Cukai tanah UUM 10 kali ganda: Terpaksa membayar RM1.8 juta setahun berbanding RM150,000 sebelum ini

PUTRAJAYA 18 April - Tindakan Kerajaan negeri PAS Kedah menaikkan cukai tanah Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) sehingga 10 kali ganda sejak mengambil alih tampuk pemerintahan negeri amat dikesali kerana universiti itu kini terpaksa membayar RM1.8 juta setahun berbanding RM150,000 sebelum ini

Investigating the Effect of National Park Sustainability on National Park Behavioral Intention: Kinabalu National Park

AbstractNational Park Sustainability (NPSus) is an important construct in the context of national parks which will lead tourism industry to move towards sustainable national parks. Although previous studies examined the tourist behavioral intention through deployment of sustainability principles or destination sustainability, there is a lack of research on the effect of NPSus on National Park Behavioral Intention (NPBI). To address this gap, this study developed a model which investigates the effect of NPSus as an independent variable, and National Park Satisfaction (NPSat) as mediator on tourist NPBI. The research hypotheses where NPSus and NPSat have a significant effect on NPBI was examined. A self-administrated questionnaire was distributed among 600 tourists from developed countries visiting Kinabalu National Park (KNP). The data was examined through deployment of structural equation modelling. The findings revealed that NPSus does not affect NPBI directly, however, NPSus has a significant indirect effect on tourist NPBI through mediation effect of NPSat. Furthermore, NPSat was a full mediator. Findings of this study had practical implication to enhance destination sustainability by better understanding the NPBI

Prediction for hydrolysis of ethylene oxide via fuzzy logic and PID control

Monoethylene glycol (MEG) or Ethylene Oxide is an important chemical in plastic and automotive industry as mixed ingredients or cooling liquid. It is produced from ethylene oxide via hydrolysis at 200ºC and 22 atm. The ratio of the ethylene oxide with water should be maintain at 1:20 to reduce the formation of diethylene glycol and higher homologs. Objective of this study is to predict a production of MEG using fuzzy logic. Others parameters such as level, temperature, composition and pressure are consider constant in this research as this study focusing on single input, single (SISO) output strategy. For fuzzy logic prediction, the type of model chosen is Mamdani with triangular membership function, input 1, input 2, and output which refer to error, feedback, and production of ethylene glycol respectively. 11 rules has been construct in this research. The rules may contain “AND” or “OR” conjunctions. The “error” represents the difference between the value feedback and the output. The results for fuzzy rules give highest product of MEG (6.91) at error of 0.102 and 0.8 of feedback. The gain of proportional, integral, and derivative are 0.2, 0.2, and 0.1 respectively

Nurturing Innovative and Creativity Through Open Ended Laboratory: JKKP Experience

AbstractInnovative approaches that require active involvement of the students in the learning activities are necessary to ensure the targeted learning outcomes are achieved. An open ended laboratory (OEL) assignment is introduced as part of the effort to provide suitable learning platform. This paper describes the implementation of the OEL and its impact on the overall students learning experience. They are graded based on the originality, creativity and innovation of their laboratory assignment as well as presentation of results and discussion. Initially we found the students faced some difficulties because they were not familiar with such laboratory assignment. Marks for innovation and creativity in the OEL assignments were found to be more than 50%, indicating that students innovative and creativity were nurtured during this assignment

The effect of different light treatments on nutrient concentration and leaf exchange in Brassica Chinensis

The effect of different LED light treatments on nutrient concentration and leaf gas exchange in Brassica chinensis was performed in this study utilizing Internet of Things (IoT) technology as remote monitoring system. Brassica chinensis were grown under four different light treatments and have been used as light source. The experiments were conducted namely T1 (continues light; 24 h lights), T2 (pulse lights: 1 h lights 15 minutes darks), T3 (various light intensities) and T4 (continues lights + Far red). The observation of nutrient concentration and activity leaf gas exchange plants were analyzed. An intelligent system using embedded system has been developed to automate the LED control and manipulation. The system is able to analze on data and monitor the environmental parameters of the plant factory on line via internet. The result shows that the system is stable and has a significant referential in the area of plant factory or indoor farming system. Based on the overall result, Continues Light (CL) gave a high impact towards Brassica chinensis growth. Therefore, combination CL and Far red also enhanced the plant nutrient concentration and the activity of leaf gas exchange

