Nitrogen and phosphorus transformations in fixed-film biofilters subjected to aeration/no-aeration cycles

Despite recent developments in fixed-film combined biological nutrients removal (BNR) technology; fixed-film systems (i.e., biofilters), are still at the early stages of development and their application has been limited to a few laboratory-scale experiments. Achieving enhanced biological phosphorus removal in fixed-film systems requires exposing the micro-organisms and the waste stream to alternating anaerobic/aerobic or anaerobic/anoxic conditions in cycles. The concept of cycle duration (CD) as a process control parameter is unique to fixed-film BNR systems, has not been previously investigated, and can be used to optimise the performance of such systems. The CD refers to the elapsed time before the biomass is re-exposed to the same environmental conditions in cycles. Fixed-film systems offer many advantages over suspended growth systems such as reduced operating costs, simplicity of operation, absence of sludge recycling problems, and compactness. The control of nutrient discharges to water bodies, improves water quality, fish production, and allow water reuse. The main objective of this study was to develop a fundamental understanding of the effect of CD on the transformations of nutrients in fixed-film biofilter systems subjected to alternating aeration I no-aeration cycles A fixed-film biofilter system consisting of three up-flow biofilters connected in series was developed and tested. The first and third biofilters were operated in a cyclic mode in which the biomass was subjected to aeration/no-aeration cycles. The influent wastewater was simulated aquaculture whose composition was based on actual water quality parameters of aquacuture wastewater from a prawn grow-out facility. The influent contained 8.5 - 9:3 mg!L a111monia-N, 8.5- 8.7 mg/L phosphate-P, and 45- 50 mg!L acetate. Two independent studies were conducted at two biofiltration rates to evaluate and confirm the effect of CD on nutrient transformations in the biofilter system for application in aquaculture: A third study was conducted to enhance denitrification in the system using an external carbon- source at a rate varying from 0-24 ml/min. The CD was varied in the range of0.25- 120 hours for the first two studies and fixed at 12 hours for the third study. This study identified the CD as an important process control parameter that can be used to optimise the performance of full-scale fixed-film systems for BNR which represents a novel contribution in this field of research. The CD resulted in environmental conditions that inhibited or enhanced nutrient transformations. The effect of CD on BNR in fixed-film systems in terms of phosphorus biomass saturation and depletion has been established. Short CDs did not permit the establishment of anaerobic activity in the un-aerated biofilter and, thus, inhibited phosphorus release. Long CDs resulted in extended anaerobic activity and, thus, resulted in active phosphorus release. Long CDs, however, resulted in depleting the biomass phosphorus reservoir in the releasing biofilter and saturating the biomass phosphorus reservoir in the up-taking biofilter in the cycle. This phosphorus biomass saturation/depletion phenomenon imposes a practical limit on how short or long the CD can be. The length of the CD should be somewhere just before saturation or depletion occur and for the system tested, the optimal CD was 12 hours for the biofiltration rates tested. The system achieved limited net phosphorus removal due to the limited sludge wasting and lack of external carbon supply during phosphorus uptake. The phosphorus saturation and depletion reflected the need to extract phosphorus from the phosphorus-rich micro-organisms, for example, through back-washing. The major challenges of achieving phosphorus removal in the system included: (I) overcoming the deterioration in the performance of the system during the transition period following the start of each new cycle; and (2) wasting excess phosphorus-saturated biomass following the aeration cycle. Denitrification occurred in poorly aerated sections of the third biofilter and generally declined as the CD increased and as the time progressed in the individual cycle. Denitrification and phosphorus uptake were supplied by an internal organic carbon source, and the addition of an external carbon source (acetate) to the third biofilter resulted in improved denitrification efficiency in the system from 18.4 without supplemental carbon to 88.7% when the carbon dose reached 24 mL/min The removal of TOC and nitrification improved as the CD increased, as a result of the reduction in the frequency of transition periods between the cycles. A conceptual design of an effective fixed-film BNR biofilter system for the treatment of the influent simulated aquaculture wastewater was proposed based on the findings of the study.

