The aim of this paper is to review the principles of ground-borne vibration induced by road
traffic. Several researchers have studied the impact of ground-borne vibration on people, structure, and
equipment, and developed guidelines or standards in order to indicate the threshold limit of damage and
annoyance. Measurement of ground-borne vibration is a crucial aspect in ground-borne vibration
studies that needs to be understood well. The reliability of the measurement is dependent on the
accuracy of the data collected. Thus, discussion in this review paper proceeds on the types of groundborne vibration modelling that can predict and explain the phenomenon.
Edible bird’s nest (EBN) originates from South East Asia and has become the most popular food delicacy among Chinese people. The price for raw and clean EBN are around RM 4,000 and RM 8,000 per kg, respectively. Due to the high market value of EBN and low maintenance cost, people ventures and invest in bird’s nest industry. The nesting house resembles the cave is built to attract swiftlets to roost and nest in it in order to meet the world’s growing demand. Out of the blue, in 2011, the EBN’s price falls half from its original price from RM 4,000 to RM 2,000. Nitrate found in raw or unclean EBN is one of the reason price plunges and the public also worried about counterfeit EBN that made from unclear substances. Thus, this review paper aims to highlight the nutritional properties in EBN that give medicinal benefits to consumers and the adulterant in EBN to increase the property contents with the dangerous mechanism by some irresponsible producers to obtain better profit which can threatening public’s health. In relation, these matters may influence consumer’s perception on EBN contents that could harm this industry. For that reason, scientific studies determined ways of handling EBN from scratch and distinguished the adulterant in EBN to reduce consumer anxiety was also discussed. Strict standard operation procedure enforces by the Malaysian Ministry of Health to farmers and producers are required, so that Malaysia EBN would appeal to the China market. Latter it can yield a good result and the price of EBN will slowly increase.
Fruit rot is a common disease that affects the quality and quantity of the produced fruits. It may happened during pre-harvest stage and usually the condition of the fruits will become worse at postharvest stage if there are no any precautions taken during the picking, storing, packaging and transporting processes. The disease is mainly caused by the infection of fungi supported by a conducive condition like susceptible hosts, relative humidity and unsuitable temperature, besides other microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses and nematodes. The infection may arise from soilborne, waterborne, windborne and insects bite transmission. Fruit rot diseases have been reported to cause by many fungal species such as Fusarium species, Alternaria species, Lasiodiplodia species, Aspergillus species, Penicillium species, Colletotrichum species and Botrytis species. This review will provide sufficient information about rot diseases on fruit, fungal species that cause the diseases, effective control methods and managements as well as economic losses and health issues related to the diseases.
This paper discusses the three most prevalent elements of Islamic art that a r e embedded in modern furniture. This study is isolated from three design thinking approaches. A comparative study has been executed between three most apparent elements of Islamic art, which are arabesque, geometric and calligraphy. Those three types of design are applicable and relevant to modern furniture design nowadays. Therefore, the Islamic model was the paradigm in defining the furniture design character. The unstructured parameter within the appropriate method is a significant way of collecting the findings and usually used in the area of furniture design. The main results of this study are on how Islamic pattern is linked with the artistic design elements. The outcome of this investigation also contributes to a significant tendency in contemporary furniture design thinking solutions. Finally, this paper ends with discussions from three types of design thinking, which is the normative, reflective and hermeneutic design that collaborates with the current modern furniture design.
Carbon nanotube reinforced aluminium matrix composites (Al-CNTs) have been widely used in aerospace and automotive industries where high quality and strength is required. The enhanced mechanical properties of Al-CNTs are closely related to processing technique due to challenges within production of these composite materials. In the current review, solid state processing techniques used for synthesizing Al-CNTs have been reviewed to provide an insight into the features and capabilities of each technique regarding the incorporation of CNT reinforcements. To conclude, the mechanical performance of Al-CNT composites is mainly decided by the capability of each technique in the dispersion of CNTs within the aluminum matrix.
Feather waste is a potential renewable source to recover valuable products because it is being a rich source of keratin proteins and amino acids. It can be used to make feather meal, fertilizer and yarn sizing agent. Various treatments have been used to recover the protein from chicken feathers as the keratinous feathers cannot be easily degraded due to its tough structure. This paper reviews the existing treatment methods used to hydrolyze chicken feathers. The treatment methods for feather hydrolysis such as physical, chemical, biological and combined treatments as well as their advantages and challenges are highlighted. The effects of these treatments on feather hydrolysis are complex and vary in regards to the performance of feather hydrolysis and product yielded. Hence, it is important to choose an appropriate treatment method since the type of treatment applied affects the product yielded qualitatively and quantitatively. In addition, the economic assessment and environmental impact of the choice of treatment should be considered also.