Enhancement in Monitoring for Integrated Project Implementation

AbstractIntegrated project for Year III has been introduced by the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering since 2007/2008 session. This project integrates three or four compulsory subject for each semester. The purpose of this project was to minimize student work load and help student to understand how each courses are related. Project monitoring is one of the procedures to evaluate the performance of integrated project. Since implementation of this project, the coordinator of integrated project will give feedbacks to the students on their performance after they have completed presenting their project. Even though this method is quite sufficient for student to learn their mistake unfortunately similar mistakes was repeated during their final year design project in final year. In order to overcome this problem, student self-assessment for integrated project was introduced during Semester II, Session 2011/2012. The results show that the students were able to detect their mistakes and errors, and some correction was done to their project

Morphological and physiological responses of brassica chinensis on different far-red (FR) light treatments using internet-of-things (IoT) technology

Advanced technology in agriculture has enabled the manipulation of the artificial light spectrum in plant development such as improving yield and plant growth. Light manipulation using light-emitting diodes or LEDs can inhibit, delay, or even promote flowering. Some studies have shown that far-red (FR) light can stop flowering, but studies have not fully explored the best method involving intensity and duration to induce plant growth. This paper presents results on LED light manipulation techniques, particularly FR light, on plant flowering control and plant elongation. The light manipulation technique on the combination of colors, photoperiods, and intensities proved that it can stop flowering, and stimulate and control the growth of plants during cultivation. The system was monitored using an Internet-of-Things (IoT) remote monitoring system, and it performed data mining. The results showed that plants that were grown under artificial sunlight (T5) and normal light (T1) treatments were superior compared to others. The FR light delayed flowering until 50 days of planting and accelerated the plant growth and increased the fresh weight by 126%. The experiment showed that a high variable intensity at 300 µmol m-1 s-1 showed a great performance and produced the largest leaf area of 1517.0 cm2 and the highest fresh weight of 492.92 g. This study provides new insights to the researchers and the farming community on artificial light systems in improving plant factory production efficiency and in determining the best plant cultivation approach to create a stronger indoor farming management plant

Bacterial cellulose as a potential hard gelatin capsule

Matured coconut water is considered as an industrial waste where about 5.3m3 of this solution was discarded everyday especially in the coconut processing industry. An improper disposal process can cause environmental pollution especially to nearest river of processing industry. Despite all the advantages of bacterial cellulose (BC) over plant cellulose, its production is relatively expensive process primarily due to the low productivity and expensive culture medium. Thus, coconut water can be used as a medium for fermentation bacterial cellulose and the production cost can be reduced up to 50 to 60%. Acetobacter xylinum 0416 is often used in industry because they can be produced large quantity of BC. There are many applications of BC in industries such as in the food industry, pharmaceutical industry, textiles and etc. However, this study only focuses on the characteristics of hard gelatin capsule (pharmaceutical industry) and BC. This is because, in market there are about 80-90% hard gelatin capsule are non-halal and this situation cause very high demand of halal hard gelatin capsule especially in Islamic countries. This study focus on determination of optimum condition for BC production by manipulation of variable with a certain pH range which is (4-6), the incubator temperature (28-32°C), and time of fermentation (3-7 days). Comparison of BC and hard gelatin capsule properties were made through FESEM, XRD and FTIR analysis. Study found that optimum BC was obtained about 2.28 g/L at 32°C, in pH4 for 7 days fermentation period

Profile of visual impairment in older adult patients attending primary eye care optometry clinic : a retrospective study

With an aging population, prevalence of visual impairment (VI) is expected to increase as well. A retrospective study was conducted involving the files of older adult patients aged 60 years and above from the Primary Eye Care (PEC) Optometry Clinic Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). This study was aimed to determine the prevalence and causes of VI among older adults. This retrospective study was conducted by reviewing files of older adult patients aged 60 years and above who had visited PEC Optometry Clinic UKM from 2009 to 2019. Socio-demographic, health status, status of visual acuity (VA), refractive error, prevalence and causes of VI before and after refractive correction were analysed by using descriptive statistic. Habitual distance VA was measured monocularly using the Snellen chart and recorded in decimal unit. The mean habitual distance VA in the better eye was 0.72+0.31, ranging from 0.41 to 1.03 while the mean VA after subjective refraction in the better eye was 0.88+0.28 which ranging from 0.60 to 1.16. The prevalence of VI based on habitual VA were 16.0%. The main cause of VI based on habitual VA was cataract (53.4%). The refractive status after subjective refraction showed highest percentage of hyperopia (41.9%), followed by emmetropia (32.4%) and myopia (25.7%). The findings of this study emphasise the importance of increased patient education and further expansion of optometric services are required to reduce avoidable blindness