Future dementia care in Ireland: A guide

A new guide on dementia�� in Ireland was launched June 19 by Minister of State at the Department of Health Kathleen Lynch. The guide was developed to disseminate to the public, and in lay man\u27s terms, the key findings contained in a report entitled \u27Creating Excellence in Dementia Care: A Research Review to inform Ireland\u27s National Dementia Strategy.\u27 The new guide is a joint collaboration between�� the Living with Dementia programme, Trinity College Dublin, and the Irish Centre for Social Gerontology (ICSG), NUI Galway. The research work was funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies and supported by the Department of Health.Access the guide here: http://livingwithdementia.tcd.ie/assets/pdf/Future_Dementia_Care_in_Irel..

Subglobal Climate Agreements and Energy-intensive Activities: An Evaluation of Carbon Leakage in the Copper Industry

Subglobal climate policies induce changes in international competitiveness and favor a relocation of carbon-emitting activities to non-abating regions. In this paper, we evaluatethe potential for CO2 abatement and the emissions ‘leakage’ effect in the copper industry, aprominent energy-intensive trade-exposed sector. We formulate a plant-level spatial equilibrium model for copper commodities in which parameters describing the behavioral response of agents are calibrated to econometric estimates of price elasticities. We find producers and consumers to be price inelastic even in the long-run, making the copper industry unresponsive to climate policies. Monte Carlo simulations with our model based on statistical uncertainty on elasticity estimates suggest that around 30% of emissions reductions in industrialized countries would be compensated by an increase of emissions in non-abating countries

Life cycle assessment of a ceramic glaze containing copper slags and its application on ceramic tile

Even though copper slags have many possible applications, their disposal is still practiced, creating long-term waste management problems. This led to the investigation of new products for residential applications, taking advantages of the interesting chemical properties of copper slag. This study aims to assess the environmental impact of the use of copper slag as secondary raw material in a ceramic glaze composition and to compare it with a traditional glaze. A manufacturing process was designed, through an industrial scale up operation from experimental laboratory data and the entire life cycle of the products was analyzed using the Life-cycle assessment (LCA) methodology. Considering the production of a ceramic glaze containing copper slag, the most impacting process resulted the one related to frit production, due to the large amount of thermal energy necessary for the raw materials melting. The comparative LCA analysis carried out between the frit obtained from metallurgical slags and a traditional one, demonstrated that the innovative ceramic frit has a greater environmental advantage. The LCA analysis allowed to highlight the most impactful stages of an industrial process using copper slag as a secondary raw material for glaze production and to quantify the potential environmental advantages of this operatio

Chalcopyrite leaching and bioleaching: An X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic (XPS) investigation on the nature of hindered dissolution

Chalcopyrite (CuFeS2) is both the most economically important and the most difficult copper mineral to (bio)leach. The main reason for the slow rate of chalcopyrite dissolution is the formation of a layer on the surface of the mineral that hinders dissolution, termed “passivation”. The nature of this layer is still under debate. In this work, the role of bacterial activity was examined on the leaching efficiency of chalcopyrite by mimicking the redox potential conditions during moderately thermophilic bioleaching of a pure chalcopyrite concentrate in an abiotic experiment using chemical/electrochemical methods. The results showed that the copper recoveries were equal in the presence and absence of the mixed culture. It was found that the presence of bulk jarosite and elemental sulphur in the abiotic experiment did not hamper the copper dissolution compared to the bioleaching experiment. The leaching curves had no sign of passivation, rather that they indicated a hindered dissolution. XPS measurements carried out on massive chalcopyrite samples leached in the bioleaching and abiotic experiments revealed that common phases on the surface of the samples leached for different durations of time were elemental sulphur and iron-oxyhydroxides. The elemental sulphur on the surface of the samples was rigidly bound in a way that it did not sublimate in the ultra-high vacuum environment of the XPS spectrometer at room temperature. Jarosite was observed in only one sample from the abiotic experiment but no correlation between its presence and the hindered leaching behaviour could be made. In conclusion, a multi-component surface layer consisting of mainly elemental sulphur and iron-oxyhydroxides was considered to be responsible for the hindered dissolution.</p

Copper demand, supply, and associated energy use to 2050

To a set of well-regarded international scenarios (UNEP's GEO-4), we have added consideration of the demand, supply, and energy implications related to copper production and use over the period 2010-2050. To our knowledge, these are the first comprehensive metal supply and demand scenarios to be developed. We find that copper demand increases by between 275 and 350% by 2050, depending on the scenario. The scenario with the highest prospective demand is not Market First (a "business as usual" vision), but Equitability First, a scenario of transition to a world of more equitable values and institutions. These copper demands exceed projected copper mineral resources by mid-century and thereafter. Energy demand for copper production also demonstrates strong increases, rising to as much as 2.4% of projected 2050 overall global energy demand. We investigate possible policy responses to these results, concluding that improving the efficiency of the copper cycle and encouraging the development of copper-free energy distribution on the demand side, and improving copper recycling rates on the supply side are the most promising of the possible options. Improving energy efficiency in primary copper production would lead to a reduction in the energy demand by 0.5% of projected 2050 overall global energy demand. In addition, encouraging the shift towards renewable technologies is important to minimize the impacts associated with copper production