Eliminating non-renewable CO2 emissions from sewage treatment: An anaerobic migrating bed reactor pilot plant study

The aim of this work was to demonstrate at pilot scale a high level of energy recovery from sewage utilising a primary Anaerobic Migrating Bed Reactor (AMBR) operating at ambient temperature to convert COD to methane. The focus is the reduction in non-renewable CO2 emissions resulting from reduced energy requirements for sewage treatment. A pilot AMBR was operated on screened sewage over the period June 2003 to September 2004. The study was divided into two experimental phases. In Phase 1 the process operated at a feed rate of 10 L/h (HRT 50 h), SRT 63 days, average temperature 28 degrees C and mixing time fraction 0.05. In Phase 2 the operating parameters were 20 L/h, 26 days, 16 degrees C and 0.025. Methane production was 66% of total sewage COD in Phase 1 and 23% in Phase 2. Gas mixing of the reactor provided micro-aeration which suppressed sulphide production. Intermittent gas mixing at a useful power input of 6 W/m(3) provided satisfactory process performance in both phases. Energy consumption for mixing was about 1.5% of the energy conversion to methane in both operating phases. Comparative analysis with previously published data confirmed that methane supersaturation resulted in significant losses of methane in the effluent of anaerobic treatment systems. No cases have been reported where methane was considered to be supersaturated in the effluent. We have shown that methane supersaturation is likely to be significant and that methane losses in the effluent are likely to have been greater than previously predicted. Dissolved methane concentrations were measured at up to 2.2 times the saturation concentration relative to the mixing gas composition. However, this study has also demonstrated that despite methane supersaturation occurring, microaeration can result in significantly lower losses of methane in the effluent (< 11% in this study), and has demonstrated that anaerobic sewage treatment can genuinely provide energy recovery. The goal of demonstrating a high level of energy recovery in an ambient anaerobic bioreactor was achieved. An AMBR operating at ambient temperature can achieve up to 70% conversion of sewage COD to methane, depending on SRT and temperature. (c) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Seropositivity to Rabbit Haemorrhagic Disease Virus in non-target mammals during periods of viral activity in a population of wild rabbits in New Zealand

As part of a longitudinal study of the epidemiology of rabbit haemorrhagic disease virus (RHDV) in New Zealand, serum samples were obtained from trapped feral animals that may have consumed European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus) carcasses (non-target species). During a 21-month period when RHDV infection was monitored in a defined wild rabbit population, 16 feral house cats (Felis catus), 11 stoats (Mustela erminea), four ferrets (Mustela furo) and 126 hedgehogs (Erinaceus europaeus) were incidentally captured in the rabbit traps. The proportions of samples that were seropositive to RHDV were 38% for cats, 18% for stoats, 25% for ferrets and 4% for hedgehogs. Seropositive non-target species were trapped in April 2000, in the absence of an overt epidemic of rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) in the rabbit population, but evidence of recent infection in rabbits was shown. Seropositive non-target species were found up to 2.5 months before and 1 month after this RHDV activity in wild rabbits was detected. Seropositive predators were also trapped on the site between 1 and 4.5 months after a dramatic RHD epidemic in February 2001. This study has shown that high antibody titres can be found in non-target species when there is no overt evidence of RHDV infection in the rabbit population, although a temporal relationship could not be assessed statistically owning to the small sample sizes. Predators and scavengers might be able to contribute to localised spread of RHDV through their movements.

The effect of non-standard employment on work-family balance

Across the last four decades, the structure of the Australian labour market has changed profoundly as non-standard forms of employment have become more prevalent. According to many researchers, the growth of non-standard work has been driven by employee preferences, particularly among married women, for greater flexibility to balance paid work with domestic responsibilities and other non-work related pursuits. In contrast, other researchers argue that the increasing prevalence of non-standard employment reflects employer demands for greater staffing flexibility. From this perspective, non-standard forms of employment are considered to have a negative effect on work-family balance. This paper explores whether non-standard employment is associated with improved or poorer work-to-family conflict and tests whether experiences vary by gender. It concentrates on three common forms of non-standard employment: part-time employment, casual and fixed-term work contracts and flexible scheduling practices (such as evening work, weekend work and irregular rostering). Analysis is based on 2299 employed parents from the first wave of the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics on Australia (HILDA) project. Results show that few scheduling measures are significant determinants of work-family balance. However, part-time employment is associated with reduced work-to-family strain for both men and women, even after controlling for various other employment and household related characteristics. Casual employment, in contrast, incurs the cost of poorer work-family balance for men. Surprisingly, HILDA data show that overall men experience greater work-to-family strain than women.

