In December 2009, at the UN Climate Change Conference COP 15 in Copenhagen, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, the Rt. Hon. Mohd Najib Abdul Razak, had announced that “Malaysia is adopting an indicator of a voluntary reduction of up to 40% in terms of emissions intensity of GDP by the year 2020 compared to 2005 levels. This indicator is conditional on receiving the transfer of technology and finance of adequate and effective levels from Annex 1 partners, that correspond to what is required in order to achieve this indicator”. Malaysia also needs to decouple its GDP from its current relatively high carbon-based energy demand. In trying to meet both these targets, we need to intensify our research efforts in energy-based areas. As government funding in R&D is limited as the aim is for research to be private-sector driven, and with the grim global economic scenario today, it is most unlikely that Malaysia will get any assistance financially or technologically from Annex 1 nations. It is therefore proposed that Malaysia considers implementing a dedicated carbon cess on petroleum products to fund R&D in the country. (Copied from article).
Widespread deforestation has resulted in soil degradation that is often linked to environmental and ecological changes. Rehabilitation of degraded forest is essential to prevent further degradation of the soil. Abundance of soil microbiota could serve as an essential biological indicator of soil health for rehabilitation success. An investigation was conducted to study the relationship between cellulolytic, nitrogen-fixing and phosphate-solubilizing microbial counts and age of rehabilitated forest. A random sampling design was used to obtain four replicates of five composite soil of 0–10 cm depth soil samples of 4, 9, 14 and 19-year-old rehabilitated forest. Three selective media: Congo red cellulose, nitrogen-free malate and calcium phosphate media were used for the enumerations of cellulolytic, nitrogen-fixing and phosphate-solubilizing microbes, respectively. Cellulolytic and phosphate-solubilizing microbes were counted based on the formation of clearing zones, while nitrogen-fixing microbes were based on the formation of blue halo on the respective media. There was positive linear relationship between age of the rehabilitated forest and microbial count. These findings revealed that the potentials of cellulolytic, nitrogen-fixing and phosphate-solubilizing microbial populations could be used as biological indicators of forest soil rehabilitation.
Research and development trends will continue to design innovative composite foods in which muscle proteins are combined with non-conventional animal products, non-meat proteins and functional food additives, many of which have lost their original inherent properties and characteristics. Composite food are products with meat, non-meat proteins, fats, carbohydrates and functional ingredients such as pre-emulsion, probiotics, enzymes, bioactives, peptides, hormones, emulsifiers, gelatin, animal fats/oils, alcohol and visceral tissues. Traceability of halal meat raw materials should start at the point of animal breeding, production to the stage of halal slaughter, processing operations and final point of consumption. Traceability of food additives used in the food industry remains a major hurdle for the Muslim community seeking halal food. The processes and technological advancements made in raw material processing, ingredient extractions, modifications, purification and resynthesized into many food ingredients make the question of traceability and solving of the materials and processes that are halal a monumental task. Food is only halal if the entire food chain from farm to table, is processed, handled and stored in accordance with the syariah and/or halal standards or guidelines, such as in the Jabatan Kemajuan Islam Malaysia (JAKIM): General guidelines, Malaysia Standards MS 1500:2009 and Codex Alimentarius (Food Labeling). Here lies the challenge and importance of traceability to verify the ‘wholesomeness’ of the sources of halal raw materials and final meat-based food products.
Oil palm frond is known to be the largest contributor to the oil palm residues, providing
up to 50.3% of the total residues. Since it has a very limited utility, an initiative was taken
by this study to investigate its suitability for bio-oil production. Hence, slow pyrolysis was
conducted in an experimental setup equipped with a fixed bed reactor and a liquid collection
system. From the experiments, the effect of reaction temperature on the bio-oil yield was
examined. The characteristics of the obtained bio-oil were also investigated to study its
potential as a substitute of phenol. It was found that at reaction temperature of 375oC,
highest yield of bio-oil was obtained at 38.4 wt%. Meanwhile, the characteristics of oil palm
frond and its bio-oil were found to be approximately similar to the characteristics of typical
softwoods and their bio-oil. Most softwood biomass has been successfully used as a phenol
substitute. Therefore, the potential of this bio-oil to be used as a phenol substitute was
enhanced.
