The building sector is one of the major contributors to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, which may impede the achievement of Malaysia's intended nationally determined contribution (INDC) by 2030. Therefore, this paper is aimed at identifying the underlying factors that affect working adults' willingness to pay (WTP) premium prices for green buildings. Data were collected from a total of 1198 respondents and analyzed using structural equitation modeling partial least square (SEM-PLS) to measure the willingness to pay for green buildings among working adults in Malaysia. The findings reveal that environmental literacy affects environmental belief as well as awareness of consequences among working adults in Malaysia. The findings also reveal that incentives for green building buyers have a significant impact on perceived behavioral control, while awareness of consequences has a significant influence on ascription of responsibility. However, the results reveal that awareness of consequences does not influence buyers' willingness to pay for green buildings. Moreover, the ascription of responsibility and perceived behavioral control have a significant effect on willingness to pay for green buildings. The findings of this study will help the concerned authorities to take appropriate steps to promote willingness to pay for green buildings, which will contribute significantly to the realization of INDC by 2030 as part of the Paris Agreement.
The flow of unprocessed sewage through municipal sewers is a great source of water contamination. This study aims to observe the pollutants removal efficiencies of walnut shells as an efficient low-cost adsorbent material compared to gravel materials as an anaerobic filter medium. Two models of the De-Centralized Wastewater Treatment System (DEWATS) were constructed. The wastewater flowing from toilets and handwashing places was connected to anaerobic filters filled with walnut shells and gravel. The efficiency of both filter media in the removal of biological oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), total dissolved solids (TDS), nitrate (NO3), and phosphate (PO43), pH and temperature were observed at the influent of the settler tank and then at the effluent of the collection tank (CT). Temperature and pH were within the acceptable limit of wastewater discharge. The results also indicated that the walnut shells filter media was more efficient at removing organic pollutants (TSS 94%, BOD5 88%, COD 85%, Nitrate 57%, phosphate 46%, and TDS 29%) than the gravel (TSS 81%, BOD5 82%, COD 84%, Nitrate 35%, phosphate 38%, and TDS 26%) at the successive stages. The average removal efficiency of the walnut shell was 88% while in the gravel case, it was 83%. The removal efficiency of walnut shell filters was extensively better over the complete experiment compared to gravel filters for the removal of pollutants, representing the high sorption capability of the walnut shell material. The results of this study show that the walnut shells may be a very useful substitute for other conventional fillers for anaerobic treatment in the anaerobic filter of DEWATS.
The present study is aimed to study the host-guest inclusion complexation of the naturally occurring cyclodextrins (CDs), namely; (α-CD,β-CD, and γ-CD) with mitiglinide (MIT).
Porphyromonas gingivalis is one of the major bacteria that causes periodontitis. Chronic periodontitis is a severe form of periodontal disease that ultimately leads to tooth loss. Virulence factors that contribute to periodontitis are secreted by Type IX Secretion System (T9SS). There are aspects of T9SS protein components that have yet to be characterised. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the phylogenetic relationship between members of 20 T9SS component protein families. The Bayesian Inference (BI) trees for 19 T9SS protein components exhibit monophyletic clades for all major classes under Bacteroidetes with strong support for the monophyletic clades or its subclades that is consistent with phylogeny exhibited by the constructed BI tree of 16S rRNA. The BI tree of PorR is different from the 19 BI trees of T9SS protein components as it does not exhibit monophyletic clades for all major classes under Bacteroidetes. There is strong support for the phylogeny exhibited by the BI tree of PorR which deviates from the phylogeny based on 16S rRNA. Hence, it is possible that the porR gene is subjected to horizontal transfer as it is known that virulence factor genes could be horizontally transferred. Seven genes (porR included) that are involved in the biosynthesis of A-LPS are found to be flanked by insertion sequences (IS5 family transposons). Therefore, the intervening DNA segment that contains the porR gene might be transposed and subjected to conjugative transfer. Thus, the seven genes can be co-transferred via horizontal gene transfer. The BI tree of UgdA does not exhibit monophyletic clades for all major classes under Bacteroidetes which is similar to the BI tree of PorR (both are a part of the seven genes). Both BI trees also exhibit similar topology as the four identified clusters with strong support and have similar relative positions to each other in both BI trees. This reinforces the possibility that porR and the other six genes might be horizontally transferred. Other than the BI tree of PorR, the 19 other BI trees of T9SS protein components also exhibit evidence of horizontal gene transfer. However, their genes might undergo horizontal gene transfer less frequently compared to porR because the intervening DNA segment that contains porR is easily exchanged between bacteria under Bacteroidetes due to the presence of insertion sequences (IS5 family transposons) that flank it. In conclusion, this study can provide a better understanding about the phylogeny of T9SS protein components.
