Study examining a DOE proposal to dispose of mixed low level waste at the Nevada test site using an alternative landfill design

The Department of Energy has set forth a proposal to use an Alternative Landfill Design (ALD) for the Mixed Low Level Waste disposal facility, in Area 5 of the Nevada Test Site in place of a traditional engineered liner for the facility. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impasse between the DOE and the State of Nevada regarding the proposal of placing a traditional liner versus the alternative landfill design, using a case study method to provide recommendations to policy makers and the NTS CAB. This project used secondary data to evaluate, and determine the effectiveness of the ALD

Processes of Social Work Engagement with The Reforming State in Australia: The Case of Centrelink

Processes of social work engagement with the reforming state in Australia: The case of Centrelink This thesis provides an account of processes of social work engagement with the reforming state in Australia. The thesis focuses on the embedding and intensification of activation reforms into income support and employment services policy and the development through new public management (NPM) strategies of an individualised service delivery culture in the Australian federal government agency Centrelink during the period 1997 to the close of 2007. Central to this thesis is an interest in performative aspects of social work identity, as well as ways in which organisational control was pursued through intentional efforts to regulate the identity of its employees to ensure their responsiveness towards achieving contested welfare policy reforms. The study draws upon a particular articulation of the theoretical framework of performativity to explore processes of regulation at the level of the organisation and at the level of individual workers. The study informing this thesis analyses narratives from two sets of agents: politicians and former members of the Centrelink Executive and eleven highly experienced social workers from all levels of the Centrelink hierarchy who participated in the transformation of this public service agency through NPM reform and welfare policy reform process. The focus of the study is on reflexive processes of coming into being, specifically how these two sets of agents interpreted and responded to interactive social and regulative processes of identity formation within this restructured organisational and policy context. The thesis extends current understandings of the effect of ubiquitous NPM and welfare policy reforms on social workers through shedding light on the processes by which social workers become or are produced in particular organisational and policy contexts. This thesis explores the way social work and public service values and commitments were constructed and contested throughout a period of transformational change. Keywords: social work, organisational regulation, Centrelink, performativit

Yield- and biomass-per-recruit analysis for rotational fisheries, with an application to the Atlantic sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus)

A general model for yield-per-recruit analysis of rotational (periodic) fisheries is developed and applied to the sea scallop (Placopecten magellanicus) fishery of the northwest Atlantic. Rotational fishing slightly increases both yield- and biomass-per-recruit for sea scallops at FMAX. These quantities decline less quickly when fishing mortality is increased beyond FMAX than when fishing is at a constant rate. The improvement in biomass-per-recruit appears to be nearly independent of the selectivity pattern but increased size-at-entry can reduce or eliminate the yield-per-recruit advantage of rotation. Area closures and rotational fishing can cause difficulties with the use of standard spatially averaged fishing mortality metrics and reference points. The concept of temporally averaged fishing mortality is introduced as one that is more appropriate for sedentary resources when fishing mortality varies in time and space

Summary of the NECTOS study of specialist crack services

The Government acknowledges that crack and cocaine use is a significant public health issue. It has attached a high priority to getting more crack users into treatment and retaining them, and commissioning new research into the effectiveness of different treatment methods. Tackling Crack: A National Plan (Home Office, 2002) was implemented in 2003. There has been no independent assessment of existing crack and cocaine treatment services in this country to establish what interventions are delivered, how effective services are, and what lessons can be learned for future service planning. This evaluation aims to directly address this shortcoming. The National Evaluation of Crack Cocaine Treatment and Outcome Study (NECTOS) (NTA, 2007, forthcoming) evaluated a number of well-established specialist crack treatment services. The intention was to describe the interventions they provided, to measure how effective the services were in engaging and retaining crack users, and to assess whether they helped users reduce their consumption

Marine reserve effects on fishery profits : a comment on White et al. (2008)

This paper is not subject to U.S. copyright. The definitive version was published in Ecology Letters 12 (2009): E9-E11, doi:10.1111/j.1461-0248.2008.01272.x.A recent study (White et al. 2008) claimed that fishery profits will often be higher with management that employs no-take marine reserves than conventional fisheries management alone. However, this conclusion was based on the erroneous assumption that all landed fish have equal value regardless of size, and questionable assumptions regarding density-dependence. Examination of an age-structured version of the White et al. (2008) model demonstrates that their results are not robust to these assumptions. Models with more realistic assumptions generally do not indicate increased fishery yield or profits from marine reserves except for overfished stocks

Development of Wave Energy Converters at Ocean Power Technologies (Extended Abstract)

This abstract contains information relevant to the use of wave information for naval operations, education, and alternative energy technologies, and was used, along with the Session Presentation, to facilitate discussion during Session 1 (the use of wave measurements to support operations)

Visual Recognition of Child Body Mass Index by Medical Students, Resident Physicians, and Community Physicians

Background: Many studies have assessed the ability of mothers to identify their child’s Body Mass Index (BMI) category and the vast majority of mothers are unable to do so accurately. This suggested a need for physicians to inform parents about their child’s weight status. However, many physicians do not chart BMI-for-age, even though it is recommended. Instead they rely on their visual perception of the patient’s weight status. This study determined the number of medical students, resident physicians, and community physicians who correctly categorize preschool children into their appropriate weight class by visual cues alone. Methods: Fourth-year medical students, family medicine and pediatric resident physicians, and family medicine and pediatric community physicians completed a brief on-line survey. Pictures of three preschool children were shown and respondents described each child’s BMI-for-age category. Results: A 43% (134/312) response rate was achieved. Only 15% of respondents correctly identified a 3-year-old boy, whose BMI was >95th percentile for his age, as obese. Nearly 86% correctly identified a 4-year-old girl with normal BMI-for-age, but only 21% correctly identified another girl who was overweight at the 90-95th percentile BMI-for-age. No significant difference was found in total accuracy between medical students, resident physicians, or community physicians (F(2,123)=0.743, p=0.478) or between family medicine physicians and pediatricians (F(1,107)=2.269, p=0.135) when predicting the BMI-for-age categories. Conclusions: Medical professionals and trainees have difficulty visually assessing a child’s BMI-for-age weight status. This underscores the importance of calculating and plotting BMI at healthy check-ups

Introduction: Popular Economies in South Africa

African economies have long been a matter of concern to anthropologists, not least in the pages of Africa. These economies are situated, somewhat contradictorily, between global settings of financialized capitalism on the one hand and impoverished local arenas where cash-based economic transfers predominate on the other. The more such economies appear to be tied to wider global arenas and operations that place them beyond the reach of ordinary people, the more necessary it is to explore the logics and decisions that tie them inexorably to specific everyday settings