Perilaku Tabungan ASEAN 5, Jepang, Cina, Korea, Dan Implikasinya Terhadap Ketidakseimbangan Global

The study examines saving behavior in ASEAN 5+3 namely Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Japan, Cina, and Korea during 1991-2007 and its implication toward global imbalances. By using fixed effect panel data regression, this research shows that government spending, interest rate and inflation, financial development through private domestic credit and stock market capitalization along with the 1997 Asian crisis significantly affect the saving behavior. As a result, a macroeconomic stability through interest rate and inflation, the reinforcement of financial development and crisis anticipation policy are required to support global rebalancing through global saving redistribution

Squids-snapper fish dynamics model with fishing effects in Terengganu, Malaysia

Overexploitation of marine resources by human activities has become a pandemic issue nowadays. High fishing rates for example, may lead to the extinction of marine populations. In this paper, we introduce a mathematical model of prey-predator system for marine ecosystem with fishing rates for the case of Terengganu state. For this model, we use squids as prey while snapper fish as predator. The objectives of this paper are to analyze the sustainability of equilibrium populations of squids and snapper fish using stability analysis and to show the effect of fishing rates on both of these populations. This model shows that there are four potential equilibria solutions where both populations of squids and snapper fish may be extinct, mutual exclusions where either one of the species dies out as well as coexistence of both populations. The results for stability analysis reported that the equilibrium of coexistence of both populations was stable while the other was unstable. This means that populations of squids and snapper fish are estimated to sustain in the future with the current fishing activities in Terengganu. Hence, we conjectured that in order to guarantee both populations continue to exist, the fishing activities in Terengganu must be restricted within certain range of parameters that is lower than the population growth rates

Engineering of Soil Biological Quality from Nickel Mining Stockpile Using Two Earthworm Ecological Groups

Earthworms have the ability in modifying soil biological quality for plant growth. Their ability is mostly depending on its ecological groups. The objectives of the research were to study the influence of two ecological groups of earthworms on soil microbial activity and soil micro-fauna abundance, and to know the potential of soil modified by earthworms as plant growth medium. Eight combination of individual earthworm from epigeic and endogeic groups was applied into pot that was filled by soil from two years of nickel stockpile and each treatment was repeated by five times. The experiment was following complete randomize design procedure. After sixteen days of research, the soil sample from each pot was analyzed for soil FDA activity, number of flagellate and nematodes. Furthermore, one kg of the soil from each pot was taken and every pot was grown by Paraserianthes falcataria seedling with the age of five days and continued its growth for two months. The results indicated that the soil FDA activity, number of flagellate and nematodes among treatments were significantly differences. In addition, it indicated the significant differences in dry weight of shoot, root, total plant, and root to shoot ratio of P. falcataria seedlings. It concluded that the combination of an individual number of epigeic and endogeic earthworms improved soil biological quality of stock pile, amd most suitable for seedlings growth in nickel mining area

A comparative study of adhesion of melanoma and breast cancer cells to blood and lymphatic endothelium

Background: Lymphovascular invasion (LVI) is an important step in the metastatic cascade; tumor cell migration and adhesion to blood and lymphatic vessels is followed by invasion through the vessel wall and subsequent systemic spread. Although primary breast cancers and melanomas have rich blood vascular networks, LVI is predominately lymphatic in nature. Whilst the adhesion of tumor cells to blood endothelium has been extensively investigated, there is a paucity of information on tumor cell adhesion to lymphatic endothelium. Methods and Results: Breast cancer (MDA-MB-231 and MCF7) and melanoma (MeWo and SKMEL-30) cell adhesion to lymphatic (hTERT-LEC and HMVEC dLy Neo) and blood (HUVEC and hMEC-1) endothelial cells were assessed using static adhesion assays. The effect of inflammatory conditions, tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a) stimulation of endothelial and tumor cells, on the adhesive process was also examined. In addition, the effects of TNF-a stimulation on tumor cell migration was investigated using haplotaxis (scratch wound) assays. Breast cancer and melanoma cells exhibited higher levels of adhesion to blood compared to lymphatic endothelial cells ( p < 0.001). TNF-a stimulation of endothelial cells, or of tumor cells alone, did not significantly alter tumor–endothelial cell adhesion or patterns.When both tumor and endothelial cells were stimulated with TNF-a, a significant increase in adhesion was observed ( p < 0.01), which was notably higher in the lymphatic cell models ( p < 0.001). TNF-a-stimulation of all tumor cell lines significantly increased their migration rate ( p < 0.01). Conclusions: Results suggest that metastasis resultant from lymphatic vessel-tumor cell adhesion may be modulated by cytokine stimulation, which could represent an important therapeutic target in breast cancer and melanoma

