A team of 5 Final Year Journalism students from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman, led by Yuevitra Kalaiselvan, 21 which includes Sean Chandrakumar, 25, Shobina Brapakaran, 24, Rufina Merry Ambrose, 24 and Kwan Lee Wam, 23 has recently discovered 3 poverty-stricken Indian families from Kampung Labu Kuchi, Kampar, Perak.

         The team went to interview these penurious families last Friday for their assignment purpose and realized that these families need assistance. The 3 families live in a very unconducive environment whereby they had to share toilets with other families and some of the children longing to consume KFC at least for this upcoming Deepavali celebration.  Consequently, the group made an effort to raise fund among the UTAR community and also via social media mainly on Facebook by promoting their hashtag, #UTARJRDEEPAVALICHARITY2015 and they managed to amass around RM3000 within 5 days. 

       The team organized hand-over event to the families and an early Deepavali celebration which was attended by the Head of Journalism Department, Dr. Ihediwa Samuel Chibundu together with Journalism lecturers Dr. Tan Huey Pyng and Mr. Teh Boon Teck. The food for the event is sponsored by Sharmelan Raj, 27 and Kavilan Raj, 18 from Tanjung Caterers, Ipoh, Perak and assisted by Sri Sanglishwaran, 23. 

        The team has extended the due date for the fund raising activity from 4th November to 15th November in order to pay the children’s school fees.  Meanwhile, Dr. Ihediwa Samuel said that he feels proud that his students are applying the knowledge they acquired to help the poor. He also said that he will encourage the junior students to organize more benevolent events in future. 










Click this link for the video of the event:
https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1145380078829924&pnref=story

Click here for more information:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1144393612261904&set=a.149299021771373.22207.100000738280910&type=3&theater

21 March 2015

KAMPAR: Move on Charity Colour Run 2015 was organized by the UTAR Community Service Society with the objective of provide charitable assistance by donating at least two dialysis machines and to raise public awareness. With the attendance of at least 1000 participant who took part in the run, it is indeed full of colour fun and run. Here is a video recap and coverage on the event.

• Planting of beneficial plants (usually for biological control of pests e.g. bagworms or for soil control)

• Environmental friendly practice, using buffalo to plough the soil instead of using fuel consuming tractors which exhausts later)

• Waste handling and disposal

• Biomass recycling; for fertilising as they still contain some nutrients, which is equivalent to the commercial ones

• Zero burning; the most environmental friendly technique practiced during replanting and new planting in Malaysia and other countries (but not Indonesia apparently)

• Under-planting; the most interesting. This is a technique where a hole is dug out, placing the top soil on the bottom whiles the sub-soil on top, this way more nutrients provided for new plant.

• Conclusion: Conserve agro-biodiversity, increase productivity and economic returns while managing pests and diseases.

• Intro: gives statistics on rodent damage is the worst, causing 10% of hopeful loss, sometimes even up to 50% of crop loss. In South East Asia, the control is not effective. Malaysia has larger loss in rice fields, so they tried hunting rats down which they managed to destroy 40,000 rats. Even tried using cats as one of the means but cats no longer prey on rats. Snakes weren’t helpful too, hence they used rodenticides. The poison was effective, however, it was so toxic, it would kill everything even the crops itself. It is banned but still widely practiced today.

• Rodenticides causes bait shyness where the rats are wary of the bait of oddly smell and taste that they would share info with the other rat mates, resulting in ineffectiveness of the rodenticides. Thus, bio-control will be the best alternative for this matter.

• There are three types of bio-control; reliance of existing ones, manipulation of existing predators or introduce predators, usually exotic animals.

• Barn owls are local species thus this is categories as a manipulating existing predators (although it is believed to be brought from Sumatra of Jawa).

• Nesting is easy, just build boxes for them and they would breed in them. Food? The rats. Interestingly these owls swallow the rat whole, then regurgitates whatever that is not digested in a fur ball called pellets. They also stay in the same nest and stay with the same partner until death do they part.

• This combination with rodenticide is needed as the owls only remove the surplus of rats. Problem arises when second generation of rodenticide is used as they are more toxic than the previous generation. It would affect the owls’ growth such as smaller beaks, talons, wings making them less efficient in hunting rats. 

• Conclusion: First generation of rodenticide used is dangerous, while the second generation is forgone. Thus, bio-rodenticide is the best alternative.

•  Food security as the raison d'être (reason for existence), many threats to it also. Remembrance of the Irish Potato Famine.

• Genetic, resistance, pathogen host relationships are physiological relationships, not a trophic level.

• To cure rice plant disease, we need the understanding of the genome rather than its phenotypic breeding or environmental factors.

• Conclusion: pathosystems management, HR and environmental management are proven effective techniques. It is possible for biotech tools to be used in ecology to enhance biodiversity. It must be done from small scale to large scale and requires multiple stakeholders. From simplex concept to complex impact.

• Intro: the bottom line is using ‘good’ insect to control ‘bad’ insect. Every organism has their Natural Enemies (NEs) that includes parasitoids, predators, microorganisms and beneficial insects. The key is to know the proper techniques and know the information on the pests.

• She is working on controlling pink cassava mealybugs (PCMs) that attacks pumpkins, I believe so. She added, since most of the bugs are female and each can produce 500 more within a month, this species has cause much trouble. Her time spent on studying this species has led her to a highly specific NE, a parasitoid.

• This parasitoid only attacks PCM thus it will not cause harm to any other organisms, including the pumpkins. These parasitoids are grown and harvested very easily that even the farmers can do it themselves in a small box. Once harvested, they need only to release about 100 of them, once a month and let the parasitoid feed and kill PCMs.

