Assessing forest availability for wood supply in Europe.

The quantification of forests available for wood supply (FAWS) is essential for decision-making with regard to the maintenance and enhancement of forest resources and their contribution to the global carbon cycle. The provision of harmonized forest statistics is necessary for the development of forest associated policies and to support decision-making. Based on the National Forest Inventory (NFI) data from 13 European countries, we quantify and compare the areas and aboveground dry biomass (AGB) of FAWS and forest not available for wood supply (FNAWS) according to national and reference definitions by determining the restrictions and associated thresholds considered at country level to classify forests as FAWS or FNAWS. FAWS represent between 75 and 95 % of forest area and AGB for most of the countries in this study. Economic restrictions are the main factor limiting the availability of forests for wood supply, accounting for 67 % of the total FNAWS area and 56 % of the total FNAWS AGB, followed by environmental restrictions. Profitability, slope and accessibility as economic restrictions, and protected areas as environmental restrictions are the factors most frequently considered to distinguish between FAWS and FNAWS. With respect to the area of FNAWS associated with each type of restriction, an overlap among the restrictions of 13.7 % was identified. For most countries, the differences in the FNAWS areas and AGB estimates between national and reference definitions ranged from 0 to 5 %. These results highlight the applicability and reliability of a FAWS reference definition for most of the European countries studied, thereby facilitating a consistent approach to assess forests available for supply for the purpose of international reporting.

A compact low energy proton source.

A low energy proton source for non-neutral plasma experiments was developed. Electrons from a hot filament ionize H2 gas inside a geometrically compensated Penning trap to produce protons via dissociative ionization. A rotating wall electric field destabilizes the unwanted H2+ and H3+ generated in the process while concentrating protons at the center of the trap. The source produces bunches of protons with relatively low ion contamination (5.5% H2+ and 15.5% H3+), with energy tunable from 35 to 300 eV.

[Evaluation of contact and care centers, a low-threshold daytime source in the city of Zurich]. / Evaluation der Kontakt- und Anlaufstellen, ein niedrigschwelliges Tagesstrukturangebot in der Stadt Zürich.

Contact centres for drug addicts in the city of Zurich exist since 1988 to provide decentralized low threshold meeting places and contact centres for persons who are poor and neglected. The main objective of these survival aids is to counteract further impoverishment of the addicted in order to actively contribute to their subsistence. Since its foundation the project as a whole has been submitted to numerous structural changes which had to be taken into consideration by the evaluation. Subject of the examination was the description of the target group and the staff, the use of the services and their effect on the users as well as the environment. Only quantitative methods were used. The target group of the centers consisted of drug consumers who at the best are partially socially integrated, but usually completely desintegrated. The evaluation revealed that the different contact centers services were extensively used and met the focal needs of their users. However, the high fluctuation of personnel within the project teams turned out to be a permanent problem for the project management and the operators. As main reasons for the fluctuation the authors discuss the great dependency on political decisions and the problematical demanding clientele. Due to these structural turbulences some staff related offers are only accepted to a limited degree, and the contact centers tend to become simple supply services. Therefore the authors endorse the redefinition of long term objectives of the institution under consideration of the necessary framework.

[Evaluation of Haus Breitenstein, a low-threshold living facility in the city of Zurich]. / Evaluation von Haus Breitenstein, ein niedrig schwelliges Wohnangebot in der Stadt Zürich.

Early in 1991 in attended home with 13 rooms was established in the Breitenstein House in Zurich as a low threshold survival aid for most severe drug addicts. After only 17 months, before the end of the two-year pilot phase, the facility was closed for economic reasons. The objective of the project laid emphasis on the furtherance of each resident's initiative and responsibility. Using quantitative as well as qualitative instruments the accompanying evaluation came to the conclusion that the attended low threshold accommodation is a realistic completion and an alternative to already existing aids. The institution enabled the drug addicts to reestablish their damaged autonomy and take a constructive step towards the shaping of their lives. In individual cases a substantial structural change could be initiated. The authors concluded that the Breitenstein House was a successful attempt to develop comprehensive strategies in drug policy.

Removal of molecular weight fractions of COD and phenolic compounds in an integrated treatment of olive oil mill effluents.

Previous works (Beccari et al. 1999b; Beccari et al. 2001a; Beccari et al. 2001b) on the anaerobic treatment of olive oil mill effluents (OME) have shown: (a) a pre-treatment based on the addition of Ca(OH)2 and bentonite was able to remove lipids (i.e. the most inhibiting substances present in OME) almost quantitatively; (b) the mixture OME-Ca(OH)2-bentonite, fed to a methanogenic reactor without providing an intermediate phase separation, gave way to high biogas production even at very low dilution ratios; (c) the effluent from the methanogenic reactor still contained significant concentrations of residual phenolic compounds (i.e. the most biorecalcitrant substances present in OME). Consequently, this paper was aimed at evaluating the fate of the phenolic fractions with different molecular weights during the sequence of operations (adsorption on bentonite, methanogenic digestion, activated sludge post-treatment). The results show that a very high percentage (above 80%) of the phenolic fraction below 500 D is removed by the methanogenic process whereas the phenolic fractions above 1,000 D are significantly adsorbed on bentonite; the 8-day activated sludge post-treatment allows an additional removal of about 40% of total filtered phenolic compounds. The complete sequence of treatments was able to remove more than the 96% of the phenolic fraction below 500 D (i.e. the most toxic fraction towards plant germination). Preliminary respirometric tests show low level of inhibition exerted by the effluent from the methanogenic reactor on aerobic activated sludges taken from full-scale municipal wastewater plants.