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Article
Publication date: 2 April 2024

Andrew Swan, Anne Schiffer, Peter Skipworth and James Huntingdon

This paper aims to present a literature review of remote monitoring systems for water infrastructure in the Global South.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to present a literature review of remote monitoring systems for water infrastructure in the Global South.

Design/methodology/approach

Following initial scoping searches, further examination was made of key remote monitoring technologies for water infrastructure in the Global South. A standard literature search methodology was adopted to examine these monitoring technologies and their respective deployments. This hierarchical approach prioritised “peer-reviewed” articles, followed by “scholarly” publications, then “credible” information sources and, finally, “other” relevant materials. The first two search phases were conducted using academic search services (e.g. Scopus and Google Scholar). In the third and fourth phases, Web searches were carried out on various stakeholders, including manufacturers, governmental agencies and non-governmental organisations/charities associated with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in the Global South.

Findings

This exercise expands the number of monitoring technologies considered in comparison to earlier review publications. Similarly, preceding reviews have largely focused upon monitoring applications in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This paper explores opportunities in other geographical regions and highlights India as a significant potential market for these tools.

Research limitations/implications

This review predominantly focuses upon information/data currently available in the public domain.

Practical implications

Remote monitoring technologies enable the rapid detection of broken water pumps. Broken water infrastructure significantly impacts many vulnerable communities, often leading to the use of less protected water sources and increased exposure to water-related diseases. Further to these public health impacts, there are additional economic disadvantages for these user communities.

Originality/value

This literature review has sought to address some key technological omissions and to widen the geographical scope associated with previous investigations.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology , vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1945

Europe is most desperately in need of the products of which there is a world‐wide shortage—fats and oils, meat and sugar. The problem of supplying wheat is not expected to be so…

Abstract

Europe is most desperately in need of the products of which there is a world‐wide shortage—fats and oils, meat and sugar. The problem of supplying wheat is not expected to be so serious. A special committee on food operating under authority of the Inter‐Agency Committee on Foreign Shipments estimates that liberated Europe requires imports of approximately the following quantities by the end of this year: Fats and oils, 800,000 tons; sugar, 800,000 tons; milk, 186,000 tons; wheat 8,000,000 tons; meat, poultry and cheese, 650,000 tons. However, these figures do not include any important needs for Italy, which was scheduled to receive 1,618,600 tons before the miltary relief programme ended, and which will need much more in the coming year. This brings fats and oil consumption up to only 90 per cent. of the pre‐war level, raises milk and meat supplies by only 10 per cent. of the pre‐war level, and allows only 22 lbs. of sugar per person. The analysis of need in Europe has given weight to two important considerations; (1) Basic physiological needs, and (2) customary habits of consumption. The latter is reflected in the pre‐war diets of the people of the liberated countries. In estimating the needs of Europeans for the coming year—taking both physiological needs and pre‐war habits into consideration, the Committee was concerned with food of four basic groups: fats and oils, proteins, sugar and wheat. (1) Fats and Oils. Nutritional authorities throughout the world agree that there is an urgent physiological need for a minimum quantity of fats as an element in the diets of all populations. This may be either “visible fat”—such as butter, or shortening used in cooking other foods, or it may be “invisible fats,” from other foods, such as meat, eggs, fish and milk. The Inter‐Allied Post‐War Requirements Bureau, set up in London prior to the establishment of U.N.R.R.A. and made up of representatives of the United Nations, states that just under 20 lbs. a year is the base level of visible fat needs. The nutrient values group of the combined working party on European food supplies (composed of representatives from the liberated areas as consultants) reported that 20 per cent. of the total calories obtained from a diet should come from fat and not less than half of this should come from “visible fat.” Thus, to provide 10 per cent. of 2,000 calories, which was the minimum target set by military authorities, to prevent disease and unrest in the urban civilian populations during the period of military operations would require just under 20 lbs. of fat from butter, margarine, shortening, lard and oils. (2) High Quality Protein Foods. This group includes meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products other than butter, and (dried beans, peas, lentils, etc). Dairy products are measured, not in terms of the fluid content, but of the milk solids contained in them. Meats are the high quality protein foods for which the most urgent demands are expressed in the liberated countries, but some other foods, on a lb.‐for‐lb. basis, will provide equal or greater quantities of protein. About 20 grammes per day is commonly referred to as the minimum quantity of high quality protein on which a person can remain healthy over a considerable period; to reduce consumption below that amount in most countries means malnutrition. For purposes of estimating the minimum essential quantities of protein needed, the United Nations have made computations on the basis of 40 kilograms per head per year—or roughly 88 lbs. of quality protein foods. (3) Sugar. The need for sugar, a concentrated source of energy, seems to rest on both psychological and physiological importance. Food authorities state that curtailments of consumptions of the very low levels that prevail throughout the war in most countries cause particular inconvenience and create the acutest sense of deprivation. The United Nations food authorities, therefore, in computing the sugar needs of the liberated areas, have drawn up tables to show the imports needed to bring countries up to 22 lbs. per year, or to pre‐war levels if they were below 22 lbs. (4) Wheat. Wheat and other cereals must make up the calorie deficits remaining after the minimum supplies of fats and oils proteins and sugar have been provided in the diet. In most European nations, cereals have played a more dominant part in the average diet than has been true in the United States.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 47 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1981

