Business Model for Sustainable Development: An Insight from Malaysian Automotive Industry

In the modern economy, doingbusiness is a challenging task to overcome volatilecompetition from established firms in the localand global market. In order to attain sustainability,firms are advised to be ahead from the competitorsin term of business model or in its management.In general, the Malaysian automotive industryperformance is on a par with Thailand and holdsthe top three positions in the ASEAN car marketdue to the strong dominance of the domesticmarket. However, in the new millennia, thecompetition is no longer between the companiesbut about achieving economy, ecology and socialsustainability. Thus, to stay competitive, thestrategy shifted from profit orientation to thesustainable development. Therefore, this researchaimed to provide empirical evidence about thecritical success factors towards the achievementof company sustainability. This study employeda quantitative research methodology and 242returned questionnaires were then analysed viaCo variance-based SEM (CB-SEM). The outcomeof this research emphasizes that technologycollaboration, green human resource, eco cultureand eco product innovation are important factorsto meet the sustainability of Malaysian automotiveindustry, especially in economy, ecology andsocial development. This research is meaningfulto attain the world wide and nation strategy to“Go Green

Frequency and type of toenail tumors in the dromedary camel

A total of 275 dromedary camels (16 males and 259 females) of local “Arabiyat” breed suffering from different types and degrees of severity of toenail tumors were surgically treated. Histopathological examination of the tissue samples removed from 50 tumor-like growths (2 males and 48 females) revealed three types of tumors; squamous cell carcinoma (70%), spiny keratoderma (22%) and fibroma (8%). An increased incidence of tumors was recorded in the medial when compared to the lateral toenails in both sexes. In females, the incidence in the medial toenails was 90/259 (34.75%) and 71/259 (27.41%) in the right and left forelimbs respectively when compared to the lateral toenails which was 25/259 (9.65%) and 5/259 (1.93%) for the respective right and left forelimbs. In the hind limbs, this ratio was 29/259 (11.20%) and 20/259 (7.72%) for right and left medial toenails respectively, whereas it was 17/259 (6.56%) and 2/259 (0.77%) for the right and left lateral toenails respectively. Similar to the observations in female camels, male camels also showed a higher incidence of these tumors in the medial when compared to the lateral toenails in both fore and hind limbs. Based on these findings, we conclude that in the dromedary camels, the medial toenails of the fore limbs are most commonly affected with tumors; with the most common tumor being the squamous cell carcinoma

Point Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Helminthiaisis in Buffaloes of Jammu, India

The present study was carried out to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal helminthiasis in buffaloes of Jammu area of Jammu And Kashmir State for the period of one year. For this purpose, 173 faecal samples were collected from different areas (Bisnah, R S Pura, Sidrah, Jammu city and Akhnoor) of subtropical Jammu. Parasitological procedures used for the identification of helminthes were direct and indirect methods. The overall prevalence of helminthiasis was 38.72%. Helminthic infection was recorded throughout the year with seasonal variations

Indirect Extrusion: A Multifaceted Approach of Sub-surface Tubular Expansion

Extrusion and indirect extrusion is a very old manufacturing process used in multitudes of applications mainly focused on transportation, household and power industries. Indirect extrusion has found an interesting application in petroleum industry, which resulted in resolving many unsolvable issues over the last few decades. The current and expected future global demand for hydrocarbons became a driving force for researchers to find new comprehensive and cheaper solutions for hydrocarbon production. The challenges faced in oil and gas fields, while drilling, constructing and operating new and old vertical/horizontal wells, are many. The use of indirect extrusion for in-situ expansion of sub-surface tubulars used in wells revolutionized the drilling and completion as opposed to one and half decade back. The emergence of solid expandable tubular technology has changed the basics of how we design and construct wells. The original development of the technology was to overcome the challenges faced by the petroleum industry to reach ultra-deep reservoirs, off-shore drilling, drilling in high-pressure/difficult zones and repair/maintenance of old/ageing wells. However, it gained significant interest of researchers and operators in providing solutions to wide-range problems. The development of a computational framework using finite element method (FEM) enabled to determine the force required for expansion and resulting dimensional changes in final product, which is of direct assistance to the field engineers. The effect of friction and stress variations along contact surface is also determined

Reconfigurable multi-legs robot for pipe inspection: Design and gait movement

1132-1144This paper focuses on studies on reconfigurable multi-legs robotic system. The aim of this paper is to identify and acquire findings on how multi-legs robot can walk, climb vertical pipe and walk along the horizontal pipe after climbing. Three degrees of freedom (3DOF) multi-legs robot is designed and built to replace human involvement either at hazardous pipeline or to check on vertical and horizontal pipes. The robot system is tested to climb the vertical pipe and then move along horizontal pipe for inspection or other purposes. This can reduce the cost and percentage of human risk exposure during inspection on outer pipe. This multi-legs robot has more movement gaits compared to wheeled robot, but in terms of speed, wheeled robot possesses greater advantages. Therefore, this system design has combination of both wheel and multiple legs ensure that the to system has higher stability, more gait movement, and higher speed manoeuvrability. The gaits analysis for the system movement includes angle of the legs to move and selection of certain legs to perform a given operation, either walking, climbing or hanging. The target result is the system able to climb 500 mm height with 85 mm radius pipe. The potential applications for the system are: (i) to move along either on surface or underwater pipe and (ii) to be equipped with ultrasonic sensor to inspect the pipe.</em

