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Cities affected by climate change and those cities' effects contribute to the environmental issue. The effort from the leaders in the national and local authorities is very important. The national level is from the New Urban Agenda (NUA) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Meanwhile, the local authority is implementing the Low Carbon Cities Framework (LCCF). The gap in this paper is despite the LCCF being readied at a local authority, the constraints identified as data collection, manpower, funding, and lack of management skill in implementing LCCF. This paper aims to study implementing the LCCF and Assessment System for one system approach only in building elements under the LCCF to reduce energy and water consumption at the Headquarters Office of Subang Jaya City Council, Selangor. The objectives of the paper are to study the approaches to reducing energy and water consumption with a performance-based assessment. The methodology of this paper was quantitative for LCCF assessment and compared to the baseline year data. The findingof this paper indicates briefly the action to be undertaken by team members at the local authority for strategies and proposedaction plans. Finally, the local authority is playing a major role in the first initiative to quantum leap the action with a strongcommitment from stakeholders. The LCCF is a very dynamic system that can be applied to different localities with varyingdevelopmental needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reservoir lifetime can be interpreted as the number of years a reservoir can be used to fulfil its purpose. This study proposes an approach to predict the remaining life of Semenyih reservoir using an empirical method. The result of this study can help in making important decisions in the water supply. This paper mainly focuses on Semenyih dam which is one of the Klang Valley major dams in Selangor, Malaysia built in 1985, with a lifetime plan of 100 years. This watershed basin has one of the main rivers in the state of Selangor, which has been negatively affected by industrial and urban wastes since early 1990. The annual sedimentation rate plan of Semenyih Reservoir was estimated from 13,165,400 m3 in 2004 to 13,511,900m3 in 2010, however as calculated in 2016, sediment delivery reached 13,665,450 m3 in the Semenyih catchment. The proposed result of the Semenyih Reservoir remaining lifetime using the empirical method can be estimated by years, and this number then can be used as a reference to predict the remaining volume of Semenyih Reservoir dead storage using the sediment approach. In this paper the lifetime of the reservoir was estimated at 65 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication issues nowadays became a common issue that everyone is talking about. The blame is on these issues for the late progress in the construction sector and also other sectors. The communication issues become more extreme since the pandemic Covid-19 turn out. One of the serious problems related to communication issues in the construction industry is project delay. This paper aims to examine the relationship between barriers in communication and project delay which is mediated by the field of experience of the project teams. A survey of 215 project teams was conducted in Selangor to investigate the relationship between project delay, barriers to improvement in communication, and field of experience. It was hypothesized that a relationship between barriers to improvement in communication and project delay was mediated by the field of experience of the project team. To begin with, Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) study revealed that project teams' field of experience considerably and favorably reflects the relationship between barriers to improvement of communication and project delay. The finding shows the field of experience is significant as mediator to the relationship of barriers to improvement and project delay; bar -> exp -> pd (0.121, t = 2.393, p<0.05). Therefore, it can be concluded that the field of experience of the team members in the project plays an important role in dealing with the communications barriers that lead to project delays. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of using social media in statistics classroom. The use of social media aims to expose students on the variety of method on data collection in providing an instant response and to integrate the availability of social media into the classroom education in enhancing the understanding and providing instant hands-on experience. The possibility of improving the learning experience among students is by integrating social media technology that would make the learning process more effective and attractive to students. This paper presents the research that was done to Diploma students at a private university in Selangor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous slope failures have occurred due to climate change especially in tropical region. Rainfall become more extreme that cause more slope failures to occur. Rainwater could infiltrate in the soil and cause soil expansion that could potentially weakens the effective stress and causing slope failure. This paper aims to study the effects of extreme rainfall on slopes in Langat River, Selangor, Malaysia by modelling the existing slopes by using the finite element method software, Plaxis 2D. Results will be discussed in term of pore-water pressure, and factor of safety of the slope. