bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Big Data Processing Framework for Artificial Intelligence within Corporate Marketing Communication
Authors: Fazil Ahmad Muhamad
Published: April 2019

This research examines what impact the Big Data Processing Framework (BDPF) has on Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications within Corporate Marketing Communication (CMC), and thereby the research question stated is: What is the potential impact of the BDPF on AI applications within the CMC tactical and managerial functions? To fulfill the purpose of this research, a qualitative research strategy was applied, including semi-structured interviews with experts within the different fields of examination: management, AI technology and CMC. The findings were analyzed through performing a thematic analysis, where coding was conducted in two steps. AI has many useful applications within CMC, which currently mainly are of the basic form of AI, so-called rule-based systems. However, the more complicated communication systems are used in some areas. Based on these findings, the impact of the BDPF on AI applications is assessed by examining different characteristics of the processing frameworks. The BDPF initially imposes both an administrative and compliance burden on organizations within this industry, and is particularly severe when machine learning is used. These burdens foremost stem from the general restriction of processing personal data and the data erasure requirement. However, in the long term, these burdens instead contribute to a positive impact on machine learning. The timeframe until enforcement contributes to a somewhat negative impact in the short term, which is also true for the uncertainty around interpretations of the BDPF requirements. Yet, the BDPF provides flexibility in how to become compliant, which is favorable for AI applications. Finally, BDPF compliance can increase company value, and thereby incentivize investments into AI models of higher transparency. The impact of the BDPF is quite insignificant for the basic forms of AI applications, which are currently most common within CMC. However, for the more complicated applications that are used, the BDPF is found to have a more severe negative impact in the short term, while it instead has a positive impact in the long term.
Host-Guest Expectations of Service Quality at Small Island Settings: A Cross-Cultural Approach
Authors: Ismail Fathilah , Puad Mat Som Ahmad , Falindah Padlee Siti , Mariam Wan Abdullah Wan
Published: April 2019

One of the important issues for sustainable island tourism is knowledge about the needs of the host and tourist. As tourism is now becoming a global issue, there is also a need to examine this issue from the context of a cross-culture. A better understanding of cultural dissimilarities between hosts and guests at certain areas of destinations could improve tailored services and increase satisfaction for both the host and tourists. Existing studies related to expectation mainly undertaken from the tourist view. However, this study takes into consideration the expectation of service quality from tourists’ perspectives as well as host community. This study aims to gain some understanding about the impacts of cross-cultural dissimilarities between hosts and tourists by measuring their mutual expectations. Survey data is collected from Perhentian and Redang Islands, Malaysia. Two sample groups were involved in the study: host and tourists (Malay, Chinese, English and European). This study adopted two methods - the Mann-Whitney U-test and the Principal Components Analysis (PCA). The findings of this study demonstrate that mutual expectations between hosts and guests diverge across the cultural groups.  This study contributes to the existing literatures related to service quality and highlights the importance of cultural differences in providing better quality tourism services particularly to island tourists in Malaysia and elsewhere. .
Treatment of Domestic Wastewater with Fixed Bed Biofilm Reactor
Authors: Hayder Gasim , Perumulselum Puniyarasen , Alhussian Hitham
Published: April 2019

Fixed bed biofilm reactors were evaluated with three different arrangements of bio-balls. The performance of different arrangements was evaluated based on chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solid (TSS) and mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS). The three rectors were fabricated and operated in lab scale model with real domestic wastewater. Considering the TSS removal efficiency, arrangement one was the best followed by arrangement two and arrangement three. While for COD, arrangement one recorded the highest removal efficiency followed by arrangement two and column. The average COD concentration for arrangement one was 23 while for arrangement two and arrangement three was 25 and 36 mg/l respectively. The overall average effluent TSS concentrations for the arrangement one, two and three were 25, 32 and 45 mg/l respectively. TSS and COD removal was almost the same for arrangement one and arrangement two but arrangement one has the highest among them, and all removal is acceptable under Malaysian standards. Besides that, all the three arrangements have the differences in terms of maintenance and installation. There was no clogging occurred in all the three arrangements.
Iot based Parking Sensor Network for Smart Campus
Authors: Singh Joseph Jesawanth , Ravi Nanthiine Nair , Krishnan Prajindra Sankar
Published: April 2019

