Effects of felling intensities on Gigantochloa ligulata bamboo for improvement of shoot production

Gigantochloa ligulata (buluh tumpat) is considered as one of the commercial bamboo species in Malaysia. Owing to its demand as food, especially in the northern part of the country and since it is relevant to improve production of bamboo shoots, a study on the effects of felling intensity as one of the silvicultural treatments on G. ligulata bamboo was conducted at Taman Wetland, in Putrajaya, Malaysia. Three culm felling intensities were applied for four months in 2005. The felling intensities of 0% (control), 30% and 60% were applied twice every two months within the four-month period. There were six replications done and 3kg of organic fertilizer was also applied. The number of shoots sprouted and their weights, including culm number, were monitored. The clump expansion pattern of selected treatment clumps were observed for dead and new shoots sprouted. The shoots were tagged and recorded every week. A shoot, which grew up to 30cm and from the ground, was considered as a shoot. The weights of the shoots with sheath were recorded on a weekly basis. The distribution pattern of the shoot sprouting was also observed. It was found that 30% felling intensity gave extra four shoots, as compared to other intensities, including the control with a value of 0.009 for both the treatments at 0.05 probability level

Growth Increments of Indigenous Species Planted in Secondary Forest Area

Evaluation on the growth of five indigenous timber species was performed after nine years after planting. The selected species was Azadirachta excelsa, Cinnamomum iners, Hopea pubescens, Intsia palembanica and Shorea leprosula planted under open area planting technique on secondary forest area were carried out in Pasoh Forest Reserve Area, Negeri Sembilan. The assessment involving measurements of Diameter at Breast Height (DBH), height of the species and the survival rate were carried out. An experimental design of Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was adapted. The result shows that the higher growth increments for the DBH were found at A. excelsa (1.06 cm year-1) and the lowest at, I. palembanica (0.97 cm year-1). For the height increment, A. excelsa was 1.38 m year-1 which was the higher and the lowest was the C. iners (0.77 m year-1). However, the survival rate found higher at C. iners (76.3%) and the lowest was at the S. leprosula (20.7%). This indicates that some indigenous species can be adapted to rehabilitate secondary forest area

Shopping’s Behaviour of Visitors at the Cross-Border Informal Market of Serikin, Sarawak

Cross-border activity especially in border towns is becoming increasingly important. There have been few studies of cross-border shopping and yet most of them have focused on macroeconomic effects rather on discovering the motivation, behavior and personal characteristics of cross-border shoppers who purchased abroad. This study aims to look the purchasing pattern of visitors at the cross-border informal market of Serikin, Sarawak according to the shopping’s behavior of the visitors. By using descriptive analysis, this study found that, the main purpose visitors come to Serikin once per month with friends by using their own cars and spend less than 4 hours is for shopping. On average, they spend less than RM 499 on other cost (transportation, foods & beverages and others) and there are only five items frequently buy by the visitors at Serikin that are clothes, vegetables, foods, electrical tools, and handicrafts. It is obvious that visitors come to Serikin for shopping. Although visitors come to Serikin with large quantity of money for shopping, but their expenditure will determine by their income

Anatomical and physical properties of cultivated two- and four-year-old bambusa vulgaris

Cultivated Bambusa vulgaris of two and four-year old were harvested and studied for their anatomy and physical properties. The anatomy properties between the two age-group of bamboo were observed to have some degrees of variation. This showed that the bamboo anatomy structure has strong correlation with age. The frequency of vascular bundles was greater at the bottom and top portion than in the middle portion of both age-groups. There was no difference in vessel diameter between the two and four-year old culms at the middle of the culms wall thickness. The cell’s wall thickness of both parenchyma and fibre were greater in the 4 year-old than in the 2 year-old culms. In the physical aspect, basic density was found to be higher in the 4 year-old culms than in the 2 year-old by 5 to 8%, and increases from lower to upper internodes showing that there is a maturing process going on between the two age-group relative to the tissue type that they possess

Effects of light intensity on Orthosiphon stamineus Benth. seedlings treated with different organic fertilizers.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the effects of varying light intensities and different organic fertilizers on the growth performance of O. stamineus seedlings through measurement of Relative Height Growth Rate (RHGR) and biomass production. Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) was used. Orthosiphon stamineus was arranged accordingly into three blocks or replicates. The three blocks represented the percentage light intensity. Block 1 (30% of light), Block 2 (50% of light) and Block 3 (100% of light). Each Block had four treatments and 25 plants of O. stamineus. The treatments were chicken dung, cow dung, oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) and control. The four treatments were arranged randomly in each block. Growth parameters measured were plant height, biomass (aerial portion, root biomass and total biomass within sixth month’s period. The 50% Relative Light Intensity (RLI) was better than 30 and 100% RLI. The chicken dung is better than oil palm EFB and cow dung

