bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
LIFT PERFORMANCE OF A TWIST MORPHING MAV WING
Authors: Ismail N.I. , Zulkifli A.H. , Basri M. Hisyam , Talib R.J. , Yusoff H.
Published: October 2019

The manoeuvrability performance of a twist morphing MAV has been the main interest for the past researches. However, aerodynamic behaviour of a twist morphing wing is not fully explored due to limited MAV wing size, limited energy budgets, complicated morphing mechanism, and complex aerodynamic-wing structural interaction. Therefore, the effect of a twist morphing wing mobility on the lift distribution of MAV wing is still remained unknown. Thus, present work was carried out to compare the lift performance between a twist morphing wing with membrane and rigid MAV wing design. A quasi-static aeroelastic analysis by using the Ansys-Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI) method is utilized in current works to calculate the lift performance for each MAV wing design. Each MAV wing has identical wing dimension except for twist morphing wing where a 3N morphing force was imposed on the wing to produce the twist mobility. The lift results show that twist morphing wing able to produce (5% to 20%) higher lift magnitude compared to the membrane and rigid wing for every angle attack cases at pre-stall angle. However, twist morphing wing had slightly suffered from (at least 1°) earlier stall angle and produced almost similar maximum lift coefficient magnitude to the membrane wing
LOCAL ANGLE OF ATTACK EXTRACTION METHOD FOR TWIST MORPHING MAV WING
Authors: Ismail N.I. , Zulkifli A.H. , Basri M. Hisyam , Talib R.J. , Mahadzir M.M Mahadzir M.M
Published: October 2019

The geometric twist characteristic on twist morphing MAV wing has significant influence on its aerodynamic performances. Higher geometric twist magnitude induces higher lifts and drags generation. However, in order to determine the geometric twist performance, a detail analysis has to be carried out to extract the local angle of attack (AOA) value on each wing cross section. Thus, current works introduces a new method in extracting the local AOA value on a twist morphing MAV wing. The method manipulates the automated coordinate generation produced by Ansys software and combined the generated coordinates with manual determination of local AOA magnitude. Based on the analysis executed on a twist morphing wing sample, 30 local AOA values were obtained from 30 wing cross sections. By using the local AOA value at the root chord and wing tip, the geometric twist magnitude or twist intensity for a twist morphing wing is determined. Based on a selected twist morphing MAV wing sample, the local AOA extraction method able to calculate the wing geometric twist at ϵ = 12.5°.
APPLYING EXPONENTIAL STATE SPACE SMOOTHING MODEL TO SHORT TERM PREDICTION OF NO2
Authors: Syafei Arie Dipareza
Published: October 2019

Predicting air pollutant level has been important aspect as part of air quality management. A time series model exponential state space smoothing (ESSS) method was employed to short-term predict traffic-related pollutant, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) during January 2013. Compared with autoregression (AR) and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) the ESSS model performed better with R2 0.673 respectively. The performance was also consistent for prediction over days in terms of R2. For correlation between prediction and observation, the R2 ranged from 0.4 to 0.6, showing that ESSS model has exceptional performances compared to AR and ARIMA. Hence, ESSS has potential to be applied as part of air quality management for daily air quality warning purposes.
ELECTROCHEMICAL BEHAVIOR OF ELECTRODEPOSITED NANOCRYSTALLINE COBALT-IRON ALLOY COATING IN DIFFERENT PH
Authors: Mohd Masdek Nik Rozlin Nik , Alfantazi Akram
Published: October 2019

The electrochemical behavior of a cobalt-iron (CoFe) alloy electrode in 0.1 M Na2SO4 (sodium sulphate) aqueous solution of different pH was investigated. The presence of a different concentration of dissolved sulphide ions with different pH on the corrosion of electrodeposited cobalt-iron was investigated using the EQCM technique. The corrosion rates of the alloys in acidic solutions are pronouncedly high, compared to those measured in neutral or basic solutions. The presence of sulphide ions accelerates markedly the anodic reaction for all deposits in the basic medium. The dissolution rate was twice two times faster when S2− was added. By employing the EQCM, it was observed that the mass decrease or dissolution rate was significant with an increase in pH concentration.
EFFECT OF SEVERAL CALCINATION TEMPERATURE ON DIFFERENT CONCENTRATION ZINC SUBSTITUTED CALCIUM PHOSPHATE CERAMICS
Authors: Abdul Wahid Mohamad Firdaus , Hyie Koay Mei , Mardziah C. M. , Nik Roselina N. R.
Published: October 2019

Zinc substituted calcium phosphate ceramics powders were produced from precipitation method using calcium nitrate, zinc nitrate and ammonium dihydrogen phosphate solutions. Several zinc ions concentrations (5, 10, and 15 mole %) were substituted into calcium phosphate ceramics with the (Ca+Zn)/P initial ratio were set to 1.67. Calcium phosphate powders were then calcined at 600, 700, 800, 900, and 1000°C to observe its effect on the material phase behavior. By increasing the calcination temperature, XRD peaks changed from broad to narrower shape indicating that the powders are highly crystalline. Hydroxyapatite (HA) partly transformed to another phase which is tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) at 700°C confirming the formation of biphasic calcium phosphate ceramics. FESEM observations clearly exhibit that the particles are in nanosized scale which explains why as zinc concentration increases, the particles tend to be agglomerated.
FABRICATED METAL-FREE CARBON NITRIDE CHARACTERIZATIONS FOR FLUORESCENCE CHEMICAL SENSOR OF NITRATE IONS
Authors: Alim Nor Shuhada , O. Lintang Hendrik , Yuliati Leny
Published: October 2019

