Water management in Bohle quarry

It has not been until recent times that companies throughout the world have realised the preciousness of a readily available fresh water supply. It is for this reason that such companies are implementing water management schemes to improve the efficiency in which this resource is used. Located 15km north of Townsville the Bohle quarry has provided much of the material for the infrastructure existing throughout the Townsville region. Operational since the Second World War, CSR Readymix is the site's fourth owner. Water is a precious commodity at the Bohle quarry and is used primarily for dust suppression. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations state, less than 4 g/m2/month of dust fallout beyond the boundary of the quarry is permitted.

Patent management and social software

The worldwide increase of patent applications and the important role patents play in economic development make the management of intellectual property (IP) an important area for many companies. At the same time, the complexity in decision-making and IP process management necessitates a high degree of collaboration between various enterprise divisions such as strategy and policy making and market research. In this paper we present an ongoing case study at a large international automotive manufacturer that is exploring the potential of social software to support patent management. We conducted 31 semi-structured interviews to identify relevant patent processes at the company as well as typical operational problems within these processes. This leads us to derive four propositions on how social software can support patent processes. We conclude by providing an overview of the next steps in our research project. Our results present a first step in understanding the role of emerging social software services in enabling collaborative patent management.

Job stress as a preventable upstream determinant of common mental disorders: a review for practitioners and policy-makers

There is growing recognition of the important role of mental health in the workforce and in the workplace. At the same time, there has been a rapid growth of studies linking job stress and other psychosocial working conditions to common mental disorders, and a corresponding increase in public concern media attention to job stress and its impact upon worker health and well-being. This article provides a summary of the relevant scientific and medical literature on this topic for practitioners and policy-makers. It presents a primer on job stress concepts, an overview of the evidence linking job stress and common mental disorders, a summary of the intervention research on ways to prevent and control job stress, and a discussion of the strengths and weakness of the evidence base. We conclude that there is strong evidence linking job stress and common mental disorders, and that it is a substantial problem on the population level. On a positive note, however, the job stress intervention evidence also shows that the problem is preventable and can be effectively addressed by a combination of work- and worker-directed intervention.

Analysis of operating environments: A diagnostic model for linking science, society and policy for sustainability

Through analysis of the dynamics between science and decision-making, we argue that diagnosing fit-for purpose approaches to linking science and decision-making may be possible. Such diagnosis should enable identification of appropriate processes, institutions, objects (e.g. tools, information products) and relationships that can facilitate outcomes. We begin the paper by unsettling the traditional constructions that science must distance itself from debates about values and what is at stake, and so from policy making. Then, drawing from mixed methods case studies in coastal South-eastern Australia, we describe how scientific research has had a bearing on decisions affecting society and the environment. These analyses suggest that the willingness and capacity of research organisations, programmes or projects to actively reflect on and participate in the evolution of the 'operating environment' for their research is integral to their ability to inform outcomes through science. © 2014 Elsevier Ltd.

Model Prediction Control For Water Management Using Adaptive Prediction Accuracy

In the field of operational water management, Model Predictive Control (MPC) has gained popularity owing to its versatility and flexibility. The MPC controller, which takes predictions, time delay and uncertainties into account, can be designed for multi-objective management problems and for large-scale systems. Nonetheless, a critical obstacle, which needs to be overcome in MPC, is the large computational burden when a large-scale system is considered or a long prediction horizon is involved. In order to solve this problem, we use an adaptive prediction accuracy (APA) approach that can reduce the computational burden almost by half. The proposed MPC scheme with this scheme is tested on the northern Dutch water system, which comprises Lake IJssel, Lake Marker, the River IJssel and the North Sea Canal. The simulation results show that by using the MPC-APA scheme, the computational time can be reduced to a large extent and a flood protection problem over longer prediction horizons can be well solved.

Transfer function-noise modeling and spatial interpolation to evaluate the risk of extreme (shallow) water-table levels in the Brazilian Cerrados

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Water quality and plankton populations in an earthen polyculture pond

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Least limiting water range and crop yields as affected by crop rotations and tillage

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Effect of fertilization in water quality and in zooplankton community in open plankton-culture ponds

The effect of swine manure fertilization on the water quality of zooplankton artificial culture in two ponds was measured in diel cycles on different months (October 1999, January and March 2000). Fertilization affected directly water quality; values for total phosphorus were above 1.4 mgL(-1) and maximum rates for ammonia reached 108 mu gL(-1). Zooplankton community comprised four species, namely, Brachionus calyciflorus, B. falcatus, Moina sp. and Thermocyclops sp. B. falcatus (Rotifera) and Moina sp (Cladocera) were dominant respectively in January and in March. There was no difference in abundance of zooplankton between the two ponds (p>0.05), although adult cyclopoid Thermocyclops sp was different between diel cycles (p<0.05). There were significant differences (p<0.05) in dissolved oxygen, ammonia, total phosphorus, orthophosphate, nitrite and nitrate between ponds. In fact, only dissolved oxygen and pH were significantly different (p<0.05) between the ponds' surface and bottom. Organic fertilization also provided greater amount of nutrients and higher pH and conductivity, coupled to greater oscillations in the concentration of dissolved oxygen, directly affecting the zooplanktonic composition.

The effect of the ocean water immersion and UV ageing on the dynamic mechanical properties of the PPS/glass fiber composites

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Quality management and competitiveness: the diffusion of the ISO 9000 standards in Latin America and recommendations for government strategies

Includes bibliography

Evaluation of soil management and use in an Ultisol in a guava orchard in comparison with a sugarcane field and native forest area

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

Composition and quantification of the anthropogenic and natural fractions of wastes collected from the stormwater drainage system for discussions about the waste management and people behavior

A study was made of the composition of wastes collected from the pipes of the stormwater drainage system of Sorocaba, SP, Brazil (600 thousand inhabitants). A total of 10 samples weighing at least 100 kg each were sorted into 19 items to determine the fraction that can be considered natural (earth/sand, stones, organic matter, and water, the latter determined after oven-drying the samples) and the anthropogenic fraction (the remaining 15 items, especially construction and demolition wastes and packaging). Soil/sand was found to be the main item collected (52.5 % dry weight), followed by the water soaked into the waste (24.3 %), which meant that all the other wastes were saturated in mud, whose contents varied from 6.4 % (glass) to 87.2 % (metalized plastics packaging). In general, 83 % of the collected wastes can be classified as natural, but the remaining 17 % represent 2,000 kg of the most varied types of wastes discarded improperly every day on the streets of the city. This is an alarming amount of wastes that may clog parts of the drainage systems, causing troubles for all the population (like flooding) and must be strongly considered in municipal solid wastes management and in environmental education programs. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

Information, information management and governance

Includes bibliography

Renewable energy sources in Latin America and the Caribbean: situation and policy proposals

Includes bibliography