It tends to be called the corner shop, mainly because it occupied a corner building for extra window space, but also due to the impetus given to the name by television series…
Abstract
It tends to be called the corner shop, mainly because it occupied a corner building for extra window space, but also due to the impetus given to the name by television series seeking to portray life as it used to be. The village grew from the land, a permanent stopping place for the wandering tribes of early Britain, the Saxons, Welsh, Angles; it furnished the needs of those forming it and eventually a village store or shop was one of those needs. Where the needs have remained unchanged, the village is much as it has always been, a historical portrait. The town grew out of the village, sometimes a conglomerate of several adjacent villages. In the days before cheap transport, the corner shop, in euphoric business terms, would be described as “a little gold mine”, able to hold its own against the first introduction of multiple chain stores, but after 1914 everything changed. Edwardian England was blasted out of existence by the holocaust of 1914–18, destroyed beyond all hope of recovery. The patterns of retail trading changed and have been continuously changing ever since. A highly developed system of cheap bus transport took village housewives and also those in the outlying parts of town into busy central shopping streets. The jaunt of the week for the village wife who saw little during the working days; the corner shop remained mainly for things they had “run out of”. Every village had its “uppety” madames however who affected disdain of the corner shop and its proprietors, preferring to swish their skirts in more fashionable emporia, basking in the obsequious reception by the proprietor and his equally servile staff.
Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the…
Abstract
Historically, Panama has always been “a place of transit.” While technically the isthmus formed part of Colombia in the nineteenth century, it was linked geopolitically to the United States soon after the California gold rush, beginning in the late 1840s. The first attempt at building a canal ended in failure in 1893 when disease and poor management forced Ferdinand de Lesseps to abandon the project. The U.S. undertaking to build the canal could only begin after Panama declared itself free and broke away from Colombia in 1903, with the support of the United States.
Consideration of the fast‐growing number of food hygiene prosecutions up and down the country, almost all of them of a most serious nature, shows that it is the food preparing…
Abstract
Consideration of the fast‐growing number of food hygiene prosecutions up and down the country, almost all of them of a most serious nature, shows that it is the food preparing room, the kitchen, which is indeed the hub of the matter. Most of the charges result from its condition and the practices carried on within its walls, all‐too‐often enclosing a cramped space, ill‐equipped and difficult to keep clean. Its state in many prosecutions clearly contrasts badly with the soft lights and alluring elegance of the dining rooms in hotels and catering establishments. Yet, who would say that the kitchen is not the most important room in the home, in the hotel and every food‐preparing place? It has been so from time immemorial. House design has suffered severely with the need to cut building costs and the kitchen has suffered most; in small houses, it seems little more than a cupboard, a box‐room, an alcove. Is it surprising, then, that age‐old kitchen arts have degenerated? In the farmhouse, the country homes of the affluent, the “downstairs” of the town house, the kitchen was among the largest rooms in the house, as befitted all the activity that went on there. In the USA, the modern, comfortable home even of relatively humble folk the kitchen is phenomenally large; room for everything and everyone.
Statements by Lord Denning, M.R., vividly describing the impact of European Community Legislation are increasingly being used by lawyers and others to express their concern for…
Abstract
Statements by Lord Denning, M.R., vividly describing the impact of European Community Legislation are increasingly being used by lawyers and others to express their concern for its effect not only on our legal system but on other sectors of our society, changes which all must accept and to which they must adapt. A popular saying of the noble Lord is “The Treaty is like an incoming tide. It flows into the estuaries and up the rivers. It cannot be held back”. The impact has more recently become impressive in food law but probably less so than in commerce or industry, with scarcely any sector left unmolested. Most of the EEC Directives have been implemented by regulations made under the appropriate sections of the Food and Drugs Act, 1955 and the 1956 Act for Scotland, but regulations proposed for Materials and Articles in Contact with Food (reviewed elsewhere in this issue) will be implemented by use of Section 2 (2) of the European Communities Act, 1972, which because it applies to the whole of the United Kingdom, will not require separate regulations for England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This is the first time that a food regulation has been made under this statute. S.2 (2) authorises any designated Minister or Department to make regulations as well as Her Majesty Orders in Council for implementing any Community obligation, enabling any right by virtue of the Treaties (of Rome) to be excercised. The authority extends to all forms of subordinate legislation—orders, rules, regulations or other instruments and cannot fail to be of considerable importance in all fields including food law.
Teodor Akinfiev, Manuel Armada and Samir Nabulsi
The purpose of this paper is to develop a climbing cleaning robot with reasonably high productivities for vertical surfaces.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to develop a climbing cleaning robot with reasonably high productivities for vertical surfaces.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper analyzes the reasons for the low productivities or unreliable work of cleaning robots for vertical surfaces. Based on this analysis, a design of a new robot is created. Pilot studies were performed of laboratory and industrial prototypes of a new robot.
Findings
The paper shows that the new design provides a reliable and high‐performance work of the cleaning robot for vertical surfaces. Thus, the new design provides increasing in productivities more than ten times compared with the known robot.
Research limitations/implications
In this paper, it is assumed that the speed of the robot during the process of surface cleaning is constant. For future research the algorithm is proposed that automatically maintains such speed of the robot, which depends on the degree of dirtiness and is optimal for the surface to be cleaned.
