scholarly journals Modelling Variation in Petroleum Products’ Refining Footprints

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 9316
Author(s):  
Eric Johnson ◽  
Carl Vadenbo
Keyword(s):  
Petroleum Refinery ◽  
The United States ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Jet Fuel ◽  
Carbon Footprints ◽  
Product Systems ◽  
Total Burden ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Importance ◽  
Renewable Fuels Standard

Energy-related greenhouse gas emissions dominate the carbon footprints of most product systems, where petroleum is one of the main types of energy sources. This is consumed as a variety of refined products, most notably diesel, petrol (gasoline) and jet fuel (kerosene). Refined product carbon footprints are of great importance to regulators, policymakers and environmental decision-makers. For instance, they are at the heart of current legislation, such as the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive or the United States’ Renewable Fuels Standard. This study identified 14 datasets that report footprints for the same system, namely, petroleum refinery operations in Europe. For the main refined products, i.e., diesel, petrol and jet fuel, footprints vary by at least a factor of three. For minor products, the variation is even greater. Five different organs of the European Commission have estimated the refining footprints, where for the main products, these are relatively harmonic; for minor products, much less so. The observed variation in carbon footprints is due mainly to differing approaches to refinery modelling, especially regarding the rationale and methods applied to assign shares of the total burden from the petroleum refinery operation to the individual products. Given the economic/social importance of refined products, a better harmony regarding their footprints would be valuable to their users.

scholarly journals Modelling Variation in Petroleum Products’ Refining Footprints

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Johnson ◽  
Carl Vadenbo
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Jet Fuel ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Carbon Footprints ◽  
Product Systems ◽  
Total Burden ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Social Importance ◽  
Renewable Fuels Standard

Energy-related greenhouse gas emissions dominate the carbon footprints of most product systems, and petroleum is one of the main types of energy sources. This is consumed as a variety of refined products – most notably diesel, petrol (gasoline) and jet fuel (kerosene). Refined product carbon footprints are of great importance to regulators, policymakers and environmental decision-makers. For instance, they are at the heart of legislation such as the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive or the United States’ Renewable Fuels Standard. This study identified 14 datasets that report footprints for the same system, European petroleum refining. For the main refined products – diesel, petrol and jet fuel – footprints vary by at least a factor of three. For minor products, the variation is even greater. Five different organs of the European Commission have estimated refining footprints: for main products these are relatively harmonic; for minor products much less so. The footprint variation is due mainly to differing approaches to refinery modelling, especially regarding the rationale and methods applied to assign shares of the total burden from the petroleum refinery operation to the individual products. Given the economic/social importance of refined products, a better harmony of their footprints would be valuable to their users.

scholarly journals Challenges in The Regulatory Use of Water Accommodated Fractions for Assessing Complex Substances

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Robert Wheeler ◽  
Delina Lyon ◽  
Carolina di Paulo ◽  
Albania Grosso ◽  
Mark Crane
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Aquatic Toxicity ◽  
Coal Tar ◽  
The United States ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Jet Fuel ◽  
Toxicity Tests ◽  
Loading Rates ◽  
Water Accommodated Fractions ◽  
Complex Substance

Abstract The use of the Water Accommodated Fraction (WAF) approach for the preparation of exposure systems of complex substances such as petroleum products has been a standard way to perform aquatic toxicity tests on these substances for over 30 years. In this Commentary we briefly describe the historical development, rationale, and guidance for the use and reporting of the WAF approach to assess complex substances. We then discuss two case studies, with coal tar pitch and kerosene/jet fuel, which illustrate challenges from regulatory authorities in Europe and the United States when using the WAF approach. We describe how the WAF approach is the only currently known method for testing the toxicity of the whole of a complex substance, even when some of its constituents remain unknown; it accounts for differences in the solubility of the constituents within a complex substance; and use of loading rates to describe any toxic effects is a unifying concept that allows direct comparison with releases of readily soluble substances in hazard assessment and chemical classification.

scholarly journals Challenges in the regulatory use of water-accommodated fractions for assessing complex substances

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
James R. Wheeler ◽  
Delina Lyon ◽  
Carolina Di Paolo ◽  
Albania Grosso ◽  
Mark Crane
Keyword(s):  
Historical Development ◽  
Aquatic Toxicity ◽  
Coal Tar ◽  
The United States ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Jet Fuel ◽  
Toxicity Tests ◽  
Loading Rates ◽  
Water Accommodated Fractions ◽  
Complex Substance

