Performance management practices in humanitarian organisations

Purpose – We examine how design and implementation practices for supply chain performance management that have proven successful in commercial organisations apply to Humanitarian Organisations (HOs) to guide the process of designing and implementing performance management in humanitarian organisations. Design/methodology/approach – We identify from the literature 10 successful practices regarding the design and implementation of supply chain performance management in commercial businesses. We apply these, using action research over a four-year period, at Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) Belgium and draw conclusions from this. Findings – We find that tools and techniques, such as workshops and technical sheets, are essential in designing and implementing supply chain performance measurement projects at HOs. Furthermore, making a link to an IT project is crucial when implementing performance measurement systems at HOs. Overall, our case study shows that performance management practices used in business can be applied and are relevant for humanitarian supply chains. Originality/value – Previous research has argued that there are few empirical studies in the domain of performance management at humanitarian organisations. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to provide a longitudinal understanding of the design and implementation of supply chain performance measurement at HOs

Shape matters: the effect of red blood cell shape on perfusion of an artificial microvascular network

BACKGROUND The shape of human red blood cells (RBCs) deteriorates progressively throughout hypothermic storage, with echinocytosis being the most prevalent pathway of this morphological lesion. As a result, each unit of stored blood contains a heterogeneous mixture of cells in various stages of echinocytosis and normal discocytes. Here we studied how the change in shape of RBCs following along the path of the echinocytic transformation affects perfusion of an artificial microvascular network (AMVN). STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS Blood samples were obtained from healthy consenting volunteers. RBCs were leukocyte-reduced, re-suspended in saline, and treated with various concentrations of sodium salicylate to induce shape changes approximating the stages of echinocytosis experienced by RBCs during hypothermic storage (e.g. discocyte, echinocyte I, echinocyte II, echinocyte III, sphero-echinocyte and spherocyte). The AMVN perfusion rate was measured for 40% hematocrit suspensions of RBCs with different shapes. RESULTS The AMVN perfusion rates for RBCs with discocyte and echinocyte I shapes were similar, but there was a statistically significant decline in the AMVN perfusion rate between RBCs with shapes approximating each subsequent stage of echinocytosis. The difference in AMVN perfusion between discocytes and spherocytes (the last stage of the echinocytic transformation) was 34%. CONCLUSION The change in shape of RBCs from normal discocytes progressively through various stages of echinocytosis to spherocytes produced a substantial decline in the ability of these cells to perfuse an artificial microvascular network. Echinocytosis induced by hypothermic storage could therefore be responsible for a similarly substantial impairment of deformability previously observed for stored RBCs

Proceedings of the Second workshop on scientific results of FORV Sagar Sampada

Since inception in 1984, the Fisheries and Oceanographic Research Vessel Sagar Sampada, with sophisticated modern facilities onboard, has undertaken more than 140 cruises all over the Indian Ocean primarily in our Exclusive Economic Zone for fishery and oceanographic survey. Scientists from many institutions have made use of this facility to explore the resource potential in our sea and to understand its correlation with the environmental parameters. These survey and exploration efforts are continuing. This volume contains many papers which are the outcome of research work carried out onboard 'Sagar Sampada' during last five years (1989-1993) and presented in a Workshop to evaluate the scientific work. About 60 papers, included in this volume, bring out the results pertaining to environmental assessment, hydrology, productivity estimates, fishery resources availability, fishing technology, pollution monitoring etc. These relate mainly to the Arabian Sea, Bay of Bengal and Lakshadweep, Andaman and Nicobar Islands groups in the EEZ of India. These efforts along with other mission-oriented cruises have yielded valuable information on the fishery resources and their distribution in space and time

Protonated carbon nitride incorporated polyamide thin film nanocomposite for reverse osmosis desalination

Protonated carbon nitride (pCN) prepared from acid treatment of carbon nitride (CN) was incorporated in the polysulfone (PSf) substrate and polyamide (PA) layer to produce thin film nanocomposite (TFN) membrane. The hydrophilicity of CN is expected to improve the surface hydrophilicity of the membrane and acid treatment of nanoparticle is aimed to further enhance the surface structure and prevent the agglomeration of nanomaterial from taking place. pCN loading used in the PSf substrate was 0.5% while in the PA layer was varied as 0.05%, 0.1% and 0.15%. All the membrane prepared were characterized in terms of morphology, structural properties, and surface chemistry. Reverse osmosis dead-end filtration system was used to determine the water permeability and the salt rejection. It was observed that, all the membrane prepared could maintain the salt rejection with improvement of water permeability. However, the salt rejection was sacrificed when higher loading of 0.15% pCN was tested, although the water permeability of the membrane has reached approximately 0.5 LMHbar. This work demonstrates that the use of pCN in RO membrane can improve the water permeability without sacrificing the salt rejection

