municipal desarrollado por el Consejo Municipal de Desarrollo Rural Sustentable del Municipio de Villaflores, Chiapas. Los resultados muestran que los grupos colegiados constituidos por organizaciones de productores, funcionarios públicos, académicos y organizaciones de la sociedad civil cuentan con el conocimiento y las capacidades para diseñar participativamente un Plan Municipal de Desarrollo Rural Sustentable. La evaluación de los sistemas de producción actuales y potenciales con criterios de sustentabilidad fue el mecanismo que permitió la toma de decisiones para la asignación de recursos. Sin embargo, quedó claro que la cultura conformista de los actores locales está fuertemente arraigada, por lo que cuando ya no hubo la voluntad política para operar de manera colegiada, el proceso regresó a la normalidad caciquil y a la toma de decisiones discrecionales.
  • Health care priorities: the â youngâ and the â oldâ

    Machado, Mario Filho; Davies, Ben (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    Some philosophers and segments of the public think age is relevant to healthcare priority-setting. One argument for this is based in equity: â Oldâ patients have had either more of a relevant good than â youngâ patients or enough of that good and so have weaker claims to treatment. This article first notes that some discussions of age-based priority that focus in this way on old and young patients exhibit an ambiguity between two claims: that patients classified as old should have a low priority, and that patients classified as young should have high priority. The author next argues, drawing on a problem raised by Christine Overall, that equity cannot justify giving â oldâ patients low priority, since there is wide variety in the total lifetime experiences of older people, partly influenced by gender, race, class, and disability injustice. Finally, the author suggests that there might be a limited role for age-based prioritization in the context of infant and childhood death, since those who die in childhood are always and uncontroversially among the worst-off. &amp;nbsp;
  • Human challenge trials: identifying and weighting risks and benefits

    Costa de Oliveira, Lucas (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    Human challenge trials are characterized by the intentional infection of volunteers, in an environment in which risks are controlled and minimized, for the purpose of studying and analyzing diseases, as well as developing and testing medicines and vaccines, on a small number of participants who accept, in a free and informed way, to take part in the research. Although the practice has existed, with variations, for centuries, the Covid-19 pandemic has made the debate around the subject more evident, especially given the urgent need to develop vaccines. On the one hand, human challenge tests allow the understanding of the disease and the production of vaccines at a faster speed, generating benefits for public health and the community. On the other hand, they raise several ethical questions, mainly in relation to the intentional causing of harm to participants, which seems to violate the principles of beneficence and non-maleficence, in addition to referring to traumatic experiences. From this context, this paper seeks to present the premises for the ethical debate regarding human challenge trials. Using the bibliographic review method, through content analysis, this paper initially seeks to historically situate the practice, in connection with its recent applications. Furthermore, the main benefits and risks of using controlled human infection are presented and critically analyzed. In the end, the hypothesis is confirmed: human challenge studies can be carried out ethically, as long as they comply with strict regulatory standards, based on ethical-normative parameters.
  • Kant and the experimental vaccine test on human beings

    de Lourdes Borges, Maria (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    In this article I will analyze Kantian position on vaccination of smallpox and discuss the moral issues regarding the testing of vaccines in human beings. The vaccination of smallpox at the time of Kant was a new way to fight the disease that killed thousands of people in Europe. Since its safety was not definitive proved, one can consider it an experimental vaccine. Kant asks himself if one should take the vaccine or not.  Kant does not give a definite answer to the question but refers to it in the Metaphysical of Morals (MS, AA 6:424) From Kant´s example I will try to formulate the moral questions involved in testing experimental vaccines in human beings. I will try to answer the questions: When an experimental vaccine should be tested in human beings? And the last- but not least-question: is it moral to pay people to be submitted to vaccine research? I will try to give an answer to these questions from a Kant moral point of view.
  • Scarcity, harm, and the circumstances of justice: when does triage truly become problematic?

    Azevedo, Marco (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    Triages are not ordinarily problematic. They are only problematic when the decision involves an unequal distribution of resources with significant harm to someone; Under normal circumstances, triage simply ensures better efficiency in resource management without causing significant harm to anyone. However, there are critical and dramatic situations in which it is not possible to provide the same service to everyone at the same time without leaving someone in a harmful situation. In ordinary situations, it is necessary to establish priorities that guarantee efficient prioritization (maximum effectiveness at the lowest cost) in a fair way. In these circumstances, there is no â triage problemâ because even if someone is at a disadvantage relative to another, the disadvantage is not significant or impossible to compensate for. A triage problem arises when it is necessary to ration the resource, creating a significant burden for some party that cannot be compensated. In the case of decisions about the priorities for using ICU resources in the recent pandemic, the decisions seemed to imply accepting that someone could receive worse treatment, with a serious risk of death or harm, due to the omission of the best treatment available only to some. In this article, I intend to investigate whether the consequentialist approach that supposedly appears to underlie proposals for the problem of triage in the distribution of mechanical ventilators to patients seriously affected by COVID-19 can be evaluated in light of a better interpretation of the so-called harm principle. But why do we think it is right to allocate scarce vital resources to increase the chance of saving more people in some circumstances, but are reluctant to accept it as right to follow this same principle in other situations? For example, would it be correct to redistribute vital resources already allocated to guarantee the consequentialist principle of the best aggregate result of more lives saved? I intend to evaluate why it is right to give an ICU bed to someone who is more likely to survive before allocation, but wrong to apply this same principle to remove someone from that bed after the allocation has been made. The study will allow us to develop a concept of harm that is capable of reflectively balancing the intuitions and principles at play.
  • Apresentação

    Dall'Agnol, Darlei; Bonella, Alcino Eduardo (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    Sem
  • Allocation of scarce life-saving medical resources: why does age matter?

