Fire Safety Management in Malaysian Higher Educational Institutions

Most universities and college campuses across Malaysia are engaged in developing policies, programmes, and systems to reduce fire risks, and maintain fire safety. Although the awareness of fire disasters has increased among some parts of the society, the concept of fire disaster preparedness and response in universities has not been sufficiently explored. Therefore, this paper aims to establish a conceptual framework fire safety management plan in Malaysian Higher Educational Institution. The method used by this paper is synthesizing previous articles from selected journals and conference proceedings, reports, standards on disaster risk management, higher institution contingency and fire safety plans, and existing guidelines from authorities. The key elements of fire safety variables from the previous literatures assist this study in developing a conceptual framework related to fire safety management plan. The findings of this paper include the elements of fire safety management like organizational responsibilities (mitigation/prevention), emergency preparedness including emergency facilities, emergency contact details, information, and communication training, and testing and reviewing (response & recovery). The establishment of this conceptual framework of fire safety management can guide the management teams at higher educational institutions in delivering information to Emergency Response Team (ERT) to ensure its effectiveness. Moreover, this framework will help the management team to adopt, validate, and evaluate, which enhances the ability to detect crisis signal that will minimize losses

Fire Safety Management in Malaysian Higher Educational Institutions

Most universities and college campuses across Malaysia are engaged in developing policies, programmes, and systems to reduce fire risks, and maintain fire safety. Although the awareness of fire disasters has increased among some parts of the society, the concept of fire disaster preparedness and response in universities has not been sufficiently explored. Therefore, this paper aims to establish a conceptual framework fire safety management plan in Malaysian Higher Educational Institution. The method used by this paper is synthesizing previous articles from selected journals and conference proceedings, reports, standards on disaster risk management, higher institution contingency and fire safety plans, and existing guidelines from authorities. The key elements of fire safety variables from the previous literatures assist this study in developing a conceptual framework related to fire safety management plan. The findings of this paper include the elements of fire safety management like organizational responsibilities (mitigation/prevention), emergency preparedness including emergency facilities, emergency contact details, information, and communication training, and testing and reviewing (response & recovery). The establishment of this conceptual framework of fire safety management can guide the management teams at higher educational institutions in delivering information to Emergency Response Team (ERT) to ensure its effectiveness. Moreover, this framework will help the management team to adopt, validate, and evaluate, which enhances the ability to detect crisis signal that will minimize losses

Numerical study of jet impingement cooling on a smooth curve surface

Impinging jets are a best method of achieving particularly high heat transfer coefficient and are therefore employed in many engineering applications. In this study we seek to understand the mechanism of the distributed heat on the curve surface with the goal of identifying preferred methods to predicting jet performance. The goals that have been achieved in the numerical results displayed are determine the influence of impingement jet characteristics on thermal and flow field on a curve surface, determine the variation of Nusselt numbers (NuD) along the curve surface in order to understand the heat transfer characteristics and study the effect of position (in the center, in the mid and in the end) and angle (α=90°, 60° and 30°) of jet impingement on curve surface, different Reynolds numbers (ReD) in range of (5000, 6000, 7000, 8000 and 9000). The program, which was extracted results it is (GAMBIT 2.4.6) and (FLUENT 6.3), simulation is (2-D) in submerged jet flow and the continuity, momentum and energy equations were solved by means of a finite volume method (FVM). This study covers the effect of different Reynolds numbers (ReD) on average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg) and local Nusselt numbers (NuD). From the result, the average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg) increased with the increase of Reynolds numbers (ReD) for all cases, in comparison between different positions (center, mid and end), of nozzle on curve surface at angle (α=90°) the maximum value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=388.3) is found when the nozzle locate in the end followed by the mid position and smallest value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=182.25) in the center of curve surface. In case of slant angle (α=60º) the maximum value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=387.47) is found when the nozzle locate in the end followed by the mid position and smallest value of average Nusselt numbers (Nuavg=308.3) in the center of curve surface

Natural Ventilation for Energy Efficient Office Buildings: A Comparative Analysis on Three Buildings In Kuala Lumpur

The aim of this study was to identify and analyse the criteria of natural ventilation in the selected office buildings. The analysis had been made based on the architectural and passive design component provided in MS 1525:2007 for the office building. This case study is important in helping to understand the relationship between natural ventilation, energy efficiency and cost effectiveness

Site planning and orientation for energy efficiency: a comparative analysis on three office buildings in Kuala Lumpur to determine a location for building shading device

A well-designed energy efficient building provide long term building optimisation while minimising the energy. Site planning and orientation of the building plays an important factor at the early stage of any development. Especially to determine the best location for the building opening and windows and also the suitable materials to enhance comfort to the occupants and reduce the energy consumption. Thus, the aim of this study was to identify the site planning and orientation of the selected office building. The benchmark for the analysis will be based on the architectural and passive design component provided in MS 1525:2007 for the site planning and orientation through comparative analysis. Three energy efficient office building in Kuala Lumpur were selected in this research. This case study is important in helping to understand the relationship between site planning, building orientation, energy efficiency and cost effectiveness

Utilization of kenaf core fiber – marine clay mixture as a landfill liner material

