The quantity and complexity of scientific and technological information provided to policymakers have been on the rise for decades. Yet little is known about how to provide science advice to legislatures, even though scientific information is widely acknowledged as valuable for decision-making in many policy domains. We asked academics, science advisers, and policymakers from both developed and developing nations to identify, review and refine, and then rank the most pressing research questions on legislative science advice (LSA). Experts generally agree that the state of evidence is poor, especially regarding developing and lower-middle income countries. Many fundamental questions about science advice processes remain unanswered and are of great interest: whether legislative use of scientific evidence improves the implementation and outcome of social programs and policies; under what conditions legislators and staff seek out scientific information or use what is presented to them; and how different communication channels affect informational trust and use. Environment and health are the highest priority policy domains for the field. The contextspecific nature of many of the submitted questions-whether to policy issues, institutions, or locations-suggests one of the significant challenges is aggregating generalizable evidence on LSA practices. Understanding these research needs represents a first step in advancing a global agenda for LSA research.Notes 1 By policymakers, we mean those in government who use science to make policy decisions, whether members of staff or elected representatives. ARTICLE PALGRAVE COMMUNICATIONS | https://doi.
The feasibility of employing wood-bentonite clay composite material as a low-cost and effective adsorbent for removal of cations from wastewater has been investigated. The wood-bentonite clay composites were prepared by a solution intercalation method. Results showed that the percentage adsorption of Pb 2+ , Mg 2+ and Ca 2+ from the effluent water was 88.46, 81.12 and 95.76 % respectively, using 10 g/L of the adsorbent. The desorbed wood-bentonite clay composites could be reused for adsorption of the cations.
As global warming continues to be a challenge, there is urgency to look into fossil fuel alternatives for sustainable energy supplies which have also been hastened by the volatility of crude oil prices and the fact that fossil fuel depletion is clearly in sight. Zimbabwe has not been spared of the negative effects of climate change which have affected both the food and energy sectors. This has proved to be a major challenge for the sustainable development of the country's economy. In an effort to be energy independent, the country has for over decades looked into the prospect of utilising its vast biomass resources to produce biofuels. These programmes have been met with a number of challenges which has seen most such projects not succeeding. The current paper gives a narration of the history of biofuel programmes in Zimbabwe looking at their driving factors and reasons that led to their collapses. Lack of a national biofuel policy is identified as the major factor that has been the missing link in the past and must be addressed. The paper goes further to call for the crafting of a National Biofuel Policy for Zimbabwe highlighting the major thematic issues it would need to cover. An implementation plan for the programme has been proposed.
Wastewater discharged into municipal sewer systems from electroplating process plants contains a heavy load of metal ions and often requires pre-discharge treatment. Treatment of wastewater to reduce the concentration of metal ions employing an adsorption process has been studied using a wide range of adsorbents. In this work, the concentrations of chromium and nickel ions in wastewater samples from a local electroplating shop were found to be above the limits set out by the Bulawayo City Council, and the Environmental Management Agency, a statutory agency under the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Government of Zimbabwe. Furthermore, the removal of chromium and nickel ions from the wastewater using magnetite as an adsorbent is studied. Magnetite particulate adsorbent used in this experiment has demonstrated to be an effective adsorbent material. At the optimum process operating pH of 4 – 7 the absorbent was able to achieve removal rates of up to 99% for chromium and 98% for nickel. The adsorption processes for chromium and nickel have been proven to be physical in nature using the Dubinin-Radushkevich isotherm model. Also, the adsorption kinetics data fit well with pseudo second-order kinetic model.
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