A comparison of univariate time series methods for forecasting cocoa bean prices

The purpose of this study was to compare the forecasting performances of different time series methods for forecasting cocoa bean prices. The monthly average data of Tawau cocoa bean prices graded SMC 1B for the period of January 1992-December 2006 was used. Tawau is one of the top cocoa producers in the world along with the Ivory Coast, Ghana and Indonesia. Four different types of univariate time series methods or models were compared, namely the exponential smoothing, autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA), generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity (GARCH) and the mixed ARIMA/GARCH models. Root mean squared error (RMSE), mean absolute percentage error (MAPE), mean absolute error (MAE) and Theil's inequality coefficient (U-STATISTICS) were used as the selection criteria to determine the best forecasting model. This study revealed that the time series data were influenced by a positive linear trend factor while a regression test result showed the non-existence of seasonal factors. Moreover, the Autocorrelation function (ACF) and the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) tests have shown that the time series data was not stationary but became stationary after the first order of the differentiating process was carried out. Based on the results of the ex-post forecasting (starting from January until December 2006), the mixed ARIMA/GARCH model outperformed the exponential smoothing, ARIMA and GARCH models

Economic Viability of Tectona grandis sole Cropping and Intercropping for 20 years Planting Project

Economic viability of Tectona grandis sole cropping and intercropping for 20 years planting project were carried at the Boonrich plantation in Lahad Datu, Sabah. The study was conducted to evaluate the economic viability and to compare between T. grandis sole cropping and intercropping of T. grandis with Salacca zalaca. The data of height, diameter, cost and prices were analysed. The parameter that used to measure the economic viability of the project were net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), benefit cost ratio (BCR), land equivalent ratio (LER), sensitivity analysis (SA) and payback period. The analysis was carrying out by using Microsoft excel. From the study, the NPV of intercropping is RM27,063.70 (USD8,841.54), the LER is 1.37, 23.68% of IRR and have a shorter payback period (13 years) compare to the sole cropping. As a conclusion, the intercropping can give a higher profit to the company, not only that it has a shorter payback period than the sole cropping. In addition, it also showed a higher yield as the LER is more than one (1.37). Therefore, T. grandis intercrop with S. zalaca will gain extra benefit and greater output than the sole cropping

Perception Level of Visitors towards Shopping’s Motivation Factors at the Cross-border Informal Market of Serikin, Sarawak

Perception level of the visitors towards shopping motivation factors at the informal cross-border market of Serikin, Sarawak will be examined by using descriptive analysis. There are nine items that are quality of the products, variety of the products, preferences of the products, cheaper price, price and quality of product is consistent, cheaper price due to the cheaper in labor force, bargain hunting, closer, and condition of road. Majority of the visitor’s perception towards shopping motivation factors at the informal cross-border market of Serikin, Sarawak are at the neutral level. This is attested by the higher frequency of respondents that give neutral level towards shopping motivation factors. This finding shows that Serikin needs more improvement and development in terms of products, sale’s services and environment of shopping to encourage visitors to shop

Fire Resistance Properties of Low-density Neolamarckia cadamba (Roxb.) Bosser Timber

The inherent flammability of timber rises the concern of society about the stability and firmness of timber materials when exposed to fire. This study illustrated the fire resistance properties of low-density Neolamarckia cadamba timber to evaluate its charred area (CA), charred depth (CD), mass loss rate (MLR), and charring rate (CR). Three different burning durations – 60, 90, and 120 min – were subjected to the timber test pieces following the NIST PS1-09 2010 standard. The CA and CD of the test pieces were measured using ImageJ before the determination of MLR and CR. N. cadamba showed a statistically significant difference on the top CA (14040.56 mm2) at 90 min compared to its side CA (1957.93 mm2). CD remained statistically unchanged for three burning durations. Top CA increased gradually with burning durations. Side CA and CD, however, were reduced to 1957.93 and 17.84 mm2, respectively, for 90 min, before being increased back to 120 min. For CR and MLR, a gradual dropped in trend can be seen in the burning durations. Significant differences were detected when comparing the CR (0.30 mm/ min) at 60 min with that in 90 min (0.20 mm/min), whereas the MLR was 2.15 g/m2s at 60 min with 1.42 g/m2s at 120 min. Generally, top CA, side CA, and CD showed an increased trend in the area and depth value. whereas CR and MLR showed the opposite