A Micro Financing Framework for Rural Water and Sanitation Provisioning in Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper investigates potential issues with regard to water and sanitation. It argues that technological fixes alone are not enough and need to be complemented by other forms of innovation such as local community organization and financial innovation. It provides a micro financing framework that is founded on the Rotating Savings and Credit Associations (RoSCA) arrangements at the village level

The effect of movement velocity and eccentric contractions on the bilateral deficit

This study was performed to examine the effects of movement velocity and eccentric contractions on the bilateral deficit. To accomplish this, 18 participants performed bilateral and unilateral contractions eccentrically and concentrically across 6 movement velocities (30, 60, 90, 120, 150, and 180{dollar}\sp\circ{dollar}/s). Repeated measures ANOVA\u27s revealed that for both eccentric and concentric contractions, significant differences existed between bilateral and summed unilateral contractions; and at each of the six tested velocities. Further analyses revealed that the degree of the bilateral deficit increased as movement velocity increased. It is believed that the decreased tension developed during bilateral eccentric and concentric contractions, is attributed to incomplete activation of fast twitch muscle fibers recruited during unilateral contractions

Clean and Green: A New Implementation Framework for Rural Sustainable Sanitation

There is a growing recognition that many of the things we commonly discard are, simply, too good to waste. This is particularly true in the setting of poor rural villages facing water scarcity and low crop productivity and energy access – and where these waste streams actually pose a risk to health and ecosystem services.Clean and Green is the first rural sanitation implementation framework that explicitly addresses efficient local resource management, including waste reuse, in parallel with sanitation and hygiene promotion. The framework centres on certifications to reward progress along parallel Clean (risk management) and Green (resource management) tracks.Clean and Green is being developed under the SEI Initiative on Sustainable Sanitation (SISS), with pilot projects now lined up. This discussion brief sets out the main concepts

Pre-arc basement complex and overlying early island arc strata, Southwestern Puerto Rico : overview, geologic evolution, and revised data bases

The pre-arc basement complex in southwestern Puerto Rico consists of rocks exposed in the Bermeja complex. The oldest rocks are highly serpentinized peridotites that occur in three belts (Monte del Estado, Río Guanajibo, and Sierra Bermeja). These serpentinites were emplaced into a sequence of Jurassic to mid-Cretaceous pelagic chert (Mariquita chert) that contains abundant rafts and blocks of N-MORB-type amphibolites (Las Palmas amphibolite) and tholeiite and associated trondhjemite fractionates (Lower Cajul MORB) also of N-MORB affinity. The rocks are apparently overlain by a younger sequence of pre-arc plateau basaltic and andesitic lava flows (Upper Cajul Formation) that occur in two distinct geographic sequences, one having E-MORB and the other OIB geochemical characteristics. Overlying these pre-arc rocks in western Puerto Rico are northwest-trending Late Cretaceous to Eocene (85 to 45Ma) island arc strata that chronologically overlap later volcanic phases in central Puerto Rico. These western Puerto Rico arc rocks have elevated incompatible element concentrations together with conspicuously shallow negative Nb-anomalies, slightly positive Zr-Hf anomalies, and exceedingly high OIB-like Nb/Zr, all indicative of enriched source compositions. Trace element patterns are reproduced by multiple component mixing models involving highly depleted spinel peridotite (RMM15 to 20) overprinted by small OIB-type (up to ~2%) and pelagic sediment components. Trace element abundances are too high to qualify Atlantic Cretaceous pelagic sediment as a potential contaminant, but mantle-melting models (f=0.25) are consistent with the incorporation of variable proportions of Caribbean Cretaceous pelagic sediment through northdipping subduction of the Caribbean basin. Anomalous two-pyroxene-bearing andesites with extraordinarily high SiO2/MgO compared with normal mantle basaltic compositions, also indicate the incorporation of Jurassic to Early Cretaceous pelagic chert from the Caribbean. The high degree of source enrichment in western Puerto Rico is inconsistent with regional within-plate plume tectonics. Instead, it is inferred that the younger north-dipping western Puerto Rico arc (dating from ~85Ma) sampled an upper mantle enrichment zone generated in the backarc region of the older (125 to ~85Ma) south-dipping arc system in central Puerto Rico

