Search results

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of supply capacity constraint, water delivery loss and fairness concern on the operational decisions/efficiency of the IBWT supply chain under the random precipitation.

Two game-theoretic decision models for the IBWT supply chain coordination considering water delivery loss without/with fairness concern under the supply capacity constraint and random precipitation are developed, analyzed and compared. On this basis, the corresponding numerical analyses are conducted and compared to derive the corresponding management insights and policy implications.

The research results indicate that the two-part tariff contract could effectively coordinate the IBWT supply chain and achieve operational performance improvement; the binding supply capacity constraint makes the water capacity to be allocated among IBWT distributors in accordance with fair shortage allocation rule and reduces the profit (or utility) of the IBWT supply chain and its members; the existence of fairness concern reduces the utility of the IBWT supply chain and its members; a lower precipitation utilization factor in the case with non-binding capacity constraint is beneficial for improving the profit/utility of the IBWT supply chain while a higher precipitation utilization factor in the case with binding capacity constraint is beneficial for improving the profit/utility of the IBWT supply chain; and reducing the water delivery loss rate, the mainline transfer cost, the branch-line transfer cost, the holding cost and the shortage cost and setting a higher retail price are beneficial for improving the profit/utility of the IBWT supply chain.

Two innovative coordination decision models under random precipitation are developed, analyzed and compared through game-theoretic approaches to investigate the impact of supply capacity constraint, water delivery loss and fairness concern on the operational decisions/efficiency of the IBWT supply chain, which have enhanced the optimization decision theory for the operations management of IBWT projects and provided a better decision support for the IBWT stakeholders to make better operations strategies.

Water pipes degrade over time for a variety of pipe-related, soil-related, operational, and environmental factors. Hence, municipalities are necessitated to implement effective maintenance and rehabilitation strategies for water pipes based on reliable deterioration models and cost-effective inspection programs. In the light of foregoing, the paramount objective of this research study is to develop condition assessment and deterioration prediction models for saltwater pipes in Hong Kong.

As a perquisite to the development of condition assessment models, spherical fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (SFAHP) is harnessed to analyze the relative importance weights of deterioration factors. Afterward, the relative importance weights of deterioration factors coupled with their effective values are leveraged using the measurement of alternatives and ranking according to the compromise solution (MARCOS) algorithm to analyze the performance condition of water pipes. A condition rating system is then designed counting on the generalized entropy-based probabilistic fuzzy C means (GEPFCM) algorithm. A set of fourth order multiple regression functions are constructed to capture the degradation trends in condition of pipelines overtime covering their disparate characteristics.

Analytical results demonstrated that the top five influential deterioration factors comprise age, material, traffic, soil corrosivity and material. In addition, it was derived that developed deterioration models accomplished correlation coefficient, mean absolute error and root mean squared error of 0.8, 1.33 and 1.39, respectively.

It can be argued that generated deterioration models can assist municipalities in formulating accurate and cost-effective maintenance, repair and rehabilitation programs.

For generations, Britain has had a household delivery of fresh milk; from the days before the Great War when it was delivered by a horse‐drawn milk float, with the roundsman often bringing the housewife to the door with his cries of “Milk‐O!”. The float had a churn and milk was delivered in a small can, served out by a dipper. This was the start of the distributive trade, organised between the Wars, from which the present industry has emerged. The trade gave universal acceptance to the glass bottle, returnable for household delivery, only the method of sealing has changed. There have been many demands for its abandonment in favour of the carton, of which recent years has seen a rise in its use in the increasing sales of milk by supermarkets and stores. Despite the problems with returnable vessels, the glass bottle has a number of advantages. The milk, including the cream line, is clearly visible, and short measure is most unlikely, which is a growing problem with carton‐filled milk. The number of prosecutions for short measure with cartons must be causing concern to trading standards departments. There is nothing to indicate the offence until the carton is opened.