The difficulty in finding parking spaces is growing into a more serious problem especially in urban areas. As the number of vehicles on the road continues to increase substantially, the difficulty in finding parking spaces increases even more. To combat this rising issue many cities have adopted a more organised and intelligent parking system which is also commonly known as smart parking system. This is to improve the efficiency of locating a parking spot, especially in an urban area. The smart parking system will often have sensors at parking spaces to determine the occupancy of the respective parking space. This occupancy value is relayed to a server by some specific communication protocol. The parking occupancy can then be displayed to the public by a Graphical User Interface (GUI) design which gets the occupancy values from a server. This project simulates the parking sensor network design in a smart campus setting by implementing the concept of the Internet of Things (IoT). This project uses ultrasonic sensors that are connected to a NodeMCU microcontroller to send the parking occupancy values to an online database implemented using Google Firebase. A mobile application with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) is also created using MIT App Inventor 2 to display the vacancy of parking by communicating with the online database. The results obtained in this project were promising. The successful implementation of this idea will allow users to save more time and money, not to mention that it can also help reduce carbon emissions from vehicles resulting in a more sustainable environment.
Effect of Temperature on Nutrient Removal Efficiency of Water Hyacinth for Phytoremediation Treatment
Authors: Haris Harizah , Fai Chow Ming , Bahruddin Ainun Shakirah binti , Dinesh Akhilash Aravind A/L
Published: April 2019

Wetlands have been introduced as natural based devices for treating the stormwater runoff.  Temperature plays an important role in the nutrient removal process of wetland plants. Thus, the effect of temperature on nutrient removal efficiency of the water hyacinth plant was evaluated in this study. Water quality of both tanks that containing water hyacinth plants and control tank were monitored continuously for 2 weeks. The collected water samples were examined for total phosphorous (TP), turbidity, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, conductivity (Cond.), total dissolve solid (TDS) and water temperature. The results showed that there are changes in the water quality concentration although there is no water hyacinth in the control tank. The release of phosphorus from the organic matter and particle in the control tank is suggested that occurred during the high temperature period. The optimum removal of nutrient occurred during the water temperature at 30℃. This clearly showed the effect of temperature on the flux of phosphorus in the water tank.
A Review of Energy Harvesting Methods for Power Transmission Line Monitoring Sensors
Authors: Yeesparan Suganthi , Baharuddin Mohd Zafri Bin , Md Din Norashidah Bt , Haron Mohamad Halil
Published: April 2019

Condition monitoring sensors have the responsibility of reducing occupational failures or unscheduled shutdowns especially in power transmission line systems. Existing sensors that are used for condition monitoring are mostly battery-dependent. Powering up these sensors in difficult to access areas where high voltage transmission line usually runs is a challenge because batteries usually have a limited life cycle. Power sources other than batteries such as harvesting from solar energy, magnetic energy, radio frequency energy either produces insufficient energy or not entirely available all the time. Electric Field Energy Harvesting (EFEH) overcomes many of these disadvantages and provides a quality and continuous power source to be used to power up devices especially the monitoring sensors that are used in transmission line monitoring. This paper presents key aspects and drawbacks of six types of energy harvesting methods and a review of existing energy harvesters. The concept of electric field and the usage of EFEH in power transmission line system are explained and a comparison between EFEH with typical energy harvesting methods is discussed. This paper finds that EFEH devices have potential to provide sufficient energy for low powered condition monitoring sensors. Moreover, several improved EFEH approaches are proposed, and future trends are discussed.
Experimental Study on the Use of Thermoelectric Generators in Harvesting Human Body Heat
Authors: Rosli N. , Mohamed H.
Published: April 2019

The objective of this work is to investigate the potential use of a thermoelectric generator (TEG) in harvesting human body heat at four body locations namely forehead, wrist, palm and calf for different human activities in Malaysia. Important parameters for this experiment are human body temperature, room temperature, output voltage, output resistance and output power. A healthy male and female perform a series of activities including resting, walking and running for 10 minutes in an indoor setting. Results indicate the relevant effects of temperature and movement on producing power from human body heat. Different parts of the body have different temperatures, thus creating different output powers. Results show that as the movement increases, the human body temperature and the amount of energy harvested also increase. It is also observed that forehead provides the highest amount of power generated during running activity. When the body temperature is above 35 Â°C, the TEG can generate power more than 5.0 mW. The highest power generated during the experiment is 9.5 mW. Even though Malaysia is known as a hot and humid region, TEGs can be feasibly utilized as a wearable device that converts human heat energy into electrical energy.
Projection of Tsunami Wave Height at East-Coast of Peninsular Malaysia using Greenâ€™s Law
Authors: Aziz A. F. , Mardi N. H. , Malek M. A.
Published: April 2019

In recent years, studies regarding a new source of tsunami-genic earthquake at South China Sea region known as Manila Trench earthquake have attracted the attention of many researchers. It is expected that this subduction zone is capable to trigger large moment magnitude earthquake and affects countries located within South China Sea. The objective of this study is to project tsunami wave height and arrival time generated from Manila Trench earthquake towards coastal areas located along east-coast of Peninsular Malaysia. This study focuses on simulating tsunami at four different moment magnitudes by using TUNA-M2 model to record wave height and arrival time at the offshore areas. Then the Greenâ€™s law is used to approximate reliable tsunami wave height when approaching onshore. Results obtained in this study showed that tsunami waves from Manila Trench are estimated to arrive at coastal areas of east-coast Peninsular Malaysia between 9.1 to 10.25 hours post-earthquake occurrence. The observation points located at offshore of Kelantan are anticipated to experience the highest wave height as compared to other observation points located at offshore areas of Terengganu and Pahang. This study is important to the coastal communities as it provides vital information on possible tsunami occurrences in the future.
Evaluating Search Results in Exploratory Search
Authors: Mahdi Mohammed Najah , Ahmad Abdul Rahim , Ismail Roslan
Published: April 2019

