Service Competitiveness – An Anglo-US Study

This article reports on the latest in a series of international comparisons of management practices and performance outcomes of industries in various countries. Here, it is the service industries in the UK and the US which come under the microscope. Among the companies surveyed, there were more world-class performers in the US than the UK, but also more low performers. The concluding part of the article is diagnostic – the authors also suggest measures which could improve performance.     

Analytical approaches to characterising fish tainting potential of oil sands process waters.

A three-stage study has been carried out with rainbow trout (Oncorhyncus mykiss) to develop analytical approaches which can provide a fingerprint for tainting by oil sands chemicals from process-affected waters and natural sources. The objective was to find a simpler alternative to sensory evaluation. In the first stage, a set of seven test compounds was added to fish tissue which was analysed by headspace and solvent (dichloromethane, DCM) extraction followed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). In the second stage, fingerlings (5-20 g) were exposed for 96 hours to the test compound mixture at 1.0 and 0.5 times the estimated tainting threshold concentrations. In the final stage, fingerlings were exposed for 96 hours to an oil sands process water at 5, 10, 20 and 50% concentrations in clean water. None of the test compounds was identified in DCM extracts of tissue from exposed fish. Two long-chain aldehydes, hexadecanal and 9-octadecenal, were tentatively identified in these extracts by matching of mass spectra with library spectra.     

A new design of flocculation tank: the Turbomix applied to weighted flocculation.

As far as flocculation is concerned, the agglomeration of suspended particles into flocs is highly linked to the hydraulic behaviour of the agitation. The Turbomix is a special design of mixing tank; its design was developed to better control the flow during the flocculation stage. It enables a significant decrease in footprint of the process. The combination of the Turbomix and ballasted flocculation has been studied during pilot trials in terms of treatment efficiency. Its controlled hydraulic behaviour explains the efficiency of the process as proved by CFD investigation.     

Long-time risk of groundwater/drinking water pollution with sulphuric compounds beneath burned peatlands in Indonesia.

Smoke-haze episodes caused by vegetation and peat fires affect parts of Indonesia every year with significant impacts on human health and climate. The forest fires 1997/1998 were by far the largest in Indonesian history, burning between 5 and 8 million hectares before they were stopped by the monsoon rains in December 1997. Fires sprang up again in 1998 on Kalimantan when monsoon rain paused. Peat forests and peatlands are in particular severely affected. In the 1997/1998 haze event, 2.1-2.5 million hectare of peat swamp forest burnt in Indonesia. The remaining ash contains high concentrations of sulphur and sulphuric compounds which eventually leach into the groundwater, thus polluting groundwater and drinking water. The thicker the peat layer is and the higher the number of fires in the respective area the more sulphuric compounds will leach into the groundwater. Risk areas for the sulphur loads of the ash are identified.     

Estrogenic personal care products in a greywater reuse system.

The occurrence and fate of parabens in a greywater system was assessed. The potential for removal of residual paraben concentrations in effluent greywater with chlorine dioxide was also investigated. The influent to the greywater plant was characterised by considerable variation, with concentrations from below the detection limit to 40 microg/L and the five commonly used parabens in consumer products were frequently detected. After the biological treatment only two paraben were detected with concentration from 65-120 ng/L. Chlorine dioxide treatment of the biologically treated effluent with dosages down to 0.75 mg/L resulted in more than 97% reduction of all parabens. Formation of the by-product chloroform was insignificant from the chlorine dioxide treatment.     

Fiscal sustainability and solvency: theory and recent experience in Indonesia

A major challenge for Indonesian economic policy makers is to avoid the recurrence of conditions that could trigger a new economic crisis. One of the important dimensions of this challenge will be to conduct fiscal policy in a way that is sustainable, given the level of interest rates and the rate of growth of the economy. This paper synthesises various approaches to the measurement of fiscal sustainability that have appeared in the economic literature, relates these measures to the fundamental concept of fiscal solvency, and applies the framework to Indonesia over the period 1991–2003. The domestic and foreign debt positions of the central government are treated separately, to capture the influence of exchange rate changes on the relative costs of domestic and foreign borrowing. The empirical analysis indicates that Indonesia has met the fiscal sustainability criterion in recent years, except when the rupiah has depreciated heavily.     

Evaluating the stabilisation degree of digested sewage sludge: investigations at four municipal wastewater treatment plants.

Further reduction of volatile suspended solids (VSS) during a post-stabilisation step was applied to evaluate the stabilisation degree of digested sewage sludge. For this purpose digested sludge was collected at four municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and further stabilised in lab-scale chemostat reactors either under anaerobic or aerobic conditions. Experimental results showed that even in adequately digested sludge a consistent amount of VSS was degraded during aerobic post-stabilisation. It seems that aerobic conditions play a significant role during degradation of residual VSS. Additionally, specific VSS production (gVSS/peCOD110.d) as well as specific oxygen uptake rate were shown to be suitable parameters to assess the degree of sludge stabilisation at WWTPs. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was used to reveal changes in the sludge composition. Spectra of treated and untreated sludge samples indicated that the major component of residual VSS in stabilised sludge for instance consisted of biomass, while cellulose was absent.     

Conservation of water resources problems of small rivers in Russia

Translated from Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel'stvo, No. 8, pp. 1–5, August, 1994.     

Ecological problems of the Amu Darya delta

Translated from Gidrotekhnicheskoe Stroitel'stvo, No. 3, pp. 6–8, March, 1992.