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The purpose of this paper is to describe a semi-analytical modeling technique to predict eddy currents in three-dimensional (3D) conducting structures with finite dimensions. Using the developed method, power losses and parasitic forces that result from eddy current distributions can be computed.

In conducting regions, the Fourier-based solutions are developed to include a spatially dependent conductivity in the expressions of electromagnetic quantities. To validate the method, it is applied to an electromagnetic configuration and the results are compared to finite element results.

The method shows good agreement with the finite element method for a large range of frequencies. The convergence of the presented model is analyzed.

Because of the Fourier series basis of the solution, the results depend on the considered number of harmonics. When conducting structures are small with respect to the spatial period, the number of harmonics has to be relatively large.

Because of the general form of the solutions, the technique can be applied to a wide range of electromagnetic configurations to predict, e.g. eddy current losses in magnets or wireless energy transfer systems. By adaptation of the conductivity function in conducting regions, eddy current distributions in structures containing holes or slit patterns can be obtained.

With the presented technique, eddy currents in conducting structures of finite dimensions can be modeled. The semi-analytical model is for a relatively low number of harmonics computationally faster than 3D finite element methods. The method has been validated and shown to be computationally accurate.

This article deals with the determination of the benefits of environmental assets, involving an application for noise. In determining these benefits the so‐called Cost of Illness Method is applied. An important part of the research is the estimation of the relationship between environmental pollution (noise) and the number of lost workdays. This relationship is estimated by using the Lisrel technique with latent variables. The empirical results show that, for the sample concerned, a relationship between noise and lost workdays does not exist. The research also shows that noise causes annoyance and that annoyance influences people′s wellbeing negatively.

The vibration of the rails is a significant source of railway rolling noise, often forming the dominant component of noise in the important frequency region between 400 and 2000 Hz. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the influence of the ground profile and the presence of the train body on the sound radiation from the rail.

Two-dimensional boundary element calculations are used, in which the rail vibration is the source. The ground profile and various different shapes of train body are introduced in the model, and results are observed in terms of sound power and sound pressure. Comparisons are also made with vibro-acoustic measurements performed with and without a train present.

The sound radiated by the rail in the absence of the train body is strongly attenuated by shielding due to the ballast shoulder. When the train body is present, the sound from the vertical rail motion is reflected back down toward the track where it is partly absorbed by the ballast. Nevertheless, the sound pressure at the trackside is increased by typically 0–5 dB. For the lateral vibration of the rail, the effects are much smaller. Once the sound power is known, the sound pressure with the train present can be approximated reasonably well with simple line source directivities.

Numerical models used to predict the sound radiation from railway rails have generally neglected the influence of the ground profile and reflections from the underside of the train body on the sound power and directivity of the rail. These effects are studied in a systematic way including comparisons with measurements.

This paper aims to present a description of the development and implementation of a combined school- and community-based intervention for the prevention of overweight among children, using the combined methods of social marketing (SMk) and intervention mapping (IM).

The SMk total process planning (TPP) framework was used, a simple but robust framework that consists of five stages: scoping, development, implementation, evaluation and follow-up. In addition, IM tools were embedded in the development stage to strengthen the development element of the campaign.

The use of the SMk TPP framework led to the selection of one specific target segment and behaviour. IM tools helped to select the most important and modifiable determinants and behaviours in the target segment, as well as to select and appropriately apply theoretical methods for influencing determinant and behaviour change. The resulting “Water Campaign” was aimed at Turkish and Moroccan mothers and their 6-12-year-old-children (target segment). This intervention addresses the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages through the promotion of tap water drinking (target behaviour). The systematic involvement of key stakeholders resulted in capacity-building and co-creation.

A key finding of the present work is that the SMk TPP framework and IM tools can be successfully combined in intervention development, helping to develop enhanced interventions. Combining these methods led to a theory-based and client-oriented intervention, which was directed at multiple ecological levels and which systematically involved key stakeholders. With this detailed description of the intervention development, this paper aims to assist other researchers and practitioners in their quest to develop better interventions.

This paper aims to consider a single server queue with system disasters and impatience behavior are evident in our daily life. For this purpose, authors require to know the general behavior of these systems. Transient analysis shows for us how the system will operate up to some time instant t.

In this paper, authors consider a single server queue with system disaster and impatient behavior of customers in a multi-phase random environment, in which the system transits to a repair state after each system disaster. When the system is in a failure phase or going through a repair phase, the new arrivals would be impatient. In case the system is not repaired before the customer’s time expires, the customer would leave the queue and never return. Moreover, after repair, the system becomes ready for service in an operative phase with probability $q_{i} \ge 0.$. Using generating functions along with continued fractions and some properties of the confluent hypergeometric function, authors obtained on their own results.

Explicit expressions have been obtained for the time-dependent probabilities of the underlying queuing model. Also, time-dependent mean and variance of customers in the system are deduced.

The system authors are dealing with is somewhat complicated, there are some performance measures that cannot be achieved, but some of them have been obtained, such as the expectation and variance of the number of customers in the system.

Based on the obtained results, some numerical examples are some numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effect of various parameters on the behavior of the proposed system.

Authors’ studied transient analysis of a single server queue with system disaster and impatient customer system is suitable for behavior interpretation of many systems in our lives, such as telecommunication networks, inventory systems and impatient telephone switchboard customers, manufacturing system and service system.

To the best of the author’s/authors’ knowledge and according to the literature survey, in a multi-phase random environment, no previous published article is presented for transient analysis of a single server queue with system disaster and impatient customer behavior in a random environment.

