Assessment of Physico-Chemical and Microbial Quality of Sugarcane Juice Sold by Street Vendors in Three Regions of Bangladesh

Sugar cane juice is a popular refreshing drink in most part of Bangladesh. It has great taste and health benefits;also it is available most of the public places at reasonable prices which consumed by road side customers including general public, shopping personals, tourists, students. In our country, street vendors crushing sugarcane between roller crusher and sold without any heat treatment or preservative, also served with or without added ice and lemon juice. The study aimed to identify and compare the physico-chemical and microbial quality of sugarcane juice. The chemical qualities of juices including moisture, PH, ash, total soluble solid, total sugar, reducing sugar and titrable acidity were found slightly different in Mymensingh, Gazipur and Narayangonj areas. The highest and lowest value of moisture, ash, PH, total soluble solids, total sugar, reducing sugar and titrable acidity were found in 84.33% - 79.26% (Gazipur-Mymensingh), 0.57% - 0.04% (Mymensingh-Gazipur), 5.9 - 2.9 (Gazipur-Narayangonj), 17.48% - 4.98% (Mymensingh-Narayangonj), 21.9% - 6.56% (Mymensingh-Gazipur), 3.7 - 2.1 (Gazipur-Mymensingh) and 0.523% - 0.007% (Narayangonj-Gazipur) respectively. For microbiological analysis, the total viable count of sugar cane juice in Mymensingh, Gazipur and Narayangonj were ranged from 0.6 × 105 - 43.6 × 105 cfu/ml, 4.6 × 105 - 21.6 × 105 cfu/ml and 3.6 × 105 - 36.6 × 105 cfu/ml respectively, where the permitted value is 1.0 × 104 cfu/ml, whereas the total coliform count was ranged from 0.4 × 105 - 6.4 × 105 cfu/ml, 0.6 × 105 - 8.4 × 105 cfu/ml and 0.00 - 8.4 × 105 cfu/ml, where the permitted value is 100 cfu/ml and total fungal count was ranged from 5.5 × 105 - 56.5 × 105 cfu/ml, 21.5 × 105 - 54.5 × 105 cfu/ml and 32.5 × 105 - 68.5 × 105 cfu/ml, where the permitted value is 1000 cfu/ml. According to the Gulf standard, the microbiological parameters of all the collected sugar cane juice were out of the permitted standards, so that a serious health outbreak can be caused anytime.

Food Hygiene and Safety Practices amongst Food Vendors in the Western Area, Sierra Leone

Food safety and hygiene practices require a multisectoral approach including food, water, sanitation, waste management, transport, education, trade, policies and programs that enable safe food preparation, storage and service. Unsafe food can cause illness keeping people from achieving their full potential and death. This was a descriptive study that uses a mixed method approach to derive insights into the characteristics of food vendors related to demography, knowledge, practices, infrastructure, compliance and recommendation for a policymaking framework. Using the Lemeshows’ sample size formula, 473 vendors from formal (restaurants) and informal (cookri-baffa/table top) sites were interviewed and observed. We found from discussions that respondents had a good understanding on how to keep food safe. However, observed practices were poor 93% handled food with their bare hands, 83% did not cover their hair, and 76% did not wear an apron whilst handling, preparing or serving food, 61% did not keep their finger nails clean or short and 57% did not wash their hand before preparing or serving food. Over half (51%) had access to a toilet but 32% reported their use required payment and emphasized their poor condition/inadequate management. Nearly half (47%) of the vending sites did not have a handwashing facility, with soap and water available. Only 7% reported having any authority oversight of food safety. Food safety and hygiene practices in most cookri shops and restaurants was ‘poor’ with very limited surveillance system in place by competent authorities for compliance of food operators. Hand washing, clean surroundings, and covered food were the most common and emphasized practices to mitigate the risks associated with unsafe food.

Methods of vendor managed inventory control in supply chain management

By inducing the typical inventory control problem - the bullwhip effect, this paper presents vendor managed inventory (VMI) control methods on the basis of traditional methods of inventory management methods, constructs a VMI mathematics model, and analyzes the influence of VMI on inventory cost and channel profit. Finally, a special case is studied to verify that VMI is an effective supply chain strategy that can not only increase channel profit of supplier and customer but also improve full channel coordination, thereby reducing the bullwhip effect.

