Recently, license plate detection has been used in many applications especially in transportation systems. Many methods have been proposed in order to detect license plates, but most of them work under restricted conditions such as fixed illumination, stationary background, and high resolution images. License plate detection plays an important role in car license plate recognition systems because it affects the accuracy and processing time of the system. This work aims to build a Car License Plate Detection (CLPD) system at a lower cost of its hardware devices and with less complexity of algorithms’ design, and then compare its performance with the local CAR Plate Extraction Technology (CARPET). As Malaysian plates have special design and they differ from other international plates, this work tries to compare two likely-design methods. The images are taken using a web camera for both the systems. One of the most important contributions in this paper is that the proposed CLPD method uses Vertical Edge Detection Algorithm (VEDA) to extract the vertical edges of plates. The proposed CLPD method can work to detect the region of car license plates. The method shows the total time of processing one 352x288 image is 47.7 ms, and it meets the requirement of real time processing. Under the experiment datasets, which were taken from real scenes, 579 out of 643 images were successfully detected. Meanwhile, the average accuracy of locating car license plate was 90%. In this work, a comparison between CARPET and the proposed CLPD method for the same tested images was done in terms of detection rate and efficiency. The results indicated that the detection rate was 92% and 84% for the CLPD method and CARPET, respectively. The results also showed that the CLPD method could work using dark images to detect license plates, whereas CARPET had failed to do so.
The application of computer and machines for agricultural production has been one of the outstanding
developments in Malaysian agriculture, especially in overcoming labour shortages in Oil Palm plantations. The on-line automated weedicide sprayer system was developed at Universiti Putra
Malaysia to locate the existence and intensity of weeds in real-time environment and to spray the
weedicides automatically and precisely. During the start of the spraying operation, the web camera
will initially capture the image of weeds. The computer programme will compute the red, green, blue (RGB) values in the form of computer pixel. These values will be used as reference RGB values to be compared with the RGB values of the weeds captured real-time during the spraying operation. The sprayer nozzle will be turned ‘on’ or ‘off’, depending on the percentage or intensity of the green colour pixel value of weeds. The sprayer valve will open the nozzle/s when the camera detected the presence of weeds. The purpose is to reduce wastage, reduce labour, reduce cost, and control environment hazard.
This paper describes the design and development of harvesting system for the gantry system to harvest eggplants. For this purpose, the harvesting robot was successfully designed and fabricated for the gantry system to harvest eggplants. The operation of the harvester was controlled by Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Basically, the limit switches, DC motor, and relay are connected to the PLC. Meanwhile, a PLC ladder diagram was designed and developed to control the operation of the eggplant harvester. A visual basic programme was developed to interface the harvester with a greenhouse gantry control system. A videogrammetry method was employed to calculate the distance between the stems of eggplants and the cutter of robot end effector. The end effector used electric as its power source and it was controlled via Programmable Logic Controller (PLC). Visual Basic Programme was developed to interface the harvester with the gantry control system. The accuracy of the videogrammetry was tested to be 67.2% for X-axis, 88.2% for Y-axis and 84.7% for Z-axis. Meanwhile, the speed of the end effector for harvester is 2.4 km/h and it could lift up to 55 cm. In order to determine detachment force of eggplant, 16 samples of mature eggplants were tested in a greenhouse, and as a result, more than 22.76 N force was needed to detach a mature eggplant inside the gantry system.
