This study was focused on investigating the optimum fluidising velocity during the combustion of rice husk in a bench-scale fluidised bed combustor (ID 210mm) to obtain low carbon ash in the amorphous form. When all other parameters are held constant, the optimum fluidizing velocity aids in almost complete combustion, thereby releasing the entrapped carbon for further conversion. This results in ash with consistently low carbon content (less than 2wt%). The range of fluidising velocities investigated was from as low as 1.5U(mf) to as high as 8U(mf). It was found that the optimum fluidising velocity was approximately 3.3U(mf) as the mixing of rice husk with the bed was good with a high degree of penetration into the sand bed. The resulting ash retained its amorphous form with low residual carbon content (at 2.88wt%) and minimal sand contamination as shown by the X-ray diffraction analysis.
A new photonics biosensor configuration comprising a Double-side Ring Add-drop Filter microring resonator (DR-ADF) made from SiO2-TiO2 material is proposed for the detection of Salmonella bacteria (SB) in blood. The scattering matrix method using inductive calculation is used to determine the output signal's intensities in the blood with and without presence of Salmonella. The change in refractive index due to the reaction of Salmonella bacteria with its applied antibody on the flagellin layer loaded on the sensing and detecting microresonator causes the increase in through and dropper port's intensities of the output signal which leads to the detection of SB in blood. A shift in the output signal wavelength is observed with resolution of 0.01 nm. The change in intensity and shift in wavelength is analyzed with respect to the change in the refractive index which contributes toward achieving an ultra-high sensitivity of 95,500 nm/RIU which is almost two orders higher than that of reported from single ring sensors and the limit of detection is in the order of 1 × 10(-8) RIU. In applications, such a system can be employed for a high sensitive and fast detection of bacteria.
This paper discusses the process technology to fabricate multilayer-Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based microfluidic device for bio-particles concentration detection in Lab-on-chip system. The micro chamber and the fluidic channel were fabricated using standard photolithography and soft lithography process. Conventional method by pouring PDMS on a silicon wafer and peeling after curing in soft lithography produces unspecific layer thickness. In this work, a multilayer-PDMS method is proposed to produce a layer with specific and fixed thickness micron size after bonding that act as an optimum light path length for optimum light detection. This multilayer with precise thickness is required since the microfluidic is integrated with optical transducer. Another significant advantage of this method is to provide excellent bonding between multilayer-PDMS layer and biocompatible microfluidic channel. The detail fabrication process were illustrated through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and discussed in this work. The optical signal responses obtained from the multilayer-PDMS microfluidic channel with integrated optical transducer were compared with those obtained with the microfluidic channel from a conventional method. As a result, both optical signal responses did not show significant differences in terms of dispersion of light propagation for both media.
A radio frequency (RF) resonator using glass-reinforced epoxy material for C and X band is proposed in this paper. Microstrip line technology for RF over glass-reinforced epoxy material is analyzed. Coupling mechanism over RF material and parasitic coupling performance is explained utilizing even and odd mode impedance with relevant equivalent circuit. Babinet's principle is deployed to explicate the circular slot ground plane of the proposed resonator. The resonator is designed over four materials from different backgrounds which are glass-reinforced epoxy, polyester, gallium arsenide (GaAs), and rogers RO 4350B. Parametric studies and optimization algorithm are applied over the geometry of the microstrip resonator to achieve dual band response for C and X band. Resonator behaviors for different materials are concluded and compared for the same structure. The final design is fabricated over glass-reinforced epoxy material. The fabricated resonator shows a maximum directivity of 5.65 dBi and 6.62 dBi at 5.84 GHz and 8.16 GHz, respectively. The lowest resonance response is less than -20 dB for C band and -34 dB for X band. The resonator is prototyped using LPKF (S63) drilling machine to study the material behavior.
Nucleic acid testing (NAT), as a molecular diagnostic technique, including nucleic acid extraction, amplification and detection, plays a fundamental role in medical diagnosis for timely medical treatment. However, current NAT technologies require relatively high-end instrumentation, skilled personnel, and are time-consuming. These drawbacks mean conventional NAT becomes impractical in many resource-limited disease-endemic settings, leading to an urgent need to develop a fast and portable NAT diagnostic tool. Paper-based devices are typically robust, cost-effective and user-friendly, holding a great potential for NAT at the point of care. In view of the escalating demand for the low cost diagnostic devices, we highlight the beneficial use of paper as a platform for NAT, the current state of its development, and the existing challenges preventing its widespread use. We suggest a strategy involving integrating all three steps of NAT into one single paper-based sample-to-answer diagnostic device for rapid medical diagnostics in the near future.