In this study, a metal-free carbon nitride (CN) was investigated for the first time as a potential fluorescence sensor for detection of nitrate ions (NO3-). The CN was prepared through thermal polymerization of urea precursor at 823 K and characterized by diffuse reflectance ultraviolet-visible (DR UV-Vis), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), and fluorescence spectroscopies. The DR UV-Vis spectrum confirmed that CN could absorb light up to 450 nm. On the other hand, the FTIR spectrum revealed the presence of graphitic CN single and double bond characters in the 800-1700 cm-1 region. From the fluorescence spectroscopy, three excitation peaks at 278, 310 and 369 nm were observed due to the presence of N=C, C=O and N-C groups, respectively. The fluorescence sensor capability of the CN was then investigated using concentrations of NO3- in the range of 300-1800 mM. It was confirmed that the intensities of the emission sites were quenched linearly with the concentrations of the NO3-. The CN showed good reproducibility with relative standard deviation (RSD) values were 1.5-7.2%.  These results suggested that CN can act as the fluorescence sensor for NO3-.
ADSORPTION OF METHYLENE BLUE ON ALGINATE-GRAFTED-POLY (METHYL METHACRYLATE)
Authors: Salisu Ahmed , Sanagi Mohd Marsin , Abd Karim Khairil Juhanni , Pourmand Neda , Wan Ibrahim Wan Aini
Published: October 2019

In this study, the removal of methylene blue (MB) dye using alginate-graft-poly (methyl methacrylate) beads was investigated. The effects of adsorption parameters namely initial pH and initial dye concentration were studied. The removal efficiency of the beads has been found to be dependent on initial dye concentration and initial pH. The experimental equilibrium data was fitted successfully to Langmuir isotherm model with the maximum monolayer coverage of 5.25 mg g−1 and adsorption kinetics data has been well fitted by a pseudo-second-order kinetic model. The alginate based beads could be used as low-cost and eco-friendly adsorbent for removal of trace amount of methylene blue from aqueous solution.
ALTERNATIVE VIEWS ON OPTIMAL URBAN PLANNING MODEL AND WATER ISSUES
Authors: Abidin Nor Hafizah , Ahmad Rohanin , Nordin Syarifah Zyurina
Published: October 2019

Urban planning is one of the prolific research fields nowadays. Lots of interesting research work has been done related to this field. Previous studies were only concerned with the contentment of residents and did not indicate any environmental factors. Consecutive researchers study the optimal city structures but in other different factors and views. The numerous urban planning models have been widely investigated for their application in many fields. However, most of the model is lacking the environmental characteristics especially related with water issues. Commonly, water issues associated with urban areas are runoffs, landslides, soil settles, water security to name a few. These problems normally are due to the disturbance of water absorption processes in the affected area. This paper intends to provide a bigger picture used as preliminary for further studies in the problems related with urban planning and water security. This paper investigates past research and highlights the significance similarity and gaps for further research. The past models on urban planning and the impact of urban development to water issues will be reviewed and the significance of these problems will be discussed. The investigation in this direction highlights the importance of water issues in developing urban area.
OPTIMAL CONTROL OF VECTOR-BORNE DISEASE WITH DIRECT TRANSMISSION
Authors: Nordin Nurul Aida , Ahmad Rohanin , Ahmad Rashidah
Published: October 2019

This paper introduces the usage of three controls as a way to reduce the occurrence of vector-borne disease. The governing equation of the dynamical system used in this paper describes both direct and indirect transmission mode of vector-borne disease. This means that the disease can be transmitted in two different ways. First, it can be transmitted through mosquito bites and the other is through human blood transfusion. The three controls that are incorporated in the dynamical system include a measurement of basic practice for blood donation procedure, self-prevention effort and vector control strategy by health authority. The optimality system of the three controls is characterized using optimal control theory and the existence and uniqueness of the optimal control are established. Then, the effect of the incorporation of the three controls is investigated by performing numerical simulation.
VHF-PECVD FABRICATION PARAMETERS DEPENDENT MORPHOLOGY VARIATION OF GOLD CATALYST ASSISTED SILICON THIN FILM GROWTH
Authors: Hamzah Khaidzir , Mohd Yassin M. Abdullah Izat , Ghoshal Sib Krishna , Hasanudin M. Akmal , Ismail Abdul Khamim
Published: October 2019

Achieving two dimensional quantum structure of silicon with well-defined tunable morphology is an outstanding issue. We present the preliminary results on fabrication parameters dependent silicon thin film production using VHF-PECVD method. Five samples are prepared on Si(100) substrate with gold (Au) catalyst by adjusting different parameters such as deposition time, temperature and the flow of precursor gas. The samples morphology are analyzed using FESEM. The results reveal that the silicon thin film appear to be smooth and more uniform after an enormous amount of hydrogen is inserted together with the precursor gas (silane) during the deposition process. More interestingly, the films exhibit silicon nanowires as the deposition time is increased up to 1 hour. This morphological transformation is attributed to the vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) mechanism related to the deposition process.
USABILITY EVALUATION OF A WEB-BASED HEALTH AWARENESS PORTAL ON SMARTPHONE DEVICES USING ISO 9241- 11 MODEL
Authors: Hussain Azham , Mkpojiogu Emmanuel O.C. , Hussain Zakaria
Published: October 2019

