A priori assessments of a site's biophysical and socio-economic capacity for accommodating tourism are less common than tourism impact studies. A priori evaluations can provide a contextual understanding of ecological, economic and socio-cultural forces, which shape the prospects for sustainable tourism development at the host destination, and can avert adverse impacts of tourism. We conduct an a priori assessment of the biophysical environment of Pulau Banggi, in the Malaysian state of Sabah for sustainable tourism development. We characterise baseline conditions of the island's marine biodiversity, seasonality, and infrastructure. We then evaluate how existing biophysical conditions will influence options for sustainable tourism development. In particular, we suggest conditions, if there are any, which constitute a limit to future tourism development in terms of compatibility for recreation and resilience to visitor impacts. We find that the biggest constraint is the lack of adequate water and sanitation infrastructure. Blast fishing, although occurring less than once per hour, can potentially destroy the major attraction for tourists. We conclude that while Pulau Banggi possesses natural qualities that are attractive for ecotourism, financial and institutional support must be made available to provide facilities and services that will enable local participation in environmental protection and enhance prospects for future sustainable tourism.
A methodology was developed for diagnosing industrial work, which includes questionnaire, observation, measurements, data collection and statistical analysis. A survey was conducted to investigate the relationship between job satisfaction and factors that affect work design in 2 automotives manufacturing companies in Malaysia. A basic work design model was proposed. The aim of this model was to determine the factors that influence employees' perception towards their work. A set of multiple-choice questionnaires was developed and data was collected by interviewing employees at a production plant. The survey focused on job and environmental factors. The results supported the proposed model and showed that job and environmental factors were significantly related to job satisfaction. They highlighted the significant influence of age, work experience and marital status on job satisfaction. Further, environmental factors, especially the surroundings, context dependence and the building's function, also had a significant impact on job satisfaction.
The extent to which response to environmental change is mediated by species-specific ecology is an important aspect of the population histories of tropical taxa. During the Pleistocene glacial cycles and associated sea level fluctuations, the Sunda region in Southeast Asia experienced concurrent changes in landmass area and the ratio of forest to open habitat, providing an ideal setting to test the expectation that habitat associations played an important role in determining species' response to the opportunity for geographic expansion. We used mitochondrial control region sequences and six microsatellite loci to compare the phylogeographic structure and demographic histories of four broadly sympatric species of Old World fruit bats in the genus, Cynopterus. Two forest-associated species and two open-habitat generalists were sampled along a latitudinal transect in Singapore, peninsular Malaysia, and southern Thailand. Contrary to expectations based on habitat associations, the geographic scale of population structure was not concordant across ecologically similar species. We found evidence for long and relatively stable demographic history in one forest and one open-habitat species, and inferred non-coincident demographic expansions in the second forest and open-habitat species. Thus, while these results indicate that Pleistocene climate change did not have a single effect on population structure across species, a correlation between habitat association and response to environmental change was supported in only two of four species. We conclude that interactions between multiple factors, including historical and contemporary environmental change, species-specific ecology and interspecific interactions, have shaped the recent evolutionary histories of Cynopterus fruit bats in Southeast Asia.
The policy prescription for solving environmental problems of developing countries and countries-in-transition (CIT) is slowly getting polarized into two viewpoints. One group of researchers and policy advocates including multilateral organizations upholds extensive use of market based instruments (MBIs) in these countries. The other group argues that institutions need to be built first or the policy makers should select the incremental or tiered approach taking into account the existing capabilities. The group also insists that the financial, institutional and political constraints make environmental regulation in these countries more problematic than in industrialized countries. In the short-run, the immediate needs of the developing countries can be addressed effectively by learning lessons from the difficulties encountered by a few successful cases and accordingly evolving an appropriate policy instrument. In this paper an attempt has been made to highlight three such cases from three different parts of the world--Malaysia (Asia-pacific), Poland (Eastern Europe) and Colombia (Latin America). The paper looks into what policy instruments led to a fall in water pollution levels in these countries and what role did MBIs play in this pollution mitigation? The case studies suggest that it is a combination of instruments--license fee, standards, charge and subsidies--reinforced by active enforcement that led to an overall improvement in environment compliance.
This study explores the rural environmental factors that influence adolescents' participation in physical activities (PA). Thirty-six indigenous adolescents, aged 13 to 17 years from rural communities of East Malaysia were involved in the photovoice procedures: photo-taking, selecting, contextualizing, and codifying themes. Despite being endowed with natural resources such as river, forest, hills, and so on, the adolescents and the community did not capitalize on these rich resources to promote and engage in PA. Poor maintenance of natural resources, the lack of pedestrian infrastructures and road safety, the lack of PA facilities, and negative perception of ancestors' agricultural activities were among factors that constrained adolescents' PA. Although basic amenities such as play spaces and pedestrian infrastructures are necessary to increase adolescents' PA, any intervention should make the most of the natural resources, which are cheaper, environment friendly, and sustainable.
