Improvement of refuse collection in Kitwe: A participatory approach

This project set out to define the refuse collection problem in Kitwe and to propose ways of improving the same. Through a household survey, interviews with relevant institutions and a physical survey of the town, it was established that the Kitwe City Council is not able to provide an adequate refuse collection service to its residents. Less than 10% of generated waste is collected. The rest is either burnt or scattered around the town in illegal pits, piles, road kerbs and even drainage systems. The situation contributes to environmental degradation, poor public health conditions, high risks of epidemics and a generally aesthetically unpleasant environment. The reasons for this situation include among others, inadequate financing mechanisms, inadequate technical capacity, failure to enforce existing legislation, poor participation of stakeholders and a general weakness in existing institutional structures. Some major strong points were identified through the surveys and they included users’ willingness to pay for and private sector willingness to be involved in refuse collection. Building on these the study proposes to improve refuse collection through a participatory approach in which the council ceases to be a service provider and becomes a facilitator and regulator. The Council is expected to facilitate and control the activities of the private sector through contracts and licensing procedures. Collection and management of waste is handled by the private sector through both contract arrangement based on open tendering as well as open competition; and by community based organisations who oversee the collection of waste from source to primary collection points. Secondary collection is to be undertaken as a collaborative effort between the council and the private sector. The council retains a minimal collection role in selected areas only as a way of utilising existing capital outlet. Individual users are expected to pay for collection in order to sustain the proposed system. User fees are billed with other services such as water as a means of achieving compliance. The study goes further and suggests that certain technical, financial and manpower capacities together with organisational capacities will have to be developed if the new system is to succeed. Among the major recommendations are improvement in solid waste data collection and management, improved road networks, development of a sanitary landfill, development of a regulatory and institutional framework for operation of all stakeholders, improved revenue collection systems, development of proper contract management procedures, environmental awareness campaigns, and establishment of appropriate operational standards. Recognising the difficulties of introducing new systems, the study ends by recommending that the council should proceed on an incremental (experimental) basis starting with implementing of those ideas which are more readily acceptable to society

Public responses to water reuse - Understanding the evidence

Over the years, much research has attempted to unpack what drives public responses to water reuse, using a variety of approaches. A large amount of this work was captured by an initial review that covered research undertaken up to the early 2000s (Hartley, 2006). This paper showcases post-millennium evidence and thinking around public responses to water reuse, and highlights the novel insights and shifts in emphasis that have occurred in the field. Our analysis is structured around four broad, and highly interrelated, strands of thinking: 1) work focused on identifying the range of factors that influence public reactions to the concept of water reuse, and broadly looking for associations between different factors; 2) more specific approaches rooted in the socio-psychological modelling techniques; 3) work with a particular focus on understanding the influences of trust, risk perceptions and affective (emotional) reactions; and 4) work utilising social constructivist perspectives and socio-technical systems theory to frame responses to water reuse. Some of the most significant advancements in thinking in this field stem from the increasingly sophisticated understanding of the ‘yuck factor’ and the role of such pre-cognitive affective reactions. These are deeply entrenched within individuals, but are also linked with wider societal processes and social representations. Work in this area suggests that responses to reuse are situated within an overall process of technological ‘legitimation’. These emerging insights should help stimulate some novel thinking around approaches to public engagement for water reuse

Drinkwater innovaties voor de huishoudelijke eindgebruiker: inventarisatie van praktijkvoorbeelden

KIWA Waterresearch coördineert het Bedrijfstakonderzoek (BTO) voor de drinkwatersector. In het kader van het BTO is de onderzoekslijn Client 21 opgezet, waarbinnen verschillende klantgerelateerde kennisvragen aan bod komen. Toekomstig klantgedrag is één van die kennisvragen. Om inzicht te verkrijgen in toekomstig klantgedrag laat Kiwa Water Research het onderhavige onderzoek ‘gedragspraktijk watergebruik’ uitvoeren, waarvan dit rapport het eerste product i

Selection Criteria for Cochlear Implantation in the United Kingdom and Flanders: Toward a Less Restrictive Standard.