Much efforthas been devoted to evaluating the usability of web-based system. With the increase in the mobile-based applications coupled with the limitations and challenges of mobile devices, it becomes mandatory to evaluate the web-based systems in the context of smartphone usability. In addition, a number of international standards/models on usability are available, but seldom used for practical usability evaluation. In this study, the popular ISO 9241-11 standard was used to evaluate a web-based health awareness portal within the smartphone mobile context. The results reveal some pointers to usability issues as well as confirmation that the web-based awareness portal is relatively usable on smartphone devices within the components defined in the models.
THE MODERATING EFFECT OF PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES IN VENDOR MANAGED INVENTORY (VMI) PERFORMANCE
Authors: Radzuan Kamaruddin , Udin Zulkifli Mohamed , Othman Siti Norezam , Anuar Herman Shah , Osman Wan Nadzri
Published: October 2019

The suitability of product attributes forsuccessful VMI program has been discussed by numerous authors and but not concluded yet.  This study is to explain the moderating effects of product attributestoward VMI performance. The data was gathered from 101 of suppliers in manufacturing companies. Data analysis was conducted by employing factor analysis, reliability test, and hierarchical multiple regressions. The findings show that only level of demand visibility is the main predictor of service performance. While, replenishment decision and inventory ownership were predictor to cost performance. The innovative product moderates the relationship between level of demand visibility and VMI performance. The functional product moderates the relationship between replenishment decision and service performance; and the relationship between inventory ownership and cost performance. Suppliers in manufacturing companies should urge their customer to share demand information when engaging in VMI program.However, supplier should give less authority in replenishment decision for functional product to increase the service performance. Supplier also should have low ownership of inventory to ensure better cost saving for functional product.
SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION IN HIGHER EDUCATION: A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITI UTARA MALAYSIA
Authors: Hashim Kamarul Faizal , Zamani Muhammad Afif , Othman Muhammad Fuad , Othman Zaheruddin , Azhar Alias
Published: October 2019

The use of social media within higher learning institute has resulted positive impacts on students engagement in teaching and learning activities. Current studies have acknowledged the importance of social media as one of the facilitating tools that promotes active participations among students. Although higher learning institution is introduce to new innovation, but when it comes to adopting they are always considered as late adopter. Thus, these studies examine the level of social media usage among lecturers for teaching purposes. Besides that, this study also examines the motives and barriers that hinder lecturers from using social media for teaching purposes. This study adopts a quantitative research method approach. The finding of this research found that 70% of UUM lecturers used social media for teaching purposes and most of them are categorized as early adopters.
AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF SUSTAINABLE MANUFACTURING PRACTICES AND INNOVATION PERFORMANCE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Authors: Hami N. , Muhammad M.R. , Ebrahim Z.
Published: October 2019

This study analyzes the causal relationship between sustainable manufacturing practice (SMP) and environmental sustainability as well as determines the mediating effect of innovation performance (IP) on the relationship between SMP and environmental sustainability. Adaptation from the changing business environment, manufacturing firms are facing great challenge on producing more products with less resource consumption, pollution emitted and waste generated. Using structural equation modeling, the survey data collected from 150 Malaysian manufacturing firms has been analyzed in this study. The empirical results show that both types of SMP have a positive and significant impact on environmental sustainability with external SMP is greater than internal SMP. However, there is no significant evidence to prove IP as a mediator for SMP-environmental sustainability linkage. The findings of this paper have important implication in both theoretical and practical perspectives. While provide better understanding of the phenomena by simultaneously analyzing a series of dependence relationships among SMP, IP and environmental sustainability, these results could help managers to understand the types of practices that would improve their environmental performance.
READINESS ASSESSMENT FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF INTEGRATED PROJECT DELIVERY (IPD) IN INDUSTRIALISED BUILDING SYSTEM (IBS) PROJECTS
Authors: Osman W. N. , M. Nawi M. N. , Anuar H. S. , Radzuan K. , Osman N. N.
Published: October 2019

The Malaysian government has taken the initiative of implementing Industrialised Building System (IBS) in which components are manufactured in mass production under a controlled environment (on or off site), transported, positioned and assembled into a structure with minimal additional site works. It is hope that IBS can improve the performance of construction industry. However, the main barriers in IBS implementation is project delivery process. In order to overcome this barrier, ‘Integrated Project Delivery (IPD)’ as a project delivery system using a multi-party contract (more than two parties selected) was introduced. Integrated Project Delivery (IPD) is defined as a project delivery approach that integrates people, systems, business structures and practices into a process that collaboratively harnesses the talents and insights of all project participants to optimise the results, increase value to the owner, reduce waste, and maximize efficiency through all phases of design, fabrication and construction. Although, many researchers have argue the importance of IPD in project delivery process, but the readiness of construction industries must be established. This research will use a quantitative study. This quantitative research process will involve a few phases including literature review stage, data collection stage, framework development stage, validation and recommendation stage. As the aim of this research is to obtain data based on multidisciplinary IBS stakeholders’ perspectives, respondent include project managers, resident engineers, and architects, contractors etc. are among the potential candidates. At the end of the process, this research will develops the readiness assessment model to implement IPD in IBS construction projects.
ANALYSIS ON THE EFFECT OF DIELECTRIC MATERIAL AND COPPER THICKNESS OF SUBSTRATE TOWARDS THE PERFORMANCE OF ULTRA WIDEBAND GROUND-SLOTTED T-SHAPED POWER DIVIDER
Authors: Yusof Khairul Huda , Seman Norhudah , Jamaluddin Mohd Haizal
Published: October 2019

