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Resilience of critical water infrastructure systems across the UK
No full textThe UK benefits from an efficient and reliable water and sewage infrastructure. It is providing a continuous very high-quality supply of piped water for almost all households and connection to a mains sewerage system. The critical water infrastructure's development path can be traced to the beginnings of the early 19th century, it has been shaped by the industrial revolution, urbanisation and increasing demand driven by economic development and high environmental standards, The roles of government, privatisation for water utilities and companies, regulators and other authorities continue to present current and future challenges across the UK. This paper describes critical water supply infrastructure systems across the UK, its development and effect of the climate change, urbanisation and population growth in future demand and supply. Further, the applicability of using waste water in supporting a bio-circular economy, smart and intelligent water network technologies to improve the reliability and longevity of physical water infrastructure can be improved by data analytics and customer led changes for the sustainable water supply solutions is meeting these demands
Book Review: Dead in the Water: A Very Angry Book About our Greatest Environmental Catastrophe. The Death of the Murray-Darling Basin, edited by RichardBeasley, 2021, 296 pp, ISBN: 9781760878450.
Get PDFThis is indeed a very angry book. For those with delicate sensibilities and a low-level of tolerance for spirited language, we would recommend that you turn away now, and seek insights elsewhere. For everyone else, we cannot recommend this book highly enough
Incorporating Uncertainty in the Economic Evaluation of Capital Investments for Water Use Efficiency Improvements
Get PDFLong-run investments in wateruse efficiency (WUE) are risky, particularly where water is required as a secure input.
State-of-nature representations of supply outcomes provide an increased understanding of the vulnerability of capital and water users to adverse events. Using Californian data, we couple cost-benefit analysis to a state-contingent
analysis approach to explore the riskiness of WUE investment payoffs and cash-flow outcomes when frequencies of states of nature change over the investment course. Critically, this allows us to represent decision-maker adaptation in the face of risk and uncertainty and the role of subsidy policy in those decisions. (JEL D61, D81
Prediction of Streptococcus uberis clinical mastitis treatment success in dairy herds by means of mass spectrometry and machine-learning
Get PDFStreptococcus uberis is one of the leading pathogens causing mastitis worldwide. Identification of S. uberis strains that fail to respond to treatment with antibiotics is essential for better decision making and treatment selection. We demonstrate that the combination of supervised machine learning and matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization/time of flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry can discriminate strains of S. uberis causing clinical mastitis that are likely to be responsive or unresponsive to treatment. Diagnostics prediction systems trained on 90 individuals from 26 different farms achieved up to 86.2% and 71.5% in terms of accuracy and Cohen’s kappa. The performance was further increased by adding metadata (parity, somatic cell count of previous lactation and count of positive mastitis cases) to encoded MALDI-TOF spectra, which increased accuracy and Cohen’s kappa to 92.2% and 84.1% respectively. A computational framework integrating protein–protein networks and structural protein information to the machine learning results unveiled the molecular determinants underlying the responsive and unresponsive phenotypes
Dietary supplements, harm associated with synthetic adulterants and potential governance solutions
Get PDFIntentional adulteration of dietary supplements with undeclared synthetic drugs illegally enhances the supplement’s purported efficacy and is a growing global crime issue that can cause actual harm to unsuspecting victims. The aim of this research is to identify the potential adulterants of interest in dietary supplement adulteration and then to consider what governance systems can be implemented to reduce the likelihood of such practices occurring. Firstly, existing academic and grey literature is iteratively reviewed to define and outline the challenge of dietary supplement adulteration. Three types of supplement are considered in particular, namely those supplements promoted for weight loss, sexual enhancement, and muscle building. Two regulatory databases (the European Union Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed database and the United States Food and Drink Administration database of Recalls, Market Withdrawals, & Safety Alerts databases) are used to determine the incidence of adulteration by product type and the nature of the adulterants being used. The role of pharmacovigilance governance systems that focus on dietary supplements is considered
Big fishes: Building loyal brand communities in equity crowdfunding by implementing the positive face of FOMO in the post-Covid era
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to inform entrepreneurs about how best to implement the positive face of the fear of missing out (FOMO) to foster brand community building in the context of equity crowdfunding in the post-Covid era. Fifteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with crowdinvestors from Europe and North America investing via different equity crowdfunding portals, to obtain primary in-depth qualitative data. Using thematic analysis, the authors investigated how FOMO influences the crowdinvestor’s decision making. Findings suggest that FOMO is a powerful belongingness facilitator to support the crowdinvestor’s self-determination strategies and thus their willingness to be part of a crowdfunding community to share in its values and beliefs. As such it can be used by entrepreneurs to activate identification mechanisms through which they can create a loyal fan base. An entrepreneurial action plan is proposed to guide the entrepreneur in making the most of the equity crowdfunding opportunity through the positive face of FOMO
Integrating Narcissus‑derived galanthamine production into traditional upland farming systems
Get PDFAlzheimer’s disease (AD) is a disorder associated with progressive degeneration of memory and cognitive function. Galantamine is a licenced treatment for AD but supplies of the plant alkaloid that it is produced from, galanthamine, are limited. This three-year system study tested the
potential to combine Narcissus-derived galanthamine production with grassland-based ruminant production. Replicate plots of permanent pasture were prepared with and without bulbs of Narcissus pseudonarcissus sown as lines into the sward. Two different fertiliser regimes were imposed. The above-ground green biomass of N. pseudonarcissus was harvested in early spring and the galanthamine yield determined. In the second harvest year a split-plot design was implemented with lines of N. pseudonarcissus cut annually and biennially. All plots were subsequently grazed by ewes and lambs and animal performance recorded. Incorporation of N. pseudonarcissus into grazed permanent
pasture had no detrimental effects on the health or performance of the sheep which subsequently grazed the pasture. There was no consistency to the effects of fertiliser rates on galanthamine yields. There was no difference in overall galanthamine yield if N. pseudonarcissus was cut biennially (1.64 vs. 1.75 kg galanthamine/ha for annual combined vs biennial cuts respectively; s.e.d = 0.117 kg galanthamine/ha; ns). This study verified the feasibility of a dual cropping approach to producing plant-derived galanthamine
The strategic case for equitable recognition of rural economies in Levelling Up policies
Get PDFThe Government’s Levelling Up aspiration is to rebalance
growth, reduce inequalities and share prosperity across
UK nations, regions and localities. However, most policy
speeches and commentaries focus on cities and towns as
engines of growth, and inequality of left-behind industrial
centres. This perspective fails to recognise or harness
rural economies’ extensive and diverse contributions,
tackle rural challenges or release rural potential