Sleep disruption and domestic violence: exploring the interconnections between mothers and children

This paper argues that sleep disruption is both a strategy and an effect of violence and abuse which profoundly affects the lives of women and children. This paper traces the interconnections between the patterns of sleeping (not sleeping) for women and children living with and recovering from the effects of violence and abuse. It highlights the threat to the emotional and physical well-being of children and women and provides a non-pathologizing route into an exploration of one of the symptoms of trauma. It is based on a pilot study which interviewed 17 women, 14 of whom were mothers to 28 children. Mothers reported that many of their children experienced nightmares, bed-wetting, night panics and disrupted sleep patterns. Recovery of the ability to sleep was often slow and uneven with interactive effects between women and children slowing progress.

Comparing transport emissions and impacts for energy recovery from domestic waste (EfW): centralised and distributed disposal options for two UK Counties

Many local authorities (LAs) are currently working to reduce both greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of municipal solid waste (MSW) sent to landfill. The recovery of energy from waste (EfW) can assist in meeting both of these objectives. The choice of an EfW policy combines spatial and non-spatial decisions which may be handled using Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This paper addresses the impact of transporting MSW to EfW facilities, analysed as part of a larger decision support system designed to make an overall policy assessment of centralised (large-scale) and distributed (local-scale) approaches. Custom-written ArcMap extensions are used to compare centralised versus distributed approaches, using shortest-path routing based on expected road speed. Results are intersected with 1-kilometre grids and census geographies for meaningful maps of cumulative impact. Case studies are described for two counties in the United Kingdom (UK); Cornwall and Warwickshire. For both case study areas, centralised scenarios generate more traffic, fuel costs and emitted carbon per tonne of MSW processed.

Governance in foreign policy-making in Germany and Poland and Polish-German relations:the role of non-state actors

This thesis examines the influence of non-state actors on Polish-German relations by considering foreign policy-making towards Poland in Germany and vice versa. The approach chosen for this thesis is interdisciplinary and takes into consideration literature from domestic politics (Area Studies), Foreign Policy Analysis and International Relations (IR). The thesis argues that IR, by purely looking into the quality of inter-state relations, too often treats these relations as a result of policies emanating from the relevant governments, without considering the policies’ background. Therefore, the thesis argues that it is necessary to engage with the domestic factors which might explain where foreign policies come from. It points out that non-state actors influence governments’ choices by supplying resources, and by cooperating or competing with the government on an issue at stake. In order to determine the degree of influence that non-state actors can have on foreign policymaking two variables are examined: the institutionalisation of the state relations in question; and the domestic structures of the relevant states. Specifically, the thesis examines the institutionalisation of Polish-German relations, and examines Germany’s and Poland’s domestic structures and their effect on the two states’ foreign policy-making in general. Thereafter, the thesis uses case studies in order to unravel the influence of non-state actors on specific foreign policies. Three case studies are examined in detail: (i) Poland’s EU accession negotiations with regard to the free movement of capital chapter of the acquis communautaire; (ii) Germany’s EU 2004 Eastern Enlargement negotiations with regard to the free movement of workers chapter of the acquis communautaire; and (iii) Germany’s decision to establsh a permanent exhibition in Berlin that will depict the expulsions of millions of Germans from the East following WWII.

