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The importance of the lesser-known Tongkat Ali Plants of Polyalthia bullata and Stema tuberosa for aging men
No full textTongkat Ali, is a popular name in Malaysia and worldwide. Tongkat Ali is synonym to a number of plants traditionally used as aphrodisiacs. Other than the most popular Tongkat Ali plant of Eurycoma longifolia (or Tongkat Ali Putih), not known by many people are the two other Tongkat Ali plants of Stema tuberosa (Tongkat Ali Merah) and Polyalthia bullata (Tongkat Ali Hitam). Their names have been assigned due to their root colours, i.e. white, red and black. E. longifolia has been extensively sold and studied for its pharmacological activities, including aphrodisiac, antimalarial, anticancer, and antimicrobial properties. While the two lesser-known Tongkat Ali plants have not been well documented on their botanical features and pharmacological benefits, this review gives a comprehensive literature compilation to fill the knowledge gaps. All three types of Tongkat Ali plants claimed for many traditional uses and have been identified to exhibit pharmacological activities such as antimalarial, anticancer and antimicrobial activities. However, to date, their most distinctive pharmacological activities are their aphrodisiac capabilities due to their potential to boost testosterone. Testosterone, a crucial hormone for human health, is responsible for various bodily functions such as sexual performances, muscle mass, bone mass, and brain normalities. Treatments for low testosterone levels include testosterone replacement therapy, which if left uncontrolled can cause liver damage, jaundice, elevated hemoglobin levels, sleep apnea, and skin reactions. Some aging men experienced lower than normal serum testosterone levels and often resort to more natural testosterone boosters by consuming Tongkat Ali plants instead. This review emphasizes the values of S. tuberosa and P. bullata with scientific evidences as aphrodisiac plants worthy of being used similar to the more popular Tongkat Ali of E. longifolia
Inovasi pensyarah UMPSA permudah automasi ladang dan akuakultur melalui SELESAI Board menang emas di ITEX 2025
Full text linkPEKAN, 10 Julai 2025 – Inisiatif penyelidikan berimpak tinggi dari Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah (UMPSA) membuahkan hasil apabila inovasi teknologi automasi pintar berasaskan Internet of Things (IoT) yang dikenali sebagai SELESAI Board meraih pingat emas di ITEX 2025.
Inovasi itu adalah hasil ciptaan pensyarah dari Fakulti Teknologi Kejuruteraan Pembuatan dan Mekatronik (FTKPM), Dr. Mohd Azraai Mohd Razman.
Sistem automasi berdaya saing ini dibangunkan khusus bagi menyokong keperluan usahawan tani dan akuakultur kecil dan sederhana.
Inovasi itu juga turut dapat membantu menyelesaikan cabaran yang dihadapi dalam operasi harian seperti penyiraman tanaman, pemberian baja dan makanan ikan.
Menurut Dr. Mohd Azraai, idea penghasilan produk ini telah bermula sejak tahun 2020 ketika negara berhadapan dengan Perintah Kawalan Pergerakan (PKP) yang memberi impak besar kepada sektor pertanian dan perikanan air tawar
Transforming coal bottom ash into a high-performance pozzolan: Effects of acid treatment on material properties
Full text linkThis experimental study explores the transformation of coal bottom ash (CBA), an industrial by-product, into a high-performance pozzolan to replace traditional cement in construction materials. CBA’s disposal has challenges due to its low reactivity and the risk of heavy metal leaching, which limits its sustainable reuse. To overcome these barriers, an innovative acid pre-treatment process was developed, enhancing CBA’s reactivity by removing deleterious materials and increasing silica content. Advanced characterization techniques reveal significantly lower metal content and increased silica content in the treated CBA, demonstrating its potential as a sustainable alternative. Treated CBA shows positively impacts mortar binder properties, as indicated by higher strength activity index values compared to untreated specimens. The treated CBA demonstrated a significant enhancement in mortar binder properties, achieving a 20% higher strength activity index compared to untreated samples. These findings highlight treated CBA’s potential as a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to conventional cementitious materials. This work advances the utilization of industrial by-products in construction, promoting environmental sustainability and reducing reliance on traditional cement
