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The process of wet processing in the batik industry results in wastewater that contains high levels of colour (dyes), chemical oxygen demand (COD), biological oxygen demand (BOD), total dissolved solids (TDS), total suspended solids (TSS) and stubborn pollutants due to the substantial use of water and chemicals. Thus, it is essential to preserve water resources by seeking a cost-effective and eco-friendly approach to enhance the quality of batik wastewater. One way to accomplish this is by utilizing indigenous microbes derived from batik wastewater to decolourize the dyes. In this study, the effectiveness of indigenous microbes specifically strain SK1 and strain SK2 isolated from the batik wastewater were examined for the decolourization of Methylene Blue. The decolourization process was performed at a temperature of 37 °C, using static and shaking conditions for the removal of 0.1 g/L Methylene Blue and the pH was not adjusted during the experiment. The results indicated that for the decolourization of Methylene Blue, both strains demonstrated a preference for the shaking conditions. Between these strains, strain SK2 demonstrated the most promising results, achieving 79.89 ± 1.76 % decolourization after a 3-day incubation period. Compared to strain SK1, strain SK2 exhibited a higher decolourization capacity by 70 %. Therefore, this local strain, which showcases Malaysia's biodiversity richness, can be regarded as a competent biocatalyst for the effective treatment of batik wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, scientific research in the composite area has been focusing on finding an alternative to replace the petroleum-based polymer. Pineapple Leaves Fibre (PALF) is one of the natural fiber potentially for further research and development to achieve this goal. However, the low thermal resistance and hydrophilic properties of PALF are the main drawbacks in this development. This paper studies the effect on properties of polypropylene (PP) biocomposites reinforced with different fibre loading of untreated-PALF and NaOH-treated-PALF. The fibres were characterised by using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). The untreated, 3 wt.% NaOH treated and 9 wt% NaOH treated PALF were grinded and compounded with PP using an extruder at 10, 20 and 30 wt% of fiber loading. Then, the samples were hot pressed into a film. Samples were analysis by its tensile strength and water absorption. The results show that the NaOH treated samples have improved thermal stability in range of 20 – 40% which is due to the removal of lignin and hemicellulose. The 3 wt.% NaOH treated PALF/PP biocomposite has a higher tensile strength at 23 MPa and lower water absorption at 1.19% compared to the 9 wt.% NaOH treated PALF/PP sample having tensile strength 19 MPa and 1.36% water absorption, at 10 wt% fiber loading. NaOH treatment can remove the lignin and hemicellulose content in the fiber. The improved tensile and water absorption of treated fiber biocomposite showed better compatibility of fiber with PP. This study successfully demonstrated that alkaline treatment at concentrations less than 10 wt% can improve the properties of natural fiber and subsequently promote to better compatibility of fiber and polymer matrix. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the crisis of fossil fuel became more concerning, mankind are focused on finding another potential choice as alternatives fuels for engine. Biodiesel is one of the potential alternative fuels that can be created from a variety of biomass sources. Fortunately, Malaysia is one of the ASEAN countries that focused on oil palm industry in Southeast Asia which produces a large amount of excess crude palm oil (CPO) for consumption in vast quantities apart from CPO being one of the world demands as top four leading vegetable oils. These studies were carried out by using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to investigate the effect of different swirl velocity and variant of ambient temperature, ambient pressure and injection pressure on swirl air entrainment on crude palm oil biodiesel. Spray and swirler modelling in SOLIDWORK are incorporated into the ANSYS CFX 18.1 to investigate the simulation. The modelling of swirler added to the chamber to increase air-fuel mixture was designed which contained an adjusted inlet that was skewed to the right of an angle of 1° and resulted in the appearance of 'gate' at the end of the inlet. The boundary conditions were set and the parameter were varied to 80 MPa, 100 MPa, and 120 MPa of injection pressure, 4 MPa, 6 MPa and 8 MPa of ambient pressure, 850 K, 950 K and 1050 K of ambient temperature and 10 m/s, 19 m/s and 30 m/s of swirl velocity. The fuel used in this study is a blended of 10% crude palm oil and 90% biodiesel Data and results obtained from simulation were analyzed. It shows that high injection pressure increases the velocity and the spray penetration length while increasing the ambient temperature and ambient pressure reduces the velocity and spray penetration length. The formation of swirl is better at higher injection pressure and at the optimum swirl velocity which is 19 m/s. The findings would be beneficial to the other researchers in the automotive industry [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of behavioural biometrics, such as movement patterns and keystroke dynamics, in human identity recognition research to strengthen smartphone security is growing. Users usually secure their phones with a PIN or pattern. This paper uses a smartphone keystroke dynamic open