The effect of flower-like tatania towards characteristics and performance of polysulfone mixed matrix membrane

For ages, the polymeric membrane such as PSf is widely used in liquid separation for various application as the polymer itself offer versatile and attractive properties. However, due to strong hydrophobic nature of PSf property that create serious fouling problem to most of the separation process, thus modification of membrane by integrating strong hydrophilic particles is always practically used among industries and researchers. In this research, the effect of FLT as an additive in the PSf membrane was investigated. With consideration of the FLT that offer larger specific surface area as compared to ST that able to generate better performances and properties of polymer MMM. In this work, the polymer MMM of PSf/FLT and PSf/ST membranes were prepared via phase inversion method at five different concentrations of additive. Membrane characterization involved several observations such as cross-section area, particle distribution, surface roughness, hydrophilicity property, mean pore size, mechanical strength and porosity. Meanwhile, membrane performances were evaluated in terms of HA rejection, PWF, antifouling, antibacterial activity and photocatalytic properties based on self-cleaning antifouling efficiency. From the result, the addition of FLT was strongly influenced overall structure and characteristics of the membrane compared to ST. With a larger surface area of FLT and homogenous distribution inside membrane structure have resulted in better hydrophilicity effect thus improved the membrane performances. The PWF result was increased from 61.33 L/m2h to 137.81 L/m2h for PSf/ST and 155.46 L/m2h for PSf/FLT as increased additive to 3 wt%. Same results were obtained by rejection analysis where the PSf/FLT membrane able to reject more than 96% of HA and improved antifouling and self-cleaning efficiency. It is clearly shown that the present of higher specific surface area of FLT has improved overall characteristics and performances of the membrane compared to ST especially at 3 wt% of concentration

Wireless technology and clinical influences in healthcare setting: an Indian case study

This chapter argues that current techniques used in the domain of Information Systems is not adequate for establishing determinants of wireless technology in a clinical setting. Using data collected from India, this chapter conducted a first order regrssion modeling (factor analysis) and then a second order regression modeling (SEM) to establish the determinants of clinical influences as a result of using wireless technology in healthcare settings. As information systems professionals, the authors conducted a qualitative data collection to understand the domain prior to employing a quantitative technique, thus providing rigour as well as personal relevance. The outcomes of this study has clearly established that there are a number of influences such as the organisational factors in determining the technology acceptance and provides evidence that trivial factors such as perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness are no longer acceptable as the factors of technology acceptance

Axial vibration mode of coupled liquid-structure-gas system in a rigid cylindrical container

This paper describes the axial vibration analysis of a closed ends rigid cylindrical container containing liquid and gas which separated by a thin circular plate at their interface. The liquid depths inside the container were varied and then the mode of vibration and the natural frequencies were analyzed. The natural frequencies obtained experimentally were compared favorably with those of commercial finite element analysis software, ANSYS. The vibration mode of the liquid-structure interaction of the tank system can be visualized from the software post processing animation/plot. The visualized modes are also consistent with the measurement by the respective experimental transducers. It was found that strong coupling predominantly occur between liquid and structure. In weak coupling conditions, the modes are predominantly gas mod

Ethnic minority entrepreneurship in Britain

Unlike the United States, most European countries have repeatedly refused to see themselves as countries of immigration. In the past half century however this has not prevented the arrival and settlement of large numbers from extra-European lands. Labour shortages and other economic factors have allowed the walls of "Fortress Europe" to be comprehensively breached. The majority of newcomers have found their initial employment in the low-wage and low-skill parts of manufacturing, and of service sectors such as office cleaning and restaurants. Just as in the United States however some migrants have begun to enter self-employment, often as a response to lack of progress as an employee. The United Kingdom is a relatively deregulated economy. There are few constraints on the economic activities of those who are legally resident (though asylum seekers are an exception). Immigrants are thus able to set up in any business for which they can raise sufficient capital or credit. With the exception of a few sectors such as pharmacy retailing, there are no regulatory constraints on the number of businesses, although all must comply with general rules relating to issues such as town planning and health and safety. Immigrants certainly do not need to obtain bureaucratic permission from government or chamber of commerce in order to start trading.entrepreneurship; ethnic entrepreneurship; ethnic minority self-employment

Marketing management capability:the construct and its dimensions: an examination of managers’ and entrepreneurs’ perceptions in a retail setting

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the relationship between corporate cultural/intangible assets and marketing capabilities by examining managers’ and entrepreneurs’ perceptions in a retail setting.Design/methodology/approach: Nineteen face-to-face interviews were conducted with UK small and medium sized enterprise (SMEs) managers and entrepreneurs to identify six sub-capabilities that form marketing capability. The authors further validated the relationship between marketing sub-capabilities and its antecedent tangible and intangible assets. The qualitative approach used provided a deeper insight into the motivations, perceptions and associations of the stakeholders behind these intangible concepts, and their relationships with their customers.Findings: The research identified that there is a strong relationship between tangible and intangible assets, their components and the following capabilities: corporate/brand identity management, market sensing, customer relationship, social media/communication, design/innovation management and performance management. In addition, companies need to understand clearly what tangible and intangible assets comprise these capabilities. Where performance management is one of the key internal capabilities, companies must highlight the importance of strong cultural assets that substantially contribute to a company’s performance.Originality/value: Previous work on dynamic capability analysis is too generic, predominantly relating to the manufacturing sector, and/or focussing on using a single case study example. This study extends the concept of marketing capability in a retail setting by identifying six sub-capabilities and describing the relationship of each with tangible and intangible assets. Through extensive qualitative analysis, the authors provide evidence that by fully exploiting their embedded culture and other intangible components, companies can more favourably engage with their customers to attain a sustainable competitive advantage.</p

An integrated core competence evaluation framework for portfolio management in the oil industry

Drawing upon resource-based theory, this paper presents a core competence evaluation framework for managing the competence portfolio of an oil company. It introduces a network typology to illustrate how to form different types of strategic alliance relations with partnering firms to manage and grow the competence portfolio. A framework is tested using a case study approach involving face-to-face structured interviews. We identified purchasing, refining and sales and marketing as strong candidates to be the core competencies. However, despite the company's core business of refining oil, the core competencies were identified to be their research and development and performance management (PM) capabilities. We further provide a procedure to determine different kinds of physical, intellectual and cultural resources making a dominant impact on company's competence portfolio. In addition, we provide a comprehensive set of guidelines on how to develop core competence further by forging a partnership alliance choosing an appropriate network topology

A data Grid prototype for distributed data production in CMS

The CMS experiment at CERN is setting up a Grid infrastructure required to fulfill the needs imposed by Terabyte scale productions for the next few years. The goal is to automate the production and at the same time allow the users to interact with the system, if required, to make decisions which would optimize performance. We present the architecture, design and functionality of our first working Objectivity file replication prototype. The middle-ware of choice is the Globus toolkit that provides promising functionality. Our results prove the ability of the Globus toolkit to be used as an underlying technology for a world-wide Data Grid. The required data management functionality includes high speed file transfers, secure access to remote files, selection and synchronization of replicas and managing the meta information. The whole system is expected to be flexible enough to incorporate site specific policies. The data management granularity is the file rather than the object level. The first prototype is currently in use for the High Level Trigger (HLT) production (autumn 2000). Owing to these efforts, CMS is one of the pioneers to use the Data Grid functionality in a running production system. The project can be viewed as an evaluator of different strategies, a test for the capabilities of middle-ware tools and a provider of basic Grid functionalities