Studies conducted on the various geometric properties of skeletons of water bodies have shown highly promising results. However, these studies were made under the assumption that water bodies were static objects and that they remained constant over time. Water bodies are actually dynamic objects; they go through significant spatio-temporal changes due to drought and flood. In this study, the characterization of skeletons of simulated drought and flood of water bodies was performed. It was observed that as the drought level increased from 1 to 9, the average length of the skeletons decreased due to reduction in the size of the water bodies and increase in the number of water bodies. As the drought level increased from 9 to 15, the average length of the skeletons increased further due to vanishing of small water bodies. Flood caused an increase in the average length of the skeletons due to merging of adjacent water bodies. Power law relationships were observed between the average length of the skeletons of the simulated drought/flood and the level of drought/flood. The scaling exponent of these power laws which was named as a fractal dimension, indicated the rate of change of the average length of the skeletons of simulated drought/flood of water bodies over varying levels of drought/flood. However, errors observed in the goodness of fit of the plots indicated that monofractals were not sufficient to characterise the skeletons of simulated drought and flood of water bodies. Multifractals and lacunarity analysis were required for more accurate characterisation.
The effect of chemical reaction and variable viscosity on mixed convection heat and mass transfer for Hiemenz flow over a porous wedge plate was studied in the presence of heat radiation. The wall of the wedge was embedded in a uniform Darcian porous medium to allow for possible fluid wall suction or injection and had a power-law variation of both the wall temperature and concentration. The fluid was assumed to be viscous and incompressible. Numerical calculations were carried out for different values of dimensionless parameters and an analysis of the results obtained showed that the flow field was influenced appreciably by the buoyancy ratio between species, thermal diffusion and suction/injection at wall surface. The effects of these major parameters on the transport behaviours were investigated methodically and typical results illustrated to reveal the tendency of the solutions. Representative results are presented for the velocity, temperature, and concentration distributions. Comparisons with previously published works were performed and excellent agreement between the results were obtained. It is predicted that this research might prove to be useful for study of the movement of oil or gas and water through the reservoir of an oil or gas field, in the migration of underground water, in filtration, and water purification processes.
Chlorophyll-a concentrations (mg/l) in surface waters of Songsong Islands were mapped using an optically derived remote sensing model. Landsat TM imagery dated 8 October 2008 was used in the classification process and in situ measurements made on 19 May 2012 during spring tidal condition (HW: 2.6 m, LW: 0.9 m) served as ground truthing data. The temporal difference between data used will be useful to review the robustness of the model. Three classes of chlorophyll-a concentrations were mapped: Class 1: 10 mg/l. Considering the dynamic nature of coastal and marine waters particularly the shallow region, and the temporal difference between the Landsat TM imagery used in classification and the field data, results of chlorophyll-a mapping using the developed remote sensing model was high at 83.3%, with producer’s accuracy of 50%–100% and user’s accuracy of 80%–100%. Kappa coefficient of agreement, Kˆ , calculated was 57.1%.
Comet 17P/Holmes was discovered by Edwin Holmes on 6 November 1892 while he was conducting regular observations of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). Calculations using observation of its orbits established the perihelion date as 13 June and the orbital period as 6.9 years. The 1899 and 1906 appearances were observed, but the comet was only seen again in 1964. The comet has since been
observed on every subsequent return.