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Production of fired clay bricks is extremely energy consuming and emit massive carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Such a problem caused global warming, rising sea water level, and melting of icebergs. This paper aimed to document the compression behavior of green bricks produced from the cyanobacterial calcium carbonation mechanism that can serve as a sustainable alternative to fired clay bricks. Phytoplankton was collected from a lake in Serdang, Selangor Malaysia. The phytoplankton had a high concentration of cyanobacteria. It was then mixed with a calcium source, China clay, and river sand under the designated mixture proportions with varying water contents for the purpose of casting the green bricks. After the green bricks were subjected to 28-day biomineralization process, they were tested for their compressive strength. The green brick with a water content of 400 mL had the highest compressive strength of 3 MPa. This implied that the degree of water saturation influenced the biomineralization process of the green brick as the water content must be optimized for the maximum calcium carbonate precipitation to occur in it. At an optimal water content of the brick admixture, there was a positive effect of the cyanobacteria from the phytoplankton on the biomineralization of the green bricks. The outcome of the research work contributed to the advanced knowledge of sustainable construction in the brick making industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Air pollution-induced deterioration of metallic components in infrastructures. An overhead transmission tower is among the strategic asset that belongs to the nation. Tenaga Nasional Berhad is the primary energy utility company in Malaysia who has owned and maintained the national grid system. It carries more than 23,000 circuit kilometers, which comprised of 500 kV, 275 kV, and 127 kV electric transmission lines all over Peninsular Malaysia. Electric transmission towers that function to support the transmission line are mostly a lattice steel type of structure. The structural trusses comprised of different sizes, equal sections, plates, and connected using a bolted connection. Tremendous industrial development nowadays has become an issue for the environment, especially air pollution. The combination of atmospheric corrosive agents with the climate condition has caused corrosion to the metallic structure. This paper presents the development of a corrosion hazard map using geospatial analysis for ten years of air pollutant concentration, from wet deposition data of nitrate, sulfate, and chloride in the atmosphere. The meteorological data, which are temperature, humidity, received rainfall, and time of wetness, was considered in the analysis as well. By applying the inverse distance weighted interpolation method, the corrosion hazard map determined from this study was classified into five zones of corrosion hazard. The study discovered that the southern area of Peninsular Malaysia, which is from Johor, Melaka to Selangor have the highest level of corrosion hazard due to the atmospheric corrosion. The corrosion hazard map determined from this study could be used as a reference on the level of corrosion hazard for engineering development and maintenance purposes. Moreover, it also can accommodate engineers or designers in selecting a proper coating for corrosion mitigation and as a justification for coating specification, either in engineering or automotive field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application of support vector machine (SVM) has been widely used in regression and prediction. Accurate prediction of daily solar irradiance is important in photovoltaic power system since rapid changes in solar irradiance will easily affect the performance of the whole system. This paper presents the short term future prediction of the solar irradiance using least square support vector machine (LSSVM). Historical solar data set including daily solar irradiance over a period of three years (1 January 2014 to 31 December 2016) has been collected at Green Energy Research Centre, Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Shah Alam, Selangor. This related information shall be used in prediction of the future solar irradiance which useful for predicting electrical parameters of a PV system especially large scale solar (LSS) farm. The simulation was carried out using SVM Toolbox in MATLAB software. The results show good agreement between the predicted and the measured values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes modeling and simulation of reverse logistics networks for collection of used computers in one of the company in Selangor. The study focuses on design of reverse logistics network for used computers recycling operation. Simulation modeling, presented in this work allows the user to analyze the future performance of the network and to understand the complex relationship between the parties involved. The findings from the simulation suggest that the model calculates processing time and resource utilization in a predictable manner. In this study, the simulation model was developed by using Arena simulation package. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a labor intensive manufacturing system, optimal operator allocation is one of the most important decisions in determining the efficiency of the system. In this paper, ten operator allocation alternatives are identified using the computer simulation ARENA. Two inputs; average wait time and average cycle time and two outputs; average operator utilization and total packet values of each alternative are generated. Four Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) models; CCR, BCC, MCDEA and AHP/DEA are used to determine the optimal operator allocation at one of the SME food manufacturing companies in Selangor. The results of all four DEA models showed that the optimal operator allocation is six operators at peeling process, three operators at washing and slicing process, three operators at frying process and two operators at packaging process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

