Potential impacts for monitoring sustainability: case study of hollow fiber membrane

Sustainability level is a new indicator of quality and efficiency for product life cycle. Sustainability should be balanced among Triple Bottom Line (TBL) aspects namely environmental, economic and social elements. For monitoring the sustainability of product, a comprehensive framework considering potential impacts for sustainability assessment should be developed. Previously, several studies presented frameworks to assess the sustainability level. However, few studies relate their frameworks with the potential impact of all TBL. Determination of potential impacts with its parameter is important during framework development. Potential impacts for environmental such global warming, acidification and eutrophication should be taken seriously. In this study, potential impacts for each sustainability aspects are shown. For the case study of hollow fiber membrane the potential impacts were obtained from primary and secondary data such product specification, bill of materials, literature reviews and help of GaBi Software

Governance strategies in sustainable campus using Rasch model

In moving towards sustainability, university needs to establish a good governance strategy which practices to transform a positive sustainable culture toward successful green campus. Howe ver, due to constraint of knowledge and commitment regarding sustainability integration has caused weakness in the implementation of green concept in majority of Malaysian universities. This paper is presents one of the five dimensions of a developed hypot hetical integrated sustainable campus model which is university governance. The university governance dimension consists of 5 constructs and 23 items which are strategies for the university to be complied. These strategies were uncovered using questionnair e survey with 35 selected experts who are currently active in sustainable campus activities and researches. Collected data from this survey was analysed using Rasch method in Winstep software to measure items reliability, separation index, items polarity, item fit and item person map. Results from the analysis indicated that 19 strategies were significant to be implemented. Thus, it provides good information for universities to adopt these sustainable campus strategies in making their campus as a role mode l for a sustainable and conducive living environment

Cultural management and its impact on quality performance

Studies on cultures have gained significant attention in decades. Such studies are essential due to its impact on organizations and societies.Multiracial communities in the USA have contributed to its development and modernization.As such, the USA strongly influences the world’s economy.In contrast, Japan through its homogeneous racial environment manages to bring the community as a developed country.Thus, this study will investigate the multicultural society in Malaysia.Whether this local environment reflects like the one in the USA or in the Japan cultures.As such, the impact of cultural management practices on organization towards quality performance will be identified. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches will be applied in this research for collecting data.The findings of the research are expected to be a viable reference for multinational firms to perform effectively in multicultural setting

Performance of Eular-Maruyama, 2-stage SRK and 4-stage SRK in approximating the strong solution of stochastic model

Stochastic differential equations play a prominent role in many application areas including finance, biology and epidemiology. By incorporating random elements to ordinary differential equation system, a system of stochastic differential equations (SDEs) arises. This leads to a more complex insight of the physical phenomena than their deterministic counterpart. However, most of the SDEs do not have an analytical solution where numerical method is the best way to resolve this problem. Recently, much work had been done in applying numerical methods for solving SDEs. A very general class of Stochastic Runge-Kutta, (SRK) had been studied and 2-stage SRK with order convergence of 1.0 and 4-stage SRK with order convergence of 1.5 were discussed. In this study, we compared the performance of Euler-Maruyama, 2-stage SRK and 4-stage SRK in approximating the strong solutions of stochastic logistic model which describe the cell growth of C. acetobutylicum P262. The MS-stability functions of these schemes were calculated and regions of MS-stability are given. We also perform the comparison for the performance of these methods based on their global errors

Test case generation technique for concurrency in activity diagram

Presently, the application of Model-Based Testing (MBT) using Unified Modelling Language (UML) has attracted the attention of many practitioners to use UML diagrams for generation of test cases. By using this technique, early detection of faults can be achieved at the design phase. However, some UML diagrams have limitations in generating test cases such as the need for a loop combination fragment to describe looping, iteration process and combination fragment with the par operator to interpret concurrency activities. To overcome these issues, a feature analysis was conducted to observe the outcome of test case generation using similar cases but, by using different techniques and UML diagrams. Based on the results, a guideline for selecting UML diagrams in the generation of test cases based on the different features of software system in the cases was developed. However, system design of concurrent software is complex, leading to issues in system testing such as synchronization, non-deterministic, path explosion and deadlock. In this research, an enhancement of the generate-activity-paths algorithm as a test case generation technique was developed to solve the non-deterministic problem of concurrent system. As the test cases are generated in a random order, a prioritization technique using genetic algorithm was applied to find the critical path that must be tested first from the test paths produced. The technique was implemented on the Conference Management System case study and evaluated using cyclomatic complexity, branch coverage, mutation analysis and average percentage of fault detected (APFD) to measure the effectiveness and quality of the test cases in comparison to those using the original technique. Results indicated that the technique achieved 100% basis path and branch coverage criteria similar to the original technique. Moreover, it is also capable of revealing non-deterministic faults by injecting concurrency coverage criteria into the test paths, which was not possible using the original technique. Additionally, prioritization of test paths yielded an APFD value of 43% which is better and higher than the non-prioritized test paths (22%). This result signified that the usage of prioritization technique leads to an improve detection rate of severe faults as compared to applying random order

