Management Certainly Matters, and There Are Multiple Ways to Conceptualize the Process Comment on “Management Matters: A Leverage Point for Health Systems Strengthening in Global Health”

he authors of “Management matters: a leverage point for health systems strengthening in global health,” raise a crucial issue. Because more effective management can contribute to better performing health systems, attempts to strengthen health systems require attention to management. As a guide toward management capacity building, the authors outline a comprehensive set of core management competencies needed for managing global health efforts. Although, I agree with the authors’ central premise about the important role of management in improving global health and concur that focusing on competencies can guide management capacity building, I think it is important to recognize that a set of relevant competencies is not the only way to conceptualize and organize efforts to teach, learn, practice, or conduct research on management. I argue the added utility of also viewing management as a set of functions or activities as an alternative paradigm and suggest that the greatest utility could lie in some hybrid that combines various ways of conceptualizing management for study, practice, and research

From Pollution to Resource: Advancing Swine Waste Treatment in the USA

Concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have led to environmental challenges, specifically waste management. Swine CAFOs generate large amounts of waste, requiring proper treatment to avoid air and water pollution. Conventional waste management technologies, such as lagoon and spray field systems, do not prevent air and water pollution impacts. Research for the past few decades led to recommendations for waste treatment technologies superior to lagoons and spray fields. Private environmental sustainability initiatives focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the food supply chain have implemented biogas digester projects for capturing methane in covered swine lagoons to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, research indicates that methane capture alone does not solve the broader pollution issues associated with lagoon and spray field systems still in use at these CAFOs to dispose of digested effluents. The Environmentally Superior Technologies (EST) initiative in North Carolina set public standards to eliminate waste discharge, reduce atmospheric emissions, and control odors and pathogens. Research has confirmed that technologies coupling solids separation with water treatments to remove volatile organic carbon, pathogens, and reactive forms of nitrogen can meet EST standards. A designated EST—the Super Soil System—substantially reduced odor by 99.9%; pathogens by 99.99%, nutrients (phosphorus and nitrogen) by \u3e90%, and heavy metals (cooper and zinc) by 99%. The ammonia emissions were reduced by 94.4% for the warm and 99.0% for the cool season with respect to a conventional lagoon system. Corresponding greenhouse gas emission reductions were 96.7%. Components of designated EST can be applied to retrofit covered lagoons and anaerobic digestion systems with significant environmental benefits. Recommendations are proposed, based on the collective experience with EST and current trends in animal production concentration, for environmentally safe technologies to handle excess manure produced in the USA

Management Certainly Matters, and There Are Multiple Ways to Conceptualize the Process; Comment on “Management Matters: A Leverage Point for Health Systems Strengthening in Global Health”

The authors of “Management matters: a leverage point for health systems strengthening in global health,” raise a crucial issue. Because more effective management can contribute to better performing health systems, attempts to strengthen health systems require attention to management. As a guide toward management capacity building, the authors outline a comprehensive set of core management competencies needed for managing global health efforts. Although, I agree with the authors’ central premise about the important role of management in improving global health and concur that focusing on competencies can guide management capacity building, I think it is important to recognize that a set of relevant competencies is not the only way to conceptualize and organize efforts to teach, learn, practice, or conduct research on management. I argue the added utility of also viewing management as a set of functions or activities as an alternative paradigm and suggest that the greatest utility could lie in some hybrid that combines various ways of conceptualizing management for study, practice, and research

Schools of Public Health and the Health of the Public: Enhancing the Capabilities of Faculty to Be Influential in Policymaking

Faculty members of schools of public health contribute to better health largely through their teaching, research, and community service roles. We suggest attention to another role: exerting their influence to ensure effective public health policy

Panel II: Natural Resources

Moderator: Ryke Longest, JD, Director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic and Senior Lecturing Fellow at Duke Law School J. B. Ruhl, JD, LLM, PhD, Matthews & Hawkins Professor of Property, Florida State Law School Mark Squillace, JD, Professor of Law and Director of the Natural Resources Law Center at Colorado Law School Victor Flatt, JD, A. L. O\u27Quinn Chair in Environmental Law, Director, Center for Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources at University of Houston Law School, Visiting Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hil

Coal Ashe Panel

The Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum held their annual symposium on February 5, 2016. A range of experts contributed to the discussion about water law and policy.Coal Ash PanelAppearing: Moderator: Michelle Nowlin (Supervising Attorney, Environmental Law & Policy Clinic; Senior Lecturing Fellow, Duke University School of Law)Panelists:- Frank Holleman (Senior Attorney, Southern Environmental Law Center)- Ryke Longest (Director, Environmental Law & Policy Clinic; Clinical Professor of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Duke University School of Law)- Lana Pettus (Senior Trial Attorney, US Department of Justice, Environmental and Natural Resources Division, Environmental Crimes)Sponsored by the Duke Environmental Law & Policy Forum