The analysis of the apparel supply chain systems with specific reference to the Korean apparel organisations of the overseas and domestic brand products

Case studies of apparel organisations, in two broadly distinguishable market groups in South Korea have been conducted for this research. One of the case study organisations,company A, sells high fashion knit wear products manufactured by a foreign supplier and the other,company B, deals fashionable ladies wear supplied by 8 to 10 domestic apparel manufacturers. The study identifies common issues and differences between these dissimilar apparel companies in their respective supply chain systems. The selected apparel systems were analysed and categorised into four sectors, i.e.: production management, product distribution management, customer buying behaviour analysis and the evaluation of business performance in terms of both quantity and quality. The analysis was conducted as a pre-cursor to simulation studies to investigate the effects of apparel supply chain control parameters on the relevant business performance. The predominant costs are the product cost and the outlet rent, both of which reflect the product volumes ordered. The forecast errors are high for both apparel companies. Therefore, improving the forecasting techniques should significantly reduce the costs and improve the profits. The data derived from the case studies can contribute new information on the globalised supply chain study area, especially the approach to compare the international to domestic apparel entrepreneurs’ activities/finances will be a useful guideline to compare relevant supply chain systems in other countries as well as in Korea.     

The Spatial Distribution of Characterised Fly-Ash Particles and Trace Metals in Lake Sediments and Catchment Mosses: Ireland

Spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) from the sediments of 48 Irish lakes were enumerated and characterised according to fuel type. The concentration of metals was determined in the surface sediments and in selected mosses from the catchments of these lakes. Generally the metal concentrations in both the surface sediments and mosses were consistent with background levels found in the remote parts of Europe. Where higher metal concentrations occurred these could often be accounted for by local geochemical sources. SCP levels in the sediments of the selected lakes along the east coast were of sufficient magnitude to suggest a transboundary influence notwithstanding local sources. SCP characterisation also suggests the influence of emissions in Northern Ireland on deposition, particularly in the north-west of Ireland. There was reasonable correlation between the concentration of oil particles in the surface sediments and vanadium, but not with nickel, in mosses. SCP concentrations were not correlated with measured physical characteristics of the lakes. The level of deposition indicated is not likely to have a significant impact on human health over and above the damaging effects of urban dwelling but the adverse impact of this deposition on acid-sensitive surface waters in Ireland has been recorded.     

The Spatial and Temporal Distributions of Spheroidal Carbonaceous Fly-Ash Particles (SCP) in the Sediment Records of European Mountain Lakes

Sediment cores were taken from 31 mountain lakes in 11 countries across Europe. For each core a full spheroidal carbonaceous particle (SCP) profile was produced. SCP are derived from the high temperature combustion of fossil-fuels and provide an unambiguous record of the atmospheric deposition of anthropogenic pollutants. The data from the sediment cores were therefore able to show both temporal and spatial trends in pollutant deposition across the continent from Svalbard to southern Spain and from Ireland to the Tatra mountains. In general, the temporal trends throughout Europe were remarkably consistent and were seen to be in good agreement with known historical emissions, combustion figures and modelled historical pollutant patterns for source countries. Spatial patterns showed that highest concentrations and accumulation rates were in central Europe, with clear decreases northwards and southwards from the region. An east to west decrease was also apparent. SCP profiles can be converted to full post-Industrial inventories and normalised against a ²¹⁰Pb inventory to create a ‘pollution index’ covering the whole of the SCP record. Such indices take into account sediment variability and some catchment influences and are therefore better for inter-site comparisons. These results were seen to show a clear latitudinal pattern, with a maximum at around 50°N and declining to the north and south. This agrees with European sulphur emissions data and are generally consistent with EMEP modelled distribution patterns. In many cases the SCP temporal profiles could only be explained by using emission and combustion statistics from more than one country emphasising the transboundary nature of particulate transport throughout Europe, in general, supporting EMEP modelled ‘blame matrices’.     

