Optimal plastic recycling system and technology development could accelerate decarbonization: A case study from Japan.

This study provided a geographic and technical matching approach supporting low-carbon style recycling systems, demonstrated using polyvinyl chloride waste (PVCW) generated in 2018 in Mie Prefecture, Japan. From a carbon dioxide (CO2) emission basis, mechanical/material recycling (MR) and energy recovery facilities were all allocated full capacity; however, parts of chemical recycling facilities were excluded in the optimal solutions. From the spatial distribution of the allocated result, we confirmed a trend that to achieve the minimum total emissions, the matchings from pretreatment to recycling facilities were done based on a nearby priority rule. From an emission reduction basis, MR accounted for the major proportion of total reductions which was similar to that accessed from an emission basis. Thus, the promotion of MR should be prioritized at the current technical level when optimizing emissions of the whole lifecycle. The number of facilities allocated were substantially reduced; meanwhile, the averaged emission reductions per ton of PVCW disposed were increased from the current level (2.93) to the near-future level (4.99 t-CO2 t-1). Thus, we concluded that this optimization under a higher technical level was effective to make the current recycling system with more emission reductions (low-carbon environmental effect) and require fewer disposal facilities (cost-saving economic effect). Meanwhile, certain long-distance routes found in solutions implied that technical parameters were more important than geolocation parameters to achieve maximum emission reductions.

Circulation and in vivo distribution of duck hepatitis A virus types 1 and 3 in infected ducklings.

The circulation of duck hepatitis A virus types 1 (DHAV-1) and 3 (DHAV-3) in Southeast Asia has resulted in a continuously changing epidemiological scenario. In this study, a duplex real-time PCR assay for simultaneous quantitative detection of DHAV-1 and DHAV-3 was established, and 200 liver samples from dead ducklings collected from 31 different flocks in Shandong province, China, were tested. Fifty-eight (29.0 %) samples from 13 flocks were positive for DHAV-1 single infection, 113 (56.5 %) samples from 13 other flocks were positive for DHAV-3 single infection, and 24 samples (12.0 %) from four flocks were positive for both viruses. DHAV-1 and DHAV-3 were detected with high viral loads in all of the organs tested (liver, spleen, pancreas, kidney, heart, thymus, bursa of Fabricius and brain). No significant difference in DHAV-1 and DHAV-3 viral loads was found between singly infected and coinfected samples, and there was no correlation between the viral loads of the two viruses and the age of dead ducklings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report about the in vivo distribution of DHAV-1 and DHAV-3 in clinically infected ducklings.