bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
MarkeTrak—Tracking the Pulse of the Hearing Aid Market
Authors: Carr Kate , Kihm Jan
Published: December 2022

The MarkeTrak surveys conducted by the Hearing Industries Association have been looking at trends in the hearing industry since 1989. The latest survey, MarkeTrak 2022, reviews ongoing trends in hearing device adoption including PSAPs and implants, satisfaction with hearing aids and hearing professionals, and a look into insurance coverage and price considerations. These are discussed as they relate to the five key areas of the marketing mix: people, products, price, place, and perception. The key takeaways from this survey include: adoption has doubled in the past 25 years; more than 75% of hearing aid owners feel the hearing professional play an important role in their success with hearing aids; financial assistance has doubled since 1991 to 54%; and additional efforts are needed to educate consumers on the technology and benefits of hearing aids and early intervention.
The Financing of Hearing Care: What We Can Learn from MarkeTrak 2022
Authors: Windmill Ian M.
Published: December 2022

The “cost” of hearing aids has been a perceived key driver of the uptake, or lack thereof, of hearing aids. The MarkeTrak 2022 survey included questions that focused on the cost of the hearing test and amplification devices, out-of-pocket expenses, third-party coverage, and the perceived value of the devices. The hearing test itself was perceived as a barrier for some as the expense of the visit or the lack of third-party coverage was often cited as a reason for not following through on a recommendation to get a test. For those persons who received a hearing test, financial constraints were noted to be the most significant reason for not following through on a recommendation for a hearing aid, particularly for those over the age of 65 years. Higher income levels or some third-party coverage for devices was related to higher adoption rates. For persons who did choose to purchase amplification devices, financial considerations were not among the most important factors in reaching that decision. A clear majority of persons who made the decision to purchase amplification were satisfied with the out-of-pocket expenses associated with the purchase. The MarkeTrak 2022 Survey also included questions designed to assess the price sensitivity of individuals to various scenarios regarding the cost (e.g., $1000/pair, $2000/pair, or $4000/pair) or the amount of third-party coverage (e.g., $1000/pair, $2000/pair, or Total Cost). Results indicate increased amounts of third-party coverage were a bigger motivator than simply lowered cost. The MarkeTrak Survey indicates perceived cost factors continue to play a role in decisions to pursue hearing care and/or amplification devices.
Living in the era of codes: a reflection on China’s health code system
Authors: Yu Haiqing
Published: December 2022

This article offers a critical analysis of China’s health code system, a data-powered pandemic control and contact tracing system that supposedly subjects all individuals in the country to its panopticon control, a surveillance system that monitors and categorises the Chinese population into the healthy (green), the dubious (yellow), and the unhealthy (red). The article highlights the pretence of surveillance as care and the digital divide that normalises discrimination against the elderly and other digitally left-behind population. It also illustrates how, from policy making and technological design to user engagement, the health code system is implemented, optimised, and used in everyday life to meet the needs of the vulnerable population. The health code is better taken as a medium of adaptable and communicative process that can reset the relation between the system and the lifeworld. It is the process of interchange between the system and the lifeworld that deserves our critical attention.
Towards semiotically driven empirical studies of ballet as a communicative form
Authors: Maiorani Arianna , Bateman John A. , Liu Chun , Markhabayeva Dayana , Lock Russell , Zecca Massimiliano
Published: December 2022

This paper treats dance as a movement-based semiotic system, focusing on classical ballet as an example in order to show how dance can be made accessible to both detailed description and empirical investigation as a form of communication. The study contributes to a growing tradition of multidisciplinary research that looks at a variety of dance forms from the perspectives of linguistics, communication studies and social semiotics, drawing additionally on recent developments in the formal semantics of non-verbal semiotic systems and on empirical methods emerging within functional accounts of multimodality. The paper consequently develops a particular treatment of ballet that offers a principled means of linking the physical stream of movement, recorded using motion caption technology, and discourse interpretations, such as those that are typically narratively relevant in classical ballet but which may be found in other forms of dance as well. The paper sets out how this may then support further empirical research by importing well-defined methods and even specific questions from linguistics and related fields.
Relationship between households’ share of food expenditure and income across South African districts: a multilevel regression analysis
Authors: Mulamba Kabeya Clement
Published: December 2022

This paper investigates the relationship between household income and the share of food expenditure in South Africa using clustered household income and socio-economic data published in the National Dynamics Income Study. To achieve this objective and because of the clustered nature of the data, a multilevel linear model, in particular, the random intercept model, was employed as a suitable method of investigation. Fixed effect methods were also used to compare results. The results confirmed that the share of household food expenditure is inversely related to household income in a district. This finding is consistent with Engel’s law, such that an increase in household income is related to a decrease in the proportion allocated to food items by a typical household within a district. It was found that the relationship between household income and food expenditure does not vary across districts. The finding also pointed out that the district context matters because the district’s average household income significantly explains the share of food expenditure at the household level.
Anomalous transport in a porous medium with randomly packed ellipse cavities
Authors: Rasoulzadeh Mojdeh
Published: December 2022

