Search results for: Mohd Nizam Ab Rahman

Authors: Sri Lakshmi Kanniah, Mohd Naz’ri Mahrin

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More and more businesses and services are depending on software to run their daily operations and business services. At the same time, cyber-attacks are becoming more covert and sophisticated, posing threats to software. Vulnerabilities exist in the software due to the lack of security practices during the phases of software development. Implementation of secure software development practices can improve the resistance to attacks. Many methods, models and standards for secure software development have been developed. However, despite the efforts, they still come up against difficulties in their deployment and the processes are not institutionalized. There is a set of factors that influence the successful deployment of secure software development processes. In this study, the methodology and results from a systematic literature review of factors influencing the implementation of secure software development practices is described. A total of 44 primary studies were analysed as a result of the systematic review. As a result of the study, a list of twenty factors has been identified. Some of factors that affect implementation of secure software development practices are: Involvement of the security expert, integration between security and development team, developer’s skill and expertise, development time and communication between stakeholders. The factors were further classified into four categories which are institutional context, people and action, project content and system development process. The results obtained show that it is important to take into account organizational, technical and people issues in order to implement secure software development initiatives.

Keywords: Secure software development, software development, software security, systematic literature review.

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Authors: N. H. Abd Raof, H. Abu Hassan, S.K. Mohd Bakhori, S. S. Ng, Z. Hassan

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Quaternary InxAlyGa1-x-yN semiconductors have attracted much research interest because the use of this quaternary offer the great flexibility in tailoring their band gap profile while maintaining their lattice-matching and structural integrity. The structural and optical properties of InxAlyGa1-x-yN alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is presented. The structural quality of InxAlyGa1-x-yN layers was characterized using high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD). The results confirm that the InxAlyGa1-x-yN films had wurtzite structure and without phase separation. As the In composition increases, the Bragg angle of the (0002) InxAlyGa1-x-yN peak gradually decreases, indicating the increase in the lattice constant c of the alloys. FWHM of (0002) InxAlyGa1-x-yN decreases with increasing In composition from 0 to 0.04, that could indicate the decrease of quality of the samples due to point defects leading to non-uniformity of the epilayers. UV-VIS spectroscopy have been used to study the energy band gap of InxAlyGa1-x-yN. As the indium (In) compositions increases, the energy band gap decreases. However, for InxAlyGa1-x-yN with In composition of 0.1, the band gap shows a sudden increase in energy. This is probably due to local alloy compositional fluctuations in the epilayer. The bowing parameter which appears also to be very sensitive on In content is investigated and obtained b = 50.08 for quaternary InxAlyGa1-x-yN alloys. From photoluminescence (PL) measurement, green luminescence (GL) appears at PL spectrum of InxAlyGa1-x-yN, emitted for all x at ~530 nm and it become more pronounced as the In composition (x) increased, which is believed cause by gallium vacancies and related to isolated native defects.

Keywords: HRXRD, nitrides, PL, quaternary, UV-VIS.

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Authors: Mohd Faridz Ahmad, Muhammad Amir Asyraf Rosli

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Aerobic dance has becoming a popular mode of exercise especially among women due to its fun nature. With a catchy music background and joyful dance steps, aerobic dancers would be able to have fun while sweating out. Depending on its level of aggressiveness, aerobic may also improve and maintain cardiorespiratory fitness other than being a great tool for weight loss. This study intends to prove that aerobic dance activity can bring the same, if not better impacts on health than other types of cardiovascular exercise such as jogging and cycling. The objective of this study was to evaluate and identify the effect of six weeks aerobic dance on cardiovascular fitness and weight loss among women. This study, which was held in Seremban Fit Challenge, used a quasiexperimental design. The subjects selected include a total of 14 women (n = 14) with age (32.4 years old ± 9.1), weight (65.93 kg ± 11.24) and height (165.36 ± 3.46) who joined the Seremban Fit Challenge Season 13. The subjects were asked to join an aerobic dance class with a duration of one hour for six weeks in a row. As for the outcome, cardiovascular fitness was measured with a 1-mile run test while any changes on weight were measured using the weighing scale. The result showed that there was a significant difference between pre and post-test for cardiovascular fitness when p = 0.02 < 0.05 and weight loss when p = 0.00 < 0.05. In conclusion, a six-week long aerobic dance program would have a positive effect on cardiovascular fitness and weight. Therefore, aerobic dance may be used as an alternative for people who wish to lead a healthy lifestyle in a fun way.

