• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Coastal and Ocean Engineers Conference
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• 1998.09a
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• pp.1-4
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• 1998

The prediction of wave setup is an important part of modelling coastal inundation and flooding in coastal rivers but there are still some gaps in our knowledge particularly with respect to the conditions in river entrances. One of the reasons that wave setup is still not fully understood, almost fifty years after it was first observed in the field and subsequently reported by Thorndike Saville (1961) and by Dorrestein (1961), is that it is difficult to measure accurately in the field. (omitted)

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.879-887
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• 2003

The flow in a parallel walled test channel, when obstructed with a geometry at the entrance, can be forward, reverse and stagnant depending on the position of the obstruction. This interesting flow phenomenon has potential benefit in the control of energy and various flows in the process industry In this experiment, the flat plate obstruction geometry was used as an obstruction at the entry of the test channel. The parameters that influence the flow inside and around the test channel were the gap (g) between the test channel and the obstruction geometry, the length (L) of the test channel and the Reynolds number (Re). The effect of the gap to channel width ratio (g/w) on the magnitude of the velocity ratio (V$\_$i/ / V$\_$o/ : velocity inside/ velocity outside the test channel) was investigated for a range of Reynolds numbers. The maximum reverse flow observed was nearly 20% to 60% of the outside velocity for Reynolds number ranging from 1000 to 9000 at g/w ratio of 1.5. The maximum forward velocity inside the test channel was found 80% of the outside velocity at higher g/w ratio of 8. The effect of the test channel length on the velocity ratio was investigated for different g/w ratios and a fixed Reynolds number of 4000. The influence of the Reynolds number on the velocity ratio is also discussed and presented for different gap to width ratio (g/w). The flow visualisation photographs showing fluid motion inside and around the test channel are also presented and discussed.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.419-426
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• 1992

After the virtual eradication of cattle during World War II, Papua New Guinea herds were rebuilt with Shorthorn and Aberdeen Angus cattle from Australia. These, and Red Sindhi and Sahiwal, imported in 1952, were considered unsuitable breeds. In 1954, Department of Agriculture, Stock and Fisheries imported three Brahman bulls and three heifers from Texas and in 1960 began importations of Afrikaner from Queensland. In Central Province, Brahmans were crossed with Angus and at Erap (Morobe) the hottest place in Papua New Guinea, Shorthorns were crossed with Afrikaners. In 1965, Brahman and Brahman-cross were sent to Erap. Records of breeding and growth rates were collected for use in upgrading in cattle of the basis of performance, not pedigree. The data are not ideal for genetic analysis, since no control groups were maintained. Birth weights (BWT), weaning weights (WWT) and calving intervals (CI) were analysed for the period 1969-1978. After exclusion of unsatisfactory data, 2,514 calf records were used, including both breeds from 1969 to 1973, but only Brahman-cross subsequently. Breed mean BWT ranged only from 30.6 to 33.8 kg. As Brahman content increased, BWT decreased and WWT increased; within a genotype, there was a negative maternal effect of high Brahman content on BWT and a positive effect on WWT which ranged from 138 to 174 kg. Afrikaner calves had heavier BWT but lighter WWT. As expected, bulls were heaviest, heifers lightest and mature cows bore and reared heavier calves. Calving interval (405 days, equivalent to 90% calving) was unaffected by breed but 4-year old cows averaged 423 days. Breed differences in BWT and WWT are consistent with the body of literature on performance of Brahmans and Afrikaners. Since cattle tick are not present and internal parasites are insignificant at Erap, the superiority of Brahmans indicates that they were better at utilizing the mediocre quality grazing of the Markham Valley or were more heat tolerant. Performance selection over ten years resulted in the virtual elimination of Afrikaners, with the final genotype approximately 9/16 Brahman, 3/8 Shorthorn and 1/16 Afrikaner.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.411-420
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• 2012

This paper presents the most recent data on cancer rates and the burden of cancer in the ASEAN region. Epidemiological data were sourced from GLOBOCAN 2008 and disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost were estimated using the standard methodology developed within the World Health Organization's Global Burden of Disease study. Overall, it was estimated there were over 700,000 new cases of cancer and 500,000 cancer deaths in ASEAN in the year 2008, leading to approximately 7.5 million DALYs lost in one year. The most commonly diagnosed cancers were lung (98,143), breast (86,842) and liver cancers (74,777). The most common causes of cancer death were lung cancer (85,772), liver cancer (69,115) and colorectal cancer (44,280). The burden of cancer in terms of DALYs lost was highest in Laos, Viet Nam and Myanmar and lowest in Brunei, Singapore and the Philippines. Significant differences in the patterns of cancer from country to country were observed. Another key finding was the major impact played by population age distribution on cancer incidence and mortality. Cancer rates in ASEAN are expected to increase with ageing of populations and changes in lifestyles associated with economic development. Therefore, ASEAN member countries are strongly encouraged to put in place cancer-control health care policies, focussed on strengthening the health systems to cope with projected increases in cancer prevention, treatment and management needs.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Near Infrared Spectroscopy Conference
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• 2001.06a
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• pp.1154-1154
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• 2001

