ABSTRACT
Since the first edition of the handbook, important new research findings on climate change have been gathered. The evidence has further solidified, and the effects have become more visible. Both mitigation and adaptation of climate change are more important than ever before. The handbook in its presently third edition was completely updated and extended in coverage. Climate change is a fact, and aspects of "doing business in climate change” were included alongside scientific evidence on climate change, mitigation technologies – both established and novel – and adaptation measures to provide maximum benefit to its readers. The impacts of climate change have made it into our daily lives. All human beings, in turn, can contribute to the mitigation and adaptation of climate change. Consequently, these topics are discussed in schools, in private settings, in research, and in the business world. We can see solid implications of climate change. The 2020 COVID-19 crisis has paralyzed the entire world almost instantly. Climate change is slower and subtler, but even more severe in its potential and factual consequences, where no "fix” like a vaccination exists to return to the previous state. This handbook is more necessary than ever before. Over the last several million years, there have been warmer and colder periods on Earth, and the climate fluctuates for a variety of natural reasons, as data from tree rings, pollen, and ice core samples have shown. However, human activities on Earth have reached an extent that they impact the globe in potentially catastrophic ways, in terms of magnitude and irreversibility. Mitigation and adaptation are the two principal routes of our responses to climate change, and they, in fact, can be best achieved collectively by world citizens, scientists and nonscientists, in our daily lives. This chapter is an introduction to climate change and the handbook in its third edition. Current state of the arts of climate change mitigation and adaptation approaches are discussed. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022. All rights are reserved.
ABSTRACT
Industrial activity of the past has created several contaminated brownfields, which, particularly in remote areas, are difficult to remedy from an economic point of view. In this project, a novel approach for in-situ removal of mineral hydrocarbons from soil was investigated. The underlying concept was to flush contaminated soil with emulsions of plant oil in water, to suck off the contaminant-laden emulsion from the ground water level and to separate oil and water using oil-binding non-wovens. The process development was carried out in a research project, where students from a university of applied sciences and from a technical college were involved. Based on the specific case of brownfield remediation, a collaborative learning experience for the students was created. Environmental protection and safeguarding is a topic of high interest to students, and there was a high motivation to obtain results. Due to the COVID19 pandemic, most collaboration was handled remotely via virtual teams. The chosen brownfield for this case study was a former petroleum refinery site in Lower Austria, were up to 40 g/kg of mineral hydrocarbons were found in the soil in the non-saturated zone. Mineral hydrocarbons show good solubility in plant oils. Emulsions of 5–10% of rapeseed oil in water were prepared and chosen, to have better wettability of the ground materials and lower viscosity. The goal was to develop a process that can extract 80–90% of mineral hydrocarbons in the soil, and which leaves only a minor fraction of the plant oil in the soil. When the trials, which were carried out in the lab and in the field, showed that the permeability of soil is very low, it was decided to develop a prototype for on-site soil washing. The soil of the chosen brownfield is partly made from gravel and sand, where an in-situ flushing process is possible. However, there is also clay, and that material hardly lets water or emulsion penetrate. For the on-site washing process, a laboratory-scale prototype was developed. It was built by the Linzer Technikum (LITEC) and tested with different soils at the university of applied sciences. The prototype could be built by LITEC, with an extraction vessel made of steel and a mixer. Trials were done to determine the degree of extraction of mineral oil and the fraction of plant oil that is not recaptured. 500 g of soil were mixed intensely with 500 g of solvent (water and emulsions). Table 1 presents the results for sand and clay. The process of washing out mineral hydrocarbon contamination from soil was found to show a good potential. The ground material should be sieved to remove coarse material (>10 mm), and the finer fraction can be subjected to the washing of plant oil in water, where the plant oil fraction can be between 5 and 50%, depending on degree of contamination. To reduce the amount of non-recaptured plant oil, a second and third washing cycle with a lower oil fraction, or with pure water, can be applied. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
ABSTRACT
Social distancing is important to slow the community spread of infectious disease, but it creates enormous economic and social cost. Thus, it is important to quantify the benefits of different measures. We study the ban of mass gatherings, an intervention with comparably low cost. We exploit exogenous variation in the number of National Basketball Association and National Hockey League games, which arises due to the leagues' predetermined schedules, and the sudden suspension of the 2019–2020 seasons. We find that, among clusters of counties that are adjacent to sports venues, each additional mass gathering increased the cumulative number of COVID-19 deaths by 10.3%. © 2023 The Authors. Contemporary Economic Policy published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of Western Economic Association International.
ABSTRACT
Objectives: Lung infections with multiresistant pathogens are a major problem among patients suffering from cystic fibrosis (CF). N-chlorotaurine (NCT) is a long-lived oxidant generated in activated cells of the innate immune system, namely neutrophilic and eosinophilic granulocytes and monocytes. NCT acts as an antiseptic agent that can be synthesised chemically and showed good tolerability when inhaled via a nebulizer (1). NCT demonstrated rapid in vivo activity against SARS-CoV-2, influenza A viruses, and RSV as well as for C. albicans, E. dermatitidis, P. aeruginosa and MRSA (2,3). Methods: We evaluated 10 patients with CF who inhaled 5 ml of 1% NCT via a nebulizer twice daily. Results: All 10 patients tolerated the inhalation well. The duration of inhalation was between 4 weeks and 3 years. Targeted pathogens were S. apiospermum, A. xylosoxidans, P. aeruginosa, MRSA and SARS-CoV-2. Patients improved clinically after starting to inhale 1% NCT (Sputum production, sputum color, exacerbation rate, need for intravenous antibiotics, expectoration). Conclusions: NCT is a safe, well-tolerated, endogenous, inhaled substance with broad-spectrum activity against pathogens supported by anti-inflammatory properties. It might be a significant step forward for treatment of multiresistant bacteria and fungi. In addition, NCT has a high activity against COVID-19 and other viral infections of the lower airways. References 1. Arnitz R, et al. Tolerability of inhaled N-chlorotaurine in humans: a double-blind randomized phase I clinical study. Ther Adv Respir Dis. 2018 Jan 1;12:175346661877895. 2. Lackner M et al. N-chlorotaurine, a novel inhaled virucidal antiseptic is highly active against respiratory viruses including SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19), November 2020, DOI:10.21203/rs.3.rs-118665/v1, License CC BY 4.0. 3. Gruber M et al. Bactericidal and Fungicidal Activity of N-Chlorotaurine Is Enhanced in Cystic Fibrosis Sputum Medium. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2017 May;61(5):AAC.02527-16.