Essential oil production in plants is known to play crucial roles in attractive and defensive
mechanism responses to environmental conditions. Various factors are known to determine the
chemical variability and yields for specific essential oil bearing plants including genetic, physiology
and environment. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent publications on the variation of
essential oil and its composition with regards to physiological aspects of the plants.
This paper presents an evaluation of the alternative use of natural cellulose coir fibres for
soil reinforcement. Soil reinforcement is defined as a technique to improve the engineering properties
of soil. Inserting natural fibres into the soil has been proposed as a reinforcement method. Randomly
distributed coir fibre reinforced soils have recently attracted increasing attention in geotechnical
engineering due to their strength. Furthermore, there is a need to develop an innovative and
sustainable pre-treatment method to improve the effectiveness and performance of coir fibre as soil
reinforcement. The primary purpose of this paper is, therefore, to review the characteristics, benefits,
applications and weaknesses of coir fibre as soil reinforcement.
Transition metals are required constituent in bacterial metabolism to assist in some enzymatic reactions. However, intracellular accumulations of these metal ions are harmful to the bacteria as it can trigger unnecessary redox reactions. To overcome this condition, metalloregulatory proteins assist organisms to adapt to sudden elevated and deprived metal ion concentration in the environment via metal homeostasis. CsoR protein is a copper(I) [Cu(I)] sensing operon repressor that is found to be present in all major classes of eubacteria. This metalloregulatory protein binds to the operator region in its apo state under Cu(I) limiting condition and detaches off from the regulatory region when it binds to the excess cytosolic Cu(I) ion, thus derepressing the expression of genes involved in Cu(I) homeostasis. CsoR proteins exist in dimeric and tetrameric states and form certain coordination geometries upon attachment with Cu(I). Certain CsoR proteins have also been found to possess the ability to bind to other types of metals with various binding affinities in some Gram positive bacteria. The role of this metalloregulatory protein in host pathogen interaction and its relation to bacterial virulence are also discussed.
Psychological health as one of the most crucial indicators of successful adolescents has received considerable attention in the literature. High prevalence rates of various psychological problems amongst adolescents emphasize the significance of identifying paternal parenting behaviour that may reduce the risk of these problems. However, little attention has been given to how fathers influence their adolescents’ psychological health, especially in an Asian context. To address this issue, this paper presents a thorough discussion of past literature related to paternal parenting behaviour and psychological health of adolescents. The discussion begins with a review related to psychological health, paternal parenting behaviour, and followed by the relationships between paternal parenting behaviour and psychological health. Based on the review of the literature, several research gaps will be addressed at the end of this paper.
Substance abuse is an epidemic that spreads among adults, adolescents and even children in Malaysia. Substance abuse is categorized as a mental disorder, whereby, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is an approach that provides face to face physiological therapy for patients could resolve this issue. Computerized Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CCBT) is a progression of information technology that is provided for patients encounter substance abuse. CCBT is a computerized therapy conducted at patient’s own pace. Ensuring patient’s continuous engagement towards CCBT becomes an issue. Patients that experience early gains, loss of interest and improvement symptom would sign up for alternative services that eventually causes disengagement and dropout from CCBT program. Interface design for CCBT is known as one of the important elements that effects patient’s engagement along CCBT program. Therefore, in this study, influential factors regarding CCBT’s interface design was investigated, whereby, five prominent models was reviewed. Content analysis methodology was employed to discover influential factors regarding CCBT’s interface design. Four influential factors was discovered namely engagement, dropout, culture and interface. These factors are known to ensure patient’s continuous engagement towards CCBT program. CCBT’s interface design plays a vital role in delivering the therapy program. Indirectly, CCBT’s interface design plays an important role to ensure patient’s continuous engagement till the completion of CCBT program. Therefore, these factors would guide researcher, service provider, developers and clinicians in designing engaging interface for CCBT.
It is hard to identify the local Malay identity in a design context compared to other cultural oriented design in several countries. This paper tries to uncover how designers interpret local identity embodied agent based on local items influences and understood and the influence of incremental, radical design that changes respective to preceding designs. A descriptive study through the literature reviews focusses on a type of artefact initiated through cultural-oriented design. Based on the preliminary study, a sampling taken from the Chinese, Indian, Japanese or European consistently apply the same fundamental understanding in regards to the culture-oriented design. From the same point of view, teapot seems to be used as one of the dominant artefact indicating the design preferences. This research will benefit both the academia and the industry and identify significant identity based on the local context and become an embodied agent to give impact in establishing the state-of-the-art of brand, the identity of local design, establish new trademark towards generating domestic, international economy and promote the nation worldwide throughout design platform.
