Factors Affecting Technical Efficiency of Trawl Fishery in Penang, Malaysia

The main objective of this study is to investigate the level of technical efficiency and factors affecting technical inefficiency for a sample of local trawl vessel operating in Penang, Malaysia. This study was conducted due to the declining trend of marine fish landing of Penang trawl fishery 1993 – 2009. The annual cumulative number of days of local trawl vessels in these seventeen years was also declining in tandem. Data of this study were collected through questionnaire survey that was conducted from November 2009 to January 2010. Sixty-nine fishermen were selected randomly for this study. Information on landing per trip, number of crew, fishing days per trip, diesel consume per trip, gross registered tonnage of vessel and horsepower of vessel were gathered and analyzed by using two approaches namely, stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA). Furthermore, the determinants of technical inefficiency (family background, age, years of experience and education level of fishermen together with age of vessel and possession of echo sounder) were analyzed through SFA and tobit regression. The results from both approaches (DEA and SFA) indicated that technical efficiencies among vessels varied between 12.3% and 100%. The mean technical efficiency for DEA approach was 56.6% while SFA approach recorded 71.7%. The inefficiency model from SFA indicated that experience of fishermen, age of vessels and possession of echo sounder contributed positive influences on technical efficiency. In addition, the inefficiency model from tobit regression showed that family background, education, experience of fishermen and possession of echo sounder contributed positive influences on technical efficiency. The inefficiency models from both SFA and tobit regression consistently indicated that possession of echo sounder was the only significant variable having positive influence on technical efficiency which meant a vessel with possession of echo sounder would be more efficient compared with those vessels without echo sounder. Hence, this study suggested that fishermen should be encouraged to acquire an echo sounder and improve the marine fish landings through offering loans, subsidies or other incentives provided by the government to lessen the high capital investment cost borne by the fishermen

Investigation of Water Hammer Effect Through Pipeline System

This paper we study the condition where the water hammer effect is occurs in pipe line. Water hammer can cause the pipe to break if the pressure is high enough. The experiment will be set-up to investigate the water hammer effect in order to avoid the water hammer effect happen. The prevention of water hammer effect will be propose and prove the prevention method is successfully reduce the water hammer effect. The prevention method using is installing the bypass pipe with non-return valve. The experiment is done by capture the vibration signal by using data acquisition device and accelerometer. The pressure signal is capture after a sudden shutoff for the valve. The signal is than analyze and convert to wave speed. The project is differentiating and compares the water hammer phenomenon with different pipe material, pipe length, inlet diameter of pipe, and pressure in pipeline. From the experiment, result shown that the lower strength material pipe, smaller inlet diameter pipe, and longer pipe will deal with lager water hammer effect. Besides, the prevention method by installing by pass pipe with non-return valve of water hammer effect is proved successfully reduce the water hammer phenomenon by 33.33% of pressure

Technical efficiency analysis for Penang trawl fishery, Malaysia: Applying DEA approach.

Abundant fishery resources in Malaysia can be discovered along The Strait of Malacca. Penang is located in the north of Peninsular Malaysia, or, in the upper part of the Strait of Malacca. However, in the past seventeen years, annual landings of Penang trawl fishery had declined almost 23% and fishing effort had also dropped almost 70%. This research examined the score of technical efficiency and the factors causing inefficiency of sampled trawl vessels in Penang. The information of each vessel on landing per trip, number of workers, fishing effort, diesel consumption, vessels capacity and engine horsepower were collected through survey. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was applied to examine trawl vessels efficiency. Results obtained based on sixty-nine selected vessels showed that the score of technical efficiency among vessels varied between 0.123 and 1. The average technical efficiency of the sampled vessels was estimated to be 56.6%. The to bit model used to identify factors causing inefficiency showed that echo sounder was the only factor showing significant positive effect on technical efficiency. Factors of skipper characteristics (family background, education, experience and age of captain) and age of vessels were insignificant. Factors like family background, education and experience of captains however, showed negative signs on technical inefficiency analysis. On the other hand, factors like age of vessels and age of captain showed positive signs on technical inefficiency analysis. This research concluded that echo sounder had become an important factor in increasing technical efficiency scores of fishing vessels, and so to maximize the fish landings

Does attending seminars affect technical efficiency of white shrimp (Litopenaeusvannamei) aquaculture?

