Voittoa tavoittelemattoman organisaation brandin rakentaminen. Case Slow Food

Tämän pro gradu-tutkielman tavoitteena oli kartoittaa voittoa tavoittelemattoman Slow Food-organisaation brandiin liitettyjä mielikuvia ja niitä tekijöitä, joilla brandin tavoitekuvaa tulisi jatkossa rakentaa. Koska nykyisin brandi ei ole enää pelkkien liikeyritysten yksityisomaisuutta, tutkimuksen teoreettinen asemointi perustui yhtäältä organisaation tunnettuuden kasvattamiseen brandin rakentamisen avulla ja toisaalta voittoa tavoittelemattoman toimintaympäristön erityispiirteiden näkökulmaan. Case-osion avulla haluttiin tarkastella globalisaation ja elintarviketalouden keskittymiselle vaihtoehtoisen, paikallisuuteen perustuvan ruokajärjestelmän vaikutuksia, mahdollisuuksia ja haasteita. Tutkimuksen empiirinen osuus muodostui laadullisesta tapaustutkimuksesta, jonka kohteena oli Slow Food-organisaatio. Tutkimus suoritettiin haastattelemalla kahtatoista Slow Food-organisaation sidosryhmien edustajaa Italian Piemontessa henkilökohtaisin haastatteluin, joiden pohjana oli brandi identiteetin elementeistä luodut kaksi teemaa: mielleyhtymiin ja arvoväittämään liittyvät tekijät. Aineiston analysoinnissa käytettiin teemoittelua ja sisällönanalyysia. Tutkimuksen lähestymistapa oli abduktiivinen. Tulosten mukaan Slow Food-brandi identifioituu sidosryhmilleen ensisijaisesti luotettavan ruoan kautta, johon katsottiin kuuluvan aidot, puhtaat raaka-aineet ja paikallisesti tuotetun ja jalostamattoman ruoan hyvä jäljitettävyys. Myös tiettyyn paikkaan ja arvoihin sidottujen kokemusten ja odostusten täyttymisen kautta saatu sosiaalinen ja kulttuurinen jatkuvuus nimettiin brandin vahvuudeksi. Lisäksi vastuullisen tuottamisen ja kuluttamisen sekä aitojen makujen ja laadukkaan ruokavalion edistäminen korostuivat jonkin verran vastauksissa. Näillä perusvahvuuksilla toivottiin brandin identiteettiä rakennettavan myös tulevaisuudessa. Haastateltavien mielestä Slow Food-organisaatio erilaistaa itsensä muista ensisijaisesti lupaamalla yksilölle korkealuokkaisia, aitoja tuotteita ja palveluja, joilla on henkilökohtaisten hyötyjen lisäksi positiivisia seuraamuksia myös oman alueen työllisyyden ja talouden kehitykseen. Organisaation tulisi myös jatkossa luoda uskottavuutta toimintaansa eritoten sen kautta, että brandi lunastaa lupauksensa laadusta ja aitoudesta. Toisaalta erottautuakseen muista lähi- ja luomuruokabrandeista Slow Food-brandin arvoväittämässä tulisi tulevaisuudessa selkeämmin korostua myös toiminnan voittoa tavoittelemattomuus ja brandiin liittyvä elämyksellisyys. Sidosryhmien kiinnostusta ja brandin lupauksen tehoa alentaviksi tekijöiksi nimettiin yleinen ruoan arvostuksen väheneminen sekä Slow Food-tuotteiden ja -palvelujen korkea hinta, huono saatavuus ja näkyvyys. Keskeisimpinä ratkaisuina pidettiin kuluttajien informatiivisen tiedon lisäämisen ohella pientuottajien verkostoitumista ja uusia yhteistyön muotoja kuten tuottajien yhteisiä jakeluketjuja ja paikallismyymälöitä. Näiden lisäksi brandin tunnistettavuuden parantaminen ja aktiivisempi tarjonta kyltityksin, tuotteiden pysyvän läsnäolon ja vähittäiskaupan mukaantulon kautta sekä eräät muut markkinoinnin osa-alueet kuten sosiaalinen media, Internet ja kansainväliset ruoka-alan tapahtumat nimettiin brandin lupausta kirkastaviksi elementeiksi. Pientuotannon lisääminen verotuksen kohdentumisen muutoksilla nähtiin keinoksi pudottaa paikallisen ruoan hintaa.Toisaalta korkeaa hintaa perusteltiin laadukkaaseen imagoon liittyvien argumenttien lisäksi luonnollisen kysynnän kasvulla, jota arveltiin saatavan tulevaisuudessa suurista ikäluokista, yhä kasvavasta koulutus- ja tulotasosta sekä valveutuneemmista kuluttajista.