A resistant variety with high yielding potential is key for increasing crop production to
fulfill the food requirement of the ever increasing world populations. Consequently, the aim of plant
breeders is to develop high yielding varieties or cultivars that are resistant or tolerant to specific
diseases or insects. For developing a resistant variety, it is enormously indispensable to incorporate or
introgress the specific resistant genes of that particular disease into the recipient. Suppression
subtractive hybridization (SSH) is a powerful technique for the identification of disease specific
differentially expressed genes that are expressed in a resistant or susceptible variety. This paper
presents a brief review on the SSH technique with examples focusing on the identification of the
wheat disease specific differentially expressed genes and their defense mechanisms against fungal
pathogens in global wheat cultivars. This review is helpful for wheat researchers for the updated
information on the SSH technique for the identification of differentially expressed genes in the global
wheat cultivars and varieties. Eventually, the identified genes could be used to develop the disease
resistance variety through marker-assisted backcrossing programme or conventional breeding.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the leading nosocomial
pathogen that is also emerging as a zoonotic pathogen. In this review, it was observed that rapid
emergence of new MRSA clones at a higher frequency has ushered in a new knowledge on the clonality
and epidemic potentials of MRSA. Secondly, the success of treatment and management of MRSA
infection is threatened by the diversity in the clonal types. This is because different clones harbours
different antibiotics resistance characteristics and as such respond differently to treatment. Furthermore,
clonal replacement of hospital-acquired MRSA with community -acquired MRSA has also been
observed. Thirdly, the transmission of MRSA even though previously thought to be exclusively within
the hospital setting through hand contact and nasal colonization has now spread to the community and in
addition human to animal and animal to human transmission has also been observed. Similarly, pet
owners, veterinarians and farmers have been described as high-risked group with potentials of becoming
reservoirs of MRSA. Furthermore, the adoption of hand hygiene in healthcare setting have to a great
extent reduced the incidence of MRSA in the hospital. And lastly, the advent of molecular typing such as
Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), Multi Locus Sequence Typing (MLST), Staphylococcal protein
A typing (Spa typing) and Double Locus Sequence Typing (DLST) have proven to be a useful tool in
providing valuable information on the evolution and clonal diversity of MRSA. These in turn help
researchers to answer some pertinent questions on the epidemiology of MRSA.
Recently, the contamination of heavy metals towards the environment especially in aquatic system has drastically increased. Heavy metals are able to transform into persistent metallic compound in which it can be accumulated within the organisms’ body system, disrupting the food chain and eventually threatened the human life. The occurrence of heavy metals spillage in the rivers and lakes are due to the careless disposal of excess heavy metals used for human activities. The accumulation of heavy metals in water system will affect all aquatic organisms especially fish. The toxicity of copper in fish can be determined by several changes in the fish under treatment with heavy metals sub-lethal concentration, LC50 within 96-hours period of acute exposure. Therefore, fish can be considered as a high potential biomarker for monitoring heavy metals pollution in aquatic system. Several selective organs are highly sensitive to the xenobiotic pollution and express changes to the exposure. One of the most potential biomarker is the biochemical biomarker of cholinesterase (ChE) inhibition by heavy metals in fish has been well studied in pollution monitoring recently. Thus, this paper gives an overview of the manipulation of fish as a biomarker of heavy metals through enzymatic reaction which have proven to be very useful in the environmental pollution monitoring.
Commercialisation of glyphosate [N-(phosphonomethyl)glycine] in the early 1970s has left a big leap in the agriculture sector. This is due to its effectiveness in controlling a wide range of weeds. Glyphosate translocates well in plants. In addition, with added surfactant in its formulae, it can also be used in wet conditions. Its ability to kill weeds by targeting the 5-enolpyruvyl-shikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) makes no competing herbicide analogs in its class. Considering its cost effectiveness, only small amount is needed to cover a large sector in agricultural land. The most important aspect in the success of glyphosate is the introduction of transgenic, glyphosate-resistant crops in 1996. However, glyphosate is not an environmental friendly herbicide. This systematic herbicide has raised environmental concern due to its excessive use in agriculture. Studies have shown traces of glyphosate found in drinking water. Meanwhile, it's rapid binding on soil particles possesses adverse effect to soil organisms. Glyphosate degradation in soil usually carried out by microbial activity. Microbes’ capable utilising glyphosate mainly as phosphate source. However, the activity of C-P lyase in breaking down glyphosate have not clearly understood. This review presents a collective summary on the understanding on how glyphosate works and its environmental fate.