Keywords: Aerobic dance, cardiovascular fitness, weight loss, 1-mile run test.

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Authors: Md. Khademul Islam Molla, Akimasa Sumi, M. Sayedur Rahman

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The empirical mode decomposition (EMD) represents any time series into a finite set of basis functions. The bases are termed as intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) which are mutually orthogonal containing minimum amount of cross-information. The EMD successively extracts the IMFs with the highest local frequencies in a recursive way, which yields effectively a set low-pass filters based entirely on the properties exhibited by the data. In this paper, EMD is applied to explore the properties of the multi-year air temperature and to observe its effects on climate change under global warming. This method decomposes the original time-series into intrinsic time scale. It is capable of analyzing nonlinear, non-stationary climatic time series that cause problems to many linear statistical methods and their users. The analysis results show that the mode of EMD presents seasonal variability. The most of the IMFs have normal distribution and the energy density distribution of the IMFs satisfies Chi-square distribution. The IMFs are more effective in isolating physical processes of various time-scales and also statistically significant. The analysis results also show that the EMD method provides a good job to find many characteristics on inter annual climate. The results suggest that climate fluctuations of every single element such as temperature are the results of variations in the global atmospheric circulation.

Keywords: Empirical mode decomposition, instantaneous frequency, Hilbert spectrum, Chi-square distribution, anthropogenic impact.

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Authors: M. N. Hasnine, M. K. H. Chayon, M. M. Rahman

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Organizational tendencies towards computer-based information processing have been observed noticeably in the third-world countries. Many enterprises are taking major initiatives towards computerized working environment because of massive benefits of computer-based information processing. However, designing and developing information resource management software for small and mid-size enterprises under budget costs and strict deadline is always challenging for software engineers. Therefore, we introduced an approach to design mid-size enterprise software by using the Waterfall model, which is one of the SDLC (Software Development Life Cycles), in a cost effective way. To fulfill research objectives, in this study, we developed mid-sized enterprise software named “BSK Management System” that assists enterprise software clients with information resource management and perform complex organizational tasks. Waterfall model phases have been applied to ensure that all functions, user requirements, strategic goals, and objectives are met. In addition, Rich Picture, Structured English, and Data Dictionary have been implemented and investigated properly in engineering manner. Furthermore, an assessment survey with 20 participants has been conducted to investigate the usability and performance of the proposed software. The survey results indicated that our system featured simple interfaces, easy operation and maintenance, quick processing, and reliable and accurate transactions.

Keywords: End-user Application Development, Enterprise Software Design, Information Resource Management, Usability.

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Authors: M. Jusoh, R. Mohd Yunus, M. A. Abu Hassan

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Freeze concentration freezes or crystallises the water molecules out as ice crystals and leaves behind a highly concentrated solution. In conventional suspension freeze concentration where ice crystals formed as a suspension in the mother liquor, separation of ice is difficult. The size of the ice crystals is still very limited which will require usage of scraped surface heat exchangers, which is very expensive and accounted for approximately 30% of the capital cost. This research is conducted using a newer method of freeze concentration, which is progressive freeze concentration. Ice crystals were formed as a layer on the designed heat exchanger surface. In this particular research, a helical structured copper crystallisation chamber was designed and fabricated. The effect of two operating conditions on the performance of the newly designed crystallisation chamber was investigated, which are circulation flowrate and coolant temperature. The performance of the design was evaluated by the effective partition constant, K, calculated from the volume and concentration of the solid and liquid phase. The system was also monitored by a data acquisition tool in order to see the temperature profile throughout the process. On completing the experimental work, it was found that higher flowrate resulted in a lower K, which translated into high efficiency. The efficiency is the highest at 1000 ml/min. It was also found that the process gives the highest efficiency at a coolant temperature of -6 °C.

Keywords: Freeze concentration, progressive freeze concentration, freeze wastewater treatment, ice crystals.

