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This paper aims to illustrate the extensive benefits of qualitative data analysis as a rarely undertaken process in post-occupancy evaluation surveys. As a result, there is limited evidence of what occupants say about their buildings, especially for operational parameters, as opposed to how they rate them. While quantitative analyses provide useful information on how workers feel about workplace operational factors, qualitative analyses provide richer information on what aspects of the workplace workers identify as influential to their comfort, well-being and productivity.

The authors analysed 6,938 comments from office buildings worldwide on workers’ perception of workplace operational factors: design, storage, needs, space at desks and storage in their work environments. These factors were analysed based on the buildings’ design intent and use, and the associated comments were coded into positive, negative and balanced comments. The authors used a combination of coding, descriptive analysis, content analysis and word cloud to dissect the comments.

The findings showed that whereas workers rated these operational factors favourably, there were significantly more negative comments about each factor. Also, the Chi-square test showed a significant association (p < 0.01) between the satisfaction scale and the type of comments received for all the operational factors. This means that when a factor is rated high in the satisfaction score (5–7), there were fewer negative and more positive comments and vice versa. The word cloud analysis highlighted vital aspects of the office environment the workers mostly commented on, such as open plan design, natural lighting, space and windows, toilets, facilities, kitchens, meeting room booking systems, storage and furniture.

This study highlights the importance of dissecting building occupants’ comments as integral to building performance monitoring and measurement. These emphasise the richness and value of respondents’ comments and the importance of critically analysing them. A limitation is that only 6,938 comments were viable for analysis because most comments were either incomplete with no meaning or were not provided. This underlines the importance of encouraging respondents to comment and express their feelings in questionnaire surveys. Also, the building use studies questionnaire data set presents extensive opportunities for further analyses of interrelationships between demographics, building characteristics and environmental and operational factors.

The findings from this study can be applied to future projects and facility management to maintain and improve office buildings throughout their life cycle. Also, these findings are essential in predicting the requirements of future workplaces for robust workplace designs and management.

The authors identified specific comments on the performance of workplaces across the globe, showing similarities and differences between sustainable, conventional, commercial and institutional buildings. Specifically, the analysis showed that office workers’ comments do not always corroborate the ratings they give their buildings. There was a significantly higher percentage of negative comments than positive comments despite the high satisfaction scores of the operational factors.

The purpose of the study was to produce a healthier, convenient and traditional ready-to-eat (RTE) snack option with increased nutritional value, using spent hen meat, dietary fibre (DF) and simple technological methods. The product was designed to be stable without refrigeration and be easily adoptable by local self-help groups, rural women and youth and entrepreneurs in urban and semi-urban areas.

Conventional binder used for making snacks, i.e. rice flour was partially replaced by different sources of antioxidant DFs, i.e. oat flour (T₁ – 10%), finger millet flour (T₂ – 5%) and amaranth flour (T₃ –15%) to prepare spent hen snack sticks (SHSS). The snacks were then packaged in low density polyethylene (LDPE) pouches and evaluated for their storage stability at ambient temperature for a period of 35 days. Their physico-chemical, sensory and microbiological quality was evaluated at a regular interval of 7 days. The proximate composition of developed SHSS was compared to commercially available snack products (chakli/murukku – snacks without meat).

The fibre-enriched SHSS showed significant improvement in nutritive value, as they contained more fibre (p = 0.001) and protein (p = 0.029) than control SHSS. When compared to commercially available snack product SHSS showed three-fold significant increase in protein (p = 0.000) and ash content (p = 0.001) and only 11%–12% total fat as compared to 31% fat in the market-available product. The most acceptable treatment in terms of overall sensory quality and nutritional aspects was T₃; however, T₂ was more shelf-stable during the storage period. The study showed that fibre-enriched snacks can be stored at ambient temperature for up to 35 days without substantial loss in physico-chemical, sensory and microbial quality. Hence, substituting rice flour with DFs can lead to the development of products with better sensory attributes and improved functionality.

The simplicity of the product in terms of composition, machinery and low production costs makes it an easily adoptable one by small-scale entrepreneurs, especially those belonging to semi-urban areas.

Incorporation of spent hen meat, a relatively cheap but abundant source of protein, in RTE products can serve as an effective way to alleviate protein malnutrition, whereas addition of fibre further improves the functionality of the product. The methodology can be easily taken up by small-scale entrepreneurs and create a market for snack-based functional meat products.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between prudence in risk attitudes and patience of time preference of Chinese apple growers regarding off-farm cold storage of production and marketing in non-harvest seasons. The authors also consider the effect of farmer participation in cooperative-like organizations known as Farm Bases (FBs).

The authors use multiple list methods and elicitation strategies to measure Chinese apple farmers' risk attitudes and time preferences. Because these farmers can either sell their apples immediately to supermarkets or intermediaries or place them in storage, the authors assess correlations between their storage decisions and their preferences regarding risk and time. The authors also differentiate risks involving gains and losses and empirically examine individual risk attitudes in different scenarios.

