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.
Optimum design of HEN can cause significant reduction in the total cost of the plant.
Targeting method using pinch analysis diagrams was presented to find out investment cost required
and the period of return of the investment of optimization of the refinery system. This method can be
done by knowing the amount of ΔTmin and by pointing the composite curve of saving vs investment (S-I
curve).The targeting method is the modification of the system that need to be done to avoid movement
of heat exchangers in order to minimize the return of the investment. This method can assist refineries
management to make decision in order to optimize the refinery system.Result shows that refinery can
reduce the temperature on the main tower until 9.65MW and the investment will be $360,000 with the
time of the return cost being 7.7 months
Autism is a neurological disorder that affects the growth of mind, causing problematic measure in communicating, interacting, and social behaviour. Outstanding educational practices and rapid intermediation leads to vast improvement, as there is no remedy for autism. The main impairment of children with autism is their difficulty in social interaction. The main research is to recognize the effective learning approach in educating social interaction skills to children with autism using mobile technology. This paper presents the result of a engagement session of video modules to support social interaction training for children with autism. The modules are designed to be a part of a mobile application that will be developed based on the three basic interaction skills; Introducing Yourself, Emotions and Gestures. Engagement session was conducted where students with medium functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), aged 7-18 years watched the modules for social competence training during a single session. Outcome measures included an observation study of the student’s reactions towards the modules by two observers. The observers graded each student’s reactions using a ‘Social Skill Rubric’ that has five specific criteria to be scored. Results showed excellent acceptance of modules as well as strong preferences amongst them. The students revealed a range of different reactions towards the modules. However, mainly the modules do appeared to be effective in educating social interaction to children with autism as they are able to focus and enjoy in the learning process.
This Company is one of the largest multipurpose port in Malaysia which provides facilities
and services to handle variety of cargoes ranging from containers, cars, break bulk cargoes, dry bulk
cargoes and liquid bulk cargoes. The company divided into three main core business divisions which
are Container Division, Conventional and Logistics Services and Marine Divisions. Based on Pareto
analysis, Conventional & Logistics Services has the highest number of accidents with 75% of total
number of accidents in year 2014. In this company, the trend analysis of accident keep increasing
month by month. In this study using DMAIC approach, the objectives of this study is to improve safety
performance by decreasing the number of accident focused on Conventional & Logistics Division by
using six sigma approach. Six sigma is a quality tools for process improvement. It involved five phases
which using many quality tools to identify problem and improves the process. The data being analysed
by using statistical method and graph. As conclusion, the average number of accident decrease from
7.33 to 7.25 and the trend analysis shows decline graph compared to before. Based on the hypothesis
testing, using the p-value, it was found the shift pattern, safety culture (unsafe act unsafe condition
report submission), accidents location, type of activity and contractors have significance impact to
number of accident. Meanwhile, number of tonnage handled (productivity) and number of man-hour
does not have significance impact to the number of accident. It was also found that there is no
significance between numbers of accident happen at night shift, morning shift or afternoon shift. It can
be concluded that, the six sigma approach are suitable method to analyse accident and can be a
significance approach in determining the root cause of accident in the company.
Electromagnetic pulse (EMP) is a sudden burst of wide-band, high-intensity electromagnetic radiation. EMP also called as a transient electromagnetic disturbance, a short burst of electromagnetic energy. Effect of EMP to automobile is classify as medium threats to vehicle attacks where EMP aims at damaging electronic devices such as on board sensors and processors, CPU which found in almost all models from 1990’s and forward. This paper presents a MATLAB simulation of EMP generator by means of Switch Mode Power Supply, thus the electrical shielding can be studied further. Theoretically, EMP generator is developed by implementing energy storage circuit and discharge control circuit. Sending a rapidly changing electrical current through a loop will create an electromagnetic field in the form of a pulse. The results show an increase in pulse voltage from 12 VDC to 758 VDC with a current of 1500 A. A MATLAB model on the coverage area affected by EMP pulse will be developed in the next phase of the research.
