Managing Malaysian water resources development

Water is a gift of God and Malaysia is rich in water resources. Water development has fueled socio-economic development of the country during the past decades.Dams and thousands of kilometres of pipes and canals divert water from the rivers to sustain domestic, industrial and agricultural needs. Lately, the water situation for the country has changed from one of relative abundance to one of relative scarcity.The population growth and the expansion in urbanisation, industrialisation and irrigated agriculture are imposing rapidly growing demands and pressure on the water resources, besides contributing to the rising water pollution. Water management is becoming increasingly comprehensive and complicated due to larger concentrations of population, commercial activities and industries around the cities and towns, increasing water consumption, increasing water pollution, increasing land use conflicts and climate changes. At the same time, development of new water resources to meet the ever increasing water demand is facing opposition from the environmentalists. Therefore, the preferred water supply management approach,whereby new supply sources are tapped to meet increasing demand should be replaced by water demand management approach, whereby efforts are directed towards managing the demand to keep it within available supply sources. Water demand management monitors and improves the efficiency of the supply system and all water users need to adjust their needs to the available water. The way forward to a prosperous and sustainable future is by keeping development to a level that is kept within the carrying capacity of the river basin while protecting and restoring the environment. As such, the water demand management should be practised within the broader context of integrated water resources management (IWRM). IWRM is an approach towards integrating and effectively coordinating policies, programs and practices addressing the water related issues which takes into consideration the aspects of socio-economic development and the conservation of the environment. The comprehensive management of water resources will cover three components namely,the management of water as a precious resource, the management of wastewater and water pollution, and the management of water related hazards such as floods, droughts and landslides. Whilst water related problems are essentially local issues,the solutions to such problems must be tackled from a broader perspective. These will require improved professional capability, and increased financial, legislative,managerial and political capacity

Atrial myxoma presenting as a cerebellar stroke

Primary tumors of the heart are rare. However, among them cardiac myxoma is the most common tumor accounting for half of the primary cardiac neoplasms. About 75% of cardiac myxomas are located in the left atrium, and 25% are located in the right atrium. These are thought to be arising from remnants of subendocardial vasoformative reserve cells or multipotential primitive mesenchymal cells in the fossa ovalis and surrounding endocardium, which can differentiate along a variety of cell lineages including epithelial, hematopoietic, and muscle cells. Although some cases are discovered incidentally by echocardiographic examination, it was recognized in most of the patients by various symptoms caused by the release of inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-6 (IL-6), obstruction of intracardiac blood flow, or embolization. Cardiac myxoma has many undetermined interesting issues regarding its origin, nature as a tumor, varying clinical manifestations, and the presence of both sporadic and familial types. Recent evidence revealed that cardiac myxomas are benign neoplasms and slowly proliferating lesions. The existence of its malignant counterpart is controversial. However, recurrence after surgical excision or metastasis has been reported. We hereby present a case report of a young gentleman who presented with history of sudden onset of weakness and cerebellar signs. Urgent CT scan revealed hypodensities of bilateral occipital lobes and cerebellum suggestive of infarcts. Urgent echocardiography denoted large left atrial myxoma. The tumor was excised and the patient recovered well

The vector algebra war: a historical perspective

There are a wide variety of different vector formalisms currently utilized in engineering and physics. For example, Gibbs' three-vectors, Minkowski four-vectors, complex spinors in quantum mechanics, quaternions used to describe rigid body rotations and vectors defined in Clifford geometric algebra. With such a range of vector formalisms in use, it thus appears that there is as yet no general agreement on a vector formalism suitable for science as a whole. This is surprising, in that, one of the primary goals of nineteenth century science was to suitably describe vectors in three-dimensional space. This situation has also had the unfortunate consequence of fragmenting knowledge across many disciplines, and requiring a significant amount of time and effort in learning the various formalisms. We thus historically review the development of our various vector systems and conclude that Clifford's multivectors best fulfills the goal of describing vectorial quantities in three dimensions and providing a unified vector system for science.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, 1 tabl

Generalised Minkowski spacetime

The four dimensional spacetime continuum, as first conceived by Minkowski, has become the default framework within which to describe physical laws. In this paper, we show how a four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime structure naturally arises from three-dimensional physical space when modeled with Clifford geometric algebra $C\ell(\Re^3)$. This expanded eight-dimensional framework allows a generalisation of the invariant interval and the Lorentz transformations. Also, with this geometric oriented approach the fixed speed of light, the laws of special relativity and the form of Maxwell's equations, arise naturally from the intrinsic properties of the algebra without recourse to physical arguments. We also find new insights into the nature of time, a unified treatment of energy-momentum and spin, a Lagrangian unifying gravity and electromagnetism as well as predictions of a new class of physical effects and interactions.Comment: 20 pages, no figure

