This paper deals with the analysis of different Fuzzy membership type performance for Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) based mobile robot navigation. EKF is known to be incompetent in non-Gaussian noise condition and therefore the technique alone is not sufficient to provide solution. Motivated by this shortcoming, a Fuzzy based EKF is proposed in this paper. Three membership types are considered which includes the triangular, trapezoidal and Gaussian membership types to determine the best estimation results for mobile robot and landmarks locations. Minimal rule design and configuration are also other aspects being considered for analysis purposes. The simulation results suggest that the Gaussian memberships surpassed other membership type in providing the best solution in mobile robot navigation.
The 3D structure of the insecticidal protein Cry1Ba4 produced by B. thuringiensis subsp.
Entomocidus HD-9 was determined using homology modelling. From the model built, we have
been able to identify the possible sites for structure modification by site-directed mutagenesis.
The mutation was introduced at the conserved region of -helix 7 by substituting the
hydrophobic motif that comprises alanine 216, leucine 217 and phenylalanine 218 with arginine.
Wild and mutant Cry1Ba4 genes were cloned into pET200/D-TOPO and expressed in the
expression host. The result suggests that mutant Cry1Ba4 protein was less toxic to the larvae
Plutella xylostella compared to the wild-type. In conclusion, alteration in the structure of
Domain I had left an impact on the toxicity of Cry1Ba4 against P. xylostella.
Coconut fibre reinforced composite was prepared by blending unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) from waste PET with 0.3 v% of coconut fibre. The coconut fibres were pre-treated with sodium hydroxide followed by silane prior to inclusion into the UPR. The untreated coconut fibres reinforced composite were used as a control. Dricon® as a phosphate type of flame retardant was then added to the composite to reduce the flammability of the composite. The amount of Dricon® was varied from 0 to 10 wt% of the overall mass of resin. The burning properties and limiting oxygen index (LOI) of the treated and untreated composites increased with the addition of Dricon®. The tensile strength and modulus of both composites were also increased with the addition of Dricon®. The treated fibre composite with 5 wt% Dricon® showed the highest burning time and LOI with the values of 101.5 s and 34 s, respectively. The optimum tensile strength and modulus for treated fibre composite was at 5 wt% Dricon® whereas the untreated fibre composite was at 2.5 wt% loading of Dricon®. Thermogravimetry (TGA) analysis indicated that the degradation temperature increased with the addition of Dricon® up to 5 wt% into UPR/coconut fibre composites. Morphological observations indicated better distribution of Dricon® for treated fibre composite resulted in enhancement of the tensile properties of the treated fibre composite.
The effects of prenatal caffeine exposure were examined on the morphological development and early development of reflexes in the mice pups, and further, the anxiety was also studied in the weaned mice using the plus-maze test. It was found that the postnatal body weight gain of the treated pups declined significantly. The normal eye-opening and hair appearance were also affected in the pups due to caffeine treatment. Measurement of early development of sensory motor reflexes in the pups showed that during the first week, caffeine had significantly stimulated the righting reflex, cliff avoidance and rotating reflexes with interaction between age and treatment doses. It was found in the plus-maze test that caffeine had significantly reduced the percentages of time spent as well as the entries into the open arms indicating for an anxiogenic action of caffeine in the young adult mouse. Also, caffeine stimulated the locomotor activity in the mouse as exemplified by an increase in the total number of arm entries in the plusÂmaze task. The present data support the basic conclusion that prenatal caffeine has a direct in utero action on the reflexes of the developing mouse pups and the anxiogenic action produced in them is longer lasting in nature.
Analisis kuantitatif telah dilakukan untuk menentukan kepekatan ion aluminium (Al3+) dalam larutan dengan menggunakan kaedah spektrofotometri UL-Nampak dan jaringan neural tiruan (ANN). Reagen morin telah digunakan untuk membentuk kompleks morin-Al(III). Pencirian terhadap reagen dalam larutan termasuk analisis kestabilan foto reagen, kesan pH, kesan kepekatan, masa rangsangan, julat kepekatan dinamik dan kebolehulangan telah dilakukan. Penggunaan ANN telah berupaya memanjangkan julat kepekatan dinamik ion Al3+ sehingga julat kepekatan 1-13 ppm.
