bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Critical Success Factors for Low Cost Housing Building Maintenance Organization
Authors: Ganisen Shubashini , Mohammed A. Hakim , Jawahr Nesan L. , Kanniyapan Gunavathy
Published: September 2015

Building services are the elements within a building which supports the fundamental operation of a building. Efficient performance of building services able to facilitate and avoid an unnecessary aggravations to the end users. Thus, the role of building services maintenance (BSM) organization is vital during the building operation phase in order to be responsible for overall performance of the building and its services. However, in recent years the maintenance performance provided by BSM organization is lack on many aspects. In Malaysia, the performance provided by BSM organization especially in low cost flats are considered to be poor. Hence, this paper focuses on identifing the BSM problems, the cause and consequently identify critical success factors (CSFs) to be applied by the BSM organization to overcome those problems. Reviews on literatures, questionnaire survey and interview were conducted to collect the valuable data for the study. The data obtained was analyzed using frequency, mean, standard deviation and content analysis. The findings indicatethat the common BSM problems occur in low cost flats are refuse disposal, rain water disposal and fire fighting system. While, lack of expertise, long duration taken and limited numbers of staffs are among the factors identified as the causes of those problems. 10 CSF namely  clear goals and objectives, workforce development and training, effetive monitoring and feedback, project team competence, dedicated resources, management planning, taking account past experience, good interdepartmental communication, education on new technologies and clients expectations are identified to solve the challanges facing by the maintenace organization which causes various BSM problems. The 10CSF identified based on the opinion given by 24 interviewees from various Local Authorities. A low cost flat managed by Kuala Lumpur City Hall located at Cheras was used as case study. This study expected to help respective parties to overcome the BSM problems in the low cost flats.
Important Activities in Activity-based Life Cycle Cost in Building Facilities Maintenance: A Case Study
Authors: Thanaraju Puvaneswary , M. Ali Hishamuddin
Published: September 2015

Public universities’ budget constraint faces various challenges in maintaining their building facilities. A cost management solution in based on life-cycle cost through activity-based could provide the systematic approach in organizing, monitoring and analyzing process of facilities' maintenance costs. The aim of this paper is to determine the important facilities’ maintenance activities that should be included in an activity-based life-cycle cost process of public university building maintenance. Descriptive analysis is conducted in determining the important and non-important facilities' maintenance activities. By prioritizing activities through value added and non-value added maintenance activities, cost can be managed and controlled effectively.
Urban Design Guidelines to Mitigate Urban Heat Island (UHI) Effects In Hot-Dry Cities
Authors: Taslim Shima , Monsefi Parapari Danial , Shafaghat Arezou
Published: September 2015

Global warming and undeniable climatic change in the world have led to decreasing thermal comfort for humans. Urban heat island (UHI) is the most documented phenomenon which has led to the increasing temperature in urban areas. It has received much focus in the past few decades to evaluate the main effective criteria of UHI. Street heat has negative effects on human health and will only worsen in future; these negative effects would double in hot and dry urban area. This paper investigates the effects of UHI in these cities and illustrates the important factors which make them extremely hot. The outcome of this study can be used to determine the key guidelines for urban designers, urban planners, architects and landscape designers to recline the UHI impressions in urban areas and make more thermal comfort for Burgher.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Mesh Independency Technique for a Propeller Characteristics in Open Water Condition
Authors: Nakisa M. , Maimun A. , M. Ahmed Yasser , Behrouzi F. , Jaswar Jaswar , Priyanto A.
Published: September 2015

This paper numerically investigated mesh refinement method in order to obtain a mesh independent solution for a marine propeller working in open water condition.Marine propeller blade geometries, especially of LNG carriers, are very complicated and determining the hydrodynamic performance of these propellers using experimental work is very expensive, time consuming and has many difficulties in calibration of marine laboratory facilities. The present research workhas focused on the hydrodynamic propeller coefficients of a LNG carrier Tanaga class such as Kt, Kq and η, with respect to the different advance coefficient (j). Finally, the results of numerical simulation in different mesh density that have been calculated based on RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier Stocks) equations, were compared with existing experimental results, followed by analysis and discussion sections. As a result the maximum hydrodynamic propeller efficiency occurred when j=0.84.
Review of Course Keeping Control System for Unmanned Surface Vehicle
Authors: Azzeri M. N. , Adnan F. A. , Md. Zain M. Z.
Published: September 2015

This paper presents a review of research work done on various aspects of control system approaches of unmanned surface vehicle (USV) in order to improve the course keeping performance. Various methods have been used to produce a course keeping control system for manoeuvring system of USV. However, the review reveals that the adaptive backstepping control system is a powerful tool for the design of controllers for nonlinear systems or transformable to form a tight feedback parameter. It is very suitable for the automated control system of USV in relative motion that involves the disturbances from waves and wind. Fuzzy logic control also had been suggested as an alternative approach for complex systems with uncertain dynamics and those with nonlinearities. This method does not rely on the mathematical models, but the heuristic approach. Further studies may be conducted to combine the control method approach mentioned above to develop a real time system with robust control laws to the motions of a USV in waves, usually at a specific speed, including station keeping or heading in sinusoidal and irregular waves.
Mooring Effect on Wave Frequency Response of Round Shape FPSO
Authors: Siow C. L. , Koto J. , Yasukawa H. , Matsuda A. , Terada D. , Guedes Soares C. , Incecik Atilla , M. A. G. Pauzi
Published: September 2015