Spatial ecology of food webs : herbivore-parasitoid communities on the pedunculate oak

Herbivorous insects, their host plants and natural enemies form the largest and most species-rich communities on earth. But what forces structure such communities? Do they represent random collections of species, or are they assembled by given rules? To address these questions, food webs offer excellent tools. As a result of their versatile information content, such webs have become the focus of intensive research over the last few decades. In this thesis, I study herbivore-parasitoid food webs from a new perspective: I construct multiple, quantitative food webs in a spatially explicit setting, at two different scales. Focusing on food webs consisting of specialist herbivores and their natural enemies on the pedunculate oak, Quercus robur, I examine consistency in food web structure across space and time, and how landscape context affects this structure. As an important methodological development, I use DNA barcoding to resolve potential cryptic species in the food webs, and to examine their effect on food web structure. I find that DNA barcoding changes our perception of species identity for as many as a third of the individuals, by reducing misidentifications and by resolving several cryptic species. In terms of the variation detected in food web structure, I find surprising consistency in both space and time. From a spatial perspective, landscape context leaves no detectable imprint on food web structure, while species richness declines significantly with decreasing connectivity. From a temporal perspective, food web structure remains predictable from year to year, despite considerable species turnover in local communities. The rate of such turnover varies between guilds and species within guilds. The factors best explaining these observations are abundant and common species, which have a quantitatively dominant imprint on overall structure, and suffer the lowest turnover. By contrast, rare species with little impact on food web structure exhibit the highest turnover rates. These patterns reveal important limitations of modern metrics of quantitative food web structure. While they accurately describe the overall topology of the web and its most significant interactions, they are disproportionately affected by species with given traits, and insensitive to the specific identity of species. As rare species have been shown to be important for food web stability, metrics depicting quantitative food web structure should then not be used as the sole descriptors of communities in a changing world. To detect and resolve the versatile imprint of global environmental change, one should rather use these metrics as one tool among several.

A cost effective pipelined divider for double precision floating point number

he growth of high-performance application in computer graphics, signal processing and scientific computing is a key driver for high performance, fixed latency; pipelined floating point dividers. Solutions available in the literature use large lookup table for double precision floating point operations.In this paper, we propose a cost effective, fixed latency pipelined divider using modified Taylor-series expansion for double precision floating point operations. We reduce chip area by using a smaller lookup table. We show that the latency of the proposed divider is 49.4 times the latency of a full-adder. The proposed divider reduces chip area by about 81% than the pipelined divider in [9] which is based on modified Taylor-series.

A simple low-cost electrical switching analyzer for I-V characterization of switching samples and devices

The phenomena of nonlinear I-V behavior and electrical switching find extensive applications in power control, information storage, oscillators, etc. The study of I-V characteristics and switching parameters is necessary for the proper application of switching materials and devices. In the present work, a simple low-cost electrical switching analyzer has been developed for the measurement of the electrical characteristics of switching materials and devices. The system developed consists of a microcontroller-based excitation source and a high-speed data acquisition system. The design details of the excitation source, its interface with the high-speed data acquisition system and personal computer, and the details of the application software developed for automated measurements are described. Typical I-V characteristics and switching curves obtained with the system developed are also presented to illustrate the capability of the instrument developed.

Climate change, sustainable development and India: Global and national concerns

Climate change is one of the most important global environmental challenges, with implications for food production, water supply, health, energy, etc. Addressing climate change requires a good scientific understanding as well as coordinated action at national and global level. This paper addresses these challenges. Historically, the responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions' increase lies largely with the industrialized world, though the developing countries are likely to be the source of an increasing proportion of future emissions. The projected climate change under various scenarios is likely to have implications on food production, water supply, coastal settlements, forest ecosystems, health, energy security, etc. The adaptive capacity of communities likely to be impacted by climate change is low in developing countries. The efforts made by the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol provisions are clearly inadequate to address the climate change challenge. The most effective way to address climate change is to adopt a sustainable development pathway by shifting to environmentally sustainable technologies and promotion of energy efficiency, renewable energy, forest conservation, reforestation, water conservation, etc. The issue of highest importance to developing countries is reducing the vulnerability of their natural and socio-economic systems to the projected climate change. India and other developing countries will face the challenge of promoting mitigation and adaptation strategies, bearing the cost of such an effort, and its implications for economic development.