dataset with user age information. This Open Dataset is known as the RHU-Keystroke Dynamics dataset. A dataset classification study was conducted utilising the Weighted K-nearest neighbour (W-KNN) method in order to identify the three age categories with the highest accuracy. The four keystroke features that have been collected in this open dataset are used for this classification. The highest average accuracy obtained from this W-KNN method is 83%. The results of the study are explained with a Confusion Matrix diagram and a Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) graph. A classification study using this method has successfully increased accuracy and can be utilized in the use of software, as demonstrated in the results of the study. It is expected that future studies will apply other classification methods to keystroke dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral biometric traits are not fully distinguished in recognition tasks, but they can improve the overall performance of biometric recognition systems by adding them. The behavioral biometric studied in this paper is related to keystroke dynamic. This paper examines the touch keystroke dynamics of computer users for the purpose of identifying their culture by using four different SVM kernels. It has been confirmed that racial classifications can be made by gathering keystroke data from 250 respondents representing various culture in Malaysia. Results show that different culture categories display different typing patterns. The classification is made using four SVM kernels and a comparison of the accuracy results is shown. The four kernels are Linear, Quadratic, Cubic and Fine Gaussian. The linear kernel has provided the highest accuracy and consistent readings compared to other kernels for the four features evaluated for dynamic keystrokes, namely press-press time, release-release time, press-release time and release-press time. The linear kernel has the highest accuracy reading of 92.4% for classification using press-press time features for the Malay vs Chinese category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The synthesis of polyaniline in varied conditions or parameters produce different outcomes in term of morphologies and particle size. Well defined theory that clearly illustrate complete morphology spectrum remains scarce. Chemical oxidative polymerization of polyaniline (PANI) to be compounded in prevulcanised latex (PVL) film was produced throughout this work. PANI was prepared using aniline in hydrochloric acidic solution (HCl) with the presence of ammonium persulphate (APS) as the oxidizing agent and sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) as surfactant. This work proposes an outcome to reveal the significance of different molar ratio of aniline to oxidant at equimolar (0.2: 0.2 M) and non-equimolar (0.3: 0.1 M) with respect to different preparation process yielded different particle size of polymerized PANI. Analysis of microscopy images and particle size analysis (sonicated and unsonicated) reveal that all samples were highly flocculated with particle size of equimolar ranging between 10.0 to 152.45 µm and non-equimolar with 15.0 to 130.0 µm. After sonication applied, the population of smaller particle increased notably. Both ratio of aniline to oxidant formulation yields flocculated particle and quite consistently similar particle size. Microscopy images are present to support the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental education being a right field to expose, increasing the knowledge and positive attitude towards environmental issues in line with the concept of sustainable development. This study aims to discuss about the sustainability knowledge energy saving, attitude and practice among primary school teachers. Teachers became a group that carried huge responsibility as a result of the acceptance and implementation of environmental education through a formal curriculum. This study involved 300 primary school teachers at Pasir Mas District, Kelantan, Malaysia and a questionnaire were used to collect the data. The finding shows sustainability knowledge energy saving and sustainability environment attitude were at high level while sustainability practices energy saving at medium level. Specifically, correlation expose that teachers' sustainability knowledge energy saving, sustainability environment attitude and sustainability practices energy saving have strong significant relationship. Hence, the result of sustainability knowledge energy saving, attitude and practice among primary school teacher through environmental education curriculum were important. These components for make sure that acceptance and implementation environmental education at primary school successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fuel spray and mixture formation are playing as an important criteria in displaying a fuel's combustion and emission characteristics since it has an instantaneous impact on the creation of an air fuel combination. The purpose of this study is to compare the effects of three different Crude Palm Oil (CPO) biodiesel blends, B5, B10, and B15, with different ambient density on nozzle flow and spray characteristics, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) were used to determine the nozzle flow and spray characteristics for different injection pressure of biodiesel spray to ambient variant conditions on mixture formation. Injection of biodiesel into the RCM constant volume chamber was considered in the simulation. While maintaining constant values for the other parameters, the boundary