Aspects of sustainability and design engineering for the production of interconnected smart food packaging

In the present work, the problem of food wastage and the concept of sustainability are studied. An analysis of Life Cycle Assessment as a tool and of the innovative concept of Cradle to Cradle is also carried out, together with an exhaustive comparison of these two approaches. Based on these concepts, an integrated methodology is proposed for the design of interconnected smart products. The smart packaging systems currently available are studied theoretically and a practical case is analysed using the proposed methodology through the design and Life Cycle Assessment of a smart interconnected container that is able to detect the ethylene emitted by climacteric fruit, thereby minimizing food wastage. For the case under study, a major impact is observed of the selected plastics in the resources category, and of the smart system in the human health category

Benchmarking of health technologies distribution models: an investigation of Lombardy’s local health authorities

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a benchmarking framework for assessing the performance of the distribution models adopted by the local branches of National Health Services (NHSs) for delivering health technologies to patients at a local level, and to derive prescriptions for enhancing design and optimal management of the distribution models. Design/methodology/approach – The authors focussed the study on the distribution of absorbent devices for incontinence, adopting the analytic hierarchy process as a tool for developing the benchmarking framework. The authors applied the framework to the context of the Italian NHS with respect to the Lombard Local Health Authorities, assessing their performance in terms of operational efficiency and service quality. Findings – The developed framework constitutes a novel contribution, and it allows for generating prescriptions. Through its application to the context studied the authors found that a “one-size-fits-all” distribution model cannot be proposed, as regards both efficiency and effectiveness, since process standardization does not provide benefits or savings in all contexts. Rather, a total landed cost approach in the evaluation of the distribution practices must be adopted. Practical implications – This paper offers to managers and decision makers an innovative approach to the design of distribution models for health technologies. It provides policy makers with prescriptions to develop regulations fostering a comprehensive view of the factors for an optimal health technologies distribution at a local level. Originality/value – Given the dearth of scientific publications focussed on the distribution at the local level of health technologies, this paper significantly contributes to the existing body of knowledge and it offers an innovative framework which can be proficiently replicated in manifold contexts

Evaluating the cooling rate of hot mix asphalt in tropical climate

This paper aims to investigate the environmental effect on cooling rate and to determine the appropriate time available for compaction (TAC) using laboratory tests. This includes the study parameters, namely solar flux, base and ambient temperatures (daytime and night-time paving) and wind velocity, focusing on hot mix asphalt (HMA) asphalt concrete wearing with 14 mm nominal maximum aggregate size (ACW14) mix type for the wearing course and ACB28 mix type for the binder course. Samples were prepared in slab moulds 30.5 cm × 30.5 cm × 5 cm and compacted using a manually operated steel-roller. Readings were taken by averaging the temperature measurements at the middle and surface of the slabs and a temperature of 160 ºC was used as the mixing temperature. A control sample was prepared for each mix type and tested in the laboratory without the influence of wind velocity and solar flux. It was found that the cooling rate of HMA is significantly affected by environmental factors, thus influencing the TAC. The TAC tends to decrease by 15-50% during windy and night conditions but increases by up to 100% during daytime conditions compared to the control samples

Review of Life Cycle Assessment in Agro-Chemical Processes

Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method used to evaluate the potential impacts on the environment of a product, process, or activity throughout its life cycle. Today’s LCA users are a mixture of individuals with skills in different disciplines who want to evaluate their products, processes, or activities in a life cycle context. This study attempts to present some of the LCA studies on agro-chemical processes, recent advances in LCA and their application on food products and non-food products. Due to the recent development of LCA methodologies and dissemination programs by international and local bodies, use of LCA is rapidly increasing in agricultural and industrial products. The literatures suggest that LCA coupled with other environmental approaches provides much more reliable and comprehensive information to environmentally conscious policy makers, producers, and consumers in selecting sustainable products and production processes. For this purpose, a field study of LCA of biodiesel from Jatropha curcas has been taken as an example in the study. In the past, LCA has been applied primarily to products but recent literature suggests that it has also the potential as an analysis and design tool for processes and services. In general, all primary industries use energy and water resources and emit pollutants gases. LCA is a method to report on and analyze these resource issues across the life cycle of agro-chemical processes. This review has the importance as a first part of a research project to develop a life cycle assessment methodology for agro-chemical industries. It presents the findings of a literature review that focuses on LCA of agriculture and chemical engineering literatur

Economic viability of eCare solutions

Provisioning of good quality care to the elderly population and at the same time reducing the pressure on the health care expenditures is a challenging issue for governments today. Many ICT supported, distant care systems (eCare) have been proposed but few have found their way to the market. The problem is to provide a viable business case for each actor involved (including eCare platform, health care and finance providers) when offering eCare services. We have constructed a model for evaluating the (socio-)economic viability of different business models when introducing eCare solutions. A multi-actor approach has been implemented, calculating and evaluating the business case for each actor involved. For a Belgian case we will show (socio)-economic advantages to participate in an eCare ecosystem

International Veterinary Epilepsy Task Force Consensus Proposal: Outcome of therapeutic interventions in canine and feline epilepsy

Common criteria for the diagnosis of drug resistance and the assessment of outcome are needed urgently as a prerequisite for standardized evaluation and reporting of individual therapeutic responses in canine epilepsy. Thus, we provide a proposal for the definition of drug resistance and partial therapeutic success in canine patients with epilepsy. This consensus statement also suggests a list of factors and aspects of outcome, which should be considered in addition to the impact on seizures. Moreover, these expert recommendations discuss criteria which determine the validity and informative value of a therapeutic trial in an individual patient and also suggest the application of individual outcome criteria. Agreement on common guidelines does not only render a basis for future optimization of individual patient management, but is also a presupposition for the design and implementation of clinical studies with highly standardized inclusion and exclusion criteria. Respective standardization will improve the comparability of findings from different studies and renders an improved basis for multicenter studies. Therefore, this proposal provides an in-depth discussion of the implications of outcome criteria for clinical studies. In particular ethical aspects and the different options for study design and application of individual patient-centered outcome criteria are considered

Integration of innovative users as source of service innovations

In this study we research user integration in the German service industry. Goal is to explore the industrial practice with regard to four dimensions of user integration, i.e., why, whom, how, and how successful the service industry integrates to find novel service ideas. Data is collected from a large-scale survey sent out to 2,905 service companies and posted in various user groups related to service innovations. Drawing from data gathered from 301 respondents in our study, we present explorative findings for each distinct dimension of user integration. To better understand the interrelation of these dimensions, we also create a structural equation model using partial least square for estimation of direction and strength of relationships between those. Results show that service companies like companies from other industries actively pursue the development of radical innovations. We find that service companies do not integrate users by random. Instead a service company's level of importance for radical innovation significantly determines both, choice of users integrated as well as choice of integration instruments deployed. In our study we can also show, that many of the beliefs brought forward by service companies for not integrating users cannot be sustained in the light of our findings. We can demonstrate that user contributions provide true value to those companies integrating the latter, and also that using tools which are considered easy and versatile to apply can still have a significant impact on the attractiveness of user ideas. --