Utilization of municipal solid waste rejects in the production of a recycled plastic waste composite material

The solid waste disposal problem has grown significantly in the last decades imposing a lot of pressure on disposal and treatment acts. In the past, incineration and landfilling were the common methods for disposing of products of municipal solid waste. With the increasing volumes of waste generation and the legislative restrictions of these treatment methods, reuse of bulk waste is foreseen as the best alternative to disposal. Due to the current widespread use of plastic products in daily life, post consumer plastics now contribute significantly to municipal solid waste generation rates with a contradicting low participation in waste minimization practices. The notable variation in composition and properties of these material in the waste stream together with the high sorting and separation costs has limited their reuse and recycling options to low value products with poor physical and mechanical properties. This thesis proposes an alternative recycling method to divert mixed post-consumer plastics away from dump sites through the production of an environmentally safe construction material. The engineering and service properties of the proposed new recycled plastic waste composite were evaluated and presented. Mechanical testing including compression, flexural strength and hardness were conducted on mixes with different sand contents, sand sieve size and different mixing temperatures in order to evaluate the effect of each variable on the investigated properties. Abrasion resistance, water absorption, chemical resistance and Vicat softening temperature were performed to assess the effectiveness of the composite material for the proposed application. In addition, investigation of heavy metals content by a water leaching test was carried out together with an air quality test of the produced emissions in order to assess the health hazards associated with the anticipated material use and production. The test results revealed that the new material is suitable for use as pedestrian and light traffic paving brick. The compressive strength was 7.25% higher than the ASTM limit. The composite material also revealed a high modulus of rupture compared to clay bricks and industrial floor bricks indicating its potential for use in structural service requirements. The abrasion resistance of the composite material was 70% higher than the Egyptian standard limit for cement tiles allowing for its use in tiling applications. The composite material exhibited very low density and water absorption rate in comparison to cement tiles and paving units. In addition, the material showed high chemical resistance to acidic and alkaline attack allowing for its use as industrial flooring. The softening temperature of the composite material was much higher than the maximum service temperature expected during summer. Finally, the recycled plastic waste composite demonstrated no health hazards or toxicity as revealed by the water leaching test

Identifying and appraising promising sources of UK clinical, health and social care data for use by NICE

This report aimed to aid the National Institute of Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in identifying opportunities for greater use of real-world data within its work. NICE identified five key ways in which real-world data was currently informing its work, or could do so in the future through: (i) researching the effectiveness of interventions or practice in real-world (UK) settings (ii) auditing the implementation of guidance (iii) providing information on resource use and evaluating the potential impact of guidance (iv) providing epidemiological information (v) providing information on current practice to inform the development of NICE quality standards. This report took a broad definition of ‘real-world’ data and created a map of UK sources, informed by a number of experts in real-world data, as well as a literature search, to highlight where some of the opportunities may lie for NICE within its clinical, public health and social care remit. The report was commissioned by the NICE, although the findings are likely to be of wider interest to a range of stakeholders interested in the role of real-world data in informing clinical, social care and public health decision-making. Most of the issues raised surrounding the use and appraisal of real-world data are likely to be generic, although the choice of datasets that were profiled in-depth reflected the interests of NICE. We discovered 275 sources that were named as real-world data sources for clinical, social care or public health investigation, 233 of which were deemed as active. The real-world data landscape therefore is highly complex and heterogeneous and composed of sources with different purposes, structures and collection methods. Some real-world data sources are purposefully either set-up or re-developed to enhance their data linkages and to examine the presence/absence/effectiveness of integrated patient care; however, such sources are in the minority. Furthermore, the small number of real-world data sources that are designed to enable the monitoring of care across providers, or at least have the capability to do so at a national level, have been utilised infrequently for this purpose in the literature. Data that offer the capacity to monitor transitions between health and social care do not currently exist at a national level, despite the increasing recognition of the interdependency between these sectors. Among the data sources we included, it was clear that no one data source represented a panacea for NICE’s real world data needs. This does highlight the merits and importance of data linkage projects and is suggestive of a need to triangulate evidence across different data, particularly in order to understand the feasibility and impact of guidance. There exists no overall catalogue or repository of real-world data sources for health, public health and social care, and previous initiatives aimed at creating such a resource have not been maintained. As much as there is a need for enhanced usage of the data, there is also a need for taking stock, integration, standardisation, and quality assurance of different sources. This research highlights a need for a systematic approach to creating an inventory of sources with detailed metadata and the funding to maintain this resource. This would represent an essential first step to support future initiatives aimed at enhancing the use of real-world data