A low-cost lead-acid battery with high specific-energy

Lightweight grids for lead-acid battery grids have been prepared from acrylonitrile. butadiene styrene (ABS) copolymer followed by coating with lead. Subsequently, the grids have been electrochemically coated with a conductive and corrosion-resistant layer of polyaniline. These grids are about 75% lighter than those employed in conventional lead-acid batteries. Commercial-grade 6V/3.5 Ah (C-20-rate) lead-acid batteries have been assembled and characterized employing positive and negative plates constituting these grids. The specific energy of such a lead-acid battery is about 50 Wh/kg. The batteries can withstand fast charge-discharge duty cycles.

Development of a low-cost portable colorimeter for the estimation of fluoride in drinking water

People in many countries are affected by fluorosis owing to the high levels of fluoride in drinking water. An inexpensive method for estimating the concentration of the fluoride ion in drinking water would be helpful in identifying safe sources of water and also in monitoring the performance of defluoridation techniques. For this purpose, a simple, inexpensive, and portable colorimeter has been developed in the present work. It is used in conjunction with the SPADNS method, which shows a color change in the visible region on addition of water containing fluoride to a reagent solution. Groundwater samples were collected from different parts of the state of Karnataka, India and analysed for fluoride. The results obtained using the colorimeter and the double beam spectrophotometer agreed fairly well. The costs of the colorimeter and of the chemicals required per test were about Rs. 250 (US$ 5) and Rs. 2.5 (US$ 0.05), respectively. In addition, the cost of the chemicals required for constructing the calibration curve was about Rs. 15 (US$ 0.3). (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Social dynamics for sustainable food systems : Actors' orientations towards sustainability in primary production and public consumption

The modern food system and sustainable development form a conceptual combination that suggests sustainability deficits in environmental impacts and nutritional status of western populations. This study explores actors orientations towards sustainability by probing into social dynamics for sustainability within primary production and public consumption. If actors within these two worlds were to express converging orientations for sustainability, the system dynamics of the market would enable more sustainable growth in terms of production dictated by consumption. The study is based on a constructivist research approach with qualitative text analyses. The findings were validated by internal and external food system actors and are suggested to represent current social dynamics within Finnish food system. The key findings included primary producers social skilfulness, which enabled networking with other actors in very different paths of life, learning in order to promote one s trade, and trusting reflectively in partners in order to expand business. These activities extended the supply chain in a spiral fashion by horizontal and vertical forward integration, until large retailers were met for negotiations on a more equal basis. This mode of chain level coordination, typically building around the core of social and partnership relations, was coined as a socially overlaid network, and seen as sustainable coordination mode for endogenous growth. The caterers exhibited more or less committed professional identity for sustainability within their reach. The facilitating approaches for professional identities dealt successfully with local and organic food in addition to domestic food, and also imported food. The co-operation with supply chains created innovative solutions and savings for the business parties to be shared. There were also more complicated identities as juggling, critical and delimited approaches for sustainability, with less productive efforts due to restrictions such as absence of organisational sustainability strategy, weak presence of local and organic suppliers, limited understanding about sustainability and no organisational resources for informed choices for sustainability. The convergence between producers and caterers existed to an extent allowing suggestion that increased clarity about sustainable consumption and production by actors could be constructed using advanced tools. The study looks for introduction of more profound environmental and socio-economic knowledge through participatory research with supply chain actors. Learning in the workplace about food system reality in terms of supply chain co-operation may prove to be a change engine that leads to advanced network operations and a more sustainable food system.

