Green Purchasing Practices and Environmental Performance

Green purchasing aims to minimize negative environmental impacts in manufacturing process and transportation by using durable, recyclable and reusable materials. This study aims investigate the impact of green purchasing practices including green product, green process and green supplier on environmental and business performance in the context of Malaysian manufacturing companies. A total of 156 questionnaires were distributed to different industry sectors. The findings show that green product, green process and green supplier are significantly and positively related to environmental performance. In addition, green product is the main predictor of the environmental performance. Ultimately, the results could offer useful guidance for green purchasing practices implementation in Malaysian manufacturing companies and provide a springboard for further empirical research in the area

A preliminary study: Does relationship closeness with grandchildren correlate with the quality of life and physical health of Malaysian Chinese elderly?

The 13th Next-Generation Global Workshop第13回次世代グローバルワークショップテーマ: New Risks and Resilience in Asian Societies and the World 日程: 21-23 November, 2020 開催場所: ベトナム社会科学院(ハノイ)/Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences(No. 1 Lieu Giai street, Ba Dinh, Hanoi, Vietnam) ※Due to the COVID-19, the workshop will be held at ONLINE for overseas participants(not from Vietnam)/ONSITE for Vietnamese participants.This preliminary mixed-method study aimed to investigate whether grandparental childcare can contribute to elderly' quality of life and physical health. In the quantitative study, a total of 97 Chinese grandparents who are primary caregivers were recruited to examine the relations of relationship closeness, quality of life and physical health. Correlational analysis revealed that grandparent-grandchildren relationship closeness positively correlated with self-rated quality of life and physical health of the grandparents. In the qualitative interview, grandmothers (n = four Chinese grandmothers) who are primary caregivers were recruited to share their experience in taking care of grandchildren. Findings from the thematic analysis revealed that all grandmothers have a close relationship with their grandchildren. In specific, they are happy with the companionship of grandchildren even though they may feel physically tired in taking care of grandchildren. This preliminary study on skipped generation family provides insights into understanding the contribution of relationship closeness with grandchildren on the perceived quality of life and physical health of Malaysian grandparents who are the primary caregiver to their grandchildren

Ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO)-enhancing HRM practices and corporate environmental citizenship: the mediation effect of organizational ethical climate

Ability, Motivation and Opportunity (AMO)-enhancing is essential for the effective implementation of corporate environmental citizenship. However, previous studies neglect the link between AMO-enhancing HRM practices and corporate environmental citizenship. This has motivated the paper studies the influence of AMO-enhancing HRM practices on corporate environmental citizenship via the mediating role of organizational ethical climate. This study employed a quantitative approach in the form of survey questionnaires. Survey questionnaires were collected from 200 construction companies and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results revealed that ability and opportunity-enhancing HRM practices were found to positively influence corporate environmental citizenship. Motivation-enhancing HRM practices were insignificant in this regard. Similarly, organizational ethical climate did not prove to mediate the relationship between AMO-enhancing HRM practices and corporate environmental citizenship. Therefore, construction companies should invest heavily in ability and opportunity-enhancing HRM practices to pursue corporate environmental citizenship. Instead, construction companies can abandon motivation-enhancing HRM practices and organizational ethical climate if they have limited funds to improve corporate environmental citizenship. Ultimately, policy makers should use these findings to create strategies as guidance for the construction industry to achieve corporate environmental citizenship

Physical properties and stability evaluation of fish oil-in-water emulsions stabilized using thiol-modified β-lactoglobulin fibrils-chitosan complex

Fish oil-in-water emulsions containing fish oil, thiol-modified β-lactoglobulin (β-LG) fibrils, chitosan and maltodextrin were fabricated using a high-energy method. The results showed that chitosan coating induced charge reversal; denoting successful biopolymers complexation. A significantly (p < 0.05) larger droplet size and lower polydispersity index value, attributed to the thicker chitosan coating at the oil-water interface, were observed. At high chitosan concentrations, the cationic nature of chitosan strengthened the electrostatic repulsion between the droplets, thus conferring high oxidative stability and low turbidity loss rate to the emulsions. The apparent viscosity of emulsions stabilized using thiol-modified β-LG fibrils-chitosan complex was higher than those stabilized using β-LG fibrils alone, resulting in the former's higher creaming stability. Under thermal treatments (63 °C and 100 °C), emulsions stabilized using thiol-modified β-LG fibrils-chitosan complex possessed higher heat stability as indicated by the consistent droplet sizes observed. Chitosan provided a thicker protective layer that protected the oil droplets against high temperature. Bridging flocculation occurred at low chitosan concentration (0.1%, w/w), as revealed through microscopic observations which indicated the presence of large flocs. All in all, this work provided us with a better understanding of the application of protein fibrils-polysaccharide complex to produce stable emulsion

Formation and characterization of thiol-modified fibrillated whey protein isolate solution with enhanced functionalities

The effect of thiolation using propanethiol on the functionalities of fibrillated whey protein isolate (WPI) solution at different pH values was studied. Fibrillated WPI solutions were thiolated at different molar ratios of propanethiol:carboxyl group (0.5:1, 1:1, 2:1, 3:1, 4:1) and the highest esterification extent ratio was obtained at 4:1 (pH 9). We also found that the thiolation process improved the foaming capacity and foam stability. TEM micrographs evidenced aggregation of thiol-modified fibrillated WPI. A network of shortened fibrils attached to each other was formed upon thiolation, suggesting good physical interaction. This was coherent with the increment of zeta potential values, indicating a greater repulsion force to retard fibrils aggregation. Thiolation enhanced emulsifying stability index of thiol-modified fibrillated WPI solution (pH 8) and diminished its susceptibility to pH changes. This has broadened the potential application of fibrils as food ingredients