Comet Lulin was discovered by Lin Chi-Sheng and Ye Quanzhi using the 16-inch telescope at Lulin Observatory in Nantou, Taiwan in 2007. According to Brian Marsden of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, it reached its perihelion on 10 January 2009 at a distance of 113 million
km from the Sun. It moves in a very nearly parabolic retrograde (‘backwards’ compared to the movement of the planets) orbit at an inclination of 1.6 degrees from the ecliptic (“Newfound Comet Lulin to Grace Night Skies”). http://www.space.com/spacewatch/090206-ns-cometlulin.html). It passed nearest to the Earth at a distance of 61 million km on 23 February 2009.
Frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) systems with partial band interference require appropriate compounding of spread spectrum modulation, error correcting code, diversity and decoding method to receive improved transmission signal. In this paper, a fast FHSS system with regular low-density parity-check codes was employed to cater some anti-jamming competence by using good waterfall and error floor performance. The performance evalution of the previously mentioned system was conducted in the presence of partial band noise jamming. The best possible design of the system was achieved with the combination of diversity level L=2 with a probability rate of at 0.7 dB which showed the robustness of the system.
Results of a biodiversity study of Antarctic microfungi from ornithogenic soils are presented in this paper. A wide range of soil habitats within and adjacent to active and abandoned penguin rookeries were sampled in order to examine relationships between environmental factors and the biodiversity of soil microfungi. Soil samples were collected from two contrasting Antarctic locations: (1) Beaufort Island (Ross Sea, Continental Antarctica), which is largely ice- and snow-covered, isolated, difficult to access and infrequently visited, and (2) Barrientos Island (maritime Antarctica) which is mostly ice-free during summer and is often visited by scientists and tourists. Soil sampling at Beaufort and Barrientos Islands was completed during the austral summer seasons of 2004/05 and 2006/07, respectively. Warcup’s soil method was used for fungi cultivation. A total of 27 fungal taxa were isolated from the two study sites, consisting of 11 ascomycetes, 13 hyphomycetes
and three yeasts. Only three taxa — Geomyces sp., a pink and a white yeast — occurred on both sites. The isolated fungi were classified according to their thermal characteristics in culture, with seven psychrophilic, 10 psychrotrophic and 10 mesophilic fungi being isolated. Thelebolus microspores, Thelebolus sp., Geomyces sp. and Antarctomyces sp., were the most frequently isolated fungi. A total of 10 taxa were isolated from the 20 soil samples from Beaufort Island, consisting of five psychrophilic, four psychrotrophic and one mesophilic fungi. Thelebolus microsporus, Thelebolus sp., Asco BI8 and Phoma sp. were the most frequently obtained fungi
(20%–27% of isolates). A total of 22 fungal taxa were isolated from 23 soil samples from Barrientos Island, consisting of four psychrophilic, six psychrotrophic and 12 mesophilic fungi. Geomyces sp. and Antarctomyces sp. were the most frequently isolated taxa. Thus, the fungal diversity of Beaufort Island was dominated by Ascomycetes while that of Barrientos Island was dominated by hyphomycetes.
Finding a proper transition structure for the peptide bond formation process can lead to a better understanding of the role of the ribosome in catalyzing this reaction. A potential energy surface scan was performed on the ester bond dissociation of the P-site aminoacyl-tRNA and the peptide bond formation of P-site and A-site amino acids. The full fragment of initiator tRNAi met attached to both cognate (met) and non-cognate (ala) amino acids as the P-site substrate and the methionine as the A-site amino acid was used in this study. Due to the large size of tRNA, ONIOM calculations were used to reduce the computational cost. This study illustrated that the rate of peptide bond formation was reduced for misacylated tRNA without the presence of ribosomal bases. This demonstrated that there were indeed specific structural interactions involving the amino acid side chain within the tRNAi met.
