Surface topography and morphological behaviours are the important aspects in the application of surface bearing as it deals with the contact area of objects upon motion. Improved surface bearing will be set as an indicator for tribology behaviour to reduce the possibility of wear rate and reduce the friction of objects, respectively. Thus, in this study, the fundamental of micro bearing concept was imparted as the Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE), which is a low density filler, will float onto the surface of the composite system to become a solid lubricant upon curing. UHMWPE filler, which is commonly known for its dominant properties of high tendency to resist wear and has low coefficient of friction were fabricated alongside epoxy resin in the composite system to achieve the desired strength and durability to perform over time. However, there are limitations of UHMWPE during processing upon the dispersion of the fillers with the matrix particles due to epoxy resin that has relatively high in viscosity. Therefore, acetone has been selected as a diluent with ratio of 1:1/4, 1:1/3, 1:1/2, 1:1 to dilute the high viscosity epoxy resin. The surface profile measurement were examined using Alicona Infinite Focus and Polarised Optical Microscope. Based on the results observed, EpUPE3 (epoxy and UHMWPE with acetone ratio of 1:1/2) showed better surface distribution and morphology with relatively low value of surface roughness (Ra) which is 1.41 μm and low pseuodocolour value of surface height which is around 6.76-6.77 cm compared to other formulation ratio. In near future, these surface topography and morphological analysis are important to relate with tribological, physical and mechanical properties of the micro bearing layers for bearing applications, specifically.
The genus Macaranga comes from the family of Euphorbiaceae and it is the only genus in the subtribe Macaranginae that have a large genus with 300 species of which 27 species were found in Peninsular Malaysia. This plant grows as shrubs or trees that can grow up to 15 m tall and known for their mutual associations with ants. Fresh or dried leaves of some Macaranga species were used by traditional healers to treat swellings, cuts, sores, boils and bruises. The isolation of chemical constituent from this genus has been shown to produce numerous results of phenolic compounds, such as flavonoids and stilbenoids. In this paper, we report the isolation of a prenylated flavonol, glyasperin A (1), together with a simple flavone apigenin (2) from the methanolic extract of the leaves of Macaranga gigantea. The structure of both compounds has been elucidated based on its spectroscopic data, including mass spectroscopy (MS), infrared (IR), ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis), 1D and 2D nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra and comparison with the previous literature.
Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) analysis in the study of oil palm DNA generally carried out by using DNA template obtained from grinding of leaf samples in liquid nitrogen followed by hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) protocol. The present study explores the FTA card as a method to retrieve PCR-amplifiable oil palm DNA. Oil palm leaves were cut and crushed before deposited onto the FTA card. An attempt was made by amplifying the EgSHP gene using a punch of FTA card as a DNA template. The successful outcome of PCR was measured by the presence of PCR amplicons on 1% agarose gel electrophoresis, indicate the genotype of oil palm fruit form. This present study demonstrates that the FTA card provides a versatile alternative to the study of oil palm genetics.