Creative Leading Corporation / Farhana Aini Hailin...[et al.]

Umbrella is a primarily a device to keep people dry in rain and shade a person from the sun. Mostly, it can be seen that umbrella is used by women. In the market, there is abundance of designs, colours and functions that can be choose. The improvement in our design may lead umbrella to a better user friendly and easy to carry to anywhere. Basically, the new invention that we apply to our umbrella is that it can expand from the small size to a larger size just by clicking the button provided in the umbrella's handle. One of the reasons that we come out with this idea is that we notice most of the students carry their own umbrella to the class which the size of the umbrella usually is small and fit for 1 person only. By the time of raining, they cannot share the umbrella with their friends and we found out, the umbrella's owner also may get wet because of the small umbrella. Therefore, our group come with the idea of a helping-hand solution by having an expand umbrella. As we gather the information that is heeded, we eventually come out with some of the fantastic ideas that never had been explored by the other designers out there. Our new invention idea is that by having just 1 umbrella, you can share it with your friends. The canopy for our umbrella can be enlarged at 2 times. Basically, the size will be small that fit for 1 person. Then it can enlarged to the medium size that fit for 2 or persons, and again, the canopy can enlarged to the large size that will be fit for 4 or 5 persons. Other than that, this umbrella can also be a table umbrella. The umbrella's weight is not heavy although it has added the canopy enlargement which it is easy to be carried to everywhere

E-learning and social media motivation factor model

The aims of this study are to probe into the motivational factors toward the usage of e-learning and social media among educational technology postgraduate students in the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. This study had involved 70 respondents via the means of a questionnaire. Four factors have been studied, named, the factor of technology, exposure, content and social influence. Via Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), this research uncovers that respondents usage of e-learning is being motivated by the factor of technology and content. The respondents use of social media was found to be motivated by the factor of technology and social influence. A strong positive relationship exists between the usage of e-learning and social media suggesting that social media can be manipulated as supporting material for e-learning. Yet, the finding may not be generalized to all Malaysian educational technology postgraduate students

Data envelopment analysis for ambulance services of different service providers in urban and rural areas in Ministry of Health Malaysia

IntroductionAmbulance services are pivotal in any country's healthcare system. An efficient ambulance service not only decreases patient mortality rate but also allows resource prioritization for better outputs. This study aims to measure the efficiency of ambulance services provided by health facilities in the Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia.MethodsThis cross-sectional study analyzed the efficiency of 76 Decision-Making Units (DMUs) or health facilities, consisting of 62 health clinics and 14 hospitals. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used for computing efficiency scores while adopting the Variable Return to Scale (VRS) approach. The analysis was based on input orientation. The input was the cost of ambulance services, while the output for this analysis was the distance coverage (in km), the number of patients transferred, and hours of usage (in hours). Subsequent analysis was conducted to test the Overall Technical Efficiency (OTE), the Pure Technical Efficiency (PTE), the Scale Efficiency (SE), and the Return to Scale with the type of health facilities and geographical areas using a Mann-Whitney U-test and a chi-square test.ResultsThe mean scores of OTE, PTE, and SE were 0.508 (±0.207), 0.721 (±0.185), and 0.700 (±0.200), respectively. Approximately, 14.47% of the total health facilities were PTE. The results showed a significant difference in OTE and SE between ambulance services in hospitals and health clinics (p < 0.05), but no significant difference in PTE between hospitals and clinics (p>0.05). There was no significant difference in efficiency scores between urban and rural health facilities in terms of ambulance services except for OTE (p < 0.05).DiscussionThe ambulance services provided in healthcare facilities in the MOH Malaysia operate at 72.1% PTE. The difference in OTE between hospitals and health clinics' ambulance services was mainly due to the operating size rather than PTE. This study will be beneficial in providing a guide to the policymakers in improving ambulance services through the readjustment of health resources and improvement in the outputs

Optimization of tailor-made fertilizer formulation and experimental validation for eggplant and tomato

