MEMBRANE ACTION IN PROFILED STEEL SHEETING DRY BOARD (PSSDB) FLOOR SLAB SYSTEM

Profiled steel sheeting dry board (PSSDB) system is a lightweight composite structural system that made of the profiled steel sheeting (PSS) connected to the dry board (DB) by self-drilling and self-tapping screws. The objective of this paper is to study the effect of membrane action in improving the flexural capacities of the PSSDB system. According to the literatures, common failure of the PSSDB floor is due to local buckling in the top flanges of steel sheeting at the centre of a simply supported slab. Restraining the horizontal movement at supports may develop the membrane action (MA) in the slab that can remarkably enhance the flexural rigidities of the floor. Experimental tests were conducted along with developing nonlinear finite element model to explore the effect of MA in the PSSDB floor. Experimental results of the PSSDB panel with simply end support were exploited to verify the nonlinear finite element results. The developed finite element model was then modified by restraining the horizontal movement of the slab at the supports. The obtained results disclosed that the developed compressive membrane action enhanced the stiffness of the slab at serviceability load by about 240%

A REVIEW ON OPTIMISTIC IMPACT OF CLEANER PRODUCTION ON MANUFACTURING SUSTAINABILITY

As a continuous application of an integrated environmental strategy, Cleaner Production (CP) is seen to have a substantial impact in establishing a sustainable manufacturing system. Thus, this paper explores and discusses intensively the impacts and benefits gains from the CP implementation that influences the sustainability development. The findings show that CP have optimistic impact on manufacturing competency, environment and economics performance which considered most significant influence on sustainability. Besides, economic performance was identified as an ultimate goal in manufacturing sustainability that can be enhanced significantly by competency and environmental performance. This paper provides the correct translational process of CP in order to achieve high level of sustainable manufacturing practice included the specific characteristics of performances. It can be referred as a guideline for manufacturing firms to define and measure performance based on CP implementation

Sustainable-ERP System: A Preliminary Study on Sustainability Indicators

The purpose of this paper was to identify the indicators for sustainability performance that were integrated into the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. It is crucial for a manufacturing company to embed the sustainability elements into their performance indicators in order to be sustainable in the economic, social, and environment dimensions. In this study, a set of criteria has been used to explore the sustainability indicators through a thorough literature study of related sustainability issues discussed in Scopus Index journals from year 2007 until 2016. In this regard, the indicators were clustered based on their respective sustainability dimensions (i.e. economy, social, and environment). Pareto charts were developed for the analysis process. The most frequent sustainability indicators can be determined based on Pareto 80-20 rule. Results of the analysis showed that from an initial 63 sustainability indicators, 32 indicators were listed as highly influential sustainability indicators. The findings of this study provide an early insight for researchers and industrial practitioners in selecting the most significant sustainability indicators to be integrated into their ERP system

BENEFITS OF REGULATORY AND VOLUNTARY SUSTAINABILITY STANDARDS COMPLIANCE: A REVIEW ON MALAYSIAN PALM OIL

Compliance to regulatory and voluntary standard is one of the most important elements of sustainability in palm oil production.  This paper assessed key regulatory and voluntary standards as references in relation to sustainability in Malaysian palm oil. It also analysed benefits of regulatory and voluntary standards compliance  based on literature reviews. The findings showed that the compliance to regulatory and voluntary standards for the Malaysian palm oil production could improve main elements of sustainability like environmental, social, and economic performance.  Besides, the goal of economic performance could also be achieved by increasing  social and environmental performance

Body mass index and complications following major gastrointestinal surgery: A prospective, international cohort study and meta-analysis

Aim Previous studies reported conflicting evidence on the effects of obesity on outcomes after gastrointestinal surgery. The aims of this study were to explore the relationship of obesity with major postoperative complications in an international cohort and to present a metaanalysis of all available prospective data. Methods This prospective, multicentre study included adults undergoing both elective and emergency gastrointestinal resection, reversal of stoma or formation of stoma. The primary end-point was 30-day major complications (Clavien–Dindo Grades III–V). A systematic search was undertaken for studies assessing the relationship between obesity and major complications after gastrointestinal surgery. Individual patient meta-analysis was used to analyse pooled results. Results This study included 2519 patients across 127 centres, of whom 560 (22.2%) were obese. Unadjusted major complication rates were lower in obese vs normal weight patients (13.0% vs 16.2%, respectively), but this did not reach statistical significance (P = 0.863) on multivariate analysis for patients having surgery for either malignant or benign conditions. Individual patient meta-analysis demonstrated that obese patients undergoing surgery formalignancy were at increased risk of major complications (OR 2.10, 95% CI 1.49–2.96, P < 0.001), whereas obese patients undergoing surgery for benign indications were at decreased risk (OR 0.59, 95% CI 0.46–0.75, P < 0.001) compared to normal weight patients. Conclusions In our international data, obesity was not found to be associated with major complications following gastrointestinal surgery. Meta-analysis of available prospective data made a novel finding of obesity being associated with different outcomes depending on whether patients were undergoing surgery for benign or malignant disease