Quantitative Indicators of Social Sustainability and Determination of Their Interdependencies. Example Analysis for a Wastewater Treatment Plant

Social impact as growing concern is becoming an important aspect of the design and operation of wastewater treatment processes. A need has arisen for the development of quantitative indicators of social sustainability. Design and operation of wastewater treatment processes additionally require simple and effective methods to represent and understand the interconnections between the indicators of social sustainability. This paper presents an approach for the development of quantitative social sustainability indicators, and introduces a novel method for defining and visualizing indicator interdependence. It outlines equations for quantitative evaluation of health, safety and security, and comfort. Weighting method of the bipartite network of the relations between the indicators and stakeholders enables clear visualization of the interdependencies of the indicators and facilitates simplification of the set of social sustainability criteria. It creates a basis for reduction of amount of data needed for performing the analysis and reducing the social sustainability assessment’s costs

KNOWLEDGE DISCOVERY FOR IDENTIFICATION OF ENZYME WITH A PRIORY SPECIFIED PROPERTIES

Development of new products with the given properties from the known raw materials is one of the common research tasks in process engineering. Usually the first step of research is a literature survey based on the search for the specific keywords. Nowadays there exist many vast databases of articles and patents, and the traditional, keywords-based, searching tools are not always sufficient to find the desired information. The main objective of this paper is to develop methodology for identification of new materials, based on knowledge discovery. As an example, the proposed methodology is applied for identification of new enzyme of microbial origin capable of polymerizing lactose in aqueous solution, with the number of required criteria

A Tuned Value Chain Model for University Based Public Research Organisation. Case Lut Cst.

The Porter´s value chain model was introduced for strategic business purposes. During the last decades also Universities and University based institutes have started to use actions similar to private business concepts. A University based institute is not independent actor like company but there are interest groups who are expecting them to act like they would be. This article discusses about the possibility of utilize tuned value chain to public research organizations (PRO). Also the interactions of tuned value chain model to existing industrial network are discussed. The case study object is the Centre for Separation Technology (CST) at Lappeenranta University of Technology (LUT) in Finland

Application of the rough set data analysis for the development of the control structure of an FCC unit

The rough set data analysis (RSDA) is widely used for the determination of non-linear relationships in many different areas. In this paper it is applied to investigate the dependencies among the variables in fluid catalytic cracking unit (FCC) consisting of reactor and regenerator parts. The analysis has been performed to understand FFC behaviour and to develop its control structure. About 140 operating points of an industrial FCC unit are considered and analysed using the rough set methodology. The ROSETTA toolkit is applied to discover the dependencies among the controlled and the manipulated variables. It is determined that the temperature of the regenerated catalyst has a significant influence on the product quality (motor octane number) and it should be controlled. A new control loop is designed and its controlled variable is the temperature in the regenerator unit. To avoid afterburning in the regenerator part of the FCC unit, several temperature measurements are recommended with the use of a special control unit, a high selector (HS).The manipulated variable of the new control loop is the feed flow of the bottom product of the main distillation column (BMC) in the reactor part of the FCC unit

The Impact of Relational Governance on Performance Improvement in Export Manufacturing Firms

Purpose: This paper seeks to identify the factors affecting social performance improvements in the Pakistan export manufacturing firms and investigate inter-relationships existing among them. Design/methodology/approach: This study used a cross-sectional survey; data were collected using self-administered survey questionnaire. Using data collected from 239 small- and medium-sized direct exporters manufacturing firms in Pakistan. We used structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to test structural model, and mediation analysis was conducted with regression analysis. Findings: The results support that meta-cognitive dimensions of cultural intelligence effect on social performance improvements, while the social performance improvement significant associated with innovation performance improvements. We suggest that cultural intelligence is a key to maintaining a relationship through development better cultural understanding and creating harmony among suppliers and buyers through minimizing the differences and disputes, requires developing social cohesion. Our results reveal that exporting firms need to adapt, reconfigure cultural knowledge and integrate resources into the operations to build learning capability, in turn, they can improve social performance and achieve superior innovation performance. Practical implications: Through the application of cultural intelligence capability, a firm could increase its ability to sense cultural differences, seize and adapt globally scattered cultural practices on social issues and allows for the development of unique knowledge resources and capabilities, impact on firm social performance and innovation performance improvements. Originality/value: The study conducted in Pakistan cultural context, which can be extended to other Asian countries. We argue that in a globalising world it is pertinent for exporting firms to have a better understanding of the various facets of cultural when dealing with inter-organisational relationships.Peer Reviewe

green supply chain management practices and company performance a meta analysis approach

