Search results for: Ahmad Zuhairi Abdullah

Authors: Mohammad Shoyaib, M. Abdullah-Al-Wadud, Oksam Chae

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Proteomics is one of the largest areas of research for bioinformatics and medical science. An ambitious goal of proteomics is to elucidate the structure, interactions and functions of all proteins within cells and organisms. Predicting Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) is one of the crucial and decisive problems in current research. Genomic data offer a great opportunity and at the same time a lot of challenges for the identification of these interactions. Many methods have already been proposed in this regard. In case of in-silico identification, most of the methods require both positive and negative examples of protein interaction and the perfection of these examples are very much crucial for the final prediction accuracy. Positive examples are relatively easy to obtain from well known databases. But the generation of negative examples is not a trivial task. Current PPI identification methods generate negative examples based on some assumptions, which are likely to affect their prediction accuracy. Hence, if more reliable negative examples are used, the PPI prediction methods may achieve even more accuracy. Focusing on this issue, a graph based negative example generation method is proposed, which is simple and more accurate than the existing approaches. An interaction graph of the protein sequences is created. The basic assumption is that the longer the shortest path between two protein-sequences in the interaction graph, the less is the possibility of their interaction. A well established PPI detection algorithm is employed with our negative examples and in most cases it increases the accuracy more than 10% in comparison with the negative pair selection method in that paper.

Keywords: Interaction graph, Negative training data, Protein-Protein interaction, Support vector machine.

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Authors: Hilal Adnan Fadhil, Syed Alwei, R. Badlishah Ahmad

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A new code for spectral-amplitude coding optical code-division multiple-access system is proposed called Random diagonal (RD) code. This code is constructed using code segment and data segment. One of the important properties of this code is that the cross correlation at data segment is always zero, which means that Phase Intensity Induced Noise (PIIN) is reduced. For the performance analysis, the effects of phase-induced intensity noise, shot noise, and thermal noise are considered simultaneously. Bit-error rate (BER) performance is compared with Hadamard and Modified Frequency Hopping (MFH) codes. It is shown that the system using this new code matrices not only suppress PIIN, but also allows larger number of active users compare with other codes. Simulation results shown that using point to point transmission with three encoded channels, RD code has better BER performance than other codes, also its found that at 0 dbm PIIN noise are 10-10 and 10-11 for RD and MFH respectively.

Keywords: OCDMA, MFH, PIIN, and BER.

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Authors: Md Abdullah Al Faruque, Ram Balachandar

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Sudden change of bed condition is frequent in open channel flow. Change of bed condition affects the turbulence characteristics in both streamwise and wall-normal direction. Understanding the turbulence intensity in open channel flow is of vital importance to the modeling of sediment transport and resuspension, bed formation, entrainment, and the exchange of energy and momentum. A comprehensive study was carried out to understand the extent of the effect of Reynolds number and bed roughness on different turbulence characteristics in an open channel flow. Four different bed conditions (impervious smooth bed, impervious continuous rough bed, pervious rough sand bed, and impervious distributed roughness) and two different Reynolds numbers were adopted for this cause. The effect of bed roughness on different turbulence characteristics is seen to be prevalent for most of the flow depth. Effect of Reynolds number on different turbulence characteristics is also evident for flow over different bed, but the extent varies on bed condition. Although the same sand grain is used to create the different rough bed conditions, the difference in turbulence characteristics is an indication that specific geometry of the roughness has an influence on turbulence characteristics. Roughness increases the contribution of the extreme turbulent events which produces very large instantaneous Reynolds shear stress and can potentially influence the sediment transport, resuspension of pollutant from bed and alter the nutrient composition, which eventually affect the sustainability of benthic organisms.

Keywords: Open channel flow, Reynolds Number, roughness, turbulence.

