A method based on Computational Fluids Dynamics (CFD) was used to analyse the flow
behaviour in the Biodiesel reactor with 6-blade at 45° pitch blade turbines. The study, which was based
on the turbulent flow, had been associated with three sizes of the blades installed in the reactor by using
the standard k-ε turbulence model. The study also included the pitch blade turbines that were installed
at three clearances from the bottom in the reactor by using the standard k-ε turbulence model. The
results showed that the flow behaviours differed for the three various locations, which were installed at
C=T/4, C=T/2, and C=3T/4 for D=T/3. The results also showed that the flow behaviour had been
different for the three impeller diameters installed at C=T/4. Besides, good quantitative agreement for
velocity distribution was obtained. Good velocity distribution in the reactor was produced by D=T/3.
Moreover, a comparison between the three impeller diameters in terms of velocity distribution
suggested that the discharge flow from the smaller impeller had stronger axial flow during the mixing
process.
Despite of the advancement of technology in the present internet age, many college students
lack the information and communication technology (ICT) literacy skills like evaluating those necessary
to navigate, as well as using the information available today. Evaluating the quality of information
sources encompasses students’ ability to determine relevance, accuracy, and overall credibility of
sources and information. Moreover, the quality of information found online is extremely variable
because anyone can post data on the internet, and not all online sources are equally reliable, valuable,
or accurate. From a study conducted on diploma students’ assignments using rubric at an international
university in Kuala Lumpur, it was found that there was a problem in digital information evaluation
skills and lack of ability in using evaluation criteria, including authority, accuracy, currency,
objectivity, and coverage on digital information, as well as sources among diploma students. The future
work of this study will be the use of mobile devices in collaborative and interactive learning to improve
digital information evaluation skills among diploma students. This approach does not only improve the
students’ learning attitude, but also enhances the effectiveness of learning.
This paper describes the process of designing a wheelchair with the main aim of making it
compact and lightweight. A wheelchair is a common device used to assist in terms of mobility for those
with difficulty to walk. Most conventional manual wheelchairs are heavy and bulky, even after they are
folded. The designed wheelchair in this research is able to reduce the weight approximately by 30%.
The wheelchair volume after folding is also reduced significantly. Besides, the designed wheelchair was
evaluated by using 3D CAD software to analyse the strength and possible material failure. Moreover,
a virtual mannequin was used to evaluate the geometry and the comfort of the design. On top of that, a
scale down prototype was produced by using a 3D printer to evaluate the fold-ability function of the
wheelchair.
This paper presents the work of investigating and comparing the uses of CRS and QTC Pills
as a tactile sensor material for Robotic Hand application. The materials were tested for their resistivity
characteristics to determine the data reproducibility of the materials. The experiments were conducted
based on three parameters; the supply voltage, the separation gap, and the sensor construction against
the force/ load that had been exerted onto the materials. The results showed that CRS could cover the
lower loading range when compared to QTC Pills. However, the data reproducibility of QTC Pills was
better compared to those of CRS, thus making it more suitable to be used as a material for tactile
sensing application. Therefore, this paper highlights the potential of these two materials as a tactile
sensing transducer, and later, can be used as a useful guideline when designing a tactile sensor with
these materials.
A Shipyard in Malaysia has been trying to change, but facing employee Resistance to
Change (RTC). Resistance is attributed to the poor coupling of tasks to its technical
core, creating bad habits leading to thoughtlessness and neglect. Lewin’s Field Theory
and Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance was used to understand and identify
the underlying behaviour of the employees. Lean principles were used as an in-depth
intervention to understand how context provoked or shaped reactions. A Dual
Imperative Action Research (AR) with the author as a participant researcher was
conducted not only to create knowledge but also, change. To position the Shipyard in
its historical context, face-to-face interview was conducted with managers to get thick
description of the RTC and archaic documentations was reviewed. A survey using
tested questionnaire was conducted to gauge the employees RTC disposition.
Resistance is due to incoherency of a person’s belief to establish standards, giving rise
to cognitive dissonance. These dissonances hidden as non-conscious behaviour, social
habits or norms, lead the organisation to deterioration. Lean intervention reduce
dissonance, creating psychological flow in the workforce and momentum for change.
Thereby, the Shipyard managed to recover the delay of a ship undergoing a ship-life
extension program and avoided liquidated damages amounting to RM63 million. The
Shipyard also managed to reduce its average delay for ship repair from 17 to 6 months.