Information Seeking in Information Management Practices: A systematic literature review

Information Seeking is one of the elements of Information Management Practices. Many authors use Information Seeking terms in various fields, such as health, medicine, business management and information management. This paper will provide insight into the research related to information seeking based on various studies in online databases. The main goal of this paper is to provide a systematic literature review of Information sought from the previous research from the year 2015 to the year 2020. The selected database consists of Emerald Insight, Science Direct and ProQuest. The search was done by using the keyword “information seeking”

Improvement process of partially cooked corn grit (PCCG) preparation

Steamed corn grits, or nasi jagung, is an indigenous, corn-based product, which is usually used to substitute rice, particularly in the central part of Java and Madura regions, Indonesia. However, there is limited information regarding the preparation of partially cooked corn grits (PCCG). The objective of the present work was therefore to compare the preparation of PCCG in terms of characteristics and time of preparation using optimised initial moisture content in the traditional process with optimised corn particle size, initial moisture content and processing temperature of the improved process. Water absorption index (WAI), water solubility index (WSI), yellowness index (YI), and resistant starch (RS) of dried PCCG, as well as textural properties of rehydrated PCCG, were compared between optimised PCCG prepared using traditional and improved processes to obtain the best PCCG. Results showed that the optimum initial moisture content to prepare PCCG by the traditional process was approximately 40%. The optimum conditions to prepare PCCG by the improved process were 300 μm corn particle size, 52.33% initial moisture content and 123.67°C processing temperature. PCCG prepared using the improved process had higher values of YI (99.51) and RS (3.65 g/100 g) but lower WAI value (3.74) than YI (95.78), RS (1.96 g/100 g) and WAI (3.96) of PCCG prepared using the traditional process. The textural properties of rehydrated PCCG, except for adhesiveness and cohesiveness, prepared using the improved process were not different from those of PCCG prepared using the traditional process. The improved process also had a shorter preparation time of PCCG, which was 4-6 h as compared to normally 3-4 d in the traditional process. Therefore, a more rapid process with more consistent qualities for preparing PCCG will be of benefit to the target population

Comparison of Calcofluor White M2R fluorescence and modified Gram chromotrope Kinyoun staining methods for the detection of microsporidial spores from stool samples

Routine diagnosis of intestinal microsporidiosis in clinical diagnostic laboratories relies mostly on detection of microsporidial spores via special staining and microscopic techniques. This paper describes the comparative evaluation of Calcofluor White M2R method, with modified Gram-chromotrope Kinyoun method as the reference standard. One hundred and six stool samples were examined for the presence of microsporidial spores. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values of the Calcofluor White M2R method compared to the reference technique were 95.2%, 4.3%, 78.2% and 20.0%, respectively. The positive predictive value (PPV) was 78.2% and the negative predictive value (NPV) was 20.0%. Despite low specificity of the CFW method due to its ability to stain chitinous wall of microorganisms, the presence of distinct deep-blue horizontal or equitorial stripes in microsporidial spores in modified Gram-chromotrope Kinyoun would likely reduce the false positive results obtained in the Calcofluor White M2R. Hence, the simultaneous use of these two methods would give better performance and accuracy for the detection of microsporidial spores in patients with intestinal microsporidiosis

Biocatalytic Reduction of Formaldehyde to Methanol: Effect of pH on Enzyme Immobilization and Reactive Membrane Performance

Thermodynamic stabled CO2 molecules can be biocatalytically reduced to methanol via three cascade dehydrogenases (formate, formaldehyde and alcohol) with the aid of cofactor as the electron donor. In this study, Alcohol dehydrogenase (EC 1.1.1.1), the third step of the cascade enzymatic reaction which catalyzed formaldehyde (CHOH) to methanol (CH3OH) will be immobilized in an ultrafiltration membrane. The enzyme will be immobilized in the support layer of a poly(ether)sulfone (PES) membrane via a technique called fouling induced enzyme immobilization. The objective of this study is to evaluate the effect of varying pH (acid (pH 5), neutral (pH 7) and alkaline (pH 9)) of the feed solution during immobilization process of ADH in the membrane in terms of permeate flux, observed rejection, enzyme loading and fouling mechanism. The experiment was conducted in a pressure driven, dead-end stirred filtration cell. Reaction conversion and biocatalytic productivity will be also evaluated. The results showed that permeate flux for acid solution were the lowest during immobilization. High concentration polarization and fouling resistance cause lower observed rejection for pH 7 and 9. Enzyme loading for pH 5 give 73.8% loading rate which is the highest compared to 62.4% at pH 7 and 70.1% at pH 9. Meanwhile, the conversion rate during the reaction shows that reaction on fouled membrane showed more than 90% conversion for pH 5 and 7. The fouling model predicted that irreversible fouling occurs during enzyme immobilization at pH 7 with standard blocking mechanism while reversible fouling occurs at pH 5 and 9 with intermediate and complete blocking, respectively. Copyright © 2021 by Authors, Published by BCREC Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).

Structural Accounting Support Service for Construction Companies in Malaysia - a Qualitative Pilot Test

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