Stanley G. Maskell, principal scientist with Harcostar Ltd., the Huntingdon plastics blow moulders, has been elected Chairman of the London Section of the Plastics and Rubber…

Abstract

Stanley G. Maskell, principal scientist with Harcostar Ltd., the Huntingdon plastics blow moulders, has been elected Chairman of the London Section of the Plastics and Rubber Institute for the 1981–2 session.

Details

Pigment & Resin Technology, vol. 10 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0369-9420

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1949

Although a comparatively rare disease in Great Britain, cases of trichinosis have been reported from different parts of the country from time to time. Statistics show that during…

Abstract

Although a comparatively rare disease in Great Britain, cases of trichinosis have been reported from different parts of the country from time to time. Statistics show that during the present century only 59 cases were reported prior to the Wolverhampton outbreak in 1941. Trichinosis is a parasitic disease. The Trichina spiralis lives in the small intestine, the female measuring about ⅛ in. in length and the male 1/16 in. The ova emerge as minute hair‐like embryos which burrow from the intestines to the musculature of the host. Thus if man consumes pork containing live trichinæ the larvæ are freed from their capsules by the action of the gastric juices, and maturity is attained in the small intestine. The female grows rapidly and at the end of a week gives rise to a swarm of a hundred or so embryos. The burrowing process starts again, and this boring into muscles produces intense muscular pains, swelling and tenderness, high fever, and other symptoms. The effects of cooking and preserving on infected meat are described by Mr. C. R. A. Martin, who says that thorough cooking for twenty minutes at a temperature above 150° F. is sufficient to destroy all trichinæ, providing the whole of the meat is subjected to this temperature for a similar period. It is obvious, therefore, that in domestic cookery boiling would be preferable to roasting in order to kill live parasites. Only very low temperatures (0°–5° F.) applied for three weeks have any effect on the vitality of trichinæ. Dry salting will kill all trichinæ in surface layers of the meat after exposure to the salt for fourteen days, but in the case of large bacon or hams a much longer exposure of eight to twelve weeks would be necessary, together with brine pumping of the thicker parts. Pickling in brine, if the brine is sufficiently strong, is a surer method of destroying larvæ. Smoking, partly through heat and partly the resinous products of burning pine sawdust, also has a slight effect on their vitality. It has, howver, been suggested that Memo. 62/Foods issued by the Ministry of Food, which recommends that a carcase affected with trichinosis should be condemned, is out of date and that there should be no grounds for ignoring the possibility of the disease during the ordinary routine meat inspections. In this connection, the recent circular dealing with outbreaks of cysticercus bovis infestation of cattle in different parts of the country should serve as a warning. A further warning is given in a letter to the British Medical Journal in which the writer deplores the way in which corned beef is served to the public. The procedure in the majority of shops, says the writer, is to open a large tin of corned beef and place the contents on a wooden cutting board. The same knife used for cutting uncooked sausages, uncooked beef, uncooked pork, and slabs of sausage meat is used, without any attempt at cleaning it, for cutting slices of corned beef. The writer goes on to say that the corned beef is then placed on the weighing machine plate, which quite normally in a butcher's shop is covered with blood. Further contact between the uncooked meat and corned beef is made when the wrapped (and sometimes unwrapped) corned beef is placed on top of the raw meat. Should parasitic worms or cysts which have evaded the eye of the meat inspector be present in the raw meat, they will be transferred to the corned beef by knives, by butchers' hands, by scales, and by direct contact with the raw meat. Many veterinarians have pressed for the detailed examination of pig carcases for trichinosis which would necessitate the removal of suspected muscle by means of a trichinoscope, but no such instrument is in existence in the abattoirs of this country. The whole operation, which is carried out as a matter of routine inspection in many Continental abattoirs, takes only a few minutes. Should simple safeguards in feeding and inspection be adopted, it seems fairly evident that the absence of a trichinoscope need not be regarded as a serious gap in our public health services, but the rarity of outbreaks of the disease in this country must not lead to complacency or to ignoring the possibility of its presence during the normal course of meat inspection.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 51 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Book part
Publication date: 30 September 2021

