Kualiti persekitaran dalaman dalam mereka bentuk studio lukisan kejuruteraan di sekolah menengah teknik

Persekitaran yang sihat mampu untuk menjana aktiviti pembelajaran dan pengajaran yang kondusif. Kajian terdahulu menunjukkan wujudnya hubungan yang signifikan di antara persekitaran yang dibina dan perkembangan pembelajaran pelajar. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenalpasti kesesuaian elemen kualiti persekitaran dalaman studio lukisan kejuruteraan di sekolah menengah teknik mengikut persepsi pelajar dan guru seterusnya menghasilkan satu cadangan elemen kualiti persekitaran dalaman dalam mereka bentuk studio lukisan kejuruteraan. Rekabentuk kajian adalah kaedah tinjauan gabungan Sequential Exploratory. Responden kajian melibatkan 352 orang pelajar tingkatan 4 dan 44 orang guru matapelajaran Lukisan Kejuruteraan di sembilan buah Sekolah Menengah Teknik seluruh Malaysia. Sampel dipilih menggunakan pensampelan rawak bertujuan. Data kualitatif dikumpul menggunakan analisis dokumen dan temubual berstruktur manakala data kuantitatif pula menggunakan instrument set borang soal selidik dengan pendekatan pasangan soalan positif dan negatif Model Kano. Dapatan menunjukkan elemen penting dalam mereka bentuk studio lukisan kejuruteraan adalah elemen kualiti sistem penyejukan berpusat yang terkategori dalam Faktor Bonus (Menarik). Manakala elemen udara tercemar dari ruang lain, pencemaran bunyi dari luar studio, hiasan dalaman studio yang teratur serta menarik, visual menyeluruh lanskap semula jadi, saiz kawasan aktiviti pelajar, zon untuk aktiviti pembelajaran yang berbeza dan ruang menarik dalam studio pula berada dalam Faktor Berkadar (Satu Dimensi). Pengkaji mencadangkan beberapa elemen kualiti persekitaran dalaman dalam mereka bentuk studio lukisan kejuruteraan berdasarkan dapatan kajian menggunakan elemen-elemen yang telah dikenalpasti menerusi objektif pertama sehingga ke empat. Dalam konteks kajian ini, cadangan elemen kualiti persekitaran dalaman yang dibangunkan oleh pengkaji diharap dapat membantu pihak berkepentingan dalam meningkatkan kualiti persekitaran dalaman studio lukisan kejuruteraan ke arah yang lebih baik

Aplikasi GIS dan Simulasi Banjir Sungai Siak Pekanbaru Menggunakan XP-SWMM

Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province, consists of 12 localities and covering an area of 632.26 square kilometer. The current land utilization in this city may create sufcare hydrology problems, such as flooding and shortage of water. The objective of this work is to analyse the land utilization pattern in Pekanbaru in 2004 in conjunction with flooding problem. The ArcView GIS 3.2 software package was implemented to analyse the land utilization data provided by a satelite, and the XP-SWMM hydrodynamic software package was used to simulate the flooding of Siak river in Pekanbaru. The result showed that land utilization was dominated for farming (49.26%), followed by vegetation, forestry, and settlement (17.09%, 13.06% and 11.97%, respectively). The simulation revealed that the flood occured in 28 December 2004 had submerged three regions, i.e. Sri Meranti, Meranti Pandak, and Pesisir, covering an area of approximately 880 hectare. In addition to this, bigger floods had been predicted to occure in the near future if the utilization of land is not pecisely managed

Understanding factors associated with delay in seeking treatment among locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer in Hospital Raja Perempuan Zainab II

Breast cancer is the second most cancer common detected in the world, as reported by GLOBOCAN in 2012 and contribute about 25% of overall cancer worldwide.1 It is expected to increase every year as a lot of promotion had been done to increase breast cancer awareness. Despite the public awareness and education regarding breast cancer, patient with locally advanced breast cancer or metastatic breast cancer is still commonly seen in our community. In Kelantan, it had been reported by Cancer Registry 2006, up to 34.9% cases presented at stage 4, comparing only 20.7% in stage 3 and 19% in stage 1.2 Breast cancer is a disease that have good survival rate if detected early as delay in seeking treatment associated with larger tumor, more advanced stage and subsequently poorer prospect of survival. Breast cancer delay can be defined as more than 12 weeks between discovery of the symptom by patient and the beginning of the definitive treatment. This can be further classified as patient delay (waiting 3 months or more before seeking treatment) or health provider delay (one month or more from first patient presentation till beginning of treatment). MA Richard et all had analyzed 2964 patient with different stage of breast cancer, shown that the survival after 10 years for patient presented less than 12 weeks after first symptom was 52% and 47% for longer delays.3 According to The Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) on management of breast cancer in Malaysia, it is recommended that breast cancer patient should receive primary treatment within 2 months of presenting symptom.4 The aim of this study is to understand the factors associated with delay in seeking treatment for patient presented with locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer in HRPZ II

Dimension and stackability of cassava (Manihot esculanta Crantz) chips for mass production

Cassava chips that exist in the current market have no standardisation and cannot be stacked nicely into cylindrical container. The objectives of this work are to determine the different dimension of cassava chips produced with different thickness and to develop stackable chips during mass production. Fresh cassava tubers were harvested, washed, peeled and sliced. The thickness measurements used were 1.0 mm, 1.5 mm, 1.75 mm and 2.0 mm and 1.27 mm thickness was measured from commercial potato chips as a controlled sample. Then, it was fried in deep fat fryer with the temperature of 170°C. For each thickness studied, different numbers of slice (10, 20, 30 and 40 slices) were fried simultaneously. Results showed that there are 6 shapes of fried chips produced during the frying. To conclude, thickness of the slice and number of slices fried simultaneously give impact towards the shape of fried chip

