Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) is the largest contributor of biomass from
the palm oil milling industry. Conventional method of POME treatment
using ponding system should be improved because of huge land resource
requirement. In this study, microbubbles technology was applied to
understand the recovery rate of residual oil from POME at different
operating temperatures. Temperature for POME was set at 27 oC, 30 oC and
50 oC to determine the microbubble size distributions and characteristics at
different POME temperature. At each temperature, the size of microbubbles
was measured based on six size range; 50 μm. The results showed that at different
temperatures, the microbubbles size distribution varies and the smallest
group of microbubbles (
Nowadays, development of cable-stayed bridges is increasing around the world. The mitigation of seismic forces to these bridges are obligatory to prevent damages or failure of its structural members. Herein, this paper aimed to determine the near-fault ground motion effect on an existing cablestayed bridge equipped with lead-rubber bearing. In this context, Shipshaw cable-stayed bridge is selected as the case study. The selected bridge has a span of 183.2 m composite deck and 43 m height of steel tower. 2D finite element models of the non-isolated and base isolated bridges are modelled by using SAP2000. Three different near-fault ground motions which are Tabas 1978, Cape Mendocino 1992 and Kobe 1995 were subjected to the 2D FEM models in order to determine the seismic behaviour of the bridge. The near-fault ground motions were applied to the bridge in the longitudinal direction. Nonlinear dynamic analysis was performed to determine the dynamic responses of the bridge. Comparison of dynamic response of nonisolated and base isolated bridge under three different near-fault ground motions were conducted. The results obtained from numerical analyses of the bridge showed that the isolation system lengthened the period of bridge and minimised deck displacement, base shear and base moment of the bridge. It is concluded that the isolation system significantly reduced the destructive effects of near-fault ground motions on the bridge.
The massive growth of construction industry especially in the developing countries results in extensive quarrying activities which ultimately would lead to the depletion of natural resources. Apart from extensive extraction of the natural granite from the earth for concrete production, marble production industry is also majorly contributing to the quarrying activities. In addition, high volume of waste is generated by the marble production industry as 70% of marble is wasted during the production such as quarrying, cutting, processing and others which is environmental unfriendly. In a way to achieve sustainable construction, the present study is to utilise the waste marble in replacing the coarse aggregate in concrete production. The engineering performance including workability, compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV) and chloride penetration were analysed. The raw waste marble obtained from the industry were crushed and sieved into maximum size 20 mm and used to replace the coarse aggregate at the level of 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% respectively. Results show that 60% of the replacement level has yield to optimum result by achieving the highest compressive strength and UPV at approximate 5% higher than the control. Meanwhile, the effect on chloride penetration resistance is more significant, i.e. approximate 19% better than the control. However, increasing the replacement level of waste marble has no significant effect on workability, although an increasing trend was observed.
Nowadays, demands in the application of fibre in concrete increase gradually as an engineering material. Rapid cost increment of material causes the increase in demand of new technology that provides safe, efficient and economical design for the present and future application. The introduction ofribbed slab reduces concrete materials and thusthe cost, but the strength of the structure also reduces due to the reducing of material. Steel fibre reinforced concrete (SFRC) has the ability to maintain a part of its tensile strength prior to crack in order to resist more loading compared to conventional concrete. Meanwhile, the ribbed slab can help in material reduction. This research investigated on the bending strength of 2-ribbed and 3-ribbed concrete slab with steel fibre reinforcement under static loading with a span of 1500 mm and 1000 mm x 75 mm in cross section. An amount of 40 kg/m steel fibre of all total concrete volume was used as reinforcement instead of conventional bars with concrete grade 30 N/mm2 . The slab wastested underthree-point bending. Load versus deflection curve was plotted to illustrate the result and to compare the deflection between control and ribbed slab. Thisresearch showsthat SFRCRibbed Slab capable to withstand the same amount of load as normal slab structure, although the concrete volume reduces up to 20%.