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Authors: Christiono Utomo, Arazi Idrus, Madzlan Napiah, Mohd. Faris Khamidi

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This paper presents a conceptual model of agreement options on negotiation support for civil engineering decision. The negotiation support facilitates the solving of group choice decision making problems in civil engineering decision to reduce the impact of mud volcano disaster in Sidoarjo, Indonesia. The approach based on application of analytical hierarchy process (AHP) method for multi criteria decision on three level of decision hierarchy. Decisions for reducing impact is very complicated since many parties involved in a critical time. Where a number of stakeholders are involved in choosing a single alternative from a set of solution alternatives, there are different concern caused by differing stakeholder preferences, experiences, and background. Therefore, a group choice decision support is required to enable each stakeholder to evaluate and rank the solution alternatives before engaging into negotiation with the other stakeholders. Such civil engineering solutions as alternatives are referred to as agreement options that are determined by identifying the possible stakeholder choice, followed by determining the optimal solution for each group of stakeholder. Determination of the optimal solution is based on a game theory model of n-person general sum game with complete information that involves forming coalitions among stakeholders.

Keywords: Agreement options, AHP, agent, negotiation, multicriteria, game theory, and coalition.

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Authors: Salwa Hagag Abdelaziz, Naglaa Fathy Youssef, Nadia Abdel Latif Hassan, Rasha Wesam Abdel Rahman

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Breast cancer is considered as a substantial health concern and practicing mammography screening [MS] is important in minimizing its related morbidity. So it is essential to have a better understanding of breast cancer screening behaviors of women and factors that influence utilization of them. The aim of this study is to identify the factors that are linked to MS behaviors among the Egyptian women. A cross-sectional descriptive design was carried out to provide a snapshot of the factors that are linked to MS behaviors. A convenience sample of 311 women was utilized and all eligible participants admitted to the Women Imaging Unit who are 40 years of age or above, coming for mammography assessment, not pregnant or breast feeding and who accepted to participate in the study were included. A structured questionnaire was developed by the researchers and contains three parts; Socio-demographic data; Motivating factors associated with MS; and association between MS and model of behavior change. The analyzed data indicated that most of the participated women (66.6%) belonged to the age group of 40- 49.A high proportion of participants (58.1%) of group having previous MS influenced by their neighbors to practice MS, whereas 32.7 % in group not having previous MS were influenced by family members which indicated significant differences (P <0.05). Doctors and media shown to be the least influence of others to practice MS. Women with intention to have a future mammogram had higher OR (1.404) for practicing MS compared with women with no intention. Further studies are needed to examine the relation between Transtheoretical Model [TTM] and practicing MS.

Keywords: Breast cancer, mammography, screening behaviors.

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Authors: Abd Rasid Abd Rahman

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For the past thirty years the Malaysian economy has been said to contribute well to the progress of the nations. However, the intensification of global economy activity and the extensive use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in recent years are challenging government-s effort to further develop Malaysian society. The competition posed by the low wage economies such as China and Vietnam have made the government realise the importance of engaging in high-skill and high technology industries. It is hoped this will be the basis of attracting more foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to help the country to compete in globalised world. Using Vision 2020 as it targeted vision, the government has decided to engage in the use of ICTs and introduce many policies pertaining to it. Mainly based on the secondary analysis approach, the findings show that policy pertaining to ICTs in Malaysia contributes to economic growth, but the consequences of this have resulted in greater division within society. Although some of the divisions such as gender and ethnicity are narrowing down, the gap in important areas such as regions and class differences is becoming wider. The widespread use of ICTs might contribute to the further establishment of democracy in Malaysia, but the increasing number of foreign entities such as FDI and foreign workers, cultural hybridisation and to some extent cultural domination are contributing to neocolonialism in Malaysia. This has obvious consequences for the government-s effort to create a Malaysian national identity. An important finding of this work is that there are contradictions within ICT policy between the effort to develop the economy and society.