River Water Quality Index (WQI) is calculated using an aggregation function of the six water quality sub-indices variables, together with their relative importance or weights respectively. The formula is used by the Department of Environment to indicate a general status of the rivers in Malaysia. The six elected water quality variables used in the formula are, namely: suspended solids (SS), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammoniacal nitrogen (AN), chemical oxygen demand (COD), dissolved oxygen (DO) and pH. The sub-indices calculations, determined by quality rating curve and their weights, were based on expert opinions. However, the use of sub-indices and the relative importance established in the formula is very subjective in nature and does not consider the inter-relationships among the variables. The relationships of the variables are important due to the nature of multi-dimensionality and complex characteristics found in river water. Therefore, a well-known multivariate technique, i.e. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was proposed to re-calculate the waterquality index specifically in Langat River based on the inter-relationship approach. The application of this approach is not well-studied in river water quality index development studies in Malaysia. Hence, the approach in the study is relevant and important since the first river water quality development took place in 1981. The PCA results showed that the weights obtained indicate the difference in ranking of the relative importance for particular variables compared to the classical approaches used in WQI-DOE. Based on the new weights, the Langat River water quality index was calculated and the comparison between both indexes was also discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variety of mosque designs along with facilities for ventilation systems being adopted has some impacts on energy consumption. The architectural design elements of mosques are strongly influenced by geographical location, weather conditions, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. In the Malaysian tropical - context, the influence of weather on the architectural design of mosques does not have a major significant impact as compared to the cultural and socio-economic factors which may differ between different localities. The thematic analysis method had been adopted in expanding findings on mosque classifications since it is a rigorous and sophisticated method in qualitative research. Themes occupancy, design elements, and ventilation system are used in this study to develop the classification of the mosques base model. The energy consumption in mosques influenced by these characteristics needs to be classified accordingly to establish common themes since currently there is no standard reference for benchmarking mosque buildings. As such, building a mosque base model as a reference from these characteristics of the mosque buildings from existing samples is crucial to simplify the data for each model which are to be determined based on the characteristics stated above. As a result, four classifications of mosque base models had been established from a survey of 375 kariah mosques in Selangor, Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fertilizer spraying to improve rice yield using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is receiving a lot of interest from rice farmers due to its field operational advantages. However, operators have to rely on their flying experiences and skills to perform an effective aerial spraying over the rice field. This study aims to investigate UAV field capacity and time consumed while performing different rates and types of fertilizer for the aerial spraying operation. The spraying experiments were conducted in fields located in Sungai Besar, Selangor with an area of about 0.6 ha/field. The field capacity, flying time for aerial spraying, frequency of refilling tank, and changing the battery set were recorded and evaluated. The results showed that uniform rate fertilizer consumes most of the flying time for the spraying process thus required a higher number of batteries set and refilling procedure. Activities such as UAV flying time, refilling of the tank, and changing the battery set during the spraying procedure were associated with the volume of liquid sprayed to the field. Treatment of variable rate application (VRA) fertilizer showed faster in terms of time-consuming for the aerial spraying operation, better field capacity, less volume of liquid, and less energy to operate the UAV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rock mass rating used for selection of tunnel support type is a critical issue in tunneling. The wrong choice of tunnel support could lead to rock collapse and trapping of drilling rig. This study examines a novelty for the integration of drilling speed with rock properties to predict basic Rock Mass Rating (RMR) using Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). A database of 127 training and 32 testing datasets collected from NATM-3 of the tunnel was constructed. The input parameters are the Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS), Rock Quality Designation (RQD), Discontinuity Spacing (DS), groundwater (GW) and Drilling Speed (DSPEED), and the basic RMR as output parameter. Subtractive clustering method was used to generate the fuzzy Inference System and trained by the hybrid learning process in MATLAB R2018A software. Root mean squared error (RMSE) and Coefficient of determination (R2) were used to assess the performance of the developed model. The performance indices; R2 and RMSE of 0.892 and 2.576 respectively for the training and 0.846 and 2.316 for the testing model respectively were obtained. The results show that probe drilling speed and rock properties can be effectively integrated using ANFIS to predict basic rock mass rating in a tunnel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Short Form 36 (SF-36) is one of the most widely used generic health status measure. This study used the SF-36 Health Survey instrument to investigate the functional health and well-being of Malay Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus patients in Malaysia. The survey was carried out in three local hospitals in Selangor. The method of questionnaire administration was both self-administered and interviewer administered. A total of 354 questionnaires was returned, but only 295 questionnaires with no missing data were analyzed. