bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Review on the Effectiveness of Safety Training Methods for Malaysia Construction Industry
Authors: Goh Pui Teck Alfred , Abdullah @ Mohd Asmoni Mat Naim , Misnan Mohd Saidin , Jaafar Mohd Nadzri , Lee Yim Mei Janice
Published: September 2015

Safety issues have become a vital issue in the management of facilities in the construction industry, as the labour-intensive construction industry is particularly regarded as one of the most unsafe industrial sectors worldwide. To increase workplace safety, Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) training has been introduced and pursued.  Based on previous research, training methods range from less to more engaging.  This paper has reviewed the research from 2006 to present done on effectiveness of different training methods as the first investigation research was carried out in 2006. The literatures were searched through multiple electronic databases for published peer-reviewed articles. Findings have suggested that both training methods were able to impart safety knowledge and safety awareness to the workers; however, more engaging training methods would be more effective on training outcomes. Nevertheless, it was noted that those research projects did not take into consideration on the multiculturalism issue where language communication problem exist. Hence, this research proposes a mix mode of less and more engaging training methods to be applied in a multi-cultural workplace to enhance the effectiveness of training outcomes. This review may provide information on effective safety training methods to be applied in the multi-cultural construction industry.
Assessment of Physical Environment Elements in Public low-cost Housing
Authors: Khair Nurhayati , Mohd Ali Hishamuddin , Juhari Nur Hafizah
Published: September 2015

This paper examines an assessments of physical environment elements in public low-cost housing focusing amongst occupants in Johor Bahru consists of facilities, spaces and services offered in each housing unit. The data of study was obtained through questionnaire involved a sum of 868 occupants using convenience sampling. The collected data was analyzed using quantitative approaches, including frequency analysis and relative important index (RII). The study reveals that physical environment elements were the crucial role in every housing unit. However, safety, security and health, utilities, privacy and location were mainly the highest concern amongst occupants towrads the physical environment. In fact, physical environment elements plays crucial role in developing occupant’s comfort and satisfaction. Nevertheless, a few physical elements show least preferable amongst occupant such as temperature and humidity, aesthetic and noise, yet it also need to give much attention in order to form a better quality of environment.
Critical Success Factors for Post Occupancy Evaluation of Building Performance: A Literature Analysis
Authors: Bee Woon Neo , Mohammad Izran Sarrazin , Baba Maizan , Zainol Nurul Nadiah , Nazri Abdul Qayyum
Published: September 2015

This paper aims to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) for post occupancy evaluation (POE) of building performance based on literature review. Failures in carrying out POE and achieving the goal of its implementation have been recognised as one of the difficulties in managing POE projects. Despite the numerous studies on POE, the CSFs for POE as a successful project have not been investigated. This leads to a knowledge gap of what are the CSFs that contributes to the success of POE of building performance. Employing NVIVO and content analysis on 63 selected articles, 13 POE critical success factors and 32 sub-factors have been identified. The outcome of this paper will provide detailed review on the need for the development of CSFs for POE of building performance.
Analysis of Shopping Mall Attractiveness and Customer Loyalty
Authors: Uche Aliagha Godwin , Guan Qin Yeoh , Ali Kherun Nita , Abdullah Mat Naim
Published: September 2015

In a highly competitive retail market like Malaysia, shopping mall facilities and management services that are not customer oriented may drop out of competition and business. This is contingent upon the fact that growing competition among shopping malls in Malaysia in response to rising affluence and purchasing power has raised the challenge of customer loyalty as customers find it easier to defect to other shopping malls. Based on a survey of 250 customers and multiple regression method, three models were developed to assess the strength of the relationship between customer loyalty and shopping mall attractiveness. The models are (I) repeat shopping oriented customer loyalty model; (II) bring friends for shopping oriented customer loyalty model; (III) get rewards and free gift oriented customer loyalty model. In terms of predictive power, model II which accounted for 71% of variance in customer loyalty was found to be the best followed by model I which accounted for 59% of variance in customer loyalty. The third model though significant accounted for only 29 % and hence, did not yield much result in predicting customer loyalty.
Facilities Management Relevant Competencies for Malaysian Public School
Authors: Raja Mazlan Raja Marzyani , Mohammed Abdul Hakim
Published: September 2015

The question of whether one is actually practicing Facilities Management (FM) or an FM practitioner in the Malaysian industry is very common as the definition of FM continues to be under debate. Nevertheless, FM competencies have been defined by international FM professional associations with the main purposes of professional recognition and training in this area. Two pioneer associations in the field that are of distinguished reference internationally were the first in the effort of establishing the list of competencies for FM professionals. The process of defining the competencies however was very challenging given the fact that FM itself has not been able to be unanimously defined in its practice. The fine line between FM and other disciplines in the built environment also affects FM associations and their potential members, especially on whether or not they belong to each other. Despite this uncertainty, FM as a profession and an area of management is increasingly accepted and acknowledged all over the world, including Malaysia. This study aims at identifying the position of the practice of managing Malaysian public school within the context of FM, through relevancy of the defined competencies for FM by the international FM associations to the required competencies in the management of Malaysian school building and facilities. A survey was carried out amongst the school administrators from all parts of Malaysia and the data was analysed with factor analysis. The findings indicate that although by definition the management practice carried out by the school administrators does fall under the FM, less than half of the competency list proposed by FM organizations was found to be significant as far as Malaysian school facilities management is concerned.
Healthcare Facilities Settings: An overview of Environmentally-induced Stress on Health
Authors: Yu-Tian Tan , Weng-Wai Choong , Hj. Ninggal Mohd. Tajudin
Published: September 2015

