bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Comparative Study on Perturbation Techniques in Privacy Preserving Data Mining on Two Numeric Datasets
Authors: Ko Khang Siang Desmond , Othman Siti Hajar , Raja Mohd Radzi Raja Zahilah
Published: June 2018

Data Mining is a computational process that able to identify patterns, trends and behaviour from large datasets. With this advantages, data mining has been applied in many fields such as finance, healthcare, retail and so on. However, information disclosure become one of an issue during data mining process. Therefore, privacy protection is needed during data mining process which known as Privacy Preserving Data Mining (PPDM). There are several techniques available in PPDM and each of the techniques has its’ own benefits and drawbacks. In this research, perturbation technique is selected as privacy preserving technique. Perturbation technique is a method that alters the original data value before the application of data mining. In PPDM applications, perturbation technique able to provide a protection of data privacy but the accuracy of data should not be ignored too. In this research, three perturbation techniques are selected which are additive noise, data swapping and resample. For data mining techniques, two methods of classification are selected which are Naïve Bayes and Support Vector Machines (SVM). With the selection of these techniques, the experimental results are evaluated based on the hiding failure, accuracy and precision. For overall result, resample is selected as the best perturbation technique in naïve bayes and SVM classification for both glass and ionosphere datasets.
Evaluation of Business Continuity Plan Maturity Level Using Business Continuity Maturity Model
Authors: Haidzir Haniyana , Othman Siti Hajar , Kutty Mammi Hazinah
Published: June 2018

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) plays an important part in ensuring the business continuity of an organization in the event of major disruptions. In order to ensure the continuity of their critical business functions and critical services during and after a disaster, healthcare organizations such as hospitals, clinics, hospices and others can implement BCP models in their respective organizations to ensure their business continuity during and after disruptive incidents. After implementing BCP models in their respective healthcare organizations how can they ensure the BCP models will be useful and effective when disasters strike. Therefore, maturity models can help to analyze the maturity level of the BCP model. The higher the level of maturity of the BCP models, the higher the probability of effectiveness and usefulness of the BCP models. The goal of this research is to determine how compliance the existing maturity models for business continuity towards ISO 22301 standard and to map existing BCP healthcare model with business continuity maturity model.
Case Based Interpretation of Windows 10 Registry Forensics
Authors: Binjuraid Hasan , Mat Din Mazura
Published: June 2018

With the advancement in computer technologies, cybercrimes advanced too. As in today’s world, the technology knowledge to attack a computer is less than ever, with the help of advanced tools that does most of the work. Digital forensic investigations are crucial in solving this type of crimes, and it must be done professionally. Computer registries play a big part in the digital forensic investigation, it can help find artifacts that are left by the cybercrimes, dates of the crimes on the computer system and the user at the time of the crime. In this research, interpretation of these artifacts is the main focus, committees and jurors are the focus of the interpretations of the registries. Two types of cases are subject to investigation in this research. BitTorrent clients’ use for downloading illegal o copyrighted content, and three clients are chosen for this digital forensic investigation uTorrent, Vuze and BitComet. Theft using USB storage devices is the second type of case, where there are three types of USB devices Mass Storage Class, Picture Transfer Protocol and Media Transfer Protocol, each type of USB devices leaves different artifacts behind during insertion and removal. A web based dashboard will be developed to help with the process of interpretation the artifacts found in the registry of the computer system. A categorization process of each cybercrime case will be conduct to evaluate the severity of the case depending on the artifacts found in the digital forensics investigation process. The research methodology will consist of three phases. The first phase will be information gathering including literature review, requirements gathering and dataset gathering for the research. Performing digital forensics analysis will be the second phase and it includes planning, identification and reconnaissance. Last phase will include result analysis and discussion.
Preface
Authors: Md Siraj Maheyzah
Published: June 2018

Information Assurance and Security (IAS) is a field of research that focus on the management and protection of knowledge, information and data. It combines two fields:Information assurance, which focuses on ensuring the availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation of information and systems. These measures may include providing for restoration of information systems by incorporating protection, detection, and reaction capabilities.Information security, which emphasizes on the protection of information and information systems from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, disruption, modification, or destruction in order to provide confidentiality, integrity, and availability.Information systems play an important role in the infrastructure that supports commerce, banking, telecommunications, health care, and national security, driving the need for qualified IAS specialists.This special issue is a platform for Master of Science (Information Security) students to publish their final year project/research findings. The papers published in this issue have been reviewed by at least 3 reviewers or lecturers in the area of IAS. The scopes of research area conducted by the students are:- Information Security Awareness, Evaluation, Maturity Model/Metamodel- Security Issues in Cloud- Spam Email/Review/Web Detection- Biometrics Recognition- Privacy Preserving Data Mining- Cyber Security Analytics and Visualization- Digital Forensics and Investigation- Others
Development of Metamodel on Information Security Risk Audit and Assessment for IT Assets in Commercial Bank
Authors: Clement Chen Kaiwen , Othman Siti Hajar , Md Sirat Maheyzah
Published: June 2018

