The question of whether the impact of having rural communities nearby an ecotourism area being positive or negative is one of the important issues in Ranau. Cooperation between villagers and park operator on the growth of tourists’ arrival is crucial and must be addressed. The aim of this study is to identify the local communities’ perception at Kampung Poring and Kampung Monggis, Ranau by mean if the ecotourism activities can uplift their economic, social, physical and general impression that they experienced. In addition, the involvements of local communities in ecotourism activities in their villages were also studied. A survey and face to face interview were carried out on a sample of 146 villagers from both study areas. Data analysis using frequency, mean scores and Pearson Correlation (2-sided) was conducted. From the result, positive perception has been perceived by the villagers as a result of the improvement of ecotourism activities such as increase in employment opportunities, infrastructure facilities have been upgraded, additional revenue sources for state governments and villagers as well as increase in Small and Medium Industries (SMIs). However, the perception and level of involvement of both villages is still at the moderate level, where many other issues still need to be improved in the future such as communication skills and accommodations. In conclusion, this matter should not be taken lightly so as not to occur dissatisfaction among villagers. Therefore, the park management party should be sensitive to this situation in order to maintain the welfare of the villagers and at the same time giving satisfaction to the tourists who enjoy ecotourism activities there.
Engineered wood (composite wood, man-made wood, or manufactured board) includes a range of derivative wood products manufactured by binding the strands, particles, fibers, or veneers or boards of wood, together with adhesives to form composite materials. These products are engineered to precise design specifications which are tested to meet national or international standards. Sarawak with an area 124,450 sq km, produced wood and timber products of 5,275,832 metric tons for 2012 in export earnings. The production of this product mainly focused on upstream industries i.e. sawn timbers, plywood, veneer, wood molding, laminated boards, particleboards, MDF, woodchip, charcoal / briquette, laminated flooring and wood pellets. Timber downstream industries such as furniture that can generate high income have not been established yet in Sarawak. The furniture used in the state are still being carried from factories in Peninsular Malaysia or imported from other countries. With Permanent Forest & Forest Plantation covering 6 million ha and 2.8 million ha respectively, the Sarawak state government intends to increase the production of downstream timber industry equivalent to the existing industry in Peninsular. Timber downstream industries i.e. furniture & construction materials that generate high income have not established yet in Sarawak.
Salt or sodium chloride is widely used in most homemade dishes or processed foods. It can be considered as a crucial ingredient because, without adding salt most dishes or food products may have less flavor, become tasteless and not appetizing. The addition of salt can provide salty taste or can even mask the bitter taste. It is also widely used as a preserving agent and can increase product’s shelf life. Bread is widely consumed and serves as a staple food for certain countries. Not only that, bread is one of the world’s oldest foods and is said to be the largest contributor of salt in our diet. While bread is believed to supply the major percentage of daily salt intake, reduction of salt in this product can assist in reducing the consumption of salt in human’s diet. Salt is also found to have detrimental impact on human health as it can cause cardiovascular diseases. Nevertheless, the salt reduction in bread is not easy to apply as salt play important roles in bread-making and its reduction can affect the quality of bread. Salt in bread has been observed to improve dough-making process, enhances the flavor of bread and produces nice brown colour of the bread's crust through Maillard reaction. Besides that, salt also helps in improving the texture, decreasing staling and increasing the microbial shelf life of the bread. This article explains the bakery science of bread by discussing the effect of salt reduction on bread quality.
