Dengue fever is a recurring public health problem afflicting thousands of Malaysians annually. In this paper, the risk map for dengue fever in the peninsular Malaysian states of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur was modelled based on co-kriging and geographical information systems. Using population density and rainfall as the model's only input factors, the area with the highest risk for dengue infection was given as Gombak and Petaling, two districts located on opposite sides of Kuala Lumpur city that was also included in the risk assessment. Comparison of the modelled risk map with the dengue case dataset of 2010, obtained from the Ministry of Health of Malaysia, confirmed that the highest number of cases had been found in an area centred on Kuala Lumpur as predicted our risk profiling.
This article presents lessons learned from a design project that explored the possibility of incorporating waste into the design of a school prototype. The authors worked with professional architects, a waste artist, environmental scientists and local waste operators to uncover new uses and applications for discarded items. As a result, bottles, aluminium cans, reclaimed doors, crushed concrete and second-hand bricks, etc. were identified, explored and integrated into the architectural design. This article serves as a catalyst that advocates the use of reclaimed materials in the field of design and planning. In particular, it highlights the challenges and issues that need to be addressed in carrying out design work with waste. Designers and practitioners interested in minimizing waste generation by proposing the use of reclaimed materials will find this article useful.
Malaria remains a major health problem in Sudan. With a population exceeding 39 million, there are around 7.5 million cases and 35,000 deaths every year. The predicted distribution of malaria derived from climate factors such as maximum and minimum temperatures, rainfall and relative humidity was compared with the actual number of malaria cases in Sudan for the period 2004 to 2010. The predictive calculations were done by fuzzy logic suitability (FLS) applied to the numerical distribution of malaria transmission based on the life cycle characteristics of the Anopheles mosquito accounting for the impact of climate factors on malaria transmission. This information is visualized as a series of maps (presented in video format) using a geographical information systems (GIS) approach. The climate factors were found to be suitable for malaria transmission in the period of May to October, whereas the actual case rates of malaria were high from June to November indicating a positive correlation. While comparisons between the prediction model for June and the case rate model for July did not show a high degree of association (18%), the results later in the year were better, reaching the highest level (55%) for October prediction and November case rate.
The synchronous firefly genus Pteroptyx Olivier is reassessed from morphological, molecular, and habitat perspectives in Malaysia, and includes some reliably associated females described from morphological features and internal female reproductive anatomy. Phylogenetic analyses using combined morphological and molecular data (where available) for 158 taxa supported all the major features of the existing taxonomic categories within the Indopacific Luciolinae. They revealed a distinct Pteroptyx clade as a morphologically variable genus with Poluninius selangoriensis Ballantyne being newly synonymised with Luciola testacea Motschulsky, the type species, which is redescribed from the type series. Pteroptyx gelasina Ballantyne was shown to be distinct and three of the four morphological subdivisions within Pteroptyx malaccae (Gorham) considered useful. A new species Pt. balingiana Jusoh sp. nov. is described from Sarawak. A second specimen of Pt. gombakia Ballantyne is described and figured. Some females were reliably associated with identified males by molecular data, but investigation of their morphology showed consistent features that were for the most part not useful for species delineation, which still relies on association with the males and colour patterns. All females investigated had bursa plates.Habitat details for most Pteroptyx revealed an association with a riparian environment likely to support mangroves but not necessarily an obligatory association with mangroves or any particular species. Pteroptyx galbina Jusoh was found up to 30 km from the sea, and Pt. bearni Olivier displays in a variety of flowering plants alongside rivers, including mangroves.Keys to species and diagnoses of all species with coloured plates are given.
Biodiversity continues to decline in the face of increasing anthropogenic pressures such as habitat destruction, exploitation, pollution and introduction of alien species. Existing global databases of species' threat status or population time series are dominated by charismatic species. The collation of datasets with broad taxonomic and biogeographic extents, and that support computation of a range of biodiversity indicators, is necessary to enable better understanding of historical declines and to project - and avert - future declines. We describe and assess a new database of more than 1.6 million samples from 78 countries representing over 28,000 species, collated from existing spatial comparisons of local-scale biodiversity exposed to different intensities and types of anthropogenic pressures, from terrestrial sites around the world. The database contains measurements taken in 208 (of 814) ecoregions, 13 (of 14) biomes, 25 (of 35) biodiversity hotspots and 16 (of 17) megadiverse countries. The database contains more than 1% of the total number of all species described, and more than 1% of the described species within many taxonomic groups - including flowering plants, gymnosperms, birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, beetles, lepidopterans and hymenopterans. The dataset, which is still being added to, is therefore already considerably larger and more representative than those used by previous quantitative models of biodiversity trends and responses. The database is being assembled as part of the PREDICTS project (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems - http://www.predicts.org.uk). We make site-level summary data available alongside this article. The full database will be publicly available in 2015.
The PREDICTS project-Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)-has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.