Eco-efficiency of Service Co-production: Connecting Eco-certifications and Resource Efficiency in U.S. Hotels

This study investigates the relationship between eco-certifications (second or third party certified with an audit requirement) and resource efficiency in the U.S. hotel industry. Hotel properties become eco-certified by voluntarily conforming to environmental practice guidelines established by a certifying body, which assesses and recognizes the properties that meet their criteria. Eco-certifications therefore are key environmental sustainability initiatives that address both the internal operations and external customers. Based on regression analysis of 2,893 U.S. hotel properties for the year 2011, this analysis shows that eco-certified hotels maintain higher operational efficiency, as well as greater customer-driven resource efficiency, in comparison with properties with lesser or no eco-certifications. These results suggest that eco-certifications influence the resource consumption behavior of both the operators and the customers, although these effects are not consistent for all properties. The improvement from the operational effect is most pronounced in lower-tier properties, while the customer efficiency effect is most noticeable in upper-tier properties

Simple Pendulum Revisited

We describe a 8085 microprocessor interface developed to make reliable time period measurements. The time period of each oscillation of a simple pendulum was measured using this interface. The variation of the time period with increasing oscillation was studied for the simple harmonic motion (SHM) and for large angle initial displacements (non-SHM). The results underlines the importance of the precautions which the students are asked to take while performing the pendulum experiment.Comment: 17 pages with 10 figure

IDENTIFICATION AND MAPPING OF TECTONICALLY ACTIVE POTENTIAL ZONES IN NORTHEASTERN PART OF ARAVALLI MOUNTAIN RANGE

The Great Boundary Fault (GBF) forms the eastern margin of the Aravalli Mountain Range (AMR) and, is exposed as boundary between highly deformed rocks of the AMR and relatively undeformed Vindhyan rocks. The GBF acts as important active dislocation zone between Himalayan regime in the north and, Son-Narmada regime in the south. Nevertheless, the intensity of active tectonics along GBF is relatively mild and hence, it requires special technique to identify and map active tectonics zone along this thrust. The thematic maps of geology, geomorphology, slope, and vegetation index of study area have been prepared using Landsat 7 ETM + digital data. These themes are integrated in GIS environment to assess the active tectonic potential in the area. The observed four high potential zones in the area are located at the intersection of NE-SW lineaments. The study brings out methodology for assessing active tectonic potential of the area. 1

A Pilot Survey to Assess the Vitamin A Status of Children Aged 6-72 months in the Ramu Region of Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea has been classified by the World Health Organisation as an area where clinical vitamin A deficiency (VAD) exists. This is at variance with the experience of the local physicians who do not encounter classical VAD in clinical practice. This pilot study was carried out to resolve this contradiction, since many suggestions have been made to fortify foods with Vitamin A. If done in the absence of concrete data to back up this classification, it could take the focus away from the real problem as well as potentially create problems of Vitamin A toxicity. Therefore, answers from this study could have far reaching implications in a country such as PNG, which has high childhood mortality and limited financial and manpower resources. The objective of this study was to determine the vitamin A status and identify risk factors of VAD in children aged 6 months to 6 years in a rural area of Papua New Guinea. The survey was carried out in the Ramu region of Madang province. Households and children were randomly selected and standard questionnaires were used to collect information about diet, previous illnesses and night blindness. The weight and height of all children was recorded and an ocular and physical examination carried out by trained personnel. In addition, haemoglobin estimation and examination of blood films for malaria parasites was carried out in all the children. In a randomly selected number of children, estimations of serum retinol and other micronutrient levels were carried out. Results: A total of 609 children were enrolled in the study. Biochemical parameters were studied in 106 of them .The mean age of the children was 35 months. Possible night blindness was reported in 4 children. No xerophthalmia was seen. The prevalence of serum retinol levels ( 0.7 (mol/L (WHO suggested cut off values for subclinical VAD) was 10.3%. Anthropometric indicators indicated a high proportion of the children had stunting and wasting or both. Analysis of dietary patterns, maternal literacy, food availability and other surrogate indicators indicated that the population is at mild-moderate risk of developing VAD. In conclusion, no evidence of clinical vitamin A deficiency was found. Subclinical vitamin A deficiency seemed to occur in this population at a level of mild-moderate public health importance. Further studies need to be carried out to assess the situation in different areas in PNG before policy decisions can be made with regards to mass vitamin A supplementation

Development of sunlight-driven eutectic phase change material nanocomposite for applications in solar water heating