A ribbed slab structure has the advantage in the reduction of concrete volume in between the ribs resulting in a lower structural self-weight. In order to overcome the drawbacks in the construction process, the application of steel fibre self-compacting concrete (SCFRC) is seen as an alternative material to be used in the slab. This preliminary investigation was carried out to investigate the flexural behaviour of steel fibre selfcompacting concrete (SCFRC) asthe main material in ribbed slab omitting the conventionalreinforcements. Two samples ofribbed slab were prepared for this preliminary study; 2-ribbed and 3-ribbed in 1 m width to identify the effect of the geometry to the slab’s flexural behaviour. The dimension of both samples is 2.5 m x 1 m with 150 mm thickness. The compressive strength of the mix is 48.6 MPa based on the cubes tested at 28 days. Load was applied to failure by using the four point bending test set-up with simple support condition. The result of the experiment recorded ultimate load carrying capacity at 30.68 kN for the 2-ribbed slab and 25.52 kN for 3-ribbed slab. From the results, the ultimate load of the 2-ribbed sample exceeds 3-ribbed by approximately 20%. This proved that even with lower concrete volume, the sample can still withstand an almost similar ultimate load. Cracks was also observed and recorded with the maximum crack width of 2 mm. It can be concluded that the steel fibres do have the potential to withstand flexural loadings. Steel fibre reduces macro-crack forming into micro-cracks and improves concrete ductility, as well as improvement in deflection. This shows that steel fibre reinforced self-compacting concrete is practical as it offers good concrete properties as well as it can be mixed, placed easier without compaction.
Sewage sludge is a by-product generated within the wastewater treatment process. Severe concern arised as the sludge are massively been dumped to the landfill and it may affect the environment. Many studies had been conducted in reusing the sewage sludge as construction material, where it is one of the optional ways to solve the issue. In this study, dried sewage sludge was incinerated with two different temperatures in order to produce sewage sludge ash (SSA), which are 800°C and 1000°C. Afterfew processes, this SSA then reused in mortar as cementreplacement with the replacement percentage of 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% by weight. The strength performance of mortar specimens was investigated after 7, 28, 60 and 90 days of curing. From the results, it is clearly showed that the compressive strength of all mortar specimens increased when the period of curing was prolonged. Moreover, almost all compressive strength of SSA mortars was higher than the control mortar. Therefore, there is potential to reuse this waste material as part of construction materials and hence, its plays an important role for future researches in minimisation of waste.
The application of concrete filled steel tubes(CFSTs) as composite members has widely been used around the world and is becoming popular day by day for structural application especially in earthquake regions. This paper indicates that an experimental study was conducted to comprehend the behaviour of T-stub end plates connected to concrete filled thin-walled steel tube (CFTST) with different types of bolts and are subjected to pullout load. The bolts used are normal type bolt M20 grade 8.8 and Lindapter Hollo-bolt HB16 and HB20. A series of 10 mm thick T-stub end plates were fastened to 2 mm CFTST of 200 mm x 200 mm in cross-section. All of the specimens were subjected to monotonic pull-out load until failure. Based on testresults, the Lidapter Hollo-boltsshowed better performance compare to normal bolts. The highest ultimate limit load for T-stub end plate fasten with Lindapter Hollo-bolt is four times higher than with normal bolt although all end plates show similar behaviour and failure mode patterns. It can be concluded that T-stub end plate with Lindapter Hollo-bolt shows a better performance in the service limit and ultimate limit states according to the regulations in the design codes.
Disasters are defined as extraordinary events which occur abruptly, bringing great damage or harm, loss, and destruction to people and the environment. Nurses may have a more conflict and difficulties in disaster decision making where the victim condition need to be treated in disaster place. Nurses play a key role in hospital as a leaders and managers in the disaster operation and command center but limited data shows that the nurses experience in disaster management. The aim of this study is to evaluate the perception of knowledge and skills on the preparedness in disaster management among nurses in community clinics. A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in 27 government clinics in one of the states in Malaysia with a convenient sampling, 260 participants are selected. The questionnaire consisted of three sections; socio-demographic characteristics, the perception of knowledge and skill towards preparedness for disaster management rated on a Likert scale. In the effort to collect the intended data, a self-report questionnaire adapted and modified from Disaster Preparedness Evaluation Tool (DPET) was implemented (Alrazeeni, 2015). This study revealed that Nurses in these community clinics were moderate in terms of the perception of knowledge (Mean= 3.65, SD= 0.61) and the perceived skills (Mean= 3.68, SD= 0.56) on the preparedness in Disaster Management. Nevertheless, they were interested in disaster preparedness management training (n=227, 87.3%) and were confident as first responders of disaster (Mean= 3.88, SD= 0.61). However, they were not much involved in disaster preparedness plan (Mean= 3.23, SD= 0.90) and claimed that there was a lack of leadership figure in disaster situation (Mean= 3.06, SD= 0.92). In conclusion, nurses in community clinics need to gain knowledge and skills by involving themselves in disaster planning and drills as the preparation for disaster management for them to be the first responders in helping and managing people in this situation.