A hazai védekezőtől a regionális „támadóig” – az OTP nemzetköziesedésének időbeni alakulása (From the domestic defender to the regional striker – a timebased process of the OTP Bank’s internationalization)

A vállalatok nemzetköziesedése egy széles körben vizsgált szakterület, különösképpen olyan vállalatok esetében (az ún. tradicionális multik), amelyek hagyományosan nemzetközi orientációjú országokból (Triád) származnak. A nemzetközi piacokon viszonylag újnak számító közép-kelet-európai cégek terjeszkedése az üzleti kontextus változásával párhuzamosan zajlott. Következésképpen ahhoz, hogy megértsük a nemzetköziesedés időben zajló folyamatát, a vállalatok nemzetközi evolúcióját a kontextussal összefüggésben kell vizsgálni. A vállalatok nemzetköziesedésének legelterjedtebb kutatási módszerei a nagymintás keresztmetszeti vizsgálatok, amelyek nem adnak lehetőséget a nemzetközi fejlődés időbeni alakulásának megfigyelésére és a mintázat mögött rejlő valós okok feltárására. A jelen tanulmány egy longitudinális kutatási modell mentén vizsgálja egy nem tradicionális multi, a hazai OTP nemzetköziesedésének időbeni alakulását, feltárva a nemzetközivé válás folyamata során kialakuló komplex kapcsolatrendszert. _______ The purpose of the present paper is to describe the internationalisation process of a non-traditional multinational, the Hungarian OTP Bank and to understand the dynamic linkages between the spatial and temporal context and the content of firm internationalization using a phenomenon oriented longitudinal research design. The paper contributes to the time-based processual view of firm internationalization arguing that in order to understand firm internationalization along time one should observe organizations and their contextual environments as complex interacting processes. By analysing the interaction between the multi-level processes that shape internationalization, one can explore the reasons behind the dynamic profile of firm internationalization. The paper applies an interpretative approach focusing on local causality.

Autonomy and authority in the lives of children who work as domestic servants in Ghana

Limited literature exists on Ghana's child domestic servants, and researchers have found it difficult to locate and study these children. The research for this dissertation used qualitative research methodologies and non-probabilistic sampling techniques to make it possible to interview child domestic servants, their parents, employers and recruiters in Ghana. The findings from the qualitative analyses informed the second part of this study, which was quantitative and tested hypotheses using crosstabulations and logistic regression analyses that were based on survey data from the Ghana Statistical Service. Explanatory variables in the quantitative analyses included lineage, level of education and relationships to the household head. ^ This study located findings about the processes of children's recruitment into domestic servitude, their working conditions and methods of remuneration in theories of slavery to answer the question of whether or not child domestic servants are slaves. According to the findings, elite households in Ghana exploit children from rural regions because they have taken advantage of a historical practice that allowed children to live with older members of their extended families to provide domestic services and in return, be given the chance to receive formal education or to learn a trade. The participants in the qualitative part of this research described the treatments that they receive from their employers as slavery. Nevertheless, the processes of their recruitment and the age at which most of them accepted such job offers made it difficult to categorize a majority of them as contemporary slaves. ^

Turkey and neo-Ottomanism: Domestic sources, dynamics and foreign policy

This study examined the relationship between the Turkish Islamic movements and the present government of the Justice and Development Party ( Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AK Party). Since the AK Party came to power in 2002 it implemented unparalleled political reforms and pursued to improve Turkey’s relations with the EU. Opponents argued that because of the dominance of the secular military in Turkish politics, the AK Party is forced to secretly advance its Islamic agenda using the language and symbolism of democracy and human rights. This study argued that the ideas of the AK Party show similarities with the “Ottomanist” thought of the late Ottoman era. With special reference to the preservation of the Ottoman State, Ottomanism in an eclectic way was able to incorporate Islamic principles like freedom, justice and consultation into the political arena which was increasingly dominated by the secular European concepts. Literature on Islam and politics in Turkey, however, disregards the Ottoman roots of freedom and pluralism and tends to reduce the relationship between religion and state into exclusively confrontational struggles. This conceptualization of the political process relies on particular non-Turkish Muslim experiences which do not necessarily represent Islam’s venture in Turkey. Contrary to the prevailing scholarship, Islamic movements in Turkey, namely, Naqshbandi, National View and Nur, which are discussed in detail in this study, are not monolithic. They all uphold the same creedal tenets of Islam but they have sharp differences in terms of how they conceptualize the role of religious agency in politics. I argue that this diversity is a result of three distinct methodologies of Islamic religious life which are the Tariqah (Tarikat ), Shariah (Şeriat), and Haqiqah ( Hakikat). The differences between these three approaches represent a typological hierarchy in the formation of the Muslim/believer as an agent of Islamic identity. Through these different if not conflicting modes, the AK Party reconnected itself with Turkey’s Ottoman heritage in a post-Ottoman, secular setting and was able to develop an eclectic political identity of Neo-Ottomanism that is evident in the flexibility if not inconsistency of its domestic and foreign policy preferences.

