Report of large whale restraint workshop

Location: Carriage House, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA 02543. Date: February 7th & 8th 2006A number of large cetacean species are seriously injured and killed by entanglement in fishing gear used in the waters off the eastern United States and Canada. Entanglement most frequently involves rope or lines wrapped around the head, the flippers, body, in the mouth, around the tail flukes or any combination of the aforementioned body parts. Consequences of entanglement are particularly grave for North Atlantic right whales, which currently number about 300 whales and are declining due, in part, to this entanglement-related mortality. Right whales are frequently intractable and are very difficult and potentially unsafe to work with while attempting to disentangle the animal. Modifications and technological advances are needed to control, restrain and overall increase the success rate at which right whales are able to be cut free from entangling gear.National Marine Fisheries Servic

Rehabilitation of structures below the earths surface using fibre reinforced polymer shell augers and fabrication of plastic compounder

Many ageing highway bridges are in distress, requiring urgent repairs or rehabilitation. About 10% of the total highway bridges require rehabilitation in United States of America (Houlihan, April 2015). Reconstruction of these bridges requires large sums of money and time consuming conventional rehab schemes. Herein, a novel rehab scheme with Fiber Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites has been evaluated in the laboratory as FRPs exhibit high strength to weight ratio, high stiffness and excellent corrosion resistance. Current methods to repair pile systems are limited by access issues as the piles are extended typically underwater and below the mudline. Traditional methods require cofferdams or other barrier systems to work in the dry or divers to work in the wet. Access is also hindered as the piles support the existing bridge; i.e. there is a structure overhead and repairs have to be made around the existing pile supporting super structure. Proper repairs typically require digging below the mudline, which complicates any traditional repair method. The repair method proposed herein seeks to solve both the access and excavation issues by combining an augering attachment to FRP formwork that can be installed around an existing pile. Twisting the FRP formwork engages the auger, which drives the forms below the mudline. This method can be adopted above water, eliminating the need for barrier systems or divers. The auger attachment can be modified based on soil conditions. As the shell bores down, additional shells can be attached to the previously attached shell by an overlapping joint and also reinforcing the shell with FRP composite wrap to prevent potential buckling under torsion and to minimize moisture ingress through the shell. Based on the compactness of the soil and/or hardness, FRP composites can be selected with proper fiber volume fraction and orientation. In this study, field conditions have been replicated in lab and three different kinds of Auger attachments to the FRP composite shell are tested with manual application of torque to understand various challenges in driving these shells below the mudline. The stresses developed in the shell, both by the application of torque and resistance offered by soil are measured using of strain gages. The strain gage readings are evaluated with respect to strain limits of FRP composite to understand the FRP-soil interaction and to attain safe shell design. Plastic waste is the other major issue at present. The production is increasing every year rapidly but the recycling is not. The plastic waste that is not recycled is dumped in oceans or landfilled causing disturbance in ecological cycle. To reduce ecological disturbance, a compounding machine converting the plastic waste into a structurally useful product has been discussed herein as a second part of this report

Innovating Business Activities Using Triple Bottom Line Concept: The Case Of Building Hygene Company Valtex

Valtex, a Slovene company that provides hygiene products for commercial buildings, up until recently operated successfully in the eyes of the CEO and owner Niko Kumar, meeting the expected growth, profit, and cash flow. Yet suddenly the company is faced with the threat of bankruptcy which put past success on shaky grounds. Niko Kumar, together with his business partner and sales consultant, is forced to think deeper about the real value of the “building hygiene” business, its attractiveness in terms of triple bottom line (profitability, planet, and people), and study the value – if any – Valtex really creates for customers and society (planet and people). Most importantly with bankruptcy at the horizon, Niko is forced to explore novel areas where Valtex would really create substantial value for the customer and society. The case is suitable for post graduate students of management, short duration executive education programs, executive MBA programs, and entrepreneurship education. When discussing this case with a goal of helping Niko Kumar to innovate novel business activities for Valtex using sustainability perspective, an instructor is advised to use a set of strategic concepts: Porter’s (1985) five-force analysis and company activity system, Brandenburger and Stuart’s (1996) concept of value adding activities, Elkington’s (2002) concept of triple bottom line as well as train students in using brain-storming and other creative thinking techniques

Electrodynamic tether system study

The purpose of this program is to define an Electrodynamic Tether System (ETS) that could be erected from the space station and/or platforms to function as an energy storage device. A schematic representation of the ETS concept mounted on the space station is presented. In addition to the hardware design and configuration efforts, studies are also documented involving simulations of the Earth's magnetic fields and the effects this has on overall system efficiency calculations. Also discussed are some preliminary computer simulations of orbit perturbations caused by the cyclic/night operations of the ETS. System cost estimates, an outline for future development testing for the ETS system, and conclusions and recommendations are also provided

