Hypertension is a condition associated with adverse vascular complications. Its
prevalence is on the increase globally and same is true for Nigeria. Very few studies
have assessed the prevalence, awareness, treatment and blood pressure control
among hypertensive patients in Nigeria. The few available studies generally show
figures less than 50% for all the three indicators of success with regards to
hypertension. These studies are however deficient in their coverage, country
representativeness and methodology, and as such, they fail to provide the evidence
for which conclusions can be drawn. There is need to intensify blood pressure
screening at both hospital and community levels. More comprehensive research with
wider coverage and sound methodologies are also needed to determine those
associated factors and to discover better treatment options for hypertension in
Nigeria. These findings would guide health promotion activities and policy making.
Muhammad Adil Khattak, Muhammad Zulhelmi Mahadi, Nurlaila Syamsul Bahri, Hor, Yen Tiu, Khairulnadzmi Jamaluddin, Muhammad Faiz Farhan Noorizhab, et al.
The objective of this review paper is to summarize the current state of understanding
on a topic ‘Nuclear spent fuel storage and facilities’. This review paper surveys and
summarizes previously published studies, rather than reporting new facts or analysis.
It is importance to case study this issue since the number of spent fuel are increasing
in which a typical nuclear power plant in a year generates almost 20 metric tons of
used nuclear fuel. In which the nuclear industry generates a total of about 2,000 - 2,300
metric tons of used fuel per year and for the last 40 years produced 76,430 metric tons
of nuclear spent fuel. Future understanding and attention need to be accomplished
since spent fuel can cause harm due to its high radioactive level and also the ability to
reprocess the fuel to be used as MOX fuel.
The selection of landfill, which happens to be an environmental issue, has attracted
the attention of many researchers from the fields of waste management and
environmental sciences worldwide. Hence, in the attempt to overcome this problem,
some decision-making techniques, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), have been widely utilized in prior studies,
where multiple criteria, particularly in site selection process, have been employed.
With that, this article identifies the selection criteria for landfill selection and presents
a review concerning decision-making techniques that have been used in past studies
for two important phases involved during the process of site selection, namely, (1)
preliminary site screening, and (2) assessment of site suitability. As such, some 82
articles chosen from 34 peer-reviewed journals had been investigated in detail. The
results showed that 42.68% of the selected articles integrated GIS and MCDA
techniques to solve the problem of landfill site selection, and this is followed by
integrating GIS and fuzzy MCDA technique (18.29%). Both these techniques are indeed
powerful tools that can guide decision-makers to solve problems in making decisions
on the basis of various criteria under certainty and uncertainty results, mainly involving
environmental issues.
Offering inexpensive, widely available and safe method to evaluate the bone condition
as a prevention step to predict bone fracture which caused by Osteoporosis disease
makes ultrasound becomes an alternative method beside X-ray based bone
densitometry. Conventional quantitative ultrasound (QUS) applies the analysis of
attenuation and velocity to estimate bone health with several measurement
techniques which analyzes different types of ultrasound waves and bones. However,
most of the QUS results still does not match the accuracy of the Dual X-ray
absorptiometry due to the interaction of ultrasound and bone microstructure are not
fully exploited. The Biot’s theory has predicted that, porous medium like a cancellous
bone supporting two types of longitudinal wave known as fast and slow wave which
depends on the type of medium travelled. Both experiment and simulation were
conducted to investigate the correlation of fast and slow waves individually with a
variety of cancellous bone condition. Some of the analysis methods are based on
conventional QUS methods. The fast and slow wave relates more to the microstructure
of the cancellous bone compared to overall waves. In addition, overall waves had been
proven to consist of fast and slow wave and can be separated using Bayesian methods.
Overall waves also found to suffer artifact such as phase cancellation and negative
dispersion that could cause confusion in analyzing the parameters of ultrasound wave
with bone structure. In vivo application based on fast and slow wave analysis is able to
produce results based on mass density which can be compared directly and have high
correlation with X-ray based bone densitometry. The recent backscattered simulation
result indicates that, fast and slow waves can be reflected inside the cancellous bone
might offer a new method to evaluate bone especially in crucial skeletal parts.
Healthcare facilities in a hospital has diverse indoor cleanliness due to the different health
needs by the patients. Among the facilities, an operating room was identified as a critical space that
required high cleanliness environment. In recent years, an ISO 14644-1 Standard of Class 1 to Class 7
is prescribed in operating room for better particles concentration and airflow controlled. The objective
of this article is to review the assessment of airborne particles transportation and airflow distribution
in an operating room. This study shows that two main types of ventilation strategies have been widely
installed to control airborne particles trajectory, namely unidirectional airflow system and mixing
airflow system.
