Supporting disabled students in practice: a tripartite approach, Nurse Education in Practice. Vol. 10 (3) pp. 132-137, 2010

Universities are required to make reasonable adjustments for disabled students. For providers of professional courses, in this case pre-registration nursing, this requirement is perceived to pose significant challenges. In part this is due to the nature of the course, where practice learning is a central component and therefore clinical hands-on experience of the care of patients/clients is an absolute requirement. Concerns around the ability of disabled students’ to meet the programme requirements have been expressed. This article describes the co-development of a six-phase tripartite model that provides a supportive framework for disabled student nurses in the practice environment. A brief overview of the literature will be given and a single case study will be used to demonstrate the model in action. The development of broad partnership working between the Practice Learning Team, The Disability Service and the Student Placement Facilitator, taking a student centric approach, is outlined. Finally, the process by which a critical knowledge base, on which decisions around reasonable adjustment can be made is discussed

How can we learn about community socio-economic status and poverty in a developing country urban environment? An example from Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa.

Few tested tools exist to assess poverty and socio-economic status at the community level, particularly in urban developing country environments. Furthermore, there is no real sense of what the community concept actually means. Consequently, this paper aims to describe how formative qualitative research was used to develop a quantitative tool to assess community SES in Johannesburg-Soweto in terms of the terminology used, topics covered, and how it was administered, comparing it to the South African Living Standards and Measurement Study. It also discusses the level of aggregation respondents identified as defining a local community using a drawing/mapping exercise. Focus groups (n=11) were conducted with 15-year-old adolescents and their caregivers from the 1990 Birth-to-Twenty (Bt20) cohort and key informant in-depth interviews (n=17) with prominent members working in the Bt20 communities. This research recognises the importance of involving local people in the design of data collection tools measuring poverty and human well-being

Exploiting secondary raw materials from extractive waste facilities: A case study

In recent years, resource scarcity has emphasised a need to transition from a linear to a circular flow of resources. Securing supplies of critical and secondary raw materials (CRM/SRM) for the manufacturing industry is at the forefront of industrial challenges, especially in Europe, USA and Asia. A key step towards achieving resource efficiency, is to recover these materials from anthropogenic waste deposits, such as urban landfill sites and extractive waste facilities. This means breaking away from the traditional linear use of resources to a closed-loop approach that allows maximum recovery of resources from waste. The management of extractive waste deposits and resource recovery is closely linked to the concept of urban mining. In this paper, we present a case study illustrating the feasibility of recovering SRM from EW facilities and discuss the pros and cons of undertaking such activities

A decision support tool for enhanced landfill mining

Enhanced Landfill Mining has great potential to reduce the negative effects of landfills on both the environment and human health, to reclaim valuable land and provide a new source of raw materials. However, uncertainties in economic feasibility and environmental and social outcomes act as a bottleneck to its widespread uptake. Here, we present a decision support tool (DST) which aims to reduce these uncertainties by assisting site operators in assessing the economic, environmental and social consequences of a proposed project, while also evaluating the best technology train to use and the amount of rare earth elements (REE) present. Such a tool is the first of its kind and we propose its use as an initial assessment aid prior to more complex modelling of project feasibility in order to increase the uptake of enhanced landfill mining practices in the field of sustainable waste management

Current socio-economic measures, and not those measured during infancy, affects bone mass in poor urban South African children

Understanding the impact of socio-economic status (SES) on physical development in children is important, especially in developing countries where considerable inequalities persist. This is the first study to examine the association between SES on bone development at the whole body, femoral neck, and lumbar spine in black children living in Soweto and Johannesburg, South Africa. Linear regression models were used to study associations between SES during infancy and current SES, anthropometric, and DXA-derived bone mass in 9/10-yr-old children (n = 309). Findings suggest that current SES measures, rather than SES during infancy, are stronger predictors of current whole body bone area (BA) and whole body BMC after adjusting for body size, pubertal development, physical activity, habitual dietary calcium intake, and body composition. SES had no significant effect on either hip or spine bone mass. Caregiver's marital/cohabiting status (indicator of social support) and whether there was a television in the home (indicator of greater income) at age 9/10 yr were the most important socio-economic determinants of whole body BA and BMC. SES has a significant independent effect on whole body BMC through its impact on BA. This suggests that poverty alleviation policies in South Africa could have a positive effect on bone health

What enables student geography teachers to thrive during their PGCE year and beyond?

Drawing on the perspectives of six student teachers (including five geography specialists) and two teacher educators, four key components are identified as being crucial to enable those undertaking a geography-focused programme of Initial Teacher Education to thrive rather than simply survive. These include, (1) nurturing an enjoyment of geography, (2) engaging with education research to underpin classroom practice, (3) developing communities of practice within and beyond school and university settings and, (4) building teacher identity through regular reflection that considers an individual’s values. These insights will have relevance for those considering or undertaking a career as a geography teacher and for school and university partnerships that provide Initial Teacher Education programmes

Landfill mining from extractive waste facilities: The importance of a correct site characterisation and evaluation of the potentialities. A case study from Italy

Raw materials (RM) and critical raw materials (CRM; EC, 2017) supply is essential to both the maintenance and development of the EU economy as its industries rely on a steady RM supply. Thus, securing a sustainable RM and CRM supply and their circular use in the economy is of importance at EU level and beyond (Blengini et al., 2017, Coulomb et al., 2015, Vidal-Legaz et al., 2016). Furthermore, the developments of clean technologies coupled with economic growth exacerbate the short and long-term demand and needs (Blagoeva et al., 2016, Pavel and Tzimas, 2016). For example, Habib and Wenzel (2014) reported that the necessary supply Nd and Dy will grow from 10.0 Gg to 54.5 Gg and 0.5 Gg to 4.95 Gg respectively from 2010 to 2050

Investigation of municipal solid waste (MSW) and industrial landfills as a potential source of secondary raw materials

Many of the secondary raw materials (SRM) in landfills constitute valuable and scarce natural resources. It has already been recognised that the recovery of these elements is critical for the sustainability of a number of industries and SRM recov¬ery from anthropogenic waste deposits represents a significant opportunity. In this study, the characterisation of the different waste fractions and the amount of SRM that can potentially be recovered from two landfill sites in Finland is presented. The first site was a municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill site and it was specifically in¬vestigated for its metals, SRM, plastics, wood, paper, and cardboard content as well as its fine fraction (<20 mm). The second site was an industrial landfill site contain¬ing residual wastes from industrial processes including 1) aluminium salt slag from refining process of aluminium scrap and 2) shredding residues from automobiles, household appliances and other metals containing waste. This site was investigated for its metals and SRM recovery potential as well as its fine fraction. Results suggest that the fine fraction offers opportunities for metal (Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) and SRM extraction and recovery from both landfill site types while the chemical composition of the industrial waste landfill offered greater opporutinity as it was comparable to typical aluminium salt slags. Nevertheless, the concentrations of rare earth metals (REE) and other valuable elements were low even in comparison with the concentra¬tions found in the Earth’s crust. Therefore mining landfill sites only for their metals or SRM content is not expected to be financially viable. However, other opportunities, such as waste-derived fuels from excavated materials especially at MSW landfill sites, still exists and fosters the application and feasibility of landfill mining