Role of the engineer in international development : a case study in water supply service delivery models in Sierra Leone

The eradication of global poverty is central to the concept of sustainable development. In developing nations the lack of essential infrastructure and technologies, which are necessary to provide people with their basic human rights, offer a central role for the engineer. These needs are increasing as new global threats, such as the pressures caused by population growth, the harmful effects of climate change or the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters, have only heightened the difficulties which threaten the world’s poorest nations. Decades of development practice has allowed the profession of engineering to engage with many of these global issues. Over this period the engineering approaches, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, have gradually moved from high impact and short-term disasters relief interventions to long-term endogenous solutions. This change in overall aims has raised awareness of the sustainability of current engineering interventions. Many of the results are not entirely positive. For example, in water supply engineering, certain national estimates of sustainability of hand-pump wells for countries in Sub-Saharan Africa can range from 30- 80%. The role that the engineer could provide in addressing the concerns of poorer nations has not yet been fully realised. This thesis evaluates the current engineering models of service delivery that are used by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in developing nations. These models of technology transfer are supposed to provide communities in developing nations with a sustainable access to technologies that can provide for their basic rights. It is from within these models that engineers, who in many cases are foreign to the socio-cultural systems of the host nation, perform their engineering function and activities. The field research focuses on a case study of water supply engineering projects that have been carried out within the rural District of Tonkolili in Sierra Leone. To address the complex socio-cultural and socio-technical systems in Sierra Leone this field research adopted a combination of qualitative and quantitative assessment methods. This involved investigating both the technical and social sustainability issues found in Sierra Leone. The research visits were both inductive and deductive. They covered 150 spatially distributed villages in the rural district of Tonkolili. The methodologies used as part of this study involved; interviews, focus group discussions, community mapping, transect walks and technical observations, to provide a broad understanding of the sustainability issues affecting engineering projects. A total of 309 hand-pump wells, pulley systems and borehole water points were evaluated as part of the research. The study investigated the technical, socio-technical and socio-cultural consequences of these technology transfers - as well as the current condition of the social support mechanisms that are designed to sustain the water schemes. The results of the technical observations demonstrated that there are a diverse range of failures, from extreme to moderate, that have occurred at many of the water points. During the field visits observations of water supply solutions found to have urgent technical problems were frequent occurrences. The majority of the water points (96%) were found to have at least one technical failing that required immediate maintenance or further engineering assistance. The social research also indicated that, of the 4,700 individual categories monitored, a significant proportion (49%) were technical problems that were within the capacities of village members to address locally. These technical problems found to be ignored by the host communities. The NGO trained support mechanisms, which were designed to provide sustainability to the systems, for innumerable reasons, were unable to operate effectively. The breakdown in function of these supporting systems highlighted the serious weakness of current service delivery models in their ability to achieve sustainable engineering solutions. Investigating the relationship between the households and the water points suggests that the communities are not acting rationally towards their water sources. The majority of households were found to have unsafe water practices regardless of the provision of their improved sources. For example, many households that had access to improved water sources were found to still use their unimproved sources (30%). Many more (53%) complemented, and mixed, their unimproved water with water from their improved wells. This attitude towards safe water suggested that there were fundamentally flawed assumptions about how communities would receive and interact with their technologies. These household decisions, and the associated technical concerns, are directly attributable to the actions of the engineers from the project implementing development agencies. The results of these misinterpretations have undermined the long term sustainability of water supplies in Sierra Leone. The research indicated that to address sustainability the engineering profession is at a crossroads in determining its future in international development. Engineers have the capacity to acknowledge that the complexities of development limit their efficacy and therefore seek support from other professions. This would narrow the scope of their interventions. They are also capable of actively seeking the opposite; to broaden the scope as well as the responsibilities, expectations and skills of the engineers. It is this decision that will define the role of the engineer in international development

