The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) is a useful framework that helps explain people’s behavior across a wide range of settings. The present study adopted the TPB to investigate factors that affect the complexity of the learning intention of workers involved with a lean manufacturing training initiative. Even though workers’ training has been consistently listed as a critical success factor for innovative improvement initiatives, very few studies explore direct workers’ learning intentions. This is particularly true within the area of lean manufacturing training. Hence, direct workers in an automotive parts manufacturing organization were invited to participate in this study, to which 204 workers voluntarily responded. The survey data was compiled and analyzed through stepwise regression to establish the effects of the different factors on learning intention in lean manufacturing training. It was determined from the empirical results that the participants’ attitude toward learning from lean manufacturing training and the perceived behavioral control factors positively affected the workers’ learning intention. Organization management could look into different measures and policies to stimulate better learning effects from training programs among the participants. Actions that could foster positive attitudes and confidence of workers towards lean training initiatives will be most helpful in enabling effective and innovative lean practices on the organization’s shop floors. The key theoretical and managerial implications, as well as the limitations of the study, are also discussed.

While the economy is rapidly expanding in most emerging countries, issues coupled with a higher population has created foreseeable tension among food, water, and energy. It is crucial for more sustainable valorization of resources, for instance, nanocellulose, to address the core challenges in environmental sustainability. As the complexity of the system evolved, the timescale of project development has increased exponentially. However, research on the design and operation of integrated nanomaterials, along with energy supply, monitoring, and control infrastructure, has seriously lagged. The development cost of new materials can be significantly reduced by utilizing molecular simulation technology in the design of nanostructured materials. To realize its potential, nanocellulose, an amphiphilic biopolymer with the presence of rich -OH and -CH structural groups, was investigated via molecular dynamics simulation to reveal its full potential as Pickering emulsion stabilizer at the molecular level. This work has successfully quantified the Pickering stabilization mechanism profiles by nanocellulose, and the phenomenon could be visualized in three stages, namely the initial homogenous phase, rapid formation of micelles and coalescence, and lastly the thermodynamic equilibrium of the system. It was also observed that the high bead order was always coupled with a high volume of phase separation activities, through a coarse-grained model within 20,000 time steps. The outcome of this work would be helpful to provide an important perspective for the future design and development of nanocellulose-based emulsion products, which cater for food, cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical industries.

Over the past decade, the advancement of microfluidic technology associated with ultrasonics had received a considerate impact across the field, especially in biomedical and polymer synthesis applications. Nevertheless, there are much hindrance remained unsolved, to achieve simple processing, high scalability and high yield biopolymer products that stabilize during the process. In this review, we discuss the underlying physics for both microfluidic and ultrasonic integration in the synthesis of emulsion-based biopolymer and application. The current progress was outlined, focus on its related applications. We also summarized the current strengths and weakness of the microfluidic-ultrasonic integrated technology, aiming to contribute into SDG 12 for responsible consumption and production.

Bio-based polyurethane (PU) is synthesized either via the prepolymerization or addition polymerization of bio-based polyols and isocyanates. PU synthesized from vegetable-oil-based polyols has excellent properties for various application needs. Bio-based PU coatings from renewable vegetable oil show good degradability in soil while controlling the nutrient release process. Castor oil, soybean oil, palm oil, olive oil, linseed oil, rapeseed oil, cottonseed oil, and recycled oil have been explored in the study of bio-based PU coatings for controlled nutrient release. Castor oil as a natural polyol has been widely studied. Generally, the epoxidation ring opening method is preferred to prepare bio-based polyols. Almost all of these studies used a drum coating machine to complete the coating process. To obtain better controlled release performance, a vegetable-oil-based PU (VPU) coating was modified by increasing the degrees of crosslinking and hydrophobicity and improving the coating uniformity. The nutrient release duration of the modified castor-oil-based PU-coated fertilizer reached 200 days. VPU-coated fertilizers, in contrast to traditional fertilizers, effectively reduce the detrimental impact on the environment. Although the preparation of VPU-coated fertilizers is still at the laboratory scale, application research has been carried out in field crops.

Foodborne disease outbreaks are prevalent worldwide, affecting human health which requires using medical products to heal. However, most medical contain nano-silver antimicrobial agents can kill bacteria and fungi, however and harms human organs based on several articles. Alternatively, limonene is a natural extract from citrus fruits and can be used as an antibacterial agent to combat these diseases. Its bio-material properties make it safe for skin contact and environmentally friendly, making it a promising candidate for addressing foodborne illnesses. This study investigates the susceptibility of limonene to the Gram-negative bacteria, Escherichia coli, and the Gram-positive bacteria, Bacillus Subtilis, by applying the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) method and disc diffusion method. The result of exterior ring diameter of inhibition stated mean value and standard deviation of Bacillus Subtilis at 1.133 ± 0.3682 is higher than Escherichia coli at1.067 ± 0.2055 indicated limonene is effectiveness against Bacillus Subtilis. Though the comparison limonene and nanoparticle silver has stated limonene is preferable antibacterial resistance due to the limonene produced 10 % higher than nanoparticle in comparison on the initial diameter inhibition zone against Escherichia coli through disc assay. The MIC method was applied to Bacillus Subtilis by diluting limonene with LB broth consecutively in each falcon tube and measuring optical density (OD) before and after incubation. As a result, only one petri dish has lower colonies at an optical density of 0.809 decreased from 0.834 which indicates that the minimum concentration dosage was 1 % (v/v). Therefore, these results indicate that limonene is bacteriostatic against Bacillus Subtilis in MIC.