We investigate the transport of nonreactive tracers in a binary porous medium with randomly packed ellipse fluid-filled cavities. Anomalous transport features, such as early arrival time and long tailing, are observed due to the high contrast in medium properties and highly complex structure of fluid velocity. We use a particle tracking method to quantify transport features of the domain. Then, a continuous time random walk (CTRW) framework builds on tracer transitions in time and space to represent an upscaled model. We study the effect of several key parameters on the anomalous transport process. The parameters include the cavity aspect ratio, porous background permeability, and the Peclet (Pe) number. With the increase in Pe, a longer tailing and a larger residence time are observed, which presents a stronger anomalous feature. A similar situation corresponds to decreased porous medium permeability, which results in wider breakthrough curves. A longer tailing arises in the case of more elongated cavity of larger aspect ratio. The purely advective transport in the medium is investigated at Pe = ∞. This is considered a limit case for the anomalous behavior of the system. One can refer to this case as the most extended tail possible for each cavity arrangement. The widest breakthrough curves for a Pe = ∞ correspond to larger aspect ratios of the cavity and a lower permeable matrix. We show that the upscaled CTRW model can closely predict breakthrough curves in a binary medium with randomly distributed ellipse cavities. These findings give new insight into transport in vesicular and vuggy porous media.
Concentration dependence of the crystal nucleation kinetics in undercooled Cu–Ge melts
Authors: da Silva Pinto M. W. , Peterlechner M. , Wilde G.
Published: December 2022

The crystallization temperature of deeply undercooled Cu–Ge alloy melts is repeatedly measured. A statistical analysis is applied on the undercooling distributions obtained from nine different compositions, ranging from the pure semimetal (Ge) to the pure metal (Cu). By considering each undercooling distribution as an inhomogeneous Poisson process, the nucleation rates for every composition are calculated. The Thompson–Spaepen model for homogeneous nucleation in binary alloys is applied, enabling the estimation of nucleation parameters, such as kinetic pre-factors and interfacial energies, as a function of composition. Furthermore, the Turnbull coefficient α, a dimensionless solid–liquid interfacial energy constant, is also calculated as a function of alloy constitution, suggesting a dependence on the liquid composition. The composition-dependent changes of α are of considerable importance, since the α is originally defined for pure systems as a quantity dependent on crystal structure, and is nevertheless used for describing nucleation kinetics of binary and glass forming multi-component alloy systems.
Investigation of plasmon relaxation mechanisms using nonadiabatic molecular dynamics
Authors: Wu Xiaoyan , Liu Baopi , Frauenheim Thomas , Tretiak Sergei , Yam ChiYung , Zhang Yu
Published: December 2022

Hot carriers generated from the decay of plasmon excitation can be harvested to drive a wide range of physical or chemical processes. However, their generation efficiency is limited by the concomitant phonon-induced relaxation processes by which the energy in excited carriers is transformed into heat. However, simulations of dynamics of nanoscale clusters are challenging due to the computational complexity involved. Here, we adopt our newly developed Trajectory Surface Hopping (TSH) nonadiabatic molecular dynamics algorithm to simulate plasmon relaxation in Au20 clusters, taking the atomistic details into account. The electronic properties are treated within the Linear Response Time-Dependent Tight-binding Density Functional Theory (LR-TDDFTB) framework. The relaxation of plasmon due to coupling to phonon modes in Au20 beyond the Born–Oppenheimer approximation is described by the TSH algorithm. The numerically efficient LR-TDDFTB method allows us to address a dense manifold of excited states to ensure the inclusion of plasmon excitation. Starting from the photoexcited plasmon states in Au20 cluster, we find that the time constant for relaxation from plasmon excited states to the lowest excited states is about 2.7 ps, mainly resulting from a stepwise decay process caused by low-frequency phonons of the Au20 cluster. Furthermore, our simulations show that the lifetime of the phonon-induced plasmon dephasing process is ∼10.4 fs and that such a swift process can be attributed to the strong nonadiabatic effect in small clusters. Our simulations demonstrate a detailed description of the dynamic processes in nanoclusters, including plasmon excitation, hot carrier generation from plasmon excitation dephasing, and the subsequent phonon-induced relaxation process.
Skin-friction drag reduction by local porous uniform blowing in spatially developing compressible turbulent boundary layers
Authors: Ma Rui , Gao Zheng-hong , Lu Lian-shan , Chen Shu-sheng
Published: December 2022