Empirical investigation of interactive highway safety design model accident prediction algorithm : Rural intersections

One major gap in transportation system safety management is the ability to assess the safety ramifications of design changes for both new road projects and modifications to existing roads. To fulfill this need, FHWA and its many partners are developing a safety forecasting tool, the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model (IHSDM). The tool will be used by roadway design engineers, safety analysts, and planners throughout the United States. As such, the statistical models embedded in IHSDM will need to be able to forecast safety impacts under a wide range of roadway configurations and environmental conditions for a wide range of driver populations and will need to be able to capture elements of driving risk across states. One of the IHSDM algorithms developed by FHWA and its contractors is for forecasting accidents on rural road segments and rural intersections. The methodological approach is to use predictive models for specific base conditions, with traffic volume information as the sole explanatory variable for crashes, and then to apply regional or state calibration factors and accident modification factors (AMFs) to estimate the impact on accidents of geometric characteristics that differ from the base model conditions. In the majority of past approaches, AMFs are derived from parameter estimates associated with the explanatory variables. A recent study for FHWA used a multistate database to examine in detail the use of the algorithm with the base model-AMF approach and explored alternative base model forms as well as the use of full models that included nontraffic-related variables and other approaches to estimate AMFs. That research effort is reported. The results support the IHSDM methodology.

Productions of space : civic participation of young people at university

Civic participation of young people around the world is routinely described in deficit terms, as they are labelled apathetic, devoid of political knowledge, disengaged from the community and self-absorbed (Andolina, 2002; Weller, 2006). This paper argues that the connectivity of time, space and social values (Lefebvre, 1991; Soja, 1996) are integral to understanding the performances of young people as civic subjects. Today’s youth negotiate unstable social, economic and environmental conditions, new technologies and new forms of community. Loyalty, citizenship and notions of belonging take on new meanings in these changing global conditions. Using the socio-spatial theories of Lefebvre and Foucault, and the tools of critical discourse analysis, this paper argues that the chronotope, or time/space relationship of universities, produces student citizens who, in resistance to a complex global society, create a cocooned space which focuses on moral and spiritual values that can be enacted on a personal level.

Design and implementation of sensor networks for the observation and research of harmful algal blooms in southern California coastal waters

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) have become an important environmental concern along the western coast of the United States. Toxic and noxious blooms adversely impact the economies of coastal communities in the region, pose risks to human health, and cause mortality events that have resulted in the deaths of thousands of fish, marine mammals and seabirds. One goal of field-based research efforts on this topic is the development of predictive models of HABs that would enable rapid response, mitigation and ultimately prevention of these events. In turn, these objectives are predicated on understanding the environmental conditions that stimulate these transient phenomena. An embedded sensor network (Fig. 1), under development in the San Pedro Shelf region off the Southern California coast, is providing tools for acquiring chemical, physical and biological data at high temporal and spatial resolution to help document the emergence and persistence of HAB events, supporting the design and testing of predictive models, and providing contextual information for experimental studies designed to reveal the environmental conditions promoting HABs. The sensor platforms contained within this network include pier-based sensor arrays, ocean moorings, HF radar stations, along with mobile sensor nodes in the form of surface and subsurface autonomous vehicles. FreewaveTM radio modems facilitate network communication and form a minimally-intrusive, wireless communication infrastructure throughout the Southern California coastal region, allowing rapid and cost-effective data transfer. An emerging focus of this project is the incorporation of a predictive ocean model that assimilates near-real time, in situ data from deployed Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs). The model then assimilates the data to increase the skill of both nowcasts and forecasts, thus providing insight into bloom initiation as well as the movement of blooms or other oceanic features of interest (e.g., thermoclines, fronts, river discharge, etc.). From these predictions, deployed mobile sensors can be tasked to track a designated feature. This focus has led to the creation of a technology chain in which algorithms are being implemented for the innovative trajectory design for AUVs. Such intelligent mission planning is required to maneuver a vehicle to precise depths and locations that are the sites of active blooms, or physical/chemical features that might be sources of bloom initiation or persistence. The embedded network yields high-resolution, temporal and spatial measurements of pertinent environmental parameters and resulting biology (see Fig. 1). Supplementing this with ocean current information and remotely sensed imagery and meteorological data, we obtain a comprehensive foundation for developing a fundamental understanding of HAB events. This then directs labor- intensive and costly sampling efforts and analyses. Additionally, we provide coastal municipalities, managers and state agencies with detailed information to aid their efforts in providing responsible environmental stewardship of their coastal waters.

