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Contaminant removal in septage treatment with vertical flow constructed wetlands operated under batch flow conditions

Jong VS, Tang FE

Water Sci Technol, 2016;73(4):909-15.
PMID: 26901735 DOI: 10.2166/wst.2015.563

Individual septic tanks are the most common means of on-site sanitation in Malaysia, but they result in a significant volume of septage. A two-staged vertical flow constructed wetlands (VFCWs) system for the treatment of septage was constructed and studied in Sarawak, Malaysia. Raw septage was treated in the first stage wetlands, and the resulting percolate was fed onto the second stage wetlands for further treatment. Here, the effects of a batch loading regime on the contaminant removal efficiency at the second stage wetlands, which included palm kernel shell within their filter substrate, are presented. The batch loading regime with pond:rest (P:R) period of 1:1, 2:2 and 3:3 (day:day) was studied. The improvement of the effluent redox condition was evident with P:R = 3:3, resulting in excellent organic matters (chemical oxygen demand and biochemical oxygen demand) and nitrogen reduction. The bed operated with P:R = 1:1 experienced constant clogging, with a water layer observed on the bed surface. For the P:R = 3:3 regime, the dissolved oxygen profile was not found to decay drastically after 24 hours of ponding, suggesting that the biodegradation mainly occurred during the first day. The study results indicate that a suitable application regime with an adequate rest period is important in VFCWs to ensure efficient operation.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Backtracking search algorithm in CVRP models for efficient solid waste collection and route optimization

Akhtar M, Hannan MA, Begum RA, Basri H, Scavino E

Waste Manag, 2017 Mar;61:117-128.
PMID: 28153405 DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2017.01.022

Waste collection is an important part of waste management that involves different issues, including environmental, economic, and social, among others. Waste collection optimization can reduce the waste collection budget and environmental emissions by reducing the collection route distance. This paper presents a modified Backtracking Search Algorithm (BSA) in capacitated vehicle routing problem (CVRP) models with the smart bin concept to find the best optimized waste collection route solutions. The objective function minimizes the sum of the waste collection route distances. The study introduces the concept of the threshold waste level (TWL) of waste bins to reduce the number of bins to be emptied by finding an optimal range, thus minimizing the distance. A scheduling model is also introduced to compare the feasibility of the proposed model with that of the conventional collection system in terms of travel distance, collected waste, fuel consumption, fuel cost, efficiency and CO2 emission. The optimal TWL was found to be between 70% and 75% of the fill level of waste collection nodes and had the maximum tightness value for different problem cases. The obtained results for four days show a 36.80% distance reduction for 91.40% of the total waste collection, which eventually increases the average waste collection efficiency by 36.78% and reduces the fuel consumption, fuel cost and CO2 emission by 50%, 47.77% and 44.68%, respectively. Thus, the proposed optimization model can be considered a viable tool for optimizing waste collection routes to reduce economic costs and environmental impacts.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Fulltext Serum cortisol level and survival rate of juvenile Epinephelus fuscoguttatus following exposure to different salinities

Tahir D, Shariff M, Syukri F, Yusoff FM

Vet World, 2018 Mar;11(3):327-331.
PMID: 29657425 DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.327-331

Background and Aim: Brown-marbled grouper Epinephelus fuscoguttatus is a premium marine food fish with high demand in Asia. In fish, stress due to environmental changes such as fluctuations in the salinity can result in increased cortisol level. Stress in fish increases susceptibility to diseases ultimately resulting in death. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the salinity tolerance of E. fuscoguttatus and their survival in lower salinities.
Materials and Methods: In this study, grouper juveniles (92.43±standard error of the mean 0.51 mm) maintained in 31 ppt seawater were transferred into five tanks with seawater diluted to 25, 20, 15, 10, and 5 ppt. The salinity of the control group was not changed and was maintained at 31 ppt. Serum cortisol was measured using ELISA at 0, 30, 60, and 120 min after the fish were transferred to the different concentrations of salinity.
Results: The survival percentage was recorded for 14 days following the transfer and the results revealed that serum cortisol of fish in a high change in salinity (15, 10, and 5 ppt) was significantly higher than the control group immediately after exposure. At the high salinity change, the cortisol levels gradually decrease at 30 min and 60 min, until no difference in cortisol concentration was observed at 120 min. No mortality was observed in fish exposed to low salinity change (25 and 20 ppt) while in higher salinity change (5 ppt), the survival percentage was 50%.
Conclusion: The study revealed that the serum cortisol concentration was high initially and continues to decrease to resting cortisol level at 120 min indicating that cortisol hormone is released following acute stress as a primary response in grouper juveniles.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Fulltext Mental Trauma Experienced by Caregivers of patients with Diffuse Axonal Injury or Severe Traumatic Brain Injury

