scholarly journals The relationship between technology and functionality of rural water points: evidence from Tanzania

2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (5) ◽  
pp. 948-955 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Jiménez ◽  
A. Pérez-Foguet

This paper presents an analysis of the relationships between technology of water point, management related practices and functionality over time through an extensive water point mapping study made in 15 rural districts of Tanzania, which covered 15% of the total rural population of the country. Results show irregular functionality rates at district level by technology, but reveal statistical dependence between functionality and technology at regional level. Management-related questions show that reported expenditure is the indicator most related to functionality. All categories of water points show very low performance over time. In the first five years of operation, about 30% of water points become non-functional. Only between 35% and 47% of water points are working 15 years after installation, depending on the technology. By categories, hand pumps are the less durable of the technologies studied. We suggest that more emphasis has to be placed on the creation of community capacities to manage the services during and after the installation of water points. At the same time, the role of decentralised government has to be strengthened to provide support to community services in the long term.

Author(s):  
Maureen L. Whittal ◽  
Melisa Robichaud

The cornerstone of cognitive treatment (CT) for OCD is based upon the knowledge that unwanted intrusions are essentially a universal experience. As such, it is not the presence of the intrusion that is problematic but rather the associated meaning or interpretation. Treatment is flexible, depending upon the nature of the appraisals and beliefs, but can include strategies focused on inflated responsibility and overestimation of threat, importance and control of thoughts, and the need for perfectionism and certainty. The role of concealment and the relationship to personal values are important maintaining and etiological factors. The short-term and long-term treatment outcome is reviewed, along with predictors of treatment response and mechanisms of action, and the chapter concludes with future directions regarding CT for OCD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 1690
Author(s):  
Beniamino Callegari ◽  
Ranvir S. Rai

Organizational ambidexterity is widely recognized as necessary for the economic sustainability of firms operating in the financial sector. While the management literature has recognized several forms of ambidexterity, the relationship between them and their relative merits remain unclear. By studying a process of implementation of ambidextrous capabilities within a large Scandinavian financial firm, we explore the role of top-down reforms and bottom-up reactions in determining the development of sector-specific innovative capabilities. We find that blended ambidexterity follows naturally from the attempt to correct the tensions arising from harmonic ambidextrous blueprints. The resulting blended practice appears to be closely related to the reciprocal model of ambidexterity, which appears to be a necessity rather than a choice, for large firms attempting to develop innovative capabilities. Consequently, we suggest to re-interpret current taxonomies of ambidexterity not as alternative blueprints, but rather as stages in a long-term process of transition.


Author(s):  
Lovel Kukuljan ◽  
Franci Gabrovšek ◽  
Matthew D. Covington ◽  
Vanessa E. Johnston

AbstractUnderstanding the dynamics and distribution of CO2 in the subsurface atmosphere of carbonate karst massifs provides important insights into dissolution and precipitation processes, the role of karst systems in the global carbon cycle, and the use of speleothems for paleoclimate reconstructions. We discuss long-term microclimatic observations in a passage of Postojna Cave, Slovenia, focusing on high spatial and temporal variations of pCO2. We show (1) that the airflow through the massif is determined by the combined action of the chimney effect and external winds and (2) that the relationship between the direction of the airflow, the geometry of the airflow pathways, and the position of the observation point explains the observed variations of pCO2. Namely, in the terminal chamber of the passage, the pCO2 is low and uniform during updraft, when outside air flows to the site through a system of large open galleries. When the airflow reverses direction to downdraft, the chamber is fed by inlets with diverse flow rates and pCO2, which enter via small conduits and fractures embedded in a CO2-rich vadose zone. If the spatial distribution of inlets and outlets produces minimal mixing between low and high pCO2 inflows, high and persistent gradients in pCO2 are formed. Such is the case in the chamber, where vertical gradients of up to 1000 ppm/m are observed during downdraft. The results presented in this work provide new insights into the dynamics and composition of the subsurface atmosphere and demonstrate the importance of long-term and spatially distributed observations.


10.29007/5xsb ◽  
2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alicia Martínez-Flor ◽  
Esther Usó-Juan

Studies analysing the positive role of pragmatic instruction in formal settings have increased over the last decades. Within this area of interventional pragmatics, some studies have particularly examined whether the effectiveness of the instruction implemented is sustained over time. In order to shed more light on the long-term effects of instruction, this research investigates English as a Foreign Language learners’ use of complaining formulas not only after immediately receiving instruction, but also two months later. Results show that learners keep using a variety of appropriate complaining formulas two months after having participated in the instructional period. These findings are discussed and directions for future research suggested.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heidi Makrinioti ◽  
Andrew Bush ◽  
James Gern ◽  
Sebastian Lennox Johnston ◽  
Nikolaos Papadopoulos ◽  
...  