Given any semigroup presentation, we may obtain the diagram group. The purpose of this paper is to determine the graphs Γn(P), (n ∈ N), which are obtained from diagram group for the union of two semigroup presentations of integers with s and t different initial generators. The number of vertices and edges in these graphs will be computed.
Kertas ini membincangkan satu keluarga lengkung peralihan satahan licin yang dibina menggunakan dua lingkaran kuartik Bezier. Lingkaran kuartik yang diperkenalkan ini mempunyai enam darjah kebebasan yang memberi kelebihan untuk mempelbagaikan rupa bentuk lingkaran di dalam selangnya. Kelicinan adalah dirujuk melalui ciri-ciri keselanjaran geometri G2 dan kelengkungan monoton yang dimiliki oleh sesuatu lengkung peralihan. Oleh sebab lengkungan ini tidak memiliki sebarang juring, gelung dan titik lengkok balas, di samping tanpa perubahan kelengkungan yang mendadak maka ia amat sesuai untuk aplikasi tertentu dalam Reka Bentuk Berbantukan Komputer (RBK) bagi memenuhi keperluan estatis serta kepentingan fungsinya seperti reka bentuk produk industri, trajektori robot tidak holonomi dan juga reka bentuk mendatar landasan kereta api serta lebuh raya. Sebagai suatu perwakilan polinomial, lingkaran kuartik Bezier ini mampu digabungjalinkan ke dalam sistem RBK yang kebanyakannya berasaskan perwakilan NURBS (nonuniform rational B-splines).
In a laboratory trial three chickpea varieties viz, Karak-I, Karak-III and Shenghar were tested against the phytotoxicity of five weed species: Parthenium hysterophorus L., Phragmites australis (Cav.) Trin., Datura alba L., Cyperus rotundus L. and Convolvulus arvensis L.in January 2013. The weed extracts were prepared at the rate of 120 g/L (w/v) after shade dry. The results indicated highly significant inhibitory effect of all the tested weed species on the chickpea varieties. The results also showed that the chickpea variety Karak-III was more susceptible to the phytotoxcity of the tested weed extracts. Among the extract, C. arvensis proved much toxic in term of inhibition of germination by giving only 43.33% germination in comparison with control where 97.50% germination was recorded. On the other hand, the effect of P. australis extract was found a little stimulator by speeding the seed germination in all varieties and giving a low (2.21) mean germination time (MGT) value. From the current results it can be concluded that the infestation of C. arvensis can pollute the soil by accumulating toxic chemicals that leads to the germination failure and growth suppression in chickpea. Therefore, the prevention and removal of C. arvensis in the chickpea growing areas could be recommended. In addition, P. australis must be tested against chickpea weeds (chickpea varieties withstand against its phytotoxcity), so that it can be popularized as bioherbicide in chickpea if it gave promising results in controlling chickpea weeds.
The electrooxidation of propionaldehyde and butyraldehyde on a gold electrode was studied by cyclic voltammetry in alkaline media. Electrooxidation of both aldehydes showed the appearance of two anodic peaks. Another oxidation peak on a newly generated electrode surface was observed after the corresponding reduction peak for both aldehydes.
Kajian ini dijalankan untuk menentukan isoterma dan kinetik penjerapan bahan pencemar boron daripada air sisa sintetik menggunakan batu kapur sebagai bahan penjerap berkos rendah. Penjerapan boron berlaku secara optimum pada julat pH6-8, masa sentuhan pada 90 min dan dos batu kapur 240 g/L yang penyingkirannya mencapai 40%. Isoterma penjerapan lebih diwakili oleh model Freundlich (R2 = 0.91) berbanding model Langmuir (R2 = 0.78) yang menunjukkan penjerapan secara multilapisan adalah dominan. Kajian kinetik penjerapan menunjukkan penjerapan boron ke atas batu kapur mematuhi dengan baik model penjerapan pseudo-tertib pertama (R2 = 0.93), pseudo-tertib kedua (R2 = 0.987), Elovich (R2 = 0.931) dan Intrapartikel (R2 = 0.960). Mekanisme penjerapan secara kimia adalah dominan berdasarkan nilai R2 yang paling tinggi bagi model pseudo-tertib kedua.