Nowadays, the fifth generation (5G) wireless system is extensively studied to fulfill the continuously increasing demand for high data rate and mobility in wireless communication applications. Thus, to cope with this demand, various researches are required for front-end microwave components, which includes power divider. Therefore, in this article, the design and analysis of ultra wideband T-shaped power divider is presented. Two substrates are chosen in the design, which are Rogers RO4003C and TMM4 with copper thickness of 17 µm and 35 µm to analyze their effect towards ultra wideband performance of the designed power divider. The design and analysis are performed by using CST Microwave Studio. The optimal performance of the designed power divider is subjected to dielectric material and the copper thickness of the substrate. Where, the best design is obtained using TMM4 substrate that made of ceramic thermoset polymer with 35 µm copper thickness.
POLARIZATION RECONFIGURABLE ANTENNA THROUGH SWITCHABLE CPW FEEDING STRUCTURE
Authors: Osman Mohamed Nasrun , A. Rahim Mohamad Kamal , Mohd Yusoff Mohd Fairus , Hamid Mohamad Rijal , A. Majid Huda , Jusoh Muzammil
Published: October 2019

This paper presents the polarization reconfigurable circular patch antenna. The reconfigurability feature is realized through the alteration of the feeding network. The antenna consists of a circular patch as a radiator, and orthogonally fed by a co-planar waveguide (CPW) slotline which terminated with tapered transformer. The CPW slotline are interconnected with quarter wavelength phase delay slotline. Eight switches are placed at the CPW transmission slotline, to either activate or deactivate the phase delay slotline. Consequently, depending on the switch configurations, the polarization can be altered to the desired sense, either linear, right-hand circular or left-hand circular polarization.
ESTIMATION OF EXHAUST SHIP EMISSION FROM MARINE TRAFFIC IN THE STRAITS OF SINGAPORE AND BATAM WATERWAYS USING AUTOMATIC IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM (AIS) DATA
Authors: Saputra Hendra , Muvariz Mufti Fathonah , Satoto Sapto Wiratno , Koto Jaswar
Published: October 2019

This study focuses on the Strait of Singapore and Batam Waterways area because it is one of the world’s most congested straits used for international shipping. The study aims to estimate exhaust gas emission and the concentration of emission to several areas around the strait. This is accomplished by evaluating the density of shipping lanes in the strait by using the data which obtained by Automatic Identification System (AIS). MEET methodology is used to estimate emissions from ships. There were 1269 total number of ships through the strait on September 27, 2014 at 06.00 am-08.00 am produces total exhaust emission for NOx, CO, CO2, VOC, PM and SOx were about 12595.35 g/second (15.99%), 25725.19 g/second (32.66%), 11832.31 g/second (15.02%), 5973.23 g/second (7.58%), 443.71 g/second, (0.56%), 22185.57 g/second (28.17%), respectively. The ships under the Singapore flag contribute approximately 22.78% of total emissions in the Strait of Singapore and Batam Waterways followed by Panama, Indonesia and Malaysia 14.47%, 3.67%, 1.91%, respectively. Based on the total emission rates hips under Indonesia and Malaysia rank of seventh and eighth respectively.
DESIGN OF ENVIRONMENTAL FRIENDLY BUILDING BASED ON THE LOCAL WISDOM PHILOSOPHY OF SUMATERA TRADITIONAL HOUSE
Authors: Susilo Gatot Eko , Nalaralagi Ankavisi
Published: October 2019

local wisdom philosophy of the Sumatera traditional house. The house is a combination between modern and traditional house of Sumatera which is a stilt house. The basement of the house is designed as rainwater storage in order to guarantee the availability of household water supply. On the other hand, the upper part of the house is designed as a dwelling. Simulation is undertaken in order to investigate the water volume behavior in the storage due to the variation of rainfall and water uses in the house. The simulation is applied in a house with a roof area of 54 m2, 4 residents, and 24 m3 of storage capacity. Daily rainfall data are obtained from the rainfall station in Bandar Lampung, Indonesia. The result of the simulation indicates that rainwater facility in the house is relatively effective to store rain water and to provide household water supply. For wet year periods, the system is able to supply about 80% to 90% of the total needs. Oppositely, in the dry seasons, the system can support the household water demand up to 60% of total needs.
TECHNOLOGY INCUBATORS AND INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Authors: Jamil Farhan , Ismail Kamariah , Mahmood Nasir , Khan Noor Ullah , Siddique Muhammad
Published: October 2019