Turkey and Neo-Ottomanism: Domestic Sources, Dynamics and Foreign Policy

This study examined the relationship between the Turkish Islamic movements and the present government of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi, AK Party). Since the AK Party came to power in 2002 it implemented unparalleled political reforms and pursued to improve Turkey’s relations with the EU. Opponents argued that because of the dominance of the secular military in Turkish politics, the AK Party is forced to secretly advance its Islamic agenda using the language and symbolism of democracy and human rights. This study argued that the ideas of the AK Party show similarities with the “Ottomanist” thought of the late Ottoman era. With special reference to the preservation of the Ottoman State, Ottomanism in an eclectic way was able to incorporate Islamic principles like freedom, justice and consultation into the political arena which was increasingly dominated by the secular European concepts. Literature on Islam and politics in Turkey, however, disregards the Ottoman roots of freedom and pluralism and tends to reduce the relationship between religion and state into exclusively confrontational struggles. This conceptualization of the political process relies on particular non-Turkish Muslim experiences which do not necessarily represent Islam’s venture in Turkey. Contrary to the prevailing scholarship, Islamic movements in Turkey, namely, Naqshbandi, National View and Nur, which are discussed in detail in this study, are not monolithic. They all uphold the same creedal tenets of Islam but they have sharp differences in terms of how they conceptualize the role of religious agency in politics. I argue that this diversity is a result of three distinct methodologies of Islamic religious life which are the Tariqah (Tarikat), Shariah (Şeriat), and Haqiqah (Hakikat). The differences between these three approaches represent a typological hierarchy in the formation of the Muslim/believer as an agent of Islamic identity. Through these different if not conflicting modes, the AK Party reconnected itself with Turkey’s Ottoman heritage in a post-Ottoman, secular setting and was able to develop an eclectic political identity of Neo-Ottomanism that is evident in the flexibility if not inconsistency of its domestic and foreign policy preferences.

Disruptive Threads and Renegade Yarns: Domestic Textile Making in Selected Women's Writing 1811-1925

Images of domestic textiles (items made at home for consumption within the household) and textile making form an important subtext to women’s writing, both during and after industrialization. Through a close reading of five novels from the period 1811-1925, this thesis will assert that a detailed understanding of textile work and its place in women’s daily lives is critical to a deeper understanding of social, sexual and political issues from a woman’s perspective. The first chapter will explore the history of the relationship between women and domestic textile making, and the changes wrought to the latter by the Industrial Revolution. The second chapter will examine the role of embroidery in the construction of “appropriate” feminine gentility in Jane Austen’s Mansfield Park (1814). The third chapter, on Elizabeth Gaskell’s Cranford (1853), will explore how the older female body became a repository for anxieties about class mobility and female power at the beginning of the Victorian era. The fourth chapter will compare Sara Jeannette Duncan’s A Social Departure (1890) and Kate Chopin’s The Awakening (1899) to consider how later Victorian women both internalized and refuted public narratives of domestic textile making in a quest for “self-ownership.” The last chapter, on Martha Ostenso’s Wild Geese (1925), examines the corrosive, yet ultimately redemptive, relationships of a family of women trapped by abuse and degradation. For all five authors, images of textiles and textile making allow them to speak to issues that were usually only discussed within a community of women: sexuality, desire, aging, marriage, and motherhood. In all five works, textile making “talks back” to the power structures that marginalize women, and lends insight into the material and emotional circumstances of women’s lives.