This paper presents the motions response of moored Round Shape FPSO model due to the wave effect. The proposed of this research is analyzed the possibility of model motion response affected by different mooring system attach to the model. Model experiment was applied in this research to collect motion data for the study. Besides, the numerical simulation using diffraction potential, diffraction potential with Morison Heave correction and ANSYS frequency domain study were also applied in this research to generate comparative data to the experimental results. To investigate the effect of the mooring system to motion response, the model experiment was firstly conducted by attached model scale catenary mooring lines to Round Shape FPSO model. After that, the experiment was repeated by attached model scale taut mooring lines to the same model. The results obtain from the regular wave experiment tests and numerical simulation test were presented in this paper. This research concluded that the mooring systems would not give significant effect to wave frequency motion response after compared the motion result obtain from model experiment conducted using different mooring system.
Brain Functional Connectivity and Power Spectrum Analyses during Mental Arithmetic
Authors: Hashim Syazreen , Mat Safri Norlaili , Othman Mohd Afzan , Zakaria Nor Aini
Published: September 2015

Mental calculation is one of the skills in executive function where problem solving skill and working memory were needed. The objectives of this study were to determine the directional connection of brain networks using partial directed coherence, and to observe the power spectrum of the brain rhythms during the mental task. Thirteen healthy participants were involved in the mental arithmetic task, where each participant was asked to subtract 1000 with number 7 continuously within 60 seconds. Electroencephalography machine was used to collect the data of brain signal, and the data were analyzed using partial directed coherence and Fast Fourier Transform. There were two possibilities that participants gave an answer; correct or incorrect answer to the calculation. As a result, regardless of correct or incorrect answer, mostly frontal and temporal area has been used in performing the mental task including some part of parietal area. Increasing theta frequency band and decreasing beta frequency band were involved in generating the information needed during mental arithmetic at the frontal area. It generates information of the mental calculation, which is send to other brain areas; i.e. centro-parieto-occipito-temporal area which show decreasing alpha frequency band; an indication of other cognitive processes. In conclusion, fronto-temporal area is activated during mental arithmetic task.
Working Memory Impairments Imitate Age-Related Behaviors in Children using Visual Stimulation Based on Event-Related Potentials
Authors: Mohd Tumari Siti Zubaidah , Sudirman Rubita
Published: September 2015

The aim of this study is to examine the working memory impairments imitate age-related between 7 to 12 years old using Event-Related Potentials (ERP) signal. 97 normal children were selected to a visual stimuli assessment (Phase 1 and Phase 2) while their working memory response was recorded using Electroencephalograph (EEG) machine. Raw EEG signal were segmented and averaged into the ERP signal according to the event stimulus occur. Discrete Wavelet Transform technique is preferred to decompose the ERP signal into different frequency band. ERP signal at alpha frequency is used because of alpha is the most prominent component of brain waves activity. The necessary features were extracted as an input for the Logistic Regression (LR) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. Consequence indicated that the accuracy and mean performance results were significant in predicting either a child had working memory impairment or not. 7 years old have lower accuracy compared to other groups with 60% for LR and 86% for SVM. In conclusion, the study proposed that age-related changes and increasing level of visual stimuli affect working memory impaired. Thus, this study has provided empirical evidence in support for the assumption that younger children have working memory impaired through visual stimuli assessment.
The Investigation on Size Reduction Feasibility of Planar Witricity Device for Biomedical Implantable Application
Authors: Mohd Salleh Mohd Hidir , Seman Norhudah
Published: September 2015

This article presents the investigation on size reduction feasibility of planar Witricity device for biomedical implantable application. Biomedical implantable application demands for very small size device. Thus, the planar type of Witricity device is designed and investigated with the aim of size reduction. There are two designs presented in this article. Design A has larger size with an area dimension of 120 × 120 mm2 and capable for energy transferable distance of 50 mm. Meanwhile, another Witricity device, namely Design B has smaller size of 80 × 80 mm2 area is specified for approximately 40 mm transfer distance. The feasibility investigation on size reduction is observed from three main parameters; current distribution, coupling efficiency and return loss. The size reduction of 55% by Design B may lead to the reduction of 20% transfer distance but still with acceptable of 58% coupling efficiency at 40 mm that beneficial for biomedical applications.
Force Variability as an Objective Measure of Surgical Skill
Authors: Ahmmad Siti Nor Zawani , Zhen San Chew , Su Lee Ming Eileen , Che Fai Yeong
Published: September 2015