The knowledge on how the researcher can gain utility from RTC and mediate through
the application of Lean principles would be of considerable benefit to ‘change
managers’.
The main intention of this research is to examine the content validity of Marine
Engineer Personality Inventory or PERJURA for student candidates of Diploma in
Marine Engineering course at Malaysian Polytechnics by using Content Validity Ratio
(CVR). The assessment was conducted through the evaluation among 14 subject
matter experts (SME) selected via judgment sampling. Seven professional university
experts involved with the expertise in psychology, psychometric, educational
measurement and linguistics. The field experts specializing in particular fields of study
consisted of seven practitioners who worked in the polytechnics field and maritime
industry. The instrument involved 288 items with six main constructs. The results of
the research show that the instrument has a good content validity and proved that
PERJURA has great potential to be promoted as a good measurement instrument of
personality screening for Marine Engineering student selection process. It is
recommended to apply more sophisticated statistical analysis, such as the Item
Response Theory (IRT) model for elaborating on quality items.
The purpose of this study is to explore the issues and challenges in integrating
technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) for computer programming
courses. This study employed the triangulation method of the case studies and
Grounded Theory (GT). Twenty-five computer programming educators were
interviewed via online such as e-mail, media social’s chatting and messaging
application like WhatsApp and Telegram. The main issue discovered in this study is the
misconception in using technology for teaching and learning computer programming.
Besides that, there were two major challenges found in this study. The challenges are
the instructors were not able to explore the rapid development of technology and this
may cause the lack of technological pedagogical knowledge among them. They also
showed the lack of knowledge about pedagogy and assessment for teaching and
learning computer programming that relevant to the programming content. The
research that has been done showed that TPACK model is very suitable to guide
exploration about how educators make use of technology appropriate to the pedagogy
and content. However, the exploration that has been done has limitation on how
educators integrate student’s assessment on affective and instructional design
implementation with TPACK. Therefore, this paper suggesting for the future study, in
order that more exploration should be doing about how assessment on student’s
affective and instructional design would be integrate with technology, pedagogy and
content knowledge via TPACK model.
This paper examines the concept of reform in terms of religious, political and social
aspects in PB Shelley’s literary works. Selections from Shelley’s poetry, prose, essay
and drama are reconsidered to show the concept of reform in his works. This paper
seeks to unravel Shelley’s skeptic revolutionary thoughts that were always
misunderstood by the critics of his time. Shelley as a poet perpetuated his life as a
reformer, yet his concept of reform was neglected and often downplayed because of
his idealistic view of the world. However, the significance of Shelley's concept of reform
merits, more reverence, or, at least, more critical consideration than any of the Great
Romantics.
This paper studied the heat transfer in an asphalt solar collector with small scale geometry.
Solar energy reaches the earth and consequently increases the temperature of the ground, which then
leads to the increase of the temperature of the air. Water circulates through a series of pipes embedded
in the asphalt pavement for the extraction of solar energy. The radiation in this study was produced
from the top asphalt pavement. In this study, the temperature of the asphalt pavement decreased when
solar energy was collected from the circulating water. This reduces the heat island effect in the city and
decreases the power consumption for air conditioning. The temperature is distributed between the
asphalt pavement and the inner pipes. Increase of the flow rate has a great influence on the energy
collection by reducing the temperature of the asphalt pavement. The result of this test was obtained
using a small-scale asphalt pavement, which showed a high amount of heat collected.
This study was performed to review the conceptualization and relationships among user
behaviour, system quality and intention to use eBidding, an eGovernment auction system with user
satisfaction as the moderator. From the theoretical framework, user behaviour and system quality
factors have significant relationships with the adoption of information system (IS). Empirical evidence
also shows that satisfaction has a significant moderating effect on the relationship between system
quality factors with the adoption of IS. Given the significant impact of behavioural factors of officials
in eBidding adoption and role satisfaction on the intention and use of eGovernment system, system
managers could introduce key changes in the workplace to increase satisfaction to address the problems
of low eBidding adoption among users.
Mobile learning (M-learning) is considered as a development process of Electronic learning
(E-Learning) that used to meet some of issues in E-learning such as wireless environment and
accessibility. In spite of having many benefits and advantages for using M-learning, many challenges
and issues still facing mobile learning technology to become a part of most of the Higher Education
Institutions (HEIs) strategies. This paper aims to examine the barriers to M-learning adoption by HEIs
in Malaysia. To do so, a quantitative research methodology was used in data collection. Online
questionnaire was distributed by e-mail to 150 respondents in three universities. The result analysis
brought out that mobile storage size, limitation of mobile memory and mobile battery life are the main
barriers of using mobile in learning process.