Occupational safety and health assessment in metal industry within small and medium enterprise

According to annual report from the Social Security Organization (SOCSO) between years 2009 and 2011, metal industry has the highest reported number of accidents compared to the other manufacturing industry in small and medium enterprises (SMEs). Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the actual causes of problems that lead to the accidents involving metal industries within SMEs. In this study, checklist through site visits has been used to collect the data. The overall result reveals that the main causes of accident are due to organization failure, human factor, machine failure and surrounding environment

Evaluation of commercial soy sauce koji strains of Aspergillus oryzae for γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) production

In this study, four selected commercial strains of Aspergillus oryzae were collected from soy sauce koji. These A. oryzae strains designated as NSK, NSZ, NSJ and NST shared similar morphological characteristics with the reference strain (A. oryzae FRR 1675) which confirmed them as A. oryzae species. They were further evaluated for their ability to produce γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) by cultivating the spore suspension in a broth medium containing 0.4 % (w/v) of glutamic acid as a substrate for GABA production. The results showed that these strains were capable of producing GABA; however, the concentrations differed significantly (P < 0.05) among themselves. Based on the A. oryzae strains, highest GABA concentration was obtained from NSK (194 mg/L) followed by NSZ (63 mg/L), NSJ (51.53 mg/L) and NST (31.66 mg/L). Therefore, A. oryzae NSK was characterized and the sequence was found to be similar to A. oryzae and A. flavus with 99 % similarity. The evolutionary distance (K nuc) between sequences of identical fungal species was calculated and a phylogenetic tree prepared from the K nuc data showed that the isolate belonged to the A. oryzae species. This finding may allow the development of GABA-rich ingredients using A. oryzae NSK as a starter culture for soy sauce production

Social–environmental drivers inform strategic management of coral reefs in the Anthropocene

Without drastic efforts to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate globalized stressors, tropical coral reefs are in jeopardy. Strategic conservation and management requires identification of the environmental and socioeconomic factors driving the persistence of scleractinian coral assemblages—the foundation species of coral reef ecosystems. Here, we compiled coral abundance data from 2,584 Indo-Pacific reefs to evaluate the influence of 21 climate, social and environmental drivers on the ecology of reef coral assemblages. Higher abundances of framework-building corals were typically associated with: weaker thermal disturbances and longer intervals for potential recovery; slower human population growth; reduced access by human settlements and markets; and less nearby agriculture. We therefore propose a framework of three management strategies (protect, recover or transform) by considering: (1) if reefs were above or below a proposed threshold of >10% cover of the coral taxa important for structural complexity and carbonate production; and (2) reef exposure to severe thermal stress during the 2014–2017 global coral bleaching event. Our findings can guide urgent management efforts for coral reefs, by identifying key threats across multiple scales and strategic policy priorities that might sustain a network of functioning reefs in the Indo-Pacific to avoid ecosystem collapse

Mathematical analysis of population growth subject to environmental change

DOI: 10.1017/S000497271500065

Relationship between soil properties and corrosion of carbon steel

Soils constitute the most complex environment known to metallic corrosion. Corrosion of metals in soil can vary from relatively rapid material loss to negligible effects, depending on soil environment. Soil engineering properties and soil contents are important parameters that influence soil corrosivity and level of corrosion dynamic. Previous researches had successfully prevailed in investigating the soil corrosiveness, but mainly focused on the soil chemical content instead of soil engineering properties. Hence, this paper investigates the relationship of soil engineering properties towards metal loss of X70 carbon steel coupons. The study focuses on three types of major soil engineering properties which are moisture content, clay content and plasticity index. A total of 84 pieces of X70 coupons were placed in seven different types of soils for 12- months to study the influence of soil engineering properties towards metal loss via weight lo ss method. The coupons were thoroughly cleaned prior to installation to avoid any contamination or any possible entities that can affect the corrosion process. The soil and coupon were placed into a polybag to let the coupon corrode naturally .Since the soil samples were collected from five different locations covering 500km distance, the soils in the polybags were transferred from its actual site to a single location for monitoring purposes. Statistical analysis was carried out to study the relationship between soil engineering properties and corrosion rate. The analysis consists of simple bar graph, linear regression, multiple regression method and Analysis of Variances (ANOVA). The site testing results indicate moisture content as the most governance effect on corrosion rate based on the correlation coefficient. Yet, further investigation using the Analysis of Variances (ANOVA) and multiple regression analysis showed disagreement with the initial result whereby none of the factors have significance influence on corrosion rate. Hence, other factors such as soil chemical content, microbiological activity or pollution may be more dominant in influencing the dynamic of underground corrosion