The volume of information available on the World Wide Web is quite significant. This plethora of information has, to a large extent constantly challenged researchers in seeking for ways of making the information easily accessible to end users in as convenient ways as possible. Characteristically, ensuring the accessibility of this large amount of information involves three all-encompassing processes of retrieval, organization and presentation. The World Wide Web offers a platform for sharing information from large database repositories globally. However, information needs to be searched with specialized tools commonly referred to as search engines. While a number of search engines does presently exist, most of these search engines are noted for their inability to retrieve information usable to the end user. It is therefore critical for the results generated from search engines to be intelligently organized for the optimal usefulness of the information to the searcher. Exploratory web technologies is capable of filing this gap. Therefore, this paper reviews exploratory search as a mechanism for conducting result-oriented search. It also reviews the ways of evaluating the search results obtained from an exploratory search.
Modelling of Tsunami Forces on Coastal Structures: a Review
Authors: Govindasamy N. , Mardi N.H. , Malek M.A.
Published: April 2019

This paper reviews methods applicable to assess the impact of tsunami forces on coastal structures. Countries affected by tsunamis have proven that this environmental disaster has costed billions of losses, such as the event occurred during year 2004 Andaman tsunami. Therefore, there is a need to assess the structural behaviour upon the impact of tsunami forces in order to minimize the damages and to ensure that coastal structures are able to sustain loading from high current-velocity waves. Currently in practice, there are two approaches of accessing the impacts of tsunami on structures namely physical modelling and experiment or numerical modelling and simulation. Numerical modelling methods are expected to produce acceptable analysis on the stability and condition of structures subjected to tsunami loadings since it incorporates several important parameters which are not implemented in physical modelling. The result from this study is expected to prompt engineers and relevant authorities to revise the current design guidelines on coastal structures which could sustain possible tsunami event in the future.
Field Investigation on Limestone Treatment using Fissure Grouting Method
Authors: Ananthan Prakash , Wong Leong Sing
Published: April 2019

This paper documents a field study on fissure grouting for limestone with a specific aim to investigate grout injection into the rock in order to reduce its permeability. The study focused on grouting in advance of excavation and it is applicable to grouting carried out to seal exposed rock surfaces. Investigation concentrated on the need to carry out fissure grouting to seal off excessive water entering the excavation through fractured rocks. In this case, the grout mixtures involved a combination of Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and bentonite with appropriate amount of water. The grouting was performed at each stage until the grout flow rate and pressure reached a constant level for the last five minutes. If the stage of grouting in a borehole required more grout, this implies that there exist more fissure and cracks in the rock. The ultimate outcome of the rock fissure grouting was to obtain a good feed into limestone rock fissures, and thus, the process involved high injection pressure. The minimum grouting pressure was indicated as the hydrostatic pressure plus line loss pressure. To ensure that the outcome was achieved, it was recommended for an additional two bar pressure to be maintained as hydrostatic pressure.Â
Analysis by Means of Surface Response to Chemical Composition and Pozzolanic Reactivity of Ultrafine Treated Rice Husk Ash (UFTRHA) as Cementing Additive Material
Authors: Saad Siti Asmahani , Shafiq Nasir , Ali Maisarah , Osman Mariana Mohamed
Published: April 2019

Pozzolanic reactive material is considered as one of the most essential characteristic of cementing additive material in concrete technology application. Normally, the reactive material contains abundant silica that enhances concrete strength activity. Undeniably, it is proven that rice husk ash (RHA) possesses large quantity of silica that induces the pozzolanic reaction in concrete. Nevertheless, usage of conventional RHA is still widely accepted in concrete industry nowadays. One of the setback of conventional RHA incorporation is simply because of its properties inconsistency. Therefore, enhancement on the RHA properties by introduction of a specific pretreatment prior to incineration process is expected to provide an alternative way in order to produce highly reactive cementing additive material from locally available agricultural by-product, the rice husk. In this paper, a total number of 30 experimental set points was conducted. Statistical analysis was conducted for four independent variables and two responses using Response Surface Method (RSM). The analysis was completed using a commercial software set (Design-Expert) for experimental design and analysis. The independent variables were HCl concentration, soaking time, burning temperature and soaking temperature. Meanwhile, the responses investigated in this study were including cumulative pozzolan percentage and electric conductivity decrement from 0 to 2 minutes. As for the statistical analysis of the data for response 1, the cumulative pozzolan percentage calculated from the model was in-line with the experimental data, with R-squared value of 0.9565. Hence, the result validates the precision of the model. On the other hand, the R-squared value for response 2 which is the EC decrement from 0 - 2 Minutes, it shows that the model was in agreement to the experimental values at 0.9342. Thus, it is again justifies the model accuracy.
An Analysis of Intellectual Property Challenges in Crowdsourcing Platforms for Software Engineering
Authors: Al-Bloush Hani , Solemon Badariah
Published: April 2019