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Authors: Sahilu Wendeson Sahilu, Wan Fatimah Wan Ahmad, Nazleeni Samiha Haron

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Mobile learning (M-learning) integrates mobile devices and wireless computing technology to enhance the current conventional learning system. However, there are constraints which are affecting the implementation of platform and device independent M-learning. The main aim of this research is to fulfill the following main objectives: to develop platform independent mobile learning tool (M-LT) for structured programming course, and evaluate its effectiveness and usability using ADDIE instructional design model (ISD) as M-LT life cycle. J2ME (Java 2 micro edition) and XML (Extensible Markup Language) were used to develop platform independent M-LT. It has two modules lecture materials and quizzes. This study used Quasi experimental design to measure effectiveness of the tool. Meanwhile, questionnaire is used to evaluate the usability of the tool. Finally, the results show that the system was effective and also usability evaluation was positive.

Keywords: ADDIE, Conventional learning, ISD, J2ME, Mlearning, Quasi Experiment, Wireless Technology, XML

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Authors: Hamid Tavakolipour, Mohsen Mokhtarian, Ahmad Kalbasi Ashtari

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In this study, the effect of various drying methods (sun drying, shade drying and industrial drying) on final moisture content, shell splitting degree, shrinkage and color change were studied. Sun drying resulted higher degree of pistachio nuts shell splitting on pistachio nuts relative other drying methods. The ANOVA results showed that the different drying methods did not significantly effects on color change of dried pistachio nut. The results illustrated that pistachio nut dried by industrial drying had the lowest moisture content. After the end of drying process, initially, the experimental drying data were fitted with five famous drying models namely Newton, Page, Silva et al., Peleg and Henderson and Pabis. The results indicated that Peleg and Page models gave better results compared with other models to monitor the moisture ratio’s pistachio nut in industrial drying and open sun (or shade drying) methods, respectively.

Keywords: Industrial drying, Modeling, Pistachio, quality properties, Traditional drying.

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Authors: Abdul Rashid Husain, Mohamad Noh Ahmad, Abdul Halim Mohd. Yatim

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In this paper, application of Sliding Mode Control (SMC) technique for an Active Magnetic Bearing (AMB) system with varying rotor speed is considered. The gyroscopic effect and mass imbalance inherited in the system is proportional to rotor speed in which this nonlinearity effect causes high system instability as the rotor speed increases. Transformation of the AMB dynamic model into regular system shows that these gyroscopic effect and imbalance lie in the mismatched part of the system. A H2-based sliding surface is designed which bound the mismatched parts. The solution of the surface parameter is obtained using Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI). The performance of the controller applied to the AMB model is demonstrated through simulation works under various system conditions.

Keywords: Active magnetic bearing, sliding mode control, linear matrix inequality, mismatched uncertainty and imbalance.

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Authors: Nuawi M. Z., Lamin F., Ismail A. R., Abdullah S., Wahid Z.

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A filter is used to remove undesirable frequency information from a dynamic signal. This paper shows that the Znotch filter filtering technique can be applied to remove the noise nuisance from a machining signal. In machining, the noise components were identified from the sound produced by the operation of machine components itself such as hydraulic system, motor, machine environment and etc. By correlating the noise components with the measured machining signal, the interested components of the measured machining signal which was less interfered by the noise, can be extracted. Thus, the filtered signal is more reliable to be analysed in terms of noise content compared to the unfiltered signal. Significantly, the I-kaz method i.e. comprises of three dimensional graphical representation and I-kaz coefficient, Z∞ could differentiate between the filtered and the unfiltered signal. The bigger space of scattering and the higher value of Z∞ demonstrated that the signal was highly interrupted by noise. This method can be utilised as a proactive tool in evaluating the noise content in a signal. The evaluation of noise content is very important as well as the elimination especially for machining operation fault diagnosis purpose. The Z-notch filtering technique was reliable in extracting noise component from the measured machining signal with high efficiency. Even though the measured signal was exposed to high noise disruption, the signal generated from the interaction between cutting tool and work piece still can be acquired. Therefore, the interruption of noise that could change the original signal feature and consequently can deteriorate the useful sensory information can be eliminated.