The role of FM practitioners is to create an environment that sustains the primary objectives of the organisation. In managing healthcare facilities, the aim is to serve the healthcare users with efficient and quality medical environments in order to enhance the healing process. However, dysfunction that exists in environmental design is one of the issues often faced by the healthcare FM practitioners these days. Psychological stress is viewed as a consequence of design-behaviour dysfunction when the existing environmental design can no longer fit the need of users. With the possibility of certain environmental features to act as the sources of stressors, it is vital for FM practitioners to discover those features from the surrounding environment that appear to be harmful to the healthcare users. This paper provides an overview of the effect of the surrounding environment on stress. The association between environmentally induced-stress and the impacts of health is further discussed. Lastly, the application of evidence-based practice (EBP) is suggested in order to further the understanding for the association and intervention between environmental stressors and clinical outcomes.
Quality of Healing Environment in Healthcare Facilities
Authors: Oi-Zhen Soh , Weng-Wai Choong , Yu-Tian Tan
Published: September 2015

With regards to the growing evidences of potential benefits derived from high quality healing environment to both the patient and staff in healthcare facilities, there is an increase of awareness and application of quality healing environment to compliment the current healthcare delivery services. It is proved that proper lighting design would intensified nursing care value, hospital wall color could reduce stress, and existing of window could reduce anxiety among patients. However, the healthcare users’ needs toward the healing environment are still not thoroughly interpret and understood by healthcare facilities providers. Previous research suggests that satisfaction acceptance from patients and staffs are the key indicators of quality healing environment. This study intends to investigate the perception among patient and staff as an important indication of the quality of healing environment by utilized the National Health Service’s evaluation toolkit, A Staff and Patient Environment Calibration Toolkit (ASPECT). Findings revealed patient and staff suggest that provision of wards with diverse character by presenting different colours, composition and material as an important segment for healthcare experiences. This in relation to make patients and staffs to feel located meaningfully. The research findings would serve as guidance for healthcare facilities providers regarding the quality physical environment, in responsive to patient and staffs’ needs.
A Review on Critical Success FactEffect of Tourism on Demand of Hotel Room Type and Its Tariff
Authors: Haji Abd Razak Noor Amni , Jaafar Mohd Nadzri
Published: September 2015

Tourism industry is one of the major contributors to the national economy and it is closely related to the development of the hotel industry. Improvement of sub sectors accommodation (hotel) is often related to the increase of tourists to Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of tourism on demand of hotel room type and its tariff. In addition, tourists’ behaviours were observed to understand demand of hotel room type because they contribute to the development of hotel industry. Four main factors were chosen as the main factors before choosing a hotel that are price, location, facility and accessibility. These factors were analyse using two methods that are descriptive analysis and multidimensional scalling analysis. The result of this analysis showed that tourist chose 2- star hotels and below as their preferred accommodation. Apart from that, this research further analyse hotel room tariff for the hotel type that was chosen by tourists using simple linear regression. This is useful as a simple guideline for hotel industry.
Compensation Process for Noise Induced Hearing Loss
Authors: Mazlan Ain Naadia , Yahya Khairulzan
Published: September 2015

Noise exposure from worksite can cause a lasting effect of noise induced hearing loss (NIHL). The effect may vary according to industries with manufacturing and construction industries among heavily affected. However, the total number of compensation cases is still low compared to the affected population of construction industry workers. This might due to inefficient and slow compensation process. This paper aim to evaluate the current compensation process for NIHL, with in-depth discussion about the procedure adopted to find alternative ways to expedite and improve the compensation process involving noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) cases. Although the compensation methodologies is not relatively new, the current practice today still leavesÂ  gaps in processing compensation cases efficiently and promptly. In this study, compensation process for NIHL cases were reviewed. Data were collected through articles, regulation and law acts. It was complemented with research visits to social security and insurance providers. The result demonstrates that while the current process adopted is workable, it still inefficient to cater the population of affected.
Construction Noise Annoyance among the Public Residents
Authors: Darus Nadirah , Haron Zaiton , Mohd Bakhori Siti Nadia , Ming Han Lim , Jahya Zanariah , Abdul Hamid Mohamad Fauzi
Published: September 2015