Risk management requires human judgements, from risk identification, assessment to response. Although automated tools are useful in handling large amounts of data and in performing complex calculations rapidly, humans undertake the entire risk management process. They bring to the process their intuitions, insights, previous experiences and skills. Therefore, creating a rich source of information of risks faced by an organisation. Ignoring human factors may impoverish information and limit risk management to only measurable factors. This study contributes to the field of decision-making and risk assessment by investigating and discussing in detail how to quantify subjective judgements using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). AHP is used to assess risk of an insurance company. It discusses how to do risk assessment by combining both intuition and analytic in the decision-making process. The study defines intuition as knowledge and experience, and analytic as the mathematics or quantitative analysis to derive the result. It demonstrates how Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) - a flexible multi-attribute or multi-criteria decision making tool, enables risk managers to use both intuition and analytic to do risk assessment. Risk assessment using AHP produces global priority weights representing the overall risk ranking of an insurance company. The study develops a risk assessment problem and uses AHP to organise and structure risks and sub-risks of the problem. It uses formative evaluation method with open-ended questionnaires to obtain feedbacks from risk managers on AHP. Three employees of a risk management department in a government agency assesses the risks using AHP. AHP strengths are easy to use and understand, improves risk assessment and useful for risk assessment problems that have scarce or no data. AHP limitation are the numbers and repetitiveness of the pairwise comparisons. The participants either ignore some of the pairwise questions or they answer randomly instead of deliberate judgements.
Muhammad Adil Khattak, Tuan Mohamad Hakimi Tuan Yahya, Muhammad Wazif Mohd Sallehhudin, Muhammad Izzuan Mohd Ghazali, Nur Awal Abdullah, Nur Athirah Nordin, et al.
In this recent years, energy security has been actively studied. European vitality security challenges have changed significantly in the previous 20 years. From one viewpoint, the current strains amongst Russia and the EU are undermining heir verifiable organization on vitality; on the other, profound changes in the vitality scene at the worldwide level, activated by innovative advances and major geo-political changes, are driving the EU to revaluate its vitality security system. The point of this paper is to talk about Eastern Europe vitality security in a changing worldwide. Furthermore, this paper will give a review on the energy market and the energy security strategy in Eastern Europe country.
Meat tenderness is an important quality attribute that influences consumer acceptance. The application of mechanical treatment by mean to reduce toughness of meat cuts has gained much interest recently, with an intention to make use the lower grade meat cuts. This review deliberates the function, mechanism and numerous types of mechanical work in meat tenderization. The mechanical work employs to make meat softer by loosening the muscle structure and disrupting muscle cell. Previous studies have thoroughly examined the use of mechanical treatment (such as massaging, tumbling, and grinding) as an effective meat tenderization technique. Besides that, current research on newly emerging processing technology such as highpressure process (HPP) also shows potential to be explored. The application of mechanical work has shown impressive outcomes by reducing the shear force value that represents hardness of meat. The present paper also described the physical, biochemical and the structural changes of the meat. Finally, the improvements in the meat tenderness by using various type of mechanical work are presented in this paper.
Low-cost high rise housing project is developed to provide a chance for low-income
citizen to own a house at a lower market price. Each low-cost high-rise residential
building possesses its own building management body where one of its duties is to
manage residential area after the strata title has been issued to the purchaser. The
study was carried out to evaluate the level of satisfaction among residents of one lowcost
housing area towards the maintenance activities administered by the building
management body. This research employed mixed-method approach; quantitative and
qualitative, as it able to capture accurate data from both residents and the building
management body. This study concluded that the residents of Rumah Selangorku
Damai Utama are mostly leaning towards dissatisfaction with the building and facilities
maintenance services provided by the building management body.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) play a big role in people daily lives. Various
applications of RFID including transportation and logistics, manufacturing and
processing, security, animal tagging, waste management, time and attendance, road
toll management and etc. The aim of this research is to improve old attendance system
that capable to eliminate time waste during manual collected attendance by create
“Drive-Thru” attendance system. This model can be given an access badge with radio
frequency identification (RFID) chip in it as its use technique of electromagnetic fields
to exchange data from a tag (like a smart tag) to an object (a reader) at the post guard
for the purpose of identification or tracking. Development in RFID technology widely
increasing in adopting new and many features.
The lack of understanding of Islamic principles in the design of public spaces has led to
the weakness of the function, aesthetic value and the identity of urban places. The study
seeks to identify the characteristics and elements of the Islamic urban space in
Putrajaya base on publics and expert perception and preference. A questionnaire
survey was conducted with approximately 500 civilians to analyse the public perception
of Putra Square and Astaka Moroco. A photo base interview was carried out with
approximately 100 professionals in the built environment field to evaluate the quality
of Astaka Moroco in comparison to Islamic gardens in the Middle East based on their
perception. The results indicate that the style of the Dataran Putra is the most preferred
by the public compared to the Astaka Morocco. The professionals inform that Astaka
Morocco is not comparable to the quality of Islamic gardens in the Middle East either
in terms of function or aesthetic value due to the lack of understanding of the Islamic gardens elements and principles. In addition, the public liked the Islamic garden style
that reflects the local identity and the functions as public spaces instead of just as an
exhibit or a model. The findings can be a good guide in designing the Islamic public
spaces which are favoured by the public.
