Search results for: Malaysia sand

Authors: Norazah Mohd Suki, Norbayah Mohd Suki

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This study aims to identify cellular phone users- shopping motivating factors towards online shopping. 100 university students located in Klang Valley, Malaysia were involved as the respondents. They were required to complete a set of questionnaire and had to own a cellular phone in order to be selected as sample in this study. Three from five proposed hypotheses were supported: purchasing information, shopping utilities and service quality. As a result, marketers and retailers should concentrate more on the less important factors in order to encourage and create willingness of the consumers to purchase online. Recommendation for future research is also presented.

Keywords: Motivation, Online Shopping, Purchasing.

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Authors: Abdelsalam Omran Gebril, Ali Gh Saeid

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Grazing and pastoral overloading through human factors result in significant land desertification. Failure to take into account the phenomenon of desertification as a serious problem can lead to an environmental disaster because of the damages caused by land encroachment. Therefore, soil on residential and urban areas is affected because of the deterioration of vegetation. Overgrazing or grazing in open and irregular lands is practiced in these areas almost throughout the year, especially during the growth cycle of edible plants, thereby leading to their disappearance. In addition, the large number of livestock in these areas exceeds the capacity of these pastures because of pastoral land overloading, which results in deterioration and desertification in the region. In addition, rare plants, the extinction of some edible plants in the region, and the emergence of plants unsuitable for grazing, must be taken into consideration, as along with the emergence of dust and sand storms during the dry seasons (summer to autumn) due to the degradation of vegetation. These results show that strategic plans and regulations that protect the environment from desertification must be developed. Therefore, increased pastoral load is a key human factor in the deterioration of vegetation cover, leading to land desertification in this region.

Keywords: Overloading, pastoral, grazing, desertification, Libya

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Authors: Jana Chvalkovska, Petr Jansky, Petr Teply

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The impact assessment in its various forms has recently become a very important part of policy-making and legislation in many different countries. Regulatory impact assessment (RIA) is yet another set of analytical methods deployed in the legislation of the European Union, of many developed countries as well as in many developing ones such as Mexico, Malaysia and Philippines. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical background for economic models in regulatory impact assessment and an overview of their application especially on the financial market in the Czech Republic. We found out an inadequate application of these models, what makes room for further research in this field.

Keywords: regulatory impact assessment, RIA, impact evaluation, building societies, Czech Republic

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Authors: M. Siosemarde, M. Byzedi

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Saturated hydraulic conductivity of Soil is an important property in processes involving water and solute flow in soils. Saturated hydraulic conductivity of soil is difficult to measure and can be highly variable, requiring a large number of replicate samples. In this study, 60 sets of soil samples were collected at Saqhez region of Kurdistan province-IRAN. The statistics such as Correlation Coefficient (R), Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Mean Bias Error (MBE) and Mean Absolute Error (MAE) were used to evaluation the multiple linear regression models varied with number of dataset. In this study the multiple linear regression models were evaluated when only percentage of sand, silt, and clay content (SSC) were used as inputs, and when SSC and bulk density, Bd, (SSC+Bd) were used as inputs. The R, RMSE, MBE and MAE values of the 50 dataset for method (SSC), were calculated 0.925, 15.29, -1.03 and 12.51 and for method (SSC+Bd), were calculated 0.927, 15.28,-1.11 and 12.92, respectively, for relationship obtained from multiple linear regressions on data. Also the R, RMSE, MBE and MAE values of the 10 dataset for method (SSC), were calculated 0.725, 19.62, - 9.87 and 18.91 and for method (SSC+Bd), were calculated 0.618, 24.69, -17.37 and 22.16, respectively, which shows when number of dataset increase, precision of estimated saturated hydraulic conductivity, increases.

Keywords: dataset, precision, saturated hydraulic conductivity, soil and statistics.

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Authors: Carrie Ho, Choo Bo Quan

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Urban non-point source (NPS) pollution for a residential catchment in Miri, Sarawak was investigated for two storm events in 2011. Runoff from two storm events were sampled and tested for water quality parameters including TSS, BOD5, COD, NH3-N, NO3-N, NO2-N, P and Pb. Concentration of the water quality parameters was found to vary significantly between storms and the pollutant of concern was found to be NO3-N, TSS, COD and Pb. Results were compared to the Interim National Water Quality Standards for Malaysia (INWQS),and the stormwater runoff from the study can be classified as polluted, exceeding class III water quality, especially in terms of TSS, COD, and NH3-N with maximum EMCs of 158, 135, and 2.17 mg/L, respectively.