Alex Brayson

The experimental parliamentary subsidy on knights' fees and freehold incomes from lands and rents of 1431 was the only English direct lay tax of the Middle Ages which broke down…

Abstract

The experimental parliamentary subsidy on knights' fees and freehold incomes from lands and rents of 1431 was the only English direct lay tax of the Middle Ages which broke down. As such, this subsidy has a clear historiographical significance, yet previous scholars have tended to overlook it on the grounds that parliament's annulment act of 1432 mandated the destruction of all fiscal administrative evidence. Many county assessments from 1431–1432 do, however, survive and are examined for the first time in this article as part of a detailed assessment of the fiscal and administrative context of the knights' fees and incomes tax. This impost constituted a royal response to excess expenditures associated with Henry VI's “Coronation Expedition” of 1429–1431, the scale of which marked a decisive break from the fiscal-military strategy of the 1420s. Widespread confusion regarding whether taxpayers ought to pay the feudal or the non-feudal component of the 1431 subsidy characterized its botched administration. Industrial scale under-assessment, moreover, emerged as a serious problem. Officials' attempts to provide a measure of fiscal compensation by unlawfully double-assessing many taxpayers served to increase administrative confusion and resulted in parliament's annulment act of 1432. This had serious consequences for the crown's finances, since the regime was saddled with budgetary and debt problems which would ultimately undermine the solvency of the Lancastrian state.

Details

Research in Economic History
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-880-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1941

Cooking depends on two factors, time and temperature, and the second factor, temperature, has to be varied according to the type of product. The problem of the chemist then is to…

