Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the perceptions of indigenous people towards tourism development and the factors that influence their perceptions of the economic, social and environmental impacts of tourism. Design/methodology/approach: This study will focus on the perceptions of an aboriginal group indigenous to Malaysia, and draws upon a sample of 272 from the Lower Kinabatangan region of Sabah, Malaysia. Respondents were administered a questionnaire, the results of which were analysed by way of partial least squares–structural equation modelling. Findings: The results indicate a significant positive effect for economic gain on the perceived economic and environmental impacts of tourism, and of community involvement on the perception of social impacts. Moreover, the study found that the perception of environmental impacts, followed by perceived economic impacts, had a strong effect on support for tourism development. Originality/value: This study makes a significant theoretical contribution to the resident perception literature by investigating how the perception of tourism impacts affects indigenous residents’ support for tourism development. Furthermore, this study describes a number of practical implications of this study for the promotion of sustainable tourism development among indigenous residents.

The dampness is a significant threat in the heritage building and a leading factors to the degradation and dilapidated building. The scientifically measured need to be implemented in mitigating such issues. Advance understanding of heritage building condition is a must in mitigating to prolong the building life cycle. The study purpose is to measure surface temperature, ambient temperature and relative humidity at the dampness point of the heritage building. The measurement calculation technically reveals the dew point temperature and indicates the prediction of thermal bridge and mould risk. In situ test conduct using natural infrared heat radiation to the same relevant surface. The preliminaries finding indicates the average temperature pattern at the surface in four (4) heritage building with nineteen (19) spot at (24.5-25.7)℃, dew point temperature (23.7-24.3)℃, ambient temperature (25.78-27.0)℃ and relative humidity (85.5-89.6)%. The preliminaries finding leads to the identification of no thermal bridge treat but with highly mould risk.

Kenaf fibre mat (KFM) reinforced polypropylene (PP) biocomposites have been prepared using sandwich structure and hot press moulding technique. To enhance the interfacial bonding between PP and kenaf fibre, KFM was chemically treated with two different chemicals which are 5% hydrogen peroxide and 2% silane. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) was used to characterize the chemical constituents in both treated and untreated kenaf fibres. Universal tensile machine (UTM) was used to determine mechanical properties (tensile and flexural strength, tensile and flexural modulus) of both treated and untreated KFM-PP biocomposites. Water absorption test was also conducted in order to evaluate its water-resistance performance. The result shows that peroxide treatment demonstrated the highest performance in mechanical and water absorption properties compared to other chemical treatment. SEM morphological studies proved that almost all treated KFM showing good fibre-matrix interfacial adhesion which less fibre pull out, void and and small interface gap. Thus, the chemical treatment on KFM improved fibre-matrix adhesion, which also contributed to the enhancement of mechanical properties and physical properties compared to untreated KFM reinforced PP biocomposites.

The paper purposely to explore, review and confirm the keys factors that have enormous impact and influence on the conservation of heritage building in Malaysia. A focus on developing an adaptive reuse (AR) model as a decision-making tool in enhancing the heritage building performance by equipping substantial information to the relevant organization, such as authority and the private sector. These papers enlighten the significant finding from the excessive literature review within the trustworthy sources. Factors influence in heritage building being set accordingly to bridge the gap and tighten up the common understanding of the major player

In this work, Epoxidized natural rubber/sawdust short fiber (ENR-50/ SD) composites at different fiber content (5, 10, 15 and 20 phr) and size (fine size at 60–100 μm and coarse size at 10–20 mm) were prepared using two-roll mill and electrical-hydraulic hot press machine respectively. Curing characteristics, water uptake, tensile, morphological, physical, and thermal properties of the composites were investigated. Results indicated that the scorch time and cure time became shorter whereas torque improved as SD content increase. Though the decline of tensile strength and elongation at break values, modulus, hardness and crosslinking density have shown enhancements with the increasing of SD content. The water uptake percentage of all samples has shown an increasing as SD content increase. However, the low SD content, particularly fine size have presented lower water uptake. The temperature of weight% loss (5 and 50 wt% loss) of 5 phr SD (low content) have recorded higher temperature compared to 20 phr SD (high content) in the rubber composites, which indicated higher thermal stability. The fine size of SD has recorded better overall properties than SD coarse size at same loading in the rubber composites.