Crowdsourced Software Engineering (CSE) is an application of online problem-solving model that provides a dynamic way of harnessing crowd intelligence in obtaining creative solutions. It consists of four elements: crowdsourcer, crowd, platform, and tasks. Although CSE offers various advantages to software engineering practices, recent research highlighted that there is still a lack of thorough understanding of Intellectual Property (IP) ownership rights of CSE elements. Therefore, management and control of CSE for obtaining adequate IP from the crowd is inevitable to reduce the risks of using that IP.Â  This paper reviews existing CSE platforms and analyses associated IP challenges encountered by software engineering activities. 51 platforms were preselected and amongst these, analyses were performed on 37 CSE platforms. Exclusion of 11 platforms is on the basis of unavailability and 3 of which are linked to the same webpage. It also shows that 59% of the platforms acquire IP ownership of deliverables submitted by the crowd while 19% do not have a statement which provides clarity on IP ownership in their legal documents. This paper is significant in providing better understanding of IP risks of these CSE platforms and in assisting both crowdsourcers and the crowd in choosing crowdsourcing platforms based on the default IP ownership specification, which is often specified in legal documents of these platforms.
A Genetic Algorithm Based Fuzzy Inference System for Pattern Classification and Rule Extraction
Authors: Wong Shen Yuong , Yap Keem Siah , Li Xiaochao
Published: April 2019

Setting fuzzy rules is one of the paramount techniques in the design of a fuzzy system. For a simple system, fuzzy if-then rules are usually derived from the human experts. However, in the event of having multiple variables coupled with a few features, the classification problem will be getting more sophisticated, as a result human expert may not be able to derive proper rules. This paper presents a genetic-algorithm-based fuzzy inference system for extracting highly comprehensible fuzzy rules to be implemented in human practices without detailed computation (hereafter denoted as GA-FIS). The impetus for developing a new and efficient GA-FIS model arises from the need of constructing fuzzy rules directly from raw data sets that combines good approximation and classification properties with compactness and transparency. Therefore, our proposed GA-FIS method will first define the membership functions with logical interpretation which is amendable by domain experts to human understanding, and then genetic algorithm serves as an optimization tool to construct the best combination of rules in fuzzy inference system that can achieve higher classification accuracy and gain better interpretability. The proposed approach is applied to various benchmark and real world problems and the results show its validity.
Electrochemical Studies on Alizarin Red S as Negolyte for Redox Flow Battery: a Preliminary Study
Authors: Khor C. , Mohamed M. R. , Feng C. K. , Leung P. K.
Published: April 2019

Redox flow battery (RFB) has received tremendous attention as energy storage system coupled with renewable energy sources. In this paper, a low-cost alizarin red S (ARS) organic dye is proposed to serve as the active material for the negative electrode reaction for organic redox flow batteries. Cyclic voltammetry has been conducted under a number of operating conditions to reveal the electrochemical performance of this molecule. The results suggest that ARS is highly reversible at low electrode potential (c.a. 0.082 V vs. standard hydrogen electrode), indicating that ARS is a promising negative electrode material for organic redox flow batteries. The diffusion coefficient of ARS is calculated in the range of 6.424 x 10-4 cm2 s-1, This has indicated fast diffusion rate and electrochemical kinetics for oxidation and reduction in higher concentration of ARS. It has been found out that the higher concentration of ARS in base electrolyte cause lowest diffusion coefficient due to solubility issue of ARS.
Compressive Strength and Microstructure Analysis of Treated Rice Husk Ash (TRHA) Incorporated Mortar
Authors: Saad Siti Asmahani , Shafiq Nasir , Osman Mariana Mohamed , Masjuki Siti Aliyyah
Published: April 2019

High amount of reactive silica is ubiquitous in pozzolanic reaction for concrete strength increment. Rice husk ash (RHA) is proven contains high content of amorphous silica that is essential in the pozzolanic reaction of effective additive in concrete. Nevertheless, incorporation of RHA as cement replacement material (CRM) or additive is very minimal in current concrete industry. Therefore, improvement on the RHA properties by introduction of thermal and chemical pretreatment prior to incineration process is considered as a promising way in order to achieve the goal. This treatment process has been reported widely in literature. In this paper, the effect of treated rice husk ash (TRHA) and non-treated rice husk ash (NTRHA) incorporated mortar in terms of its compressive strength and microstructure properties are examine subsequently. The strength activity of TRHA from the optimum treatment process was measured by testing the compressive strength of mortars. The highest compression value obtained was 50.73MPa with 3% UFTRHA replacement at 28 days. At a longer curing period i.e. 90 days, it was recorded that 3% of UFTRHA mortar had the highest compression value at 53.87MPa. As for microstructure properties, a denser microstructure with excellent aggregate bonding and cement matrix in the interfacial transition zone (ITZ) was observed.
An Investigation of Attached Biomass on Bio-Media using Scanning Electron Microscopy
Authors: Hayder Gasim , Perumulselum Puniyarasen
Published: April 2019