Keywords: Digital signal filtering, I-kaz method, Machiningmonitoring, Noise Cancelling, Sound

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Authors: Mete Kazaz, Birol Gülnar

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Television news has gained a new dimension in terms of ideological approaches as a result of such factors as globalization, cross monopolization, presence of international companies etc. and certain strategies have been developed at the production, presentation and distribution stages of news. In this study, television news about a process called “settlement process” was investigated. In this framework, news about the settlement process on TV channels of TRT 1, ATV, FOX TV, NTV, HABERTÜRK, TRT HABER and STV was investigated using the content analysis method in terms of the strategies the ideology construction, attitude towards the party in power, attitude towards parties in opposition and attitude towards BDP (Peace and Democracy Part) and Imrali (the island where Abdullah Ocalan, head of PKK, is kept). First, the aforementioned TV channels were selected randomly from 3 groups in order to be able to reveal the representational capacity of commercial, news and public channels. The study covers 557 news items broadcast in the main news bulletins between the dates of 15 March 2013 and 15 March 2013. While there was a positive attitude towards the government in a sizable portion of the news about the settlement process (63.6%), the attitude of 25.3% of the news was impartial towards the government and 11.3% had a negative attitude. On the other hand, there was a negative attitude towards the Opposition in a considerable portion of the news about the settlement process (56.1%). The attitude of 35.9% of the news towards the Opposition was impartial whereas 8.0% had a positive attitude. While 34.9% of the news about the settlement process used the legitimization strategy from among the ideology construction strategies, 22.8% used the unification strategy, 15.7% the reification strategy, 15.6% fractional and 11% concealment/mystification strategy.

Keywords: Attitude, Ideological Framing, Television News.

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Authors: Shiraz Ahmad, Zhe-Ming Lu

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An effective visual error concealment method has been presented by employing a robust rotation, scale, and translation (RST) invariant partial patch matching model (RSTI-PPMM) and exemplar-based inpainting. While the proposed robust and inherently feature-enhanced texture synthesis approach ensures the generation of excellent and perceptually plausible visual error concealment results, the outlier pruning property guarantees the significant quality improvements, both quantitatively and qualitatively. No intermediate user-interaction is required for the pre-segmented media and the presented method follows a bootstrapping approach for an automatic visual loss recovery and the image and video error concealment.

Keywords: Exemplar-based image and video inpainting, outlierpruning, RST-invariant partial patch matching model (RSTI-PPMM), visual error concealment.

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Authors: M.A. Ahmad

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This paper presents the use of anti-sway angle control approaches for a two-dimensional gantry crane with disturbances effect in the dynamic system. Delayed feedback signal (DFS) and proportional-derivative (PD)-type fuzzy logic controller are the techniques used in this investigation to actively control the sway angle of the rope of gantry crane system. A nonlinear overhead gantry crane system is considered and the dynamic model of the system is derived using the Euler-Lagrange formulation. A complete analysis of simulation results for each technique is presented in time domain and frequency domain respectively. Performances of both controllers are examined in terms of sway angle suppression and disturbances cancellation. Finally, a comparative assessment of the impact of each controller on the system performance is presented and discussed.

Keywords: Gantry crane, anti-sway control, DFS controller, PD-type Fuzzy Logic Controller.

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Authors: Azeem Ahmad, Magnus Goransson, Aamir Shahzad

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The selection of appropriate requirements for product releases can make a big difference in a product success. The selection of requirements is done by different requirements prioritization techniques. These techniques are based on pre-defined and systematic steps to calculate the requirements relative weight. Prioritization is complicated by new development settings, shifting from traditional co-located development to geographically distributed development. Stakeholders, connected to a project, are distributed all over the world. These geographically distributions of stakeholders make it hard to prioritize requirements as each stakeholder have their own perception and expectations of the requirements in a software project. This paper discusses limitations of the Analytical Hierarchy Process with respect to geographically distributed stakeholders- (GDS) prioritization of requirements. This paper also provides a solution, in the form of a modified AHP, in order to prioritize requirements for GDS. We will conduct two experiments in this paper and will analyze the results in order to discuss AHP limitations with respect to GDS. The modified AHP variant is also validated in this paper.

Keywords: Requirements Prioritization, GeographicallyDistributed Stakeholders, AHP, Modified AHP.