Research on choice of emergency procurement vendors

In order to make the supply chain select the best emergency procurement suppliers in case the procurement system encounters unexpected risks,six indices which can reflect the comprehensive abilities of alternative suppliers are selected,i.e.,the product yield,the toll standard,the on-time-delivery rate,the rate of turnover industry experience and customer satisfaction.Then standardized processing of evaluation is performed.For quantitative indices,vector normalization is adopted to perform standardized processing,and qualitative fuzziness indices are quantified through assignment.Finally,each index can be transformed into a standardized mark which has dimensionless 1 and the same magnitude.And an expert method is used to determine the index weights and then the linear weighted sum method is used to calculate the alternative supplier's comprehensive ability score and by comparing these scores,the optimal emergency procurement supplier is selected.

Vendor managed inventory and bullwhip effect

This paper studies that the bullwhip effect of order releases and the amplifications of safety stock arise within the supply chain even when the demand model is ARIMA(0, 1, 1) and the forecast method used is a simple exponentially weighted moving average. It also examines a vendor managed inventory (VMI) program to determine how it can help alleviate such negative effects, and gives the theoretical proofs and numerical illustrations. The results show that the effects with VMI are better than the effect without VMI in demand forecasting and safety stock levels, etc.

Quantity-based shipment consolidation and stock replenishment policy with lead time in vendor-managed inventory system

In order to let the supplier make more reasonable supply decisions,an integrated continuous replenishment policy for the vendor-managed inventory system is presented,which considers the quantity-based shipment consolidation and stock replenishment with lead time.Then the system cost is analyzed and a mathematical model is built.Since the model is rather complex,the bounds of the optimal policy are first attained,then the problem is solved by a heuristic algorithm.Through experiments the relationship between the order lead time and the corresponding integrated policy is discussed,and the influence on the system cost is also analyzed.The results reveal that the lead time's influence on the system is more serious with the increase of the order lead time,the integrated policy with the order lead time is more reasonable and the optimal policy can minimize the total system cost.Finally,the parameter sensitivity of the model is analyzed.

Optimization purchase price and the profit policy undervendor managed inventory

The optimization policy of the purchase price and the profit under vendor managed inventory(VMI) is studied. For a salable product, supply chain mode of VMI is established, which is based on deterministic demand, having initial stock and having stock-out cost. With the further analysis of the mode, VMI is found to increase profits of the buyer in the short-term motivation. But VMI will reduce profits of the supplier under the matching condition. And in the short-term motivation, VMI will increase the purchase price to compensate the transfer cost of the supplier. As a result, the foundation of theory is provided to implement VMI in the supply chain, and have some definituded project significance.

Vendor Evaluation and Selection Using Fuzzy AHP

Vendor evaluation and selection is one of the most important issues in manufacturing management. It is a multi-criteria decision problem including various factors. Traditional methods have many shortcomings. Fuzzy AHP model is established to solve this problem. A general evaluation method is provided and steps are presented. As a case study,the model is implemented in an electro-mechanical product company. And a detailed example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of this approach.

Frost & Sullivan Recognizes ZTE as 2011 LTE Vendor of the Year

ZTE Corporation announced on November 10, 2011 that it has been named LTE Vendor of the Year by leading consulting firm Frost ＆ Sullivan. The Frost ＆ Sullivan LTE Vendor of the Year award is given to companies that have achieved excellence in LTE. ZTE won the award for its growing number of secured contracts and also for its patent applications.

Short Period Logistics Integrating: a Model for Vendors'Evaluating and Selecting

Vendors’Evaluating and Selecting is one study focu s in SCM and VMO. It is one of the very important operations management and can ad vance to implement the strategic aims. With the increase in use of total quality management and just-in-time concepts by a wide range of firms, the vendor sel ection question has become extremely important. It is necessary for firms to tak e part in the global competition and global manufacture. There are some decision -making techniques which can be used for evaluating and selecting vendors, such as weighting point methods, utility theary, multi-objective programming, analy tic hierarchy process, vendor profile analysis, and so on. Analytic Hierarchy Pr ocess(AHP) is a technique in common use for quantifying the problem. Since AHP i s put forward in 1973 by Satty, it has been accepted. However, this technique ha s its shortcomings, and one of them is that distributing weights is subjective. In recent years,some scholars prove that it is defferent from factual doing usin g subjective ways for vendors’ evaluating and selecting. In fact, the methods f or vendors’evaluating and selecting should be given by practical circs. Today, there’s somebody who has brought forward that it is studied by deviding four ty pes of relationships in view of two major factors: the reference time horizon of the relationship; and the content of the relationship in terms of the nature of the interation between supplier and customer. In the paper, we only consider th e scenario of short-term and logistic intergration brought forward by Cristina and Andrea. In the scenario, we only consider current manufacturing performance. In fact, the scenario is often seen in these developing countries.We bring up a model for grey system analysis on vendors’evaluating and selecting to attempt to expore this problem. The model integrates AHP and the grey system theory and attempt to eliminate the subjective factors in AHP using objective datum. Moreov er, it is based on the feature of data insufficiency and uncertainty and sample information of abnormality in system data.So,it overcomes the issues of deficien t information and absent data(it is often seen in management).

