Residents' attitudes toward impacts of tourism: A case study of Langkawi, Malaysia

This paper presents findings from a study that was undertaken to investigate residents’ attitudes toward the impacts of tourism in Langkawi Island, Malaysia. In order to gain reliable results for the use of Langkawi policy makers and tourism planners, a standardized instrument for measuring residents’ attitude was developed and used in the study. The findings revealed that residents tend to perceive impacts that benefit them as positive impacts of tourism. The findings also indicated that residents tend to perceive impacts of tourism, either positively or negatively depending on how much they would affect their personal lives. The more dependent they were on the positive impacts of tourism, the more supportive they were toward tourism development. Thus, the findings do not support Doxey’s Irridex Model. Finally, the study suggested that for a long-term purpose of achieving sustainable tourism development, Langkawi tourism planners and policy makers should conduct several campaigns and tourism workshops for the residents. Accordingly, this would gain residents support for tourism development on the island

Measuring volume of stockpile using imaging station

It is crucial to know cutting and filling volumes in many surveys, mining, quarry and engineering field of works like dredging and embankment project. Generally, volume calculation is completed using conventional surveying methods. The trapezoidal method and classical cross sectioning have been presented in the literature. In other way around, by using conventional surveying methods, the volume calculation required a lot of time, laborers and risky as the big machineries running around the work areas. Digital close range photogrammetry has been insufficient for the volume calculation of the material need to calculation of volume in risk areas or in short time. In this case, long range surveying and scanning method is an alternative method to volume calculation. By the development of scanning and imaging technologies, Topcon Imaging Station (IS) used for three dimensional modeling (3D) surveying of objects in many field such as topographic survey, mining, construction and as-built survey, etc disciplines has become a productive, faster and accurate method. This study concern is getting the stockpile volume by using Topcon IS known as advanced technology instrument which promotes both scanning and long-range surveying. The instrument, a highly-developed technology specialized with Image Master Software; distinctive software that provides capabilities to reconstructed 3D modeling after the volume data was processed. Three dimensional (3D) surfaces are created through Triangulated Irregular Network (TIN) method that supports time saving and more accurate volume calculation. The volume calculated by Image Master (IM) then compared with the volume calculated by 12D software which the data obtained by using total station and prism. The results have been analyzed with respect to different volumes, density factor, three dimensional (3D) models of stockpile and time taken for data acquisition and data processin

Kemajuan Pembangunan Nelayan Di Kawasan Pembangunan Nelayan (KPN) Besut, Terengganu

Penyelidikan yang dijalankan bertujuan: (1) Menentukan status penyertaan nelayan dalam aktiviti - aktiviti sosial dibawah KPN Besut; (2) Menentukan status pemasaran ikan di KPN Besut; (3) Mengenal pasti taraf hidup masyarakat nelayan; (4) Menentukan kemajuan dan pelaksanaan program pembangunan LKI M di KPN Besut.Seramai 282 isi rumah nelayan telah dipilih sebagai responden dengan menggunakan satu kaedah persampelan rawak

Penambahbaikan perisian pembelajaran matematik berbantukan komputer bertajuk ‘Decimals’ Tingkatan 1

Tujuan projek ini dibangunkan adalah untuk penambahbaikan sebuah perisian Pembelajaran Berbantukan Komputer (PBK) dalam tajuk Perpuluhan bagi mata pelajaran Matematik Tingkatan Satu yang telah dibangunkan oleh Fakhrurrazi bin Ahmad dalam versi pertama sebelum ini. Kriteria-kriteria yang memerlukan pembaikan dalam aplikasi sebelum ini terbahagi kepada dua iaitu dari segi teknikal dan pedagogi. Menerusi hasil analisa hasil kajian rintis yang telah dijalankan di Sekolah Menengah Sri Tanjung, Benut, melalui perisian Statistical Package of the Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows versi 10.0, didapati criteria teknikal dari segi kemudah-belajaran dan kemudah-ingatan, kawalan pengguna, bantuan, rekabentuk grafik, keberkesanan, kesilapan-kesilapan dan pengisian ingatan memerlukan pengubahsuaian apabila mempunyai nilai purata (min) antara tiga hingga empat, iaitu kurang setuju sehingga setuju. Manakala bagi kriteria dari segi pedagogi pula, kriteria-kriteria dari segi pengajaran secara kooperatif dan kolaboratif, orientasi matlamat, aplikasi, nilai murni, motivasi, nilai pengetahuan sedia ada, fleksibel dan maklum balas memerlukan pengubahsuaian apabila mempunyai nilai purata (min) antara tiga hingga empat, iaitu kurang setuju sehingga setuju. Reka bentuk penambahbaikan perisian ini dibangunkan semula berlandaskan kepada Model Kirkpatrik, Model Dick dan Reiser serta Model ADDIE. Perisian ini telah dibangunkan semula dengan menggunakan perisian Macromedia Authorware 6.5 sebagai perisian utama dan disokong oleh perisianperisian lain seperti Macromedia Flash MX 2004, Adobe Photoshop CS, Xara Menu Maker 1.0 dan Sony Sound Forge 8.0. Adalah diharapkan perisian ini dapat membantu para pelajar memahami dan menguasai mata pelajaran Matematik dengan lebih berkesan