Keywords: Residential land-use, urban runoff, water quality.

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Authors: Sankaran Rajendran

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Remote sensing plays a vital role in mapping of resources and monitoring of environments of the earth. In the present research study, mapping and monitoring of clay siltations occurred in the Alkhod Dam of Muscat, Sultanate of Oman are carried out using low-cost multispectral Landsat and ASTER data. The dam is constructed across the Wadi Samail catchment for ground water recharge. The occurrence and spatial distribution of siltations in the dam are studied with five years of interval from the year 1987 of construction to 2014. The deposits are mainly due to the clay, sand and silt occurrences derived from the weathering rocks of ophiolite sequences occurred in the Wadi Samail catchment. The occurrences of clays are confirmed by minerals identification using ASTER VNIR-SWIR spectral bands and Spectral Angle Mapper supervised image processing method. The presence of clays and their spatial distribution are verified in the field. The study recommends the technique and the low-cost satellite data to similar region of the world.

Keywords: Alkhod Dam, ASTER Siltation, Landsat, Remote Sensing, Oman.

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Authors: S. Roziana, R. Azizah, A.R. Hamidah

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This paper discusses the issues and challenge that academia faced in knowledge sharing at a research university in Malaysia. The partial results of interview are presented from the actual study. The main issues in knowledge sharing practices are university structure and designation and title. The academia awareness in sharing knowledge is also influenced by culture. Our investigation highlight that the concept of reciprocal relationship of sharing knowledge may hinder knowledge sharing awareness among academia. Hence, we concluded that further investigation could be carried out on the social interaction and trust culture among academia in sharing knowledge within research/ranking university environment.

Keywords: Knowledge sharing awareness, knowledge sharing practices, research university.

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Authors: Hasan Şahan Arel

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In this study, literature related to the replacement of cement with waste marble and the use of waste marble as an aggregate in concrete production was examined. Workability of the concrete decreased when marble powder was used as a substitute for fine aggregate. Marble powder contributed to the compressive strength of concrete because of the CaCO₃ and SiO₂ present in the chemical structure of the marble. Additionally, the use of marble pieces in place of coarse aggregate revealed that this contributed to the workability and mechanical properties of the concrete. When natural standard sand was replaced with marble dust at a ratio of 15% and 75%, the compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of the concrete increased by 20%-26% and 10%-15%, respectively. However, coarse marble aggregates exhibited the best performance at a 100% replacement ratio. Additionally, there was a greater improvement in the mechanical properties of concrete when waste marble was used in a coarse aggregate form when compared to that of when marble was used in a dust form. If the cement was replaced with marble powder in proportions of 20% or more, then adverse effects were observed on the compressive strength and workability of the concrete. This study indicated that marble dust at a cement-replacement ratio of 5%-10% affected the mechanical properties of concrete by decreasing the global annual CO₂ emissions by 12% and also lowering the costs from US$40/m³ to US$33/m³.

Keywords: Cement production, concrete, CO2 emission, marble, mechanical properties.

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Authors: Bashir M. Suleiman

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Thermal load calculations have been performed for multi-layered walls that are composed of three different parts; a common (sand and cement) plaster, and two types of locally produced soft and hard bricks. The masonry construction of these layered walls was based on concrete-backed stone masonry made of limestone bricks joined by mortar. These multilayered walls are forming the outer walls of the building envelope of a typical Libyan house. Based on the periodic seasonal weather conditions, within the Libyan cost region during summer and winter, measured thermal conductivity values were used to implement such seasonal variation of heat flow and the temperature variations through the walls. The experimental measured thermal conductivity values were obtained using the Hot Disk technique. The estimation of the thermal resistance of the wall layers ( R-values) is based on measurements and calculations. The numerical calculations were done using a simplified analytical model that considers two different wall constructions which are characteristics of such houses. According to the obtained results, the R-values were quite low and therefore, several suggestions have been proposed to improve the thermal loading performance that will lead to a reasonable human comfort and reduce energy consumption.

