Adoption of integrated cattle and oil palm farming system in Malaysia

Malaysian government had encouraged the adoption of integrated cattle and oil palm farming system (ICOFS) since the year 1998. This is due to large areas of land suitable for ICOFS in Malaysia that can be well utilised. Rising up the participation in ICOFS is one of the effort in facing the increasing demand of meat nationwide and growing dependency on imported meat. Apart from that, Malaysia needs to increase the self�sufficiency level of national meat production to 32.7% by 2020 as stated in the National Agri-Food Policy 2011-2020. Despite this, only a small number of farmers have adopted ICOFS in Malaysia and less is known so far about the farmer's attitudes towards the ICOFS in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aimed to explore the current practice as well as factors affecting and constraints to the adoption of ICOFS in Malaysia. Interviews of four selected experts in ICOFS were held to examine the current practice of ICOFS in Malaysia. Results from the interviews and literature review have been cross-compared to develop questionnaire instruments. Then, the survey questionnaire was carried out to 153 adopters and non-adopters of ICOFS in Johor, Malaysia to identify the key factors that influence the adoption of ICOFS. The study found that information and know-how and availability of skilled labour are the significant factors that encourage farmers to adopt ICOFS. On the other hand, government support and policy constraint and production and on-farm constraint are the significant constraints hindering the adoption of ICOFS. Based on the findings of this study, one of the measure to increase the rate of adoption of ICOFS are by helping the farmers to hire extra labour and to have skills needed. Furthermore, rate of ICOFS could also be increase by helping the farmers to have better control on weed, pest and diseases on farm as well as not interrupting their oil palm production. In addition, it is suggested to provide them with more opportunity towards incentives, training and technical support from the field officers. It is suggested for future research to explore the effect of factors affecting adoption and constraints to adoption on other attitudinal and psychological outcomes such as satisfaction, successfulness, involvement and degree of use

Classification of frontal alpha asymmetry using k-Nearest Neighbor

Frontal alpha asymmetry is used as the EEG feature in this study. Total number of 43 students participated in EEG data collections of relax and non-relax conditions. The spectral power of the alpha band for both left and right brain are extracted using data segmentations and then the Asymmetry Score (AS) is computed. Subtractive clustering is used to predetermine the number of cluster center that are presented in the data. While Fuzzy C-Means (FCM), is used to discriminate the EEG data into an appropriate cluster after the total number of cluster had been determined. The classification rate obtained from the k-Nearest Neighbor (k-NN) classifier is 84.62% which gives the highest classification rate

Survey on Kuala Lumpur to Singapore High-Speed Rail (KL-SG HSR) Project among Pagoh Residents

The Kuala Lumpur to Singapore high-speed rail (KL-SG HSR) project is the first HSR that will be built in Malaysia. This project aim is to facilitate the journey between Malaysia and Singapore. The total length of the KL-SG HSR project is 350 kilometers, it covers 335 kilometers in Malaysia and 15 kilometers in Singapore which can shorten the traveling time between Malaysia and Singapore within 90 minutes compared to four or five hours taken currently by road, seven hours by classic rail service or three hours by air transport. The issues about the HSR project started after the 14th general election when Tun Dr. Mahathir said that this project was not necessary and could be scrapped. After two weeks later, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad clarified that this HSR project was not being scrapped but merely postponed for a few years. Because of this situation, it is crucial to get public opinion and reaction regarding this issue. The study focuses on the public's opinion toward the HSR project among Pagoh residents. Pagoh is selected because, in the planning of this HSR project, there will be a station to be developed in Pagoh. This study determines the awareness of Pagoh residents on the HSR project, identifies the most important source they get the information about the HSR project, and studies their opinion about the implementation of HSR project according to the general scope of HSR, economy, and the future expectation of the project. The data collected using questionnaires distributed online and by face to face. The methods used to analyze the survey data are the Pareto analysis, Chi-Squared, Cramer's V, and Mann-Whitney U test. 263 respondents participated in this study and the results found that the majority of the respondents are aware of the HSR project, but they still have lack knowledge and information about the project. Television is the most important source for the respondents getting information on the HSR project and most of the respondents have positive responses toward the HSR project

POLYCARBONATE WITH FUNCTIONALIZED GRAPHITE NANOFIBERS (GNF) AND THE STUDY OF ITS THERMAL AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES

The present study described the process of producing polycarbonate with functionalized graphite nanofiber (GNF) composite and its properties. To improve the solubility of GNF, it will have to go through functionalization which is also known as oxidation. Before functionalization, the GNF have to undergo acid wash process to eliminate metal catalyst in the raw GNF at the same time removing impurities and increase the purity. Acid wash was done by using 2 Molar (M) ofhydrochloric acid and 1hour ofstirring using a mechanical stirrer. After metal elimination process, the GNF was functionalized for 4 hours in 4M nitric acid by using double sonication system; which was using both ultrasonic bath and ultrasonic probe at the same time, to increase efficiency. The acid treatment chemically modified the hydrophobic and inert nature of the surface of raw GNF by attaching functional group such as carboxyl group (COOH) which were detected by using Fourier Transform Infrared Microscopy (FTIR) analysis. The morphology and surface of the GNF were studied from Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM). Then, the enhance polymer plastic were prepared by solution blending method. Dispersion of GNF within the polymer was observed by microscopic imaging. The study then investigated into the mechanical and thermal properties of the polycarbonate-GNF by Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Universal Testing Machine. For this research, 0.5wt% gives the better dispersion without aggregation and a significant increase in the properties compared to the samples of lwt% and 2wt% where the fibers agglomerate; decreasing the nano-composites potential

