This paper reports the outcome of a thermal comfort study that assessed the satisfaction of occupants with their surrounding thermal conditions. The study was carried out in 10 mosque buildings around lowland Nibong Tebal, Penang and highland Cameron Highlands, Pahang. It involved determining the compliance level of thermal comfort parameters (i.e. air temperature, relative humidity and air speed) at lowland and highland and establishing relationships between ventilation systems with predicted mean vote and predicted percentage of dissatisfied at lowland and highland according to ASHRAE Standard-55. The study was conducted from 1200h to 1700h/1730h to assess the thermal conditions of the 10 mosques during Zohor/Friday and Asar prayer times. During prayer times, an active ventilation system was in operation, while before and after prayer times, only passive ventilation (windows and doors) was available. Overall, findings indicated that better thermal comfort conditions occurred during prayer time at highland compared with those at the lowland, with the thermal sensation conditions of mosques in the former 'slightly warmer' to 'slightly cool' and in the latter 'slightly warm' to 'hot'. Moreover, most mosques at lowland did not provide good thermal comfort because the percentage of dissatisfied was high compared to that at highland.

The indoor air quality (IAQ) in Air-Conditioning Split Units (ACSU) offices depends mainly on recirculated indoor air that has gone through filters. Workers usually spend eight hours in the office space with restricted air circulation. An IAQ assessment was conducted at the administrative office space, USM, to investigate conditions in an ACSU office space; from 8.00 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. It starts with a walkthrough survey followed by the filling of questionnaires, with a sample size of 11 workers for insights into the office operations. The specific physical parameters (T, RH, and AM) and indoor air contaminants (CO, CH 2 O, O 3 , PM 10 , TVOC, TBC, TFC, and CO 2 ) were conducted at three points indoor and one point outdoor. The T and RH were within the acceptable range of 23-26°C and 40-70%, respectively by ICOP, while the AM was very low and less than the acceptable threshold range of 0.

The widespread use of Air Conditioning Split Units (ACSU) to cool the air inside mosques may pose potential adverse health effects, secondary to exposure to biological contaminants. To address this issue, the dependencies of biological contaminants (bacteria and fungi) on temperature (T) and relative humidity (RH) of the 'mosques' indoor air were evaluated. A total of 25 mosques were investigated during the periods in which their respective congregators were performing Zohor or Friday, and Asar prayers. The recorded average indoor bacteria and fungi concentrations were 382.6±143.9 cfu/ m 3 and 229.4±165.5 cfu/m 3 , respectively. However, the study found that masses of bacteria aerosol within the indoors of certain mosques (10 out of 17 ACSU mosques and 1 out of 8 non-ACSU mosques) exceeded the limit recommended by Malaysian standard for indoor air quality (500 cfu/m 3). Meanwhile, the results of regression analyses suggested that T and RH of the indoor air have high influence on airborne bacteria and fungi. The variations in bacteria concentrations due to the influence of T and RH in ACSU mosques (T= 92.3%; RH= 90.3%) were higher than in non-ACSU mosques (T= 82.75%; RH= 81.7%) whereas the variations in fungi concentrations in non-ACSU mosques (T=70.45%; RH= 71.45%) were higher than in ACSU mosques (T= 66.05%; RH= 60.7%). This research shows that the growth of bacteria and fungi within the prayer halls of mosques in Malaysia is very much dependent on its indoor T and RH.

Results show that the mean concentrations of the nine indoor air contaminants in M1, M2 and M3 did not exceed ICOP's limits, except for the ozone concentration in M3 that exceeded the limit at 0.150 ppm. We conclude that the concentration levels of indoor air contaminants in the studied mosques are in compliance with Malaysia's ICOP and the non-compliance issue with regard to the ozone concentration in one of the mosques is due to the mosque's location in a busy coastal and marine area.