Social dynamics for sustainable food systems. Actors’ orientations towards sustainability in primary production and public consumption

Abstract The modern food system and sustainable development form a conceptual combination that suggests sustainability deficits in the ways we deal with food consumption and production - in terms of economic relations, environmental impacts and nutritional status of western population. This study explores actors’ orientations towards sustainability by taking into account actors’ embedded positions within structures of the food system, actors’ economic relations and views about sustainability as well as their possibilities for progressive activities. The study looks particularly at social dynamics for sustainability within primary production and public consumption. If actors within these two worlds were to express converging orientations for sustainability, the system dynamics of the market would enable more sustainable growth in terms of production dictated by consumption. The study is based on a constructivist research approach with qualitative text analyses. The data consisted of three text corpora, the ‘local food corpus’, the ‘catering corpus’ and the ‘mixed corpus’. The local food actors were interviewed about their economic exchange relations. The caterers’ interviews dealt with their professional identity for sustainability. Finally, the mixed corpus assembled a dialogue as a participatory research approach, which was applied in order to enable researcher and caterer learning about the use of organic milk in public catering. The data were analysed for theoretically conceptualised relations, expressing behavioural patterns in actors’ everyday work as interpreted by the researcher. The findings were corroborated by the internal and external communities of food system actors. The interpretations have some validity, although they only present abstractions of everyday life and its rich, even opaque, fabric of meanings and aims. The key findings included primary producers’ social skilfulness, which enabled networking with other actors in very different paths of life, learning in order to promote one’s trade, and trusting reflectively in partners in order to extend business. These activities expanded the supply chain in a spiral fashion by horizontal and vertical forward integration, until large retailers were met for negotiations on a more equal or ‘other regarding’ basis. This kind of chain level coordination, typically building around the core of social and partnership relations, was coined as a socially overlaid network. It supported market access of local farmers, rooted in their farms, who were able to draw on local capital and labour in promotion of competitive business; the growth was endogenous. These kinds of chains – one conventional and one organic – were different from the strategic chain, which was more profit based and while highly competitive, presented exogenous growth as it depended on imported capital and local employees. However, the strategic chain offered learning opportunities and support for the local economy. The caterers exhibited more or less committed professional identity for sustainability within their reach. The facilitating and balanced approaches for professional identities dealt successfully with local and organic food in addition to domestic food, and also imported food. The co-operation with supply chains created innovative solutions and savings for the business parties to be shared. The rule-abiding approach for sustainability only made choices among organic supply chains without extending into co-operation with actors. There were also more complicated and troubled identities as juggling, critical and delimited approaches for sustainability, with less productive efforts due to restrictions such as absence of organisational sustainability strategy, weak presence of local and organic suppliers, limited understanding about sustainability and no organisational resources to develop changes towards a sustainable food system. Learning in the workplace about food system reality in terms of supply chain co-operation may prove to be a change engine that leads to advanced network operations and a more sustainable food system. The convergence between primary producers and caterers existed to an extent allowing suggestion that increased clarity about sustainable consumption and production by actors could be approached using advanced tools. The study looks for introduction of more profound environmental and socio-economic knowledge through participatory research with supply chain actors in order to promote more sustainable food systems. Summary of original publications and the authors’ contribution I Mikkola, M. & Seppänen, L. 2006. Farmers’ new participation in food chains: making horizontal and vertical progress by networking. In: Langeveld, H. & Röling N. (Eds.). Changing European farming systems for a better future. New visions for rural areas. Wageningen, The Netherlands. Wageningen Academic Publishers: 267–271. II Mikkola, M. 2008. Coordinative structures and development of food supply chains. British Food Journal 110 (2): 189–205. III Mikkola, M. 2009. Shaping professional identity for sustainability. Evidence in Finnish public catering. Appetite 53 (1): 56–65. IV Mikkola, M. 2009. Catering for sustainability: building a dialogue on organic milk. Agronomy Research 7 (Special issue 2): 668–676. Minna Mikkola has been responsible for developing the generic research frame, particular research questions, the planning and collection of the data, their qualitative analysis and writing the articles I, II, III and IV. Dr Laura Seppänen has contributed to the development of the generic research frame and article I by introducing the author to the basic concepts of economic sociology and by supporting the writing of article II with her critical comments. Articles are printed with permission from the publishers.