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Authors: Siti Khuzaimah Soid, Zanariah Mohd Yusof, Ahmad Sukri Abd Aziz, Seripah Awang Kechil

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A steady two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics flow and heat transfer over a stretching vertical sheet influenced by radiation and porosity is studied. The governing boundary layer equations of partial differential equations are reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations using similarity transformation. The system is solved numerically by using a finite difference scheme known as the Keller-box method for some values of parameters, namely the radiation parameter N, magnetic parameter M, buoyancy parameter l , Prandtl number Pr and permeability parameter K. The effects of the parameters on the heat transfer characteristics are analyzed and discussed. It is found that both the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number decrease as the magnetic parameter M and permeability parameter K increase. Heat transfer rate at the surface decreases as the radiation parameter increases.

Keywords: Keller-box, MHD boundary layer flow, permeability stretching.

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Authors: Mohd K. Yunus, Murni M. Ahmad, Abrar Inayat, Suzana Yusup

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Due to the environmental and price issues of current energy crisis, scientists and technologists around the globe are intensively searching for new environmentally less-impact form of clean energy that will reduce the high dependency on fossil fuel. Particularly hydrogen can be produced from biomass via thermochemical processes including pyrolysis and gasification due to the economic advantage and can be further enhanced through in-situ carbon dioxide removal using calcium oxide. This work focuses on the synthesis and development of the flowsheet for the enhanced biomass gasification process in PETRONAS-s iCON process simulation software. This hydrogen prediction model is conducted at operating temperature between 600 to 1000oC at atmospheric pressure. Effects of temperature, steam-to-biomass ratio and adsorbent-to-biomass ratio were studied and 0.85 mol fraction of hydrogen is predicted in the product gas. Comparisons of the results are also made with experimental data from literature. The preliminary economic potential of developed system is RM 12.57 x 106 which equivalent to USD 3.77 x 106 annually shows economic viability of this process.

Keywords: Biomass, Gasification, Hydrogen, iCON.

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Authors: Siti Khadijah Che Osmi, Syed Mohd Ahmad

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This paper presents a methodology to develop fragility curves for shallow tunnels so as to describe a relationship between seismic hazard and tunnel vulnerability. Emphasis is given to the influence of surrounding soil material properties because the dynamic behaviour of the tunnel mostly depends on it. Four ground properties of soils ranging from stiff to soft soils are selected. A 3D nonlinear time history analysis is used to evaluate the seismic response of the tunnel when subjected to five real earthquake ground intensities. The derived curves show the future probabilistic performance of the tunnels based on the predicted level of damage states corresponding to the peak ground acceleration. A comparison of the obtained results with the previous literature is provided to validate the reliability of the proposed fragility curves. Results show the significant role of soil properties and input motions in evaluating the seismic performance and response of shallow tunnels.

Keywords: Fragility analysis, seismic performance, tunnel lining, vulnerability.

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Authors: Irshad Ahmad, Abdul Muhamin Naeem, Muhammad Islam, Shahid Nawaz

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Information on weed distribution within the field is necessary to implement spatially variable herbicide application. Since hand labor is costly, an automated weed control system could be feasible. This paper deals with the development of an algorithm for real time specific weed recognition system based on Histogram Maxima with threshold of an image that is used for the weed classification. This algorithm is specifically developed to classify images into broad and narrow class for real-time selective herbicide application. The developed system has been tested on weeds in the lab, which have shown that the system to be very effectiveness in weed identification. Further the results show a very reliable performance on images of weeds taken under varying field conditions. The analysis of the results shows over 95 percent classification accuracy over 140 sample images (broad and narrow) with 70 samples from each category of weeds.

Keywords: Image processing, real-time recognition, weeddetection.

