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Wild Mushroom Identification through Morphological Approaches in middle of West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia
No full textMushroom has been considered as one of the choices of quality and functional food. Nutritional profiling of mushrooms has been well reported in different research. In Malaysia, most studies investigated secondary metabolite production, cultivation and health benefits of edible mushrooms. Research on wild mushroom has been very limited. Hence, the objective of this research project was to identify the morphology of wild mushroom species commonly found in middle of West Coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Four different wild mushrooms were collected and characterised based on the morphology and growth appearance when cultured on potato dextrose agar. They were morphologically identified as Tremella genus, Ganoderma genus, Phaeolus genus and Trametes genus. However, the species identification was able to confirm up to genus level only as they are sharing many similar features. In conclusion, morphological characterization of mushroom was very time consuming and the accuracy is highly dependent on the researcher’s experience. Therefore, molecular method is needed to further confirm the identity of the wild mushrooms
Preliminary study on coexistence with the Covid-19 based on the Theory of Medicine and Food Homology
No full textVarious plans for the treatment of COVID-19 were implemented by different countries. This research is a preliminary study to understand COVID-19 in Malaysia from the perspective of Chinese medicine and provide a coexistence plan. The methodology is to categorize the symptoms of COVID-19 in Malaysia under syndrome element and referred to the climatic environment toprescribe a tea that will draw up a life pattern to coexists with COVID-19. Considering that the symptoms of COVID-19 in Malaysia are fatigue, inability to swallow, and oliguria, early clinical symptoms are not obvious, but may lead to sudden death. The results showed that COVID-19 occurred in the hot and dry year of Gengzi (2020), and the increase in cases was evident in the fire and summer periods of the cold and wet Xinchou year (2021). Considering that the internal Fire is the most hurtful and the ‘Cold and Dampness’ will prevent the internal ‘Fire’ to be released to the outdside. Based on this, it is inferred that COVID-19 in Malaysia is an internal Fire, mixed with external Cold, and has been an epidemic of Cold and Fire. Based on the theory of medicine and food homology, a dose of tea is formulated to separate the internal and external parts, dispel the body surface, clear the internal fire, and smooth the mechanism to achieve coordination of the inside and outside. Through this compatible tea, it can be used as a food or as a medicine. In the two-and-a-half-day treatment plan, a total of 11 confirmed or suspected COVID-19 cases were collected from July to August, all cases partial symptom elimination, no severe cases occurred, and the complete recovery rate was 45%
An investigation in the concept of producing textured cutting tools by using a plasma focus machine
No full textIn this paper, the concept of producing a textured tool with a plasma focus machine is investigated for hardness and built-up-edge results. A textured cutting tool is required to have two important characteristics: texture and hardness. The purpose of the texture is to provide a suitable tool surface for a film of solid lubricant to anchor itself. This has the advantage of reducing the possibility of a built-up-edge from occurring in the dry machining of aluminum raw materials. An enhanced hardness provides greater resistance to tool wear. The plasma focus machine is able to deliver both texture and hardness in a single operation, thus making this process a novel approach to toolmaking
Utilize Medical Text Data to Estimate Disease Types by Using Naïve Bayes and ANN Classifier
No full textThe primary concept of the hospital is the provision of health services to the community. In many cases, the utilization of information technology to record all hospital activity data can improve hospitals' quality services. However currently, the data is only stored in the database and used as history without further use. Many experiences show that optimizing data usage can greatly assist doctors in making decisions to minimize medical errors. For example, examination data that among others of anamnesis (medical abstract), blood pressure, temperature, and other patient’s symptom data can be used to classify the kind of disease. One of the challenges in medical data utilization is that these data consists of various formats, structured, and unstructured as well. In this study, we address the medical unstructured data format by using Natural Language Processing approach. The combination of its representation results with the structured format data is then used as the dataset to build the model for disease type prediction based on Naïve Bayes and Artificial Neural Network classifier. By using these two algorithms, the results of the classification of the kind of disease. The performed experiments show that the ANN model performs better with the best accuracy average of 89.29% compared to Naive Bayes, which is 80.60 %