Discovery of oxidative enzymes for food engineering : Tyrosinase and sulfhydryl oxidase

Enzymes offer many advantages in industrial processes, such as high specificity, mild treatment conditions and low energy requirements. Therefore, the industry has exploited them in many sectors including food processing. Enzymes can modify food properties by acting on small molecules or on polymers such as carbohydrates or proteins. Crosslinking enzymes such as tyrosinases and sulfhydryl oxidases catalyse the formation of novel covalent bonds between specific residues in proteins and/or peptides, thus forming or modifying the protein network of food. In this study, novel secreted fungal proteins with sequence features typical of tyrosinases and sulfhydryl oxidases were iden-tified through a genome mining study. Representatives of both of these enzyme families were selected for heterologous produc-tion in the filamentous fungus Trichoderma reesei and biochemical characterisation. Firstly, a novel family of putative tyrosinases carrying a shorter sequence than the previously characterised tyrosinases was discovered. These proteins lacked the whole linker and C-terminal domain that possibly play a role in cofactor incorporation, folding or protein activity. One of these proteins, AoCO4 from Aspergillus oryzae, was produced in T. reesei with a production level of about 1.5 g/l. The enzyme AoCO4 was correctly folded and bound the copper cofactors with a type-3 copper centre. However, the enzyme had only a low level of activity with the phenolic substrates tested. Highest activity was obtained with 4-tert-butylcatechol. Since tyrosine was not a substrate for AoCO4, the enzyme was classified as catechol oxidase. Secondly, the genome analysis for secreted proteins with sequence features typical of flavin-dependent sulfhydryl oxidases pinpointed two previously uncharacterised proteins AoSOX1 and AoSOX2 from A. oryzae. These two novel sulfhydryl oxidases were produced in T. reesei with production levels of 70 and 180 mg/l, respectively, in shake flask cultivations. AoSOX1 and AoSOX2 were FAD-dependent enzymes with a dimeric tertiary structure and they both showed activity on small sulfhydryl compounds such as glutathione and dithiothreitol, and were drastically inhibited by zinc sulphate. AoSOX2 showed good stabil-ity to thermal and chemical denaturation, being superior to AoSOX1 in this respect. Thirdly, the suitability of AoSOX1 as a possible baking improver was elucidated. The effect of AoSOX1, alone and in combi-nation with the widely used improver ascorbic acid was tested on yeasted wheat dough, both fresh and frozen, and on fresh water-flour dough. In all cases, AoSOX1 had no effect on the fermentation properties of fresh yeasted dough. AoSOX1 nega-tively affected the fermentation properties of frozen doughs and accelerated the damaging effects of the frozen storage, i.e. giving a softer dough with poorer gas retention abilities than the control. In combination with ascorbic acid, AoSOX1 gave harder doughs. In accordance, rheological studies in yeast-free dough showed that the presence of only AoSOX1 resulted in weaker and more extensible dough whereas a dough with opposite properties was obtained if ascorbic acid was also used. Doughs containing ascorbic acid and increasing amounts of AoSOX1 were harder in a dose-dependent manner. Sulfhydryl oxidase AoSOX1 had an enhancing effect on the dough hardening mechanism of ascorbic acid. This was ascribed mainly to the produc-tion of hydrogen peroxide in the SOX reaction which is able to convert the ascorbic acid to the actual improver dehydroascorbic acid. In addition, AoSOX1 could possibly oxidise the free glutathione in the dough and thus prevent the loss of dough strength caused by the spontaneous reduction of the disulfide bonds constituting the dough protein network. Sulfhydryl oxidase AoSOX1 is therefore able to enhance the action of ascorbic acid in wheat dough and could potentially be applied in wheat dough baking.

Impact of agricultural market liberalization on food security in developing countries : a comparative study of Kenya and Zambia

This research investigates the impacts of agricultural market liberalization on food security in developing countries and it evaluates the supply perspective of food security. This research theme is applied on the agricultural sector in Kenya and in Zambia by studying the role policies played in the maize sub-sector. An evaluation of selected policies introduced at the beginning of the 1980s is made, as well as an assessment of whether those policies influenced maize output. A theoretical model of agricultural production is then formulated to reflect cereal production in a developing country setting. This study begins with a review of the general framework and the aims of the structural adjustment programs and proceeds to their application in the maize sector in Kenya and Zambia. A literature review of the supply and demand synthesis of food security is presented with examples from various developing countries. Contrary to previous studies on food security, this study assesses two countries with divergent economic orientations. Agricultural sector response to economic and institutional policies in different settings is also evaluated. Finally, a dynamic time series econometric model is applied to assess the effects of policy on maize output. The empirical findings suggest a weak policy influence on maize output, but the precipitation and acreage variables stand out as core determinants of maize output. The policy dimension of acreage and how markets influence it is not discussed at length in this study. Due to weak land rights and tenure structures in these countries, the direct impact of policy change on land markets cannot be precisely measured. Recurring government intervention during the structural policy implementation period impeded efficient functioning of input and output markets, particularly in Zambia. Input and output prices of maize and fertilizer responded more strongly in Kenya than in Zambia, where the state often ceded to public pressure by revoking pertinent policy measures. These policy interpretations are based on the response of policy variables which are more responsive in Kenya than in Zambia. According the obtained regression results, agricultural markets in general, and the maize sub-sector in particular, responded more positively to implemented policies in Kenya, than in Zambia, which supported a more socialist economic system. It is observed in these results that in order for policies to be effective, sector and regional dimensions need to be considered. The regional and sector dimensions were not taken into account in the formulation and implementation of structural adjustment policies in the 1980s. It can be noted that countries with vibrant economic structures and institutions fared better than those which had a firm, socially founded system.

