Diversity and abundance of storage pest in rice warehouses in Klang, Selangor, Malaysia

Insect’s pest infestation on rice product cause a serious damage either in quantitative or qualitative aspect. This paper assesses the abundance and diversity of insects pest of stored products in rice warehouses, through a study in three rice warehouse (Jasa, Tenggara, Target Lane) in Klang Selangor, Malaysia. Investigations recorded four main insect species in all the warehouses are Oryzaephilus surinamensis, Tribolium castaneum, Sitophilus oryzae and Cadra cautella. Oryzaephilus surinamensis showed the highest abundance in all warehouse with total 47403 individuals (97%), T. castaneum with 431 individuals (0.88%), C. cautella with 760 individuals (1.56%) and S. oryzae with the lowest abundance (11 individuals; 0.02%). The Shannon-Weiner index shows that highest insects diversity was in Tenggara warehouse (Shannon’s, H’ = 0.28), while Target Lane were the lowest (Shannon’s, H’=0.11). The information on insect’s pest diversity in rice warehouses is very useful to implementation of management and controlling insect’s pest infestation in stored rice grains

Analysis of a Qur'anic topic in Islamic education textbook: human creation as a sign of Allah's greatness

This study aims to analyze and evaluate a Quranic-based topic from a chapter of the Islamic Education for secondary school textbook authorized by the Ministry of Education, Malaysia. Textbooks are an essential feature in Malaysian classrooms when implementing the school curriculum. Due to the development and changes in practices and teaching methodology, the quality must be considered before the choice of a specific textbook is made. Policymakers, teachers, and educators should inspect the textbook's content accuracy and recommended teaching and learning practices before determining its suitability. This will benefit teachers and students, leading to meeting the educational objectives. This qualitative study used a content analysis approach to examine the pedagogical value and suitability of a topic and its content with respect to students’ cognitive, affective and psychomotor learning domains. After analyzing the data, it was shown that the examined topic met students’ capability to interpret the lesson well. A solution to overcome shortcomings was also suggested. The findings from this study will be beneficial to teachers in adapting the recent technique of teaching. It will also benefit the policymakers in making amendments to the subjects’ Curriculum and Assessment Standard Document (DSKP)

Effects of day time sampling on the activities of termites in oil palm plantation at Malaysia-Indonesia

The activities and abundance of termites are highly affected by the environment. The objective of this study is to determine the activity of termites according to the different time of sampling event namely morning and evening session. The belt transects (100 metre length x 4 metre width) was set up in a line across the oil palm plantation. The sampling time was divided to the morning session (8:00 am to12:00 pm) and the evening session (2.00 pm to 6.00 pm). The presence of termites at each sampling time was recorded. A total of 12 belt transects with six replications for each sampling time at four different localities (MyFKT, MyLSK, IdFRGB, and IdCPSK) were placed. The results showed that the morning session recorded more species (31 species) in comparison to the evening session (15 species), and there are significant differences between the two sessions (χ2=45,119, df=30, p<0.05). Based on the autocorrelation, there are also significant differences on the termite’s activities between the two session. Overall, the termite activity is more active in the morning. The effect on the environment such as temperature and humidity in the morning and midday affect the abundance, diversity, and the presence of termites

Phylogenetic and haplotype analyses offer insights towards conservation of pteroptyx tener olivier, 1907 (coleoptera: lampyridae) populations from Malaysia

The synchronous-flashing firefly, Pteroptyx tener Olivier, 1907 is a congregating firefly with high economic value for the ecotourism industry. However, the populations of P. tener are increasingly being threatened due to habitat destruction. The assessment of genetic variation within and among populations of the species from Malaysia might play a major role in conservation and management programs. Objectives of this study were to investigate the relationships among P. tener from five populations in Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo (Sabah) using cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), and to obtain its haplotype information. A total of 50 sequences of P. tener were used in the Neighbour-Joining (NJ), Maximum Parsimony (MP), and Bayesian Inference (BI) phylogenetic analyses and successfully formed several distinct clades of West and East Malaysia (East Coast and West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia) with moderately to highly supported bootstrap values and posterior probabilities. Several haplotype analysis parameters are presented; low nucleotide diversity (PiT, 0.01893), haplotype number (Hn, 19), and high haplotype diversity (Hd, 0.89469). Our findings assumed that the geographical isolation due to the inability for flying long distances without help by the wind and flooding in tidal rivers. The dat