In Malaysia, accidents that involve collisions with rigid and articulated trucks are mainly related to the conspicuity issue i.e. the issue of the conspicuity of the lighting components on heavy goods vehicles (HGVs). Thus, visibility and conspicuity must be improved because such an improvement can help drivers encounter safety measures on the psychological phenomenon. Conspicuity is the ability of a vehicle to be noticed without observers intentionally searching for it.  In Malaysia, HGVs must be equipped with lighting components for improved visibility. The study aims to analyse the percentages of lighting components that comply with the MS ISO 303:2004. This research is conducted at Jawi Toll Plaza, Nibong Tebal, Pulau Pinang from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.  Results show that 93% of two-axle box trucks have installed rear lighting components that adhere to the standard. Meanwhile, other categories are between 38% and 91%.  In conclusion, even though Heavy Goods Vehicles recorded as having high compliance levels of the rear lighting components, the accident still occurred.  The types of crashes are based on the inadequate visibility involved when the moving vehicles are approaching the rear or sides of slow-moving or stationary vehicles at night.

This is a study done to investigate the effects of solar radiation on the wall surface temperature of a modern terrace house. It involves the analysis of the thermal fluctuations of common building materials used for walls or vertical surface areas such as the bricks, glass of the window, and metal doors. A thermal imager and data logging system was used in collecting the data for the Southeast and Northwest façades of the house. The imager gave resourceful data on the thermal heat trend of the walls and their surface temperature. The results show that a lighter wall surface color reduces the temperature of the surface. Furthermore, the bricks, which have a higher density hence a higher absorptivity due to their high capacity for storage of heat, decrease the flow of heat. However, the use of tinted glass on windows increases the surface temperature of the glass area of the wall surface. The metal also shows a high similarity with glass in terms of its thermal performance. In conclusion, the types of material used on wall surfaces have a significant impact on the wall temperature.

This study assessed occupants’ satisfaction with their surrounding temperature conditions.  The study was carried out at the student’s dormitory, residential and prayer hall of Pusat Islam Engineering Campus, USM.  It entailed determining the compliance of thermal comfort parameters; temperature (T), relative humidity (RH) and air movement (AM).  The parameters are then used as input in the Center for the Built Environment (CBE) Thermal Comfort Tool to obtain Predicted Mean Value (PMV) and Predicted Percentage Dissatisfied (PPD) for ASHRAE Standard-55.  The monitoring for this study was conducted for three hours in a three-time period; 6 A.M. - 9 A.M., 11 A.M. - 2 P.M., and 5 P.M. - 8 P.M. for students’ dormitory and residential.  For monitoring at Pusat Islam, it was conducted in two slots; 11 A.M. - 2 P.M. and 6 P.M. - 10 P.M., and it was assessed during Ramadan when the Muslims perform the Teraweh prayer.  Overall, the finding indicates that most of the time, the thermal comfort parameters at the three monitoring places did not comply with the (Industry Code of Practice on Indoor Air Quality) ICOP limit.  Hence, it also influenced the PMV and PPD values which did not adhere to the ASHRAE Standard-55.  This could be due to the poor design of the building where the plan itself does not promote cross-ventilation, the high outdoor temperature, and insufficient indoor air movement, thus causing discomfort to the occupants

In recent years, Malaysia's growing population and accelerating economic conditions have resulted in the construction of high-rise condominiums and the expansion of settlements and lifelines across hilly areas. Natural disasters are always happening in Malaysia, with landslides and flash floods as the main problems and common natural disasters. This problem occurs annually due to rising numbers of development in Malaysia involving land clearance and rapid construction, especially in hilly areas. Under such circumstances, research was conducted on landslide and flash flood incidences in Malaysia from 2020 until 2022. The assessment in this research was done using the matrix method commonly used in Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The results gained by using those method shows that both landslides and flash flood naturally happen in the last quarter of a year, which are in December and January for both landslides and flash flood disaster. The highest score for landslide incidences was in Putrajaya and Kuala Lumpur with 8.4; in contrast, 9.2, the highest average score recorded for flash floods, happened in Selangor, Pahang, Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, and Terengganu. Both of these incidents occurred in December 2021. This situation shows that both natural and man-made affect the occurrence of the tragedy in Malaysia. Heavy rainfall and rapid development lead to this problem. Compliance with general guidelines from contractors, developers and agencies may reduce the number of these disasters in the future. Hence, it will help to prevent soil erosion and slope failure that frequently occurs in Malaysia.