Network device ad-blocker

While surfing the web, users are frequently bombarded with the abundance of digital advertisements, or simply called ads, in the form of images and videos. These often unwanted and sometimes obnoxious ads can be blocked by installing an often lagging ad-blocker in the web browser on your computer. This becomes even complicated in smartphones and tablets, as ads can also appear in other apps. Therefore, this project introduces the Network Device Ad-Blocker hardware to overcome the mentioned problems. The Rapid Application Development (RAD) methodology is used to realize this project. Subsequent testing shows that no ads appear after the deployment this hardware with significant improvements in the download speed

An Exploratory Study on the Level of Trust towards Online Retailers among Consumers in the United Kingdom and Malaysia

This study aims to investigate the extant level of trust towards online retailers among consumers in two different geographical and cultural locations – UK and Malaysia based on Michell’s et al. trust model. The objectives of this study are: 1. To identify the predictive variables of customers’ trust towards online retailers 2. To ascertain the extent of the consumer trust variable as being the essential element of online shopping 3. To analyse the differences in perception of online trust between consumers in the United Kingdom and Malaysia The study showed that online retailers are comparatively more trusted in UK than in Malaysia indicative by the higher average levels of trust from consumers in the UK. Additionally, the UK had a higher age group in the 25 – 34 category contributing the highest average trust value compared to Malaysia’s highest average trust value found in the lower 18 – 24 age group. There were a relatively higher percentage of male users; 66 per cent and 78 per cent in the UK and Malaysia respectively. Multiple stepwise regressions were used to analyse the level of trust against the selected trust correlates

Emergency Response Procedure for the New Residential College

Emergency Response Procedure for the New Residential College was developed in order to enable the Village 3 and Village 4 residents, staffs and the public to learn about the Emergency Procedure that should be taken during the emergency situation. Thus the main objective of this project is to develop a simulation that can educate the residents about the Emergency Procedure. Other objective is to create a simulation to increase the resident's awareness about the important of Emergency procedure. The project was developed using 3D modeling where 3D studio max was used to create and animate it. Later the animationwill be imported into flash and presented using flash as a platform

PERKEMBANGAN INTELEKTUAL PADA MASA DINASTI BUWAIHI

Perkembangan ilmu pada masa dinasti Buwaihi adalah konsekwensilogis dari sejarah perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan yang telah berjalanlama. Mulai dari usaha penerjemahan, keterbukaan terhadap budayalain dan pergesekan antara berbagai aliran pemikiran yang terjadidalam umat Islam sendiri. Selain itu, terdapat juga faktor lain yanglangsung mempengaruhi pertumbuhan dan perkembangan ilmupengetahuan pada masa dinasti bani Buwaihi. Pertama, tumbuhnyakota-kota ilmu dan budaya. Selain Bagdād sebagai kota besar, munculpula kota-kota lain seperti, Cordova, Kairo dan Bukhara. Di daerahbani Buwaihi juga muncul kota ilmu pengetahuan selain Baṣrah danKufah, yaitu Rayy, Iṣfahān dan Syirāz. Kedua, maraknya majelis-majelis ilmu yang didirikan oleh berbagai amir dan wazir. Majelis ilmuini dapat dikelompokkan kepada 3 bentuk: majlis al-umara’, majelisal-wuzara’ dan majelis al-‘ulama. Ketiga, perpustakaan dan Dar al-‘ilm. Para ulama dan wuzara’ serta banyak orang kaya berlomba-lomba mendirikan perpustakaan dan Dar al-ilm

Critical success factors for software projects: a comparative study

Although there have been studies completed on the critical success factors of software projects, these studies all have been specific to one particular country. There has been no comprehensive study reporting on different project sizes in various domains and in multiple countries. We present our extensive literature survey of critical success factors that impact software projects. Forty-three articles from the years 1990 to 2010 were found to be significant contributions that could be analysed in order to develop a list of critical factors that specifically affect the success of software projects. The method of content analysis and frequency analysis was adopted. Twenty-six critical success factors were found to be related to software project success. We suggest that organisation or project manager is attentive to control the top five critical factors to drive towards project success since the percentage of frequency of occurrences for each is more than 50%. Also, it appears that non-technical factors (94%) dominated over technical factors (6%). In a result unique to our study compared with previous one, we found that the factors of clear and frozen requirements, realistic estimation of the schedule and budget, along with a competent project manager are the five most critical success factors of software projects