A new constant market share competitiveness index

Constant-market-share analysis (CMSA) is one of the most widely employed descriptive tool for measuring the export competitiveness of a country relative to other countries or regions of trade for goods and services. Typically, export growth is attributed to growth in the country’s export competitiveness and also to the growth effect of the market itself. However, CMSA measurement is prone to a number of methodological short comings which stems from the CMS identities used in the analysis. Namely, the discrete approximation of continuously changing trade patterns, the interaction effects term residual from the CMS identity decomposition and the arbitrary choice of weights attached to base periods. This paper addresses some of the short comings of the classic CMSA approach. Within a geometric framework we reexamine the CMS decomposition and propose a new net-share approach that is easier to implement and interpret. For researchers and policy makers, this methodology presents a simpler but more consistent measurement for more accurate CMS measurement and interpretations of changing trade patterns

Dispute avoidance procedure: observing the influence of legal culture towards a workable legal system

It is pertinent to specifically conduct research on the viability of introducing dispute avoidance procedure (DAP) for construction industry due to the lack of research in this area, as most of the current research covers various issues within dispute resolution procedure and management field. The objective of this study is to examine the future of DAP in the Malaysian construction industry by looking into the perceptions of the construction industry players. Data were collected through interview of selected respondents and analyses to reveal patterns to help formulate a viable DAP mechanism. NVivo software has been used to manage and organise complete interview transcripts and facilitate data analysis process for this study. This study reveals that the existing DAP mechanisms are not viable for the Malaysian construction industry at present, mainly due to the issue of costing. Thus, a modified version of DAP was formulated to promote a viable mechanism. This study suggests that the structural elements of a viable DAP mechanism could be in the form of an 'involvement of top management' from both contracting parties (without the involvement of any third parties) who are decision makers or persons with financial authority, and the process is through 'discussion and negotiation'. In essence, this study captures the legal culture and trade usage of the industry which assisted the formulation of a viable DAP mechanism

Association of body weight status and socio-demographic factors with food habits among preschool children in Peninsular Malaysia

Introduction: Changes in children's food habits are largely attributed to changes in the family and social environment. This cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the association of socio-demographic factors with food habits among preschool children in Peninsular Malaysia. Methods: A total of 1,933 preschool children aged 4-6 years old participated in the study. Parents or guardians were interviewed on the socio-demographic characteristics and food habits of their children. Height and weight of the preschoolers were measured; BMI-for-age, weight-for-age and height-for-age were determined. Results: The mean monthly household income was RM3,610 with 59.6% of parents having attained secondary education. The prevalence of possible risk of overweight, being overweight and obesity were 3.9%, 7.9% and 8.1%, respectively while the prevalence of underweight and stunting was 8.0% and 8.4%. A majority of the preschoolers consumed breakfast, lunch and dinner every day, with the proportion of children skipping their main meals at about 15.0%. Parents' education level and household income were significantly associated with intakes of fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products, as well as fast food. However, there was no significant association between children's body weight status and frequency of main meals intake, fruits, vegetables, milk and dairy products, and fast food intake. Conclusion: The preschoolers demonstrated moderately healthy food habits; nevertheless even at this young age, they were inclined towards fried foods, snacking and fast foods intake. Parents and guardians should play a more significant role in educating and promoting good nutrition and food habits among preschoolers

Improved tool life in end milling Ti-6A1-4V through workpiece preheating

This paper presents the investigation of tool life improvement in end-milling of Titanium Alloy Ti-6Al-4V through workpiece preheating. End milling tests were conducted on Vertical Machining Centre with full immersion cutting. Induction heating was utilized during end milling for preheating. The titanium alloy Ti-6Al-4V bar was used as the workpiece. Machining was performed with a 20 mm diameter end-mill tool holder fitted with one PCD inserts. All of the experiments were run under room temperature and preheating condition at 315, 450, and 650ºC. Flank wear has been considered as the criterion for tool failure and the wear was measured using a Hisomet II Toolmaker’s microscope. Tests were conducted until an insert was rejected when an average flank wear greater than 0.30 mm was recorded. Cutting force and torque measurements were conducted using the Kistler Rotating Cutting Force Dynamometer. Vibration during cutting was captured using an online vibration monitoring system. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was also used to investigate the wear morphology. The results led to conclusions that workpiece preheating significantly increases the tool life of PCD inserts in end-milling of Titanium Alloy Ti-6Al-4V

Isolation and Characterization of a Molybdenum Reducing Enzyme in Enterobacter cloacae Strain 48

Molybdenum reducing enzyme was isolated from Enterobacter cloacae Strain 48 by ammonium sulphate fractionation, DE-cellulose ion-exchange chromatography and Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration. SDS-PAGE of the concentrated Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration eluates revealed the presence of 3 protein subunits of molecular weight 80, 90 and 100 kDa. The active concentrated fraction from the Sephacryl S-200 gel filtration step was then characterized for molybdenum reducing activity with 12-molybdophosphate (12-MoP) as a substrate. The optimum pH and temperature of the reaction was 5.0 and 28-33°C, respectively. ADH was a better reducing agent in the reaction than NADPH; the double reciprocal plot of activity against ADH and NADPH revealed apparent Km and V""", values of 1.65 mM, 6.28 nmole molybdenum blue produced/min/mg and 2.13 mM and 4.10 nmole molybdenum blue produced/min/mg, respectively. The double reciprocal plot of activity against 12-MoP and 20-molybdodiphosphate revealed apparent K m values of 0.3 mM and 0.4 mM, respectively. The apparent Vmax values are similar for both substrates at 6 nmole molybdenum blue produced/min. The assay method for molybdenum reducing activity using 12-MoP was found to be easier and more rapid than the present method of using molybdate as a substrat