Suchergebnisse

Environmental toxicology is one of the most interdisciplinary sciences. Biologists, microbiologists, chemists, engineers, environmentalists, ecologists and other scientists work together in this new scientific discipline. Assessment of the environmental effects of chemicals is complicated as it depends on the organisms tested and involves not only the toxicity of individual chemicals, but also their interactive effects (including antagonistic and synergistic ones), and genotoxicity, mutagenicity and immunotoxicity testing. Hazardous waste management is closely related to environmental toxicology and there is a growing need for techniques and practices to minimize the environmental effects of chemicals.This volume contains the contributions presented at the 2nd Conference on Environmental Toxicology, which was held in Granada, Spain in 2008. The papers cover the following subject areas: Risk Assessment; Human Health Risk; Effluent Toxicity; Bioaccumulation of Chemicals; Biodegredation and Bioremediation; Biological Effects Monitoring; Laboratory Tests and Validation; Ecotoxicity of Emerging Chemicals; New Trends in Environmental Toxicology

The European Space of Higher Education (ESHE) is a new conceptual formulation of the organization of teaching at the university, largely involving the development of new training models based on the individual student's work. In this context, the University of Granada has approved two plans of Educational Excellence to promote a culture of quality and stimulate excellence in teaching. The Area of Environmental Technology in the Department of Civil Engineering has developed an innovative project entitled Application of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to the Area of Environmental Technology teaching to create a new communication channel consisting of a Web site that benefits teacher and student ("Environmental Studies Centre": http://cem.ugr.es). Through this interactive page, teachers can conduct supervised teaching, and students will have the tools necessary for guiding their learning process, according to their capacities and possibilities. However, the material is designed to serve as a complement to the traditional method of attended teaching.

[ES] La predicción del fracaso empresarial a partir de modelos económico financieros ha sido objeto de numerosos trabajos de investigación. Sin embargo, la mayoría de estos trabajos se han desarrollado para sociedades mercantiles y son prácticamente inexistentes los trabajos orientados a la predicción del fracaso en sociedades cooperativas. Esta investigación aborda este vacío en la literatura académica aportando nuevas evidencias sobre los determinantes del fracaso empresarial en las cooperativas agroalimentarias. Así, a través del método Delphi y la consulta a un panel de 40 expertos de origen diverso (académicos, auditores, administradores concursales, etc.) este trabajo ha obtenido un amplio conjunto de resultados. Entre éstos destaca la preferencia del enfoque jurídico para determinar el fracaso empresarial en las cooperativas agroalimentarias. En relación a las variables financieras con poder predictivo sobre el fracaso empresarial, se señalan especialmente las de liquidez y el volumen de endeudamiento, a diferencia de las sociedades mercantiles, donde sobresalen variables de solvencia como la garantía, los gastos financieros o el coste de la deuda. En consecuencia, la relevancia de los resultados de este trabajo de corte cualitativo radica en su potencial uso para la posterior determinación de un modelo cuantitativo para la predicción del fracaso empresarial en las cooperativas agroalimentarias. ; [EN] Accounting information has been employed in many economic-financial models applied to registered corporations to predict business failure. Nonetheless, there are practically no research works that predict failure in agricultural cooperatives. The fundamental elements of this legal form justify the development of specific prediction models. The Delphi methodology has been used to define agricultural cooperative failure and to assess the usefulness of accounting variables. The conclusions suggest considering those agricultural cooperatives with negative equity or cash-flow problems to be failures or to come ...

Chemical, physical, mineralogical and radiological characterization of olive biomass fly ash (OBFA) and bottom ash (OBBA) was main objective to determine their potential use as alkaline activators in the preparation of alkali-activated materials or geopolymers. Water solubility tests showed that they released K and Na ions, affording a high pH and alkaline content. Pastes made with 70 wt% vitreous blast furnace slag (SL) and 30 wt% of OBFA or OBBA yielded alkali-activated materials with 28 days mechanical strength of 33 to 18 MPa. In pastes prepared with 30 wt% OBFA, strength values were comparable to those developed by slag pastes activated with a commercial KOH. However, the pastes made with 70 wt% coal fly ash and 30 wt% OBFA or OBBA proved to be inviable because the pH reached was not high enough to activate the precursor. The radiological calculations of OBFA- and OBBA-SL bearing pastes would conform to European legislation on protection against exposure to ionising radiation, for the activity concentration index (ACI) found in the final product was less than 1 in all cases. The pastes leached primarily K. The presence of elements such as 210Po and 210 Pb at the end of the decay chain in the eluates would not limit the use of biomass ash and slag blends. These findings have confirmed the feasibility of using olive oil biomass ashes as an alternative alkaline activator in blast furnace slag systems to produce alkali-activated materials or geopolymers, with properties that make them apt for use as building materials. ; Funding for the tests conducted in this study was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness under projects BIA2013-47876-C2-1-P and BIA2016-77252-P. ; Peer reviewed