Keywords: Thermal loading, multilayered walls, Libyan bricks, thermal resistance

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Authors: S.B. Tavakoly Sany, A. Salleh, A.H. Sulaiman, G.H. Monazami

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The coastal sediments of West Port of Malaysia was monitored from Nov. 2009 to Oct. 2010 to assess spatial distribution of heavy metals As, Cu, Cd, Cr, Hg, Ni, Zn and Pb. Sediment samples were collected from 10 stations in dry and rainy season in West Port. The range concentrations measured (Mg/g dry weight ) were from 23.4 to 98.3 for Zn, 22.3 to 80 for Pb, 7.4 to 27.6 Cu, 0.244 to 3.53 for Cd, 7.2 to 22.2 for Ni, 20.2 to 162 for As, 0.11 to 0.409 for Hg and 11.5 to 61.5 for Cr. The geochemical indexes used in this study were Geoaccumulation (Igeo), Contamination Factor (CF) and Pollution Load Index (PLI); these indexes were used to evaluate the levels of sediment contaminations. The results of these indexes show that, the status of West Port sediment quality are moderately polluted by heavy metals except in arsenic which shows the high level of pollution.

Keywords: Heavy metals, Sediment Quality, West Port.

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Authors: Panpan Xu, Qiying Zhang, Hui Qian

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Groundwater is main source of water supply in the Guanzhong Basin, China. To investigate the quality of groundwater for agricultural purposes in Jiaokou Irrigation District located in the east of the Guanzhong Basin, 141 groundwater samples were collected for analysis of major ions (K⁺, Na⁺, Mg²⁺, Ca²⁺, SO₄^2-, Cl^-, HCO₃^-, and CO₃^2-), pH, and total dissolved solids (TDS). Sodium percentage (Na%), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), magnesium hazard (MH), and potential salinity (PS) were applied for irrigation water quality assessment. In addition, multivariate statistical techniques were used to identify the underlying hydrogeochemical processes. Results show that the content of TDS mainly depends on Cl^-, Na⁺, Mg²⁺, and SO₄^2-, and the HCO₃^- content is generally high except for the eastern sand area. These are responsible for complex hydrogeochemical processes, such as dissolution of carbonate minerals (dolomite and calcite), gypsum, halite, and silicate minerals, the cation exchange, as well as evaporation and concentration. The average evaluation levels of Na%, RSC, MH, and PS for irrigation water quality are doubtful, good, unsuitable, and injurious to unsatisfactory, respectively. Therefore, it is necessary for decision makers to comprehensively consider the indicators and thus reasonably evaluate the irrigation water quality.

Keywords: Irrigation water quality, multivariate statistical analysis, groundwater, hydrogeochemical process.

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Authors: Humayun Rashid, Lin Zhao

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Retention in the IT profession is critical for organizations to stay competitive and operate reliably in the dynamic business environment. Most organizations rely on compensation and rewards as primary tools to enhance retention of employees. In this quantitative survey-based study conducted at a large global bank, we analyze the perceptions of 575 information technology (IT) software professionals in India and Malaysia and find that fairness of rewards has very little impact on retention likelihood. It is far more important to actively involve employees in organizational activities. In addition, our findings indicate that involvement is far more important than information flow: the typical organizational communication to keep employees informed.

Keywords: fairness of rewards, information flow, informationinvolvement, retention

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Authors: A. I. M. Ismail, N. Ryden

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This paper is concerned with the study of mineralogy and engineering characteristics of soil materials derived from the eastern part of Nile Delta. The clay minerals of the studied soil by using X- ray diffraction are mainly illite (average 72.6 %) and kaolinite (average 2.6 %), expandable portion in illite-smectite mixed layer (average 7 %). Smectite is more abundant in fluviatile clays, whereas kaolinite is more abundant in lagoonal clays. On the other hand, illite and illite-smectite are more abundant in marine clays. The geotechnical results show that the soil under study consists mainly of about 0.3 % gravel, 5 % sand, 51.5 % silt and 42.2 % clay in average. The average shrinkage limit attains 11 % whereas the average value of the plasticity index is 23.4 %. The free swelling ranges from 40 % to 75 % and has a value of 55 % giving an indication about the inadequacy of such soil under foundations. From a construction point of view, the soil under investigation poses many problems even under light foundations due to the swelling and shrinkage. Such swelling and shrinkage is due to the high content of soil materials in the expandable clay minerals of illite and smectite. Based on the results of the present and earlier studies, trial application of soil stabilisation is recommended.

