2,633 research outputs found
Risk management for drinking water safety in low and middle income countries: cultural influences on water safety plan (WSP) implementation in urban water utilities
We investigated cultural influences on the implementation of water safety plans (WSPs) using case studies from WSP pilots in India, Uganda and Jamaica. A comprehensive thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews (n = 150 utility customers, n = 32 WSP âimplementersâ and n = 9 WSP âpromotersâ), field observations and related documents revealed 12 cultural themes, offered as âenablingâ, âlimitingâ, or âneutralâ, that influence WSP implementation in urban water utilities to varying extents. Aspects such as a âdeliver first, safety laterâ mind set; supply system knowledge management and storage practices; and non-compliance are deemed influential. Emergent themes of cultural influence (ET1 to ET12) are discussed by reference to the risk management, development studies and institutional culture literatures; by reference to their positive, negative or neutral influence on WSP implementation. The results have implications for the utility endorsement of WSPs, for the impact of organisational cultures on WSP implementation; for the scale-up of pilot studies; and they support repeated calls from practitioner communities for cultural attentiveness during WSP design. Findings on organisational cultures mirror those from utilities in higher income nations implementing WSPs â leadership, advocacy among promoters and customers (not just implementers) and purposeful knowledge management are critical to WSP success
Modeling Non-Circular Motions in Disk Galaxies: A Bar in NGC 2976
We give a brief description of a new model for non-circular motions in disk
galaxy velocity fields, that does not invoke epicycles. We assume non-circular
motions to stem from a bar-like or oval distortion to the potential, as could
arise from a triaxial halo or a bar in the mass distribution of the baryons. We
apply our model to the high-quality CO and Halpha kinematics of NGC 2976
presented by Simon et al. 2003; it fits the data as well as their model with
unrealistic radial flows, but yields a steeper rotation curve. Our analysis and
other evidence suggests that NGC 2976 hosts a bar, implying a large baryonic
contribution to the potential and thus limiting the allowed dark matter halo
density.Comment: 4 pages, 3 color figures, contribution to "Galaxies in the Local
Volume" conference proceedings, eds. B. Koribalski and H. Jerje
Sulfur varieties in Illinois coals : float-sink tests
Report of Study Phase ISupported in part by U.S. Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education and Welfare contract no. PH86-67-206Ope
A perspective on counting catalytic active sites and rates of reaction using x-ray spectroscopy
Identification of active sites and phases in heterogeneous catalysts and the understanding of the reaction mechanism remain highly challenging. In most catalysts, the existence of a multitude of surface species, which are dynamic in relation to reaction conditions, presents a challenge of distinguishing those that are involved in the catalytic cycle from those which are spectators. The emergence of the field of single-site catalysts potentially eliminates these issues, although it can be argued that these systems remain dynamic and that multiple speciation, each a candidate for the active site, often remains a consideration. A perspective on how X-ray spectroscopy and characterization tools in general, can be used to correlate the number of active sites and the rate of their formation, in single-site and redox catalyst systems, is presented. The importance of observing proportionality between spectra features and the reaction rate, to differentiate between active sites and spectator species is discussed. Performing characterisation under catalyticly relevant conditions on structures that are demonstrably representative of actual catalysts is essential
Exercise-induced respiratory muscle work: Effects on blood flow, fatigue and performance
This is the post print version of this article. The official published version can be obtained from the link below.In healthy subjects, heavy intensity endurance exercise places substantial demands on the respiratory muscles as breathing frequency, ventilation and the work of breathing rise over time. In the highly trained subject working at high absolute work rates, the ventilatory demand often causes varying degrees of expiratory flow limitation, sometimes accompanied by lung hyperinflation and, therefore, increased elastic work of breathing. Time-dependant increases in effort perceptions for both dyspnea and limb discomfort accompany these increased ventilatory demands. Similar responses to endurance exercise but at much lower exercise intensities also occur in patients with COPD and CHF. Note that these responses significantly influence exercise performance times in both health and disease. This effect was demonstrated by the marked reductions in the rate of rise of effort perceptions and the enhanced exercise performance times elicited by unloading the respiratory muscles using pressure support ventilation or proportional assist mechanical ventilation. In healthy fit subjects, unloading the inspiratory work of breathing by about one half increased performance by an average of 14% (Harms et al. 2000), and in CHF and COPD patients performance time more than doubled with respiratory muscle unloading (OâDonnell et al. 2001). Why are effort perceptions of limb discomfort markedly reduced and exercise performance increased when the respiratory muscles are unloaded? Our hypothesis is shown in Fig. 1
Sulfur reduction of Illinois coals--washability studies
Report of Study Phase IISupported in part by U.S. Public Health Service, Department of Health, Education and Welfare Contract No. PH 86-67-206Ope
Field dependence of the electronic phase separation in Pr0.67Ca0.33MnO3 by small angle magnetic neutron scattering
We have studied by small angle neutron scattering the evolution induced by
the application of magnetic field of the coexistence of ferromagnetism (F) and
antiferromagnetism (AF) in a crystal of PrCaMnO. The
results are compared to magnetic measurements which provide the evolution of
the ferromagnetic fraction. These results show that the growth of the
ferromagnetic phase corresponds to an increase of the thickness of the
ferromagnetic ''cabbage'' sheets
Southward expansion: The myth of the West in the promotion of Florida, 1876â1900
This article examines the ways in which promoters and developers of Florida, in the decades after Reconstruction, engaged with a popular myth of the West as a means of recasting and selling their state to prospective settlers in the North and Midwest. The myth envisaged a cherished region to the west where worthy Americans could migrate and achieve social and economic independence away from the crowded confines of the East, or Europe. According to state immigration agents, land-promoters and other booster writers, Florida, although a Southern ex-Confederate state, offered precisely these 'western' opportunities for those hard-working Northerners seeking land and an opening for agrarian prosperity. However, the myth, which posited that, in the west, an individual's labour and thrift were rewarded with social and economic improvement, meshed awkwardly with the contemporary emergence of Florida as a popular winter destination for wealthy tourists and invalids seeking leisure and healthfulness away from the North. Yet it also reflected and reinforced promotional notions of racial improvement which would occur with an influx of enterprising Anglo-Americans, who would effectively displace the state's large African American population. In Florida, the myth of the West supported the linked post-Reconstruction processes of state development and racial subjugation
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