condition is adjusted at a different ambient parameter. Under the presence of in-cylinder flow, the impact of fuel type, injection pressure, and ambient variables on spray behaviour, such as spray penetration, has been explored. It was projected that high injection pressures would be more essential for the biodiesel fuels to develop their break-up. The effects of these various parameters are examined in terms of spray characteristics and opposed with the results of the experiment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research compare three different types of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) biodiesel blends, B5, B10, and B15 with different ambient density on nozzle flow and spray characteristics by using CPO and simulated the physics flow pattern of mixture formation with tangential velocity between biodiesel, diesel fuel, and air in the mixing chamber of RCM, to determine the nozzle flow and spray characteristics for different injection pressure of biodiesel spray to ambient variant conditions on mixture formation. In order to mimic the spray processes, an Eulerian-Lagrangian multiphase technique is presented in this study. This work makes use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Fluent to examine the spray properties of biodiesel fuels, and the simulation took biodiesel injection into the constant volume chamber of the RCM into account. The boundary condition is set up at a distinct ambient parameter. The presence of in-cylinder flow, the impact of fuel type, injection pressure, and ambient variables on spray behaviour, such as spray penetration, had been examined. Analysis of the spray penetration variation with time for various ambient parameters and different types of biodiesel fuels revealed that the biodiesel fuels were predicted to develop their break-up more quickly due to the fact that all fuels atomize more quickly in the presence of higher injection pressures. The effects of these various parameters were examined in terms of spray characteristics and contrasted with the findings of the experiments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cancer cells have the ability to infect nearby tissue and spread to other parts of the body. This process is known as metastasis, and it is widely recognised as the primary source of cancer cell invasion and the leading cause of death in cancer patients. We discovered specialised cellular membrane structures in invasive cancer cells that carry out a crucial phase in cancer invasion known as invadopodia. Actin rearrangement, extracellular matrix degradation, signalling transduction via membrane receptors such as the epidermal growth factor receptor and matrix metalloproteinase combination, and distribution to the invading front are all required for the creation of invadopodia. In this study, a mathematical model of invadopodia formation associated with binding of ligand and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) that stimulates signal transduction is investigated. The ligand and signal equations are considered as heat equations with initial and free boundary conditions. The concentrations of signal and ligand are assumed to be equivalent to the concentration of EGFR on the plasma membrane (interface). Furthermore, the EGFR equation is derived from material derivatives of the reaction between ligand and EGFR that occurs at the interface. The EGFR velocity is equivalent to the ligand gradient. To detect the movement of the moving interface, the level set method is highlighted by designating the interface as the zero-level set function. In addition, the regular and nearby points are solved using the second-order centred difference and the ghost fluid with linear extrapolation methods, respectively. The velocity is calculated using the gradient difference between the intracellular signal and the extracellular ligand, which moves the interface. The results demonstrated that protrusions or invadopodia are produced on the plasma membrane using Matlab software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global mobile service (GSM)-based transformer oil temperature monitoring system for an application of electrical power distribution is developed in this work. The developed monitoring system helps to provide early notification to the maintenance worker in preventing malfunction of a transformer that is located in rural areas. The developed system consists of three main parts, which are GSM module, Arduino controller and DS18B20 electrical temperature sensor. The notification is sent through GSM text message services, whenever the transformer oil reaches hazardous temperature value which was set at 50oC. The developed system exhibits linearity of 0.9999 with 0.021 mV/oC sensitivity. The monitoring system has potential to be adopted in many other applications that require low temperature real-time monitoring system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

