Water industry asset management: a proposed service-performance model for investment

The water industry in England and Wales has developed over the last century, from small organisations serving local communities to large integrated companies in private ownership, overseen by a government regulator. Asset management practice has developed greatly in the 17 years since privatisation, with companies able to plan their operations and investment as they believe appropriate for the provision of customer services, subject to justifying their plans to the economic, quality and environmental regulators. Investment has flowed into the industry to replace deteriorated assets and to improve the quality of drinking water and rivers. The asset base is complex and, with a replacement value of approximately £231 billion at the 2002–2003 price base index suitable approaches are required to ensure that both the water service and the sewerage service are delivered at the most appropriate long‐term cost. The 2004 UK water industry price review was supported by the introduction of a Capital Maintenance Planning Common Framework to help companies understand and explain their maintenance investment requirement. In this paper, a service‐performance model is proposed to improve managers' understanding of the way in which businesses and the environment change over time, taking account of maintenance and other strategic requirements. Although developed with the water industry in mind, the model is equally applicable to other asset‐intensive industries.     

Editorial

In this month's issue of Filtration+Separation we focus on two of the biggest areas of growth for filtration and separation, namely membranes technology and their application in the treatment of water and wastewater. Anthony Bennett reviews recent developments in reverse osmosis (RO) technology and discusses their contribution to bringing down total costs of water treatment project s. Ross Severn from Aquator Group presenting long term operating data from MBR plants in the UK and Ireland that incorporate submerged plate membrane technology, providing an interesting insight into operation and maintenance issues faced by plant operators. Continuing the membrane and wastewater treatment theme we present a synopsis of the 'Membranes for Industrial Wastewater Recovery and Re-use' by Drs Simon Judd and Bruce Jefferson (Cranfield University, UK), that looks at the pros and cons of using membrane systems for the recovery and re-use of process wastewater.     

Interactive training versus reading to teach respiratory protection.

A tenet of behavioral education is that interactive training produces superior retention compared with reading. However, this has not often been directly tested and never with practical occupational information in working adults. Adults from diverse occupational backgrounds learned the principles of proper respiratory protection presented (a) in a book, (b) on a computer monitor, (c) through interactive computerized training consisting of textual information and illustrative pictures followed by quizzes and feedback, or (d) passively viewing the information and quizzes in Condition c on a computer monitor. Interactive training produced significantly more correct test answers at immediate posttraining, 1 week, and 2 months. This study demonstrated the superiority of interactive training for teaching occupational safety and health information in working adults. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adolescents' Performance on the Iowa Gambling Task: Implications for the Development of Decision Making and Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex.

Healthy adolescents (79 girls, 66 boys), ages 9-17, completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT; A. Bechara, A. R. Damasio, H. Damasio, & S. W. Anderson, 1994) as well as working memory (digit span) and behavioral inhibition (go/no-go) tasks. Cross-sectional age-related changes were seen on all 3 tasks. Gender differences were seen in IGT deck preference and attentional variables (i.e., go/no-go hit rate and forward digit span). After age, gender, and general intellectual abilities were controlled for, IGT performance was not predicted by working memory or behavioral inhibition scores. Findings suggest that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex or its connections are functionally maturing during adolescence in a manner that can be distinguished from maturation of other prefrontal regions. Development of these functions may continue into young adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Muscle metastasis in a patient with epidermoid carcinoma of the lung

Diagnosis of vertically acquired human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is often difficult because of transplacentally acquired maternal antibodies. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test is commercially available and has high sensitivity and specificity. To evaluate the usefulness of PCR testing in the early diagnosis of perinatally acquired HIV infection, we reviewed records of 122 children having follow-up in the Northeast Florida Pediatric AIDS Program. Seventy-two children were excluded for various reasons. Of the remaining 50 children, 37 had PCR testing. In 5 children, the initial PCR test was done at > 18 months of age. Results of PCR testing were positive in 8 of 13 (62%) at birth, 12 of 18 (67%) by 1 month of age, 18 of 23 (78%) by 2 months of age, and 20 of 24 (83%) by 3 months of age. In 24 of 27 (85%), results were positive by the time the children reached 4 months of age. Our data suggest that the PCR test is a useful tool for early diagnosis of vertically transmitted HIV infection.     

The relationship between smile type and play type during parent-infant play.

This study examined the relationship between smile type and play type during parent–infant interactions in the home. Thirty-six mother–infant and father–infant dyads were videotaped playing for 10 min. Smile type (basic, Duchenne, and duplay smiles) and play type (object, physical, vocal, and book reading) were coded. Results of loglinear analysis indicated that different types of smiles occur during different types of play more often than expected if distributed equally. In addition, different smile-type and play-type patterns occurred for father–infant dyads compared with mother–infant dyads. Qualitative analyses were used to generate hypotheses about the reasons why different types of smiles occurred during various play activities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support and prognosis in patients at increased psychosocial risk recovering from myocardial infarction.

Objective: To compare the impact of network support and different types of perceived functional support on all-cause mortality or nonfatal reinfarction for patients with a recent acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Design: Participants were recruited from the Enhancing Recovery in Coronary Heart Disease (ENRICHD) trial; 2,481 AMI patients with depression or low social support were randomized to a cognitive-behavioral intervention or to a usual care control group. Data collection for certain measures of social support was limited: 2,466 participants completed the ENRICHD Social Support Inventory; 2,457 completed the Perceived Social Support Scale; 1,296 completed the Social Network Questionnaire; and 707 completed the Interpersonal Support and Evaluation List, Tangible Support subscale. Patients also completed the Beck Depression Inventory and were followed for up to 4.5 years. Main Outcome Measure: Time to death or nonfatal reinfarction. Results: Over the follow-up period, 599 patients (24%) died or had a nonfatal AMI. Survival models controlling age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, smoking, antidepressant use, and a composite measure of increased risk revealed that higher levels of perceived social support were associated with improved outcome for patients without elevated depression but not for patients with high levels of depression. Neither perceived tangible support nor network support were associated with more frequent adverse events. Conclusion: AMI patients should be assessed for multiple dimensions of perceived functional support and depression to identify those at increased psychosocial risk who may benefit from treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

One-at-a-time versus grouped presentation of mug book pictures: Some surprising results.

Eyewitnesses to a simulated crime attempted to identify the perpetrator from a computerized mug book. The 208 mug book pictures were presented either 1 mug shot per page or in groups of 12 mug shots per page. Half of the mug books were arranged by similarity to the perpetrator as determined by a facial recognition algorithm, and half were randomly arranged. In contrast to past findings with photospreads, false-positive identifications were significantly higher using the one-at-a-time procedure than the grouped procedure. Results suggest that the best practice for mug books may be the use of groups of pictures per page rather than the one-at-a-time procedure long advocated by experts for use in lineups and photospreads. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)