Practical implications
The results of the research have been used in the manufacture of the robot TITO 500 industrial prototype. Currently, the company RatioForem is implementing small‐lot production of the robots TITO 500.
Originality/value
A new design has been developed for a high‐performance climbing robot for vertical surfaces cleaning, and algorithms for control of the robot.
Details
Keywords
Yolanda Pena‐Boquete, Sergio De Stefanis and Manuel Fernandez‐Grela
In this paper the aim is to focus on the individual distribution of gender wage discrimination in Spain and Italy, relying upon the development of Jenkins' distributional approach…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper the aim is to focus on the individual distribution of gender wage discrimination in Spain and Italy, relying upon the development of Jenkins' distributional approach proposed in Del Rio et al.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors estimate the degree of individual discrimination for each employed woman and, relying on the decomposability properties of these estimates, assess the nature and extent of discrimination across various socio‐economic groupings.
Findings
Some mechanisms inhibit the access of highly educated women to highly rewarding occupations in Italy, especially in the public sector, but not in Spain.
Research limitations/implications
The treatment of occupation and sector of activity has some impact on the results, shedding doubt on the robustness of some previous analyses of discrimination in these countries.
Practical implications
While no doubt the appraisal of the glass ceiling in the Italian labour market will gain extensively from further research, some prima facie evidence is found highlighting the role of appointment and promotion procedures.
Originality/value
A remarkable institutional divide characterises Spain and Italy in the domain of gender wage discrimination. Powerful political pressure along the lines of gender quotas for public employment has long been in place in Spain, while nothing of the kind has existed in Italy.
Details
Keywords
José António Fonseca de Oliveira Correia, Miguel Muñiz Calvente, Abílio Manuel Pinho de Jesus and Alfonso Fernández-Canteli
Manuel Schwabl, Markus Schwarz, Franz Figl, Lara Carvalho, Martin Staudinger, Wolfgang Kalb, Christoph Schmidl and Walter Haslinger
Decreasing energy demand due to improved building standards requires the development of new biomass combustion technologies to be able to provide individual biomass heating…
Abstract
Purpose
Decreasing energy demand due to improved building standards requires the development of new biomass combustion technologies to be able to provide individual biomass heating solutions. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, the development of a pellet water heating stove with minimal emission at high thermal efficiency.
Design/methodology/approach
The single components of a 10 kW water heating pellet stove are analysed and partly redesigned considering the latest scientific findings and experimental know‐how in combustion engineering. The outcome of this development is a 12 kW prototype which is subsequently down‐scaled to a 6 kW prototype. Finally, the results of the development are evaluated by testing of an accredited institute.
Findings
Based on an existing pellet water heating stove, the total excess air ratio was reduced, a strict air staging was implemented and the fuel supply was homogenized. All three measures improved the operating performance regarding emissions and thermal efficiency. The evaluation of the development process showed that the CO emissions are reduced by over 90 per cent during full load and by 30‐60 per cent during minimum load conditions. Emissions of particulate matter are reduced by 70 per cent and the thermal efficiency increased to 95 per cent.
Originality/value
The result represents a new state of technology in this sector for minimal emissions and maximal thermal efficiency, which surpasses the directives of the Eco label “UZ37” in Austria and “Blauer Engel” in Germany, which are amongst the most stringent performance requirements in the European Union. Hence this design possesses a high potential as heating solution for low and passive energy houses.
Details
Keywords
Alberto Sanchez Ramirez, Roberto D´Amato, Manuel Enrique Islán Marcos, Juan Antonio Juanes Méndez and Fernando Blaya Haro
The purpose of this paper is to characterize a new structural bi-material (scaffold and filler).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to characterize a new structural bi-material (scaffold and filler).
Design/methodology/approach
The bi-material has been obtained by means of an additive manufacturing system consisting of a fused filament fabrication extruder head and an epoxy resin depositor head. The new bi-material will consist of a thermoplastic material that will serve as the main structure and an epoxy resin that will serve as a filler and adhesion between layers. The creation of this new bi-material will improve the physical–chemical and mechanical properties with respect to the thermoplastic material. This paper will focus on the impact behavior of IZOD and the impact behavior of punctures.
Findings
The new polylactic acid (PLA) and epoxy bi-material allow improvements in toughness and puncture impact resistance compared to the PLA thermoplastic. This increase in toughness is between 20% and 30% depending on the orientation of the print. In the same way, the energy absorbed in the puncture impact test has been increased by 42%–48%.
Practical implications
The improvement in the impact absorption capacity of this new bi-material makes it ideal for the manufacture of medical parts in which customization, lightness and impact resistance are their main characteristics such as sports protection systems.
Originality/value
The originality of creating parts through additive manufacturing that combines a material generated with cold extrusion, such as epoxy resin and a material generated with hot extrusion, such as thermoplastics, lies in the unique synergy that this mixed and simultaneous technique offers. By uniting these two manufacturing methods, it allows the exploration of new physical and chemical properties in the resulting parts, taking advantage of the individual advantages of each material. This combination opens the door to the creation of components with a wider range of characteristics, from strength and durability to flexibility and temperature resistance, thus offering innovative and versatile solutions for various applications in fields such as engineering, medicine and design.