In this present study, a series of polymer electrolyte thin films were synthesized by incorporating different ratios of lithium triflate (LiCF3SO3) in a low molecular weight polyvinyl chloride (PVC) matrix by the solution casting technique. The incorporation of LiCF3SO3 suppressed the high degree of crystallinity in PVC enabling the system to possess an appreciable ionic conductivity. The ionic conductivity of the samples, with different LiCF3SO3 content, was determined by the aid of ac impedance spectroscopy. The highest ionic conductivity of 4.04 10–9 S cm–1 was identified for the composition of PVC: LiCF3SO3 (75:25). Further understanding of the ionic conductivity mechanism was based on temperature-dependent conductivity data which obeyed Arrhenius theory, indicating that the ionic conductivity enhancement was thermally assisted. The possible dipole-dipole interaction between the chemical constituents was confirmed with changes in cage peak, analysed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
A paradigm shift in supramolecular chemistry has drawn our attention to produce coordination
polymers for anion separation. In this approach, we have successfully synthesized a
one dimensional coordination polymer from combination of U-shaped diamide ligand, namely
N,N -2,6-bis(4-pyridylmethyl)pyridine dicarboxamide (L1) and Zn(NO3)2 in methanol. This
product is obtained as single crystal with formula molecule given by elemental analysis as
{[Zn(L1)2(H2O)2](NO3)2.4H2O}n. In this account, we also describe supramolecular interactions
between this coordination polymer with two selected anions, nitrate and chromate
using combination of experimental and theoretical studies. Observation via FTIR spectra
indicates the presence of two distinctive peaks for Cr-O (931 cm−1
) and N-O (1384 cm−1
)
confirming encapsulation of chromate and nitrate anions in the receptor. X-ray crystallography
reveals the interaction between NH amide with the anions as expected. As resulted
by Gaussian, coordination polymer with nitrate anion is found more stable compared to
chromate with interaction energy 342.2729 kJ/mol.
Reflex epilepsy is usually induced by external stimulation, photosensitive epilepsy being the most common. Epilepsy induced by auditory stimulation is rarely studied. There are no currently published magnetoencephalographic (MEG) studies demonstrating the initiation of epileptic neuronal discharges by repeated auditory stimulations in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) patients. We retrospectively studied one TLE patient who underwent a MEG study to localize her epileptic focus. Auditory, somatosensory, visual and motor evoked potential studies were performed during the MEG recording. A single dipole method calculated equivalent current dipoles to localize the epileptic source. The least-squares minimization method was used to obtain the optimal solution with goodness-of-fit of greater than 80%. Periodic lateralized epileptiform discharges (PLEDs) were recorded in the temporal region when repeated auditory stimulations were done. We postulated that neuronal cortical suppression occurred during repeated stimulations which provoked epileptiform discharges (PLEDs) without any physical symptoms or aura. It was concluded that repeated stimulations could facilitate epileptiform discharges in focal area/areas in certain subjects.
Elevated glucocorticoid levels during stressed conditions have been demonstrated to impair reproductive function in rats. In our previous study investigating the dose-related effects of corticosterone (CORT) on the fertilising capacity of epididymal sperm in surgically-manipulated rats, we found that 25 mg/kg/day of CORT given subcutaneously for seven consecutive days significantly decreased the number of implantation sites and increased intrauterine embryonic loss compared to controls. Based on these findings, the current study aims to elucidate the possible mechanisms of action of CORT-induced stress on impaired sperm fertility in rats. Results of the present study showed that compared to controls, 25 mg/kg/day of CORT given subcutaneously for 7 consecutive days significantly increased the level of plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) with corresponding attenuated levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) activities. Plasma adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and testosterone levels were also found to be decreased in CORTtreated rats. These findings suggest that CORT-induced oxidative stress and exert an inhibitory effect at the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis, as evidenced by increased lipid peroxidation, reduced enzymatic antioxidant activities, and decreased testosterone production. These subsequently result in decreased fertilising capacity of epididymal sperm leading to poor pregnancy outcomes.