This paper investigates the effects of local porous uniform blowing on the skin-friction drag reduction in the spatially developing compressible turbulent boundary layers through direct numerical simulations. Under the influence of uniform blowing, the skin-friction drag decreases drastically within the controlled regions, and the effect extends downstream. The drag reduction rate exceeds 10% for the uniform blowing velocities considered herein. The intrinsic mechanism of decreased skin-friction drag is further explored, in terms of the various contributions to this quantity, the Reynolds shear stress budget, and the multi-scale distributions and transfer of enhanced turbulent motions. The numerical results for the identity of Renard and Deck [“A theoretical decomposition of mean skin friction generation into physical phenomena across the boundary layer,” J. Fluid Mech. 790, 339–367 (2016)] indicate that the decreased skin-friction drag is reflected in a negative contribution in the streamwise developing direction. The enhanced turbulent motion is investigated through the Reynolds shear stress budget, and uniform blowing is found to strengthen the magnitudes of all budget terms. We conclude that uniform blowing promotes the energy cascade process in the near-wall region, promoting the appearance of smaller turbulent structures and the formation of large outer scales. Similar skin-friction drag reduction in the subsonic case is also observed in a supersonic case. The upstream transition process is delayed, which leads to a relatively larger skin-friction drag reduction rate in a supersonic case. Finally, we investigate the porosity effects on the skin-friction drag and conclude that the blowing flux is a decisive factor.
Basics of Differential and Matrix Calculus
Authors: Nikolopoulos Lampros A. A.
Published: December 2022

Here basic definitions and expressions are given related with the Sturm-Liouville ODE in connection with the properties of orthogonal functions. Discretization of ODEs leads to matrix equations which from this point an on its algebraic properties become crucial for any numerical method. Again, we give a very minimal set of definitions and relevant relations about matrices that are encountered most often in problems of our particular interest.
Hydrogen Ionization
Authors: Nikolopoulos Lampros A. A.
Published: December 2022

In this chapter, the main formulas are presented for post-processing the results of calculating the atomic time-dependent wavefunction. The quantities of interest include the ionization yield, the angular and kinetic energy distributions of the ejected photoelectron, and the frequency spectrum of the generated harmonic radiation. The discussion is not exhaustive, but the basic ideas are presented. The atomic wavefunction is assumed to be known in terms of either its spectral decomposition coefficients or its values on a radial grid.
The quest is on to remove petro- from petrochemicals
Authors: Kramer David
Published: December 2022

R&D on making petroleum-free petrochemicals is making strides. But the scale-up may come too late to meet urgent climate change goals.
Sand and mucus: A toolbox for animal survival
Authors: Fischer Peter
Published: December 2022

Studying animals’ use and manipulation of complex fluids from materials-science and rheological points of view can help to understand animal behavior and provide new insights for mimicking biomaterials.
Arthur Compton and the mysteries of light
Authors: Henriksen Erik
Published: December 2022

For nearly 20 years, Einstein’s quantum theory of light was disputed on the basis that light was a wave. In 1922 Compton’s x-ray scattering experiment proved light’s dual nature.
Thoroughly modern Millie
Authors: Nye Mary Jo
Published: December 2022

Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus, Maia Weinstock, MIT Press, 2022, $24.95
Japanese encephalitis virus: an emerging and re-emerging virus in Australia
Authors: Mackenzie John S. , Williams David T.
Published: December 2022

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) first emerged in the Torres Strait of north-eastern Australia in 1995, with three human cases, and widespread infection of pigs on a number of islands. The virus was shown to belong to genotype II. Further cases occurred in 1998, including the first case on mainland Australia on Cape York. A second genotype of JEV, genotype Ia, was reported in mosquitoes and pigs in 2000–04, possibly displacing genotype II. JEV re-emerged in Australia with a fatal human case on the Tiwi Islands, Northern Territory, in 2021, and shown to belong to genotype IV. This case was followed about a year later by a large outbreak of JE; first detected in piggeries in four states, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia, resulting in reproductive losses affecting 80 piggeries and 42 human cases, with seven fatal cases. The wide geographic spread of cases suggested that the virus had been circulating for a number of months or even years prior to detection, and has led to significant concern that the virus will become endemic to Australia, in a similar ecology to Murray Valley encephalitis virus. Known competent mosquito vectors and ardeid birds, as maintenance hosts, occur in Australia, and it is probable that feral pigs will provide an additional wildlife reservoir of virus. Little is known of the properties of genotype IV, but it is expected to have a similar ecology and pathogenesis to other JEV genotypes.
Maternal care and juvenile development of captive-bred short-beaked echidnas (
Authors: Ferguson Arthur , Laming Belinda
Published: December 2022

Successful breeding of short-beaked echidnas (Tachyglossus aculeatus acanthion) occurred at Perth Zoo on eight occasions between 2007 and 2012. Here we report the methods used for monitoring and managing breeding females and their young from hatching through to weaning. Growth and development of the young during burrow-life was quantified through regular weighing and maternal care was monitored using video camera surveillance. All young hatched between early August and mid-September and were deposited in nursery burrows in October–November at 58–63 days of age at an average mass of 295 ± 64.3 g. Mothers suckled their young, on average, every 3.3 ± 1.1 days. Young first emerged from their nursery burrow from mid-January into February at an average 169 ± 21 days of age and weighing 1674 ± 511 g, and reached 3 kg in mass at 348 ± 97 days of age. Sexual maturity of two female offspring was attained at 4 years of age. Our observations of maternal care and development of the captive-bred young are consistent with published observations made on wild echidnas. We suggest that important factors for the successful rearing of captive-bred echidnas are enclosure set-up, daily monitoring, combined with a suitably designed and managed nursery burrow that provides a suitable substrate and microenvironment.
Kawa and the variable stopping of obstruents in Ende
Authors: Strong Katherine , Lindsey Kate L. , Drager Katie
Published: December 2022