OBJECTIVES: The impact of the newly introduced cochlear implantation criteria of the United Kingdom and Flanders (Dutch speaking part of Belgium) was examined in the patient population of a tertiary referral center in the Netherlands. We compared the patients who would be included/excluded under the new versus old criteria in relation to the actual improvement in speech understanding after implantation in our center. We also performed a sensitivity analysis to examine the effectiveness of the different preoperative assessment approaches used in the United Kingdom and Flanders. DESIGN: This retrospective longitudinal cohort study included 552 postlingually deafened adults with cochlear implants (CI). The selection criteria were based on preoperative pure-tone audiometry at 0.5, 1, 2, and 4 kHz and a speech perception test (SPT) with and without best-aided hearing aids. Postoperatively, the same SPT was conducted to assess the benefit in speech understanding. RESULTS: The newly introduced criteria in Flanders and the United Kingdom were less restrictive, resulting in greater percentages of patients implanted with CI (increase of 30%), and sensitivity increase of 31%. The preoperative best-aided SPT, used by both countries, had the highest diagnostic ability to indicate a postoperative improvement of speech understanding. We observed that patient selection was previously dominated by the pure-tone audiometry criteria in both countries, whereas speech understanding became more important in their new criteria. Among patients excluded by the new criteria, seven of eight (the United Kingdom and Flanders) did exhibit improved postoperative speech understanding. CONCLUSIONS: The new selection criteria of the United Kingdom and Flanders led to increased numbers of postlingually deafened adults benefitting from CI. The new British and Flemish criteria depended on the best-aided SPT with the highest diagnostic ability. Notably, the new criteria still led to the rejection of candidates who would be expected to gain considerably in speech understanding after implantation

Communities of practice at the center of circular water solutions

This is the final version. Available on open access from Wiley via the DOI in this recordThe circular economy (CE) is an emerging system that moves away from the traditional linear view of “make, use, and dispose” to one that is restorative and regenerative to keep resources, such as water, at its highest value and utility at all times. Water is essential to the CE due to its importance for human life and because of the energy and material it contains. However, the move toward more circular water solutions is accompanied by both technological and social challenges for which, this article argues, stakeholder participation and social learning are essential. Enabling diverse stakeholders to engage and share different perspectives, interests, and needs, and ultimately to co‐produce knowledge, communities of practice (CoPs) are seen as a suitable approach to discuss CE water technologies in their institutional context. Although CoPs are being used widely in many sectors and disciplines, there is insufficient focus and a lack of consensus on how to evaluate the CoPs to understand whether and how the co‐production of knowledge is effective and efficient. This article gives an overview of the importance of water in the CE, explores the rationale for knowledge co‐production and CoPs, and proposes a CoP evaluation framework to draw together a consensus on the methods used for evaluating water knowledge co‐production and social learning processes in the transition toward the CE.European Commissio

Sociale partners zetten grote stappen op weg naar robuust pensioenstelsel

Hervorming Sociale Regelgevin

Brain areas involved in spatial working memory

Spatial working memory entails the ability to keep spatial information active in working memory over a short period of time. To study the areas of the brain that are involved in spatial working memory, a group of stroke patients was tested with a spatial search task. Patients and healthy controls were asked to search through a number of boxes shown at different locations on a touch-sensitive computer screen in order to find a target object. In subsequent trials, new target objects were hidden in boxes that were previously empty. Within-search errors were made if a participant returned to an already searched box; between-search errors occurred if a participant returned to a box that was already known to contain a target item. The use of a strategy to remember the locations of the target objects was calculated as well. Damage to the right posterior parietal and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex impaired the ability to keep spatial information [`]on-line', as was indicated by performance on the Corsi Block-Tapping task and the within-search errors. Moreover, patients with damage to the right posterior parietal cortex, the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the hippocampal formation bilaterally made more between-search errors, indicating the importance of these areas in maintaining spatial information in working memory over an extended time period.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6T0D-4HM7WH2-2/1/b6b13c7b404377bae2b8cf632eb61fe