Phenology of flowering and fruiting and effect of KNO3 and H2O2 on germination process of Amorphophallus muelleri Blume

Amorphophallus muelleri Blume also known as Indonesian Konjac (IK, in short) is a wild plant that spreads out in Indonesia especially in the southern part. The genus Amorphophallus can also be found in some countries in South-East Asia. The IK tuber contains glucomannan, a compound which has high economic value as raw material in many industries such as food, drink, pharmacy, cosmetics, paper, rubber, textile, film industries and many others. The plant is easy to cultivate. Due to the economic benefit of IK tubers and to the easiness of its cultivation, this study was carried out to increase the productivity of glucomannan. The current productivity is still low compared to foreign demand. For example, in 2020 alone, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Indonesia, only 12 % of foreign demand have been fulfilled. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase the productivity of IK tubers. This is the main problem of this research. Its objectives were two-fold. First, was to study the effect of tuber weight on flowering percentage, flower size, and fruiting which is represented by the number of fruits and the number of seeds. Second, was to find out the right concentration of KNO3 and H2O2 solutions as well as the soaking time in those solutions to break the dormancy period and to increase the germination rate. For these purposes, a laboratory experiment using completely randomized design with three treatments was conducted and the collected data were analyzed using general linear model, analysis of variance and multiple comparison test. The results indicate that the tuber weight significantly affects the flowering percentage, flower size, number of fruits and number of seeds of IK. The heavier the planted tuber, the higher the flowering percentage and the larger the flower size, number of fruits and number of seeds. The response on dormancy breaking treatment indicates that there is no significant effect of soaking treatment in KNO3 and H2O2 solutions on dormancy period of the IK seeds. The KNO3 and H2O2 solutions have only effect on increasing the germination rate and on shortening the time period for seeds to germinate. Moreover, unlike H2O2, there is no residual effect of KNO3 on seeding growth, and on weight and shape of the IK tuber. To the knowledge of the authors, these findings are unprecedented and could thus, contribute to the literature.&nbsp

Monitoring Variability in Complex Manufacturing Process: Data Analysis Viewpoint with Application

To relate the control limits of Shewhart-type chart to the p-value, the control charting techniques were constructed based on statistical inference scheme. However, in daily practice of complex process variability (CPV) monitoring operation, these limits have nothing to do with the p-value. We cannot put any number to p. Instead, p is just read as “most probablyâ€. These words mean that in practice we are finally working under data analysis scheme instead. For this reason, in this paper we introduce the application of STATIS in CPV monitoring operation. It is a data analysis method to label the sample(s) where anomalous covariance structure occurs. This method is algebraic in nature and dominated by principal component analysis (PCA) principles. The relative position of a covariance matrix among others is visually presented along the first two eigenvalues of the so-called “scalar product matrix among covariance matricesâ€. Its strength will be illustrated by using a real industrial example and the results, compared with those given by the current methods, are very promising. Additionally, root causes analysis is also provided. However, since STATIS is a PCA-like, it does not provide any control chart, i.e., the history of process performance. It is to label the anomalous sample(s). To the knowledge of the authors, the application of STATIS in complex statistical process control is an unprecedented. Thus, it will enrich the literature of this field

The most important centrality measures in plus highway traffic network: an approach based on effective variance

.Highway network is important to most developing countries. With the increase of traffic burden on highway network, it can be a benchmark for these developing countries to measure their level of development. It is hard to analyze the highway traffic network since it comes from a complex network. This network connected all toll plazas and comes out with thedynamic network. In this study, we will learn to understand the PLUS highway traffic network. The information in the network topology of PLUS highway network can be filtered with the application of minimum spanning trees (MST). The network topology will be based on in-coming and out-coming traffic burden from 2009 until 2013. The in�coming and out-coming traffic burden of each toll plazas are referredonthe total number of vehicles thatcome in and out over the corresponding toll plazas. Centrality measures are used to interpret these filtered networks. Then, themost important centrality measures can be determined by using the effective variance (EV) and effective vector variance (EVV) approach. The results will help the PLUS highway management to improve their policies and services in the future