Keywords: Engineering Geological Investigations, Nile Delta, Swelling, Shrinkage

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Authors: Manal H. Saleh

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A numerical study has been carried out to investigate the heat transfer by natural convection of nanofluid taking Cu as nanoparticles and the water as based fluid in a three dimensional annulus enclosure filled with porous media (silica sand) between two horizontal concentric cylinders with 12 annular fins of 2.4mm thickness attached to the inner cylinder under steady state conditions. The governing equations which used are continuity, momentum and energy equations under an assumptions used Darcy law and Boussinesq-s approximation which are transformed to dimensionless equations. The finite difference approach is used to obtain all the computational results using the MATLAB-7. The parameters affected on the system are modified Rayleigh number (10 ≤Ra*≤ 1000), fin length Hf (3, 7 and 11mm), radius ratio Rr (0.293, 0.365 and 0.435) and the volume fraction(0 ≤ ¤ò ≤ 0 .35). It was found that the average Nusselt number depends on (Ra*, Hf, Rr and φ). The results show that, increasing of fin length decreases the heat transfer rate and for low values of Ra*, decreasing Rr cause to decrease Nu while for Ra* greater than 100, decreasing Rr cause to increase Nu and adding Cu nanoparticles with 0.35 volume fraction cause 27.9% enhancement in heat transfer. A correlation for Nu in terms of Ra*, Hf and φ, has been developed for inner hot cylinder.

Keywords: Annular fins, laminar free convection, nanofluid, porous media, three dimensions horizontal annulus.

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Authors: S. A. Naeini, H. R. Rahmani, M. Hossein Zade

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Many classical bearing capacity theories assume that the natural soil's layers are homogenous for determining the bearing capacity of the soil. But, in many practical projects, we encounter multi-layer soils. Geosynthetic as reinforcement materials have been extensively used in the construction of various structures. In this paper, numerical analysis of the Plate Load Test (PLT) using of ABAQUS software in double-layered soils with different thicknesses of sandy and gravelly layers reinforced with geogrid was considered. The PLT is one of the common filed methods to calculate parameters such as soil bearing capacity, the evaluation of the compressibility and the determination of the Subgrade Reaction module. In fact, the influence of the geogrid layers on the bearing capacity of the layered soils is investigated. Finally, the most appropriate mode for the distance and number of reinforcement layers is determined. Results show that using three layers of geogrid with a distance of 0.3 times the width of the loading plate has the highest efficiency in bearing capacity of double-layer (sand and gravel) soils. Also, the significant increase in bearing capacity between unreinforced and reinforced soil with three layers of geogrid is caused by the condition that the upper layer (gravel) thickness is equal to the loading plate width.

Keywords: Bearing capacity, reinforcement, geogrid, plate load test, layered soils.

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Authors: P. Ninduangdee, V. I. Kuprianov

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Palm kernel shell is an important bioenergy resource in Thailand. However, due to elevated alkali content in biomass ash, this oil palm residue shows high tendency to bed agglomeration in a fluidized-bed combustion system using conventional bed material (silica sand). In this study, palm kernel shell was burned in the conical fluidized-bed combustor (FBC) using alumina and dolomite as alternative bed materials to prevent bed agglomeration. For each bed material, the combustion tests were performed at 45kg/h fuel feed rate with excess air within 20–80%. Experimental results revealed rather weak effects of the bed material type but substantial influence of excess air on the behavior of temperature, O2, CO, CxHy, and NO inside the reactor, as well as on the combustion efficiency and major gaseous emissions of the conical FBC. The optimal level of excess air ensuring high combustion efficiency (about 98.5%) and acceptable level of the emissions was found to be about 40% when using alumina and 60% with dolomite. By using these alternative bed materials, bed agglomeration can be prevented when burning the shell in the proposed conical FBC. However, both bed materials exhibited significant changes in their morphological, physical and chemical properties in the course of the time.

