bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
PENERIMAAN SISTEM PENGUATKUASAAN AUTOMATIK (AES) DALAM KALANGAN PEMANDU MENGGUNAKAN MODEL PENERIMAAN TEKNOLOGI
Authors: Roslia Naida , Ambak Kamarudin , Danial Basil David , Prasetijo Joewono
Published: September 2015

Road accidents are common issues each year. Human factors are the highest contributing factor to the road accidents which are mostly from the drivers’ attitude such as excessive speeding. To mitigate this problem, a government has been implemented Automated Enforcement System (AES). This study aims to identify the factors that contributed to the AES acceptance among drivers and the acceptance level of AES based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The correlation and regression analysis were used in this study. The questionnaire survey was designed based on the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) and TAM. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed among 226 car driver as a respondent. The results show that the most dominant factor is perceived easy of acceptance compared with the acceptance level of respondent towards AES. Therefore, the authority might able to adapt and continue using AES monitoring method as a measure to carry out traffic offence enforcement activities.
THE INFLUENCE OF MICROWAVE INCINERATED RICE HUSK ASH ON FOAMED CONCRETE WORKABILITY AND COMPRESSIVE STRENGTH USING TAGUCHI METHOD
Authors: Bayuaji Ridho
Published: September 2015

Foamed concrete is lightweight concrete with a green material concept. One of cement-based materials is Microwave Incinerated Rice Husk Ash (MIRHA) foamed concrete (FC) as a pozzolanic material, that is interesting to be studies since the information about the ingredient can be used to understand the product behaviors. This study is more focused on the investigation towards the effect of composer of MIRHA FC on the workability and compressive strength. The mix proportion of the MIRHA FC here was designed by means of Taguchi method with L16 orthogonal array through five parameters (MIRHA contents, water cementitious ratio (w/c), sand cement ratio (s/c), superplasticizer (SP) content, and foam content). The mixtures were tested both in fresh and hardened states to fulfill the technical requirement of FC. It was also supported by the analysis on the characteristics of concretes including its workability and compressive strength. Based on the analysis, it is shown MIRHA is capable of enhancing FC workability and strength.
PENGUJIAN CIRI PSIKOMETRIK ITEM USMEQ-I DALAM KALANGAN PELAJAR POLITEKNIK MENGGUNAKAN MODEL RASCH
Authors: Mohd Matore Mohd Effendi @ Ewan , Khairani Ahmad Zamri
Published: September 2015

This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of the psychometric items from Emotional Intelligence Inventory USM or USMEQ-i using the Rasch model in the context of the polytechnic. A total of 151 students from the Polytechnic Sultan Azlan Shah, Perak selected using purposive sampling technique. The results show that as many as three items have been dropped. A total of 36 items were fulfilled the Rasch model main assumptions such as item fit, unidimensionality and local independence. USMEQ-i was found to have a high reliability and separation index. Thus, this study provides a significant contribution in evaluating EQ items using Rasch model for use in the context of the polytechnic in Malaysia.
DEVELOPMENT OF A RAPID CONTINUOUS FLOW SALT LEACHING KIT FOR FABRICATION OF POLY(3-HYDROXYBUTYRIC ACID-CO-3-HYDROXYVALERATE) (PHBV) POROUS 3-D SCAFFOLD
Authors: Aizad Syazwan , Yahaya Badrul Hisham , Zubairi Saiful Irwan
Published: September 2015

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) that are synthesized from bacteria that are predominantly produced by microbial fermentation processes on organic waste, such as palm oil mill effluent (POME), olive oil and kitchen waste, contribute to a sustainable waste management. A great variety of materials from this family can be produced, however the application of PHAs in the production of scaffolds in tissue engineering has been mainly constrained to poly(hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) (PHBV) due to its highly adjustable physico-chemical properties. One of the common methods in making the 3-D scaffolds is by performing solvent-casting particulate-leaching (SCPL) process, but this process requires a long period of soaking in water to extract the entire salt particle in the 3-D scaffolds. Therefore, the objective of this study is to develop a new method to the conventional method of salt leaching process via a highly efficient continuous flow leaching kit. The salt leaching process was carried out by (1) immersing the 3-D porous scaffolds in a fabricated static container containing tap water and (2) by allowing a pre-setting continuous flow rate of water. The concentration of sodium chloride (NaCl) was calculated periodically for both processes based on the salt standard calibration curve. The results showed that the exhaustive salt leaching of the conventional process occurred at 48 ± 5 hrs with the needs of changing the water twice a day. In contrast, the exhaustive salt leaching process via continuous flow leaching kit occurred at 40 ± 5 mins, 72 times faster than the conventional method (p<0.05). Therefore, the salt leaching process using continuous flow leaching kit can be considered a highly efficient and time saving procedure as compared to the conventional method.
SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF THE CERTAIN AIR POLLUTANTS USING ENVIRONMETRIC TECHNIQUES
Authors: Amran Mohammad Azizi , Azid Azman , Juahir Hafizan , Toriman Mohd Ekhwan , Mustafa Ahmad Dasuki , Che Hasnam Che Noraini , Azaman Fazureen , Kamarudin Mohd Khairul Amri , Mohd Saudi Ahmad Shakir , Yunus Kamaruzzaman
Published: September 2015