This study focused on the development and optimization of a hybrid material formed from sol-gel and chitosan which could be used as a chemical sensing material. It is hoped that this new matrix can overcome certain weaknesses in solÂgel and chitosan materials. Dip-coating technique was used to prepare the film on microscope glass slide which functioned as a solid support. For optimization purposes, thymol blue was chosen as a pH indicator and was entrapped in the film. The film was characterized using uv-Visible Spectrophotometer. Morphology studies of the surface of the film were carried out using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Results indicated that the most suitable solgel: chitosan ratio for hybrid formation was 60:40 after considering the surface morphology of the film, leaching, response time and also the intensities of the spectrum. Besides that, the results also show that the pH indicator could be successfully entrapped inside the hybrid film and would still retain its chemical behavior just as in solution. The sensing material was found to have good repeatability when reacted with buffer solution and showed RSD values of 4.24 % and 5.96 % in buffer solution at pH 2.0 and pH 11.0, respectively. The entrapped indicator also showed good photo stability with RSD of 5.35 % for the duration of 8 hours. However; the reproducibility of the hybrid film was quite low with a RSD value of 18.40 % and 31.22 % at wavelength of 500 nm and 600 nm, respectively due to leaching.
[Penyelidikan ini difokuskan kepada pembangunan dan pengoptimuman bahan hibrid antara sol-gel dan kitosan untuk membentuk suatu matriks baru bagi penyediaan bahan penderia kimia yang dapat mengatasi kekurangan tertentu dalam bahan sol-gel danjuga kitosan. Teknik penyalutan celup telah digunakan untuk penyediaan filem nipis di atas penyokong slaid kaca mikroskop. Untuk tujuan pengoptimuman, timol biru dipilih sebagai penunjuk pH dan dipegunkan di dalam filem. Filem nipis dicirikan menggunakan Spektrofotometer UL-Nampak. Kajian morfologi ke atas permukaan filem pula dilakukan dengan menggunakan Mikroskop Imbasan Elektron (MIE). Keputusan yang diperolehi menunjukkan bahawa nisbah sol-gel:kitosan yang paling sesuai ialah 60:40 dengan mempertimbangkan dari segi morfologi permukaan filem, kelarutresapan, masa rangsangan dan juga keamatan spektrum. Selain itu, keputusan menunjukkan bahawa penunjuk pH berjaya dipegunkan dalam filem hibrid sol-gel-kitosan dan mampu mengekalkan sifat kimianya sebagaimana dalam larutan. Bahan penderia kimia ini didapati mempunyai kebolehulangan yang baik apabila bertindak dengan larutan penimbal dan menunjukkan nilai RSD yang baik iaitu 4.24% dan 5.96% dalam larutan penimbal pH 2.0 dan pH 11.0, masing-masingnya. Penunjuk pH terpegun turut menunjukkan kestabilan foto yang baik (RSD = 5.35%) untuk tempoh 8 jam. Walau bagaimanapun, kebolehasilan filem agak rendah dengan RSD yang bernilai 18.40% dan 31.22 % pada panjang gelombang 550 nm dan 600 nm masing-masing akibat daripada kelarut resapan].
Food contaminations are global problems that arise from industrial polluÂtion, agricultural practices, or from food preparation and storage processes. Food contamination may lead to adverse health effects and there is considÂerable effort on the part of governments and industry to minimize the level of contamination. A joint Food Contamination Monitoring and Assessment Programme under the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) in conjunction with FAO and WHO was established in 1976. There are increases in numbers of 40 countries participating the programme in 1992. The main objectives of the Programme is to be informed about levels and trends of contamination in food, their contribution to total human exposure and significance with regard to public health and trade. The Programme have been concerned with levels of priority chemicals in foods of major dietary importance and a significant portion of the data concerns the estimated total dietary intake of those contaminants selected for further comparison with toxicologically available standards or tolerance intake levels.