The growth performance of Indian major carp (Catla catla, Ham.) was assessed over a period of six months through formulated feeds consisting of three seaweeds, namely Chlorodesmis fastigiata, Padina tetrastomatica and Stoechospermum marginatum. A relatively slow average growth rate (6.48 g/month) in fishes was observed in the control group. Meanwhile, the maximum and rapid growth rate (13.38 g/month) was observed with Feed-A supplemented with C. fastigiata. Similarly, a comparable growth rate was also observed with Feed-B (11.56 g/month) with P. tetrastomatica. However, the growth rate in fishes was relatively lower (9.05 g/month) with Feed-C containing seaweed S.marginatum. The growth rate in each month was also compared. The maximum attainable growth rate was found to be 12 g in the control group, whereas this was 30 g with Feed-A. The attainable growth was 20 g and 15 g with Feed-B and Feed-C, respectively. In the control group, the maximum increments in weight was recorded in the third (September) and fifth (November) months of rearing, and the increment was considerably reduced after that. The maximum increment in weight was in the second month (August) with Feed-A, and this was followed by a considerable decrease in subsequent months. A similar trend was observed with Feed-B and Feed-C. The biochemical composition of all the four feeds used in the present study showed approximately the same protein (0.45-0.50 mg/ ml) and lipid contents (0.6 mg/ml). Carbohydrate was the only parameter which showed a relatively significant effect (p
The exponential fed-batch cultivation of Bacillus sphaericus UPMB10 in 2 l stirred tank fermenter was performed by feeding the initial batch culture with 14 g l-1 of glycerol according to the algorithm aimed at controlling the specific growth rate (μ) of the bacterium. Very high viable cell count (1.14 x 1010 cfu ml-1), which was four times higher as compared to batch cultivation, was achieved in the fed-batch with a controlled μ at 0.4 h-1. In repeated exponential fed-batch cultivation, consisting of four cycles of harvesting and recharging, a final cell concentration of 1.9 x 1011 cfu ml-1 was obtained at the end of the fourth cycle (46 h). Meanwhile, acetylene reduction of cell samples collected from repeated fed-batch cultivation remained unchanged and was maintained at around 20 nmol C2H2 h-1 ml-1 after prolonged cultivation period, and was comparable to those obtained in batch and exponential fed-batch cultivation. Glycerol could be used as a carbon source for high performance cultivation of B. sphaericus, a nitrogen fixing bacterium, in repeated fed-batch cultivation with high cell yield and cell productivity. The productivity (0.68 g l-1 h-1) for repeated fed-batch cultivation increased about 6 times compared to that obtained in conventional batch cultivation (0.11 g l1 h-1). A innovative method in utilizing glycerol for efficient cultivation of nitrogen fixing bacterium could be beneficial to get more understanding and reference in manipulating the integrated plans for sustainable and profitable biodiesel industry.
Tractor rollover occurs when a tractor tips sideways or backwards and overturns, potentially crushing the operator. Rollovers are typically considered to occur more frequently during a sharp turn at a high speed on sloping terrains, although data show that rollovers do occur on flat land after hitting obstacles or through inappropriate use and hitching of implements. It is important to highlight that tractor overturns are the major cause of death in farm operations. The overturns are as a result of interactions between the tractor operator, the tractor and the environment. A review of the relevant literature reveals that more than 800 people are killed each year in tractor accidents, and for every person killed, at least 40 others are injured. This paper focuses on tractor overturns because they account for more than half of all the tractor-related deaths. In addition, farm tractor operational safety principles are also highlighted.
This paper reports an alternative method for making glass-ceramic from disposal waste water
sludge and soda lime silica (SLS) glass. The glass ceramic samples were prepared from a mixture
of wastewater sludge and SLS glasses, melted at 1375°C for 3 hours and quenched by pouring into
water to obtain a coarse frit. The frit glass was then crushed and sieved to 106μm before it was
pressed to a pellet. The sintering process was performed at various temperatures between 700-
1000°C for 2 hours and morphologically characterized with XRD, SEM, and EDX. Overall results
showed the crystalline phase of diopside sodian-critobalite glass-ceramic is depending on thermal
treatment process and making them attractive to industrial uses such as in construction, tiling, and
glass-ceramic applications.
The specific heats (Csp) of neat polyvinyl alcohol (NPVOH) and 40 phr glycerol plasticized polyvinyl alcohol (PPVOH) were measured using a method known as power compensate differential scanning calorimetry. A high purity sapphire (Al2O3) was used as a reference material. NPVOH has a melting temperature of approximately 480 K, while PPVOH has a value of 30 K lower than NPVOH. The amplitude increment of Csp for NPVOH was also higher than PPVOH at melting stage. Overall, Csp of NPVOH is lower than PPVOH because glycerol has reduced the rigidity of PVOH and subsequently induced the motion of molecular structure at an elevated temperature. Based on the specific heat outcomes, neat PVOH and glycerol plasticized PVOH required 1173.544 J/g and 1946.631 J/g, respectively, to heat from 330 to 550 K.
In this study, dynamic vulcanization process was used to improve the thermal properties of calcium carbonate filled composites. The composites were prepared using a Z-blade mixer at 180oC and rotor speed 50rpm. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) techniques were used to analyze the thermal properties of the composites. The vulcanized and unvulcanized PP/EPDM composites were filled by CaCO3 at 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 %wt. Meanwhile, thermogravimetric analysis indicates that the total weight loss of PP/EPDM/CaCO3 composites decreased with increasing filler loading. Dynamic vulcanized composites have higher thermal stability, while the crystallinity of PP/EPDM/CaCO3 composites were increased as compared to unvulcanized composites. Therefore, the thermal properties were improved by the presence of
dynamic vulcanization process.