Keywords: Globalisation, ICTs, ICT Policy, Malaysia, National Identity, Vision 2020

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Authors: Fawad Hussain, Mohammad Basir Bin Saud, Mohd Azwardi Md Isa

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The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the mediating impact of export performance (EP) between technological advancement capabilities and business performance (BP) of Malaysian manufacturing micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSME’s). Firm’s technological advancement resources are hypothesized as a platform to enhance both exports and BP of manufacturing MSMEs in Malaysia. This study is twofold, primary it has investigated that technological advancement capabilities helps to appreciates main performance measures noted in terms of EP and Secondly, it investigates that how efficiently and effectively technological advancement capabilities can contribute in overall Malaysian MSME’s BP. Smart PLS-3 statistical software is used to know the association between technological advancement capabilities, MSME’s EP and BP. In this study, the data was composed from Malaysian manufacturing MSME’s in east coast industrial zones known as the manufacturing hub of MSMEs. Seven hundred and fifty (750) questionnaires were distributed, but only 148 usable questionnaires are returned. The finding of this study indicated that technological advancement capabilities helps to strengthen the export in term of time and cost efficient and it plays a significant role in appreciating their BP. This study is helpful for small and medium enterprise owners who intend to expand their business overseas and though smart technological advancement resources they can achieve their business competitiveness and excellence both at local and international markets.

Keywords: Technological advancement capabilities, export performance, business performance, small and medium manufacturing enterprises, Malaysia.

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Authors: Mansour Nikpour, Mohd Zin kandar, Mohammad Ghomeshi, Nima Moeinzadeh, Mohsen Ghasemi

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So much energy is used in high rise buildings to fulfill the basic needs of users such as lighting and thermal comfort. Malaysia has hot and humid climate, buildings especially high rise buildings receive unnecessary solar radiation that cause more solar heat gain. Energy use specially electricity consumption in high rise buildings has increased. There have been growing concerns about energy consumption and its effect on environment. Building, energy and the environment are important issues that the designers should consider to them. Self protected form is one of possible ways against the impact of solar radiation in high rise buildings. The Energy performance of building envelopes was investigated in term of the Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV ).In this paper, the amount of OTTV reduction was calculated through OTTV Equations to clear the effectiveness of self shading strategy on minimizing energy consumption for cooling interior spaces in high rise buildings which has considerable envelope areas against solar radiation. Also increasing the optimum window area was investigated using self-shading strategy in designing high rise buildings. As result, the significant reduction in OTTV was shown based on WWR.In addition slight increase was demonstrated in WWR that can influence on visible comfort interior spaces.

Keywords: Self-shading strategy, high rise buildings, Overall thermal transfer value (OTTV ), Window to wall ratio (WWR).

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Authors: Mohammad Shariful Islam, Shamima Nasrin, Md. Shahidul Islam, Farzana Rahman Moury

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Protection of slope and embankment from erosion has become an important issue in Bangladesh. The constructions of strong structures require large capital, integrated designing, high maintenance cost. Strong structure methods have negative impact on the environment and sometimes not function for the design period. Plantation of vetiver system along the slopes is an alternative solution. Vetiver not only serves the purpose of slope protection but also adds green environment reducing pollution. Vetiver is available in almost all the districts of Bangladesh. This paper presents the application of vetiver system with geo-jute, for slope protection and erosion control of embankments and slopes. In-situ shear tests have been conducted on vetiver rooted soil system to find the shear strength. The shear strength and effective soil cohesion of vetiver rooted soil matrix are respectively 2.0 times and 2.1 times higher than that of the bared soil. Similar trends have been found in direct shear tests conducted on laboratory reconstituted samples. Field trials have been conducted in road embankment and slope protection with vetiver at different sites. During the time of vetiver root growth the soil protection has been accomplished by geo-jute. As the geo-jute degrades with time, vetiver roots grow and take over the function of geo-jutes. Slope stability analyses showed that vegetation increase the factor of safety significantly.

Keywords: Erosion, geo-jute, green technology, vegetation.

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Authors: Tuti Haryati Jasimin, Hishamuddin Mohd Ali

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Malaysia’s green building development is gaining momentum and green buildings have become a key focus area, especially within the commercial sector with the encouragement of government legislation and policy. Due to the emerging awareness among the market players’ views of the benefits associated with the ownership of green buildings in Malaysia, there is a need for valuers to incorporate consideration of sustainability into their assessments of property market value to ensure the green buildings continue to increase in the market. This paper analyses the valuers’ current perception on the valuation practices with regard to the green issues in Malaysia. The study was based on a survey of registered real estate valuers and the experts whose work related to valuation in the Klang Valley area to rate their view regarding the perception on valuation of green building. The findings present evidence that even though Malaysian valuers have limited knowledge of green buildings, they recognise the importance of incorporating the green features in the valuation process. The inclusion of incorporating the green features in valuations in practice was hindered by the inadequacy of sufficient transaction data in the market. Furthermore, valuers experienced difficulty in identifying what are the various input parameters of green building and how to adjust it in order to reflect the benefit of sustainability features correctly in the valuation process. This paper focuses on the present challenges confronted by Malaysian valuers with regards to incorporating the green features in their valuation.