Medical professionalism is now more crucial than ever. Recently, more and more misconduct among doctors widely portrayed and unashamedly publicized by the popular press. Medical Schools in Malaysia are working hard to rectify their weaknesses so that their products are competent and professional doctors. Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS) certainly views this matter seriously and has incorporated professionalism training or as we call it Affective Domain Training into the curriculum implemented in all phases of the medical education. An example is the innovative inclusion of Community Project in the curriculum of undergraduate psychiatry. Although it started off with wanting to get students involved in creating awareness amongst the public about mental illness, but through it, students attained exposure in leadership, team-working and communication skills as well as what it means to be altruistic, to work under stress, to be empathic and many more. The students themselves enjoyed it. Although the down side include extra time, money and manpower, it can be safely concluded that having a community project in psychiatry undergraduate curriculum or other specialties for that matter could be an innovative and enjoyable way to nurture medical professionalism.
This study empirically investigates the effect of meat consumption on greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide) in the USA. The impact of meat consumption on greenhouse gas emissions is examined by controlling for economic growth and energy consumption. The empirical analysis finds that all these variables are cointegrated for the long run. Moreover, meat consumption aggravates greenhouse gas emissions. Specifically, meat consumption (except for beef) has a U-shaped relationship with carbon emissions and an inverted U-shaped relationship with methane and nitrous oxide emissions. The causality analysis indicates a unidirectional causality running from meat consumption to greenhouse gas emissions. These empirical findings indicate that the US livestock sector has the potential to become more environmentally friendly with careful policy formulation and implementation.
The cumulative sum (CUSUM) control chart is widely used in industry for the detection of small and moderate shifts in process location and dispersion. For efficient monitoring of process variability, we present several CUSUM control charts for monitoring changes in standard deviation of a normal process. The newly developed control charts based on well-structured sampling techniques - extreme ranked set sampling, extreme double ranked set sampling and double extreme ranked set sampling, have significantly enhanced CUSUM chart ability to detect a wide range of shifts in process variability. The relative performances of the proposed CUSUM scale charts are evaluated in terms of the average run length (ARL) and standard deviation of run length, for point shift in variability. Moreover, for overall performance, we implore the use of the average ratio ARL and average extra quadratic loss. A comparison of the proposed CUSUM control charts with the classical CUSUM R chart, the classical CUSUM S chart, the fast initial response (FIR) CUSUM R chart, the FIR CUSUM S chart, the ranked set sampling (RSS) based CUSUM R chart and the RSS based CUSUM S chart, among others, are presented. An illustrative example using real dataset is given to demonstrate the practicability of the application of the proposed schemes.
Sharir Aizat Kamaruddin, Muhammad Huzaifah Jaafar, Muhammad Ariff Zakariya, Muhammad Fayyadh Fadzilan, Aliff Iqbal Ahmad Nadzri, Khairul Naim Abd.Aziz, et al.
This research is conducted to investigate the effects of cubed and crushed ice on the crude fat, ash, and
moisture content of Channa striata and Clarias batrachus. The samples were chilled to four and seven days in the Polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC) boxes filled with cubed ice and crushed ice. Before the determination of crude, ash, and moisture content, the samples were frozen for 1 week. Statistical
analyses were carried out to indicate the significant difference in the effects of treatment days and
physical characteristics of ice towards the crude fat, ash, and moisture content. The result concludes that crushed ice is more superior to cubed ice for all experiments. The outcomes of this research benefit many parties specially to cubed ice suppliers to support aquaculture industries and the socio-economic sectors in Malaysia.
