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As self-advocate leaders, the authors aim to present the perspective of people with learning disabilities on “Behaviour that Challenges: A Unified Approach”. Building on firsthand accounts which reveal compassion and cruelty in the health-care system, the authors propose ways of working, which confirm and add to the thinking in “A Unified Approach”, especially “Capable Environments”.

To ensure integrity, the authors engaged contributors with lived experience of admission to secure care after acting in ways that put themselves or others at risk. The authors included the perspective of people whose severe learning disabilities limit them to few or no words as best they could by interviewing their parents. The authors were supported and advised in the writing of this commentary while retaining full control throughout.

While recognising compassionate care, the authors suggest the provider’s power over a person’s life is a central reason for the care system’s vulnerability to the cruelty evident in firsthand accounts. The authors propose practical ways to offset this power. Firsthand accounts suggest the key features of capable environments are communication, valuing families and developing a valued, caring, well-trained workforce. Lived experience in workforce training and peer-support to individuals offer great potential to transform outcomes.

The perspectives of diverse contributors with learning disabilities bring lived experience insight to the challenges of “behaviour that challenges”. The authors aim to add value by blending lived experience viewpoints with the emotion of firsthand accounts of care. The insights of lived experience – too often a marginal consideration in health-care design – are presented here as central to care that fully achieves what people want and need.

Reuse of construction and demolition (C&D) waste as aggregates is becoming increasingly popular for a number of environmental and economic reasons. The purpose of this paper is to explore this topic.

In this study, structural‐ and pavement‐grade portland cement concrete (PCC) mixtures were developed using crushed recycled brick masonry from a demolition site as a replacement for conventional coarse aggregate. Prior to developing concrete mixtures, testing was performed to determine properties of whole clay brick and tile, as well as the crushed recycled brick masonry aggregate (RBMA), and a database of material properties was developed.

Concrete mixtures exhibiting acceptable workability and other fresh concrete properties were obtained, and tests were performed to assess mechanical properties and durability performance of the hardened concrete. Results indicated that recycled brick masonry aggregate concrete (RBMAC) mixtures can exhibit mechanical properties comparable to that of structural‐ and pavement‐grade PCC containing conventional coarse aggregates.

Results for durability performance were mixed, but additional testing to evaluate durability performance is recommended.

Although RBMAC has been untested in field applications, results of laboratory studies performed to date indicate that this material shows promise for use in pavement and structural applications. Future testing of RBMAC in both laboratory and field settings will allow stakeholders to gain a comfort level with its properties, identify specific potential uses, and establish guidelines that will assist in ensuring acceptable service life performance.

From the standpoint of sustainability, use of recycled materials as aggregates provides several advantages. Landfill space used for disposal is decreased, and existing natural aggregate sources are not as quickly depleted. Use of recycled aggregates in lieu of virgin quarried aggregates can potentially result in a lower embodied energy of the concrete, although this is often dependent on hauling costs. This particularly holds true if the methodology used to compute the embodied energy of a structure accounts for the “recovery” of energy at the end of its service life.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of a mixture of nutrient solution, bacteria and biofilm on the consolidation, unconfined compression and desiccation characteristics of two soils that could be used in waste containment applications.

Experimental work was conducted to investigate the influence of biofilm on the desiccation, strength and consolidation characteristics of two barrier soils. The soils were evaluated with water alone and with a biofilm solution composed of nutrients, bacteria and exopolymeric substances (EPS). These solutions were mixed with a locally available clay (“red bull tallow” (RBT)) as well as a mix of 65 percent sand and 35 percent bentonite (65‐35 Mix).

Reductions in strength and increases in ductility are observed with biofilm amendment for two soil types. The shear strength was reduced from 413 to 313 kPa and from 198 to 179 kPa for RBT and 65‐35 Mix, respectively. Desiccation tests reveal an increase in moisture retention for early time increments in amended specimens, while both increases and decreases are noted after extended drying. Increases in the rate of consolidation and modest decreases in the compression and swell index were observed. In particular, the consolidation coefficient was increased from 0.036 to 0.064 cm²/min and from 0.060 to 0.093 cm²/min for RBT and 65‐35 Mix, respectively.

These results are useful in establishing the broader impacts of using biofilm as an additive to increase the performance (e.g. reduce hydraulic conductivity and increase resistance to crack formation) of barrier materials in waste containment applications. Moreover, the data provide insight into the geotechnical implications of biofilm‐producing methanotrophic activity that occurs naturally in the covers of municipal solid waste landfills.