Keywords: Green commercial office building, Malaysia, valuers’ perception, valuation.

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Authors: Mohd F. Taha, Chong F. Kiat, Maizatul S. Shaharun, Anita Ramli

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The abundance and availability of rice husk, an agricultural waste, make them as a good source for precursor of activated carbon. In this work, rice husk-based activated carbons were prepared via base treated chemical activation process prior the carbonization process. The effect of carbonization temperatures (400, 600 and 800oC) on their pore structure was evaluated through morphology analysis using scanning electron microscope (SEM). Sample carbonized at 800oC showed better evolution and development of pores as compared to those carbonized at 400 and 600oC. The potential of rice husk-based activated carbon as an alternative adsorbent was investigated for the removal of Ni(II), Zn(II) and Pb(II) from single metal aqueous solution. The adsorption studies using rice husk-based activated carbon as an adsorbent were carried out as a function of contact time at room temperature and the metal ions were analyzed using atomic absorption spectrophotometer (AAS). The ability to remove metal ion from single metal aqueous solution was found to be improved with the increasing of carbonization temperature. Among the three metal ions tested, Pb(II) ion gave the highest adsorption on rice husk-based activated carbon. The results obtained indicate the potential to utilize rice husk as a promising precursor for the preparation of activated carbon for removal of heavy metals.

Keywords: Activated carbon, metal ion adsorption, rice husk, wastewater treatment.

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Authors: Mohd. Noor Md. Sap, A. Majid Awan

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Intelligent systems based on machine learning techniques, such as classification, clustering, are gaining wide spread popularity in real world applications. This paper presents work on developing a software system for predicting crop yield, for example oil-palm yield, from climate and plantation data. At the core of our system is a method for unsupervised partitioning of data for finding spatio-temporal patterns in climate data using kernel methods which offer strength to deal with complex data. This work gets inspiration from the notion that a non-linear data transformation into some high dimensional feature space increases the possibility of linear separability of the patterns in the transformed space. Therefore, it simplifies exploration of the associated structure in the data. Kernel methods implicitly perform a non-linear mapping of the input data into a high dimensional feature space by replacing the inner products with an appropriate positive definite function. In this paper we present a robust weighted kernel k-means algorithm incorporating spatial constraints for clustering the data. The proposed algorithm can effectively handle noise, outliers and auto-correlation in the spatial data, for effective and efficient data analysis by exploring patterns and structures in the data, and thus can be used for predicting oil-palm yield by analyzing various factors affecting the yield.

Keywords: Pattern analysis, clustering, kernel methods, spatial data, crop yield

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Authors: Nazmul Huda, Ashik Mosaddik, Abdul Awal, Shafiqur Rahman, Rukhsana Shaheen, Mustofa Nabi

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Polyherbal formulation Sharbat Deenar is a very popular unani medicine in Bangladesh. It is usually used for different kinds of liver disorders. In absence of reliable and inadequate hepatoprotective agents in conventional medicine, the herbal preparations are preferred for liver diseases. The present study was designed to evaluate the hepatoprotective activity of Sharbat Deenar on carbon tetrachloride (CCl₄) induced hepatotoxicity in male Long-Evans albino rats. Group I served as normal control and received neither formulation nor carbon tetrachloride. Group II received only CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally for consecutive 14 days. Group III received CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally and Silymarin, in dose 50mg/kg body weight of rat orally. Group IV received CCl₄ 1mL/kg body weight of rat intraperitoneally and Sharbat Deenar 1mL/kg body weight of rat for the same 14 consecutive days. At the end of the study, hepatoprotective activity was evaluated by the levels of total bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP). Histopathological study of rat liver was also carried out. The results showed that polyherbal formulation Sharbat Deenar exhibited a significant hepatoprotective effect. Such an outcome seems to be the synergistic effect of all ingredients of tested herbal formulation. Although this study suggests that Sharbat Deenar may be used to cure or minimize various liver diseases, it needs further study to attain the clarity of mechanism and safety.