Construction activities generate construction noise may cause noise annoyance among the public residents. The aim of this study is to investigate the noise annoyance level due to the sound pressure levels and the distances from the construction sites. Three public resident areas around Johor which located near to the construction sites have been selected. Two important indicators such as sound pressure levels and distances between the receiver and the noise sources were measured. 42 questionnaires were randomly distributed to the public residents who live near to the construction sites. The results showed that all respondent have different annoyance levels due to the construction noise. The sound pressure levels received by the public residents are increasing with the decreasing of the distance between the receiver and the noise sources. Thus, the relationship of noise annoyance levels is directly proportional to the sound pressure levels produced from construction sites. Meanwhile, the noise annoyance levels are decreasing with the increasing of the distances. As a conclusion, the public residents who live nearer to the construction sites suffered from a high noise annoyance level as expected.
Flexural Behaviour of Reinforced Slab Panel System with Embedded Cold-formed Steel Frames as Reinforcement
Authors: Siang Tan Cher , Ling Lee Yee , Mohammad Shahrin , Kang Lim Siong , Huei Lee Yeong , Hock Lim Jee
Published: September 2015

This paper presents the experimental investigation on flexural characteristic of slab panels with embedded cold-formed steel frame as reinforcement. Perforated cold-formed steel channel sections are formed into steel frames as replacement to the conventional reinforcement bars inside precast concrete slab panels. A series of six experimental specimens for precast slab panels were tested. The specimens with 3 configurations namely control sample (CS) with conventional reinforcement bars, single horizontal C-channel section (SH) and double horizontal C-channel sections (DH) formed into rectangular hollow section. Results show that the tested slab specimens failed at the flexural crack at mid-span, under loading point and shear at the support. Tearing of shear connector in the cold-formed steel section was found to be the main factor for the structural failure. SH specimens achieved the highest ultimate load capacity, with average value of 138.5 kN, followed by DH specimens, 116.5 kN, and the control samples, 59.0 kN. The results showed that the proposed reinforced slab panel with embedded cold-formed steel frame was more effective compared to conventional reinforced slab.
Air Lubrication Influence on Frictional Resistance Reduction of Multi-Purpose Amphibious Vehicle
Authors: Nakisa M. , Maimun A. , M. Ahmed Yasser , Behrouzi F. , Jaswar Jaswar , Tarmizi A.
Published: September 2015

The presentarticle focuses on the hydrodynamic resistance reduction of Multipurpose Amphibious Vehicles (MAV) usingthe air lubrication layer effect. The use of air cushions to support marine vehicles, heavy floating structures and in other operation is well known. The main problem in Multi-purpose Amphibious Vehicles (MAV) is the amount of power needed in order to overcome the hydrodynamic resistance acting on the hull which is included the frictional and pressure resistances. Therefore, more power is needed to move the MAV forward. In this respect, more fuel will be required to operate the amphibious vehicles. This problem could be effectively reduced by the introduction of the air cushion concept. With the air being drawn from top of craft to the cavity below the hull will produce some cushioning effect and also help to reduce skin friction drag. In this paper, air cushion effect will be studied in rigid surface cavity instead of using flexible skirts. This would avoid the problem of high maintenance due to replacement of damaged skirts. Finally, the MAV will be supported using air cavity and bubbles generated by an air pump (compressor and air pressure vessel) to pushes the hull of multi-purpose amphibious vehicle up and reduce the frictional resistance due to draft and wetted surface reduction and layer of air between hull surface and water. This research would be done via CFD (ANSYS-CFX 14.0) and analyzed the hydrodynamic resistance.
Wave Exciting Forces of a Free Floating Semi Submersible in Regular Waves
Authors: Abyn Hassan , Islam Mohammad Rafiqul , Jaswar Jaswar , Mahmoudi Amin , Siow C. L. , Abd Kader Saman
Published: September 2015

Drilling and production of oil by semi submersible take place in many locations throughout the world. Generally, floating structures play an important role in exploring the oil and gas from the sea. The force and motion prediction of offshore structures may be carried out using time domain or frequency domain models or model tests. In this paper the frequency domain analysis used because it is the simplified and linearized form of the equations of motion. The time domain analysis, unlike frequency domain models, is adequate to deal with non-linearities such as viscous damping and mooring forces, but it requires sophisticated solution techniques and it is expensive to employ. In this paper, the wave exciting forces of a free floating semi-submersible were carried out using 3D source distribution method within the scope of the linear wave theory. The results obtained from computations were also compared with the results obtained using commercial software MOSES and WAMIT.
Hydro Power and Turbine Systems Reviews
Authors: Elbatran A. H. , Abdel-Hamed Mohamed Walid , Yaakob O. B. , M. Ahmed Yasser
Published: September 2015

Hydropower energy is one of the most suitable and efficient source of renewable energy which depends on more than century of experience for this issue. The power capacity and facility are two criteria required for the classification of hydropower plant. The first one consists of five technologies: dammed reservoir, run of river, pumped storage, in stream technology and new technology gravitational vortex.  The other one is classified according to power scale is Large, Small, Mini, Micro and Pico Hydropower. Nowadays most of rural areas in developed and developing countries use the hydropower plant for producing electricity, it is cheap and effective. This paper gives a review of hydropower technologies and turbines; it is focusing on the categories and performance of hydro power systems and the most suitable turbines which can be used.
Experimental Analysis on Flow around Fin Assisted Semi SWATH
Authors: Ali Arifah , Maimun Adi , M. Ahmed Yasser , Rahimuddin Rahimuddin , A. Ghani Mohamad Pauzi
Published: September 2015