Keywords: Palm kernel shell, fluidized-bed combustion, alternative bed materials, combustion and emission performance, bed agglomeration prevention.

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Authors: V. Agrawal, A. Sharma

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High Strength Concrete (HSC) is defined as concrete that meets special combination of performance and uniformity requirements that cannot be achieved routinely using conventional constituents and normal mixing, placing, and curing procedures. It is a highly complex material, which makes modeling its behavior a very difficult task. This paper aimed to show possible applicability of Neural Networks (NN) to predict the slump in High Strength Concrete (HSC). Neural Network models is constructed, trained and tested using the available test data of 349 different concrete mix designs of High Strength Concrete (HSC) gathered from a particular Ready Mix Concrete (RMC) batching plant. The most versatile Neural Network model is selected to predict the slump in concrete. The data used in the Neural Network models are arranged in a format of eight input parameters that cover the Cement, Fly Ash, Sand, Coarse Aggregate (10 mm), Coarse Aggregate (20 mm), Water, Super-Plasticizer and Water/Binder ratio. Furthermore, to test the accuracy for predicting slump in concrete, the final selected model is further used to test the data of 40 different concrete mix designs of High Strength Concrete (HSC) taken from the other batching plant. The results are compared on the basis of error function (or performance function).

Keywords: Artificial Neural Networks, Concrete, prediction ofslump, slump in concrete

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Authors: Wan Hasrulnizzam Wan Mahmood, Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman, Baba Md Deros

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Green supply chain management is an increasingly recognized practice among companies that are seeking to improve environmental performance. Of particular concern is how to arouse organizational awareness and put green activities into practice in order to enhance manufacturing performances. This paper investigates the correlation of green supply chain practices and manufacturing performances in Malaysian certified MS ISO 14000 manufacturing firms. The findings shows that green supply chain practices which that can be denominated product recycling, environmental compliance and optimization have significant influence to some of the manufacturing performances.

Keywords: Green supply chain practice, Manufacturing system performance, Malaysia

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Authors: Norazah Mohd Suki, Norbayah Mohd Suki

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Descriptive statistics was performed with the aim to achieve research objective of to investigate lecturers- usage of the mobile technology for teaching. A representative sample of 20 lecturers from the Faculty of Industrial Art & Design Technology of Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL), Malaysia was selected as the respondents. The result attested that lecturers fully accept the concept of mobility in learning and game play is appealing concept to support classroom learning. Subsequently, analogous experience on small size of keypad, screen resolution, and navigation could be the major problematic factors to students and affect their mobile learning process. Recommendation for future research is also presented.

Keywords: Academics, Mobile e-learning, Mobile technology, Readiness.

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Authors: Napoleana-Anna Chaliasou, Andrew Heath, Kevin Paine

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Fly ash-slag based Geopolymer Cement (GPC) is presenting mechanical properties and environmental advantages that make it the predominant “green” alternative to Portland Cement (PC). Although numerous life-cycle analyses praising its environmental advantages, disposal after the end of its life remains as an issue that has been barely explored. The present study is investigating the recyclability of fly ash-slag GPC as aggregate in mortars. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effect of GPC fine Recycled Aggregates (RA), at replacement levels of 25% and 50%, on the main mechanical properties of PC and GPC mortar mixes. The results were compared with those obtained by corresponding mixes incorporating natural and PC-RA. The main physical properties of GPC-RA were examined and proven to be comparable to those of PC-RA and slightly inferior to those of natural sand. A negligible effect was observed at 28-day compressive and flexural strength of PC mortars with GPC aggregates having a milder effect than PC. As far as GPC mortars are concerned, the influence of GPC aggregates was enhancing for the investigated mechanical properties. Additionally, a screening test showed that recycled geopolymer aggregates are not prone of inducing alkali silica reaction.

Keywords: Concrete recycling, geopolymer cement, recycled concrete aggregates, sustainable concrete technology.