The interface pressure between the residual limb and prosthetic socket has a significant effect on an amputee's satisfaction and comfort. Liners provide a comfortable interface by adding a soft cushion between the residual limb and the socket. The Dermo and the Seal-In X5 liner are two new interface systems and, due to their relative infancy, very little are known about their effect on patient satisfaction. The aim of this study was to compare the interface pressure with these two liners and their effect on patient satisfaction.
The objectives of this study were to compare the effects of a newly designed magnetic suspension system with that of two existing suspension methods on pistoning inside the prosthetic socket and to compare satisfaction and perceived problems among transtibial amputees.
This paper describes a preliminary study of the thermoluminescence (TL) response of doped SiO(2) optical fibres subjected to (241)AmBe neutron irradiation. The TL materials, which comprise Al- and Ge-doped silica fibres, were exposed in close contact with the (241)AmBe source to obtain fast neutron interactions through use of measurements obtained with and without a Cd filter (the filter being made to entirely enclose the fibres). The neutron irradiations were performed for exposure times of 1-, 2-, 3-, 5- and 7-days in a neutron tank filled with water. In this study, use was also made of the Monte Carlo N-particle (MCNP) code version 5 (V5) to simulate the neutron irradiations experiment. It was found that the commercially available Ge-doped and Al-doped optical fibres show a linear dose response subjected to fast neutrons from (241)AmBe source up to seven days of irradiations. The simulation performed using MCNP5 also exhibits a similar pattern, albeit differing in sensitivity. The TL response of Ge-doped fibre is markedly greater than that of the Al-doped fibre, the total absorption cross section for Ge in both the fast and thermal neutrons region being some ten times greater than that of Al.
This study uses computer simulations to study the impact of a motorcycle with the conventional w-beam guardrail. A three-dimensional computer simulation of a scaled hybrid III 50th-percentile male dummy mounted on a motorcycle and colliding with a w-beam guardrail is carried out. A multi-body model of the motorcycle and finite element model of the guardrail are developed using commercially available software. The simulation model is validated with a physical crash test conducted with same initial impact configurations. Impacts at speeds of 32, 48, and 60 km/h at an impact angle at 45 degrees are considered. The predicted forces and accelerations are compared with the biomechanical limits for each body part and the risk of injury to the rider are evaluated. Speed was found to have a significant influence on the level of injury to the head, neck, chest, and femur. A significant reduction of the severity of injuries was found when the impact speed was reduced from 60 to 32km/h. The accelerations experienced by the head and chest are found to be higher than safe levels for impact speeds of 48 and 60 km/h. The biomechanical limit for the right femur is exceeded at all three considered impact speeds. Neck injuries are also a concern, with the predicted tension values and neck bending extent being higher than the biomechanical limit for the 60 km/h impact speed. In light of these results, it is suggested that the design of guardrails should be reviewed with a focus on the safety of motorcyclists.
The geometric locations of ion traversals in mammalian cells constitute important information in the study of heavy ion-induced biological effect. Single ion traversal through a cellular nucleus produces complex and massive DNA damage at a nanometer level, leading to cell inactivation, mutations and transformation. We present a novel approach that uses a fluorescent nuclear track detector (FNTD) for the simultaneous detection of the geometrical images of ion traversals and DNA damage in single cells using confocal microscopy. HT1080 or HT1080-53BP1-GFP cells were cultured on the surface of a FNTD and exposed to 5.1-MeV/n neon ions. The positions of the ion traversals were obtained as fluorescent images of a FNTD. Localized DNA damage in cells was identified as fluorescent spots of γ-H2AX or 53BP1-GFP. These track images and images of damaged DNA were obtained in a short time using a confocal laser scanning microscope. The geometrical distribution of DNA damage indicated by fluorescent γ-H2AX spots in fixed cells or fluorescent 53BP1-GFP spots in living cells was found to correlate well with the distribution of the ion traversals. This method will be useful for evaluating the number of ion hits on individual cells, not only for micro-beam but also for random-beam experiments.