Abstract

Cooking depends on two factors, time and temperature, and the second factor, temperature, has to be varied according to the type of product. The problem of the chemist then is to define the time at the given temperature necessary for a pie of a given size to be cooked correctly to yield a product satisfactory both to the palate and eye and from the point of view of its bacteriological standard. Where the oven used is of the travelling type—a type where the goods are fed into one end of the oven, the base of which is a moving band, and carried to the other end where they are discharged—an instrument has been designed which records not only the temperature but also the rate of travel, thus indicating the two factors, temperature and time. For the successful control of manufacture there are two aspects of primary importance. A stock‐control demonstrates that as a result of the consumption of certain amounts of raw materials a definite quantity of finished goods has been prepared for sale. This control however does not ensure that all the goods so produced are of the same composition, for under‐consumption in some may be offset by over‐consumption in others. The laboratory activities ensure that this possible inequality of final product does not take place. Therefore a joint control by means of stock control and laboratory control ensures that not only is the correct yield of finished product obtained from the amount of raw materials used, but also that the goods produced are of uniform character and composition. Where such a system is in force not only is the operator controlled but also the factory management; for a process having been standardised by this joint control, no deviation is allowed from the issued manufacturing instructions. But it must be stressed that the correct interpretation of this method does not stultify the initiative of the management staff; they still can make experiments, can still suggest alterations, but not until their suggestions have been incorporated in the official control can any changes be made in the method of manufacture. By constant attendance of chemists in the factory, by constant sampling of food in process of manufacture, by continued analysis and examination of the final product and by the stock control, the adherence to agreed recipes is assured. As mentioned previously the chemist is the interpreter of the art of the technician, but he is more than that. The dietitian can indicate what in calories, in vitamins and in trace elements is necessary to healthful feeding, but it remains for the food chemist with the knowledge of the technical expert to translate these requirements into practical terms so that the food manufacturer can produce an article of diet such that the consumer eats it with pleasure, thereby obtaining the maximum benefit. Moreover, ideas come for new food products, for new methods of production from people daily in touch with the actual manufacture; many ideas are brought by people from outside and ideas are given by competitive articles. The chemist puts the idea finally into production form. A recipe from Mrs. Beeton's Cookery Book cannot be applied as it stands to mass production, but the food chemist can often indicate those changes which will be necessary to translate such a recipe from the kitchen scale to the factory scale, from the scale of the gallon saucepan to the boiling tank with its charge of a ton weight. Investigational work is of a threefold character, for it is concerned with the modification and improvement of methods of analysis and control, with the study of fundamental chemical problems concerned with food materials, and with the development of manufacturing methods. Analysis for food control purposes must be very specialised in character. Whereas time is of little importance to the Public Analyst examining, for example, a sample of chocolate cake to see that it contains the implied amount of cacao matter, the control chemist analysing a sample of fruit‐pie‐filling, with a whole batch of such filling awaiting his report, is concerned essentially with the speed of the operation. Every control laboratory has to develop methods of analysis suitable to the end in view, and every new process, every modification of a standard process, a change in composition of raw materials, may necessitate an investigation into the technique of the method to be used. Investigations of a fundamental character are not necessarily stimulated with the idea of ultimate practical use to the firm, except in so far as they develop the initiative, the experimental sense, the interest of the chemical staff. It has however been a noticeable fact that often ideas have arisen from fundamental work which have been ultimately of great use in the preparation of food products. Sometimes many years have elapsed between the prosecution of a piece of research work and the sudden remembrance of a small fact, a peculiar reaction, which has been made use of to simplify control or to change the method of a section of the process of manufacture. The transition from the kitchen methods of preparation to the manufacture of food on a large scale has demanded much investigational work. Mass production and mechanisation are not synonymous, but they are so closely related in the modern world that the one needs the other for success. Mass production demands mechanisation and mechanisation, to be economically sound, requires mass production. Mechanisation is not possible unless the process to be mechanised is understood; and it is here, in the food industry—as in other industries—that the chemist has helped industry to develop. The operator engaged in hand‐dipping chocolate centres is able, with her palette‐knife and mass of chocolate in a warm bowl, to work the chocolate couverture continually, the appreciate the changing conditions of the small mass, to correct by her skill any change of consistence and to produce thereby a