The Equal Pay Act 1970 (which came into operation on 29 December 1975) provides for an “equality clause” to be written into all contracts of employment. S.1(2) (a) of the 1970 Act (which has been amended by the Sex Discrimination Act 1975) provides:

The Howard Shuttering Contractors case throws considerable light on the importance which the tribunals attach to warnings before dismissing an employee. In this case the tribunal took great pains to interpret the intention of the parties to the different site agreements, and it came to the conclusion that the agreed procedure was not followed. One other matter, which must be particularly noted by employers, is that where a final warning is required, this final warning must be “a warning”, and not the actual dismissal. So that where, for example, three warnings are to be given, the third must be a “warning”. It is after the employee has misconducted himself thereafter that the employer may dismiss.

We are growing accustomed to shock tactics of the US Administration in dealing with toxic residues in food or additives which are a hazard to man, as well as the daily press infusing sensation, even melodrama, into them, but the recent action of the FDA in calling in from the food market several million cans of tuna and other deep sea fish because of the presence of mercury has had the worthwhile effect of drawing world attention to the growing menace of environmental pollution. The level of mercury in the fish is immaterial; it should never have been there at all, but it stresses the importance of the food chain in the danger to man and animal life generally, including fish beneath the sea. Without underestimating risks of pollution in the atmosphere from nuclear fission products, from particulate matter carried in the air by inhalation or even skin absorption, food and drink, which includes aqua naturale would seem to be the greatest danger to life. What these recent events illustrate in a dramatic manner, however, is the extent of pollution.

The deciding factor for operating a governmental project either as an independent, self-supporting municipal enterprise insulated from political influence or as a special revenue fund financed by tax levies is whether the amount of revenue generated covers the operating costs of the project. Cost allocation issues play an important role in this decision since the development of an acceptable user charge requires calculations of the full-cost per unit of service. If not properly understood and applied, these issues can produce unfair rates, which in turn may lead to wars between the city government and the communities it serves.

To understand the role of cost allocation in developing fair rates for a municipal enterprise's services, this article selects the most common public unity, the municipal water and sewer services, in particular, the Detroit Water and Sewer Department (DWSD). DWSD is one of the largest municipal enterprises in the United States and many of its pricing practices are typical of those followed by many cities in the United States. After presenting and illustrating the current DWSD's cost allocation and pricing procedures to highlight the unfair pricing incidents, the article proposes a modification to the current system that avoids these unfair pricing issues.

The past few years have seen some private sector involvement in urban and small-town water provision in Ghana, as the government strives to improve access to water supply services for its citizens in line with millennium development goals. Since 1995, both central and local governments have entered into various forms of public-private partnerships (PPPs) contracts. The paper aims to examine challenges and investment needs of Ghanaian water supply sector that necessitated private sector involvement; trends, and factors that constrain the development and implementation of projects with private sector involvement in the sector.

A research approach integrating multi-stage critical review of relevant related literature and case studies is adopted in this paper. The study is further informed by the authors' experience in the sector and knowledge of PPPs. Analysis of data from different sources, using both approaches, provides both historical and contemporary approach to water management practice in Ghana.

The paper reveals that the Ghanaian water supply sector mirrors the classic challenges of public sector utilities in developing countries. Under-investment by government is the major cause of the ill-performance of the sector, necessitating private sector involvement. Management contract has emerged as a popular form of water supply PPP in Ghana. Further, optimal risk allocation has not been widely adopted in these contracts, and not yet been given much attention by practitioners and researchers in the literature of water management in Ghana.

The paper provides useful insights into the constraints of the water supply sector, development and implementation challenges of PPPs in the sector, and prompts a need for more research on risk allocation in water supply PPP contracts.