Polyglot

The IIUM MBBS SEMINAR SERIES are e-books based on Phase 1 Kulliyyah of Medicine, IIUM, MBBS student seminar presentations. As part of the curriculum, all students are required to present one seminar. Topics covered are varied and not necessarily related to medicine. This e-book is based on the topic of polyglots. It will briefly discuss the factors influencing the ability to become polyglots and reasons for interest in becoming one. Whilst mentioning the multitude of languages spoken in Malaysia, this book will also focus on three popular languages that many students are interested in learning

Kepelbagaian kumbang tanah (Coleoptera: Carabidae) di ladang sawit Endau-Rompin, Pahang, Malaysia

Coleoptera adalah kumpulan serangga yang mempunyai kepelbagaian yang tinggi dan memainkan peranan yang penting di dalam ekosistem. Ia turut mempunyai kepentingan ekonomi terutamanya di dalam industri sawit. Satu kajian mengenai kepelbagaian dan kelimpahan kumbang tanah (Coleoptera: Carabidae) pada jenis tanah berbeza di Ladang Kelapa Sawit Endau-Rompin, Pahang telah dijalankan dari tahun 2009 sehingga tahun 2012 Objektif kajian adalah untuk mengkaji kepelbagaian dan kelimpahan kumbang tanah Carabid dan menyediakan satu inventori kumbang tanah Carabid di ladang kelapa sawit Endau-Rompin, Pahang. Persampelan yang digunakan untuk kumbang tanah Carabid ini adalah menggunakan transek dan perangkap cahaya (UV). Sejumlah 657 individu kumbang tanah Carabid telah berjaya direkodkan untuk hasil kajian ini. Terdapat lima subfamili iaitu Harpalinae (75.64%), Trechinae (14.46%), Scaritinae (8.37%), Cicindelinae (1.38%) dan Lebiinae (0.15%) yang telah direkod. Indeks Kepelbagaian Shannon-Wiener (H’) menunjukkan nilai kepelbagaian yang paling tinggi di kawasan tanah gambut cetek (H’:1.495) manakala yang paling rendah adalah di kawasan tanah gambut dalam (H’:0.904). Kajian pada ketiga-tiga jenis tanah ini tidak mempengaruhi bilangan spesies yang hadir di kawasan kajian ditunjukkan dengan chi-square kuasa dua tiada signifikan (p >0.05). Ujian kebarangkalian pertindihan spesies dilakukan berdasarkan kehadiran dan ketidakhadiran spesies kumbang tanah Carabid di lokasi kajian dan dibahagikan kepada empat kelompok

Metabarcoding of Parasitic Wasp, Dolichogenidea metesae(Nixon)(Hymenoptera: Braconidae) That Parasitizing Bagworm, Metisa plana Walker (Lepidoptera: Psychidae)

Microbiome studies of the parasitoid wasp, Dolichogenidea metesae (Nixon) (Hymenoptera, Braconidae) are important because D. metesae has potential as a biological control agent to suppress the pest, Metisa plana Walker (Lepidoptera, Psychidae). Three field populations of parasitic wasps with different Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices to control M. plana collected from Perak state (Tapah) and Johor state (Yong Peng and Batu Pahat districts) in Peninsular Malaysia were studied. Bacterial community composition and structure were analysed using α and β diversity metrics. Proteobacteria (83.31%) and Bacteroidetes (6.80%) were the most dominant phyla, whereas unknown family from order Rhizobiales was the most abundant family found in all populations followed by Pseudomonadaceae. Family Micrococcaceae was absent in Tapah. Rhizobiales gen. sp. and Pseudomonas sp. were abundant in all populations. Pearson’s correlation analysis showed the strongest correlation between individuals of Batu Pahat and Yong Peng (r = 0.89827, p < 0.05), followed by Tapah and Yong Peng with r = 0.75358, p < 0.05 and Batu Pahat and Tapah (r = 0.69552, p < 0.05). We hypothesise that low diversity and richness in Tapah might be due to direct and indirect effect of insecticides application. This preliminary data was the first study to do inventory of the microbiomes in the gut of the D. metesae

An experimental study of tool wear during end milling of carbon fibre reinforced polymer in cutting fluid condition.

Carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) is replacing metallic components and become a valuable material that has been used in many industrial applications including biomedical, marine and automobile. This is due to their excellent performance in term of reliability, high strength and light weight. However, the machining of CFRP is challenging because the abrasiveness of their reinforcement component often resulted in high tool wear rate. This experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of cutting parameters (cutting speed and cutting condition) on tool wear of uncoated tungsten carbide end mill tool, and to observe the wear mechanism of the carbide tool mill during milling of CFRP. In this study, machining test was carried out with the presence of coolant to aid in removing the cutting heat during machining. The effect of cutting speed of 132 m/min, 151 m/min and 170 m/min with a constant feed rate of 2100 mm/min during milling process of CFRP by using uncoated tungsten carbide end mill tool were discussed. Based on the result obtained, it was found out that the value of tool wear at cutting speed of 170 m/min is higher compared to the wear value at cutting speed of 132 m/min due to the high frequency friction of tool against machined surface. Analysis of tool wear using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) found out that the primary wear observed is abrasive wear due to the rubbing action between the tool and the surface of workpiece. The cutting tool is observed to have the lowest tool wear when low cutting speed is implemented along with the presence of coolant

An experimental investigation on surface quality of CFRP after milling in cutting fluid environment

Carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) are becoming more widely used in replacing metallic component as it offers better strength-to-weight ratio compared to steel while having high corrosive resistance. Although CFRP have always been manufactured near to net-shape, secondary machining process is still required to achieve the final dimension. Machining can cause CFRP to experience surface defects such as delamination, fiber pull-out and smeared matrix which lead to part rejection. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of cutting parameters on the surface roughness and its quality. In this investigation, cutting speeds of 132, 151 and 170 m/min with constant feed rate of 1800 mm/min were applied during end milling of CFRP using uncoated tungsten carbide end mill tool in cutting fluid condition. It was observed that high cutting speed (170 m/min) produced 45.3% lower Ra than lower cutting speed (132 m/min) after machining for 6500 mm cutting distance. The occurrence of thermally degraded resin on the machined surface was apparent at higher cutting distance between 3000 to 6500 mm. Also, it was observed that the smearing of thermally degraded resin was more obvious on higher cutting speed when compared at 132 m/min cutting speed suggesting that at higher cutting speed more heat generated that resulted in increasing the cutting temperature. Fiber pullout was also found on the machined surface and the cavity formation changes with increasing of cutting distance resulting in relatively larger cavity

Analysis on tool wear during milling carbon fiber reinforced polymer in dry, coolant and chilled air condition

The demand of the Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) has been significantly increasing over the years especially in automotive and aerospace since CFRP possesses an excellent strength-to-weight ratio. However, milling CFRP challenging due to its anisotropic and heterogeneous property therefore produce brittle and dust-like chips. As CFRP is a combination of layers of carbon fibers embedded in matrix resin, machining process must be conducted below the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the matrix resin as it can degrade the CFRP. In this experimentto investigate the effect of cutting speed and cutting conditions on the tool wear during the milling process, CFRP was machined with 6mm diameter uncoated tungsten carbide tool with helix angle of 30°. Milling of CFRP was performed with three cutting speeds of 130, 150 and 170 m/min in three different cutting conditions which is dry, coolant and chilled air with constant feed rate of 2100 mm/min and depth of cut of 2 mm. The highest average tool wear of 110 μm was obtained during milling the CFRP with cutting speed 170 m/min in chilled air condition, 25.5% higher than the average wear of 82 μm at low cutting speed of 130 m/min in the same condition