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Abstract Bio-butanol, an alcoholic molecule with 4-carbon atoms, has been widely investigated as an alternative renewable biofuel to replace petrol fuel. Being a renewable biofuel, bio-butanol addresses the issue of replacing non-renewable petrol fuel. It is also an environmental-friendly fuel for sustainable development growth. To make bio-butanol become a more favorable biofuel for the environment, this biofuel can be produced by using agricultural biomass as the feedstock. Biomass residues from agricultural activities can be processed and converted into sugars and used as a carbon source for acetone-butanol-ethanol fermentation by Clostridium spp. This approach may help the agricultural industry to manage their waste and reduce the environmental impact. Concurrently, the production of bio-butanol could assist the energy-based industry to tackle a new source of fuel that is renewable and greener than petrol fuel.

Abstract This chapter provides background information on peat and more specifically on Indonesian peatlands and their role in the global carbon cycle and summarizes information on human-induced CO2 emissions caused by peat oxidation and fires. In contrast to these so-called on-site CO2 emissions, not much was known about off-site CO2 emissions prior to the joint Indonesian–German project Science for the Protection of Indonesian Coastal Ecosystems (SPICE). Off-site CO2 emissions are CO2 emissions caused by the mobilization of peat carbon along the land–ocean continuum, which were studied by us in the framework of SPICE. Our results allowed us to establish comprehensive carbon budgets showing that peatland preservation and restoration are crucial measures to combat global warming and mitigate climate change impacts caused. e.g., by sea level rise. Furthermore, we conducted socioeconomic experiments and used the established carbon budget to demonstrate the economic conflict that arises between restoration and transformation of peatlands into plantations. Abstrak Bab ini memberikan informasi mengenai gambut dan lebih khusus lagi tentang lahan gambut di Indonesia dan peranannya dalam siklus karbon global, serta merangkum informasi mengenai emisi CO2 yang disebabkan oleh aktivitas manusia sehingga mengakibatkan terjadinya oksidasi dan kebakaran lahan gambut. Terkait emisi CO2 yang terdapat di tempat ini telah banyak di ketahui, namun hal yang kontras dengan informasi terkait emisi CO2 di luar lokasi masih kurang diketahui sebelum program kerjasama riset SPICE antara Indonesia dan Jerman dilakukan. Emisi CO2 di luar lokasi merupakan emisi CO2 yang disebabkan oleh mobilisasi karbon yang berasal dari gambut di sepanjang kontinum darat hingga laut, yang diteliti dalam kerangka kerja program SPICE. Riset ini menunjukkan hasil pengukuran karbon budget yang komprehensif dimana aspek pelestarian dan restorasi lahan gambut merupakan upaya yang sangat penting untuk memerangi pemanasan global dan mitigasi perubahan iklim yang ditimbulkan, misalnya akibat kenaikan permukaan laut dan meningkatnya emisi CO2. Lebih lanjut, dalam riset SPICE ini dilakukan juga eksperimen sosial ekonomi dan menggunakan pengukuran karbon budget yang telah ditetapkan untuk menunjukkan potensi konflik ekonomi yang mungkin terjadi antara aktivitas restorasi dan transformasi lahan gambut menjadi perkebunan, pertanian atau tujuan lainnya.

Myanmar is exposed to multiple natural hazards including cyclones, earthquakes, floods, droughts, landslides, tsunamis, and fires. The western coast of Myanmar is subject to frequent tropical storms and cyclones during monsoon seasons. Socioeconomic sectors related to adaptation in Myanmar include agriculture, forest, biodiversity, coastal zones, public health, water resources, and education. The agriculture sector in Myanmar, particularly agricultural production and food security, is very vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change. Potential local level pilots have been identified in the dry zone and coastal region.

This study assessed the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic in motivating digital transformation in the education sector in Zimbabwe. The study tracked the rate at which the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) tools were used by various institutions during the COVID-19 lockdown. Data were obtained from secondary sources. The findings are that, in Zimbabwe, during the lockdown, a variety of 4IR tools were unleashed from primary education to higher and tertiary education where educational activities switched to remote (online) learning. These observations reflect that Zimbabwe generally has some elements of excellence to drive the education sector into the 4IR, which has the potential to increase access. Access to education, particularly at a higher education level, has always been a challenge due to a limited number of spaces available. The pandemic has presented an opportunity to assess successes and failures of deployed technologies, costs associated with them, and scaling these technologies to improve access.