This study investigated the force variability of subjects with different level of surgical skills for different force levels. Twelve participants were recruited from three different levels of surgical experiences: A group of surgeon (N = 4), medical student (N = 3) and engineering student  (N = 5) underwent a simple finger force control task using a custom developed ‘Force Matching’ module.  Three different levels of target force were used: 2 N, 4 N, and 6 N. The task was performed simultaneously using right and left hands. The mean error of force was measured to compare the performance between the three group using Kruskal-Wallis test. A statistically significant difference was detected among the three groups at 2 N when using right hand. We also found that the surgeon group made less error compared to the two other groups at force level 4 N and 6 N for both hands. This finding has important implication for developing a parametric assessment model to evaluate basic skill level in surgical procedures. However, for most accurate result, a big sample size of subject is required.
Removal of Methylene Blue and Copper (II) by Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Sorbents
Authors: Mohd. Nasir Nur Haziqah , Ahmad Zaini Muhammad Abbas , Mohd. Setapar Siti Hamidah , Hassan Hashim
Published: September 2015

This study aims to evaluate the adsorptive properties of oil palm empty fruit bunch for the removal of cationic pollutants in water. The untreated and hydrochloric acid-treated empty fruit bunches were characterized based on pH of adsorbent, specific surface area and surface functional groups. The adsorbents were then used to challenge varying concentrations of methylene blue dye and copper (II) in aqueous solution. Results show that the specific surface area of empty fruit bunch decreased upon the treatment with hydrochloric acid. The untreated adsorbent displays a higher equilibrium removal of the target pollutants due to its higher specific surface area of 28.4 m2/g. The maximum removal were recorded as 0.103 and 0.075 mmol/g for methylene blue and copper (II), respectively. Oil palm empty fruit bunch is a promising candidate for the removal of cationic pollutants in aqueous solution.
Novel Design of Vertical Axis Current Turbine for Low Current Speed via Finite Volume Method
Authors: Behrouzi Fatemeh , Maimun Adi , M. Ahmed Yasser , Nakisa Mehdi
Published: September 2015

Now a day, increasing energy demand and environmental effect of fossil fuel cause to replacing fossil fuel with renewable energy. This paper presented novel design of turbine to generate more torque to capture more energy of water and hence cause to high output power. In this work Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) using realize k-e turbulence model, have been used to analyses the effect of arm on the static torque and the contours of pressure in different angle of direction for vertical vane turbine. Investigation of arm effect on static torque of vertical vane turbine and comparison between turbine with arm and without arm showed the average torque in vertical vane turbine is higher than without arm. The model settings of validation study was accomplished by comparing simulation of performance of turbine Cp and Cm with the experimental data taken from Hayashi and Hara (2005),that showed realize k-e has good agreement with experimental data.
THE EFFECT OF GREEN LASER ON HYDROGEN PRODUCTION OF TIO2/CDS ELECTRODE
Authors: Mohsin Ali Kamel , Abdullah M. , Ganesan K.
Published: September 2015

Enhancing the response of TiO2 semiconductor nanocomposites to visible light is topically important for hydrogen production. TiO2/CdSnanocomposite films (NCFs) are grown on p-type [100] silicon substrate using electron beam deposition (EBD). The UV–Vis reflectance spectra and PEC measurement reveal the enhanced absorption and induced photo-currents due to CdS coating on TiO2 nanofilm. The improved visible light absorption is attributed to the increase in optical path length and subsequent decrease in back-scattered radiation near TiO2 – Si interface. The excellent features of our results suggest that NCF electrodes may be nominated for potential applications in water splitting, renewable energy and environmental fields.
OPTICAL EMISSION SPECTROSCOPY OF CARBON ARC DISCHARGE PLASMA
Authors: Chaudhary Kashif , Tariq Usman , Roslan Sufi , Shude Ong , Aziz M. S.
Published: September 2015

The arc discharge plasma is one of the efficient technique to fabricate nano-structures such as nanotubes, nanoparticles and thin films, which have variety of technological applications. In this study, plasma dynamics such as the electron density and temperature for arc discharge carbon plasma in methane ambient environment is presented to investigate the impact and contribution of physical parameter as arc current and ambient pressure on the plasma dynamics. The electron temperature and density is estimated applying in situ optical emission spectroscopy. The optical spectra are recorded for applied arc current 50A, 60A, 70A, 80A and 90A for ambient pressures 100torr, 300torr and 500torr. A rise in electron temperature and electron density is detected with increase in applied arc current and ambient pressure. The obtained results reveal that in arc discharge process, the arc current and ambient pressure have significant contribution towards the kinetics of the plasma species.
CENTER OF MASS-BASED ADMITTANCE CONTROL FOR MULTI-LEGGED ROBOT WALKING ON THE BOTTOM OF OCEAN
Authors: Irawan Addie , Alam Md. Moktadir , Yin Tan Yee , Arshad Mohd Rizal
Published: September 2015

This paper presents a proposed adaptive admittance control that is derived based on Center of Mass (CoM) of the hexapod robot designed for walking on the bottom of water or seabed. The study has been carried out by modeling the buoyancy force following the restoration force to achieve the drowning level according to the Archimedes’ principle. The restoration force needs to be positive in order to ensure robot locomotion is not affected by buoyancy factor. As a solution to regulate this force, admittance control has been derived based on the total force of foot placement to determine CoM of the robot while walking. This admittance control is designed according to a model of a real-time based 4-degree of freedom (DoF) leg configuration of a hexapod robot that able to perform hexapod-to-quadruped transformation. The analysis focuses on the robot walking in both configuration modes; hexapod and quadruped; with both tripod and traverse-trot walking pattern respectively. The verification is done on the vertical foot motion of the leg and the body mass coordination movement for each walking simulation. The results show that the proposed admittance control is able to regulate the force restoration factor by making vertical force on each foot sufficiently large (sufficient foot placement) compared to the buoyancy force of the ocean, thus performing stable locomotion for both hexapod and quadruped mode.
MONOCULAR VISUAL ODOMETRY FOR IN-PIPE INSPECTION ROBOT
Authors: Abdul Kadir Herdawatie , Arshad M. R. , Habibi Aghdam Hamed , Zaman Munir
Published: September 2015

