Assessment of drought impacts on vegetation health: a case study in Kedah

Prolonged drought in the early of 2014 has caused Malaysia to experience water supply shortage which directly affects both health and growth of vegetation. Thus this study aims to assess the risk vegetation areas that were impacted during 2014's drought by integrating the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Normalized Differentiation Vegetation Index (NDVI) methods. These two methods were able to assess the risk areas for the vegetation by measuring its health and classifying them according to its severity while considering the rainfall reduction at the specific time and location. The results obtained from this study shows that the central and north west of Kedah was vulnerable to the occurrence of drought. Kedah was more impacted by the dry event during the northeast monsoon. This study is significant as a fundamental input for further research and as an alternative approach by the application of space technology

The effect of talent management factors on teacher's leadership at the secondary school

Talent management is one of the roles in human resources management and there has been a long debate about talent management for years. This study aims to identify the relationship between talent management and teacher leadership development. In addition, the study also analyzes the talent management and teacher leadership levels. The data are analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences Software (SPSS) version 23 and Partial Least Squares Structural (Smart PLS) version 3 are also applied to analyze the data. The survey study involves 473 teachers in Malaysia residential school. The findings reveal that talent management and teacher leadership practices were at high levels. There is a significant positive relationship between talent management and teacher leadership development. The results of the study promote the role of talent management that can lead to positive changes in teacher leadership at schools. It is hoped that through this study various stakeholders such as schools, district education offices and the ministry of education of Malaysia will be able to assist in planning and organizing efforts in order to produce good leaders in future. It is hoped that through this study, various stakeholders such as school, district education offices as well as the Ministry of Education will be able to assist in planning and organizing efforts to address the role of teacher leadership to produce highly talented future leaders at schools

Reduced graphene oxide-multiwalled carbon nanotubes hybrid film with low Pt loading as counter electrode for improved photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells

In this work, the role of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with hyperbranched surfactant and its hybridisation with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) as counter electrode (CE) were investigated to determine the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). Sodium 1,4-is(neopentyloxy)-3-(neopentyloxycarbonyl)- 1,4-dioxobutane-2-sulphonate (TC14) surfactant was utilised as dispersing and stabilising agent in electrochemical exfoliation to synthesise graphene oxide (GO) as initial solution for rGO production prior to its further hybridisation and fabrication as thin film. A chemical reduction process utilising hydrazine hydrate was conducted to produce rGO due to the low temperature process and water-based GO solution. Subsequently, hybrid solution was prepared by mixing 1 wt% MWCNTs into the produced rGO solution. TC14-rGO and TC14-rGO_MWCNTs hybrid solution were transferred into fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate to fabricate thin film by spraying deposition method. Finally, the CE films were prepared by coating with thin Pt NPs. Photoanode film was prepared by a two-step process: hydrothermal growth method to synthesise titanium dioxide nanowires (TiO2 NWs) and subsequent squeegee method to apply TiO2 NPs. According to solar simulator measurement, the highest energy conversion efficiency (η) was achieved by using CE-based TC14-rGO_MWCNTs/Pt (1.553%), with the highest short current density of 4.424 mA/cm2. The highest η was due to the high conductivity of CE hybrid film and the morphology of fabricated TiO2 NWs/TiO2 NPs. Consequently, the dye adsorption was high, and the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs was increased. This result also showed that rGO and rGO_MWCNTs hybrid can be used as considerable potential candidate materials to replace Pt gradually

Two-pump parametric amplification in the presence of fiber dispersion fluctuations: a comparative study

Fiber optical parametric amplifiers (FOPAs) operating based on four-wave mixing (FWM) are versatile devices with increasing applications in optical communication systems. In this paper, the effects of dispersion fluctu�ations on the performance of bandwidth, ripple, parametric gain, and saturation power of a two-pump FOPA based on four-wave and six-wave models are studied and compared. Coupled-amplitude equations representing the non-degenerate FWM process in optical fiber are solved numerically to compute the parametric gain over the communication wavelengths. The behaviors of the performance parameters are critically analyzed and compared with different types of fluctuation strengths (or amplitudes) specified by the combinations of correlation length (Lc) and fluctuation amplitude (σ). Based on the results, it was found that the flat gain bandwidth for the four-wave model remains unchanged and is insensitive to the strengths of fluctuations. The gain ripples, however, get higher as the fluctuation strengths increase. On the other hand, the flat gain bandwidths of the six-wave model are hardly identified due to the tremendous and continuous ripples within the pump wavelengths. In addition, the minimum parametric gain values for both four-wave and six-wave models reduce as the fluctuation strengths increase. Also, the lowest value of parametric gain leads to the highest saturation power and vice versa. The dispersion fluctuations affect the FWM process’s efficiency and deteriorate the overall amplifier performance, particularly for the six-wave model. The numerical analysis obtained via the six-wave model is especially useful since this model closely matches with practical circumstances

The Effects of Cognitive Behavorial Therapy Group and Social Support Group on the Self Esteem Among Breast Cancer Patients