The Flame Research Project: Introduction and Methods

The FLAME (FLy-Ash and Metals in Europe: Implications for human and environmental health) research project funded by the EU COPERNICUS programme ran from 1994 to 1996. The main aims of the programme were to further develop an automated chemical characterisation to discriminate between fly-ash particles from the major fossil-fuels used throughout Europe (coal, oil, peat, brown coal and oil shale) and apply this to particles extracted from lake sediments taken from the four participating countries (Estonia, Czech Republic, Ireland and U.K.) in order to determine spatial distributions of deposited particulates from large combustion sources. In combination with trace metal analyses from lake surface sediments and catchment mosses, the fly-ash particle data were able to identify areas of elevated pollutant deposition and suggest potential sources for them. Given the transboundary nature of the pollutants, the techniques and results of FLAME are of relevance throughout Europe. Other papers in this volume describe results and interpretation. This paper describes the background and aims of the FLAME project, outlines the methods employed for sampling sediments and mosses and the analytical techniques for particle enumeration and trace metal analysis for sediments and mosses. Finally brief details of the particle characterisation are given showing how a hierarchical discriminant function was developed, based on energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) derived particle chemistry which correctly allocated particles from the five fuel-types with 80% accuracy.     

The FLAME Project: General Discussion and Conclusions

Detailed discussion of the FLAME data at individual country level is included in other papers in this volume but some aspects of the analyses and data interpretation are best discussed on a broader level and that is the aim of this paper. The spatial distribution of fly-ash particles in the participating countries shows good agreement with expected sources and this implies that the majority of particulates travel less than 100 km from their source although lower concentrations of particles were detected at all sample sites. Areas of elevated concentration mostly coincide with population centres and imply possible impacts on human health by fine particulates (e.g. PM₁₀) from fossil-fuel sources in these areas. Problems with the particle characterisation, developed within the FLAME project, include difficulties in allocation due to the overlap between coal-series fuels and the presence of a 'mineral coal' background at lake sites thought to be due to persistent sediment minerals surviving the chemical pre-treatment and becoming allocated to coal. This leads to implications for the inclusion of further fuels into the classification and the application of the technique to the same fuels beyond Europe. The combination of lake sediment SCP data and sediment and moss metals data can also provide an indication of the impact from anthropogenic contamination at a site and probable source types. Comparison with previous moss analyses from 1990 show that metal concentrations in central Europe may have decreased but levels in the UK have shown little change. Finally, comparisons of FLAME data with the EMEP model for pollutant budgets across Europe generally show good agreement for pathways, although further work is needed in receptor countries for additional confirmation.     

Salmonella in captive and wild Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) in Tasmania

Translocation of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) is a common strategy for recovery of the species as carried out by the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program. Dasyurids including the endangered Tasmanian devil are well known to asymptomatically harbour the zoonotic bacteria Salmonella enterica in their intestinal tracts. Testing for Salmonella is a routine component of pretranslocation health testing, so a statewide microbiological survey of captive and wild devils was implemented in order to understand prevalence and common Salmonella serotypes, and inform decision-making when positive cultures are identified. This preliminary study identified a significantly higher proportion of Salmonella isolations in wild compared with captive devils. Mississippi and Typhimurium were the most common serotypes, followed by Lexington, Bovismorbificans, Kottbus and Amsterdam. Given the common finding of Salmonella in wild devils and the range of serotypes involved, in addition to numerous isolations in domestic species and humans, it is unlikely that the release of small numbers of captive devils to the wild in Tasmania poses a significant risk to the destination ecosystem. Ongoing monitoring of devils is required as the stress of acclimatisation could predispose devils to clinical disease. Appropriate personal protective attire is pertinent to protect personnel handling animals from this zoonotic infection.     

The Spatial Distribution of Characterised Fly-Ash Particles and Trace Metals in Lake Sediments and Catchment Mosses in the United Kingdom

Spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCP) and trace metals (Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, V and Zn) were analysed from 75 lake surface sediments across the UK. Trace metals were additionally analysed from catchment mosses (Hylocomium splendens and Pleurozium schreberi) from 43 of the sites but were absent from the remainder. Spatial distribution of SCP concentration and trace metal concentrations in sediments and mosses showed good agreement with each other and with known emission sources. Particles were allocated to their fuel-type and spatial trends in these data showed good agreement with potential sources. High areas of oil particle deposition were identified in the south-east of England, Merseyside, Galloway / Northern Ireland, the Firth of Forth and eastern Scotland. Oil SCP concentrations showed good agreement with Ni and V concentrations in mosses suggesting an atmospheric source for these metals from the combustion of this fuel. Characterised SCP trends also showed good agreement with predictions from models such as HARM and EMEP. Most high deposition areas of metals and particles were found to coincide with population centres suggesting a possible impact on human health.