Poor State Of Affairs Research Articles

An epidemiological study to assess water supply and sanitation services in slum in Amritsar city

Background: One of the foremost elements of primary health care is adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation in the slums. Intersectoral coordination between health and water supply and sanitation department plays a major role in promoting good health of the slum-dwellers. Aims and Objectives: The aims of this study were to assess the availability of water supply and sanitation services in the slum. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted in a randomly selected slum in Amritsar city. Eldest adult member was interviewed and data analyzed. An interview was also held with the functionaries of department of water supply and sanitation to assess the intersectoral coordination. Results: According to Modified Kuppuswamy Scale, 49.3% of the families of the slum belonged to lower middle class. As source of water, 50.6% of the families used municipality tap water, while 63.6% families had personal toilets for defecation. Conclusion: Slums are in poor state of affairs with respect to water supply and sanitation services. Very less intersectoral coordination was seen between health department and water and sanitation department. Hence, programs of the government need to focus more on the urban slums.

African bureaucracy and public administration: Analysing the normative impediments and prospects

Background: Public perception of bureaucracy and public administration is key to determining how much they can accomplish in a given environment. The pejorative view of bureaucrats and public administrators is not restricted to Africa. Although they are sometimes seen as one and the same, analytically they can be divorced.Aim: Within the framework of system theory, this article analysed the interface between African bureaucracy and public administration with the aim of identifying its impediments and prospects.Setting: Relevant sources of this research were fairly and professionally scrutinised, understood and tested with the available literature for the research purpose. Inter alia, it included scan-reading, comprehensive and critical reading and writing down ideas. Authoritative scholarly sources were reviewed during a desktop study. The purpose was to identify the relevant publications and apply them in the research.Methods: This article utilised qualitative research design and descriptive methods to gain an insight into the nature and character of African bureaucracy and public administration. It is also exploratory because the article attempts to explore the nexus between African bureaucracy and public administration.Result: This article argues that African bureaucracy is losing its potency and ability to give intellectual leadership to public administrators. Bureaucrats in the field rely too much on discretion that often does not sit well with the people and result in poor service delivery.Conclusion: It therefore concludes that the poor state of affairs in African bureaucracy could change if the bureaucracy opens up to administrative reforms, particularly those that add value to their activities and actions. In this era of globalisation, international best practices should be domesticated.

THANKYOU: from waste to resource

Learning outcomes The case helps to introduce some of the elements of strategic management process, which are vital for competitive advantage, particularly for the public utility services such as MSWM. It intends to achieve the following objectives: analyse the external environment for MSWM industry in India; analyse the internal organizational environment for a firm’s strategic competitiveness; introduce the concept of value and value chain understand the role of Stakeholder groups; understand the concept of public–private partnerships (PPP); and understand the role of technology in sustaining a competitive advantages. Case overview/synopsis This case focuses on entrepreneurial venture of Gaurav Sharma and his team who intend to transform the landscape of Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) industry in the country. THANKYOU (letsthankyou.com) is a Jaipur, India-based enterprise offering waste management solutions across different verticals. It was founded in 2016, following an opportunity in the waste management industry unleashed by the Government of India’s (GOI) new MSWM 2016 rules making it mandatory for the waste generators to manage (segregate, process, transport and disposal) their own waste. After initial examination of MSWM service scenario in the country, Gaurav and his two team members realize that a lack of integration among the multiple entities of waste management value chain is the root cause of the current poor state of affairs. So, they come up with an online marketplace, which offers a one-stop solution for the waste management of general households, residential settings and corporate. With initial projects implemented in the decentralized mode offering unit-level services such as door-to-door waste collection, on-demand waste pick-up and waste audits for corporate, the company has eventually got an opportunity of working on a centralized MSWM project for a leading hotel. Indeed, the company has the first mover advantage of entering the government controlled MSWM industry. However, to move forward, the THANKYOU team must address some fundamental issues in the industry: How to integrate the informal and formal sectors involved in waste management to achieve economies of scale? How to make land-filling the least preferred option of waste management? How to use technology to enhance the efficiency of MSWM value chain? Complexity academic level The case can add value to a course on strategic management at the post-graduate level. It highlights the role of external and internal environment analyses in the formulation of business strategy, ultimately leading to a firm’s strategic competitiveness. In a strategic management course, the case can be used to discuss introductory topics such as the analysis of internal and external environment; value creation by leveraging internal resources and capabilities; analysis of a firm’s dependence on its stakeholder groups; ascertainment of the profitability driver for a firm’s business model; and the concept of PPP. Supplementary materials Teaching Notes are available for educators only. Please contact your library to gain login details or email support@emeraldinsight.com to request teaching notes. Subject code CSS 11: Strategy