This paper details a study investigating sociophonetic variation in Ende, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea.
The study examines speech produced by 30 individuals, investigating what social and linguistic factors are linked with the
variable alternation between stopped and affricated realizations of Ende retroflex obstruents [ʈ͡ʂ~ʈ] and [ɖ͡ʐ~ɖ].

Our analysis provides evidence that the obstruents in question are more likely to be realized as stops when they
are voiced and when the speakers are orators. Orators are people who practice kawa, a long-standing practice
whereby select individuals perform regular public orations. Among orators, the speaker’s age also appears to play a role in
retroflex stopping. The link between the stop variant and social factors can be understood within the context of the distribution
of power in the community, even in the absence of any explicit standard.
Quantum traps for coupling of fluorofullerene molecules
Authors: Oreshkin A I , Muzychenko D A , Oreshkin S I , Panov V I , Surov V O , Maslova N S , Petukhov M N
Published: December 2022

The interaction of fluorine atoms with Cu(111) surface has been analyzed by means of scanning tunneling microscopy and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A submonolayer coverage of fluorinated fullerene C60F18 has been chosen to provide a well controllable arrival of fluorine atoms on copper surface. The appearance of F-induced surface structures on the Cu(111) surface caused by defluorination of C60F18 molecules adsorbed on the surface was shown. XPS measurements unambiguously indicate the existence of chemical state of fluorine not typical for CuF2 formation. Superstructure of well ordered metastable clusters consisting of fluorofullerene molecules are formed on the Cu(111) surface as a result of the balance of two interactions: the dipole-dipole interaction between fluorofullerene molecules and the interaction of C60F18 molecules with the two-dimensional gas phase, emerging above the copper surface. Regular surface structure formed by fullerene molecules interacting through collective vibrational mode can be used for entanglement formation between two qubits each associated with ground and excited electronic states of the molecule by applying two coherent laser pulses.
The Effectiveness of Natural Plant Powder in Controlling Rice Weevils (Sitophilus oryzae)
Authors: Bakar T H S T Abu , Idayu N M Y Nik Nor , Suhana Z , Sidek N , Mukhtar N K , Azmin S N H Mohammad , Jusoh M Z
Published: December 2022

The rice industry today, very depends on synthetic pesticides to protect against losses. However, synthetic pesticides pose toxicity and give a negative effect on humans, animals, and the environment. Thus, this study aims to observe the effectiveness of natural powders such as neem (Azadirachta indica) and black pepper (Piper nigrum) in controlling rice weevil (Sitopylus oryzae) during rice storage. Treatments included in this experiment comprised control where no plant powder was applied (T0), black pepper powder (T1), neem leaves powder (T2), and a combination of neem with black pepper (T3). All treatments were conducted on different types of rice, Malaysia (local) and Thailand rice. 30 g of dosage for all treatments were applied to 100 g of rice with 20 weevils introduced. The experiment was laid out in a completely randomized design (CRD) with 32 samples. The finding shows natural plant powder was significant (P= 0.000) in controlling rice weevil. Meanwhile, neem leaves powder (T2) was more effective in controlling rice weevils during storage due to the lowest survival rate (Local: 78.75%, Thailand: 55%) and the highest mortality rate (Local: 21.25%, Thailand: 45%) of rice weevils for both types of rice. Besides, neem leaves powder also showed the lowest rice damage data (Local: 20.75%, Thailand: 20.35%) compared to other treatments. Study findings can help to meet current health, environment, and safety standards.
Polymer Inclusion Membrane with Addition of Graphene Oxide as an Adsorbent for Gold Adsorption from Acidic Solution
Authors: Husna S M , Mohan M T , Azmi N A , Shoparwe N , Yusoff A H
Published: December 2022

