Looking Inwards for Sustainability: Nigerian Cities and Building Demolition-waste or wealth?

Cities could generally be described as sustainable before the replacement of manual labour with machines known as the industrial revolution of the 18th century in Europe. Nevertheless, the Industrial Revolution has been associated with environmental degradation and other negative impacts. The trend continued for two centuries until it was realised that there is a limit to the capacity of the earth to withstand such impacts. The damage to the earth needs to be halted by choice or forced by natural consequences. The idea of pursuing economic development with minimum negative socio-economic and environmental impacts comes to be known as Sustainability. The built environment becomes at the centre of the sustainability agenda due to the enormous negative impact to the environment. Moreover, it was reported that 90% of all materials resources ever extracted might be used in the built environment. Unfortunately, many of these materials, including 10% unused are discarded as wastes. In the UK example, 90-120 million tonnes of construction and demolition (C&D) waste is generated annually. This makes C&D wastes even more critical to the sustainability agenda; and in search for solution, in the words of Janine Benyus, it may even involve the urban westerners learning from the wisdom of the preindustrial societies that have been living in harmony with the nature. In the preindustrial community of Kano in Nigeria, there is virtually zero C&D waste; rather it is merchandise. The different categories of the stakeholders were interviewed to establish how the system works, the conditions that led to its emergence, and limitations. It was discovered that the end-of-life management of buildings in Kano is a naturally evolved industrial ecology analogous to the natural ecological system, whereby the bye-product of one process becomes the raw material for another with no waste. Furthermore, a conceptual model of the system was developed using the biomorphic adaptation of the shell of an African snail. It was therefore argued that sustainability practices are inherent within the African traditions rather than to be learnt from outside

A Comparative Analysis of the Capacity-building Industries in Pittsburgh and Central Texas

Five years ago, The Forbes Funds provided support for a new research series exploring challenges and strategic opportunities in nonprofit management in the Pittsburgh region.The intention of this research was to determine what works in strengthening nonprofits' organizational capacity and management abilities, as well as what may be the barriers or service gaps in building nonprofit capacity. As part of this research series, in 2004,The Forbes Funds commissioned Judith L. Millesen, at Ohio University, and Angela L. Bies, at Texas A&M University, to conduct a comprehensive analysis of Pittsburgh's capacity-building "industry." This "Pittsburgh study" offered detailed findings about the degree to which Pittsburgh's "industry of consultants, firms, management support organizations, and academic centers offer accessible, quality services to the 1,600 nonprofit organizations in Allegheny County."1 With ongoing support from The Forbes Funds, Drs. Bies and Millesen also conducted continuing analyses during 2005, which explored the incentive to engage in capacity building (Millesen & Bies, 2005) and the role of 'learning' in building nonprofit performance (Bies & Millesen, 2005).During 2005-06, a replication study was conducted in and around Austin,Texas.2 A key purpose of the study was to help afford a comparative analysis of the nonprofit sectors in two metropolitan regions with differing environments, economies, and capacity-building industries. With support from The Forbes Funds, the Bremer Foundation, and the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits, a third replication study is planned for 2006-07 in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.The Texas replication study shared the Pittsburgh study's focus on understanding the characteristics of effective capacity-building initiatives through an examination of a series of questions related to who (the capacity builders) is doing what (the kinds of support services provided) for whom (what types of nonprofits are engaging in capacity-building initiatives) and to what end (whether capacity-building initiatives produce desired organizational change).The core research purpose remained to describe and analyze several aspects of the capacity-building environment, including the quantity, accessibility, and quality of capacity building services, characteristics of effective capacity building, and challenges and barriers to implementing capacity-building interventions. Both the Austin study and the Pittsburgh study offered implications for practice and suggested directions for future research into capacity building's effectiveness and influence in the sector

Development of freeze-thaw processing technique for disaggregation of indurated mudrocks and enhanced recovery of calcareous microfossils

Microfossil extraction from indurated mudrocks is widely acknowledged as challenging, especially for foraminifera. Here we report development of the freeze–thaw extraction method through the addition of rapid heating, detergent and ultrasound stages. We use indurated mudrock samples from the Toarcian (Early Jurassic) of Yorkshire, UK to assess the effectiveness and develop the freeze–thaw method. We compare our results from freeze–thaw with those from standard foraminifera processing techniques, including the use of hydrogen peroxide. Processing by freeze–thaw increased the degree of mudrock disaggregation and resulted in no damage or dissolution of foraminifera. Following the freeze–thaw method with treatment in white spirit and sodium hexametaphosphate aided the separation of foraminifera from the disaggregated clays and was twice as efficient as pressure washing. Samples processed with hydrogen peroxide contained damaged microfossils and an under representation of delicate calcareous foraminifera. Many other studies of indurated mudrocks have used hydrogen peroxide to extract foraminifera, and this might have resulted in apparently barren intervals. The freeze–thaw method outlined here provides a low-cost, low-risk and successful method of disaggregating and extracting calcareous microfossils from indurated mudrocks. We anticipate our method may be relevant for other fossil groups and merits further development