Nowadays, most fortunes of the commercial banks today are linked with Information Technology (IT) assets they possess and the way they audit their organizations IT assets. As information assets become the heart of commercial banks, Information Security Risk Audit and Assessment (ISRAA) is increasingly involved in managing commercial banks information security risk situations. ISRAA is an activity that analysis, audit, mitigates, and monitors the risks associated with IT assets. A more comprehensive and tighter regulatory environment is expected through the improvement on the ISRAA with clearer and appropriately defines regulatory guideline. This research creates a unified view of ISRAA in the form of a metamodel that can be seen as a language for this domain. A metamodeling process is applied to ensure that the outcome metamodel is complete and consistent. The metamodel is validated and refined to serve as a representational layer to unify, facilitate and expedite access to ISRAA expertise.
Data Integrity Schemes for Outsourced Data on Untrusted Cloud Storage: A Review
Authors: Panhwer Yasir Ali , Salleh Mazleena
Published: June 2018

Cloud Computing have emerged into a very vast growing area which have a great impact towards the development other new technologies and application such as internet of things, sensors, artificial intelligence, social networks and business applications. With the new development of technology and applications, the production of data is increased and data have the property of being updated dynamically. That dynamic data is stored on cloud storages provided by third party service providers. The third party cloud storages cannot be solely trusted and the user does not have the control over the possession or integrity of data. The integrity is the major concern for that data as it is being intact not deleted, modified or destroyed intentionally or unintentionally. The researchers have presented several protocols such as Provable Data Possession (PDP) techniques which provide probabilistic approach for data integrity verification in which the verification is done on block level. To support dynamic nature of data the researchers have introduced different data structure along with PDP. Due to enormous amount of data and its dynamic nature, the integrity verification schemes causes high computational and communicational cost for metadata generation and node rebalancing of the data structures
Ontology of Mutation Testing for Java Operators
Authors: Sualim Sherolwendy , Mohamad Radziah , Saadon Nor Azizah
Published: June 2018

Operators are special characters within the Java language to manipulate primitive data type. Java operators can be classified as unary, binary and ternary. The design of Java operator sometimes becomes confusing when it comes to testing tools as they had the same function with different label in every testing tool.  Therefore, in order to map the knowledge of operators correctly, this research has proposed ontology that is dedicated to mutation testing as a means to define the formal specification of concepts and documentation of knowledge of Java operators. Existing papers on ontology did not specify further on entities and properties of operators. Some papers only focus on mutation testing but not the operators. Thus, this paper will present the ontology clearly with the aim to ease end user to identify and understand every classes, properties and relations in Java operators.
Privacy Preserving Data Mining Based on Geometrical Data Transformation Method (GDTM) and K-Means Clustering Algorithm
Authors: Jamadi Nur Athirah , Md Siraj Maheyzah , Mat Din Mazura , Kutty Mammy Hazinah , Ithnin Norafida
Published: June 2018

In current era of sharing unlimited digital information via the network, protecting the privacy of information is crucial even during the data mining process due to a high possibility of the information security risks such as being abused or leakage. Such problems motivate the research in Privacy Preserving Data Mining (PPDM) and it became one of the newest trends. Therefore, this papers reviews the related works in terms of issues, approaches, techniques, performance quantification as well as thorough discussions on pros and cons of previous researches. We also propose an improved PPDM that applying Geometrical Data Transformation Method (GDTM) and K-Means Clustering Algorithm for optimum accuracy of mining and zero data loss while preserving the privacy of information.
Overview of the Injection Moulding Optimisation for Shrinkage Defect
Authors: N.M Hatta , M.Z Azlan , Sallehuddin Roselina , Z. Shayfull
Published: June 2018

The injection moulding process in manufacturing plastic material has become a worldwide used for more than 100 years. The used can be seen everywhere instead of became a daily used product. The complexity of the process makes it difficult to handle but the big production makes it possible to happen. The entire process not just involve the difficult cycling process, but the involvement of the materials which pertaining many types of characteristic which considered to. Every big production need a quality production product with suitable cost and time efficiency. Eventhough, alongside the process, many defects can be detected by the physically seen marks. Many people especially from the expert’s field are trying to minimise as much as they can to reduce the defects so that the residual cost can be minimise. One of the way to overcome the problems is by simulation before the real product is being produce. The simulation is made by two classes of types which classical and non-classical method. Either both of the method gave good result but it still not reaches a perfect solution. In this study, the optimisation method of non-classical and classical are used to minimise the shrinkage defects at the thick plate part.
Identifying Sign of Grit among Self-Paced MOOC Students Based on Clickstream Data
Authors: Mohamad Nadirah , Ahmad Nor Bahiah , Idris Norsham
Published: June 2018

Previous research that investigate and predict student’s performance share various results concerning the factors that drive the students to retain and success. The factor ranging from intrinsic to extrinsic. However, few MOOC research attempt to scrutinize grit factor. Previous researches results are from survey. However, self-report survey is insufficient because the students may have different interpretation about the questions and measurement for themselves. Therefore, this is a case study that attempts to investigate the sign of grit among self-paced MOOC students using proposed features based on clickstream data. Also, the study observes whether the grit traits have relation with student’s performance. This study found that many students have high grade despite having low grit traits. However, statistical analysis shows that there is still significant correlation between grit traits and student’s grade. Other factor like unrecorded effort outside online learning may contribute to this result which can be investigated by future study. There is potential for better result by combining proposed method with collected survey.
Wavelet Transform and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average Combination Approach in Crude Oil Prices Forecasting
Authors: Md-Khair Nurull Qurraisha Nadiyya , Samsudin Ruhaidah , Shabri Ani
Published: June 2018