In industry, cyanide leaching was popular method used nowadays as an alternative technique replacing the ancient method known as amalgamation for gold recovery. Amalgamation required the usage of toxic mercury which led to the hazardousness towards environment. Nevertheless, the percentage of gold extracted via carbon adsorption in cyanide leaching method exhibited some drawbacks including low effectiveness and slow adsorption rate. Thus, application of polymer inclusion membranes (PIMs) with addition of graphene oxide (GO) as adsorbent has been studied to evaluate the efficiency of PIMs for gold recovery from acidic solution. PIMs was formulated using 50 wt% of poly(vinylidenefluoride-co-hexa-fluoropropylene) (PVDF-co-HFP) as base polymer, 40 wt% of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phosphoric acid (D2EHPA) as carrier, 10 wt% of dioctylphthalate (DOP) as plasticizer and different composition of GO. The FTIR result for the membrane show a slightly difference between before and after the diffusion. The experimental result also shows the decrement of gold concentration from 100 ppm to 2.64 ppm in feeding solution suggesting gold was successfully being adsorbed into the membrane. The result of SEM-EDS also revealed the presence of gold in 1.5 wt% GO-PIMs membrane. Hence, the advancement in membrane technology with presence of GO as an adsorbent shows the ability to adsorb the gold with high efficiency as the replacement towards conventional industrial carbon adsorption methods.
A Decade of Literature on Climate in Phytopathological Research: Visualising and Bibliometrics Analysis
Authors: Muhammad M , Zawawi M A M , Jusoh M F , Naher L , Latif N S A , Hasli M A
Published: December 2022

Climate change is a global concern which is predicted to dominate phytopathological research. Hence, we performed a bibliometric analysis of climate changes in relation to plant pathology research from 2012 to 2022, in order, to ascertain the publication trend in this study field. Consequently, Web of Science (WoS), a well-known database was chosen to obtain a total of 335 articles that matched the inclusion criteria. This research attempts to expand graphical mapping of the bibliographic information using VOSviewer software. The research conducted the performance and network mapping approaches: publication trends, subject area, most active journals and countries, citation metrics, highly cited papers, co-authorship, and co-occurrence of the keywords. Our analysis essentially concludes that the last decade of scientific papers shows a positive tendency of climatic influence on the plant pathology research field. Our work can be used by plant pathologists to consider the future direction of disease detection in light of global warming and soil status.
Mapping of Shorea kunstleri King in mixed dipterocarp forest using remote sensing technology
Authors: Rapiee D R Awang , Kalu M , Suhaili A
Published: December 2022

The conventional method used in forest inventory is time-consuming, especially in field surveying and requires an expert’s knowledge and observation to do species identification. This standard method can be facilitated by advances in remote sensing technology. An airborne hyperspectral image mosaic was utilised in the research to evaluate the ability of this high spectral fidelity dataset that was incorporated into a feature extraction Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier to successfully detect and map a tree species of interest (Shorea kunstleri King) within the mixed dipterocarp forest stand of the Lambir Hills National Park. In this study, two types of feature extraction Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Spectral Derivative (SD) were applied to classifiers SVM. To demonstrate the effect, classification of the hyperspectral image with no feature extraction was done. The accuracies achieved from different feature extraction were compared statistically. Based on the results, Shorea kunstleri King was able to be discriminated against within 53 species of Shorea. SVM classifier is known for its ability to generalise well even with limited training samples and is commonly used in image classification. The Kernel parameter in SVM classifier alongside feature extraction significantly affects the classification accuracy. Therefore, feature extraction does affect the classification accuracy, but it depends on the morphology of the study area. It is concluded that the SVM method with SD feature extraction could detect tree crowns of Shorea kunstleri with a Kappa coefficient of 0.8126 which showed a great agreement with the observed samples and overall accuracy of 89.89% that shows the accuracy of the final map.
Framework: Local Nighttime Ozone Management and Prevention (LNOMP)
Authors: Nazir Amni Umirah Binti Mohamad , Awang Norrimi Rosaida , Ramli Nor Azam
Published: December 2022

Due to the absence of sunlight and lack ozone production during nighttime, ground-level ozone was labelled as a critical period for ozone depletion. This study proposed a local ozone management and implementation based on the major cause of ozone deflection in chemical reactions during nighttime. Three highlighted locations (Klang, Shah Alam and Petaling Jaya) categorized as the highest NO and NO2 production was focused on this study (urban and sub-urban area) from 2006 to 2016. The descriptive statistics (O3 and NO) with population density were analysed as an observation for proposed a new implementation system for reducing O3 during nighttime and preventing it from contributing the next day concentration. The interaction between O3 and NO concentration was explained based on diurnal analysis. The crucial time for nighttime O3 deflection was between 7 PM until 12 AM. Therefore, the local nighttime ozone management was pulled out as the nighttime O3 reduction was understandable. The framework was consisting a management policy by the federal government, state government and local authority, with a plan for nighttime implementation by local government in Malaysia.
Metamorphic Evolution of the Baling Formation at Banding Island, Perak, Malaysia
Authors: Faidz Erna Nur Shafiqah Esman , James Elvaene , Ahmad Farah Nabila , Khan Mohammad Muqtada Ali , Mansor Hafzan Eva , Ghazali Zaitul Zahira , Akinola Oluwatoyin , Chuwat Angela Vidda
Published: December 2022

