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This research explores the impact of organizational culture on expatriate’s working performance at Universiti Malaysia Perlis. The factors that affect expatriate’s job performance are important in enabling expatriates to acquire essential competencies that allow them to complete their tasks in workplace. This research was a survey (questionnaires) method. Data were gathered from 150 respondents consist of expatriates who were academicians and non-academician of legal age 18 and above on random basis from several academic schools in UniMAP. The analysis of the study uses Mi-crosoft Excel and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Software Version 16.0. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and multiple regression analysis. According to the results presented, language barriers and communication style were found to have significant effects on expatriate’s working performance. Therefore, from the results of two hypotheses tested there are meaningful relationships between language barriers and communication style toward expatriates working performance at Universiti Malaysia Perlis. This research has accumulated an empirical knowledge base which concentrates on coping behaviors for foreign staffs in higher education in-stitution contexts. The findings of this research will help the management of UniMAP understand the impact of organizational culture’s factors on expatriates working performance. The results of the present study showed that it could set up the right organizational culture and ultimately further improve the organization performance.

This study was aimed to develop a customised thin film composite (TFC) membrane for the separation in biorefinery. After the biomass hydrolysis stage, sugars component (i.e. glucose and xylose) need further refinement to remove any inhibitor (i.e. acetic acid) that can decrease the yield of the product during the fermentation stage. Substrate layer properties and the condition of thin film formation during interfacial polymerisation (IP) influenced the performance of the TFC membrane. Not much attention is given on the effects of substrate membrane properties as most support membranes were purchased commercially. Polyethersulfone (PES) membrane substrate was fabricated in the current study at different PES concentration range of 15 wt% to 23 wt%. IP was performed using the piperazine and trimesoyl chloride monomers. As the PES concentration in the membrane substrate increased, the pure water permeability (PWP) decreased. The PWP of the membrane substrate prepared from 15 % PES and 23 % PES were 231.67 ± 16.59 L/m2.h.bar and 24.49 ± 6.54 L/m2.h.bar. After the IP, the PWP decreased to the range of nanofiltration. The PWP value were 28.07± 5.42 L/m2.h.bar and 3.94 ± 1.21 L/m2.h.bar for the TFC membrane prepared using 15 % PES and 23 % PES membrane support. TFC membrane prepared using 23 % PES showed the rejection value 24.07 ± 5.96 % of xylose, 47.56 ± 1.99 % of glucose and 2.67 ± 1.05 % of acetic acid. This is corresponding to the ideal separation factor of 1.45 ± 0.06 for xylose/glucose, 1.86 ± 0.05 for acetic acid/glucose and 1.29 ± 0.09 for acetic acid/xylose.

An increase in terrorist activities, accidental explosions and the proliferation of weapons in recent years has made infrastructures across the globe more vulnerable to extreme impulsive loadings. Both in research and in practice, strengthening by the use of composite laminates such as fibre reinforced polymers (FRP) has been the most popular technique for strengthening structures facing the risk of blast loads. Alternatively, in recent years, researchers have been working towards the possibility of using elastomeric polymer coatings for structural retrofitting applications since they show the potential in enhancing blast and impact resistance of structural elements. However, the knowledge on this technique is still at its infancy considering that the related information on its application is very limited and tends to be scattered. This paper attempts to address the gap by providing a review on the current state of this novel technique in retrofitting structural elements against the explosive effects of blast. The discussions provided are mainly focussed on the application of this technique on masonry, steel and composite structures and systems, as well as on reinforced concrete (RC) panels. The areas in which more in-depth research is required, and where there exist a critical lack of knowledge, have also been highlighted.