This paper proposes a time series forecasting approach combining wavelet transform and autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) to enhance the precision in forecasting crude oil spot prices series. Wavelet transform splits the original prices series into several subseries, then the most appropriate model of ARIMA is established to predict each respective series and finally all series are combined back to get the original series. The datasets for the experiment consist of crude oil spot prices from Brent North Sea (Brent) and West Texas Intermediate (WTI). Single forecasting model ARIMA and several existing forecasting approaches in the literatures are used to measure the performance of the proposed approach by utilizing the Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) collected. Final results have depicted that the proposed approach outperforms other approaches with smaller MAE and RMSE values. Ultimately, it is proven that data decomposition, combined with forecasting method can increase the accuracy in time series forecasting.
Gas chromatographic analysis of fatty acid composition in the fresh water fishes in North Sulawesi
Authors: Pontoh Julius , Tumiwa Drayen
Published: June 2018

Fresh water fish is one of the nutritious food sources for the people in Indonesia including in North Sulawesi.  Other than its protein, the fish oil has an important source of energy as well as nutraceutical of the people.  Some fatty acids, especially omega three fatty acids have been known for their function in prevention of some artery diseases.  There is not so much information available about the fatty acid composition in the fresh water fishes.  Therefore, the purposes of this research are to determine the present of fatty acids and their composition in the fresh water fishes.  The fish samples including, tilapia (mujair), carp (ikan mas), catfish (lele), snakehead (gabus) have been collected from various parts in North Sulawesi.  Fatty acids were identified using standard fatty acid mix and measured for their concentration using gas chromatographic technique.  The main fatty acids are following to their abundancy: oleic acid varies from 27.24 % for snakehead to 42.22 % for catfish; palmitic acid varies from 22.32 % for carp to 26.91 % for snakehead fish; and linolenic acid varies from 11.89 % for snakehead to 22.46 % for carp.  Among the fresh water fishes, the snakehead fish has a unique fatty acid composition, it has high concentration of docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6, DHA).
Optimal concentration of mangrove (Rhizophora mucronata) leaf and propagule based natural dye
Authors: Pringgenies Delianis , Yudiati Ervia , Tri Nuraini Ria Azizah , Susilo Endang Sri , Rahayuningsih Edia
Published: June 2018

This research aims to discover total extract level from leaf and propagule of mangrove Rhizophora mucronata, Baume relationship and extract level from leaf and propagule of mangrove, the result of color extract for fabric cotton, phytochemical screening of active compounds contained in mangroves and dye application by fractionation method using column chromatography. The methods employed in this study by means of Baume scale, gravimetric analysis of extract contents, phytochemical screening, and column gravity chromatography separated color of the pigment. The results showed that the higher the level of extract, the greater the mass of the species and the higher the level of extract, the color will be darker. During the soxhlet extraction process, water contents of the material were at 60% for fresh leaves, 18% for dehydrated leaves, 16% for mangrove fruit propagule, and 14% for mangrove branch propagule. Average dye contents were measured at 5% for fresh leaves, 22% for dehydrated leaves, 17% for mangrove fruit propagule, and 21% for mangrove branch propagule. The colors resulted from treatment of the samples using limestone, alum and lotus solutions from each mangrove leaf and propagule sample were different from white to dark brown. The optimal concentration of dye found in this study were 0.0071 g/mL for fresh leaves, 0.0080 g/mL for dehydrated leaves, 0.0255 g/mL for fruit propagule, and 0.0275 g/mL for branch propagule. Phytochemical test results also show that the pigment associated to the blackish-green hue was tannin, and that which was associated with red was flavonoid and quinone. The result of column chromatography showed that on leaf waste and skin is found in blackish green color and on the skin can be found in red.
Investigations of color center phenomena in Topaz and Quartz through electron spin resonance with reference to optical absorption and nuclear magnetic resonance: Implications for extended mineral applications
Authors: Greenidge Darius
Published: June 2018

Optical absorption, electron spin resonance (ESR) and nuclear (NMR) studies of silicate minerals such as quartz and topaz help to reveal the nature of a variety of colors which are derived from defects within the crystal structures involving the presence of impurities, trapped holes, and electrons. The present study was inspired by color changes in cinnabar, which upon exposure to sunlight, turns from vermillion red to black under certain conditions, the solid state physical reasons for which have not yet been described. Smoky and amethyst quartz are also bleached by energy from the Sun; reactions that can be reversed by the process of artificial irradiation and heat treatment. Topaz, the focus of this study, exhibits the imperial yellow variety from Ouro Preto, Brazil, which bleaches upon exposure to high temperatures and gives rise to a pink color if chromium is present as an impurity. For the blue variety of topaz, which arises from the irradiation of colorless topaz to smoky, then heat treating to blue, the crystal chemistry remains undefined. Many color centers found in topaz are believed to have a relationship to the presence of aluminum in tetrahedral sites, also related to trapped hole/electron defects. Although NMR studies have targeted the presence of 27Al with uncertain results, optical absorption and ESR studies show clear connections to the production of electronic defects related to absorbing centers caused by high energy irradiation. ESR studies indicate that significant information can be attained relative to these defects when the magnetic vector is parallel to the c axis of the crystal. This paper begins to shed light on the responsible mechanisms that may define the crystal chemistry in terms of the electronic environment, with particular emphasis on topaz.
Photocatalytic oxidation of nitrite ion over carbon nitride
Authors: Jasman Siti Maryam , Lintang Hendrik Oktendy , Lee Siew Ling , Yuliati Leny
Published: June 2018

