Organic and conventional public food procurement for youth in Norway

In Norway, public procurement of food to youth is not well developed in comparison to many other European and Scandinavian countries. School meals are only offered in very few primary schools, and the common school meal is a packed lunch (sandwiches) brought from home, consumed in the class room. Subscription schemes for milk were introduced around 1970, and for fruit around 1995. Organic milk and fruit is offered only in some regions. Since 2007, fruit is served without payment in all schools with a lower secondary level (class 8-10 or 1-10). This effort was introduced as a first step to develop a free school meal in all public schools, which is a goal of one of the political parties in the current government. As in many other European countries, free school meals were offered (especially to poor children) in schools in the larger Norwegian cities around 1900. However, these meals were criticised for being unhealthy, and replaced by whole grain bread, milk and vegetables around 1930. Increasing private wealth, and increased demand for investments in school buildings, books etc changed the public priority and free school meals disappeared in Oslo around 1960. Today, there is not a general agreement about the optimal school meal composition, and whether or not the meals should be funded by the public. However, the increasing length of the school day and unsatisfactory scores of Norwegian pupils in international comparison tests (e.g. PISA) makes the school meal sector highly relevant in the public debate. Three cases that will be studied in a research project about public organic food procurement for youth are briefly described: The municipality of Trondheim, Øya music festival in Oslo and the Air Force Academy. (Increased) serving of organic food is an important aim in all these cases, and young people are an important target group. The report is produced within the project “innovative Public Organic food Procurement for Youth”, iPOPY, and will be updated and revised during the project period (2007-2010)

Transportation Life Cycle Assessment Synthesis: Life Cycle Assessment Learning Module Series

The Life Cycle Assessment Learning Module Series is a set of narrated, self-advancing slideshows on various topics related to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA). This research project produced the first 27 of such modules, which are freely available for download on the CESTiCC website http://cem.uaf.edu/cesticc/publications/lca.aspx. Each module is roughly 15- 20 minutes in length and is intended for various uses such as course components, as the main lecture material in a dedicated LCA course, or for independent learning in support of research projects. The series is organized into four overall topical areas, each of which contain a group of overview modules and a group of detailed modules. The A and α groups cover the international standards that define LCA. The B and β groups focus on environmental impact categories. The G and γ groups identify software tools for LCA and provide some tutorials for their use. The T and τ groups introduce topics of interest in the field of transportation LCA. This includes overviews of how LCA is frequently applied in that sector, literature reviews, specific considerations, and software tutorials. Future modules in this category will feature methodological developments and case studies specific to the transportation sector

Testing for the Impact of Local Labour Market Characteristics on House Prices

The starting point of this paper is a hedonic regression model where house prices are explained as a result of urban attraction and the accessibility to job opportunities in the region. The basic hypothesis is that house prices reflect that households in addition value accessibility to job opportunities in the neighborhood. We propose several measures of local labor market characteristics, and test for the impact on house prices. The alternative measures do not add considerably to the explanatory power. Still, some characteristics contribute significantly, and affect the size and interpretation of the relationship between local labor market conditions and house prices.

Organic hospital food is desired by patients and engages the kitchen

In December 2005 a questionnaire survey was conducted at the University Hospital in Trondheim, Norway. Patients and personnel expressed that food is important for their health and well-being. Good taste, appearance and right nutrition were mentioned as being important factors for food quality. About 80 % of the respondents were positive to the use of organic food at the hospital, even though only about half of them agreed that it is worth the price. The absence of pesticides, artificial fertilizers and preservatives in food was ranked to be more important than organic production of food. All respondents seemed to be critical to the use of pesticides and preservatives in food production and processing