Demand on High Speed Craft (HSC) is increasing due to development of inland transportation. Therefore, many analysis have been conducted to evaluate performance of this modern ship. One of the important analysis is calm water resistance test. Resistance component of the hull and wave pattern around the hull are obtained from the calm water test. These criteria are important in analyzing flow around hull, especially on wave interference between the hulls. In this paper, flow around hull has been studied for one model of Semi SWATH hull form with fin stabilizers installation by performing calm water resistance test in deep water. The fore fin angle is fixed to zero degree while the aft fin angle is varied to 0, 5 and 15 degree. The effects of fin angle to resistance criteria and flow around hull are investigated. Wave height has been recorded using longitudinal wave probe during resistance test. For each configuration, the investigation is conducted with range of Length Froude Number from 0.34 to 0.69. From the analysis, it is found that flow around the hull of Semi SWATH is affected by fin angle and the effect is various depend on the Froude number.
CFD Validation for Efficient Gravitational Vortex Pool System
Authors: Shabara H. M. , Yaakob O. B. , M. Ahmed Yasser , Elbatran A. H. , S. M. Faddir Muhammad
Published: September 2015

Mini hydropower plants are expected to have good potential for providing electricity to remote communities. An important part of this economic and clean energy system is the conversion of the low-head potential energy into kinetic energy to drive power turbines. One way of converting the low-head potential energy is using a gravitation vortex pool. This study describes work to optimize the vortex pool to improve energy conversion and hence generate electricity from low water heads of between 0.7 m to 3 m. The commercial Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code ANSYS Fluent was used in this study to investigate the optimum configuration of the vortex pool system by modeling the free surface flow mathematically. In addition, an experimental test rig was set-up to carry out validation of the CFD results.  The results of validation prove that ANSYS Fluent is able to model the system correctly.
Directional Wave Spectra from Video Images Data and SWAN Model
Authors: Zikra Muhammad , Hashimoto Noriaki , Yamashiro Masaru , Suzuki Kojiro
Published: September 2015

In this paper, analysis of directional wave spectra in shallow water area estimated by video images data has been compared with numerical model of SWAN. Estimation of directional wave spectra from video images is based on the Bayesian Directional Method using a group of pixels brightness on the image. For this study, the pixels can be considered equivalent to fixed instruments as wave probe sensor after rectification process. The results show that there is a good agreement between directional wave spectra estimated by video images data and the SWAN model. Both methods estimate similar shape of directional wave spectra in the shallow water. In addition, the energy distribution of directional wave spectra in shallow water is concentrated significantly in frequency and direction.
A Simple Fuzzy Logic Diagnosis System for Control of Internal Combustion Engines
Authors: Javad Nekooei Mohammad , Jaswar Jaswar , Priyanto A.
Published: September 2015

Fuzzy logic (FL) systems are widely established as a technology offering an alternative system to tackle compound and ill defined problems. They can be trained from examples, are fault tolerant in the sense that they are capable to grip noisy and deficient data, are able to deal with non-linear problems, and once trained can perform prediction and generalization at high speed. in this paper a simple fuzzy logic control has been developed which is used for defining engine system faults and control and maintain them in a normal range  without use any complicated mathematical equation and any fault sensor.
Mobile Text Reader for People with Low Vision
Authors: Ren Sin Teng , Su Lee Ming Eileen , Che Fai Yeong , Jian Fu Ong , Yang Shane Sim
Published: September 2015

People with low vision have visual acuity less than 6/18 and at least 3/60 in the better eye, with correction. The limited vision requires them to enhance their reading ability using magnifying glass or electronic screen magnifier. However, people with severe low vision have difficulty and suffer fatigue from using such assistive tool. This paper presents the development of a mobile text reader dedicated for people with low vision. The mobile text reader is developed as a mobile application that allows user to capture an image of texts and then translate the texts into audio format. One main contribution of this work compared to typical optical character recognition (OCR) engines or text-to-speech engines is the addition of image stitching feature. The image stitching feature can produce one single image from multiple poorly aligned images, and is integrated into the process of image acquisition. Either single or composite image is subsequently uploaded to a cloud-based OCR engine for robust character recognition. Eventually, a text-to-speech (TTS) synthesizer reproduces the word recognized in a natural-sounding speech. The whole series of computation is implemented as a mobile application to be run from a smartphone, allowing the visual impaired to access text information independently.
Decomposition Level Comparison of Stationary Wavelet Transform Filter for Visual Task Electroencephalogram
Authors: Sayed Daud Syarifah Noor Syakiylla , Sudirman Rubita
Published: September 2015