This study aims to identify the spatial variation of air pollutant and its pattern in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia for four years monitoring observation (2008-2011) based on the seven air monitoring stations. Air pollutant variables that used in this study were Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), Ozone (O3), Carbon Monoxide (CO), and Particulate Matter (PM10) data and had been supplied by Department Of Environment Malaysia (DOE). ANOVA, environmetric techniques (HACA and Descriptive Analysis) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) approach were used in data analysed. According to ANOVA single test, significance p-value of PM10 (p= 2.5E-268) is smaller than significance alpha level (p=0.05) and it suitable parameter for further analysis in construct the prevention actions compared to O3, NO2 and CO. HACA categorized seven air monitoring station into three cluster group of station such as High Concentrated Site (HCS), Moderate Concentrated Site (MCS), and Low Concentrated Site (LCS). Descriptive statistics show the 25th percentile, median, and 75th percentile boxplot and identified the greater (>500 µg/m3) and smaller (<0.05ppm) outliers, and comparing distributions between each air pollutant. The findings from ANN have verified that the R2 and RMSE value (0.7981 and 5.734, respectively) were categorized as a significant value for the future prediction. In contrast, PM10 levels in Air Pollutant Index equal to 43.59 were 67.91 ug/m3, O3 (0.038 ppm), NO2 (0.019 ppm), and then CO (1.27 ppm) concentration values. This proved that the PM10 concentration was categorized as a main contributor to the air pollutant measurement of statistical method compared with other pollutants.
STRESS-STRAIN RELATIONSHIPS OF COMPOSITE FOAMED CONCRETE PANEL WITH DIFFERENT NUMBER OF SHEAR CONNECTORS UNDER COMPRESSION
Authors: Othuman Mydin M. A. , Utaberta N. , Mohd Yusof M. Y. , Amirudin N. A.
Published: September 2015

The present of the shear connectors with the sandwich composite foamed concrete panel system is to increase the strength of the panel. Therefore the objectives of experiment on effects of the shear connectors spacing is to determine the influence of shear connectors spacing on the axial stress-strain curve, to observe the failure mode sandwich composite foamed concrete panel system with different shear connectors spacing, and to establish ultimate load carrying capacity of different shear connectors spacing. In this study, there are four samples of shear connectors spacing which are 5, 7, 9 and 13 to composited foamed concrete with density of 1400 kg/m3 and 700 kg/m3. This study has showed the enhancement of ultimate compressive strength with increasing numbers of mechanical connectors. The failure of mode observed proved that sandwich panel failures decreasing with enhancement numbers of mechanical connectors, thus sandwich panels can sustained ultimate load carrying capacity.
THE OCCURRENCE OF BUILDING DEFECTS DURING DEFECT LIABILITY PERIOD (DLP)
Authors: Che Hasim N. H. , Akhavan Tabassi A.
Published: September 2015

Malaysia is a developing country with various projects and it can generate new economy and can also provide benefit to firms and protection to the residents. However, there are some firms have acted unprofessionally by not using the correct specification. Therefore, there have been many complaints about defects on the home purchased, in terms of quality of work and materials used. Defects liability period (DLP) is a term that the contractor is obliged to remedy the defects occurs in this period. The research presented in this paper aims to broaden previous research on defects by analyzing the defects during DLP, which usually lasts 12 months after the handover period, and aimed to identify the common contribution cause of defects to buildings. The data were obtained from site observation and questionnaire from various players in the construction industry of Malaysia. The finding of this study can be used for future references andcan improve the effectiveness of managing defects in the future of the industry.
COLLISION DETECTION FOR CLOTH SIMULATION USING BOUNDING SPHERE HIERARCHY
Authors: Bade Abdullah , Sue Ping Ching , Tanalol Siti Hasnah
Published: September 2015

For the past 2-decades, the challenges of collision detection on cloth simulation have attracted numerous researchers.  Simple mass spring model is used to model the cloth where the movement of the particles within the cloth was controlled by applying the Newton’s second law. After the modeling stage, implementation of the collision detection algorithm took place on cloth has been done. The collision detection technique used is bounding sphere hierarchy. Then, quad tree is being used to partitioning the bounding sphere and the collision search was based on the top-down approach. A prototype of the collision detection system is developed on cloth simulation and several experiments were conducted. Time taken for this system to be executed is around 235.258 milliseconds. Then the frame rate is at the average of 22 frames per second which is close to the real time system. Times taken for the collision detection system travels from root to nodes were 23 seconds. As a conclusion, the computational cost for bounding sphere hierarchy is much higher because the bounding sphere required more vertices for generation process, however the execution time for bounding sphere hierarchy is faster than the AABB hierarchy.
AUTOMATED CELL MIGRATION TRACKING TECHNIQUE: A REVIEW
Authors: Yong Li Yew Aow , Sulong Ghazali
Published: September 2015