This paper presented new study on the mineral assemblages and the compositions on the rocks protolith. Banding island and its surrounding area are dominated by low-grade regional metamorphism which located within the East Malaya Block and dated from Ordovician to Permian age. The study area is situated at longitudes of 101° 22’ 25”E to 101° 22 35”E and latitudes at 5° 33’ 47”N to 5° 32’ 95”N. The metamorphic rocks consist of phyllite, mica schist, and metasandstone interbedded with slate. Majority of the phyllite are highly weathered with visible joint. Phyllite in the study area contains quartz veins with thickness varies from 0.5 cm to 6 cm, that follows the direction of rock foliation. Phyllite is dominated with mica group with major muscovite mineral, and the mica is mostly muscovite. While the mica shist is also dominated with mica group with muscovite mineral. The intensity of the regional metamorphism is lowest from the west of the Banding Island to slightly moderate metamorphism toward the east of the study area, which supported by the changes of the metamorphic rock type from phyllite to schist according to the petrographic analysis. Regionally, Perak state especially in Gerik area are dominated by rocks from Paleozoic era as Perak is located in Western Belt of Peninsular Malaysia.
Petrography of The Main Range Granite Characterization in Titiwangsa Rest Stop, Perak, Malaysia
Authors: William Joshua , James Elvaene , Zaini Zuhaira Muhammad , Khan Mohammad Muqtada Ali , Mansor Hafzan Eva , Ghazali Zaitul Zahira , Akinola Oluwatoyin , Chuwat Angela Vidda
Published: December 2022

The area of research is located in between the Titiwangsa Rest Stop, Perak allocated along the Gerik-Jeli highway, approximately 25km in area. The objective of this research is to remodify a geological map with a scale of 1:25,000 and to determine the petrological aspects of the metamorphic mineral assemblages around the study area. One of the methods used during the initial of this research is primarily on previous research and literature review. The geological mapping technique such as traversing was applied to map the allocated study area and rock samples are collected from three different outcrops that are exposed around the area as well. Moreover, the samples are then sent to a lab to undergo microscopic and petrographic analysis of the rocks’ compositions by producing thin sections to determine the mineral assemblages which surround the area on Titiwangsa Rest Stop, Perak. The rocks that can be identified around the area include igneous and metamorphic rocks such as biotite granite, gneiss, and mica-schist. The area of research which extends from the Titiwangsa Rest Stop towards the Gerik-Jeli highway is located directly on the Bentong-Raub suture zone. The depositional setting hypothesized in the area is a marine depositional coastal environment which includes a transition of a lower grade metamorphic rock towards a higher-grade metamorphic rock.
Youth Intention on Agricultural Entrepreneurship
Authors: Bakar T H S T Abu , Hajar R Siti , Abdullah F A , Liew J Y , Nor M M , Norhafizah M Z , Rosli F
Published: December 2022

Youth involvement in the agricultural entrepreneurship sector plays an important role in addressing the unemployed, food security, and environmental challenge. Tactlessly, most of the youth have no intention to engage in the agricultural entrepreneurship sector due to negative perceptions. The main objective of this study was to determine the youth’s intention for agricultural entrepreneurship. The independent variables were attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control while the dependent variable was agricultural entrepreneurship intention. The quantitative research adapted from Theory Planned Behaviour (TPB) has been employed. 200 youth in Malaysia were selected through the purposive sampling technique and complete data were analysed through descriptive analysis. The finding of the study found that the level of youth intention on agricultural entrepreneurship, attitude, and perceived behavioural control is a moderate mean score, while the subjective norm is a high mean score. This study created empirical data useful for the 12th Malaysia Plan and National Food Security policy 2.0 in encouraging agricultural entrepreneurship engagement among youth to boost economic growth besides improving food security and a green environment.
Landslide Analysis Approaches in Tropical Environment Region for Disaster Risk Reduction
Authors: Kahar Muhammad Afiq Abdul , Hussin Hamzah , Ramli Nadia , Ghani Muhammad Fahmi Abdul
Published: December 2022

Landslides are natural disasters that befall practically in almost every country worldwide. Since the behaviour of the Earth is varied and the influencing factors that induce landslides are not constant, there seems to be no precise technique for assessing and forecasting the occurrence of landslides. This study selected the Cameron Highlands district, situated in Pahang, Malaysia, which accentuates reviewing numerous methods by the preceding local researcher to analyse and assess landslide incidence. A country like Malaysia is highly vulnerable to landslides due to its geographical features of high and lowlands, relatively intense precipitation, and locality in the distribution of tropical rain forests typified by dense vegetation, hot and humid temperatures throughout the year. In comprehending the landslide, most prior researchers employed numerous approaches and methods, where three qualitative methods (acceptable accuracy), two semi-quantitative methods (78% to 86% accuracy) and five quantitative methods (86% to 98% accuracy) were identified. These methods appraise multiple parameters and employ various techniques for factor research and understanding, where each method has its own set of benefits and shortcomings. The diversity of the landslide scale requires specific research in determining landslide mapping, whether by inventory, susceptibility, hazard, or risk. An application of the programme and software platform can forecast the accuracy of landslide occurrence modelling for future landslide mitigation planning. Based on the review findings, GIS and remote sensing play a crucial part in translating spatial data for more accessible analysis in furthering the research, as supported by field survey results. Each method comprising various techniques indicates that overall accuracy is applicable for the landslide analysis approaches.
Groundwater exploration using Electrical Resistivity Imaging (ERI) at Kemahang, Tanah Merah, Kelantan
Authors: Sulaiman N , Ariffin N A , Sulaiman M S , Sulaiman N , Jamil R M
Published: December 2022

The electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) method was conducted at Kemahang, Tanah Merah, Kelantan. This study intends to explore the potential for groundwater resources in the study area. The greatest way for locating groundwater is ERI, a technique that doesn’t alter the composition or functionality of the soil. ERI survey is concerned with the resistivity (Ωm) value of subsurface rocks. The Pole-Dipole array was used for this study, and a total of two survey lines were used. Each survey line was 200 m long, with 2.5 m between electrodes. ABEM Terrameter LS Toolbox is used to record all the data, and RES2DINV software is used to process it. All the data are processed in two-dimensional (2D) resistivity profiles will give a better understanding of the geological environment and enable the detection of groundwater. The findings indicate fluctuating resistivity with a range of 1-4000 Ωm and an inquiry depth of roughly 45 m. High resistivity zones of 4000 Ωm indicate values for granitic rock, whereas low resistivity zones of 10-800 Ωm reveal values for the area’s fractured aquifer, which is viewed as a potential water carrying zone (bedrock). Bedrock is found to be around 50 m below the indicated fractured aquifer layer, which is located at a depth of about 25 m. By measuring the depth of the fractured zone for probable zones with low resistivity values, this study provides an idea of the potential groundwater resources.
Geochemical study on Impact of Tarball on Chendering Beach Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia
Authors: Abidin Z H Zainal , Azman N I N , Shafiee N S , Sulaiman N , Khan M M Ali
Published: December 2022

Oil pollution is considered one of the main contributors to marine pollution. The threat that oil pollution poses to the marine environment is extremely dangerous to its ecosystem. The South China Sea is an important route for various activities, including fishing, recreational and marine activities, and oil and gas exploration. Tarballs are a common byproduct of oil spills, which arise when the sun, wind, and water break down the oil. Tarballs are clumps or blobs of oil and hydrocarbon that have been weathered and displaced from the main body of oil by ocean currents can be found along the shorelines of the Eastern, South China Sea, and Western, Selat Malacca coasts.. The beaches at Chendering in Kuala Terengganu, which face the South China Sea, are also affected by tarball pollution. The geochemical study of tar balls and surface sediments of Chendering area is located at Chendering beach coastal plain area, 103° 11’ 09” E, 5° 16’ 09” N. In this study, The Inductive Couple Plasma-Optimal Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES) was used to analyse 12 soil samples (contaminated with tarballs) for heavy metal components. The ICP-OES result shows that average concentrations of heavy metal of beach sediments display the following ascending pattern Cu < Pb < Ni < Cr < Zn < Mn with the value of range 0.100, 0.331, 0.633, 0.905 and 3.226 ppm respectively.
The Impact of COVID-19 on Malaysian Airline Passengers’ Willingness to Pay for Carbon Offset.
Authors: Shaari N F , Fadzil A S Ahmad , Aziz N A , Zainoddin A I , Jalal M Z H Abd , Harun Q N , Samad N S A. , Mohamad A
Published: December 2022

Airline industries have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has spread to nearly every country worldwide. Multiple countries have imposed travel restrictions to halt this virus’s spread. This precarious situation has significantly impacted the airline industry, reducing passenger volume, flight frequency, and airline flow patterns. Although most scholars have examined changes in passenger volume before and during the COVID-19 outbreak, none of it has been done in Malaysia. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of COVID-19 on airline passengers’ willingness to pay for carbon offset decisions and the value of willingness to pay among Malaysians. The research employed a scenario-based experiment with 150 respondents as the samples. Convenience sampling was adopted and was analyzed using the Contingent Valuation Method (CVM) via STATA version 16. The results showed that Malaysian airline passengers are willing to pay for carbon offset even as many have stopped flying due to COVID-19, with a mean value of RM20.68. This study also revealed that most passengers are still aware of climate change, even though not many are flying during the endemic. The psychological changes in air travelers caused by the pandemic are examined, with managerial and policy implications for the pandemic’s normalization of the pandemic and the airline market’s recovery in the post-pandemic period.
The Impact of The European Union’s Environmental Policy towards Competitiveness in Malaysia’s Palm Oil Industry
Authors: Othman N , Yusop Z , Huay C S , Azhar N A Z M
Published: December 2022