Jerky, a ready-to-eat snack, known for its high protein and low-fat content. Current
methods used in jerky processing take 6-10 hours in a conventional oven, dehydrator
or smokehouse. In this study, whole buffalo meat was sliced to 5mm and 6mm and
cured in three different salt concentrations of 1.0%, 1.5% and 2.0% for 24 hours at
4°C. The effects of microwave finish drying (5, 10 and 15 seconds) were examined
after samples were dried in a convection oven for three hours. Cured buffalo slices
showed significant (p
The advancement of technology has allowed a variety of tools for employees and
managers, or knowledge workers, to choose as communication tools, especially for
managing project teams. Instead of communicating and updating project progress
through emails and short messaging system, social messaging (SM) applications, such
as WhatsAppTM, are the current daily choice among them. The over-utilisation of the
SM applications has given an opportunity for a research on project knowledge
retention within project team, since it becomes an addiction to create new groups each
time a new project team is formed. It is believed that project knowledge resides within
these virtual groups, and this paper looks into how project knowledge is managed by
analysing the communication patterns against a measurement metrics based on
personal knowledge management (PKM) theory called GUSC Model. The
communication patterns found existed in the SM application are qualitatively
identified and mapped against the PKM processes within, with weighted score
assigned to each process to quantitatively measure the overall project knowledge
management participation. The differences among the organisational communication
levels, namely upper and lower level communication levels, are analysed and the final
result of participation expectation on member of SM application groups is presented.
The outcome of this research recommends the future intervention on SM application
usage and the application of knowledge management concept in current
communication tool.
Improving organizational performance is the main objective of any organization. Six
Sigma is one of the most important approaches to improve performance and sustain
competitive advantage. This article reviewed the literature related to organizational
performance and explains the potential impact of Six Sigma and innovation culture on
organizational performance. Given that previous studies have reported inconclusive
results, this paper tries to establish a mechanism to explain the role of Six Sigma in
improving organizational performance. Therefore, based on the theoretical foundation
and comprehensive review of previous literature, a research framework is proposed.
This proposed framework is grounded in the implementation of Six Sigma projects; it
also establishes that innovation culture can help organizations to achieve success in a
turbulent business environment.
With the increasing demand for greater quality of transferred data, the optical cable
lines are reaching their limits of transfer capacities. The alternative for more effective
usage is by introducing the Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM)
integrated with optical amplifier to optimize the output signal. This study was
performed theoretically with an assistance of OptiSystem 9.0 simulation software to
develop higher transfer speed of 32 channels DWDM network system by employing
hybrid optical amplifiers. Three types of optical amplifiers had been introduced such
as Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (EDFA), Semiconductor Optical Amplifier (SOA) and
Dynamic RAMAN amplifier. The optimum performance of DWDM system was obtained
by employed hybrid EDFA-Raman amplifier which resulted the best transmission signal
received with maximum Qfactor=43.0579 a.u. The hybrid EDFA-Raman produced
better stability than EDFA-SOA where the received signals were only fluctuated within
±3.73 a.u. In comparison with other types of configuration, namely EDFA-SOA and
RAMAN-SOA; the value of maximum Q-factor experienced about 50% of increment. In
conclusion, the development of high performance and excellent stability of 32-
channels DWDM optical network system can be achieved by introduced hybrid
amplifier of EDFA-RAMAN.
