Classification of Malaysian vowels using formant based features

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has made great strides with the development of digital signal processing hardware and software, especially using English as the language of choice. Despite of all these advances, machines cannot match the performance of their human counterparts in terms of accuracy and speed, especially in case of speaker independent speech recognition. In this paper, a new feature based on formant is presented and evaluated on Malaysian spoken vowels. These features were classified and used to identify vowels recorded from 80 Malaysian speakers. A back propagation neural network (BPNN) model was developed to classify the vowels. Six formant features were evaluated, which were the first three formant frequencies and the distances between each of them. Results, showed that overall vowel classification rate of these three formant combinations are comparatively the same but differs in terms of individual vowel classification

Satisfying customers using total quality management: the mediating role of control systems

The premise of this paper is that Total Quality Management (TQM) must be adopted as a way of life for employees and not just as a slogan per se, so that the intended goal of implementing TQM can be fully realised. In order to internalise the philosophy of TQM into each organisational member, control systems play an important role. Control systems, among others, are implemented as systems for aligning the intended objectives of TQM and the individual objectives of each employee. The findings of this study supported the contingency theory that suggested the control systems being practised should be aligned with the strategy pursued to achieve the intended objectives. This paper extends the current existing knowledge by investigating the mediating role of control systems in explaining the relationship between TQM and customer satisfaction

Short Notes on the Vertebrate Fauna of Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve, Puchong, Selangor

Record from the Museum of Zoology, Department of Biology, Universiti Putra Malaysia contains list of vertebrates of Ayer Hitam Forest Researve area collected from 1975 until 1985. The collection in the museum consists of 14 birds, 10 anurans, 5 lacertalians, 3 ophidians and 8 mammals. Recent field collections by students of biology, as part of their assignment of vertebrates diversity revealed 3 species of bats, 2 reptiles, 13 anurans and 10 fishes. Fish is the new addition of the vertebrate lists that was not collected before. The list of vertebrate in this report is lJy no means exhaustive. More collections are needed to inventories the vertebrates of Ayer Hitam Forest Reserve

Distribution of VA Mycorrhizal Spores in Sandy Beach Soils under Cashew

Surface horizons (0-15 em) of sandy beach soils from Besut and Kuantan, (Malaysia) under cashew (Anacardium occidentale L) were sampled for Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) spores. Isolation of VAM spores were made from both the Rudua and Jambu series in Besut as well as the Rudua and Baging series in Kuantan. There were more spores isolated from the Kuantan than the Besut areas. The results also indiate a positive relationship between spore number to percent organic matter present in the topsoil. The abundant spores isolated from the Kuantan areas (in contrast to Besut) could have some significance in the P nutrition of cashew and probably explain the yield differences existing between these two areas

Studies on the antioxidant properties of Tualang honey of Malaysia

Honey has been used since ancient times for its nutritional as well as curative properties. Tualang honey is collected from wild honey bees’ hives on Tualang trees found in the Malaysian rain forest. It has been used traditionally for the treatment of various diseases, where its therapeutic value has partly been related to its antioxidant properties. This study therefore assessed the colour intensity, total phenolic content, antioxidant activity and antiradical activity of gamma irradiated Tualang Honey. The colour intensity at ABS45O was 489.5 ± 1.7 mAU, total phenolic content was 251.7±7.9 mg gallic acid /Kg honey, total antioxidant activity by FRAP assay was 322.1±9.7 (μM Fe(II)) and the antiradical activity by DPPH assay was 41.30 ± 0.78 (% inhibition). The data confirms that the antioxidant properties of gamma irradiated Tualang honey are similar to other types of honeys reported in the literature.Key words: Tualang honey, Malaysia, Total antioxidant activity, Gamma radiation, Phenolic content, DPPH assa

Chlorella vulgaris modulates hydrogen peroxide-induced dna damage and telomere shortening of human fibroblasts derived from different aged individuals

