Sanitation entrepreneurship in rural Indonesia: a closer look

Enterprises are playing increasing roles in facilitating access to sanitation products and services in Indonesia and other developing economies. This study investigated the factors affecting the sustainability of sanitation enterprises in rural Indonesia. Interviews with 33 organisations representing sanitation enterprises, associations of sanitation enterprises, national and international civil society organisations (CSOs), donor organisations and national and local government agencies were conducted to explore different stakeholder perceptions about enterprise roles. The research revealed factors specific to the sanitation entrepreneurs themselves, such as their skills, entrepreneurial traits, pro-social motivations and intrinsic motivations, as well as factors within their enabling environment. Insufficient customer demand, inadequate capacity building opportunities, lack of financing options for entrepreneurs and their customers, and limited government support were observed to undermine sanitation enterprise success. Industry associations were found to be a useful intermediary support mechanism, particularly in the absence of significant government support for enterprises. However, such associations could also stifle innovation, and their role needs to be carefully developed, including financially sustainable models for such associations. This study has implications for how governments and CSOs in Indonesia and elsewhere might best support the role of enterprises and entrepreneurship towards improved sanitation outcomes.     

Organization–environment adaptation: A macro‐level shift in modeling work distress and morale

We theorized that organization–environment adaptation, the interaction between external demands and personnel resources, predicts distress and morale. We tested this hypothesis in 29 stations within one state police department, and combined three data sources. We measured environmental demands for policing via census data pertaining to the station precinct (e.g., per cent unemployed; per cent in public housing). We assessed resources via personnel numbers within stations. Outcomes were employee's perceptions of staff distress and morale at the station (N = 247), assessed twice, 14 months apart. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we found that environmental demands predicted perceptions of workgroup distress and morale and that the relationships were moderated by personnel resources. For distress, when resources were low, demands were positively associated with distress; when resources were high, demands were negatively associated with distress. For morale, when resources were high, demands were positively associated with morale; there was no relationship when resources were low. Results show that aversive and pleasurable reactions at work may be traced to how resources are employed to manage external demands. Results support a macro‐level shift in modeling distress and morale, incorporating external demands, and strategic management decisions regarding personnel resourcing. Our research suggests that rather than being a result of individual failure to adapt, compromised work ability may result from an organizational failure to adapt to the environmental context. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Short‐chain fatty acids affect cell‐association and invasion of HEp‐2 cells by Salmonella typhimurium

Abstract

This study demonstrates that the growth of S. typhimurium in Luria Bertani broth supplemented with acetate, propionate, butyrate, or a mixture of the three SCFA, affected cell‐association and the ability to invade cultured HEp‐2 cells. Cell‐association and invasion was determined after growth for 4 h of growth in the presence of the SCFA at pH 6 and 7. The results suggest that the growth rate of the culture may have affected cell‐association and invasion since accompanying the significant decrease in growth rate in the presence of SCFA at pH 6 was a decrease in cell‐association and invasion. However, the results also suggest that the individual SCFA may play a role in modulating cell‐association and the invasion phenotype and the regulation of cell‐association and invasion by the SCFA was dependent on the concentration and the pH of the medium. Although the growth rates were similar for S. typhimurium in the SCFA mixture, butyrate (100 mM) and propionate (50 mM) at pH 6, differences in cell‐association and invasion were observed among these cultures. Also, at pH 7, differences were observed among the SCFA treatments even though the growth rates were similar.     

Linking Riparian Dynamics and Groundwater: An Ecohydrologic Approach to Modeling Groundwater and Riparian Vegetation

The growing use of global freshwater supplies is increasing the need for improved modeling of the linkage between groundwater and riparian vegetation. Traditional groundwater models such as MODFLOW have been used to predict changes in regional groundwater levels, and thus riparian vegetation potential attributable to anthropogenic water use. This article describes an approach that improves on these modeling techniques through several innovations. First, evapotranspiration from riparian/wetland systems is modeled in a manner that more realistically reflects plant ecophysiology and vegetation complexity. In the authors’ model programs (RIP-ET and PRE-RIP-ET), the single, monotonically increasing evapotranspiration flux curve in traditional groundwater models is replaced with a set of ecophysiologically based curves, one for each plant functional group present. For each group, the curve simulates transpiration declines that occur both as water levels decline below rooting depths and as waters rise to levels that produce anoxic soil conditions. Accuracy is further improved by more effective spatial handling of vegetation distribution, which allows modeling of surface elevation and depth to water for multiple vegetation types within each large model cell. The use of RIP-ET in groundwater models can improve the accuracy of basin scale estimates of riparian evapotranspiration rates, riparian vegetation water requirements, and water budgets. Two case studies are used to demonstrate that RIP-ET produces significantly different evapotranspiration estimates than the traditional method. When combined with vegetation mapping and a supporting program (RIP-GIS), RIP-ET also enables predictions of riparian vegetation response to water use and development scenarios. The RIP-GIS program links the head distribution from MODFLOW with surface digital elevation models, producing moderate- to high-resolution depth-to-groundwater maps. Together with information on plant rooting depths, these can be used to predict vegetation response to water allocation decisions. The different evapotranspiration outcomes produced by traditional and RIP-ET approaches affect resulting interpretations of hydro-vegetation dynamics, including the effects of groundwater pumping stress on existing habitats, and thus affect subsequent policy decisions.     

Disturbance and recovery of large floodplain rivers

Disturbance in a river-floodplain system is defined as an unpredictable event that disrupts structure or function at the ecosystem, community, or population level. Disturbance can result in species replacements or losses, or shifts of ecosystems from one persistent condition to another. A disturbance can be a discrete event or a graded change in a controlling factor that eventually exceeds a critical threshold. The annual flood is the major driving variable that facilitates lateral exchanges of nutrients, organic matter, and organisms. The annual flood is not normally considered a disturbance unless its timing or magnitude is “atypical.” The record flood of 1973 had little effect on the biota at a long-term study site on the Mississippi River, but the absence of a flood during the 1976–1977 Midwestern drought caused short- and long-term changes. Body burdens of contaminants increased temporarily in key species, because of increased concentration resulting from reduced dilution. Reduced runoff and sediment input improved light penetration and increased the depth at which aquatic macrophytes could grow. Developing plant beds exerted a high degree of biotic control and were able to persist, despite the resumption of normal floods and turbidity in subsequent years. In contrast to the discrete event that disturbed the Mississippi River, a major confluent, the Illinois River, has been degraded by a gradual increase in sediment input and sediment resuspension. From 1958 to 1961 formerly productive backwaters and lakes along a 320-km reach of the Illinois River changed from clear, vegetated areas to turbid, barren basins. The change to a system largely controlled by abiotic factors was rapid and the degraded condition persists. Traditional approaches to experimental design are poorly suited for detecting control mechanisms and for determining the critical thresholds in large river-floodplains. Large river-floodplain systems cannot be manipulated or sampled as easily as small streams, and greater use should be made of man-made or natural disturbances and environmental restoration as opportunistic experiments to measure thresholds and monitor the recovery process. Coauthors are listed in alphabetical order.