This study used path analysis to assess the chances of survival of babies in a neonatal intensive care unit in Lansing, Michigan, USA. Two paths to neonatal survival were identified and the variables accounted for 20% of the variance in gestational age. The first path showed that prior infant losses were negatively correlated with gestational age while in the second path, gestational age showed negative relationships with pre-pregnancy weight and household job worries.
A cross sectional study was conducted among 1007 children aged 1-2 years, from padi farming area. The percentage of male children was 51.4%. The prevalence of at least one of the chronic respiratory symptoms was 12.81%, and the prevalence of chronic cough, chronic sputum, wheezing and bronchial asthma as diagnosed by doctors were 9.33%, 3.87% 5.36% and 3.38% respectively. The overall prevalence of bronchial asthma was 6.26%. The prevalence of asthma was highest among children aged 11-12 years (8.9%) and higher among males (6.95%). No significant relationship was found between the prevalence of either chronic respiratory disease symptoms of bronchial asthma, and selected environmental factors, namely exposure to cigarette smoke, use of mosquito coil and wood stove. However there was a significant relationship between prevalence of asthma in children and history of asthma among parents and grandparents.
Study site: Two villages in Tg. Karang (Kg. Sawah Sempadan and Kg Sri Tiram Jaya), Selangor, Malaysia
The present paper is the third and concluding part of a study of the secondary school population of two of Malaysia's thirteen states, Penang and Selangor. Since completion of the two earlier papers, the research team has investigated the pattern and nature of drug use among the equivalent population in a third state, Kelantan, and has again found essentially the same pattern of results: youthful drug use is most clearly related to precocious self-assertion, and a set of beliefs and attitudes about drugs and drug taking, and is largely unrelated to indicators of social deprivation or personal problems. The significance of this repeated finding in Kelantan is that, in this much more rural and traditional state, adult and established patterns of drug use had historically differed considerably from those found in the two more urban and cosmopolitan states of Penang and Selangor. Our findings indicate that the new pattern of drug use by youth has transcended the older cultural differences between the states, and is in turn explained by a more universally familiar set of characteristics in adolescent development.
Those Malaysian secondary schoolchildren who have ever used an illicit drug do not differ significantly in terms of social class background, ethnicity or rural/urban location, from the majority of their contemporaries who have not used drugs. The cross-sectional data show a rapid secular trend towards the sexes being equally involved in drug use. Significant differences between ever and never users are, however, found in their attitudes towards drug taking and their beliefs about the properties of drugs, although both groups share the same rather negative image of the typical drug user. Thus, drug users have accepted some of the attitudes towards drug issues which are normative in the non-user group, whilst developing other attitudes which are consistent with their continuing use. It is argued that adolescent drug abuse in Malaysia is not to be linked specifically with social deprivation, but should be seen as being part of the life style of particular groups in all strata of society.
：The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of local government competition and environmental regulation intensity on regional innovation performance and its regional heterogeneity. Based on the theoretical mechanism of the aforementioned variables, this study uses the Chinese provincial panel data from 2001 to 2016. We use the super-efficiency data envelopment analysis (SE-DEA) to evaluate regional innovation performance. To systematically examine the impact of local government competition and environmental regulation intensity on regional innovation performance, we build a panel date model using the feasible generalized least squares (FGLS) method. The results indicate that: the regional innovation performance can be significantly improved through technological spillover; local governments compete for foreign direct investment (FDI) to participate in regional innovative production. Moreover, improvements in environmental regulation intensity enhance regional innovation performance through the innovation compensation effect. Our results show that the local governments tend to choose lower environmental regulation intensity to compete for more FDI, which has an inhibitory effect on regional innovation performance. Furthermore, due to regional differences in factor endowments, economic reforms and economic development levels in Chinese provinces, there exists a significant regional consistency in the impact of local government competition and environmental regulation intensity on regional innovation performance. Therefore, institutional arrangements and incentive constraints must be adopted to enhance regional innovation performance as well as to guide and foster the mechanism of green innovation competition among local governments. At the same time, considering the regional heterogeneity of local government competition and environmental regulation intensity affecting regional innovation performance, policy makers should avoid the "one-size-fits-all" strategy of institutional arrangements.
Children aged 2 to 6 years are in a crucial period of growth development, during which it is important for them to attain specific cognition related to concentration and attention so that they can perform well in school later in life. Various factors influence children's cognition during this crucial period. However, to date, only a limited number of studies have examined the cognitive performance of underprivileged children living in poverty, particularly indigenous children (also known as Orang Asli children in Malaysia). Therefore, this cross-sectional study aimed to determine the associations between sociodemographic factors, nutritional factors (body composition and hemoglobin), and environmental factors (home environment and parasitic infections) with cognitive performance among Orang Asli children in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The participants were 269 children (51% boys, 49% girls) aged 2 to 6 years (M = 4.0, SD = 1.2 years) and their mothers, from 14 Orang Asli villages. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the mothers, and the children's cognitive performance, operationalized as working memory index (WMI), processing speed index (PSI), and cognitive proficiency index (CPI), was assessed using the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence, Fourth Edition (WPPSI-IV). The children's weight and height were measured, and their blood and stool samples were collected to assess hemoglobin level and parasitic infections, respectively. Multiple linear regression analysis showed that the father's years of education (β = 0.262-0.342, p < 0.05), availability of learning materials at home (β = 0.263-0.425, p < 0.05), and responsiveness of the parent to the child (β = 0.192-0.331, p < 0.05) were consistently associated with all three cognitive indices (WMI, PSI, and CPI). A holistic approach involving parents, communities, and government agencies should be established to improve the cognitive performance of these underprivileged children.
