Design of a water distribution system for Gedong Rural Growth Center

Human need water to survive. Therefore, a good planning a water distribution is very important to cater a sufficient quantity quality and pressure to consumers. The distribution consists of gridiron pattern of water mains to deliver water for domestic, commercial, industrial and fire fighting purposes. This dissertation describes the design of a water distribution system for Gedong Rural Growth Centre using waterCAD. The procedures of design are based on Malaysia JKR Standard, Design Criteria and Standard for Water Supply System (1989). In the analysis, three different demand scenarios such as average daily demand, peak demand and critical demand were analyzed in order to see the variation of flow rate and residual pressure. The pipe sizes and elevation of high level tank were setup to meet the requirements of JKR Standard

Rural revitalization through e-commerce within community internet centre in Kampung Ubai, Kuantan

One of the initiatives that were implemented and developed under the Malaysian Communication & Multimedia Malaysia (MCMC) Universal Services Provision (USP) fund was Community Internet Centre, or known as Pusat Ekonomi Keluarga Digital Malaysia (PEDi). The ultimate goal of PEDi is to provide internet access to the community to empower the community and increase the socioeconomic of the community through ICT adoption. PEDi undertook an extensive effort to assist rural communities in venturing into e-commerce. The feedback from grassroots PEDi Kampung Ubai, Kuantan, there is a lack of participation from their communities on e-commerce programmes. Although the majority of the population in Kampung Ubai are self-employed (small businesses and farmers) in the low-income area, only a few have adopted e-commerce. A minima number of communities attended e-commerce programmes at PEDi Kampung Ubai in 2020. This, due to communities being unclear about e-commerce potential benefits, thus the e-commerce programmes held by PEDi did not receive a good response from communities. Therefore, the purpose of this action research is to determine the issues that are facilitating and hindering its acceptance and understand the constraints that discourage the community to use ecommerce by using the UTAUT model. A mixed method approach, qualitative and quantitative was applied to this research to 26 respondents. The interventions through this study were carried out with the aims to increase the communities’ awareness of potential e-commerce benefits and improve the e-commerce adoption of communities. Thematic analysis and the Social Sciences Statistical Package (SPSS) were used to interpret and analyse the findings. The t-test analysis result shows that the intervention conducted is significant. This research will be useful for policy makers or relevant stakeholders as a guide to develop a strategic plan of e-commerce programmes for rural communities through PEDi

Geopolymer lightweight bricks manufactured from fly ash and foaming agent

This paper deals with the development of lightweight geopolymer bricks by using foaming agent and fly ash. The mix parameters analysed through a laboratory experiment with fix ratio of sodium silicate/sodium hydroxide solution mass ratio 2.5, fly ash/alkaline activator solution mass ratio 2.0, foaming agent/paste mass ratio 1:2 and molarity of sodium hydroxide solution used was 12M. Different curing temperature (Room Temperature, 60, 80) and foaming agent/water mass ratio (1:10 and 1:20) were studied. Compressive strength, density analysis, and water absorption has been investigated. The results show that the foamed geopolymer bricks with a lower foam/water mass ratio (1:10)and high curing temperature (80°C) leading to a better properties. Mixtures with a low density of around 1420 kg/m3 and a compressive strength of around 10 MPa were achieved

Uniform Distorted Scene Reduction on Distribution of Colour Cast Correction

Scene in the photo occulated by uniform particles distribution can degrade the image quality accidently. State of the art pre-processing methods are able to enhance visibility by employing local and global filters on the image scene. Regardless of air light and transmission map right estimation, those methods unfortunately produce artifacts and halo effects because of uncorrelated problem between the global and local filter’s windows. Besides, previous approaches might abruptly eliminate the primary scene structure of an image like texture and colour. Therefore, this study aims not solely to improve scene image quality via a recovery method but also to overcome image content issues such as the artefacts and halo effects, and finally to reduce the light disturbance in the scene image. We introduce our proposed visibility enhancement method by using joint ambience distribution that improves the colour cast in the image. Furthermore, the method is able to balance the atmospheric light in correspondence to the depth map accordingly. Consequently, our method maintains the image texture structural information by calculating the lighting estimation and maintaining a range of colours simultaneously. The method is tested on images from the Benchmarking Single Image Dehazing research by assessing their clear edge ratio, gradient, range of saturated pixels, and structural similarity metric index. The scene image restoration assessment results show that our proposed method had outperformed resuls from the Tan, Tarel and He methods by gaining the highest score in the structural similarity index and colourfulness measurement. Furthermore, our proposed method also had achieved acceptable gradient ratio and percentage of the number of saturated pixels. The proposed approach enhances the visibility in the images without affecting them structurally

Fatality prediction model for motorcycle accidents in Malaysia

This paper involves building a fatality predictive model for motorcycle accidents data in Malaysia. The number of registered motorcycles in Malaysia has increased four-fold compared to the last 20 years. Thus, the motorcycle accidents rate and fatality rates among riders and pillion in Malaysia has also increased dramatically. However, results show that when taken into account the numbers of fatalities per 10,000 registered motorcycles, the fatality rate shows a decreasing trend starting from 1996 onwards. The motorcycle accident data for the period of 1996 to 2010 was analyzed using Smeed’s Law and regression method. The results show that regression method approach gives better estimates of fatality rate than Smeed’s equation