Physical and chemical properties of coconut coir dust and oil palm empty fruit bunch and the growth of hybrid heat tolerant cauliflower plant

This research report is about the physical and chemical properties of coconut coir dust (CD) and oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB), and their potential for use as growing media for hybrid cauliflower grown under humid tropical greenhouse conditions. The physical properties showed that both the EFB and CD provided optimum plant growth conditions at the start of the growing the period. However, the readily available water value for CD was 34% whereas that for EFB was 19%. The air filled porosity containing more pores larger than 300 11m were higher in EFB compared to CD. The chemical properties data suggested that EFB was more alkaline (PH of 6.9) than CD (PH of 5.3) and had lower electrical conductivity (EC) of 1.3 dSm-1 than CD (l.9 dSm,l). The results also indicated higher nutrient contents in CD than in EFB. Despite a high initial EC value for CD than EFB, the hybrid cauliflower plant dry weights and total leaf area for CD grown plants were double those grown in EFB. The appearance offungus and mushroom on the EFB medium surface and the early sign of decomposition may account for the lower plant growth in the EFB medium. Hence, CD is a more suitable growing medium for growing hybrid cauliflower compared to EFB

Perceived oral hygiene habits amongst 16-year-old school children

This study was aimed at assessing dental habits among 16-year-old schoolchildren A total of 116 16-year-old schoolchildren took part in this survey, which was part of a larger study to assess dental fluorosis occurrence among the respondents. A questionnaire was given to each respondent prior to getting written consent from the parents. They were asked three categories of questions pertaining to habits of oral hygiene, firstly the number of tooth-brushings per day, then the quantity of toothpaste used per brushing, and lastly the number of visits to the dentist per year. From 116 respondents, 32 (27.6%) were males and 84 (72.4%) were females. On the first question, 100 respondents (86.2%) used fluoridated toothpastes while the remaining 16 (13.8%) used non-fluoridated toothpastes For the second question, 8 respondents (6.8%) brushed their teeth once per day, 59 (51.0%) twice per day, 35 (30.1%) three times per day and 14 (12.1%) 4 times per day About the question on quantity of toothpaste used for brushing (question 3), 25 respondents (21.5%) used ½ pea size, 66 (56.8%) used 1 pea-size, 24 (20.9%) used 2 pea-size and 1 (0.8%) used 3 pea-size. For the final question (question 4), 43 (37.1%) had never had any dental visits all their life, 33 (28.4%) had one dental visit per year, 30 (25.9%) had twice-a-year visit, 4 (3.4%) had 3 visit, 3 (2.6%) had 4 times-a-year visit and 3 (2.6%) had more than 4 times-a-year visit. This study concluded that more oral health education programs should be organized to improve the understanding of oral hygiene and the importance of dental visits in order to sustain a healthy oral life for a lifetime especially for the respondents

Active vibration control of transverse vibrating segmented marine riser

Vortex induced vibration (VIV) could be regarded as a fluid-structure interaction vibration type where the bluff structure vibrates due to fluid flowing around the body. The separation of boundary layer has created vortex layer that staggers the structure in cross-flow direction. VIV suppression work has attracted numerous researchers to build a passive device that could reduce the vibration. However, such device requires an intricate design which incurs high expense and indirectly contributes to higher chance of VIV occurrence due to the additional mass to the system. This research proposed a method to overcome those shortcomings by introducing an active flow control concept to the system. Since the vibration originates from unhindered flowing fluid, the approach is to avoid the development of the vortex by attaching a single control rod to the system as an actuator. The actuator injects momentum to the boundary layer thus preventing the VIV phenomenon. Both simulation and experimental works were implemented in this study. The input-output data of the system were measured directly from the experimental rig. For system identification, three methods were employed which were least square (LS), recursive least square (RLS) and differential evolutionary (DE) algorithms. It was found that the DE methods were stable, had considerably lower mean squared error (MSE) and the transfer function itself represented the natural frequency of the system. The study was continued by tuning the proportionalintegral- derivative (PID) based controllers to the simulated system plant in offline mode. The PID based controllers were tuned using heuristic and Ziegler-Nichols (ZN) methods. The best performance was recorded. However, it was observed that once the disturbance of the system changed, the performance of the PID tuned using heuristic and ZN were deteriorated. To overcome this drawback, adaptive tuning algorithms were introduced, namely ZN-Fuzzy-PID and ZN-Fuzzy-Iterative Learning Algorithm-PID (ZN-Fuzzy-ILA-PID) based controllers. In simulation, it was found that the ZN-Fuzzy-ILA-PD controller outperformed other controllers with 57.82 dB of attenuation level. In experimental works, dynamic response comparison was made between the bare pipe, fixed single and double control rods. It was observed that the fixed single and double control rods could not effectively attenuate the system, but amplified the vibration instead. Further experimental work was conducted by varying the rotating speed of the actuator at various disturbances. The result shows that at 100 % actuator rotating speed with 33 Hz disturbance flow to the system, the vibration was successfully reduced with attenuation level of 20.71 dB. However, by changing the disturbance, the actuator performance was reduced. Therefore, the controller was adaptively tuned using the fuzzy and iterative learning (ILA) schemes. It was observed that the maximum vibration attenuation was achieved by ZN-Fuzzy-ILA-PD controller with 13.8 dB of attenuation level at changing disturbance. Overall results show that by adopting the single rotating control rod, the vibration of VIV could be successfully attenuated