This study was designed to optimize the culture conditions of juvenile Epinephelus fuscoguttatus (Forsskål, 1775) under laboratory conditions. To this effect, the rate of oxygen consumption was monitored as an index of stress under different temperature, salinity, pH, photoperiod, and urea concentrations. The result obtained after 12 h of exposure suggests the preference of the juvenile E. fuscoguttatus to a temperature range of 15-25 °C and salinity of 30 ppt. Based on this study, temperature was found to be the most lethal as 100% mortality was observed after 6 h in fish exposure to temperatures above the optimal (≥ 30 °C). However, the oxygen consumption rate was similar under the different pH, photoperiod, and urea concentration tested. It was concluded that water temperature was most critical in terms of respiration physiology of the juvenile E. fuscoguttatus given the range and levels of environmental factors tested in this study.
The microbes that cause infectious diseases are complex, dynamic, and constantly evolving. They reproduce rapidly, mutate frequently, breach species barriers, adapt with relative ease to new hosts and new environments, and develop resistance to the drugs used to treat them. In their article "Meeting the challenge of epidemic infectious diseases outbreaks: an agenda for research", Kai-Lit Phua and Lai Kah Lee clearly demonstrate how social, behavioural and environmental factors, linked to a host of human activities, have accelerated and amplified these natural phenomena. By reviewing published and non-published information about outbreaks of Nipah virus in Malaysia, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and avian influenza in Asia, and the HIV pandemic, they provide a series of examples that demonstrate the various social, behavioural and environmental factors of these recent infectious disease outbreaks. They then analyse some of these same determinants in important historical epidemics and pandemics such as plague in medieval Europe, and conclude that it is important to better understand the social conditions that facilitate the appearance of diseases outbreaks in order to determine why and how societies react to outbreaks and their impact on different population groups.
This study investigates the effects of aircraft cabin pressure on intracranial pressure (ICP) elevation of a pneumocephalus patient. We propose an experimental setup that simulates the intracranial hydrodynamics of a pneumocephalus patient during flight. It consists of an acrylic box (skull), air-filled balloon [intracranial air (ICA)], water-filled balloon (cerebrospinal fluid and blood) and agarose gel (brain). The cabin was replicated using a custom-made pressure chamber. The setup can measure the rise in ICP during depressurization to levels similar to that inside the cabin at cruising altitude. ΔICP, i.e. the difference between mean cruising ICP and initial ICP, was found to increase with ICA volume and ROC. However, ΔICP was independent of the initial ICP. The largest ΔICP was 5 mmHg; obtained when ICA volume and ROC were 20 ml and 1,600 ft/min, respectively. The postulated ICA expansion and the subsequent increase in ICP in pneumocephalus patients during flight were successfully quantified in a laboratory setting. Based on the quantitative and qualitative analyses of the results, an ICA volume of 20 ml and initial ICP of 15 mmHg were recommended as conservative thresholds that are required for safe air travel among pneumocephalus patients. This study provides laboratory data that may be used by doctors to advise post-neurosurgical patients if they can safely fly.
An analysis is presented of psychiatric research interviews conducted among the Iban, a longhouse dwelling people of Sarawak, Malaysia. It draws on transcripts of interviews recorded in the course of carrying out research into schizophrenia in this group. The article examines three different interview spaces within the longhouse--public, family, and private--in order to explore the interplay between ethnographic context and interview conversation. The public setting is notable for the number of relatives who join in and transform the communication from dyadic to collective interlocution; the role of repetition in recruiting them into the conversation is explored. Indirect contrast is the private space, which allows for a level of confidentiality commensurate with Western psychiatric research practice. Intermediate between the two is the family space. The communicative forms that correspond to these settings influence the way symptoms of schizophrenia are experienced and expressed in the Iban. Implications for the practice of psychiatry cross-culturally are examined.
The Temiars are a tribe of negroid pygmies of basically Proto-Malaysian affinities. Field-work in the Malaysian jungle provided some observations on the sleep-wakefulness cycle of two young Temiar adults. This cycle was monophasic circumstances permitting. Their rest-activity cycle at night was similar in the jungle and in the laboratory. Polygraphic total night-sleep recordings were made with both of them in the EEG laboratory in the Hospital Besar in Kuala Lumpur. The eye-movement frequencies of PS were compared with those from young adults of the West. Although the differences were not statistically significant, the Rem-densities of the Temiars were constantly at the low side. The significance of the results are being discussed.