Keywords: Carbon tetrachloride, Hepatoprotective, Sharbat Deenar, Silymarin.

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Authors: Noor Zuhaira Abd Aziz, Rahmah Mohamed, Mohd Muizz Fahimi M.

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Rice husk and kenaf filled with calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and high density polyethylene (HDPE) composite were prepared separately using twin-screw extruder at 50rpm. Different filler loading up to 30 parts of rice husk particulate and kenaf fiber were mixed with the fixed 30% amount of CaCO3 mineral filler to produce rice husk/CaCO3/HDPE and kenaf/CaCO3/HDPE hybrid composites. In this study, the effects of natural fiber for both rice husk and kenaf in CaCO3/HDPE composite on physical, mechanical and morphology properties were investigated. Field Emission Scanning Microscope (FeSEM) was used to investigate the impact fracture surfaces of the hybrid composite. The property analyses showed that water absorption increased with the presence of kenaf and rice husk fillers. Natural fibers in composite significantly influence water absorption properties due to natural characters of fibers which contain cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin structures. The result showed that 10% of additional natural fibers into hybrid composite had caused decreased flexural strength, however additional of high natural fiber (>10%) filler loading has proved to increase its flexural strength.

Keywords: Hybrid composites, Water absorption, Mechanical properties.

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Authors: Paschal A. Ubi, Salawu Abdul Rahman Asipita

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Sustainability and eco-friendly requirement of engineering materials are sort for in recent times, thus giving rise to the development of bio-composites. However, the natural fibres to matrix interface interactions remain a key issue in getting the desired mechanical properties from such composites. Treatment of natural fibres is essential in improving matrix to filler adhesion, hence improving its mechanical properties. In this study, investigations were carried out to determine the effect of sodium hydroxide treatment on the tensile, flexural, impact and hardness properties of crushed and uncrushed Luffa cylindrica fibre reinforced recycled low density polyethylene composites. The LC (Luffa cylindrica) fibres were treated with 0%, 2%, 4%, 6%, 8% and 10% wt. sodium hydroxide (NaOH) concentrations for a period of 24 hours under room temperature conditions. A formulation ratio of 80/20 g (matrix to reinforcement) was maintained for all developed samples. Analysis of the results showed that the uncrushed luffa fibre samples gave better mechanical properties compared with the crushed luffa fibre samples. The uncrushed luffa fibre composites had a maximum tensile and flexural strength of 7.65 MPa and 17.08 Mpa respectively corresponding to a young modulus and flexural modulus of 21.08 MPa and 232.22 MPa for the 8% and 4% wt. NaOH concentration respectively. Results obtained in the research showed that NaOH treatment with the 8% NaOH concentration improved the mechanical properties of the LC fibre reinforced composites when compared with other NaOH treatment concentration values.

Keywords: Flexural strength, LC fibres, LC/rLDPE composite, Tensile strength.

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Authors: Shahlan Surat, Saemah Rahman, Saadiah Kummin

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When teachers reflect and evaluate whether their teaching methods actually have an impact on students’ learning, they will adjust their practices accordingly. This inevitably improves their students’ learning and performance. The approach in meta-teaching can invigorate and create a passion for teaching. It thus helps to increase the commitment and love for the teaching profession. This study was conducted to determine the level of metacognitive thinking of teachers in the process of teaching and learning in the classroom. Metacognitive thinking teachers include the use of metacognitive knowledge which consists of different types of knowledge: declarative, procedural and conditional. The ability of the teachers to plan, monitor and evaluate the teaching process can also be determined. This study was conducted on 377 graduate teachers in Klang Valley, Malaysia. The stratified sampling method was selected for the purpose of this study. The metacognitive teaching inventory consisting of 24 items is called InKePMG (Teacher Indicators of Effectiveness Meta-Teaching). The results showed the level of mean is high for two components of metacognitive knowledge; declarative knowledge (mean = 4.16) and conditional (mean = 4.11) whereas, the mean of procedural knowledge is 4.00 (moderately high). Similarly, the level of knowledge in monitoring (mean = 4.11), evaluating (mean = 4.00) which indicate high score and planning (mean = 4.00) are moderately high score among teachers. In conclusion, this study shows that the planning and procedural knowledge is an important element in improving the quality of teachers teaching in the classroom. Thus, the researcher recommended that further studies should focus on training programs for teachers on metacognitive skills and also on developing creative thinking among teachers.

