The illicit enrichment law and financial disclosure system in Malaysia

This article discusses the issue of corruption in Malaysia and the anti-corruption law in Malaysia which is the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Act 2009 and Penal Code (Act 574). This article intends to highlight the main topic of concern which is the illicit enrichment crime or living beyond means among public officials in Malaysia. Besides, there is also a lack of legislation and enforcement on the financial disclosure system or asset declaration system by the public officials in Malaysia. The financial disclosure system in Malaysia must be strengthened and be taken seriously in monitoring the public official’s wealth to prevent any possibility of illicit enrichment. Furthermore, this article will adopt the doctrinal approach and qualitative study as a research methodology. The researcher will use the semi-structured interview in collecting the data in order to develop the validity and authenticity of the results. The semi-structured interview will make the researcher knows deeper and complete understanding of the experiences, opinions, and attitudes of the respondents towards the issue of illicit enrichment. This article will contribute significantly towards strengthening the existing law of prevention of corruption in Malaysia, thereby will help to reduce corruption rate especially those involved with illicit enrichment crime

The HVAC Project Technologist Competency Profile

The challenge of Higher Education Institutions (IPT) nowadays is to provide the human capability needed by the industry. There are most local IPT graduates do not have work skills and competencies required in the market and there seems to be a mismatch in the preparation of graduates for the local job. Therefore, the research carried out provides a comprehensive overview of the competency requirements that must be present in the Heat, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Project Technologist. The following may help the graduates of the HVAC Technologist course at University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) to be more prepared for the working environment. This study uses the Modified Delphi Technique (MDT) approach in order to obtain expert agreement on the construction of the questionnaire instrument. MDT is conducted three rounds. The first round is the process of developing a questionnaire using previous research methods, document analysis and interviews with three experts. Then the second and third round is to distribute the following questionnaire to get approval from seven experts. The data were processed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software to obtain the mean, median and Interquartile Range (IQR) scores for each item. Preliminary research findings in the first round of MDT found 5 domains, 18 elements and 65 items. However, after the second and third round of MDT, it produced a Project Technology competency that has 5 domains, 18 elements and 78 items. The results of this research data are expected to give ideas and insights course content to HVAC Technologist program by looking that matches career competencies according to industry tastes

Rora Sdn Bhd : Simple Easy Ice Cream Maker / Aiman Faris Zainur Amin ...[et al.]

Through these problems we manage to become more organize and mature in dealing with the problems that occur during our research. This business plan covers organization, marketing, operation, financial and training plan and any other information needed by a new entrepreneur as a guide to start this business. Lastly, to those who had involved and contributed directly or indirectly to this business plan we are very grateful to them for the effort and initiative that they have shown in our project until we successfully completed our business plan. I apologize to all other unnamed person who helped us various ways to complete this project and we hope this business plan report can give us little bit knowledge about Entrepreneurship world and fact about how to become a entrepreneur in future

A Framework to Spatially Cluster Air Quality Monitoring Stations in Peninsular Malaysia using the Hybrid Clustering Method

Multiple variables must be analyzed in order to assess air quality trends. It turns into a multidimensional issue that calls for dynamic methods. In order to provide an improved spatial cluster distribution with distinct validation, this study set out to illustrate the hybrid cluster method in air quality monitoring stations in Peninsular Malaysia. The Department of Environment, Malaysia (DOE), provided the data set, which covered the two-year period from 2018 to 2019. This study included six air quality pollutants: PM10, PM2.5, SO2, NO2, O3, and CO. Principal component analysis (PCA), a multivariate technique, was used to condense the information found in enormous data tables in order to better comprehend the variables (to reduce dimensionality) prior to grouping the data. The PCA factor scores were then used to produce the AHC. The clusters were validated using discriminant analysis (DA). 36 of 47 stations required additional analysis using AHC, according to the PCA factor scores. Low Polluted Region (LPR = seven stations), Moderate Polluted Region (MPR = 20 stations), and High Polluted Region (HPR = nine stations) were created from AHC and share the same characteristics. The DA results showed 84 % correct classification rate for the clusters. With regard to identifying and categorizing stations according to air quality characteristics, the framework presented here offers an improved method. This illustrates that the hybrid cluster method utilized in this work can produce a new method of pollutant distributions that is helpful in air pollution investigations

Development of missing data prediction model for carbon monoxide

Carbon monoxide (CO) is one of the most important pollutants since it is selected for API calculation. Therefore, it is paramount to ensure that there is no missing data of CO during the analysis. There are numbers of occurrences that may contribute to the missing data problems such as inability of the instrument to record certain parameters. In view of this fact, a CO prediction model needs to be developed to address this problem. A dataset of meteorological and air pollutants value was obtained from the Air Quality Division, Department of Environment Malaysia (DOE). A total of 113112 datasets were used to develop the model using sensitivity analysis (SA) through artificial neural network (ANN). SA showed particulate matter (PM10) and ozone (O3) were the most significant input variables for missing data prediction model of CO. Three hidden nodes were the optimum number to develop the ANN model with the value of R2 equal to 0.5311. Both models (artificial neural network-carbon monoxide-all parameters (ANN-CO-AP) and artificial neural network-carbon monoxide-leave out (ANN-CO-LO)) showed high value of R2 (0.7639 and 0.5311) and low value of RMSE (0.2482 and 0.3506), respectively. These values indicated that the models might only employ the most significant input variables to represent the CO rather than using all input variables

The evaluation on artificial neural networks (ANN) and multiple linear regressions (MLR) models over particulate matter (PM10) variability during haze and non-haze episodes: A decade case study