Sustainability is a worldwide objective in balancing the gradual rise of human requirements and the decay of resources. In further aspect, the conceptual paper studies the sustainability performance of new techniques to control sewage contamination in order to prevent foul odors into the habitable space from drainage network, which is important for the healthiness and comfort of living environment. Waste drain pipe is a prominent facility in service engineering development and it is essential in regulating sewage contamination that is commonly obstructed by ungoverned disposal of debris by domestics and commercial buildings. This act is common and consistent in arising disturbance causing the failure of sewage management. This research emphasizes on the innovative establishment of a new controlling method upon sewage contamination known as Black Air Gun (BAG); this indicator is operated based on Perceived Sustainability Performance Indicators (PSPI). This indicator functions to evaluate the impact of BAG upon sewage contamination control. Furthermore, PSPI can acknowledge the sustainability issue of BAG usage in sewage management as a basis for evaluating the impact of BAG towards sewage contamination control. Adopting PSPI in this study will effectively provide a sustainable establishment attained for improvement of people’s quality of life in long term aspects.
Studying in a foreign country is one of the ways to enhance students’ competencies in facingchallenges of global competitivenessand inbeingmarketablefor future career choices. This research investigatesthe impact of cross-cultural adaptation among Malaysian students (N=245) who enrolledin various universities in Japan.Quantitative method was used to examinechangesinthe following fivefactors: personal changes, cross-cultural awareness, cross-cultural interaction, global mindedness and intellectualdevelopment. The findings demonstratethat studyingabroad bringspositive outcomesin students’ personal development. Hence,student mobility isan invaluable experience and administrators shouldsupport and encourageyoung people to explore “real life” globally.
The benefits of using structural lightweight concrete in construction industry, particularly in high rise buildings, over normal weight concrete are numerous. The main method of producing structural lightweight concrete is the use of lightweight aggregates instead of ordinary aggregates in concrete. Due to the limited resources for natural and artificial lightweight aggregates, the alternative sources for lightweight aggregates should be discovered from industrial wastes. Oil palm shell (OPS) and oil-palm-boiler clinker (OPBC) are two solid wastes from palm oil industry and are available in abundance in tropical regimes. The use of just OPS as coarse lightweight aggregate in concrete mixture has some drawbacks for concrete. The aim of this study was to investigate engineering properties of a lightweight concrete containing both of these aggregates. For this purpose, in this study, 50% (by volume) of OPS was replaced with OPBC in an OPS lightweight concrete. The test results showed that when OPS was substituted with OPBC, significant improvement was observed in the compressive, splitting tensile and flexural strengths. In addition, initial and final water absorption as well as drying shrinkage strain of blended coarse lightweight aggregate concrete were significantly less than OPS concrete.
Information on semiconductor/superconductor interface is important in fabricating devices of such hybrid systems. In
this paper the electrical properties and AC susceptibility of Tl2
Ba2
CaCu2
O8
(Tl-2212) superconductor added with CdTe
semiconductor are reported. Samples with nominal starting composition Tl2
Ba2
CaCu2
O8
(CdTe)x with x = 0 to 0.20 weight
percent (wt. %) have been prepared by the solid-state reaction method. X-ray diffraction patterns showed essentially
the Tl-2212 phase with presence of impurities (CuO and Tl2
Ba2
CuO6
) for x ≥ 0.05 wt. % but did not change the Tl-2212
structure which is tetragonal with lattice parameter a = b ≠ c. The critical onset temperature, Tc-onset for all samples was
between 104 and 108 K while the critical zero resistance temperature, Tc-zero was from 93 to 95 K. The superconducting
transition determined by AC susceptibility measurement showed Tcχ’ between 101 and 103 K. The peak temperature, Tp
of
the imaginary part of the susceptibility χ” decreased for x = 0.05 and then increased for x > 0.05. This indicated that the
superconducting grains were strongly coupled for x > 0.05 as a result of CdTe addition. The intergrain critical current
density, Jc
at Tp
for the x = 0.2 sample Jc (Tp
= 95 K) = 23 A cm-2was the highest among all samples. This sample also
showed the highest Tp
indicating CdTe improved the flux pinning of the Tl-2212 phase. This result can be useful in the
fabrication of semiconductor/superconductor (Tl-2212) hybrid devices.
