This paper is a review of the chemical and physical properties of coconut fiber in asphalt mixtures. Coconut fibers (CF) are natural fibers and also an agricultural waste, which is abundant after the extraction of juice and coconut fruit. Nowadays, CF has been studied for its potential use in the construction field to increase the strength of materials with its high tensile strength. Additionally, CF can also be one the materials in highway construction as it can improve the skid resistance of asphalt pavements. It was shown that CF treated with NaOH lowered the penetration value and increased the softening point of modified bitumen. Flow of bitumen also can be avoided at high mixing and compaction temperatures by adding 0.7% of CF.
Microbiologically Influenced Corrosion (MIC) caused by the presence of Sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) is a big concern in heavy industries. Pipeline infrastructure may experience severe metal loss due to corrosion induced by the species and can potentially lead to catastrophic failure. By studying SRB growth condition, important parameter can be controlled to prevent or slow down a corrosion process. This study discussed on the effect of pH value to the corrosion growth rate on API 5L X70 low carbon steel subjected to outer part of underground pipeline. In this research, the type of SRB that's been used is Postgate C of Desulfovibrio Desulfuricans. There are 80 numbers of samples prepared with various pH value and temperature, which each of the samples contains two coupon steel immersed in the medium together with SRB for 7, 14, 21 and 28 days. The process in determining weight loss is analyzed and the corrosion rate for each steel sample is identified by weight loss. The result is plotted and analyzed, the particular pH values and temperature affect the growth of SRB in the medium where the existence of SRB could accelerate the corrosion rate towards the steel surface of API X-70. The samples are exposed to SRB in days’ time. This experiment aims to determine the optimum temperature for SRB growth and demonstrate the corrosion rate simulation using One-Factor-at-A-Time method (OFAT) method. The consequences of SRB activity, it is shown that pitting corrosion produced on the surface of steel. In fact, the sulphur element is identified as one of the corrosion products due to SRB activity.
Responding to demands for transformed networking practices requires new forms of knowledge. Given their scale and complexity, networking problems can no longer be solved by way of extending intermediaries. Recent research on alternative approaches has focused on the understanding network structures formed by interactions between heterogeneous actors. Rather than linear extensions, network theory highlights cliques structure as a major determinant of performance derives largely from the frequent finding that managers that are embedded with influential connections are at increased likelihood of becoming influential themselves thus opening rooms for new knowledge and innovative technology and practices. It is suggested that the strong and consistent cliques are at least partially responsible to managing network complexity. This paper contributes to our understanding of such facilitation by investigating the networks in which managers exchange information. We report findings based on the study of managers in a maritime industry. Network surveys identified who the managers contacted for inputs and who they had talked to about the information by 6 months earlier. Snow-balling interviews collected farmer statements about their most valuable contacts and these statements have been analysed. The network analysis shows that managers with densely tied and occupationally homogeneous contacts grew their networks more than did managers with contacts that are loosely tied and diverse. The network analysis reveals an important principle: managers’s value knowledge delivered by persons of homogenous connections rather distance ones. It is argued that social network analysis is an appropriate method for studying influence development use in the context of networked organizations.
Assistive technology is initiated to aid those visually impaired to fulfil their tasks independently, rapidly, and easily. As such, tactile map is an assistive technology that has been widely used for navigation to enable those visually impaired to visualize the geographical information about a particular place. Nevertheless, its usability and availability in Malaysia are scant. This paper aims to investigate the usability issues of tactile map, identify the requirements and proposed a conceptual prototype named TacTalk. Qualitative research method in the form of face to face interviews were carried out with the visually impaired residing at Saint Nicholas’ Home for the Blind in Penang. Results from the findings identified four emerging usability issues: poor design of tactile map due to limited space, misinterpretation of information, complexity of symbols used and difficulty in memorizing directions. The proposed solution, ‘TacTalk’, refers to a ‘talking tactile map’ incorporated with audio support. TacTalk is comprised of two components, which are: a tactile map with built-in buttons, and a mobile application that plays the audio files. There is a connection between the buttons on the map and the TacTalk mobile application via Bluetooth. An audio instruction is played when the button is pressed by the user. The results of this work hope to overcome the fear of the visually impaired to travel alone. Hopefully, it can inspire and empower them to explore the use of assistive technology in future.
