Private sector participation in the water and sanitation sector: alternative options and measurement issues

This paper studies various aspects of the increasing role of private investment in the water services and sanitation (WSS) sector in developing countries. We start by surveying the different types of private sector participation (PSP) in the WSS sector, and the share of public and private responsibilities under each scheme. We then proceed by empirically testing the impact of PSP in the provision of water and sanitation on the average individuals’ welfare with regard to water and sanitation. This paper shows that the private sector has the potential to generate a number of social and environmental benefits for a number of reasons, including its potential to increase efficiency within the sector and increase much-needed levels of investment. Poorer households gain access to affordable services from which they have long been excluded. Furthermore, adverse public health effects of inadequate service provision may be mitigated, and wastewater collection and treatment levels may be increased. The paper also illustrates actual case studies involving PSP in developing countries to present some of the actual improvements that the private sector has already generated, particularly the increased access to water and sanitation, and the rise in water use as suggested by our empirical part.Water demand, public-private partnership, conservation

Ground-State Cooling in Cavity Optomechanics with Unresolved Sidebands

We consider a simple cavity optomechanics and study the ground-state cooling of mechanical resonator in the quantum regime. Using the effective master equations in the linear regime, the equations of motion can be obtained for the second order moments. The steady state solutions are derived in the case where the antiresonant terms are ignored. The final mean value of phonon number is compared to the case where the antiresonant terms are included. We find that the ground-state cooling in the last case is improved. Indeed, the inclusion of the antiresonant terms makes the system able to generate a squeezed field, which is required for enhancing cooling. The variances of the resultant field are presented. Analytic calculations are presented in some appropriate regimes. Then our analytic predictions are confirmed with numerical calculations.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure

The Power of Society in The Red Badge Of Courage

Stephen Crane\u27s work the Red badge of courage has often been cited by literary critics as an example of the author\u27s philosophy. The main debate around this philosophy often surrounds the question of Crane\u27s naturalism. Critics not only argue over the individual beliefs that make up Crane\u27s supposedly naturalistic philosophy, but many also argue simply over whether or not he is a naturalist. In this thesis, we step away from the back-and-forth argument that deals only with Crane\u27s fitment into the general label of naturalist. Rather, we look at aspects that connect Crane to traditional understandings of naturalism - such as a human\u27s helplessness in the face of his environment. We show how Crane offers a unique worldview that identifies the two main forces that determine human destinies - the forces of nature and the forces of human collectives. Ultimately, we show that Crane\u27s pessimism and his lack of faith in human agency was a result of a scientific understanding of the universe. Crane suggests a scientific determinism in the universe and in all human actions. This determinism could override even the political and nationalist movements and ideologies that are traditionally attributed to war and great changes in society. We also resolve a sticking point of Crane scholarship -where the naturalism arguments encounter a seeming contradiction as Crane shows the immense power of collectives to determine individual human lives. This phenomenon comes about through the destructive social forces created by mobs of people, acquiring great power by embracing ideologies and other values with no compromise. Finally, we extend this analysis to make some conclusions on the implications of humanity\u27s collective power. Most importantly, we show the dangerous nature of mobs in their difficulty to be controlled and the irrationality and even destructiveness of their forc

Grievance Group Index, State Legitimacy Index, External Intervention Index, and Global Terrorism

The purpose of this quantitative cross-sectional study was to obtain a more accurate diagnosis of the factors that incite terrorism through examining the extent to which independent variables (the Group Grievance Index (GGI), the Legitimate State Index (LSI), and the External Intervention Index (EII)) can predict the dependent variable (the level of global terrorism (GTI)) for the period between 2006-2017. The study included data from the 162 member states of the United Nations, covering 99.7% of the world\u27s population. Game theory and the political process theory provided the theoretical frameworks for the study. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was used to assess the effect of the interaction on the relation between GGI, SLI, EII, and GTI. The results of the study showed that the relationship between the level of terrorism and the independent variables varies according to the level of terrorism. Interaction between GGI, SLI, and EII was negatively associated with GTI in countries with low GTI risk with an adjusted odds ratio 0.99, but in the countries with a medium and high level of GTI, the relationship was positive, and the adjusted odds ratio was respectively 1.01 and 1.02. The findings benefit international and national security decision-makers by identifying the nature of the relationship between terrorism and the factors affecting it. As well, the importance of considering the interaction between variables that affect terrorism. The results of the study may serve to bring social change within government cultures in the third world when dealing with minorities and grievance groups. Furthermore, it may motivate third world nations to achieve legitimate representation within all social strata and push the international community to reduce interference in the affairs of other sovereign nations

An exploration of authorial stance in SSCI-ranked journals versus non-SSCI-ranked journals

Taking an effective authorial stance has been the interest of researchers on academic writing for quite some time. It is agreed upon that the interpersonal aspect of writing is essential in setting up prosody and forcing persuasive argument expected in academic context. This paper is based on a hypothesis that effective and authorial stance is a major principal requirement for publishing in top-ranked journals. Hence, it investigates the linguistic resources employed by authors to realize authorial voices when introducing their research topics and how they relate them with the potential meanings of rhetorical moves to build up persuasive argument. To do this, the study drew on Martin and White's (2005) Appraisal system and Swales' (1990) genre analysis as the two main analytical frameworks for data analysis. The data consisted of sixty research articles (RAs) taken from journals in the linguistics field. Half of the RAs were drawn from SSCI-ranked journals while the other half from other journals that do not have prestigious indexes. The results showed that the percentage of using Monoglossic resources (propositions that contain bare assertions where writer/speaker makes no reference to any alternative viewpoints) is higher in frequency in non-SSCI journals compared to SSCI-ranked journals. Overall, the introduction sections of the two groups of journals have shown a link between the use of evaluative language patterns and the potential meanings of rhetorical moves, which altogether may help project effective authorial stance

Quality Assessment of English Teaching at the Newly Established Universities in Saudi Arabia: Shaqra University as a Case Study

As the case world-wide, the English language is central in Saudi schools and universities. Despite its prominence, students’ level of English language proficiency is generally believed to be unsatisfactory. This study explores this issue by investigating the quality of teaching with reference to the extent to which professors do employ the course assessment methods of learning domains specified in the course specifications template, provided by the National Commission for Academic Accreditation and Assessment in Saudi Arabia, as one of the main factors for improving teaching processes. To this end, 12 courses in the English BA program at Shaqra university, a newly established university in Saudi Arabia, were investigated. The results have shown a significant problem in the quality of teaching English language. First, the learning domains, i.e. Knowledge, Cognitive Skills, Interpersonal Skills, were barely seen in the exam papers. Second, the methods of assessments specified in the course specifications were moderately used by instructors. The study closes with some suggestions for future investigations