This paper describes the consequences of the integration of environmental information within enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The state‐of‐the art of dedicated environmental information systems is briefly discussed. Essentials and peculiarities of environmental information are highlighted. The role of environmental management systems and their relationship with other dedicated management systems is positioned within this field. The need for information following from this is compared with the information available in current ERP systems. The common features of both information systems are discussed and the importance of physical relationships within them is demonstrated. A physical approach is argued as the very base of future extended ERP systems. An outline of the special character of physical information is presented for this purpose. Subsequently, some restrictions connected to the current approach in ERP are analysed. This results in a number of recommendations. The most crucial aspects are the integration of the process and discrete manufacturing orientation by applying a multiple‐input multiple‐output approach to all processes, and a similar consideration of co‐products, by‐products, wastes and emissions.

This paper aims to study the main requirements of traceability and examine how the technology of radio frequency identification (RFID) technology can address these requirements. It further seeks to outline both an information data model and a system architecture that will make traceability feasible and easily deployable across a supply chain.

The design research approach is followed, associating traceability requirements to a proposed system design.

The technological approach used has great implications in relation to the cost associated with a traceability system and the ease of its deployment.

Validation of the proposed information data model and system architecture is required through practical deployment in different settings.

The paper provides practitioners with insight on how RFID technology can meet traceability requirements and what technological approach is more appropriate.

Food quality has become an important issue in the last decade. However, achieving end‐to‐end traceability across the supply chain is currently quite a challenge from a technical, a co‐ordination and a cost perspective. The paper contributes by suggesting a specific technological approach, exploiting the new possibilities provided by RFID technology, to address these issues.

According to United Nations reports, the worldwide population is expected to reach around 9.6 billion by 2050. This forecasting emphasizes the role of phosphate-based fertilizers for developing sustainable agriculture and ensures the demand all over the planet. From this perspective, phosphate companies are racing to improve their industrial performance and guarantee the quality, reliability and integrity of information efficiently. The purpose of this paper is to propose a traceability system framework that ensures product quality tracing and real-time operations monitoring for open-pit mines.

The authors develop a hybrid approach that integrates Business Process Model and Notation techniques with System Modeling Language to formalize several use cases and scenarios to model quality traceability processes related to open-pit mines. This framework also embeds an optimization module based on mathematical modeling approaches to optimize stockpiles’ movement and respect the distinction between different qualities.

This paper explains a successful implementation of a quality traceability tool for an African mining company. The research team was able to understand and scale down the problem faced by the managers. Further, the study is focused on improving quality tracing over time and automatizing the current compliance processes related to the mine extraction activities. The proposed tool is proved highly effective in reducing the time of tracing quality claims by 46% compared with the manual procedure. Second, the implementation of this tool reduced fuel costs by 34% and CO₂ emissions by 10%.

The originality of the contributions lies in four aspects: (1) adapting quality traceability concept for the mining industry; (2) assessing the current trends of traceability systems considering the mining industry context; (3) hybridizing business processes re-engineering, quality system and optimization modeling; and (4) using a real case study of a phosphate company to evaluate the framework.

New technology for equipping returnable transport items (RTI) with unique identification (e.g. RFID) give food industry companies new opportunities for improving business processes. The efficient exploitation poses new demands on the information technology systems in general and on the underlying information models in particular. This paper aims to introduce a generic information model where functionality for handling RTIs with unique identification is included.

Functional requirements are analysed based on process descriptions and use case examples from a real production environment. Detailed information modelling was then done in several iterations using entity‐relationship diagrams. Validation of the model was done based on use cases typical for the food industry.

The model described is developed within the broad scope of looking at opportunities for using wireless technology to improve business processes and traceability. This includes RFID, RF based sensors, sensor networks and real time location system (RTLS). It is vital that these large amounts of data are linked to identifiable entities for later retrieval and analysis. Unique identification of RTIs can be utilised to ensure that sensor data can be linked both to the RTI and to the content of the RTI. The links between the RTI and the content of the RTI are a basis for improving traceability.

Based on the information model, the next step is to develop a detailed specification for the implementation of the model. The results from the implementation will be used for further evaluation of the model, and might lead to improvements and changes in the model.

Enabling technologies like RFID often lead to changes in existing processes and systems. This work is a contribution to developing more stable and application‐independent information models in food processing companies.

The paper shows that leveraging unique identification of returnable transport items to provide a finer meshed granularity and increased operational visibility of traceable units will not only improve traceability but will also give a more precise basis for process improvements and product differentiation in a food business.

This paper aims to increase our understanding of perspectives on food traceability in four supply chain risk management (SCRM) approaches to ensure food safety. The occurrence of food safety failures has led to increased attention on food traceability as a means of identifying the causes of deficiencies in supply chains.

This paper presents a literature review and synthesizes the broader domain of food traceability by analyzing perspectives based on SCRM approaches. In all, 129 published papers were selected and evaluated using content analysis.

A framework of SCRM approaches on food traceability is presented. Eight perspectives on food traceability are identified and grouped according to four SCRM approaches: food supply chain complexity and unique identification of goods (logistics management); transparency and interoperability (information management); in-house production and outsourcing (production management); and food quality and safety requirements and the monitoring of food characteristics (quality management).

The findings provide an in-depth understanding and research suggestions for the management of traceability to ensure food safety in food supply chains. Conclusions are drawn from secondary sources, thus excluding empirical evaluation.

The implementation of food traceability can result in changes to existing management systems. This paper addresses the perspectives and management challenges that can influence the implication of food traceability to ensure food safety.

Perspectives on food traceability according to SCRM approaches are presented. Food traceability is analyzed using the philosophy of scientific framework and suggestions for further research are offered.