Automated cell migration tracking is important in detecting the cell movement in order to help in cell status analysis especially when there are a huge numbers of cells in one image frame. Automated cell tracking processes involve detecting, segmentation and labelling the cell. Each step is crucial and will affect the next step. The common problems are cell proliferation, overlapping and clustering. Consequently, this review not only focuses on the overview of current techniques used to complete the cell migration tracking tasks, but also the comparison of these techniques and some suggested future work(s).
SHORTEST PATH PLANNING FOR SINGLE MANIPULATOR IN 2D ENVIRONMENT OF DEFORMABLE OBJECTS
Authors: Omar Fakhrul Syakirin , Islam Md. Nazrul , Haron Habibollah
Published: September 2015

A heuristic algorithm to perform path planning for single manipulator in 2D environment containing deformable objects is presented. The environment is partitioned into a quadtree hierarchy for both sampling and space navigation use before combination of artificial potential field and heuristic reasoning are applied iteratively to generate feasible path for the manipulator. The algorithm specifically targets for the shortest path without damaging any objects due to deep collision depth between manipulator link and object. Resulting path is in turn to be used in generating micro-instruction controlling the manipulator. Implementation results show feasibility to solve problems involving simple object and manipulator configuration.
3D RECONSTRUCTION OF BREAST CANCER FROM MAMMOGRAMS USING VOLUME RENDERING TECHNIQUES
Authors: Wei Yong Ho , Bade Abdullah , Muniandy Rajesh Kumar
Published: September 2015

Over the past thirty years, a number of researchers have investigated on 3D organ reconstruction from medical images and there are a few 3D reconstruction software available on the market. However, not many researcheshave focused on3D reconstruction of breast cancer’s tumours. Due to the method complexity, most 3D breast cancer’s tumours reconstruction were done based on MRI slices dataeven though mammogram is the current clinical practice for breast cancer screening. Therefore, this research will investigate the process of creating a method that will be able to reconstruct 3D breast cancer’s tumours from mammograms effectively.  Several steps were proposed for this research which includes data acquisition, volume reconstruction, andvolume rendering. The expected output from this research is the 3D breast cancer’s tumours model that is generated from correctly registered mammograms. The main purpose of this research is to come up with a 3D reconstruction method that can produce good breast cancer model from mammograms while using minimal computational cost.
SOFT SHADOWS USING SP-LINE APPROXIMATION
Authors: Kolivand Hoshang , Sunar Mohd Shahrizal
Published: September 2015

Realistic soft shadows are an important factor to enhance the realism of Augmented Reality systems. Without shadows, virtual objects would look floating over the scene resulting unrealistic rendering of AR environment. Little attention has been directed towards balanced trade-off between shadow quality and computational cost. In this study, a new approach is proposed; Quadratic Sp-line Interpolation (QSI) to soften the outline of the shadow. QSI estimates the border of hard shadow samples. In more details, a reflective hemisphere is used to capture real light then to create an environment map. Implementation of the Median Cut algorithm is performed to locate the direction of real light sources on the environment map. Subsequently, the original hard shadows are retrieved and a sample of multilayer hard shadows is produced. The proposed technique is tested by using three samples of multilayer hard shadows with a varied number of light sources that are generated from the Median Cut algorithm. The experimental results show that the proposed technique has successfully produced realistic soft shadows with low computational costs.
A NOVEL MULTIMEDIA FILE SPLITTING TECHNIQUE FOR MEDICAL DATA GRID STORAGE
Authors: May Chong Mien , Latip Rohaya , Hussin Masnida , Ibrahim Hamidah
Published: September 2015

Nowadays, videos and images dimensions are improved from 1D and 2D images into 3D or 4D (3 spatial dimension + time) images / videos. The improvement for these video data file were also increased the size of the data. Therefore, single and small storage is not enough for storing them. To overcome the problem, grid-based file storage service is introduced. However, the quality-of-service is very important for this applications and service. Therefore, several of quality-of-service requirements such as delay for data transmission, average CPU time per chunk used, and the total download time for a complete video file are need to be investigate. In this paper, our grid-based file storage test bed architecture, and the previous existing multimedia file splitting techniques will be discussed. Besides, our new multimedia file splitting technique – “Exponential-And-Uniform-based Splitting Technique” is also being proposed.
A REVIEW ON SPEECH EMOTION FEATURES
Authors: Zaidan Noor Aina , Hj. Salam Md Sah
Published: September 2015

Research works on combining emotions in intelligent machines are expanding and improving. Human’s speeches basically have various emotional states. The finding of reliable speech features is an ongoing research. Specific features in the speech signal that contribute to emotional information are uncertain, extremely challenging problem and continue being explored. The recognition rate of emotion in speech signal is inconsistent depending on the features used in the experiment and also the database itself. Prosodic, spectral and wavelet features are mostly being used to determine which of these features or its hybrid carry more information about emotions. This paper intends to summarize previous work and make reviews about single and hybrid features based on prosodic, spectral and wavelet feature.
A RESOURCE-INDEPENDENT METHOD TO DELIVER AUGMENTED REALITY CONTENT
Authors: Suhaifi Syazani , Abdullah Junaidi , Day Chyi Ku
Published: September 2015

