The massive 2008 Sichuan earthquake brought unprecedented international humanitarian aid to China. The monstrous damages and casualties aroused all human's sympathy. I took the opportunity to join a Malaysian voluntary medical relief team to Sichuan in June 2008. This essay recounts the immediate events post-earthquake and reports on my experience during the mission.
Digital elevation model (DEM) generation from stereo images is an effective and economical method in topography mapping. This paper used the stereo pair methodology to generate the digital elevation model (DEM) from PRISM (Panchromatic Remote-Sensing Instrument Satellite) sensor which is onboard of ALOS (Advanced Land Observing Satellite). The pair of forward-backward is used as stereoscopic imagery in this study. Ten ground control points (GCPs) are collected with residual error 0.49 pixels to generate an absolute DEM. This generated DEM with 2.5 m spatial resolution is then matched with the 90 m spatial resolution of
SRTM (Space Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) DEM to compare the result. Although SRTM-DEM has a much coarser resolution, the positional accuracy of the matching is found. The difference of the height from the mean sea level (MSL) between the SRTM-DEM and the PRISM-DEM is analyzed and the correlation between the two DEMs is R²=0.8083. The accuracy of the DEM generated is given by the RMSE value of 0.8991 meter.
In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in quadcopter technology
implementation in the real world; for instance in real estate photography, aerial surveying, periodic
forest monitoring, and search/rescue missions. Generally, each quadcopter implementation required
different sensors which are needed to attach and integrate into quadcopter system. However, the most
critical part in almost cases is preparing the quadcopter flight performance and capability to be suited
in any outdoor applications. Because of that reason, this paper has proposed an implementation of
Open-Source Project (OSPs) platform as autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) quadcopter
development that can be fitted for any outdoor applications or even in research experimental purposes.
We started out with an explanation about the general approach that has been used in the development
of a quadcopter testbed, and then followed with detail explanations in the OSP platform approach.
The OSP platform is the most popular approach. The main reason is because of their flexibility in both
hardware and software. The basic quadcopter configuration for autonomous flight also presented and
applied. This paper also provided several outdoor experiments results in uncontrolled environment
that have been executed using our developed testbed to evaluate their performance, such as attitude
and altitude stabilization, interference and vibration effect, and trajectory mapping generation.
Finally, throughout this project, we realized that the OPSs quadcopter platform has offered almost
complete frameworks in the development of quadcopter for any outdoor applications or even as a
research testbed system.
Military personnel who are deployed for peace-keeping missions are exposed to many hazards, including infectious diseases. One of the most common and fatal infectious disease is Malaria. Although well controlled in Malaysia, this deadly disease is still widely endemic in many other countries especially Africa. We would like to report the case of a military personnel who was infected with Malaria during a peace-keeping mission in Sudan and subsequently died after returning home. We hope that by reporting this case in depth, strategic actions can be taken to avoid similar unfortunate events in future.
This is a personal experience with MERCY Malaysia’s Team 7 during its sixday sojourn in Gaza immediately after the 22-day war. It was a mission cut short. We were asked to evacuate as Israel intensified its shelling. This paper is divided into two main parts: First, my observations as a psychiatrist and humanitarian volunteer; and second, a plan for a psychosocial programme in
Gaza.
The problem of difficulty in obtaining cloud-free scene at the equatorial region from satellite platforms can be
overcome by using airborne imagery as an attempt for introducing an economical method of remote sensing
data; which only requires a digital camera to provide near time data. Forty three digital images were captured
using a high resolution digital camera model pentax optio A40 (12 megapixels)at a selected location in the same day in Penang Island from a low-altitude flying autopilot aircraft (CropCam) to generate land use/land cover (LULC) map of the test area. The CropCam was flown at an average altitude of 320 meters over the ground while capturing images which were taken during two flying missions for the duration of approximately 15 and 20 minutes respectively. The CropCam was equipped with a digital camera as a sensor to capture the GPS points based digital images according to the present time to ensure the mosaic of the digital images. Forty one images were used in providing a mosaic image of a bigger coverage of area (full panorama). Training samples were collected simultaneously when the CropCam captured the images by using hand held GPS. Supervised classification techniques, such as the maximum likelihood, minimum-to-distance, and parallelepiped were applied to the panoramic image to generate LULC map for the study area. It was found that the maximum likelihood classifier produce superior results and achieved a high degree of accuracy. The results indicated that the CropCam equipped with a high resolution digital camera can be useful and suitable tool for the tropical region, and this technique could reduce the cost and time of acquiring images for LULC mapping.
