An integrated model for green partner selection and supply chain construction

Stricter governmental regulations and rising public awareness of environmental issues are pressurising firms to make their supply chains greener. Partner selection is a critical activity in constructing a green supply chain because the environmental performance of the whole supply chain is significantly affected by all its constituents. The paper presents a model for green partner selection and supply chain construction by combining analytic network process (ANP) and multi-objective programming (MOP) methodologies. The model offers a new way of solving the green partner selection and supply chain construction problem both effectively and efficiently as it enables decision-makers to simultaneously minimize the negative environmental impact of the supply chain whilst maximizing its business performance. The paper also develops an additional decision-making tool in the form of the environmental difference, the business difference and the eco-efficiency ratio which quantify the trade-offs between environmental and business performance. The applicability and practicability of the model is demonstrated in an illustration of its use in the Chinese electrical appliance and equipment manufacturing industry

Sustainable Industrial Engineering along Product-Service Life Cycle/Supply Chain

Sustainable industrial engineering addresses the sustainability issue from economic, environmental, and social points of view. Its application fields are the whole value chain and lifecycle of products/services, from the development to the end-of-life stages. This book aims to address many of the challenges faced by industrial organizations and supply chains to become more sustainable through reinventing their processes and practices, by continuously incorporating sustainability guidelines and practices in their decisions, such as circular economy, collaboration with suppliers and customers, using information technologies and systems, tracking their products’ life-cycle, using optimization methods to reduce resource use, and to apply new management paradigms to help mitigate many of the wastes that exist across organizations and supply chains. This book will be of interest to the fast-growing body of academics studying and researching sustainability, as well as to industry managers involved in sustainability management

Resilient communities through safer schools

Access to education is a basic human right. It is the 4th of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and education is strongly associated with poverty reduction. Providing facilities to educate children requires construction of school buildings and rapid expansion of curricula. However, in the rush to fulfil the right to education, are children being put at risk? What attention is being given to structural safety during the construction of new school facilities? The growing consensus among stakeholders is that public school infrastructure in developing countries worldwide is particularly susceptible to natural hazards. This highlights a compelling need for developing and implementing effective, integrated, and ‘ground-real’ strategies for assessing and radically improving the safety and resilience of schools across those countries. To this aim, the paper explores two main issues: effectiveness at scale and the relevance of multiple hazard effects on the resilience of school infrastructure. Specifically, the paper first discusses the challenges associated with the World Bank Global Program for Safer School (GPSS) and the development of its Global Library of School Infrastructure (GLOSI), highlighting the issues associated with producing a tool which can be effective at scale and support nationwide risk models for school infrastructure across the world, so that fairness and relevance of investment can be achieved. This is followed by the illustration of a number of specific tools developed by the authors to expand the risk prioritization procedures used for seismic hazard, to other hazards such as flood and windstorm and to quantify the reduction in seismic fragility obtained by implementing specific strengthening strategies. Rapid visual survey forms, a mobile app, a multi-hazard risk prioritization ranking, and numerical fragility relationships are presented and their application discussed in relation to a case study in the Philippines. The proposed tools represent a first step toward a detailed multi-hazard risk and resilience assessment framework of school infrastructure. The aim is to allow stakeholders and decision-makers to quickly identify the most vulnerable structures among the surveyed stock, to guide more detailed data collection campaigns and structural assessment procedures, such as analytical vulnerability approaches, and ultimately to plan further retrofitting/strengthening measures or, if necessary, school replacement/relocation

Supervisory Control of Full Converter Wind Generation Systems to Meet International Grid Codes

This thesis proposes a new supervisory control scheme for full converter wind generators (FCWGs) in compliance with the latest international grid codes. Intermittent behaviour of wind turbines and maximum converter capacity are taken into account in determining the reactive power injection to the grid following severe disturbance. Detailed simulations show that the proposed controller can improve the fault-ride-through capability of FCWGs while also providing support to the network as required by the grid codes