Marketing decisions are moderately associated with risk attitudes but not time preference. Farmers with memberships in local farmer cooperatives are likely to speculate more in cold storage. Thus, risk aversion behavioral and psychological motives affect farmers' decision-making of cold storage and intertemporal marketing activities. However, membership in cooperatives does not always result in improved income and welfare for farmers.

The research confirms that behavioral factors may strongly drive vulnerable smallholder farmers to speculate into storage even under seasonal and uncertain marketing volatility. There is the need to think deeper about the rationale of promoting cooperatives and other agricultural forms, because imposing these without careful consideration can have negative impacts.

Do risk and time preferences affect the decision of farmers to utilize storage facilities? This question is important because it is not clear if and how risk preferences affect the tradeoff between consuming today and saving for tomorrow, especially for farmers in developing countries.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the construction and operation of underground gas storage (UGS) facilities, under the prism of the recent rise in energy prices. The focus is on developing energy markets interconnected with gas producers through pipelines and has access to liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities in parallel.

Through a focal market in Europe, the authors estimate the economic value for both stakeholders and consumers by introducing a methodology, appropriately adjusted to the specificities of the domestic energy market. The Transmission System Operator, the Energy Market Regulator, the Energy Exchange and Eurostat are the main data sources for our calculations and conclusions.

The authors investigate the perspectives of UGS facilities, identifying financial challenges considering specific energy market conditions which are barriers to new storage facilities. Nevertheless, the energy price rocketing coupled with the security of gas supply issues, which arose in autumn 2021 and were continuing in 2022 due to the Russia–Ukraine crisis, highlight that gas storage remains, at least for the midterm, at the core of European priorities.

The paper emphasizes on developing markets toward green transition, proposing tangible policy recommendations regarding gas storage. A new methodological approach is proposed, appropriate to quantify the economic value of UGSs in such markets. Last, a mix of energy policy options is suggested which include regulatory reforms, support schemes and new energy infrastructures that could make the gas storage investments economically viable.

This paper aims to propose a simulation model integrated with an empirical regression analysis to provide a new mathematical formulation for automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS) travel time estimation under class-based storage and different input/output (I/O) point vertical levels.

A simulation approach is adopted to compute the travel time under different warehouse scenarios. Simulation runs with several I/O point levels and multiple shape factor values.

The proposed model is extremely precise for both single command (SC) and dual command (DC) cycles and very well fitted for a reliable computation of travel times.

The proposed mathematical formulation for estimating the AS/RS travel time advances widely applied methodologies existing in literature. As well as, it provides a practical implication by supporting faster and more accurate travel time computations for both SC and DC cycles. However, the regression analysis is conducted based on simulated data and can be refined by numerical values coming from real warehouses.

This work provides a new simulation model and a refined mathematical equation to estimate AS/RS travel time.

Due to its longer length compared to other construction materials and distinctive stacking patterns, obtaining construction steel bars in congested construction sites with limited storage capacity becomes challenging. Lack of storage space in crowded places prompts the need for building steel bar storage choice optimization. Therefore, this study aims to optimize the construction steel bar procurement plan by providing when and how much rebar to order and how to stack different sizes of rebar considering limited storage capacity.

A novel approach has been presented in this paper by integrating 4D building information modelling (BIM) and mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). This technique uses BIM to retrieve material quantities, including rebar, during the design phase. Following that, activities are scheduled depending on the duration determined by crew productivity data and material quantity. Then, based on the prior price, the price of each unit of rebar is projected for the duration of construction using the exponential smoothing method. After that, the MILP approach is used to generate an optimal steel bar procurement plan for limited storage space following the scheduled rebar-related operations.

The developed strategy minimizes overall procurement costs and ensures the storage of rebar as per standard guidelines. An optimal rebar procurement and storage plan to construct a six-storied RC frame has been presented in this paper as a demonstrative example to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This work partially satisfies a long-sought research need for establishing a comprehensive construction steel bar procurement system, making it a very useful source of information for practitioners and researchers. The proposed method can be used to minimize a key performance limitation that the conventional rebar procurement practice for crowded building sites may experience.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of inclination angle on the thermal energy storage capability of a phase change material (PCM) within a disc-shaped container. Different container materials are also tested such as plexiglass and aluminium. This study aims to assess the energy storage capacity, melting behaviour and temperature distributions of PCM with a specific melting range (22°C–26°C) for various governing parameters such as inclination angles, aspect ratios (AR) and temperature differences (ΔT) and compare the melting behaviour and energy storage performance of PCM in aluminium containers to those in plexiglass containers.

A finite volume approach was adopted to evaluate the thermal energy storage capability of PCMs. Five inclination angles ranging from 0° to 180° were considered and the energy storage capacity. Also, the melting behaviour of the PCM and temperature distributions of the container with different materials were tested. Two different AR and ΔT values were chosen as parameters to analyse for their effects on the melting performance of the PCM. Conjugate heat transfer problem is solved to see the effects of conduction mode of heat transfer.