An assessment of water quality and sediment nutrients has been carried out in Tumpat mangrove swamp forest located at Kelantan Delta in Malaysia. This mangrove delta is considered as very important to reduce the destruction of any natural disaster. Tumpat mangrove delta is possessed with several islands. Among them five islands situated at different locations started from inland edge to seaward were selected for present study. Different anthropogenic activities such as dumping of industrial and domestic effluent may contribute to degrade the water quality and sediments nutrient status. A total of 90 (water and sediment) samples 45 from each category were collected from 5 randomly selected islands. The aims of this study were to assess the water quality and sedimentary nutrients status and establish their relationship to find out the nutrient’s dynamic of Tumpat Mangrove Forest. The samples were tested in the laboratory to determine the water parameters and nutrient status. The results revealed that the mean concentration of DO, electric conductivity, pH was 4.67 ± 0.13 mg/L, 20.49 ± 4.71 μS/cm and 8.32 ± 0.06 and ranged from 4.47-4.87 mg/L, 14.21-28.67 μs/cm and 8.24-8.42 at Palau Bedal (PB), Palau Layang-layang (PL), Palau Kambing (PK), Palau Mas (PS) and Palau Tujuh (PT) islands, respectively. The mean concentration of BOD, COD and oil and grease (OG) were 1.09 ± 0.13 mg/L, 70.93 ± 25.21 mg/L and 91.77 ± 68.16 mg/L and the values were ranged from 0.9-1.25 mg/L, 44.33-120 mg/L and 18.67-205.71 mg/L at PB, PL, PK, PS and PT islands, respectively. Mean percentage of sediment nutrients such as N, P, K and Ca were 0.41 ± 0.04%, 4.66 ± 2.09 mg/L, 50.61 ± 10.58 mg/L and 83.15 ± 11.78 mg/L and ranged from 0.36-0.49%, 2.14-8.33 mg/L, 34.25-69.4 mg/L and 66.71-104.18 mg/L at PB, PL, PK, PS and PT islands, respectively. The highest N value was found in PT Island nearest to the coastal area. Deposition of litter from human settlement and fish chip factory might be the reason for higher N value. The trend of the P concentration for the study area was decreased from seaward to inland edge. Correlation analysis indicated the positive relationship between K: OG (r= 0.678) and Mg: OG (r= 0.721) but Ca: temperature (r=- 0.705) was negatively correlated. It is presumed that different concentrations of physico-chemical properties might be influenced for sedimentary nutrients dynamic at study area. Moreover, the sediment of the study area was not dynamic because most of the nutrient (P, K, and Mg) were influenced by the concentration of OG values.
In Malaysia, there is an abundance of tropical heritage trees throughout the country. Heritage trees are natural large trees with exceptional value due to association with age or special event or distinguished people. For sustainable heritage trees conservation, it is essential to set up a repository of such trees to prevent the trees from being destroyed unwittingly. In this regard, a general, yet localised framework for assessment and classification of the trees is essential. In this study, ten assessment and classification criteria with a total of forty-one sub-indicators were formulated. The framework supplements the general, easy-to-understand Tree Assessment for Heritage (TreeAH) model with localised Malaysian arborists’ expert opinions elicited via rigorous Delphi and focus group techniques. The framework facilitates tree care experts the election of nominated trees as heritage trees. Efforts are currently underway by the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) to refine and customise the framework with more specific assessment scales and questionnaire for the purpose of quantifying values of trees in the FRIM campus in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur for UNESCO world heritage site application. Preliminary result shows promising prospect of the framework being used not only for the FRIM’s use case but also at a larger scale nationwide for heritage tree assessment and classification.
Soil is the unconsolidated material in which plants are rooted. Soil texture is determined by the amount of sand, silt and clay in the soil. Understanding soil properties can help to better management and minimize soil disturbance. These soils were collected for soil properties and bulk density along the 55.2km of Sg. Lebir. Soil on Earth commonly contains of various particles such as sand, silt and clay. These particles commonly classes by refer to soil textural triangle. 40g of air-dried sample diluted into 1000ml of deionised water were left until the percentage of sand, silt and clay observed then calculated as percentage. As calculated, the mean percentage of sand contained is 66%, clay 17% and silt 17%. Besides that, it was concluded that most of the soils texture along 55.2km of Sg. Lebir had a sandy loam soil with pH slightly acidic (6.08) with densities the mean is 0.24 gcm-3.
Halal products must be healthy and safe for consumers. With nowadays technologies, the media sometime manipulates the old stories and invalid news to become viral through media social that fast delivered to consumers that make consumers more believes to the story that is not true. With the existence of the application of online Halal label system in Malaysia, the consumers can check the authenticity of the news. The intention level can be increased regarding the application of online Halal label system among consumers intention toward Halal label system in Malaysia. Application of online Halal label system in Malaysia influenced by many factors among consumer intention toward halal label. The present study has assessed to investigate the application of online Halal label among consumers intention toward the Halal label system in Malaysia based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). Data were gathered from a self-reported questionnaire completed by 108 consumers on the questionnaire paper located at Malaysia International Halal Show (MIHAS) on Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Four underlying factors were assumed and extracted, including attitudes toward the application of online Halal label system in Malaysia, subjective norms, perceived behaviour control and intention among consumers. There is significantly relationship found between sociodemographic and intention of consumers toward Halal label in Malaysia. Relationship between different demographic information with intention of consumers was observed. The study contributes positive feedback of the application of online Halal label system among consumer intention toward the Halal label system in Malaysia and the TPB.