Biological film that attached to bio-media in attached growth wastewater treatment processes needs to be monitored and evaluated as it reflects the performance of the plant. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) is an effective way for the examination of biofilms. Three different types of bio-media (bio-balls) were used to study the biofilm thickness using SEM. They are fin ball, spike ball and cage ball. Each type of bio-balls was cut into pieces since the size of SEM sample must be less than 25 mm. The fin ball was cut into three pieces, the spike ball was cut into two pieces and the cage ball was cut into one piece. Only the non-identical parts from the bio-balls were chosen for SEM test. The cut pieces with biofilm growth were overnight dehydrated in laboratory oven before bring to the SEM for measuring and analysis of the thickness of biofilm growth. Based on average biofilm thickness of the cut pieces extracted from SEM test, cage ball and fin ball recorded the highest biofilm while spike ball has the lowest biofilm growth on it.
Compressive Strength of Vege-Grout Bricks
Authors: Dzulkifli NA , Omar RC , Usman Fathoni , Taha Hairin , Sanusi KA
Published: April 2019

Brick is one of largest material used in construction of infrastructure all over the world. A conventional bricks such as clay brick and concrete brick are produced from clay with high temperature kiln firing and from ordinary Portland cement (OPC) concrete respectively. Â Â Both of this activities lead to CO2 emission. The burning process requires high temperature at the same time release carbon dioxide and pollute the environment. At present, carbon emissions has become a crucial issues in the society that must be solved. Several studies had demonstrated that brick can be produced from bacteria based on Microbial Induced Calcite Precipitation (MICP). The objective of this study is to develop cement free- brick from vegetables waste with added eggshell as calcium additive to induce biocementation of brick. Brick specimen was cast in the mould size 210 x 90 x 65 mm and casting for 28 days. The study showed that there was an increased in compressive strength up to 0.062 N/mm2 as the curing period increased to 28 days which showed the occurrence of biocementation activities. SEM-EDX analysis confirmed the presence of calcite precipitation. The result indicated that vege-grout can be used as binding agent for biocementation to produce bricks.
Integrated Approach to Delineate Meandering Channel Sands as Potential Stratigraphic Traps
Authors: Loo Sheau Huey , Liaw Kim Kiat , Lo Shyh-Zung
Published: April 2019

After a half century of exploration, the Malay Basin, a mature hydrocarbon province in SE Asia, faces common challenge that most of the conventional structural reservoirs have been drilled out. As a result, the high-risk stratigraphic traps are considered as viable alternative to boost the dwindling oil reserves. In Y field, the discovery of Early Miocene Group I meander belt channel sands outside the low-relief anticlinal closure is seemed to have made substantial contributions to the later oil production. This sparks the inspiration to develop a practical workflow in visualizing the subtle, yet productive channel systems through integration of multidisciplinary datasets. Results have proven that the co-rendering of multi-attributes could effectively delineate the channel edges and reflection strength of sand bodies. Moreover, through the application of neural network techniques on the extracted waveform shape of seismic attribute, a supervised hierarchical lithofacies map was generated. This can help to create a better linkage between the seismic waveform patterns and lithological details of subsurface features. Wireline log analysis was also performed to verify the hydrocarbon potential of Group I sands. This integrated approach may adopted as a reliable best practice in near-field exploration program, especially in proving up the channel-sand stratigraphic play.
Characterization Studies on Waste Plastics as a Feedstock for Energy Recovery in Malaysia
Authors: Surenderan L. , Saad Juniza Md , Zhou Hui , Neshaeimoghaddam Hesam , Abdul Rahman Adlansyah
Published: April 2019

Increase in the energy usage and declining of non-renewable fossil fuels has changed the perceptions to energy recovery methods to satisfy the need of the energy. Through extensive research and innovation of technology, especially to recover the plastic waste to energy feedstock has been developed. The chosen plastic waste samples are polyethylene terephthalate (PET), high-density polyethylene (HDPE), and polypropylene (PP). This sample is collected from daily household waste and was characterized according to the resin types or plastic types. In this research the determination of the moisture content and ash analysis has been carried out using proximate analysis and also determination of the carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulphur content has been carried out by using the ultimate analysis. In addition, the calorific value of the samples has been determined and activation energy is obtained based on thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) data. The chosen kinetic modelling is modified Arrhenius equation. According to the results, HDPE was the best choice for energy recovery from waste plastics in Malaysia due to high calorific value, low activation energy, low moisture content and ash content and it has low sulphur content among all the plastic samples experimented.
Performance of Aerobic Granular Sludge in Treating Soy Sauce Wastewater at Different Hydraulic Retention Time
Authors: Harun Hasnida , A. Hamid Hazren , Sunar Norshuhaila Mohamed , Ahmad Faridah Hanim , Anuar Aznah Nor , Rosman Noor Hasyimah , Othman Inawati
Published: April 2019