AbstractThe use of the water-accommodated fraction (WAF) approach for the preparation of exposure systems of complex substances such as petroleum products has been a standard way to perform aquatic toxicity tests on these substances for over 30 years. In this Commentary, we briefly describe the historical development, rationale, and guidance for the use and reporting of the WAF approach to assess complex substances. We then discuss two case studies, with coal tar pitch and kerosene/jet fuel, which illustrate challenges from regulatory authorities in Europe and the United States when using the WAF approach. We describe how the WAF approach is the only currently known method for testing the toxicity of the whole of a complex substance, even when some of its constituents remain unknown; it accounts for differences in the solubility of the constituents within a complex substance; and use of loading rates to describe any toxic effects is a unifying concept that allows direct comparison with releases of readily soluble substances in hazard assessment and chemical classification.

‘A Routh O’ Auld Nick-Nackets’ – the antiquarian collection of John Rae

2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-183
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Context ◽  
Moral Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Representative Case ◽  
National Museums ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The University

John Rae, a Scottish antiquarian collector and spirit merchant, played a highly prominent role in the local natural history societies and exhibitions of nineteenth-century Aberdeen. While he modestly described his collection of archaeological lithics and other artefacts, principally drawn from Aberdeenshire but including some items from as far afield as the United States, as a mere ‘routh o’ auld nick-nackets' (abundance of old knick-knacks), a contemporary singled it out as ‘the best known in private hands' (Daily Free Press 4/5/91). After Rae's death, Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland, the University of Aberdeen Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, as well as numerous individual private collectors, purchased items from the collection. Making use of historical and archive materials to explore the individual biography of Rae and his collection, this article examines how Rae's collecting and other antiquarian activities represent and mirror wider developments in both the ‘amateur’ antiquarianism carried out by Rae and his fellow collectors for reasons of self-improvement and moral education, and the ‘professional’ antiquarianism of the museums which purchased his artefacts. Considered in its wider nineteenth-century context, this is a representative case study of the early development of archaeology in the wider intellectual, scientific and social context of the era.

Methods for assessing territory pollution by oil or petroleum product spills

2020 ◽  
pp. 140-146
Author(s):  
S. I. Chelombitko ◽  
V. V. Piven
Keyword(s):  
Oil And Gas ◽  
Radiant Energy ◽  
Petroleum Products ◽  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Oil And Gas Fields ◽  
Northern Regions ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Destructive Processes ◽  
Gas Fields

During the development of oil and gas fields and transportation of hydrocarbons, the ecology of regions is subject to various negative impacts. The most severe consequences for the environment are caused by accidental spills of oil or petroleum products, which occur due to through damage to pipelines. Polluted territories are subject to mandatory reclamation in accordance with government regulations and industry regulations. However, despite the measures taken by the administrations of the northern regions to increase the rate of reclamation of damaged territories in recent years, there has been a trend of growth of areas contaminated with hydrocarbons.Various remediation technologies that have been tested in warm and temperate climates are not very effective in regions with permafrost. Pollution of the daytime surface with oil or petroleum products leads to an increase in the absorption of the sun's radiant energy, the growth of the seasonal thaw layer and the development of destructive processes for the territory. To achieve a positive effect as a result of rehabilitation measures, it is necessary to take into account the individual characteristics of the territory and the extent of its pollution.

Hospice Care in the United States: The Process Begins

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 159-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Buckingham
Keyword(s):  
Home Care ◽  
Hospice Care ◽  
Care Facility ◽  
The United States ◽  
Considerable Change ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
Hospice Movement ◽  
Treatment Equipment ◽  
Centered Care ◽  
The Individual

The hospice concept represents a return to humanistic medicine, to care within the patient's community, for family-centered care, and the view of the patient as a person. Medical, governmental, and educational institutions have recognized the profound urgency for the advocacy of the hospice concept. As a result, a considerable change in policy and attitude has occurred. Society is re-examining its attitudes toward bodily deterioration, death, and decay. As the hospice movement grows, it does more than alter our treatment of the dying. Hospices and home care de-escalate the soaring costs of illness by reducing the individual and collective burdens borne by all health insurance policyholders. Because hospices and home care use no sophisticated, diagnostic treatment equipment, their overhead is basically for personal care and medication. Also, the patient is permitted to die with dignity. Studies indicated that the patient of a hospice program will not experience the anxiety, helplessness, inadequacy, and guilt as will an acute care facility patient. Consequently, a hospice program can relieve family members and loved ones of various psychological disorders.