The works in this study is to investigate and understand the nature of Acacia mangium axial fatigue strengths under repeated stress. Acacia mangium trees were cut to produce oven-dried Small Clear Specimens that were then tested until fracture in parallel to the grain direction. This was carried out in order to discover its Ultimate Tensile Strength, which was later identified as 143.87 MPa, in parallel to the grain direction (0° grain angle). In the next phase, specimens were tested for fatigue strengths in repeated-tensile sinusoidal waveform loading at 100 Hz frequency. The stress levels for this test were at the ratios of 80, 60, 40, 30, 20 and 10% of the Ultimate Tensile Strength (0° grain angle) for the construction of Life (N) - Stress (S) plots and empirical correlation. It was observed that the Acacia Mangium N-S (Wöhler) plots have an exponential correlation with the N – intercept of vertical axis at five (5) million cycles, while the intercept of horizontal, S – axis, was at 143.87 MPa. The study also observed that Acacia mangium achieves 106 life cycles at 10% stress level. For this reason, it is concluded that the material has a fatigue endurance limit at 10% of the Ultimate Tensile Strength for 0° grain angle.
The purpose of this study is to identify the Osgood’s coefficient of species and the Modified Osgood Equation for Acacia mangium. Acacia mangium trees were cut to produce oven-dried Small Clear Specimens that were then tested until fracture. Results were gathered from static tensile tests in the direction parallel (0° angle), perpendicular (90° angle) and at 30° angle to the wood grain. All test results confirmed that the Acacia mangium wood is brittle as there was no obvious necking observed on the test specimens. From the static testing, the Osgood’s coefficient of species for Acacia mangium, (a), is identified algebraically to be 0.49. Acacia mangium, by nature, has a significant difference in the strengths parallel and perpendicular to the grain line. The finalized results of the Ultimate Tensile Strength for 15-year old Acacia mangium demonstrated that the Ultimate Tensile Strength in parallel and perpendicular to the grain directions are 143.87 MPa and 6.32 MPa respectively, while the Ultimate Tensile Strength at 30° grain angle is 32.985 MPa. An extreme reduction of 95.6% of the Ultimate Tensile Strength was identified between 0° and 90° grain angles with a decreased value from 143.87 MPa to 6.32 MPa.
Whenever, we think of three phase transformer connections, we think straightaway either about star connected transformer or delta connected transformers. A great majority of polyphase transformers are either star connected or connected in delta. In either case, the connection is symmetrical or balanced. In this paper we wish to explore about zig zag windings being used as earthing transformers and the effect of short circuit current. Double zig zag windings is also dealt here.
This study focussed on composite boards made from Elaeis guineesis empty fruit bunches (EFB). The EFB supplied by a smallholder oil palm planter in Kuala Krai, Kelantan. The fibre cutter and crusher were used in turning the EFB into smaller size particles. They were screened with four-tier sieve shaker used to remove the oversize particles and impurities present. Hardeners and wax added during the mixing process at 1% and 3%. Boards of three (3) different densities were produced using urea-formaldehyde as the bonding agent. The boards produced later conditioned in a chamber set at 20±2°C and 65% relative humidity. The testing procedure set by EN Standards and specifications were followed. The tests results showed the EFB composite boards possessed excellent physical and mechanical properties. The MOR, MOE and internal bonding of the boards were 22.91 N/mm2, 2059.56 N/mm2, and 0.98 N/mm2. The internal bonding for both edge and face screw withdrawal were 467.47 N/mm2, and 512.37 N/mm2 respectively. Boards with 700 g/cm3 density and 14% resin content met all the requirement needed according to standard exercised. Scanning electron microscope images of low-performance boards showed the resin and fibre in the board interacted closely, but voids appeared at the cross-section suggesting moisture penetrated the board via the open spaces and attacked the linkages existed, thus cause the board to have a low property. The thermal stability of the boards manufactured studied using the Thermogravimetric Analysis.