– Soil pH affects the microbial community's composition and diversity, although research on microorganisms in preserved peat swamp forests is rare. In terms of soil acidity, peat swamp forest has been classified as one of the most nutrient-deficient areas of the planet. To have a more comprehensive understanding of the ecology and function of these microbial communities, profiling of peat swamp soil microbial community and structure was conducted with Raja Musa Peat Swamp Forest Reserved (RMFR) in Selangor for its pristine soil that refers to its stability of the microbial community and soil compositions, while focusing on pH response against the microbial community. This study was conducted by using Whole Genome Sequences analysis complemented with Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and whole shotgun metagenomic. The focus was to clarify whether the naturally occurring pH variations, specifically acid stress and osmotic stress in stress response, affected the soil microbial functional biodiversity and composition. Details analysis from MG-RAST has shown that bacteria has dominated the community with 98 percent abundance while eucaryote with 1 percent and archaea 1 percent. At the phylum level, the four highest abundances recorded which Proteobacteria hits with 51 percent abundances, Actinobacteria 18 percent, Acidobacteria 9 percent, and firmicutes 7 percent. At the genus level, the five highest abundances have been identified: Burkholderia has recorded 6 percent abundances, Candidatus Solibacter 4 percent of abundances, Bradyrhizobium has 4 percent abundances, Streptomyces 4 percent of abundances, and Rhodopseudomonas has 3 percent of abundances,. Amino acid metabolism analysis has identified a significant percentage of valine, leucine, and isoleucine involved with stress response genes that contribute to acid stress and osmotic stress with the microbial genus of the highest abundances has involved where Burkholderia has 10 percent abundances, Bradyrhizobium 10 percent abundances, Rhodopseudomonas 10 percent of abundances, Mycobacterium 8 percent abundances, and Frankia 7 percent abundances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Polylactic acid (PLA) as a bioplastic material has been extensively applied in various industries, including packaging, textiles, and the biomedical industry due to their desired physical, chemical, and biological characteristics. This polymer is also used in 3D printing filaments and nanocomposites. Despite the various applications of PLA being explored in the industry, there is a demand for a higher yield, better efficiency, and a sustainable and economical process in PLA production. Thus, this preliminary study is investigating the potential of PLA production via microwave treatment. The work involves an experimental study of the conversion of glucose to lactic acid (LA), followed by a systemic review of the production of PLA from LA. The highest yield of LA was observed after 40 minutes of microwave treatment at 180 °C, as indicated by Benedict test and pH measurements, with time as the independent variable. Based on the review, it is suggested that the bicatalyst has the potential to increase the yield of PLA production from LA. Activated charcoal (AC) and tungsten phosphoric acid (TGA) were proposed as the recyclable bicatalysts due to their roles as effective adsorption and catalyst esterification, respectively. Overall, the present study demonstrated that the simultaneous conversion of glucose to PLA via microwave treatment offers great potential towards the sustainable and economically viable production of PLA polymers. A thorough study is required to optimize this process, and future studies should focus on scaling up the system. Sustainable production of PLA would be able to drive the demand for this polymer in the industry while supporting Sustainable Development Goal 12 towards responsible consumption and production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As widely known, plastic has become an integral element of human culture. Despite posing a serious environmental hazard, plastic continuously used in a variety of domains ranging from industries to agriculture to our daily lives due to its lightness, sturdiness, inertness, and low cost. Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is the thermoplastic that are commonly used to manufacture plastics bags and other plastic products. However, the excessive use of LDPE has caused a major environmental problem when they are accumulated in the environment. Currently, the physical and chemical methods of plastic degradation was proved to be inefficient and posed other environmental issues. As a result, eco-friendly methods like microbial plastic decomposition are being pursued as a better solution. This paper reports the potential ability of a Malaysian Rhodococci isolate obtained from Unisel Culture Collection (UCC), the Rhodococcus pyridinovoran strain UCC0018 in.LDPE biodegradation. The bacterium was cultured in nutrient broth supplemented with LDPE fine strips to evaluate the degradation of LDPE by weight reduction test. Results obtained demonstrated degradation activity where it reduced the weight of LDPE strips up to 5.2% after 24 hours of incubation. This result indicated the promising potential of Malaysian Rhodococcus in degrading LDPE. Based on this discovery, the initiative intends to cultivate the bacteria in large quantities, optimize the degradation activity, and work with the industry to turn the bacteria into a product that can be utilized to address Malaysia's plastic waste problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cholesterol is an unsaturated alcohol which belongs to the steroid family that is required for the regular function of all animal cells and is a key component of their cell membranes. It is also a precursor for important compounds including adrenal and gonadal steroid hormones, as well as bile acids. In human's body, cholesterol acts as a nonpolar lipid molecule that is bundled in the bloodstream as a lipid-protein complex called lipoprotein. For decades, high cholesterol level in blood serum has been associated with many cardiovascular diseases. As known, cholesterol is produced naturally in the cell. The excessive amount of cholesterol in the body