Unsafe Work Environment At Construction Workplace: A Legal Implications

The recent 11th Malaysian Plan (2016-2020), showed that the Government will continue to map out its approach to upgrade physical infrastructure in the next five years. It will become the multiplier effect that continue to be the catalyst to the other sectors to attract domestic and foreign investments to support the country’s economic growth. Construction growth (GDP) to remain robust with the Government’s GDP forecast of 10.7% for the sector in 2015. This scenario claim relevancy to place great concern on the occupational health and safety in construction work. This need be reflected in the many preventive measures taken to minimize the hazard and the risks that the workers are exposed. Literature claims that accidents occur due to three main causes that are (a) failure to continuously in stages, to identify unsafe work conditions and environment, (b) unscrupulous decision to continue work knowingly even when unsafe conditions identified by workers, and (c) to act unsafely and jeopardizing workers safety and life as well as the workplace. This paper will examine the nature of unsafe work environment at construction workplace, the risk and hazards identified and the relevant laws and procedures available in Malaysia to ensure work safety practice in the construction work sites. Finally, to identify some of the preventive and innovative measures needed to ensure safety work environment at work sites. This exposure will helps to explain better on the accidents on construction sites and in identifying areas where prevention efforts should be directed, so that labour and management may provide more effective measures for preventing accident occurrence

Learning Safety And Its Effects On Workplace Among Construction Workers In Malaysia

The 11 Malaysia Plan exhibit the GDP increase in almost all main sector including construction that increased from 3.4% (2010) to 4.5% (2015). Robust activities in the infrastructure and residential subsectors are expected to spur a double-digit growth of 11.1% in the construction sector. Job created by construction sectors between 2011-1015 is 78,000 (4.3%) of other jobs creation by sectors. While the labour productivity for this sector is expected to maintain at estimated 9.6% (per anum) (2011-2015) to 9.6% (per anum) (2016-2020). Safety experts estimate that 80-90% of all industrial accidents are attributable to ‘human factors’ on that point, construction workers need to learn about safety to avoid any accidents that may occur while working. Training and provision of information on Safety culture, laws and leadership behaviour will help promote commitment to safety and encourage their subordinates to value safety as a fundamental goal. In Malaysia, issue of safety performance in construction industry are very frequent being raised up by government, civilians, and even employees and it is not uncommon for construction stakeholders, to concentrate exclusively on completing projects to the required quality standard with the minimum time and cost. Safety is more often seen as secondary concern. On that reason, it is the main purpose of this study is to identify main factors which contribute to safety performance and provides a continuous approach to reduce risk and potential hazard through workplace learning. It will also dwell on how learning safety at workplace can generate awareness and enhance their work performance. Employees should be given safety information and safety culture or climate of an organization, can be nurtured through good leadership and safety practice. Zero Incident Protocol (ZIP) is a workplace safety training program designed to achieve zero safety incidents. As a result, organization are able to avoid paying higher worker’s compensation costs for injuries sustained at work, and maintain a reputation of corporate responsibility, and trained productive workforce

Motivation and performance in learning calculus through problem-based learning.

Problem-based learning (PBL) as a student centered and active learning strategies can be used to improve students’ motivation, interests and often lead to deep level learning outcomes in calculus to enrich performance. Objectives of this study are to (i) identify students’ level of motivation in learning calculus based on instruction strategies (PBL and traditional) and; (ii) establish relationship between levels of motivation and students’ test achievement. A group of 42 Foundation Year engineering students was randomly selected to undergo the PBL (n=24) and traditional (n=18) approach in Basic Calculus course. Data was gathered through the instrument based on the ARCS (Attention, Relevance, Confidence and Satisfaction) model and a post-test (Calculus Achievement Test) to measure students’ motivation and performance respectively after undergoing learning approach. Findings showed that there were only significant difference in students’ motivation attention (M=3.98, SD= .486; t (40) =3.905, .000),relevance (M=4.36, SD= .365; t (40) =4.340, p=0.000) and satisfaction (M=3.53, SD= .436; t (40) =2.894, p=0.006) by using PBL as compared to traditional approach. Respondents with higher achievement in test obtained higher overall scores for motivation. Significant positive correlations were established between attention, satisfaction and overall motivation with students’ test achievement. This finding suggests that active learning strategies could be used to motivate students in teaching and learning calculus for engineering students

Adsorption of anionic surfactant on surface of reservoir minerals in alkaline-surfactant-polymer system

Alkaline-surfactant-polymer (ASP) flooding is significant to the oil and gas industry due to synergistic interaction between alkaline, surfactant and polymer. However, chemical losses due to adsorptions of surfactant and polymer on the rock surface could lead to inefficiency of the process. There are also significant uncertainties on adsorption mechanism when surfactant is flooded with presence of alkaline and polymer. This study highlights the static adsorption tests using anionic sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), hydrolysed polyacrylamide (HPAM) and sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) as the surfactant, polymer and alkaline, respectively. Sand particles and kaolinite clay were used as the reservoir minerals. The adsorption tests were conducted at various surfactant concentrations ranging from 50 to 2000 ppm. Sodium chloride (NaCl) concentration was investigated from 0 to 2 wt.%, while the local sand and kaolinite was mixed in surfactant solution at a fixed mass to volume ratio of 1:5. The static adsorption test was conducted by shaking the mixture samples and centrifugation before analysing the supernatant liquid using UV-Visible spectrophotometer. The results showed that the surfactant adsorption was higher on kaolinite compared to sand particle. The higher the salinity, the higher the adsorption of surfactant due to higher ionic strength. The adsorption of SDS surfactant on sand particles and kaolinite was lesser in ASP system compared to the presence of surfactant solution alone. Thus, it can be concluded that the presence of polymer and alkaline in ASP solution have great potential to reduce the surfactant adsorption on both sand particle and kaolinite