There has been a lot of research on the study of the human brain. Many modalities such as medical resonance imaging (MRI), computerized tomography (CT), positron emission tomography (PET), electroencephalography (EEG) and etc. has been invented. However, between this modality the electroencephalography widely chosen by researchers due to it is low cost, non-invasive techniques, and safely use. One of the major problems, the signal is corrupted by artifacts, whether to come from the muscle movement (electromyography artifact), eye blink and movement (electrooculography artifact) and power line interference. Filtering technique is applied to the signal in order to remove these artifacts. Wavelet approach is one of the technique that can filter out the artifact. This paper aim to determine which decomposition level is suitable for filtering EEG signal at channel Fp1, Fz, F8, Pz, O1 and O2 use stationary wavelet transform filter at db3 mother wavelet. Eight different decomposition levels have been selected and analyze based on mean square error (MSE) parameter. The Neurofax 9200 was used to record the brain signal at selected channel. Result shows that the decomposition at level 5 is suitable for filtering process using this stationary wavelet transform approach without losing important information.
3D Model Reconstruction from Multi-views of 2D Images using Radon Transform
Authors: Mohd. Sobani Siti Syazalina , Mahmood Nasrul Humaimi , Zakaria Nor Aini , Ariffin Ismail
Published: September 2015

This paper presents a simple computation method to reconstruct 3-dimensional (3D) model from a sequence of 2-dimensional (2D) images using a multiple-view camera setup. The 3D model is acquired by applying several images processing on few 2D images captured by digital camera with different angle of views. The setup for this study consisted of a digital camera mounted on a tripod stand focusing at a block of model object on a turntable with black floor and background. 36 different angles are used to capture the images where every view angle differs by ten degree (10°) with another view in a fixed sequence. The image processing applied on all 2D images to be reconstructed as 3D surface are image segmentation, Radon transform (RT), image filtering, morphological operation, edge detection, and boundary extraction. The results for 3D model reconstruction shows it is well reconstructed, with a smooth texture obtained using 3D mesh and Delaunay triangulation, while the shape is nearly identical to the original model while the remaining are distinguishable.
The Use of Surface Electromyography in Muscle Fatigue Assessments–A Review
Authors: Kamaruddin Nurul Asyikin , Khalid Puspa Inayat , Shaameri Ahmad Zuri
Published: September 2015

The developments in physiological studies have established the importance of muscle fatigue estimation in various aspects including neurophysiological and medical research, rehabilitation, ergonomics, sports injuries and human-computer interaction. Surface electromyography signals are commonly used in muscle fatigue assessment. Techniques of surface EMG signal processing used to quantify muscle fatigue are not only based on time domain and frequency domain, but also on time–frequency domain. The developments of different signal analysis to extract different indices for muscle fatigue assessments are reviewed in this paper. Several indices in time, frequency, and time-frequency representations for muscle fatigue assessments have been identified. However the sensitivity of those indices needs to be investigated. Minimizing this issue becomes the objective of the recent research in muscle fatigue assessments.
Alkali Pretreatment and Acid Hydrolysis of Coconut Pulp and Empty Fruit Bunch to Produce Glucose
Authors: Ali Noorhalieza , Che Aziz Che Afifi , Hassan Onn
Published: September 2015

Lignocellulose waste has great potential to be converted into value added products sustainably as it is readily available at low cost. The aim of this study is to examine the amount of glucose produced from coconut pulp and coconut empty fruit bunch using acid hydrolysis. Sodium hydroxide pretreatment is carried out at 70oC using different concentrations of sodium hydroxide which are 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% v/v for a duration time of 2 hours. Optimum pretreatment is evaluated using Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) analysis. It is observed that optimum pretreatment is at 20% v/v sodium hydroxide. The optimum samples are then hydrolysed using concentrations of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% v/v of sulphuric acid at different temperatures of 30, 50, 70 and 90oC for 2 hours. Glucose concentration is analysed using an ultraviolet (UV) Spectrophotometer. The highest glucose concentrations obtained are 0.895 g/L and 0.550g/L for coconut pulp and coconut empty fruit bunch, respectively at 20% v/v acid concentration and a temperature of 90oC.
Effects of the Initial Rice Bran Concentration on the Production of Lactobacillus casei as Digestive Bio-regulator
Authors: Mohamed Esivan Siti Marsilawati , Rashid Roslina , Azmi Nor Azrini Nadiha , Zaharudin Nor Athirah , Othman Norasikin
Published: September 2015

Digestive bio-regulator or probiotic is defined as live bacteria with clinically documented health effects in humans and animals. Nowadays, there is increasing interest in probiotics from all over the world. However, the cost of producing probiotics products is still high. To reduce the cost, there is a need to study the usage of agro waste as an inexpensive substrate. The viability of the cell was counted in colony unit per mL (CFU/mL) and the growth was measured using dry weight measurement (g/mL). The sugar concentration was measured using glucose analyzer. At initial substrate concentration of 20% (w/v) and at incubation time of 10hr, the viability cell was 3 x 108 CFU/mL and cell dry weight was 0.0076 g/mL. From the results of this study, it is found that when the initial substrate concentration increased, the viability and growth of Lactobacillus casei increased.
Metals Chloride-Activated Castor Bean Residue for Methylene Blue Removal
Authors: Lin Zhi Lee , Ahmad Zaini Muhammad Abbas
Published: September 2015