The Limits of Traditional Methods of Preserving Ethiopian Ge’ez Manuscripts

Abstract The aim of the article is to identify the limits of traditional methods of preserving ancient parchment Ge’ez manuscripts found in churches and monasteries of Tigray, Ethiopia. The researcher used interview and observation methods to gather relevant data in regard to manuscript preservation practices in churches and monasteries of Tigray, Ethiopia. General Collection Condition Survey (GCCS) and an Item-by-Item Survey were also employed to assess the physical and preservation status of ancient Ge’ez manuscripts, while survey checklist was used to document preservation condition assessments. It was generally viewed that churches and monasteries in Tigray have been playing a pivotal role in the production as well as preservation of ancient Ge’ez parchment manuscripts, however, the assessment result shows most of the traditional techniques employed by these institutions to preserve manuscripts are neither functional nor strong enough to withstand the ever-growing human and natural impacts on these priceless artefacts. Therefore, the paper concludes that in view of the relevance of Ge’ez manuscripts for the Ethiopian people, as well as the poor state of affairs with regard to the preservation and availability of these manuscripts, a new approach that ensures long-term preservation and guarantees their availability for current and future generations should be designed. As a way forward, it is deemed necessary to accomplish in situ conservation and digitization works through scientific procedures and make the digital document available to the wider public using digital library technology. This new approach will enable us to rescue the vanishing literary heritage and unlock the local knowledge contained in those ancient Ge’ez manuscripts through systematic and scientific study as well as to ensure long term preservation.

Revolutionizing blood bank inventory management using the TOC thinking process: An Indian case study

The purpose of this research is to demonstrate an application of TOC's thinking process (TP) in a blood bank environment. We take an example of a real-life blood bank which is struggling with the problems of high shortage and wastage of blood products, large inventory levels, poor and erratic blood collection, limited product variety, high error rate, high turnover of technicians, high operating expenses and low revenue levels. We show using the TOC approach how these seemingly unrelated problems faced by the bank are in fact highly inter-related and how they all originate from a single root-cause. A current reality tree (CRT) is used to identify the root cause responsible for all the major blood bank problems. A conflict resolution diagram (CRD) is constructed to identify the core-conflict(s) responsible for the blood bank's poor performance. A simple yet powerful solution is generated for the given bank by breaking the core-conflict resulting from a paradigm constraint in blood banking. A future reality tree (FRT) is then constructed to show how the TOC approach will help the blood bank in lowering its shortage and wastage levels in spite of collecting lesser number of units in blood donation camps. The bank will be able to significantly cut down its inventories and can issue fresher units to the patients. Blood bank's revenue levels will increase while its operating expense will decrease due to the TOC approach. The error rate as well as the turnover of technicians in the blood bank laboratory will also reduce considerably. A simulation model shows that the proposed TOC solution will reduce the annual shortage of red blood cells by 66% and platelets by 82% at the bank. Similarly, the wastage of red blood cells will decrease by 93%, plasma by 99% and platelets by 98%. The average inventory level of the red blood cells will drop by 41%, plasma by 95% and platelets by 10%. The major contribution of this research is to show that TP tools can be extremely powerful in constructing win-win solutions for complex systems like blood banks by addressing their major problems in an integrated fashion. The TOC approach reveals how one widely-held belief in the blood banking world is the main reason behind the blood banks' poor state of affairs. The solutions presented in this research should be readily applicable to other blood banks which are struggling to improve their operational and financial performance.