Anatomical of cell wall structure on Schizostachyum brachycladum examined. The harvested two-year-old and four-year-old bamboo culms segregated into the bottom, middle and top portions. The samples then undergo the Light Microscopy (LM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to determine their structure such as a vascular bundle, parenchyma, and sclerenchyma. Results show the surface of bamboo was visualized by LM to decide on their structural figure. In this part, 2-year age indicated that higher numbers of vascular bundle and average of mean compared to the 4-year S. brachycladum. Followed by a specific study of cell wall structure using SEM with highlighted 4-year S. brachycladum had more complex of morphology structure compared to the 2-year-old. Later on, TEM illustrated to shows most depth anatomically structure of bamboo such as middle lamella, primary and secondary walls.
Organophosphates (OPs) are insecticide used to replace the persistence organochlorines (OCs). OPs are the effective insecticide used to control pests to enhance crops productions. Due to the strong recalcitrant properties, OPs cannot totally be degraded by conventional wastewater treatment process and the effluent causes negative impacts to the environment. The effectiveness of the AOPs is relied on the strong radical namely hydroxyl radicals (•OH) which can convert the pollutants into less harmful products. Photocatalysis is one of the AOPs widely practiced in water treatment process. A good photocatalyst must able to promote the electron from its valance band to the conduction band and the prevent the photogenerated electrons from returning to its valance band. The electron generated was further reacted with oxygen to form peroxyl radicals, •O2-. The hole (h+) formed was then react with water molecule to form •OH. Titanium dioxide, TiO2 is well known photocatalyst which only can be activated under ultra-violet light. Visible light photocatalysts are in the current research trend as they are found to be an effective method to degrade contaminants in wastewater. Various type of dopants has been doped on the TiO2 with different method purposely to shift the absorption of light from the UV light region to visible light region. The purpose of this review is to present the studies on different preparation method of the modified TiO2 and application of the modified TiO2 in degrading different types of OP pesticides. Finally, the need for present and further research on OPs wastewater also briefly discussed.
In this study, the effect of soaking condition towards Mung bean Vigna radiata water absorption and Mung bean extracted crude protein were investigated. This research was conducted to fulfill the fundamental study on the development of Mung bean beverage. The factorial design was employed to investigate the effect of soaking condition by 3 factors, namely concentration of NaHCO3 (0.0%, 0.5% and 1.0%), temperature (30oC, 60oC and 90oC) and time (30 minutes, 60 minutes and 90 minutes), under 19 runs and 2 responses: water absorption (%) and crude protein (%). The data were then statistically analysed using Design Expert 7.0 software and results were generated under Anova table (p < 0.05), interaction model graph and cube view, to predict the optimum soaking condition which best suits the required responses. It was found that the combination of 90 minutes soaking time, 30oC of soaking temperature and 1.0% NaHCO3 concentration yielded the highest percentage of water absorption and crude protein.
This paper reviews the structural performances of reinforced concrete beams and slabs filled with lightweight materials to identify the research gaps in the area for future research development. Data is extracted from the research works done by different researchers. It was then recomputed to analyze the effects of concrete replacement regions, geometrical properties and spacing of lightweight materials on the ultimate strength of the structural elements. The lightweight materials were found to be more effective in reducing the weight of the slab without significantly affecting its strength as compared with the beam. The lightweight materials are recommended to have round corners, spaced out and positioned at the neutral axis or the compressive region for better strength performance so that the effective strength to weight ratio exceeds 1.0.
A modified controlled chemical co-precipitation of alkaline aqueous ferrous and ferric salt solution at pH 8 with continuous addition of ammonia solution 25% under a degassed atmosphere was performed to synthesis magnetite (Fe3O4) nanoparticles. Formation of magnetite nanoparticles was conducted by adjusting the ferric to ferrous ions in the ratio of 1:1, 1:2 and 2:1. Further investigation on the surfactant-coated magnetite nanoparticles by using 8% surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) was also studied. The synthesized magnetite nanoparticles were characterized by Transmission electron microscope (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD). TEM results shows that magnetite nanoparticles which were synthesized with ferric/ferrous ratio 2:1 are in sphere shape and have the smallest particle size distribution range which is about 12-17 nm. The particles size distribution range of coated magnetite was decreased to 11-15 nm after coated with 8% surfactant SDS. XPS results indicated that the produced magnetite nanoparticles consisted of elemental iron and oxygen at 72.76% and 22.27% respectively. The phase and face-centered cubic structure of magnetite nanoparticle was also confirmed by XRD. Magnetite nanoparticle synthesized with ferric to ferrous ratio of 2:1 and coated with 8% surfactant SDS shows the best crystallinity among all samples with particle distribution size range from 11-15 nm.