Porphyromonas gingivalis is the bacterium responsible for chronic periodontitis, a severe periodontal disease. Virulence
factors produced by this bacterium are secreted by the Type IX Secretion System (T9SS). The specific functions for
each protein component of the T9SS have yet to be characterized thus limiting our understanding of the mechanisms
associated with the translocation and modification processes of the T9SS. This study aims to identify the sequence motifs
for each T9SS component and predict the functions associated with each discovered motif using motif comparisons. We
extracted the sequences of 20 T9SS components from the P. gingivalis proteome that were experimentally identified to
be important for T9SS function and used them for homology searching against fully sequenced bacterial proteomes.
We developed a rigorous pipeline for the identification of seed sequences for each protein family of T9SS components.
We verified that each selected seed sequence are true members of the protein family hence sharing conserved sequence
motifs using profile Hidden Markov Models. The motifs for each T9SS component are identified and compared to motifs
in the Pfam database. The discovered motifs for 11 components with known functions matched the motifs associated
with the reported functions. We also suggested the putative functions for four components. PorM and PorW might form
the putative energy transduction complex. PorP and PorT might be the putative O-deacylases. The identified motifs for
five components matched the motifs associated with functions that related/unrelated to the T9SS.
This study was conducted to optimize the production of spray-dried white dragon fruit (Hylocereus undatus) powder using resistant maltodextrin as wall material. The inlet air temperature (140 °C, 150 °C and 160 °C), outlet temperature (75 °C, 80 °C and 85 °C) and resistant maltodextrin concentrations (20%, 25% and 30%) were tested as independent variables. Process yield, moisture content, water activity, solubility, hygroscopicity and bulk density of the powders were analysed as responses. Process yield significantly (p
Introduction: Dengue fever currently remains as one of the major public health issues in Malaysia. Dengue inci-dence in Malaysia has been increasing in the last 20 years. Dengue fever has been causing an economic burden to the country each year. Vector control is one of the preventions and control activities to reduce its incidence. Vector control activities, especially fogging is a resource-intensive activity. It uses most of the allocated budget of a district health office (33%). The major cost components of the prevention and control activities were human resources and pesticides with 60.7% were for human resources and 13.6% of the costs were for pesticides. Therefore, it is important to know, cost of each fogging activity and the factors that contribute to that cost. The objective of this study was to determine the costs of fogging activities carried out by Hulu Langat Health District Office, Selangor, Malaysia. Meth-ods: This study was a retrospective descriptive and analytical study using data from the Hulu Langat District Health Office for the year 2018. Cost analysis of fogging activities was carried out using the activity-based costing method-ology. The factors associated with, and predictors of, the costs of fogging activities were determined using chi-square and multiple linear regression. Results: In 2018, Hulu Langat District Health Office carried out total of 2,063 fogging activities. The average cost of each fogging activity was estimated as RM 1,579. Types of insecticides was statistically significant associated and predictive factor of the cost of fogging activity. Conclusion: The present study showed that the estimated average cost per fogging activity is RM 1,579 and water-based insecticide was found to be the cheaper option compared to oil-based insecticide. However, as this study did not determine the effectiveness of these insec-ticides, recommendations cannot be made as to which insecticide should be used.