Marker Based Augmented Reality requires files and resources that have to be loaded from storage such as a local machine or a web server. We proposed a resource-independent method of transmitting AR content by encoding resources such as 3D model files as QR code and using the QR code itself as the marker. The AR system does not need any online and local storage. We processed the content to best fit it into the QR code. Larger contents are then split to multiple QR codes and the data is joined together by the application on the other end.
ASSESSMENT OF INDOOR ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY AND OCCURRENCE OF SICK BUILDING SYNDROME IN SMALL OFFICES IN PENANG, MALAYSIA
Authors: Qiu Mei Ang , Othuman Mydin Md Azree
Published: September 2015

This study was done to investigate the relationship between indoor environmental quality and prevalence of Sick Building Syndrome in six small offices inPenangIsland. Indoor environmental quality measurement was conducted according to relevant standards. There are totally Sixty workers were selected to participate in an electronic questionnaire survey. Questionnaire was used to record the comfort level of respondents in the case studies and level of sick building syndrome faced by respondents. Through indoor environmental quality measurement, it is found that most of the offices facing the lighting and noise problem. The result from the questionnaire shows that in overall, the occupants satisfy with their working environment in term of indoor environmental quality although the result also shows the opinions of occupants on dissatisfaction on certain indoor environmental parameter according to case study. The study also found that most of the occupants feel drowsy and fatigue when they work within the offices. Besides, due to the difference of the indoor environmental quality of the buildings, the occupants are suffered from different symptoms of the sick building syndrome.
FRAMEWORK OF CONTROLLING 3D VIRTUAL HUMAN EMOTIONAL WALKING USING BCI
Authors: M. Abuhashish Faris Amin , Kolivand Hoshang , Sunar Mohd Shahrizal , Mohamad Dzulkifli
Published: September 2015

A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is the device that can read and acquire the brain activities. A human body is controlled by Brain-Signals, which considered as a main controller. Furthermore, the human emotions and thoughts will be translated by brain through brain signals and expressed as human mood. This controlling process mainly performed through brain signals, the brain signals is a key component in electroencephalogram (EEG). Based on signal processing the features representing human mood (behavior) could be extracted with emotion as a major feature. This paper proposes a new framework in order to recognize the human inner emotions that have been conducted on the basis of EEG signals using a BCI device controller. This framework go through five steps starting by classifying the brain signal after reading it in order to obtain the emotion, then map the emotion, synchronize the animation of the 3D virtual human, test and evaluate the work. Based on our best knowledge there is no framework for controlling the 3D virtual human. As a result for implementing our framework will enhance the game field of enhancing and controlling the 3D virtual humans’ emotion walking in order to enhance and bring more realistic as well. Commercial games and Augmented Reality systems are possible beneficiaries of this technique.
A NOVEL ZERO-WATERMARKING SCHEME FOR TEXT DOCUMENT AUTHENTICATION
Authors: Bashardoost Morteza , Mohd Rahim Mohd Shafry , Hadipour Narges
Published: September 2015

The demand for copyright protection of text documents is extremely vital especially when the text is transmitted over the Internet. One of the best practical resolutions to maintain the security of document media is digital watermarking. Several approaches have been proposed to guarantee the safety and protection of the documents against dishonest copying and distribution. This paper suggests an innovative zero-watermarking scheme for the purpose of authentication and tamper detection in simple text documents. The algorithm generates a watermark based on the effective characters of the text contents which can be extracted later using extraction algorithm to identify the status of tampering in the text document. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm against random tampering attacks. Watermark pattern matching and watermark distortion rate are used as evaluation parameters on multiple text samples of varying length.
INTEGRATING BIOMECHANICAL PARAMETERS IN MODELING OF LIVER WITH AND WITHOUT TUMOR IN VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT
Authors: Sulaiman Salina , Kar Thye Liew , Bade Abdullah , Lee Rechard , Tanalol Siti Hasnah
Published: September 2015

One of the fundamental components of a surgical simulator is a deformable object. Two main approaches used in surgical simulation to model deformable objects are Finite Element Model (FEM) and Mass Spring Model (MSM). MSM is often preferred due to its simplicity and low computational cost. However, setting of appropriate model parameters such as mass, spring stiffness and damping coefficients in order to reproduce mechanical responses remains an issue. In this paper, biomechanical parameters (Poisson’s values, density) are integrated into MSM based on a tetrahedral structured network in modeling of liver with and without tumor. For the identification of parameters in a real time surgical simulation, Barycentric mass lumping, Lloyd’s approach, Rayleigh formula and Fourth order Runge-Kutta integration method are used to determine the node mass, spring stiffness, damping coefficient and suitable time step respectively. The resulted node mass, spring stiffness and damping coefficient for liver without tumor and with tumor are 1.9825kg, 5.4225 kPa, 7.4525 N/m2 and 5.9256kg, 7.0484 kPa, 11.9012 N/m2 respectively. These values are substituted into MSM, which is then visualized in CHAI 3D ensuring the performance required by a real time simulation. Finally, comparison between the liver with and without tumor in terms of mass, spring stiffness, and damping constant is highlighted.
STUDY OF NOISE PRODUCED BY CONSTRUCTION ACTIVITIES IN ACADEMIC AREA
Authors: Rahmat Amalina , Abdul Hamid Ahmad Hilmy
Published: September 2015