This work aims to evaluate the feasibility of castor bean residue as the precursor of activated carbon by metal chloride salts as activating agent. ZnCl2, NaCl and KCl were used to activate the castor bean residue and the performance was investigated by adsorption of methylene blue and its correlation with the specific surface area. ZnCl2-activated castor bean cake with had the best adsorption result with maximum capacity of 213 mg/g and specific surface area of 643 m2/g. The adsorption of methylene blue for all metals chloride-activated castor bean residue followed Langmuir isotherm which suggests monolayer adsorption onto the homogeneous surface.
Optimization of Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Extraction of Quercus infectoria Oil
Authors: Md Salleh Liza , Abel Stashia ELeaness Rosland , Zahedi Gholamreza , Abd Rahman Russly , Mohd Nasir Hasmida , Syed Faua’ad Syed Anuar
Published: September 2015

This current study focuses on the modelling and optimization of supercritical fluid extraction of Quercus infectoria galls oil. In this case, response surface methodology (RSM) and artificial neural network (ANN) were applied for the modelling and prediction of extraction yield of galls oil. A 17-run Box-Behnken Design (BBD) was employed to statistically optimize the process parameters of SC-CO2 extraction of Quercus infectoria galls at a condition as follows: pressure (5000, 6000, 7000 Psi), temperature (40, 50, 60°C) and extraction time (30, 45, 60 min). The maximum yield of the extracted oil is1.12 % and the optimum conditions are at an extraction pressure of 5574 Psi; extraction temperature of 75°C and extraction time of 54 min. Under the optimal conditions, the experimental results agree with the predicted values obtained through analysis of variance (ANOVA). This indicates a successful response surface methodology and highly satisfactory goodness of fit of the model used. The analysis of experimental design for process optimization results demonstrates that temperature and extraction time are the main parameters that influence the oil extraction of Quercus infectoria.
Parametric Evaluation for Extraction of Catechin from Areca Catechu Linn Seeds using Supercritical CO2 Extraction
Authors: Ruslan Muhammad Syafiq Hazwan , Che Yunus Mohd Azizi , Idham Zuhaili , Morad Noor Azian , Ali Asmadi
Published: September 2015

Supercritical fluid extraction is an advanced extraction technique which has been proven its efficiency and selectivity in numerous studies. Dense gas with diffusivity nearing liquid and viscosity closed to gas phase, supercritical fluid can provide better performance in the extraction of natural and heat sensitive active compounds. Areca Catechu Linn or commonly known as betel nut can be easily found in tropical country especially in south-east and south of Asia with India as its world largest producer. Phenolic compound present in Areca Catechu Linn are condensed tannins and also catechin. Catechin is a highly active compound with several properties such as anti-depressant, anti-oxidant, anti-viral, anti-flammatory and anti-aging which are in demand by cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries. The aim of this study is to determine the best particle size, solvent flow rate, presence of modifier or co-solvent, and time of extraction for this pre-treatment study. Average particle size of 0.1774 mm (dp4) was detected as the best particle size for the extraction process with 3 mL/min solvent flow rate with 5% methanol added to solvent. Modifier presence enhances the extraction by improving the ability to extract more polar compound such as catechin. The best catechin recovery was observed at 3mL/min, solvent composition of 95:5 (SC-CO2:MeOH) at the temperature of 70ᵒC and pressure of 30 MPa with 47.38 μg catechin/g extracts.
Removal of Oily Wastewater Using Chitosan-filled Filter Media
Authors: Sadikin Aziatul Niza , Mohd Nawawi Mohd Ghazali , Othman Norasikin , Rasit Ali Roshafima , Asli Umi Aisah
Published: September 2015

The aim of this research is to evaluate the feasibility of the fibrous media for removal of total suspended solid and oil grease from palm oil mill effluent (POME). Wet lay-up method was adopted for filter fabrication where empty fruit bunches (EFB) were matted together with chitosan in non-woven manner. Chitosan-filled filter media were tested for their ability to reduce Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and Oil & Grease (O&G) from palm oil mill effluent. Filtration process results indicated that chitosan-filled filter media filtration only removed up to 28.14% of TSS and 29.86% of O&G.
Removal of Phenol from Wastewater by Supported Liquid Membrane Process
Authors: Othman Norasikin , Chui Heng Ling , Mohamed Noah Norul Fatiha , Zing Yi Ooi , Jusoh Norela , Nasruddin Nur Alina , Ali Nora’aini , Hamzah Sofiah
Published: September 2015

Phenol is considered a pollutant in the environment due to its toxicity and carcinogenic effect. Supported liquid membrane (SLM) is a good and promising technology for the removal of phenol from wastewater because it provides maximum driving force for the separation of targeted solute and simultaneous extraction and stripping process which lead to excellent separation. In this research, kerosene and palm oil liquid membranes were used as liquid membrane phase, aqueous phenol as the feed phase and aqueous sodium hydroxide as the stripping phase. Several factors such as feed phase pH, feed phase flow rate and concentration of stripping phase were studied.  The results show that the best extraction performance can achieve 35% at pH 4 of feed phase, 150 ml/min feed flow rate and 1.0 M of stripping phase concentration. The result was used to determine the probability of using palm oil as a liquid membrane. In the determination of the potential of using palm oil as the membrane phase, the results show that an equal portion of palm oil and kerosene mixture performed the best extraction with 43% efficiency.
FACILE HYDROTHERMAL SYNTHESIS OF FLOWER-LIKE ZNONANORODS WITHOUT CATALYSTS
Authors: N. Abbas Khaldoon , Bidin Noriah , A. Al-Azawi Mohammed , J. Al-Asedy Hayder
Published: September 2015