The results of the study indicate that as AR decreases, the effect of the inclination angles on the energy storage capacity of the PCM decreases. For lower ΔT, the difference between the maximum and minimum stored energies was 20.88% for AR = 0.20, whereas it was 6.85% for AR = 0.15. Furthermore, under the same conditions, the PCM stored 8.02% more energy in plexiglass containers than in aluminium containers.

This study contributes to the understanding of the influence of inclination angle, container material, AR and ΔT on the thermal energy storage capabilities of PCM in a novel designed container. The findings highlight the importance of AR in mitigating the effect of the inclination angle on energy storage capacity. Additionally, comparing aluminium and plexiglass containers provides insights into the effect of container material on the melting behaviour and energy storage properties of PCM.

This study aims to focus on understanding how different jet angles and Reynolds numbers influence the phase change materials’ (PCMs) melting process and their capacity to store energy. This approach is intended to offer novel insights into enhancing thermal energy storage systems, particularly for applications where heat transfer efficiency and energy storage are critical.

The research involved an experimental and numerical analysis of PCM with a melting temperature range of 22 °C–26°C under various conditions. Three different jet angles (45°, 90° and 135°) and two container angles (45° and 90°) were tested. Additionally, two different Reynolds numbers (2,235 and 4,470) were used to explore the effects of jet outlet velocities on PCM melting behaviour. The study used a circular container and analysed the melting process using the hot air inclined jet impingement (HAIJI) method.

The obtained results showed that the average temperature for the last time step at Ф = 90° and Re = 4,470 is 6.26% higher for Ф = 135° and 14.23% higher for Ф = 90° compared with the 45° jet angle. It is also observed that the jet angle, especially for Ф = 90°, is a much more important factor in energy storage than the Reynolds number. In other words, the jet angle can be used as a passive control parameter for energy storage.

This study offers a novel perspective on the effective storage of waste heat transferred with air, such as exhaust gases. It provides valuable insights into the role of jet inclination angles and Reynolds numbers in optimizing the melting and energy storage performance of PCMs, which can be crucial for enhancing the efficiency of thermal energy storage systems.

Prior literature has widely established that the design of storage locations impacts order picking task performance. The purpose of this study is to investigate the performance impact of unit loads, e.g. pallets or rolling cages, utilized by pickers to pack products after picking them from storage locations.

An empirical analysis of archival data on a manual order picking system for deep-freeze products was performed in cooperation with a German brick-and-mortar retailer. The dataset comprises N = 343,259 storage location visits from 17 order pickers. The analysis was also supported by the development and the results of a batch assignment model that takes unit load selection into account.

The analysis reveals that unit load selection affects order picking task performance. Standardized rolling cages can decrease processing time by up to 8.42% compared to standardized isolated rolling boxes used in cold retail supply chains. Potential cost savings originating from optimal batch assignment range from 1.03% to 39.29%, depending on batch characteristics.

This study contributes to the literature on factors impacting order picking task performance, considering the characteristics of unit loads where products are packed on after they have been picked from the storage locations. In addition, it provides potential task performance improvements in cold retail supply chains.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of integrating “Licorice powder” into curd balls on their storage stability under refrigeration conditions. Through this examination, this study aims to evaluate the potential effects of licorice powder on extending the shelf life, maintaining quality attributes and preserving the overall stability of curd balls when stored at refrigeration temperatures.

Licorice powder, in varying quantities (1%, 2% and 3%), was incorporated into curd balls alongside a control group lacking licorice (0%). These batches were subsequently stored for 25 days under refrigeration at a temperature of 4 ± 1ºC, using aerobic packaging conditions. During this storage period, the samples were regularly monitored and analyzed for various parameters to assess changes in their properties and qualities.

The findings indicated that in the treatment groups, pH and titratable acidity were notably lower than those in the control group (p = 0.05). Curd balls enriched with licorice powder exhibited significantly higher levels of 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, 2-2-azinobis-3ethylbenthiazoline-6-sulphonic acid and total phenolic contents compared to the control (p = 0.05). Furthermore, curd balls containing licorice powder displayed notably lower levels of peroxide, thiobarbituric acid reactive substances and free fatty acids in comparison to the control (p = 0.05). Among all samples, T3 (3%) demonstrated significantly less microbial growth (p = 0.05) than the other groups. Conversely, the sensory panel rated T2 significantly higher than T3 (p = 0.05).

The investigation highlights that curd balls enriched with 2.0% licorice powder demonstrated significant efficacy in preventing the deterioration of physicochemical attributes, enhancing antioxidant capacity, restraining lipid oxidation, curbing microbial growth and ultimately exhibiting the most favorable organoleptic properties among the tested variations. This finding underscores the potential of incorporating 2.0% licorice powder as an effective agent for bolstering the storage stability and overall quality of curd balls during refrigerated storage.