Stormwater-Pavement Interface in Cold Climates

This project relates to “managing stormwater runoff in cold climates” and addresses the feasibility of low-impact development at a regional demonstration site in eastern Washington. The studies relate to seven large permeable pavement systems. The findings for similar climates and soils are as follows: The draindown times for retention in Palouse or similar clay soils may handle many typical storms. On average, every square foot of a permeable pavement system installed also receives run-on from another square foot of impermeable pavement, doubling its impact on both stormwater quantity reduction and stormwater quality improvement. Most of the clogged sections on various applications were downslope of other areas. Permeable pavements installed in areas targeted for additional stormwater quantity control and quality improvement may be feasible. On average, the cleaning for installations is less frequent than annually. Power washing plus vacuuming appears to be an effective method for pervious concrete. Surface distress was usually where vehicles turned, or from placement activities. Preliminary studies on various surface treatments on pervious concrete show promise for added safety benefits under wintry conditions. Both detention-type and retention-type permeable pavement systems appear to have little negative impact on neighboring soils in the winter under the study conditions. However, further research is needed for different designs of retention-type systems to ensure that water volumes in the aggregate storage bed do not allow for sufficient water flow into neighboring soils that might result in ice lens formation or other negative impacts

Prediction of Thermal Behavior of Pervious Concrete Pavements in Winter

Because application of pervious concrete pavement (PCPs) has extended to cold-climate regions of the United States, the safety and mobility of PCP installations during the winter season need to be maintained. Timely application of salt, anti-icing, and deicing agents for ice/snow control is most effective in providing sufficient surface friction when done at a suitable pavement surface temperature. The aim of this project was to determine the thermal properties of PCP during the winter season, and to develop a theoretical model to predict PCP surface temperature. The project included a laboratory and a field component. In the laboratory, thermal conductivity of pervious concrete was determined. A linear relationship was established between thermal conductivity and porosity for pervious concrete specimens. In the field, the pavement temperature in a PCP sidewalk installation at Washington State University was monitored via in-pavement instrumentation. Based on the field data, the Enhanced Integrated Climatic Model (EICM) was developed and validated for the site, using PCP thermal properties and local climatic data. The EICM-predicted PCP surface temperature during the winter season agreed well with the field temperature. Overall, the predicted number of days that the pavement surface fell below 32°F agreed well with the number based on field data for 85% of the days. Therefore, the developed model is useful in identifying those days to apply deicer agents. Finally, a regression model using climatic indices was developed for PCP surface temperature prediction in the absence of a more advanced temperature model

Comment

To survive in the competitive market, most organizations of today work with quality improvement of some kind in their business. Many organizations use concepts like Six Sigma and Lean, either applied as the structure for the entire improvement work, or as inspiration where elements of the concepts are used in the business development. Within Lean and Lean Product Development (LPD) literature, Japanese terms are frequently used, something that companies have applied to different extents. In Six Sigma and Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) abbreviations are equally common. Furthermore, in non-English speaking countries the frequent use of English terms sometimes obstructs the understanding of the constructs. Altogether, independent of which quality improvement concept an organization chooses to work with, the possibilities of using advanced terminology in some form are numerous. The present study investigates possible consequences of using advanced terminology of any kind in quality management, using experience and examples from large Swedish organizations. The paper thoroughly discusses advantages and disadvantages with usage of specialist language, indicating both increased benchmarking opportunities that come with a common use of terms between companies and the risk that too advanced denominations leads to misunderstandings within an organization. Conclusively, the paper emphasizes the importance of making a distinction between terms that are constructs used in the quality management field as a profession and at the everyday work in an organization and to make intentionally conceived choices of what terms that are used within the organization.QC 20140708</p

Housing price gradients in a geography with one dominating center

We primarily focus on explaining housing prices and predicting housing price gradients in a Norwegian region with one dominating center (Stavanger). For such a geography spatial separation can be represented in a hedonic regression equation by a function of traveling distance from the city center. Several functions are tested, and some alternatives provide both a satisfying goodness-to-fit, consistent coefficient estimates, and intuitively reasonable predictions of housing price gradients. Still, not all commonly used functions are recommended. Spatial autocorrelation is removed when the hedonic function is properly specified.hedonic regression model; housing attributes; functional representation of spatial separation; spatial autocorrelation; housing price gradient; capitalization

Housing Price Gradients in a Region with One Dominating Center

This paper primarily focuses on predicting housing price gradients in a Norwegian region with one dominating center. Spatial separation is represented by a function of the traveling distance from the city center in a traditional hedonic regression equation. Several functions are tested, and some alternatives provide a satisfying goodness-of-fit, consistent coefficient estimates, and intuitively reasonable predictions of housing price gradients. Still, not all commonly used functions are recommended. The findings also indicate that the strength of spatial autocorrelation is reduced when the hedonic function is properly specified.