Nitrite ion (NO2-) is a toxic inorganic contaminant, which is widely used in industry and agriculture as a food preservative and a fertilizing agent. One of the methods to reduce the toxicity of the NO2- is by oxidizing it into less hazardous compounds, such as nitrate ion (NO3-). In this study, we demonstrated that a simple and green photocatalytic process can be employed to oxidize the NO2- to NO3- over a metal free-carbon nitride photocatalyst under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. The carbon nitride was synthesized via pyrolysis of urea precursor by a thermal polymerization process at 823 K for 4 hours. The prepared carbon nitride was then characterized by using X-ray diffractometer (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), diffuse reflectance UV-visible (DR UV-vis), fluorescence, and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrophotometers, as well as nitrogen  adsorption-desorption isotherm analyzer. All the characterization results supported the successful synthesis of the carbon nitride. The carbon nitride was then used as the photocatalyst for oxidation of NO2- to NO3- under UV light irradiation for 3 h. The decrease of the NO2- and the formation of the NO3- were analyzed by using a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with Hypersil GoldTM PFP column. The mobile phase used was a mixture of methanol (MeOH) and water (H2O) with the ratio of MeOH:H2O was 30:70. The addition of orthophosphoric acid was required to set the pH at 2.5. The flow rate was fixed at 0.8 ml min-1 and the monitored wavelength was 220 nm. It was revealed that carbon nitride could oxidize NO2- to NO3- with a moderate conversion of 15%. Fluorescence quenching showed that there were good interactions between the emission sites of carbon nitride and the NO2- molecules. The good interactions would be one driving force for the carbon nitride to act as a good photocatalyst to oxidize the NO2- to NO3-. The oxidation pathway by the photogenerated species was also proposed.
Floristic diversity and medical interest of Djebel Aissa national park flora (Ksours Montains,Algeria)
Authors: Mohammed Benaissa , Ahmed El Haitoum , Kouider Hadjadj
Published: June 2018

Declared national park since 2003 in the province of Naâma in Algeria, it covers an area of around  24 400 hectares. Djebel Aissa national park offers particularly favorables conditions for the development of important floristic diversity with endemic and / or rare taxa.The inventory of the plant biodiversity in the park revealed the existence of 379 taxa belonging to 52 families and 233 genera. An important endemics number has recorded:  24 North Africa, 23 Algerian-Moroccan,4 North Africa and Iberian Peninsula, 5 Algerian, 6 Saharan, 1 Algerian-Tunisian, 1 ibero-algero-Moroccan and 2 ibero –Moroccan. 65 species were reported as rare or very rare, including 15 quite rare species, 36 rare species, 12 very rare species and 2 extremely rare species.
Anticancer activity of novel soursop leaves active compound (sf-1603) through apoptotic induction in liver cancer
Authors: Tejasari Maya , Sastramihardja Herri , Abdurachman Siti Aminah , Prasetyo Dwi
Published: June 2018

There are no effective standard treatments for unresectable stage of liver cancer have been established. These insights lead the pursuit of targeted therapeutic strategies for reactivating apoptosis to eradicate cancer cells. It was hypothesized that active compound in the soursop leaves will be able to induce apoptosis. Objective of the study is to explore the role of novel soursop leaves active compound (SF-1603) in apoptosis induction to find a new agent for liver cancer therapy.  This study was use HepG2 cell line culture seeded in DMEM / F12. There were control group and 3 intervention group given SF-1603 with different concentration.  Apoptosis detection was done using Terminal deoxynucleotidyl Transferase-mediated dUTP Nick End Labeling (TUNEL) method. Statistical analyses were conducted using linear regression. The result showed the cells undergoing apoptosis in the control group less than treatment groups.  There was a strong positive correlation (r=0.847) between the rate of apoptosis and a concentration of SF-1603, reflected the  apoptotic effect with a dose-dependent manner. The study conclude, the novel  soursop  leaves  active compound SF-1603 had the strong ability to induce apoptosis on liver cancer cell line culture, so it can be used as a candidate for new agent for liver cancer therapy.
Assessment of metal pollution using enrichment factor (EF) and pollution load index (PLI) in sediments of selected Terengganu rivers, Malaysia
Authors: Sukri Nor Sayzwani , Aspin Siti Amirah , Kamarulzaman Nurul Liyana , Jaafar Nurul Fazlina , Mohd Ghazi Rozidaini , Shafiee @ Ismail Nor Shahida , Yaacob Siti Hajar , Kedri Farah Khaliz , Zakaria Mohamad Pauzi
Published: June 2018

