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This study provides a performance analysis of using a rainwater harvesting system (RWHS) to supply water for toilet flushing and garden watering, with reference to a student accommodation hall in the University of Nottingham Malaysia in Semenyih, Selangor, Malaysia. Three different models were used in this analysis, in which the monthly analysis was based on the mass-balance approach, while the daily analysis was based on the yield before spillage and yield after spillage algorithms to define the tank release rule based on different sizes of storage tank (i.e. 3, 5, 7 and 10 m³). The performances of the various storage tanks were presented for water saving and reliability. The monthly analysis found promising results of collectable water on the demand, in which the average reliability is higher than 50%. Also, the daily water balance simulation verified the results from the monthly analysis. A cost analysis was performed that the best storage rainwater harvesting tank size was 10 m³ for the combined demand of toilet flushing and garden watering. Based on the findings, the proposed implementation of RWHS in the chosen campus university was reliable, not only environmentally beneficial but also economically viable.

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how Six Sigma methodology has been applied in a small-scale foundry industry to improve the overall first-pass material yield and quality, with a view to the product and the process.

The researchers have reported this paper based on a case study carried out in industry using the Six Sigma Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control (DMAIC) and its application in improving the manufacturing process of a foundry shop.

Identified root causes are validated and countermeasures are implemented for improvement. As a result of this case study, the overall first-pass yield of the sand casting process is improved to 78.88% from the previous yield of 67%. For product-specific case, yield is improved by 18% through the improved gating system design. Sigma level of the process is improved to 3.08 from baseline 2.21. Key lessons learned from this case study are mentioned in the current study.

This case study provides a standard road map and motivates small-scale foundry industries to implement Six Sigma methodology for productivity improvement, especially in jobbing foundry. The presented paper is based on a single case study, and the results are limited to the company only. Also, one of the reasons for low process yield is slag creation, which is not covered here, as it is a concern of the material quality supplied by the vendor. However, the approach of this paper is generic for learning perspective.

This case study provides a standard road map and motivates small-scale foundry industries to implement Six Sigma methodology for productivity improvement, especially in jobbing foundry. Through the effective application of Six Sigma quality initiative, how a quantum jump in financial aspect could be gain, has been demonstrated.

This research study showcases step-by-step implementation of Six Sigma-DMAIC methodology at a small-scale foundry industry. This paper could serve as a unique roadmap for practitioners and academicians to improve the material productivity of the foundry industry both ways, product and process.

A novel cost-effective bio-digester was explored to convert biological waste into useful clean energy. The bioreactor was aimed to anaerobically digest locally sourced cow dung and chicken droppings.

The design consideration is a batch horizontal 267 L digester made from cast iron with centrally positioned four-impeller shaft to enhance mixing. The system operated with a retention time of 63 days and a substrate (cow dung and poultry waste) ratio of 1:2 and water substrate ratio of 1:0.5 in the gasholder system. The purification, compression and performance evaluation of the generated biogas were also conducted.

The total volume of gas produced for each substrate compositions designed over 14 days ranges between 49.34 and 52.91 mL/day. The optimal value of 52.45 ml using cow dung and poultry waste (w/w) 20:80 was obtained. The average ambient temperatures during the study were within the mesophilic range of 20-40°C. The pH values were stable and always in the optimal range of 6.5-8.0. The reductions in moisture content, ash content, total solids and volatile solids were from 80.50-0.20 per cent, 39.60-14 per cent, 18.50-5.90 per cent and 11.60-4.90 per cent, respectively.

The developed digester is cost-effective and would help minimize solid waste disposal. The estimated methane contents of the gas from cow dung and chicken waste after scrubbing were found to be 71.95 per cent and could be harnessed in solving the energy crisis in the developing nations.

A consumer focus group was conducted in West Texas, to discuss consumer opinion about desired features in take‐out containers or packaging, and perceptions related to food safety practices.

The results of this qualitative case study indicated that the majority of take‐out food was purchased for personal consumption, and that location, convenience and time are the primary factors influencing the decision for purchase. The main features considered desirable in take‐out containers were these: the ability to insulate food, to contain product without spillage, and to keep individual foods separate within the same package.

As the desirability for take‐out food continues to increase, risks emerge surrounding the lack of handling instructions on most take‐out packaging, and the scarcity of consumer food safety knowledge. Though most participants in this study claimed to return home quickly with take‐out food after purchase, and consume the food as soon as possible, a good number admitted to not being as knowledgeable about food safety and handling as they would like.