Process design in degumming and bleaching of palm oil

Palm oil (Elaeis guineensis) industry is one of the major contributors to the Malaysia economic growths. The palm oil supply from Malaysia has increased apparently over the last two decades due to vast increase in production. Crude palm oil (CPO) obtained from the mesocarp of palm oil fruit undergoes several stages of refining processes in order to produce refined, bleached palm oil (RBDPO). Currently, in Malaysia, the type of refining used is physical refining. This method involved the processing stages of degumming, bleaching and deodorization. From refiners point of view, degumming and bleaching processes are recognized as critical areas in the palm oil refinery and need to be carefully monitored, because any imperfection during these processes will tremendously affect the later stages of refining processes and finally affect the finished product. These stages are identified as the major contributors to the total operating cost of the plant due to the cost of chemicals (phosphoric acid and bleaching earth) that are being used in these processes. In this research, a process model for degumming and bleaching operation will be designed in order to help the refiners to predict the exact ratio of phosphoric acid and bleaching earth to the crude palm oil. By doing so, we hope to reduce the operating costs and time of the overall palm oil refining process. Therefore at the end of this research, with the ANN model designed, the bleaching and degumming efficiency can be improved thus can help to boost the Malaysian palm oil industry

Hubungan amalan pengurusan keselamatan dengan pematuhan keselamatan pekerjaan di Jabatan Bomba dan Penyelamat Malaysia

Kajian ini bertujuan untuk menguji hubungan antara amalan pengurusan keselamatan dengan tingkah laku pematuhan keselamatan pekerjaan. Enam dimensi amalan pengurusan keselamatan adalah komitmen pengurusan, latihan keselamatan, penglibatan pekerja, komunikasi dan maklum balas, peraturan dan prosedur serta dasar promosi keselamatan. Bagi mencapai objektif kajian, sebanyak 270 set soal selidik telah diedarkan kepada pegawai bomba gred KB17 di 9 buah balai bomba di Selangor. Analisis regresi mendapati bahawa komitmen pihak pengurusan, latihan keselamatan dan peraturan, dan prosedur keselamatan mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan pematuhan keselamatan pekerjaan. Manakala faktor-faktor lain iaitu penglibatan pekerja, dasar promosi keselamatan, dan komunikasi dan maklum balas tidak mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan pematuhan keselamatan pekerjaan. Kertas ini turut membincangkan implikasi dan limitasi kajian, dan cadangan untuk kajian susulan

Energy Analysis and Remixing Effect of Thermal Coupling Petlyuk Column for Natural Gas Liquid (NGL) Fractionation Train

In this work, a non-conventional distillation sequence with thermal coupling (Petlyuk Column) was presented as a technique to perform the separation of the NGL consist of ethane, propane, butane or other higher alkanes. The improvements were investigated through the energy analysis and remixing effect. From the result obtained, it was found that the Petlyuk arrangement consumes less amount of energy and able to reduce the remixing effects as compared to the conventional column sequencing. The Petlyuk arrangement saved about 44.49% and 12.83% in terms of cooling and heating duty, respectively. The overall annual energy saving shown by this arrangement is 39.22%. This arrangement proved to be able to prevent the remixing effect occurrence that contributes to thermal and separation inefficiency. The desired separation efficiency also obtained by this arrangement as all the product specifications are met. The ability in avoiding remixing effect by the Petlyuk column permits a significant reduction in CO2 emission with an average of 29.43 % of each equipment involved. Hence, it can be concluded that the Petlyuk arrangement model is a better alternative to be implemented in the NGL fractionation train

Humanizing mathematics learning: secondary students beliefs on mathematics teachers' teaching efficacy

The importance of teaching mathematics as an integrated subject is recognized everywhere, not withstanding in Malaysia. Educating the pupils mathematically is more difficult, challenging and complex than teaching them some mathematics. In most of the countries including Malaysia the mathematical culture adapted in schools has the following characteristics viz. curriculum of procedures, methods, skills, rules and algorithms which insist on ‘doing’ mathematics rather than ‘thinking’ mathematics. Issues such as quantum of mathematics content, completion of stipulated syllabus in the given rigid time, examinations, interests and cognitive level of the learners were not given due considerations. Teachers generalize the learners ability i.e., teacher plans the lesson, teaches the lesson aiming at the average generalized ability of the learner considering it as every student's ability. It is evident that Mathematics teaching is dominated by dehumanisation, depersonalisation and decontextualisation. Students many times confused why are they learning about algebra, trigonometry theoretical proofs of theorems. Teaching mathematics in school classrooms is not contextual hence the aims of mathematically inclined learners are not realized by the students. The purpose of this study is to investigate the extent of humanizing mathematics among secondary mathematics teachers based on student's perception of their teachers’ practices in the classroom, specifically their beliefs about the classroom context such as the role and functioning of the mathematics teacher in the classroom. The mean scores for students’ beliefs in their teachers’ role and functioning in the mathematics classroom were positive with high ratings on showing step-by-step procedures in solving mathematical problems. Students also showed positive beliefs on teachers’ role in making mathematics learning enjoyable, interesting, and making learning mathematics understandable, meaningful and a friendly atmosphere