Cretaceous to Mid-Eocene pelagic sediment budget in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands (northeast Antilles Island arc)

Island arc basalts (IAB) in the Greater Antilles, dating between Albian and mid-Eocene time (~112 to 45 Ma), consist of an early low-K, primitive island arc (PIA) basalt series and a later, predominantly intermediate calcalkaline (CA) series. The rocks resemble modern sediment-poor, low-light rare earth element (LREE)/heavy rare earth element (HREE) arc basalts from intra-oceanic tectonic settings and sediment-rich, high-LREE/HREE types from continental margin arcs, respectively. Isotope and incompatible trace element distribution along a 450 km segment of the arc in the northeast Antilles demonstrates that low-LREE/HREE basalts predominate in Albian to Santonian (~85 Ma) stratigraphic sequences in the Virgin Islands (VI) and northeast Puerto Rico (NEPR), while there is a gradual but spectacular increase in both LREE/HREE and absolute abundances of incompatible elements in central Puerto Rico (CPR). Northeastern Antilles basalts have consistently elevated La/Nb and relatively low Nb/Zr, both inconsistent with the presence of a significant ocean island basalt component. Hence, observed differences are interpreted to reflect variation in proportions of pelagic sediment subducted by the south-dipping Antilles arc system as it swept north-eastward across the Caribbean region and eventually approached the Bahama Banks along the south-eastern fringes of the North American Plate. Trace element mixing models indicate sediment proportions in VI and NEPR were limited, averaging considerably below 1.0%. In comparison sediment content in CPR increased from an average slightly above 1.0% in Albian (~112 Ma) basalts to as high as 8% in Cenomanian (100-94 Ma) types. Hypothetical pre-arc pelagic sedimentary facies in the subducted proto-Atlantic (or proto-Caribbean) basin, included 1) a young, centrally located longitudinal ridge-crest facies, with a thin sediment cover, eventually subducted by VI and NEPR, 2) a slightly older basin-margin facies of variable width and moderate sediment thickness, subducted by CPR during Albian time, and 3) a thick, pre-arc continental margin facies in the vicinity of Central America, subducted by CPR during Cenomanian time. Following collision of neighboring Hispaniola with the Bahamas sediment budgets in the northeast Antilles stabilized at moderate levels from 2 to 3%, reflecting widespread subduction of North Atlantic Cretaceous pelagic sediment (AKPS)

Early Neoproterozoic limestones from the Gwna Group, Anglesey

Limestone megaclasts up to hundreds of metres in size are present within the Gwna Group mélange, North Wales, UK. The mélange has been interpreted as part of a Peri-Gondwanan fore-arc accretionary complex although the age of deposition remains contentious, proposals ranging from Neoproterozoic to Early Ordovician. This paper uses strontium isotope chemostratigraphy to establish the age of the limestone blocks and thus provide a maximum age constraint on mélange formation. Results show that, although the carbonates are locally dolomitized, primary 87Sr/86Sr ratios can be identified and indicate deposition sometime between the late Tonian and earliest Cryogenian. This age is older than that suggested by stromatolites within the limestone and indicates that the limestone did not form as cap carbonate deposits

Nonprofit Watchdogs: Do They Serve the Average Donor?

Nonprofit watchdog organizations—organizations devoted to rating the accountability and transparency of nonprofits—claim to serve donors who are selecting which nonprofits to support. However, using three waves of the Harris Interactive Donor Pulse, we found that the overwhelming majority of donors (77.6 percent) do not consult these online intermediaries when making donations. Those who do are likely to fall into one of two groups: donors who give large sums of money or donors who are engaged in advocacy. We conclude with conceptual and practical implications