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Authors: Nurfirdawati Muhamad Hanafi, Azmanirah Ab Rahman, Marina Ibrahim Mukhtar, Jamil Ahmad, Sarebah Warman

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This study was conducted to generate empirical evidence on validity and reliability of the item of Competency Assessment Implementation (CAI) Instrument using Rasch Model for polythomous data aided by Winstep software version 3.68. The construct validity was examined by analyzing the point-measure correlation index (PTMEA), infit and outfit MNSQ values; meanwhile the reliability was examined by analyzing item reliability index. A survey technique was used as the major method with the CAI instrument on 156 teachers from vocational schools. The results have shown that the reliability of CAI Instrument items were between 0.80 and 0.98. PTMEA Correlation is in positive values, in which the item is able to distinguish between the ability of the respondent. Statistical data obtained show that out of 154 items, 12 items from the instrument suggested to be omitted. This study is hoped could bring a new direction to the process of data analysis in educational research.

Keywords: Competency Assessment, Reliability, Validity, Item Analysis.

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Authors: Haidar Safa, Hassan Artail, Ahmad Mehio, Hicham Zahr, Ziad Matragi

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The Mobile IP Standard has been developed to support mobility over the Internet. This standard contains several drawbacks as in the cases where packets are routed via sub-optimal paths and significant amount of signaling messages is generated due to the home registration procedure which keeps the network aware of the current location of the mobile nodes. Recently, a dynamic hierarchical mobility management strategy for mobile IP networks (DHMIP) has been proposed to reduce home registrations costs. However, this strategy induces a packet delivery delay and increases the risk of packet loss. In this paper, we propose an enhanced version of the dynamic hierarchical strategy that reduces the packet delivery delay and minimizes the risk of packet loss. Preliminary results obtained from simulations are promising. They show that the enhanced version outperforms the original dynamic hierarchical mobility management strategy version.

Keywords: Location management, Mobile IP (MIP), Home Agent, Foreign Agent.

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Authors: Kamyar Shameli, Mansor Bin Ahmad, Wan Md Zin Wan Yunus, Nor Azowa Ibrahim, Maryam Jokar, Majid Darroudi

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Silver/polylactide nanocomposites (Ag/PLA-NCs) were synthesized via chemical reduction method in diphase solvent. Silver nitrate and sodium borohydride were used as a silver precursor and reducing agent in the polylactide (PLA). The properties of Ag/PLA-NCs were studied as a function of the weight percentages of silver nanoparticles (8, 16 and 32 wt% of Ag-NPs) relative to the weight of PLA. The Ag/PLA-NCs were characterized by Xray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electro-optical microscopy (EOM), UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). XRD patterns confirmed that Ag-NPs crystallographic planes were face centered cubic (fcc) type. TEM images showed that mean diameters of Ag-NPs were 3.30, 3.80 and 4.80 nm. Electro-optical microscopy revealed excellent dispersion and interaction between Ag-NPs and PLA films. The generation of silver nanoparticles was confirmed from the UVvisible spectra. FT-IR spectra showed that there were no significant differences between PLA and Ag/PLA-NCs films. The synthesized Ag/PLA-NCs were stable in organic solution over a long period of time without sign of precipitation.

Keywords: Nanocomposites, Polylactide, Silver Nanoparticles, Sodium Borohydride, Transmission Electron Microscopy.

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Authors: Jaharah A. Ghani, Muhammad Rizal, Ahmad Sayuti, Mohd Zaki Nuawi, Mohd Nizam Ab. Rahman, Che Hassan Che Haron

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This study presents a new method for detecting the cutting tool wear based on the measured cutting force signals using the regression model and I-kaz method. The detection of tool wear was done automatically using the in-house developed regression model and 3D graphic presentation of I-kaz 3D coefficient during machining process. The machining tests were carried out on a CNC turning machine Colchester Master Tornado T4 in dry cutting condition, and Kistler 9255B dynamometer was used to measure the cutting force signals, which then stored and displayed in the DasyLab software. The progression of the cutting tool flank wear land (VB) was indicated by the amount of the cutting force generated. Later, the I-kaz was used to analyze all the cutting force signals from beginning of the cut until the rejection stage of the cutting tool. Results of the IKaz analysis were represented by various characteristic of I-kaz 3D coefficient and 3D graphic presentation. The I-kaz 3D coefficient number decreases when the tool wear increases. This method can be used for real time tool wear monitoring.

