Securing flood insurance for real estate properties in flood-hit areas is rather uncertain under the Malaysian scenario. This study attempts to identify the demand-side factors of flood insurance in coastal residential areas, and to examine how these factors differentiate between two groups of respondents, namely flood insurance purchasers and non-purchasers, using discriminant analysis. Tests using Wilks' lambda, eigenvalues, canonical correlation, functions at group centroids, and classification accuracy have provided strong evidence of significant differences between the two groups based on physical exposure/susceptibility to flood, resilience/adaptive capacity to flood, and overall perception of vulnerability. The most important variables accounting for group differences were low-elevation house site, flood depth entering house, perception about high-priced flood insurance, and level of income. The likelihood of purchasing flood insurance increased with higher physical exposure/susceptibility and overall perception of vulnerability. Resilience/ adaptive capacity to flood event also increased with higher levels of income and education.

The effect of flood risk on property value is vital because property is the most asset coveted by people for ownership. The attraction to live in a location induces people to give less priority to environmental threat such as flood. This study investigates whether the value of the properties was affected by flood risk by taking Kuala Krai, Kelantan, as a case study. By combining spatial analysis, Geographic Information System mapping and statistical analysis, this study included flood risk as one of the tested variables to determine whether it has affected property value. The statistical methods used were the Ordinary Least Squares regression model (OLS) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR). Market prices of a total of 811 transacted properties in the district of Kuala Krai were used to generate statistical model and property maps. The ArcGIS software was used to display and store modeled flood in the study area. The findings showed that higher property values were found around urban centers such as Kuala Krai, Dabong, and Manik Urai, although these areas were among the areas with deep flood inundation. The study disclosed that despite living in areas exposed to flood, the value of property was unaffected. On the other hand, the strategic location in the population concentration area has made it a more important factor than flood risk in determining the impact on property value. Furthermore, people’s receptiveness, adaptability, and risk-taking attitudes were likely to have caused flood to have failed to dislodge the population from flood-prone areas. Another possibility was that flood-prone areas were important economic activity zones so much so that people were more interested to live and work there rather than responding to flood risk.

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DNA isolation is one of the most crucial part in DNA analysis and is reflected by the abundance of ready-to-use DNA isolation kits available in the market. However, the chaotropic salts used in conventional kits during the binding step has been known to inhibit the downstream process of PCR and deteriorate when exposed to air. This study aims to design a better and faster DNA isolation process with better DNA isolation performance to replace the conventional one. This study aims to replace the chaotropic salt in binding buffer with organic acids or salt and improve the buffer used during the wash step. Sodium perchlorate and several other salts and acids were chosen as candidates for the binding buffer. Simultaneously, 10Mm NaCl and 10Mm Tris-Cl with varying concentrations of organic solvents were selected as candidates for the wash buffer. The performance of the selected buffers was then compared to the readily available commercial kit. Organic acid B was among the best candidates for binding buffer with 81.91% and 83.20% recovery rates. For wash buffer, it was observed that the DNA recovery increases with an increasing organic solvent concentration in 10Mm NaCl and 10Mm Tris-Cl. Wash buffer with 90% organic solvent shows the best compromise of DNA yield and purity compared to 70%, 80%, and 100% organic solvent concentration in 10Mm NaCl and 10Mm Tris-Cl. A combination of organic acid B in binding buffer and 90% organic solvent A in wash buffer were tested against a commercial DNA extraction kit. The combination of organic acid B and 90% organic solvent yielded 72.81 ng/ul compared to 28.46 ng/ul by the commercial kit. The combination of the binding buffer organic acid B and 90% organic solvent in 10Mm NaCl and 10Mm Tris-Cl can replace the current commercial kits without the problems posed by the presence of chaotropic salt.