Protein-Intercalated Bentonite for Bio-composites

The application of clays in various fields such as agriculture, mining, construction, petroleum derivatives recovery, waste water treatment and material reinforcements is closely related to their unique properties including small particle size with high surface negativity and hydrophilic nature. This work investigated the potential use of bentonite clay for treatment of meat rendering waste water by adsorption and utilizing the spent bentonite for bioplastic fillers. Models were applied to predict the organic adsorption and the sedimentation of clay particles in solution. Various clays including bentonite are typically used in polymers to enhance composite properties at a very low level of loading. As bio-composite fillers, bentonite is modified with organics such as alkylammonium, amines and gelatin to improve compatibility with the matrix polymer. The use of these materials can be expensive and therefore, more attention has been directed to using waste sources such as meat processing waste. One type of waste, stickwater which contains approximately 4-5 % protein, 1-2 % fat and < 1 % minerals, could become a low-cost organic modifier for bentonite. Stickwater has a biological oxygen demand (BOD) of 150 000 mg/L, coloured, odorous and its treatment can be expensive. Currently, stickwater is mostly dried and added to blood and bone meal in meat rendering plants. Where no further unit operations are carried out on stickwater, the stickwater must be treated to reduce the BOD. Depending on the scale of operation, a plant can produce up to 30 000 L of stickwater at 2-5 % solids per day. Waste water treatment costs NZ$0.90 per kg solids or approximately NZ$ 1350 per day. The main protein in stickwater is gelatin, a denatured form of collagen. Extracting protein from stickwater by adsorption can reduce the treatment charges by decreasing the BOD as well as producing organically-modified bentonite for use as a bio-composite filler. Gelatin has a large numbers of side groups and can be easily crosslinked and adsorbed. Locally mined bentonite in the form of calcium and sodium bentonite, CaBt and NaBt respectively, costs NZ$20 per tonne and has a high gelatin adsorption capacity of up to 405 mg protein per gram bentonite (mg/g). For 30 000 kg stickwater, treatment using sodium bentonite costs around NZ$ 74 per day (this excludes operating and other material costs). Gelatin adsorption from stickwater gave a lower adsorption capacity of 246 mg/g due to competition between mineral and fat solutes with gelatin for binding sites on the adsorbent. Adsorption of solutes by bentonite occurred on the surface and within the interlayer spacings as revealed by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). Settling or sedimentation of particles from solution was studied to find an alternative to centrifugation for solid recovery after treatment. At 2 % protein concentration, settling was obtained for CaBt in gelatin at pH 3 whereas in stickwater, both CaBt and NaBt settled at pH 3. The highest clay recovery was obtained after overnight settling at 91 and 95 % for CaBt in gelatin and stickwater at pH 3. Conditions that favoured settling corresponded to low gelatin adsorption. Bentonite consists of aluminosilicate layers and upon organic adsorption, intercalation and exfoliation can be achieved. As reinforcement materials, this leads to fillers with a very high aspect ratio in matrix polymers such as in bloodmeal-based plastic, also known as Novatein Thermoplastic Protein or NTP. In NTP, the highest improvement in tensile strength and Young’s modulus was at 23 % (11.45 MPa) and 17 % (727.45 MPa) at 0.5 parts stickwater-modified NaBt per hundred of bloodmeal (pphBM). For elongation at break, the highest increase of 23.5 % was achieved for unmodified NaBt at 0.5 pphBM. These improvements also correspond with enhancements in glass transition temperature (Tg) of composites and increased basal spacing (d-value) of bentonite. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) analysis confirmed the exfoliation of fillers for organically-modified bentonite. These observations, particularly at low filler dosage strongly suggest the formation of nanocomposites

Effective Virtual Teams for New Product Development

At present, the existing literature shows that the factors which influence the effectiveness of virtual teams for new product development are still ambiguous. To address this problem, a research design was developed, which includes detailed literature review, preliminary model and field survey. From literature review, the factors which influence the effectiveness of virtual teams are identified and these factors are modified using a field survey. The relationship between knowledge workers (people), process and technology in virtual teams is explored in this study. The results of the study suggest that technology and process are tightly correlated and need to be considered early in virtual teams. The use of software as a service, web solution, report generator and tracking system should be incorporated for effectiveness virtual teams

Virtual teams: a new opportunity to develop a business

Virtual teams give many advantages to organizations, including increased knowledge sharing and improve organizational performance. Virtual teams have altered the expectations and boundaries of knowledge worker?s interactions and make a new opportunity to develop the business. In this paper, we present summary results of an online survey. The online questionnaire was emailed by using a simple random sampling method to 356 Malaysian manufacturing small and medium ?sized Enterprises (SMEs). The findings of this study show that SMEs in Malaysia are gaining to use virtual teams, and it can be concluded that virtual teams provide a new platform for developing the business in SMEs. Based on the study, we suggest avenues for future research that are important to advancing our understanding of virtual team effects on business growth

The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs

The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have high potential for the growth of SMEs. Due to the fast-growing complexity of new products coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs’ virtual R&D teams. Online questionnaires were emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. In order to avoid biases which may result from pre-suggested answers, a series of open-ended questions were retrieved from the experts. This study was focused on analyzing an open-ended question, whereby four main themes were extracted from the experts’ recommendations regarding the effectiveness of virtual teams for the growth and performance of SMEs. The findings of this study would be useful to product design managers of SMEs in order to realize the key advantages and significance of virtual R&D teams during the new product development (NPD) process. This in turn, leads to increased effectiveness in new product development's procedure

The Effectiveness of Virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: Experiences of Malaysian SMEs

The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have a high potential for SMEs growth. Due to the fast growing complexity of the new product, coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs virtual R&D teams. An online questionnaire emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. To avoid the bias that may result from pre-suggested answer, a series of open-ended questions asked from expertise. This study based on analyzing an open-ended question; extract four main themes among expertise recommendations on the effectiveness of virtual teams for SMEs growth and performance. These are suitable for SMEs new product design manager to realize the key advantage and importance of virtual R&D teams in the process of NPD, which lead to increase the effectiveness of the new product's procedure.Virtual teams, New product development, Survey finding, Small and medium Enterprises.