Though data were collected from a diverse group of panelists, the small scope of this research could not be said to represent the USA as a whole. Future studies would need to include multiple focus group studies in metropolitan regions across the nation.

The paper adds to the body of knowledge on take‐out food and customer attitudes to food safety.

The old year has gone, leaving its trail of never‐to‐be‐forgotten memories of strife and turbulence, calamity, disaster, and a huge burden of worries for us to face in the New Year. Few if any will not be deeply grateful to see the passing of 1985. Except for the periods of calm there cannot be a year within living memory to equal it in terms of violence, unparalleled in times of “peace”, collosal in terms of soaring social and public expenditure and financial loss, and in disasters in the world beyond the shores of these islands. It would not be an exaggeration to state that the enormous indebtedness which the year has heaped upon the people will never be wiped off, and it has got to be done mainly by those innocent of any misconduct, and their descendants. The unprecedented scale of street and community violence, the looting, thieving and general crime committed behind the screen of it.

Motivated by the potential of gaining noticeable improvements in vehicular efficiency, this paper aims to investigate the benefits attainable from introducing a more synergistic propulsion/airframe integration. In previous work, the concept of a boundary layer ingesting propulsor encircling the aft section of an axisymmetric fuselage was identified to be particularly promising for the realisation of aircraft wake filling, and hence, a significant reduction of the propulsive power required.

After reviewing the theoretical principles of the propulsive fuselage concept, a book-keeping and model matching procedure is introduced, which is subsequently used to incorporate the numerically computed aerodynamic characteristics of a propulsive fuselage aircraft configuration into a propulsion system (PPS) sizing and performance model. As part of this, design heuristics for important characteristics intrinsic to propulsive fuselage power plants are derived. Thereafter, parametric study results of the PPS are discussed, and the obtained characteristics are compared to those of a conventionally installed power plant. Finally, the impact of the investigated PPS on the integrated performance of a propulsive fuselage aircraft concept is studied, and the results are compared and contrasted to previously conducted analyses based on semi-empirical characteristics.

It was found that the aircraft-level benefit originally predicted based on semi-empirical methods could be confirmed using the numerically derived PPS design heuristics, specifically an improvement in vehicular efficiency of 10.4 per cent over an advanced conventional reference aircraft.

The approach presented in the paper may serve as a guideline when incorporating the results of high-fidelity aerodynamic methods into a PPS sizing and performance model suitable for aircraft-integrated assessment of a propulsive fuselage concept. The vehicular efficiency potentials offered through the synergistic PPS integration approach are highlighted.

The paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the characteristics of a boundary layer ingesting fuselage fan (FF) power plant relative to a conventionally installed PPS. In addition, a set of PPS design correlations are presented allowing for the integrated sizing of a FF power plant.

Due to the inherent environmental hazards posed to our ecological system by the problem of oil spillage in aquatic media, an analytical model of this situation was derived from first principles using cylindrical co‐ordinates to predict the concentration of oil sunk in water. A computer simulation of the occurrence was done using simulated data after an explicit difference numerical formulation of the analytical model was performed. The results were found to correspond with the experimental results of Villoria et al.

Preface The functions of business divide into several areas and the general focus of this book is on one of the most important although least understood of these—DISTRIBUTION. The particular focus is on reviewing current practice in distribution costing and on attempting to push the frontiers back a little by suggesting some new approaches to overcome previously defined shortcomings.

Transnational corporation (TNC)-led oil investments have been widely encouraged as a mechanism for the development of the Global South. Even though the sector is characterized by major accidents, oil-based developmentalist narratives claim that such accidents are merely isolated incidents that can be administratively addressed, redressed behaviorally through education of certain individuals, or corrected through individually targeted post-event legislation. Adapting Harvey Molotch’s (1970) political economy methodology of “accident research”, this paper argues that such “accidents” are, in fact, routine in the entire value chain of the oil system dominated by, among others, military-backed TNCs which increasingly collaborate with national and local oil companies similarly wedded to the ideology of growth. Based on this analysis, existing policy focus on improving technology, instituting and enforcing more environmental regulations, and the pursuit of economic nationalism in the form of withdrawing from globalization are ineffective. In such a red-hot system, built on rapidly spinning wheels of accumulation, the pursuit of slow growth characterized by breaking the chains of monopoly and oligopoly, putting commonly generated rent to common uses, and freeing labor from regulations that rob it of its produce has more potency to address the enigma of petroleum accidents in the global south.