Keywords: mathematical model, I-kaz method, tool wear

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Authors: Najib Ahmad Marzuki, Che Su Mustaffa, Johana Johari, Nur Hafizza Rahaman

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The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects and relationship of stress and social support towards the quality of life among flood victims in Malaysia. A total of 764 respondents took part in the survey via convenience sampling. The Depression, Anxiety and Stress scale (DASS) was utilized to measure stress while The Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support was used to measure social support. To measure quality of life, the combination of WHO Quality of Life – BREF (WHOQOL-BREF) and The Impact of Event Scale – Revised (IES-R) were utilized. The findings of this study indicate that there were significant correlations between variables in the study. The findings showed a significant negative relation between stress and quality of life; and significant positive correlations between support from family as well as support from friends with quality of life. Stress and support from family were found to be significant predictors that influence the quality of life among flood victims.

Keywords: Stress, social support, quality of life, flood victims.

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Authors: Ayesha Batool, Saghir Ahmad, Abid Hussain Ch.

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The art of the examination is probably the most difficult one in the whole range of educational practices. Semester system is the system of examination, which is set with an institute by its own teachers. Annual system is the system of examination, which is constructed and administrated by some agency outside the institute, it enables the teacher to estimate the effectiveness of the instruction, and students to estimate the progress made by them. On the other hand, semester system of examinations requires following the curriculum strictly and methods of teaching are to be employed by the choice of teachers. The main purpose of the study was to investigate university students’ perceptions regarding the effectiveness of semester system and annual system. The study was quantitative in nature. The sample consisted of 200 students. A five point Likert type scale was used to collect the data. The statistical measures like frequencies, mean, standard deviation, and One Way ANOVA test were applied to analyze the data. The major findings of the study indicated that in semester system students do not spend much time in political activities and develop their study habits. It also revealed that annual system of examination does not satisfy the educational aspirations of the students.

Keywords: Effectiveness, semester system, annual system.

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Authors: M. H. Imam, Imran A. Tasadduq, Abdul-Rahim Ahmad, Fahd M. Aldosari

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Learning outcomes of a course (CLOs) and the abilities at the time of graduation referred to as Student Outcomes (SOs) are required to be assessed for ABET accreditation. A question in an assessment must target a CLO as well as an SO and must represent a required level of competence. This paper presents the idea of an Expert System (ES) to select a proper question to satisfy ABET accreditation requirements. For ES implementation, seven attributes of a question are considered including the learning outcomes and Bloom’s Taxonomy level. A database contains all the data about a course including course content topics, course learning outcomes and the CLO-SO relationship matrix. The knowledge base of the presented ES contains a pool of questions each with tags of the specified attributes. Questions and the attributes represent expert opinions. With implicit rule base the inference engine finds the best possible question satisfying the required attributes. It is shown that the novel idea of such an ES can be implemented and applied to a course with success. An application example is presented to demonstrate the working of the proposed ES.

Keywords: Expert system, student outcomes, course learning outcomes, question attributes.

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Authors: Rowland R. Ogunrinde, Yusmadi Y. Jusoh, Noraini Che Pa, Wan Nurhayati W. Rahman, Azizol B. Abdullah

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Enterprise Applications (EAs) aid the organizations achieve operational excellence and competitive advantage. Over time, most Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which are known to be the major drivers of most thriving global economies, use the costly on-premise versions of these applications thereby making business difficult to competitively thrive in the same market environment with their large enterprise counterparts. The advent of cloud computing presents the SMEs an affordable offer and great opportunities as such EAs can be cloud-hosted and rented on a pay-per-use basis which does not require huge initial capital. However, as there are numerous Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) offering EAs as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), there is a challenge of choosing a suitable provider with Quality of Service (QoS) that meet the organizations’ customized requirements. The proposed model takes care of that and goes a step further to select the most affordable among a selected few of the CSPs. In the earlier stage, before developing the instrument and conducting the pilot test, the researchers conducted a structured interview with three experts to validate the proposed model. In conclusion, the validity and reliability of the instrument were tested through experts, typical respondents, and analyzed with SPSS 22. Results confirmed the validity of the proposed model and the validity and reliability of the instrument.