Syed Hassan ST, Jamaludin H, Abd Raman R, Mohd Riji H, Wan Fei K

Trauma Mon, 2013 Sep;18(2):56-61.
PMID: 24350153 DOI: 10.5812/traumamon.11522

CONTEXT: As with care giving and rehabilitation in chronic illnesses, the concern with traumatic brain injury (TBI), particularly with diffuse axonal injury (DAI), is that the caregivers are so overwhelmingly involved in caring and rehabilitation of the victim that in the process they become traumatized themselves. This review intends to shed light on the hidden and silent trauma sustained by the caregivers of severe brain injury survivors. Motor vehicle accident (MVA) is the highest contributor of TBI or DAI. The essence of trauma is the infliction of pain and suffering and having to bear the pain (i.e. by the TBI survivor) and the burden of having to take care and manage and rehabilitate the TBI survivor (i.e. by the TBI caregiver). Moreover many caregivers are not trained for their care giving task, thus compounding the stress of care giving and rehabilitating patients. Most research on TBI including DAI, focus on the survivors and not on the caregivers. TBI injury and its effects and impacts remain the core question of most studies, which are largely based on the quantitative approach.
EVIDENCE ACQUISITION: Qualitative research can better assess human sufferings such as in the case of DAI trauma. While quantitative research can measure many psychometric parameters to assess some aspects of trauma conditions, qualitative research is able to fully reveal the meaning, ramification and experience of TBI trauma. Both care giving and rehabilitation are overwhelmingly demanding; hence , they may complicate the caregivers' stress. However, some positive outcomes also exist.
RESULTS: Caregivers involved in caring and rehabilitation of TBI victims may become mentally traumatized. Posttraumatic recovery of the TBI survivor can enhance the entire family's closeness and bonding as well as improve the mental status of the caregiver.
CONCLUSIONS: A long-term longitudinal study encompassing integrated research is needed to fully understand the traumatic experiences of caregivers. Unless research on TBI or DAI trauma is given its proper attention, the burden of trauma and injury on societies will continue to exacerbate globally.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
New method for distance-based close following safety indicator

Sharizli AA, Rahizar R, Karim MR, Saifizul AA

Traffic Inj Prev, 2015;16(2):190-5.
PMID: 24827899 DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2014.921913

The increase in the number of fatalities caused by road accidents involving heavy vehicles every year has raised the level of concern and awareness on road safety in developing countries like Malaysia. Changes in the vehicle dynamic characteristics such as gross vehicle weight, travel speed, and vehicle classification will affect a heavy vehicle's braking performance and its ability to stop safely in emergency situations. As such, the aim of this study is to establish a more realistic new distance-based safety indicator called the minimum safe distance gap (MSDG), which incorporates vehicle classification (VC), speed, and gross vehicle weight (GVW).

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles/statistics & numerical data
Obstructive sleep apnea among express bus drivers in Malaysia: important indicators for screening

Yusoff MF, Baki MM, Mohamed N, Mohamed AS, Yunus MR, Ami M, et al.

Traffic Inj Prev, 2010 Dec;11(6):594-9.
PMID: 21128189 DOI: 10.1080/15389588.2010.505255

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) has been identified as one of the significant risk factors for motor vehicle crashes (MVCs). In the interest of public safety, this study was conducted to determine the prevalence of OSA and its associated factors among express bus drivers in Malaysia. Identifying factors or conditions related with OSA is very important because they can be used as indicators to subject a person to a confirmatory diagnosis using polysomnography testing.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles*
Mode choice model for vulnerable motorcyclists in Malaysia