Cell viability assay to determine the cytotoxic effects of water contaminated by microbes

Many South Africans do not have access to safe drinking water, so they have no alternative but to use water from contaminated sources that poses a health hazard. This poor state of affairs appears to be deteriorating. In order to distinguish safe from unsafe sources, the aim of this study was to adapt the well-known MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay into a simple and efficient method to screen the suitability of drinking water without needing to know the nature of any possible contamination. This modified assay presents an immediate and reliable answer to whether water is potable without recourse to standard chemical and microbiological water-quality tests. The MTT assay was used here for the first time to test the effects of microbes, and not chemical contaminants as is traditionally the case, on the viability of human duodenum cells exposed to water samples of interest. Filtered tap water and water from a borehole, for example, had limited adverse effects on cell viability. Cell viability decreased greatly after exposure to dam, treated sewage and river water which confirmed the value of the assay as a screening tool.

Commentary: Reporting standards are needed for evaluations of risk reclassification

Commentary: Reporting standards are needed for evaluations of risk reclassification

Big Boost in Funding for Dental Research

A little over a year ago, I wrote about the poor state of affairs with regards to research funding in Australia for dental research.* Now I find myself “eating my words”. In the past few months dental research in Australia has received very significant funds from the Federal Government. In July, the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia announced the funding of a new Centre for Clinical Research Excellence in Oral Health at the University of Adelaide. A few months later, in September, the Federal Government announced continued funding for nine years of the Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre based at the University of Melbourne. While this is excellent and timely news, it should come as no surprise that these funding agencies have finally woken up to the enormity of the significant issues relating to oral diseases. Figures such as untreated dental caries affecting around 25 per cent of adult Australians, approximately 20 per cent of the adult population having moderate to severe periodontal disease and the emerging significant relationships between oral health and systemic health were used by both universities to make their cases for funding of large scale research programmes in oral health. Importantly for dentistry is that both research centres were assessed as being significantly competitive and relevant to the larger medical framework within which they were judged. Clearly, as I, and many other wiser people than me have stated, no longer can oral health be sequestered away from general health. The time has come for oral health to be considered within the overall context of general well-being. Thus, it is indeed timely that these two research centres have been funded. The work ahead for both centres is enormous but the support is significant. This is particularly so for the Oral Health Cooperative Research Centre which has not only received substantial funding from the Federal Government but also has the backing of five major industry partners. The potential for significant translation of research to clinical and product outcomes is exciting. In conjunction with the global research effort in dental research, it is clear that we have the opportunity to significantly contribute to this effort at many levels. Both research centres will have research teams in population health and epidemiology, technologically advanced laboratory science and clinical studies in dental caries, periodontal disease and cancer as their main focus. It is indeed my hope that both centres will complement each other and work in mutual collaboration to take advantage of this significant funding and the opportunity to contribute to the health and well-being of not only Australians but the whole global village. P Mark BartoldEditor

