Recommendation domains for pond aquaculture

This publication introduces the methods and results of a research project that has developed a set of decision-support tools to identify places and sets of conditions for which a particular target aquaculture technology is considered feasible and therefore good to promote. The tools also identify the nature of constraints to aquaculture development and thereby shed light on appropriate interventions to realize the potential of the target areas. The project results will be useful for policy planners and decision makers in national, regional and local governments and development funding agencies, aquaculture extension workers in regional and local governments, and researchers in aquaculture systems and rural livelihoods. (Document contains 40 pages

Recommendation domains for pond aquaculture

This publication introduces the methods and results of a research project that has developed a set of decision-support tools to identify places and sets of conditions for which a particular target aquaculture technology is considered feasible and therefore good to promote. The tools also identify the nature of constraints to aquaculture development and thereby shed light on appropriate interventions to realize the potential of the target areas. The project results will be useful for policy planners and decision makers in national, regional and local governments and development funding agencies, aquaculture extension workers in regional and local governments, and researchers in aquaculture systems and rural livelihoods.Pond culture, Freshwater aquaculture, GIS

Cognitive Style as a Factor in Accounting Students\u27 Performance on Multiple Choice Examinations

Using 59 final year accounting students as subjects and multiple regression analysis, this paper tests the hypothesis that accounting students\u27 performance on multiple choice examinations is related to field dependence cognitive style. Results support the hypothesis and suggest that in evaluating student performances in multiple choice examinations, accounting academics should bear in mind that the scores on these examinations may be partly a function of students\u27 cognitive style. This finding has implications for the use of multiple choice examinations in classroom evaluations

Beyond ‘greeting’ and ‘thanking’: politeness in job interviews

Despite the steps taken by Malaysian institutions of higher learning to equip their graduates with the necessary communication skills, local graduates are still failing to create a positive impression on the employers especially during job interviews. Hence this study explored the face-related concept of politeness proposed by Brown and Levinson (1999) at job interviews. Eight final-year undergraduates taking a communication for employment course volunteered for a mock-interview session with a human resource manager from the banking industry. The interviews were audio- and video-recorded and subsequently transcribed. Then a micro-analysis of the data was carried out using Brown and Levinson’s (1999) framework to identify the politeness strategies that the candidates used. Two positive politeness strategies were identified, the first is noticing and attending to interviewer’s interests, wants, needs or goods, and second is raising/asserting common grounds to establish solidarity. One negative politeness strategy was identified which is requesting for clarification or repetition. The pedagogical implications of these findings will be discussed and recommendations for teaching face-related politeness in communication for employment courses will be offered

Direct synthesis iron oxide nanoparticles using ramie, lemon and dragon fruit as green and low cost approach

Plant extracts have been used as agent reduction capping to synthesise various nanoparticlesdue to the process is a low cost, large-scale method and environmental friendly. Herein, ironoxide nanoparticles were synthesized using ramie, lemon and dragon fruit extracts. Thecharacterization results show that all synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles had almost similardiameters, shape and crystalline phases although different of plants extracts were used.Among the plants, ramie has cheapest market price in which the cost production of iron oxidenanoparticles can be reduced significantly.Keywords: iron oxide nanoparticles; scanning electron microscop

Improved fuzzy hashing technique for biometric template protection

Biometrics provides a new dimension of security to modern automated applications since each user will need to prove his identity when attempting an access. However, if a stored biometric template is compromised, then the conventional biometric recognition system becomes vulnerable to privacy invasion. This invasion is a permanent one because the biometric template is not replaceable. In this paper, we introduce an improved FuzzyHashing technique for biometric template protection purpose. We demonstrate our implementation in the context of fingerprint biometrics. The experimental results and the security analysis on FVC 2004 DB1 and DB2 fingerprint datasets suggest that the technique is highly feasible in practice

Nutritional status and health profile among single mothers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan

The objective of this cross-sectional study is to determine the nutritional status and health profile of single mothers in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. A total of 100 single mothers aged 18-59 years old were involved in this study. Assessment of blood glucose, blood pressure, height and weight and food consumption were done to each respondent. Results showed that the random blood glucose level of 82.0% single mothers was normal (within 4.4-8.0mmol/L), 18.0% exceeded 8.0mmol/L although only 10.0% of them were diagnosed with diabetes based on clinical history. Meanwhile, 46.0% had normal blood pressure level. The result showed that 33.0% of the subjects have normal BMI, 6.0% of them fall in the category of underweight, 39.0% were overweight and 22.0% were obese. It is suggested that future intervention programs should focus on preventing obesity problems related to chronic diseases.Keywords: nutritional status; single mother; health profile; Kelantan; obesit

Opinion diversity and community formation in adaptive networks

It is interesting and of significant importance to investigate how network structures co-evolve with opinions. The existing models of such co-evolution typically lead to the final states where network nodes either reach a global consensus or break into separated communities, each of which holding its own community consensus. Such results, however, can hardly explain the richness of real-life observations that opinions are always diversified with no global or even community consensus, and people seldom, if not never, totally cut off themselves from dissenters. In this article, we show that, a simple model integrating consensus formation, link rewiring and opinion change allows complex system dynamics to emerge, driving the system into a dynamic equilibrium with co-existence of diversified opinions. Specifically, similar opinion holders may form into communities yet with no strict community consensus; and rather than being separated into disconnected communities, different communities remain to be interconnected by non-trivial proportion of inter-community links. More importantly, we show that the complex dynamics may lead to different numbers of communities at steady state with a given tolerance between different opinion holders. We construct a framework for theoretically analyzing the co-evolution process. Theoretical analysis and extensive simulation results reveal some useful insights into the complex co-evolution process, including the formation of dynamic equilibrium, the phase transition between different steady states with different numbers of communities, and the dynamics between opinion distribution and network modularity, etc.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, Journa

Selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia over nano Cu/zeolites with different topologies

The selective catalytic oxidation of ammonia (NH3-SCO) is the last mitigation step in exhaust treatment using a 4-way catalytic converter to convert any excess and unreacted NH3 (that was used as a reductant of NOx) into environmentally benign N2 and H2O. Here, we report a series of highly reactive and selective nano Cu/zeolites for the NH3-SCO reaction. The NH3-SCO activity was found in the order nano Cu/ZSM-5 (MFI topology) > Cu/Beta (BEA) > Cu/MCM-49 (MWW) > Cu/Y (FAU) > Cu/Mordenite (MOR) > Cu/Ferrierite (FER). The best catalyst, i.e., nano Cu/ZSM-5, achieves 98% NH3 conversion at 250 °C with the N2 yield maintained at >98% even at up to 500 °C. When assessed under practical exhaust conditions in the presence of moisture (5% H2O) as well as that after hydrothermal aging (5% H2O, 850 °C, 8 h), the nano Cu/ZSM-5 exhibited only minor deactivation as a result of its good retention of Cu dispersion, pore structure and specific surface area. Furthermore, small micropore (10-membered ring, 10-MR) topologies were found to be crucial in maintaining high N2 yields. For Cu/Y and Cu/Mordenite, composed of 12-MR pores that are non-interconnected with smaller pores, their N2 yields were compromised by forming NOx at temperatures above 400 °C. Based on the in situ DRIFTS study, the iSCR mechanism appears to be applicable for all fresh and aged Cu/zeolites with the exception of fresh Cu/MCM-49 that follows the imide mechanism