Suchergebnisse

Abstract Background Sewage sludge, the inevitable byproduct of municipal wastewater-treatment plant operation, is a key issue in many countries due to its increasing volume and the impacts associated with its disposal. According to the report of European Commission published in 2010, 39% of sewage sludge produced in the European Union is recycled into agriculture. Management options require extensive waste characterization, since many of them may contain compounds, which could be harmful to the ecosystem, such as heavy metals, organic pollutants, etc. The present study aims to show the results of 2 years' sampling of sewage sludge—based on 130 samples collected from 35 wastewater-treatment plants situated in the North of Italy—and to assess its suitability as soil fertilizer regarding contents of nonylphenol (NP), nonylphenolethoxylates (NPnEOs), and phthalates (DEHP). Results An effective analytic method for organic pollutants detection in the sewage sludge has been developed, showing an excellent repeatability and recoveries. Ecotoxicological risk assessment was evaluated using risk quotients (RQs) for sludge-amended soil. Most of the analyzed samples do not contain NP, NPnEOs, and DEHP at levels higher than the limit established by the draft-working document of the European Commission on Sludge. The assessment using RQs reports that NP and NPnEOs never give values higher than 1, and for DEHP the obtained RQs exceed the value of 1 just three times. Data obtained were compared to the data from other European and Asiatic countries, showing a huge variability for all the compounds considered. Conclusions Based on the obtained results, it appears that the proposed EU limits for the selected substances on sewage sludge intended to be used as soil fertilizer in agriculture are sufficiently conservative to avoid negative effects on soil fauna.

The article presents the status of the crowdfunding market in Italy and discusses its future prospects. After defining the crowdfunding phenomenon and highlighting its main elements, we present the results from the Italian Crowdfunding Observatory, managed by the three authors at the Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering of Politecnico of Milano.

This timely book brings together cutting-edge research on the important subject of science and innovation policies. The contributors - distinguished social science scholars - tackle the key challenges of designing and implementing public policies in the context of the new knowledge economy.

The project explores the conceptual changes in terms of philosophical social and philosophical political discourse up to late nineteenth century and early twentieth century: 'reason', 'technology' and 'history'. Since then and by transformations of the same theory, and by transformations in the perception of philosophical problems, there was a shift in the scope of those terms. From an archaeological look we can relieve a no modern record of 'reason', 'technology' and 'history', beginning authors like Marx-Nietzsche, Wittgenstein-Heidegger. And then from a genealogical look, the research aims to record changes in those concepts, in some authors who share a postidealista and postmetaphysical common ground. In the critical theory of Theodor W. Adorno, in Hannah Arendt's political existentialism, in the critical theory of technology of Andrew Feenberg, there are concepts that nineteenth-century philosophy of suspicion. Clearly, these concepts or notions appear reformulated, redefined or placed in new scenarios. In this research, we propose then update the conceptual fields of knowledge involved in contemporarycritique of metaphysics: social and political philosophy, philosophy of history, philosophyof technology. ; El proyecto indaga los cambios conceptuales operados en términos del discurso filosófico social y filosófico político hasta fin del siglo XIX y comienzos del siglo XX: 'razón', 'técnica', 'historia'. Desde entonces y por transformaciones en la misma teoría, y en la percepción de los problemas filosóficos, hubo un cambio de rumbo en los alcances de aquellos términos. Desde una mirada arqueológica podemos relevar un registro no moderno de 'razón', 'técnica', 'historia', que comienzan autores como Marx-Nietzsche, Wittgenstein-Heidegger. Luego y desde una mirada genealógica, la pesquisa se orienta a registrar los cambios en aquellos conceptos, en autores que comparten un mismo suelo posmetafísico y postidealista. En la teoría crítica de Theodor W. Adorno, en el existencialismo político de Hannah Arendt, en la teoría crítica de la tecnología de Andrew Feenberg, hay conceptos de aquella decimonónica filosofía de la sospecha. Claro que esos conceptos o nociones aparecen reformulados, redefinidos o colocados en nuevos escenarios.En esta investigación entonces nos proponemos la actualización conceptual de los campos de conocimiento involucrados en la crítica contemporánea de la metafísica: filosofía social y política, filosofía de la historia, filosofía de la técnica.