Faecal sludge simulants to aid the development of desludging technologies

This paper presents a review of currently available data from the literature on the undrained shear strength, bulk density, stickiness and debris content of faecal sludge. Those data have been used to develop two different simulants that replicate the full range of shear strengths and densities reported for faecal sludge. Comprehensive specifications are also presented for the debris or solid waste found in latrines to more closely replicate the challenge of pumping faecal sludge. Finally, a design guide has been produced to capture these results and support quantitative performance testing of desludging pumps. The simulants have already been used as part of the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation's Faecal Sludge Omni-Ingestor project and by Water for People's SaniHub in developing improved desludging pumps. The wider use of these simulants could accelerate the development of pit emptying technologies and help standardize the quantitative evaluation of their performance.</jats:p

The importance of constraining regional exhumation in basin modelling: A hydrocarbon maturation history of the Ghadames Basin, North Africa

Estimation of eroded overburden at unconformities is essential to accurately constrain burial histories and predict the timing of hydrocarbon maturation. In the Ghadames Basin, three independent techniques, palaeo-isopach construction, sonic velocity and vitrinite reflectance analysis, were employed. The resultant basin model suggests that only the two most significant unconformities, the Hercynian (Late Carboniferous) and Alpine (early Eocene), have a major control on timing of hydrocarbon charge. Modelling indicates only one period of generation from the Lower Silurian shales on the western margin of the basin, with 95% hydrocarbon generation prior to Hercynian exhumation. The central basin and southern margin experienced maximum burial during Eocene time. The Middle-Upper Devonian mudstones are the main source rocks and they did not generate significant volumes of hydrocarbons over the basin centre until Cretaceous time; they are currently within the peak oil generation zone. In Libya, on the eastern/northeastern flank of the basin, results indicate Cenozoic maximum burial, followed by up to 2000 m of Alpine exhumation. The magnitude of this exhumation has not been recognized previously, although it is a critical component of the basin model as it has a major impact on potential hydrocarbon charge in this area. Maturation models predict that the Lower Silurian source underwent two generative phases: (1) pre-Hercynian (Carboniferous) generation; and, significantly, (2) post-Hercynian (Late Jurassic-Cenozoic) generation. The identification of late hydrocarbon generation offers potential for oil and gas to migrate into post-Hercynian traps. Over the western, northern and eastern flanks, the Devonian source rocks remain immature/ marginally mature at present day. © 2007 EAGE/Geological Society of London

Case management and Think First completion

“The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Probation Journal, Vol 53 Issue 3, 2006, Copyright The Trade Union and Professional Association for Family Court and Probation Staff, by SAGE Publications Ltd at: http://prb.sagepub.com/ " DOI: 10.1177/0264550506066771This article considers the findings of a small-scale study of the practice of case managers supervising offenders required to attend the Think First Group. It explores the interface between one-to-one and group-based work within multi-modal programmes of supervision and seeks to identify those practices that support individuals in completing a group.Peer reviewe

Business competitiveness: building and applying the 3Cs and the Strategic Change Matrix across COVID-19

This India-wide, empirical, point-in-time, global literature-supported, quantitative study involves 232 leading management consulting firm (MCF) consultants and contracting client firm (CF) perspectives. It relationally builds a structural MCF-CF 3Cs model that links MCF competencies into MCF-CF capabilities systems and then into CF business competitiveness. The 3Cs model can be visually and numerically presented as a CF three-dimensional positioning within the strategic change matrix. Future pathways towards a new optimal strategic future CF position can then be strategic change matrix mapped. A contribution towards Management-Consulting-Theory is presented as one that likely follows and embodies the MCF-CF 3Cs model processes

Modelling the mitigation of the negative effects on human resource management

Human resource professionals are often overlooked in the study of frontline workers and the negative effects of burnout, compassion fatigue, stress and vicarious trauma even though exposure to these negative workplace conditions is intrinsic to their job description. Understanding how these negative workplace conditions affect human resources professionals will lead to reduced employee absenteeism and higher staff turnover and mitigate the effects of presenteeism, such as reduced productivity and loss of general work satisfaction. In this paper, the literature is explored to examine the impact of negative workplace conditions on an organisation\u27s operations in the context of workplace programmes and compassion satisfaction. A model is presented to explain how individual and organisational interventions mitigate the negative workplace conditions of burnout, compassion fatigue, stress and vicarious trauma on workplace performance and compassion satisfaction. This model will form the basis for further research into the negative effects of employment conditions impacting human resource managers