Bronchiolitis is the most common cause of hospitalization in infancy and is associated with a higher risk for the development of childhood asthma. However, not all children hospitalized with bronchiolitis will develop asthma. The mechanisms underlying asthma development following bronchiolitis hospitalization are complex. Immune responses to respiratory viruses may underlie both bronchiolitis severity and long-term sequela (such as asthma). Interferons (IFNs) are important components of innate immune responses to respiratory viruses and could influence both asthma development and asthma exacerbations. However, the nature of the relationship between interferon production and wheezing illnesses is controversial. For example, low peripheral blood IFN responses at birth have been linked with recurrent wheeze and asthma development. In contrast, there is evidence that severe illnesses (e.g., hospitalization for bronchiolitis) are associated with increased IFN responses during acute infection (bronchiolitis hospitalization) and a higher risk for subsequent asthma diagnosis. Furthermore, mechanistic studies suggest that bronchial epithelial cells from asthmatic children have impaired IFN responses to respiratory viruses, which may enable increased viral replication followed by exaggerated secondary IFN responses. This review aims to discuss controversies around the role of IFNs as drivers of susceptibility to asthma development following bronchiolitis hospitalization. Past evidence from both mechanistic and cohort studies are discussed. We will highlight knowledge gaps that can inform future research study design.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 326-336 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irena Heszen

Temperament is probably an important factor that influences coping activity. The framework of the study was the Regulative Theory of Temperament by Strelau, where six temperamental traits are distinguished: emotional reactivity, perseveration, activity, briskness, sensory sensitivity, and endurance. These traits were hypothesized to be connected to coping activity in accordance with their psychological characteristics. It was also expected that the associations between temperament and coping activity should depend on stress intensity. Participants were 278 diabetics and 232 patients after first myocardial infarction (MI). The study was longitudinal and two diseases had been purposely selected so as to represent stress intensity either increasing (in diabetes) or decreasing (after MI) over time. Temperamental traits as well as coping activity components: cognitive appraisal, affect, and coping strategies were measured using self-report questionnaires. As hypothesized, temperamental traits were connected to coping activity. Phase-related changes in coping activity confirmed an increase in stress levels in diabetics, while cardiac patients tended to experience the situation as more challenging. While the expectation referring to the differential role of temperament under different levels of stress intensity was not confirmed, the connections of temperament with coping activity were found to decrease under long-term stress.


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 244-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Caligiuri

The aim of the study is to ascertain how the original Grotian formula ‘aut dedere aut punire’ has been implemented and evolved in international law. The first step is to classify the multilateral conventions that have accepted an aut dedere aut judicare clause. The goal is to bring out peculiarities of the different treaty texts, describing the relationship between the two options dedere and judicare, and the different obligations that arise for the contracting states. We will then examine the content of the two options, to define the legal boundaries within which the contracting states shall or may operate. At this point, we will focus on the legal nature of the aut dedere aut judicare principle that over time may have risen to the status of customary rule. The study will conclude with analysis of reactions to the breach of the aut dedere aut judicare clause by non-complying countries.


Author(s):  
Priyadarshni Patel ◽  
Jeganathan Ramesh Babu ◽  
Xu Wang ◽  
Thangiah Geetha

Obesity is caused by a combination of hereditary and environmental factors. Despite extensive study, contemporary through diet, exercise, education, surgery, and pharmacological treatments, no effective long-term solution has been found to this epidemic. Over the last decade, there has been a tremendous advancement in understanding the science of epigenetics, as well as a rise in public interest in learning more about the influence of diet and lifestyle choices on the health of an individual. Without affecting the underlying DNA sequence, epigenetic alterations impact gene expression. Previous animal studies have shown a link between the type of diet and expression or suppression of obesity genes, but there are very few human studies that demonstrate the relationship between dietary intake and obesity gene expression. This review highlights the effects of carbohydrates, lipids, and protein intake from the diet on obesity-related genes.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (139) ◽  
pp. 52-74
Author(s):  
Henrique Espada Lima

Abstract This article examines postmortem inventories and notarial records from Brazilian slaveholders in southern Brazil in the nineteenth century. By discussing selected cases in detail, it investigates the relationship between “precarious masters” (especially the poor and/or disabled, widows without family, and single elderly slaveholding women and men) and their slaves and former slaves to whom they bequeathed, in their testaments and final wills, manumission and property. The article reads these documents as intergenerational contractual arrangements that connected the masters’ expectations for care in illness and old age with the slaves’ and former slaves’ expectations for compensation for their work and dedication. Following these uneven relationships of interdependence and exploitation as they developed over time, the article suggests a reassessment of the role of paternalism in Brazil during the country’s final century of slavery. More than a tool to enforce relations of domination, paternalism articulated with the dynamics of vulnerability and interdependency as they changed over the life courses of both enslaved people and slave owners. This article shows how human aging became a terrain of negotiation and struggle as Brazilian slave society transformed throughout the nineteenth century.


2020 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kornelia Kończal

In early 2018, the Polish parliament adopted controversial legislation criminalising assertions regarding the complicity of the ‘Polish Nation’ and the ‘Polish State’ in the Holocaust. The so-called Polish Holocaust Law provoked not only a heated debate in Poland, but also serious international tensions. As a result, it was amended only five months after its adoption. The reason why it is worth taking a closer look at the socio-cultural foundations and political functions of the short-lived legislation is twofold. Empirically, the short history of the Law reveals a great deal about the long-term role of Jews in the Polish collective memory as an unmatched Significant Other. Conceptually, the short life of the Law, along with its afterlife, helps capture poll-driven, manifestly moralistic and anti-pluralist imaginings of the past, which I refer to as ‘mnemonic populism’. By exploring the relationship between popular and political images of the past in contemporary Poland, this article argues for joining memory and populism studies in order to better understand what can happen to history in illiberal surroundings.


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