The Modified-Classroom Observation Schedule to Measure Intentional Communication (M-COSMIC): Evaluation of reliability and validity

The Modified – Classroom Observation Schedule to Measure Intentional Communication (M-COSMIC) was developed as an ecologically valid measure of social-communication behaviour, delineating forms, functions, and intended partners of children’s spontaneous communication acts. Forty one children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) aged 48 to 73 months were filmed within small-group settings at school. Communication behaviours during a five-minute teacher-led activity and a 10-minute free play session were coded from video-tape. Inter-rater reliability was high. Many M-COSMIC codes were significantly associated as predicted with Social and Communication domain scores on the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) and with scores on standardised language assessments. Agreement was more variable, however, at the level of individual M-COSMIC codes and ADOS items. Higher rates of responding, compliance behaviours and following pointing gestures and gaze occurred during the more structured teacher-led activity, compared to the free play. Results demonstrate preliminary construct validity of the M-COSMIC, showing its potential to describe and evaluate spontaneous social-communication skills in young children with ASD for research and applied purposes

Opportunities for process control optimisation in Irish municipal wastewater treatment plants

As societies ever increasing reliance on electrical energy continues, the role of process optimisation becomes more and more prevalent. This paper presents an energy audit of a typical Irish wastewater treatment plant (P.E. 30,000 ) and attempts to investigate measures to increase the energy efficiencies within treatment plants across Ireland. Based on an in depth review of international energy efficient wastewater treatment plants, energy savings opportunities exist via the use of variable frequency drives to control pumps and blowers; the introduction of inter-basin dissolved oxygen control systems to provide the varying, relevant oxygen requirements to the aeration basin; and effective plant management using appropriate control strategies via accurate sensor feedback and real-time, online monitoring

Life cycle assessment of waste water treatment plants in Ireland

The European Water Act 91/271/EEC introduced a series of measures for the purpose of protecting the environment from the adverse effects of effluent discharge from Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTP). There are environmental costs associated with attaining the required level of water quality set out in the act such as, emissions from energy production, ecotoxicity from sludge application to land. The goal of this study is to assess these costs. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) has been the analytical tool used to evaluate the environmental loadings. The CML 2001 Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) methodology has been adopted and implemented using GaBi 6.0 LCA software. Two plants of varying size and location were chosen for the study. The study found that energy consumption and sludge application to land are the largest contributors to the environmental impact associated with waste water treatment

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The evaluation of technologies for small, new design wastewater treatment systems

Life cycle costing of small wastewater treatment systems can often be generic and lack a degree of detail that could affect the choice of system. Critical factors such as variations in loading, location and discharge limits are sometimes not given the required weight of importance, and as a result the most suitable, most economical system may not always be implemented. A decision support tool for small, new design wastewater treatment plants has been developed that accounts for variations in several parameters such as scale, discharge limits and sludge disposal. Capital and operational costs have been combined to produce life cycle models for six treatment systems. Each system was assessed in a number of scenarios with variations in scale, discharge limits and sludge disposal route. The results show that in most scenarios, constructed wetlands represent the most economical option where surface area is not restricted. For each system, the percentage contribution of labour to the total operational cost increases as agglomeration size is reduced

Cancer survivorship research: the challenge of recruiting adult long term cancer survivors from a cooperative clinical trials group

With the growing number of adult cancer survivors, there is increasing need for information that links potential late and long term effects with specific treatment regimens. Few adult cancer patients are treated on clinical trials; however, patients previously enrolled in these trials are an important source of information about treatment-related late effects. Focusing on colorectal cancer survivors, we used the database from five phase III randomized clinical trials from the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast & Bowel Project (NSABP) to recruit and enroll long term survivors in a study of late health outcomes and quality of life. We describe the challenges to recruitment of patients more than 5 –20 years after treatment. Sixty-five NSABP treatment sites were invited to enroll patients in the study. Sixty participated with the potential to recruit 2,408 patients. We received registration forms on only 976 patients (41%) of whom 744 (76%) expressed interest in participating and 708 completed interviews (95% of those expressing interest; 29% of total potential sample). There were multiple barriers to recruitment (difficulty locating patients, lack of institutional commitment, lack of patient interest). Patients treated on clinical trials are an important potential source for examining the late effects of cancer treatments. Retrospective recruitment has substantial limitations. In the future, mechanisms should be established for prospective long-term follow-up to identify and understand the frequency and type of late effects associated with cancer treatments. As cancer patients are living longer, it will be important to learn from participants in clinical trials whether or not specific treatment regimens are associated with any serious late effects

Benchmarking resource efficiency in wastewater treatment plants: developing best practices

Energy and water are inextricably linked global resources which are under stress; water is required to generate electricity, and energy is required to purify water. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are an integral part of the water resources chain. Individual plants operate continually and are subject to a number of pressures (e.g. population changes, varying influent due to storm water, more stringent requirements for WWTP managers to meet discharge limits etc.) making the implementation of resource efficiencies uniquely challenging. Implementing efficiencies in WWTPs requires robust benchmarking and key performance indicator (KPI) tools, in order to implement more effective control, and identify opportunities for improvement. In Ireland, and internationally, these challenges have long been recognised, therefore a great deal of attention is focused on developing benchmarking tools suitable for the wastewater sector. This study presents a unique benchmarking system that enables WWTP managers and engineers isolate where and how resources are used and identify potential resource consumption mitigation measures within WWTPs. A unique and critical element of this benchmarking system is a tool (KPIAdvisor) that enables stakeholders to easily (i) assess the current level and accuracy of data collection undertaken at a WWTP; (ii) decide whether opting into a benchmarking system would be feasible based on the level of data collection onsite; (iii) identify data sources which may require corrective action prior to the adoption of a benchmarking system. KPIAdvisor automatically informs the construction and customisation of a KPI calculation and reporting tool (KPICalc) in order to ensure its applicability in a wide variety of WWTPs. This feature ensures that KPICalc users will not be presented with modules which are irrelevant, and streamlines data entry, thus increasing the toolkit’s usability. As part of the resource benchmarking system, KPIAdvisor enables resource efficiencies to be identified with ease, owing to the automated customisation of the benchmarking system achieved from KPIAdvisor output

Life cycle assessment of wastewater treatment plants in Ireland

The Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive 91/271/EEC introduced a series of measures for the purpose of protecting the environment from the adverse effects of effluent discharge from wastewater treatment plants. There are environmental costs associated with attaining the required level of water quality set out in the directive such as greenhouse gas emissions due to energy production, and ecotoxicity from sludge application to land. The goal of this study is to assess the environmental costs in an Irish context, focusing specifically on the effects of variation in scale and discharge limitation. Life cycle assessment is the analytical tool used to evaluate the environmental impact. The life cycle impact assessment methodology developed by the Centre of Environmental Science, Leiden University (2010) has been adopted and implemented using GaBi 6.0 life cycle assessment software. Two plants of varying size and location were chosen for the study. The study found that energy consumption and sludge application to land are the largest contributors to the overall environmental impact associated with the treatment process at both plants. Economies of scale were observed in energy usage during secondary aeration