Domestic Violence Perpetrators - Evidence informed responses

Domestic violence is a serious, widespread public, social and health problem that affects the lives of many women, children and men. There is also evidence to suggest it has one of the highest rates of recidivism. This comprehensive book provides an overview of what the research tells us about the perpetrators of domestic violence and what works, and what doesn’t, in promoting positive change.

Collecting together the most up-to-date evidence from the international literature and bringing psychological, sociological, gendered and socio-political theoretical perspectives to bear on the issue, the book explores:
- what domestic violence is, why it happens and how it can be measured
- who the perpetrators of domestic violence are, including discussion of non-stereotypical patterns such as male victims, female perpetrators, couples where the abuse is mutual, and couples with abusive relationships who want the abuse to end but the relationship to be sustained
- strategies for engaging perpetrators in interventions and for promoting behaviour change
- evidence-informed interventions, programmes and policies for working with perpetrators
- where robust evidence is lacking and more research needs to be undertaken.

Mining Police-Recorded Offence and Incident Data to Inform a Definition of Repeat Domestic Abuse Victimization for Statistical Reporting

Following inspections in 2013 of all police forces, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary found that one-third of forces could not provide data on repeat victims of domestic abuse (DA) and concluded that in general there were ambiguities around the term ‘repeat victim’ and that there was a need for consistent and comparable statistics on DA. Using an analysis of police-recorded DA data from two forces, an argument is made for including both offences and non-crime incidents when identifying repeat victims of DA. Furthermore, for statistical purposes the counting period for repeat victimizations should be taken as a rolling 12 months from first recorded victimization. Examples are given of summary statistics that can be derived from these data down to Community Safety Partnership level. To reinforce the need to include both offences and incidents in analyses, repeat victim chronologies from policerecorded data are also used to briefly examine cases of escalation to homicide as an example of how they can offer new insights and greater scope for evaluating risk and effectiveness of interventions.

Comparison of growth traits between abundant and uncommon forms of a non-native vine, Dolichandra unguis-cati (Bignoniaceae) in Australia

Cat’s claw creeper vine, Dolichandra unguis-cati (L.) Lohmann (syn. Macfadyena unguis-cati (L.) Gentry) (Bignoniaceae), is a major environmental weed in Australia. Two distinct forms of this weed (‘long’ and ‘short’ pod), with differences in leaf morphology and fruit size, occur in Australia. The long pod form has only been reported in less than fifteen localities in the whole of south-east Queensland, while the short pod form is widely distributed in Queensland and New South Wales. This study sought to compare growth traits such as specific leaf area, relative growth rate, stem length, shoot/root ratio, tuber biomass and branching architecture between these forms. These traits were monitored under glasshouse conditions over a period of 18 months. Short pod exhibited higher values of relative growth rates, stem length, number of tubers and specific leaf area than long pod, but only after 10 months of plant growth. Prior to this, long and short pod did not differ significantly. Higher values for these traits have been described as characteristics of successful colonizers. Results from this study could partly explain why the short pod form is more widely distributed in Australia while long pod is confined to a few localities.

Structural features of the epididymal region of the domestic duck (Anas plathyrynchos)

A região epididimária do pato doméstico era composta pelos ductúlos eferentes, os quais hitotopologicamente foram caracterizados como dúctulos eferentes proximal e distal e, sequencialmente, pelo ducto epididimal. O epitélio dos dúctulos eferentes era pseudo-estratificado, formado por células colunares. O epitélio dos ductos epididimários mostrou-se também pseudo-estratificado, mas não ciliado. de acordo com as análises histomorfométricas, a média da altura epitelial foi significativamente maior nos dútulos esferentes distais, diferindo das baixas médias de altura epitelial observadas nos dúctulos eferentes proximais e ducto epididimal. A média dos diâmetros máximos e mínimos foi significativamente maior nos dúctulos eferentes proximais, comparativamente as médias dos mesmos diâmetros dos outros dúctulos.