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) was used to confirm the first-order and third-order CFA models. The higher order analyses included a third-order CFA models with two second-order factors (physical and mental component) and three second-order factors (physical, general well-being and mental health) and both showed satisfactory model fit indices. This study confirmed the multidimensional factor structure of the SF-36. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrio vulnificus infections are worldwide public health problems associated with illnesses resulting from consumption of raw or partially cooked seafood. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence and identification of V. vulnificus in cockles from local wet (40) and supermarkets (38) from Selangor, Malaysia from July 2013 to February 2014. A total of 78(n=78) cockle were examined for the presence of V. vulnificus and at about 32% (25/78) cockle samples were positive to this bacterium. Colonies morphological observation and biochemical characterization for those isolates showed 60% (15/78) of isolates were classified as biotype 1 and 40% (10/78) belong to biotype 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study on benthic macroinvertebrates diversity and water quality assessment was conducted at Sungai Congkak recreational area in Hulu Langat, Selangor. Sums of eight sampling stations were selected with a distance of 100-200 m interval between each station. Benthic macroinvertebrates was sampled using a Surber net, while water sampling and analysis were undertaken according to HACH standard methods. A total of 3754 individuals from 40 families of benthic macroinvertebrates were recorded at this river. Ecological indices namely Shannon diversity index (2.49), Pielou evenness index (0.77) and Margalef richness index (4.06) demonstrate that Sungai Congkak is at good condition and benthic macroinvertebrates has homogeneous distribution along the sampling sites. Elmidae, Hydrophilidae, Baetidae and Perlidae were most dominant families present in that area and adapted progressively with excellent water quality (>300 individuals). As regards to Malaysian's Water Quality Index (WQI), the study area at Sungai Congkak is classified in class I which has good water quality conditions. The Pearson correlation test indicates that ecological indices have strong correlation toward WQI at all sampling stations. As a conclusion, the benthic macroinvertebrates and WQI data demonstrated that Sungai Congkak is clean and suitable as recreational stream based on this study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, three types of Bayesian coincident-index models were designed based on modification from the so-called Stock-Watson (S-W) index, i.e. the established economic coincident-index. The S-W index approach is commonly used to estimate parameters using sufficient time series data in composite index. However, the S-W approach in small time series data sets, irregular observations and unbalanced data across time is not well-studied. Essentially, all the problem situations are easily handled under the proposed class of Bayesian models. Therefore, we were motivated to design a new Bayesian S-W coincident-index with application in river water quality index. The river water quality data has been chosen due to the availability of small, unbalanced data sets and irregular observations at particular time in selected sampling sites. We tested all the new algorithms which are based on the three coincident-index model i.e. model with no lag, model with first order lag in the water quality variables and model with a lag for unobserved water quality index. We used Bayesian model comparison criterion to choose the best coincident-index model. Deviance Information Criteria (DIC) was performed as a criterion for selecting models since its application to a variety of data-diagnostic models was not well-discussed. Sensitivity model analyses for all models were also reported. The results showed that the model with σ prior 2 was the most appropriate for the Langat river water quality data in the selected sampling sites. The results also showed that that the third model with σ prior 2 for all sampling sites was the most adequate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Land falls into the category of prime resources. Land use and land cover changes are identified as the prime issue in global environmental changes. Thus, it is necessary to initiate the land change detection process for land sustainability as well as to develop a competent land use planning. Tropical country like Malaysia has been experiencing land use and land cover changes rapidly for the past few decades. Thus, an attempt was made to detect the land use and land cover changes in the capital of the Selangor, Malaysia, Shah Alam over 20 years period (1990 - 2010). The study has been done through remote sensing approach using Earth Sat imagery of December 1990 and SPOT satellite imageries of March 2000 and December 2010. The current study resulted that the study area experienced land cover changes rapidly where the forest area occupied about 24.4% of Shah Alam in 1990 has decreased to 13.6% in 2010. Built up land have increased to 29.18% in 2010 from 12.47% in 1990. Other land cover classes such as wet land, wasteland and agricultural land also have undergone changes. Efficient land management and planning is necessary for land sustainability in Shah Alam. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]