International regional planning educational experience : learnings from Malaysia, Korea and Turkey study trips

In an era of rapidly changing economic, social and environmental conditions, urban and regional planning education must be resilient, innovative and able to deal with the complex political and socio-economic fabric of post-modern cities. As a consequence, urban and regional planning education plays a fundamental role in educating and forming planning practitioners that will be able to tackle such complexity. However, not many tertiary education institutions provide a trans-cultural engagement opportunity for students, where the need to internationalise planning education has been widely recognised worldwide. The aim of this paper is to communicate the findings of three overseas study trips (Kuala Lumpur-Malaysia, Daejeon-Korea, Istanbul and Gallipoli-Turkey) that students of Queensland University of Technology are taken to where these study trips trailed the provision of an innovative tertiary education experience of teaching regional planning in an international context. The findings of the pedagogic analyses of the study reveal that the exposure of students to different planning processes and practices give them a new outlook on what they knew from their own country and provide them with useful insights on international planning issues and cultural differences and barriers.

The ecological dynamics of decision-making in sailing

Competitive sailing is characterised by continuous interdependencies of decisions and actions. All actions imply a permanent monitoring of the environmental conditions, such as intensity and direction of the wind, sea characteristics, and the behaviour of the opponent sailors. These constraints on sailors’ behavior are in constant change implying continuous adjustments in sailors’ actions and decisions. Among the different parts of a regatta, tactics and strategy at the start are particularly relevant. Among coaches there is an adage that says that “the start is 50% of a regatta” (Houghton, 1984; Saltonstall, 1983/1986). Olympic sailing regattas are performed with boats of the same class, by one, two or three sailors, depending on the boat class. Normally before the start, sailors visit the racing venue and analyse wind and sea characteristics, in order to fine- tune their boats accordingly. Then, five minutes before the start, sailors initiate starting procedures in order to be in a favourable position at the starting line (at the “second zero”). This position is selected during the start period according to wind shifts tendencies and the actions of other boats (Figure 11.1). Only after the start signal can the boats cross the imaginary starting line between the race committee signal boat “A” and the pin end boat. The start takes place against the wind (upwind), and the boats start racing in the direction of mark 1. Based on the evaluation of the sea and wind characteristics (e.g. if the wind is stronger at a particular place on the course), sailors re- adjust their strategy for the regatta. This strategy may change during the regatta, according to wind changes and adversary actions. More to the point, strategic decisions constrain and are constrained by on- line decisions during the regatta.

Bouncing back : Resilient design for Brisbane - Exhibition

"Bouncing Back: Resilient Design for Brisbane" was an opportunity for QUT students to communicate their inspiring design responses to adversity, to the larger Brisbane community. The exhibition demonstrates new and innovative ways of thinking about our cities, and how they are built to be resilient and to suit extreme environmental conditions. The challenge for architecture students is to address the state of architecture as a reflection of today's world and to consider how design fits into the 21st century. Students have explored notions of 'Urban Resilience' from multiple perspectives, including emergency design while facing flooding, flood proof housing and urban designs.

Combining influence maps and cellular automata for reactive game agents

Agents make up an important part of game worlds, ranging from the characters and monsters that live in the world to the armies that the player controls. Despite their importance, agents in current games rarely display an awareness of their environment or react appropriately, which severely detracts from the believability of the game. Some games have included agents with a basic awareness of other agents, but they are still unaware of important game events or environmental conditions. This paper presents an agent design we have developed, which combines cellular automata for environmental modeling with influence maps for agent decision-making. The agents were implemented into a 3D game environment we have developed, the EmerGEnT system, and tuned through three experiments. The result is simple, flexible game agents that are able to respond to natural phenomena (e.g. rain or fire), while pursuing a goal.

Interactive axial shortening of columns and walls in high rise buildings

Concrete is commonly used as a primary construction material for tall building construction. Load bearing components such as columns and walls in concrete buildings are subjected to instantaneous and long term axial shortening caused by the time dependent effects of "shrinkage", "creep" and "elastic" deformations. Reinforcing steel content, variable concrete modulus, volume to surface area ratio of the elements and environmental conditions govern axial shortening. The impact of differential axial shortening among columns and core shear walls escalate with increasing building height. Differential axial shortening of gravity loaded elements in geometrically complex and irregular buildings result in permanent distortion and deflection of the structural frame which have a significant impact on building envelopes, building services, secondary systems and the life time serviceability and performance of a building. Existing numerical methods commonly used in design to quantify axial shortening are mainly based on elastic analytical techniques and therefore unable to capture the complexity of non-linear time dependent effect. Ambient measurements of axial shortening using vibrating wire, external mechanical strain, and electronic strain gauges are methods that are available to verify pre-estimated values from the design stage. Installing these gauges permanently embedded in or on the surface of concrete components for continuous measurements during and after construction with adequate protection is uneconomical, inconvenient and unreliable. Therefore such methods are rarely if ever used in actual practice of building construction. This research project has developed a rigorous numerical procedure that encompasses linear and non-linear time dependent phenomena for prediction of axial shortening of reinforced concrete structural components at design stage. This procedure takes into consideration (i) construction sequence, (ii) time varying values of Young's Modulus of reinforced concrete and (iii) creep and shrinkage models that account for variability resulting from environmental effects. The capabilities of the procedure are illustrated through examples. In order to update previous predictions of axial shortening during the construction and service stages of the building, this research has also developed a vibration based procedure using ambient measurements. This procedure takes into consideration the changes in vibration characteristic of structure during and after construction. The application of this procedure is illustrated through numerical examples which also highlight the features. The vibration based procedure can also be used as a tool to assess structural health/performance of key structural components in the building during construction and service life.