At least 6 million deaths occurred worldwide are due to cancer and this figure is expected to rise to
15 millions by the year 2020. Colorectal cancer is among the most commonly occurring cancers
both globally and in Malaysia. Numerous studies have shown significant relationships between
various dietary components and the risks for colorectal cancer. Meanwhile, several theories have
been suggested as etiological explanations, one of which is the influence of dietary factors on the
cell proliferation rate. A higher cell proliferation rate is statistically associated with increased risk
of colorectal cancer. However, evidence of a significant relationship between diet and colorectal
adenomas, a potential precursor for colorectal cancer, remains insufficient. Colorectal adenomas or
polyps are vital in their relationship with colorectal cancers as almost 70% of all colorectal cancers
are developed from these polyps. Studying the modifiable risk factors related to polyps will provide
an opportunity for the prevention of colorectal cancer even before it develops. This paper reviews
the available evidence linking dietary factors with the risk for colorectal adenomas. As the numbers
of published studies are limited, of which most are concentrated in Western countries, there is a
need for epidemiological studies in Malaysia to strengthen the evidence of a relationship between
diet and colorectal adenomas.
Two different supercapacitor configurations were fabricated using coconut shell-based activated
carbon. Results for cyclic voltammetry (CV), electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and charge-discharge measurements are presented and discussed for both configurations. The results show that coconut shell-based activated carbon is viable economical alternative electrode material to expensive activated carbon (AC) and carbon nano tubes (CNT). Meanwhile, the calculations from the charge-discharge characteristics show that the disk-shape supercapacitor, with 10% polyvinylidene fluoride binder (PVdF), has the highest specific capacitance (70F/g). Thus, the testing shows that the flat-laminated super-capacitor with 10% binder (PVdF) has the lowest (10.1ohms). Sources of high equivalent series resistance (ESR) are proposed and methods of reducing it are also discussed in this paper.
The extract of Cinnamomum microphyllum showed strong antioxidant activity when it was tested against auto-oxidation of linoleic acid, superoxide, and DPPH radical scavenging activity. Further detailed investigations of the plant constituents and bioactivity studies led to the isolation and identification of known compounds consisting of three lignans, a coumarin, an ester and β-sitosterol. The structures of the compounds were determined using detailed spectroscopic analysis. The lignans were found to possess a significant antioxidant activity when tested against the three assay systems.
Due to unavailability of a computer keyboard layout for the Jawi script, users of this script make use of the Arabic keyboard layout for typing texts in this particular script. Obviously, the layout of the Arabic script keyboard is not designed for the ancient writing of the Jawi script. Keeping this in view, a research was conducted to design a new keyboard layout suitable for the users of the Jawi script from an ergonomics point of view, and the outcome of the research is presented in this study. In order to design the Jawi script keyboard layout, the relative finger strengths of both male and female subjects were determined experimentally. The relative frequency of the characters and two special characters (full-stop and comma) that appeared in the script were determined by counting their presence in a large number of texts in the script that represent the workload of the fingers. The keys were rearranged in such a way that the workload of each finger was approximately matched with its relative strength. The newly proposed arrangement of the keys was not much different compared to the Arabic script keyboard layout, and hence it is convenient for users to switch between the layouts.
Conducting polypyrrole (PPy) nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical oxidative polymerization of pyrrole in aqueous solution containing ferric sulfate (Fe2(SO4)3), anionic surfactants (sodium dodecylbenzene-sulfonate (NaDBS) or sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)), 1-pentanol as the oxidant, dopant and co-emulsifier, respectively. The polymerization was carried out at 0 ºC and 25 ºC. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and elemental analysis indicated that anionic surfactants were successfully incorporated into the PPy backbone. Incorporation of anionic surfactants caused enhanced electrical conductivity, increased yield, decreased the size of particles as well as improved the thermal stability of the resultant PPy. The presence of anionic surfactant seems to inhibit undesirable side reactions so as to improve the regularity of the PPy backbone. Globular PPy particles were obtained with diameter ranged from 40 to 118 nm as revealed by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and conductivity of 7.89×10-4 –2.35×10-2 S cm-1, as measured using impedance analyzer. It was found that polymerization at low temperature (0 ºC) produced PPy particles with smaller size and higher conductivity. The sodium dodecyl sulfate-doped PPy (SDS-doped PPy) exhibited higher conductivity than that of the sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate-doped PPy (NaDBS-doped PPy), due to the bulkiness of NaDBS as compared to SDS.