normally comes from the daily diet that is rich in cholesterol. Cholesterol degradation by microorganisms has become a great interest for research because it is considered as a more natural and environmental-friendly method in degrading cholesterol. One of the most studied microorganisms that are able to assimilate cholesterol is Rhodococcus. This study presents the first effort made to evaluate the potential of Malaysian Rhodococcus spp. in cholesterol assimilation. Twenty-three Rhodococcus isolates was screened for their activity in degrading cholesterol in the cholesterol selective agar. From the screening result, Rhodococcus ruber strain UCC0021 was observed to demonstrate the highest activity in degrading cholesterol. Hence, it was selected for further examination to evaluate its potential in degrading cholesterol in an actual food sample. In this regard, chicken egg yolk was selected as the food sample as egg yolk is known to have high cholesterol content that has always been an inconvenience due to concerns about the relationship between dietary cholesterol and atherosclerotic cardiovascular risk. In this experiment, 500 µL of egg yolk was incubated in a media containing the bacterium for 72 hours and the cholesterol content was measured using GC-FID. The result showed that at the final hour of incubation, the cholesterol content was reduced from 62 mg/100g to 42 mg/100g (32 % of reduction). This study has successfully showed the ability of Rhodococcus ruber strain UCC0021 in degrading cholesterol in the selective agar as well as in egg yolk which indicates the promising potential of these bacteria in cholesterol biodegradation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The textile industry consumes a lot of water, of which about 90 % is released in the form of wastewater. Textile wastewater contains dyes as the main pollutant. Dyes are not only toxic but also affect the aesthetic value of wastewater due to the presence of strong colours. Inadequate treatment of textile wastewater leads to serious environmental problems and negatively impacts aquatic organisms. Therefore, in the current research work, the ability of Malaysian Rhodococcus strains to decolourize azo dyes was evaluated through the activity of azo dye-decolourizing enzymes. The cell-free extract of Rhodococcus strain UCC 0016 exhibited an elevated titre of intracellular azoreductase by 317 % and intracellular laccase by 273 % compared to the extracellular counterpart, respectively. It was interesting to discover the presence of azoreductase and laccase constitutively and the production of these enzymes escalated when induced with Methyl red. When these enzymes were subjected to the decolourization of 0.5 g/L Methyl red, 99 % Methyl red-decolourizing activity was detected in the absence of mediators after 2 hours of incubation period, making this method attractive in terms of cost. Furthermore, the crude enzyme from Rhodococcus strain UCC 0010 optimized at acidic condition was analysed using SDS-PAGE which revealed the visualization of a protein band at approximately 40 kDa, which is consistent with the properties of laccase. Collectively, these discoveries provided the fundamental information to further advance the features of the crude enzymes namely using the immobilization technology for sustainable application in the bioremediation of textile wastewater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focusing on the joint modelling techniques of Finite Element (FE) to model a light dissimilar structure with bolted joints made up of bolts and nuts. The usage of a model update strategy is employed to improve the FE model's dynamic behaviour. In the FE model, a joint strategy is constructed using three different types of element connectors: CBAR, CBEAM, and CFAST. The modal parameters of a bolted joint structure made of dissimilar materials AZ31B and AA6061 were determined using Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Experimental Modal Analysis (EMA) in this research (natural frequencies, damping ratio, and mode shapes). The number of elements, number of nodes, and total percentage errors of respectively initial FE model, when compared to EMA results, were evaluated. In comparison to the others, the CBAR element was chosen to represent a fastener joint for the updating process due to its accurate prediction of mode shapes and inclusion of updating parameters. Sensitivity analysis is performed before the updating process to choose the most sensitive parameter for updating purposes. In the FE model updating procedure, MSC Nastran's optimization technique is applied. Therefore, the discrepancies between FEA and EMA have been decreased. When compared to the measured equivalent, the percentage of error for the modified CBAR model drops from 4.37 percent to 2.71 percent. As a result, it is discovered that updating the FE model is a systemic and efficient technique in conducting the appropriate FE model in recreating the genuine structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we report a low temperature biopolymer sol-gel route to synthesise these garnet materials using Agar, with the formation of the garnet phase at temperatures 1000 °C ~ 1100 °C, with single phase samples of cubic Li7La3Zr2O12. XRD measurement shows that the complete formation of cubic Li7La3Zr2O12 with 10% excess of lithium is at 1000°C, which is ~100°C lower than the addition of 30% excess lithium which is at 1100°C. However, the conductivity plot shows the conductivity of the Li7La3Zr2O12 with 30% lithium excess contributed in high Li+ conductivity compared with Li7La3Zr2O12 with 