Mechanical and thermal properties of roselle fibre reinforced vinyl ester composites

Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) bast fibre reinforced vinyl ester (VE) was prepared using a hand lay-up method and an internal mixer. The composite samples were prepared under two different parameters: with various fibre contents; and without fibre (neat VE). The mechanical properties (tensile and impact strength) and thermal properties were investigated. The morphological properties of impact fracture samples were studied using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Roselle fibre reinforced VE (RFVE) composites showed increased tensile strength and tensile modulus. The highest tensile strength and modulus were at 20vt% fibre loading. However, impact strength decreased as the fibre loading increased. SEM showed that there was good fibre/matrix adhesion and fibre dispersion for 20% fibre loading, which was reflected in the good tensile strength properties. However, fibre agglomeration was seen at higher fibre loads. The results from thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and derivative thermogravimetric analysis (DTG) showed three major degradations of the RFVE, which were the loss of moisture content, degradation of hemicelluloses, and degradation of cellulose. The thermal analysis showed enhancements in the residual content of the composite materials, thereby improving the thermal stability. However, there was no major difference seen in the degradation temperature

A study on the computerized revenue collection system of local authority: A case of Perlis, Kedah and Penang

This survey identifies the extent of computerized revenue collection system use among the local authorities in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia. Survey questionnaires and interviews were gathered from 14 local authorities located in Perlis, Kedah and Penang. The study shows a high adoption rate (100%) among the respondents, due to the awareness of importance of automated system in data processing. However, the extent of use of the adopted system is still low due to the difficulty in selecting suitable software, lack of expertise and experience, cost constraints, attitude problems and lack of training. Some recommendations have been made to improve the existing scenario. They include provide training and consultation to the users on latest advancement of technology in accounting, develop specific software for revenue collection and government can also support the local authorities by providing financial assistance and expertise in technology. The study concludes that the local authorities in the northern region are not yet prepared to implement e-collection to the public

Bilateral tonsillar lymphangiomatous polyps in a snoring child

Lymphangiomatous polyps of the palatine tonsil are a rare clinical entity with only about 30 odd cases ever reported. All the cases in the literature were described as unilateral tonsillar diseases, except for one paediatric case which had bilateral tonsillar involvement. Due to its unilateral presentation and suspicious appearance similar to tonsillar malignancy, lymphangiomatous polyps may cause heightened anxiety to both patients and doctors alike on a routine oropharyngeal examination. Owing to its rarity and a variety of complex nomenclatures, this condition may also be confusing to the treating otolaryngologist as well as junior pathologist. We report an extremely rare case of bilateral tonsillar lymphangiomatous polyps in a snoring child that was successfully treated surgically via tonsillectomy

Entrepreneurship training under Perlis Youth and Sport Department (PYSD): A curious case of an effectively ineffective program?

Three months ago, Mr Azizi Mustafa, the Head of Youth Development Division in Perlis Youth and Sport Department (PYSD) was called upon by Mr Karim, his director for an emergency meeting. Judging by his body language, Azizi knew that Mr Karim was unhappy. Something wasn’t quite right, assumed Azizi. Mr Karim then showed him a letter from the Ministry of Youth and Sport in which PYSD was required to submit a special report regarding department’s failure to produce many young entrepreneurs in Perlis.As the person in charge of the youth development program, he knew that the ministry was actually referring to their flagship program known as the Entrepreneurship Training Program (ETP).On his desk, there were several claim forms submitted by the facilitators from the previous program. The amount was almost RM 10,000. It is almost similar to the limit of each loan provided by the department to successful applicant.He looked on the wall of his office. Several pictures of successful entrepreneurs coming through their program were hanging there. One of them received Entrepreneur of The Year from Malaysia Prime Minister three years ago. Another one on his right just signing a contract worth RM 2 million to supply IT system for a multinational corporation However, he knew that the numbers was still not enough.Although numerous efforts have been undertaken via various training programs to promote and educate young Malaysian in Perlis to involve in entrepreneurship, the actual numbers who eventualy becoming an entrepreneur was far from encouraging. Both Mr Azizi and Mr Karim knew the importance of entrepreneurs in driving the nation’s economic growth as well as combating unemployment issues. In fact, numerous efforts have been taken by PYSD via the ETP programs to nurture entrepreneurships at all levels involving all kind of activities such as seminars, training, short courses and conferences. Despite all these, the effectiveness of PYSD entrepreneurship training programs remains debatable. Azizi remember two of his favourite quotes by Peter Drucker

A review on roselle fiber and its composites

Recently, due to increasing environmental concerns, scientists and researchers have been replacing synthetic fibers with natural fibers as the main component in composites. Roselle is one suitable natural fiber. The plant’s history, physical description, cultural methods, and usages were explained to further understand this potential plant. Based on a literature review, it is clear that extensive research has been performed on the fiber extraction methods, morphology, properties, and possible surface treatments of roselle to enhance its properties in the manufacturing of natural-fiber-reinforced polymer composites; however, no review has covered the properties and applications of roselle fibers in detail. Therefore, a review was performed on roselle to determine its potential to enable a better selection of materials to produce composites for potential applications in the construction and building, automotive, and aerospace industries