Abstract Varying conceptualizations of green supply chain management (GSCM) practices can be observed in extant literature and there is evidence of mixed results relating GSCM practices to firm performance. These inconclusive findings have often confused managers which practices would yield desired performance outcomes. Hence, by applying meta-analysis approach in 85 independent effect sizes with a total sample size of 20011 firms, we tested the impact of GSCM practices on firm performance. Findings indicate that the relationship between GSCM practices and firm performance is positive and significant, providing empirical generalization and support to practitioners and scholars. Likewise, the GSCM practices positively and significantly influence environmental, social, operational and economic performance. This relationship is moderated by geographical region, industry type and firm size. Future studies should test how ascendants of GSCM practices affect firm's sustainability performance

Case Based Reasoning for Chemical Engineering Design

With current industrial environment (competition, lower profit margin, reduced time to market, decreased product life cycle, environmental constraints, sustainable development, reactivity, innovation…), we must decrease the time for design of new products or processes. While the design activity is marked out by several steps, this article proposed a decision support tool for the preliminary design step. This tool is based on the Case Based Reasoning (CBR) method. This method has demonstrated its effectiveness in other domains (medical, architecture…) and more recently in chemical engineering. This method, coming from Artificial Intelligence, is based on the reusing of earlier experiences to solve new problems. The goal of this article is to show the utility of such method for unit operation (for example) pre-design but also to propose several evolutions for CBR through a domain as complex as the chemical engineering is (because of its interactions, non linearity, intensification problems…). During the pre-design step, some parameters like operating conditions are not precisely known but we have an interval of possible values, worse we only have a partial description of the problem.. To take into account this imprecision in the problem description, the CBR method is coupled with the fuzzy sets theory. After a mere presentation of the CBR method, a practical implementation is described with the choice and the pre-design of packing for separation columns

Design approach of the Blantyre wastewater treatment plant using the Ed-Wave tool, Malawi

The EDWAVE tool is a PC based package for imparting training on wastewater treatment technologies. The system consists of four modules viz. Reference Library, Process Builder, Case Study Manager, and Treatment Adviser. The principles of casebased design and casebased reasoning as applied in the EDWAVE Tool are utilised in this paper in evaluating the design approach of Blantyre wastewater treatment plant in Malawi. The study established that a similar case to both the dry season and wet season conditions of Blantyre wastewater treatment works has similarities to Municipal Case 6 in Greece (2003), with a flow rate of 6,600m 3 /day. Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD5) and Total Suspended Solids (TSS) removal efficiency in the dry season was 87% and 11%, respectively, and 12% and 11%, respectively, in the wet season at the Blantyre plant. BOD5 and TSS removal efficiencies at Municipal Case 6 in Greece was 95% and 95.5%, respectively. The study confirmed the practical use of the EDWAVE Tool in the design of wastewater treatment systems. The study also confirmed the importance of screening, grit removal, aerobic biological treatment, and sedimentation in wastewater treatment processes

Assessment of pollutant transport and river water quality using mathematical models

This paper presents (1) general considerations related to the development of two mathematical models for non-conservative transport of nitrate and ammonium under unsteady water flow conditions; (2) their application to predict the transport of pollutant in both customary and accidental pollutant release circumstances; and (2) a discussion related to models use in water quality management. The studied river stretch is part of the River Swale in England, where pollutants are discharged by multiple point sources and also by tributaries. Experimental data was used for model development and verification. The models are useful to (i) assess the downstream river distance affected by pollutant release; (ii) estimate environmental damage; (iii) support decisions on where and how to counteract pollutant discharge; and (iv) also to support the further development of more refined water quality simulation tool

Offshored Service Cost Model as a Key Post-Transition Challenge

Business process offshoring has been dynamically growing worldwide in the last few years, facilitated by the corporate need for operational expenses reduction, overcoming skilled workers shortage and the potential for operations optimization. At every stage of organizational changes, there are various challenges the service offshoring managerial community constantly struggles with. Th e paper presents the offshored service cost model that can be adjusted and applied for service budgeting, valuation and control, for it has been identified as the most common challenge affecting Polish service off shoring corporations in the post-transition period. Th e need for strengthening this area of knowledge was identified through empirical research and the case study conducted in this work serves for presenting the authors’ insights on cost modelling for offshored business services