Kajian ini adalah bertujuan untuk meneliti hubungan antara pengambilan kafein dan tahap keagresifan dalam kalangan atlet Kor SUKSIS. Kajian ini berbentuk kaedah tinjauan dengan menggunakan borang soal selidik berkaitan pengambilan kafein dan tahap keagresifan The Judgements About Moral Behavior in Youth Sport (JAMBYSQ). Peserta kajian terdiri daripada 80 orang atlet sukan berpasukan SUKSIS yang dipilih secara rawak. Data telah dianalisis menggunakan ujian statistik deskriptif, ujian t tidak bersandar dan korelasi Pearson. Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa terdapat perbezaan signifikan (p = 0.014) bagi tahap kekerapan pengambilan kafein antara atlet lelaki (2.00 ± 0.87) dan atlet perempuan (1.50 ± 0.76). Selain itu, bagi tahap keagresifan pula tidak terdapat perbezaan signifikan antara atlet lelaki (3.37 ± 0.60) dan atlet perempuan (3.23 ± 0.66) serta tidak terdapat hubungan yang signifikan antara pengambilan kafein dengan tahap keagresifan semasa bersukan (r = 0.024, n = 80, p =0.831). Kesimpulannya, walaupun kekerapan pengambilan kafein berbeza mengikut jantina tetapi ia tidak mempengaruhi tahap keagresifan dalam kalangan atlet Kor SUKSIS. Oleh itu, terdapat keperluan untuk mengkaji dos kafein yang sesuai yang dapat mencetus tahap keagresifan dalam kalangan atlet
Door to needle (DTN) time for thrombolysis in the Emergency Department, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (ED, UKMMC) is an indicator that can reduce mortality and morbidity of patients with ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI). This study was conducted to determine factors that influence DTN time for acute ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) and whether it has achieved the recommended time of 30 minutes. A cross-sectional study was conducted among patients diagnosed with acute STEMI and thrombolysed in ED, UKMMC from June 2016 until March 2017. A data collection sheet was used to collect patient’s demographic data and clinical data which included time of arrival to ED, time of initial electrocardiogram (ECG), time of drug preparation and time of thrombolytic delivery to the patient. A total of 98 patients were included in this study. Majority of patients (77.6%) were thrombolysed more than 30 minutes following ED arrival. Mean DTN in ED, UKKMC was 59.28 + 36.01 minutes. The mean door to ECG time was 7.19 + 8.08 minutes and the mean drug preparation time was 9.86 + 7.51 minutes. Out of 76 (77.6%) patients that were thrombolysed after 30 minutes of ED arrival, 59.2% (n=45) were due to multiple disciplinary referral. Other factors were delay in performing initial ECG 19.8% (n=15), incorrect initial ECG interpretation 9.2% (n=7) and unavoidable need for prior resuscitation 9.2% (n=7). As a conclusion this study showed that there was an unacceptable delay in hospital thrombolysis for acute STEMI.
Industrial development plays the most important role inthe degradationof the global environment. In line with this issue, most universities in the world have introduced environmentalmanagement to increase awarenessamong young generation towards the environment. Therefore, this study is employed to examine the influences of hygiene practices, awareness and involvement levels towards environmentalhygiene among UMT students. The design of this study is quantitative using cross-sectionaldata collectedfrom students at residential colleges in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. A total of 120 respondents participatedbut only data from 100 students could be used for further analysis after the datascreening process. The result of this study showed that the level of awareness of UMT students on environmental issues could be categorized as moderate. Besides that, this study found that the level of awareness had significant positive influences on environmentalhygiene. Meanwhile, hygiene practices and the level of involvement did not have significant influences on environmentalhygiene. In addition, using the findings of this study, we suggest that the stakeholders of UMT increase the hygiene practice and involvement among young generation to increase the level of awareness regarding environmental hygiene.
Parser is aprocess of classifying sentence structuresof a language. Parser receives a sentence and breaks it up into correct phrases. The purpose of this research is to develop a Malay single sentence parser that can help primary school studentsto learn Malay language according to the correct phrases. Thisis because research in Malay sentenceparsinghasnot gottenenough attention from researchers tothe extent ofbuildingparserprototypes. This research used top-down parsing technique,and grammar chosen was context-free grammar (CFG) for Malay language. However, to parse a sentence with correct phrase was a difficult task due to lack of resourcesfor obtainingMalay lexicon. Malay lexicon is a database that storesthousands of words with their correct phrases. Therefore, this research developeda Malay lexicon based on an articlefrom Dewan Masyarakatmagazine. In conclusion, this research can providehelpto the primaryschoolstudentsto organize correct Malay single sentences.