The unique property of gold nanoparticles (Au NP) to induce colour change and the versatility of graphene oxides (GO) in surface modification makes them ideal in the application of colorimetric biosensor. Thus we developed a label free optical method to detect DNA hybridization through a visually observed colour change. The Au NP is conjugated to a DNA probe and is allowed to hybridize with the DNA target to the GO thus causing a change in colour from pinkish-red to purplish blue. Spectrophometry analysis gave a wavelength shift of 22 nm with 1 µM of DNA target. Sensitivity testing using serially diluted DNA conjugated GO showed that the optimum detection was at 63 nM of DNA target with the limit at 8 nM. This proves the possibility for the detection of DNA hybridization through the use of dual nanoparticle system by visual observation.
The method of lines (MoL) has been developed to study coupling efficiency on hemispherical lens. In this paper, the physical shape of the lens is approximated by cascading a number of straight waveguide segments. The perfectly matched layer (PML) is applied as an absorber for the MoL to reduce numerical reflection in the simulation region. Analysis is done by calculating coupling efficiency at the plane of integration where the coupling efficiency is an overlap integral between laser diode field and fiber field. The result of coupling efficiency in this analysis is compared to the experiment and ABCD matrix. It is found that MoL gives good result accuracy.
As the main exporter in the oil palm industry, the need to improve the quality of palm oil has become the main interest among all the palm oil millers in Malaysia. To produce good quality palm oil, it is important for the miller to harvest a good oil palm Fresh Fruit Bunch (FFB). Conventionally, the main reference used by Malaysian harvesters is the manual grading standard published by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB). A good oil palm FFB consists of all matured fruitlets, aged between 18 to 21 weeks of antheses (WAA). To expedite the harvesting process, it is crucial to implement an automated detection system for determining the maturity of the oil palm FFB. Various automated detection methods have been proposed by researchers in the field to replace the conventional method. In our preliminary study, a novel oil palm fruit sensor to detect the maturity of oil palm fruit bunch was proposed. The design of the proposed air coil sensor based on the inductive sensor was further investigated mainly in the context of the effect of coil diameter to improve its sensitivity. In this paper, the sensitivity of the inductive sensor was further examined with a dual flat-type shape of air coil. The dual air coils were tested on fifteen samples of fruitlet from two categories, namely ripe and unripe. Samples were tested within 20 Hz to 10 MHz while evaluations on both peaks were done separately before the gap between peaks was analyzed. A comparative analysis was conducted to investigate the improvement in sensitivity of the induction-based oil palm fruit sensor as compared to previous works. Results from the comparative study proved that the inductive sensor using a dual flat-type shape air coil has improved by up to 167%. This provides an indication in the improvement in the coil sensitivity of the palm oil fruit sensor based on the induction concept.
Luminescence-based assays for toxicants such as Microtox, ToxAlert, and Biotox have been used extensively worldwide. However, the use of these assays in near real time conditions is limited due to nonoptimal assay temperature for the tropical climate. An isolate that exhibits a high luminescence activity in a broad range of temperatures was successfully isolated from the mackerel, Rastrelliger kanagurta. This isolate was tentatively identified as Photobacterium sp. strain MIE, based on partial 16S rDNA molecular phylogeny. Optimum conditions that support high bioluminescence activity occurred between 24 and 30°C, with pH 5.5 to 7.5, 10 to 20 g/L of sodium chloride, 30 to 50 g/L of tryptone, and 4 g/L of glycerol as the carbon source. Assessment of near real time capability of this bacterial system, Xenoassay light to monitor heavy metals from a contaminated river running through the Juru River Basin shows near real time capability with assaying time of less than 30 minutes per samples. Samples returned to the lab were tested with a standard Microtox assay using Vibrio fishceri. Similar results were obtained to Xenoassay light that show temporal variation of copper concentration. Thus, this strain is suitable for near real time river monitoring of toxicants especially in the tropics.
The performance of a compost biofilter inoculated with mixed microbial consortium was optimized for treating a gas-phase mixture of benzene and toluene. The biofilter was acclimated to these VOCs for a period of ∼18d. The effects of concentration and flow rate on the removal efficiency (RE) and elimination capacity (EC) were investigated by varying the inlet concentration of benzene (0.12-0.95g/m(3)), toluene (0.14-1.48g/m(3)) and gas-flow rate (0.024-0.072m(3)/h). At comparable loading rates, benzene removal in the mixture was reduced in the range of 6.6-41% in comparison with the individual benzene degradation. Toluene removal in mixture was even more affected as observed from the reductions in REs, ranging from 18.4% to 76%. The results were statistically interpreted by performing an analysis of variance (ANOVA) to elucidate the main and interaction effects.
