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The paper examines and illustrates different trends in relation to historical energy use-related intensities and corresponding CO2 emission trends. The methodology encompasses a decomposition quantitative approach for estimating decoupling trends to energy use and economic and demographic parameters driving CO2 emission levels. The analysis covers both global and regional trends for the period 197
Freshwater scarcity is a vital societal challenge related to climate change, population pressure, and agricultural and industrial demands. Therefore, sustainable desalination/purification of salty/contaminated water for human uses is particularly relevant. Membrane distillation is an emerging hybrid thermal-membrane technology with the potential to overcome the drawbacks of conventional desalinati
In this paper, we report the results from an experimental reproductive ethics study exploring questions about reproduction and parenthood. The main finding in our study is that, while we may assume that everyone understands these concepts and their relationship in the same way, this assumption may be unwarranted. For example, we may assume that if ‘x is y’s father’, it follows that ‘y is x’s child
We use first-principle density functional theory (DFT) to predict properties for semicrystalline polyvinyl fluoride (PVF) and compare with polyvinylidiene fluoride. We note that the crystalline regions of PVF are complex in the sense that we lack a complete experimental characterization of the detailed atomic organization. We therefore turn to DFT to predict both the structure and associated mater
The European Union has committed to achieving climate neutrality by the year 2050, with Sweden setting an even more ambitious target of reaching this milestone by 2045. A subgroup comprising 23 pioneering Swedish municipalities, collectively representing 40% of the country's population, aims to attain climate neutrality by 2030. Globally, buildings and construction sector contribute nearly 40% of
The EU's Clean Energy Package introduced renewable and citizen energy communities (RECs/CECs) to strengthen citizen participation in electricity markets. Nordic countries, however, have long-standing traditions of community-based energy provision, including district heating cooperatives, small hydropower schemes, and wind cooperatives. This article examines how nationally embedded energy models in
Energy is essential for the sustenance of life. The energy and economy of any nation are interlinked—energy demand is generally proportional to the economic growth of the nation. In the present era, renewable energy (RE) is the primary area of interest to save fossil fuels, achieve sustainability, and reducing carbon emissions, as well as other gases in the atmosphere that create climatic problems
Anthropogenic climate change is one of the most severe environmental challenges facing the planet today, and it is certainly one of the most debated. The built environment is a known major culprit, and cities as consumption centers account for a large share of the world’s consumption-based carbon footprint. It may well be argued that urban communities are at the very core of the climate change pro
BACKGROUND: The optimal advanced heart failure (HF) therapy strategy for patients aged 60 or older with end-stage HF refractory to optimal medical therapy remains uncertain. This study compares outcomes of three advanced HF therapy strategies in this patient population. METHODS: A single-center retrospective study was conducted in 95 patients aged 60-73 years who had undergone isolated heart trans
We show that glycoside hydrolases can catalyse the synthesis of glycosyl acrylate monomers using renewable hemicellulose as glycosyl donor, and we also demonstrate the preparation of novel glycopolymers by radical polymerisation of these monomers. For this, two family 5 β-mannanases (TrMan5A from Trichoderma reesei and AnMan5B from Aspergillus niger) were evaluated for transglycosylation capacity
The slow global response to the Ebola crisis in west Africa suggests that important gaps exist in donor financing for key global functions, such as support for health research and development for diseases of poverty and strengthening of outbreak preparedness. In this Health Policy, we use the International Development Statistics databases to quantify donor support for such functions. We classify d
Detta arbete avgränsas till att behandla energianvändning i småhus. Studien omfattar tre småhus som byggts för utställningen Bo92 i Örebro. Syftet med studien är att beräkna och ta fram kunskaper om den totala energiåtgången under en byggnads hela livscykel. Användningstiden för husen är antagen till 50 år.This report deals with single-unit dwellings built in 1991 and 1992 in a city called Orebro, Sweden.The houses are prefabricated and the frameworks are made of wood. The aim of the essay is to present the total use of energy during the life-cycle of single-unit dwellings, taking their mode of construction into account. The life-cycle of a house is divided into the following periods: production (m
In this paper we investigate the impact of different memory configurations on performance and energy consumption of the video encoding applications, MPEG-4 and H.264. The memory architecture is integrated with SIMD extended embedded processor, proposed in our previous work. We explore both dedicated memories and multilevel cache-architectures and perform exhaustive simulations. The simulations hav
Hemicelluloses constitute one of the most abundant renewable resources on earth. To increase their utilization, the isolation of hemicelluloses from industrial biomass side-streams would be beneficial. A method was investigated to isolate hemicelluloses from process water from a thermomechanical pulp mill. The method consists of three steps: removal of solids by microfiltration, preconcentration o
The conversion of sodium lactate to lactic acid with water-splitting electrodialysis was investigated. One way of reducing the power consumption is to add a conductive layer to the acid compartment. Doing this reduced the power consumption by almost 50% in a two-compartment cell, whereas the electric current efficiency was not affected at all. Three different solutions were treated in the electrod
Carbon fibre fabrics are electrically conductive and therefore possess the prerequisites for being inductively heated. In-situ heating by induction could significantly reduce processing time and energy consumption during consolidation of carbon fibre composites, but to control the induction heating process properly the electrical conductivity of the fabric must be known. The work presented in this
OBJECTIVE: To deepen the knowledge of frail elderly patients' preferences for participation in medical decision making during hospitalization.METHODS: Qualitative study using content analysis of semi-structured interviews.RESULTS: Patient participation to frail elderly means information, not the wish to take part in decisions about their medical treatments. They view the hospital care system as an
Human herpesvirus (HHV)-6A or HHV-6B involvement in multiple sclerosis (MS) etiology has remained controversial mainly due to the lack of serological methods that can distinguish the two viruses. A novel multiplex serological assay measuring IgG reactivity against the immediate-early protein 1 from HHV-6A (IE1A) and HHV-6B (IE1B) was used in a MS cohort (8,742 persons with MS and 7,215 matched con
Seaweed cultivation is a large industry worldwide, but production in Europe is small compared to production in Asian countries. In the EU, the motivations for seaweed farming may be seen from two perspectives; one being economic growth through biomass production and the other being the provisioning of ecosystem services such as mitigating eutrophication. In this paper, we assess the economic poten
