The biology of the Mango Leafhopper, Idioscopus nitidulus in Malaysia

Field experiments were conducted to study the biology of the mango leafhopper, Idioscopus nitidulus Walk., following outbreaks in north Peninsular Malaysia in 1986 and 1987. The developmental period on inflorescense was 13.77±0.25 days for males and 13.50±0.60 days for females, and mean incubation period of eggs was 3.85±2.00 days. Hoppers reared on the inflorescence produced 277±110 eggs with a hatchability rate of 90.2±8.4%; those on shoots produced 149±57 eggs and had a hatchability rate of54.8±22.0%. A female mating only once laid 176±72 eggs, whereas multiple mated females produced 149±57 eggs. On shoots in the field, the longevity of females (69.8±9.8 days) was not significantly different from that of males (60.5±8.5 days)

Organizational commitment of Vocational College Teachers in Malaysia

This study aimed to validate factors related to organizational commitment among teachers in vocational colleges in Malaysia. As we know, the commitment given to the organization will make the organization manageable. However, there are issues regarding the commitment given by the teachers in vocational colleges, which has led to poor performance of college organizations. Some studies have found that factors such as narrative commitment, affective commitment and ongoing commitment cause the overall commitment to the organization to be disrupted. In this study, a fully quantitative approach is used to determine factors in the organization commitment of vocational college teachers. The questionnaire was administered to 264 vocational college teachers in three states in Malaysia namely Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor. The data obtained were then analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) using AMOS 21 application. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was performed to obtain factor loading for each element obtained namely narrative commitment, affective commitment and continuous commitment. The analysis results show that the factors reflect the appropriate fit and meet all the criteria for validation. Therefore, the findings of this study can further confirm previous findings on this issue

Investigating the Sensitivity Effect of Actuarial Assumptions on Pension Liabilities in Malaysia

ستشهد ماليزيا شيخوخة السكان بحلول عام 2030 حيث زاد عدد الأشخاص الذين تبلغ أعمارهم 60 عامًا فما فوق بشكل كبير من 6.2 في المائة في عام 2000 ومن المتوقع أن يصل إلى 13.6 في المائة بحلول عام 2030. وهناك العديد من التحديات التي ستواجهها بسبب شيخوخة السكان أحدها التكلفة المتزايدة للمعاشات التقاعدية في المستقبل. في ضوء ذلك ، من الضروري التحقق في تأثير الافتراضات الاكتوارية على التزامات المعاشات التقاعدية من منظور الشيخوخة. ومن اجل تقدير مطلوبات المعاشات التقاعدية ، يتم استخدام طريقة ائتمان الوحدة المتوقعة في الدراسة ويتم استخدام وظائف الاستبدال في العملية. تم تحديد المخاطر الديموغرافية ومخاطر الرواتب على أنها مخاطر رئيسية في تحليل التزامات المعاشات التقاعدية في هذه الدراسة. سيتم إجراء تحليلات الحساسية في الدراسة للتحقق في كيفية تأثر التزامات المعاشات التقاعدية عندما تتغير هذه المخاطر الرئيسية. تحلل هذه الدراسة تسعة سيناريوهات تحت افتراضات في النموذج الاكتواري وهي سن التقاعد ومعدل الوفيات ومعدل نمو الرواتب. تشير نتيجة هذه الدراسة إلى أن تجربة الوفيات الضمنية وافتراضات معدل نمو الرواتب لها تأثير كبير على التزامات المعاشات التقاعدية.Malaysia will be an ageing population by 2030 as the number of those aged 60 years and above has increased drastically from 6.2 percent in 2000 and is expected to reach 13.6 percent by 2030. There are many challenges that will be faced due to the ageing population, one of which is the increasing cost of pensions in the future. In view of that, it is necessary to investigate the effect of actuarial assumptions on pension liabilities under the perspective of ageing. To estimate the pension liabilities, the Projected Unit Credit method is used in the study and commutation functions are employed in the process. Demographic risk and salary risk have been identified as major risks in analyzing pension liabilities in this study. The sensitivity analyses will be conducted in the study to investigate how the pension liabilities will be affected when these major risks changes. This study analyzes nine scenarios under assumptions in the actuarial model, namely age of retirement, rate of mortality and rate of salary growth. The result of this study indicates that the implied mortality experience and salary growth rate assumptions have a significant impact on pension liabilities

Cytotoxicity studies of lung cancer cells using impedance biosensor

Electrical cell-substrate impedance sensing (ECIS) is a valuable tool for real time monitoring of cell behavior such as attachment, mobility, and growth. To employ ECIS, the cells need to attach, spread and proliferate on the sensor in the presence of adhesion-promoting protein that mimics the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the cells. For cell attachment, collagen I, Bovine had been used as the coating substrate. In this study, four designs with varying electrode distances had been measured to detect the changes in impedance values of Lung Carcinoma cell lines (A549). The impedance change due to the cell growth and attachment was modeled as an equivalent circuit consisting of resistors and capacitors of both the cell culture media and the cells. The impedance measurements were measured every 8 hours for 120 hours at frequencies of 100Hz to 10MHz using Agilent Precision Impedance Analyzer 4294A. The experimental results have shown that the closest distance of the electrode gave the most optimum impedance value for A549 cancer cell’s measurement. The cancer cells were also treated with a chemotherapeutic drug, Taxol and its impedance response was monitored over 5 days. Experimental results show that there is significant reduction in impedance when the cancer cells were exposed to Taxol, indicating that the cells are no longer adherent to the sensor’s surface or are dead