Blue light effects on rose photosynthesis and photomorphogenesis

Through its impact on photosynthesis and morphogenesis, light is the environmental factor that most affects plant architecture. Using light rather than chemicals to manage plant architecture could reduce the impact on the environment. However, the understanding of how light modulates plant architecture is still poor and further research is needed. To address this question, we examined the development of two rose cultivars, Rosa hybrida‘Radrazz’ and Rosa chinensis‘Old Blush’, cultivated under two light qualities. Plants were grown from one-node cuttings for 6 weeks under white or blue light at equal photosynthetic efficiencies. While plant development was totally inhibited in darkness, blue light could sustain full development from bud burst until flowering. Blue light reduced the net CO2 assimilation rate of fully expanded leaves in both cultivars, despite increasing stomatal conductance and intercellular CO2 concentrations. In ‘Radrazz’, the reduction in CO2 assimilation under blue light was related to a decrease in photosynthetic pigment content, while in both cultivars, the chl a/b ratio increased. Surprisingly, blue light could induce the same organogenetic activity of the shoot apical meristem, growth of the metamers and flower development as white light. The normal development of rose plants under blue light reveals the strong adaptive properties of rose plants to their light environment. It also indicates that photomorphogenetic processes can all be triggered by blue wavelengths and that despite a lower assimilation rate, blue light can provide sufficient energy via photosynthesis to sustain normal growth and development in roses

Salt effect on physiological, biochemical and anatomical structures of two Origanum majorana varieties (Tunisian and Canadian)

In this study, we evaluated the salt concentration effect on plant growth, mineral composition, antioxidant responses and anatomical structure of two varieties of Origanum majorana after exposure to NaCl treatment. Our results show an inclusive behaviour of the two varieties, since the majority of sodium was exported and accumulated in their aerial parts. The Canadian variety (CV) appeared relatively more tolerant to salt than the Tunisian one (TV). Transversal section of leaves showed a thickening of dorsal and ventral cuticle, more importantly in CV than in TV, in the presence and in absence of salt. This was accompanied by an increase in the length of palisade cells, and the width of spongy collenchyma lacuna. The stem had a subquadrangular shape in TV and quadrangular in the Canadian variety. At mature stage, the stem pit was reabsorbed in the TV and replaced by a large cavity, whereas it remained unchanged in CV. The relative salt tolerance of the CV was related to: (1) a good selectivity in favour of K+: (2) a strong peroxidase activity and (3) an increase in the lengthening of palisade cell accompanied with an increase of lacunae in spongy parenchyma in CV.Key words: Origanum majorana, salinity, growth, mineral nutrition, leaves, stems, anatomical, antioxidant

Strategic partner evaluation criteria for logistics service provider networks

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to establish criteria for evaluating strategic partners in a network of logistics service providers (LSPs) to show how analytical network process (ANP) can be used to identify the weights of these criteria on a case-specific basis, and to investigate whether the ANP model can be used as a starting point to evaluate strategic partners for other LSP networks. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a literature review of vertical cooperation, the authors develop an overview of criteria for the evaluation of partners in a network of LSPs. The authors then apply ANP at LSP1 to validate the criteria, identify weights for these criteria and to validate model outcomes. Furthermore, the authors investigate whether the ANP model developed for LSP1 can be applied to another LSP with similar characteristics (LSP2). In-depth interviews are used to draw conclusions on the modeling approach and the model outcomes. Findings: The research shows that evaluation criteria for partners in vertical partnerships between shippers and LSPs are applicable to LSP partners in horizontal partnership networks. The ANP model with criteria weights provides a good starting point for LSPs to customize the evaluation framework according to their specific needs or operating environments. Originality/value: Limited research is available on evaluating LSP partners in horizontal partnerships. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to bring forward horizontal LSP partner evaluation criteria to develop an ANP model for LSP partner evaluation and to apply this to two cases, and to provide a starting point for evaluating partners in similar horizontal LSP networks

Interaction of vortices in viscous planar flows

We consider the inviscid limit for the two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equation in the particular case where the initial flow is a finite collection of point vortices. We suppose that the initial positions and the circulations of the vortices do not depend on the viscosity parameter \nu, and we choose a time T > 0 such that the Helmholtz-Kirchhoff point vortex system is well-posed on the interval [0,T]. Under these assumptions, we prove that the solution of the Navier-Stokes equation converges, as \nu -> 0, to a superposition of Lamb-Oseen vortices whose centers evolve according to a viscous regularization of the point vortex system. Convergence holds uniformly in time, in a strong topology which allows to give an accurate description of the asymptotic profile of each individual vortex. In particular, we compute to leading order the deformations of the vortices due to mutual interactions. This allows to estimate the self-interactions, which play an important role in the convergence proof.Comment: 39 pages, 1 figur