Assessing service quality of community-based ecotourism: a case study from Kampung Kuantan Firefly Park

Community-based ecotourism (CBE) could offer business opportunities to local communities living within or adjacent to unique ecological sites. CBE focuses on impact of tourism on the community and takes environmental, social and cultural sustainability into account. To assess the extent that CBE has been practised in Malaysia, Kampung Kuantan Firefly Park (FP), a habitat of the Lampyridae species beetle, was selected as study site to evaluate the services that the park offered and to assess the ability of the service provider, with the participation from local stakeholders, to fulfil tourist requests using the criteria of CBE as guidelines. Data were collected using convenience sampling of international and domestic tourists using questionnaire. All questions had been prior tested for reliability. The method of analysis involved the critical incident technique to identify and assess the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of tourists with regard to service encounters at the park. Five service failure constructs were identified and prioritised, namely, dissatisfaction with the quality of attractions and facilities at the park, tourist expectations before the visit, inadequate knowledge of employees, unacceptable behaviours of employees and other tourists, and inadequate responses to tourist needs. The form of recovery strategies undertaken by the service provider, its employees and participating community for major service quality failures were recorded and their effectiveness assessed

Social network analysis of Kampung Kuantan Fireflies Park, Selangor and the implications upon its governance

Community-based management practices stakeholder inclusivity is claimed to be the panacea in overcoming problems and dilemmas in governing ecotourism. Kampung Kuantan Fireflies Park (KKFP) in Kuala Selangor faced several complaints from tourists which were hypothesised to be associated with governance of the park. Social network analysis was utilised to identify the key stakeholders within the governance network of managing ecotourism and in understanding the interests and roles of these stakeholders. The network metrics used were number of edges, density, geodesic distance, and degree and betweenness centralities. The network metric and map obtained suggested that the local community boatmen had the highest degree and betweenness centralities in the KKFP social network. Inclusivity, particularly in the fireflies observation boat ride and tour services, had occurred but involvement in the management decision-making held by the district office could be improved. Possible explanations are provided for the dichotomy of findings between the informal power held by the local community boatmen and the formal authority held by the district office in the context of the Malaysian culture and custom

Application of Recycled Steel Fibre in Malaysia: A Review

The amount of waste tyres is expected to increase with the surge of vehicle ownership in Malaysia as tyres are vehicle vital components that require regular replacement. The improper disposal of waste tyres has generated environmental issues. Energy recovery through burning, recycling, and disposal in legal and illegal landfills are common methods in disposing of waste tyres in Malaysia. Studies show that waste tyres contain steel fibre that can be extracted and has the potential to be used in construction. In Malaysia, existing methods of material recovery are shredding and pyrolysis. The steel retrieved from waste tyres exhibits good adhesion with mechanical strength recorded up to 2165 MPa and a modulus of 300. However, the uneven shape, length, and geometry can lead to a balling effect when incorporated into concrete but with a proper mix proportion this issue can be managed. Addition of recycled steel fibre to concrete can enhance its structural strength and crack-bridging effect while the use of recycled steel fibre in hot mix asphalt can enhance its tensile strength and toughness. The utilisation of steel recovered from waste tyres presents an opportunity to address environmental concerns related to waste tyre disposal and its potential applications

Optimization of equitable irrigation water delivery for a large-scale rice irrigation scheme

Equitable water allocation is essential in an irrigation scheme for obtaining potential crop yields from the entire scheme, especially when water supply is inadequate. An optimization model achieved this goal by coupling an optimal water allocation model with available water supply and irrigation water demand for a river-fed rice irrigation system in Malaysia. This model consists of a paddy field water balance module and an optimization module. The outputs from the module are daily irrigation demand and surface runoff, if there is any. The optimization module consists of an objective function, which minimizes water shortage across the scheme area while maintaining equity in water allocation. This model performs optimization subject to several system constraints, and the decision variable of the model is daily releases or supply to the tertiary canals. Performance of this model remained unaffected under different water supply conditions, and the optimization model reliably examined the effects of alternate water allocation and management rules with field information. It improves efficiency and equity in water allocation with respect to crop growth stages and water shortages rather than simply cutting irrigation supply on a proportional basis to overcome water shortages