The Ministry of Science Technology and Innovation (MOSTI) Angkasawan (Astronaut) Programme achieved its mission to send the first Malaysian astronaut Sheikh Muszaphar Shukur by Soyuz TM11 to the International Space Ship (ISS) on 10 October 2007. He returned to earth, landing safely on 21 October 2007. Such a momentous event has carved out yet another milestone in the country’s
history and development of a civilisation based on science and technology for its people. This mission has provided the educational sector with an opportunity to initiate a curriculum innovation. Together with the Ministry of Education (MOE), the initiative was undertaken to improve techniques of teaching and learning (TL) and to broaden its scope to include space science and technology.
This study was conducted to measure the relationship between service quality and customer's perceived value using a sample of 341 usable questionnaires gathered from the Malaysian Armed Forces Contingent who involved in peacekeeping mission at a Middle East country. The outcomes of SmartPLS path model showed five important findings: firstly, tangible significantly correlated with customer's perceived value. Second, responsiveness significantly correlated with customer's perceived value. Third, reliability significantly correlated with customer's perceived value. Fourth, assurance significantly correlated with customer's perceived value. Fifth, empathy significantly correlated with customer's perceived value. Statistically, this result confirms that the ability of service providers (MALBATT Headquaters) to properly implement tangible, responsiveness, reliability, assurance and empathy in delivering peacekeeping services have been important determinants of customer's perceived value in the organizational sample. In addition, discussions, implications and conclusion are elaborated.
Introduction: Mentoring medical students is one of the essential responsibilities or missions of a medical school faculty. Objective: This study aimed to determine the perceptions of mentorship and mentoring practices among mentors using a convergent parallel method. Method: Quantitative data was collected by using an adopted validated self- administered questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Qualitative data was done using one-to-one interview based on semi structured interview guide and analyzed using thematic analysis. Result: A total of 61 respondents participated in the quantitative survey. Approximately 75% of the respondents had 5 to 10 mentees, with majority rated themselves as satisfactory mentor. More than 60% of them met their mentees at least once every six months. Most respondents were friendly (86.9%) and frank to their mentees (68.9%) and were interested in their mentees’ professional development (95.1%). Phone calling (93.4%) and E-mail (95.1%) were preferred as modes of contact. Mentees were allowed to call their mentors anytime of the day (74.1%). Respondents preferred to counsel their mentees (80.3%) and would refer them for professional help whenever necessary (70.5%). For qualitative data, a total of 5 participants participated with themes emerged: concepts of mentoring, factors contributing to ineffective mentoring and ways to improve mentoring practices. Conclusion: The respondents had positive perceptions regarding their mentorship and practices. A more structured approach with clear mentoring guideline and proper training should be in place.
Heat stroke is hardly seen in Malaysia. However, it occurs commonly in Saudi Arabia during the Haj season. Many Malaysian pilgrims are affected every year and some die. Having faced this environmental hazard for eight years, the Malaysian Medical Mission, sent each year to look after our pilgrims, modified its treatment strategy in 1988 and successfully decreased the overall morbidity and mortality of affected patients without the use of sophisticated equipment. A brief account of the management of 17 cases seen in 1988 is given. Only one died following treatment. The rest recovered fully without any residual neurological deficit or other complications.
In Malaysia, all sectors are currently gearing themselves in supporting the initiatives of becoming a developed nation by the year 2020. The most important element in ensuring the success of this mission is to provide critical mass of knowledge workers to champion this cause. As such the Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia (MOHE) has established the National Higher Education Strategic Plan (NHESP), comprising seven thrusts which are very crucial in providing the much needed human capital and eco-system for this agenda. The essence of NHESP is also in line with other initiatives established by the government of Malaysia such as the National Key Results Area (NKRA) and the Government Transformation Plan (GTP). In fact MOHE has developed a systematic working model for the academia to play their role actively in driving the agenda of transforming Malaysia into a developed nation. The workforce required to spearhead the agenda for an innovation-led economy can be categorized into five different groups namely: Discoverers; Innovators; Inventors; Transformers; and Technopreneurs. It is very crucial for MOHE to develop and implement a comprehensive programme for producing a new breed of researchers that can contribute in translating government policies into a reality. This article presents the challenges and success stories in reforming the landscape of Research and Development in Malaysian universities and research institutions. The establishment of NHESP has made it possible for MOHE to systematically establish comprehensive guidelines for the management of research grants, standard for research conduct, instrument to measure research performance, and standardized reporting of research and innovation output. This new approach in the management of research at the ministry level has created positive ramifications for universities, research institutions, research management centres, and research leaders. During the first five-year cycle (2006-2010) of these research initiatives, and now into the second phase (2011-2015), positive results and outcomes have started to emerge. These results include increased in generation of articles on research findings published in reputable journals worldwide. Currently, Malaysia is recognized for achieving the world's fastest growth rate in number of journal publications. In addition, increased in number of postgraduate students, commercialization of R&D products and the establishment of Higher Institutions Centres of Excellence (HiCOE) contribute towards producing a new breed of great researchers in Malaysia. A continuing positive trend indicates that this phenomenal growth will be sustained for the next few years.