Burkholderia pseudomallei are Gram negative highly pathogenic bacteria of humans and
animals causing a multisystemic disease called melioidosis. They have recently gained a lot of interest
from the research community and public health organisations because of their great potential to be
used as an agent of bioterrorism. This has made the search for simple, rapid, accurate and the most
definitive means of their detection, identification and discrimination very critical and necessary. This
article aimed to review the molecular techniques used for detection, identification and differentiation
of B. pseudomallei. Although, culture and isolation techniques maintained their usefulness in
confirming cases of melioidosis, their time limitation (can take up to a week for confirming diagnosis)
leads to the search for rapid and simple techniques. Consequently, serology-based tests have been
developed which are both faster and less sophisticated. However, the presence of high background
titre levels and cross-reaction with other organisms make it less reliable. Thus, efforts have been
directed to explore rapid and accurate molecular techniques and resulting in the development and
validation of various PCR-based identification techniques targeting either single or multiple genes.
Although requiring some level of instrumentation and expertise, PCR-based techniques have been
reported to be very useful in diagnosis of melioidosis. We recommend the 16S rRNA PCR (especially
augmented with other molecular methods such as gene sequencing and analysis) and MLST
techniques for timely detection, identification and differentiation of B. pseudomallei for routine
diagnosis and epidemiological studies respectively.
The contamination of water bodies from heavy metals, either from natural sources or
anthropogenic sources, has become a major concern to the public. Industrial activities with improper
water treatment, and then leach into the water body, have become contaminated and harmful to
consume. Passive remediation is one of the treatments introduced to counter this problem as it is a low
cost but effective technique. After being widely acknowledged and through research conducted, the
most suitable remediation technique found is the permeable reactive barriers (PRBs). PRB is defined
as an in situ permeable treatment zone filled with reactive materials, designed to intercept and
remediate a contaminant plume under natural hydraulic gradients. There have been many findings
made from PRB which can be used to remove contaminants such as heavy metal, chlorinated solvents,
carbonates and aromatic hydrocarbons. The most crucial criteria in making a successful PRB is the
reactive media used to remove contaminants. The current paper presents an overview of the PRB
selective medias that have been used and also the unresolved issue on the long term performance of
PRB. The overall methodology for the application of PRB at a given site is also discussed in this
paper. This inexpensive but effective technique is crucial as a sustainable technology in order to treat
the drainage before it enters water tables to prevent water pollution and can be used as an alternative
raw water source.
Quantum dots-sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) is one of the third generation solar cell that is
the most promising low cost, easy to manufacture and highly efficient solar cell. Compared to Dyesensitized
solar cell (DSSC), quantum dots (QDs) of QDSSC has a narrow bandgap and possess
excellent properties such as tunable band gaps, strong light absorption and high multiple electron
generation. Titanium dioxide or titania (TiO2) is an oxides semiconductor material that is frequently
used as a photoanode in this photovoltaic system due to high stability under visible light illumination.
TiO2 is also known as a good photocatalyst and an excellent choice in environmental purification. The
efficiencies of electron injection and light harvesting in QDSSC are affected by the nature, size
morphology, and quantity of this nanomaterial. In this review, the concept and principles of the
QDSSCs are reviewed. The preparation and fabrication method ofTiO2 electrode in QDSSC are also
discussed. It is worthwhile to know the architecture of TiO2 in order to enhance the efficiency of
QDSSC.
Awareness of recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption has increased substantially over the last 20 years. In addition, fruits and vegetables such as pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata Duchesne) are good sources of many important nutrients, including potassium, vitamin C, folate, fibre, and numerous phytochemicals. Malaysia produces pumpkinits own, with considerably large areas of production comparable to its high global demand. However, in reality, there is a limitation in the commercial production as the local pumpkinis very much dependent on the market demand as the utilization has been limited to the consumption of fresh product. Thus, the objective of the study first initiative to provide the information about the pumpkinand second to investigatesthe opportunities on commercialized local pumpkinin Malaysia as by products despite various nutritious it is also listed as prophetic foods. The scientific research that covered a broad range of in vitro to in vivo studies on the by-products potentials of these fruits is also discussed in detail.The current review is an update for researchers to have a better understanding of the pumpkin, which simultaneously can provide awareness to enhance their commercial value and promote their utilization.Malaysia have potential to growth pumpkin instead of continuously importing. The daily consumption of pumpkins may provide various health benefits to human. Future investigation is needed to explore the potential of pumpkin as by products in order to increase its competitiveness and self-sufficiency.