Sustainable development: A Malaysian perspective

Sustainable development is all the rage. Malaysian firms too have been quick to jump into the bandwagon, especially with regards to their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. However, sustainable development has been increasingly interpreted from a strictly Western-centric value system.This may pose challenges to Malaysian firms as they adopt sustainable practices into their operations.Four key issues are presented and discussed, particularly in relation to Malaysian’s socioeconomic landscape.Following that, this paper calls for a return to the fundamentals of sustainable development, which is unfettered to value suppositions and instead focused on more pragmatic reasons.To that end, this paper proceeds to make recommendations of a more suitable approach in embracing sustainable development in Malaysia that would bring about a virtuous cycle of enrichment for the business sector as well as the society

Physiological response of of hopea odorata Roxb. And mimusops elengi linn. Seedlings Under combined nutrient and water Stresses

The physiological response of Hapea odarata and Mimusops eiengi seedlings under drought and various fertilisation rates subjected to nursery conditions was investigated. The experiment was a 6 x 2 factorial design and slow release fertilizer (Best Tab, 20: I O:S N PK) was applied once at the beginning of the experiment and was placed 10cm below the surface in tablet form (NPK 20: 1 O:S). The watering treatments were no stress (seedlings were kept well watered at field capacity ~. 0.3 MPa) and water stress (water was withheld until the soil water potential was ~ - 1.S MPa and then rewatered to field capacity). Physiological measurements were made on mature fully·expanded leaflets of the seedlings. Both species responded differently to conditions of drought and fertilisation with H. odorata seedlings receiving 30g of fertiliser under well-watered conditions had the highest rate of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance throughout the 12 -months period. In contrast, M. eiengi seedlings receiving SO g offertilizer application recorded the highest rate of photosynthesis and stomatal conductance. Both species exhibited drought tolerance via maintenance of high water potential at the end of 12·moflth experimental period. They possess "sensitive stomata" or stomata which close rapidly on exposure to water stress. Such a stomatal response may effectively reduce water loss and maintain high water content during water stress in the urban area. Another important factor is that photosynthetic processes can still be carried out under water stress although at a reduced rate. Fertilisatiofi reduces the impact of drought through its effect on stomatal closure thus reducing transpiration increasing photosynthetic rate and maintaining a much more positive internal water balance which is vital for almost near normal plant function~ng

EFEKTIVITAS BADAN PENGHUBUNG DALAM MEMFASILITASI URUSAN PEMERINTAH DAERAH DAN PEMBANGUNAN KEPADA PEMERINTAH PUSAT

Jawa Barat Government Liaison Agency, is a Regional agency which is only located in theCapital City, after the establishment of the Jawa Barat Government Liaison Agency as afacilitator of regional needs in collaborating with the central government, researchers want toknow how the effectiveness of the Jawa Barat Government Liaison Agency in facilitating JawaBarat Government affairs to The Central Government in helping to advance the developmentof the Jawa Barat Region, this research was conducted using a qualitative descriptivemethod, the results of the study showed 1)Organizational characteristics of the Jawa BaratGovernment Liaison Agency consistingof the Head of the Agency led by Echelon III, theAdministration Sub-Sector, the Inter-Relations Sub-Sector, the Promotion and InformationSub-Sector, the Protocol Sub-secto, which are entirely led by Echelon IV. 2)Environmental Characteristics The Jawa Barat Government Liaison Agency is within the scope of cityadministration which is very close to the central government. 3) Characteristics of workers,most of the employees come from the Jawa Barat region who have the same customary andcultural values. 4) Management Policies and Practices in the 2017-2022 Strategic Plan arestated as local government policies informulating efforts to develop Jawa Barat areas whichpoint to the realization of reforms. quality bureaucracy, the realization of an Islamic culturalsystem, customs and arts, the realization of integrated information and data

Effects Of Combined Nutrient And Water Stress On The Growth Of Hopea Odorata Roxb. And Mimusops Elengi Linn. Seedlings

The growth of Hopea odorata and Mimusops eiengi seedlings under drought and various fertilization rates under nursery conditions was investigated. Both H. odorata and M. e1engi seedlings responded differently to fertilizer application and drought Application of slow-release fertilizer (Best Tab, 20: 10: 5 NPK) at 30 and 50 g promoted greater growth for H. odorata and M eiengj·seedlings. respectively. M eif'llgi seedlings were able to tolerate high fertilizer application (50 g), but the resulting form (small trunk diameter and excessive height) was not suitable for urban planting. Growth of H. odorata seedlings was greatly promoted through application of 30 g of fertilizer under wellwatered conditions, resulting in a much more balanced growth in terms of shoot and root ratio, which is vital for plants growing in the harsh urban environment where competition for water and nutrients is usually intense