This paper describes a monocular visual odometry technique for low texture environment localization. Estimating the pose of a robot in a small time interval is one of the challenging problems in robotics. Localization, mapping and motion planning are three fundamental problems which directly use the pose information of the robot to achieve their goal. In this work, we extract the pose information by processing image inside a concrete culvert which is taken by a camera attached to a mobile robot. We analyze different motion scenario using correlation based image to find displacement vector between two images. Real image data from the displacement of the robot are used to demonstrate the propose method. The experimental results show that the selected method proven efficient for the in-pipe inspection robot localization.
MALAYSIAN INTEGRATED OCEAN OBSERVATION SYSTEM (MIOOS) BUOY
Authors: Din Abdul Sattar , Abdul Kadir Herdawatie , Arshad Mohd Rizal , Mohd Hariri Mohd Hafeez
Published: September 2015

Marine ecosystem around the world especially in coastal areas are facing threats of extinction from climate change, water pollution, and human activities, and therefore are in an urgent need for a round-the-clock monitoring. A novel Malaysian Integrated Ocean Observation System (MIOOS) buoy has been developed, which integrates an audio and visual surveillance into the traditional ocean data acquisition system (ODAS) buoy with the objective of providing a complete and cost effective coastal monitoring solution for marine parks. The buoy was equipped with sensors to sample oceanographic and meteorological data, and also a hydrophone and two cameras including one omni-directional camera to capture audio and visual data of the surrounding. The buoy embedded system has been designed using a low-power MSP430G2533 from Texas Instrument as the primary microcontroller. The system was powered by an 80Ah Lithium Ion battery, which was rechargeable using two units of 20 Watts solar panels. Data were transmitted to a ground station using XTend 900 MHz wireless module, which were subsequently stored and shared over the internet through a broadband modem. The buoy also has been made configurable using a Short Message Service (SMS) through a GSM modem connected to the ground station. Field testing has been conducted at a coastal area and the oceanographic and meteorological data as well as images have been collected. Data plotted have satisfactorily exposed some trends which are useful in oceanographic and meteorological studies.
COMPARISON OF TWO TYPE OF FUZZY SLIDING MODE WITH REGION TRACKING CONTROL FOR AUTONOMOUS UNDERWATER VEHICLE
Authors: Mohd Mokhar Mohd Bazli , Ismail Zool Hilmi
Published: September 2015

This paper presented two type of fuzzy sliding mode control with region tracking control for a single autonomous underwater vehicle. The vehicle is needed to track a certain moving region whilst under the influence of wave current. The first fuzzy logic proposed is used to tune the gain and to reduce the chattering effect; the signum function is replaced by saturation function. In second fuzzy type sliding mode controller, the switching term or reaching law is modeled using fuzzy logic. Simulation result is presented to demonstrate the performance of the two proposed tracking control of the AUV and the performance is compared.
STUDY ON THE EFFECT OF SHIFTING 'ZERO' IN OUTPUT MEMBERSHIP FUNCTION ON FUZZY LOGIC CONTROLLER OF THE ROV USING MICRO-BOX INTERFACING
Authors: Mohd Aras Mohd Shahrieel , Abdul Azis Fadilah , Abdullah Shahrum Shah , Dai Cong Lee , Wee Teck Lim , Ali Fara Ashikin , Othman Muhammad Nur
Published: September 2015

This paper investigates the study on the effect of shifting ‘zero’ membership function on Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) design of underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) for depth control using Micro-box 2000/2000C interfacing based on thruster system. The issues occurred with a ROV design is where the thruster system can easily drain up current from the supply (e.g. battery source or power bank) and this will limit time to using the ROV. FLC do not have a rigid approach to tune it and may cause the process of tuning will be highly time costing. Therefore, a simple method by a study on the effect of shifting zero membership function will act as a one technique to tune the FLC for future references. The ROV Trainer will be developed to test the proposed control method using Micro-box 2000/2000C. The ROV Trainer consists of aluminum box, thrusters, drivers, interface connector, and etc and interfacing with Micro-box act as microcontroller. Fuzzy logic toolbox in MATLAB will be used to study the shifting zero membership function so that the effect of the adjustment can be investigated. The result of this project shows that, by shifting zero membership function of the fuzzy logic controller, the performance of the fuzzy logic controller is normally improved.
SPATIAL HABITUATING SELF ORGANIZING MAP
Authors: Miskon Muhammad Fahmi , Mohd Sobran Nur Maisarah , Ali Fariz , Hj Shukor Ahmad Zaki
Published: September 2015

