Quantifying tropical wetlands using field surveys, spatial statistics and remote sensing

Tropical wetlands support high biodiversity and ecological services, but in most areas they suffer from a paucity of baseline data to support management. We demonstrate how modern technology can be used to develop ecological baseline data including, landuse/landcover, water depth, water quality, lake-level fluctuation, and normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI). For the first time we quantified and mapped these metrics for the Paya Indah Wetlands, Malaysia using the new high-spatial-resolution World View 2 imagery. Landuse/landcover classifications were validated by field visits and visual interpretation of the imagery. NDVI was extracted based on red and near infra-red 2 bands. Topo to Raster method was used for interpolation of water depths. Annual mean of a water-quality index and annual water-level fluctuation of lakes were interpolated across lakes using the inverse-distance weighting method. Qualitative and quantitative accuracy assessment of classification (75 % overall accuracy, user’s accuracies ranged from 60 % to 90 % and producer’s accuracy ranged from 60 % to 97 %) was promising and clearly illustrated that World View 2 imagery can yield fast and reasonably precise identification of ecosystem characteristics for ecological baselines

E-Government Adoption Success Factors And Their Weight Analysis: A Citizen Perspective

Since there are many theories, models and factors to choose when investigating the e-government adoption, the issue of how to choose the appropriate factors arises. Hence, this study’s purpose is to overcome this issue by highlighting e-government adoption success variables by performing a weight analysis of the variables relationships. Data were gathered from 141 studies associated to the e-government adoption. Out of those 141 studies, only 94 utilized a variety of constructs with appropriate values of correlation that are required to perform a weight analysis. Both non-significant and significant relationships from all 94 publications are also presented in a diagram. Our findings shows that 15 independent variables were found to be categorized as best predictors, 7 independent variables were found to be categorized as promising predictors, and 12 independent variables were found to be categorized as least effective predictors. This paper contributes by implementing an up to date variables weight analysis, moreover it contributes theoretically to the literature body of e-government and suggests further future work directions

Physicochemical characteristics of recycled tyre tread compounds

The present work was aimed at evaluating the physicochemical characteristics of seven recycled tyre tread compounds. The materials were characterized for elemental composition, surface morphology, surface chemistry, oil content, ash content, thermal degradation and dielectric properties. Some of the materials were analyzed according to the Rubber Research Institute Malaysia (RRIM) in-house methods for comparison. Natural rubber, butadiene rubber and styrene-butadiene rubber were also employed to validate the thermal degradation profile. Results show that all materials exhibit comparable elemental composition, and dielectric and surface properties, but dissimilar composition of rubber compounds as revealed by the simple mass balance-thermogravimetric approach. The finding is consistent with the RRIM in-house methods. The proposed thermogravimetric approach is sufficient to assess the composition and quality of recycled tyre tread compounds

The effects of the health reform plan on the performance indicators of hospitals affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Iran, 2014

BACKGROUND: One of the significant goals of healthcare delivery organizations is to promote people’s health and provide high quality care. In this regard, health reform plan was designed in Iran. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the performance of teaching hospitals after running of health system reform plan in Iran.METHODS: This retrospective-descriptive study was carried out in 4 hospitals (Avicenna, Velayat, Rajaee, and Qhods) affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran, in 2014. Data collection tool was the checklist of standard indicators of Iranian Ministry of Health, because the checklist is standard to measure hospitals’ performance. In this study, 19 indicators (performance indicators, personnel indicators, and financial indicators) were investigated. To fill out the indicators checklist, the statistics unit of Ministry of Health was used according to the reports of two consecutive years of 2013 and 2014. The collected data were analyzed using Excel software.RESULTS: In general, out of the 7 performance indicators that were investigated in the hospitals, increase was observed in four, and decrease was seen in three items. Out of the six personnel indicators, all of the hospitals experienced a rise; and out of the six financial indicators, four items increased and two decreased.CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicated that after one year of implementing health reform plan, the mentioned health care system experienced a remarkable progress in the hospitals. Providing the necessary infrastructures can help better conduction of the plan and promotion of the mentioned indicators by removing or decreasing the effect of some barriers

Elastohydrodynamics Lubrication for Bio-Based Lubricants in Elliptical Conjunction

