Performance assessment of commercial principles in water services provision

As a water scarce country, Jordan started initiatives to reform its water sector to meet the objective of bridging the gap between increasing demands and diminishing renewable water supply, besides implementing technical solutions. Commercialization, as alternative to privatization in its conventional notion, was adopted as a strategy to extend partnership with the private sector and to establish new corporatized water service companies wholly owned by the Government and operated under commercial principles. This paper assesses the utilization of commercial and market principles in managing water services provision, it assesses Amman water utility performances under the management of Jordan water Company (Miyahuna) Corporate and the Management Contractor (LEMA). The assessment covered the period from 1999 through 2013, with 1999 as a base year. It was based on the International Water Association recommended performance indicators and on the customized ones, as used by the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. Financial sustainability Criteria variations and its trends has been analysed, discussed and historically tracked for possible indications and causes. Miyahuna performance was compared to international and regional performance standards using data available on the International Benchmarking Network for Water and Sanitation Utilities database. This inter-utility comparison may trigger enhancement as the water sector direct completion is limited. The paper concludes that application of the corporatize model for the Amman utility was successful. Miyahuna performance in the long term reveals positive trends in most of the evaluated criteria

Avaliação da governança da água em bacias hidrográficas do Rio de Janeiro como suporte ao gerenciamento dos recursos hídricos.

A governança da água vem ganhando importância, pois se percebeu que a crise da água está muitas vezes relacionada às deficiências na tomada de decisão. A Lei Nacional da Água permitiu com que o Brasil criasse interessantes instrumentos para a gestão integrada e sustentável da água, incluindo diferentes atores locais na tomada de decisão no âmbito dos comitês de bacias hidrográficas. No Rio de Janeiro há nove comitês de bacias os que abastecem a maior parte da população são: Guandu, Lagos São João e Guapi-Macacu. Este estudo avaliou o seu desempenho em relação à governança da água. Embora a disponibilidade de água não seja um problema, o crescimento demográfico e econômico geram aumento da demanda e, consequentemente, das fontes de poluição da água. Por meio da adaptação do método Barômetro da Governança Local a percepção de diferentes atores locais foi obtida por meio de entrevistas com diferentes atores, quelevaram em conta: efetividade, eficiência, transparência, regras e leis, prestação de contas, resolução de conflitos, conscientização, participação, equidade, mobilização e articulação. Lacunas na estrutura de governança da água foram identificadas em diferentes níveis nas bacias estudadas. Para melhorar o seu nível é importante focar em alguns aspectos tais como: educação ambiental, empoderamento local, diálogo entre os níveis estaduais e municipais, eficiência do uso da água e na transparência do processo decisório

Avaliação da governança da água em bacias hidrográficas do Rio de Janeiro como suporte ao gerenciamento dos recursos hídricos.

A governança da água vem ganhando importância, pois se percebeu que a crise da água está muitas vezes relacionada às deficiências na tomada de decisão. A Lei Nacional da Água permitiu com que o Brasil criasse interessantes instrumentos para a gestão integrada e sustentável da água, incluindo diferentes atores locais na tomada de decisão no âmbito dos comitês de bacias hidrográficas. No Rio de Janeiro há nove comitês de bacias os que abastecem a maior parte da população são: Guandu, Lagos São João e Guapi-Macacu. Este estudo avaliou o seu desempenho em relação à governança da água. Embora a disponibilidade de água não seja um problema, o crescimento demográfico e econômico geram aumento da demanda e, consequentemente, das fontes de poluição da água. Por meio da adaptação do método Barômetro da Governança Local a percepção de diferentes atores locais foi obtida por meio de entrevistas com diferentes atores, que levaram em conta: efetividade, eficiência, transparência, regras e leis, prestação de contas, resolução de conflitos, conscientização, participação, equidade, mobilização e articulação. Lacunas na estrutura de governança da água foram identificadas em diferentes níveis nas bacias estudadas. Para melhorar o seu nível é importante focar em alguns aspectos tais como: educação ambiental, empoderamento local, diálogo entre os níveis estaduais e municipais, eficiência do uso da água e na transparência do processo decisório

Quantum phase transition in the dioptase magnetic lattice

The study of quantum phase transitions, which are zero-temperature phase transitions between distinct states of matter, is of current interest in research since it allows for a description of low-temperature properties based on universal relations. Here we show that the crystal green dioptase Cu_6Si_6O_18 . 6H_2O, known to the ancient Roman as the gem of Venus, has a magnetic crystal structure, formed by the Cu(II) ions, which allows for a quantum phase transition between an antiferromagnetically ordered state and a quantum spin liquid.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, EPL, in pres

Harmonization of Landsat and Sentinel 2 for Crop Monitoring in Drought Prone Areas: Case Studies of Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) and Bekaa (Lebanon)

