Formulation of refined, bleached and deodorised palm stearin with zinc dialkyl-dithiophosphate additive and its tribological performance

Vegetable oils have recently received worldwide attention for their use as a lubricant base stock that has numerous advantages, including their environmental friendliness. In this study, a refined, bleached and deodorised palm stearin was selected as the base lubricant, and its friction and wear performance were investigated with a pin-on-disk tribotester. The effect of zinc dialkyl-dithiophosphate (ZDDP) additive in concentrations of 1wt%, 3wt% and 5wt% on friction and wear performance were evaluated. Commercial semi-synthetic oil SAE 15W50 was used for comparison purposes. The experiments were conducted at a sliding speed of 1.5 m/s under a normal force of 9.81 N for 60 min. Results show that an increase in ZDDP concentrations improved both friction reduction and wear performance of the lubricant. The coefficient of friction (COF) of RBD palm stearin was reduced approximately at 71% when 5wt% of ZDDP was added and it shows that the friction reduction performance of PS+5wt% (COF=0.039) was comparable to SAE 15W50 (COF=0.035). While, wear coefficient of RBD palm stearin was reduced significantly from 2.08 × 10−3 to 8.89 × 10−5 when 5wt% ZDDP additive was added and it shows that the wear performance of PS+5wt% was better than that of SAE 15W50, 1.94 × 10−4. Further analysis of the wear worn surface with a high-resolution optical microscope was also conducted with a surface profilometer to examine the metallurgy of the pin surface and the roughness of the pin

Research Productivity of Returnees from Study Abroad in Korea, Malaysia, and Hong Kong

This study analyzes whether academics with advanced degrees from foreign universities are more research productive than their domestic counterparts in the three selected East Asian higher education systems – Korea, Hong Kong, and Malaysia. The three systems have relatively large proportions of foreign degree holders among their professoriates. The data for this study is drawn from the Changing Academic Profession survey. In our negative binominal regression analysis, we found that foreign degree holders are not more research productive than their colleagues with domestic degrees, and even slightly less productive than domestic degree holders in soft disciplines (arts, humanities, and social sciences) in Korea unless they have further foreign post-doc experience after their PhD. Furthermore, foreign degree holders are less productive in hard disciplines (natural sciences, engineering, and bio-medical sciences) in Malaysia. Finally, we discuss the findings and attribute them to contextual differences between the three localities.postprin

Mediating Role of Career Development in the Relationship Between Career Program and Personal Outcomes

This study was conducted primarily to measure the relationship between career program, career development and personal outcomes using self-administered questionnaires gathered from employees who have worked at a Sabah local government in Borneo. The outcomes of testing research hypothesis using a stepwise regression analysis showed two important findings: firstly, relationship between career program (i.e., planning and management) and career development positively and significantly correlated with job satisfaction. Secondly, relationship between career program (i.e., planning and management) and career development positively and significantly correlated with career commitment. Statistically, the result demonstrates that career development does act as an important mediating variable in the relationship between career program and personal outcomes in the career program model of the studied organization. The paper provides discussion, implications and conclusion

Urban Cholera transmission hotspots and their implications for Reactive Vaccination: evidence from Bissau city, Guinea Bissau

Use of cholera vaccines in response to epidemics (reactive vaccination) may provide an effective supplement to traditional control measures. In Haiti, reactive vaccination was considered but, until recently, rejected in part due to limited global supply of vaccine. Using Bissau City, Guinea-Bissau as a case study, we explore neighborhood-level transmission dynamics to understand if, with limited vaccine and likely delays, reactive vaccination can significantly change the course of a cholera epidemic

Effect of Psychological Empowerment and Transformational Leadership on Organizational Commitment

According to recent literature that relates to organizational leadership, transformational leadership consists of three important elements: idealized influence, individual consideration and intellectual stimulation. Extant studies in this area highlighted that the ability of the leaders in implementing these transformational processes (to execute organizational functions) may have a significant impact on individual outcome especially organizational commitment. Although this relationship has been studied, the mediating role of transformational leadership has taken a less prominent role in organizational leadership model. Recent studies on organizational leadership have emphasized that transformational leadership has three important characteristics: idealized influence, individual consideration and intellectual stimulation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of empowerment in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment; by using 77 USAble questionnaires gathered from employees who worked at a foreign manufacturing company in Free Trade Zone, Malaysia. Results of SmartPLS path model analysis confirm that empowerment does act as an important mediating variable in the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment in the organizational sample. In the succeeding sections, discussion, implications and conclusion are elaborated

The impact of banking concentration on firm leverage in emerging markets

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of banking concentration on firm leverage in 21 major emerging countries from different geographical regions, controlling for firm determinant and macroeconomic determinant of firm leverage. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on a relatively large sample of 5,779 enterprises with total 48,280 numbers of observations over the period from 2006 to 2013 and the regression model is performed by applying two-step system general method of moment estimator methodology. Findings This study finds a positive and significant relationship between banking concentration and firm leverage. Therefore, the overall results follow the information-based theory which indicates lower firms financing obstacles as banks are more concentrated. Research limitations/implications Bank-level data of all the countries to measure banking concentration is until 2013, which restrict the empirical analysis until 2013. Also, the study conducts the analysis. Practical implications The study enables policymakers, society, and academics to have better understanding on the beneficial effects of alternative banking market structure on firms’access to credit and therefore, in determining the level of firm leverage in emerging countries. Originality/value The study represents one of the limited available empirical researches to examine the beneficial effect of alternative banking market structures of firm leverage in emerging countries

Role Ambiguity and Role Overload as Important Predictors of Work-Family Conflict

Work stress hadtwo important components: role ambiguity and role overload. This research used a cross-sectional research design because it permited the researchers to integrate the work stress literature and the actual survey as the main procedure of collecting data for this study. Therefore, this study was conducted to determine the relationship between the work stress and work-family conflict of workers using 97 questionnaires collected from navy in Malaysia. The outcomes of testing hypothesis by using smartPLS path model confirmed two important findings. First, role ambiguity was significantly correlated with work-family conflict. Second, role overload was significantly correlated with work-family conflict. This result confirms that the ability of employees to appropriately manage the ambiguity and overload in performing daily job may reduce reduce work-family conflict in the studied organization