A MCDM-based model for vendor selection:a case study in the particleboard industry

We investigated procurement of raw materials for particleboard to minimize costs and develop an efficient optimization model for product mix. In a multiple-vendor market, vendors must be evaluated based on specified criteria. Assuming sourcing from the highest-scoring vendors, annual purchase quantities are then planned. To meet procure- ment needs, we first propose a model to describe the problem. Then, an appropriate multi-criteria decision making （MCDM） technique is se- lected to solve it. We ran the model using commercial software such as LINGO~ and then compared the model results to a real case involving one of the largest particleboard manufacturers in the region. The model run based real data yielded a procurement program that is more efficient and lower in cost than the program currently in use. Use of this procurement modelling approach would yield considerable financial returns.

DECISION OF SELECTION ABOUT COMPUTER SYSTEM AND ITS VENDOR

The purpose of this article is to help small business persons who are in the market formicro-computers to select and use the specific product or service that will most effectively satisfytheir needs.This study is the development of a structure of representing system attributes in a formsuitable for a manageable decision model.This study uses“Descriptor”software package as a tooland uses the decision model of selecting a computer system and its vendor for an organization(buyer)to exemplify the application of“Descriptor”in decision processing.

Lightweight Virtualization Cluster How to Overcome Cloud Vendor Lock-In

To overcome vendor lock-in obstacles in public cloud computing, the capability to define transferable cloud-based services is crucial but has not yet been solved satisfactorily. This is especially true for small and medium sized enterprises being typically not able to operate a vast staff of cloud service and IT experts. Actual state of the art cloud service design does not systematically deal with how to define, deploy and operate cross-platform capable cloud services. This is mainly due to inherent complexity of the field and differences in details between a plenty of existing public and private cloud infrastructures. One way to handle this complexity is to restrict cloud service design to a common subset of commodity features provided by existing public and private cloud infrastructures. Nevertheless these restrictions raise new service design questions and have to be answered in ongoing research in a pragmatic manner regarding the limited IT-operation capabilities of small and medium sized enterprises. By simplifying and harmonizing the use of cloud infrastructures using lightweight virtualization approaches, the transfer of cloud deployments between a variety of cloud service providers will become possible. This article will discuss several aspects like high availability, secure communication, elastic service design, transferability of services and formal descriptions of service deployments which have to be addressed and are investigated by our ongoing research.

Near-Road Exposure to Air Pollution and Allergic Rhinitis: A Cross-Sectional Study among Vendors in Dakar, Senegal

Introduction: The work environment is one of the main causes of allergic rhinitis. The majority of vendors in Dakar work in places close to roads that are very frequented by vehicles, exposing them to increased air pollution. The study determined the prevalence of allergic rhinitis and its associated risk factors in these vendors. Methods: This was a cross-sectional survey based on a structured questionnaire, conducted among vendors in the neighborhoods of HLM, Medina and Petersen in Dakar, Senegal. A total of 200 vendors were interviewed. Symptoms of allergic rhinitis were defined as the simultaneous presence of rhinorrhea, nasal congestion and sneezing in the absence of respiratory infection. A logistic regression analysis was performed to determine the relationship between socio-demographic characteristics, occupational factors, and allergic rhinitis. Results: Results of the study show a prevalence of 43% of allergic rhinitis among vendors. Multivariate analysis showed that the independent factors associated with allergic rhinitis in these vendors were age [OR: 3.28 (1.02 - 10.51)], working area [OR: 8.31 (2.39 - 28.95)], exposure to multiple sources of pollution [OR: 4.08 (1.43 - 11.63)], and recurrent cold [OR: 4.39 (1.15 - 16.85)]. Conclusion: The prevalence of allergic rhinitis was high among vendors in Dakar. Our data suggest that exposure to air pollution at the workplace in vendors could lead to allergic rhinitis.

Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Food Hygiene among Food Vendors in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria

Background: Food vendors play a critical food safety role in the “farm to plate” continuum that is necessary for the prevention and control of food borne diseases and therefore, any lack of its understanding by the food vendors poses a serious challenge to food safety. Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitude and hygienic practices of food vendors in Owerri town of Imo State, Nigeria. Methods: The study was a Cross-Sectional descriptive design that used a proportionate convenience sampling technique to select 200 food vendors from the three Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Owerri town. Data were collected using a pretested semi-structured interviewer administered questionnaire. Descriptive analyses were done with frequencies and summary statistics. Chi square statistics were computed to determine significant relationships and p value was set at 0.05 significant level. Results: While a majority of the respondents had a good level of knowledge (81%) and positive attitude (71%) about food hygiene, only 37% of the respondents had a good level of hygienic practice. It was revealed that 32% and 46% of the respondents received training on food hygiene and environmental health worker inspection respectively. It was also revealed that, there were statistically significant relationships between knowledge (p = 0.001), attitude (p = 0.000), formal training on food hygiene (p = 0.000) and the level of food hygienic practices. Conclusion: The public health management of food vending services should involve the development of strategies that will equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills to provide vending services in a hygienic and safe manner.

High Prevalence of Musculoskeletal Disorders and Self-Medication among Street Vendors in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR)

Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) are a set of peri-articular conditions that result mainly in pain and functional discomfort. They represent a major occupational health problem in all areas of activity. The objective of this work was to determine the prevalence of MSDs among street vendors in the city of Bangui in the Central African Republic (CAR). Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from September 01 to October 31, 2021 in Bangui, the capital of CAR. The study population consisted of street vendors which were included at the entrance of 4 large markets of Bangui after giving informed consent. The sample size, calculated according to the Schwartz formula, was 384. Sociodemographic data (age, gender, level of education, marital status), professional data (the duration of sale in hours, the distance traveled per day);and health data (the health problems suffered by itinerant sellers and the means of dealing with them) were collected using a pre-established self-questionnaire. This collected data was processed using Microsoft Excel 2013 and Epi-Info version 7 software. Results: Among 384 street vendors included, women represented a quarter (24.9%). The average age was 27 years;the 25-34 age group was the most represented (50%). About two-thirds (64.8%) sold for at least 12 hours and traveled more than 10 km (69.3%) per day. The main health problems reported by street vendors were musculoskeletal disorders (95.8%). Their locations concerned the upper limbs shoulder 65.36% (251), elbow 24.22% (93). Non-ergonomic postures that stress the back and joints all day long, causing pain are risk factors for MSDs. These MSDs were treated by self-medication with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (22.0%), mainly sold on the street. Conclusion: MSDs dominated the health problems of street vendors. These problems raise the need for recognition and support for these workers to optimize their performance while preserving their health through awareness and good management of MSDs whose chronicity generates a disability.

ZTE Joins World's Top Three GSM Vendors

ZTE Corporation, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and networking, has announced at the GSMA World Mobile Congress Barcelona 2010 that its global GSM sales continued to grow fast in 2009, with a shipment of over 750,000 carrier frequencies in the past year. As its share in the global newly added market rose to almost 20%, ZTE is now one of the top 3 equipment vendors in the industry. In 2009, ZTE successfully sold its GSM products to world-class multinational operators such as Telenor, Teliasonera and Cell C, making large-scale advancements in European and emerging markets.

ZTE Becomes China's First PON Vendor to Obtain MEF Certification

ZTE Corporation announced on November 12, 2009 that ZTE’s xPON Next Generation Optical Access Platform has recently passed authoritative tests by the Metro Ethernet Forum (MEF) organization, making

ZTE Recognized for Industry Best Practices as Frost & Sullivan's SDR Equipment Vendor of the Year

ZTE Corporation announced on February 9 that it had received the Best Practice Award for being Frost ＆ Sullivan＇s ＂2010 SDR Equipment Vendor of the Year.＂ This award recognizes ZTE＇s outstanding contribution to the development of Software Defined Radio （SDR） technology and the wireless communications industry.

ZTE Ranked Third Globally Among LTE Infrastructure Vendors

ZTE Corporation announced on February 18 that it is now among the top three vendors in the LTE infrastructure industry, according to a recently announced market tracker report by Open Vista Consulting.