Tariff recommendations: A Panacea for the Portuguese water sector?

In Portugal, in the early twenty first century, the water utilities industry was still quite complex displaying considerable financial shortcomings. That issue occurred, mainly, at the retail level due to faulty rate setting practices, stressing, perhaps, arbitrariness and political influence in price-setting strategies. To cope with that situation, the water sector regulator published tariff guidelines to harmonize cost analyses, tariff structures and levels, creating a basis for comparison. The suggestion of two-part tariffs with increasing block rates seems to lack enough flexibility and proper supporting material. Thus, our analysis focuses on assessing whether the recommendations issued are able to achieve the proposed objectives through the suggested procedures, reviewing the structure proposed and possible adjustments.     

Sustainable building for the future: Contemporary clay masonry – Resource‐saving building

Clay as a building material has a long tradition in Europe, largely losing its importance with industrialisation. Since the 1980s, clay building activity has steadily increased. Standard guidelines (Lehmbau‐Regeln) introduced in the 1990s, however, appear to be rather too cautious when examined in the light of current research findings on the load bearing capabilities of clay walls. Based on the evidence of historic clay buildings, on structural engineering calculations and building physics – the authors' research supports the assumption that masonry with modern unfired clay bricks has a much higher performance potential than previously assumed, which applies particularly to its sustainability. The biggest apprehension relates to the water‐sensitivity of this building material with regard to structural soundness. This can be countered however with the appropriate construction principles.     

Ergonomie guidelines for the prevention of low back pain at the workplace

The aim of this paper is to discuss the usefulness of common ergonomie guidelines for preventing low back pain at the workplace. Sixteen recent ergonomie, biomechanical and epidemiological books were reviewed to obtain common ergonomie guidelines for both static and dynamic work (e.g., sitting, lifting), and to obtain an overview of commonly-observed individual and work-related risk factors of low back pain. The results show that the aspects of work for which ergonomie guidelines are presented generally correspond to work-related risk factors as shown by epidemiological studies. However, in quantitative terms the guidelines show a great variety, possibly due to differences in criteria. In certain cases, it is not clear whether or not the guidelines are based on back load or back pain data, due to lack of references. It appears that many guidelines are based upon a combination of back load criteria and other criteria, although it is unknown how these criteria are combined. Hence, many guidelines do not apply specifically to low back pain.

With certain exceptions, most guidelines do not take into account individual factors, although epidemiological studies indicate that several factors such as age, strength, fitness, psychosocial factors, and history of back pain should be considered. However, because of the qualitative character of most current epidemiological studies, results cannot be readily implemented into quantitative ergonomie guidelines.

The above general results are discussed with examples. It is concluded that there is a great need for ergonomie guidelines that apply specifically to low back pain, and for quantitative epidemiological data on which these guidelines may be based.     

食品和饲料中农药残留分析方法性能标准指南

本文译自国际食品法典委员会“CAC/GL 90-2017食品和饲料中农药残留分析方法性能标准指南”。该指南规定了农药残留分析方法的选择和验证原则、分析方法的性能参数、筛选方法的性能指标、定量方法的性能指标、分析物鉴定方法和确证方法的性能标准和定义等。本译文可为我国食品和饲料中农药残留分析专业人员研发和验证化学分析方法或与国外检测机构交流提供参考。     

复合生态理念引导下的城乡风貌控制规划——以北京昌平区为例

本文结合昌平区域的发展定位和景观资源现状,提出了"复合生态"的规划理念,并依此构建城乡风貌的框架体系,进一步从新的视角提出城乡风貌控制规划导引.     

广东省人造板工业发展规划概述

介绍广东省人造板工业现状,指出目前存在的问题,分析了发展趋势,论述发展方针、目标及重点工程建设。     

An update on the diagnosis and treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children.

What are the most appropriate empirically supported diagnostic and treatment approaches to children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)? This article summarizes the nomenclature, prevalence and course, comorbidity, etiology, assessment, and federal laws associated with ADHD. The authors then review clinical research and consensus guidelines for the treatment of ADHD, including the largest randomized treatment study completed on ADHD (MTA Cooperative Group, 1999a). The empirical evidence supports either a behavioral-psychosocial or a combined behavioral-psychosocial and medication intervention in the treatment of children with ADHD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Application of phytotoxicity data to a new Australian soil quality guideline framework for biosolids

To protect terrestrial ecosystems and humans from contaminants many countries and jurisdictions have developed soil quality guidelines (SQGs). This study proposes a new framework to derive SQGs and guidelines for amended soils and uses a case study based on phytotoxicity data of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) from field studies to illustrate how the framework could be applied. The proposed framework uses normalisation relationships to account for the effects of soil properties on toxicity data followed by a species sensitivity distribution (SSD) method to calculate a soil added contaminant limit (soil ACL) for a standard soil. The normalisation equations are then used to calculate soil ACLs for other soils. A soil amendment availability factor (SAAF) is then calculated as the toxicity and bioavailability of pure contaminants and contaminants in amendments can be different. The SAAF is used to modify soil ACLs to ACLs for amended soils.The framework was then used to calculate soil ACLs for copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn). For soils with pH of 4-8 and OC content of 1-6%, the ACLs range from 8 mg/kg to 970 mg/kg added Cu. The SAAF for Cu was pH dependant and varied from 1.44 at pH 4 to 2.15 at pH 8. For soils with pH of 4-8 and OC content of 1-6%, the ACLs for amended soils range from 11 mg/kg to 2080 mg/kg added Cu. For soils with pH of 4-8 and a CEC from 5-60, the ACLs for Zn ranged from 21 to 1470 mg/kg added Zn. A SAAF of one was used for Zn as it concentrations in plant tissue and soil to water partitioning showed no difference between biosolids and soluble Zn salt treatments, indicating that Zn from biosolids and Zn salts are equally bioavailable to plants.     

Deciding service composition and substitutability using extended operating guidelines

We study the correct interaction between services using the following notion for correctness: there is no deadlock in the interaction of the services, and a given set of activities is not dead, that is, each activity in this set is executed in at least one run. The second condition has not been studied before.An operating guideline of a service P is an operational characterization of all deadlock-free interacting partners of P. In this paper, we present an extension of the concept of an operating guideline to characterize all correctly interacting partners of a service P. This extension can be used for answering at least the following two questions. First, given a service R, does R interact correctly with P? Second, given a service P^′, can P be substituted by P^′, that is, is every correctly interacting partner of P a correctly interacting partner of P^′, too?