Managing risks in public-private partnership formation projects

While sourcing by means of Public-Private Partnerships has been lauded over recent years, increasingly risks appear to jeopardise public organisations' unique societal tasks. Integrated Risk Management has not yet been applied to public organisations getting involved in PPP in the sense of understanding risk management capabilities. This article explores risk awareness and risk management practices underpinning maintenance partnership formation by means of a dual case study of two PPP projects and a short industry survey. The results suggest that organisations face several “intolerable risks” linked to project governance and project management responsibilities: insufficient representation of qualified employees, absence of a shared performance system, assignment of responsibilities and decision-making authority, impractical or inappropriate partnership agreement, and timing of the partnership initiative. Cross-case analysis revealed the role of different levels of risk awareness and senior management involvement. Drawing on these findings, a framework for risk management for PPP formation projects is developed.     

Effect of pasture versus indoor feeding systems on quality characteristics,nutritional composition,and sensory and volatile properties of full-fat Cheddar cheese

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of pasture-based versus indoor total mixed ration (TMR) feeding systems on the chemical composition, quality characteristics, and sensory properties of full-fat Cheddar cheeses. Fifty-four multiparous and primiparous Friesian cows were divided into 3 groups (n = 18) for an entire lactation. Group 1 was housed indoors and fed a TMR diet of grass silage, maize silage, and concentrates; group 2 was maintained outdoors on perennial ryegrass only pasture (GRS); and group 3 was maintained outdoors on perennial ryegrass/white clover pasture (CLV). Full-fat Cheddar cheeses were manufactured in triplicate at pilot scale from each feeding system in September 2015 and were examined over a 270-d ripening period at 8°C. Pasture-derived feeding systems were shown to produce Cheddar cheeses yellower in color than that of TMR, which was positively correlated with increased cheese β-carotene content. Feeding system had a significant effect on the fatty acid composition of the cheeses. The nutritional composition of Cheddar cheese was improved through pasture-based feeding systems, with significantly lower thrombogenicity index scores and a greater than 2-fold increase in the concentration of vaccenic acid and the bioactive conjugated linoleic acid C18:2 cis-9,trans-11, whereas TMR-derived cheeses had significantly higher palmitic acid content. Fatty acid profiling of cheeses coupled with multivariate analysis showed clear separation of Cheddar cheeses derived from pasture-based diets (GRS or CLV) from that of a TMR system. Such alterations in the fatty acid profile resulted in pasture-derived cheeses having reduced hardness scores at room temperature. Feeding system and ripening time had a significant effect on the volatile profile of the Cheddar cheeses. Pasture-derived Cheddar cheeses had significantly higher concentrations of the hydrocarbon toluene, whereas TMR-derived cheese had significantly higher concentration of 2,3-butanediol. Ripening period resulted in significant alterations to cheese volatile profiles, with increases in acid-, alcohol-, aldehyde-, ester-, and terpene-based volatile compounds. This study has demonstrated the benefits of pasture-derived feeding systems for production of Cheddar cheeses with enhanced nutritional and rheological quality compared with a TMR feeding system.     

污水处理厂能耗分布与节能机会分析

调研了国内外污水处理厂的能耗水平和各处理单元的能耗分布情况,与先进国家相比,我国污水处理的能耗仍偏高,存在节能的空间。在分析污水厂能耗分布的基础上,认为污水厂的节能机会主要存在于曝气、泵、污泥等方面,但节能是一项持续改进的系统工程,数字化的运营管理和设计阶段的优化也是重要机会。     

Regiospecific analysis of conifer seed triacylglycerols by gas-liquid chromatography with particular emphasis on Δ5-olefinic acids