Measuring technical efficiency and examining the factors affecting technical inefficiency of brackish water white shrimp aquaculture in Malaysia are the objectives of the study. This study applies a parametric approach (stochastic production function, SPF) and a non-parametric approach (data envelopment analysis, DEA) to measure technical efficiency. The estimated average technical efficiencies of shrimp farms are 54.7 % (SPF) and 43.3 % (DEA). Labour, feed and fry are the three major inputs used and are also the independent variables applied in the models. Elasticities of labour, feed and fry are found to be -1.650, 0.686 and 1.52, respectively. These data show that excessive labour was hired and that feed used and fry stocked are deficient. Stochastic inefficiency model and to bit regression are the two approaches applied to measure the factors affecting technical inefficiency. The variable of “seminar attended” is the consistent core factor, which significantly and negatively affects technical inefficiency. This means that human resource development is playing a vital role to achieve a significant measurable and sustainable impact in Malaysian shrimp aquaculture

Malaysian white shrimp (P. vannamei) aquaculture: an application of stochastic frontier analysis on technical efficiency

Shrimp aquaculture is playing a vital role in Malaysian agriculture, especially its increasing contribution to economic growth. White shrimp aquaculture is not only the key player in brackish water shrimp aquaculture but also the largest contributor to Malaysian shrimp aquaculture. This study estimates technical efficiency and investigates factors affecting technical inefficiency of Malaysian white shrimp aquaculture. Stochastic frontier analysis with trans-log production model is applied in this study. Malaysian white shrimp aquaculture farmers have achieved an estimated average technical efficiency of 81.2 percent. Land ownership, shrimp seed size and seminar are the factors having significant impacts on technical inefficiency and thereby playing important roles in improving technical efficiency of this industry. This study suggests that seminar should be conducted by shrimp farming extension agents to enhance knowledge of shrimp farmers. Malaysian government should allocate lands and, provide technical and financial supports to develop this industry. Subsidy on shrimp seed should be also given to encourage shrimp farmers to embrace and adopt quality shrimp seed for their farms

Macroeconomic Variables Affecting the Fish Trade Balance in Malaysia

The world demand for fish has been increasing. Malaysia has a high fish trade with other countries. However, Malaysia, which has been one of the main fish producers given its long coastlines, still experiences a fish trade deficit. The present study aims to explore the effect of macroeconomic factors on the Malaysian fish trade balance by implementing the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) on the time series data from 1976 to 2016. The findings reveal that foreign income is positively correlated with the trade balance in both short-run and long-run. Nevertheless, trade openness, depreciation of exchange rate, and money supply show a negative effect on the trade balance for the long-run mainly. The incidents are mainly due to fish import dependence and a lack of capacity of exporting fish. To strengthen the trade balance, reducing fisheries products export duties and restricting imported fisheries products are highly recommended

Development of Low Wind Speed Anemometer

Anemometer is a measuring device used to measure the wind speed of an area. Before design or installing a wind turbine, it is important to determine the average wind speed of that particular area throughout the year. But it is illogically to purchase anemometer to measure the wind velocity for a year period. The purpose of this project is to design and fabricate a small scale of anemometer which will able to give the wind velocity with an acceptable range of uncertainty. The fabrication of the anemometer is developed using design methodology and simulation to obtain the optimized design. The designed anemometer has the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of 3.23 % when compared with Dwyer series 471 thermo-anemometer

Activity and interactions of antibiotic and phytochemical combinations against Pseudomonas aeruginosa in vitro

In this study the in vitro activities of seven antibiotics (ciprofloxacin, ceftazidime, tetracycline, trimethoprim, sulfamethoxazole, polymyxin B and piperacillin) and six phytochemicals (protocatechuic acid, gallic acid, ellagic acid, rutin, berberine and myricetin) against five P. aeruginosa isolates, alone and in combination are evaluated. All the phytochemicals under investigation demonstrate potential inhibitory activity against P. aeruginosa. The combinations of sulfamethoxazole plus protocatechuic acid, sulfamethoxazole plus ellagic acid, sulfamethoxazole plus gallic acid and tetracycline plus gallic acid show synergistic mode of interaction. However, the combinations of sulfamethoxazole plus myricetin shows synergism for three strains (PA01, DB5218 and DR3062). The synergistic combinations are further evaluated for their bactericidal activity against P. aeruginosa ATCC strain using time-kill method. Sub-inhibitory dose responses of antibiotics and phytochemicals individually and in combination are presented along with their interaction network to suggest on the mechanism of action and potential targets for the phytochemicals under investigation. The identified synergistic combinations can be of potent therapeutic value against P. aeruginosa infections. These findings have potential implications in delaying the development of resistance as the antibacterial effect is achieved with lower concentrations of both drugs (antibiotics and phytochemicals)

Surveillance of Broad-Spectrum Antibiotic Prescription in Singaporean Hospitals: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study

10.1371/journal.pone.0028751PLoS ONE612