Bouncing back : resilient design for Brisbane

"Bouncing Back: Resilient Design for Brisbane" was an opportunity for QUT students to communicate their inspiring design responses to adversity, to the larger Brisbane community. The exhibition demonstrates new and innovative ways of thinking about our cities, and how they are built to be resilient and to suit extreme environmental conditions. The challenge for architecture students is to address the state of architecture as a reflection of today's world and to consider how design fits into the 21st century. Students have explored notions of 'Urban Resilience' from multiple perspectives, including emergency design while facing flooding, flood proof housing and urban designs.

Statistical modelling of wind effects on signal propagation for wireless sensor networks

A wireless sensor network system must have the ability to tolerate harsh environmental conditions and reduce communication failures. In a typical outdoor situation, the presence of wind can introduce movement in the foliage. This motion of vegetation structures causes large and rapid signal fading in the communication link and must be accounted for when deploying a wireless sensor network system in such conditions. This thesis examines the fading characteristics experienced by wireless sensor nodes due to the effect of varying wind speed in a foliage obstructed transmission path. It presents extensive measurement campaigns at two locations with the approach of a typical wireless sensor networks configuration. The significance of this research lies in the varied approaches of its different experiments, involving a variety of vegetation types, scenarios and the use of different polarisations (vertical and horizontal). Non–line of sight (NLoS) scenario conditions investigate the wind effect based on different vegetation densities including that of the Acacia tree, Dogbane tree and tall grass. Whereas the line of sight (LoS) scenario investigates the effect of wind when the grass is swaying and affecting the ground-reflected component of the signal. Vegetation type and scenarios are envisaged to simulate real life working conditions of wireless sensor network systems in outdoor foliated environments. The results from the measurements are presented in statistical models involving first and second order statistics. We found that in most of the cases, the fading amplitude could be approximated by both Lognormal and Nakagami distribution, whose m parameter was found to depend on received power fluctuations. Lognormal distribution is known as the result of slow fading characteristics due to shadowing. This study concludes that fading caused by variations in received power due to wind in wireless sensor networks systems are found to be insignificant. There is no notable difference in Nakagami m values for low, calm, and windy wind speed categories. It is also shown in the second order analysis, the duration of the deep fades are very short, 0.1 second for 10 dB attenuation below RMS level for vertical polarization and 0.01 second for 10 dB attenuation below RMS level for horizontal polarization. Another key finding is that the received signal strength for horizontal polarisation demonstrates more than 3 dB better performances than the vertical polarisation for LoS and near LoS (thin vegetation) conditions and up to 10 dB better for denser vegetation conditions.

Biodiversity–productivity relationships in small-scale mixed-species plantations using native species in Leyte province, Philippines

In this study, we investigate the relationship between tree species diversity and production in 18 mixed-species plantations established under the Rainforestation Farming system in Leyte province, the Philippines. The aim was to quantify productivity in the mixed-species plantations in comparison to the monocultures, and identify key drivers of productivity including environmental conditions, stand structural characteristics and surrogate measures of biodiversity, i.e. species richness, Shannon’s diversity index and functional groups. We found that monocultures had a much higher productivity than mixtures of the same and other species. In the mixtures, biodiversity and productivity did not have a simple relationship. Instead the proportion of exotic and native species, and the proportion of fast-growing species had a marginally significant positive effect on stand productivity, but no significant relationship was found with species richness or Shannon’s diversity. Instead stand structural characteristics such as density and age were the strongest drivers of increased productivity. Production levels within the mixed-species plantations varied significantly between sites. Overall, we found that the productivity of mixed species plantations was driven more by the characteristics of species present and stand structural characteristics then by simply the number and abundance of species, which suggests management practices are key for balancing multiple objectives to meet sustainable development needs.

