Developing methods to access sensitive industrial wastewater information in South Africa (with treatment in mind)

South Africa is a water stressed country, therefore it is important to understand water use and wastewater generation. Previous research and workshops have identified gaps in the characterisation and remediation of wastewaters in South Africa. Wastewater management can take advantage of wastewater as a valuable resource. However, treatment is required to recover this value, while characterisation is required to develop treatments. Yet wastewater characterisation information is often poorly reported. The nature of industrial wastewaters (in terms of volume, location and composition), and the norms of wastewater characterisation reporting (in terms of quality and accessibility) formed the basis for two research questions. A major component of this research was developing methods to access sensitive wastewater information. Relational approaches were based on building relationships through phone calls, emails, meetings and site visits. Formal, legal requests for were made with application in terms if the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA). Even though wastewater information is not confidential, it is not readily accessible. 87 people from 42 companies or institutions were contacted; 14% of interactions lead to shared data or a meeting, and 12% shared resources. Key industries of interest were: pulp and paper, fish processing, power generation, mining and petroleum. Previous estimates of South African industrial wastewater volumes ranged from 70 – 350 Mm3 /annum. The pulp and paper industry contributed between 28 and 43% of this volume; petroleum contributed 9 to 26%. Both industries were located inland and in coastal regions of South Africa. These industries were most concerned with COD. Mining and power generation contributed 10 – 15% and 7 – 14% respectively. These industries were located inland, and were concerned with total dissolved solids, and specifically sulphate, sodium and chlorides. The fish processing industry contributed between 0 and 23% of volumes, depending whether wastewaters released to a marine environment were included. Seven parameters were reported for over half of the streams considered (65 in total). These parameters were: pH, volume, electrical conductivity, nitrogen, sulphate, sodium and COD. Sulphate and sodium were dominant ions. Calcium was not measured, even though discharge limits were listed in environmental licenses. Characterisation information was reported for compliance and not for treatability. The parameters measured should be expanded to include important parameters for treatability. Industry, research institution and governmental bodies can work together to identify such parameters and develop locally relevant treatments. It is recommended that possible synergies between these groupings be enhanced to improve wastewater management. But an atmosphere of trust and transparency is required to facilitate synergistic relationships. The legal framework in South Africa can be used to motivate for transparency with respect to wastewaters

Centralized vs. decentralized computing : organizational considerations and management options

The long-standing debate over whether to centralize or decentralize computing is examined in terms of the fundamental organizational and economic factors at stake. The traditional debate is examined and found to focus predominantly on issues of efficiency vs. effectiveness, with solutions based on a rationalistic strategy of optimizing in this tradeoff. A more behavioralistic assessment suggests that the driving issues in the debate are the politics of organization and resources, centering on the issue of control. The economics of computing deployment decisions is presented as an important issue, but one that often serves as a field of argument that is based on more political concerns. The current situation facing managers of computing, given the advent of small and comparatively inexpensive computers, is examined in detail, and a set of management options for dealing with this persistent issue is presented

Data protection: the challenges facing social networking

The popularity of social networking sites has increased dramatically over the past decade. A recent report indicated that thirty-eight percent of online users have a social networking profile. Many of these social networking site users (SNS users) post or provide personal information over the internet every day. According to the latest OfCom study, the average adult SNS user has profiles on 1.6 sites and most check their profiles at least once every other day. However, the recent rise in social networking activity has opened the door to the misuse and abuse of personal information through identity theft, cyber stalking, and undesirable screenings by prospective employers. Behavioral advertising programs have also misused personal information available on social networking sites. Society is now facing an important question: what level of privacy should be expected and required within the social networking environment

A European perspective on auditory processing disorder-current knowledge and future research focus