The main ingredients are soya flour, separated milk powder and oatmeal. In some mixtures vitamin concentrates are included. In theory they are admirable, but the chief objection to soup as a meal for a child is that it is difficult to get 1,000 calories into the stomach, even with a good hunk of bread. Thick soup is too filling. It is excellent for emergency use, as experience with the Ministry of Food canned thick soups has shown under “blitz” conditions. But, on bread and thick soup, a child feels full before it has eaten the 1,000 calories it is desirable to get into him. Health of children is, from all reports, whether from public, private or elementary schools, remarkably good. We were not a little worried at this time last year about the adequacy of the supply of first‐class protein for growing boys and girls. The position is now reasonably satisfactory and every effort is being made to see that what is required for development of muscle and bone shall be provided. You, Sir, have on numerous occasions emphasised your determination to see that the younger generations shall not suffer as the younger generations suffered in the last war from diet deficiencies. The spirit that has moved you to take that firm stand will be a powerful force in the post‐war period. I can foresee, and hope to live to see, the day when every child in the country shall be able to get a good nourishing meal at school if the parents so wish. There is another important aspect of this vast expansion of the school feeding programme. The proper planning of school meals is only one way in which the child will benefit. Education in the simple facts of food values will be an essential part of the school. Impressions formed in the minds of these young people will last their lifetime. That is fully recognised in America, where a big concerted drive is about to begin to put nutrition propaganda before every section of the nation. It is true that food habits of a lifetime are sometimes hard to change. Whether they are based on long‐established custom or deep‐rooted fallacies, or both, they are not readily given up by adults. No better illustration could be given than the reluctance of the mass of the people to purchase wheatmeal bread when there was a choice between that and the ordinary white loaf. On the one hand we were urged to force wheatmeal bread down the throats of the people and were assured that they would like it when they came to understand that it was good for them. At the other extreme we were emphatically told that the public actively disliked a dark loaf. My own impression, from a close study of the matter, is that the majority of people are “conditioned,” to use a much overworked word, to white bread and give little thought to other variety. They are certainly apathetic to any appeals based on food values. Most people go into a shop, ask for a loaf of bread, get a white one, as has always been the case unless brown were specifically asked for, and give no more thought to the matter. A striking example of this indifference has been provided recently in America, where there has been extensive commercial development of the manufacture of white flour “fortified” by additions of synthetic vitamins. Large‐scale production has been in progress for about a year. At first the public, stimulated by a vigorous publicity, bought the new type of bread. Sales rapidly mounted. That it was largely novelty rather than vitamins that sold the bread in the first instance appears to be shown by the steady fall in sales that has recently occurred. Had the public as a whole actively disliked bread that is not white, as we were so often assured, it would have been reasonable to expect a volume of protest when National Bread came into general use. No such reaction occurred. On the other hand, favourable comment has been widespread. The war‐time nutrition policy that aimed at improving the food value of bread either by use of long‐extraction flours or artificial reinforcement will certainly be reflected in post‐war developments. What line they will take is not yet clear. It is certain, I believe, that minimum requirements, at least in respect to vitamin B1, will be laid down. Whether particular methods of manufacture will be specified is another question. In this connection it is appropriate to mention that a new method of milling wheat has been devised as a result of collaboration in Canada between the Government Cereals Research Department, certain milling interests and an enthusiastic pioneer who is leading Canada's nutrition “drive,” Dr. F. Tisdall, of Toronto. This method yields a flour, as rich in vitamin B1 as an 85 per cent. wheatmeal and containing considerably more of other important nutrients of the wheat berry than the ordinary type of wheat flour. If there is a public taste in regard to the whiteness of its flour, and if it is of real significance, we have here what appears to be the perfect compromise because the new Canadian flour—to be known officially as “Canada Approved”—is truly white. In passing, I may add that to encourage the production of this type of flour in Canada the addition of synthetic vitamin B1 to white flour has been made illegal. But although we must admit a large measure of resistance in adults to new ideas about food I by no means share the view that it is always a matter of the greatest difficulty to change their food habits. Twenty years ago, perhaps even ten, a workman who openly drank a glass of milk in front of his mates would have had to face a barrage of appropriately phrased ridicule. America led the way with its encouragement of milk in factories. When the war broke out we were