State Record for Stenamma foveolocephalum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Missouri

We report the first known collection of Stenamma foveolocephalum (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) from Missouri. Two specimens were collected in pitfall traps during a field study at Sand Prairie Conservation Area, Scott County, Missouri

The Fragile Balance of Power and Leadership

The aim of this article is to first define effective leadership and power, highlighting the differences between the two. The focal point is that power and effective leadership are not interchangeable and should not be treated as such. Power is a tool while effective leadership is a skill. Simply because a person wields power does not necessarily mean that he or she is an effective leader. Conversely, we will discuss how a leader is unquestionably endowed with a certain degree of power in order to maintain that particular position. Finally, because leaders have power at their disposal, we will explore ways in which power can negatively affect a leader, rendering that individual largely ineffective and exposing the extremely fragile relationship between these two terms

No sex-biased dispersal in a primate with an uncommon social system-cooperative polyandry.

An influential hypothesis proposed by Greenwood (1980) suggests that different mating systems result in female and male-biased dispersal, respectively, in birds and mammals. However, other aspects of social structure and behavior can also shape sex-biased dispersal. Although sex-specific patterns of kin cooperation are expected to affect the benefits of philopatry and dispersal patterns, empirical evidence is scarce. Unlike many mammals, Saguinus geoffroyi (Geoffroy's tamarin) has a breeding system in which typically multiple males mate with a single breeding female. Males typically form cooperative reproductive partnerships between relatives, whereas females generally compete for reproductive opportunities. This system of cooperative polyandry is predicted to result in female-biased dispersal, providing an opportunity to test the current hypotheses of sex-biased dispersal. Here we test for evidence of sex-biased dispersal in S. geoffroyi using demographic and genetic data from three populations. We find no sex bias in natal dispersal, contrary to the prediction based on the mating patterns. This pattern was consistent after controlling for the effects of historical population structure. Limited breeding opportunities within social groups likely drive both males and females to disperse, suggesting that dispersal is intimately related to the social context. The integration of genetic and field data revealed that tamarins are another exception to the presumed pattern of male-biased dispersal in mammals. A shift in focus from mating systems to social behavior, which plays a role in most all processes expected to influence sex-bias in dispersal, will be a fruitful target for research both within species and across taxa

'Big mobs in the city now' : the increasing number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in urban areas

The locations and settings in which Australian Indigenous people live varies, however over 70 % of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia now live in urban or regional urban areas (ABS 2008). Over half of the total population lives in the two states Queensland and New South Wales. The 2006 Census data indicates that 146, 400 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples or 28.3% lives in Queensland. The number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in schools in the greater Brisbane area is approximately 29% of the Queensland population. There are other sizeable urban Indigenous populations along the Queensland coast and larger rural towns. The statistics demonstrate that living in urban centres is as much part of reality for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as living in a remote discrete Aboriginal community. Historically, discrete rural and remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been the focus of most of the research conducted with Indigenous populations. These locations have provided researchers with an easily identifiable study population. However, unlike rural and remote communities, identifying and accessing urban Indigenous communities can be much more difficult despite the growing number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living in urban areas. Limited research has been undertaken on the issues that impact on urban Indigenous communities or have explored methods of undertaking research with urban Indigenous communities. This paper will explore the some of the issues and needs of urban Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in South East Queensland and highlight some of the emerging policy, program and research responses

Causes and Consequences of Collective Turnover: A Meta-Analytic Review

Given growing interest in collective turnover (i.e., employee turnover at unit and organizational levels), the authors propose an organizing framework for its antecedents and consequences and test it using meta-analysis. Based on analysis of 694 effect sizes drawn from 82 studies, results generally support expected relationships across the 6 categories of collective turnover antecedents, with somewhat stronger and more consistent results for 2 categories: human resource management inducements/investments and job embeddedness signals. Turnover was negatively related to numerous performance outcomes, more strongly so for proximal rather than distal outcomes. Several theoretically grounded moderators help to explain average effect-size heterogeneity for both antecedents and consequences of turnover. Relationships generally did not vary according to turnover type (e.g., total or voluntary), although the relative absence of collective-level involuntary turnover studies is noted and remains an important avenue for future research