A very simple hydrothermal method (one step) was used at low temperature to synthesis flower-like ZnOnanorods on glass substrate without any template, catalyst or buffer layer before the reaction. Flower-like ZnOnanorods were synthesized by hydrothermally heating 0.1 M precursor solution of hexahedral zinc nitrate Zn(NO3)2.6H2O, hexamethylenetetramine (HMT) and NaOH were the starting materials for the chemical reaction under stirring. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) images showed that the flower-like structures were formed in 3.5 h hydrothermally-heated for sample, whereas the experimental pattern of the films by X-ray diffraction show that diffraction peaks can be assigned to the wurtzite hexagonal-shaped ZnO as shown in the (FE-SEM) images, also the morphology of the films studied by atomic force microscope (AFM) shows that the films have high roughness. The energy gap was estimated and optical behavior was investigated.
TEMPERATURE EFFECT ON REFRACTOMETRIC DOUBLE RING RESONATOR
Authors: Mohamad Azam , Aziz M. S. , Bahadoran Mahdi , Chaudary Kashif , Jalil M. Arif , Ali Jalil , P. Yupapin Preecha
Published: September 2015

The effect of temperature on double ring resonator (DRR) glucose sensing is investigate theoretically and proposed. Different from other optical resonator, the pulse laser is used as an input source and the vertical DRR configuration is used. The concept for pulse propagation is based on the split-step Fourier method. Result shows that the detection of glucose is measured by optical losses and the losses at 26oC are 1.86 dB at through and 0.93 dB at drop port, respectively. The performance of glucose sensing on DRR is degraded by temperature. Effect of temperature creates more losses which results total loss of 2.01 dB at through and 1 dB at drop port when temperature increase by 1oC.
THE POTENTIAL OF OPTICAL TWEEZER (OT) FOR VISCOELASTIVITY MEASUREMENT OF NANOCELLULOSE SOLUTION
Authors: Wan Aziz Wan Nor Suhaila , Ayop Shahrul Kadri , Riyanto Sugeng
Published: September 2015

In this paper, we review the recent applications of optical tweezer (OT) in studying the microrheology of variety of polymeric solution. Our aim is to expose optical tweezer research to the public and newcomer. This paper highlights and summarizes the advantages of optical tweezer as compared with the conventional method, introduces the benefit of nanocellulose and also presents an overview of the potential in the measurement of nanocellulose solution’s viscoelasticity by using optical trapping method.
THE DETERMINATION OF COMPLEX SHEAR MODULUS OF DEIONIZED WATER USING KRAMER-KRONIG RELATION (KKR) METHOD
Authors: Riyanto Sugeng , Ayop Shahrul Kadri , Wan Aziz Wan Nor Suhaila
Published: September 2015

Complex Shear Modulus (CSM) contains fruitful information about mechanical properties,especially in microrheologystudies. CSM calculation depends onComplex Response Function (CRF) of an object motion. The aim of this paper is to provide guidance on the determination of the CSM by using Kramer-Kronig Relation (KKR) method. The procedure takes advantage of Brownian Motion (BM) of a micron-sized polystyrene in water. The BM occurs when the particle were responseto the thermal force in fluids medium. We use Laplace Transform(LT) algorithm to analyze the BMand to find CRF and CSM.The result will be displayedas Radial Frequencies Function.
DETECTION OF DIFFERENT CONCENTRATIONS OF URIC ACID USING TAPERED SILICA OPTICAL SENSOR COATED WITH ZINC OXIDE (ZNO)
Authors: Rafis Hazli , Irawati N. , Rafaie H. A. , Ahmad H. , Harun S. W. , Nor R. M.
Published: September 2015

The working principle of measurement of output power from silica optical sensor for the detection of different concentrations of uric acid is demonstrated. The fabricated sensors used single mode silica optical fibers (SOF) which were tapered using flame brushing technique to achieve a waist diameter of 32 µm and tapering length of 2 mm. The tapered fiber were then coated with ZnO nanostructures using sol–gel immersion method. The concentration of the uric acid is measured in volume parts per million (ppm) for a concentration change from 0 ppm to 500 ppm by tapered SOF coated with ZnO and non-coated sensors. The peak voltage increases linearly for coated and non-coated from 214 mV to 268 mV and 270 mv to 344 mV, respectively. Sensitivity was measured with 0.11 mV/ppm and 0.15 mV/ppm, respectively. In addition, the results show that the linearity of the sensors is 94.56% and 97.78%, respectively. Simple in fabrication and low in cost, this sensor can detect concentration changes of uric acid in a fast and convenient way with high stability and sensitivity. Thus, this sensor will be very promising in chemical and biomedical applications.
AMPLIFICATION AND LASING CHARACTERISTICS OF THULIUM YTTERBIUM CO-DOPED FIBER
Authors: Ahmad M. T. , Latiff A. A. , Zakaria Z. , Jusoh Z. , Ahmad H. , Harun S. W.
Published: September 2015