Advancing sustainable materials and technologies
Full text linkThis second volume (2025) brings together a collection of review and research articles focused on sustainable innovations in construction materials and geotechnical engineering. The first article by Mahi et al. [1] reviews the potential of biochar as a sustainable cement replacement, highlighting its ability to improve mechanical and durability properties of concrete composites. Their research demonstrated that biochar can enhance early-age compressive strength, with the most significant improvements observed at lower replacement levels (approximately 2–5%). Moreover, flexural and tensile strengths showed moderate increases depending on the biochar dosage, feedstock origin, and pre-treatment methods. However, higher replacement levels resulted in strength reductions due to increased porosity and greater water deman
The RCM method is used to identify critical components and design maintenance strategies for the head truck
Full text linkAs a private company engaged in the supply and maintenance of port equipment, PT XYZ faces operational challenges due to the high downtime of heavy equipment used. Based on 2019 data, Head Truck is the tool with the largest total disruption hours of 7,135 hours or 72% of the total downtime of the three main types of equipment, followed by RTG of 830 hours (8%) and QCC of 1,970 hours (20%). The high downtime has a direct impact on reducing operational efficiency and losses for the company. In order to improve the reliability of the Head Truck engine, an analysis was conducted using the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) method which includes system identification, function and failure analysis, to the application of Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) to find critical
components and recommendations for optimal maintenance actions. The results of MTTF (Mean Time To Failure) and MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) calculations show that the crankshaft Assy component has the fastest repair time, which is an average of 2.16 hours, while the piston Assy component requires the longest repair time of around 5.75 hours. With this data, a periodic maintenance schedule is created that is adjusted to the frequency of damage and recovery time of each component, so that it can help minimize the risk of downtime and increase the operational effectiveness of the Head Truck engine
UMPSA anjur Kursus Emergency Tabletop Exercise (TTX) 2025
Full text linkPEKAN, 22 Julai 2025 – Seramai 36 orang staf daripada Pusat Bahasa Moden (PBM) dan Pusat Tanggungjawab (PTJ) lain di Zon PBM, Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah (UMPSA) telah menyertai Kursus Emergency Tabletop Exercise (TTX) 2025 anjuran Unit Jawatankuasa Keselamatan dan Kesihatan Pekerjaan (JKPP) PBM bagi meningkatkan kesiapsiagaan dan kecekapan warga kerja dalam menghadapi situasi kecemasan secara terancang.
Kursus sehari itu dikendalikan oleh Timbalan Dekan (Penyelidikan dan Pengajian Siswazah), Fakulti Sains dan Teknologi Industri, Ts. Dr. Azizan Ramli yang mempunyai sijil kompetensi sebagai Crisis Management Certified Planner (CMCP) [3094-CMCP-20231231].
Beliau berpengalaman luas dalam pengurusan bencana dan sering dijemput untuk memberikan latihan keselamatan
ChM. Ts. Dr. Siti Qurratu’ Aini develops Green Shale Swelling Inhibitor for shale swelling in the oil and gas industry
Full text linkPEKAN, 17 July 2025 – Concerns over environmental pollution caused by the use of non-environmentally friendly chemicals in the oil and gas industry became the starting point for the development of an eco-friendly formulation to replace the use of potassium chloride (KCl) in drilling operations.
This innovation was developed by a lecturer from the Faculty of Chemical Engineering Technology and Processes (FTKKP), Universiti Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah (UMPSA), ChM. Ts. Dr. Siti Qurratu’ Aini Mahat.