The global production of aviation fuel, particularly Kerosene Jet A-1, has a market presence of 302.8
billionlitres per year, of which Malaysia consumes up to 3 billion litres per year. The pressure from
increasing fuel demand and commitment to reducing CO2 emissions has led to the use of biofuels as
possible alternatives. Malaysia possesses a relative abundance of lignocellulosic biomass residues and
thus, has much potential in biofuel development. In this work, Geospatial Information System analysis
was used to obtain the geo-location biomass supply cost and was then simulated with non-linear cost
estimation modeling for biorefinery production. The spatial analysis suggested that paddy and oil palm
trunk could offer significant feedstock volumes at reasonable costs while biomass to fuel conversion
pathways comparison showed that an “alcohol to jet” route was more feasible among all the alternatives.
The simulation results indicated that the production cost of a bioethanol refinery had high variability
due to the geographical heterogeneity of the lignocellulosic biomass resources. At the optimal location
of paddy residues, utilising rice stalks was substantially cost-efficient compared to other biomass. The
lowest range of relative production cost was achieved at RM359.11 – RM726.41/million tonnes per
annum at an input capacity of 1.28 – 2.63 million tonnes. Conversely, using oil palm trunks in the same
location gave a much more expensive relative production cost of RM472.23 – RM986.63/million tonnes
yearly with only 0.40 – 1.03 million tonnes of input capacity. This model was able to suggest location
strategies and cost estimations for biorefineries in Peninsular Malaysia. It is hence, useful as a decision
and policy making tool for the implementation of biorefineries for aviation uses.
An optical code generating device for a portable optical access-card system was constructed using the plastic optical fibre (POF) waveguide coupler. The newly constructed device provided output light intensities which were used as optical codes in a portable optical access-card system. The construction of a basic 1 × 2 waveguide design combined two major components which were the asymmetric Y-junction splitter and the linear taper. A hollow waveguide structure was utilized as it provided more flexibility in guiding light rays. A basic 1 × 2 waveguide coupler was designed using the CAD tool and then the ray was traced using the non-sequential ray tracing tool. A linear relationship between the tap-off ratio and the waveguide tap-width enabled a higher-level hollow waveguide coupler to be designed using the simple cascading technique. Construction of a 1 × 4 and higher level waveguide coupler was easily realized using the basic 1 × 2 waveguide coupler design together with a simple cascading technique.
Covering as much as 25% to 35% of the development cost, software testing is an integral part of the software development lifecycle. Despite its importance, the current software testing practice is still based on highly manual processes from the generation of test cases (i.e. from specifications) up to the actual execution of the test. These manually generated tests are sometimes executed using ad hoc approaches, typically requiring the construction of a test driver for the particular application under test. In addition, test engineers are also under pressure to test increasing lines of code in order to meet market demands for more software functionalities. While there are significant proliferations of helpful testing tools or research prototypes in the market, much of them do not adequately provide the right level of abstraction and automation as required by test engineers. In order to facilitate and address some of the aforementioned issues, an automated testing tool was developed, called SFIT, based on Java® technology. This paper describes the development, implementation and evaluation of SFIT. Two case studies involving the robustness assessment of an adder module and a Linda-based distributed shared memory implementation are described in order to demonstrate the applicability of SFIT as a helpful automated testing tool.
Series of catastrophic floods that we have witnessed over the last decade in Malaysia have necessitated the adoption of reliable early warning system. Ultimate concern during any event of natural or manmade disaster would be information dissemination to lessen the disaster impact on lives and property. The Bertam Valley incident in the wee hours of 23rd October 2013 has been considered as the game changer of how we view the role of vulnerable communities in facing dam-related disasters. Empowerment of local communities has been considered as vital in disaster management, as they are often the first responders to disaster. Local Community-Based Early Warning System (CBEWS) is a smart mechanism operated by the communities. This study revolves around the actual implementation of such system in Cameron Highlands in the effort of increasing human resilience towards damrelated disasters. While establishing the system, the Bertam Valley community has received support from different individuals and organisations. It is paramount that the community develops and maintains close coordination and strong links with these stakeholders. The performance of early warning systems can be evaluated via key parameters such as timeliness, accuracy, reliability, user friendliness, flexibility, and costs & benefits.