product of very nearly constant appearance and composition. But when the unit of chocolate mass is increased from a few pounds to hundredweights, and when the centres in their thousands pass through a cascade of chocolate mass and are so enrobed, no such continuous adjustments can be effected. Consequently the chemistry and the physics of chocolate couverture have to be understood; the effect of time and temperature on the fluid couverture, the effect of forced cooling on the enrobed chocolates have to be studied. The chemist has to carry out experiments and to indicate as a result of his investigations the conditions which will ensure a really standard product. Examples could be quoted in connection with baking problems, with jam boiling problems, and in fact with problems from every branch of food production. Mechanisation entails the use of machinery and the metals of which the machinery is constructed may have an unexpected result on the product being manufactured. The question of this type of contamination is of two‐fold interest. In the first place, the amount of metal taken into solution, either by purely chemical reaction, or by mechanical abrasion, must not be such that it will have any adverse effect on the health of those subsequently eating the food; in the second case, the effect of minute proportions of foreign metals on the flavour or keeping qualities must be studied; for example, tea is never brewed in an iron pot because a chemical reaction takes place by which a highly coloured compound is produced and gives to the infusion a blackish colour. This is an instance of a chemical change which takes place immediately. An example of a different type is provided by the milk industry. The flavour of milk is delicate and easily affected, and one change which may take place in it is the development of a “ tallowy ” flavour. The chemistry of the reactions which result in the development of this particular “ off ” flavour is not well understood, but one factor has been investigated, namely the effect of certain metallic contaminants. Coolers for milk—and obviously all milk has to be cooled subsequently to being heated to pasteurisation temperature—are often made of tinned copper. In time the constant cleaning which is necessary wears off the tin in certain places, small areas of copper appear, almost too small to be noticeable—and the milk then comes in direct contact with this metal. Copper, present only to the extent of a few parts in every million parts of milk, has a stimulating effect on the changes which result in the development of the “ tallowy ” flavour. Yet another example. The metal of which cans are made for the canning industry is iron covered with a thin layer of tin. But canned goods are often kept for long periods of time. Sometimes the cans begin to swell, the ends become somewhat rounded in shape. That may be caused by a very simple chemical reaction, not concerned with any spoiling changes taking place, but due to the reaction between the acid contents and the iron; the active constituents of the contents have gradually found their way through microscopic pinholes in the tin layer and the gas hydrogen is the result, the generation of which becomes eventually noticeable by the swelling of the can. These three examples, the first immediately apparent, the second booming noticeable in a few hours, and the last which may not be observed for months, indicate different types of effect of metal on food stuffs. This last could naturally be very much expanded, but the obvious conclusion is that plant must be considered in relation to the purpose to which it is to be put. Mass production demands consideration too from the hygienic standpoint, for difficulties on this score are inherent in food production. Not only have the methods of production to be studied from this point of view, but consideration has to be given to the bacteriological condition of the basic materials. This is generally impossible in small scale production and it is obviously also impossible, no matter what the scale of production, for each and every tin of canned goods to be examined, or every milk pudding to be submitted to bacteriological tests, but experience of continued tests gives the clue to those factors which must be watched and the precautions to be taken. Government action has been taken in many cases. For instance, in the delivery of meat the implementing of the precautions required by law has resulted in meat reaching the butchers or the food manufacturer in far better condition than previously and has reduced wastage caused by bacteriological spoiling. Consideration of the condition of raw materials brings to mind frozen eggs. Science has proved that eggs properly frozen are far more hygienic than eggs in shell so far as the food manufacturer is concerned. Moreover it can be definitely stated as a result of a large number of tests that Chinese frozen eggs from reputable firms in China are of the highest standard possible. The freezing of eggs on the large scale in China has reached a magnitude and a standard not surpassed anywhere in the world. This has been achieved by application of methods based entirely on scientific principles. Mass production has entailed investigation of methods whereby the onset of spoiling can be retarded. A loaf of bread immediately it is cooled after leaving the oven, be it the kitchen oven or the travelling oven baking 1,500 loaves an hour, has certain characteristics of freshness. How can those characteristics be retained? Night baking enables the householder to receive first thing in the morning a loaf baked an hour or so previously, but mass‐produced bread entails distribution over a wide area and the hour or two may spread out to six or seven before the housewife receives her loaf.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 43 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Article
Publication date: 1 December 1953