Noise has been a problem since our country is a developing country. The noise pollution came from the traffic as well as the development of construction industry. In 2012, there was a case in Johor Bahru where a project has been delayed for months due to the residents in the area of the construction blocking the roads for lorries and other transports to pass through. This is because the residents were disturbed by the noise of piling activities. In this research, a study was made on the relationship of the noise level produced by the construction activities and the annoyance level in the academic area. The method used is by taking the reading of the noise level and the questionnaire method. The main purpose of the questionnaire method is to rate the annoyance level produced by the construction activities. As expected, most of the respondents were annoyed by the noise produced by the construction activities even though the reading of the noise level is not that high. From this result, we may conclude that even though the noise level produced by construction activities is not that high, it is still a disturbance for people in an academic area.
STUDY OF RISING DAMPNESS PROBLEM IN HOUSING AREA IN KLANG VALLEY, MALAYSIA
Authors: Hassan Muhamad Hanif , Othuman Mydin Md Azree , Utaberta Nangkula
Published: September 2015

Dampness is a major problem in building. It can leads to old and modern buildings to deteriorate and contribute to building decay. Rising damp is part of dampness that can be categorized as one of the major problem in building particularly in residential building whereas it can affect the building and health of the user. This study was conducted to investigate and examine rising damp problem in landed residential building throughout Klang Valley area. From the site observations, rising damp had been identified during the inspection and investigation. Some of the owner of the affected building does not realized and have knowledge about the problem until this study was carried out at their buildings. Hence, this study identified some of the causes are defective damp proof course, effects of the soils salts in groundwater, humid conditions, water penetrations and piping leakage. Thus, the correct diagnosis and analysis of rising damp problem was carried out to overcome the problems in.
CONDUCTIVITY STUDIES OF BIOPOLYMER ELECTROLYTE BASED ON POTATO STARCH/CHITOSAN BLEND DOPED WITH LICF3SO3
Authors: Navaratnam Shanti , Sanusi Azlin , Ahmad A. H. , Ramesh S. , Ramesh K. , Othman N.
Published: September 2015

Biopolymer electrolytes are currently attracting a great deal of attention as substitute for synthetic polymers in electrochemical devices, as they are cost effective and eco-friendly. In this research, the biopolymer potato starch/chitosan blend polymer electrolyte film doped with LiCF3SO3 was prepared by solution casting method. Sample with 35wt. % LiCF3SO3 showed the highest ionic conductivity at room temperature. The dielectric studies reveal the non-Debye nature of the electrolyte. The Rice and Roth model was used quantitatively to explain the conductivity trends of the prepared electrolyte systems. The complexation of salt with the polymer host was studied using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.
CHARACTERIZATION OF HYDROXYAPATITE/TI6AL4V COMPOSITE POWDER UNDER VARIOUS SINTERING TEMPERATURE
Authors: Arifin Amir , Sulong Abu Bakar , Muhamad Norhamidi , Syarif Junaidi
Published: September 2015

Hydroxyapatite (HA) has been widely used in biomedical applications due to its excellent biocompatibility. However, Hydroxyapatite possesses poor mechanical properties and only tolerate limited loads for implants. Titanium is well-known materials applied in implant that has advantage in mechanical properties but poor in biocompatibility. The combination of the Titanium alloy and HA is expected to produce bio-implants with good in term of mechanical properties and biocompatabilty. In this work, interaction and mechanical properties of HA/Ti6Al4V was analyzed. The physical and mechanical properties of HA/Ti6Al4V composite powder obtained from compaction (powder metallurgy) of 60 wt.% Ti6Al4V and 40 wt.% HA and sintering at different temperatures in air were investigated in this study. Interactions of the mixed powders were investigated using X-ray diffraction. The hardness and density of the HA/Ti6Al4V composites were also measured. Based on the results of XRD analysis, the oxidation of Ti began at 700 °C. At 1000 °C, two phases were formed (i.e., TiO2 and CaTiO3). The results showed that the hardness HA/Ti6Al4V composites increased by 221.6% with increasing sintering temperature from 700oC to 1000oC. In contrast, the density of the composites decreased by 1.9% with increasing sintering temperature.
FEASIBILITY STUDY ON JOINING DISSIMILAR ALUMINUM ALLOYS AA6061 AND AA7075 BY TUNGSTEN INERT GAS (TIG)
Authors: Ishak Mahadzir , Mohd Noordin Nur Fakhriah , Ahmad Shah Luqman Hakim
Published: September 2015

The aim of this paper is to study the feasibility of welding dissimilar aluminum alloys AA6061 and AA7075 using different types of filler metals which are ER4043 and ER5356. The tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding method was used to butt joint these alloys. The effect of ER4043 (Si-rich) and ER5356 (Mg-rich) on weldability of the joint were studied through visual appearance, microstructures and hardness. It was found that, welding using filler ER5356 produced deeper penetration compared to filler ER4043. The depth of penetration obtained using filler ER5356 was 1.74 mm, while only 0.9 mm of penetration was obtained using ER4043. Microstructures at different zones of dissimilar TIG joints such as the fusion zone (FZ), the partially melted zone (PMZ) and the heat affected zone (HAZ) were identified. The grain size at FZ from filler ER5356 samples was finer compared to filler ER4043 which was 11.4 µm and 19.5 µm, respectively. The average hardness welding value of filler ER5356 samples was higher compared to filler ER4043 samples, which were 100HV and 86HV, respectively at HAZ of AA 6061, 110HV and 88HV, respectively at FZ, while 113HV and 85HV, respectively at HAZ of AA 7075. It can be concluded that TIG welding using the ER5356 filler yields better joint compared to ER4043.
LONGING FOR CULTURE AND NATURE: THE MALAY RURAL CULTURAL LANDSCAPE “DESA TERCINTA”
Authors: Ismail Nor Atiah , Mohd Ariffin Noor Fazamimah
Published: September 2015