Environmental indoor air quality is one of the major concerns in occupational safety and health issues related to workers. Nowadays, the evolving of Internet of Things (IoT), the monitoring of the surrounding environmental desired parameters is more fascinating with the use of various sensors. Real time data now can be monitored with the Wi-Fi connection where the data being transfer across the network cloud with different platform service. This research focus is on the environmental monitoring for indoor air quality in terms of carbon monoxide (CO) in selected palm oil mill factory. This project aims to benefit the workers in a way where air quality is monitored. This low-cost device air quality monitoring (LCDAQM) used an ESPduino-32 to collect and process sensed data to the ThingSpeak platform service that can be monitored through web based or apps. The level of the carbon monoxide (CO) will light up the red LED when reach more than 50ppm which was set by OSHA. Result shows that level of CO in factory is unhealthy and need future engineering control action. The validation between LCDAQM and RS CO meter show the percentage error of 14.41%. Therefore, this study will help workers and factory to monitor and reduce the occupational safety and health (OSH) related problems to indoor air quality in factory.
Body posture is one of the most important parts when lifting an object as it can causes injury if the wrong technique and body posture were used. A worker will injure their low back if a bad posture is not in consideration. A good body posture is recommended among workers to reduce the chance of injury while lifting and improve their postural safety. The main objectives of this study are to observe the body posture of the worker during lifting and study the comparison of using lower back support when lifting. It also investigates the muscle activity of the worker during heavy lifting using EMG and simulates the worker's movement using CATIA Software for Rapid Upper Limb Assessment (RULA) results. The selected grocery was chosen in Kota Samarahan, Sarawak with 7 male respondents are identified to undergo this study. The results show that the worker with lower back support tends to show raw EMG signal with lower muscle activity compared to without using lower back support. Thus, using belt support can reduce muscle activity by up to 67.4% compare to not wearing back support. Raw EMG signals also show 3010 amplitude (mV) muscle activity if postural safety of the workers improved by following the NIOSH lifting Recommendations.
The proposed development of Sibu Central hinges on the fact that it attracts high number of visitors from all over Sarawak. The development of Sibu Central would definitely improve the surrounding areas in future as Sibu Central will be one of the landmarks for Sibu. This development therefore will automatically generate more road traffic which will affect the performance of the existing road. The performance of the existing road was evaluated by two signalized intersections surrounding the proposed development of Sibu Central. It was carried out in order to determine the current traffic volume data, upon the completion of Sibu Central and 5 years after the development was completed. The road performance of Intersection 1 and Intersection 2 was analysed by using Sidra software. It was found that the existing road was still within the satisfactory performance, as the Level of Service (LOS) was in the range of LOS A until LOS D. This was due to the current traffic volume that was still under the capacity of the existing road which also influenced the satisfactory result for Volume by Capacity (V/C) ratio, average delay and queue length of all directions in Intersection 1 and Intersection 2. This result will not be adequate as the capacity of the road still remains unchanged due to the fact that the traffic volume keeps on increasing every year. The deterioration of the existing road in Intersection 1 and Intersection 2 was established in this study based on the performance of LOS, V/C ratio, average delay and queue length.