Analisis kuantitatif untuk penentuan kepekatan ion Al3+ dalam larutan akueus telah dilakukan menggunakan reagen alizarin red S (ARS) melalui pembentukan kompleks ARS-Al(III) yang dianalisis menggunakan kaedah spektrofotometri UL-Nampak. Kompleks ARS-Al(III) memberikan puncak serapan pada panjang gelombang 484 nm pada pH 5. Kajian kestabilan foto bagi reagen ARS memberikan nilai RSD sebanyak 0.46 %. Analisis kebolehulangan memberikan nilai RSD sebanyak 1.07 % dan 0.67 % masing-masingnya bagi kepekatan Al(III) 0.2 ppm dan 9 ppm. Gangguan kation Cu2+ dan Fe3+ pada nisbah mol 1:10 adalah minimum. Kebanyakan anion penggangu tidak memberikan kesan gangguan kecuali F- pada nisbah mol 1:1 dan 1:10. Sistem ini memberikan julat kepekatan dinamik Al3+ antara 0.1 – 1.0 ppm. Arkitektur ANN dengan bilangan neuron terlindung, bilangan kitaran dan kadar pembelajaran adalah masing-masingnya 23, 40000 dan 0.001 telah berjaya memanjangkan julat dinamik kepekatan Al(III) daripada 0.1 – 8.0 ppm. Reagen ARS berjaya dipegunkan pada permukaan ko-polimer XAD 4 dan mampu memberikan respon optik yang baik terhadap ion Al3+.
Graft copolymerization of acrylonitrile onto torch ginger cellulose was carried out in an aqueous medium with ceric ion
redox initiator. The optimum grafting parameters such as temperature, reaction time, ratio of monomer to cellulose addition
and ceric ammonium nitrate (CAN) concentration were determined and a maximum graft yield of 40% was recorded.
The graft copolymer was characterized and compared with untreated cellulose. A new absorption peak corresponding
to the nitrile group of acrylonitrile was recorded by FTIR at 2244 cm-1 on the grafted cellulose. The morphology studies
showed that the diameter and the surface roughness of grafted cellulose had increased as compared with the untreated
cellulose. On the contrary, the grafting had resulted in lowering the crystallinity of the cellulose from 63 to 53%. The
grafted cellulose produced a new derivative TG peak at 420°C and higher residual percentage than the untreated cellulose
The aim of this study was to examine the expectations about counselling among the Orang Asli students in secondary schools in the Cameron Highlands district of Malaysia. Data was collected using the Expectations about Counselling Questionnaire which was distributed to 436 respondents. The findings showed that the expectations of counselling sessions among the Orang Asli students were high (mean= 4.605, 79%). The counsellor expertise factor was the most dominant (mean=4.84, 69.14 %). It was found that the expectations about counselling among the Orang Asli students were significant between the expectation dimension (personal commitment, facilitative conditions, counsellor expertise, and counsellor nurturance) and the variables of gender, age and client status. There was no significant relationship between their expectations and the religion and residence variables. In conclusion, this study was successful in giving a general picture about the students’ expectations of counselling sessions.
The influences of temperatures and fluxes on contact angles, intermetallic (IMC) phase and thickness of Sn-40Pb and Sn-8Zn-3Bi solders on copper substrate were investigated. As expected, the contact angle decreases and the intermetallic thickness increases as the temperature increases. The Sn-40Pb solder exhibits a lower contact angles compared to Sn-8Zn-3Bi solder for all the fluxes tested. The Sn-40Pb/Cu system exhibits a single Cu6Sn5 intermetallic. The Sn-8Zn-3Bi/Cu interface exhibits ε(Cu-Zn) and γ-Cu5Zn8 phases and soldering at 280oC exhibits a single γ-Cu5Zn8 phase. Sn-40Pb/Cu gives higher intermetallic thickness compare to Sn-8Zn-3Bi/Cu system when soldering was done at 220oC. On the other hand, the IMC thickness formed by Sn-8Zn-3Bi/Cu system is higher than Sn-40Pb/Cu system for all other temperatures. Although, the fluxes have no significant influence on the thickness of IMC formed, ZnCl2 generally gives lower IMC thickness.
