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Purpose The purpose of this study is to outline the results of the empirical testing in the field of halal food supply chain and halal integrity assurance (HIA), as well as to provide a research framework of their relationships. Design/methodology/approach This study is based on the exploratory research paper using quantitative data collection to empirically experimented with concepts and provide practical solutions for halal industry players to optimize their halal food supply chain integrity assurance. Findings The findings show the halal supply chain of the food and beverage industry has a significant effect on HIA. The results also suggest the halal industry with a high focus on supply chain business processes and supply chain network structure are expected to have better HIA. Research limitations/implications As this study only focuses on the halal industry in Malaysia specifically on food and beverages, its findings cannot be generalized to other categories. Issues of applicability of this study to other countries also need to be considered. Practical implications This study addresses the assurance of halal integrity is a crucial element in managing a halal food supply chain in the halal industry. It has empirically identified the important elements to strengthen halal food supply chain integrity assurance in the halal industry. Social implications It is important to manage knowledge, commitment and trust in any halal organization as a catalyst for HIA. This study presents a better understanding of the halal concept application in society. Originality/value There is a lack of empirical study on halal food supply chain integrity assurance even though the issue of HIA is widely discussed in the halal industry. Thus, this study has used an industry survey to empirically experimented with concepts and provide practical contributions to enhance halal food supply chain integrity assurance.

The current developments in three-dimensional printing also referred as “additive manufacturing” have transformed the scenarios for modern manufacturing and engineering design processes which show greatest advantages for the fabrication of complex structures such as scaffold for tissue engineering. This review aims to introduce additive manufacturing techniques in tissue engineering, types of biomaterials used in scaffold fabrication, as well as in vitro and in vivo evaluations. Biomaterials and fabrication methods could critically affect the outcomes of scaffold mechanical properties, design architectures, and cell proliferations. In addition, an ideal scaffold aids the efficiency of cell proliferation and allows the movements of cell nutrient inside the human body with their specific material properties. This article provides comprehensive review that covers broad range of all the biomaterial types using various additive manufacturing technologies. The data were extracted from 2008 to 2018 mostly from Google Scholar, ScienceDirect, and Scopus using keywords such as “Additive Manufacturing,” “3D Printing,” “Tissue Engineering,” “Biomaterial” and “Scaffold.” A 10 years research in this area was found to be mostly focused toward obtaining an ideal scaffold by investigating the fabrication strategies, biomaterials compatibility, scaffold design effectiveness through computer-aided design modeling, and optimum printing machine parameters identification. As a conclusion, this ideal scaffold fabrication can be obtained with the combination of different materials that could enhance the material properties which performed well in optimum additive manufacturing condition. Yet, there are still many challenges from the printing methods, bioprinting and cell culturing that needs to be discovered and investigated in the future.

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In order to attain a useful balanced scorecard (BSC), appropriate performance perspectives and indicators are crucial to reflect all strategies of the organisation. The objectives of this survey were to give an insight regarding the situation of the BSC in the health sector over the past decade, and to afford a generic approach of the BSC development for health settings with specific focus on performance perspectives, performance indicators and BSC generation. After an extensive search based on publication date and research content, 29 articles published since 2002 were identified, categorised and analysed. Four critical attributes of each article were analysed, including BSC generation, performance perspectives, performance indicators and auxiliary tools. The results showed that 'internal business process' was the most notable BSC perspective as it was included in all reviewed articles. After investigating the literature, it was concluded that its comprehensiveness is the reason for the importance and high usage of this perspective. The findings showed that 12 cases out of 29 reviewed articles (41%) exceeded the maximum number of key performance indicators (KPI) suggested in a previous study. It was found that all 12 cases were large organisations with numerous departments (e.g. national health organisations). Such organisations require numerous KPI to cover all of their strategic objectives. It was recommended to utilise the cascaded BSC within such organisations to avoid complexity and difficulty in gathering, analysing and interpreting performance data. Meanwhile it requires more medical staff to contribute in BSC development, which will result in greater reliability of the BSC.