Survival and movement of enterovirus in connection with land disposal of sludges

Coxsackievirus and tritiated water were added to municipal sludges which were placed on lysimeters containing sandy soil or clay soil. It took 23 weeks during a normal Danish winter to inactivate virus from an initial 10⁶tcid₅₀/g sludge to a not demonstrable level. Irrespective of sludge and soil type no virus was demonstrated in the leachate water. The rainfall during December–May was 300 mm.     

Using eco-efficiency in sustainable supply chain management; a case study of furniture production

In this article, a three-step method, proposing how small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can improve the environmental performance in their supply chain, is presented. The method is based on (1) an assessment of their products, (2) identification of critical processes that should be improved, and (3) identification of actors in the supply chain that should be focussed upon not only based on environmental performance, but also based on the abilities that the end producer has to influence them. This article is exemplified with a case study of furniture production in Norway. The case shows that the potential for improvement of processes under direct control by the end producer is limited. However, the three steps, as a whole, show how an SME with limited resources and supply chain power can identify key actors in the supply chains for further improvements, based on a potential for improvements of environmental performance and the possibilities that the end producer has to impose improvements.     

Strength and conflicting valence in the measurement of food attitudes and preferences

There is a trend in current attitude research to move away from a simple uni-dimensional view of attitude, towards examining a more multivariate concept of attitude. An extensive array of attitudinal properties or dimensions has been provided, defined and categorised as ‘attitude strength’. Attitude strength has only recently been adapted as a conceptual framework for research in marketing and consumer studies. Our objective in this paper is to introduce some of the attitude strength concepts and literature in order to improve the measure and understanding of research dealing with measurement of food preferences, perceived food quality and satisfaction with food products, food suppliers, etc. The paper takes a particular focus upon problems in comprehending the middlemost choice or neutrality when measuring attitude items along a traditional bipolar semantic differential or a bipolar hedonic preference scale. Through several propositions, we have outlined how future research should note that both attitude ambivalence (mixed feelings) and non-attitude (lack of confidence in evaluation) could be threats to comprehending the middlemost response alternative on a questionnaire as neutral when measuring food attitudes or preferences in the traditional way. Our approach should also deal with some of the shortcomings of analysing attitude–behaviour consistency when modelling food consumption behaviour.     

Medical research and the ethics committee. A questionnaire study among project leaders in the health region 4

All 159 principal investigators whose projects had been assessed by the biomedical research ethics committee in Health Region 4 (Central Norway) during 1986-92 were asked to complete a questionnaire about medical research ethics and the work of the ethics committee. Their answers about scientific fraud and misconduct have been published previously. This paper reports how the 119 respondents (70% of those addressed) regard the role and work of the ethics committees and how they perceived the committee's assessment of their own project. A majority agreed that medical ethics committees are an important part of the scientific community (90%), that scientific quality is an important ethical element of any project (85%), and that researchers put more effort into their study protocol as they knew it would be assessed by an ethics committee (85%). More than 70% agreed that the committee's comments were useful and relevant, but a majority of these agreed only partly. The results are discussed in relation to the characteristics of the investigators.     

Investigation of relationships in a supply chain in order to improve environmental performance

This paper presents a methodology to combine environmental assessment information and knowledge on supplier relationships. The work is based on a case study of production of a chair. The methods used are shown to be effective to reduce the number of suppliers that should be managed from an environmental point of view and also obtain an overview over which suppliers that can be influenced. It is also shown how suppliers with the presumably highest potential for improvements are identified. The end-producer can thus obtain control over most of the environmental impact originating from upstream activities through a limited number of suppliers. In the case study the number of suppliers that should be managed is reduced to 3. Small and medium sized enterprises have often limited possibilities to influence the suppliers, but in this paper it is demonstrated how this problem can be overcome by cooperative purchasing within a branch of industry with a common demand for information from the suppliers.

Combustion instabilities in sudden expansion oxy-fuel flames

An experimental study on combustion instability is presented with focus on oxy-fuel type combustion. Oxidants composed of CO₂/O₂ and methane are the reactants flowing through a premixer-combustor system. The reaction starts downstream a symmetric sudden expansion and is at the origin of different instability patterns depending on oxygen concentration and Reynolds number. The analysis has been conducted through measurement of pressure, CH^∗ chemiluminescence, and velocity. As far as stability is concerned, oxy-fuel combustion with oxygen concentration similar to that found in air combustion cannot be sustained, but requires at least 30% oxygen to perform in a comparable manner. Under these conditions and for the sudden expansion configuration used in this study, the instability is at low frequency and low amplitude, controlled by the flame length inside the combustion chamber. Above a threshold concentration in oxygen dependent on equivalence ratio, the flame becomes organized and concentrated in the near field. Strong thermoacoustic instability is then triggered at characteristic acoustic modes of the system. Different modes can be triggered depending on the ratio of flame speed to inlet velocity, but for all types of instability encountered, the heat release and pressure fluctuations are linked by a variation in mass-flow rate. An acoustic model of the system coupled with a time-lag-based flame model made it possible to elucidate the acoustic mode selection in the system as a function of laminar flame speed and Reynolds number. The overall work brings elements of reflection concerning the potential risk of strong pressure oscillations in future gas turbine combustors for oxy-fuel gas cycles.     

How consumer innovativeness,technological expertise,and consideration set size can explain mobile commerce use: An extended understanding using a moderation–mediation model

Information Systems and e-Business Management - This study integrates consumer innovativeness (CI) and technological expertise (TE) in consumer attitudes and mobile commerce use (MCU) and...