This study is aimed to determine the main effects of CBT group, social support group (DS) and control group (KK) on the self esteem among breast cancer patients. Rosemberg self esteem scale (RSE) was used to measure self-esteem. The treatment group consisted of CBT and DS groups. Each  treatment group received 12 counselling sessions within six weeks. Quantitative analysis general linear model (GLM) repeated measures was used to identify the groups’ (CBT, DS, and KK) main effect, the repeated test RSE scale (pre test, post test 1, post test 2, and post test 3) main effect and the interaction effect (CBT, DS, and KK), and repeated tests RSE scale (pre test, post test 1, post test 2, post test 3). There was no significant difference in the groups (CBT, DS, and KK) main effect on the Rosenberg Self Esteem (RSE) scores. There was a significant difference (F (3.10) =  66.823, p = 0.0001 (Wilk's Lambda) on the repeated test RSE scale (pre test, post test 1, post test 2, and post test 3) main effects on self esteem score. Overall findings showed an increase in RSE scores between the pre test, post test 1, post test 2 and post test 3

Gain prediction of dual-pump fiber optic parametric amplifier based on artificial neural network

Optimized parameters of dual-pump fiber optic parametric amplifier (FOPA) to give optimized FOPA gain can be obtained through optimization techniques. However, it is complicated to determine the multi-objective functions (gain, bandwidth and flatness), multi decision variables and multiple global solutions. Optimization works only considered undepleted pump configura�tion or pump depletion but without fiber loss. Recently, a machine learning approach was applied to design a Raman amplifier. Thus, this study intends to design a desired dual-pump FOPA gain utilizing an artificial neural network (ANN) to predict pump powers and pump wavelength by considering pump depletion and fiber loss. First of all, the FOPA training gain data were obtained through the 6-wave model and supplied into the ANN to learn the relation between the gains with their pump wavelengths and pump powers. Once the smallest mean square error (MSE) between input and target was obtained, the ANN model was saved. The ANN model can be used to predict the desired pump wavelengths and pump powers if the desired gain is given. The desired gains of constant values from 10 to 45 dB over 1540–1589 nm for optical communication are predicted very well with mean absolute error (MAE) of 1 dB variations

New Features of Cervical Cells for Cervical Cancer Diagnostic System Using Neural Network.

Currently, Pap test is the most popular and effective test for cervical cancer. However, Pap test does not always produce good diagnostic performance. This problem has encouraged several studies to develop diagnosis system based on neural networks to increase the diagnostic performance

Potential and Electric Field Characteristics of Broken Porcelain Insulator

Overhead line insulators can be damaged for various reasons during their service life. Porcelain or glass insulators once damaged can affect the reliability of power system networks. This paper presents the study of voltage and electric characteristics along the surface of a broken porcelain insulator located in a string of 10 unit insulators. Three models of broken porcelain insulators were being proposed and the analysis results on voltage and electric characteristics were individually collected. The broken porcelain insulator with the most significant effect were then being investigated in the strings of 10 unit insulators. The finite element software of Quickfield was used to analyze the voltage and electric characteristics. Form the presented results, it is proven that the single porcelain insulators with broken shed at the nearest to the electrode terminal gave the most significant effect of voltage and electric field distribution pattern along the creepage distance. However, when this type of broken insulator was included in a string of 10 unit insulators, maximum average value of voltage achieved once the broken insulator was located at the HV terminal. Meanwhile, the highest electric field strength was recorded when the broken insulator was located in the middle of the string

Efficient removal of partially hydrolysed polyacrylamide in polymer-flooding produced water using photocatalytic graphitic carbon nitride nanofibres

In this work, graphitic carbon nitride (GCN) photocatalyst-incorporated polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibres (GCN/PAN nanofibres) were successfully prepared using electrospinning technique. The physicochemical properties of the fabricated GCN/PAN nanofibres were analysed using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), elemental analyser, X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and UV–vis–NIR spectroscopy. The photocatalytic degradation by GCN/PAN nanofibres exhibited 90.2% photodegradation of partially hydrolysed polyacrylonitrile (HPAM) after 180 min under UV light irradiation in a suspension photocatalytic reactor. The results suggest that the photodegradation of HPAM contaminant by GCN/PAN nanofibres was due to the synergetic effects of HPAM adsorption by the PAN nanofibres and HPAM photodegradation by the GCN. This study provides an insight into the removal of HPAM from polymer-flooding produced water (PFPW) through photocatalytic degradation of liquid-permeable self-supporting nanofibre mats as a potentially promising material to be used in industrial applications

Effectiveness of Ipomoea aquatica and Pelthoporum pterocarpum for controlling the golden apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata

Pomacea canaliculata Lamark (golden apple snail, GAS) which known as siput gondang emas among Malay farmers is dangerous pest to the paddy field feeds on stem and young leaves of paddy plant. Frequently, usage of synthetic pesticides may cause pollution to the environment which became harmful to human and other living things. Hence, to control GAS, the usage of biopesticides is become the most popular control method. Biopesticides formed from animals, plants, bacteria and minerals. About 247 families from 2500 plants have the role of secondary metabolites to protect themselves from the pests. Some of the plants have their own mechanism to protect themselves from enemies like pests, diseases due to its chemical compound, which acts as toxicity to the pest, repellency, antifeedant and insect growth regulatory activities. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of Ipomoea aquatica and Pelthoporum pterocarpum extracts for controlling GAS by using different solvents. From the study, methanol extraction showed the highest mortality rather than using ethanol for both plants. It showed that methanol is the most effective solvent due to mortality of the GAS by 50% concentration (24 hours) and 100% concentration (48 hours) is 53.33%. Based on probit analysis, Pelthoporum pterocarpum extracts by using methanol as solvent showed the strongest toxicity test result (LC50 = 4.683%). In the future, Pelthoporum pterocarpum extracts using methanol can be used to replace the usage of synthetic pesticides for controlling GAS