Globally, technology business incubator (TBI) has become a growing initiative to promote the entrepreneurship. Recently TBIs has gained significant attention from research scholars and play a vital role to facilitate the development of entrepreneurial society.  The institutions are established and leadership is groomed via entrepreneurial society. Moreover, entrepreneurial culture encourages the entrepreneurial society for economic development, innovation, technology competitiveness and sustainable job creation. A government backed TBI, Plan9, is presented to highlight the significance towards developing an entrepreneurial society in a developing country context, Pakistan. Plan9 has introduced unique practices with a broad vision for a sustainable entrepreneurial growth. University industry linkages are created, entrepreneurial education and training programs for social awareness are operationalized, innovative ideas are encouraged and financial innovation without equity share and funding support are designated. This paper presents a comprehensive spotlight over the dynamic capabilities and entrepreneurial culture of plan9. Furthermore plan9 is encouraging to promote entrepreneurial society, institutional development and leadership. Lastly this research recommends that the other TBIs should be initiated by the collaboration of government and private sector to nurture the entrepreneurial society.
DO GREEK MUNICIPAL WEBSITES MEET CITIZENS’ PERCEPTIONS ON ISSUE IMPORTANCE?
Authors: Lappas Georgios , Yannas Prodromos , Triantafillidou Amalia , Kleftodimos Alexandros
Published: October 2019

The purpose of the present study is first to evaluate local e-government initiatives in Greece from a citizen perspective and then to test how well Greek municipalities perform on the most important e-government applications as perceived by citizens. Towards this end, a citizen survey was conducted using an instrument that contained 14 indices and assessed citizens’ perceived importance of e-government as well as e-democracy features incorporated in municipal portals. Results indicate that Greek citizens are not ready to move forward with the adoption of more participatory and deliberative tools of local governments’ websites. Moreover, Greek citizens want easy to complete online services while they place emphasis on the informational content of the local governments’ websites. In addition they desire simple ways to communicate with their local governments such as contact or email forms and suggestion boxes. Based on the citizen survey results, a quantitative website analysis was conducted to examine the level of sophistication of Greek municipal portals in regards to the most important e-government features. Results suggest that Greek local governments can be regarded as laggards in the provision of online services to citizens and businesses as well as the inclusion of information for tourists.
TOWARDS THE DESIGN OF A MOBILE CATARACT SCREENING SMARPHONE APP
Authors: Ik Zu Quan , Lun Lau Sian , Chan Jan Bond
Published: October 2019

The cataract is the leading cause of blindness and affecting nearly 22 million Americans aged 40 and older. Cataract screening is a process usually carries out by an ophthalmologist using specialize equipment. The hurdles that we are facing today to screen for cataract include the availability of medical practitioner and proper equipment, especially in the rural area. Other problems include the cost and time involved to do eye examination from the medical practitioner. In this paper, we aim to research on an alternate cataract screening solution using a flash-enabled smartphone without any external attachments. The solution should be made usable by general public. The research is divided into three different phases. The first phase aims to understand how medical practitioner performs cataract screening using red reflex and attempts to replicate it using mobile application. The second phase involves collecting data to obtain the appropriate parameters that allow replication of red reflex using mobile application. The third phase of this research intends to replicate the Ophthalmologist diagnosis using Artificial intelligent built into the mobile application. This paper presents the work performed and the obtained outcome from the first and second phases.
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO FORMULATE A VALUE-BASED SOFTWARE PROCESS TAILORING FRAMEWORK
Authors: Zakaria Noor Azura , Ibrahim Suhaimi , Mahrin Mohd Naz’ri
Published: October 2019

Software process tailoring is an approach to customise the existing software development process or model that able to meet the software project’s needs. Software development project is unique and identical from one and another whereby the practices and decision should not be equally treated. Software process tailoring requires knowledge and intuition to make decision such as factors involved in the software project, selection of the suitable software process elements and tailoring operations. Software process tailoring practices focusing more on project characteristics factors and employs ad hoc approach in making the decision. In the absent of value-based factors and systematic method in software process tailoring, subjectivity is embedded in decision making process and the software development project suffers from satisfying the stakeholder. This study presents an integrated approach to formulate a Value-Based Software Process Tailoring Framework (VBSPTF) to overcome this problem. The framework is a combination of value-based factors, MoSCoW rules, Quality Functional Deployment (QFD), Activity-Based Costing (ABC), Priority Map, Value Index and Value Graph. This study perhaps can contribute to the software process tailoring practitioners to be exposed with a systematic method to conduct software process tailoring as well as improving the practices and reducing subjectivity in decision making.
ENHANCEMENT OF QUANTUM PARTICLE SWARM OPTIMIZATION IN ELMAN RECURRENT NETWORK WITH BOUNDED VMAX FUNCTION
Authors: Ab Aziz Mohamad Firdaus , Hj Shamsuddin Siti Mariyam
Published: October 2019