Nowadays, leachate production is a big concern and causes a serious hazard to the soil and groundwater which causes the subsurface soil to be polluted as a result of the loss of soil quality and environmental pollution. This study aims to study the potential of using kenaf core fiber and marine clay mixtures as improved landfill liner material. Relevant laboratory tests such as atterberg limit test, specific gravity test, and particle size distribution were performed to examine basic geotechnical properties of marine clay soil collected from Batu Kawan, Penang. Besides that, compaction test and hydraulic conductivity test were carried out for soil mixed with kenaf core fiber to determine the strength and permeability characteristics. The results found that the marine clay has significantly adequate physical properties to be used as a landfill liner. The permeability test for marine clay soil inclusion of kenaf core fibre indicated that the hydraulic conductivity of the samples admixture for 0%, 4%, 8%, and 12% ranged between 6.68 × 10-9 and 1.57 × 10-8 m/s. Compaction of marine clay mix kenaf core fibre samples resulted in maximum dry density, ρdmax that ranged between 0.936 and 1.595 g/cm3 and optimum moisture content, wopt that ranged between 19.8% and 24%. Hence the inclusion of kenaf core fiber in marine clay soil improves the maximum dry density value, decrease permeability of marine clay and could be potentially used for landfill liner material

Medicinal biotechnology in antibiotics

In the course of the most recent decade, the rise and spread of antibiotic resistance in bacteria has prompted another dread in the logical and medical communities as among individuals from the overall population. The development of biotechnology in producing antibiotics enhances the growth in the country's economy, society and pharmaceutical industry. Antibiotics such as penicillin which are commonly used in some drugs against pathogens are naturally created by microorganisms, while non-antibiotic antibacterial drugs like antiseptics and sulfonamides are fully synthetic. Rationally there are some benefits from the use of antibiotics. In general, antibiotics are classified as an integral class of antibacterial that are specifically used more in medical products and also in animal feed. In addition, advances in the human pharmaceutical industry will probably produce a detailed base understanding of the antibiotics for the individual and populations in the near future. The aim of this study is to provide an overview on antibiotics starting from its introduction, biotechnology used, advantages and antibiotics effects to today's society

Antioxidant Potential of Chloranthus erectus (Chloranthaceae) from various solvents extract

Chloranthus erectus is a herbaceous plant that has been used as a medicinal plant in several regions such as China and Southeast Asia. Although it possesses valuable medicinal properties, till now there is not much research has been carried out on the medicinal properties of this plant and the knowledge of this plant is limited among the research fertility. Therefore, this study aimed to identify the phytochemicals, total phenolic content (TPC), and antioxidant activity of leaf and twig of C. erectus in various solvents extract (hexane, petroleum ether, chloroform, ethyl acetate, and methanol). Phytochemical screening of extracts showed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins, quinones, glycosides, and steroids. The highest phenolic content for leaf and twig samples was determined from the methanolic (9.64 ± 0.15 µg GAE/g) and hexanoic extract (7.39 ± 0.27 µg GAE/g), respectively. Meanwhile, the highest antioxidant activity was reported from the methanolic extract of both leaf (88.36 ± 0.24%) and twig (91.25 ± 0.10%) samples. Hence, the results of the study can be concluded that C. erectus has the potential to become a good natural antioxidant and the information from this study can be utilized by the communities as well as other researchers

The effectiveness of educational intervention program on knowledge of BSE among secondary school girls in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan

Breast Self-Examination (BSE) is important to be introduced to secondary school girls in order to develop a positive health behavior. Limited attention has been given on knowledge among school girls. Hence, this study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of educational intervention program on knowledge of BSE among secondary school girls in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 502 volunteered secondary school girls using pre and post self-administered validated questionnaire. The mean (SD) age of the participants was 14.9 (± 0.1) years. Majority of the participants were Malays (87.1%). Pre-intervention educational program revealed that 91% of the participants had poor knowledge whereas 9% had good knowledge on BSE. Post-educational intervention program showed that knowledge has increased by 33.4% and percentage for ‘poor’ knowledge reduced by 33.4% from pre-intervention scored (p < 0.001). There was no significant difference on knowledge of BSE among participants with and without family history of breast cancer (p = 0.204). Health campaign was the top source of information to gain knowledge related to BSE prior (56.6%) and after (90.2%) the intervention program (p < 0.001). Thus, the educational intervention program was found to be effective method to improve the knowledge on BSE among secondary school girls

Content validity index: competencies of quantity surveyors and enabling technologies in Industry 4.0

Competency is important for every profession where it is needed to ensure the efficiency of a person while carrying out their task. Furthermore, with the emergence of Industry 4.0 recently, there is a need for an improved competencies model for Quantity Surveyor. The objective of this study is to develop an improved competency model for Quantity Surveyor complete with Industry 4.0 enabling technologies that currently emerge nowadays. To achieve the above objective, a pilot study should be conducted on the target respondents, namely Quantity Surveyor. However, before the pilot study can be conducted, pre-testing on the research questions is done through the Content Validity Index (CVI) that involves the expert validators consist of academicians and industry experts. This paper intended to describe a systematic approach to quantify content validity in the form of content validity index best practice. The output of the CVI identified seven (7) parameters for non-technical competencies, ten (10) parameters for technical competencies, and twelve (12) parameters for enabling technological that are appropriate to be used in the questionnaire questions. Eventually, the output for this research will develop a comprehensive competency model for Quantity Surveyors where it is embedded with Industry 4.0 technology enablers