Keywords: Cloud service provider, enterprise applications, quality of service, selection criteria, small and medium enterprise.

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Authors: Fatima Rasool, Mahmood Ahmad, Ghulam Murtaza, Haji M. S. Khan, Shujaat A. Khan, Sonia Khiljee, Muhammad Qamar-Uz-Zaman

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This study describes the methodology for the development of a validated in-vitro in-vivo correlation (IVIVC) for metoprolol tartrate modified release dosage forms with distinctive release rate characteristics. Modified release dosage forms were formulated by microencapsulation of metoprolol tartrate into different amounts of ethylcellulose by non-solvent addition technique. Then in-vitro and in-vivo studies were conducted to develop and validate level A IVIVC for metoprolol tartrate. The values of regression co-efficient (R2-values) for IVIVC of T2 and T3 formulations were not significantly (p<0.05) different from 1 while the values of R2 for IVIVC of T1 and Mepressor® were significantly (p<0.05) different from 1. Internal prediction errors of IVIVC, calculated from observed Area under Curve (AUC) and predicted AUC, were less than 10%. This study successfully presents a valid level A IVIVC for metoprolol tartrate modified dosage forms.

Keywords: Metoprolol tartrate, Dissolution, Bioavailability, Validated in-vitro in-vivo correlation.

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Authors: Nursyafiqah Abdul Kahar, Niraku Rosmawati Ahmad, Hisham Mohamad, Siti Nuruljannah Mohd Marzuki

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Assessment of geotechnical properties of the subsoil is necessary for generating relevant input for the design and construction of a foundation. It is significant for the future development in the area. The focus of this research is to investigate the preliminary geotechnical properties of the uncemented sandstone from Kati formation at Puncak Iskandar, Seri Iskandar. A series of basic soil tests, oedometer and direct shear box tests were carried out to obtain the soil parameters. The uncemented sandstone of Kati Formation was found to have well-graded and poorly graded sand distribution, depending on the location where the samples were obtained. The sand grains distribution was in a range of 82%-100% while, the specific gravity of the uncemented sandstone is in the range 2.65-2.86. The preconsolidation pressure for USB3 was 990 kPa indicating that the sandstone at USB3 sample had undergone 990 kPa of overburden pressure. The angle of friction for uncemented sandstone was ranging between 23.34°-32.92°.

Keywords: Geotechnical properties, Kati formation, uncemented sandstone, oedometer test, shear box test.

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Authors: A. Mahfurdz, Sunardi, H. Ahmad

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An envelope echo signal measurement is proposed in this paper using echo signal observation from the 200 kHz echo sounder receiver. The envelope signal without any object is compared with the envelope signal of the sphere. Two diameter size steel ball (3.1 cm & 2.2 cm) and two diameter size air filled stainless steel ball (4.8 cm & 7.4 cm) used in this experiment. The target was positioned about 0.5 m and 1.0 meter from the transducer face using nylon rope. From the echo observation in time domain, it is obviously shown that echo signal structure is different between the size, distance and type of metal sphere. The amplitude envelope voltage for the bigger sphere is higher compare to the small sphere and it confirm that the bigger sphere have higher target strength compare to the small sphere. Although the structure signal without any object are different compare to the signal from the sphere, the reflected signal from the tank floor increase linearly with the sphere size. We considered this event happened because of the object position approximately to the tank floor.

