Conference Report

Report on Why History Matter

Development of the Platreef in the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex at Sandsloot, Mokopane District, South Africa

The Platreef is a Ni-Cu-PGE mineralised tabular body at the base of the Rustenburg Layered Suite in the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex. The reef lies unconformably on a footwall (floor) sequence of Transvaal Supergroup sedimentary rocks and Archaean granite/gneiss basement, and is overlain by a hangingwall (roof) of Main Zone gabbronorites. Structural relationships suggest that the Platreef was emplaced as a broadly horizontal sill-like sheet into the Transvaal Supergroup, but local variations in its thickness and path of intrusion were caused by pre-existing structures in the country rocks. As the Platreef cooled and was nearly crystallised, ductile deformation occurred, possibly as an episode in a longer event. Main Zone magma was emplaced above the deformed, nearly consolidated Platreef and eroded the uppermost portion, locally assimilating mineralised reef. The Main Zone magma also intruded into shear zones as thin dykes down through the Platreef and metasedimentary floor. Structural patterns around a prominent dome in the floor rocks suggest that regional deformation may still have been active when the earliest Main Zone layers were developing, but ceased by Upper Main Zone time. Other studies of the Platreef beyond Sandsloot have shown that its earliest Ni-Cu-PGE mineralisation was orthomagmatic, largely preserved where the floor rocks are unreactive basement granite/gneiss. However, interaction between he Platreef magma and surrounding sedimentary rocks has produced different mineralogical associations and assemblages that were influenced by the local floor and roof rocks along the strike of the reef. At Sandsloot, the floor rocks are represented by reactive siliceous dolomites of the Malmani Subgroup. The Platreef magma caused contact metamorphism and metasomatism of the dolomites, releasing volatiles that entered the reef. These hydrothermal fluids stripped PGE from primary sulphides and redistributed the PGE within the reef and into the metasedimentary country rocks. In places, primary platinum group minerals were overprinted by lower-temperature species

AN EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATION INTO PROJECT MANAGEMENT ASSETS AS A SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

The aim of this research is to present and discuss the challenges of achieving sustainable competitive advantage through effective project management assets, processes and practices,within a Local Authority Third-Sector collaborating scheme. Post 2008 global financial crisis the UK public sector has undergone unprecedentedreform and severe fiscal retrenchment (Evans, Hills & Orme, 2012). Increased competition and a financial landscape radically changed the way public sector services are delivered (Westwood, 2011). A significant challenge of austerity was the retrenchment of local authority grant dependant third-sector funding. In the UK, local authorities would enter into a collaborative contract with third-sector organisations to deliver services across a wide range of social needs. However, these arrangements were becoming increasingly financially unviable. Thus, local authorities need to find ways to make their third-sector collaborating arrangements sustainable, within a context of increasing competition, whilst honouring their range of public duties and services. Project management practice is recognised as a management discipline to manage change and execute strategy (Shenhar, 2001). A growing body of knowledge link the deliberate investment in project management assets and associated processes and practices as a strategic source of competitive advantage (Mathur, Jugdev & Fung, 2013, 2014). The opportunity presented in this research was how Local Authority collaborating third sector arrangements can achieve sustainability through effective project management practices;in particular the acknowledgement, development, deployment and exploitation of project management assets, processes and practices as a source of competitive advantage. However,the unique context of this investigation poses two challenges: i) the notion that competition is not relevant; and, ii) the non-professional project management nature of both the local authority and their collaborating third sector organisations. Thus, in partnership with a UK local authority and 26 third-sector partner organisations(LASIS), the RBV VRIO framework (Barney, 1991; Barney & Wright, 1998) was the lens empirically operationalised within a mixed methodology approach. Designed to identify which,project management assets and associated processes and practices LASIS strategic managers should deliberately acknowledge, develop, deploy and exploit when conceiving competitive advantage strategies, to deliver project impact and sustainable competitive advantage. Hence,the research seeks to identify the specific project management assets, processes and practice endowments leveraging degrees of competitive advantage, how advantage is provided and identify endowment mix that are more likely to indicate performance. Academic literatures on resource-based view, project management and the public-sector post 2008 financial crisis was reviewed, in order to establish knowledge gaps and a foundation to advance theoretical positions and practitioner solutions. A significant set of quantitative and qualitative empirical analysis identified several models of theoretical, conceptual and practitioner significance. Data was collected via survey questionnaire (n=70), semi-structured interviews (n=13) and informal conversations (n=9) during a 30-month period in which the researcher had full access to the LASIS. The core contributions of this research include: i) a mix of tangible and intangible project management assets leverage sustainable competitive advantage (SCA); ii) a mix of Acquire Assets and Facilitating Process Assets are necessary for SCA; iii) how advantage is provided; and, iv) the conceptual formula >vrio + >pk = >cap linking - the degree of deliberate project management investment and the level of project management performance knowledge, as moderators of competitive advantage and performance. Finally, this research makes a contribution to: v) practice knowledge through the empirical development of competitive advantage models exploiting project management assets;vi) advancing theoretical strategic management knowledge of a new application for the VRIO framework; and,vii) to the general project management knowledge, that maybe of practitioner value to strategic managers across the wider public and third sectors