The objective of this study was to investigate the modulatory effect of Chlorella vulgaris on cultured fibroblast cells derived from young and old aged individuals focusing on DNA damage, telomere length and telomerase activity. Dose-response test of the algal extract on cells in both age groups revealed that optimum viability was observed at a concentration of 50 μg/ml. Results obtained showed that Chlorella vulgaris exhibited protective effects against H2O2-induced oxidative stress as shown by the reduction in damaged DNA caused by H2O2 treatment (

Nano-satellite attitude control system based on adaptive neuro-controller

The current research focuses on designing of an intelligent controller for attitude control system (ACS) of nano-satellite. The nanosatellite namely Innovative Satellite (InnoSAT) was organized by Agensi Angkasa Negara (ANGKASA) to attract the interest of Malaysian universities in satellite development.In this study, an intelligent controller based on Hybrid Multi Layered Perceptron (HMLP) network was developed. The network used model reference adaptive control (MRAC) system as a control scheme to control a time varying systems where the performance specifications are given in terms of a reference model.The Weighted Recursive Least Square (WRLS) algorithm will adjust the controller parameters to minimize error between the plant output and the model reference output.The objective of this paper is to analyze the tracking performance of ANC based on HMLP network and ANC based on standard MLP network for controlling a satellite attitude. The simulation results indicate that ANC based on HMLP network gave better performance than ANC based on standard MLP network

Penentuan faktor-faktor tanah ke atas tumbesaran gajus di kawasan tanah Bris : bahagian I

Penyelidikan mengenai gajus adalah amat kurang. Oleh yang demikian, satu kajian ladang telah dijalankan untuk menentukan perkaitan antara kedalaman lapisan keras spodik, iaitu ciri semulajadi tanah, dan paras kandungan bahan organan ke atas tumbesaran gajus. Kajian ini dijalankan di ladang gajus Perusahaan Gajus Malaysia (C/MA). Besut, di mana jenis-jenis tanah berasaskan kedalaman horizon spodik telah ditentukan terlebih dahulu. Teknik-teknik ringkas, yang direka khas untuk kajian ladang telah digunakan. Kedalaman lapisan keras spodik tidak menunjukkan kesan yang bererti ke atas tumbesaran gajus yang diukur dari segi ke tinggian pokok dan luas permukaan sudur pokok. Ini adalah kerana pokok tersebut tidak mempunyai sistem akar yang dalam. Walaubagaimana pun, kandungan bahan organan tanah memberikan kesan yang sangat bererti ke atas ketinggian pokok serta luas permukaan sudur pokok dan memberikan angkali korelasi r = 0.536 dan r = 0.495 (P < 0.01) tiap-tiap satunya. Seterusnya bahan organan tanah dipengaruhi secara tidak langsung oleh kedalaman lapisan keras spodik seperti yang ditunjukkan oleh angkali korelasi yang negatif (r =-·0.364; P < 0.05)

Commuting Accidents among Health Care Workers Working in Malaysia Government Hospitals

Commuting accidents are accidents occurring while travelling to and from work, and in the course of work. Studies have demonstrated that long working hours are associated with deprived sleeping time. Acute sleep deprivation may result in significant changes in cognitive functioning, alteration of mental status resembling depression or anxiety and difficulty with short-term memory. Some other studies have found that sleep deprivation significantly affects physician performance, alertness and patient safety. However, individual factors concerning workers’ behavior, family-related factors (parenting responsibility), work burden, workplace support as well as environmental factors such as bad weather and bad road conditions are also significant contributors of commuting accidents. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of long working hours or odd working hours and the risk exposure of the drivers during their work-commuting trips. The study was based on data collected from official notification forms. Sample size for this research was 554 based on 2014 to 2017 reported cases. Review of the statistics showed that most of the commuting accident causalitiesoccurred during travel to work (30.1%), compared to back from work after normal office hours (28.7%) and during odd hours (night shift and post-call) (12.5%). Nurses contributed significantly to these causalities (53%), followed by hospital attendants (17%), medical officer and assistant medical officer, respectively, 6 percent. Theincreasing number of commuting accidents among healthcare workers is alarming. As such, it is timely that proactive actions be taken by employers to educate their employees, their most valuable assets, on safe commuting management. Keywords: commuting accident, healthcare workers, road crashe