Towards spontaneous facial expression recognition in real-world video

Facial expression is an important channel of human social communication. Facial expression recognition (FER) aims to perceive and understand emotional states of humans based on information in the face. Building robust and high performance FER systems that can work in real-world video is still a challenging task, due to the various unpredictable facial variations and complicated exterior environmental conditions, as well as the difficulty of choosing a suitable type of feature descriptor for extracting discriminative facial information. Facial variations caused by factors such as pose, age, gender, race and occlusion, can exert profound influence on the robustness, while a suitable feature descriptor largely determines the performance. Most present attention on FER has been paid to addressing variations in pose and illumination. No approach has been reported on handling face localization errors and relatively few on overcoming facial occlusions, although the significant impact of these two variations on the performance has been proved and highlighted in many previous studies. Many texture and geometric features have been previously proposed for FER. However, few comparison studies have been conducted to explore the performance differences between different features and examine the performance improvement arisen from fusion of texture and geometry, especially on data with spontaneous emotions. The majority of existing approaches are evaluated on databases with posed or induced facial expressions collected in laboratory environments, whereas little attention has been paid on recognizing naturalistic facial expressions on real-world data. This thesis investigates techniques for building robust and high performance FER systems based on a number of established feature sets. It comprises of contributions towards three main objectives: (1) Robustness to face localization errors and facial occlusions. An approach is proposed to handle face localization errors and facial occlusions using Gabor based templates. Template extraction algorithms are designed to collect a pool of local template features and template matching is then performed to covert these templates into distances, which are robust to localization errors and occlusions. (2) Improvement of performance through feature comparison, selection and fusion. A comparative framework is presented to compare the performance between different features and different feature selection algorithms, and examine the performance improvement arising from fusion of texture and geometry. The framework is evaluated for both discrete and dimensional expression recognition on spontaneous data. (3) Evaluation of performance in the context of real-world applications. A system is selected and applied into discriminating posed versus spontaneous expressions and recognizing naturalistic facial expressions. A database is collected from real-world recordings and is used to explore feature differences between standard database images and real-world images, as well as between real-world images and real-world video frames. The performance evaluations are based on the JAFFE, CK, Feedtum, NVIE, Semaine and self-collected QUT databases. The results demonstrate high robustness of the proposed approach to the simulated localization errors and occlusions. Texture and geometry have different contributions to the performance of discrete and dimensional expression recognition, as well as posed versus spontaneous emotion discrimination. These investigations provide useful insights into enhancing robustness and achieving high performance of FER systems, and putting them into real-world applications.

Integrated health prediction of bridge systems using dynamic object oriented Bayesian networks (DOOBNS)