Near infra-red (NIR) spectroscopy has been used for the non-invasive assessment of intact fruit for eating quality attributes such as total soluble solids (TSS) content. However, little information is available in the literature with respect to the robustness of such calibration models validated against independent populations (however, see Peiris et al. 1998 and Guthrie et al. 1998). Many studies report ‘prediction’ statistics in which the calibration and prediction sets are subsets of the same population (e. g. a three year calibration validated against a set from the same population, Peiris et al. 1998; calibration and validation subsets of the same initial population, Guthrie and Walsh 1997 and McGlone and Kawano 1998). In this study, a calibration was developed across 84 melon fruit (R$^2$= 0.86$^{\circ}$Brix, SECV = 0.38$^{\circ}$Brix), which predicted well on fruit excluded from the calibration set but taken from the same population (n = 24, SEP = 0.38$^{\circ}$Brix with 0.1$^{\circ}$Brix bias), relative to an independent group (same variety and farm but different harvest date) (n = 24, SEP= 0.66$^{\circ}$ Brix with 0.1$^{\circ}$Brix bias). Prediction on a different variety, different growing district and time was worse (n = 24, SEP = 1.2$^{\circ}$Brix with 0.9$^{\circ}$Brix bias). Using an ‘in-line’ unit based on a silicon diode array spectrometer, as described in Walsh et al. (2000), we collected spectra from fruit populations covering different varieties, growing districts and time. The calibration procedure was optimized in terms of spectral window, derivative function and scatter correction. Performance of a calibration across new populations of fruit (different varieties, growing districts and harvest date) is reported. Various calibration sample selection techniques (primarily based on Mahalanobis distances), were trialled to structure the calibration population to improve robustness of prediction on independent sets. Optimization of calibration population structure (using the ISI protocols of neighbourhood and global distances) resulted in the elimination of over 50% of the initial data set. The use of the ISI Local Calibration routine was also investigated.

• International Journal of Concrete Structures and Materials
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.209-220
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• 2012

Post-earthquake fire (PEF) can lead to a rapid collapse of buildings that have been partially damaged as a result of a prior earthquake. Almost all standards and codes for the design of structures against earthquake ignore the risk of PEF, and thus buildings designed using those codes could be too weak when subjected to a fire after an earthquake. An investigation based on sequential analysis inspired by FEMA356 is performed here on the immediate occupancy (IO), life safety (LS) and collapse prevention (CP) performance levels of two portal frames, after they are pushed to arrive at a certain level of displacement corresponding to the mentioned performance level. This investigation is followed by a fire analysis of the damaged frames, examining the time taken for the damaged frames to collapse. As a point of reference, a fire analysis is also performed for undamaged frames and before the occurrence of earthquake. The results indicate that while there is minor difference between the fire resistances of the fire-alone situation and the frames pushed to the IO level of performance, a notable difference is observed between the fire-alone analysis and the frames pushed to arrive at LS and CP levels of performance and exposed to PEF. The results also show that exposing only the beams to fire results in a higher decline of the fire resistance, compared to exposing only the columns to fire. Furthermore, the results show that the frames pushed to arrive at LS and CP levels of performance collapse in a global collapse mode laterally, whereas at the IO level of performance and fire-alone situation, the collapse mechanism is mostly local through the collapse of beams. Whilst the investigation is conducted for a certain class of portal frames, the results confirm the need for the incorporation of PEF into the process of analysis and design, and provide some quantitative measures on the level of associated effects.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.4 no.4
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• pp.281-294
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• 2012

Filtration using granular media such as quarried sand, anthracite and granular activated carbon is a well-known technique used in both water and wastewater treatment. A relatively new pre-filtration method called pebble matrix filtration (PMF) technology has been proved effective in treating high turbidity water during heavy rain periods that occur in many parts of the world. Sand and pebbles are the principal filter media used in PMF laboratory and pilot field trials conducted in the UK, Papua New Guinea and Serbia. However during first full-scale trials at a water treatment plant in Sri Lanka in 2008, problems were encountered in sourcing the required uniform size and shape of pebbles due to cost, scarcity and Government regulations on pebble dredging. As an alternative to pebbles, hand-made clay pebbles (balls) were fired in a kiln and their performance evaluated for the sustainability of the PMF system. These clay balls within a filter bed are subjected to stresses due to self-weight and overburden, therefore, it is important that clay balls should be able to withstand these stresses in water saturated conditions. In this paper, experimentally determined physical properties including compression failure load (Uniaxial Compressive Strength) and tensile strength at failure (theoretical) of hand-made clay balls are described. Hand-made clay balls fired between the kiln temperatures of $875^{\circ}C$ to $960^{\circ}C$ gave failure loads of between 3.0 kN and 7.1 kN. In another test when clay balls were fired to $1250^{\circ}C$ the failure load was 35.0 kN compared to natural Scottish cobbles with an average failure load of 29.5 kN. The uniaxial compressive strength of clay balls obtained by experiment has been presented in terms of the tensile yield stress of clay balls. Based on the effective stress principle in soil mechanics, a method for the estimation of maximum theoretical load on clay balls used as filter media is proposed and compared with experimental failure loads.

• Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Sciences
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• v.13 no.11
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• pp.1593-1597
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• 2000

In the quiescent state, cattle-manure slurry stratifies into three discernible layers, namely a floating scum layer, a bottom sludge layer and a watery middle layer. The proportions of top (scum), middle and bottom (sludge) layers were approximately 20, 60 and 20% respectively of the volume of the whole slurry. Particulate matter from the different stratified layers was characterised for particle size distribution and cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin composition. Total solids concentrations of top, middle and bottom layers were 12.7, 2.8 and 7.4% respectively. Larger particles were found in the top layer compared with the bottom. The top layer contained the highest amounts of Neutral Detergent Fibre (NDF), Acid Detergent Fibre (ADF), cellulose and hemicellulose, but the lowest amount of Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN). The bottom layer contained the highest amounts of Acid Detergent Lignin (ADL) and TKN. With increase in particle size, there were increases in NDF, ADF, cellulose and hemicellulose, accompanied by decreases in ADL and TKN. Biochemical methane potential of the three layers was also measured. The top layer was found to produce the most methane with the middle layer producing the least. Biomethanation rate from the top layer was also the highest. Differences in biomethanation rates and biochemical methane potential were attributed to differences in chemical composition of the particulate matter. About 48%, 23% and 30% of the total chemical oxygen demand (COD) in the top, middle and bottom layers respectively of the slurry was found to be degradable.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.12
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• pp.7497-7500
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• 2013

Background: This study concerns clinical characteristics and survival of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients in University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC), as well as the prognostic significance of presenting symptoms. Materials and Methods: The clinical characteristics, presenting symptoms and survival of RCC patients (n=151) treated at UMMC from 2003-2012 were analysed. Symptoms evaluated were macrohaematuria, flank pain, palpable abdominal mass, fever, lethargy, loss of weight, anaemia, elevated ALP, hypoalbuminemia and thrombocytosis. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses were performed to determine the prognostic significance of these presenting symptoms. Kaplan Meier and log rank tests were employed for survival analysis. Results: The 2002 TNM staging was a prognostic factor (p<0.001) but Fuhrman grading was not significantly correlated with survival (p=0.088). At presentation, 76.8% of the patients were symptomatic. Generally, symptomatic tumours had a worse survival prognosis compared to asymptomatic cases (p=0.009; HR 4.74). All symptoms significantly affect disease specific survival except frank haematuria and loin pain on univariate Cox regression analysis. On multivariate analysis adjusted for stage, only clinically palpable abdominal mass remained statistically significant (p=0.027). The mean tumour size of palpable abdominal masses, $9.5{\pm}4.3cm$, was larger than non palpable masses, $5.3{\pm}2.7cm$ (p<0.001). Conclusions: This is the first report which includes survival information of RCC patients from Malaysia. Here the TNM stage and a palpable abdominal mass were independent predictors for survival. Further investigations using a multicentre cohort to analyse mortality and survival rates may aid in improving management of these patients.

• Asian Journal of Atmospheric Environment
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.288-297
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• 2015

In this study, wind conditions and its energy potential have been assessed by conducting a Weibull analysis of the wind speed data (over the period of 2002-2011) measured from a port city (Mongla) and an isolated island (Sandwip) in Bangladesh. The monthly mean wind speed at Mongla ranged from 1.60 m/s (December) to 2.47 m/s (April). The monthly values of Weibull shape parameter (k) were from 1.27 to 2.53. In addition, the values of the scale parameter (c) and the monthly wind power density ranged from 1.76 to 2.79 m/s and 3.95 to $17.45W/m^2$, respectively. The seasonal mean wind speed data varied from 1.72 (fall) to 2.29 m/s (spring) with the wind power density from 5.33 (fall) to $14.26W/m^2$ (spring). In the case of Sandwip, the results were comparable to those of Mongla, but moderate reductions in all the comparable variables were observed. The wind data results of these two areas have been compared with those of eight other locations in the world with respect to wind power generation scale. According to this comparison, the wind power generation scale for Mongla and Sandwip was adequate for stand-alone small/micro-scale applications such as local household consumption, solar-wind hybrid irrigation pumps, and battery charging.