Proper satellite-based crop monitoring applications at the farm-level often require near-daily imagery at medium to high spatial resolution. The combination of data from different ongoing satellite missions Sentinel 2 (ESA) and Landsat 7/8 (NASA) provides this unprecedented opportunity at a global scale; however, this is rarely implemented because these procedures are data demanding and computationally intensive. This study developed a robust stream processing for the harmonization of Landsat 7, Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 in the Google Earth Engine cloud platform, connecting the benefit of coherent data structure, built-in functions and computational power in the Google Cloud. The harmonized surface reflectance images were generated for two agricultural schemes in Bekaa (Lebanon) and Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) during 2018–2019. We evaluated the performance of several pre-processing steps needed for the harmonization including the image co-registration, Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Functions correction, topographic correction, and band adjustment. We found that the misregistration between Landsat 8 and Sentinel 2 images varied from 10 m in Ninh Thuan (Vietnam) to 32 m in Bekaa (Lebanon), and posed a great impact on the quality of the final harmonized data set if not treated. Analysis of a pair of overlapped L8-S2 images over the Bekaa region showed that, after the harmonization, all band-to-band spatial correlations were greatly improved. Finally, we demonstrated an application of the dense harmonized data set for crop mapping and monitoring. An harmonic (Fourier) analysis was applied to fit the detected unimodal, bimodal and trimodal shapes in the temporal NDVI patterns during one crop year in Ninh Thuan province. The derived phase and amplitude values of the crop cycles were combined with max-NDVI as an R-G-B false composite image. The final image was able to highlight croplands in bright colors (high phase and amplitude), while the non-crop areas were shown with grey/dark (low phase and amplitude). The harmonized data sets (with 30 m spatial resolution) along with the Google Earth Engine scripts used are provided for public use

Insertion of heterometals into the NifEN-associated iron–molybdenum cofactor precursor

The cofactors of Mo-, V-, Fe-dependent nitrogenases are believed to be highly homologous in structure despite the different types of heterometals (Mo, V, and Fe) they contain. Previously, a precursor form of the FeMo cofactor (FeMoco) was captured on NifEN, a scaffold protein for FeMoco biosynthesis. This all-Fe precursor closely resembles the Fe/S core structure of the FeMoco and, therefore, could reasonably serve as a precursor for all nitrogenase cofactors. Here, we report the heterologous incorporation of V and Fe into the NifEN-associated FeMoco precursor. EPR and activity analyses indicate that V and Fe can be inserted at much reduced efficiencies compared with Mo, and incorporation of both V and Fe is enhanced in the presence of homocitrate. Further, native polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis experiments suggest that NifEN undergoes a significant conformational rearrangement upon metal insertion, which allows the subsequent NifEN–MoFe protein interactions and the transfer of the cofactor between the two proteins. The combined outcome of these in vitro studies leads to the proposal of a selective mechanism that is utilized in vivo to maintain the specificity of heterometals in nitrogenase cofactors, which is likely accomplished through the redox regulation of metal mobilization by different Fe proteins (encoded by nifH, vnfH, and anfH, respectively), as well as the differential interactions between these Fe proteins and their respective scaffold proteins (NifEN and VnfEN) in the Mo-, V-, and Fe-dependent nitrogenase systems

Application of mobile devices for community based forest monitoring

The bacterial flagellar motor is a reversible rotary nano-machine, about 45 nm in diameter, embedded in the bacterial cell envelope. It is powered by the flux of H+ or Na+ ions across the cytoplasmic membrane driven by an electrochemical gradient, the proton-motive force or the sodium-motive force. Each motor rotates a helical filament at several hundreds of revolutions per second (hertz). In many species, the motor switches direction stochastically, with the switching rates controlled by a network of sensory and signalling proteins. The bacterial flagellar motor was confirmed as a rotary motor in the early 1970s, the first direct observation of the function of a single molecular motor. However, because of the large size and complexity of the motor, much remains to be discovered, in particular, the structural details of the torque-generating mechanism. This review outlines what has been learned about the structure and function of the motor using a combination of genetics, single-molecule and biophysical techniques, with a focus on recent results and single-molecule techniques

A census of eddies in the tropical eastern boundary of the Indian Ocean

The Indo-Australian Basin (IAB) constitutes a crucial water route for the global ocean's circulation between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Locally generated eddies contribute to the continued westward transport of water away from the IAB. In this paper, results from the first comprehensive regional ocean eddy census are discussed. A hybrid eddy census and tracking algorithm is used to analyze satellite altimetry data from 1993 to 2018. A total of 2,792 eddies were identified and tracked. Cyclonic eddies and anticyclonic eddies exhibit geographical segregation in terms of their dynamic characteristics. Larger amplitudes, radii, and absolute vorticities are associated with high eddy kinetic energy regions located in the vicinity of the South Java Current, South Equatorial Current, and Indonesian Throughflow. The eddies are grouped into three duration-based classifications providing the first systematic insight into understanding their physical characteristics, formation, and distribution in the IAB