Data Analysis of Covid-19 Pandemic in Malaysia and Singapore
No full textCOVID-19, an infectious disease that was caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it will affect the human lung and airways hard to be moderated. The COVID-19 virus can spread through saliva drops or be released from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes. By washing hands or rubbing alcohol-based often and avoiding touching the face, one can prevent infection or slow down the spread rate. Currently, there are no specific vaccines or treatments for COVID-19. Some datasets are generated from COVID-19 epidemic in Malaysia and Singapore and the datasets can be used for analysis to improve understanding of the COVID-19. In this project, six datasets are collected and conducted with data selection, data pre-processing, data transformation, and data mining. To conduct visualization and analysis of the datasets, Microsoft Azure Machine Learning Studio is used during the methodology part while Microsoft Excel and R Studio are used to generate five different graphs based on the datasets. The objective of this project is to compare, investigate and analyse the COVID-19 epidemic and find out the impact of Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia and Circuit Breaker (CB) in Singapore to overcome the COVID-19 epidemic in both countries based on the data visualization and analysis in this project
A Study of Top Management Support Onto BIM Adoption in China Consulting Companies
No full textTop management support is a crucial driver for consulting companies in China's
architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry. They must identify changes
in the competitive environment, which are becoming increasingly technical. In addition,
top management must respond most efficiently and effectively possible. Currently,
China consulting companies which using BIM are subject to changes of organizational
contexts and top management support that influences the BIM application. This study
focuses on this phenomenon through analyzing the variables of top management support
and organizational readiness affecting BIM usage. This paper uses qualitative research
to analyze data output based on interviews with ten China consulting companies. The
aim of the analysis is to find evidence from the above mentioned relationship using the
Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework. Besides that, organizational
readiness to increase BIM adoption in consulting companies with top management
support is also studied. The findings highlight that top management support and the
need to provide organizational readiness for companies to improve their technical
capabilities are the essential prerequisites for BIM adoption in the companies. The
contribution of this paper is to provide empirical evidence to show that the behaviour of
top management support influences the effective adoption of BIM organizational factors
in China consulting companies
Adoption of Alternative Building Materials in Construction of Residential Property in Kenya
No full textHousing can be looked at as the provision of shelter and a place to live in. It is therefore
necessary to have adequate shelter that is affordable and decent. Adequate shelter in this
context refers to good quality rental and owner occupier housing units that can be affordable
to the low-income families that are the main focus of this study.
The main objective of this study is to examine the determinants of affordable housing
in Nairobi, Kenya. In this study, the population consisted of a total of 50 respondents who
comprised of individuals who have already purchased an affordable house as well as those who
wish to purchase an affordable house. Data collection was by means of a questionnaire, as well
as interviews that were conducted. Primary data was used and coded and finally analysed using
the descriptive statistics to describe each variable under study. Coefficient of variation was also
used to analyse the variation of the data. The Microsoft Excel software used to present the data
in tables.
The findings established that financial institutions prefer to give loans to individuals
who are formally employed; however, majority of the population are in the informal
employment. The results also established that a factor affecting affordability of housing in
regard to interest rates was that majority of the borrowers would prefer to get a loan when the
interest rates are low and stable, then it becomes much cheaper to purchase or build an
affordable home.
The main conclusion provided that financial institutions had more preference on
individuals who are formally employed as opposed to those who do not seem to earn a steady
income. It was also noted that the tax incentives provided by the government would be more
useful to developers who come up with huge affordable housing projects.
Page 5 of 69
Samuel Nyakundi Gekonge
[email protected]
The study recommended that the tax incentives that have been provided for by the
government be easily understood by all stakeholders, the tax benefits should also benefit both
the large and small size developers.