The Malays who migrated to live in urban areas in Malaysiaare well known as a group of community that has strong bonding with their rural villages; the place where majority of them were originated from. Village or known as Desa in the Malay language is always the best place for holiday escapism, festivals and ceremonial events. This paper intends to investigate the characteristics of the Malay village adopting the Information Processing Theory, in order to understand reasons why they are so captivating and longing for by those who lived away from them. A qualitative approach is adopted in this research. A case study was carried out in Perak, the state that is located in the North part of Malaysia. Findings of this study inform that the village natural characteristics, cultural significance and their close- knit communities are among the magnets, pulling the urban people to pay visits and spending their precious times in this natural environment.
EVALUATING JOINT-STUDIO AS A ALTERNATIVE LEARNING EXPERIENCE: CASE STUDY OF RETIREMENT CENTRE PROJECT IN JOIN-STUDIO BETWEEN UPM AND UIN, IN ARCHITECTURE DESIGN STUDIO
Authors: Utaberta N. , Othuman Mydin M. A. , Ismail S.
Published: September 2015

The current model in studios is based on ancient model. In some cases the traditional design studio in a school of architecture consists of a teacher telling students what to do and student doing what they are told. While the current design studio may represent the best teaching ideas for this profession yet they are not without problems. This paper tries to unfold issues and problems behind the Join Studio, as one of the method to enhance the pedagogical process of architecture studio at 3rd year studio, Architecture Department, Universiti PutraMalaysia. The discussion will consist of four parts which are the general understanding of design studio in architecture, join studio as part of learning process in studio, critical analysis of join studio at 3rd year between Universiti Putra Malaysia and Islamic State University of Malang, Indonesia and some recommendation for future join studio.
THE STUDY OF GREEN BUILDING APPLICATION AWARENESS
Authors: M. N Yusoff , M. N. M Nawi , S. H Ibrahim
Published: September 2015

The Green Building, or known as Environmentally Friendly Building is not only closely examined in terms of its design, but also the capacity of the building and its surrounding in reducing the impact to the environment, saving energy, water, safeguarding the internal air quality, and further mitigating the number of health problems to the inhabitants. The study involves 80 respondents, whereby 20 respondents are developers/contractors; 20 respondents are consultants; 20 respondents from the Local Authority and 20 respondents are academicians in the northern part of the Peninsula. Through the technique of principal axis factoring, 10 items had successfully been placed in the screening analysis. Two components that had been formed are namely i) main issue and ii) government’s effort. It is anticipated that the key players (the developers, consultants, contractors, and academicians) understood and realised the importance of the environment and what is going around them in the world today.
ROLE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE IN SUSTAINABLE HISTORIC URBAN DEVELOPMENT: ECONOMIC PERCEPTIONS' OF STAKEHOLDERS (PERCEIVED VALUE)
Authors: M. A. Noor Fazamimah , A. Anuar , A. Yahaya
Published: September 2015

This research has examined the possibilities of economic perceptions’ of stakeholders in explaining the role of cultural heritage in sustaining the value of urban historic site ofGeorge Town, Penang World Heritage Site (GTWHS). This research has examined the possibilities of several attitudes of the stakeholders in explaining the importance of preserving the value of cultural heritage for the GTWHS conservation. Pearson’s Correlation and Multiple Linear Regressions analysis were used in predicting the dependent variable using a set of several independent variables. The purpose of the correlation test was to prove whether the correlation between the dimensions of the independent variables has had any influence on the non-use value of cultural heritage for the GTWHS conservation. A face-to-face interviewing technique using the structured CV questionnaire aided by photo images-supported was applied in this survey. The numbers of completed questionnaires were 294 from local residents and 147 from tourists (domestic and foreign) in GTWHS. This paper reveals that there was a relationship between the local stakeholders’ attitude and responses on the importance of preserving the non-use value of cultural heritage and the WTP value for the GTWHS conservation.
REDEFINING ISLAMIC GARDEN: COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF APPROACHES, IDEAS AND DESIGN FRAMEWORK
Authors: Asif Nayeem , Utaberta N. , Othuman Mydin M. A. , Mohd Yunos M. Y.
Published: September 2015

The term Islamic garden has been defined in various ways considering different aspects and values. These definitions draw a broader perspective to Islamic garden, a key feature of Islamic civilization throughout the history. This paper aims to analyze these views and compare them in order to reach toward a holistic definition for Islamic garden- its origin, evolution, principles and essence. Also searching for a way to revitalize the original essence and application of Islamic gardens in the contemporary societies are discussed in a brief way.
COMMON BUILDING DEFECTS IN NEW TERRACE HOUSES
Authors: Ismail Ishan , Che Ani Adi Irfan , Abd Razak Mohd Zulhanif , Mohd Tawil Norngainy , Johar Suhana
Published: September 2015