This paper presents the development of Spatial Habituating Self Organizing Map (SHSOM) network. This project is inspired by the challenges in underwater wall/pipe or cable inspection application using inspection robot. When exposed to the underwater natural elements, robot’s sensor readings are varied over space and time. Hence, the AUV need to be able to continuously adapt to its environment while performing inspection. For this reason, a new inspection system based on spatial Habituating Self Organizing Map (SHSOM) network is proposed. SHSOM allows the robot to continuously learn and adapt to new changes in its environment by using habituation principle which considers spatial information. WEBOT simulator is used to simulate an inspection scenario involving a mobile robot a changing environment. Simulation results show that the robot successfully learn and detect novel events during inspection.
PREDICTION OF ELECTRONIC WASTE DISPOSALS FROM RESIDENTIAL AREAS IN MALAYSIA
Authors: Othman Norazli , Mohammad Roslina , Kamaruddin Samira Albati
Published: September 2015

The most fundamental element in planning electronic waste management is to acquire reliable data on the total volume of electronic waste generated from various sources such as residential premises, commercial buildings and industrial areas. Hence, a crucial aspect of electronic waste management is to predict the accumulation of electronic wastes in the future.  This study aims to predict electronic waste to be disposed of for the next 15 years, focusing only on electronic waste from residential areas. A few rural and urban areas of residential premises were randomly selected as a case study. The result for this study was deduced from the survey and interviews conducted in the vicinity of the study area. Thirty sets of questionnaire were distributed randomly at each selected area. The residential area was divided into three categories i.e. residents with low income (LI), residents with medium income (MI) and residents with high income (HI). The survey was done by distributing the questionnaire to investigate electronic equipment usage and its lifespan by users as well as the waste management option preferred by the residents. The findings of the study showed that approximately 51% of the generated electronic waste will go through four stages of waste management options i.e. reuse, repair, remanufacturing and recycling, while approximately 49% of the generated electronic waste will go through the disposal option i.e. landfill sites. The result of the study showed that the predicted lifespan for the electronic equipment used by residents in Malaysia is between the ranges of 0-15 years. On average, as much as 5% of used home electronic equipment will be disposed of after 6 years of usage, 41% after 9 years and 3% after 12 years. From the study, the information regarding the percentage of electronic waste that will be reused, repaired, remanufactured, recycled and disposed of for the next 15 years can be gained and is presented via scientific analysis.
COMPARISON OF AIR TO AIR AND AIR TO WATER INTERCOOLERS IN THE COOLING PROCESS OF A TURBOCHARGER ENGINE
Authors: Nasution Henry , Abdul Aziz Azhar , Abdul Latiff Zulkarnain , Engkuah Stannely
Published: September 2015

Compressed air from a turbocharger needs to be cooled down to prevent knocking inside the combustion chamber from occurring. In the present study, air to water intercooler is used as a heat exchanger to minimize the temperature rise of the charged air produced from the turbocharger i.e. water is used as the medium for cooling the temperature of the charged air before the intake manifold instead of using direct air, which is the common medium of any intercooling system. The experiments were conducted with engine speeds of 2000, 2500, 3000, 3500, 4000, 4500 and 5000 rpm, with pressure of 0.6, 0.8 and 1.0 bar. The present study found that the air to water intercooler is more efficient and the heat transfer is much better than that of the air to air intercooler. This is due to the air flow to the water inside the intercooler is better compared to the system that uses an air to air intercooler system.
DEVELOPMENT OF A REALISTIC DRIVING BEHAVIOR BY MEANS OF FUZZY INFERENCE SYSTEM
Authors: Fouladinejad Nima , Taib J Mohd , Abd Jalil M K
Published: September 2015

Realistic traffic flow simulation is possible when the vehicles inside the simulation are able to mimic human driving behavior. In view of this, this paper will discuss the implementation of fuzzy logic inside the Behavior Model framework with the intention to develop intelligent simulated vehicles. This Behavior Model consists of three different units, namely; Vision and Perception, Decision and Motion Control Unit. Vision and Perception Unit acts as the eyes for the intelligent vehicle. Decision Unit will decide the maneuvering decision. Finally, Motion Control Unit will transfer the decision into motion. However, the implementation of fuzzy logic with the integration of fuzzy rules and defuzzification techniques is done in the first and second units. This Behavior Model is controlled by two sets of fuzzy inference systems (FIS) which are free flow vehicles following and changing lanes. The finding of this research shows that the Behavior Model with fuzzy logic is able to create an intelligent vehicle that is able to self-maneuveri inside the traffic flows, realistically.
AN EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON THE BEHAVIOUR OF GLASS FILLED POLYPROPYLENE AND POLYETHYLENE COMPOSITE PIPES UNDER QUASI-STATIC AXIAL LOADING
Authors: Ya H. H. , EL-Sobky H.
Published: September 2015

