Review of risk from potential emerging contaminants in UK groundwater

This paper provides a review of the types of emerging organic groundwater contaminants (EGCs) which are beginning to be found in the UK. EGCs are compounds being found in groundwater that were previously not detectable or known to be significant and can come from agricultural, urban and rural point sources. EGCs include nanomaterials, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, industrial compounds, personal care products, fragrances, water treatment by-products, flame retardants and surfactants, as well as caffeine and nicotine. Many are relatively small polar molecules which may not be effectively removed by drinking water treatment. Data from the UK Environment Agency’s groundwater screening programme for organic pollutants found within the 30 most frequently detected compounds a number of EGCs such as pesticide metabolites, caffeine and DEET. Specific determinands frequently detected include pesticides metabolites, pharmaceuticals including carbamazepine and triclosan, nicotine, food additives and alkyl phosphates. This paper discusses the routes by which these compounds enter groundwater, their toxicity and potential risks to drinking water and the environment. It identifies challenges that need to be met to minimise risk to drinking water and ecosystems

Groups with many roots

Given a prime $p$, a finite group $G$ and a non-identity element $g$, what is the largest number of \pth roots $g$ can have? We write $\rho_p(G)$, or just $\rho_p$, for the maximum cardinality of the set $\{x \in G: x^p=g\}$, where $g$ ranges over the non-identity elements of $G$. This paper studies groups for which $\rho_p$ is large. If there is an element $g$ of $G$ with more \pth roots than the identity, then we show $\rho_p(G) \leq \rho_p(P)$, where $P$ is any Sylow $p$-subgroup of $G$, meaning that we can often reduce to the case where $G$ is a $p$-group. We show that if $G$ is a regular $p$-group, then $\rho_p(G) \leq \frac{1}{p}$, while if $G$ is a $p$-group of maximal class, then $\rho_p(G) \leq \frac{1}{p} + \frac{1}{p^2}$ (both these bounds are sharp). We classify the groups with high values of $\rho_2$, and give partial results on groups with high values of $\rho_3$

Mind the gap in mindfulness research: A comparative account of the leading schools of thought.

The literature on mindfulness has been dominated by the two leading schools of thought: one advanced by Langer and her colleagues the other developed by Kabat-Zinn and his associates. Curiously, the two strands of research have been running in parallel lines for more than 30 years, scarcely addressing each others’ work, and with hardly any attempt to clarify the relationship between them. In view of this gap, this paper aims to systematically compare and contrast the two lines of research. The comparison between the two schools of thought suggests that while there are some similarities in their definitions of mindfulness, they differ in several core aspects: their philosophies, the components of their constructs, their goals, their theoretical scope, their measurement tools, their conceptual focus, their target audiences, the interventions they employ, the mechanisms underlying these interventions, and the outcomes of their interventions. However, the analysis also revealed that self-regulation is a core mechanism in both perspectives, which seems to mediate the impact of their interventions. In view of the differences between the two strands of research, we propose that they would be given different titles that capture their prime features. We suggest ‘creative-mindfulness’ for Langer and her colleagues’ scholarship, and ‘meditative-mindfulness’ for Kabat-Zinn and his associates’ scholarly work

Untying the text: organizational prosociality and kindness

The scholarly field of organizational prosociality is experiencing a renewed interest, yet despite its long track record, researchers still disagree on the definitions of primary concepts. Two umbrella terms, prosocial behaviors and kindness, are particularly baffling, as they are defined similarly, at times used synonymously, yet the differences between them are unclear. Consequently, the field suffers from conceptual ambiguity, which hampers its development. In this brief critical paper, we provide a review of the definitions of prosocial behavior and kindness, in an attempt to semantically untie the text, unpack the context, and discuss the subtext that underlies these concepts. Our analysis suggests that the two concepts overlap in their emphasis on dispositions and actions that aim to promote the welfare of others. However, acts of kindness and prosocial behaviors differ in actors, their target recipients and scale. Acts of kindness are performed by an individual and directed at a person or a small group, while prosocial behaviors can be performed by a person or an organization, and can be directed at a person or a group, but may also be directed at a much larger entity: an organization, community, nation, or society at large

The work orientation of Israeli State Ambassadors: beyond the call of duty - when work is a 'way of life'

The thesis examines the $work$ $orientation$ of national diplomats. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 57 Israeli State Ambassadors about their careers, this study further refines and develops Wrzesniewski et al.'s (1997) tripartite $work$ $orientation$ model ($job$, $career$, $calling$). Three core categories emerged from the participants' accounts: $calling$, $career$ and $way$ $of$ $life$. Those with a $calling$ orientation assigned $transcendence$ significance to their work, combined with $coherence$ meaning: they perceived their work to be a service to their country, and felt that it was their moral duty to undertake the work, despite the sacrifices it entailed. They also emphasized the fit between their work requirements and their abilities. Those with a $career$ orientation assigned $status$ significance to their work: they derived meaning from their position in the organization, and valued the job security of their career-for-life. The ambassadors who displayed a $way$ $of$ $life$ orientation assigned dominance significance to their work: they referred to the all-consuming nature of their work, and the blurred boundaries between work, family and social life. For them work dominated and dictated both their own and their family's lives