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) are efficient and clean power generation devices. Lowtemperature
SOFC (LTSOFC) has been developed since high-temperature SOFC (HTSOFC) is not
feasible to be commercialized due to cost. Lowering the operation temperature reduces its substantial
performance resulting from cathode polarization resistance and overpotential of cathode. The
development of composite cathodes regarding mixed ionic-electronic conductor (MIEC) and ceriabased
materials for LTSOFC minimizes the problems significantly and leads to an increase in
electrocatalytic activity for the occurrence of oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Lanthanum-based
materials such as lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite (La0.6Sr0.4Co0.2Fe0.8O3-δ) have been discovered
recently, which offer great compatibility with ceria-based electrolyte to be applied as composite
cathode materials for LTSOFC. Cell performance at lower operating temperature can be maintained
and further improved by enhancing the ORR. This paper reviews recent development of various ceriabased
composite cathodes especially related to the ceria-carbonate composite electrolytes for
LTSOFC. The influence of the addition of metallic elements such as silver (Ag), platinum (Pt) and
palladium (Pd) towards the electrochemical properties and performance of LSCF composite cathodes
are also discussed.
This paper presents the historical development of description on how the flapping
hydrodynamics of fishlike structure grows from infancy to the current state. The paper divides the
development into four phases; the Inception Phase, the Frozen Phase, the Revival Phase and the
Discovery Phase. The key quintessential characteristics that mark the advancement of different phase
would be highlighted and elucidated, with some consolidating comments on the future trends of
research areas.
The purpose of this paper is to propose appropriate sustainable design solution for a
suitable housing architectural design that responds towards ecological needs vital for
a comfortable home living environment. This paper is vital as there are many arising
issue relating to middle income housing development involving comfort quality that
need much attention from various parties. Past literature on middle income housing
development in Malaysia focuses on limited areas of study. These are quality of
communal living in settlements; neighbourhood facilities and its effectiveness; crime
prevention through housing design; dwelling support services; policy making on
housing ownership; corporate social responsibility on housing development from
developer’s and buyer’s perspective; efficient housing construction system; waste
management in residential areas; the increment of housing price and related factors
as well as documentation on factors that hinders the implementation of sustainable
technology in middle income housing schemes. None of the above literature discusses
on how to implement ecological approach in home design. This research analyses the
home users’ perception from direct observation and questionnaires on two selected
case studies of middle income housing located in two major cities in Malaysia’s urban
context to establish appropriate ecological home design attributes for future
referencing. Findings indicate there are four key factors that contributed in the
development of ecology housing for the benefit of occupants which are suitable
structure usage, placement of building; proper openings, application of building
fenestration and appropriate landscape. The established referential guideline design is
of benefit for future designers, builders, developer and related authority to build
comfortable homes in the future.
This paper provides a qualitative overview of different Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS),
which play important role in the field of sensors due to their excellent
characteristics, spontaneous response and easy handling system. The current
state of the art of optical fiber technology is reviewed, namely based on its main
characteristics and sensing advantages. In addition, the working principle of OFS
and their applications are discussed, particularly for sensor employment.
Porous concrete technology has been used since 1970s in various parts of the United States
as an option in complex drainage systems and water retention areas. Porous concrete pavements have
become popular as an effective stormwater management device to control stormwater runoff in
pavement. Porous concrete pavement is being used as one of the solutions to decrease the stormwater
runoff by capturing and allowing rainwater to drain into the land surface. The main problem of porous
concrete pavement is its strength. The objective of this paper is to review the use and performance of
nano silica in porous concrete pavement and previous laboratory study on porous concrete pavement.
From the literature review, it was found that the conventional porous concrete pavement does not have
good strength for pavement purpose. An addition of nano-material will improve the physical and
chemical properties of porous concrete pavement. To improve the strength of the porous concrete,
various additives have been studied as a part of porous concrete mix and yet, the optimum condition to
produce good porous concrete has still not been established. From the previous study, it was found that
in preparing the porous concrete laboratory specimen, the use of standard Proctor hammer (2.5 kg)
and pneumatic press (70 kPa compaction effort) resulted in the closest properties to the field porous
concrete.
Gas turbine cooling can be classified into two different schemes; internal and external
cooling. In the internal cooling method, the coolant provided by compressor is forced into the cooling
flow circuits inside turbine components. Meanwhile, for the external cooling method, the injected
coolant is directly perfused from coolant manifold to save downstream components from hot gases.