Ibrahim Sheikh AK, Radin Umar RS, Habshah M, Kassim H, Stevenson M, Ahmed H

Traffic Inj Prev, 2006 Jun;7(2):150-4.
PMID: 16854709

In developing countries, motorcycle use has grown in popularity in the past decades. Commensurate with this growth is the increase in death and casualties among motorcyclists in these countries. One of the strategic programs to minimize this problem is to reduce motorcyclists exposure by shifting them into safer modes of transport. This study aims to explore the differences in the characteristics of bus and motorcycle users. It identifies the factors contributing to their choice of transport mode and estimates the probability that motorcyclists might change their travel mode to a safer alternative; namely, bus travel.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Fulltext A novel vehicle stationary detection utilizing map matching and IMU sensors

Amin MS, Reaz MB, Nasir SS, Bhuiyan MA, Ali MA

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:597180.
PMID: 25276855 DOI: 10.1155/2014/597180

Precise navigation is a vital need for many modern vehicular applications. The global positioning system (GPS) cannot provide continuous navigation information in urban areas. The widely used inertial navigation system (INS) can provide full vehicle state at high rates. However, the accuracy diverges quickly in low cost microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based INS due to bias, drift, noise, and other errors. These errors can be corrected in a stationary state. But detecting stationary state is a challenging task. A novel stationary state detection technique from the variation of acceleration, heading, and pitch and roll of an attitude heading reference system (AHRS) built from the inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensors is proposed. Besides, the map matching (MM) algorithm detects the intersections where the vehicle is likely to stop. Combining these two results, the stationary state is detected with a smaller timing window of 3 s. A longer timing window of 5 s is used when the stationary state is detected only from the AHRS. The experimental results show that the stationary state is correctly identified and the position error is reduced to 90% and outperforms previously reported work. The proposed algorithm would help to reduce INS errors and enhance the performance of the navigation system.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles*
Fulltext Reduction of fuel consumption and exhaust pollutant using intelligent transport systems

Nasir MK, Md Noor R, Kalam MA, Masum BM

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:836375.
PMID: 25032239 DOI: 10.1155/2014/836375

Greenhouse gas emitted by the transport sector around the world is a serious issue of concern. To minimize such emission the automobile engineers have been working relentlessly. Researchers have been trying hard to switch fossil fuel to alternative fuels and attempting to various driving strategies to make traffic flow smooth and to reduce traffic congestion and emission of greenhouse gas. Automobile emits a massive amount of pollutants such as Carbon Monoxide (CO), hydrocarbons (HC), carbon dioxide (CO2), particulate matter (PM), and oxides of nitrogen (NO x ). Intelligent transport system (ITS) technologies can be implemented to lower pollutant emissions and reduction of fuel consumption. This paper investigates the ITS techniques and technologies for the reduction of fuel consumption and minimization of the exhaust pollutant. It highlights the environmental impact of the ITS application to provide the state-of-art green solution. A case study also advocates that ITS technology reduces fuel consumption and exhaust pollutant in the urban environment.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles/standards*
Fulltext Analysis of feeder bus network design and scheduling problems

Almasi MH, Mirzapour Mounes S, Koting S, Karim MR

ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:408473.
PMID: 24526890 DOI: 10.1155/2014/408473

A growing concern for public transit is its inability to shift passenger's mode from private to public transport. In order to overcome this problem, a more developed feeder bus network and matched schedules will play important roles. The present paper aims to review some of the studies performed on Feeder Bus Network Design and Scheduling Problem (FNDSP) based on three distinctive parts of the FNDSP setup, namely, problem description, problem characteristics, and solution approaches. The problems consist of different subproblems including data preparation, feeder bus network design, route generation, and feeder bus scheduling. Subsequently, descriptive analysis and classification of previous works are presented to highlight the main characteristics and solution methods. Finally, some of the issues and trends for future research are identified. This paper is targeted at dealing with the FNDSP to exhibit strategic and tactical goals and also contributes to the unification of the field which might be a useful complement to the few existing reviews.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles*
Fulltext Emergency lung-sparing surgical repair of a complete transection of the right mainstem bronchus due to blunt chest trauma

Sachithanandan A, Tan YS, Abdul Muis J, Rapi AR, Mohd Arif MN, Badmanaban B, et al.