Medicaid Not Required to Fund Medically Necessary Abortions

1980 ◽  
Vol 1 (8) ◽  
pp. 3-6
Author(s):  
George J. Annas
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Law Enforcement ◽  
United States Supreme Court ◽  
The United States ◽  
United States Constitution ◽  
Medical Procedures ◽  
Poor Women ◽  
Law Enforcement Agency ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Joint Resolution

In an extraordinary and highly controversial 5-4 decision, the United States Supreme Court decided on June 30, 1980, that the United States Constitution does not require either the federal government or the individual states to fund medically necessary abortions for poor women who qualify for Medicaid.At issue in this case is the constitutionality of the Hyde Amendment. The applicable 1980 version provides:|N]one of the funds provided by this joint resolution shall be used to perform abortions except where the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term; or except for such medical procedures necessary for the victims of rape or incest when such rape or incest has been reported promptly to a law enforcement agency or public health service, (emphasis supplied)

A Discussion of Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird’s Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-210
Author(s):  
Michael Leo Owens
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Political Behavior ◽  
Democratic Party ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Forces ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Behavioral Norm ◽  
Black Political Behavior

Charge: As Ismail K. White and Chryl N. Laird note, collectively more than 80% of African Americans self-identify as Democrats according to surveys, and no Republican presidential candidate has won more than 13% of the Black vote since 1968. This is true despite the fact that at the individual level many African Americans are increasingly politically moderate and even conservative. Against this backdrop, what explains the enduring nature of African American support for the Democratic Party? In Steadfast Democrats: How Social Forces Shape Black Political Behavior, White and Laird answer this question by developing the concept of “racialized social constraint,” a unifying behavioral norm meant to empower African Americans as a group and developed through a shared history of struggle against oppression and for freedom and equality. White and Laird consider the historical development of this norm, how it is enforced, and its efficacy both in creating party loyalty and as a path to Black political power in the United States. On the cusp of perhaps the most consequential presidential election in American history, one for which African American turnout was crucial, we asked a range of leading political scientists to assess the relative strengths, weaknesses, and ramifications of this argument.

scholarly journals US Rural Surgeons Leading During COVID-19: Where Are They Now?

2020 ◽  
pp. 000313482096005
Author(s):  
Michael Sarap ◽  
Julie Conyers ◽  
Crystal Cunningham ◽  
Adam Deutchman ◽  
Glenn Levine ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Lives ◽  
The Individual

Rural surgeons from disparate areas of the United States report on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in their communities as the virus has spread across the country. The pandemic has brought significant changes to the professional, economic, and social lives of the individual surgeons and their communities.

scholarly journals Analysis of Severe Injuries in Crashes Involving Large Trucks Using K-Prototypes Clustering-Based GBDT Model

Safety ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 32
Author(s):  
Syed As-Sadeq Tahfim ◽  
Chen Yan
Keyword(s):  
Injury Severity ◽  
Unobserved Heterogeneity ◽  
The United States ◽  
Clustering Methods ◽  
Severe Injuries ◽  
Traffic Crash ◽  
Crash Data ◽  
Boosted Decision Trees ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Crash Characteristics

The unobserved heterogeneity in traffic crash data hides certain relationships between the contributory factors and injury severity. The literature has been limited in exploring different types of clustering methods for the analysis of the injury severity in crashes involving large trucks. Additionally, the variability of data type in traffic crash data has rarely been addressed. This study explored the application of the k-prototypes clustering method to countermeasure the unobserved heterogeneity in large truck-involved crashes that had occurred in the United States between the period of 2016 to 2019. The study segmented the entire dataset (EDS) into three homogeneous clusters. Four gradient boosted decision trees (GBDT) models were developed on the EDS and individual clusters to predict the injury severity in crashes involving large trucks. The list of input features included crash characteristics, truck characteristics, roadway attributes, time and location of the crash, and environmental factors. Each cluster-based GBDT model was compared with the EDS-based model. Two of the three cluster-based models showed significant improvement in their predicting performances. Additionally, feature analysis using the SHAP (Shapley additive explanations) method identified few new important features in each cluster and showed that some features have a different degree of effects on severe injuries in the individual clusters. The current study concluded that the k-prototypes clustering-based GBDT model is a promising approach to reveal hidden insights, which can be used to improve safety measures, roadway conditions and policies for the prevention of severe injuries in crashes involving large trucks.

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