The amplification and lasing characteristics of the newly developed Thulium-Ytterbium co-doped fiber (TYDF) are investigated. It is obtained that both TYDF amplifier and laser operate at 1950 nm region. The maximum gain of 22.4 dB is obtained for 1942 nm signal when the 980 nm multimode pump power, TYDF length and input signal power are fixed at 1.2 W, 5 m and -20 dBm, respectively. At 5 m long of TYDF, the laser produces two prominent lines at 1960 nm and 1965 nm with peak powers of 2.8 dBm and 3.1 dBm, respectively due to the nonlinear polarization rotation (NPR) effect in the cavity.
LIBS TECHNIQUE FOR DETERMINATION PB CONCENTRATION IN SOIL SAMPLES NEAR CONTAMINATION SITE
Authors: Arab Mustafa , Bidin Noriah , Rahman Ida
Published: September 2015

This paper reports the analysis of heavy metal from contamination soil using laser ablation technique. The soil samples were taken at various distances (200-1000 m) and depths (10-50 cm) from Port Dickson power station area in Negeri Sembilan-Malaysia. All samples were dried and pelletized prior to excitation. Calibration was carried out by injected pure powder of Pb into the soil matrix. A Q-switched Nd:YAG laser was employed to ablate the sample. Maya spectrometer with resolution of 0.2 nm was utilized to record the emission spectrum of fluorescence beam. The quantitative results of laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) technique were validate via flame atomic absorption spectroscopy (FAAS) analysis which shown in a good agreement. The detected heavy metal element of lead also identified to be lower than the threshold limit set by DOE and Europe standard and yet the studied area is established to be among the lowest pollutant area in worldwide.
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION BY INFRARED LASER ELECTROLYSIS ON NACL SOLUTION
Authors: Khamsan N. E. , Krishnan Ganesan , Bidin N.
Published: September 2015

A method referred as Hydrogen Production by Infrared assisted Electrolysis (HyPIR) is presented in this work. Two graphite electrodes are immersed in electrolytic cell containing 0.517 g of NaCl and 7 ml of ethanol C2H5OH solution which act as supplements for a partial oxidation reaction. Erbium YAG laser with wavelength of 2.94 mm and 57.6 mJ energy per pulse at a pulse rate of 4 Hz is illuminated directly on the electrolytic solution. The irradiating light facilitates the dissociation of water by stretching the inter-atomic hydrogen-oxygen bonds in the electrolytic solutions and directly increase the rate of hydrogen yields.
Z-TRANSFORM METHOD FOR OPTIMIZATION OF ADD-DROP CONFIGURATION SYSTEM
Authors: Daud Suzairi , Tufail Chaudary Kashif , Bahadoran Mahdi , Ali Jalil
Published: September 2015

This paper presents the new approaches of optimization the add-drop configuration system by using Z-transform method. Dark soliton was chosen as the input signal and Gaussian beam was chosen as the control signal for the model proposed. The incident light was said to achieve the maximum resonance with the ring resonator when the phase shift, . The derivation, analyzation, and optimization of the system are typically very important especially for the communication technology.
DEPTH CONTROL OF AN UNDERWATER REMOTELY OPERATED VEHICLE USING NEURAL NETWORK PREDICTIVE CONTROL
Authors: Mohd Aras Mohd Shahrieel , Abdullah Shahrum Shah , Abdul Rahman Ahmad Fadzli Nizam , Hasim Norhaslinda , Abdul Azis Fadilah , Wee Teck Lim , Mohd Nor Arfah Syahida
Published: September 2015

This paper investigates the depth control of an unmanned underwater remotely operated vehicle (ROV) using neural network predictive control (NNPC). The NNPC is applied to control the depth of the ROV to improve the performances of system response in terms of overshoot. To assess the viability of the method, the system was simulated using MATLAB/Simulink by neural network predictive control toolbox. In this paper also investigates the number of data samples (1000, 5000 and 10,000) to train neural network. The simulation reveals that the NNPC has the better performance in terms of its response, but the execution time will be increased. The comparison between other controller such as conventional PI controller, Linear Quadratic Regulation (LQR) and fuzzy logic controller also covered in this paper where the main advantage of NNPC is the fastest system response on depth control.
MODELING AND MOTION CONTROL OF A RIVERINE AUTONOMOUS SURFACE VEHICLE (ASV) WITH DIFFERENTIAL THRUST
Authors: Hong Mei Jian , Arshad M. R.
Published: September 2015

It is challenging that Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV)  navigated in the riverine environment since the unknown and unstructured waterway, and the non-uniform riverbanks makes the waterway tracking difficult. This paper presents a catamaran type Autonomous Surface vessel (ASV) for autonomous bathymetry survey and environmental monitoring at riverine areas. The ASV is equipped without rudder, thus it is driven by differential thrust to control the speed and heading. The theoretical 3 DOF model of ASV and differential thrust steering dynamics is discussed. The aim is to perform the visual navigation that track along with the river by keeping in the center of river. Meanwhile, the speed is required to vary with the width of river to avoid collision. In order to perform the control aims, a balance control scheme is designed. The results indicate that the proposed control scheme is successful for the navigation task.