Med J Malaysia, 2014 Apr;69(2):92-4.
PMID: 25241820 MyJurnal

Traumatic chest injury with complete tracheo- bronchial disruption is uncommon and occurs in approximately 1% of motor vehicle accidents (MVA) (1,2). Such injuries carry a high mortality and patients rarely survive transfer to hospital. A high index of suspicion facilitates early diagnosis. Early operative intervention is vital for survival. We describe a rare case of traumatic complete disruption of the right mainstem bronchus (RMB) due to blunt chest trauma. The transected airway was reanastomosed emergently avoiding a lung resection.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Fulltext Gradual Recovery from Bilateral Severe Sensorineural Hearing Loss post Motor Vehicle Accident

Yaroko AA, Shahrjerdi B, Md Daud MK

Med J Malaysia, 2013 Apr;68(2):181-2.
PMID: 23629574 MyJurnal

Sensorineural hearing loss following trauma is a common finding in daily clinical practice and usually associated with a poor prognosis. Our case illustrates a patient who was involved in motor vehicle accident sustaining bilateral severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss but subsequently recovered fully after two years. Unless there is clear trauma to the cochlea or auditory nerve, a substantial duration of follow up is needed in the treatment of such cases.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Fulltext Survey on health status of heavy vehicle drivers in Klang valley

Krishnan P, Hashim N, Rani U, Lung JK

Med J Malaysia, 1998 Dec;53(4):449-51.
PMID: 10971995

A survey was carried out using a medical examination format that was prepared by the Malaysian Medical Association. The findings of the survey show that of the 266 cases surveyed, 64 drivers (24% of cases surveyed) are either totally unfit to drive or temporarily unfit to drive heavy goods and passenger vehicles. This is clear indication that the current format that is being used by the Road Transport Department is inadequate and needs to be reviewed. It must also be stressed that all the above 64 drivers have been certified fit using the existing Road Transport Department format and are currently driving in our highways and roads. Heavy vehicle goods and passenger vehicle drivers if not properly examined and medically certified are not only be endangering their own lives but also that of others. It is therefore recommended that based on the data available from this survey, the Road Transport Department should seriously consider adopting the medical examination format that was formalised by the Malaysian Medical Association and used in this survey.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles*
A life saved at the cost of hand injury - A case of hand burn due to airbag deployment

Fadzullah NA, Kasthuri S, Basiron N

Med J Malaysia, 2019 Oct;74(5):452-453.
PMID: 31649230

According to the Malaysian Department of Statistics motor vehicle accidents are the third leading cause of death in Malaysia and accounts for 7.4% of premature deaths in 2016. With the invention of the airbag, the number of serious injuries and fatalities have been reduced significantly. However, there has also been a corresponding increase in the number of injuries attributable to these devices. The patient narrated in this case report sustained a mixed dermal thickness burn over the upper limb as a result of an airbag deployment. She recovered without other life threatening injuries.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Experience of the new hopper type conservancy lorry; (Korrier-Yorkshire conservancy collector)

HOLMES W

Med J Malaya, 1956 Mar;10(3):271-2.
PMID: 13347460
Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles*
Fulltext Fatal airbag-mediated atlanto-occipital dislocation in a child

Hassan R, Mohd Yusof M, Kamarudin NA

Malays J Med Sci, 2010 Oct;17(4):67-70.
PMID: 22135564 MyJurnal

An atlanto-occipital dislocation is a rare airbag-induced injury in trauma patients. We report a case of an atlanto-occipital dislocation in a 6-year-old patient who was an unrestrained passenger in the front seat of a vehicle involved in a low-speed motor vehicle accident. This case illustrates the fatal threat of airbag deployment to the child passenger travelling in the vehicle front seat even in a low-speed collision, and supports the recommendation that children under 12 years of age travelling in vehicles with dual airbag systems should be seated in the back.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
The impact of heart rate-based drowsiness monitoring on adverse driving events in heavy vehicle drivers under naturalistic conditions

Wolkow AP, Rajaratnam SMW, Wilkinson V, Shee D, Baker A, Lillington T, et al.

Sleep Health, 2020 06;6(3):366-373.
PMID: 32340910 DOI: 10.1016/j.sleh.2020.03.005

OBJECTIVES: This study examined the influence of a wrist-worn heart rate drowsiness detection device on heavy vehicle driver safety and sleep and its ability to predict driving events under naturalistic conditions.
DESIGN: Prospective, non-randomized trial.
SETTING: Naturalistic driving in Malaysia.
PARTICIPANTS: Heavy vehicle drivers in Malaysia were assigned to the Device (n = 25) or Control condition (n = 34).
INTERVENTION: Both conditions were monitored for driving events at work over 4-weeks in Phase 1, and 12-weeks in Phase 2. In Phase 1, the Device condition wore the device operated in the silent mode (i.e., no drowsiness alerts) to examine the accuracy of the device in predicting driving events. In Phase 2, the Device condition wore the device in the active mode to examine if drowsiness alerts from the device influenced the rate of driving events (compared to Phase 1).
MEASUREMENTS: All participants were monitored for harsh braking and harsh acceleration driving events and self-reported sleep duration and sleepiness daily.
RESULTS: There was a significant decrease in the rate of harsh braking events (Rate ratio = 0.48, p

