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

Image reconstruction using iterative transpose algorithm for optical tomography

This paper describes a transpose algorithm for use with an optical tomography system. The measurement system consisted of two orthogonal arrays, each having ten parallel views, resulting in a total of twenty sensors. The measurement section is divided into hundred equi-sized pixels. The forward problem is modelled by allocating an optical attenuation coefficient to each pixel. The attenuation of incident collimated light beams is then modelled using the Lambert-Beer law. The inverse problem is defined and the transpose of the sensitivity matrix is used to obtain an estimate of the attenuation coefficients in each pixel. The iterative method is investigated as a means of improving reconstructed image qualit

Pharmaceuticals active compounds in the aquatic environment: a review

Pharmaceutical active substances utilised to treat human and animal diseases can launch into the environment through effluents from wastewater treatment plants and direct disposal of pharmaceutical compounds. Some of these compounds arrive in the environment as a parent compound or as active/inactive metabolites. Owing to their pharmacological action, their conceptions in the environment are significant, and thus this chapter reviews the understanding of the presence of pharmaceutical compounds in the environment

The development of a research framework for inventory performance improvement of the automotive manufacturing industry: review of literature from 2011-2020

The main purpose of this study is to examine existing literature on how inventory performance in the automotive manufacturing supply chain can be improved. Articles reviewed are from the last ten years that is related to automotive manufacturing industry and targeted to inventory performance. Transformational changes are happening in the automotive manufacturing supply chains with ubiquitous technology leading the transformation. Inherently, due to its outsourced manufacturing in dispersed locations globally, communication and coordination would be affected in some form. This results in companies in the automotive manufacturing supply chain resorting to hold more inventory to mitigate the uncertainty. Therefore, to address this issue, this study conceptualises a theoretical framework that is adapted from Galbraith’s (1974) Organisational Information Processing Theory. The recommended framework may provide a guide to practitioners on understanding the intricacies of supply chain integration and how technology tools may help in mitigating risks and improve inventory performance (Abstract by authors

Sunakku Cafe / G Soheana Sulaiman... [et al.]

Sunakku Cafe is a restaurant located in One Borneo Hypermall, Jalan Sulaman, Kota Kinabalu, 88400, Malaysia: 088-447744 with its address Sunakku Cafe, No. C-205, Concourse Floor, 1 Borneo Hypennall. Sunakku' Cafe serves all levels of social class, gender, age, and income status, and accepts booking for table an hour before the stated time for the necessary preparation as well as walk-ins. Sunakku Cafe serves Japanese-style food such as Ramen, Takoyaki and Japanese style crepes

Adaptive Meshing for Deep-drawing Process

The paper incorporates the concept of adaptive meshing for finite-element analysis of the deep-drawing process. In adaptive meshing, the mesh is automatically refined both in the areas of insufficient accuracy and sharp stress gradients. The Zienkiewicz-Zhu error estimator based upon the difference between the finite-element solution and the corresponding smoothened solution is used to judge the accuracy both at the element and the global levels. The post-processing for determining more accurate solutions is done by fitting a higher order polynomial expansion to the finite-element solution in nodal patches. An illustrative problem is solved and the adaptive refinement at differention is presented

Efficient Class of Estimators for Finite Population Mean using Auxiliary Information in Two-Occasion Successive Sampling

In the case of sampling on two occasions, a class of estimators is considered which uses information on the first occasion as well as the second occasion in order to estimate the population means on the current (second) occasion. The usefulness of auxiliary information in enhancing the efficiency of this estimation is examined through the class of proposed estimators. Some properties of the class of estimators and a strategy of optimum replacement are discussed. The proposed class of estimators were empirically compared with the sample mean estimator in the case of no matching. The established optimum estimator, which is a linear combination of the means of the matched and unmatched portions of the sample at the current occasion, was empirically compared with the proposed class of estimators. Mutual comparisons of the proposed estimator were carried out. Suitable recommendations are made to the survey statistician for practical applications

The Correlation Functions and Estimation of Global Solar Radiation Studies Using Sunshine Based Model for Kano, Nigeria

The use of empirical models for the comparative study of the correlation functions for the estimation of global solar radiation in Kano, Nigeria has been carried out. The models used are based on relative sunshine duration alongside the measured global solar radiation data, such as: the linear model..... More details can be found in the full paper

Plant water relations, crop yield and quality of arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) as affected by supplemental deficit irrigation.

Low amount and erratic distribution of the seasonal precipitation and recurrent droughts are major threats to coffee production in Ethiopia. This necessitates application of supplemental deficit irrigation for coffee production. This study evaluated the impact of two supplemental irrigations, viz. supplemental full (SFI) and deficit irrigation (SDI) in comparison to rain-fed (RF) control on plant water relations, yield and quality of Coffea arabica L. during the dry season using three cultivars (cv. F-59, 74110 and 75227). Supplemental full irrigation consistently improved soil and plant water status and stomatal conductance (gs) during the dry season and resulted in significantly higher yield. However, the difference between SFI and SDI was not significant for crop yield, but had higher yield than RF control. Overall quality in terms of raw appearance and total quality of coffee beans was substantially improved and the amount of irrigation water applied was considerably reduced by SDI compared to SFI practice. Therefore, SDI appears to be more effective than SFI for coffee production in areas of frequent water scarcity and recurrent drought as for eastern and northern parts of Ethiopia

Variation of Specific Gravity in Acacia mangium

The study involved 13-year old provenance trials of Acacia mangium which were established at five sites in Sabal, Jakar, Oya, Labang and Sawai in Sarawak, Malaysia. Five provenances were planted in the trial. Three provenances were from Australia and two from Indonesia. The main objectives of this study are to establish a radial trend of specific gravity from pith to bark and to establish the extent of variation contributed by planting site, provenance, tree, orientation and radial position on specific gravity. Radial variation in specific gravity increased from pith to bark. It ranged from 0.20 at pith to 0.80 at bark with a mean and coefficient of variation of 0.56 and 17.05%, respectively. Site, provenance and radial contributed significantly towards specific gravity in Acacia mangium. Interaction between provenance and site was highly significant which involved a change in provenance ranking across the sites. Radial was the largest contributor to the total variance component in specific gravity