Pembinaan bangsa Malaysia (2): kajian empirikal tahap bangga negara belia

Patriotisme yang rendah dalam kalangan belia dewasa ini sering dikaitkan dengan masalah hilang rasa bangga menjadi warganegara Malaysia. Objektif kajian ini adalah menentukan tahap patriotisme belia di Malaysia berdasarkan ukuran kebanggaan mereka dikenali sebagai bangsa Malaysia, kebanggaan sebagai rakyat Malaysia dan kebanggaan memiliki kad pengenalan warganegara Malaysia. Kajian di seluruh Malaysia ini adalah melibatkan enam zon dengan 1500 sampel dalam kalangan belia berumur antara 15 hingga 30. Analisis cross-tabulation dilakukan ke atas data daripada borang kaji selidik yang diambil dalam kalangan responden secara convenience (mudah). Hasil kajian menunjukkan kesemua zon, negeri, agama, keturunan dan peringkat umur adalah dalam keadaan baik atau melebihi daripada 90 peratus bangga sebagai rakyat Malaysia, bangga memiliki kad pengenalan Malaysia serta mahu dikenali sebagai Bangsa Malaysia. Kajian ini mencadangkan agar program berkaitan patriotisme sedia ada perlu diteruskan

Critical time of nitrogen application during panicle initiation on the yield of two Malaysia rice cultivars (Oryza sativa L.)

Nitrogen is the most limiting nutrient in rice production. N fertilizer is susceptible to losses when the time of application does not match with period of crop demand. A glasshouse experiment was conducted to determine the critical time of nitrogen fertilizer application at panicle initiation on grain yield of two Malaysian rice cultivars (MR219 and MR232). The experiment consisted of five N treatments applied each at 60 kg ha-1 at 45 (NI), 50 (N2), 55 (N3), 60 (N4) and 65 (N5) days after seeding (DAS) with five replications. Prior to this stage, a total of 75 kg N ha-1 was applied during vegetative growth stage (at 15 and 35 DAS). Plant physiological parameters such as height, SPAD value and LAI showed statistical difference among some treatments. Application of N also resulted in an increase in plant biomass. The results demonstrate that the split application of fertilizer N at PI stage (55 DAS) significantly increased percentage of filled grains, 1000-grain weight and total grain yield. Incorrect timing of N application (65 DAS) at P1 stage, drastically reduced rice yield to approximately 39% for MR2 19 and 17% for MR232. Farmers should be advised to apply N between 50 DAS and 55 DAS, even though application of N at 55 DAS was far better than 50 DAS in terms of yield parameters

Pembinaan bangsa Malaysia (1): kajian empirikal tahap patriotisme belia

Tahap patriotisme dalam kalangan belia di Malaysia pada masa kini dikatakan masih rendah berdasarkan pelbagai kejadian semasa, malah amat sukar untuk meletakkan tahap yang sebenarnya secara saintifik atau ilmiah disebabkan tiada bukti konkrit. Objektif kajian ini adalah menentukan tahap patriotisme belia di Malaysia berdasarkan aspek kefahaman terhadap sistem pentabiran negara, kebanggaan menjadi rakyat Malaysia, perasaan sayang kepada Malaysia, perasaan kekitaan atau memiliki terhadap negara, kesetiaan kepada negara, berdisiplin atau adab baik demi nama baik negara serta peningkatan produktiviti demi negara. Sebanyak 1500 sampel diambil dalam kalangan belia berumur antara 15 hingga 30. Analisis deskriptif dilakukan ke atas data daripada borang kaji selidik. Hasil kajian menunjukkan tahap patriotisme belia di Malaysia dalam kategori tinggi adalah sebanyak 73 peratus dengan nilai min sebanyak 7.26. Walau bagaimanapun, hasil kajian ini adalah berbeza dengan hujah yang mengaitkan belia tidak patriotik berdasarkan pelbagai peristiwa berlaku di Malaysia. Kajian ini mencadangkan agar usaha kerajaan dan Badan Bukan Kerajaan (Belia) pada masa kini wajar diteruskan kerana ia dapat membentuk belia atau masyarakat yang berpatriotik

Phosphorus fertilizer use in pineapple cultivation with in situ residues burning on organic soils