Organic phase change materials (PCMs) have been utilized as latent heat energy storage medium for effective thermal management. In this work, a PCM nanocomposite, consisting of a mixture of two organic PCMs (referred to as eutectic gel PCM) and minimal amount (0.5 wt%) of nanographite (NG) as a supporting material, was prepared. Differential scanning calorimeter was used to determine the melting temperature and latent heat of pristine PCM, paraffin (61.5 °C and 161.5 J/g), eutectic gel PCM (54 °C and 158 J/g) and eutectic gel PCM nanocomposite (53.5 °C and 155 J/g). The prepared PCM nanocomposites exhibited enhanced thermal conductivity and ultrafast thermal charging characteristics. The nanocomposites were employed for two different applications: (i) providing hot water using an indigenously fabricated solar water heating (SWH) system and (ii) solar rechargeable glove that can be rapidly warmed and used. Experimental results on SWH system show that the use of PCM nanocomposites helps to increase the charging rate of PCM while reducing the discharging rate of heat by PCM to water, thus enhancing the maximum utilization of solar energy and hence improving the efficiency of the SWH system. The experimental results on solar rechargeable glove revealed that the glove has the ability to retain the temperature up to 3 hours

Intensity preserving cast removal in color images using particle swarm optimization

In this paper, we present an optimal image enhancement technique for color cast images by preserving their intensity. There are methods which improves the appearance of the affected images under different cast like red, green, blue etc but up to some extent. The proposed color cast method is corrected by using transformation function based on gamma values. These optimal values of gamma are obtained through particle swarm optimization (PSO). This technique preserves the image intensity and maintains the originality of color by satisfying the modified gray world assumptions. For the performance analysis, the image distance metric criteria of CIELAB color space is used. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated by testing the proposed method on color cast images. It has been found that distance between the reference image and the corrected proposed image is negligible. The calculated value of image distance depicts that the enhanced image results of the proposed algorithm are closer to the reference images in comparison with other existing methods

A comparative evaluation of I-gel and laryngeal mask airway supreme in laparoscopic surgeries: a randomized comparative study

Background: Supraglottic airway device results in less hemodynamic responses during laparoscopic surgery but supraglottic airway device to be used should have higher oropharyngeal seal pressure than peak pressure for effective ventilation as laparoscopic surgery also leads to higher airway pressure. In this study the efficiency of the I-gel with SLMA is compared in patients undergoing laparoscopic cholecystectomy surgeries.Methods: Sixty patients were randomized in to two groups, group A where I-gel was considered for airway management and group B where LMA Supreme was the device chosen for airway management.Results: Oropharyngeal seal pressure was significantly lower in group A than group B, 5 minutes after insertion of airway device it was 24.90±3.03 cm H2O and 27.30±3.41 cm H2O in group A and group B, respectively and 5 minutes after creation of pneumoperitoneum it was 25.53±3.17 cm H2O and 27.57±3.36 cm H2O in group A and group B, respectively. There was significant difference in the difference between inspiratory and expiratory tidal volume between the groups at all the time periods being higher in group A than group B. Hemodynamics were comparable between the two groups. Time taken to insert the airway device and Ryle’s tube insertion was significantly lesser in group B in comparison to group A. The percentage of complications was higher in group A than group B with no significant (p>0.05) association.Conclusions: Both the I-gel and SLMA devices can be used safely in laparoscopic cholecystectomy in non-obese patients. But in SLMA group oropharyngeal seal pressure was higher with lesser leak volume in comparison to I-gel group

Advances and trends in analytical techniques in natural product research: Challenges and future perspective

Advances in analytical methods and bioassay development have helped to push forward the research in natural products. Their high chemical diversity and the effects of evolutionary pressure to create biologically active molecules could be attributed to success in drug discovery. Despite the availability of modern analytical instrumentation techniques, metabolic profiling covers the identification of a selected group of metabolites. The phytochemical analysis is commonly performed using standard techniques such as thin-layer chromatography, high-performance thin-layer chromatography, high-performance liquid chromatography, gas chromatography and more recently mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry. Two-dimensional J-resolved Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectra and multivariate data analysis techniques were applied to avoid low resolution and overlapping signals hampering the identification of the individual components of botanicals. On-targeted metabolomic analysis via the ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC/Q-TOF-MS) was utilised to localise compounds belonging to various chemical classes (i.e. oxygenated fatty acids, flavonols, phenolic acids, and sinapoyl choline derivatives). Rotation planar chromatography over-pressured layer chromatography and electro planar chromatography are the other innovations. Parallel and serially coupled layers open up new avenues for the analysis of a large number of samples for high-throughput screening and very complex matrices in a natural product. Analytical strategies with applications to natural extracts and novel methods that have strong potential, regardless of how often they are used are discussed with respect to their potential applications challenges and future trends