She developed the Green Shale Swelling Inhibitor, a green inhibitor formulated from a mixture of polymers and potassium citrate for controlling shale swelling
Optimising urban lighting efficiency with IoT and LoRaWAN integration in smart street lighting systems
Full text linkThe integration of the Internet of Things (IoT) into smart city frameworks ushers in new opportunities for merging and enhancing diverse services, enabling seamless connectivity across multiple application domains. This paper presents the LoRaWAN-IoT-SSLS, an advanced automated streetlight control system that leverages IoT technology to achieve substantial energy savings and minimise the need for manual intervention. By employing LoRaWAN as the sensor network backbone, the system effectively addresses challenges related to long-range data transmission in IoT applications. The setup integrates a programmed Arduino board with PIR and LDR sensors, a GPS module, a LoRa shield, and a LoRaWAN gateway. The system is powered by a monocrystalline solar panel with a solar charger shield and battery and utilises LED lights for illumination. These components collectively enable automated switching and adaptive brightness control based on real-time environmental conditions, optimising energy use and enhancing safety. The system's performance was validated across distances up to 1000 m, maintaining stable operation with SNR values ranging from 9.8 to 1.5 dB and reliable RSSI levels, demonstrating robust communication and monitoring capabilities. Real-time status updates are visualised through the TagoIO platform, allowing for continuous remote management. The deployment of LoRaWAN-IoT-SSLS has the potential to significantly reduce electricity consumption and CO2 emissions by harnessing renewable energy resources. By activating lighting only when pedestrians or vehicles are detected and dimming or turning off when no presence is sensed, the system demonstrates superior performance over conventional models. This scalable and secure solution lays the groundwork for future innovations in smart urban infrastructure, setting new benchmarks for energy-efficient city lighting
ANN-integrated modeling of HTL-free Cs₂SnI₆ perovskite solar cells under indoor and outdoor light spectra
No full textTo address the cost and technical challenges in the commercial scalability of perovskite solar cells (PSCs), we propose an HTL-free PSC device with the structure FTO/TiO2/Cs2SnI6/Ni. In this study, we employ affinity engineering methodology to select the most appropriate ETL materials for this device. A range of ETL materials, including SnO2, CdS, GO, TiO2, MZO, and WO3, are evaluated. Among these, TiO2 shows the best performance and is selected as the optimal ETL material. The HTL-free device is investigated under two light spectra: solar light (outdoor) and LED light (indoor). Key parameters, such as absorber thickness, absorber defect density, electron affinity, and work function of back contact metal, are optimized through simulations. The final optimized device structure—FTO/TiO2/Cs2SnI6/Ni—achieves an impressive efficiency of 27.01 % under solar light and 38.75 % under LED light. Additionally, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model is used to predict the power conversion efficiency (PCE). The input data are obtained from SCAPS simulations, and the ANN model is designed with a 4–12–4 architecture. The predictive model is able to estimate the efficiency with a mean squared error (MSE) of 8.127 × 10⁻⁴, a root mean squared error (RMSE) of 0.00944, and a R² value of 0.968 under the solar light spectrum. For the LED light spectrum, the MSE is 3.6585 × 10⁻⁴, the RMSE is 0.00614, and the R² is 0.986. The sensitivity analysis reveals that the absorber thickness is the most significant parameter influencing the device performance under present conditions. The hybrid model demonstrates a strong predictive ability, providing an efficient technique for optimizing the device investigated
Assessment Of Fungi In Indoor Daycare Environment.
Full text linkDaycare centers play a crucial role in the early development of children, providing essential social and educational experiences. However, indoor environments can harbor various microorganisms, including fungi, which may pose potential health risks to occupants. This study is mainly focus in identifying the fungi concentrations in indoor environment of daycare centers in Kuantan, Pahang. Besides, the other aims of study were to identify the species of airborne fungi in three dayacare centers. The selection of the daycare centers were based on three locations which are residential area, coastal area, and commercial area. To collect the samples, passive sampling was performed and followed NMAM 0800 method. The sampling was done in a main activity room only for each daycare centers for four slots by putting the equipment at the three different level of breathing zones which are at ground (0 meter), 1.5 meters, and 1.2 meters. The air temperature, relative humidity (RH), and air movement were measured by using Anemometer. Additionally, the fungi species in daycare centers were identified by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The result obtained reveals that through the Kruskal-Wallis test, results with the p-value less than 0.05 show that there was significant differences between location of DCC and fungi concentration where DCC C located in commercial area has significantly higher fungi concentration. Besides, there was also significant differences (p0.05) between breathing zone levels and fungi concentration. Through the Mann- Whitney test, there was no significant differences (p>0.05) of fungi concentration between natural and mechanical ventilation for three daycare centers. Besides, result obtained through Spearman’s Correlation Coefficient test, it reveals that there is significant and negative correlation between occupant’s density and fungi concentration (r = -0.454, p<0.05). However, there is no significant and negative correlation between climate indoor factors (air temperature, RH, air movement) and fungi concentration. Lastly, in this study, there were three species of fungi successfully identified in three daycare centers which are Aspergillus sp., Mucor sp., and Penicillium sp. Overall findings of this study indicate that daycare centers in Kuantan, Pahang, exhibit varying levels of fungal contamination. While location and activity levels significantly influence fungal concentrations, factors like ventilation type and indoor climate parameters did not show a significant correlation. The identification of common fungal genera such as Aspergillus, Mucor, and Penicillium highlights the need for further investigation into their potential health implications for children and staff