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles*
Disposable E-Tongue for the Assessment of Water Quality in Fish Tanks

Chang CC, Saad B, Surif M, Ahmad MN, Md Shakaff AY

Sensors (Basel), 2008 Jun 01;8(6):3665-3677.
PMID: 27879900

A disposable screen-printed e-tongue based on sensor array and pattern recognition that is suitable for the assessment of water quality in fish tanks is described. The characteristics of sensors fabricated using two kinds of sensing materials, namely (i) lipids (referred to as Type 1), and (ii) alternative electroactive materials comprising liquid ion-exchangers and macrocyclic compounds (Type 2) were evaluated for their performance stability, sensitivity and reproducibility. The Type 2 e-tongue was found to have better sensing performance in terms of sensitivity and reproducibility and was thus used for application studies. By using a pattern recognition tool i.e. principal component analysis (PCA), the e-tongue was able to discriminate the changes in the water quality in tilapia and catfish tanks monitored over eight days. E-tongues coupled with partial least squares (PLS) was used for the quantitative analysis of nitrate and ammonium ions in catfish tank water and good agreement were found with the ion-chromatography method (relative error, ±1.04- 4.10 %).

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Fulltext Rewinding the waves: tracking underwater signals to their source

Kadri U, Crivelli D, Parsons W, Colbourne B, Ryan A

Sci Rep, 2017 10 24;7(1):13949.
PMID: 29066744 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14177-3

Analysis of data, recorded on March 8th 2014 at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation's hydroacoustic stations off Cape Leeuwin Western Australia, and at Diego Garcia, reveal unique pressure signatures that could be associated with objects impacting at the sea surface, such as falling meteorites, or the missing Malaysian Aeroplane MH370. To examine the recorded signatures, we carried out experiments with spheres impacting at the surface of a water tank, where we observed almost identical pressure signature structures. While the pressure structure is unique to impacting objects, the evolution of the radiated acoustic waves carries information on the source. Employing acoustic-gravity wave theory we present an analytical inverse method to retrieve the impact time and location. The solution was validated using field observations of recent earthquakes, where we were able to calculate the eruption time and location to a satisfactory degree of accuracy. Moreover, numerical validations confirm an error below 0.02% for events at relatively large distances of over 1000 km. The method can be developed to calculate other essential properties such as impact duration and geometry. Besides impacting objects and earthquakes, the method could help in identifying the location of underwater explosions and landslides.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles
Fulltext A review of maturation diets for mud crab genus Scylla broodstock: Present research, problems and future perspective

Azra MN, Ikhwanuddin M

Saudi J Biol Sci, 2016 Mar;23(2):257-67.
PMID: 26981008 DOI: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2015.03.011

Study of broodstock maturation diets is important in order to increase the quality of berried females, which indirectly improve the larval quantity in the hatchery production of cultured species. This paper reviewed the studies on the maturation diets for mud crab broodstock, genus Scylla and compared independently to identify their effect on reproductive performance and larval quality. The broodstock is usually caught from the wild and held in the spawning or maturation tank for further use of hatchery seed production. Mud crab broodstock was fed either natural diet, artificial diet or mixed diet. Trash fishes were commonly used as a natural feed for mud crab broodstock; meanwhile artificial diets are from formulated fish meal and various kinds of feed. The results indicated that mud crab broodstock has a high dietary requirement for lipids, fatty acids and protein which are to be used during the maturation and breeding processes. However, the natural diet produce better larval quality compared to the artificial diet. The mixed diet is the better diet which resulted in better reproductive performances such as growth, survival, fecundity and maturation processes. This review also discusses the problems in the previous studies for the potential future research to develop very high quality and cost-effective formulated diet for the enhancement of broodstock and seed production technology. Information from this review can be useful in developing a better quality of crustacean broodstock's diet for commercial hatchery production.

Matched MeSH terms: Motor Vehicles

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