Very little research has been published on the influence of biofilm on the behavior of barrier materials in general, and on geotechnical properties in particular. This paper is unique in making the connection between methanotrophic activity, soil modification and barrier material performance.

Two worldwide trends in recent decades are commonly noted and sometimes linked in discussing disasters. First, the reported global cost of natural disasters has risen significantly, with a 14-fold increase between the 1950s and 1990s (Munich Re, 1999). During the 1990s, major natural catastrophes are reported to have resulted in economic losses averaging an estimated US$ 54 billion per annum (in 1999 prices) (ibid). Record losses of some US$ 198 billion were recorded in 1995, the year of the Kobe earthquake – equivalent to 0.7 percent of global gross domestic product (GDP) (ibid).

This transcript provides a historical overview of the discussions on economics in disaster risk reduction.

The transcript and video was developed in the context of a United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) project on the History of DRR.

The transcript discusses how the work on the economic impacts of disasters started and evolved over time.

The interview highlights the importance of studying and understanding risk and risk creation in disaster risk management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of strategy messages emanating from both top and middle/supervisory managers regarding five different aspects of strategy on strategic awareness among boundary personnel.

The results come from a survey of bank tellers and customer service representatives within a single large regional bank.

The findings support a differential main effect on strategic awareness among boundary personnel depending on the source of messages, whether top management or middle management. More interestingly, there appears to be an interaction effect between the two sources regarding which will be the dominant information source for boundary personnel.

The survey data were collected within a single banking institution at one time point.

The results provide useful information concerning the efficacy of messages concerning strategy from middle and top management in organizations.

The paper extends past research by investigating different levels of strategic understanding within the firm across different levels and determining information dissemination strategies for increasing the level of strategic awareness among boundary personnel.

This paper aims to provide new evidence regarding the firm performance implications of using temporal orientation (time pacing) and information technology (IT) to align an organization with its task environment.

Using questionnaire data provided by top management team members, the results indicate that time‐based strategies (i.e. time pacing) and IT mediate the effects of environmental disruptions on performance. To validate the scales and to test the hypothesized model of relationships, the study employs structural equation modeling through LISREL 8.52, as it is able to examine both the measurement and structural model simultaneously while including individual errors for the respective parameters.

The results suggest that time pacing should be used in association with IT, as time pacing had a much stronger relationship to environmental disruptions than did IT. This finding supports that a time pacing orientation is effective at helping managers react to disruptions in their task environment. In relation to firm performance, IT was directly linked to firm performance; whereas time pacing was only indirectly associated with firm performance.

The findings suggest that the application of time pacing strategies enables managers to increase firm performance via IT. The results therefore suggest that managers should not assess their use of temporally‐based mechanisms (e.g. time pacing, IT temporality) and IT in isolation, but rather consider them in conjunction. This recommendation is consistent with findings elsewhere that components of strategy may need to be cohesive and integrative and require a supportive firm structure if they are to have their greatest effects on firm performance.

The study extends the research on temporal strategies and IT as mechanisms for offsetting environmental pressures and improving firm performance. It alerts managers to the notion that time pacing will enable them to generate improved firm performance and competitive advantage, through the synchronistic use of IT.

As the human and financial costs of disasters rise, there are increasing demands for evidence that mitigation “pays”. Until this proof exists, many development organisations remain reluctant to pursue risk reduction as a key objective, or even to protect their own projects against potential hazards.

This paper outlines how such evidence could, in fact, be relatively easily obtained by integrating natural hazard related risks concerns into the design and evaluation of potential projects using standard appraisal and evaluation tools. It shows that there is nothing intrinsically difficult about either appraising risks or monitoring and evaluating the impact of related mitigation measures as part of these broader analyses - if this task is approached thoughtfully and knowledgeably, and adequately resourced.

Provision of appropriate methodological tools is not sufficient in itself, however, to secure improvements in the management of risk. The paper identifies a series of further critical factors that need to be addressed in order to secure long-term commitment to risk reduction, as reflected in the broad policies, objectives and priorities of both governments and development organisations, and actual practice on the ground. In particular, development organisations and governments need to accept greater accountability for disaster-related losses.

The paper is based on the findings of an ongoing ProVention Consortium project, 'Measuring Mitigation': Methodologies for Assessing Natural Hazard Risks and the Net Benefits of Mitigation.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.