Keywords: echo sounder, target strength, sphere, echo signal

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Authors: Ahmad Abdulkadir Ibrahim

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Observation of the methodology of Islamic economics laid down for the methods and instruments of analysis and even some of its basic assumptions in the modern world; is a matter that is of paramount importance. There is a need to examine the implications of different suggested definitions of Islamic economics, exploring its scope and attempting to outline its methodology. This paper attempts to deal with the definition of Islamic economics, its methodology, and its scope. It will outline the main methodological problem by addressing the question of whether Islamic economics calls for a methodology of its own or as an expanded economics. It also aims at drawing the attention of economists in the modern world to the obligation and consideration of the methodology of Islamic economics. The methodology adopted in this research is library research through the consultation of relevant literature, which focuses on the thematic study of the subject matter. This is followed by an analysis and discussion of the contents of the materials used. It is concluded that there is a certain degree of inconsistency in the way assumptions are incorporated that perhaps are alien to Islamic economics. The paper also observed that there is a difference between Islamic economists and other (conventional) economists in the profession. An important conclusion is that Islamic economists need to rethink what economics is all about and whether we really have to create an alternative to economics in the form of Islamic economics or simply have an Islamic perspective of the same discipline.

Keywords: Islamic economics, conventional economics, Muslim economists, modern economy.

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Authors: Abdullah M. Algarni, Yashwant K. Malaiya

Abstract:

Some of the key aspects of vulnerability—discovery, dissemination, and disclosure—have received some attention recently. However, the role of interaction among the vulnerability discoverers and vulnerability acquirers has not yet been adequately addressed. Our study suggests that a major percentage of discoverers, a majority in some cases, are unaffiliated with the software developers and thus are free to disseminate the vulnerabilities they discover in any way they like. As a result, multiple vulnerability markets have emerged. In some of these markets, the exchange is regulated, but in others, there is little or no regulation. In recent vulnerability discovery literature, the vulnerability discoverers have remained anonymous individuals. Although there has been an attempt to model the level of their efforts, information regarding their identities, modes of operation, and what they are doing with the discovered vulnerabilities has not been explored.

Reports of buying and selling of the vulnerabilities are now appearing in the press; however, the existence of such markets requires validation, and the natures of the markets need to be analyzed. To address this need, we have attempted to collect detailed information. We have identified the most prolific vulnerability discoverers throughout the past decade and examined their motivation and methods. A large percentage of these discoverers are located in Eastern and Western Europe and in the Far East. We have contacted several of them in order to collect firsthand information regarding their techniques, motivations, and involvement in the vulnerability markets. We examine why many of the discoverers appear to retire after a highly successful vulnerability-finding career. The paper identifies the actual vulnerability markets, rather than the hypothetical ideal markets that are often examined. The emergence of worldwide government agencies as vulnerability buyers has significant implications. We discuss potential factors that can impact the risk to society and the need for detailed exploration.

Keywords: Risk management, software security, vulnerability discoverers, vulnerability markets.

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Authors: Abbas Nasir, Xiong Zhang, Sohail Ahmad, Yiping Cui

Abstract:

Non-polar a-plane AlGaN epilayers of high structural quality have been grown on r-sapphire substrate by using metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). A graded non-polar AlGaN buffer layer with variable aluminium concentration was used to improve the structural quality of the non-polar a-plane AlGaN epilayer. The characterisations were carried out by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Hall effect measurement. The XRD and AFM results demonstrate that the Al-composition-graded non-polar AlGaN buffer layer significantly improved the crystalline quality and the surface morphology of the top layer. A low root mean square roughness 1.52 nm is obtained from AFM, and relatively low background carrier concentration down to 3.9×  cm^-3 is obtained from Hall effect measurement.

Keywords: Non-polar AlGaN epilayer, Al composition-graded AlGaN layer, root mean square, background carrier concentration.

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Authors: Hamid Abbasdokht , Ahmad Gholami

Abstract:

In order to study of The Effect of seed inoculation with Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus on yield and yield components of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars, an experiment was carried out as factorial based on Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) in Agricultural Research Station of Shahrood University of Technology. Results showed that inoculation with Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus promoted seed germination. Also, inoculation with Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus significantly affected grain yield, Number of spikes per m2, Number of grain per spike and 1000-seed weight and There was not statistically significant difference between Chamran and Pishtaz cultivars . Finally, the dosages of chemical fertilizers currently applied in commercial wheat field in Iran (Shahrood region) could be reduced through proper combination of Pseudomonas putida+Bacillus lentus inoculation plus fertilization.

Keywords: Seed inoculation, wheat, yield, yield components

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