The comprehensives of particulate matter studies are needed in predicting future haze occurrences in Malaysia. This paper presents the application of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Multiple Linear Regressions (MLR) coupled with sensitivity analysis (SA) in order to recognize the pollutant relationship status over particulate matter (PM10) in eastern region. Eight monitoring studies were used, involving 14 input parameters as independent variables including meteorological factors. In order to investigate the efficiency of ANN and MLR performance, two different weather circumstances were selected; haze and non-haze. The performance evaluation was characterized into two steps. Firstly, two models were developed based on ANN and MLR which denoted as full model, with all parameters (14 variables) were used as the input. SA was used as additional feature to rank the most contributed parameter to PM10 variations in both situations. Next, the model development was evaluated based on selected model, where only significant variables were selected as input. Three mathematical indices were introduced (R2, RMSE and SSE) to compare on both techniques. From the findings, ANN performed better in full and selected model, with both models were completely showed a significant result during hazy and non-hazy. On top of that, UVb and carbon monoxide were both variables that mutually predicted by ANN and MLR during hazy and non- hazy days, respectively. The precise predictions were required in helping any related agency to emphasize on pollutant that essentially contributed to PM10 variations, especially during haze period

Assessing indoor air quality using chemometric models

The objectives of this study are to identify the significant variables and to verify the best statistical method for determining the effect of indoor air quality (IAQ) at 7 different locations in Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Terengganu, Malaysia. The IAQ data were collected using in-situ measurement. Principal component analysis (PCA), partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA), linear discrimination analysis (LDA), and agglomerative hierarchical clustering (AHC) were used to classify the significant variables as well as to compare the best method for determining IAQ levels. PCA verifies only 4 out of 9 parameters (PM10, PM2.5, PM1.0, and O3) and is the significant variable in IAQ. The PLS-DA model classifies 89.05% correct of the IAQ variables in each station compared to LDA with only 66.67% correct. AHC identifies three cluster groups, which are highly polluted concentration (HPC), moderately polluted concentration (MPC), and low-polluted concentration (LPC) area. PLS-DA verifies the groups produced by AHC by identifying the variables that affect the quality at each station without being affected by redundancy. In conclusion, PLS-DA is a promising procedure for differentiating the group classes and determining the correct percentage of variables for IAQ

Implementation of project based learning for civil engineering students at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Implementation of Project Based Learning (PtBL) in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) as part of Outcome Based Education (OBE) framework have faced various challenges (i.e revamp on the undergraduate co-curricullum, required high commitments from academicians & faculty and facilities to cater PtBL activities). This paper discusses the effectiveness of PtBL teaching method in an effort to develop the students’ soft skills in tandem with the technical or professional competencies; and problems, challenges and potential improvement in the course. The Survey Camp course which is offered at year one of a four years civil engineering degree programme in the Faculty of Civil Engineering (FKA), UTM was chosen for this study. It is a ten days fieldwork in which the students will carry out an engineering survey project from field to finish in groups of five to six students supervised by the academic staff. Assessment of the technical aspects was based on the students ability to meet the minimum engineering surveying’s standard whereas the assesment of soft skills was conducted during various sessions of the survey projects. Survey questionaires were given at the beginning and the end of the course as part of evaluation of the course effectiveness. The research has found that the technical aspects were achievable though with lesser degree for the engineering design. However, on the soft skills, students demonstrated an overall improvement of competency but it was difficult to determine the levels for the average students while the best and poor performers were easily observed

Optical band gap and photoluminescence studies of Eu3+-doped zinc silicate derived from waste rice husks

In this study, investigation on photoluminescence and optical properties of europium doped zinc silicate (Zn2SiO4:Eu3+) glass ceramics derived from white rice husk ash as potential silica source have been done. Undoped and 3 wt. % of europium doped zinc silicate were prepared by solid state method and sintered at 600–1000 °C for 2 h. XRD analysis revealed the phase formation of amorphous, α or β-Zn2SiO4:Eu3+ phases of the glass and glass ceramic samples. FESEM results show the samples were irregular in shapes but well connected and formed large grain crystallites as sintering temperatures increases. The optical band gap values for undoped samples are increasing from 2.97 eV to 3.39 eV respectively. Meanwhile, the optical band gap values for 3 wt. % Eu3+ doped samples decrease from 4.14 eV to 2.62 eV and increase again to 3.71 eV as sintering temperature increases. PL analysis concludes that the red emission exhibited corresponding to 5D0 → 7F2 electron configuration at 612 nm while excitation spectra was found at 400 nm attributed to 7F0 → 5L6 transition. As conclusion, Eu3+ doped Zn2SiO4 glasses has potential as glass host phosphor which can be used for optical devices such as plasma display panels (PDPs) and cathode ray tubes

Determination of selected heavy metals in airborne particles in industrial area: a baseline study

This study focuses on airborne heavy metal pollution in the industrial area. Eight points from Paka and Gebeng Industrial Area respectively were selected for this study within two monsoon seasons. The samples were analysed for heavy metals (Cd, As, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn) by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results showed that the mean concentration value of As, Pb and Cd for Paka were 0.005 mg/L ± 0.001, 0.107 mg/L ± 0.088, and 0.010 mg/L ± 0.008, respectively and Gebeng were 0.004 mg/L ± 0.002, 0.069 mg/L ± 0.059 and 0.005 mg/L ± 0.004, respectively in the southwest monsoon - much higher than the target value by European Commission in Directive 2004/107/EC and Directive 2008/50/EC. It could be concluded that the industrial and transportation emission were the major source of heavy metals in the atmosphere along the Paka and Gebeng Industrial Area