There are many drawbacks in BP network, such as trap into local minima and may get stuck at regions of a search space. To solve these problems, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) has been executed to improve ANN performance. In this study, we exploit errors optimization of Elman Recurrent Neural Network (ERNN) with a new enhance method of Particle Swarm Optimization with an addition of quantum approach to optimize the performance of both networks with bounded Vmax function. Main characteristics of Vmax function are to control the global exploration of particles in Particle Swarm Optimization and Quantum approach is used to improve the searching ability of the individual particle of PSO. The results show that for cancer dataset, Quantum Particle Swarm Optimization in Elman Recurrent Neural Network (QPSOERN) with bounded Vmax of hyperbolic tangent depicted 96.26% and Vmax sigmoid function with 96.35% which both furnishes promising outcomes and better value in terms of classification accuracy and convergence rate compared to bounded standard Vmax function with only 90.98%.
CLASSIFICATION ALGORITHM FOR CUSTOMER COMPLAINT USING FUZZY APPROACH
Authors: Razali Razulaimi , Jaafar Jafreezal
Published: October 2019

Customer complaint contains valuable information to realize the opportunity to enhance service for customer satisfaction. The main challenge to extract the valuable information is a proper approach managing the complaint data, classification process and high level of uncertainties on the complaint and involvement of experts’ opinion. Besides, most of the existing complaint system still running the complaint handling process manually. The impact is on time processing issue. Another problem, current complaint system focused on the English keyword, while in Malaysia, the complaint system is using Malay wording and keyword. Hence, an effective approach is needed to tackle these issues properly. This paper presents Fuzzy Logic Complaint Handling Algorithm (FLCHA) to handle the complaint handling process. The FLCHA used fuzzy logic approach to classifying real complaint, and non-real complaint, improve time processing and automate the complaint handling process. Customer complaints data from local government in Kuala Lumpur is used for this study to prove the efficiency of the proposed approach. Seven experts from the local government are working together in this study. The domain of the complaint data focused on landscaping and 406 data provided for the testing. Results show that the proposed approach is highly consistent with the human benchmark, efficient and good processing time. Overall GGTrap (fuzzy type-1) membership function using fuzzy number is the best membership function for customer handling process with accuracy 93.35% and processing time 0.441 seconds.
DETERMINATION OF THE ABSOLUTE CONFIGURATION OF NEW PIPERIDIN-4-ONE DERIVATIVE FROM Pellacalyx saccardianus BY NOESY SPECTROSCOPY
Authors: Ahmed Abed Salam , Mohd Sirat Hasnah
Published: October 2019

A new alkaloid, pellacalyxin was isolated from the leaves of Pellacalyx saccardianus of Rhizophoraceae family. Pellacalyxin was analyzed using nuclear Overhauser spectroscopy (NOESY) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technique to determine the absolute configuration. The analysis of absolute configuration of pellacalyxin was supported by X-ray crystallography. 1H-1H NOESY NMR spectroscopy exhibited that pellacalyxin possesses two chiral centers (3S) and (6R).
A MATHEMATICAL MODEL FOR WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROCESS OF AN OXIDATION POND
Authors: Hamzah Amir S. A. , Banitalebi Akbar , M. Murid Ali H. , A. Aziz Zainal , Ramli Hasniza , Rahman Hazzarita , Hamdon Norazelah
Published: October 2019

This study presents a mathematical model for wastewater treatment process (WWTP) of an oxidation pond. The model permits investigating the effects of a biological-based product called mPHO on the degradation of contaminants as well as increase the amount of dissolved oxygen (DO) in the pond. At this aim, an ordinary differential equation with coupled equations has been developed to study the correlation between the amount of bacteria (phototrophic and Coliform), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and dissolved oxygen (DO) existing in the pond. The mathematical model is employed to simulate the behaviour of the system where the numerical results demonstrate that the proposed model gives a good approximation of the interaction processes that occur naturally between biological and chemical substances involved in the pond
SAMARIUM ACTIVATED ABSORPTION AND EMISSION OF ZINC TELLURITE GLASS
Authors: Tanko Y.A. , Sahar M.R. , Ghoshal S.K.
Published: October 2019

Enhanced absorption and emission cross-sections of rare earth doped binary glasses are highly demanding for various photonic applications. Determining the right glass compositions with appropriate rare earth dopants remain challenging. Different microscopic mechanisms responsible for optical enhancement and quenching are not fully understood. In this view, we prepare a series of glasses with composition (80-x)TeO2-20ZnO-(x)Sm2O3, where 0 ≤ x ≤ 1.5 mol% using melt quenching technique. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Photoluminescence (PL) and Ultraviolet Visible Near-Infrared (UV-Vis-NIR) spectroscopic measurements are carried out to inspect the samarium concentration dependent absorption and emission features of the prepared glasses. Physical properties such as glass density and molar volume are found to be in the range 5.57-5.61 g cm-3 and 25.84-26.15 cm3 mol-1, respectively. XRD pattern verifies the amorphous nature of the prepared samples. The UV-Vis-NIR absorption spectra reveal nine peaks centered at 470, 548, 947, 1085, 1238, 1385, 1492, 1550 and 1589 nm. These bands arise due to 6H5/2→4I11/2, 4G5/2, 6F11/2, 6F9/2, 6F7/2, 6F5/2, 6F3/2, 6H15/2, and 6F1/2 transitions, respectively. PL spectra under the excitation of 452 nm display four emission bands centered at 563, 600, 644 and 705 nm corresponding to 4G5/2→6H5/2, 6H7/2, 6H9/2 and 6H11/2 transitions of samarium ions. The mechanism of photoluminescence enhancement is identified, analyzed, and understood. A correlation between samarium concentration and optical response is established. This composition may be useful for fabricating various optical devices
PHOTOLUMINESCENCE SPECTRAL FEATURES OF SILICON NANOWIRES
Authors: Isiyaku Aliyu Kabiru , Ghoshal Sib Krishna
Published: October 2019

