Publications associées à High time-resolution simulation of E. coli on hands reveals large variation in microbial exposures amongst Vietnamese farmers using human excreta for agriculture

Using automated design appraisal to model building-specific devaluation risk due to land-use change

Uncertainty of spillover effects – including property devaluation - from proposed land-use change elicits opposition to local development. This hinders cities’ ability to implement land-use policy aimed at housing affordability and environmental sustainabi ...

2024

Environmental determinants of access to shared sanitation in informal settlements: a cross-sectional study in Abidjan and Nairobi

Jérôme Chenal, Vitor Pessoa Colombo, Jürg Utzinger

Background Universal access to basic sanitation remains a global challenge, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Efforts are underway to improve access to sanitation in informal settlements, often through shared facilities. However, access to ...

2023

Can one hear the shape of a target zone?

Max-Olivier Hongler

We develop an exchange rate target zone model with finite exit time and non-Gaussian tails. We show how the tails are a consequence of time-varying investor risk aversion, which generates mean-preserving spreads in the fundamental distribution. We solve ex ...

2023

Fate of parasites and viruses in calcium hydroxide-treated urine in relation to temperature and moisture content

Loïc Decrey, Tamar Kohn

Human urine can be used as fertilizer and technologies, such as alkaline-urine treatment, are being developed to enable easier re-use. There is, however, a risk of pathogens being present in the urine. This hygiene assessment examined inactivation of three ...

2022

Waterborne virus transport and the associated risks in a large lake

Tamar Kohn, Timothy R. Julian, Chaojie Li, Xavier Fernandez Cassi

Waterborne enteric viruses in lakes, especially at recreational water sites, may have a negative impact on human health. However, their fate and transport in lakes are poorly understood. In this study, we propose a coupled water quality and quantitative mi ...

2022

A risk-risk assessment framework for solar radiation modification

Concern about the increasingly high-probability, high-impact risks posed by global warming is driving the exploration of new techniques to artificially cool the planet through an approach known as solar radiation modification (SRM). Would the world be bett ...

International Risk Governance Center2021

Water and sanitation hub in Mali. Reasons for an architecture seminar

Riccardo Vannucci

What is the goal of a five-day seminar for the (architectural) design of a ‘water and sanitation hub’ in Mali? What does one want to achieve, or rather, what is the seminar meant to ‘disseminate’? To begin with, what is a ‘water and sanitation hub’? It is ...

EUNSA. Ediciones Universidad de Navarra, S.A.2020

Modelling quantities and qualities (Q&Q) of faecal sludge in Hanoi, Vietnam and Kampala, Uganda for improved management solutions

Magalie Diane Bassan, Amédé Ferré, Linda Strande

The importance of faecal sludge management is gaining recognition. However, methods are still lacking to reasonably estimate the quantities and qualities (Q&Q) that need to be managed, which makes the planning for and implementing of management solutions q ...

ACADEMIC PRESS LTD- ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2020

Hydrodynamic mechanisms of aggressive collapse events in leading edge cavitation

Mohamed Farhat, Ali Amini

Transient cavities generated from unsteady leading-edge cavitation may undergo aggressive collapses which are responsible for cavitation erosion. In this paper, we studied the hydrodynamic mechanisms of these events in the leading edge cavitation formed ov ...

SPRINGER2020

Impact of facade details on the reliability of performance-based decisions for early-stage neighborhood designs

Minu Agarwal

Neighborhood-scale projects often commence with the conceptualization of several massing-schemes as potential design solutions. There is growing interest in using building performance simulation (BPS) to evaluate and rank such conceptual stage schemes in o ...

EPFL2020

Health risks for sanitation service workers along a container-based urine collection system and resource recovery value chain

Tamar Kohn, Simon Schindelholz, Timothy R. Julian

Container-based sanitation (CBS) within a comprehensive service system value chain offers a low-cost sanitation option with potential for revenue generation, but may increase microbial health risks to sanitation service workers. This study assessed occupat ...

2019

Safely Managed Hygiene: A Risk-Based Assessment of Handwashing Water Quality

Timothy R. Julian, Matthew Eric Verbyla

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 6.2.1 requires household handwashing facilities to have soap and water, but there are no guidelines for handwashing water quality. In contrast, drinking water quality guidelines are defined: water must be "free ...

2019

Safety In Research Institutions: How to Better Communicate the Risks using Numerical Simulations

Thierry Meyer, Anna Maria Novello, Riccardo Iannarelli, Damien Stricker

What are the risks for the personnel following a gas leak in a laboratory? How effective are the safety measures (gas detection) put in place? Are users aware of how fast they can be exposed? These questions have been approached with the intent to better c ...

2019

Rainfall as a driver of epidemic cholera: Comparative model assessments of the effect of intra-seasonal precipitation events

Andrea Rinaldo, Francisco Javier Perez Saez, Joseph Chadi Benoit Lemaitre, Carla Sciarra, Damiano Pasetto

The correlation between cholera epidemics and climatic drivers, in particular seasonal tropical rainfall, has been studied in a variety of contexts owing to its documented relevance. Several mechanistic models of cholera transmission have included rainfall ...

2019

Pepper mild mottle virus as a water quality indicator

Jason Robert Torrey

Pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) was recently found to be the most abundant RNA virus in human feces, and is a plant virus belonging to the genus Tobamovirus in the family Virgoviridae. When in human feces, it is of dietary origin from peppers and their pr ...

NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP2018

Virus inactivation in stored human urine, sludge and animal manure under typical conditions of storage or mesophilic anaerobic digestion

Loïc Decrey, Tamar Kohn

Viruses represent major disease transmitting agents carried by human excreta and animal manure. Understanding virus inactivation is therefore essential in preventing microbial spread due to inadequate treatment of these materials. Here, we investigated the ...

Royal Soc Chemistry2017

Reaction extents: A Divide-and-Conquer Approach for Kinetic Model Identification

Dominique Bonvin, Julien Léo Billeter

Obtaining reliable wastewater treatment process models is critical for the application of model-based design, operation, and automation. For example, Masic et al. (2014) explored the use of an observer designed for nonlinear processes to estimate nitrite i ...

2017

Ammonia as an in-situ sanitizer: influence of virus genome type on inactivation

Loïc Decrey, Tamar Kohn, Shinobu Kazama

Treatment of human excreta and animal manure (HEAM) is key in controlling the spread of persistent enteric pathogens such as viruses. The extent of virus inactivation during HEAM storage and treatment appeared to vary with virus genome type, though the rea ...

American Society for Microbiology2016

Pathogens and pharmaceuticals in source-separated urine in eThekwini, South Africa

Tamar Kohn, Kai Udert, Linda Strande, Christa McArdell

In eThekwini, South Africa, the production of agricultural fertilizers from human urine collected from urine-diverting dry toilets is being evaluated at a municipality scale as a way to help finance a decentralized, dry sanitation system. The present study ...

Elsevier2015

Virus inactivation mechanisms in human urine and fecal sludge

Loïc Decrey

Water, sanitation and hygiene interventions are among the most significant health interventions addressing the worldwide burden of diarrheal disease and environmental enteropathy. Sanitizing human excreta and animal manure (HEAM) is a critical step in redu ...

EPFL2015