PLUS highway network analysis: case of in-coming traffic burden in 2013

PLUS highway is the largest concessionary in Malaysia. The study on PLUS highway development, in order to overcome the demand for efficient road transportation, is crucial. If the highways have better interconnected network, it will help the economic activities such as trade to increase. If economic activities are increasing, the benefit will come to the people and state. In its turn, it will help the leaders to plan and conduct national development program. In this paper, network analysis approach will be used to study the in-coming traffic burden during the year of 2013. The highway network linking all the toll plazas is a dynamic network. The objective of this study is to learn and understand about highway network in terms of the in-coming traffic burden entering to each toll plazas along PLUS highway. For this purpose, the filtered network topology based on the forest of all possible minimum spanning trees is used. The in-coming traffic burden of a city is represented by the number of cars passing through the corresponding toll plaza. To interpret the filtered network, centrality measures such as degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality, eigenvector centrality are used. An overall centrality will be proposed if those four measures are assumed to have the same role. Based on the results, some suggestions and recommendations for PLUS highway network development will be delivered to PLUS highway management

Correlation network analysis of international postgraduate students’ satisfaction in Top Malaysian Universities: A robust approach

This paper deals with an analysis of correlation network among the satisfaction characteristics evaluated by the international students of top five Malaysian universities.The method developed in econophysics has been used to filter the information contained in a correlation structure. In this paper, we present a correlation network analysis where the correlation structure is determined based on robust approach.This approach is used to have a better understanding of foreign students’ satisfaction which will be very useful for Malaysian universities.Based on our proposed centrality measure, interestingly, the result demonstrates that the item “pay premium price” is the most influential characteristic that reflects to the highest degree of satisfaction for the international students. The university senior management would benefit by knowing this result in order to gain competitive advantage over other universities.Practical implications are provided accordingly

Granger causality analysis on PLUS highway traffic network

PLUS Malaysia Berhad (PMB) is the largest toll expressway operator in Malaysia and South East Asia. Based on this reputation, PLUS handled thousands of vehicles every day. It covers the in-coming and out-coming traffic burdens from the northern areas to the southern areas. In order to manage these traffic burdens, toll plazas are located along this highway. Previous studies revealed that some of these toll plazas are important in managing the traffic burdens. This study analyze the importance of Skudai (SKD) toll plaza in Johor from 2009 until 2013. The causal relationship between SKD toll plaza with other toll plazas in Johor is studied to determine if there is any potential correlation or relationship of SKD with other toll plazas by using the Granger causality analysis. The findings show that there is a bidirectional Granger causality between SKD and Tangkak (TGK) as well as Machap (MAC) toll plazas. Meanwhile, there is only a unidirectional Granger causality between SKD and Yong Peng Utara (YPU) and Yong Peng Selatan (YPS) toll plazas. These results benefit the PLUS highway management to identify which potential toll plazas that can increase the traffic burden out from SKD toll plaza

A proposed centrality measure: the case of stocks traded at Bursa Malaysia

In this paper we propose the average of weights of all links adjacent to each stock as a centrality measure. This measure, besides the traditional centrality measures such as degree centrality, betwenness centrality, closeness centrality and eigenvector centrality will be helpful in interpreting the network topology of stocks markets. A case study of 90 stocks market traded at Bursa Malaysia will be presented and discussed to illustrate the advantage of the proposed measure

How to control process variability more effectively: the case of a b-complex vitamin production process

This paper presents a new procedure for controlling process variability where (i) the quality of the process is determined by more than one quality characteristic, and (ii) the correlations among those quality characteristics must be taken into consideration. The ability of this procedure to detect an abrupt shift of covariance structure is an improvement on the standard practice based on generalised variance. An experience of the production process of the B-complex vitamin is reported to illustrate the merit of the proposed procedure

Network topology of Indonesian stock market

This paper proposes a new centrality measure called overall centrality measure that can be used to summarize the important information contained in social network. It is an optimal linear combination of the traditional measures where the optimality criterion is similar to that in principal component analysis. The advantages of this method will be illustrated by using stocks prices in Indonesian Stock Exchange where the relationship among stocks is viewed as social relationship. Some important results will be highlighted

A correlation network approach to analyze the influence of geothermal environment on porcelain insulator

This paper is to explain to what extent geothermal environment influences the quality of porcelain insulator. For that purpose, first, the equality of the correlation structure of clean porcelain insulator and that of polluted one in geothermal environment are tested. If they are not equal, both correlation structures are transformed into distance structures to construct the corresponding minimum spanning tree (MST). Based on the information extracted from MST, a recommendation will be delivered