Computer simulation using matlab programming approach is carried out to study the photoluminescence (PL) properties of silicon (Si) nanowires (NWs) with diameter between 1.5 and 5.8 nm. An integrated hybrid model comprising of quantum confinement, surface states, and exciton binding is developed to calculate the size, wavelength and photon energy dependent PL intensity. The influence of size and passivation on the band gap energy and PL spectra of Si nanowires (NWs) are examined. It is observed that all the model parameters for quantum confinement, localized surface states, and exciton energy are responsible for the changes in the electronic and optical properties of Si NWs. The simulated data are compared with experimental findings. The admirable features of the results suggest that the present model is significant for understanding the mechanism of visible PL from Si NWs. The model can be extended to study temperature dependent PL for other nanostructures of different shapes and size.
THEORETICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF β-TRICALCIUM PHOSPHATE BIOMATERIALS: DFT INSIGHT
Authors: Bakheet A. M. A. , Saeed M. A. , Isa A. R. M. , Sahnoun R.
Published: October 2019

Beta-tri-calcium phosphate (β-TCP) materials have gained a great deal of research considerations in biomaterial area due to their excellent biocompatibility and identical chemical compositions to the natural teeth and bones. Therefore, the β-TCP compound can be used as coatings, cement and composites as well as biocompatible ceramics for medical and dental applications. Electronic and optical properties for β-TCP compound have been investigated using density functional theory (DFT). For the calculations, we used full potential linear augmented plane wave method (FPLAPW), within three types of approximations along with local density approximations (LDA), generalized gradient approximations (GGA) and Modified Becke-Johnson (mBJ) to get the effect of the exchange and correlation in our calculations to get an accurate results. The computed band gap values for (β-TCP) compound using LDA, GGA, and mBJ-GGA approximations are 5.5 eV, 5.9 eV and 6.8 eV respectively. This is also predicted that the chemical bonding in this compound is a kind of combination of covalent and ionic character that is in a line with the experimental findings. The optical parameter, static dielectric constant ε1(0) reaches the values of 3.23681 (eV) at 0 GPa for the β-TCP compound. The obtained results are of vital nature for rising the quality of the electronic and optical properties of this material, and provide more evidence to fabricate novel Beta-Tri-calcium phosphate biomaterials for medical and dental applications.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HALF-SWEEP AOR ITERATIVE ALGORITHM FOR SPACE-FRACTIONAL DIFFUSION EQUATIONS
Authors: Sunarto Andang , Sulaiman Jumat , Saudi Azali
Published: October 2019

In this paper, we consider the numerical solution of one dimensional space-fractional diffusion equation. The half-sweep AOR (HSAOR) iterative method is applied to solve linear system generated from discretization of one dimensional space-fractional diffusion equation using Caputo’s derivative operator and half-sweep implicit finite difference scheme. Furthermore, the formulation and implementation of HSAOR iterative method to solve the problem are also presented. Two examples and comparisons with FSAOR iterative method are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method. From numerical results obtained, it has shown that the HSAOR iterative method is superior as compared with the FSAOR methods.
ASSESSING STATISTICAL REASONING IN DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS: A QUALITATIVE META-ANALYSIS
Authors: Wei Chan Shiau , Ismail Zaleha , Sumintono Bambang
Published: October 2019

To date, there are abundant studies on statistical reasoning in descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. Nevertheless, the types of statistical reasoning assessments used in those studies are different from each other. Hence, this qualitative meta-analysis is aimed to explore the methods utilized in assessing statistical reasoning among students from all levels in descriptive statistics. A total of 36 studies on reasoning about measures of central tendency, variability and distribution were found and reviewed in this paper. It was noticed that six major types of methods were employed to assess students’ statistical reasoning in descriptive statistics, namely interview, survey or questionnaire, tasks, tests, minute paper, and teaching. This study contributes considerably to the statistical reasoning area as it provides new information on statistical reasoning in descriptive statistics. For future studies, some recommendations are proposed to improve statistical reasoning assessments.
THE PRESENCE OF ICAAD GENES IN COMMENSALS OF COAGULASE-NEGATIVE STAPHYLOCOCCUS AND EVALUATION OF PHENOTYPIC BIOFILM FORMATION BY CRA AND CRAVC METHODS
Authors: Abdul-Aziz Aziyah , Abd Rahim Norlaili
Published: October 2019