PHARMACOETHICS: DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE KNOWLEDGE, PERCEPTION AND AWARENESS OF GRADUATING PHARMACY STUDENTS ON PHARMACY CODE OF CONDUCT IN MALAYSIA

Pharmacoethics has not been fully explored in Malaysia. This study aimed to create a psychometric instrument based on the Malaysian Code of Conduct for Pharmacists (PCC) for the measurement of its knowledge, perception and awareness among graduating pharmacy students in Selangor and KL, Malaysia, and to test its validity and reliability. Instrument was designed and refined via an expert group discussion and statistical analysis. It contains three sections; personal information, knowledge on PCC and perceptions and awareness on PCC. The instrument was administered randomly to 260 students among 6 institutions that offers undergraduate pharmacy course. Exploratory factor analysis was for validity of the instrument and reliability was measured via Cronbach’s alpha value. Two factors were extracted from 30 items in the knowledge on PCC section and two main factors were extracted from 14 items in perception and awareness on PCC section, classified as General-Knowledge, Practical-Knowledge, Awareness and Perception. After deletion of total of thirteen unstable items, Cronbach’s alpha values were 0.80 (General-Knowledge), 0.63 (Practical-Knowledge), 0.85 (Awareness) and 0.53 (Perception). The scores were: General-Knowledge=53±33(satisfactory), Practical-Knowledge=86±14(good), Awareness=50±19 (moderate) and Perception=46±17(low). These results indicated early evidence of the instrument’s validity and reliability for use in Malaysia and can be used in future studies.&nbsp

A Comparison of Local Residents' Perceptions Toward Tourism Impacts: The Case of Chengde, A World Heritage Site in China

Tourism industry has been contributing to the economy and employment worldwide. Nevertheless, numerous environmental and social-cultural problems were found with the development of tourism in many tourist destinations. In fact, understanding the local residents’ perception of tourism impacts is crucial and necessary to the local authority when proposing new tourism development at their tourism destinations. This study aims to compare local residents’ perceptions of tourism impacts in Chengde; a UNESCO listed World Heritage Site in China. A total of 1004 usable questionnaires were collected from residents staying in 14 villages in Chengde. The researchers used t-tests to analyse the differences in the residents’ perceptions of positive and negative impacts of tourism based on their characteristics of either born in Chengde or not born in Chengde and having jobs of either related to tourism or not related to tourism. Based on the findings, residents who were born and not born in Chengde were found to have significantly different perceptions of tourism impacts; such as promoting varieties of cultural activities and boosts of shopping opportunities. Those residents were not born in Chengde agreed more on; tourism development increases the traffic problems; tourism burdens the community and tourism results in an increase in the cost of living. Significant differences were also found when considering the perceived impacts of tourism by the residents whose jobs were related to tourism or not related to tourism. Keywords: Perceived Positive Impacts of Tourism, Perceived Negative Impacts of Tourism, Local Residents, World Heritage Site, Chengde China. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-13-06 Publication date:July 31st 201

Slamming impact accelerations analysis on small high speed passenger crafts

Small high speed passenger crafts (HSC) are commonly known for their poor seakeeping qualities. These crafts are frequently exposed to large slamming impacts and these repetitive shocks may pose danger to passengers’ safety and health. In Malaysia, small high speed passenger crafts having lengths between 7 to 9 meters are mainly used to transport tourists between popular island destinations. Evaluation on impact and vibration for this type of craft was conducted by using accelerometers attached to several locations on craft’s deck. The test was conducted at speeds ranged between 20 to 30 knots and the highest peak accelerations were recorded. The highest acceleration record during the sea trial was recorded at 4.22 g and the average acceleration measure is 2.20 g. Apart from this test, evaluation on effectiveness of the current foam seat typically used in this craft were evaluated using Dynamic Response Index (DRI) and results have shown that the seat is less efficient when impact reaches more than 1g at speeds of more than 20 knots. It is concluded that safety measures such as the use of more efficient suspension seat and limiting the operational speed need to be taken into consideration