A Framework for Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment of Road Salt Used in Winter Maintenance Operations

It is important to assess from a holistic perspective the sustainability of road salt widely used in winter road maintenance (WRM) operations. The importance becomes increasingly apparent in light of competing priorities faced by roadway agencies, the need for collaborative decision-making, and growing concerns over the risks that road salt poses for motor vehicles, transportation infrastructure, and the natural environment. This project introduces the concept of Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA), which combines Life Cycle Costing, Environmental Life Cycle Assessment, and Social Life Cycle Assessment. The combination captures the features of three pillars in sustainability: economic development, environmental preservation, and social progress. With this framework, it is possible to enable more informed and balanced decisions by considering the entire life cycle of road salt and accounting for the indirect impacts of applying road salt for snow and ice control. This project proposes a LCSA framework of road salt, which examines the three branches of LCSA, their relationships in the integrated framework, and the complexities and caveats in the LCSA. While this framework is a first step in the right direction, we envision that it will be improved and enriched by continued research and may serve as a template for the LCSA of other WRM products, technologies, and practices

Enumeration of a dual set of Stirling permutations by their alternating runs

In this paper, we count a dual set of Stirling permutations by the number of alternating runs. Properties of the generating functions, including recurrence relations, grammatical interpretations and convolution formulas are studied.Comment: 8 page

A STUDY OF CUSTOMER’S SATISFACTION TOWARDS BOOTS PHARMACY

The research aims to identify the factors that affect customer's satisfaction with Boots Pharmacy and increase the company's profits, consumers, and market share. In Thailand, Retail pharmacies are adapting to a competitive market as domestic and foreign competitors seek more market share, and customers can easily switch between different pharmacies to buy drugs. This research will help Boots pharmacy understand more about the factors that affect customer satisfaction, to improve their business strategy planning and practice, gain more favorable comments and affection from consumers, and build customer loyalty. Besides, the study can serve as a suggestion to improve the company's performance, beat competitors, and gain more market share. So, the quantitative questionnaires were conducted and also distributed 400 sets of questionnaires to the people who have purchased drugs in the Boots pharmacy chain in Thailand. The descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression were used to confirm the results. A study of factors that affect customer's satisfaction with Boots Pharmacy includes convenience, price, product quality, and service quality. The result affirmed that all the factors are an effect on customer's satisfaction with Boots Pharmacy, among them, convenience is the highest effect and price is the lowest effect on customer's satisfaction with Boots Pharmacy