Retrospective Study on Milk Production and Reproductive Performance of Dairy Cattle in a Farm in Selangor, Malaysia

Dairy industry is small in Malaysia and unable to fulfill its dairy self-sufficiency. Therefore, Malaysia has to import most of the dairy products to satisfy its domestic demands. This study was performed to evaluate the performance of a selected dairy farm in Malaysia. A dairy farm in Selangor was selected and the farm records between 2011 and 2015 were analysed for the annual milk yield, calving rate and disease occurrence. It was found that the milk yield was low with average annual yield of 44,967 kg and the average milk production per cow per day was 6.83 kg. Clinical mastitis (67%) and traumatic injury (6.9%) were the most common disease occurrence. The calving rate of 75% was within the farm target. Calving percentage and diseases showed significant (P0.05) positive and negative influences on milk production, respectively

Passive maternal antibody transfer to eggs and larvae of tiger grouper (Epinephelus fuscoguttatus)

The immune response of Tiger grouper (E. fuscoguttatus) broodstocks and its passive transfer of maternal antibodies to eggs and larvae were evaluated following vaccination with an inactivated V.harveyi. Tiger grouper broodstock (mean BW 8.66 ± 0.09 kg, n=19) were vaccinated intraperitoneally (IP) and followed by a booster two weeks post vaccination, while Controlled Non-vaccinated (CG) broodstock were IP injected with PBS. The serum antibody level against V.harveyi was monitored for two weeks on post-vaccination and monthly up to 5 months post-vaccination. This study showed that the Vaccinated Group (VG) broodstock induced significantly (P<0.05) higher in specific IgM antibody level against V.harveyi as compared to the CG, which in turn induced a marked increased (P<0.05) in specific IgM in eggs and larvae produced from VG broodstock at 14 weeks post vaccination. The findings from this study suggested that inactivated V.harveyi vaccines were able to stimulate the immune response in broodstock and passively transferred the maternal antibody to their eggs and larvae

Crowdfunding Among Event Entrepreneurs: A Conceptual Paper

This paper aims to uncover the benefits of crowdfunding among Event Entrepreneurs in Malaysia. The study reviews literature on the definition, discussion and its revolution related to capital -raising, networking, investment, and crowdfunding among Event Entrepreneurs. The method used for this paper is based on literature reviews from journal articles, conference proceedings, newspaper, books and internet search related to this research area. The conceptual framework is recommended in the end of the paper as it allows reader to understand how the benefits will affects towards crowdfunding among Event Entrepreneurs. Hence, it will provide more research interest in crowdfunding in the future. &nbsp; &nbsp; Keywords: crowdfunding, event, event crowdfundin

Structure integrity analysis on nickel-diamond blade in dicing of hard-brittle ceramic die

Dicing operation in cutting hard-brittle ceramic die using nickel-diamond blade causes cracked or chipped die, accelerated tool wear and, ultimately, shortage of blade lifetime. This study aims to analyse the structural integrity of dicing blade in terms of tool wear, surface roughness, microstructure and elements during dicing. The measurements of wear blade on the blade are made by confocal microscope, whereas surface and elemental analyses are carried out with EDX SEM. Results show that the volumetric wear rate of blade is 20%, similar to roughness. The microstructure of the blade changes with occurrence of Aluminium owing to abrasive wear mechanism during cutting

Clinical, biochemical and histological changes during developement of pregnancy ketosis in goats

Thin does or very over-conditioned does and does carrying with multiple pregnancies are more likely to develop pregnancy ketosis (pregnancy toxaemia). Pregnancy ketosis is one of the metabolic disorders in ruminant animal such as does and ewes during the last weeks of pregnancy (5 – 6 weeks before gestation) and beside high ketone body levels characterised by free fatty acids levels (FFA). These FFA are derived from the adipose tissue. The ability of adipocytes to respond to changes in the energy balance, by secretion of FFA makes this parameter a main indicator for disorder that coincide with changes in energy balance. It is biochemically and endocrinologically characterized by ketosis, hypoinsulinemia and an elevation of B- hydroxybtyrate concentration in the plasma, free fatty acids (FFA), and cortisol. However, the effect of plasma free fatty acid on pathophysiology, metabolites and histological changes of this disorder remain poorly understood. Clinical signs, often with a slow onset, are characterised by neuorological signs like teeth grinding, stress and dull eyes. Ketosis also affected on pathological part which characterized by fatty liver. In this review, we are focusing various key aspects of the disease with special reference on the clinical, biochemical and histological changes during development of pregnancy ketosis in goat population

The Effect of Different Feed Formulation Based on Local Feed Resource on Performance and Stress Parameter in Breeder Goat

Balanced nutrition is essential for health and performance of livestock. It is best when feed is formulated according to production stages of goat. However, as the goat grows, it may undergo transition of different feed formulation to meet its daily requirement. The transition may affect the performance of animals as well as it is a stressful condition. In this study, body weight gain and feed intake were used as indicators on performance, whereas hematological stress leucograms were used as indicator of stress parameter during implementation of different feed formulation among does. Eighteen adult does with similar body condition score and body weight approximately 20 kg were selected and divided into three groups equally (n = 6) and fed with different feed formulations, which were formulated using local feed source in the farm for a period of four weeks. Body weight was measured before implementation, on week 2 and week 4, blood sampling was conducted before implementation and during week 4 for comparison and feed intake was measured every day. All data were statistically analyzed using SPSS. Does fed with Diet 3 showed highest body weight gain and feed intake, followed by Diet 2 and Diet 1. There was significant difference (P0.05) on body weight gain for all groups. Stress parameter on leucocyte counts for Diet 1 showed the highest number as compared to the other groups but no significant difference (P0.05) as compared to normal value. Neutrophils:lymphocytes ratio for all groups were within normal range and no significant difference (P0.05). The implementation of feed formulation according to production stages is recommended as it increases performance and prevents from nutritional stress