Building defects are a common issue associated with housing provision inMalaysia. Theoretically, new houses should be free of defects. To verify the quality of constructed housing, buildings should therefore be inspected starting from the early phases of construction up until the handing over stage. This study reveals the common building defects detected in new houses through visual inspections of 72 new terrace houses. The observed data are then analyzed using the Condition Survey Protocol system, which consists of two main assessments: condition and priority. The defects are identified and classified according to defect type, and overall results indicate that most of the common building defects in new houses are categorized as cosmetic. These defects are mainly caused by poor workmanship. To mitigate this problem, developers must ensure that the appointed builders/contractors are qualified and thorough building inspection is performed before the house being accepted.
DETERMINANTS OF COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC PROCUREMENT GUIDELINES IN THE NIGERIAN CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRY
Authors: Zadawa Abdullahi Nafiu , Hussin Abdul Aziz , Osmadi Atasya
Published: September 2015

The Nigerian Construction industry through its procurement activities is contributing immensely to the economic development of the country.Nigeriaas a developing nation is still working hard to strengthening the public procurement sector through which public infrastructural facilities are developed. Public Procurement Guidelines are the procedural manual guiding public procurement processes. The guidelines are as provided by the public procurement Act PPA 2007, since then compliance with the guidelines has been facing a lot of obstacles. This paper identified and reviewed three major determinants of compliance with the procurement guidelines to include Familiarity with the procurement guidelines, Fraudulent Practices, and Influencing Projects awards. Thus recommended that, to achieve adequate compliance with the procurement guidelines procurement entities need to create room for awareness through training and workshops. The Bureau of public procurement must also ensure prosecution of procurement offences as part of its mandate. In addition, the National Council of Public Procurement NCPP be established and allow to play its role thus limiting the influences of project awards at the ministry level and at the procurement entity level as well.
FAÇADE MATERIAL SELECTION CRITERIA FOR OPTIMISING BUILDING MAINTAINABILITY
Authors: Kanniyapan Gunavathy , Mohammad Izran Sarrazin , Jawahar Nesan Lenin , Mohammed Abdul Hakim , Ganisen Shubashini
Published: September 2015

Maintainability of building facilities partially relies on the materials selection as their potential to resist defects from common deterioration, ease maintenance, and minimise maintenance cost can be improved throughout their designed life. Therefore, it is highly critical that during the design stage, scores of material options are identified and analysed for their suitability to achieve maintainability during post construction occupancy. This article identify a set of criteria to evaluate facade materials as to their potential contribution to post construction maintainability in built environment. Ten maintainable façade material selection criteria which is durability, cleanability, material sustainability, compatibility and suitability, health and safety, material economy, material availability, functional performance, thermal performance and acoustical had been identified by using NVIVO and content analysis on 40 selected articles. This initial findings will provide a review on the maintainability attributes that needed during selecting façade material to ensure successful implementation of design maintainability.
FACILITY MANAGEMENT VARIABLES THAT INFLUENCE SUSTAINABILITY OF BUILDING FACILITIES
Authors: Ganisen Shubashini , Nesan L. Jawahar , Mohammad Izran Sarrazin , Mohammed Abdul Hakim , Kanniyapan Gunavathy
Published: September 2015

Incorporating facility management (FM) knowledge in the building design is essential to increase overall performance of building including quality and cost as; the management and operation process of facilities can have a significant impact on energy, cost, health and safety, and quality. As a result, a more efficient and sustainable facility will be turn over during the post occupancy stage. Thus, this paper explores the consideration of FM during design stage and its influence on achieving sustainability of building facilities in post occupancy phase, and subsequently identifies a set of criteria to evaluate the potential of FM to achieve sustainability of building facilities. A critical review of the literature has been carried out for the purpose of identifying the said variables. Literature review reveals that there is a need to review FM potential of the design during the design phase; mainly due to increased life cycle cost, environmental impact, impact on health and safety and quality of the building facilities during the service life. This paper aims to address the long pending quest of poor awareness of the FM function among the designers and forms the basis for achieving FM sustainability of building facilities.
FACTORS AFFECTING CLIENT INFLUENCE ON PROPERTY VALUATION IN MALAYSIA: DO CLIENT SIZE AND SIZE OF VALUE ADJUSTMENT MATTER?
Authors: Achu Kamalahasan , Wan Chin Lim , Burhan Burhaida , Nordin Muhammad Faris
Published: September 2015

Client influence on property valuation has been an emerging theme of behavioural research in the real estate discipline. Studies on valuers’ decision-making behaviour imply that client influence is an important source of judgemental bias. Academic interest in client influence research has evolved from identifying the existence of client pressure to studies that explain the mechanism of client influence. A questionnaire survey was administered to valuers to measure their perception with regard to factors affecting client influence in Malaysia. The effect of client size and size of value adjustment requested by clients on valuation were also tested in a behavioural experiment. The survey revealed that valuers in Malaysia perceived client characteristics and valuer characteristics as some of the most important factors affecting client influence on valuations. It was found that factors such as type of client, size of client, integrity of valuer and experience of valuer could potentially impact on the amount and type of influence exerted on valuations. The results of the logistic regression model indicated that neither the client size nor magnitude of value adjustment requested by client affected the decisions of valuers to alter valuation outcome.
FACTORS AFFECTING THE SPACE UTILISATION RATE OF MALAYSIAN PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES
Authors: Abdul Rahman Mohd Shahril , Mohd Ali Hishamuddin , Sipan Ibrahim , Awang Mariah , Mohammed Abdul Hakim
Published: September 2015