Sustainable competitive advantage in entrepreneurial software firms in Pakistan: Establishing a conceptual research framework

Software firms are expanding within increasingly-competitive domestic and global marketplaces. Registered software firms in Pakistan seek new ways to better compete and remain as sustainable competitive entities. Such firms operate entrepreneurially, and remain subject to dynamic digital and globally-emerging changes. A literature review establishes constructs, conceptual relational hypothesis pathways, and an overall (testable) research framework for software firms in Pakistan. The framework is likely useful when modelling for improvements contributing towards sustainable competitive advantage shifts

I-Fintech adoption readinesss

Various studies show information technology can beneficially apply to enhance financial services. The merger of Fintech, based on the Islamic law, creates the concept of Islamic Fintech (I-Fintech). The growing investment and numerous startups across Islamic Fintech offer financial innovation evidence of the importance of I-Fintech. Many governments support I-Fintech growth through investments and supporting startups. Pakistan, an Islamic country, is experiencing evolutionary changes in Fintech adoption. This I-Fintech adoption can engage governments, companies and firms across the Islamic world. Eighty five percent (85%) of Pakistan’s population lack financial services. Hence, financial inclusion is a dominant problem of Pakistan. To date, few I-Fintech companies or firms operate in Pakistan. These are limited to big cities like Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore. To date lack of investment has restricted I-Fintech growth processes. Thus, a demand for local corporate and firm engagement is desirable to capture full advantages across the Fintech sector. This paper proposes a conceptual framework for adoption of I-Fintech across Pakistan. It proposes Islamic Fintech challenges and risk affect intention to adopt I-Fintech in Pakistan. Intention to adopt I-Fintech technology contains the constructs of technical literacy, financial literacy, digital literacy and social acceptance. Tis study’s next stage is to measure and model competitiveness position of Pakistan’s Islamic financial institutions (by gauging their resultant collective intelligences position)

Fur babies, governance, and ability: Finding meaning in survey response rates

We demonstrate that the use of visual cues in reminder emails can elicit increased response rates. Survey demographics and response rates were drawn from an ongoing survey being conducted within a not-for-profit organisation in Australia. The use of animals (“fur babies”) has an impact on the younger and older demographics and those without a university education. These ages and educationally limited cohorts are often seen as problematic to motivate to engage with surveys. For this study, the optimal time to elicit most responses was 12 weeks

Developmental perspectives on interpersonal affective touch

In the last decade, philosophy, neuroscience and psychology alike have paid increasing attention to the study of interpersonal affective touch, which refers to the emotional and motivational facets of tactile sensation. Some aspects of affective touch have been linked to a neurophysiologically specialised system, namely the C tactile (CT) system. While the role of this sys-tem for affiliation, social bonding and communication of emotions have been widely investigated, only recently researchers have started to focus on the potential role of interpersonal affective touch in acquiring awareness of the body as our own, i.e. as belonging to our psychological ‘self’. We review and discuss recent developmental and adult findings, pointing to the central role of interpersonal affective touch in body awareness and social cognition in health and disorders. We propose that interpersonal affective touch, as an interoceptive modality invested of a social nature, can uniquely contribute to the ongoing debate in philosophy about the primacy of the relational nature of the minimal self

Playing with the Rules: Influences on the Development of Regulation in Sport

Sport today is a rule-governed practice: constitutive rules, both prescriptive and proscriptive, define required equipment and facilities as well as setting the formal rules of play; auxiliary rules specify and control eligibility: and regulatory rules place restraints on behaviour independent of the sport itself. This article offers a broad sweep examination of the historical process of rule development in sport including an assessment of the influence over time of gambling, fair play ideology, economic pressures, technological developments and legal intervention. En route a seven-stage scheme of constitutive rule development is postulated which it is hoped will set a research agenda for sports historians to test with case studies of particular sports