    Tonetto, Milene Consenso; Dossena , Luiz Felipe (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    In this paper, we address the moral justification problem concerning the use of age as a criterion for the allocation of scarce life-saving medical resources. We present and discuss four justifications that stand out in philosophical literature: efficiency, sufficiency, egalitarian, and prioritarian. We aim to demonstrate that all these justifications are unsatisfactory since they entail counterintuitive implications in cases involving fetuses and newborns. We then suggest another justification for the relevance of age based on the Time-Relative Interest Account of the harm of death. Finally, we evaluate an objection that could limit the scope of the defended justification, leading us to draw a distinction between justification of harm and strict justification of harm.
  • Discrimination against disabilities and protocols for the allocation of scarce resources in the COVID-19 pandemic

    Silva, Fernando Maurício da (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    The possible relationship between discrimination against disabled people and protocols for allocating scarce resources in the COVID-19 pandemic will be investigated. The specific problem concerns the accusation of discrimination against people with disabilities in the use of ECOG in the AMIB protocol. The starting point is a brief phenomenological description of the limits of ECOG in comparison to other assessment methods. Next, the biomedical conception of disability and the difficulties this implies for models of justice are discussed. Then the problems in the concepts of functionality and resources themselves stand out, in addition to the relationship between functionality and fragility. From this it becomes possible to consider the relationship between justified statistical discrimination and formal equality of opportunities. This will involve analyzing the relationship between relational and distributive justice, on how the disabled person is understood as a bad user ex ante of health resources. It concludes by clarifying how epistemic injustice is a central issue.
  • Ageism and the allocation of health resources during the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

    Dall'Agnol, Darlei; Machado Filho, Mario (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    This article analysis the problem of ageism in the allocation of scarce resources during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the distinction between primary and secondary discrimination, we seek to show that age cannot be taken as an isolate variable, for example, in the allocation of ICUs when there no place for all patients. From this, some resolutions and protocol proposals are scrutinized examining how the issue of age was addressed. Finally, we argue that there is no consensus on the topic and that more public debate on this topic is needed.
  • Balancing self-interest and public interest: Virtues and the pandemic context

    Barbosa, Evandro; Alves Costa, Thaís (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    This article explores how the external conditions of the COVID-19 pandemic have affected individualsâ moral psychology. We will argue that challenging contexts like the pandemic are external conditions that shape human moral behavior. Supported by Adam Smithâ s theory of virtues, it is argued that individuals can balance self-interest with concern for others, even in challenging circumstances, through the virtues of justice, benevolence, prudence, and, most importantly, self-control. We will conclude by stating that, even in challenging contexts, individuals need to balance private and public interests to develop appropriate moral action.
  • The procedural justice and allocation of resources for health in Norman Daniels

    Tavares Chaves, Igor; Werle, Denilson Luís (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    The aim of this article is to present and discuss the model of procedural justice proposed by Norman Daniels and James Sabin called &quot;Accountability by Reasonableness Panel&quot;. The model proposes four conditions for resource allocation procedures to be considered fair: the publicity condition, the relevance condition, the review and appeal condition and the regulation condition. The aim is to analyze whether they are necessary and sufficient to justify decision-making processes involving the allocation of scarce resources. Some criticisms of the model's legitimacy in a just democratic society will be presented: its lack of participation; the risk of technocratic decisions, the lack of transparency or adequate means to interfere and suggest changes in the process, as well as the lack of moral agreement, especially for those issues that involve risk to life. We argue that the procedural justice model, with the necessary adjustments, is an attractive possibility for problems of allocative justice in democratic societies.
  • Pandemic and ethics: a review of 'Bioethics, Biolaw &amp; Biopolitics' in the context of COVID-19

    Hellmann, Fernando (Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, 2024-03-11)
    This review explores the book &quot;Bioethics, Biolaw &amp;amp; Biopolitics,&quot; by Darlei Dallâ Agnol, which delves into the ethical and (necro)political complexities raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. The author presents a set of reflections centered on the pandemic and its implications for humanity. The book stands out for addressing topics such as therapeutic decisions, vaccine nationalism, neuroethics, and distributive justice in times of global crisis. Through a analysis of each of the ten chapters, the review highlights the author's approach, grounded in practical cognitivism, emphasizing respectful care and the importance of considering the impact of current decisions on future generations. Dallâ Agnol's work is recognized for its essential contribution to the current bioethical debate, documenting the failures and missteps in the pandemic response by the Brazilian Federal Government and the Federal and Regional Medical Councils. His work provides profound and valuable insights, preparing future generations to deal with pandemics and similar crises more effectively and ethically.

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