rapidly following her lead. Milk was being drunk in considerable and increasing volume in factories. People no longer stopped to stare if they saw a big, husky navvy drinking from a bottle of milk. We were told, when we tried to get vegetable salads into workers' canteens, to make good the loss of vitamin C which is almost unpreventable in large‐scale cooking, that the “hands” would not touch them. They didn't, when little or no effort was made to explain in simple terms what they were for or to serve them attractively. The conventional idea that salads can consist only of lettuce, cucumber and tomato and that they are only to be eaten with cold meat was hard to uproot. But, wherever canteen supervisors have taken even moderate pains to encourage people to try salads—and I am speaking of war‐time salads of shredded cabbage, grated carrot, potatoes, etc.—there has been a record of success. Of course, everything depends on who runs the canteen. In one factory in London it was found not only possible, but a simple task, to make a midday meal of the “Oslo” type popular in summer months, even with men doing relatively heavy work. The serving of a helping of vegetable salad as part of the meal has proved a success in a number of communal restaurants. It is invariably eaten and most people like the innovation. If it were offered as a separate item relatively few would ask for it, merely because they are unaccustomed to do so. This small helping of fresh vegetables is of very great nutritional importance. Large‐scale cooking in restaurant kitchens involves serious losses of vitamin C. Some are caused by vegetables being prepared and left soaking many hours before they are cooked, sometimes overnight. Even more serious losses occur during cooking. Finally, cooked vegetables which have to be kept hot for several hours suffer a further serious reduction in the amount of ascorbic acid. The result is that instead of providing at least 25 mg. of vitamin C, as we would like it to do, an ordinary canteen meal may contain no more than 5·20 mg., particularly in winter months. It is all very well for the nutritional expert to tell us that by taking certain precautions and modifying the methods of cooking vegetables a large proportion of this loss can be prevented. The hard fact is that it is exceedingly difficult, sometimes quite impracticable, to change the organisation and routine of a large kitchen. We know of no means of preventing loss of C when cooked vegetables are kept hot in insulated containers, as is frequently necessary. In four hours the ascorbic acid content of a helping of cooked potatoes can fall from about 6 mg. to 2 mg., and that of one of “greens” from 25 mg. to 10 mg.; losses, that is, of the order of 60 per cent. The small helping of vegetable salad overcomes the difficulty. We have found that there is relatively a small loss when fresh vegetables are shredded or grated. A helping of about 3–4 ozs. of mixed chopped cabbage, carrot, turnip and beetroot gives from 20 to 40 mg. of vitamin C: an amount ample for the average person's daily need. We are trying very hard through the medium of propaganda by the Ministry of Food and Board of Education to make the people salad‐conscious; in the hope that salads will become an accepted part of the daily meals of an increasing number of families, schools, institutions and hospitals. If the movement really gains good ground during the war period, when the choice is so restricted, it should spread rapidly when normal times come and the green‐grocer's shops show once again the rich variety of produce from home and overseas. It has been a hard, uphill fight to make “the man in the street” believe that garden vegetables are a good substitute for fruit, in the nutritional sense. I think we have made good progress, but there are many still unconverted. It is important that the truth of this matter should be widely known. Of the fruits we ate in ordinary times only oranges, grapefruit, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and strawberries are particularly good sources of C. Apples, pears, bananas, cherries and plums are relatively poor in this respect. When most of these fruits are unobtainable, as at present, it is important to know that we can easily obtain our vitamin C from cabbage and sprouts, cauliflower and broccoli. We recently published, in collaboration with Dr. H. V. Taylor, of the Ministry of Agriculture, tables showing that a well‐cultivated allotment of the regulation size of ten rods, a mere 300 sq. yards, will provide all the vitamin C required for a family of four during each month of the year, even after liberal allowances for wastage and cooking losses. Moreover, the same crops will provide no less than half the vitamin A required by a family of that size. No stronger evidence of the immense value of an allotment could be produced. It will be a thousand pities if every effort is not made to sustain the allotment movement to the greatest possible extent after the war. After the last war the area cultivated in this manner fell rapidly as parks, building sites and other grounds were taken back for their original purpose. Of necessity, much land will have to be given up when peace comes again, but if our post‐war world, is, as Sir Stafford Cripps remarked on Sunday last, to be “consciously planned for better living conditions,” the immense national importance of allotments must not be ignored as it was in the “reconstruction” after 1918. Nor do I feel we should regard the British Restaurant as a temporary war‐time expedient. There will doubtless be a certain amount of agitation after the war directed towards their abolition.