Integrating process and factor understanding of environmental innovation by water utilities

Innovations in technology and organisations are central to enabling the water sector to adapt to major environmental changes such as climate change, land degradation or drinking water pollution. While there are literatures on innovation as a process and on the factors that influence it, there is little research that integrates these. Development of such an integrated understanding of innovation is central to understanding how policy makers and organisations can stimulate and direct environmental innovation. In the research reported here a framework is developed that enables such an integrated analysis of innovation process and factors. From research interviews and the literature twenty factors were identified that affect the five stages of the environmental innovation process in English and Welsh water utilities. The environmental innovations investigated are measures taken by water utilities to reduce or prevent pollution in drinking water catchments rather than technical measures to treat water. These Source Control Interventions are similar to other environmental innovations, such as ecosystem and species conservation, in that they emphasise the mix of technology, management and engagement with multiple actors. Results show that in water utilities direct performance regulation and regulation that raises awareness of a ‘performance’ gap as a ‘problem’ can stimulate innovation, but only under particular organisational, natural physical and regulatory conditions. The integrated framework also suggests that while flexible or framework legislation (e.g. Water Framework Directive) does not stimulate innovation in itself, it has shaped the option spaces and characteristics of innovations selected towards source control instead of technical end-of-pipe solutions

Construction and Test of a Cryocatcher Prototype for SIS100

The main accelerator SIS100 of the FAIR-complex will provide heavy ion beams of highest intensities. Beam loss due to ionization is the most demanding loss mechanism at operation with high intensity, intermediate charge state heavy ions. A special synchrotron design has been devel- oped for SIS100, aiming for hundred percent control of ion- ization beam loss by means of a dedicated cryogenic ion catcher system. To suppress dynamic vacuum effects, the cryo catcher system shall provide a significantly reduced effective desorption yield. The construction and test of a prototype cryocatcher is a task of the EU-FP-7 workpack- age COLMAT. A prototype test setup, including cryostat has been constructed, manufactured and tested under real- istic conditions with beams from the heavy ion synchrotron SIS18. The design and results are presented

EU water policy : pollution source control by water companies in England and Wales

Water management is undergoing a transformation towards integration, source control and ecological thinking. In the EU, the Water Framework Directive can be considered as a driver towards this new approach to water management. Innovations are deemed necessary to deliver this ideal of water management. In this thesis efforts by water sewerage companies in England ;Wales to rectify agricultural pollution at source are viewed as an organisational innovation towards more sustainable water management. These source control interventions can help achieving the goals of the Water Framework Directive by reducing diffuse pollution from agriculture, fostering participation in water management and by reducing overall cost of implementation. This thesis contributes to understanding the process of change in water management by developing a model of the innovation-decision process. Insights about how innovation and therefore change can be influenced is generated by applying this model to the process of source control intervention adoption by water and sewerage companies. This research employed a flexible research design using comparative case studies. Each of the 10 water and sewerage companies in England and Wales represented an individual case. Data were collected in two phases using semi-structured interviews with selected water and sewerage company representatives. Thematic analysis, recurrence counts and content analysis were applied to analyse interviews. It was found that water companies are likely to contribute towards integrated approaches to water management, since there is a trend to adopt source control intervention. Change in water management is influenced by the interaction of factors from the domains: ‗Natural-Physical‘, ‗Organisational Characteristics‘, ‗Regulatory- Institutional‘ and ‗Innovation Attributes‘. The rate of change by water and sewerage companies is governed by a combination of asset characteristics, environmental state changes and the funding cycle. Furthermore, innovation is triggered by direct regulation and regulation that requires the gathering of information. Contrary to this flexible or framework regulation performs better in guiding the direction of change.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Space-time information analysis for resource-conscious urban planning and design: A stakeholder based identification of urban metabolism data gaps

AbstractThe research presented here examined at which spatial and temporal resolution urban metabolism should be analysed to generate results that are useful for implementation of urban planning and design interventions aiming at optimization of resource flows. Moreover, it was researched whether a lack of data currently hampers analysing resource flows at this desired level of detail. To facilitate a stakeholder based research approach, the SIRUP tool – “Space-time Information analysis for Resource-conscious Urban Planning” – was developed. The tool was applied in a case study of Amsterdam, focused on the investigation of energy and water flows. Results show that most urban planning and design interventions envisioned in Amsterdam require information on a higher spatiotemporal resolution than the resolution of current urban metabolism analyses, i.e., more detailed than the city level and at time steps smaller than a year. Energy-related interventions generally require information on a higher resolution than water-related interventions. Moreover, for the majority of interventions information is needed on a higher resolution than currently available. For energy, the temporal resolution of existing data proved inadequate, for water, data with both a higher spatial and temporal resolution is required. Modelling and monitoring techniques are advancing for both water and energy and these advancements are likely to contribute to closing these data gaps in the future. These advancements can also prove useful in developing new sorts of urban metabolism analyses that can provide a systemic understanding of urban resource flows and that are tailored to urban planning and design

Patient parents: Do offspring decide on the timing of fledging in zebra finches?