Outlook Magazine, Fall 2003

https://digitalcommons.wustl.edu/outlook/1151/thumbnail.jp

NASA Tech Briefs, September 2011

Topics covered include: Fused Reality for Enhanced Flight Test Capabilities; Thermography to Inspect Insulation of Large Cryogenic Tanks; Crush Test Abuse Stand; Test Generator for MATLAB Simulations; Dynamic Monitoring of Cleanroom Fallout Using an Air Particle Counter; Enhancement to Non-Contacting Stress Measurement of Blade Vibration Frequency; Positively Verifying Mating of Previously Unverifiable Flight Connectors; Radiation-Tolerant Intelligent Memory Stack - RTIMS; Ultra-Low-Dropout Linear Regulator; Excitation of a Parallel Plate Waveguide by an Array of Rectangular Waveguides; FPGA for Power Control of MSL Avionics; UAVSAR Active Electronically Scanned Array; Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) Simulator; Silicon Carbide Mounts for Fabry-Perot Interferometers; Measuring the In-Process Figure, Final Prescription, and System Alignment of Large; Optics and Segmented Mirrors Using Lidar Metrology; Fiber-Reinforced Reactive Nano-Epoxy Composites; Polymerization Initiated at the Sidewalls of Carbon Nanotubes; Metal-Matrix/Hollow-Ceramic-Sphere Composites; Piezoelectrically Enhanced Photocathodes; Iridium-Doped Ruthenium Oxide Catalyst for Oxygen Evolution; Improved Mo-Re VPS Alloys for High-Temperature Uses; Data Service Provider Cost Estimation Tool; Hybrid Power Management-Based Vehicle Architecture; Force Limit System; Levitated Duct Fan (LDF) Aircraft Auxiliary Generator; Compact, Two-Sided Structural Cold Plate Configuration; AN Fitting Reconditioning Tool; Active Response Gravity Offload System; Method and Apparatus for Forming Nanodroplets; Rapid Detection of the Varicella Zoster Virus in Saliva; Improved Devices for Collecting Sweat for Chemical Analysis; Phase-Controlled Magnetic Mirror for Wavefront Correction; and Frame-Transfer Gating Raman Spectroscopy for Time-Resolved Multiscalar Combustion Diagnostics

Native Voices Rising: A Case for Funding Native-led Change

Native American organizations face enormous challenges to their communities, their lands and environment, and their basic rights as Indigenous peoples. They face these challenges with limited support from the broad spectrum of America's philanthropic institutions. Far too many foundations simply give little to nothing at all in support of Native causes, a situation that requires corrective action designed to close the enormous gap between foundation giving and the needs of Native communities. The low level of charitable foundation funding (.3%) going to Native causes, and the need to garner more support for Native organizing and advocacy work, in particular, prompted the Common Counsel Foundation and Native Americans in Philanthropy to jointly sponsor this research project that is focused on Native organizations which undergird the following five movements: Environmental Justice, Subsistence in Alaska, Native Engagement in the Urban Context, Media and Voter Engagement. The organizations varied considerably in experience and the methods they use to pursue change. They fulfill many roles in their respective communities, such as: advocates, organizers, service providers, and community builders. A key role is that they serve as places where people can acquire knowledge and skills that enable them to assume leadership roles in the organization and in the community. Leadership development is essential to maintaining and advancing these movements. Most importantly, Native self-determination and sovereignty is reinforced through the work of these organizations. To accomplish these goals, three sets of data were compiled. First, Native organizations in the targeted movements were contacted to obtain basic information that could be used to write brief thumbnail sketches about their organizations that included mission statements, current organizing and advocacy efforts, and contact information. Second, in-depth interviews were conducted with approximately 10 organizational leaders in each of the five movements to build a deeper understanding of how the organizations pursue their organizing and advocacy agendas, and seek change in their communities. Third, case studies of ten exemplary organizations, two in each movement, were compiled to illustrate the magnitude of the work. Representatives of 501(c)3 organizations, organizations using fiscal agents, and a few tribal governments and village councils participated in the study. In total, 146 organizations responded. Representatives from 49 of these organizations gave more intensive, in-depth interviews. Thumbnail sketches of all 146 organizations, the 10 case studies, as well as contextual information about each movement are contained in the full report