With the rapid evolution of smart devices, ease of availability and accessibility of Internet
application services, the demand of user's level of satisfaction are constantly growing. This creates
challenges when mobile users in large quantity gather at confine places creating a scenario of highdensity
wireless network environment (HDWN). Guaranteeing high quality of services (QoS) without
proper understanding of user’s expectations and their Quality of Experience (QoE) may lead to over
provisioning of resources. This poses different challenges to network service providers. Moreover,
limited studies have been found relating to QoE in dense network. The objective of this paper is to
develop mapping mechanism that maps QoS parameters onto QoE metrics in HDWN. This paper
proposes fuzzy-genetic algorithm to map QoS-QoE based on the critical comparative analysis of
different mechanisms. Preliminary analysis had been done based on mathematical model to establish
the correlation between QoS parameters (delay and jitter) and QoE metrics (satisfaction) to determine
the maximum and minimum impairment threshold. Further, the correlation between QoS-QoE had been
evaluated with varying traffic load to determine the traffic load impact on QoE. Also the load threshold
was found, that would help the network providers to take proper measure to maintain user’s satisfaction
as the maximum threshold limit is reached.
Mobile health (m-health) has become one of most concerned and developing areas in
healthcare industry. There are large numbers of m-health application available in the market. Yet,
neither theorist nor practitioners has discover or develop a framework in evaluating the impact of nonclinical
m-health application. In healthcare industry, it is very important for an m-health application
to be tested first before release to market, as this could lead to negative impact towards user especially
patients. Money could be wasted and the m-health apps might not derived correct output. To avoid a
failure in using non-clinical m-health application, the impact of using it need to be evaluated.
Nonetheless, to come out with a proposed framework for m-health apps evaluation, the theories and
results of the existing frameworks should be referred to. Thus, this research aimed to discuss on the
previous frameworks that are possible to be used as reference in proposing the intended framework.
The new developed framework is expected to be significant and valuable for all m-health developers
and doctors in the design and use of non-clinical m-health application.
The past decade has seen a growing recognition internationally that children have a right
to participate in matters that affect their lives. In a family legal proceeding, it is in practice left to the
discretion of a judge to decide whether the child is heard. Interviews have become the most common
approach by family court judges in Malaysia to resolve problematic custody disputes. However, many
family law practitioners believe that this can be detrimental to the children as the judges are not experts
in child psychology and counselling. Hence, this article intends to critique the effectiveness of Sulh
(mediation) procedure in resolving custody dispute (hadhanah) in the Syariah Court. Despite the
importance of consulting the affected children, their views are rarely sought nor acknowledged within
the judicial setting. Legal fraternity and parents play a significant influence on whether children’s are
heard in court and Sulh chamber. There is a need for further research to explore legal professionals’ and parents’ perspectives on children’s active involvement in decision-making. This information could
be used to develop guidelines that will assist professionals and parent in facilitating and supporting
children’s participation.
Al-20%Mg2Si composite was in situ synthesized and modified by the addition of Ba and Bi;
the microstructure of the resulting composites will be investigated. It is expected that the comodification
with Ba and Bi effectively refined the morphology of Mg2Si which is attributed to the
formation of fine Ba2Bi particles that acted as the heterogeneous nucleation sites for the primary Mg2Si
particles, resulting in a refined distribution of these precipitates. Therefore, the addition of Ba and Bi
can provide a better effect than only the addition of Bi or Ba separately.
In this paper, Reynolds average Navier stokes models simulation was computed
with standard k-є, realizable k-є and SST k-w.The three models were proposed to forecast the
turbulence flow behaviour inside a rectangular channel with two baffle plates. The geometry
and the grid were generated using commercial CFD software fluent. The flow behaviours of
three models were characterized based on positions of the entrance to the first baffle,
positions between first and second baffle and lastly the second baffle. At the three different
positions the three models studied have demonstrate differences in the velocity profiles and
separation range. Comparison with previous literatures shows applicability of these three
models to produce velocity profile characteristics and separation behaviours. Even though
some of the models have shown slight deviation from the experimental results but in general
the three models were considered to be in close agreement with most published literatures.