Content management is an organisational effort of managing content, particularly in digital format. Although it has been over 25 years since content management was introduced, this field of study is still considered an emerging topic with unresolved issues-in particular, the subject of benefit achievement. Therefore, grounded on an extensive review of 135 articles, the purpose of this study is to investigate the benefits that organisations can gain through the proper use of an Enterprise Content Management System (ECMS). Subsequently, this paper identifies a list of ECMS benefits and proposes an ECMS benefit framework for further exploration into this field. Our result shows that although ECMS does bring benefits to organisations, these benefits are diverse; indicating that there are certain determinants or factors influencing the achievement of such benefits. Moreover, it is also found that in the context of the benefit framework of Shang and Seddon [10], three categories were found relevant to the field of content management: operational benefit, managerial benefit, and strategic benefit.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of papaya leaves crude extract on the physicochemical properties of marinated chicken meat. Papaya leaves was extracted with sodium acetate (CH3COONa) buffer (pH 7.2) at room temperature. Protein concentration and activity of enzyme in the crude extract were determined by using UV-Spectrophotometer. The crude extract was mixed with marinated ingredients and then coated onto chicken meat which was subsequently kept for overnight in refrigerator at chill temperature. Protein concentration of the enzyme was identified as 166.36 μg/μl and enzyme activity was 1.28 CDU/ml. Results also showed that lightness (L*), cooking loss and shrinkage of the marinated chicken were higher than control. Redness (a*), yellowness (b*), protein content, water-holding capacity, shear force, and texture profile analysis were lower than control. Microstructure analysis showed that the chicken meat muscle was destructed in the presence of papaya crude extract. Sensory acceptability evaluation of marinated chicken which was carried out by using 9 point hedonic scale suggested that chicken meat treated with papaya crude extract gave significant effect on texture, juiciness, flavour and overall acceptability compared to commercial bromelain. Additionally, the use of papaya crude extract gave a significant effect on the physicochemical properties of marinated chicken.
To ascertain the level of knowledge among primary school teachers towards the management of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) in school and to determine the preference among teachers regarding the education tools that can be used to increase awareness and knowledge among them. A total of 150 teachers from primary schools in three different districts were included in the study and they were given self-administered questionnaires to be filled. The validated questionnaire was distributed randomly in the selected schools. The questionnaire included two scenarios comprising of tooth fracture and avulsion. Questions regarding awareness and management of these scenarios were asked. All 150 participants answered the questionnaire; of these 74% were females 26% were males. 64% of the participants had received tertiary education. Although 70% of teachers had obtained first aid training, only 9.3% of them had received training regrading dental injuries. About 53% of participants knew the correct answer for the appropriate response to fractured tooth and only 35.3% managed to correctly answer the question related to appropriate response to an avulsed tooth. Only 38.7% knew about appropriate rinsing solution and a mere 4.7% were familiar with proper storage media. Even though the teachers have poor knowledge regarding management of dental injuries, it is reassuring to know that 93% of them are keen on further training and awareness. More educational programmes need to be introduced to empower the teachers with the relevant knowledge required to deal with dental emergencies.