In Malaysia, pineapples are grown on peat soils, but most phosphorus (P) fertilizer recommendations are made without due quantification of P uptake; the distribution of P in roots, stem, leaves, peduncle, fruit, and crown; or loss through leaching even though P retention in peat soils is low. This study was conducted to determine applied P-use efficiency under a conventionally recommended fertilization regime in pineapple cultivation with in situ residues burning before replanting. Results showed that most of the P uptake in pineapple can be found in the fruit, stem, leaves, and crown, but the general trend of P distribution was in the order of fruits > leaves > stem > crown > peduncle > roots. Phosphorus recovery in pineapple cultivation was about 40%, and this low recovery was attributed to leaching. Hence, fertilizer recommendations need to take into consideration P loss through leaching. This will help to increase P-use efficiency because it is not possible to build up P content of peat soils. As a result, the need to assess the possibility of side-dress applications of phosphatic fertilizers on peat soil is necessary. Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Biochar formulation using alkaline pre-treated oil palm trunks and oil palm frond

Biochar is charcoal made from plant material and agricultural biomass. The biochar is produced by slow thermo-chemical pyrolysis of biomass materials and has been proven of its benefits in soi l enrichment and as a combined material for industrial heat ing fuel. In the present research, biochar formulation was made to utilize two types of oil palm t ree biomass; oil palm t runk (OPT) and oil palm frond (OPF). The best combination of both materials was evaluated in terms of calorific heat value, moisture and ash content and compared with the standard biochar. In addition, t reated OPT and OPF were compared with the untreated material to further enhance the characteristic of the biochar

Testbed versus simulation approach on RF communication with AAβ asymmetric encryption scheme on internet of things devices

The revolution of the Internet of Things (IoT) has given a better way of monitoring things including anything that could gather data and share the information over the internet. Most of the connected things are using Device to Device (D2D) connection to make it available on the internet such as client to a broker or client to a server. However, when IoT devices such as embedded devices and sensors that are connected to the internet, it becomes an open path for attackers to acquire the data and data vulnerably will become an issue. Thus, data integrity might become an issue, or the attackers could temper the data and could cause a disastrous domino effect to the interconnected IoT devices. Therefore, the data security collected from the sensors is substantial even though it could be a single character transmitted. However, IoT sensors are low powered devices in term of CPU, storage, memory and batteries. Securing the devices such as integrating the encryption algorithm computations might give overhead to the sensors and draining the batteries even faster than it is predicted. Alternatively, this paper attempts to explore the capabilities of the asymmetric scheme on resource constrained devices for its communications. Thus, this paper presents an RF communication analysis of a low consumption asymmetric encryption, the AAβ (AA-Beta) especially on encryption section that is likely to be feasible on IoT devices to preserve the data integrity. The design of RF transmission has been considered to suit the RF transceiver capability to prevent data losses and error from occurring. The result shows that 2.35 times of RF transmits runtime increased compared to RF simulation runtime. Meanwhile, at the receiver side, the runtime increases 60% compared to the simulation

RF Simulations for AAβ Cryptosystem, an Asymmetric Encryption Scheme

Internet of Things (IoT) is a way of providing data with the physical thing that interconnected to the network, which is the Internet. The IoT devices connected to the internet, broadcast of the data to the broker or a server, becomes an open route for attackers to gain the data and making the data becomes vulnerable. Thus, the data could be altered or spoofed by an attacker which led to security issues especially on data integrity. Therefore, the data security collected from the sensors is as important as on the servers that eventually become the big data. However, most sensors are low powered devices in term of CPU, storage, memory and batteries that cryptographic algorithm computations might give overhead to the sensors and reduce the batteries even faster than it is supposed to be. Instead of looking at symmetric encryption scheme, this paper tries to explore the capabilities of the asymmetric scheme on resource constrained devices communications. Thus, this paper presents an RF communication analysis of a low consumption asymmetric encryption, the AAβ (AA-Beta) that promising to implement on the IoT devices to secure the IoT networks. The result shows only 14% size increased in ciphertext from plaintext and the RF simulation communications show a better result in Raspbian OS environment compare to windows environment even though with same configuration