Overview of the national fisheries situation with emphasis on the demersal fisheries off the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia

The marine fisheries sector in Malaysia contributes significantly to the national economy in terms of income, foreign exchange and employment. In 1999, marine fisheries contributed 1.245 million t (90% of total fish production) valued at US$1.18 billion. The total value accounted for about 1.53$210 million. The sector provided employment to about 80 000 fishers. Fisheries management is currently guided by the Third National Agricultural Policy (NAP3 1998 - 2010). The NAP3 aims to maintain the coastal fisheries production while increasing the production from deep-sea fisheries within MalaysiaÆs Exclusive Economic Zone and the high-seas. Fisheries management of fisheries is centralized and is the primary responsibility of the Department of Fisheries. The key challenges identified for Malaysian fisheries are overfishing, excess fishing capacity and ensuring the well-being of coastal fishing communities. These are issues across the whole of Malaysia. The West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia produces 44% (1997) of total marine landings and 86% of this came from commercial (large scale) vessels. The landings in 1997 exceeded the estimated MSY and the biomass of demersal species in the region has been severely reduced. A national consultative workshop identified the primary aims for this region to improve production and efficiency of the fisheries, equitable distribution of the benefits, resources sustainability and the viability of the fishing communities. The workshop also identified key interventions needed. In terms of production and efficiency, overfishing and overcapacity must be addressed, including the illegal fishing. In terms of achieving greater equity, the workshop suggests greater involvement of small scale fishers in marketing of the catch. For resource sustainability, the serious decline in biomass must be addressed but there are also significant cross-sectoral issues. To achieve viable fishing communities, the workshop suggests the need for greater involvement and potentially a co-management approach for fisheries management.Fishery resources, Catch/effort, Population characteristics, Coastal fisheries, Marine fisheries, Ecosystems, Economic benefits, Fishery industry, Capture fishery economics, Fish consumption, Fishery policy, Legislation, Fishery management, Demersal fisheries, Pelagic fisheries, Socioeconomic aspects, Surveys, Marketing, Fishery organizations, Fishing gear, Cephalopod fisheries, ISEW, Malaysia,

Mechanical Design and Analysis of All‐terrain Mobile Robot

This paper presents the conceptual mechanical analysis of the all-terrain mobile robot (AMoBo). The locomotion concept for all-terrain mobile robot is based on six independent motorized wheels. The mobile robot has a steering wheel in the front and the rear, and two wheels arranged on a bogie on each side. The front wheel has a spring suspension to guarantee optimal ground contact of all wheels at any time. The steering of the vehicle is realized by synchronizing the steering of the front and rear wheels and the speed difference of the bogie wheels. A prototype AMoBo was designed and fabricated. The developed prototype is about 66 cm in length and 23 cm in height. Testing size results show that the prototype able to overcome obstacles of same height as its wheel diameter and can climb stairs with step height of over 10 cm. Finite element analysis was used to analyse and verify the strength of each critical part of AMoBo. The base plate appeared to be the critical part with the highest shear stress and the lowest safety factor

Xanthine oxidase inactivation attenuates postocclusion shock after descending thoracic aorta occlusion and reperfusion in rabbits

Abstract“Declamping shock” is observed after aortic crossclamping, with hypovolemia, hypotension, and metabolic acidemia invariably present. We hypothesized that oxidants derived from xanthine oxidase influence the resuscitative interventions required to maintain baseline hemodynamic and acid-base status after aortic occlusion and reperfusion in rabbits. We also hypothesized that inactivation of xanthine oxidase with sodium tungstate could reduce systemic injury as assessed by the release of lactate dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase. To test these hypotheses, we established aortic occlusion in rabbits (n = 10, standard diet; n = 8, tungstate diet) for 40 minutes by inflation of a 4F Fogarty catheter in the descending thoracic aorta followed by 2 hours of reperfusion. Sham-operated rabbits (n = 10, standard diet; n = 9, tungstate diet) served as controls. Tungstate-pretreated rabbits required significantly less Ringer's solution (28%), phenylephrine (68%), and sodium bicarbonate (30%) during reperfusion (p < 0.005). Lactate dehydrogenase and alkaline phosphatase release during reperfusion was significantly attenuated by tungstate pretreatment (p < 0.05). Tungstate pretreatment resulted in plasma xanthine oxidase activities significantly lower than those in the sham group administered a standard diet (p = 0.007). Resuscitation requirements and systemic injury were reduced by inactivation of xanthine oxidase in a rabbit model that simulates the situation of human thoracic aorta operations. (J THORAC CARDIOVASC SURG 1995;110-22

Study of flare energy release using events with numerous type III-like bursts in microwaves

The analysis of narrowband drifting of type III-like structures in radio bursts dynamic spectra allows to obtain unique information about primary energy release mechanisms in solar flares. The SSRT spatially resolved images and a high spectral and temporal resolution allow direct determination not only the positions of its sources but also the exciter velocities along the flare loop. Practically, such measurements are possible during some special time intervals when the SSRT (about 5.7 GHz) is observing the flare region in two high-order fringes; thus, two 1D scans are recorded simultaneously at two frequency bands. The analysis of type III-like bursts recorded during the flare 14 Apr 2002 is presented. Using-muliwavelength radio observations recorded by SSRT, SBRS, NoRP, RSTN we study an event with series of several tens of drifting microwave pulses with drift rates in the range from -7 to 13 GHz/s. The sources of the fast-drifting bursts were located near the top of the flare loop in a volume of a few Mm in size. The slow drift of the exciters along the flare loop suggests a high pitch-anisotropy of the emitting electrons.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, Solar Physics, in press, 201