COMPARISON OF NUMERICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS FOR OVERTOPPING DISCHARGE OF THE OBREC WAVE ENERGY CONVERTER

OBREC is the latest innovation of overtopping wave energy converter (WEC) which is coalesced with the rubble mound breakwaters. The acquisition of wave overtopping in a front reservoir and consequently releasing process through turbine is the concept of energy production in OBREC. The physical scale model studies of overtopping discharge of the OBREC have recently been done by previous researcher in wave flume at Aalborg University. This paper demonstrates the overtopping behavior of OBREC device using a VOF method with capabilities to solve RANS equation in the numerical suite Flow3D. The purpose of this research is to validate the overtopping discharge performance of the numerical model against the experiments of the OBREC. Based on the observation, the results have shown a good agreement between the validation and physical experiment

Interactive mobile games development for children to learn about money

Money notes and coins are used for transactions and are essential in daily human life. Children need to be exposed to enough knowledge about the purposes of money notes, and the most important is to identify the money correctly. Children begin to expose to identifying the money at school in standard one. However, depending on formal education is not enough because the children easily get bored, and they did not fully engage with formal education. The use of mobile games for learning purposes is becoming increasingly popular because they are interactive and able to attract students. Therefore, this research aims to develop mobile games to identify and learn about money. Three main phases have been carried out, and the first phase is preliminary research on the learning approach for children and data collection in money Malaysia Ringgit. The second phase is to design and develop mobile games. Three mini-games have been proposed, and the first game is to identify the money notes and coins. The second game is to learn about counting the money and coins, and the third game is to learn to use the money for purchasing purposes. After these three mini-games have been developed in the second phase, the third phase is the evaluation phase. The usability result shows the users agree the mobile games help them to identify money, calculate the value of money, and to perform basic purchasing activities. Based on the user acceptance results show that the mobile game works more effectively with adult or parental guidance. Overall, this research has successfully produced a mobile game that can help the children to learn to identify, count, and use money

Operational decision support system for sustainable water resource management for Sungai Selangor

The Selangor River lies on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, 70 km north of Kuala Lumpur. The Selangor catchment area is approximately 2000 km2 and has two major dams located in the upstream part of the catchment: Sungai Selangor Dam and Sungai Tinggi Dam. Lembaga Urus Air Selangor (LUAS) is the Malaysian government agency responsible for water resources management of the Selangor catchment, their main challenge being to balance an increase in water demand, whilst trying to manage the catchment’s environmental state. Key to this is the amount of water that is being released from the two reservoirs. The current manual decision-making process (based on staff experience) does not provide LUAS with the efficiency and accuracy that is required in a catchment where sustainability is key and water resources are not always abundant. A solution was required to improve the management of the current resources, thus reducing the need for the costly and environmentally contentious development of new infrastructure. The operational Decision Support System (DSS) for sustainable water resources management of the Sungai Selangor catchment is a non-structural tool developed to support LUAS in optimising the reservoir releases and water abstractions in the catchment; it is also known as LUAS Intelligent Support System (LiSS). LiSS is a fully automated system that is driven by a combination of live, telemetered gauged data from various sources including the InfoBanjir telemetry database and Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) rainfall forecasts from the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD). Simulations are carried out automatically on an hourly basis, to calculate and forecast whether flows at Bestari Jaya Barrage near the main abstraction location (SSP1) are being maintained at the required levels. If the required flows are not met, being either too high or too low, the model is re-run using an adjusted reservoir release time series. LiSS should also be able to help LUAS in future increase the sustainability of management of water resources in the Selangor catchment. This paper describes the approach developed to support LUAS meet this objective, in a manner that can be used in real-time, and which can be transferred to other catchments in future. The advantages and disadvantages of potentially expanding this system to use ensemble forecasts, data assimilation and optimisation algorithms are discussed, along with suggestions for further research

The Effect of Surface Texture on the Joint Shear Strength of AR500 Steel and AA7075 / M. N. Muhamed...[et al.]

AA7075 aluminium alloy brazing joint panels caused by shear loading. The use of steel and aluminium laminated metal composite is increasingly popular since they are well known for lightweight application and stiffness properties and this makes them the material of choice in automotive industry. However, the formation of reaction layer phases has limited the application of this method of joining due to the adverse effect of these phases on the strength of the joint. In this work, AR500 steel and AA7075 aluminium alloy interface joint were fabricated by torch brazing method using Al-Si-Zn base material as its filler metal for different types of surface conditions. The joining was evaluated for shear strength performance. The experimental results showed that the highest shear strength for the panel was recorded at 8010 N. Fractures were mostly seen at the joint interface area. In general, the torch brazing process with different surface joining conditions, had facilitated the joining of these dissimilar metals while improving the mechanical properties of the joint