A questionnaire Usability Self Learning Module is developed to measure the overall
development of the learning module Adobe Photoshop constructs involving three modules, module’s
usability, applying theory of the cognitive load and minimalist. The study was conducted to produce
empirical data on the reliability and validity of the Usability of Adobe Photoshop’s Module
questionnaire using the Rasch Measurement Model. A survey was conducted on 120 participants who
attended the course Adobe Photoshop using the modules studied. The questionnaire is distributed
using one of the Web 2.0 technology platform, Google Docs. The reliability and validity of the
Usability Adobe Photoshop’s module questionnaire were tested with the Rasch Measurement Model
using the Winstep version 3.69.1.11 program.The Rasch analysis showed that person reliability index
is 0.87 and item reliability of 0.94. In term of item polarity, each item was able to contribute to
measuring the effectiveness of the learning module development measurement since the PTMEA
CORR exceeded 0.30, in specific between 0.50 to 0.78. There are 27 items in the questionnaire, which
is divided into 3 different constructs. Each construct contains 7 to 11 items. The unidimensionality test
conducted showed standardized residuals variance of 49.8%, with the biggest secondary dimension
in the first constrast amounting variance of 6.5%. Item fit analysis showed that none of the items
needed to be dropped since infit mean square values are between 0.73 and 1.39, and the outfit mean
square values are between 0.70 and 1.40. Items in the questionnaires are ordered in a continuum of
increasing intensity for the measurement of the Usability of Module construct. This shows the validity
of the constructs in Usability of the module.The Rasch Measurement Model shows that the Usability
of the Module has a high reliability and validity to be used for measuring the usability of the module
and the application of cognitive load theory and the theory of minimalism
This paper presents a numerical simulation of flow in a microchannel heat sink. The channel
was defined as a dimension with less than 1.0milimeter and greater than 100.0micrometer. The ANSYS
CFX 2015 was used to predict the flow in the microchannel. Besides, simulations were undertaken to
determine the flow of the fluid within the microchannel in three different models. Therefore, three
different models were employed for this study. The first model was a square-shaped channel with 0.5mm
width and 0.5mm height constructed along 28.0mm channel length. The second and the third models
were in rectangular shape. The differences between these models were their width and height of
channel. The dimension for the second model was 0.75mm height and 0.5mm width (rectangular A),
while the dimension for the third model was 0.5mm height and 0.75mm width (rectangular B). All the
microchannel heat sink models had been simulated and showed results for pressure, temperature, and
velocity inside the microchannel. The results were compared for each model and the data had been
validated from published data. In addition, the initial velocity was set in a range between 0.1m/s and
0.5m/s. The highest pressure drop was recorded for the square microchannel. It was 58.12% higher
than the pressure drop found in the rectangular microchannel with 0.75mm width, while 0.02% closer
with the 0.75mm-height rectangular microchannel. Furthermore, there was a 33.34% of temperature
difference, which had been higher for the square microchannel. Nevertheless, the highest velocity of
0.57m/s was recorded at the outlet of the microchannel. These had been consistent with other published
data.
Blends of poly (vinyl chloride) and poly (ethylene oxide) with the addition of carbon black
as filler was prepared via solution casting technique to fabricate a conductive polymer film. Besides,
poly (ethylene glycol diglycidyl ether) (PEGDE) was added into the formulation in order to improve its
properties. The surface morphology of the conductive polymer film was characterized via scanning
electron microscope (SEM). The results showed that the conductivity of the film was greatly enhanced
by incorporating the PEGDE as the surface modifier in the PVC/PEO conductive polymer film.
Cryptographic algorithm has become one of the most important aspects in hardware
implementation of embedded security system design. Message Digest (MD) is one of the cryptographic
algorithms that can be used in any security design application. Nowadays, designing the high speed,
low power, and small area implementation of cryptographic algorithms on reconfigurable hardware is
one of the critical subjects for hardware application. The purpose of this paper had been to analyse the
structure of MD5 hash function for high performance implementation in order to obtain small area
implementation, as well as to increase the speed of the design on FPGA. In this paper, the frequency
maximum for MD5 design with both grey and binary signal encoding is discussed. The results retrieved
from the analysis showed that the differing results were caused by the switching bit of the signal input.
Besides, the frequency maximum of MD5 that employed binary signal encoding provided the highest
frequency maximum with smaller area implementation. By using grey signal encoding, the frequency
maximum was almost similar to the MD5 binary signal encoding, but it suffered larger area
implementation. On top of that, this research focused on timing and area implementation of the design,
where TimeQuest timing analyser was applied to optimize the output of the desig