Trillmich F, Spiller I, Naguib M, Krause ET. Patient parents: Do offspring decide on the timing of fledging in zebra finches? Ethology. 2016;122(5):411-418

Physician-Specific Symptoms of Burnout Compared to a Non-Physicians Group

Physician burnout is a systemic problem in health care due to its high prevalence and its negative impact on professional functioning and individual well-being. While unique aspects of the physician role contributing to the development burnout have been investigated recently, it is currently unclear whether burnout manifests differently in physicians compared to the non-physician working population. We conducted an individual symptom analysis of burnout symptoms comparing a large sample of physicians with a non-physician group. In this cross-sectional online study, burnout was assessed with the Maslach Burnout Inventory—General Survey. We matched physicians with non-physicians regarding their age, gender, educational level, occupational status, and total burnout level using a “nearest neighbour matching” procedure. We then conducted a series of between-groups comparisons. Data of 3846 (51.0% women) participants including 641 physicians and 3205 non-physicians were analysed. The most pronounced difference was that physicians were more satisfied with their work performance (medium effect size (r = 0.343). Our findings indicate minor yet significant differences in burnout phenomenology between physicians and non-physicians. This demonstrates unique aspects of physician burnout and implies that such differences should be considered in occupational research among physicians, particularly when developing burnout prevention programs for physicians

Proof of concept of high-rate decentralized pre-composting of kitchen waste : optimizing design and operation of a novel drum reactor

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Storage, fertilization and cost properties highlight the potential of dried microbial biomass as organic fertilizer

The transition to sustainable agriculture and horticulture is a societal challenge of global importance. Fertilization with a minimum impact on the environment can facilitate this. Organic fertilizers can play an important role, given their typical release pattern and production through resource recovery. Microbial fertilizers (MFs) constitute an emerging class of organic fertilizers and consist of dried microbial biomass, for instance produced on effluents from the food and beverage industry. In this study, three groups of organisms were tested as MFs: a high-rate consortium aerobic bacteria (CAB), the microalgaArthrospira platensis('Spirulina') and a purple non-sulfur bacterium (PNSB)Rhodobactersp. During storage as dry products, the MFs showed light hygroscopic activity, but the mineral and organic fractions remained stable over a storage period of 91 days. For biological tests, a reference organic fertilizer (ROF) was used as positive control, and a commercial organic growing medium (GM) as substrate. The mineralization patterns without and with plants were similar for all MFs and ROF, with more than 70% of the organic nitrogen mineralized in 77 days. In a first fertilization trial with parsley, all MFs showed equal performance compared to ROF, and the plant fresh weight was even higher with CAB fertilization. CAB was subsequently used in a follow-up trial with petunia and resulted in elevated plant height, comparable chlorophyll content and a higher amount of flowers compared to ROF. Finally, a cost estimation for packed GM with supplemented fertilizer indicated that CAB and a blend of CAB/PNSB (85%/15%) were most cost competitive, with an increase of 6% and 7% in cost compared to ROF. In conclusion, as bio-based fertilizers, MFs have the potential to contribute to sustainable plant nutrition, performing as good as a commercially available organic fertilizer, and to a circular economy

First translational consensus on terminology and definitions of colonic motility in animals and humans studied by manometric and other techniques

Alterations in colonic motility are implicated in the pathophysiology of bowel disorders, but high-resolution manometry of human colonic motor function has revealed that our knowledge of normal motor patterns is limited. Furthermore, various terminologies and definitions have been used to describe colonic motor patterns in children, adults and animals. An example is the distinction between the high-amplitude propagating contractions in humans and giant contractions in animals. Harmonized terminology and definitions are required that are applicable to the study of colonic motility performed by basic scientists and clinicians, as well as adult and paediatric gastroenterologists. As clinical studies increasingly require adequate animal models to develop and test new therapies, there is a need for rational use of terminology to describe those motor patterns that are equivalent between animals and humans. This Consensus Statement provides the first harmonized interpretation of commonly used terminology to describe colonic motor function and delineates possible similarities between motor patterns observed in animal models and humans in vitro (ex vivo) and in vivo. The consolidated terminology can be an impetus for new research that will considerably improve our understanding of colonic motor function and will facilitate the development and testing of new therapies for colonic motility disorders. This Consensus Statement provides a conceptual and methodological framework to expand research on colonic motility in experimental animals and humans. The work is intended to facilitate the development of new drugs for common colonic motility disorders and of appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic algorithms for the management of paediatric and adult patients

Calcium Gluconate in Phosphate Buffered Saline Increases Gene Delivery with Adenovirus Type 5

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