To achieve its vision to become a world-class provider for higher education in Asia Pacific, the Malaysian higher education has introduced a systematic strategic plan to develop a culture of academic excellence. Accordingly, a new position, namely a distinguished professor has been introduced as the highest position in the academic career. It is expected that an academic recognised as a distinguished professor projects excellent work practice. So far, there have been only three distinguished professors in Malaysia. Hence, this study aimed to profile the excellent work practices among the distinguished professors framed within Malaysian higher education promotion system. This study adopted a multiple case study consisting of three case studies represented by each distinguished professor. The main source of data collection was the face-to-face interview, which is complemented by written responses from the respondents and document analysis. This study found that all the three distinguished professors achieve excellent performance in all the five promotion assessment categories, which are the teaching and supervision, research and publication, academic recognition and leadership, services for the university and society, and consultation and partnership with the industry. It can be concluded that the identities of Malaysian professors are characterized by the local and global imperatives as they are shaped by not only the specific agenda of the country but also the global trend. Issues related to achieving excellent in work practice were also highlighted. Thus, this paper provides guidance for young academics pursuing for professorship to strategize their career pathway in the higher education sector.

The dust explosion characteristics of commercial rice flour towards different concentration were analysed. Experiments were performed in 20 L spherical explosion chamber to obtain maximum explosion overpressure (Pmax), rate of pressure rise (dP/dT), and minimum explosibility concentration (MEC) of undried and dried commercial rice flour. The dust samples and air mixtures were ignited by two chemical ignitors at ignition time of 100 ms. The Kistler Piezoelectric pressure sensors were used to quantify the propagation of pressure wave during the explosion process. The moisture content of the samples were measured by using proximate analysis. The Pmax was obtained at the highest pressure over the range of concentrations. Pmax for undried rice flour and dried flour are 10.0 bar and 10.4 bar respectively at 1000 kg/m3. Both of the Pmax were attained at the highest level of concentration. The highest value of dP/dT of undried was 70 bar/s at 1000 kg/m3 but for dried rice flour, the highest value obtained was 63.5 bar/s at 750 kg/m3. MEC for both dried and undried was 500 kg/m3. This study concluded that as the concentration increases, the severity of dust explosion would also increase and the presence of moisture decrease the severity of the rice flour explosion but not too significant at ignition time of 100 ms.

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