Contamination routes and control of Listeria monocytogenes in Food Production

Listeria monocytogenes is the causative agent of the severe foodborne infection listeriosis. The number of listeriosis cases in recent years has increased in many European countries, including Finland. Contamination of the pathogen needs to be minimized and growth to high numbers in foods prevented in order to reduce the incidence of human cases. The aim of this study was to evaluate contamination routes of L. monocytogenes in the food chain and to investigate methods for control of the pathogen in food processing. L. monocytogenes was commonly found in wild birds, the pig production chain and in pork production plants. It was found most frequently in birds feeding at landfill site, organic farms, tonsil samples, and sites associated with brining. L. monococytogenes in birds, farms, food processing plant or foods did not form distinct genetic groups, but populations overlapped. The majority of genotypes recovered from birds were also detected in foods, food processing environments and other animal species and birds may disseminate L. monocytogenes into food chain. Similar genotypes were found in different pigs on the same farm, as well as in pigs on farms and later in the slaughterhouse. L. monocytogenes contamination spreads at farm level and may be a contamination source into slaughterhouses and further into meat. Incoming raw pork in the processing plant was frequently contaminated with L. monocytogenes and genotypes in raw meat were also found in processing environment and in RTE products. Thus, raw material seems to be a considerable source of contamination into processing facilities. In the pork processing plant, the prevalence of L. monocytogenes increased in the brining area, showing that the brining was an important contamination site. Recovery of the inoculated L. monocytogenes strains showed that there were strain-specific differences in the ability to survive in lettuce and dry sausage. The ability of some L. monocytogenes strains to survive well in food production raises a challenge for industry, because these strains can be especially difficult to remove from the products and raises a need to use an appropriate hurdle concept to control most resistant strains. Control of L. monocytogenes can be implemented throughout the food chain. Farm-specific factors affected the prevalence of L. monocytogenes and good farm-level practices can therefore be utilized to reduce the prevalence of this pathogen on the farm and possibly further in the food chain. Well separated areas in a pork production plant had low prevalences of L. monocytogenes, thus showing that compartmentalization controls the pathogen in the processing line. The food processing plant, especially the brining area, should be subjected to disassembling, extensive cleaning and disinfection to eliminate persistent contamination by L. monocytogenes, and replacing brining with dry-salting should be considered. All of the evaluated washing solutions decreased the populations of L. monocytogenes on precut lettuce, but did not eliminate the pathogen. Thus, the safety of fresh-cut produce cannot rely on washing with disinfectants, and high-quality raw material and good manufacturing practices remain important. L. monocytogenes was detected in higher levels in sausages without the protective culture than in sausages with this protective strain, although numbers of L. monocytogenes by the end of the ripening decreased to the level of < 100 MPN/g in all sausages. Protective starter cultures provide an appealing hurdle in dry sausage processing and assist in the control of L. monocytogenes.

Synthesis of Cost-Optimal Shell-and-Tube Heat Exchangers

Synthesis of cost-optimal shell-and-tube heat exchangers is a difficult task since it involves a large number of parameters. An attempt is made in this article to simplify the process of choosing the parameter values that will minimize the cost of any heat exchanger satisfying a given heat duty and a particular set of constraints. The simplification is based on decoupling of the geometric and the thermal aspects of the problem. The concept of curves for cost-optimal design is introduced and is shown to simplify the synthesis process for shell-and-tube heat exchangers.