Unravelling the metabolic impact of SBS-associated microbial dysbiosis: Insights from the piglet short bowel syndrome model

peer-reviewedLiver disease is a major source of morbidity and mortality in children with short bowel syndrome (SBS). SBS-associated microbial dysbiosis has recently been implicated in the development of SBS-associated liver disease (SBS-ALD), however the pathological implications of this association have not been explored. In this study high-throughput sequencing of colonic content from the well-validated piglet SBS-ALD model was examined to determine alterations in microbial communities, and concurrent metabolic alterations identified in urine samples via targeted mass spectrometry approaches (GC-MS, LC-MS, FIA-MS) further uncovered impacts of microbial disturbance on metabolic outcomes in SBS-ALD. Multi-variate analyses were performed to elucidate contributing SBS-ALD microbe and metabolite panels and to identify microbe-metabolite interactions. A unique SBS-ALD microbe panel was clearest at the genus level, with discriminating bacteria predominantly from the Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes phyla. The SBS-ALD metabolome included important alterations in the microbial metabolism of amino acids and the mitochondrial metabolism of branched chain amino acids. Correlation analysis defined microbe-metabolite clustering patterns unique to SBS-ALD and identified a metabolite panel that correlates with dysbiosis of the gut microbiome in SBS

Experimental and Human Evidence for Lipocalin-2 (Neutrophil Gelatinase-Associated Lipocalin [NGAL]) in the Development of Cardiac Hypertrophy and heart failure

Background-Cardiac hypertrophy increases the risk of developing heart failure and cardiovascular death. The neutrophil inflammatory protein, lipocalin-2 (LCN2/NGAL), is elevated in certain forms of cardiac hypertrophy and acute heart failure. However, a specific role for LCN2 in predisposition and etiology of hypertrophy and the relevant genetic determinants are unclear. Here, we defined the role of LCN2 in concentric cardiac hypertrophy in terms of pathophysiology, inflammatory expression networks, and genomic determinants. Methods and Results-We used 3 experimental models: a polygenic model of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure, a model of intrauterine growth restriction and Lcn2-knockout mouse; cultured cardiomyocytes; and 2 human cohorts: 114 type 2 diabetes mellitus patients and 2064 healthy subjects of the YFS (Young Finns Study). In hypertrophic heart rats, cardiac and circulating Lcn2 was significantly overexpressed before, during, and after development of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. Lcn2 expression was increased in hypertrophic hearts in a model of intrauterine growth restriction, whereas Lcn2-knockout mice had smaller hearts. In cultured cardiomyocytes, Lcn2 activated molecular hypertrophic pathways and increased cell size, but reduced proliferation and cell numbers. Increased LCN2 was associated with cardiac hypertrophy and diastolic dysfunction in diabetes mellitus. In the YFS, LCN2 expression was associated with body mass index and cardiac mass and with levels of inflammatory markers. The single-nucleotide polymorphism, rs13297295, located near LCN2 defined a significant cis-eQTL for LCN2 expression. Conclusions-Direct effects of LCN2 on cardiomyocyte size and number and the consistent associations in experimental and human analyses reveal a central role for LCN2 in the ontogeny of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure.Peer reviewe

Nonprofit College Crash: Enforcing Board Fiduciaries Through Increased Accountability and Transparency in the IRS Form 990 Procedure

Since 1997, the United States has experienced a steady increase in college closings. Private, nonprofit colleges are the most prevalent among these affected institutions. A 2017 study confirmed that 177 colleges failed a U.S. Education Department test for “financial responsibility.” Of these 177 colleges, well over half are private nonprofits. Further, several colleges have closed since the study was completed. It is reasonable to conclude the financial irresponsibility of these schools contributes to their closures. ... Part I describes fiduciary duties of nonprofit board members and instances of their failure. Part II discusses inadequate nonprofit oversight and provides information regarding traditional denial of nonprofit stakeholder standing to sue. Part III provides additional examples of and a possible reason for breaches of fiduciary duties. Part IV describes several required disclosures by colleges and other institutions. Part V describes IRS Form 990 and its Schedules. Finally, Part VI offers an analysis of a method to ensure stakeholder protection from malfeasant board members – strengthening IRS Form 990

Grading system for analysing technical failure in hand-dug water supplies in rural Sierra Leone

As the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) of halving the number of people without access to sustainable source of drinking water was reportedly reached in 2012 the long term sustainability of these water supplies can be questioned. This paper investigates the success and failure of water supply systems of the district of Tonkolili, Sierra Leone. The primary focus of this research is on rural hand-dug wells that have been provided by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). To fully appreciate the current condition of the water supply systems a grading system, based on quantitative measurements, was developed. This system allowed comparisons between NGO provided water points and highlighted current successes and failures of the water supplies. The grading system suggests that the water supply sector in Tonkolili is in an exceptionally poor condition. This undermines the valuation of the success in water supply coverage statistics monitored by the Millennium Development Goals in Sierra Leone