Enhancing the Performance of Knee Beam-Column Joint using Hybrid Fibers Reinforced Concrete

The knee beam-column joint is a critical location in a Reinforced Concrete (RC) structure particularly when subjected to earthquake vibrations. The current structural design codes dictate the use of high amounts of steel reinforcements in the frame joint to manage large strain demands in seismic-prone regions. However, these codes could result in the congestion of steel reinforcements in the limited joint area which can consequently produce numerous construction complications. This study aims to improve the structural performance of Knee Joint (KJ) by reducing the load induced to the embedded steel reinforcements during seismic vibrations. Hence, this study attempted to develop a Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Concrete (HyFRC) by combining multiple synthetic fibers to be introduced onto KJ. Six KJ specimens were cast using five developed HyFRC materials and one Control specimen to be experimentally tested under lateral cyclic loading. The results indicated significant improvements for the HyFRC KJ specimens particularly in energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation rate, displacement ductility toughness, steel reinforcement strain and hysteretic behavior. A total of six Finite Element (FE) KJ models were developed using the HyFRC materials to verify the results from the experimental testing. The accuracy of the proposed FE models resulted in average percentage differences of 25.89% for peak load, 3.45% for peak load displacement and 0.18% for maximum displacements from the experimental data. In conclusion, this study developed HyFRC materials that are beneficial in providing cost-efficient alternatives to Reinforced Concrete (RC) KJ structures in areas with low to moderate level of seismic risks

Correction to: Enhancing the Performance of Knee Beam–Column Joint Using Hybrid Fibers Reinforced Concrete

The knee beam–column joint is a critical location in a Reinforced Concrete (RC) structure particularly when subjected to earthquake vibrations. The current structural design codes dictate the use of high amounts of steel reinforcements in the frame joint to manage large strain demands in seismic-prone regions. However, these codes could result in the congestion of steel reinforcements in the limited joint area which can consequently produce numerous construction complications. This study aims to improve the structural performance of Knee Joint (KJ) by reducing the load induced to the embedded steel reinforcements during seismic vibrations. Hence, this study attempted to develop a Hybrid Fiber Reinforced Concrete (HyFRC) by combining multiple synthetic fibers to be introduced onto KJ. Six KJ specimens were cast using five developed HyFRC materials and one Control specimen to be experimentally tested under lateral cyclic loading. The results indicated significant improvements for the HyFRC KJ specimens particularly in energy dissipation capacity, stiffness degradation rate, displacement ductility toughness, steel reinforcement strain and hysteretic behavior. A total of six Finite Element (FE) KJ models were developed using the HyFRC materials to verify the results from the experimental testing. The accuracy of the proposed FE models resulted in average percentage differences of 25.89% for peak load, 3.45% for peak load displacement and 0.18% for maximum displacements from the experimental data. In conclusion, this study developed HyFRC materials that are beneficial in providing cost-efficient alternatives to Reinforced Concrete (RC) KJ structures in areas with low to moderate level of seismic risks

Emotion classification in Parkinson's disease by higher-order spectra and power spectrum features using EEG signals: A comparative study

Deficits in the ability to process emotions characterize several neuropsychiatric disorders and are traits of Parkinson's disease (PD), and there is need for a method of quantifying emotion, which is currently performed by clinical diagnosis. Electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, being an activity of central nervous system (CNS), can reflect the underlying true emotional state of a person. This study applied machine-learning algorithms to categorize EEG emotional states in PD patients that would classify six basic emotions (happiness and sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust) in comparison with healthy controls (HC). Emotional EEG data were recorded from 20 PD patients and 20 healthy age-, education level- and sex-matched controls using multimodal (audio-visual) stimuli. The use of nonlinear features motivated by the higher-order spectra (HOS) has been reported to be a promising approach to classify the emotional states. In this work, we made the comparative study of the performance of k-nearest neighbor (kNN) and support vector machine (SVM) classifiers using the features derived from HOS and from the power spectrum. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) showed that power spectrum and HOS based features were statistically significant among the six emotional states (p < 0.0001). Classification results shows that using the selected HOS based features instead of power spectrum based features provided comparatively better accuracy for all the six classes with an overall accuracy of 70.10% ± 2.83% and 77.29% ± 1.73% for PD patients and HC in beta (13-30 Hz) band using SVM classifier. Besides, PD patients achieved less accuracy in the processing of negative emotions (sadness, fear, anger and disgust) than in processing of positive emotions (happiness, surprise) compared with HC. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of applying machine learning techniques to the classification of emotional states in PD patients in a user independent manner using EEG signals. The accuracy of the system can be improved by investigating the other HOS based features. This study might lead to a practical system for noninvasive assessment of the emotional impairments associated with neurological disorders