Prevalence of Bacteria of Division TM7 in Human Subgingival Plaque and Their Association with Disease

Members of the uncultivated bacterial division TM7 have been detected in the human mouth, but little information is available regarding their prevalence and diversity at this site. Human subgingival plaque samples from healthy sites and sites exhibiting various stages of periodontal disease were analyzed for the presence of TM7 bacteria. TM7 ribosomal DNA (rDNA) was found in 96% of the samples, and it accounted for approximately 0.3%, on average, of all bacterial rDNA in the samples as determined by real-time quantitative PCR. Two new phylotypes of this division were identified, and members of the division were found to exhibit filamentous morphology by fluorescence in situ hybridization. The abundance of TM7 rDNA relative to total bacterial rDNA was higher in sites with mild periodontitis (0.54% ± 0.1%) than in either healthy sites (0.21% ± 0.05%, P \u3c 0.01) or sites with severe periodontitis (0.29% ± 0.06%, P \u3c 0.05). One division subgroup, the I025 phylotype, was detected in 1 of 18 healthy samples and 38 of 58 disease samples. These data suggest that this phylotype, and the TM7 bacterial division in general, may play a role in the multifactorial process leading to periodontitis

Methanogenic \u3cem\u3eArchaea\u3c/em\u3e and human periodontal disease

Archaea have been isolated from the human colon, vagina, and oral cavity, but have not been established as causes of human disease. In this study, we reveal a relationship between the severity of periodontal disease and the relative abundance of archaeal small subunit ribosomal RNA genes (SSU rDNA) in the subgingival crevice by using quantitative PCR. Furthermore, the relative abundance of archaeal small subunit rDNA decreased at treated sites in association with clinical improvement. Archaea were harbored by 36% of periodontitis patients and were restricted to subgingival sites with periodontal disease. The presence of archaeal cells at these sites was confirmed by fluorescent in situ hybridization. The archaeal community at diseased sites was dominated by a Methanobrevibacter oralis-like phylotype and a distinct Methanobrevibacter subpopulation related to archaea that inhabit the gut of numerous animals. We hypothesize that methanogens participate in syntrophic relationships in the subgingival crevice that promote colonization by secondary fermenters during periodontitis. Because they are potential alternative syntrophic partners, our finding of larger Treponema populations sites without archaea provides further support for this hypothesis

Holding the line: The sustainability of police involvement in crime prevention

The opening lines of the handbook issued by Sir Robert Peel to all officers of the Metropolitan Police in 1829, were these: ‘It should be understood at the outset that the object to be attained is the prevention of crime. To this great end every effort of the police is to be directed. The security of person and property, the preservation of the public tranquility, and all the other objects of a police establishment will thus be better effected than by the detection and punishment of the offender after he has succeeded in committing the crime.’ Quoted in Reith (1948:62). Mayne, one of the first two Commissioners, added this principle: ‘To prevent crime and disorder, as an alternative to their repression by military force and severity of legal punishment.’ Quoted in Boyd (2012). What exactly they meant by prevention is open to interpretation, and whether this was just a ruse to help convince a suspicious public that in England ‘continental’ methods of repression would not be adopted is not clear. But by the late 19th Century the reactive approach of catching criminals or ‘feeling collars’ had come to predominate; and in the 20th, the politically-significant rhetoric of ‘fighting crime’ achieved consensual hegemony, delivered huge resources to policing over the years and of course powerfully shaped the policing organisation. It was not until the 1960s that the first signs of resurgence of an explicit, practical, preventive role were seen

Evidence that a very brief psychological intervention boosts weight loss in a weight loss program

Reducing morbidity and mortality associated with being overweight is a crucial public health goal. The aim of the present research was to test the efficacy of a very brief psychological intervention (a volitional help sheet) that could be used as an adjunct to standard weight loss programs to support increased weight loss in an overweight sample. Seventy-two overweight participants currently participating in a weight loss program were randomly allocated to either an intervention (volitional help sheet) condition or a control (distracter task) condition. The main outcome measure was weight at 1-month follow-up. Participants in both conditions lost significant amounts of weight, but those in the intervention condition lost significantly more than those in the control condition (d = 0.66). The findings support the efficacy of the volitional help sheet to promote additional weight loss in an overweight sample engaged in a weight loss program. The volitional help sheet therefore represents a very brief, low-cost intervention that could be used to supplement ongoing weight-loss programs