Anthropogenic activities that happen in Terengganu River were contributed to sediment pollution at that area.  The sediment pollution occurred when sediment are additional influenced with chemical adsorption between the metals, grain size, and organic matter. Thus, this study was conducted to assess the metal pollution using Enrichment Factor (EF) and Pollution Load Index (PLI) and compared with the previous study. A total of 15 sediment samples were collected from 5 different rives and metal concentration were analyzed using flame Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (ASS). The metal concentration ranged as followed: Cr (0.48-12.80 mg/kg), Cu (0.38-15.20 mg/kg), Mg (202.00-2769.00mg/kg), K (63.36-1730.00 mg/kg), Mn (4.27-33.70 mg/kg), Zn (2.05-31.30 mg/kg) and Cl (141.00-584.00 mg/kg) respectively. Enrichment Factor (EF) and Pollution Load Index (PLI) were used as a pollution indicator to access the sediment pollution in selected Terengganu Rivers. The mean Enrichment Factor (EF) value indicated in decrease order Cl (34.70) > Zn (23.44) > Cu (10.37) > Cr (1.95) > K (1.58) > Mg (1.16)> Mn (0.87). Meanwhile, Pollution Load Index (PLI) value showed below than 1 in all sampling stations. When compared with previous study, Mg  and Cl metals need to take further action due to dramatically increased within seven years. The output from this study will be useful for environmental management at Terengganu Rivers.
Report on five species of harpacticoid copepods from vegetative area of Sungai Pulai, Johor
Authors: Kassim Zaleha , Hasnan Hazwani Hanim , Zainal Syazleen , Ahmad Ishak Nurul Huda
Published: June 2018

Bottom vegetation is known as preferred habitat for many types of meiofauna such as copepods. The conditions of sea bottom that include vegetation could contribute to the copepod’s assemblage. Being an important diet for fish larvae, information on copepod species promotes effort for conservation of both fish species and marine ecosystem. Nonetheless, identification and taxonomic report on copepods from such areas are still scanty. Samples of copepods were collected by scrapping the uppermost 10cm of sediment of bottom area at Sungai Pulai’s seagrass-bed during low tide. Sediment was decanted to extract the copepods which later be preserved in 5% buffered formalin.  Body parts were dissected under microscope and prepared for taxonomic study. All drawings made with the help of Lucida tube were used for comparison with established key of identification. Five families were noted in this study; Ameridae Monard, Lang, Parastenhelia Thompson & A. Scott, Dactylopusiidae Lang, Tisbidae Sars and Diosaccidae Sars. Harpacticoid copepod species described from this study were Ameira sp. (Ameridae Monard, Lang), Parastenhelia sp. (Parastenhelia Thompson & A. Scott), Paradactylopodia sp. (Dactylopusiidae, Lang), Idyanthepusilla (Tisbidae, Sars) and Stenhelia sp. (Diosaccidae Sars).  Further study on functional morphology would explain their adaptability to both conditions of sea bottom.
Evaluation of antioxidant properties of phycobiliproteins and phenolic compounds extracted from Bangia atropurpurea
Authors: Punampalam Rajalakshmi , Khoo Kong Soo , Sit Nam Weng
Published: June 2018

Bangia atropurpurea is a freshwater red filamentous alga. In this study, we report on the recovery yield of purified phycobiliproteins, total phenolic content (TPC) and their antioxidant capacity. B. atropurpurea suspended in phosphate buffer (pH 7.2), saturated with ammonium sulphate and further isolated R-phycoerythrin and phycocyanin from phycobilisome structure by gel filtration with Sephadex G-200. Phenolic compounds extracted by variable polarity solvents to exhibit optimum yield. Folin–Ciocalteu method was used to determine the TPC, while 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and ferric-reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) assays were used to quantitate the antioxidant activity of phycobiliproteins and phenolic compounds.  B. atropurpurea predominantly contains R-phycoerythrin 54.80 % of the total protein extracted at purity ratio A562 to A280 of 4.45 while, phycocyanin displayed 16 % recovery yield at purity ratio A615 to A280 of 2.18. The purified R-phycoerythrin exhibited better antioxidant activity than phycocyanin extract and BHT synthetic antioxidant by exhibiting (IC50%=7.66 ±0.81µg/mL) and 54.74 ± 0.11 mg GAE/1g extract for, DPPH scavenging and FRAP assay, respectively. The sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) of purified R-phycoerythrin and phycocyanin proteins have showed apparent single band at molecular weight of 19.6 kDa and 17.5 kDa, respectively. The methanol-soluble extract displayed the utmost TPC, 80.97±0.53 mg GAE/1g extract compared to phenolic content in other organic solvents used for extraction. In accordance with TPC, methanol-soluble extract exhibited as the most effective DPPH radical scavenging and ferric reduction, (IC50%=14.63±0.79 µg/mL) and 37.79±0.27 mg GAE/1g extract, respectively. The presence of R-phycoerythrin, phycocyanin and phenolic compounds in an array, amplifies the antioxidant property of B. atropurpurea.
Design and development of polymerase chain reaction thermal cycler using proportional-integral temperature controller
Authors: Kim Soon Chong , Anusha Devi Nawoor , Beng Gan Kok , Then Sue-Mian
Published: June 2018