Strident, Ambiguous and Duplicitous

Russia's August 2008 invasion of Georgia and de facto annexation of South Ossetia and Abkhazia will undoubtedly have repercussions for Ukaine's security. Although Ukraine had high hopes--following the Orange Revolution and election of the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko--of quickly integrating into Euro-Atlantic structures, only NATO opened its door in 2005-06 but closed it in 2007-08 due to low public support within Ukraine and the growing appeasement of Russia by key Western European NATO members. The EU continues not to view Ukraine as a future member. Ukraine's security vacuum is coupled with instability, preventing the adoption of a unified position on Russia's aggression in Georgia, which has plagued the entire Yushchenko administration and assertiveness in the region. Russian-Ukrainian relations have deteriorated to their lowest point since the disintegration of the USSR. This poor state of affairs, combined with Russia's willingness and legal justification for defending Russian citizens abroad, opens up the possibility that localized conflict in the Crimea and Sevastopol can no longer be ruled out. (1) This article is divided into five sections. In the first section, I analyze Ukrainian security policies and security dilemmas in the aftermath of the August 2008 invasion of Georgia, (2) taking into consideration that NATO and EU membership are not likely for Ukraine in the foreseeable future. In the second section, I analyze Ukrainian-Georgian relations and the close ideological, personal, and security bonds between Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko and Georgian president Mikhail Saakashvili. Although these particular connections emerged after the 2003 Rose Revolution and 2004 Orange Revolution, Ukraine and Georgia had a well-established security relationship under President Leonid Kuchma of Ukraine and President Edward Shevardnadze of Georgia until 2003-04. In the third and fourth sections of the article, I discuss the likelihood of the Crimea becoming the next target for territorial assertiveness in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and Ukraine's security responses to what Kyiv sees as growing nationalism. opinion polls also show that the United States, Georgia, and Ukraine are the three most disliked countries in Russia. In these sections, I discuss Russia's inability to come to terms with Ukrainian sovereignty, independence, and territorial control over the Crimea, as well as Ukraine's fight to have different national interests from Russia. In the final section, I discuss how the Russia-Georgia war affected Ukrainian domestic politics (for a breakdown by leader and party, see the appendix). This section argues that existing divisions within the Orange Coalition prevented a unified response to the war, although both Our Ukraine (3) and the Bloc Yulia Tymoshenko (BYuT), as the coalition's two key political forces, feuded, leading to the collapse of the coalition on September 3. (4) Both wings of the democratic (i.e. Orange) coalition supported Georgia's territorial integrity. The oppositional Party of Regions' official stance, in support of the recognition of the independence of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, split the party in the Ukrainian parliament. The party's resolution in support of independence for South Ossetia and Abkhazia was supported by the Communist Party, but failed to win sufficient votes to be adopted. A similar resolution passed in the Crimean parliament. Ukraine's Security Dilemmas Russia's invasion of Georgia has reshaped the geopolitical region and its domestic politics. Ukraine and other states in Eurasia believe that Russia has effectively annexed two Georgian territories without any major repercussions. From Ukraine's vantage point, this usurpation was compounded by the perception that the EU gave its seal of approval to a flawed peace plan beneficial to Russia. By the winter of 2008-09, the EU and NATO had rushed to repair their relations with Russia in the wake of their previous support for Georgia. …

High altitude physiology research and training platforms used by American physiologists during World War II: innovative altitude chambers and high flying bomber aircraft

America's fledgling aviation medicine program had only 3 man‐rated chambers in 1940, located at Wright Field's Aero Medical Lab (AML: H. Armstrong, D.B. Dill & F.G. Hall), Mayo Clinic (W. Boothby & W.R. Lovelace), and Harvard School of Public Health (C. Drinker). This poor state of affairs was best exemplified when members of the Committee on Aviation Medicine inquired about using the elevators in the Empire State Building for physiological studies of “rapid” decompression. Eventually, research facilities for rapid decompression were established in the Physiology Department at The Ohio State University (Dr. F.A. Hitchcock). Numerous altitude chambers were set up across the US in the ensuing months, which were used to study the physiology of O2 want, decompression sickness, and explosive decompression. A Boeing B‐17 bomber (Nemesis of Aeroembolism), assigned to Wright Field's AML, flew above 40,000 feet to test flight gear and provide a research platform for physiological studies. The high altitude research program was complemented by an indoctrination program that reached its zenith in 1945: >200 physiologists, using 65 altitude chambers at 45 air fields, taught ∼58,000 men/month how to protect themselves during high altitude flight. The success of America's aviation medicine program contributed significantly to the allied victory in the air war and laid the foundation for aerospace medicine.