It was also recommended that the financial institutions come up with systems that can
be able to cater for those borrowers who are not in the formal employment. Lastly it was
recommended that more research should be carried out on cheaper building materials that are
effective and can be used to build houses; this would result in the eventual costs of building a
house to reduce significantly. The study also suggests that future research could be done on the
use of cheaper building materials on low-cost housing projects in Nairobi, Kenya. Low- cost
housing is an area of interest in developing countries including Kenya
Cosmetology Advertising Perspectives: Applications of Ethical Theories during COVID-19 Crisis
No full textIn a pandemic, there are no egalitarians because all citizens cannot treat equally, and a failure to
consider ethical concerns before taking action led to a massive and preventable loss of life. As a result of the
pandemic, there is a strong ethical or moral imperative to consider how to help the most generous people usage
healthy products. Utilitarianism and Kantian have become popular ethical theories that state the right actions that
layout clear and actionable principles. This paper reviews (1) how Utilitarianism and Kantianism theories could
produce benefit arguments on ethical purchases of cosmetic products from an advertising context, (2) how these
theories contributed in the context of COVID-19 to help reduce any harmful health issues via advertising, and (3)
Utilitarianism and Kantian theories have proven useful during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to case studies of
cosmetics products and advertising in Western and Asian contexts. In addition to these two ethical theories, this paper
discussed other issues. The purpose is not to argue which theory is the only relevant ethical theory but to contend
with pure utilitarianism. Kantian's finding was similar to the topic argument in other ways. However, both theories
reviewed as the most effective way to help societies identify and perceive the necessary costs of goods values. Before
adopting utilitarian or Kantian theories, the community must clearly understand these two theories' merit values in
product advertising. In such a crisis, ethical theories practices should implement in all areas because ethical
challenges would determine whether or not advertisers around the world adhered to ethical standards in devising new
and innovative marketing strategies, practices, or tactics for the transition to this new norm
An Overview on Existential Threats Posed-by Human-like Super-intelligent Machines to Humanity
No full textThis review paper aims to discuss the possibilities a future with human-like super-intelligent machines holds. This paper is done based on a study of secondary data from research papers in the field of history and philosophy. This paper projects that Artificial Intelligence (AI) may hold quality superintelligence, speed superintelligence, and collective superintelligence over us. A forecast based on human history gave us a bleak outlook into the future in which humanity is replaced and wiped out by AIs. Towards the end of the paper, cyborgification is briefly considered as a solution
The Contributions of Green Concrete Towards Sustainable Built Environment
No full textEnvironmental issue has become global concern as it is getting serious and worse which eventually
brings unforeseeable destructive impacts. Among the industries, construction industry is regarded as
one of the main contributor to this issue. In this context, sustainability in construction with the goal to
reduce industry’s impacts on the environment is becoming widely adopted. To tackle the issue from
the fundamental aspect, green concrete is introduced to the industry. Concrete is known as one of the
most widely used material on the Earth, which on the other hand, poses significant environmental
issue. About 8 – 10% of carbon dioxide emissions are generated by the cement industry. In addition,
greenhouse gases are released to the environment when natural aggregates are crushed and heated at
the elevated temperatures, which directly intensifies environmental burdens. Therefore, this research
is aimed to investigate the impacts of green concrete towards the sustainable built environment. The
numerous benefits of green concrete are determined in the study. Furthermore, the application of green
concrete in construction projects are identified as green concrete is found still uncommon in many
countries. Since the study is more relevant to construction parties, online questionnaire is distributed
to contractor company in Selangor area to obtain their perspectives regarding this topic. The primary
data collected is presented in bar chart as well as pie chart and is then analysed through frequency
table. The research findings show that green concrete is a sustainable and environmental-friendly
material. The most significant benefit of green concrete towards environment is to reduce waste as
green concrete involves utilisation of waste materials from different industries