The objective of this study was to examine why drone delivery is another tech idea not ready to take off. Qualitative methods, which involved inductive, exploratory and interpretivism approaches, were used in this conceptual study. The inductive approach was used to generate propositions based on secondary data obtained from journal articles, authorized website contents, and books. On the other hand, exploratory and interpretivism approaches were used to undertake in-depth analysis and to have a complete description and understanding of the factors that shape consumers’ behavioural intentions to use drone food delivery services, respectively. Based on research findings and news related to consumers’ behavioural intentions to use drone delivery services, conceptual frameworks have been proposed to show the four main independent variables, which are functions, hedonic motivation, cognition, and social factors, that affect the dependent variable, which is behavioural intentions of consumers to use drone for food delivery services. Overall, factors that were hindering consumers’ behavioural intentions to use drone food delivery services were consumers’ unfamiliarity and negative perceptions toward drone delivery in that it is unregulated, dangerous, risky, lack of quantified risk assessments, intimidating, related to military and defence, and lengthy in the process to obtain authority’s permission to operate food delivery services by drones. Nevertheless, they may be influenced to use drone delivery if their friends and family were using it.

Seismic design in building construction is still new in Malaysia. Sabah, a Malaysian state, is situated southeast of the Eurasian Plate, between the highly active Philippine Sea Plate and Indo-Australian Plate, and has a history of earthquakes, with the largest measuring a magnitude of 6.3 (2015). Although small earthquakes occur annually, most old buildings in Sabah were built pre-code and designed without considering earthquake loadings. This study aimed to analyze the potential damage to buildings in Sabah based on their vulnerability to moderate earthquakes. More than 500 buildings in seven districts were evaluated using a quantitative method based on score assignment, within 100 kilometers of the epicenters. According to the findings, more than 160 buildings in the Kota Kinabalu and Kudat districts were assessed as vulnerable to Grade 4 damage. In Ranau, Kota Marudu, Tawau, Semporna, and Lahad Datu, most buildings had a Grade 3 damage potential, with some at Grade 2 or 4. This study’s findings provide a summary of the damage risk for structures in Sabah and offer a starting point for planning and developing safer buildings that can withstand local seismic conditions. The resulting building-grade damage map can be used as a reference for future damage mitigation measures.

Digital transformation has led to a new era of port development at an unprecedented pace. China represents a large percentage of total global trades, navigating the maritime silk-road to various global and regional ports. In Malaysia, the lack of concrete justifications for the issue of transhipment port strategy leads to a debatable framework. Hence, the aim of the paper is to critically discuss the strategy to build a transhipment port as a catalyst to achieving critical mass for economic growth in Sabah. The study draws heavily on existing literature on the theoretical evidence and the possible factors that shape strategy to build transshipment port in Sabah. Based on reviewed literature, various resultant strategies adopted to stand for their interest are discussed. In this way, this paper provides not only theoretical insights, but also strategically guides managers of organisations in Sabah, government, and businesses values towards building a transshipment port in Sabah to effectively retire cabotage policy to reduce cost, enhance port throughput, develop hinterland for critical mass, enhance ports-economic clusters connectivity, eliminate capacity bottleneck, unlock natural resources export potential, align port service towards regional port users’ needs and to give regional port powers a run for their money.

Peat is a problematic soil, and it is a common problem faced by engineers in construction. The characteristics that have been noted before are high moisture content, poor shear strength, great compressibility, and long-term settlement. For this research study, it focuses on stabilizing peat soil using EPP and CaO. There are three main tests that were conducted in this research study: index properties testing, compaction testing, and For Index Properties testing, five (5) experiments were conducted to study the index properties of disturbed peat soil, which are moisture content, fiber content, liquid limit, organic content, pH, and specific gravity. Next, for the Compaction Test, using a 4.5 kg rammer, define the optimum mixture of stabilizer that is mixed with different volumes of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% of stabilizer. In this study, the expected result is to inspire an in-depth study of the use of EPP material and chemical CaO as peat soil stabilizers for better utilization of problematic soil. The main finding was that the mixture with the exact amount of moisture, EPP, and CaO helped stabilize the soil and cure peat soil. Thus, this study confirms the idea of treating peat with EPP and CaO, enhancing the properties of peat soil, and sustaining the settlement over loading for a period of time accordingly. 20% mix of EPP and CaO produces the highest dry density, showing that dry density increases linearly with the amount of mixture to stabilize peat. The crystallization process between peat and EPP was pronouncedly observed where smaller particles identified as EPP filled the gaps in between the pores identified from SEM. The silicon (Si content developed from each spectrum ranged from 14.4% to 17.7%. The EDX results show significant results where mineral crystallization occurred in the coagulation process. Doi: 10.28991/CEJ-2023-09-07-011 Full Text: PDF

This paper shares the experience of a building project which piloted seismic design using Eurocode 8, with the Malaysian National Annex legislated in 2017. The 23-storey reinforced concrete building features geometric irregularity with podium and two towers, located in Kota Kinabalu, the capital city of Sabah, Malaysia. Sabah had experienced a magnitude-6 earthquake in 2015, where the epicentre Ranau was just 50 km away from Kota Kinabalu. Conventional Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment has indicated that Kota Kinabalu has a peak ground acceleration (PGA) on rock of only 0.04g for a 475-year return period, which appears to be counter-intuitive for such a potentially destructive near-field magnitude 6 earthquake. Hence, four possible scenarios are postulated, i.e., PGA of 0.04g, 0.08g and 0.12g designed with ductility class low (DCL), assuming force-based non-dissipative mechanism and 0.12g designed with ductility class medium (DCM), engaging seismic detailing to form plastic hinges. This paper is written to give local engineering practitioners, who have either no prior experience in seismic design or have been using the basic equivalent force method, to develop a better sense of response spectrum seismic analysis, code-based design and choice of strength or ductility seismic design in low-to-moderate seismicity regions.