Down Among The Sugar-Cane

[Verse 1] Down in Lousianna,Where the sugar can grows,Oh Oh my!Lives Miss Susiana,She\u27s the sweetest girl I know,Oh! Oh! my!When my work is over-mongst the sugar caneTo her home I go just at the bend of the lane\u27neath her cabin window I am singing this refrainOh! Oh! my! [Chorus] Can\u27t you see the night am falling?Whippoorwill am singing lowDon\u27t you hear the crickets calling?Calling you and met to goSusie don\u27t you keep me waitingIf you do \u27twill cause me painThe moon am shining, and my heart am piningMeet me down among the sugar cane [Verse 2] \u27Taint no use atalking,There will be a wedding soon,Oh, Oh my!Met her last Decemberand we are goin\u27 to wed in JuneOh, Oh my!Susiana\u27s goin\u27 to be my blushing brideI can see myself a-standing closer by her side\u27deed I\u27ll be happy person when the knot am tiedOh! Oh! my! [Chorus

Why do narcissists disregard social-etiquette norms? A test of two explanations for why narcissism relates to offensive-language use

Narcissists often fail to abide by norms for polite social conduct, but why? The current study addressed this issue by exploring reasons why narcissists use more offensive language (i.e., profanity) than non-narcissists. In this study, 602 participants completed a survey in which they responded on a measure of trait narcissism, rated several offensive words on the degree to which the words were attention-grabbing and offensive, and then indicated how frequently they used the words. Consistent with the idea that narcissists use offensive language to gain attention, narcissists were incrementally more likely to use offensive language if they perceived such language to be highly attention-grabbing, and they were also more likely to perceive offensive language as attention-grabbing. Consistent with the idea that narcissists use more offensive language because they are less sensitive to the offensiveness of the language, an additional mediation analysis showed that narcissists perceived offensive language as less offensive than non-narcissists, a perception that, in turn, enhanced use of offensive language. Thus, this study provides evidence for two mechanisms that underlie narcissists’ frequent use of offensive language, and broadly contributes to the understudied issue of why narcissists violate social-etiquette norms

A national-scale assessment of micro-organic contaminants in groundwater of England and Wales

A large variety of micro-organic (MO) compounds is used in huge quantities for a range of purposes (e.g. manufacturing, food production, healthcare) and is now being frequently detected in the aquatic environment. Interest in the occurrence of MO contaminants in the terrestrial and aquatic environments continues to grow, as well as in their environmental fate and potential toxicity. However, the contamination of groundwater resources by MOs has a limited evidence base compared to other freshwater resources. Of particular concern are newly ‘emerging contaminants’ such as pharmaceuticals and lifestyle compounds, particularly those with potential endocrine disrupting properties. While groundwater often has a high degree of protection from pollution due to physical, chemical and biological attenuation processes in the subsurface compared to surface aquatic environments, trace concentrations of a large range of compounds are still detected in groundwater and in some cases may persist for decades due to the long residence times of groundwater systems. This study provides the first national-scale assessment of micro-organic compounds in groundwater in England and Wales. A large set of monitoring data was analysed to determine the relative occurrence and detected concentrations of different groups of compounds and to determine relationships with land-use, aquifer type and groundwater vulnerability. MOs detected including emerging compounds such as caffeine, DEET, bisphenol A, anti-microbial agents and pharmaceuticals as well as a range of legacy contaminants including chlorinated solvents and THMs, petroleum hydrocarbons, pesticides and other industrial compounds. There are clear differences in MOs between land-use types, particularly for urban-industrial and natural land-use. Temporal trends of MO occurrence are assessed but establishing long-term trends is not yet possible

Feedstock blending as a strategy for hydrothermal liquefaction: lipid-rich scum from primary sedimentation and wastewater sludge

One salient advantage of hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is the ability to process diverse feedstocks individually or as blends. This creates an opportunity for using wet organic waste feedstocks that in many cases pose a disposal liability. The low cost associated with the feedstock enables cost-effective deployment of smaller, decentralized processing plants that match the geographic availability of wet waste resources. Two underutilized sources of wet waste biomass are wastewater sludge and fats, oils, and greases (FOG). In the United States, these each represent about 20% of the total HTL biocrude production potential from wet wastes. In this study, the selected FOG stream is decanted scum from the primary sedimentation operation of the same wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) that provided the sludge. Among the types of FOG, wastewater scum is one of the more complex and challenging. Scum contains entrained water, plant matter like leaves and seeds, and bits of garbage (paper and plastic). For most other processes to access the lipids in scum, some combination of heating, filtering, and solvent extraction would be required, leading to costly and/or inefficient recovery. HTL is preferable because it is a wet process and the scum can be blended directly to capture the whole energy content in the blended feed. Using a blend of primary and secondary sludge from Central Contra Costa Sanitary District (CCCSD) and decanted scum from CCCSD primary sedimentation as the source of FOG, a blend of sludge and scum was successfully prepared and processed in a bench scale continuous flow HTL system. A total of 54 L of blended slurry was converted to 4.2 L of biocrude oil. The scum was blended with the sludge such that it represented 20 wt% of the total dry, ash-free (daf) solids in the feed. The resulting biocrude had a much lower density (0.95 g/cm3) than the biocrude from CCCSD sludge alone (0.99 g/cm3) leading to improved gravity separation from the aqueous phase. The biocrude was also lower in moisture. During the oral presentation, the focus will be on the process of feedstock selection, evaluation, and characteristics including detailed steps and equipment used to format the blended feedstock for use in the HTL reactor system. The poster will include data for the integrated process including mass balance, yields, and characterization of products