Many residential areas of Kuala Lumpur are susceptible to landslides; this is seen in the frequency of landslide occurences in these areas. The objective of this study is to delineate landslide risk areas in support of development planning, monitoring and control of unstable areas. In this study, five landslide causative factors were extracted from satellite imagery and maps provided by the Geological Survey Department of Malaysia. Factors included in the study including land use, river density and lineament derived from Landsat ETM image, precipitation amount from rain gauge stations and lithology, were extracted from the geological map of the study area. Layers were analyzed and divided into subclasses. An average weightage score was applied to calculate the subclasses into percentage weights of influence on landslide. Overlay, geo-processing and geo-statistic techniques in GIS were used to discriminate these weighted subclasses into landslide susceptibility at low, medium and high levels of risk areas. Results showed very high susceptible areas covering 0.21% of Kuala Lumpur of which 5.02% were found in the highly urbanized areas. Meanwhile, a landslide susceptibility map was generated to show low, medium and high susceptible areas in Kuala Lumpur. Results were verified using recorded cases of landslides in Kuala Lumpur which showed a 77% agreement with the study.
In this study a GIS model was developed and spatial analytical techniques performed to identify and select a suitable location for a waste transfer station in the sprawling suburban town of Petaling Jaya. The lack of a transfer station in urban centres of Malaysia has caused many problems and affects the efficiency of waste collection and disposal. With diminishing space for landfills and the increasing cost of solid waste management, the need for urban solid-waste recycling has become very important. However, finding a place for waste to be efficiently sorted before unwanted waste can be carried to disposal landfills has social and physical constraints. This study applies GIS techniques and analysis for site selection and identifies an acceptable area. In the model, environmental, physical and social constraints were taken into account, resulting in the selection of a potential area that is acceptable to the residents of the area because it is out of range of causing public nuisance and within minimum travelling distance for collection vehicles. The results show that the potential location for the transfer station should be in proximity of the industrial area of Petaling Jaya, allowing for the possible sale of recyclable materials to local industries. The location is also sited near a major highway to allow quick transportation of the rest of the unwanted waste to the landfill.
Recent rootkit-attack mitigation work neglected to address the integrity of the mitigation tool itself. Both detection and prevention arms of current rootkit-attack mitigation solutions can be given credit for the advancement of multiple methodologies for rootkit defense but if the defense system itself is compromised, how is the defense system to be trusted? Another deficiency not addressed is how platform integrity can be preserved without availability of current RIDS or RIPS solutions, which operate only upon the loading of the kernel i.e. without availability of a trusted boot environment. To address these deficiencies, we present our architecture for solving rootkit persistence – Rootkit Guard (RG). RG is a marriage between TrustedGRUB (providing trusted boot), IMA (Integrity Measurement Architecture) (serves as RIDS) and SELinux (serves as RIPS). TPM hardware is utilised to provide total integrity of our platform via storage of the aggregate of the clean snapshot of our platform OS kernel into TPM hardware registers (i.e. the PCR) – of which no software attacks have been demonstrated to date. RG solves rootkit persistence by leveraging on one vital but simple strategy: the mounting of rootkit defense via prevention of the execution of configuration binaries or build initialisation scripts. We adopted the technique of rootkit persistence prevention via thwarting the initialisation of a rootkit’s installation procedure; if the rootkit is successfully installed, proper deployment via thwarting of the rootkit’s
configuration is prevented. We had subjected the RG to 8 real world Linux 2.6 rootkits and the RG was successful in solving rootkit persistence in all 8 evaluated rootkits. In terms of performance, the RG introduced a maximum of 11% overhead and an average of 4% overhead, hence permitting deployment in production environments.
The search for a high temperature lead-free solder replacement for high temperature leaded solder eutectic alloy has been an evolving process as the threat of a regional lead ban became a reality in July 2006. The advantages and disadvantages of lead-free solder in terms of manufacturing, performance and reliability have been increasingly revealed through companies’ Research and Development (R&D), industrial consortia and university researchers. Materials and component design are the primary criteria to focus on the development for the current generation of high temperature lead-free solder alloys. According to the current status of high temperature lead free soldering, there are many unsolved technical problems such as explanation on the lift-off phenomenon, establishment of high temperature lead-free plating technology, construction of a database of physical properties (solder, parts, PCBs), standardization of high temperature solder materials evaluation technology, and most importantly, the best candidate material for high temperature solder. Clearly, high temperature soldering is one of the unsolved problems of the century in lead-free soldering. Moreover, most of the questions still remain unanswered by researchers. This paper reviews research conducted on the Bi-Ag solder alloy, which is one of the candidate alloys that has been proposed as an alternative for high temperature lead-free solder.
Linear array of permutations is hard to be factorised. However, by using a starter set, the process of listing the permutations becomes easy. Once the starter sets are obtained, the circular and reverse of circular operations are easily employed to produce distinct permutations from each starter set. However, a problem arises when the equivalence starter sets generate similar permutations and, therefore, willneed to be discarded. In this paper, a new recursive strategy is proposed to generate starter sets that will not incur equivalence by circular operation. Computational advantages are presented that compare the results obtained by the new algorithm with those obtained using two other existing methods. The result indicates that the new algorithm is faster than the other two in time execution.