Image processing techniques have been widely used as a non-destructive method to determine the maturity of agriculture products. In the past few decades, numerous fruit maturity grading systems have been proposed and developed. However, there is no system or technique is reported to determine the maturity for Sarawak’s brinjal. Therefore, in this research, a colour image processing-based method is proposed in order to determine the maturity of Sarawak’s brinjal based on the skin colour. Ripe Sarawak’s brinjal has yellow or orange colour skin while unripe Sarawak’s brinjal has green colour skin. The proposed method consists of four main phases which are image acquisition, image pre-processing, features extraction, and classification. CIELAB colour model is used in this proposed method. The RGB value extracted from the image is converted into CIELAB colour space in order to obtain the CIELAB value. The maturity of the Sarawak’s brinjal is determined based on the colour difference between the fruit and the reference colour. In the experiment, a total of 48 Sarawak’s brinjal sample with 24 sample for each grade (ripe and unripe) were prepared. 12 out of 24 samples from each grade were used for thresholding. From the experimental results, a total of 23 Sarawak’s brinjals were correctly classified out of 24 Sarawak’s brinjal sample, accounts for nearly 96% of accuracy.
This paper presents an experimental study to investigate the effects of circular transverse opening in the reinforced concrete beam. Understanding its behaviour would allow such beams to be safely used, particularly for the passage of pipes and ducting. A total of eleven beams with a cross-sectional area of 150 mm x 300 mm and a clear span of 1500 mm were tested under four-point load setup until failure. This comprised two beams without opening as the control beams, six beams with an opening (50 mm, 75 mm and 100 mm in diameter) positioned at the mid-span and near to the support, and three beams with the reinforcement at the opening. The effects of the opening size, the position of the opening and different reinforcing methods on beam performance were studied. The beam failed with severe cracking surrounding the opening. The test results showed that the opening affected the ultimate strength and ductility of the beam. For the beam without reinforcement at the opening to maintain 80% strength, the opening size should not exceed 0.25 times the beam’s height. The diagonal bar reinforcing method was found effective in reinforcing the opening not exceeding 1/3 of beam height.
Four endophytic fungi have been tested for antioxidant properties using different assays; DPPH radicalscavenging activity, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and ferrous ion chelating activity (FCA). The test of polyphenolic content also has been done for both total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC). There was no result on the half maximal concentration (IC50) for both DPPH and FCA assays for all fungi. However, through FRAP assays the results were ranged from 0.336±0.01 to 0.477±0.11 mmol Fe2+/g extract where N. sphaerica had the highest result. This fungus also showed the highest results on TPC and TFC, which were 0.030±0.000 (mg GAE/g) and 0.038±0.001 (mg QE/g) respectively.
Dabai is one of the indigenous seasonal fruits that can be found in Sarawak. The nutrient-rich dabai has tremendous application in food product development including formulating dabai into cake mixture as its nutrients affect the quality of the cake produced. The aim of this study is to determine the physicochemical properties, microbiological and sensory characteristics of dabai cake. Physicochemical properties including proximate analyses as well as macro mineral analyses were conducted according to the standard methods. From the analyses, the moisture content ranges from 29.94±0.40% to 33.49±0.50%, ash content 1.44±0.12% to 1.49±0.02%, protein content 7.15±0.38% to 9.28±0.29%, and fat content 14.67±0.76% to 18.83±1.04%. In addition, it is also found that the amount of mineral including Na, K, Ca, Mg, Fe and Zn increased proportionally with dabai content in the formulation. Furthermore, the microbial loads of dabai cake were either none or too few to count throughout the duration of 35 days stored in chiller within 4°C to 9°C. In terms of general acceptability, the cake was that incorporated with 10 g of dabai is the most preferred with the mean score of 6.90. From this study, it is found that the production of dabai cake contains acceptable amount of nutrients with no significant differences of sensory attributes and can be stored up to 35 days in chiller.