A thermal cycler is used to amplify segments of DNA using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). It is an instrument that requires precise temperature control and rapid temperature changes for certain experimental protocols. However, the commercial thermal cyclers are still bulky, expensive and limited for laboratory use only.  As such it is difficult for on-site molecular screening and diagnostics. In this work, a portable and low cost thermal cycler was designed and developed. The thermal cycler block was designed to fit six microcentrifuge tubes. A Proportional-Integral temperature controller was used to control the thermal cycler block temperature. The results showed that the maximum temperature ramp rate of the developed thermal cycler was 5.5 °C/s. The proportional gain (Kp) and integral gain (Ki) of the PI controller were 15 A/V and 1.8 A/Vs respectively. Finally, the developed thermal cycler successfully amplified six DNA samples at the expected molecular weight of 150 base pair. It has been validated using the Eppendorf Mastercycler nexus gradient system and gel electrophoresis analysis
Multiresolution analysis on nonlinear complexity measurement of EEG signal for epileptic discharge monitoring
Authors: Fathillah Mohd Syakir , Jaafar Rosmina , Chellappan Kalaivani , Remli Rabani , Wan Zainal Wan Asyraf
Published: June 2018

Various epileptic discharge detection studies have been conducted however, not many clinically significant outcomes have been achieved in developing reliable algorithm using nonlinear measurement techniques. Study has reported that some of the linear measurement techniques performances better than nonlinear technique in detecting the epileptic discharge in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. The reliability issue has been addressed in nonlinear techniques, by introducing Multiresolution analysis (MRA). MRA with approximate entropy are the most common combination used to detect epileptic discharge, leaving other nonlinear complexity measures are yet to be explored with MRA. Previously, we have study the performance of Approximate Entropy (ApEn) and Lempel Ziv (LZ) using MRA. In this paper, we have expanded the scope by studying performance of MRA with other complexity measurement including Hurst exponent (HE), Kolmogorov complexity (KC), Shannon Entropy (SE) and Sample Entropy (SampEn). Groups of normal with interictal (Set A and B), normal with ictal (Set A and C) and interictal with ictal (Set B and C) were used to evaluate the performance. For the result, MRA managed to enhance the accuracy of ApEn (AB: 74% to 89%, AC: 98% to 100%, BC:88% to 94%) and SE (AB: 69% to 98%, AC: 100% to 100%, BC:96% to 97%) in detecting epileptic discharge the best while deteriorating LZ (AB: 49% to 83%, AC: 91% to 86%, BC:89% to 88%) and HE (AB: 65% to 70%, AC: 89% to 78%, BC:80% to 54%) performance. Computation time tends to increase with the implementation of MRA.
Computation of splicing languages from DNA splicing system with one palindromic restriction enzyme
Authors: Ismail Nurul Izzaty , Fong Wan Heng , Sarmin Nor Haniza
Published: June 2018

In DNA splicing system, the potential effects of sets of restriction enzymes and a ligase that allow DNA molecules to be cleaved and reassociated to produce further molecules are studied.  A splicing language depicts the molecules resulting from a splicing system.  In this research, a C++ programming code for DNA splicing system with one palindromic restriction enzyme for one and two (non-overlapping) cutting sites is developed.  A graphical user interface, GUI is then designed to allow the user to insert the initial DNA string and restriction enzymes to generate the splicing languages which are the result of the computation of the C++ programming.  This interface displays the resulting splicing languages, which depict the results from in vitro experiments of the respective splicing system.  The results from this research simplify the lenghty manual computation of the resulting splicing languages of DNA splicing systems with one palindromic restriction enzyme.
Determination of selected heavy metals in airborne particles in industrial area: A baseline study
Authors: Azid Azman , Muhammad Amin Siti Noor Syuhada , Khalit Saiful Iskandar , Ismail Salwani , Samsudin Mohd Saiful , Ku Yusof Ku Mohd Kalkausar , Abd Rani Nurul Latiffah , Amran Mohammad Azizi , Yunus Kamaruzzaman , Mohd Saudi Ahmad Shakir
Published: June 2018

This study focuses on airborne heavy metal pollution in the industrial area. Eight points from Paka and Gebeng Industrial Area respectively were selected for this study within two monsoon seasons. The samples were analysed for heavy metals (Cd, As, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn) by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The results showed that the mean concentration value of As, Pb and Cd for Paka were 5.0 ng/L ± 1.0, 107.0 ng/L ± 88.2, and 10.0 ng/L ± 7.5, respectively and Gebeng were 3.5 ng/L ± 1.5, 69.3 ng/L ± 59.3 and 5.1 ng/L ± 3.8, respectively in the southwest monsoon - much higher than the target value by European Commission in Directive 2004/107/EC and Directive 2008/50/EC. It could be concluded that the industrial and transportation emission were the major source of heavy metals in the atmosphere along the Paka and Gebeng Industrial Area.
Phase analysis and magnet properties of ZnxFe(3-x)O4 prepared by milling process
Authors: Sunandar Mashadi , Tiana Saskia , Tiana Saskia , Yunasfi Yunasfi
Published: June 2018