Mapping the relationship among quality management practices, organizational learning, organizational culture, and organizational performance in higher education: a proposed framework

The challenges in higher education and global competition encouraged performance excellence and the pursuit towards providing educational services characterized by high quality. To ensure performance excellence, quality management practices are considered as one of the variables that affect the organizational performance. On the other hand, organizational learning is a method that facilitates the process of improving the organizational performance. The results of organizational performance vary according to environmental conditions, especially an organizational culture that is one of the important indicators that are characterized by organizations. This encourages choosing the organizational culture as a moderating variable. However, this paper highlights organizational performance through a proposed conceptual framework to be considered in higher education institutes

Four methods for determining the composition of trace radioactive surface contamination of low-radioactivity metal

Four methods for determining the composition of low-level uranium- and thorium-chain surface contamination are presented. One method is the observation of Cherenkov light production in water. In two additional methods a position-sensitive proportional counter surrounding the surface is used to make both a measurement of the energy spectrum of alpha particle emissions and also coincidence measurements to derive the thorium-chain content based on the presence of short-lived isotopes in that decay chain. The fourth method is a radiochemical technique in which the surface is eluted with a weak acid, the eluate is concentrated, added to liquid scintillator and assayed by recording beta-alpha coincidences. These methods were used to characterize two `hotspots' on the outer surface of one of the He-3 proportional counters in the Neutral Current Detection array of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory experiment. The methods have similar sensitivities, of order tens of ng, to both thorium- and uranium-chain contamination.Comment: 22 pages, 19 figure

The little flavons

Fermion masses and mixing matrices can be described in terms of spontaneously broken (global or gauge) flavor symmetries. We propose a little-Higgs inspired scenario in which an SU(2)xU(1) gauge flavor symmetry is spontaneously (and completely) broken by the vacuum of the dynamically induced potential for two scalar doublets (the flavons) which are pseudo-Goldstone bosons remaining after the spontaneous breaking--at a scale between 10 and 100 TeV--of an approximate SU(6) global symmetry. The vacuum expectation values of the flavons give rise to the texture in the fermion mass matrices. We discuss in detail the case of leptons. Light-neutrino masses arise by means of a see-saw-like mechanism that takes place at the same scale at which the SU(6) global symmetry is broken. We show that without any fine tuning of the parameters the experimental values of the charged-lepton masses,the neutrino square mass differences and the Pontecorvo-Maki-Nakagawa-Sakata mixing matrix are reproduced.Comment: 13 pages, revTeX4. Version to be published in PR

Production of bio-compatible nanofiber from chitosan with electrospinning method for preservation and maintenance aquatic products

Chitin nanofibers are prepared from the exoskeletons of shrimp by a simple mechanical treatment after a series of purification steps. The nanofibers have fine nanofibers networks with a uniform width of approximately 10 nm. Grinders and highpressure water jet systems are effective for disintegrating chitin into nanofibers. Acidic conditions are the key factor to facilitate mechanical fibrillation. Ultrafine fibers were successfully fabricated chitosan and fish skinextracted gelatin via electrospinning (ES). Important ES parameters, such as concentration of aqueous acid and fish gelatin solutions, and electric field intensity were examined to investigate the effects on the morphology of the gelatin nanofibers. Due to the poor mechanical properties of the fish gelatin membranes, composite nanofibers made of fish gelatin and poly(L-lactide)(PLLA) were produced with a novel solution. The introduction of PLLA remarkably improved the mechanical properties of the gelatin membranes. With a combination of good biocompatibility and mechanical properties, fish gelatin/PLGA blending non-woven mats are considered to be very promising in fish fillet coating application.. in this study, we fabricated a novel nanofibers composed of fish collagen (FC) and polycaprolactone (PCL) blends by using the electrospinning method. Nanofibers were characterized using a scanning electron microscope (SEM), and it was revealed that the diameter of nanofibers decreases as FC content was increased in the FC/PCL composite nanofibers. Several modifications to the chitin NF surface are achieved, including acetylation, deacetylation and maleylation. The results of this study revealed that: 1–It is possible to produce Nanofibers from chitosan and fish gelatin. 2– Covering and coating of processed fish by nanofibers are applicable and increasing the possibility of shell life for the processed fish. 3– Nanofibers which have been produced from chitosan and fish gelation not only is environmentally friendly but also it will be eatable while has been covered for fish fillets. biocompatible chitosan and gelatin made from fish, fresh fish fillets do not have the ability to cover and packaging, but is edible and used