The serviceability and safety of bridges are crucial to people’s daily lives and to the national economy. Every effort should be taken to make sure that bridges function safely and properly as any damage or fault during the service life can lead to transport paralysis, catastrophic loss of property or even casualties. Nonetheless, aggressive environmental conditions, ever-increasing and changing traffic loads and aging can all contribute to bridge deterioration. With often constrained budget, it is of significance to identify bridges and bridge elements that should be given higher priority for maintenance, rehabilitation or replacement, and to select optimal strategy. Bridge health prediction is an essential underpinning science to bridge maintenance optimization, since the effectiveness of optimal maintenance decision is largely dependent on the forecasting accuracy of bridge health performance. The current approaches for bridge health prediction can be categorised into two groups: condition ratings based and structural reliability based. A comprehensive literature review has revealed the following limitations of the current modelling approaches: (1) it is not evident in literature to date that any integrated approaches exist for modelling both serviceability and safety aspects so that both performance criteria can be evaluated coherently; (2) complex system modelling approaches have not been successfully applied to bridge deterioration modelling though a bridge is a complex system composed of many inter-related bridge elements; (3) multiple bridge deterioration factors, such as deterioration dependencies among different bridge elements, observed information, maintenance actions and environmental effects have not been considered jointly; (4) the existing approaches are lacking in Bayesian updating ability to incorporate a variety of event information; (5) the assumption of series and/or parallel relationship for bridge level reliability is always held in all structural reliability estimation of bridge systems. To address the deficiencies listed above, this research proposes three novel models based on the Dynamic Object Oriented Bayesian Networks (DOOBNs) approach. Model I aims to address bridge deterioration in serviceability using condition ratings as the health index. The bridge deterioration is represented in a hierarchical relationship, in accordance with the physical structure, so that the contribution of each bridge element to bridge deterioration can be tracked. A discrete-time Markov process is employed to model deterioration of bridge elements over time. In Model II, bridge deterioration in terms of safety is addressed. The structural reliability of bridge systems is estimated from bridge elements to the entire bridge. By means of conditional probability tables (CPTs), not only series-parallel relationship but also complex probabilistic relationship in bridge systems can be effectively modelled. The structural reliability of each bridge element is evaluated from its limit state functions, considering the probability distributions of resistance and applied load. Both Models I and II are designed in three steps: modelling consideration, DOOBN development and parameters estimation. Model III integrates Models I and II to address bridge health performance in both serviceability and safety aspects jointly. The modelling of bridge ratings is modified so that every basic modelling unit denotes one physical bridge element. According to the specific materials used, the integration of condition ratings and structural reliability is implemented through critical failure modes. Three case studies have been conducted to validate the proposed models, respectively. Carefully selected data and knowledge from bridge experts, the National Bridge Inventory (NBI) and existing literature were utilised for model validation. In addition, event information was generated using simulation to demonstrate the Bayesian updating ability of the proposed models. The prediction results of condition ratings and structural reliability were presented and interpreted for basic bridge elements and the whole bridge system. The results obtained from Model II were compared with the ones obtained from traditional structural reliability methods. Overall, the prediction results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed modelling approach for bridge health prediction and underpin the assertion that the three models can be used separately or integrated and are more effective than the current bridge deterioration modelling approaches. The primary contribution of this work is to enhance the knowledge in the field of bridge health prediction, where more comprehensive health performance in both serviceability and safety aspects are addressed jointly. The proposed models, characterised by probabilistic representation of bridge deterioration in hierarchical ways, demonstrated the effectiveness and pledge of DOOBNs approach to bridge health management. Additionally, the proposed models have significant potential for bridge maintenance optimization. Working together with advanced monitoring and inspection techniques, and a comprehensive bridge inventory, the proposed models can be used by bridge practitioners to achieve increased serviceability and safety as well as maintenance cost effectiveness.

Malay Kingship in Kedah : Religion, Trade, and Society

The book probes and examines traditional sources of royal power and control, as well as indigenous socio-political systems in the Malay world. It is focused on the north-western Malaysian Sultanate of Kedah which is acknowledged as the oldest unbroken independent kingship line in the ‘Malay and Islamic world’ with 1,000 years of history. Little scholarly attention has been paid to its pre-modern history, society, religion, system of government and unique geographic situation, potentially controlling both land and sea lines of communication into the remainder of Southeast Asia. It will thus provide the first comprehensive treatment in English, or other languages, on Kedah’s pre-modern and nineteenth century historiography and can provide a foundation for comparative studies of the various Malay states which is presently lacking. The proposed book also sheds much needed light on a range of important topics in Malay history including: Kedah and the northern Melaka Straits history, colonial expansion and rivalry, Southeast Asian history and politics, interregional migration and the influence of the sea peoples or orang laut, traditional Malay socio-political and economic life, Islamic influences and the course of Thai-Malay relations. The book attempts to offer a new understanding, not only of Kedah, but of the political and cultural development of the entire Malay world and of its relationships with the broader forces in both its continental and maritime settings. It argues that Kedah does not seem to follow, and in fact, often seems to contradict what has been commonly been accepted as the “typical model” of the traditional Malay state. Thus it concludes that the ruling dynasty has historically exploited a wide range of unique environmental conditions, local traditions, global spiritual trends and economic forces to preserve and strengthen its political position. The scope and theme of book The Kedah Sultanate is the oldest unbroken independent kingship lines in the “Malay world” with 1,000 years of history, and arguably one of the oldest in the Islamic world. In this study I examine key geopolitical and spiritual attributes of Malay kingship that have traditionally cemented the ruler, the peoples, and the environment. Brief description of the primary audience for the book: There is little written in English or Malay on Kedah’s pre twentieth century history. The available sources only look at certain aspects of Kedah’s history, are outdated or are confined to a specific period often outside the scope of the book. It is therefore anticipated that the readership and market for the book includes: • Scholars of Southeast Asian history, Islam, kingship, trade. • Academics & Historians (including: Asian, Thai history, Islamic, Maritime, Persian, South Asian, Southeast Asian and Colonial) • Libraries • Students, particularly those in Malaysia (especially the states of Kedah, Perlis and Penang), Thailand and Singapore. • Universities • Scholars and students in Political Science & International Relations