Regression models are developed in various field of applications to help researchers to predict certain variables based on other predictor variables. The dependent variables in the regression model are estimated by a number of independent variables. Model utility test is a hypothesis testing procedure in regression to verify if there is a useful relationship between the dependent variable and the independent variable. The hypothesis testing procedure that involves p-value is commonly used in model utility test. A new technique that involves coefficient of determination R2 in model utility test is developed in this paper. The effectiveness of the model utility test in testing the significance of regression model is evaluated using simple linear regression model with the significance level α = 0.01, 0.025 and 0.05. The study in this paper shows that a regression model that is declared to be a significant model by using model utility test, however it fails to guarantee a strong linear relationship between the independent variable and dependent variable. Based on the evaluation presented in this paper, it is shown that the p-value approach in model utility test is not a good technique in evaluating the significance of a regression model. The results of this study could serve as a reference for other researchers applying regression analysis in their studies.
This research is about the natural product of coriander, or the Coriandrum species. The bioactive molecules and the health effects of this plant are constantly discussed. This paper is parallel with those publications, investigating the composition of the herb. The results of current study indicates that the Coriandrum seed is a source of fatty acids. From the publications, petroselinic acid or (6Z)-octadecenoic acid, is the major fatty acid in the coriander extracts. Previous articles reported on coriander’s chemical constituents, biological activities of the coriander’s seeds and leaves, as well as the coriander products in the retail. Indeed, coriander has a lot of uses either as a traditional medicines or spices. Different forms of coriander samples were subjected to a simple maceration by using chloroform. From the chromatographic purification of the seed crude extract, its component could include anisaldehyde, as one of the aromatic aldehyde. It is concluded that the lipid-containing fraction of the coriander seed could also consist of dipetroselin, a diglyceride.
The manganese oxides composite was synthesised via a simple molten salts method using a purchased MnCl2•2H2O as structuring agent. The structural details of the sample are important to be studied and previously rarely reported. It was characterised using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and data analyses including fitting process were done by Search-Match and Origin software. The Vesta software was used to draw a diagram crystal structure of the as-prepared composite. The experimental results indicated that the composite has two phases, Mn3O4 and MnO2, in value of approximately 74.22% and 25.78%, separately. The composite was highly crystalline with 74.69% compared to 25.31% for amorphous. The crystallite size of the Mn3O4 and MnO2 were calculated in an average of 22 and 24 nm, respectively. However, the lattice strain of the as-prepared composite was obtained between 7.1 x 10-3 and 7.4 x 10-3. The lattice parameters for the Mn3O4 compound was a = 5.705 Å and c = 9.473 Å, whereas a = 9.390 Å, b = 2.477 Å, c = 4.705 Å correspond to the MnO2 compound. The obtained results concluded that the composite containing two different types of system structure (tetragonal and orthorhombic).
The cloud point extraction (CPE) method was developed to determine the zinc prior to Ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometry detection. Triton X-100was applied as extractant based on the complexation reaction of Zn(II) ions with ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). Under optimal conditions, the CPE was used to determine the concentration of zinc in canned food samples. The amounts of zinc found in the food samples were in the range of 0.005-0.007 mg/L with RSD of < 8 %. This confirmed that the proposed CPE method is suitable for the determination of zinc in food samples, indicating the concentration of zinc was within the permissible limit.
Composite panels were manufactured from kenaf particles and treated with two different alkali treatments using 2% NaOH and 2% KOH with resin contents of 8% and 10% of phenol formaldehyde (PF) at medium density of 650kg/m3. The objectives of this study were to determine the mechanical properties in terms of its modulus of rupture (MOR), modulus of elasticity (MOE) and internal bond (IB), and physical properties namely thickness swelling (TS) and water absorption (WA) of treated kenaf board. The mechanical and physical tests were performed according to the Malaysian Standard (MS1787:2004). The minimum requirements value for MOE, MOR and IB were 2000 MPa, 14 MPa and 0.45 MPa respectively for furniture grade particleboards for use in humid conditions (PF2). According to Malaysian specifications for physical properties, the maximum requirement for thickness swell is 15%. Results indicated that both treated boards with NaOH and KOH showed an increase in strength properties compared to untreated particleboard. Particleboard treated with KOH exhibited the highest MOR and MOE values, while board with NaOH treatment gave the highest IB value. The boards with treated particles gave better performance in terms of physical properties. There were no significant differences in mechanical properties (MOR, MOE and IB) and physical properties for the different alkali treatment. The values of bending strength and IB strength increased with an increase in resin content, while TS and WA increased with a decrease in resin content. In conclusion, NaOH and KOH treated kenaf particles improved board performance and could be considered as an alternative material for particleboard production.