Shallow-water Habitat Change Detection of Kaledupa Island, Wakatobi National Park (Wnp) for 14 Years

Metode penginderaan jauh sangat membantu dalam pemetaan kondisi habitat perairan dangkal secara spasial pada cakupan area yang luas. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis Perubahan habitat perairan dangkal Pulau Kaledupa, Taman Nasional Wakatobi (TNW), selama 14 tahun, dari tahun 2002 hingga 2016. Data citra yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah Landsat 8 OLI (2016), Landsat 5TM (2009), dan Landsat 7ETM+ (2002), yang dikombinasikan dengan data in-situ dan TNW. Klasifikasi Mahalanobis dimanfaatkan untuk memproduksi peta habitat perairan dangkal (karang hidup, karang mati, lamun, dan pasir) dan mendeteksi Perubahannya. Hasil yang diperoleh bahwa Perubahan yang terjadi dari tahun 2002 sampai 2016 adalah tutupan karang hidup menurun dari 2217 ha menjadi 2039 ha, tutupan karang mati juga menurun dari 3327 ha menjadi 2108 ha, luas pasir meningkat dari 1201 ha menjadi 1346 ha, area lamun naik dari 4130 ha menjadi 5294 ha. Metode ini merupakan alat analisis yang baik untuk menilai efektivitas upaya perlindungan ekosistem terumbu karang dan lamun di perairan Pulau Kaledupa, serta dapat diterapkan pada 3 pulau utama lainnya di TNW dan pulau-pulau kecil di Indonesia

The influence of millennial women's lifestyle, perceptions, and consumer preferences on skincare purchasing decisions: A case study on millennial women in East Aceh Regency

This study examined the influence of millennial women's lifestyle, perceptions, and consumer preferences on skincare purchasing decisions (a case study on millennial women in East Aceh Regency). This study used primary data obtained by distributing questionnaires to 100 respondents selected using the Purposive sampling method. The data analysis method used was the multiple linear regression method with the help of SPSS. The results partially showed that lifestyle did not influence skincare purchasing decisions for millennial women in East Aceh Regency, perceptions positively and significantly influenced skincare purchasing decisions for millennial women in East Aceh Regency, and consumer preferences positively and significantly influenced skincare purchasing decisions for millennial women in East Aceh Regency. Simultaneously, lifestyle, consumer perceptions, and preferences positively and significantly influenced skincare purchasing decisions for millennial women in East Aceh Regency

Calcium levels correlate with cell cycle phase and affect the level of the cyclin B transcript in Dictyostelium discoideum

In pre-aggregation amoebae of Dictyostelium discoideum, phenotypic differences with respect to cellular Ca2+ and cell cycle phases are known to bias post-aggregative cell-type choice. Using chlortetracycline fluorescence as an indicator, we found that cellular Ca2+ is highest at the S phase of the cell cycle. Upon increasing the level of Ca2+ with the help of the calcium ionophore A23187, there is a significant decrease in the cyclin B (clb1) mRNA level; the cdc2 mRNA level shows a marginal decrease. These results suggest that the effect of Ca2+ and the cell cycle on cell fate could be exerted at the level of transcription, or message stability, of specific genes

Relationship between employee aspects and employee performance

Studies found that employee performance is affected by employee aspects such as reward systems, job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, the relationships among these have not been proved clearly. Thus, this study is attempted to know about the relationship between employee aspects and employee reward. 100 employees were selected five hospitals. Since the value of KMO is greater than 0.5 (0.726) samples taken in this study is enough for factor analysis. Bartlett’s Test of Sphericity is measured by approximate chi- square is also significant. Total variance for employee rewards, job satisfaction and organisational commitment are around 93%. Since correlation values between employee rewards, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and employee performance are 0.711, 0.740 and 0.798 respectively there are strong correlations with employee performance. Results of the regression revealed that R square and adjusted R square reveals the values as 0.643 and 0.631 respectively. These values explain around 64% of total variation on employee performance. Study concludes that employee rewards, job satisfaction, organizational commitment and employee performance

Nilai-Nilai Perdamaian Dalam Buku Teks Pendidikan Agama Islam (Akhlak) Di Sekolah Muhammadiyah

The article examines whether the textbooks on Islamic Ethics (akhlak) taught in-the Muhammadiyah schools promote peace. Studying the content of schools' text-books is nececessary due to the increase of social conflicts and violent actions among-students. In particular, this article explores the Islamic teaching of peace within-Islamic Ethics textbooks published by the Board of Basic and Secondary Education-of Muhammadiyah (DIKDASMEN) in Yogyakarta Special Territory. By the use of-content analysis, this article finds that teaching materials in the Islamic Ethics text--books promote the values of peace. However, the texbooks editing quality needs to-be improved so that the narrratives (story tellings) and pictures (ilustration) can fit-the students' need