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Authors: R. Deju, M. Mincu, D. Gurau

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During the interim storage or final disposal of low level waste, migration/diffusion of radionuclides can occur when the waste comes in contact with water. The long-term leaching behaviour into surrounding fluid (demineralized water) of ¹³⁷Cs, ⁶⁰Co and ¹⁵²Eu radionuclides, artificially incorporated in mortar matrices made from natural aggregates (river sand) and recycled radioactive concrete was studied. Results presented in this work are obtained in two years of mortar testing and will be used for the safety increasing in the storage of low level radioactive waste. The study involved the influence of curing time, type and size distribution of the aggregates on leaching behaviour. The mortar samples were immersed in distilled water for 30 days. The leached activity of the mortar samples was measured on samples from the immersing water and analyzed through a gamma-ray spectrometry method using an HPGe detector with a GESPECOR code for efficiency evaluation. The long-term leaching behaviour of the radionuclides was evaluated from the leaching data calculating the apparent diffusion coefficient.

Keywords: Leaching behaviour, recycling of radioactive concrete, waste management, gamma-ray spectrometry.

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Authors: Lway F. Abdulrazak, Zaid A. Shamsan, Ali K. Aswad, Tharek Abd. Rahman

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This paper gives a study about forging solution to deploy the fixed wireless access (FWA) in the band 3300-3400MHz instead of 3400-3600MHz to eschew the harmful interference between from the FWA towards fixed satellite services receiver presented in this band. The impact of FWA services toward the FSS and the boundaries of spectrum emission mask had been considered to calculate the possible Guard band required in this case. In addition, supplementary separation distance added to improve the coexistence between the two adjacent bands. Simulation had been done using Matlab software base on ITU models reliance on the most popular specification used for the tropical weather countries. Review the current problem of interference between two systems and some mitigation techniques which adopted in Malaysia as a case study is a part of this research.

Keywords: Coexistence, FSS, FWA, mask.

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Authors: Vimala Balakrishnan, Mohammad R. Shakouri, Hooman Hoodeh, Loo, Huck-Soo

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Diabetes is one of the high prevalence diseases worldwide with increased number of complications, with retinopathy as one of the most common one. This paper describes how data mining and case-based reasoning were integrated to predict retinopathy prevalence among diabetes patients in Malaysia. The knowledge base required was built after literature reviews and interviews with medical experts. A total of 140 diabetes patients- data were used to train the prediction system. A voting mechanism selects the best prediction results from the two techniques used. It has been successfully proven that both data mining and case-based reasoning can be used for retinopathy prediction with an improved accuracy of 85%.

Keywords: Case-Based Reasoning, Data Mining, Prediction, Retinopathy.

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Authors: Alireza Hajiani Boushehrian, Nader Hataf, Arsalan Ghahramani

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When the foundations of structures under cyclic loading with amplitudes less than their permissible load, the concern exists often for the amount of uniform and non-uniform settlement of such structures. Storage tank foundations with numerous filling and discharging and railways ballast course under repeating transportation loads are examples of such conditions. This paper deals with the effects of using the new generation of reinforcements, Grid-Anchor, for the purpose of reducing the permanent settlement of these foundations under the influence of different proportions of the ultimate load. Other items such as the type and the number of reinforcements as well as the number of loading cycles are studied numerically. Numerical models were made using the Plaxis3D Tunnel finite element code. The results show that by using gridanchor and increasing the number of their layers in the same proportion as that of the cyclic load being applied, the amount of permanent settlement decreases up to 42% relative to unreinforced condition depends on the number of reinforcement layers and percent of applied load and the number of loading cycles to reach a constant value of dimensionless settlement decreases up to 20% relative to unreinforced condition.

Keywords: Shallow foundation, Reinforced soil, Cyclic loading, Grid-Anchor, Numerical analysis.

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Authors: Wan Hasrulnizzam Wan Mahmood, Mohd Razali Muhamad, Nurulain Mat Tahar

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This paper is prepared to provide a review of how an automotive manufacturer, ISUZU HICOM Malaysia Co. Ltd. sustained the supply chain management after business process reengineering in 2007. One of the authors is currently undergoing industrial attachment and has spent almost 6 months researching in the production and operation management system of the company. This study was carried out as part of the tasks in the attachment program. The result shows that delivery lateness and outsourcing are the main barriers that affected productivity. From the gap analysis, the authors found that new business process operation had improved suppliers delivery performance.

Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Business Process Re- Engineering, Delivery, Outsourcing, Automotive Manufacturer.