Keywords: Metacognitive thinking skills, procedural knowledge, conditional knowledge, declarative knowledge, meta-teaching and regulation of cognitive.

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Authors: H. Mansor, S. B. Mohd Noor

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This paper presents a design method of self-tuning Quantitative Feedback Theory (QFT) by using improved deadbeat control algorithm. QFT is a technique to achieve robust control with pre-defined specifications whereas deadbeat is an algorithm that could bring the output to steady state with minimum step size. Nevertheless, usually there are large peaks in the deadbeat response. By integrating QFT specifications into deadbeat algorithm, the large peaks could be tolerated. On the other hand, emerging QFT with adaptive element will produce a robust controller with wider coverage of uncertainty. By combining QFT-based deadbeat algorithm and adaptive element, superior controller that is called selftuning QFT-based deadbeat controller could be achieved. The output response that is fast, robust and adaptive is expected. Using a grain dryer plant model as a pilot case-study, the performance of the proposed method has been evaluated and analyzed. Grain drying process is very complex with highly nonlinear behaviour, long delay, affected by environmental changes and affected by disturbances. Performance comparisons have been performed between the proposed self-tuning QFT-based deadbeat, standard QFT and standard dead-beat controllers. The efficiency of the self-tuning QFTbased dead-beat controller has been proven from the tests results in terms of controller’s parameters are updated online, less percentage of overshoot and settling time especially when there are variations in the plant.

Keywords: Deadbeat control, quantitative feedback theory (QFT), robust control, self-tuning control.

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Authors: Zety Shakila Binti Mohd Yusof, Muhammad Adib Bin Ishak, Hajah Fatimah Binti Hussein

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The international shipping business is related to numerous controls or regulations of export and import shipments. It is costly and time consuming, and when something goes wrong or when the buyer or seller fails to comply with the regulations, it can result in penalties, delays, and unexpected costs etc. For the focus of this study, the researchers have selected a local forwarder that provides forwarding and clearance services, Nexus Zone Logistics. It was identified that this company currently has many extra costs to be paid including local and detention charges, which negatively impacts the flow of income and reduces overall stability. Two variables have been identified as factors of extra charges; loaded containers entering the port by exceeded closing time and late delivery of empty containers to the container yard. This study is a qualitative in nature and the secondary data collected was analyzed using self-administered observation. The findings of this study were covered by one selected case for each export and import shipment between July and December 2014. The data were analyzed using frequency analysis based on tables and graphs. The researcher recommends Nexus Zone Logistics impose a 1% deposit payment per container for each shipment (export and import) to its customers.

Keywords: International shipping, export and import, detention charges, container shipment.

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Authors: Mohd Hasmadi Ismail, Kamaruzaman Jusoff

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In order to develop forest management strategies in tropical forest in Malaysia, surveying the forest resources and monitoring the forest area affected by logging activities is essential. There are tremendous effort has been done in classification of land cover related to forest resource management in this country as it is a priority in all aspects of forest mapping using remote sensing and related technology such as GIS. In fact classification process is a compulsory step in any remote sensing research. Therefore, the main objective of this paper is to assess classification accuracy of classified forest map on Landsat TM data from difference number of reference data (200 and 388 reference data). This comparison was made through observation (200 reference data), and interpretation and observation approaches (388 reference data). Five land cover classes namely primary forest, logged over forest, water bodies, bare land and agricultural crop/mixed horticultural can be identified by the differences in spectral wavelength. Result showed that an overall accuracy from 200 reference data was 83.5 % (kappa value 0.7502459; kappa variance 0.002871), which was considered acceptable or good for optical data. However, when 200 reference data was increased to 388 in the confusion matrix, the accuracy slightly improved from 83.5% to 89.17%, with Kappa statistic increased from 0.7502459 to 0.8026135, respectively. The accuracy in this classification suggested that this strategy for the selection of training area, interpretation approaches and number of reference data used were importance to perform better classification result.