Virtual R&D Teams: A potential growth of education-industry collaboration

In this paper, we present our more than two years research experiences on virtual R&D teams in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and draws conclusions, giving special attention to the structure of virtual teams required to support education-industry collaboration. We report the relevant results of an online survey study. The online questionnaire was emailed by using a simple random sampling method to 947 manufacturing SMEs. The findings of this study show that SMEs in Malaysia and Iran are willing to use virtual teams for collaboration and the platform for industry-education collaboration is ready and distance between team members or differences in time zones, are not barriers to industry-education collaborations.Collaboration, virtual teams, SMEs, Education

Virtual Collaborative R&D Teams in Malaysia Manufacturing SMEs

This paper presents the results of empirical research conducted during March to September 2009. The study focused on the influence of virtual research and development (R&D) teams within Malaysian manufacturing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). The specific objective of the study is better understanding of the application of collaborative technologies in business, to find the effective factors to assist SMEs to remain competitive in the future. The paper stresses to find an answer for a question “Is there any relationship between company size, Internet connection facility and virtuality?”. The survey data shows SMEs are now technologically capable of performing the virtual collaborative team, but the infrastructure usage is less. SMEs now have the necessary technology to begin the implementation process of collaboration tools to reduce research and development (R&D) time, costs and increase productivity. So, the manager of R&D should take the potentials of virtual teams into account.Small and medium enterprises, Collaborative tools, Questionnaires, Virtual teams

A comparative cross sectional study on the knowledge, attitude and practice of the community based rehabilitation programme for children with special needs in the district of Kota Bharu, Kelantan, 1998

A comparative cross sectional study was conducted on the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) of the community towards community based rehabilitation (CBR) programme for children with special needs in the district of Kota Bharu, Kelantan in September 1998. The study samples comprised of 150 respondents from Wakaf Che Yeh Health Centre where CBR programme was available and 150 respondents from Pengkalan Cepa Health Centre where there was no CBR programme. The respondents aged between 18 years to 64 years old. Comparison of the KAP of these two communities is important to improve the CBR programme whereby community participation is an important component. Positive knowledge and attitude as well as active community participation in the CBR programme will ensure the effectiveness and sustainability of the programme. Pretested guided questionnaires were used to measure the KAP of the community towards CBR programme. The hypothesis of the study was that the KAP of the community where CBR programme was available was better than the KAP of the community without the CBR programme. The study revealed that there was significant relationship between the knowledge, attitude and practice of the communities in the two study areas (p0.05). However, risk factors for low knowledge and negative attitudes on CBR were low educational status, housewife and absence of car; women have less negative attitudes toward CBR for children with special needs compared to men. These differences are statistically significant. After controlling for all the other factors it was found that being married is a risk factor for low involvement in rehabilitation activities, where as those with low educational status and having contact with the handicapped were found to be .protective. These differences are statistically significant. Based on these findings, it 1: is hoped that the knowledge, .attitude and community participation in CBR programme for children with Special needs can be further Improved and enhanced by f special emphasis on these positive predictive risk factors

The effectiveness of virtual R&D Teams in SMEs: experiences of Malaysian SMEs

The number of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), especially those involved with research and development (R&D) programs and employed virtual teams to create the greatest competitive advantage from limited labor are increasing. Global and localized virtual R&D teams are believed to have high potential for the growth of SMEs. Due to the fast-growing complexity of new products coupled with new emerging opportunities of virtual teams, a collaborative approach is believed to be the future trend. This research explores the effectiveness of virtuality in SMEs’ virtual R&D teams. Online questionnaires were emailed to Malaysian manufacturing SMEs and 74 usable questionnaires were received, representing a 20.8 percent return rate. In order to avoid biases which may result from pre-suggested answers, a series of open-ended questions were retrieved from the experts. This study was focused on analyzing an open-ended question, whereby four main themes were extracted from the experts’ recommendations regarding the effectiveness of virtual teams for the growth and performance of SMEs. The findings of this study would be useful to product design managers of SMEs in order to realize the key advantages and significance of virtual R&D teams during the new product development (NPD) process. This in turn, leads to increased effectiveness in new product development's procedure.Virtual Teams, New Product Development, Survey Finding, Small and Medium Enterprises.

Virtual Teams: A New Opportunity to Develop a Business

Virtual teams give many advantages to organizations, including increased knowledge sharing and improve organizational performance. Virtual teams have altered the expectations and boundaries of knowledge worker’s interactions and make a new opportunity to develop the business. In this paper, we present summary results of an online survey. The online questionnaire was emailed by using a simple random sampling method to 356 Malaysian manufacturing small and medium –sized Enterprises (SMEs). The findings of this study show that SMEs in Malaysia are gaining to use virtual teams, and it can be concluded that virtual teams provide a new platform for developing the business in SMEs. Based on the study, we suggest avenues for future research that are important to advancing our understanding of virtual team effects on business growth.Collaboration, virtual teams, SMEs, Entrepreneurship, Business development, Survey