The potential of organic semiconductor based devices for light generation is demonstrated by the commercialisation of display technologies using organic light emitting diode (OLED). In OLED, organic materials plays an important role of emitting light once the current is passed through. However OLED have drawbacks whereby it suffers from photon loss and exciton quenching. Organic light emitting transistor (OLET) emerged as a new technology to compensate the efficiency and brightness loss encountered in OLED. The structure has combinational capability to switch the electronic signal such as the field effect transistor (FET) as well as to generate light. Different colours of light could be generated by using different types of organic material. The light emission could also be tuned and scanned in OLET. The studies carried out in this paper focuses on investigation of fabricated MEH-PPV based OLED and also OLET via current voltage characteristics. These studies will continue with a view to develop an optimised MEH-PPV based OLET.
Lately, wearable applications featuring photonic on-chip sensors are on the rise. Among many ways of controlling and/or modulating, the acousto-optic technique is seen to be a popular technique. This paper undertakes the study of different multilayer structures that can be fabricated for realizing an acousto-optic device, the objective being to obtain a high acousto-optic figure of merit (AOFM). By varying the thicknesses of the layers of these materials, several properties are discussed. The study shows that the multilayer thin film structure-based devices can give a high value of electromechanical coupling coefficient (k2) and a high AOFM as compared to the bulk piezoelectric/optical materials. The study is conducted to find the optimal normalised thickness of the multilayer structures with a material possessing the best optical and piezoelectric properties for fabricating acousto-optic devices. Based on simulations and studies of SAW propagation characteristics such as the electromechanical coupling coefficient (k2) and phase velocity (v), the acousto-optic figure of merit is calculated. The maximum value of the acousto-optic figure of merit achieved is higher than the AOFM of all the individual materials used in these layer structures. The suggested SAW device has potential application in wearable and small footprint acousto-optic devices and gives better results than those made with bulk piezoelectric materials.
The paper discuss the design of 1-bit full adder circuit using Shannon theorem. This proposed full adder circuit is used as one of the circuit component for implementation of Non- Restoring and Restoring divider circuits. The proposed adder and divider schematics are designed by using DSCH2 CAD tool and their layouts are generated by Microwind 3 VLSI CAD tool. The divider circuits are designed by using standard CMOS 0.35 microm feature size and corresponding power supply 3.5 V. The parameters analyses are carried out by BSIM 4 analysis. We have compared the simulated results of the Shannon based divider circuit with CPL and CMOS adder cell based divider circuits. We have further compared the results with published results and observed that the proposed adder cell based divider circuit dissipates lower power, gives faster response, lower latency, low EPI and high throughput.
This study is the first to demonstrate dimensional optimization of nanowire-complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor inverter. Noise margins and inflection voltage of transfer characteristics are used as limiting factors in this optimization. Results indicate that optimization depends on both dimensions ratio and digital voltage level (Vdd). Diameter optimization reveals that when Vdd increases, the optimized value of (Dp/Dn) decreases. Channel length optimization results show that when Vdd increases, the optimized value of Ln decreases and that of (Lp/Ln) increases. Dimension ratio optimization reveals that when Vdd increases, the optimized value of Kp/Kn decreases, and silicon nanowire transistor with suitable dimensions (higher Dp and Ln with lower Lp and Dn) can be fabricated.
Herbal-based products are becoming a widespread production trend among manufacturers for the domestic and international markets. As the production increases to meet the market demand, it is very crucial for the manufacturer to ensure that their products have met specific criteria and fulfil the intended quality determined by the quality controller. One famous herbal-based product is herbal tea. This paper investigates bio-inspired flavour assessments in a data fusion framework involving an e-nose and e-tongue. The objectives are to attain good classification of different types and brands of herbal tea, classification of different flavour masking effects and finally classification of different concentrations of herbal tea. Two data fusion levels were employed in this research, low level data fusion and intermediate level data fusion. Four classification approaches; LDA, SVM, KNN and PNN were examined in search of the best classifier to achieve the research objectives. In order to evaluate the classifiers' performance, an error estimator based on k-fold cross validation and leave-one-out were applied. Classification based on GC-MS TIC data was also included as a comparison to the classification performance using fusion approaches. Generally, KNN outperformed the other classification techniques for the three flavour assessments in the low level data fusion and intermediate level data fusion. However, the classification results based on GC-MS TIC data are varied.