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Authors: S.H. Khoon, G.I. Issabayeva, L.W. Lee

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Air quality in Setapak district of Kuala Lumpur was studied by analysing the rainwater chemical composition using ion chromatography method. Twelve sampling sites were selected and 120 rainwater samples were collected in the period of 10 weeks. The results of this study were compared to the earlier published data and the evaluation showed that the NO3 - ion concentration increased from 0.41 to 3.32 ppm, while SO4 2- ion concentration increased from 0.39 to 3.26 ppm over the past two decades that is mostly due to rapid urban development of the city. However, it was found that the chemical composition for both residential and industrial areas does not have significant difference. Most of the rainwater samples showed alkaline pH (pH > 5.6). The possible factors for such alkaline pH in rainwater samples are assumed to be the marine sources, biomass burning and alkaline character of soil particles.

Keywords: acid deposition; atmospheric pollution; deposition fluxes; trajectories

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Authors: S. Wagner, C. Boley, Y. Forouzandeh

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When digging excavations, groundwater bearing layers are often encountered. In order to allow anhydrous excavation, soil groutings are carried out, which form a water-impermeable layer. As it is injected into groundwater areas, the effects of the materials used on the environment must be known. Developing an eco-friendly, economical and low viscous acrylic gel which has a sealing effect on groundwater is therefore a significant task. At this point the study begins. Basic investigations with the rheometer and a reverse column experiment have been performed with different mixing ratios of an acrylic gel. A dynamic rheology study was conducted to determine the time at which the gel still can be processed and the maximum gel strength is reached. To examine the effect of acrylic gel grouting on determine the parameters pH value, turbidity, electric conductivity, and total organic carbon on groundwater, an acrylic gel was injected in saturated sand filled the column. The structure was rinsed with a constant flow and the eluate was subsequently examined. The results show small changes in pH values and turbidity but there is a dependency between electric conductivity and total organic carbon. The curves of the two parameters react at the same time, which means that the electrical conductivity in the eluate can be measured constantly until the maximum is reached and only then must total organic carbon (TOC) samples be taken.

Keywords: Acrylic gel grouting, dynamic rheology study, electric conductivity, total organic carbon.

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Authors: C. C. Yee, Y.Y.Chen

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Performance appraisal of employee is important in managing the human resource of an organization. With the change towards knowledge-based capitalism, maintaining talented knowledge workers is critical. However, management classification of “outstanding", “poor" and “average" performance may not be an easy decision. Besides that, superior might also tend to judge the work performance of their subordinates informally and arbitrarily especially without the existence of a system of appraisal. In this paper, we propose a performance appraisal system using multifactorial evaluation model in dealing with appraisal grades which are often express vaguely in linguistic terms. The proposed model is for evaluating staff performance based on specific performance appraisal criteria. The project was collaboration with one of the Information and Communication Technology company in Malaysia with reference to its performance appraisal process.

Keywords: Multifactorial Evaluation Model, performance appraisal system, decision support system.

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Authors: Wen-Chi Liu

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This study applies a simple and powerful nonlinear unit root test to test the validity of long-run purchasing power parity (PPP)  in a sample of 10 East-Asian countries (i.e., China, Hong Kong,  Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan  and Thailand) over the period of March 1985 to September 2008. The empirical results indicate that PPP holds true for half of these 10  East-Asian countries under study, and the adjustment toward PPP is found to be nonlinear and in an asymmetric way. 

 

Keywords: Purchasing Power Parity, East-Asian Countries, Nonlinear Unit Root Test, Asymmetry.

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Authors: M. S. Roslina, A. Noraziah

Abstract:

Malaysia government had been trying hard in order to find the most efficient methods in learning. However, it is hard to actually access and evaluate students whom will then be called an excellent student. It is because in our realties student who excellent is only excel in academic. This evaluation becomes a problem because it not balances in our real life interm of to get an excellent student in whole area in their involvement of curiculum and cocuriculum. To overcome this scenario, we designed a module for Student Idol to evaluate student through three categories which are academic, co-curiculum and leadership. All the categories have their own merit point. Using this method, student will be evaluated more accurate compared to the previously. So, teacher can easily evaluate their student without having any emotion factor, relation factor and others. As conclusion this system module will helps the development of student evaluation more accurate and valid in Student Idol.

Keywords: Evaluation, curiculum, co-curriculum, idol, systemmodule.

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