Population growth in Malaysia has led to continuous demand for food as well as fertilizer production. It has become a consistent challenge to increase plant production with high profitability to sustain plant growth and yield. Chemical fertilizers are preferable to provide optimal nutrient balance. Its consistent nutrient demand for growing healthy plants is needed to avoid nutrient deficiency and toxicity. Thus, a proper fertilizer formulation for tropical plants needs to be developed for efficient fertilizer use, cost effectiveness and reduce environmental pollutions. Therefore, a systematic methodology to design fertilizer formulation for tropical plant is developed and reported in this study using computer aided approach that included three specific objectives. Objective 1 is to establish the plant nutrient requirement and fertilizer component databases. The databases comprised of 18 plants and 20 fertilizers data documented in Microsoft excel that included the plant requirements by different types of plants, fertilizer market prices, fertilizer nutrient contents, fertilizer dosage by growth stages and irrigation scheduling. Objective 2 was to develop a systematic methodology to design a fertilizer using computer-aided approach. The fertilizer design was formulated as a linear optimization problem with objective function to minimize fertilizer cost subjected to plant nutrient requirements. The optimization problem was translated into mathematical models that comprised of a linear objective function and constraints and solved using linear programming with MATLAB®. The fertilizer design methodology was applied for one case study only, which was the formulation of fertilizer for eggplant. The obtained fertilizer formulation was verified using manual calculation with aid of Microsoft excel to ensure the models were valid. The results from MATLAB® gave similar fertilizer cost that fulfilled the plant requirements as compared to the manual calculation using Microsoft excel. Objective 3 was to verify the performance of the designed fertilizer formulations obtained from objective 2 by analyzing the growth and yield of plants. However, due to time constraints, only eggplants and tomatoes were selected to be tested. The experimental procedure included the preparation of seeds, medium, automated irrigation system, fertilizer, seedling transplant, data collection and plant growth observation. The measurement recorded were number of flowers, height of plant, number and weight of fruits. For eggplant, the formulated fertilizer (FF) cost was 16% cheaper than the commercial fertilizer (CF) with higher cumulative number of eggplant flowers, higher average height of plant stem and higher cumulative number of eggplants. In tomato experiment, the cost of formulated fertilizer was 4.6% lower than the CF with insignificant change in soil pH, higher height of tomato plant until the 4th week after transplanting and slightly lower cumulative yield of tomato plants. Overall, the FF formulation presents better performance and plant growth with high yield and cost effective as compared to the CF formulation

Optimisation of model-based fertiliser formulation for sustainable agriculture

Agriculture management for better decision making is important due to increased needs for agricultural products and increased pressure on land, water, and other natural resources. Balanced nutrient requirements are essential for increasing tropical crop yield and reducing the risk on the negative environmental impact. Reduce fertiliser consumption and optimise the fertiliser used subjected to waste of fertiliser into the environment are the best way to achieve sustainable agriculture. The nutrient coverage includes macronutrient such as nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), potassium (K), sulfur (S), magnesium (Mg) and calcium (Ca). In this study, the data and procedures used to set up the model as well as the assumptions made for tropical crops. The main objective of the study is to develop a systematic methodology for fertiliser formulation in fertigation system. The sub-objective of the study is to design fertigation fertiliser formulation by using computer-aided approaches which can minimise the environmental impact by reducing the over-used fertiliser leakage. The methods consist of three steps including data collection, the design of fertiliser formulation and verification of fertiliser formulation. The fertiliser formulation will be formulated by using general optimisation problem as the mixed-integer nonlinear program (MINLP). The results in Stage 1 is expected to be the design formulation of fertiliser sources which gives the minimum cost that is subjected to the plant requirements and the results will further verify in Stage 2. This model-based formulation is the starter for another tropical crop model

The university of the future: A conceptual study in Malaysia

The purpose of this research is to transform the current state of Universities into strategic initiatives that can utilize technology into University of the Future that lead to better development of the country. In this research, qualitative approach was selected involving the use of questionnaires distributed to the respondents. The sampling technique used in this research was simple random sampling where participants are chosen randomly by chance. This study was intended to answer two research questions. Firstly, do value proposition design (VPD) help to identify customer needs and wants from the University and secondly, how to transform the University of the Future using business model canvas (BMC). Based on the finding, the customer profile and the value map in VPD have help to identify and overcome problem faced. Besides, the information collected from VPD will be used to improve BMC to further improve the University of the Future. Thus, this study gave implications to design strategic initiatives for higher education especially Universities in using BMC and VPD and also to utilize the technology in this globalization era

Effect of Different Types of Fertilizer Application on the Soil Fertility of Oil Palm Reclamation Soil under Polyculture System