The contribution of attitudinal factors to the morphology of urban vegetation in cities
has received very scanty attention. Most researchers in the developing countries
including Nigeria focus on urbanisation, without paying significant attention to
attitudinal factors. However, a lot of socioeconomic adjustments take place in cities in
these countries, which result in the depletion of urban vegetation. The necessity to
determine the contribution of attitudinal factors to the reduction in Akure urban
vegetation has called for this study. The study analysed the contribution of attitudinal
factors to the reduction of urban vegetation in the city. Previous studies on the city’s
land use and land cover changes seemed to ascribe the city’s falling greenery to
urbanisation only, without considering the contribution of attitudinal factors to the
process. The paper posits that the indicators of attitudinal factors need to be properly
understood in order to design appropriate policies to curb the phenomenon. Data
were sourced through self-administered questionnaire from 317 participants. The data
were analysed with SPSS Version 20 for the descriptive analysis, and Structural
Equation Modelling (SEM), for the determination of the dominant factors. The KaiserMeyer-Olkin
measure of sampling adequacy showed that the research instrument was
internally consistent. Confirmatory factor analysis also achieved satisfactory goodness
of fit indices. It was revealed that eight dominant attitudinal factors contributed to the
reduction of urban vegetation in the city. These include misuse of road setback (0.72),
not enough enlightenment or publicity (0.72), and failure of town planning authorities
to enforce urban tree planting (0.72.) This shows that attitudinal factors contributed
significantly to the depletion of urban vegetation in the city. The necessity for mass
education and enlightenment towards behaviour change and pro-environmental
behaviour, is stressed.
Management is consistently facing fast-flowing and lots of changes in business, including in the inventory management. Especially for fast-moving inventories, the correct stocking, controlling, checking and safety stock calculation is highly needed to have an exquisite inventory management and to reduce the possibility of running out of inventory which leads to unavailability to meet the demand. One of the ways to overcome this is by doing an excellent and appropriate forecasting. Therefore, the objective of this concept paper is to analyse and recommend tools to improve inventory management using the appropriate time-series forecasting method. The firm studied in this study is serving its employees as customers that demand the routine items including stationeries and other routine products to support their job as auditors and consultants for its client. However, there are occasions when there is out-of-stock situation for fast-moving items, especially in the peak season period. Furthermore, the firm is only applying replenishment based on the used inventories from the previous month. Therefore, this study suggests to eliminate out-of-stock items situation by applying precaution initiatives such as time-series forecasting. This study is planned to employ 10 time-series forecasting methods such as moving average, exponential smoothing, regression analysis, Holt-Winters analysis, Seasonal analysis and Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) using Risk Simulator Software. By simulating those methods, the most appropriate method is selected based on the forecasting accuracy measurement.
Honey is a natural sweetener, which is consumed in a variety of sweet products. It is
considered as healthy food because it contains nutrients such as carbohydrate,
protein, vitamins and mineral. The presence of adulterated honey in the market is
worrying the consumers since it is difficult to distinguish between pure and adulterated
honey due to similar appearance and texture of both type honeys. Chemometric
analysis combined with spectroscopic data is a powerful technique that has been used
to discriminate different type of honey. Samples of pure honey are collected from
beekeepers at Ayer Keroh, Melaka and Cameron Highland, Pahang. The adulterants
used to prepare adulterated honey are sugar and corn syrup with the concentration of
the adulterants added to the pure honey ranging from 10% to 90% by weight of
adulterant. All the samples are treated with heat at 40o
C to ensure the adulterant and
pure honey are mixed well. Fourier transforms infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) is used to
generate the spectra of the honey and subsequently subjected to chemometric
analysis. The spectra data is then analysed by using Principal Component Analysis (PCA)
technique using SOLO+Mia software. In this study, all honeys have been successfully
discriminated according to their origins and purity as well as types of adulterants used.
Consequently, the developed model can potentially be used as a screening tool to
determine the purity of honey in the market.
The construction industry is one of the major sectors in Malaysia. Apart from providing
facilities, services and goods it also offers employment opportunities to local and
foreign workers. In fact, the construction workers are exposed to high risk of noises
being generated from various sources including excavators, bulldozers, concrete mixer
and piling machines. Previous studies indicated that the piling and concrete work were
recorded as the main source that contributed to the highest level of noise among
others. Therefore, the aim of this study is to obtain the level of noise exposure during
piling process and to determine the awareness of workers against noise pollution at
the construction site. Initially, the reading of noise level was obtained at construction
site by using a digital sound level meter (SLM) and noise exposure to the workers was
mapped. Readings were taken from four different distances; 5, 10, 15 and 20 meters
from the piling machine. Furthermore, a set of questionnaire was also distributed to
assess the knowledge of regarding noise pollution at the construction site. The result
showed that the mean noise level at 5 meters distance was more than 90 dB, which
exceeded the recommended level. Although the level of awareness of regarding the
effect of noise pollution is satisfactory but majority of workers (90%) still did not wear
ear muffs during working periods. Therefore, the safety module guidelines related to
noise pollution controls should be implemented to provide a safe working environment
and prevent initial occupational hearing loss.