PENGARUH KEPATUHAN WAJIB PAJAK, PROFESIONALISME ACCOUNT REPRESENTATIVE, DAN APLIKASI E-TAX TERHADAP PENERIMAAN PAJAK KPP PRATAMA TULUNGAGUNG

ABSTRACT            The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of Taxpayer Compliance, Professional Representative Accounts, E-Tax Applications on Tax Receipts at KPP Pratama Tulungagung. This type of research is quantitative research by case study. The population used is individual taxpayers registered in KPP Pratama Tulungagung. Samples taken using the Slovin formula. The method used is quantitative with multiple analysis techniques with descriptive analysis, and partial or simultaneous hypothesis testing to determine the effect of each variable. The research results showed that taxpayer compliance and account representative professionalism affected tax revenue, while e-tax applications did not affect tax revenue.Keywords: taxpayer compliance, account representative professionalism, e-tax application, Tax revenue

The RISE project: evidence-informed school improvement. Evaluation report

Research leads Improving Students’ Education (RISE) aimed to test whether a research-informed school improvement model improved the mathematics and English attainment of pupils in years 10 and 11. Each participating school appointed a senior teacher as a Research Lead who was responsible for promoting and supporting the use of research throughout the school. The Research Leads were supported by a programme developed and delivered by a team from Huntington School in York. This included an initial eight CPD sessions, termly follow-up meetings over two academic years, a bespoke email newsletter, a website with resources, a peer network, and school visits by the RISE team. The team also provided a workshop for headteachers and annual workshops for English and mathematics subject leads. Research Leads were encouraged to deploy a research-informed school improvement model: 1. Decide what you want to achieve. Identify priorities using internal data and professional judgement 2. Identify possible solutions. External evidence summarized in the Toolkit can be used to inform choices 3. Give the idea the best chance of success. Applying the ingredients of effective implementation 4. Evaluate the impact of your decisions and identify possible improvements for the future 5. Secure and spread change. Mobilise the knowledge and use the findings to inform the work of the school to grow or stop the intervention. A randomised controlled trial was used to evaluate the impact of the intervention on GCSE grades in mathematics and English. 40 secondary schools were randomly allocated to either participate in RISE or to a control group which continued with business as usual. The impact evaluation examined the impact on two cohorts of pupils. The first cohort took their GCSE exams in the 2015/6 academic year and was only exposed to one year of the intervention. The second cohort was in year 10 in 2015/16, so took their GCSE exams in 2016/17 and was exposed to two years of the intervention. The accompanying process evaluation involved observations of training; interviews with Headteachers, Research Leads and heads of English and mathematics; and surveys of teachers. The project was funded by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), the Department for Education and the Mayor’s London Schools Excellence Fund as part of a round of funding exploring Research Use in Schools