The behaviour of extruded glass fibre reinforced thermoplastic pipes under axial crushing load was investigated experimentally. It was envisaged that the difference between the axial and hoop moduli and strengths as well as the volume fraction would influence the mode of collapses and energy absorption. The ability to vary the moduli and the fibre volume fraction provides means of controlling the collapse mode in order to optimize specific energy absorption. Axial compression tests were performed on glass filled Polypropylene (GPP) and glass filled Polyethylene (GPE) composite pipes. The samples were chosen with a variety of fibre volume fraction (Vf = 5% to 20% and average angle of orientation 15Î¸">  = 50o to 80o) to evaluate the effect of anisotropy and Vf to the collapse modes when subjected to axial static loading. The results from the experiments revealed that typical axial and hoop modulus (Ea and 15EÎ¸"> ) of GPP and GPE pipes increased with increasing of 15Î¸">  from 55 15Â°">  to 75 15Â°">  and decreased gradually in between 75 15Â°">  to 80 15Â°"> . The axial modulus was increased constantly with the increase of Vf from 5 % to 20 %. However, the hoop modulus is the highest at 5% Vf, decreases significantly at 10%, and gradually increases at 20%. It is noticed that, the GPP and GPE pipes contain higher Vf and 15Î¸"> , collapsed in brittle failure mode (fragmentation), whereas those with less Vf and 15Î¸">  angle, collapsed in non-axis-symmetric (diamond) mode with the local fracture while the local fracture disappeared with lower fibre contents.
RECYCLED HIGH DENSITY POLYETHYLENE/ETHYLENE VINYL ACETATE/TARO POWDER COMPOSITES: THE EFFECT OF POLYETHYLENE-GRAFTED-MALEIC ANHYDRIDE ON TENSILE PROPERTIES AND THERMAL STABILITY
Authors: A. G. Supri , Fatimah A. R. H. , Firuz Z.
Published: September 2015

Taro powder (TP) filled composites based on recycled high density polyethylene (RHDPE)/ ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) were prepared via melt blending method. Polyethylene-grafted-maleic anhydride (PE-g-MAH) was used as a compatibilizer to enhance interfacial bonding of RHDPE/EVA/TP composites. The effects of TP loading and the addition of PE-g-MAH on the tensile properties and thermal stability of RHDPE/EVA/TP composites were investigated and studied. Findings indicated that increased TP loading will reduce tensile strength and elongation at break while increasing the modulus of elasticity. The thermal stability of RHDPE/EVA/TP composites improved by increasing filler loading. With respect to both tensile properties and thermal stability, RHDPE/EVA/TP composites with PE-g-MAH performed better than the composites without the addition of compatibilizers.
THE EFFECT OF WATER QUALITY ON REMOVAL OF ACETAMINOPHEN IN SURFACE WATER BY OZONATION PROCESS
Authors: Ahmad Lutpi Nur Anis , Muhammad Yuzir Muhamad Ali , Ling Yong Ee , Salim Mohamad Razman , Yusop Zulkifli , Salmiati Salmiati
Published: September 2015

The effectiveness of ozone to remove acetaminophen in surface water was studied. The results demonstrated that the removal of acetaminophen in surface water by ozone was achieved less than 30 minutes. Ozonation experiment was conducted with the initial concentration of 3.3 x 10-3 mM acetaminophen and para-cholobenzoic acid was selected as hydroxyl radical probe. The second-order rate constants for the reactions between acetaminophen and ozone have been evaluated in different quality of surface water. Based on the result obtained, ozonewas reducing rapidly in water samples according to the level of water quality. The presence of various organic and inorganic compounds in the water samples, which greatly influence the decomposition of dissolved ozone, hydroxyl exposure and removal of acetaminophen. The rate constants showed the minimum value (7.34 x 10-4 M-1 s-1) in lower water quality and maximum value (4.57 x 10-2 M-1 s-1) in high-quality water.
POTENTIAL USE OF OZONATION WITH LIMESTONE ADSORPTION IN GROUND TREATMENT: A CASE STUDY AT KELANTAN WATER TREATMENT PLANT
Authors: Akbar Nor Azliza , Abdul Aziz Hamidi , Adlan Mohd Nordin
Published: September 2015

Pollution of groundwater occurs due to rapid industrialization and agricultural activities. A desktop study was carried out to identify the actual groundwater problem occurs in Malaysia. The quality of groundwater was investigated to obtain the baseline groundwater data for an alternative integrated water treatment process that involved combination of ozonation and adsorption process. Preliminary data on groundwater pollution were collected from nine Mineral and Geoscience Department(JMG) groundwater monitoring wells, Air Kelantan Sdn Bhd (AKSB) water treatment plant and Natioal Hydraulics Research Institute of Malaysia (NAHRIM). The result shows that raw groundwater in Kelantan contains high concentration of Fe and thus an alternative treatment is necessary. However, based on the previous treated effluent data at one of the water treatment plants in Malaysia has indicated that the use of ozone alone may only  remove Fe concentration up to 0.5- 0.8 mg/L. This exceeded the acceptable limit of 0.3 mg/L .1 Application of ozonation process for groundwater treatment has received more attention based on its capability to transform contaminants into non-harmful substance within a short period. Most previous literature found that limestone is very effective in removing more than 90% of heavy metal such as Cu, Zn, Cd, Ni, Cr, Fe and Mn in water. To improve the performance of ozonation process, an integrated treatment of ozonation and adsorption processes using limestone is proposed in the current study for groundwater treatment.
ARTIFICIAL BARRIER FOR RIVERBANK FILTRATION AS IMPROVEMENT OF SOIL PERMEABILITY AND WATER QUALITY
Authors: Abd Rashid Nur Aziemah , Roslan Mohd Hafidz , Abd Rahim Nurulezzah , Abustan Ismail , Adlan Mohd Nordin
Published: September 2015