Phase analysis and magnetic properties of ZnxFe(3-x)O4 (x = 0,25; 0,50; 0,75 and 1,0) have been done. The synthesis of ZnxFe(3-x)O4 was carried out using a solid reaction with the xZnO : (3-x)Fe2O3 material composition (x = 0.25, 0.50, 0.75 and 1.0) according to the mole ratio of each, then milling for 5 hours and then sintered at a temperature of 1200 °C for 3 hours. Phase identification with XRD (X-ray Diffractometer) shows that ZnxFe(3-x)O4 milling results form the diffraction peak of the NiFe2O4 and Fe2O3 phases, the greater the value of x (the Zn atom content) the less Fe2O3 % phase while the % phase ZnFe2O4 is getting bigger and even for x = 1.0 only ZnFe2O4 phase is formed (ZnFe2O4 formed 100% or single phase). Surface morphological observations with SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) show the formation of an increasingly homogeneous structure along with the addition of Zn2+ ion content and varying sizes ranging from 1 µm to 100 nm. The properties magnetic of ZnFe2O4 with VSM (vibrating sample magnetometer) showed that the sample behave ferromagnetically with Ms higher (in the range 1.89 - 21.10 emu/g) while the Hc value is smaller (in the range 243 - 107 Oe) with the addition of Zn2+ ion content. Thus, the presence of the Fe2O3 phase can decrease the magnetic properties of the material.
Biodecolourisation of Acid Red 27 Dye by Citrobacter freundii A1 and Enterococcus casseliflavus bacterial consortium
Authors: Sabaruddin Muhamad Firdaus , Md Nor Muhamad Hanif , Muhamad Mubarak Mohamad Fahmi , Abdul Rashid Noor Aini , Chan Giek Far , Youichi Shimizu , Ibrahim Norahim
Published: June 2018

The feasibility of Citrobacter freundii A1 and Enterococcus casseliflavus C1 bacterial consortium under sequential facultative anaerobic-aerobic treatment for complete dye degradation using AR-27 dyes shows 98% decolourisation and 100% COD removal after 72 hours treatment. Moreover, the UV-Vis spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) Spectroscopic analysis confirmed that the azo linkage was cleaved after the decolourisation occurred. While, the cyclic voltammetry analysis also shows that the decolourisation of AR-27 by C. Freundii A1 and E. Casseliflavus C1 was an irreversible reaction and the detection of oxidation reaction under agitation proved the presences of AR-27 degradation process. Furthermore, the HPLC analysis has confirmed the AR-27 degradation through the decrease in catechol concentration.
Emulsion breakage behaviour on chromium (VI) removal using emulsion liquid membrane containing quaternary ammonium compounds
Authors: Mohamed Noah Norul Fatiha , Othman Norasikin , Jusoh Norlela
Published: June 2018

Environmental pollution caused by heavy metals such as chromium, nickel, and lead has become a serious worldwide issue due to their threats to humans, animals and plants as well as to the stability of the overall ecosystem. Its removal from effluents such as electroplating rinse wastewater and tannery effluents is of primordial importance. In this study, the emulsion liquid membrane (ELM) technology was employed as a remediation technique that capable of removing Cr (VI) efficiently from wastewater where extraction and stripping processes are performed in a single operation. The ELM is consists of trioctylmethylammonium chloride (Alamine 336) as an extractant, palm oil as an organic diluent, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as a stripping solution and sorbitan monooleate (Span-80) as a surfactant to stabilize the emulsion phase. The effect of operational parameters such as the agitation speed, phase contact time, extractant concentration and stripping agent concentration were studied to optimize the conditions for emulsion stability and maximum removal of chromium. The best removal efficiency was obtained at 350 rpm of agitation speed and 3 minutes of phase contact time with 0.04 M Alamine 336 as extractant and 0.1 M NaOH as stripping agent. In this condition, the maximum removal efficiency of 100% was obtained with a minimum breakage rate of 5%.
Assessment of fatty acid composition and response surface optimization of ultrasonic-assisted extraction of phenolic compounds from Pouteria campechiana pulp
Authors: Che Marzuki Nur Haziqah , Abdul Hamid Mariani , Abdul Wahab Roswanira
Published: June 2018

Pouteria campechiana (PC) pulp was analyzed for its fatty acid composition. Fourteen different kinds of fatty acids were found with the major fatty acids viz. palmitic acid (C16:0), oleic acid (C18:1), myristic acid (C14:0) and linolenic acid (C18:2), making up approximately 73.8 % of the total fatty acid content (TPC). An ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) of the polyphenolic bioactive components in PC pulp powder were statistically optimized using the Central Composite Design (CCD). Factors that gave maximized TPC in the crude extract of PC pulp powder were assessed for factors, ratio of ethanol:water, extraction temperature and extraction time. The established optimum conditions of the CCD model with R2 = 0.8833 were within the studied range and agreed well with the predicted values. Under an optimized condition [30 min, 35 °C and ratio of ethanol:water, 60:40 (%, v/v)], the highest TPC was 1162.80 mg GAE/100 g in comparison to the predicted 1115.06 mg GAE/100 g. High Performance Liquid Chromatography confirmed that gallic acid and its derivatives were the major components, comprising a ⁓0.03 % (w/w) of the PC pulp crude extract. Pertinently, a high recovery value in the HPLC validation data (109.84 %, R2 = 0.9995) suggests the method was accurate.
Rail Defect Detection Using Fiber Optic Sensors and Wavelet Algorithms
Authors: Taheri Saied , Moslehi Behzad , Sotoudeh Vahid , Hopkins Brad M.
Published: June 2018