Review 3: Community engagement for health via coalitions, collaborations and partnerships (on-line social media and social networks) – a systematic review and meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: This report describes the methods and findings of a systematic review on community engagement (CE) for health via online social media and social networks. It is the third and final review of a programme of work on the use and effectiveness of CE in interventions that target health outcomes. Social networks are one of many forms of CE. Our first two reviews suggested that the extent and particular processes of CE may be linked to effects on people’s health. The emergence of online, electronic peer-to-peer social network sites (e.g. Facebook) and online social media tools (e.g. Twitter) have increased exponentially in recent years, and existing evidence on their effectiveness is ambiguous. AIMS: We aim to evaluate the effectiveness of online social media/social networks on: the extent of CE across designs, delivery and evaluation; the types of health issues and populations that have been studied; their effectiveness in improving health and wellbeing and reducing health inequalities; and any particular features that account for heterogeneity in effect size estimates across studies. METHODS: Systematic review methods were applied to comprehensively locate and assess the available research evidence. The search strategy employed previously run searches used for Reviews 1 and 2 of this project (described elsewhere). The included studies were descriptively analysed and the findings were synthesised using three components: framework synthesis, meta-analysis and qualitative component analysis (QCA). RESULTS: A total of 11 studies were included in the review, none of which was set in the UK. The community was not explicitly involved in identifying the health need for any of the 11 studies. No studies demonstrated a high level of CE, where participants were involved in the three measured elements: design, delivery and evaluation. Framework analysis indicated that peer delivery of the intervention was the predominant type of CE. Two processes of CE were reported – bidirectional communication and the use of facilitators – but none of the studies evaluated these processes. Professional facilitators were used more often in healthy eating/physical activity studies. Peer facilitators were used more often in youth-focused interventions and professional facilitators were utilised more frequently for interventions targeting older populations. Studies focusing on women only may incorporate peer or professional facilitators to aid intervention delivery. Peer or professional facilitators were used slightly more consistently in interventions targeting minority ethnic groups. Meta-analyses and meta-regression showed no evidence of beneficial effects on any outcomes. There was moderate (I 2 = 25≤50) to high (I 2 = ≥50) heterogeneity between studies for primary outcomes, suggesting the existence of potential moderators. None of the tested study characteristics explained the variation in effect sizes. The QCA demonstrated that including a facilitator in online social media/social networking interventions showed higher effect sizes for studies that focused on topics other than healthy eating and physical activity. CONCLUSIONS: The results from this study suggest that CE is not utilised across the design or evaluation of health interventions, and the type of CE undertaken with intervention delivery focuses on peer interactions alone. This suggests that there is very little co-creation of knowledge or building of social capital occurring in evaluated health intervention studies using online social media/networking

Piloting and producing a map of Millennium Cohort Study Data usage: Where are data underutilised and where is granularity lost?

The UK Millennium Cohort Study (MCS) is a longitudinal interdisciplinary study following the lives of 19,000 children born in the UK in 2000/1. Information has been collected at 9 months, 3, 5, 7 and 11 years, with the next sweep of data collection underway among study members who are aged 14 years. A wide range of data have been collected from children, parents and guardians, the partners of parents/guardians, older siblings and teachers, as well as sub-studies that collected data from health visitors; these include self-reported and objectively measured/verified data. This study sets out to examine how MCS data are utilised. To fit within the remit of the study, we hone in on ten priority question areas (Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, Child Social Behaviour Questionnaire, Diet, BMI, Immunisations, School Dis/like, Self-reported Friendships, Self-reported feelings, Screen Time, Hobbies). In total we found 481 unique studies that were using MCS data and undertaking primary analysis up to July 2015. Data that are collected through a recognised scale with defined thresholds or cut-off points for identifying constructs of interest and/or data that can provide a unique insight into a policy-relevant issue, are those most widely used in the MCS data. Measures that have been collected across sweeps – diet, BMI, SDQ and screen time - are all comparatively well used. Those measures that have started to be collected at age 7 (and first made available in 2010) have had lower usage. Data that were collected from the child’s own reports (e.g. friendships and feelings) have seldom been utilised in comparison to data collected through parental reports (e.g. SDQ). Collection of data from multiple informants did not always correlate with higher levels of usage. Imposing thresholds on data was found to be problematic in some cases, for example for BMI, where a number of different thresholds for overweight and obesity were in use. The use of different thresholds can lead to substantial differences in the results obtained. This is the first review using systematic methods that has explored MCS data use. We set out a number of ideas for good practice around the use of and reporting of MCS data

Handling sensitive topics ​in partnership with young people: Reflections on collaboration within a configurative systematic review​

We present reflections on work with a group of young people during a qualitative evidence synthesis about eating disorder related content that can be accessed online. Our aim was to help young peoples’ priorities and concerns be better reflected in the review, so as to better inform the development of policies that affect them. A review team and a small group of young people with experience of this content worked together during the review. Interactive online workshops and other activities helped to refine the review’s focus from an early stage, identified gaps in understanding, informed reviewers’ analyses and affected communication of the review and its findings. Approaches designed to address ethical issues around handling sensitive topics in research were adapted for use in the review and involvement activities. As well as taking steps to promote participation rights for young people, given a pandemic context, the review team made efforts to communicate their own concerns, for example about unanticipated delays. Evaluation findings so far suggest that aiming for a culture of mutual respect can help ensure continued interest for all and support the production of a more impactful systematic review