Inter-Organization Programme for the Sound Management of Chemicals

The biosolids producers in southwest Canada and the northwest United States have banded together to form a biosolids information network with the purpose of advancing the environmentally sound management of biosolids through education and information, regulations development and research and demonstration. This organization currently known as the Northwest Biosolids Management Association (NBMA) has grown from a gritty band of 14 sludge management visionaries to a fully incorporated non-profit association of over 200 members in both the private and public sectors. What spark ignited this conflagration of creativity? What calamity could possibly convince 200 relatively sober agencies to pony up a collective $200,000 American every year? What great cosmic bellows continues to force the airs of inspiration into the dry and desiccated souls of Biosolids managers across beautiful British Columbia and beyond? The answers lie in the modern day alchemy that is biosolids management. It is the inspiration gained from spinning gold out of something less aesthetically pleasing. It is the satisfaction in communicating to a mass audience the technical and counter intuitive science of residuals treatment. Creation and maintenance of a Biosolids information network is an essential tool in fostering the environmentally sound use of this extremely useful product.

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Crisis and Water Services: How a 2007 Public Health Emergency in Finland Helped Shape Its Response to COVID-19

Public Works Management & Policy ◽

10.1177/1087724x20969159 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 63-70

Author(s):

Tapio S. Katko ◽

Jarmo J. Hukka

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Engineering Education ◽

Well Being ◽

Public Health Emergency ◽

Environmental Engineering ◽

Clean Water ◽

Water Services ◽

Sanitation Services ◽

Sound Management

This paper aims at shedding light on the significance of water epidemics and their potential positive impacts on improving preparedness in water and sanitation services. We explore the water epidemic of Nokia in 2007 and preparedness-related reactions since then. The corona case confirms the fundamental role of clean water for well-being in communities, the need for sound management of water services to proactively promote public health, as well as the need for expanding conventional water and environmental engineering education and research to offer more holistic views.

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The link between ethnic diversity and scientific impact: the mediating effect of novelty and audience diversity

Scientometrics ◽

10.1007/s11192-021-04071-1 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jielan Ding ◽

Zhesi Shen ◽

Per Ahlgren ◽

Tobias Jeppsson ◽

David Minguillo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Ethnic Diversity ◽

Scientific Collaboration ◽

Information Science ◽

Mediating Effect ◽

Path Modeling ◽

Control Variables ◽

Scientific Impact ◽

Subject Categories ◽

Sound Management ◽

The Relationship

AbstractUnderstanding the nature and value of scientific collaboration is essential for sound management and proactive research policies. One component of collaboration is the composition and diversity of contributing authors. This study explores how ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration affects scientific impact, by presenting a conceptual model to connect ethnic diversity, based on author names, with scientific impact, assuming novelty and audience diversity as mediators. The model also controls for affiliated country diversity and affiliated country size. Using path modeling, we apply the model to the Web of Science subject categories Nanoscience & Nanotechnology, Ecology and Information Science & Library. For all three subject categories, and regardless of if control variables are considered or not, we find a weak positive relationship between ethnic diversity and scientific impact. The relationship is weaker, however, when control variables are included. For all three fields, the mediated effect through audience diversity is substantially stronger than the mediated effect through novelty in the relationship, and the former effect is much stronger than the direct effect between the ethnic diversity and scientific impact. Our findings further suggest that ethnic diversity is more associated with short-term scientific impact compared to long-term scientific impact.

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