The objective of this paper is to design an efficient room automation system in POLIMAS to control and automatize lighting, fan and air-condition.. This system will overcome human mistakes where the students or staffs forget to switch off the appliances in classroom or laboratories, and effectively reduce the cost of operation and power consumption of the buildings. Room Automation involves the automation and controlling the electrical appliances. The system will monitors electrical parameters of room appliance such as temperature, humidity and ambient light. The factors like temperature and light can have significant effects on the productivity of office workers as well as students. Thus, classrooms, laboratories and staff offices can be equipped with super sensors featuring temperature and light monitors. Besides, it helps in reducing power consumption by monitoring the environment condition and controlling the appliances as well as conservation of energy in the campus. Furthermore, it provides simple and cost effective to the institution. The system uses Arduino ESP8266 NodeMCU platform as the IoT enddevice connecting to various sensors and actuators to the platform via Wi-Fi channel. By using Wi-Fi connectivity, the hardware integrates with software application to control, monitoring and analysis. A sequence testing is conducted to determine the connectivity and integration of hardware and software. The performance of each sensor was performed to measure the accuracy. As a result, PIR sensors are able to detect general movement in effective range of about 10 meters. Moreover, the DHT temperature sensor in range of 5 meters away from air-condition is able to read the present room temperature and send command to the air-condition adjusting the air- condition’s set temperature similar to the air-condition’s remote. Thus, by implementing this system, not only the electrical appliances in a room more manageable and under control but also able to reduce the operational cost and improve environmental protection.
A method for recycling aluminium alloy chips by hot extrusion was studied as well as the possibility of using to recycle aluminium chips. As a result, according to an ANOVA analysis, preheat temperature is the most significant factor influencing the response variables investigated. Preheat temperature and the quadratic effect of factor preheat temperature provided a primary contribution to the responses investigated. Additionally, factor preheat time did not provide a significant contributing factor to the Ultimate Tensile Strenght. This developed the Response Surface Methodology (RSM) model for ER12, which can now be used for analysis and predicting the Ultimate Tensile Strenght for recycling aluminium chip using the hot extrusion process. The Miscellaneous Design and Response Surface Methodology enabled the determination of optimal operating conditions for obtaining hot extrusion production. The optimization of the analyzed responses demonstrated that the best results for hot extrusion process parameter. It reveals the empirical models developed were reasonably accurate, particularly for UTS at 550°C temperature and 3 hours preheating time. All the actual values for the confirmation run are within the 95% prediction interval.
Automatic Vehicle Number Plate Recognition (AVNPR) system is an image processing technology in computer vision which captures the image of the vehicle and recognizes its number plate. Currently, the security and management of transportation system becomes an important key in controlled place such as campus area. With an increased number of vehicles, there is a need for vehicle recognition mechanism that is effective, affordable and efficient. The objective of this paper is to propose an efficient automatic vehicle identification system by recognizing the vehicle plate number. The system will be installed at the main entrance of POLIMAS to ensure that only the authorized vehicles can automatically enter the campus area. Once the vehicle is detected by the input sensors, AVNPR system will capture the image of vehicle plate number. An image is then extracted and investigated character segmentation by using optical character recognition (OCR). The method used for detection of a plate number is by preprocessing of the image and using a combination of Sobel edge detection and Laplacian edge detection techniques. Bounding Box technique is used to find the number plate and character segmentation. For character recognition, OCR method is used by using template matching to compare the segmented image with the template. The system is sustainable as the camera will only be switched on when a car is present. The propose system successfully detects and recognizes the vehicle number plate on real images. This system can also be used for security and traffic control.
Virtual reality (VR) is a fast-growing technology in the world today. Many countries use virtual reality for many purposes such as education, military and entertainment. Despite the benefits of VR, harmful effects of VR on the users are still inconclusive. With only a few reliable studies that investigate the effect of virtual reality on the users especially on the eyes, yet still there are a lot more things we do not know about the effects of VR. The purpose of this study was to compare the amplitude of accommodation before and after watching 3-dimesional (3D) movie utilizing VR and notebook (control group). Thirty-two participants volunteered in this study and all participants underwent amplitude of accommodation (AA) test using Royal Army Force (RAF) rule before and after watching three-dimensional (3D) movie for 30 minutes using VR and two-dimensional (2D) movie by laptop. The amplitude of accommodation between pre- and post-watching 3D movie on VR was insignificantly changed (p= >0.05). The similar trend was also found after 30 minutes watching movie using laptop (p= >0.05). The utilization of VR and laptop for 30 minutes did insignificantly alter the eye accommodation.
