Global microplastic fiber pollution from domestic laundry.

The rapid expansion of fast fashion has significantly increased microplastic fiber (MPF) release during laundry practices, accounting for approximately one-third of primary microplastics entering the ocean. Currently, a significant gap exists in global-scale research on the release of MPFs from washing textiles. This study introduces an innovative empirical model to assess the spatial distribution of MPF emissions.

Assessment of variations in air quality in cities of Ecuador in relation to the lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study analyzes the effect of lockdown due to COVID-19 on the spatiotemporal variability of ozone (O), sulfur dioxide (SO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO) concentrations in different provinces of continental Ecuador using satellite information from Sentinel - 5P. The statistical analysis includes data from 2018 to March 2021 and was performed based on three periods defined a priori: before, during, and after lockdown due to COVID-19, focusing on the provinces with the highest concentrations of the studied gases (hotspots). The results showed a significant decrease in NO concentrations during the COVID-19 lockdown period in all the study areas: the Metropolitan District of Quito (DMQ) and the provinces of Guayas and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas.

Quantitative assessment of the valorisation of used cooking oils in 23 countries.

The article quantifies, in a set of 23 countries, the amounts consumed of vegetable oils, the amounts of used oils produced after cooking, the amounts available for valorisation, and finally the quantities being valorised. The management practices adopted are also reviewed. Based on data collected, a production factor, relating vegetable oil consumption with used cooking oil production, of 0.

Quantification of health risks in Ecuadorian population due to dietary ingestion of arsenic in rice.

In Ecuador alone, 500,000 people in rural areas are estimated to have been exposed to high concentrations of As from water and food, but no quantitative evaluation of health risk has yet been made. The present study quantifies exposure and health risk for the Ecuadorian population from the ingestion of arsenic in white rice. Estimated exposure is correlated with published data on tap water quality and biomarkers of exposure for the population of two towns in the metropolitan area of Quito.

Toxicokinetics and tissue distribution of cadmium-based Quantum Dots in the marine mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis.

Environmental health hazards of Quantum Dots (QDs) are of emergent concern, but limited data is available about their toxicokinetics (TK) and tissue distribution in marine bivalves. This study investigated the QDs behavior in seawater, their TK and tissue distribution in Mytilus galloprovincialis, in comparison with soluble Cd. Mussels were exposed to CdTe QDs and soluble Cd for 21 days at 10 μgCd L(-1) followed by a 50 days depuration.

Quantitative performance targets by using balanced scorecard system: application to waste management and public administration.

This article demonstrates how decision-makers can be guided in the process of defining performance target values in the balanced scorecard system. We apply a method based on sensitivity analysis with Monte Carlo simulation to the municipal solid waste management system in Loulé Municipality (Portugal). The method includes two steps: sensitivity analysis of performance indicators to identify those performance indicators with the highest impact on the balanced scorecard model outcomes; and sensitivity analysis of the target values for the previously identified performance indicators.

Coverage methods for early groundwater contamination detection.

A method based on space-filling coverage designs to optimize groundwater monitoring networks for plume detection and quantification is proposed. Space-filling objective functions are then compared with more classical functions. The method was applied to a hypothetical case-study with 160 candidate locations, resulting in final optimal design monitoring networks with 40 locations.

Mental workload and visual impairment: differences between pupil, blink, and subjective rating.

This research has two aims: (a) To study the concurrent validity of three measures of mental workload, NASA TLX rating scale, pupil dilation and blink rate, testing the hypothesis that they will provide convergent results using a single-task, and dissociative results for dual-task; and (b) To analyse their capability to predict visual search impairment. These three measures were analyzed in the same cognitive tasks in single-task and dual-task (cognitive task and visual search) conditions in a within-subjects experiment with twenty-nine participants. Mental workload measures showed concurrent validity under single-task condition, but a complex pattern of results arose in the dual-task condition: it is suggested that NASA TLX would be a subjective addition of the rating of each task; pupil dilation would measure the average arousal underlying the cognitive tasks; and the blink rate would produce opposite effects: whereas mental workload of cognitive tasks would increase blink rate, visual demand would inhibit it.