Extraction of eco-friendly natural dyes from Pina leaves and their application on wool fabrics

Natural dyes comprise of colorants that are obtained from animals or vegetable matters without any chemical processing. Natural dyes can substitute synthetic dye and promotes green technology initiatives in the field of textile dyeing. This study was carried out by extracting dyes from pineapple leaves (Ananas Comosus) using three stage mordanting methods using different mordants namely premordanting, post-mordanting and simultaneous dyeing-mordanting. The mordants used were aluminium potassium sulphate, white vinegar and sodium chloride (NaCl). Wool fabrics were used for dyeing. The strength of colour and K/S values of the dyed fabrics were measured before and after washing. The colourfastness to washing, rubbing and light fastness of the fabrics were conducted to investigate the performance of the dye and mordants. The results indicate that the washing, rubbing and light fastness properties of dyed samples were between good to excellent grades

Exploring the Genetic Landscape of Retinal Diseases in North-Western Pakistan Reveals a High Degree of Autozygosity and a Prevalent Founder Mutation in ABCA4.

Variants in more than 271 different genes have been linked to hereditary retinal diseases, making comprehensive genomic approaches mandatory for accurate diagnosis. We explored the genetic landscape of retinal disorders in consanguineous families from North-Western Pakistan, harboring a population of approximately 35 million inhabitants that remains relatively isolated and highly inbred (~50% consanguinity). We leveraged on the high degree of consanguinity by applying genome-wide high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping followed by targeted Sanger sequencing of candidate gene(s) lying inside autozygous intervals. In addition, we performed whole-exome sequencing (WES) on at least one proband per family. We identified 7 known and 4 novel variants in a total of 10 genes (ABCA4, BBS2, CNGA1, CNGA3, CNGB3, MKKS, NMNAT1, PDE6B, RPE65, and TULP1) previously known to cause inherited retinal diseases. In spite of all families being consanguineous, compound heterozygosity was detected in one family. All homozygous pathogenic variants resided in autozygous intervals ≥2.0 Mb in size. Putative founder variants were observed in the ABCA4 (NM_000350.2:c.214G&gt;A; p.Gly72Arg; ten families) and NMNAT1 genes (NM_022787.3:c.25G&gt;A; p.Val9Met; two families). We conclude that geographic isolation and sociocultural tradition of intrafamilial mating in North-Western Pakistan favor both the clinical manifestation of rare "generic" variants and the prevalence of founder mutations

Comprehensive review on controller for leader-follower robotic system

985-1007This paper presents a comprehensive review of the leader-follower robotics system. The aim of this paper is to find and elaborate on the current trends in the swarm robotic system, leader-follower, and multi-agent system. Another part of this review will focus on finding the trend of controller utilized by previous researchers in the leader-follower system. The controller that is commonly applied by the researchers is mostly adaptive and non-linear controllers. The paper also explores the subject of study or system used during the research which normally employs multi-robot, multi-agent, space flying, reconfigurable system, multi-legs system or unmanned system. Another aspect of this paper concentrates on the topology employed by the researchers when they conducted simulation or experimental studies

Summative EEG-based Assessment of the Relations between Learning Styles and Personality Traits of Openness

AbstractLearning styles (LS), being one of the important attributes of a learner's profile, are relevant to different aspects of teaching and learning such as the learner's achievement and motivation. Equally important is the personality traits of ‘Openness’, which relate positively to knowledge and skill acquisition, thus making them relevant to learning and learners differences. Recognizing the importance of LS and Openness in profiling learners, the researchers carried out this study to examine the relationship between these two factors using a novel method based on Electroencephalogram (EEG) technology. In this research, Kolb's Learning Style Inventory (KLSI) was used to determine 131 participants’ LS: Diverger, Assimilator, Converger or Accommodator. The EEG technology was used to record the participants’ brain signals (with their eyes closed) to generate the dataset of EEG Beta band of baseline condition. Later, the dataset was processed and classified based on the LS using the 2-Step Cluster Analysis. The result showed that the brain signals could be processed effectively to classify the participants’ LS. More importantly, among the LS studied, convergers and assimilators were observed to have positive and strong relation with Openness. Between the two learning styles, assimilators were found to have stronger relation with Openness than convergers