: Virtual reality (VR) has been integrated and used with smartphones as one of the digital entertainments such as in gaming and movie streaming. With emergent of various VR brands in the market, it concerns the public on the possible side effects of VR on the ocular performance specifically on tear film stability and ocular discomfort. The purpose of this study was to compare the change on non-invasive keratograph tear break-up time (NIKBUT), tear meniscus height (TMH) before and after the use of VR for 30 minutes, and to measure the ocular discomfort after the use of VR quantitatively. Thirty-two subjects were recruited in this study and all the subjects were divided randomly into two groups; VR and laptop (used as a control) groups. Each subject needed to watch a movie for 30 minutes using the respective devices. The changes of tear film stability and ocular discomfort before and after the use of the devices were then compared and the results showed that there was no significant difference (p>0.05) after 30 minutes of the use. Comparison of the ocular parameters between the devices on post-watching activities was also not significant (p>0.05). Use of VR did not give any signs of dryness to the eyes and it can be used without any discomfort even after 30 minutes usage of the devices.
Virtual reality (VR) headsets are becoming remarkably well-known nowadays, especially in gaming industry. Their ability to immerse users into virtual world makes them captivating. However, there is limited research about the impacts of this technology on our eyes and vision. This study investigated if there is any effect on blink rate (BR) and inter-blink interval (IBI) after 30 minutes of watching 3-dimensional (3D) movie on VR. Besides, this study compares between watching 3D movie on VR headset and 2D movie on laptop. Blinks were recorded over 1 minutes for 32 participants volunteered in this study before and after 30 minutes of watching 3D movie on VR headset and 2D movie on laptop. The result of BR and IBI between pre- and post-watching 3D movie on VR was not significant (p= >0.05). The result between watching movie on laptop and VR also not significant (p= >0.05). Watching 3D movie on VR for 30 minutes resulted in no effects on blink rate and inter-blink interval of the users.
: Halal industry is currently one of the fastest growing market segments in the world. With the emerging of IR4.0, the future growth of Halal industry and its sustainability can be affected by the advancement of technology. Technology has continuously assimilated in every aspect of our live from consumerization, commercialization, and industrialization to infrastructure. Even though many factors may have collectively contributed towards better understanding of Halal sustainability, this article focuses only on the technological aspects of Halal in the face of IR4.0. With this focus, four components of technology comprising of technoware, humanware, infoware, and orgaware are discussed. Although each components of technology have been fairly studied in the previous Halal literature, most of them were not specifically emphasized on the sustainability issues. From DCs point-of-view, a firm that is capable of managing the complexity in the components of technology will become more sustainable at Halal marketplace under dynamic environment. A framework is proposed to explain how the technology complexity together with the environmental factors (opportunities and threats of IR4.0) can be affecting Halal sustainability. This article has proposed the complexity in each components of technology will positively affect Halal sustainability. Accordingly, the opportunities of IR4.0 is proposed to have a positive direct and moderation effects on the relationships between technology complexity and Halal sustainability, whereas the threats of IR4.0 will have a negative direct and moderation effects on the relationships.
The location of Sarawak State in the equatorial region makes it an area of high rainfall. For this reason, hydroelectric power plants have been built in several catchments in Sarawak, especially in the Kapit area. This needs to be harnessed to improve the economy and social living standards of the people of Sarawak in particular. This paper presents the land cover change by analyzing the stratification change for 30 years (1985-2018) at Bakun Dam, Sarawak. This study uses Landsat 5 and Landsat 8 satellite data. Both data have to go through pre-processing such as geometric, radiometric, and atmospheric corrections. In this study, Normalized Water Difference Index (NDWI) is used to classify water areas, built human areas, and vegetation areas. Overlay analysis was applied to identify areas that had changed over the 30 years in the study area. The results showed the greatest changes from vegetation areas to water bodies for 30 years. The results showed that the most affected land cover was forest cover with a reduction of 740 km², which shifted mainly to water bodies with 669.9 km² and human development with an area of 68.7 km². The study area is less populated and anthropogenic influences are rather low, but deforestation is observed in the upper river basin. These events would change the hydrological behavior of these catchments in the future. Land cover mapping is very important to provide information to those responsible for planning sustainable development. In addition, land cover maps are important for land use planning and land use regulation to avoid land-use conflicts.