Predicting storage life of sapodilla (Manilkara zapota L.) by non-destructive technique

Non-destructive technique using Kiwifirm device was useful in detecting the maturity stage of sapodilla fruit, predicting the quality at ripening stage and also days of the fruits to ripen. The power line (Y = 0.02x3.6026) which was derived from the relationship of score resultant from the impact response of Kiwifirm device and duration for the fruit to ripen at 12 °C can be used as a chart to predict and separate the fruit according to the predicted storage duration. Thus the technique could be used to group the fruit into either storage-marketing and utilization purposes, or only suitable group for certain market. This strategy can be used to promote sapodilla fruit for distance market or export. Post-harvest losses, which occurred during storage and transportation can be minimized

Application of simulation in determining suitable operating parameters for industrial scale fluidized bed dryer during drying of high impurity moist paddy

A systematic approach has been developed for selecting the suitable drying parameters to be used for drying of high moisture and high impurity paddy with an industrial fluidized bed paddy dryer (10–20 t h−1 capacity) based on targeted specific air flow rate and residence time during two typical paddy drying seasons. A mathematical model was developed by modifying an existing model and was simulated and validated with observed industrial drying data as well as data reported in the literature. Comparison between the observed and simulated results showed that the mathematical model is capable of predicting outlet paddy moisture content and air temperature well. Suitable operating parameters were determined for reducing any initial paddy moisture content (mc) down to 24–25% dry basis (db), the safe mc level after fluidized bed drying to maintain rice quality, to achieve maximum possible throughput capacity of the dryer with corresponding energy consumption. Based on these criteria, bed thickness at 10 cm, specific air flow rate of 0.05 kg kg−1 s−1 (for corresponding bed air velocity of 2.3 m s−1), air temperature of 150 °C and residence time of 1.0 min were found to be suitable drying conditions for reducing paddy mc from 30 to 24.30% (db) in one season while the maximum throughput capacity of 15.7 tonne per hour (t h−1) might be achieved. The specific electrical and thermal energy were 0.48 and 6.15 MJ kg−1 water evaporated, respectively. On the other hand, the dryer capacity was found to be limited to 7.4 t h−1 during drying paddy of higher initial mc (35% db). This approach might provide easy and comprehensive guidelines for selecting suitable sets of operating parameters for any industrial fluidized bed dryer at its possible maximum throughput capacity for drying of freshly harvested high moist paddy with a high level of impurities

Overall energy requisite and quality feature of industrial paddy drying

Energy consumption and rice quality are the main concerns of millers and must be assessed to ascertain suitable industrial drying strategy. In this article, industrial paddy drying methods as usually practiced in the BERNAS paddy drying complexes of Malaysia have been evaluated. The analysis showed that the specific electrical and thermal energy consumption varied between 16.19 kWh to 22.07 kWh and 787.22 MJ to 1015.32 MJ, respectively, in single-stage paddy drying (SSPD) using an inclined bed dryer (IBD) to dry each tonne of freshly harvested paddy with average moisture content of 23.35 ± 0.86% wb. On the other hand, the energy consumptions for two-stage paddy drying (TSPD) with a fluidized bed dryer (FBD) followed by IBD were 21.37 kWh/t to 30.69 kWh/t and 666.81 MJ/t to 1083.42 MJ/t, respectively. SSPD at 35–39°C and TSPD using FBD at 120°C as the first stage, followed by IBD as the second stage at lower temperature of 35–39°C yielded 2–3.6% higher head rice yield than paddy-dried by a single stage with IBD using comparatively higher temperature of 40–44°C. Therefore, IBD is recommended to be operated using a temperature of 35–39°C both in single-stage drying and second-stage drying of paddy after fluidized bed drying to obtain quality rice

Drying kinetics,energy consumption, and quality of paddy (MAR-219) during drying by industrial inclined bed dryer with or without the fluidized bed dryer.

The performances of industrial dryers, namely the inclined bed dryer (IBD) and the fluidized bed dryer (FBD) combined with IBD, in terms of drying kinetics, energy consumption, and quality of paddy were investigated in this study. Drying parameters used in a single-stage paddy drying using IBD and a two-stage drying using FBD combined with IBD were analyzed to assess the existing performances of the drying techniques. The overall performances of the current drying practices exhibited inconsistent results with the operating parameters, such as drying air temperature, drying time, and air flow rate among the drying process lines. Distinct variations in moisture reduction and energy consumption of the drying systems were identified. Poor performance of the industrial fluidized bed dryer was observed in the case of drying in low capacity that caused higher specific energy consumption. However, the quality of milled rice obtained from both drying systems was found to be almost similar. Minimal process time (i.e., up to 24.5% less) was found in the paddy dried with FBD as the first-stage drying, followed by IBD as the second-stage drying