Length-weight relationships of seven catfish species in Peninsular Malaysia.

The study described the Length-Weight Relationship (LWR) of commercially important and indigenous freshwater catfishes from Peninsular Malaysia. Seven species of freshwater catfishes from three families (Bagriidae, Clariidae and Pangasidae) were collected from various rivers in Peninsular Malaysia. Allometric coefficient, b in LWR varied between 2.19 and 3.20. The LWR with high correlation coefficient (r2) is significant for all species except P. nasutus. The present study also documented first reference for Pangasius nasutus and Pseudomystus siamensis

Moderating effect of asean free trade agreement between total quality management and business performance

The unprecedented pace of globalisation, trade liberalisation, and capital movement in the later years profoundly changed to pose serious challenges for Malaysian companies to compete in an open market. In today's highly competitive market, the demand for quality is important factor for companies to survive in the ever-expanding global marketplace. The concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) has been developed as a result of intense global competition. ASEAN trade liberalisation through the elimination of intraregional tariffs contributed to improving manufacturing in ASEAN countries to be more efficient and competitive in world markets. However, Asean Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) is a good news for foreign companies as they have competitive advantages, but not for local companies. The examining of AFTA as a moderator is less done in previous work. The purpose of this paper is to propose relationship between TQM practices and business performance with moderator effects of AFTA. The main contribution of this paper is to examine whether AFTA has the effect as a moderator. This proposed conceptual model will help the academicians and industry players to have better understanding on the effect of AFTA in TQM implementation in improving their business performance. The structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques are used to examine the relationships of the practices.©2014 the Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open Access under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY–NC–ND 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Self-Organized Behaviour in a Modified Multi-Agent Simulation Model Based on Physical Force Approach

The multi-agent simulation models are very useful in predicting crowd behaviours, where experiments with human are too dangerous. However, works that include intelligence in the physical force-based model are very limited. Moreover, most works based on the physical force-based model are only restricted to producing behaviours of crowds in emergency situations. Utilizing a simpler mathematical representation, this paper proposes a modification to an existing crowd simulation model based on the physical force approach. The proposed method incorporates the concept of magnetic force interaction into the existing social force model of an agent movement. It simulates the agent’s interaction within their boundaries, preventing any collisions from occurring and to follow others when the agents move in a same direction. The proposed method incorporated agents’ intelligence to choose the shortest path in their movements towards their destinations. When the number of agents increases in the simulation environment, the model is able to produce a self-organized behaviour, such as the lane formation behaviour pattern when the agents are in a bi-directional movement as well as in a counter flow movement at intersections

PM10 emission inventory of industrial and road transport vehicles in Klang Valley, Peninsular Malaysia

Rapid development in industrial and road transportation sector in developing countries has contributing the environmental issue. Determining the estimated PM10 emission in Klang Valley, Malaysia is based on the best available resources. Emission of PM10 from both sources was estimated particularly from numbers of industries (industrial area and emission factor) and the usage of motor vehicles (traffic volume, vehicle kilometer travel and emission factor). The PM10  emission from both industrial and road transportation sector were 88.59 tonne PM10/year and 32.36 tonne PM10/year respectively.Thus, the total estimated PM10 emission was 120.95 tonne PM10/year. Therefore, the PM10 emission from both sources in Klang Valley can be estimated based on the best available resources due to limitation of actual PM10 emission from both sector.Keywords: PM10 emission; emission factor; vehicle kilometer travel; industrial sector; road transportation secto

Samarium doped ceria (SDC) electrolyte modification by sintering aids addition to reducing sintering temperature: a review

The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a promising technology with specific characteristics for generating electricity by using hydrogen and oxidant as fuel. Typically, SOFC’s use Samarium doped Ceria (SDC) as an electrolyte material as the ionic conductivity of SDC was better at lower operating temperatures which are below than 700°C that making it a good option for low and moderate temperature applications for SOFC. However, SDC electrolytes are cannot be densified below 1500°C. If a densified ceria-based electrolyte can be prepared at lower temperatures it can be co-sintered with another electrode component. This simplifies the fabrication process and reduces the cost. Other than that, it can help with porous electrode microstructure control and avoiding phase diffusion and chemical interaction problems. As a result, decreasing the sintering temperature may be another step toward commercialising SOFC technology. The modification of electrolyte by adding sintering aid was found as an effective method to lowering the sintering temperature. This paper, therefore, focuses on reviewing the attempts made to modify SDC electrolyte by adding sintering aid (Li2O, CoO, CuO and FeO) in order to lowering sintering temperature. The studies related to temperature reduction, relative density, the microstructure of grains and conductivity of electrolyte was critically reviewed

A century of trends in adult human height

Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5-22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3-19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8-144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries

Rising rural body-mass index is the main driver of the global obesity epidemic in adults

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities 1,2 . This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity 3�6 . Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to 2017. We show that, contrary to the dominant paradigm, more than 55 of the global rise in mean BMI from 1985 to 2017�and more than 80 in some low- and middle-income regions�was due to increases in BMI in rural areas. This large contribution stems from the fact that, with the exception of women in sub-Saharan Africa, BMI is increasing at the same rate or faster in rural areas than in cities in low- and middle-income regions. These trends have in turn resulted in a closing�and in some countries reversal�of the gap in BMI between urban and rural areas in low- and middle-income countries, especially for women. In high-income and industrialized countries, we noted a persistently higher rural BMI, especially for women. There is an urgent need for an integrated approach to rural nutrition that enhances financial and physical access to healthy foods, to avoid replacing the rural undernutrition disadvantage in poor countries with a more general malnutrition disadvantage that entails excessive consumption of low-quality calories. © 2019, The Author(s)

The integron prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing enterobacterial isolates in a Malaysian teaching hospital

The increased frequency of antibiotic resistance is known to be associated with the dissemination of integrons in the Enterobacteriaceae. This study determined the prevalence and type of integrons amongst 160 extended-spectrum beta-lactamase producing enterobacterial isolates kept in our culture collection. Integrons were detected in 98(61.3%) isolates, including 28(62.2%) Escherichia coli, 34(64.2%) Klebsiella spp., 27(61.4%), Enterobacter spp. and 9(50.0%) Citrobacter spp. investigated in this study. Restriction analysis of the integron gene fragments revealed that class I integron was the principal integron detected in 92(57.5%) of our isolates. Class II integron was detected in 6(3.8%) of our isolates, while no class III integron was detected in this study. The high rates of integron prevalence particularly of the class I integron in the E. coli and Klebsiella spp. concur with previous studies in other geographical regions. The higher (≥50%) integron prevalence of Citrobacter and Enterobacter isolates comparing to previous studies suggests the potential of these isolates as sources for dissemination of resistance determinants. The finding in this study serves as a basis for further study on the antibiotic resistance mechanisms of enterobacterial species in this teaching hospital