Current notions of \u201chearing impairment,\u201d as reflected in clinical audiological practice, do not acknowledge the needs of individuals who have normal hearing pure tone sensitivity but who experience auditory processing difficulties in everyday life that are indexed by reduced performance in other more sophisticated audiometric tests such as speech audiometry in noise or complex non-speech sound perception. This disorder, defined as \u201cAuditory Processing Disorder\u201d (APD) or \u201cCentral Auditory Processing Disorder\u201d is classified in the current tenth version of the International Classification of diseases as H93.25 and in the forthcoming beta eleventh version. APDs may have detrimental effects on the affected individual, with low esteem, anxiety, and depression, and symptoms may remain into adulthood. These disorders may interfere with learning per se and with communication, social, emotional, and academic-work aspects of life. The objective of the present paper is to define a baseline European APD consensus formulated by experienced clinicians and researchers in this specific field of human auditory science. A secondary aim is to identify issues that future research needs to address in order to further clarify the nature of APD and thus assist in optimumdiagnosis and evidence-based management. This European consensus presents the main symptoms, conditions, and specific medical history elements that should lead to auditory processing evaluation. Consensus on definition of the disorder, optimum diagnostic pathway, and appropriate management are highlighted alongside a perspective on future research focus

Performance measurement systems development in a telecommunications company

Developing performance measurement is a necessary element for the effective management of organizations. Performance measurement has been gaining in importance in both operations and management literature. In this paper an evaluation of the development and implementation of performance measures is presented. Investigation of the process from an organizational viewpoint provides insights into the advantages and disadvantages of a strategic activity-based development framework for performance measurement. General issues and implications for the management of performance measurement development and implementation provide some fundamental guidelines

Neuroimaging study designs, computational analyses and data provenance using the LONI pipeline.

Modern computational neuroscience employs diverse software tools and multidisciplinary expertise to analyze heterogeneous brain data. The classical problems of gathering meaningful data, fitting specific models, and discovering appropriate analysis and visualization tools give way to a new class of computational challenges--management of large and incongruous data, integration and interoperability of computational resources, and data provenance. We designed, implemented and validated a new paradigm for addressing these challenges in the neuroimaging field. Our solution is based on the LONI Pipeline environment [3], [4], a graphical workflow environment for constructing and executing complex data processing protocols. We developed study-design, database and visual language programming functionalities within the LONI Pipeline that enable the construction of complete, elaborate and robust graphical workflows for analyzing neuroimaging and other data. These workflows facilitate open sharing and communication of data and metadata, concrete processing protocols, result validation, and study replication among different investigators and research groups. The LONI Pipeline features include distributed grid-enabled infrastructure, virtualized execution environment, efficient integration, data provenance, validation and distribution of new computational tools, automated data format conversion, and an intuitive graphical user interface. We demonstrate the new LONI Pipeline features using large scale neuroimaging studies based on data from the International Consortium for Brain Mapping [5] and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative [6]. User guides, forums, instructions and downloads of the LONI Pipeline environment are available at http://pipeline.loni.ucla.edu

Collaborative signal and information processing for target detection with heterogeneous sensor networks

In this paper, an approach for target detection and acquisition with heterogeneous sensor networks through strategic resource allocation and coordination is presented. Based on sensor management and collaborative signal and information processing, low-capacity low-cost sensors are strategically deployed to guide and cue scarce high performance sensors in the network to improve the data quality, with which the mission is eventually completed more efficiently with lower cost. We focus on the problem of designing such a network system in which issues of resource selection and allocation, system behaviour and capacity, target behaviour and patterns, the environment, and multiple constraints such as the cost must be addressed simultaneously. Simulation results offer significant insight into sensor selection and network operation, and demonstrate the great benefits introduced by guided search in an application of hunting down and capturing hostile vehicles on the battlefield

Security in Wireless Sensor Networks: Issues and Challenges

Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is an emerging technology that shows great promise for various futuristic applications both for mass public and military. The sensing technology combined with processing power and wireless communication makes it lucrative for being exploited in abundance in future. The inclusion of wireless communication technology also incurs various types of security threats. The intent of this paper is to investigate the security related issues and challenges in wireless sensor networks. We identify the security threats, review proposed security mechanisms for wireless sensor networks. We also discuss the holistic view of security for ensuring layered and robust security in wireless sensor networks.Comment: 6 page