Furthermore, in the latter coolant scheme, coolant is used to quell the heat transfer from hot gas stream
to a component. There are several ways in external cooling. Film cooling is one of the best cooling
systems for the application on gas turbine blades. This study concentrates on the comparison of
experimental, computational and numerical investigations of advanced film cooling performance for
cylindrical holes at different angles and different blowing ratios in modern gas turbines.
Issue related to safety, health and environmental has become major priority to be
concerned of in the transportation of hazardous materials (HAZMAT) worldwide. Due
to the high risk that entailed in the operation of HAZMAT transportation, many
accidents in this industry have been reported which include chemicals spillage, fire
and explosion. In order to quantify the degree of hazards and risks of these accidents,
various assessment methods have been introduced either by the academia, the
industry as well as the authority. The methods present various approaches for the
assessment, ranging from a simple to highly complicated ones depending on the
purpose of the assessment and the available resources and constraints. To date there
is yet any study conducted to review those available methods. This paper intends to
present a comprehensive review of the existing methods for hazards and risks
assessment of HAZMAT transportation between years 1995-2015 which considers
road, marine, railway, air and pipeline system. Based on careful screening of the
abundance of methods available, 151 of them were selected – that is those
specifically meant for hazards and risks assessment of HAZMAT transportation only.
The methods are reviewed in terms of the types of assessment; either qualitative,
quantitative or hybrid techniques, as well as their specific application in different
mode of transportation. Also, statistical analysis was performed to determine the
trend of past publications regarding on the type of journal, year of publication and
also financial support received in the context of hazard and risk assessment of
HAZMAT transportation.
The primary objective of control rod management is to ensure the safe, reliable and
optimum use of the nuclear fuel in the reactor, while remain within the limits imposed
by the design of the fuel assembly and reactor w.r.t the safety analysis. In numerous
reactors, the control rods perform the function of reactivity control, both globally and
locally, latter also control the power distribution of the core. Most control rods are
completely withdrawn from the core during operations and fully inserted during
shutdown of the reactor. This are the prove of an investigative study into optimization
of the heterogeneous control rods, the safety management of an additional safety rod,
and control rod drop hydrodynamic analysis which will be able to provide an efficient
and maximum safety procedure for emergency shut down system in the reactor. It is
also will be very important safety features of the reactor. To design the additional
safety rod at the inner irradiation sites with boron carbide (absorber material) and
stainless steel (clad) and also to design a simple heterogeneous control rod design to
analyse the effects of geometry self-shielding, the Monte Carlo Neutron Particle Code,
version 5 (MCNP5) was used. By simulating the unsteady flow field around the control
rod, the hydrodynamic analysis of the control rod can be analysed. A correlation based
on the achieved data was proposed to provide useful information on the safety
management during the research.
Malaysia is experiencing an encouraging socio-economic development, especially in its
quest towards Vision 2020 and achieving the status as a developed country. The success can be
attributed to the government’s efforts and commitment in developing projects, which include the
construction of new townships and public infrastructures. Through the implementation of
Environmental Management Plan (EMP) during the construction phase, the government has taken
great efforts and initiatives to ensure that construction projects are well-developed in a sustainable
manner. Unfortunately, these rapid physical developments affect and pollute the surrounding
environment, even though EMP is implemented at the construction site. The effectiveness of
sustainable construction methods in the plan has been found to be very limited in the actual industrial
practice. Hence, this paper aims to determine the important criteria needed to be incorporated into
EMP in enhancing and ensuring its effectiveness in managing environmental aspects during the
construction stage.
Incineration of both industrial and municipal solid waste has been widely used due to
its ability to reduce the volume of waste by about 90% and detoxify the waste.
