Building a truster environment for e-business : a Malaysian perspective

Internet identify ‘security’ as a major concern for businesses. In general, the level of security in any network environment is closely linked to the level of trust assigned to a particular individual or organization within that environment. It is the trust element that is crucial in ensuring a secure environment. Besides physical security, security technology needs to be utilised to provide a trusted environment for e-business. Network security components for perimeter defense, i.e., Virtual Private Networks, firewalls and Intrusion Detection Systems, need to be complemented by security components at the applications and user level, e.g., authentication of user. ID or password security solution may be an option but now with the availability of legally binding digital certificates, security in e-business transactions can be further improved. Time and date stamping of e-business transactions are also of concern to prove at a later date that the transactions took place at the stipulated date and time. Digital certificates are part of a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) scheme, which is an enabling technology for building a trusted epvironment. PIU comprise policies and procedures for establishing a secure method for exchanging information over a network environment. The Digital Signature Act 1997 (DSA 1997) facilitates the PKI implementation in Malaysia. Following the DSA 1997, Certification Authorities (CAs) were set up in Malaysia. This paper describes a trusted platform for spurring ebusiness and provides a Malaysian perspective of it

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees

Study and design of U-shaped patch antenna for multiband application

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Studies on the preparation of chapatti and biscuit supplemented with potato flour

The present study was concerned with the preparation of potato flour with various treatments and to formulate the chapatti and biscuit incorporating potato flours were prepared by treating the raw potato slices as blanched, blanched plus potassium meta-bisulphite (KMS) treatment and one as control. Various substitution levels from 15 % to 30 % of potato flour was used in the formulations of chapatti and biscuit in conjunction with wheat flour. Chapatti and biscuit prepared with either blanched or blanched plus KMS treated sample of potato flour had very good physical and baking quality. And chapatti prepared with 20% potato flour and biscuit containing 25 % had the most suitable baking properties among other proportions. The statistical analysis of sensory evaluation data indicated that the baked products prepared with potato flour from blanched plus KMS-treated samples ranked very well and were more acceptable than those made from blanched sample

Appropriateness Assessment and Identifying the Risk Factors of Oral Non-prescription Drugs Use Among University Students in the United Arab Emirates

Irrational use of drugs has a serious impact on health and the economy. The use of oral non-prescription drugs is increasing among university students worldwide. The objective of the present study is to measure the prevalence of use of oral-non-prescription drugs, assess appropriateness of this use, and identify factors associated with inappropriate use among students. A cross- sectional study used anonymous self-administered questionnaire over the period of four months (January, 2014 to April, 2014). More than half (1348; 57%) of participants reported the use of ONPD in the past 90 days before study commencement. Of 1,348, participants reported using ONPD; only 8% were inappropriate ONPD users for self-treating the last recent symptom. The present study identified three newly reported risk factors for the outcome. Polypharmacy behaviour was a significant predictor variable (OR = 2.457, 95% CI: 1.380-4.373, p=0.002), safety belief in the use of ONPD (OR= 1.702, 95% CI: 1.070-2.709, p≤0.05) and medication knowledge (OR= 0.608, 95% CI: 0.380-0.972, p≤0.05). There is high prevalence of ONPD use among university students in UAE. However, the majority of this use was found to be appropriate. To promote healthy ONPD use in university students, awareness campaign is needed in all universities and must stress on the potential dangers of drug addict, drug abuse and polypharmacy behavior