Concepts from algebraic geometry such as cones and fans are related to toric varieties and can be applied to determine the convex polytopes and homogeneous coordinate rings of multivariate polynomial systems. The homogeneous coordinates of a system in its projective vector space can be associated with the entries of the resultant matrix of the system under consideration. This paper presents some conditions for the homogeneous coordinates of a certain system of bivariate polynomials through the construction and implementation of the Sylvester-Bèzout hybrid resultant matrix formulation. This basis of the implementation of the Bèzout block applies a combinatorial approach on a set of linear inequalities, named 5-rule. The inequalities involved the set of exponent vectors of the monomials of the system and the entries of the matrix are determined from the coefficients of facets variable known as brackets. The approach can determine the homogeneous coordinates of the given system and the entries of the Bèzout block. Conditions for determining the homogeneous coordinates are also given and proven.
Bi2Se3 is one of the promising materials in thermoelectric devices and is environmentally friendly due to its efficiency to perform in room temperature. Structural and electronic properties of Bi2Se3 were investigated based on the first-principles calculation of density functional theory (DFT) using CASTEP computer code. The calculation is conducted within the exchange-correlation of local density approximation (LDA) and generalised gradient approximation within the revision of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof (GGA-PBE) functional. A comparative study is carried out between the electronic properties of LDA and GGA-PBE. Lattice parameter and band gap are consistent with the other reports. Calculation from LDA is more accurate and has a better agreement than GGA-PBE in describing the lattice parameter of Bi2Se3. Band gap and density of states of LDA show higher electrical conductivity than GGA-PBE. Both LDA and GGA-PBE have same degree of thermal conductivity due to the occurrence of indirect band gap at same range of wave vector.
Natural fibre is known useful in many applications however, the existing fibre treatment method able to reduce its overall properties. In this study, a new, simple and cost-effective fibre coating treatment method was developed which was able to improve the physical and morphological properties that open a new path for natural based materials to be used in a more robust application. The physical and morphological properties of various coated kenaf fibres were analysed to comprehend the cutting behaviour of coated fibres after subjected to the pulverisation process. The kenaf fibres were individually immersed in 1:4, 1:5 and 1:6 epoxy to acetone coating solutions prior cured, and pulverised consecutively using 5 mm, 1 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.25 mm mesh sizes aperture. The morphological characteristic was analysed using polarised optical and scanning electron microscope. The result showed that 1:6 coating ratio solution able to effectively coat the fibres’ aspect ratio that forming individual coated fibre which in long length pulverised fibres. Moreover, the low viscous 1:6 solution able to penetrate inside fibre structure that supported by density and fibre crosssection analysis compare to the other solutions. In future, this analysis is crucial to give insight on the coated fibres behaviour after subjected to the mechanical means of cutting process that later relates to the reinforcing mechanism in the composite samples.
This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of pre-treatment on the fishy flavour and odour removal of gelatine extracted from the skin of sutchi catfish (Pangasius sutchi). Pre-treatment of the skin involved soaking at 4°C in distilled water (GC), lime followed by tamarind (GLT) or salt followed by activated carbon (GSC) prior to extraction in warm distilled water (50°C) for 12 hours. Yield, physical properties and sensory were determined. Results showed that GLT produced highest yield (19.72%) compared to GSC (15.01%) and GC (15.81%). Although, GLT exhibited lowest gel strength (282.29g), viscoelasticity (14.1ºC) and setting point (10.46ºC) compared to other pre-treatments, fishy flavour and odour of the gelatine were almost absent with the score of 1.68 and 1.74, respectively. These values were below those of reference which are 1.87 (fishy flavour) and 2.71 (fishy odour) denoting from ‘absent to weak’. Since fishy flavour and odour were almost absent, soaking sutchi catfish skin in lime followed by tamarind could be a good method for achieving the desired sensory attributes of the freshwater fish by the reduction of the gelatine off flavour.