This paper shares the factors that affect space utilization rate in the Malaysian public higher education institutions. The factors, which gathered through a qualitative study involving academics and practitioners are, people, place and process. This helps the Malaysian public universities to understand what they can afford to put forward in order to achieve higher space utilization. Besides, academics and practitioners are encouraged to explore how space utilization can be embraced as a tool in managing space, especially for public higher education institutionsina developing countryy such as Malaysia.
OFFICE SPACE STUDY: A REVIEW FROM FACILITIES MANAGEMENT CONTEXT
Authors: Nik Lah Nik Mohd Iezuan , Mohammed Abdul Hakim , Abdullah @ Mohd Asmoni Mat Naim
Published: September 2015

Office space is one of the critical factors in managing an organization. Without efficient management, the organization has to bear many problems such as high cost and inefficiency of space utilization. Hence, this paper aims to review the space studies in facilities management context as well as to identify the potential research in this area. The review was based on multiple electronic databases for published peer-reviewed articles. 70 articles were selected by using ‘facilities management’ as key word. Results show that office space studies can be divided into space management, space utilization and space efficiency. Additionally, the most frequent suggestion for future research is space utilization performance measurement which aims to evaluate the current level of management and utilization.
ADAPTION OF INVARIANT FEATURES IN IMAGE FOR POINT CLOUDS REGISTRATION
Authors: Abbas Mohd Azwan , Setan Halim , Majid Zulkepli , K. Chong Albert , Chong Luh Lau , M. Idris Khairulnizam , Mohd Ariff Mohd Farid
Published: September 2015

Currently, coarse registration methods for scanner are required heavy operator intervention either before or after scanning process. There also have an automatic registration method but only applicable to a limited class of objects (e.g. straight lines and flat surfaces). This study is devoted to a search of a computationally feasible automatic coarse registration method with a broad range of applicability. Nowadays, most laser scanner systems are supplied with a camera, such that the scanned data can also be photographed. The proposed approach will exploit the invariant features detected from image to associate point cloud registration. Three types of detectors are included: scale invariant feature transform (SIFT), 2) Harris affine, and 3) maximally stable extremal regions (MSER). All detected features will transform into the laser scanner coordinate system, and their performance is measured based on the number of corresponding points. Several objects with different observation techniques were performed to evaluate the capability of proposed approach and also to evaluate the performance of selected detectors.
THREE DIMENSIONAL MODELING OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL ARTIFACT USING PHOTOMODELER SCANNER
Authors: Abdul Raof Ainun Nadzirah , Setan Halim , Chong Abert , Majid Zulkepli
Published: September 2015

This article describes the work of archaeological artifact data recording using close range photogrammetry method. A calibrated stereo camera was used to take the stereo images of the artifacts. Photomodeler Scanner software was used to process the stereo images to produce a three-dimensional model of the artifact. For verification purposes, VIVID 910 laser scanner was used to generate three-dimensional model of the same artifact. The study found that close range photogrammetry method is easy to use, with fast data recording, fast data processing and it is a method which is cheaper than the laser scanning method.
MATERIALS SELECTION FOR HIP PROSTHESIS BY THE METHOD OF WEIGHTED PROPERTIES
Authors: Hamidi Ehsan , Fazeli Alireza , Mat Yajid Muhamad Azizi , Che Sidik Nor Azwadi
Published: September 2015

Process of materials selection for an artificial part, which is planted in vivo, has been always a vital procedure. Production and construction requirements for implants would involve a wide variety of considerations from mechanical specifications to medical limitations. From mechanical point of view, it is desired the implant exhibits mechanical properties of the missing bone as close as possible to reduce the risk of failure and provide a high level of comfort to the patient. The most bolded medical trait that prostheses must possess is the quality of biocompatible being; meaning that, they have to be accepted by the body’s living organisms. In this paper, five common biocompatible materials as candidates for hip prostheses production namely, 316L St Steel (cold worked, ASTM F138), Co–28Cr–6Mo (cast, ASTM F75), Ti–6Al–4V (hot forged, ASTM F620), Zirconia (ceramic, 3Y-TZP) and Alumina (ceramic, ZTA) are selected and evaluated by the method of weighted properties, in order to narrow down the search to find the candidate which best fit the real bone’s mechanical traits. For the analysis, six attributes were considered and weighted against each other namely, elastic modulus, yield strength, tensile strength, fatigue strength, corrosion rate and density. From the results, alumina and stainless steel show highest performance indexes but as it is discussed, due to the importance of biocompatibility required in practical, materials ranked on position 4th and 5th which are respectively of cobalt and titanium alloys–although are less mechanically similar to the real bone, are the most desirable choices in the industry. It will be concluded that in the process of materials selection for implants,