Modelling the Relationship between Crude Oil and Agricultural Commodity Prices

The food-energy nexus has attracted great attention from policymakers, practitioners and academia since the food price crisis during the 2007-2008 Global Financial Crisis (GFC), and new policies that aim to increase ethanol production. This paper incorporates aggregate demand and alternative oil shocks to investigate the causal relationship between agricultural products and oil markets, which is a novel contribution. For the period January 2000 - July 2018, monthly spot prices of 15 commodities are examined, including Brent crude oil, biofuel-related agricultural commodities, and other agricultural commodities. The sample is divided into three sub-periods, namely: (i) January 2000 - July 2006; (ii) August 2006 - April 2013; and (iii) May 2013 - July 2018. The Structural Vector Autoregressive (SVAR) model, impulse response functions, and variance decomposition technique are used to examine how the shocks to agricultural markets contribute to the variance of crude oil prices. The empirical findings from the paper indicate that not every oil shock contributes the same to agricultural price fluctuations, and similarly for the effects of aggregate demand shocks on the agricultural market. These results show that the crude oil market plays a major role in explaining fluctuations in the prices and associated volatility of agricultural commoditie

Aggregate structure of hydroxyproline-rich glycoprotein (HRGP) and HRGP assisted dispersion of carbon nanotubes

Hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins (HRGP) comprise a super-family of extracellular structural glycoproteins whose precise roles in plant cell wall assembly and functioning remain to be elucidated. However, their extended structure and repetitive block co-polymer character of HRGPs may mediate their self-assembly as wall scaffolds by like-with-like alignment of their hydrophobic peptide and hydrophilic glycopeptide modules. Intermolecular crosslinking further stabilizes the scaffold. Thus the design of HRGP-based scaffolds may have practical applications in bionanotechnology and medicine. As a first step, we have used single-molecule or single-aggregate atomic force microscopy (AFM) to visualize the structure of YK20, an amphiphilic HRGP comprised entirely of 20 tandem repeats of: Ser-Hyp4-Ser-Hyp-Ser-Hyp4-Tyr-Tyr-Tyr-Lys. YK20 formed tightly aggregated coils at low ionic strength, but networks of entangled chains with a porosity of ~0.5–3 μm at higher ionic strength. As a second step we have begun to design HRGP-carbon nanotube composites. Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) can be considered as seamless cylinders rolled up from graphene sheets. These unique all-carbon structures have extraordinary aromatic and hydrophobic properties and form aggregated bundles due to strong inter-tube van der Waals interactions. Sonicating aggregated SWNT bundles with aqueous YK20 solubilized them presumably by interaction with the repetitive, hydrophobic, Tyr-rich peptide modules of YK20 with retention of the extended polyproline-II character. This may allow YK20 to form extended structures that could potentially be used as scaffolds for site-directed assembly of nanomaterials

Measurement of the Bottom-Strange Meson Mixing Phase in the Full CDF Data Set

We report a measurement of the bottom-strange meson mixing phase \beta_s using the time evolution of B0_s -> J/\psi (->\mu+\mu-) \phi (-> K+ K-) decays in which the quark-flavor content of the bottom-strange meson is identified at production. This measurement uses the full data set of proton-antiproton collisions at sqrt(s)= 1.96 TeV collected by the Collider Detector experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron, corresponding to 9.6 fb-1 of integrated luminosity. We report confidence regions in the two-dimensional space of \beta_s and the B0_s decay-width difference \Delta\Gamma_s, and measure \beta_s in [-\pi/2, -1.51] U [-0.06, 0.30] U [1.26, \pi/2] at the 68% confidence level, in agreement with the standard model expectation. Assuming the standard model value of \beta_s, we also determine \Delta\Gamma_s = 0.068 +- 0.026 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps-1 and the mean B0_s lifetime, \tau_s = 1.528 +- 0.019 (stat) +- 0.009 (syst) ps, which are consistent and competitive with determinations by other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures, Phys. Rev. Lett 109, 171802 (2012

Search for a W' boson decaying to a bottom quark and a top quark in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

Results are presented from a search for a W' boson using a dataset corresponding to 5.0 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected during 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV. The W' boson is modeled as a heavy W boson, but different scenarios for the couplings to fermions are considered, involving both left-handed and right-handed chiral projections of the fermions, as well as an arbitrary mixture of the two. The search is performed in the decay channel W' to t b, leading to a final state signature with a single lepton (e, mu), missing transverse energy, and jets, at least one of which is tagged as a b-jet. A W' boson that couples to fermions with the same coupling constant as the W, but to the right-handed rather than left-handed chiral projections, is excluded for masses below 1.85 TeV at the 95% confidence level. For the first time using LHC data, constraints on the W' gauge coupling for a set of left- and right-handed coupling combinations have been placed. These results represent a significant improvement over previously published limits.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters B. Replaced with version publishe

Search for the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in pp collisions at sqrt(s)=7 TeV

A search for a Higgs boson decaying into two photons is described. The analysis is performed using a dataset recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC from pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, which corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 4.8 inverse femtobarns. Limits are set on the cross section of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to two photons. The expected exclusion limit at 95% confidence level is between 1.4 and 2.4 times the standard model cross section in the mass range between 110 and 150 GeV. The analysis of the data excludes, at 95% confidence level, the standard model Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range 128 to 132 GeV. The largest excess of events above the expected standard model background is observed for a Higgs boson mass hypothesis of 124 GeV with a local significance of 3.1 sigma. The global significance of observing an excess with a local significance greater than 3.1 sigma anywhere in the search range 110-150 GeV is estimated to be 1.8 sigma. More data are required to ascertain the origin of this excess.Comment: Submitted to Physics Letters