Missed detection of significant positive and negative shifts in gentamicin assay: implications for routine laboratory quality practices

Introduction: A product recall was issued for the Roche/Hitachi Cobas Gentamicin II assays on 25th May 2016 in Australia, after a 15 - 20% positive analytical shift was discovered. Laboratories were advised to employ the Thermo Fisher Gentamicin assay as an alternative. Following the reintroduction of the revised assay on 12th September 2016, a second reagent recall was made on 20th March 2017 after the discovery of a 20% negative analytical shift due to erroneous instrument adjustment factor. Materials and methods: The practices of an index laboratory were examined to determine how the analytical shifts evaded detection by routine internal quality control (IQC) and external quality assurance (EQA) systems. The ability of the patient result-based approaches, including moving average (MovAvg) and moving sum of outliers (MovSO) approaches in detecting these shifts were examined. Results: Internal quality control data of the index laboratory were acceptable prior to the product recall. The practice of adjusting IQC target following a change in assay method resulted in the missed negative shift when the revised Roche assay was reintroduced. While the EQA data of the Roche subgroup showed clear negative bias relative to other laboratory methods, the results were considered as possible ‘matrix effect’. The MovAvg method detected the positive shift before the product recall. The MovSO did not detect the negative shift in the index laboratory but did so in another laboratory 5 days before the second product recall. Conclusions: There are gaps in current laboratory quality practices that leave room for analytical errors to evade detection

Stabilization and release of palm tocotrienol emulsion fabricated using pH-sensitive calcium carbonate

Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) has been utilized as a pH-responsive component in various products. In this present work, palm tocotrienols-rich fraction (TRF) was successfully entrapped in a self-assembled oil-in-water (O/W) emulsion system by using CaCO3 as the stabilizer. The emulsion droplet size, viscosity and tocotrienols entrapment efficiency (EE) were strongly affected by varying the processing (homogenization speed and time) and formulation (CaCO3 and TRF concentrations) parameters. Our findings indicated that the combination of 5000 rpm homogenization speed, 15 min homogenization time, 0.75% CaCO3 concentration and 2% TRF concentration resulted in a high EE of tocotrienols (92.59–99.16%) and small droplet size (18.83 ± 1.36 µm). The resulting emulsion system readily released the entrapped tocotrienols across the pH range tested (pH 1–9); with relatively the highest release observed at pH 3. The current study presents a potential pH-sensitive emulsion system for the entrapment and delivery of palm tocotrienols

Effects of environmental stresses and in vitro digestion on the release of tocotrienols encapsulated within chitosan-alginate microcapsules

Considering the health benefits of tocotrienols, continuous works have been done on the encapsulation and delivery of these compounds. In this study, we encapsulated tocotrienols in chitosan-alginate microcapsules and evaluated their release profile. Generally, these tocotrienols microcapsules (TM) displayed high thermal stability. When subjected to pH adjustments (pH 1–9), we observed that the release of tocotrienols was the highest (33.78 ± 0.18%) under basic conditions. The TM were also unstable against the effect of ionic strength, with a high release (70.73 ± 0.04%) of tocotrienols even at a low sodium chloride concentration (50 mM). As for the individual isomers, δ-tocotrienol was the most sensitive to pH and ionic strength. In contrast, β-/γ-tocotrienols were the most ionic-stable isomers but more responsive toward thermal treatment. Simulated gastrointestinal model showed that the chitosan-alginate-based TM could be used to retain tocotrienols in the gastric and subsequently release them in the intestines for possible absorption

Isolation, molecular characterization and antimicrobial susceptibility of Aeromonas spp. obtained from Tiger Grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) and Marble Goby (Oxyeleotris marmoratus) fish in Sabah, Malaysia

Aeromonads are ubiquitous in aquatic environments and have been implicated in fish and human infections. In this study, we isolated, studied antimicrobial susceptibility patterns and screened the existence of 15 virulence genes in aeromonads from two famously consumed fish species—seven marine Tiger Grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus) and eight freshwater Marble Goby (Oxyeleotris marmoratus) from the aquaculture hatchery in Sabah, Malaysia. A total of 30 aeromonads (17 A. caviae, 9 A. rivuli, 4 A. dhakensis) were identified using PCR targeting GCAT gene, rpoD‐restriction fragment length polymorphism and multi‐locus phylogenetic analysis. All 30 strains were resistant to amoxicillin and cephalothin and five strains were multidrug‐resistant. Nine virulence genes (lip, ela, eno, fla, aerA, hylA, dam, alt and ser) present in A. dhakensis, suggesting the virulence potential of this species as a fish pathogen. This study offers as a baseline for future studies in monitoring and managing these two fish in aquaculture industry

Effects of storage and yogurt matrix on the stability of tocotrienols encapsulated in chitosan-alginate microcapsules

Tocotrienol microcapsules (TM) were formed by firstly preparing Pickering emulsion containing tocotrienols, which was then gelled into microcapsules using alginate and chitosan. In this study, we examined the stability of TM during storage and when applied into a model food system, i.e. yogurt. During storage at 40 °C, TM displayed remarkably lower tocotrienols loss (50.8%) as compared to non-encapsulated tocotrienols in bulk oil (87.5%). When the tocotrienols were incorporated into yogurt, the TM and bulk oil forms showed a loss of 23.5% and 81.0%, respectively. Generally, the tocotrienols were stable in the TM form and showed highest stability when these TM were added into yogurt. δ-Tocotrienol was the most stable isomer in both forms during storage and when incorporated into yogurt. The addition of TM into yogurt caused minimal changes in the yogurt’s color and texture but slightly altered the yogurt’s viscosity