Aerobic granular sludge had shown its capability in treating soy sauce wastewater, but its reactor performance, granules properties and biokinetics in different hydraulic retention times (HRT) is still unknown. To ensure the reactor is performed in optimum condition, a judicially selection of HRT is important. The study was conducted in a high and slender column operated according to a sequential batch reactor (SBR) with a sequence of aerobic and anaerobic/anoxic reaction phases. Three different HRTs (8, 16, 24 h) and different anaerobic and aerobic reaction time were evaluated. In the study demonstrated the increase in HRT could reduce the organic loading rate (OLR) as well as biomass yield (Yobs, Y), endogenous decay rate (kd) and overall specific biomass growth rate (Âµoverall). It was observed a slight increase in the mixed liquor suspended solid (MLSS) and the granules mean size as the OLR decreased. Meanwhile, in the lowest HRT reactor, a narrow diameter range of aerobic granule from 3 to 100 Âµm was observed due to the development of small and dense granules. The HRT of 24h with aerobic and anaerobic/anoxic reaction time of 3.88 and 7.77h respectively is the SBRâ€™s best performances due to the improvement of the aerobic granular physical properties.
Critical Success Factors of IT/IS Outsourcing in Malaysian Public Sectors
Authors: Ghazali Noura Binti Mohamad , Bin Hasan Zainuddin
Published: April 2019

IT/IS outsourcing has been in the IT industry for so many years. Many studies have been carried out about the success factors in IT/IS Outsourcing. However, most authors focused more on the success factors in the private sector compared to the public sector. This paper focuses on understanding the benefits and determining the critical success factors of information technology/information system (IT/IS) outsourcing in the public sector. Apart from that, the reader is also being exposed to the reasons why an organization opt for outsourcing. This paper reviews published journals and reports from various authors, focusing on the connections and similarities. It then extracts and summarize the benefits and critical success factors that organization can refer to before organization endeavors in IT/IS outsourcing activities.
Removal of Methylene Blue by Red Macro Alga Euchema Spinosum Sp.: Pretreatment and Desorption Assessment
Authors: Mokhtar Nadiah , A.Aziz Edriyana , Aris Azmi , W.Ishak W.F. , Abdul Halim Hasmanie , Johari Najiha , N.Moni Syazwan
Published: April 2019

Red algae species, Euchema Spinosum (ES) in Malaysia possesses excellent biosorbent properties in removing dyes from aqueous solutions. Studies had been made on the effect of pretreatment and reusability of this species as a biosorbent for economic viability. In the present study, physical and chemical pretreatments processes were employed on the ES. Desorption using seven different eluents (hydrochloric acid (HCl), sodium hydroxide (NaOH), phosphoric acid (H3PO4), potassium hydroxide (KOH), sodium chloride (NaCl), nitric acid (HNO3 and deionized water).Â  Caharacterization of ES biosorbent was conducted using FTIR to investigate the active functional group responsible in the biosorption process. It was observed that the pretreatment process does not enhance the uptake capacity of ES.Â  Among of the six eluents used, it is suggested HNO3 as an effective eluent with 51% desorption efficiency.Â Â  Through regeneration study, HNO3 as eluent can promote four times of biosorption-desorption cycles. FTIR confirm the functional groups such as â€“OH, â€“NH and â€“COO- are responsible for the MB dye biosorption. The experiment displays that the ES does not require any pretreatment procedure to improve biosorption efficiency and has the capability of regeneration hence suggesting that ES is indeed an economical biosorptive material for MB dye removal.
Factors Motivating the Public to Participate in Crowdsourcing of Crime Information
Authors: Solemon Badariah , Abu Bakar Wan Muhammad Luqman Wan
Published: April 2019

This paper presents the results of an exploratory study conducted to identify the factors that influence people and communities to participate in crowdsourcing approach of crime information. The study uses as survey, self-administered questionnaires distributed to the crowd in the public areas in Selangor and Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia as well as through an online survey website. Analysis performed to more than half of 139 valid responses of the survey reveals that the respondents participated in crowdsourced crime reporting and sharing using recent technologies such as mobile application mainly to help reduce the crime rate (nature of problem factor); to contribute to the betterment of mankind and they like the idea of contributing to something of value to the world (altruism factor); to exchange ideas or knowledge on crime information with the crowdsourcing community and to obtain crime related information (learning factor); to share crime related information to others (interest in topic); and to alert others so they can be more cautious (reciprocity factor). Findings from this survey have guided a research work to develop a prototype of mobile application to demonstrate how the application can support neighborhood crime watch activity by enabling community members to share crime incidents information.
An Analysis of Two-Dimensional Stratified Gravity Current Flow using Open FOAM
Authors: Lam W.K , Chan L. , Hasini H. , Ooi A.
Published: April 2019

Direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of two-dimensional stratified gravity-current are simulated using OpenFOAM. Three different aspect ratio, h0/l0 (where h0 is the height of the dense fluid and l0 is the length of the dense fluid) are simulated with stratification ranging from 0 (homogenous ambient) to 0.2 with a constant Reynolds number (Re) of 4000. The stratificationof the ambient air is determined by the density difference between the bottom and the top walls of the channel (Ïb- Ï0, where Ïb is the density at the bottom of the domain and Ï0 is the density at the top). The magnitude of the stratification (S=Ô‘b/Ô‘) can be determined by calculating the reduced density differences of the bottom fluid with the ambient fluid (Ô‘b = (Ïb- Ï0)/ Ï0) and the dense fluid with the ambient fluid (Ô‘ = (Ïc-Ï0)/ Ï0, where Ïc represents the density of the dense fluid). The configuration of the simulation is validated with a test case from Birman, Meiburg & Ungraish and the contour and front velocity (propagation speed) were in good agreement. The gravity current flow in the stratified ambient is analyzed qualitatively and compared with the gravity current in the homogenous ambient. Gravity current in homogenous ambient (S=0) and weak stratification (S=0.2) are supercritical flow where the flow is turbulent and Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) billow formed behind the gravity current head. The front location of the gravity is reduced as the stratification increase and denotes that the front velocity of the gravity current is reduced by the stratification.
Natural Coating from VG2S in Reducing Surface Temperature.
Authors: Abidin AHZ , Omar RC , Roslan R , Taha Hairin , Sanusi KA
Published: April 2019

Urban heat island (UHI) is a condition where urban area experiences increase in temperature than rural area caused by the affect from the modification of land surfaces. In urban areas, roads are one of the main elements that contribute to UHI as roads are mostly paved with dark pavement. When pavements become hotter, the excess heat is radiated back into the atmosphere resulting in a higher surrounding temperature than those in rural areas. The objective of this study is to develop a new coating material for pavers from VG2S that can reduce surface heat. Two methods were used in this study, immersed and layered methods for comparing standard paver with new innovated paver with VG2S coating. FLIR thermal imaging camera and infrared thermometer gun are used for measuring surface heat. The surface heat result shows reduction in surface temperature by 5Â°C to 10Â°C compared to uncoated standard sample and white paint color pave sample (control) which are slightly lower by 1Â°C to 2Â°C from coating sample. The studies demonstrated that VG2S coating can be applied as cool coatings and contribute to a significant reduction of the cooling demand in warm climates.
Comparison of 2D and 3D Stability Analyses for Natural Slope
Authors: Bahsan Erly , Fakhriyyanti Rifani
Published: April 2019

Slope stability analyses are performed mostly as a two-dimensional (2D) section under the assumption of plane strain conditions, without much consideration to the impact of three-dimensional (3D) shapes. For natural slopes that have the complexities of slope surfaces, 3D modeling may also be considered since it can represent the more realistic geometry of the slope. However, previous studies show that the factor of safety (FS) as a result of 3D analyses mostly overestimated the FS from 2D analyses. This may lead to a long discussion on whether the 3D analysis is still applicable for the natural slopes, and could it represent the same results as the 2D analysis. This study was conducted using the finite element method for calculating the 2D and 3D FS of Pasir Muncang natural slope in order to observe differences of FS resulted from both analyses. A comparison of the FS from the 2D and 3D analyses, and also verification of sensitivity on several factors that impact the 2D and 3D models have been performed. The results of this study has indicated that some factors such as soil parameters, contour interval, and mesh coarseness greatly affect the results of the 2D and 3D calculations. Having carefully selected the aforementioned factors as the inputs for calculations, the difference between the FS values of 3D and 2D analyses becomes smaller. The final result of FS for this case study from the 3D analysis was still higher than the one from the 2D analysis, with the ratio of FS from 3D to FS from 2D was 1.44. It can be inferred that the use of 3D analyses needs more accurate data selections compared to the 2D analyses.Â Â
MCNPXâ€™S Water Equivalent Thickness Simulation of Material with Different Density via Proton Beam Irradiation
Authors: Khattak M.A , A. Borhana Abdoulhdi. , A. Shafii Lailatul Fitriyah , Khan Rustam
Published: April 2019