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we report a garnet-type lithium-ion conductor with the chemical formula of Li7La3Ce2O12 that prepared by conventional solid-state synthesis route. A pure phase of cubic garnet-type Li7La3Ce2O12 was obtained at 900°C for 12 hours with intermittence grindings. Purity of the samples were confirmed by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The electrical properties of the samples wereanalyzed using Impedance Spectroscopy (IS) technique. Results show that the electrical conductivity in Li7La3Ce2O12 is dominated by bulk effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many entrepreneurs are very interested to start Edible Bird Nest (EBN) production. However, many of them lack knowledge in suitable habitat and environmental conditions for EBN swiftlets. They suffered losses because they are not concerned about providing the management of the suitable habitat and environmental conditions before building their EBN swiftlet house. This study aimed to identify and establish the list of habitat and environmental conditions for successful of edible bird nest swiftlet ranching. This study comprised of interview questions and field study. Questionnaires were distributed 100 players in EBN industry in Terengganu. For the field study, air and surface temperatures, relative humidity, light intensity, and sound level were recorded in nine EBN swiftlet houses in three different areas, the forested, the coastal and the town areas. From the questionnaires, we found that the most popular area (67%) to build EBN swiftlet houses was the forested area. This was followed by, the coastal area (26.7%) and town area (6.7%). Based on field study results, forested areas were the best and most productive to build EBN swiftlet house. The mean EBN and individual swiftlet population from the different areas were as follows: 78 nests and 263 individuals in forested, 51 nests and 133 individuals in the coastal and 25 nests and 65 individuals in the town area. From the environmental parameters collected it was shown that houses built in the forested area had the most suitable range for swiftlet adaptation. Air and surface temperatures were 31°C, relative humidity was 82%, light intensity 0.16LUX, sound level 50dB (internal) and 65dB (external). The results showed that EBN production was significantly higher in swiftlet houses with suitable habitat and environmental conditions. In the management of swiftlet houses, only suitable habitat and environmental conditions can be assured to be productive and profitable ranching venture swiflet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many entrepreneurs are very interested to start Edible Bird Nest (EBN) production. However, many of them lack knowledge in pest distrubance in swiftlet house. They suffered losses because they are not concerned about pest disturbance in swiftlet house. This study aimed to identify pest in swiftlet house and to establish pest distrubance in swiftlet house. This research was conducted through field study. Field studies were conducted in nine swiftlet houses from three different areas namely, town, coastal and forested areas. Based on the field study, ants were the biggest pest problem in EBN swiftlet houses where about 69 observations of the houses were infested with the insects at one point or another. Cockroaches were the second biggest problem with 30 observations of the houses infested and rats were found in 18 observations of the houses. Pest disturbance in swiftlet house was the main cause of failure in the swiftlet ranching business. The results showed that there are no significant difference between pest disturbance in swiftlet house with location of swiftlet house. In the management of swiftlet houses, less pest disturbance can be assured to be productive and profitable ranching venture swiflet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Merbau sawdust derived activated carbon (MAC) was prepared via microwave-assisted chemical activation of potassium hydroxide (KOH) for removal of methylene blue (MB) dyes from an aqueous solution. The influence of operating preparation variables such as radiation power (x1 = 264-616 Watts), radiation time (x2=4-8 minutes), and impregnation ratio (x3=0.5-2.0) on MB removal and MAC yield were optimized using central composite design (CCD) under response surface methodology (RSM). The adequacy of the statistical model between the relationship of the significant factors and responses were successfully indicate (p<0.05) by using analysis of variance (ANOVA), where radiation power and impregnation ratio had significant effects for both responses. The findings exhibit a maximum MB removal of 95.58% with MAC yield of 31.8% at optimum preparation variables: radiation power of 460 Watts, radiation time of 4.0 minutes, and impregnation ratio of 0.94. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Euler Deconvolution technique was successfully used on the satellite gravity data to discover about 270 fault lineaments distribution as well as their dip directions and extensions below the surface. The traced lineaments are overlapped partially on the major known faults, which can be used in proving the existence of the fault by Euler Deconvolution technique. Extra information supplied by this technique in terms of mapping and cross-section include trends of major and unknown faults as well as their dipping angle and direction. In addition, this technique can be used to determine the approximate depth of each fault zone, which is impossibly measured on the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]