Radon gas has been known as one of the main factors that cause breathing complications which lead to lung cancer, second only after smoking habit. As one of the most commonly found Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (NORM), its contribution to background radiation is immense, and its contributors, Uranium and Thorium are widely available on Earth and have been in existence for such a long time with long half-lives. Indoor radon exposure contributed by building materials worsens the effects. The probability of inhaling radon-polluted air and being surrounded by it in any buildings is very high. This research is focused on the detection of radon emanation rate from various building materials which are commonly being used in Malaysia. Throughout this research, common building materials used in constructions in Malaysia were collected and indoor radon exposure from each material was measured individually using Tight Chamber Method coupled to a Continuous Radon Monitor, CRM 1029. It has been shown that sand brick is the biggest contributor to indoor radon compared to other samples such as sand, soil, black cement, white cement, and clay brick. From the results, materials which have high radon emanation could be reconsidered as building materials and mitigation action can be chosen, suitable to its application.
A study was conducted to investigate the duration of growth stages and flowering behaviour of a landscape tree,
Xanthostemon chrysanthus (F. Muell.) Benth. This species is known as golden penda and locally known as jambu kuning.
It is widely planted for urban beautification due to its distinctive coloured flowers. Under local climate condition, this
species flowers throughout the year. However, the flowering of this species has not been studied extensively. In the present
study, the growth of selected trees aged approximately six years after planting was monitored for a year. The growth
duration was determined using the extended Biologishe Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt and Chemical Industry (BBCH)
scale. Percentages of flower and fruit and new leaf abundances were expressed as estimated percentage of each stage as
compared to total surface area of the tree crown. The vegetative and reproductive stages of the species required 198 and
176 days, respectively. The flowering period took about 40 days from inflorescence bud swelling to drying and senescence
of stamens and petals. Unsynchronized flowering was observed among the trees. The occurrence of flowers was also
influenced by the development of new leaves or fruits. The information on the duration of each growth stage and the
flowering behaviour of the species may enhance a more detailed study related to flowering of urban trees in Malaysia.
The fungicide captan, which is commonly used to control fungal diseases in many plants, causes soil infertility and cancer to human beings. Hence, this fungicide was tested for utilization as a sole carbon source by a newly soil isolate, Planomicrobium flavidum strain EF. This bacterium resists captan up to 2000 ppm and showed higher growth patterns in minimum salt medium supplemented with captan only, if compared with minimum salt medium without captan. Moreover, almost 77.5% of captan has been utilized by Planomicrobiu flavidum after only 2 h of growth under shaking conditions and only 0.8% of the fungicide was remained after 24 h of bacterial growth. Captan residues in both soil samples and minimal salt medium were accurately estimated using GC-ECD (gas chromatography - electron detector) and GC-MS/MS (gas chromatography - mass spectrum) technologies. According to current results, Planomicrobium flavidum strain EF is highly recommended for captan and may be other fungicides bioremediation.
Nowadays, people have realized that physical activity plays a critical role in determining the health and wellness of an individual. This is proven by the extensive research on this area, which indicates that people have started to emphasize this matter. In addition, it is also well known that motivation is one of the main factors that determine whether people will participate in performing physical activity or not. Both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators play a major role in determining levels of physical activity. Therefore, this study is made to investigate the relationship between extrinsic motivation and physical activity level. The researcher randomly selected 195 students from SMK Alam Megah 2, Seksyen 28, Shah Alam, Selangor as respondents for this study. The method of this study includes a questionnaire adapted from International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) and Exercise Motivation Inventory (EMI), which was edited to fulfil the requirements of this study. The results from this study show that there is a positive and significant relationship between extrinsic motivation and physical activity.