Palm oil can’t be isolated from the environment and sustainability issues. The consumption of edible palm oil has decreased in recent years due to increased environmental problems. Unfortunately, palm oil has also been portrayed negatively by some groups who claim that palm oil production would cause higher global GHG emissions than conventional fossil fuels due to the conversion of forests and peatlands. The European Union has aimed to increase its use of renewable energy from biofuels, with one of the potential feedstock being palm oil. However, European countries appear to have the most stringent requirement on certified palm oil despite such pros. The growing environmental and sustainability concerns of oil palm farming may adversely affect palm oil’s import demand and hence the Malaysian economy. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate the effect of environmental policy on Malaysia’s competitiveness in palm oil products. The relative trade advantage (RTA) index is used to measure the competitiveness index, and the dynamic generalized method of moment (DGMM) is employed in the study. The data used for this study spans from 2009 to 2016. The results indicate that environmental regulations in the EU positively impact palm oil industry competitiveness, which is technically consistent with the Porter Hypothesis, which argues that more stringent environmental regulations can trigger innovation that may offset the costs of complying among the producers. The progress of palm oil downstream is crucial to improving the overall competitiveness of the palm oil industry and the national economy. As per the findings of this study, the Malaysian government should implement appropriate environmental intervention models to meet international standards. Environmental protection, in general, necessitates significant capital expenditure and long-term investment decisions to fund innovation, which may offset the costs of regulatory compliance and eventually improve trade competitiveness, particularly in the downstream industry.
Impact of poverty, population density, and trade openness on deforestation: fresh evidence from Nigeria
Authors: Ofozor C A , Abdul-Rahim A S , Sulaiman C
Published: December 2022

Using time series data from 1981 to 2015, this study examines the impact of poverty, population density, and trade openness on deforestation in Nigeria, and it tests the presence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) hypothesis. The results of an autoregressive and distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to cointegration indicate that poverty, population density, and trade openness all have a significant positive impact on deforestation. The estimated result also suggests that deforestation and income per capita in Nigeria have an inverted U-shaped relationship. Hence, it supports the EKC hypothesis for deforestation in Nigeria. It implies that when income per capita increases, deforestation experiences an increasing trend up to a certain point, after which it reverts with a continuous increase in income per capita. As a recommendation, policy options that would alleviate poverty, control population upsurge, and restrict timber export would be vital in reducing deforestation in the country.
Impact of Economic Growth, Financial Development and Technological Advancements on Carbon Emissions: Evidence from ASEAN Countries
Authors: Hewage R S , Othman N , Pyeman J , Samad N S A
Published: December 2022

This research contributes to the existing knowledge by examining the long-run and short-run effects of Financial Development, Economic Growth, and Technological advancements on carbon emissions in Association of Southeast Asian Nations countries. The Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimation was applied in this study using a panel data analysis from 2000 to 2018. Results showed that rapid economic growth, financial development, and technological advancements increase carbon emissions. The increase in technological advances in the Information technology (IT) sector, industrial sector equipment, and high-power tools lead to increased carbon emissions. Development in finance creates the opportunity to start new industrial sector companies. The economic development base on the industrial sector has a significant positive effect on carbon emission in ASEAN countries. Furthermore, the findings support the environmental Kuznets curve, emphasizing that rapid economic growth leads to direct carbon emissions. Therefore, our conclusions manifest and underscore the importance of eradicating carbon emission policies and guidelines to minimize carbon emissions. In addition, it is recommended to increase investment in technological innovation research and development to reduce carbon emissions.
Stepping Up and Stepping Out of COVID-19: Malaysian Airline Passengers’ Travel Behaviour and Does It Impact Willingness to Pay for Carbon Offset
Authors: Shaari N F , Fadzil A S A , Aziz N A , Zainoddin A I , Jalal M Z H A , Harun Q N , Hassim N H , Mohamad A , Sulaiman C
Published: December 2022

The COVID-19 crisis has become the most intense and long-lasting in aviation history. There is significant literature on the immediate impact of the outbreak, as well as speculation on the industry’s future evolution. This paper seeks to contribute to this discussion by examining flying patterns among Malaysian airline passengers and whether they are willing to contribute to carbon offset when flying during and post COVID-19. Specifically, the paper aims to measure the Malaysian airline passengers’ travel behavior during and after COVID-19 in Malaysia and whether the traveling behavior will impact passengers’ willingness to pay for carbon offset when flying. Many airlines recognize the importance of environmental protection. The airlines implement several environment-friendly activities related to in-flight services and wish to trigger passengers’ support and inquire about their preferences. Using an online survey, 150 respondents completed the survey as the sample for this study. The majority (77%) reported their travel behavior would change due to current cases of COVID-19 and the main reason is that COVID-19 worries them and will kill the patient if not prevented. Even though Malaysian traveling behavior has changed, they are still willing to pay for carbon offset as 69% of respondents are still willing to contribute. The findings have important implications for air transport management and decision-makers to tolerate the traveling behavior among Malaysian passengers and how they will support Sustainable Development Goals: Goal 13 (Climate Action), contributing to carbon offset.