Dibutyroyl derivatives of monoacylglycerols (DBMAG) from conifer seed oil triacylglycerols (TAG) were prepared by partial deacylation of TAG with ethylmagnesium bromide followed by diesterification with n-butyryl chloride. The resulting mixtures were analyzed by gas-liquid chromatography (GCL) with 65% phenylmethyl silicon open tubular fused-silica capillary column operated under optimal conditions and separated according to both their fatty acid structures and their regiospecific distribution. Seed oils of 18 species from 5 conifer families (Pinaceae, Taxaceae, Cupressaceae, Cephalotaxaceae, and Podocarpaceae) were analyzed. The chromatograms showed a satisfactory resolution of DBMAG containing palmitic (16∶0) stearic (18∶0), taxoleic (cis-5, cis-9 18∶2), oleic (cis-9 18∶1), cis-vaccenic (cis-11 18∶1), pinolenic (cis-5, cis-9, cis-12 18∶3), linoleic (cis-9, cis-12 18∶2), α-linolenic (cis-9 cis-12, cis-15 18∶3), and an almost baseline resolution of DBMAG containing gondoic (cis-11 20∶1), cis-5, cis-11 20∶2, sciadonic (cis-5, cis-11, cis-14 20∶3), dihomolinoleic (cis-11 cis-14 20∶2), juniperonic (cis-5, cis-11, cis-14, cis-17 20∶4), and dihomo-α-linolenic (cis-11, cis-14, cis-17 20∶3) acids. We have observed that results for Pinus pinaster and P. koraiensis seed oils obtained with this new simple method compared favorably with literature data established with other usual regiospecific analytical techniques. Δ5-Olefinic acids are esterified mainly at the external positions of the glycerol backbone in all cases, in agreement with data obtained by other methodologies allowing validation of the GLC regiospecific method. To date, 45 gymnosperm species (mostly Coniferophytes) from 21 genera belonging to 9 families have been analyzed, all of them showing a definite enrichment of Δ5-olefinic acids in the external positions of TAG. These fatty acids (FA), with one exception only, represent between-2 and 8% of FA esterified to the internal positions. For some species, i.e., P. koraiensis and P. pinaster, this asymmetrical distribution was established by at least three analytical procedures and confirmed by stereospecific analysis of their seed TAG.     

On Prediction Intervals for Conditionally Heteroscedastic Processes

Kabaila (1999) argues that the standard 1−α prediction intervals for a broad class of conditionally heteroscedastic processes are justified by their possession of what he calls the 'relevance property'. He considers both the case that the parameters of the process are known and that these parameters are unknown. We consider the former case and ask whether these prediction intervals can, alternatively, be deduced from the requirements of both (a) unconditional coverage probability 1−α and (b) minimum unconditional expected length. We show that the answer to this question is no, by presenting a counterexample. This counterexample concerns the standard 95% one-step-ahead prediction interval in the context of a simple Markovian bilinear process.     

Bayesian density estimation from grouped continuous data

Grouped data occur frequently in practice, either because of limited resolution of instruments, or because data have been summarized in relatively wide bins. A combination of the composite link model with roughness penalties is proposed to estimate smooth densities from such data in a Bayesian framework. A simulation study is used to evaluate the performances of the strategy in the estimation of a density, of its quantiles and first moments. Two illustrations are presented: the first one involves grouped data of lead concentration in the blood and the second one the number of deaths due to tuberculosis in The Netherlands in wide age classes.     

A general approach for estimating scale score reliability for panel survey data.

Scale score measures are ubiquitous in the psychological literature and can be used as both dependent and independent variables in data analysis. Poor reliability of scale score measures leads to inflated standard errors and/or biased estimates, particularly in multivariate analysis. Reliability estimation is usually an integral step to assess data quality in the analysis of scale score data. Cronbach’s α is a widely used indicator of reliability but, due to its rather strong assumptions, can be a poor estimator (L. J. Cronbach, 1951). For longitudinal data, an alternative approach is the simplex method; however, it too requires assumptions that may not hold in practice. One effective approach is an alternative estimator of reliability that relaxes the assumptions of both Cronbach’s α and the simplex estimator and thus generalizes both estimators. Using data from a large-scale panel survey, the benefits of the statistical properties of this estimator are investigated, and its use is illustrated and compared with the more traditional estimators of reliability. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)