This Bill, promoted by Her Majesty's Government, has been read a second time in the House of Lords. Its main objects are to secure in England, Wales and Northern Ireland—

Abstract

This Bill, promoted by Her Majesty's Government, has been read a second time in the House of Lords. Its main objects are to secure in England, Wales and Northern Ireland—

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 55 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

Book part
Publication date: 16 August 2016

Michael Loadenthal

This paper explores the relationship between social movement protest, economic sabotage, state capitalism, the “Green Scare,” and public forms of political repression. Through a…

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between social movement protest, economic sabotage, state capitalism, the “Green Scare,” and public forms of political repression. Through a quantitative analysis of direct action activism highlighting the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front, the discourse surrounding mechanisms of social change and their impact on state power and capitalist accumulation will be examined. The analyses examines the earth and animal liberation movements, utilizing a Marxist-anarchist lens to illustrate how these non-state actors provide powerful critiques of capital and the state. Specifically, the discussion examines how state-sanctioned violence against these movements represents a return to Foucauldian Monarchical power. A quantitative-qualitative history will be used to argue that the movements’ actions fail to qualify as “terrorism,” and to examine the performance of power between the radical left and the state. State repression demonstrates not only the capitalist allegiances between government and industry, but also a sense of capital’s desperation hoping to counter a movement that has produced demonstrable victories by the means of bankrupting and isolating corporations. The government is taking such unconstitutional measures as a “talk back” between the revolutionary potential of these movements’ ideology as well as the challenge they present to state capitalism.

Details

Narratives of Identity in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-078-7

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 October 2020

Sara Shoffner, Mark Slavich and Gi-Yong Koo

In 2017, the National Basketball Association (NBA) became the first major professional North American sport league to adopt jersey sponsorship. While professional leagues across…

Abstract

Purpose

In 2017, the National Basketball Association (NBA) became the first major professional North American sport league to adopt jersey sponsorship. While professional leagues across the globe have allowed this practice for decades, the NBA's decision marked what may be the start of a new trend in North American sport sponsorship. With this in mind, the current study sought to assess the impact of fans' perceptions of these sponsorships on sponsor- and team-related outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach

An online sample of 301 NBA fans across the United States was conducted through Amazon's MTurk.

Findings

Results exhibited the importance of sponsorship authenticity, which maintained the strongest influence on sponsor- and team-related outcomes. Brand–team fit, sponsorship familiarity and sponsorship identification were also assessed, with mixed results for each factor.

Originality/value

Results of these findings related to sponsorship authenticity and consequent practical and theoretical implications are discussed, and areas for future research are provided.

Details

International Journal of Sports Marketing and Sponsorship, vol. 22 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1464-6668

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1973

For most people, especially those with fixed incomes, household budgets have to be balanced and sometimes the balance is precarious. With price rises of foods, there is a switch…

Abstract

For most people, especially those with fixed incomes, household budgets have to be balanced and sometimes the balance is precarious. With price rises of foods, there is a switch to a cheaper substitute within the group, or if it is a food for which there is no real substitute, reduced purchases follow. The annual and quarterly reviews of the National Food Survey over the years have shown this to be so; with carcase meat, where one meat is highly priced, housewives switch to a cheaper joint, and this is mainly the reason for the great increase in consumption of poultry; when recently the price of butter rose sharply, there was a switch to margarine. NFS statistics did not show any lessening of consumer preference for butter, but in most households, with budgets on a tight string, margarine had to be used for many purposes for which butter had previously been used. With those foods which have no substitute, and bread (also milk) is a classic example, to keep the sum spent on the food each week about the same, the amount purchased is correspondingly reduced. Again, NFS statistics show this to be the case, a practice which has been responsible for the small annual reductions in the amount of bread consumed per person per week over the last fifteen years or so; very small, a matter of an ounce or two, but adequate to maintain the balance of price/quantity since price rises have been relatively small, if fairly frequent. This artifice to absorb small price rises will not work, however, when price rises follow on one another rapidly and together are large. Bread is a case in point.

Details

British Food Journal, vol. 75 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0007-070X

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