To evaluate the effect of different fertilizer application on soil fertility under polyculture cropping system (okra, water spinach and yard long bean), a field experiment was conducted in the oil palm reclamation soil at the research farm in ICA UTM-Pagoh. There were five treatments involved which were: (T1) no fertilizer, (T2) organic fertilizer, (T3) inorganic fertilizer, (T4) organic inorganic compound fertilizer and (T5) organic + inorganic fertilizer.  The initial and final soil samples were collected to study the effect of different types of commercial fertilizer application on soil pH, electrical conductivity (EC), moisture content, soil organic carbon (SOC), total nitrogen (TN), C/N ratio, soil organic matter (SOM), bulk density and nutrients (P and K) contents in the soil surface layer (0–15 cm) of the experimented site for 14 weeks. Results showed that the soil pH was the lowest with an average of 6.05 units in T5 and was significantly higher in T1 (8.23 units). The EC value in T5 is the highest with 172.4 ds/m and lowest in T1 with an average of 25.5 ds/m. T5 showed the highest soil moisture and soil organic matter with 15.81% and 4.01% respectively. The combine application of organic and inorganic fertilizers has increased SOC and TN values compared with the T1 (control) specifically, which resulted in 3.7% and 0.33% of SOC and TN concentrations, respectively (). Bulk density showed no significant different among all the treatment with the highest value was in T4 (1.22g/cm3) and lowest in T3(1.05g/cm3). The average amounts of C/N ratio ranged from 11.11 to 13.60 between all treatments with the highest ratio in T4 (13.6). The average P and K contents were highest in T5 (1564.7 mg/kg and 1056.2 mg/kg). Thus, it showed that the application with the mixture of organic and inorganic fertilizer (T5) improved the soil condition

Characterization and property investigation of microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) and carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) filler on the carrageenan-based biocomposite film

Hard capsule has received high demands not only in the pharmaceutical industry but also in food, cosmetics, and personal care applications. Current hard capsule made from gelatin has contributed to the rise of allergy and halal issues. Thus, many researches were looking for alternatives to produce hard capsule from natural and renewable sources such as carrageenan. In this study, carrageenan was incorporated with carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and microcrystalline cellulose (MCC) to toughen the carrageenan based biocomposite film and hard capsule. The cellulose filler used was expected to increase the tensile strength and viscosity properties of the carrageenan matrix due to the development of strong hydrogen bonding between the carrageenan and filler. The crystallinity and functional group properties of CMC and MCC were identified via X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Fourier transforms infrared (FTIR) analysis. Then, the hard capsule was prepared by incorporating carrageenan with isovanillin, PEG, alginic acid at different cellulose filler concentrations. The formulation solution was cast for biocomposite film development and dipped for hard capsule development. The tensile strength of the film was analyzed to study the effect of the cellulose filler on the film produced. Crystallinity result shows that CMC is an amorphous while MCC is a crystal, thus CMC has excellent solubility in water compared to MCC. Moreover, film and hard capsule mechanical properties demonstrated that Carra-CMC has the highest tensile strength in comparison to Carra-MCC. Incorporation of CMC in carrageenan biocomposite film shows a significant increment of viscosity up to 50% and the tensile strength up to 37%. The presence of main three functional groups in CMC structure increased the molecular interaction in the carrageenan biocomposite thus improve the film properties. It is predicted that a higher concentration of CMC is required to produce a more stable Carra-CMC biocomposite film and hard capsule

Evaluation of mechanical and thermal properties of Carrageenan/Hydroxypropyl Methyl Cellulose Hard Capsule

The inherent source of gelatin used for commercial hard capsules causes a surging demand on vegetarian capsules. In this work, carrageenan is utilized in preparing hard capsules to meet consumer preferences. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) was incorporated as a reinforcing agent to improve the low mechanical properties of hard capsules made of carrageenan. HPMC concentration was manipulated from 0.2 w/v% to 1.0 w/v% in the carrageenan matrix. Increasing concentration of HPMC exerts significant effects on the tensile strength and elongation at break, with an improvement of 59.1% and 46.9%, respectively, at the optimized HPMC concentration of 0.8 w/v%. The loop strength of the capsule is also increased by 56.4% with decreasing moisture content. A downfield movement around 3.20 ppm of the carrageenan proton to 3.33 ppm in 1H-NMR spectrum suggests the formation of intermolecular hydrogen bonding between carrageenan and HPMC, which correlates to the results of FTIR and zeta potential. The glass transition of the film is increased from 37.8°C to 65.3°C, showing an upgrade in thermal stability. The film possesses a major mass loss with an activation energy of 64.7 kJ/mol with an increment of 43.4% compared to the control carrageenan. These findings support the conclusion that HPMC enhanced the mechanical properties and thermal stability of the carrageenan film, and the comprehensive analysis of the molecular interaction and decomposition kinetics subsequently may expand the application fields of the carrageenanHPMC hard capsule as an alternative to gelatin in the future