A total of 28 commensals of coagulase negative Staphylococcus or CoNS strains were successfully isolated from healthy volunteers. Amplification of the icaAD genes showed that 21% of these isolates harbour these genes which involve in biofilm formation. The ability of these strains to form biofilm was further evaluated phenotypically using both Congo Red Agar (CRA) and a modified Congo Red Agar with vancomycin or CRAvc. Only 32% of the isolates were biofilm positive on CRA as compared to inoculation on CRAvc which displayed a higher number of biofilm producer at 92.8%. However, analysis on the correlation between icaAD genes and the biofilm formation revealed that on CRA, 14.3% of the strains were biofilm tve-ica tve and 17.9% were biofilm tve-ica–ve while on CRAvc, 21.4% were biofilm tve-ica tve and a higher number of strains at 71.4% were biofilm tve-ica–ve. This indicates that growth on CRA gives a more accurate insight on the ability of the strains to produce biofilm although the possibility of the strains forming biofilm by a different mechanism than the icaAD genes cannot be ruled out. Two strong biofilm forming isolates namely C6 and C15 were further subjected for identification via the sodA gene and were found to be S. haemolyticus and S. epidermidis respectively.
IMPLEMENTATIONS OF BOUNDARY–DOMAIN INTEGRO-DIFFERENTIAL EQUATION FOR DIRICHLET BVP WITH VARIABLE COEFFICIENT
Authors: Mohamed Nurul Akmal , Ibrahim Nur Fadhilah , Md Yusof Mohd Rozni , Mohamed Nurul Farihan , Mohamed Nurul Huda
Published: October 2019

In this paper, we present the numerical results of the Boundary-Domain Integro-Differential Equation (BDIDE) associated to Dirichlet problem for an elliptic type Partial Differential Equation (PDE) with a variable coefficient. The numerical constructions are based on discretizing the boundary of the problem region by utilizing continuous linear iso-parametric elements while the domain of the problem region is meshed by using iso-parametric quadrilateral bilinear domain elements. We also use a semi-analytic method to handle the integration that exhibits logarithmic singularity instead of using Gauss-Laguare quadrature formula. The numerical results that employed the semi-analytic method give better accuracy as compared to those when we use Gauss-Laguerre quadrature formula. The system of equations that obtained by the discretized BDIDE is solved by an iterative method (Neumann series expansion) as well as a direct method (LU decomposition method). From our numerical experiments on all test domains, the relative errors of the solutions when applying semi-analytic method are smaller than when we use Gauss-Laguerre quadrature formula for the integration with logarithmic singularity. Unlike Dirichlet Boundary Integral Equation (BIE), the spectral properties of the Dirichlet BDIDE is not known. The Neumann iterations will converge to the solution if and only if the spectral radius of matrix operator is less than 1. In our numerical experiment on all the test domains, the Neumann series does converge. It gives some conclusions for the spectral properties of the Dirichlet BDIDE even though more experiments on the general Dirichlet problems need to be carried out.
EFFECTS OF XANTHAN GUM AND HPMC ON THE STRUCTURE OF SPONGE CAKES
Authors: Ahmad Noorlaila , Hassan Nor Hasanah , Yusoff Anida
Published: October 2019

The effect of xanthan gum and HPMC in foam stability of egg white protein is studied. Due to different functionality of xanthan gum (XG) and Hydroxypropylmethylcellulose (HPMC), there is significant change in foam stability of liquid egg white. Addition of xanthan gum enhanced the foam stability over the storage time compared to addition of HPMC. The viscoelastic properties of sponge cake batters are studied from 25˚C to 95˚C. The early onset temperature for starch gelatinization and denaturation of protein is related with the addition of xanthan gum and HPMC. The physical structure showed that xanthan gum and HPMC affected the structure of sponge cake differently. Xanthan-cake results in more dense structure compared to HPMC-cake.
STRUCTURAL AND ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF HIGH AND LOW-DENSITY Yb-DOPED Bi(Pb)-2223 SUPERCONDUCTOR
Authors: Azhan H. , Hawa J. S. , Azura C. M. N. , Azman K. , Syamsyir S. A.
Published: October 2019

Ytterbium (Yb)-doped of Bi(Pb)-2223 with varying concentration was prepared by co-precipitation (COP) and solid state reaction (SSR) to produce high density and low density samples respectively. In this work, the samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and resistivity measurement system. Substitution of Yb in Bi(Pb)-2223 decreased the volume percentage of 2223 phase, the length of c-parameter, TC and JC towards higher concentration of Yb. The crystallographic structure is tetragonal in a low concentration of Yb but changes to orthorhombic at higher Yb-doped. The high-density samples have a higher volume percentage of 2223 phase and critical temperature, TC for the same concentration of Yb compared to low-density samples. However, the critical current density, JC in low-density samples is higher compared to high-density samples due to the large surface area in a porous structure made by sucrose. The large surface area favors improving the grains connectivity during the sintering process.
MODELLING TWO-DIMENSIONAL LEASE CONTRACT WITH PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE AND SERVICING STRATEGY
Authors: Husniah H. , Iskandar B. P.
Published: October 2019

In this paper, we study a two-dimensional lease contract with preventive maintenance and servicing strategy involving imperfect repair. The lease contract coverage is characterized by two parameters – age and usage. The lessor will carry out preventive maintenance (PM) and a servicing strategy which allows more than one imperfect repairs under the contract. In the lease contract studied, we consider that a penalty cost incurred when the time required to perform an imperfect repair exceeds a target. This servicing strategy aims to reduce equipment failures and hence decreasing the penalty cost and maintenance cost during the leased contract. We find the optimal PM degree and the imperfect repair strategy such that the expected total cost is minimized. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the optimal PM and servicing strategy for various usage rates (heavy, moderate and low usage rates), and compared results for this servicing strategy with those of minimal repair strategy.