Soil strata abilities to drain water at high volume is the essential properties in RBF (Riverbank Filtration). An artificial barrier (AB) is a man-made vertical barrier to pre-treat water abstraction intake. It is a mixture of sand (local soil), granular activated carbon (GAC) and zeolite. In this work, AB was made to enhance the flow of groundwater as well as water quality. The soil analysis of borehole near Kerian River featured clay, sandy clay loam and sandy loam. In the study, a local soil was mixed Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) at 9:1 (10% GAC), 7:3 and 1:1 ratios. The immediate results are the permeability increased with the percentage of GAC. Further, similar tests were conducted with a mixture of local soil, GAC and zeolite in ratio of 5:2:3 in a laboratory scale physical model. The removal of turbidity and iron in a local soil (without GAC and zeolite) in the range of 59% - 88% and 74% - 87%, respectively. However, a better removal capacity of turbidity and iron were found in the mixture of local soil, GAC and zeolite up to 76% - 98.8% and 73% -92% removals respectively. In sum, the initial study indicate that the mixture of local soil, GAC and zeolite with a specific ratio could provide a pre-treatment of turbidity and iron removal in RBF abstraction.
POST-OCCUPANCY EVALUATION (POE) OF CONVENTIONAL-DESIGNED BUILDINGS: THE EFFECTS OF OCCUAPNTS’ COMFORT ON PRODUCTIVITY
Authors: Akashah Farid-Wajdi , Ali Azlan Shah , Mohd Zahari Siti Fatunah
Published: September 2015

POE is important to evaluate comfort level and satisfaction of building occupants because it indicates their productivity, health, and wellbeing. It is absolutely necessary to ensure building occupants are comfortable and satisfied about buildings’ indoor environmental quality (IEQ). Productivity may be interrupted due to building occupants’ discomfort, which affect their work performance. This study presents the how comfort and satisfaction affects the occupants’ productivity in conventional-designed buildings. Five office buildings located in University of Malaya were selected as the case studies. 278 questionnaires feedbacks found to be useful to form a database on the IEQ. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS software. The findings shows that majority of the respondents in conventional-designed building were slightly comfortable and satisfied about their IEQ comfort level which were indoor air quality, thermal, lighting, and noise comforts. Although, the design of conventional buildings did not taking into account on sustainability designing, it still functionally well and provided comfort which leads to increasing of employees productivity. The associative test showed significant correlation between illness symptom and IEQ components. Admin buildings had more noticeable illness symptoms in contrast with Faculty buildings. It could be concluded that building occupants’ productivity were least affected by the conventional-design building.
OFF-LINE TEXT-INDEPENDENT WRITER RECOGNITION FOR CHINESE HANDWRITING: A REVIEW
Authors: Jennis Tan Gloria , Sulong Ghazali , Mohd Rahim Mohd Shafry
Published: September 2015

This paper provides a comprehensive review of existing works including the characteristics of Chinese characters’ complex stroke crossing and challenges, which is still a largely unexplored subject for off-line text-independent Chinese handwriting identification.
SPHERE ENCAPSULATED ORIENTED-DISCRETE ORIENTATION POLYTOPES (S-DOP) COLLISION CULLING FOR MULTI-, RIGID BODY DYNAMIC
Authors: Mohd Suaib Norhaida , Bade Abdullah , Mohamad Dzulkifli
Published: September 2015

This paper discusses on sphere encapsulated oriented-discrete orientation polytopes (therefore will be referred to as S-Dop) collision culling for multiple rigid body simulation. In order to improve performance of the whole simulation system, there are available options in sacrificing the accuracy over speed by using certain approximation techniques. The aim of this research is to achieve excellent performance through implementation of suitable culling technique, without jeopardizing the resulting behavior so that the simulation will still be physically plausible. The basic idea is to identify the highly probable pairs to collide and test the pair with a more accurate collision test in broad-phase collision detection, before the pair is passed to a more costly stage. Results from the experiments showed that there are a number of ways to implement the sphere encapsulated or-Dops (S-Dop) collision culling on a multiple rigid body simulation depending on the level of performance needed.
ROBUST HAND-DRAWN SQUARE-ROI CONTOUR DETECTOR BASED ON ADAPTIVE THRESHOLDING
Authors: Lee Rechard , Bade Abdullah , Sulaiman Salina , Tanalol Siti Hasnah
Published: September 2015

Hand-drawn square-ROI detector was developed as one of the vital components in Real-Time Pre-Placed Markerless Square-ROI (RPMS) recognition technique. It aims to; 1. To verify hand-drawn Square-ROI (Region of Interest) as a square, and 2. To create a robust and flexible square-ROI detector technique which can be applied in uneven lighting condition. In this paper, we aim to detect only the desired ROI and handle the uneven lighting condition which is one of the primary disturbance sources that may generate false results. This may lead to error in registration in Augmented Reality application due to inability to correctly define a marker. As a solution, our technique applies adaptive thresholding in order to address this issue and to create a robust and flexible technique. To verify our proposed technique, two kinds of square is used in the testing and evaluation phase. In this experiment, two influencing factors; viewing distance, and detection accuracy were used to validate our aim. The results of the experiments show that the proposed technique efficiently detects and defines the desired square-ROI and also robust to illumination changes.
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CLUSTERING ALGORITHMS IN ORDER TO VIRTUAL HISTOLOGY (VH) IMAGE SEGMENTATION
Authors: Rezaei Zahra , Kasmuni Mohd Daud , Selamat Ali , Mohd Rahim Mohd Shafry , Abaei Golnoush , Abdul Kadir Mohammed Rafiq
Published: September 2015