Rural development in Nigera: Problems and remedies

Rural development in Nigeria constitutes a fundamental problem. Over the years, rural development has been neglected. Rural areas are regarded as abodes of diseases, superstition, poverty, lethargy, low income and low productivity. This problem, which is primarily due to government non sustainable policy action towards rural transformation, is responsible for the poor state of affairs among rural dwellers in Nigeria. Government is virtually concerned with urban development and Urban renewal programmes to the neglect of the rural areas. Based on these findings, it is imperative to explore ways by which this malady of rural underdevelopment in Nigeria can be resolved through an integration approach to solving the problem. Therefore the ability to find solution to this unprecedented problem will form our main focus of discussion. Sophia: An African Journal of Philosophy Vol. 8(1) 2005:65-71

Rural Libraries- A Comparative Study in Four States of India

The role information plays in socio-economic development can not be over-emphasized. People need different types of information in their day-to-day life and their information seeking behaviour also differs from person to person. In India, 70 percent of the population lives in rural areas. The access the rural population has to information sources is very limited. Libraries, in addition to other sources, form a major source of information. However, the libraries in rural areas, as observed from earlier studies, are traditional in nature and not well equipped to effectively cater to the information needs of the rural people. Non-existence of library legislation in various states of India is one of the factors which adversely affected the development of a library system. This present study examines the status of rural libraries in four states of India, the information needs of the people in the study area, and their information seeking behaviour. The study also examines the role of the latest IT techniques in improving the present status of rural libraries. This study concludes that the libraries existing presently in rural areas are in a poor state of affairs. Lack of adequate resources, financial and human, is identified as the major reason for the present status of rural libraries. As far as information needs, a majority of respondents look for information relating to development schemes, employment opportunities, education, health, etc. Mass media including newspaper, TV, and radio are the major sources of information, followed by relatives/friends, and government officials. This study suggests the transformation of existing libraries or establishing a new set up of dynamic information centres with the help of the latest IT to effectively cater to the information needs of the rural people.

Technology transfer in Poland: a poor state of affairs and a wavering policy

Technology transfer has a crucial role to play in overcoming the innovation impasse existing in Poland: it must be a key component of public innovation policy, with broader and quicker diffusion of innovation as its main aim. Guidelines for innovation policy in Poland published in 1995 outlined a general framework: by 1999 a new version of the document not only did not push things ahead but also cancelled some of the previous fiscal incentives because of the huge deficit of the state budget. Polish industry needs more technology transfer but Polish industrial companies are very passive. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

INVESTIGATIONS INTO THE SETTLEMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF TRENCH REINSTATEMENTS.

In January 1993, the New Roads and Street Works Act came into being giving guidance and setting out requirements to undertakers executing street works. Prior to this, the 1950 Public Utilities and Street Works Act, and the 1974 Model Agreement (non-statutory) had been inadequately protecting the highways. The Horne Report of 1985 reviewed the generally poor state of affairs and made several important recommendations which form the basis of the new legislation. A significant aspect of the Act is the specification of performance requirements judged predominantly on settlement characteristics. This paper presents research data from a project carried out at Southampton University which monitored the settlement characteristics of more than a hundred 'real' trench reinstatements in and around Southampton, and includes details of specially developed apparatus. The results demonstrate significant behavioural trends, highlight practical aspects of reducing long-term problems and, significantly, identify the surprising longevity of the movements measured. The future of reinstatements is discussed in the light of this and other work, and some recommendations are made. (A)

Self-control procedures in biofeedback: a review of temperature biofeedback in the treatment of migraine.

It is argued that in order to optimize the achievement of self-control and to evaluate the clinical effects of biofeedback three skills should be included in training and assessment, namely: (1) the ability of voluntary control with external feedback, (2) the ability of voluntary control without external feedback, and (3) the ability to apply the self-control skill in critical situations in everyday life. A review of the literature concerning temperature-biofeedback in the treatment of migraine headaches shows that the research from this point of view is in a rather poor state of affairs and that no definite conclusion can in fact be drawn about the degree of self-control which has been achieved and hence of the ultimate clinical value of biofeedback.