Early detection of rail defects can avoid derailments and costly damage to the train and railway infrastructure. Small breaks, cracks or corrugations on the rail can quickly propagate after only a few train cars have passed over it, creating a potential derailment. The current technology makes use of a dedicated instrumented car or a separate railway monitoring vehicle to detect large breaks. These cars are usually equipped with accelerometers mounted on the axle or side frame. The simple detection algorithms use acceleration thresholds which are set at high values to eliminate false positives. As a result, rail surface defects that produce low amplitude acceleration signatures may not be detected, and special track components that produce high amplitude acceleration signatures may be flagged as defects.

This paper presents the results of a feasibility study conducted to develop new and more advanced sensory systems as well as signal processing algorithms capable of detecting various rail surface irregularities. A dynamic wheel-rail interaction model was used to simulate train dynamics as a result of rail defects and to assess the potential of this new technology on rail defect detection. In a future paper, we will present experimental data in support of the proposed model and simulations.
Comparison of Under Ballast Mat Performance With Different Support Conditions Through Laboratory Experiment and Numerical Simulation
Authors: Qian Yu , Zhu Kaijun , de Oliveira Lima Arthur , Dersch Marcus S. , Edwards J. Riley
Published: June 2018

Under-ballast mats (UBMs) have become more popular recently in railroad track engineering. Benefits of introducing an under-ballast mat layer(s) into the track include, but are not limited to: increasing track resilience, reducing ballast breakage, decreasing noise and vibration, and protecting bridge decks. One of the most essential parameters used to evaluate the performance of UBMs is the bedding modulus. Currently, the German Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) 45673 is the only test standard specifying procedures to quantify UBM bedding modulus by placing the UBM between two steel plates. However, steel plates might not be an ideal representation of the actual track loading environment. Thus, other types of support conditions have been used to test the UBM bedding modulus, including concrete block and the geometric ballast plate (GBP) specified by European Standard (EN) 16730. How these different support conditions affect the performance of an UBM has not been fully investigated. To better quantify the effects of varying support conditions on UBM bedding modulus, testing was performed in the Research and Innovation Laboratory (RAIL) in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). It was found that for a specific type of UBM, the tested bedding modulus values were similar when supported by the steel plate or concrete block, while the value was considerably lower when the mat was supported by the GBP. Finite element simulations were performed to further study the stress distributions under these various support conditions. The results from this study can help practitioners better represent the application environment during the UBM bedding modulus tests by suggesting the appropriate support condition.
Modeling the Thermo-Structural Response of Railcar Floor Assemblies During Standard Fire Resistance Tests
Authors: Rippe Christian , Kapahi Anil , Lattimer Brian
Published: June 2018

Performing fire endurance tests of railcar floor assemblies in accordance with NFPA 130 is expensive given the minimum size requirements of 3.7 m (12 ft) in length and the full vehicle width. Often it is not financially viable to conduct such tests on several iterations of designs for the purpose of design optimization. Simulations of the fire endurance tests can be performed in place of experiments to provide predictions of floor assembly response of multiple designs at much lower cost. However, capturing the thermo-structural response of the floor assembly requires the ability to model the relevant physical phenomena including softening and weakening of the steel frame, degradation of the fire insulation, and failure of the composite floor. A methodology for performing such simulations was developed under this research addressing each of these phenomena. Temperature dependent thermal and mechanical properties of all modeled materials captures material softening and weakening. Degradation of the insulation was handled through a novel temperature dependent shrinkage approach. Failure models for the sandwich composite floor panels were obtained from literature to predict shear fracture of the core based on a maximum principal shear stress approach and delamination of the core/facesheet based on a maximum strain energy approach.

The developed methodology was applied to the simulation of a fire endurance test of an exemplar railcar floor assembly using the commercial finite element solver Abaqus. The assembly was known to hold a passing rating for a 30-minute fire endurance test according to NFPA 130. The floor assembly consisted of a stainless-steel frame, fiberglass insulation, and a ply-metal composite floor. Sequentially coupled thermal and structural models were developed to predict the thermostructural response of the floor assembly for a 30-minute exposure to the ASTM E119 prescriptive fire curve. User-subroutines were utilized to implement the sandwich composite failure models developed for predicted core shear fracture and core/facesheet delamination. The predicted temperature rise on the unexposed surface of the floor assembly after a 30-minute exposure ranged from 50°C to 90°C. The floor assembly was also predicted to maintain structural integrity with the applied crush load, having a center-point vertical deflection of 161 mm after the 30-minute exposure. This resulted in a predicted pass rating for a 30-minute exposure which agrees with the floor assembly’s actual fire rating.