However, a great challenge associated with waste incineration is production of toxic
fly and bottom ashes. These ashes contain heavy metals which enters water bodies
through percolation and absorption, and their consequences on human and animals is
enormous. Various researches were conducted on the application of thermal plasma
arc technology to safely detoxify incinerator ashes. The final product from plasma
treatment is a melt or vitreous slag within which toxic heavy metals are cemented. This
paper reviewed the different studies conducted on the treatment of incinerator fly and
bottom ashes in thermal plasma arc reactor. The review looked at the characteristics
of the ashes, the thermal plasma reactor specifications, the operating conditions and
the product characteristics. It also focused on effectiveness of the treatment processes
in terms of volume reduction, detoxification, crystalline structure of the product and
their usability. It is generally observed that thermal plasma arc reactors detoxify both
fly and bottom incinerator ashes, reduce the volume of waste by about 90% and
convert the ash to a vitreous slag where heavy metals are immobilized. Low basicity in
parent ash favours conversion of ash into glassy vitreous slag
Business strategy plays a key role in determining the success of organizations. In view
of its important role, studies have attempted to investigate the approaches adopted
by organizations to develop as well as implement their business strategy. As far as the
approaches to business strategy are concerned, the review of past studies indicates
that organizations tend to adopt different approaches. At the same time, questions
have been raised as to whether these strategic approaches are relevant and applicable
to all organizations, especially with regard to their emphasis, focus and scope. Based
on the literature, this paper reviews the most common approaches to business
strategy and identifies the differences in their emphasis, focus and scope.
Dividend policy is one of the most important element to measure changes in stock
prices. The relationship between dividend policy and stock price volatility shows
different results based on different studies. This paper focuses on the relationship
between dividend policy and stock price volatility through seminal literature on both
theoretical and empirical evidences from 1989 to 2016. The various consequences of
this relationship depend upon each country specific characteristics, different data
sample and different methodology techniques which utilized by researchers in
developed and developing countries. Most of the studies found negative relationship
between dividend policy and stock price volatility, while developed countries have
more impact on this relationship as compared to developing countries. Based on the
prior literature, this paper argues that the relationship between dividend policy and
stock price volatility is inconsistent and the organization needs to decide the dividend
policy according to their capability and organizational culture.
Evidence on rising global temperature, melting of ice caps, and withdrawal of glaciers
brings attentions to the enhancement of energy efficiency in energy intensive industries. Having a
realistic comparison between one plant and the best practice technology (BPT) in operation in the field
helps significantly to distinguish and diagnose the potentials where measures towards energy efficiency
improvement would be applicable. In this regard, for manufacturing industries, one of the most widely
used energy benchmarking tools is the Energy Benchmark Curve. An energy benchmark curve plots the
efficiency of plants as a function of the total production volume from all similar plants or as a function
of the total number of plants that operate at that level of efficiency or worse. This paper reviews the
methodology through which the benchmark curve is obtained for a specific industry followed by a
comparison of energy intensity for the iron and steel industry among China and the US. According to
the international energy benchmark curve for the iron and steel industry, the savings potentials per ton
of crude steel for the US. and China have been respectively 4.1 and 7.1 gigajoule comparing with the
BPT in the field. Finally, an overview over certain measures to enhance efficiency of such plants is
presented.
The use of automated teller machine (ATM) services by bank customers in Sokoto State,
Nigeria depends on the level of trust they have towards its operating nature. The positive or negative
perception that bank customers’ develop towards trust tends to determine their level of ATM usage.
Therefore, this article adopted the following factors (attitude towards behaviour, intention behaviour,
actual usage, perceived ease of use and usefulness) from technology acceptance model (TAM) to assess
their influence on customers’ trust in the use of ATM services in Sokoto State, Nigeria. Correlation
analysis was conducted on 300 customers of some selected banks (Guaranty Trust Bank, Zenith Bank,
First Bank, Eco Bank and Mainstreet Bank) in Sokoto State, Nigeria. The result shows that attitude
towards behaviour, intention behaviour, actual usage, perceived ease of use and usefulness has a
significant and positive relationship with customers’ trust in the use of ATM services in Sokoto State,
Nigeria.
Among athletes, endurance is one of the key elements to victory. In addition to
training, athletes normally used supplement to prevent fatigue during the event. With
prolonged and intense activity, our body started to experience decrease in muscle
performance due to several factors such as oxidative stress, dehydration and
accumulation of lactic acid in the body fluids. The free radicals generated during
intense exercise will expose the cells to oxidative damages. In the event of
dehydration, there will be significant losses of water and functional electrolytes during
intense exercise which affected the body fluid balance. Fatigue will also occur during
reduced oxygen in aerobic metabolism which later caused accumulation of lactic acid
in the muscle. This will change the pH balance toward more acidic and caused the
muscles to lose contractile efficiency. In addition, fatigue can also be studied using rats
as model organism. Results from this activity can be useful to analyse cellular
metabolism and physiology effects of the tested rats toward physical exercise.
Therefore, this review aims to discuss the causes of fatigue through oxidative stress,
dehydration and lactic acid accumulation. In addition, the effectiveness of using rats as
a model system in measuring fatigue is also included in illustrating examples on fatigue
assessment in vivo.