The radiological thickness of materials and beam penetration range is often referred as the water equivalent thickness (WET). In the clinical application of radiotherapy it is mandatory to obtain a WET calculation with high accuracies to ensure the beam that penetrated the human tissues is capable to deliver high dose of radiation into the deep-rooted tumors and kill the malignant cancerous cell without any major damages to the healthy tissues. Nevertheless, the present method of calculation that is available needs either intensive numerical method or approximation techniques with unknown precision. Hence, the purpose of this research is to study the depth of proton beam irradiation penetration range of materials with arbitrary density & elemental composition and modeled the water equivalent thickness (WET) calculation by using the Monte Carlo N Particle Transport Code Extension (MCNPX). There are several type of material with different density that are utilize in this project which are water phantom (Ï =1.0 g cm-3), PMMA (Ï =1.19 g cm-3) aluminum (Ï = 2.70 g cm-3 lead (Ï =11.3g cm-3). The water phantom represent reference material whilst PMMA, Aluminum and Lead each represent low, medium and high density respectively. Based from the result produced in output file, Bragg curves for each material were reproduced, analyzed and compared with the Bragg curve of water phantom. The WET of water phantom was successfully modelled by using MCNPX. Apart from the short computing time, modelling WET via MCNPX was more efficient compare to analytical calculation
Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene (PP) â€“ Montmorillonite (MMT) Nanocomposites for Pre-Fabricated Vertical Drain (PVD) Application
Authors: Selamat N.A. , M.Ansari M.N. , Yahya Zainudin , E.Naicker Ragunatha
Published: April 2019

Polypropylene (PP) â€“ montmorillonite (MMT) blends were prepared by melt-mixing method followed by injection molding method. The optimum process melt-temperature was set at 1950C, the injection speed of 15cc/s, injection pressure of 30MPa and cooling time of 20 sec. was used for the sample preparation. Investigation shows, addition of MMT nanoparticles have improved the mechanical properties. The tensile test and impact test were conducted at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. The tensile modulus and yield strength improved with increasing MMT content, however, elongation at break was reduced as the MMT content was increased from 2wt% to 8wt%. The Izod impact strength is also affected by the addition of MMT content. Nanocomposites based on PP containing 8wt% of MMT showed higher impact strength than the other compositions and Neat PP (control). The influence of MMT content on impact strength increased with MMT content which is a significant result required for pre-fabricated vertical drain (PVD). Further investigations are required to study the mechanical properties of the PVD using PP â€“ MMT nanocomposites to replace the existing material (PP).
Sustainable Transport and Corporate Sustainability Performance: Moderating Role of Organization Age
Authors: Ashaâ€™ari Maryam Jamilah , Daud Salina
Published: April 2019

Sustainability has been seen as a crucial issue that is being faced by many sectors in Malaysia which involves manufacturing sector. The Malaysian government has enhanced manufacturing organizations to apply green practices in the working environment to achieve corporate sustainability performance. In order for an organization to achieve corporate sustainability performance, the practices of the organization in using green technology such as sustainable transport is very important. The aim of this study is to examine the effects of sustainable transport on corporate sustainability performance with the moderating role of organization age. Drawing data from 130 Malaysia chemical manufacturing organizations, the model studies the moderating role of organization age on the sustainable transport and the corporate sustainable performance of the organizations. Partial Least Square (PLS) analysis is used in this study in order to analyze the data and the multistage sampling technique has also been used in this study. The results show that there is a positive relationship between sustainable transport and corporate sustainability performance. The results also suggest that organization age do not moderates the effect of sustainable transport and corporate sustainability performance. In achieving corporate sustainability performance, this study is important as it will guide employees in the manufacturing sector especially in chemical manufacturing organizations to practice the appropriate green practices such as sustainable transport.
An Experimental Investigation on the Effect of Sintering Temperature and Holding Time to the Characteristics of Fecual Powder Compacts Formed at Elevated Temperature
Authors: Rahman M. M. , Ismail M. A. , Rahman H. Y.
Published: April 2019

This paper presents the experimental investigation on the effect of sintering schedule to the final properties of FeCuAl powder compacts formed at elevated temperature through a lab-scale uniaxial die compaction rig. Â Iron (Fe) powder ASC100.29 was used as a main powder constituent and mixed with elemental powders which are copper (Cu) and aluminum (Al). Â The weight percentage of powder mass was divided into four, i.e., iron (91.7 wt%), copper (7.5 wt%), aluminum (0.5 wt%), and zinc stearate (0.3 wt%) as lubricant. Â All the powders were mixed through mechanical blending at a rotation speed of 30 rpm for 30 min. Â The mixed powder mass was compacted at 150ËšC by 425 MPa of axial loading from upward and downward simultaneously. Â Subsequently, the defect-free green compacts were sintered under controlled argon gas atmosphere at three different sintering temperatures, i.e., 800ËšC, 900ËšC and 1000ËšC for 120 min, 150 min and 180 min, respectively at constant sintering rate of 10ËšC/min. Â Afterwards, the sintered samples were characterized for their physical properties, electrical properties, mechanical properties and their microstructures were evaluated. Â The results revealed that higher flexure stress was acquired by sample sintered at 1000ËšC for 120 min and their microstructures were found to be better, i.e., the particles were bonded perfectly.