This paper presents an operational comparison of two open source-based control platforms for a practical, low cost do-it-yourself underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) developed by Underwater Technology Research Group (UTeRG), Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. Research institutes and hobbyist have shown a growing interest in the development of observation class remotely operated vehicle using open-source platform. Two low-cost open-source solutions for such ROV are known as OpenROV, an open-source platform that is introduced by OpenROV company, and the Ardusub, an open-source ROV kit promoted by Blue Robotics Company. Both open-source hardware and software platforms are being used worldwide for the development of small range of electrical powered ROV system’s architecture, with support from the literature in the internet and the extensive experience acquired with the development of robotic exploration systems. The comparison of both open-source platform is discussed in detail, to provide guidance on how to build our own do-it-yourself ROV, with the lowest possible cost.

Poverty alleviation has been one of the main agenda of development in most developing countries. The goal of this chapter is to assess the influence of climate change on rice farmers' poverty in Malaysia's Kedah state. Here, we provide the evidence from a case study among agricultural households in Kedah, Malaysia. Our results show that level of education, non-farm income and temperature are significant to explain the likelihood of a farmer being poor. Hence, our findings suggest that the poor farmers can decrease their poverty if the government will explore the initiative to increase their level of education. If the farmers are educated, they will be able to produce in the least costly measures. They will be able to know what crops they should produce according to the market demand. Lastly, they will be able to tackle the effect of warm temperature. The findings of our study also lend support to the view that the non-farm sector could be a viable option to reduce poverty among the rural-agricultural households. The major emphasis should be given to increase the efficiency of the farmers, enlarge the resource base of farmers through crop divergence and growth of structure.

The ability of farmers to perceive climate change is a fundamental prerequisite for choosing adaptation practices. Localized forms of perception of climate risk strongly depend on societal, ethnic and economic conditions in which people undergo risk and perception influences behaviour and assist decision makers. In line with this, this chapter examined farmers’ perception, adaptation barriers and their adaptation behaviour. The study found that perceived sensitivity, perceived severity and perceived benefits of climate change play an important role in raising awareness of climate change and the formation of favourable attitudes to minimize the adverse effects of climate change. The study also addresses the mediating effects of climate change awareness and attitudes towards climate change between perception and adaptation behaviours. Policy makers could increase outreach to local stakeholders, to increase awareness of these policies and plans and provide opportunities for feedback. Malaysia needs to build public support for adaptation. Public support for adaptation is generally lacking in the ASEAN countries, and needs to be generated on the ground.

Nonadherence medication refers to the misuse or forgetting to take medication on time, it Is a fatal issue that causes a huge number of health issues and complex failure in the body and unfortunately. This paper proposes an advanced innovative medication reminder device consist of a mobile application and it is connected wirelessly using IoT to the hardware part as a special medication container in a shape of a smartphone cover or chain. To evaluate the device a survey was distributed to different population samples of the different age groups from both local and private sectors followed by an intense interview from the same sampling population. This medication device is the perfect and most convenient method to stick to medication time and the number of pills to help in fast recovery at all ages without complications and most importantly to save money. Managerial and practical implications are discussed.

Service robots have received increasing attention in mobile robotics field with the recent advancement in technology and computing power. One of the important aspects of service robots is the vision recognition system. This system is crucial for the robot to navigate through the surrounding and detect the objects such as obstacles and targets. Most of the recent service robots use costly sensors such as LIDAR and high-end vision system in order to recognize its environment. This paper proposes to use a cost-effective sensor which is an omni-directional camera to obtain a full 360° field of view (FOV) of the surrounding environment. The images from the camera were then used to identify the location of the human in any direction from the robot. From the results, the optimal method to unwrap the omni-directional image and recognition of human is promising. In addition, the direction and heading of the robot is also configurable in future works using the proposed method.