Western Australian state election 2013

This paper provides a narrative account of the issues, dynamics and outcomes of the 2013 Western Australian (WA) state election. It draws extensively on newspaper and electronic media coverage of the election campaign , and information and data provided by the Western Australian Electoral Commission (WAEC) .The 2013 WA state general election — held on 9 March 2013 — was the first election to be held after legislation was proclaimed in 2011 to fix the date of state general election s as the second Saturday in March, every four years. Previously, the Legislative Council had fixed four year terms, but the Legislative Assembly was elected for up to four years commencing from the date of its first meeting following a general election.The Electoral Amendment and Constitution Act 2011 passed through the WA Parliament in 2011 and was proclaimed on 20 December 2011. It amended the Electoral Act 1907 and the Constitution Acts Amendment Act 1899 to enable this fixed date for state general elections in Western Australia.New electoral boundaries applied for the 2013 WA election. After a review in 2011, boundaries were drawn in line with local changes in elector numbers.The last state general election was held on Saturday, 6 September 2008. The next state general election is due on Saturday, 11 March 2017

The Influence of Cool Chain Management on the Shelf Life and Quality of Horticultural Products: Review

The ever rising of population growth around the world necessitates the food demand greatly. The available land produces constant quantity of product per given area despite to the liner increment of food demand. Conversely, some of the produced food may not be reached to the end consumer due to food inaccessibility, food loss and food wastage which may still able to feed million of peoples who are living under nourishment. The horticultural crops are a perishable product due to its highest moisture content which deteriorate by high temperature. However, this temperature effect can be managed to its lowest optimum storable of individual products by cold chain management system at all levels of movements. The Cold chain logistics management is a systematic logistics project which the temperature sensitive products are always provided in low temperature environment in every aspect of production, storage, transportation, marketing and consumption to ensure quality of goods. Cold chain constitutes four aspects of frozen processing, frozen storage, refrigerated transport and distribution and frozen sales. The proper cold chain management system reduces a significant quantity loses of horticultural fresh products which occurred between harvesting and consumption period. At storage house and during transporting, the temperature adjustment according to the crop optimum lower temperature is a crucial activity of cool chain management. At the final, temperature management of produce at retailer shop is a component of cool chain management system to supply quality product to end consumer. The temperature management activities can be regulated by conventional thermometer, electronic data logger, and smart wireless autonomous micro system and time temperature indicator to  control the temperature breakage that occurred in cool chain management system at any point and time that makes cool chain management as efficient to pro long the shelf life of the products. Keywords: Food Waste; food loss; Temperature; Storage; Transportation;whole seller; Retailer; Deterioratio

Burger King in Portugal : to lead or to follow?

In 2001, the Burger King (BK) brand, managed by Ibersol group entered the growing fast food Portuguese market. Marginally higher prices along with the fact of having entered the market 10 years after its most direct competitor (McDonald´s), led BK to a sub leader position. Although being recognized as offering superior quality products when compared to McDonald´s, BK´s growth margins in the Portuguese market have been decreasing since 2007. The company´s uncertainty situation, offers the possibility of discussing positioning alternatives and strategic choices in business strategy and marketing courses. Besides the case study, the dissertation includes a literature review of frameworks and concepts used to evaluate company´s internal and external environment. Finally, teaching notes proposes an approach to the case that might be used to guide class discussion or stimulate its preparation. From the case analysis, the competition analysis and recent Portuguese economic situation, this dissertation proposes a set of concrete actions to reverse the current positioning and brand growth

An assessment of the value of retail ready packaging

Thesis (M. Eng. in Logistics)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Engineering Systems Division, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-79).Use of retail-ready packaging reduces the costs of replenishing store shelves by eliminating the labor of removing packaging materials and stocking individual items on shelves. While reducing costs for retailers, retail-ready packaging formats increase costs for consumer products manufacturers. This research project assesses the use of retail-ready packaging across varying retailer types and products to determine conditions where the value of retail-ready packaging is maximized. Taking into account the supply chain benefits and costs for the retailer, six U.S. retail channels were selected for study: supermarket, wholesale club, limited assortment, super warehouse, drug and supercenter. One retailer from each of these categories was studied. The research found a wide range in opportunity for benefits and costs. The important factors influencing the net value of retail-ready packaging for retailers were product velocity, inventory carrying costs, SKU assortment relative to retail space and store replenishment procedures.by Kathleen Anne Jackson and Ling Bai Burke.M.Eng.in Logistic