This paper investigates a bio-based lubrication issue of elastohydrodynamic lubricants in mechanical part. Bio-based lubricants are one of the possibilities that might be used as a substitute for the conventional lubricants in the industries. The paper focused on elastohydrodynamic lubrication flows at the elliptical conjunctions by using bio-based lubricants and mineral oil. The computational fluid dynamic was used to determine the effect of lubricants in elliptical conjunctions. This software helps to verify the deformation of the pressure distribution at the conjunctions. From this study, at constant speed, the mineral oil has higher value of dynamic pressure than bio-based lubricants along X and Y axis between two mating surfaces. It is found that, the mineral oil carried more load compared to bio-based lubricant. Hence, the bio-based lubricant is the best lubricant to protect the surfaces from wear and damage due to its properties has less value of dynamic pressure than mineral oil

Elastohydrodynamics Lubrication for Bio-Based Lubricants in Elliptical Conjunction

This paper emphasizes on bio-based lubrication issue of elastohydrodynamic lubricants in mechanical part. The bio-based lubricant has a great potential as a substitute for conventional lubricant in industries. In this work, the elastohydrodynamic lubrication flows were investigated at the elliptical conjunctions by using bio-based lubricants and mineral oil. The computational fluid dynamic (CFD) software was used to determine the effect of lubricants and helps to verify the deformation of the pressure distribution at the conjunctions. The results show that at constant speed, the mineral oil exhibits higher value of dynamic pressure than the bio-based lubricant along X and Y axis between two mating surfaces. It is also found that the mineral oil carried more load compared to bio-based lubricant. Owing to the promising properties of lower dynamic pressure than the mineral oil, the bio- based lubricant exhibits significant behaviour in protecting the surfaces from wear and damage

The effects of the health reform plan on the performance indicators of hospitals affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Iran, 2014

BACKGROUND: One of the significant goals of healthcare delivery organizations is to promote people’s health and provide high quality care. In this regard, health reform plan was designed in Iran. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the performance of teaching hospitals after running of health system reform plan in Iran. METHODS: This retrospective-descriptive study was carried out in 4 hospitals (Avicenna, Velayat, Rajaee, and Qhods) affiliated with Qazvin University of Medical Sciences, Qazvin, Iran, in 2014. Data collection tool was the checklist of standard indicators of Iranian Ministry of Health, because the checklist is standard to measure hospitals’ performance. In this study, 19 indicators (performance indicators, personnel indicators, and financial indicators) were investigated. To fill out the indicators checklist, the statistics unit of Ministry of Health was used according to the reports of two consecutive years of 2013 and 2014. The collected data were analyzed using Excel software. RESULTS: In general, out of the 7 performance indicators that were investigated in the hospitals, increase was observed in four, and decrease was seen in three items. Out of the six personnel indicators, all of the hospitals experienced a rise; and out of the six financial indicators, four items increased and two decreased. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicated that after one year of implementing health reform plan, the mentioned health care system experienced a remarkable progress in the hospitals. Providing the necessary infrastructures can help better conduction of the plan and promotion of the mentioned indicators by removing or decreasing the effect of some barriers

Ocular syphilis: resurgence of an old disease in modern Malaysian society

Letter to the edito

Performance Analysis Of Biodiesel Engine By Addition Of Hho Gas As A Secondary Fuel

Biodiesel, an alternative fuel similar to fossil-based diesel, has the advantages of carbon-neutral, high flash point and emit no carbon dioxide (CO2). HHO gas has been introduced to the automotive industry as a new energy source, a fuel supplement in an internal combustion engine (IC). This paper presents the performance and emissions of diesel engines powered by biodiesel with HHO gas as a fuel supplement. The biodiesel used is a mixture of biodiesel B20 and B30. The effect of adding HHO gas on biodiesel fuel is evaluated on engine performance and emissions before and after using HHO gas as a secondary fuel. The results show an increase in engine performance on the B20 is 14% and on the B30 is 14.63%. The observation on smoke produce of the tailpipe exhaust also drastically improved. Based on the results above, that the addition of HHO gas supplements to biodiesel fuel has a positive effect on improving engine performance and reducing emissions that are very significant so that it can improve environmental aspects when compared to the use of biodiesel without HHO ga