Characterisation and In Vitro Antimicrobial Activity of Biosynthetic Silver-loaded Bacterial Cellulose Hydrogels

Wounds that remain in the inflammatory phase for a prolonged period of time are likely to be colonised and infected by a range of commensal and pathogenic microorganisms. Treatment associated with these types of wounds mainly focuses on controlling infection and providing an optimum environment capable of facilitating re-epithelialisation, thus promoting wound healing. Hydrogels have attracted vast interest as moist wound-responsive dressing materials. In the current study, biosynthetic bacterial cellulose hydrogels synthesised by Gluconacetobacter xylinus and subsequently loaded with silver were characterised and investigated for their antimicrobial activity against two representative wound infecting pathogens, namely S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. Silver nitrate and silver zeolite provided the source of silver and loading parameters were optimised based on experimental findings. The results indicate that both AgNO3 and AgZ loaded biosynthetic hydrogels possess antimicrobial activity (p < .05) against both S. aureus and P. aeruginosa and may therefore be suitable for wound management applications

Potential effects of essential oils in safeguarding the health and enhancing production performance of livestock animals: The current scientific understanding

The food sector competes in a cutthroat environment, and it constantly struggles to maintain or even grow its market share. For customer confidence and consumption to remain strong, consistent animal products are needed. The qualitative attributes of the derived goods appear to be improved by the addition of bioactive substances to food, such as essential oils (EOs), and consumers are shielded from the impacts of bacterial and oxidative deterioration. Due to the current controversy surrounding synthetic chemicals and their alleged carcinogenic potential, a substantial study has been done to find effective and safe substitutes. Aromatic plants and the corresponding EOs from them are considered natural products and are typically employed in ruminant nutrition. Since dietary supplementation has been demonstrated to be an easy and practical method to successfully suppress oxidative processes or microbial deterioration at their localized sites, the addition of EOs in animal diets is now becoming a regular practice. However, there is just a little amount of evidence supporting the notion that these compounds may improve nutrient absorption and gastrointestinal health. Additionally, a variety of factors affect how well EOs works in animal diets. These variables can be, on the one hand, the erratic composition, and the many additions to the diet, and, on the other hand, erratic animal genetic elements. Maximizing the use of EOs and creating high-quality products require a deeper understanding of the composition and activity of the gastrointestinal tract microbiota. Numerous EOs contain bioactive substances with the potential to serve as multifunctional feed supplements for animals, with impacts on growth performance, the digestive system, the growth of pathogenic bacteria, and lipid oxidation, among others. To establish their regular use in animal production and to determine their precise mechanism of action, more research is required. The potential advantages of EOs for livestock health and production are highlighted in the current article

Effects of Nigella sativa and Lepidium sativum on Cyclosporine Pharmacokinetics

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of Nigella sativa and Lepidium sativum on the pharmacokinetics of cyclosporine in rabbits. Two groups of animals were treated separately with Nigella sativa (200 mg/kg p.o.) or Lepidium sativum (150 mg/kg p.o.) for eight consecutive days. On the 8th day, cyclosporine (30 mg/kg p.o.) was administered to each group one hour after herbal treatment. Blood samples were withdrawn at different time intervals (0.0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 6.0, 8.0, 12, and 24 hrs) from marginal ear vein. Cyclosporine was analyzed using UPLC/MS method. The coadministration of Nigella sativa significantly decreased the max and AUC 0−∞ of cyclosporine; the change was observed by 35.5% and 55.9%, respectively ( ≤ 0.05). Lepidium sativum did not produce any significant change in max of cyclosporine, although its absorption was significantly delayed compared with control group. A remarkable change was observed in max and AUC 0− of Lepidium sativum treated group. Our findings suggest that concurrent consumption of Nigella sativa and Lepidium sativum could alter the pharmacokinetics of cyclosporine at various levels