•  The advantage is that insecticides are not needed as the farmers are too poor to buy these chemicals. The disadvantage of this technique however is that to pinpoint the NE of the pest is time consuming and are usually difficult as some NEs are very tiny.

• She then further explained about the parasitoids. There are two types; endoparasitoids and ectoparasitoids. The parasitoid that attacks PCMs is ectoparasitoid, meaning that they consume the host from outside. Endoparasitoids consume the host from the inside, usually by the larvae hatching inside of the host and eats it way through the host until nothing is left or until they are mature enough to lay more eggs in the host.

• Conclusion: This technique is great, simple, important and environmentally friendly.

• Many always assume that fruit flies are vinegar flies, truth is, nope.

• Many only focused on the damage this pest caused, that their attention is diverted from the fact that those causing damage are only male flies. Many scholars reported the same results; only males but no one questioned it, just thinking that the females lay the eggs, left and only males hatched to consume the fruit.

• He has found that the males actually consume methyl eugenol, a compound found in essential oils, oils derived from plants. This compound were to improve the male mating competitiveness in Bactrocera dorsalis, they would store this compound in a rectal gland, secreting it when approaching a female so that the female will choose to mate with it with the methyl eugenol scent.

• This is to prove that the fruits are not the problem, it is methyl eugenol.

• He added that most farmers would just throw those damaged fruits by B. dorsalis to the soil without knowing that the larva needs soil to survive and mature to adult flies. So, perhaps, the farmers are also contributing to the problem.

• Conclusion, scholars must study to obtain the proper information and must educate the farmers on managing the pests.

Professor Dr. Ooi, engrossed in his presentation.

• He then gave a brief history about biological control; many would think that this method is practiced recently, about 100 years ago. On the contrary, it dated back so far, before Christ. Of course back then, people do not really know what they were doing as those previous attempts, seemed to be fruitful but eventually, the predator became the problem.

• There are three ways in enhancing the effectiveness of NEs in pest control; namely classical, augmentive and conservation of indigenous NEs.

• He then went on about cross planting; planting different species together, will too affect production and results.

• Conclusion: He hopes to collaborate with Thailand (Dr Amporn), introducing this method to Malaysia as he is fascinated that the farmers there are learning and applying the NEs method. There is a need to convinced the Malaysian government to produce policies in introducing NEs to agriculture nationally as to currently there are none in this country that produce these beneficial insects.

Associate Professor Dr Wong thanked each of the speaker

Professor Dr. Ooi shares his knowledge with the UTAR students.

Closer to a physiology-fitness class than a religious class, don't let the ideas of prana (life force) and chakra fool you. Consider that they are something for you to focus on, which eventually lead you to a state of pink health. Other than the myth of being considered as a religious practice; there are 8 more myths which are intended to be debunked here.


1. Yoga is not meant for men.
Untrue. Thousands years ago, yoga was started by men and solely be practiced by men only. It builds strength and flexibility, with proper practice schedule you can be as tough as a gymnast. Even flexibility is much valued in military training, especially salient in Taiwan's special Navy force - The Sea Dragon.


2. One has to be flexible to do yoga.
Most of the iconic figures in human history are made than born. It is never too late to start now if you imagine yourself in a physique of 10 years later.


3. It is not cheap!
The term can be widely defined here given that different people have different yardstick to that. However, in UTAR, Yoga Weekly Class is provided, as low as 5 ringgit per class.


4. Yoga is not a workout.
Scientists once said as long as a person sweats, calories are burnt, even when one laughs to the extent of sweating. Yoga class guarantees that along with heart strengthening, strength building and more effective blood circulation.


5. Yoga is too time-consuming to practice.
Oh? As if the other things in this world need zero chronological-investment. Nevertheless, any form of yoga practice as short as 10 minutes per day will still utmost strengthen your mind and body.


6. Yoga is only for people who are fit and thin.
It is the commitment to better themselves physically and mentally that counts here. Just like people who are there for gym bodybuilding, not only they will not be looked down by the others, committed people are actually encouraging the others to excel holistically.


7. Well then, it is certainly not for people with back injuries or pain.
Chiropractors would encourage the group of people with back pain not to sit down more than 12 hours per day, and certainly by practicing yoga, it is also a form of chiropractic treatment to the spine. Ultimate results of this -health.


8. There is only one type of yoga
This ancient art has more than a type or manifestation. The common one - with breath and movement is called the Vinyasa. Hatha yoga is slower and more static, greatly enhances muscle endurance strength. Power yoga - the masculine training of muscle strength and cardiovascular enhancement. Heat can also be added to these yoga practices serving a platform for more challenges.


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Join the healthy movement today!

by Goh Kae Min
Credit to:Loh Jing Li, Yap Siau Chin, Wong Qun Ting
Photographer: Gan Ming Shien

CCTV surveillance system is set up in all the entrance of the neighborhood.

Mathan, who has been working as a stand guard for 6 years, claims that he and his colleagues are dedicated to keep Westlake safe.

Sample of patrol date: The 24-hour patrol is divided into two teams. One has a fixed set of routes to follow while the other one will be randomly patrolling the neighborhood.

Crime case report for 2011 and 2012: There is a decline in reported crime in 2012.

Wong (left) and Chang (right) urge students to stay alert and work together with DHM to battle against crime in Westlake Homes.

One of the police patrol boxes: Police will be scheduled to patrol the neighborhood according to the placement of the boxes.

Pondok Bit Polis serves as an emergency center in Newtown.

Ng discusses about the Westlake security matters with a group of student journalists from J-on in his office.