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A research report in 2017 by the Start-up Genome project, a US-based think-tank, stated that Singapore had overtaken Silicon Valley to become number one in the world for start-up talent. With the Singapore government successfully rolling out innovative new policies to establish Singapore as an attractive location for setting up new start-ups, Funding for Start-ups is a timely book on how to raise funds for new start-ups. This book explores the concepts and processes behind fundraising in Singapore. With two decades’ experience advising businesses on fundraising, the author provides a legal practitioner’s perspective on concepts and processes ordinarily encountered in managing the fundraising process, including perfecting pitches and leverage on legal documentation. This is the first title in a new 3-book series to provide legal information and anecdotal guidance on the essentials of setting up new start-ups. The second and third titles are: • Managing Manpower for Start-ups • Managing Legal Risks & Disputes for Start-ups

The use of on-site soil absorption systems (OSASs) to dispose of domestic wastewater is common in rural and semi-rural areas in Australia as well as in many other developed and developing countries. A need exists for an improved method of evaluating OSAS performance and predicting potential impacts of OSASs on public health and environmental quality. This paper focuses on the hydrological prediction of saturated and unsaturated moisture flow patterns of wastewater dispersed into soil adjacent to OSAS disposal trenches. It presents field and laboratory measurements obtained during an extensive investigation conducted at eight OSAS sites on predominantly silty soil in Victoria, Australia. A numerical moisture flow model was also employed to predict how the hydrological performance of OSAS might be affected by a variety of site specific conditions including soil properties, climatic data, and hydraulic loading rates. The model was fine-tuned using both published data and data from the eight study sites. The predictions show that over 50%, and in some instances over 80%, of water received by an OSAS is lost by way of evapotranspiration. This highlights the importance of evapotranspiration in determining soil absorption capacity and moisture flow patterns around an OSAS, something that is not accounted for in existing OSAS design guidelines.

When appropriately designed, installed and managed, septic tank systems provide a reliable disposal method for domestic wastewaters where connection to sewerage is impractical or uneconomic. However, unacceptably high incidences of hydraulic and treatment failures have caused growing disenchantment with septic tanks. Whilst improper installation or mismanagement causes some failures, many are attributable to inadequacies in design guidelines. A major problem is that we lack a good understanding of the impact of operating factors like hydraulic loadings, and of environmental factors like climate, on moisture and pollutant dispersion patterns around septic tank absorption trenches. During a septic tank study undertaken recently in Melbourne, Australia, a numerical model was developed to predict moisture flux patterns around septic tank trenches under differing environmental and operating conditions. This model was calibrated using hydrological measurements taken monthly for a full year at eight septic tanks on silty clay soil sites around Melbourne; soil property values were obtained by physically testing soil samples from these sites. A major finding was that 75% to 90% of combined annual water inflows were being lost by evapo-transpiration. The model was also used to explore how moisture flows around an absorption trench would be influenced by factors such as climatic conditions, hydraulic loads, soil properties and water table depths. This paper presents the outcome of a sensitivity analysis illustrating the changes in moisture dispersion patterns caused by varying these factors and how the likelihood of hydraulic or treatment failures occurring is affected. Implications for septic tank design are discussed.