Prediction and Determination of Undrained Shear Strength of Soft Clay at Bukit Raja

This paper presents the results of a study to predict and determine undrained shear strength, s", a very important parameter in design practice, for Klang clay, Malaysia. s is determined using field and laboratory vane shear and recompression method utilizing the direct simple shear (DSS) apparatus. Prediction of "was accomplished using the SHANSEP procedure and the critical state model. A test borehole at Bukit Raja, Klangs, was used for this study. Comparisons of s" values obtained by these methods are made. It is found that all the methods employed show the same trend of s" with depth. The vane shear test gives the highest estimation of s", followed by the recompression method, SHANSEP method and critical state method

Immunohistological localisation of Coxiella burnetii in various organs of naturally Q-fever infected goats

The rather uncommonly reported Q-fever disease in Malaysia is currently demonstrating an increasing trend of outbreaks. A total of 197 goat carcasses during the period of July 2007 to December 2009 were submitted to Regional Diagnostic Laboratory (MVK), Bukit Tengah, Penang, for post-mortem examination. Morphological diagnosis of necrotic placentitis, interstitial pneumonia, hepatitis and nephritis were observed in majority of the cases. Likewise, Giemsa stained sections of selected tissues revealed C.burnetii trophoblast. Acute cases yielded lesions conforming to doughnut granuloma, while those of the chronic form exhibited chronic inflammation. In an attempt to further confirm the presence of the organism, these selected tissues were subjected to immunohistochemical confirmation. Out of the total suspected cases, 152 (77.2%) were confirmed as positive of Q-fever based on their IHC. Thus, this study demonstrated pertinent lesions of acute and chronic forms of Q-fever which might be beneficial to laboratories without IHC facilities

The application of the geotechnical methods and satellite tracking data for landslide studies

The rapid development in Malaysia such as housing scheme at hilly terrain, construction of highways, mining activities and river bank instability especially in town areas such as Kuala Lumpur and Penang has triggered many landslide disasters. Since 1970 until 2002, more than 300 landslides have occurred throughout Malaysia and at least 30 landslides reported in Klang Valley alone. Most of the tragedies were largely triggered by incidences of heavy rainfall during the monsoon season. A landslide can be defined as the movement of the sand slope, rock and organic sources due to the gravity attraction. The landslides are caused by weather and external mechanism like heavy rain, human activities and slope erosion. Generally, there are various types of investigations and instrumentations used in monitoring the landslide’s phenomena. The main investigations in landslide monitoring are geological structure, satellite tracking data (GPS) observation and geotechnical method