A Systematic Review of the Evidence for the Sustainability of Household Water Treatment Interventions

This systematic review assesses the quantity and quality of evidence for the sustainability of household water treatment (HWT) since the World Health Organization (WHO) recently endorsed HWT based on growing evidence of HWT's ability to improve microbial water quality, effectiveness at reducing diarrheal disease, cost-effectiveness, and rapid application and acceptance. A large portion of the world population still relies on unsafe sources of drinking water, but whether HWT can support scaling-up efforts and be considered sustainable, it remains to be seen. Ultimately this systematic review found limited evidence of a sustained uptake and usage of HWT interventions, and results from studies that found high levels of confirmed usage after one year must be considered alongside their methodological quality

Comparison of analysis and experiment for gearbox noise

Low contact ratio spur gears were tested in the NASA gear-noise rig to study the noise radiated from the top of the gearbox. Experimental results were compared with a NASA acoustics code to validate the code for predicting transmission noise. The analytical code is based on the boundary element method (BEM) which models the gearbox top as a plate in an infinite baffle. Narrow band vibration spectra measured at 63 nodes on the gearbox top were used to produce input data for the BEM model. The BEM code predicted the total sound power based on the measured vibration. The measured sound power was obtained from an acoustic intensity scan taken near the surface of the gearbox at the same 63 nodes used for vibration measurement. Analytical and experimental results were compared at four different speeds for sound power at each of the narrow band frequencies over the range of 400 to 3200 Hz. Results are also compared for the sound power level at meshing frequency plus three sideband pairs and at selected gearbox resonant frequencies. The difference between predicted and measure sound power is typically less than 3 dB with the predicted value generally less than the measured value

Effect of operating conditions on gearbox noise

Low contact ratio spur gears were tested in the NASA gear noise rig to study the noise radiated from the top of the gearbox. The measured sound power from the gearbox top was obtained from a near field acoustic intensity scan taken at 63 nodes just above the surface. The sound power was measured at a matrix of 45 operating speeds and torque levels. Results are presented in the form of a spectral speed map and as a plot of sound power versus torque (at constant speed) and as sound power versus speed (at constant torque). Because of the presence of vibration modes, operating speed was found to have more impact on noise generation than torque level. A NASA gear dynamics code was used to compute the gear tooth dynamic overload at the same 45 operating conditions used for the experiment. Similar trends were found between the analytical results for dynamic tooth overload and experimental results for sound power. Dynamic analysis may be used to design high quality gears with profile relief optimized for minimum dynamic load and noise

Critical Success Factors for E-commerce in Thailand: A Multiple Case Study Analysis

A number of developing countries have adopted e-commerce strategies in seeking to boost their economies and competitiveness to a new level. Thailand is one of these developing countries struggling to develop a successful e-commerce plan that will fit the needs of Thai markets. The goal of this research was to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for ecommerce in Thailand. The researcher conducted detailed case studies of nine e-commerce companies from different industries in Thailand. Results showed that social behavior and national culture, more specifically issues pertaining to trust and shopping behavior, were critical to the success of e-commerce in Thailand. Hofstede’s cultural dimensions could explain the phenomenon. The study also found that Thailand’s infrastructure also played an important role in the success of its ecommerce development. The findings provided a framework to guide development of e-commerce ventures in Thailand and other developing countries with similar culture and infrastructures

All Aboard the Succulent Wave

All Aboard the Succulent Wave is a collection of poems written over the past three years. It is the product of major shifts in my faith and trust in language. The manuscript is divided into three parts: The Staccato Monsoon, Today / / / A Poetics, and Elliptics. Each of these sections concerns a particular theme about my language, my god, and my soul. I wrote many poems that used language to find god. In these poems, those designated by / / / A Poetics, I write about what is holy to me in the moment and about how the instantaneous sense of my spirit propels language naturally. My poetics refers to isolated - though similar and familial - attempts to articulate my faith-in-words and, therefore, the sublime. I spent much of my time as a creative writer questioning the purpose of poetry, demanding that it speak for some unfamiliar community or generation - a poetics of experience, progress, and humans. Those were disturbing times. The / / / A Poetics poems indicate my faith in myself, in the momentousness of poetry and its bright logic against the stuffy trough of the past. I can say with some certainty now that I believe I exist because of the poems in time. There is no choice between language and god. The two are the same: a process. God flits when language does, and language leaks when god happens. This is why faith is essential to my poetry. It is a secular faith in the power of language to irrupt into newness, into time. Hopefully that is where god is, my origin (speaking from my soul). So experience comes into play somehow - it\u27s always there - but experience is never the point. These poems testify to moments when I felt relief from my doubt as I wrote. I can remember when and how I wrote most of them. These were memorable times because I felt the time and articulated it. When I could not or would not articulate time, I wrote bad poems. It was very difficult to let myself stop writing when I had nothing to say, when I didn\u27t believe in anything, simply living along and perhaps reading the news. But when this lapsing became a load, I wrote. My writing, at its happiest, happened as I decided to write, perforating my doubt with wonderful pricks of faith. I tried to tell myself what I wanted when I wrote and why I wrote about god and my soul. Thank you Claudia Keelan and Donald Revell and all the poets they introduced me to. I mean especially the French poets and the newish American writers, Lyn Hejinian, James Tate, and the like. I came to understand American poetry and therefore my aesthetics (leading to my soul) through the work of translated foreigners. Growing up, I never trusted American writers (being one myself). I thought there was something up their sleeve, a stupid trick only a few privileged people knew about, and I wanted something else. Then I read who they read and it all made sense. The Americans\u27 poetry was so much simpler after identifying their foreign models. To paraphrase Robert Hass, everyone is writing about the same thing! Seen in that light, that anticipation for flashes, most poetry was much more interesting and worthy of imitation. Which leads me to these poems I wrote. I hope you enjoy them

Corporate Governance, Illiquidity, and Valuation Issues in Privately-Owned Corporations

Investors in private corporations face unique problems relating to corporate control, illiquidity and valuation of securities. In this research, we survey a large sample of US corporations. Our sample includes both private and public firms. Major findings of our research are as follows: Private firms use written shareholder agreements for safeguarding ownership interests and dividend payments. Family owned firms dominate the ownership structure of private firms. Insiders of private firms own a much larger proportion of common stock than insiders in public firms, and the CEOs of private firms often happen to be the largest stockholders

Shipwrecks from the Historia Tragico-Maritima

This thesis catalogs the Portuguese ships that wrecked while sailing the India Route, the passage between India and Portugal popularized in the 16th and 17th centuries. The focus will be on ships lost along the African coast as both historical documents and archaeological finds have accrued in association with these wrecks. By combining these sources, this thesis will describe the cultural context and physical evidence of these wrecks. Much of the historical evidence originates from the História Trágico-Marítima, originally published in Portuguese, with excerpts later translated into English by Charles Ralph Boxer, George Theal, Charles Ley, and Josiah Blackmore. Additionally, the material will be supported by a GIS visualization of known India Route wreck locations, namely in the form of point maps displaying the locations of the wrecks in reference to their geographic location and to each other. By creating a catalog with source materials drawn from both historical accounts and archaeological evidence I plan to weave together a cohesive understanding of Portuguese shipwrecks lost along the India Route