Atherosclerosis is the deadliest type of heart disease caused by soft or “vulnerable” plaque (VP) formation in the coronary arteries.  Recently, Virtual Histology (VH) has been proposed based on spectral analysis of Intravascular Ultrasound (IVUS) provides color code of coronary tissue maps. Based on pathophysiological studies, obtaining information about existence and extension of confluent pool’s component inside plaque is important. In addition, plaque components’ localization respect to the luminal border has major role in determining plaque vulnerability and plaque–stent interaction. Computational methods were applied to prognostic the pattern's structure of each component inside the plaque. The first step for post-processing of VH methodology to get further information of geometrical features is segmentation or decomposition. The medical imaging segmentation field has developed to assist cardiologist and radiologists and reduce human error in recent years as well. To perform color image clustering, several strategies can be applied which include traditional hierarchical and nonhierarchical. In this paper, we applied and compared four nonhierarchical clustering methods consists of Fuzzy C-means (FCM), Intuitionistic Fuzzy C-means (IFCM), K-means and SOM artificial neural networks in order to automate segmentation of the VH-IVUS images.
STUDY ON HEALTH AND SAFETY ASPECTS OF DEMOLITION PROJECTS IN PENANG
Authors: Md Ulang Norhidayah , Abdul Kadar Nor Anisah
Published: September 2015

As a developing country, there are new developments undertaken to achieve the various goals set for developing countries. There are a lot of buildings being torn down to replace them with new buildings. The aim of this study is to see what kind of accidents and precautions to prevent or minimize accidents and also to find the cause of the accident in a demolition project. This study uses the interview in which the respondent can share more information about the experience in depth. Information gathered revealed that, the types of accidents that occur in demolition projects are similar to ordinary construction projects such as falling objects, falls from height, bodily injury and accidents caused by machinery. If precautions are ignored, various types of accidents may occur at demolition sites and potentially cause death. This study had been carried out inPenang,Malaysia.
SEWERAGE CATCHMENT STUDY FOR CLAN JETTIES, PENANG
Authors: Yan Shin Lai , Nik Abllah Nik Fuaad
Published: September 2015

The Water Pollution Study concluded that the most contaminated zone is the stretch where the fundamental channels meet the Clan Jetties shores. These are the channels along Lebuh Chulia, Gat Lebuh Armenian and Gat Lebuh Melayu. The organic loads, measured as far as BOD, COD, Oil & Grease, Suspended Solids are most noteworthy along this strip took after by the shoreline strip. The high E Coli concentrations along these 2 strips affirmed that there is fecal contamination most likely from the partially treated sewage being released from the unsewered premises nearby the Clan Jetties shore. This contamination is exacerbated by the direct sewage transfer into the ocean by the Clan jetties community because of the non-presence of any sewerage system at all. The usage of sewerage system must be provided as soon as possible and may be implemented in stages based on the budget and by doing in stages, the workability of the new system can be enhanced and redesigned in the subsequent stages. Since the houses are based on the ocean floor, the most suitable system to tap the sewage stream from the houses is the Vacuum Sewer System.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF FENG SHUI IN HOUSE BUYING SELECTION AMONG MALAYSIANS
Authors: Cha Liang Geh , Osmadi Atasya
Published: September 2015

Feng Shui can give positive effects that can bring harmony, success and zest for living comfort. This study seeks to examine the influence of Feng Shui theory on house buying selection. Survey questionnaire is done to meet the objective. Statistical Package for the social science software (SPSS) is used to do the reliability analysis and descriptive analysis. The Feng Shui factor that can influence respondents on house buying selection is ranked according to their mean value. The finding or this research reveals the house location is the most important factor for house buying selection.
ASSESSMENT THE FUNCTION OF TREES AS A LANDSCAPE ELEMENTS: CASE STUDY AT MELAKA WATERFRONT
Authors: Hussain Mohd Amirul , M. Y. M. Yunos, , Mydin M. A. Othuman , Utaberta Nangkula , Ismail Nor Atiah
Published: September 2015

In many waterfront developments, particularly in the Heritage & cultural waterfront, most of developments were abandoned. Supposedly vegetation arrangement at waterfront has designed to be a great function for people living, working, shopping, sharing, walking and motoring in and through the townscape. This paper examine on trees as a landscape element at the local cultural & heritage waterfront as a result to understand about the function of trees in role to enhance the characteristic of places. Hence, direct observation has been used specifically in this study. The observation was conducted by some evidence such as picture observation, news, magazine and interview. This outcome can be helpful for the developer, policy makers and master planner to facilitate in documenting the function of the trees in environment development, as well as help designer and city planners to have a deeper perspective of trees perceptions and opinions in tropical climate.