Keywords: Image Classification, Reference Data, Accuracy Assessment, Kappa Statistic, Forest Land Cover

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Authors: Rahman Ali, Muhammad Sajjad, Farkhund Iqbal, Muhammad Sadiq Hassan Zada, Mohammed Hussain

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Emission of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) has adversely affected the environment. One of the major sources of CO₂ emission is transportation. In the last few decades, the increase in mobility of people using vehicles has enormously increased the emission of CO₂ in the environment. To reduce CO₂ emission, sustainable transportation system is required in which smart parking is one of the important measures that need to be established. To contribute to the issue of reducing the amount of CO₂ emission, this research proposes a smart parking system. A cloud-based solution is provided to the drivers which automatically searches and recommends the most preferred parking slots. To determine preferences of the parking areas, this methodology exploits a number of unique parking features which ultimately results in the selection of a parking that leads to minimum level of CO₂ emission from the current position of the vehicle. To realize the methodology, a scenario-based implementation is considered. During the implementation, a mobile application with GPS signals, vehicles with a number of vehicle features and a list of parking areas with parking features are used by sorting, multi-level filtering, exploratory data analysis (EDA, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP)) and weighted sum model (WSM) to rank the parking areas and recommend the drivers with top-k most preferred parking areas. In the EDA process, “2020testcar-2020-03-03”, a freely available dataset is used to estimate CO₂ emission of a particular vehicle. To evaluate the system, results of the proposed system are compared with the conventional approach, which reveal that the proposed methodology supersedes the conventional one in reducing the emission of CO₂ into the atmosphere.

Keywords: CO2 emission, IoT, EDA, Weighted Sum Model, WSM, regression, smart parking system.

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Authors: Adnan Ahmad, Yusri Kamin, Asnol Dahar Minghat, Mohd. Khir Nordin, Dayana Farzeha, Ahmad Nabil

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The purpose of this study is to identify the teaching method practices of the practical work subject in Vocational Secondary School. This study examined the practice of Vocational Teaching Method in Automotive Practical Work. The quantitative method used the sets of the questionnaire. 283 students and 63 teachers involved from ten VSS involved in this research. Research finding showed in conducting the introduction session teachers prefer used the demonstration method and questioning technique. While in deliver the content of practical task, teachers applied group monitoring and problem solving approach. To conclude the task of automotive practical work, teachers choose re-explain and report writing to make sure students really understand all the process of teaching. VTM-APW also involved the competency-based concept to embed in the model. Derived from factors investigated, research produced the combination of elements in teaching skills and vocational skills which could be used as the best teaching method in automotive practical work for school level. As conclusion this study has concluded that the VTM-APW model is able to apply in teaching to make an improvement with current practices in Vocational Secondary School. Hence, teachers are suggested to use this method to enhance student's knowledge in Automotive and teachers will deliver skills to the current and future workforce relevant with the required competency skilled in workplace.

Keywords: Vocational Teaching Method, Practical Task, Teacher Preferences, Student Preferences.

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Authors: Mohd Afif Md Nasir, Faizal Amin NurYunus, Jamaluddin Hashim, Abd Samad Hassan Basari, A. Halim Sahelan

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The aim of this study is to identify the suitability of Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in welding simulator application towards Computer-Based Training (CBT) in developing skills upon new students at the Advanced Technology Training Center (ADTEC) Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia and GIATMARA, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia. The significance of the study is to create a computer-based skills development approach in welding technology among new students in ADTEC and GIATMARA as well as to cultivate the elements of general skills among them. This study is also important in elevating the number of individual knowledge workers (K-workers) working in manufacturing industry in order to achieve a national vision which is to be an industrial nation in the year of 2020. The design of the study is a survey type of research which using questionnaires as the instruments and some 136 students from ADTEC and GIATMARA were interviewed. Descriptive analysis is used to identify the frequency and mean values. The findings of the study show that the welding technology has developed skills in the students because of the application of VLE simulated at a high level and the respondents agreed that the skills could be embedded through the application of the VLE simulator. In summary, the VLE simulator is suitable in welding skills development training in terms of exposing new students with the relevant characteristics of welding skills and at the same time spurring the students’ interest towards learning more about the skills.

Keywords: Computer-Based Training (CBT), knowledge workers (K-workers), virtual learning environment, welding simulator, welding technology.

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Authors: Mohd. A. M. Rahim, Yahaya Hassan, Mathumalar L. Fahrni

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Second line antiretroviral therapy (ART) regimen is used when patients fail their first line regimen. There are many factors such as non-adherence, drug resistance as well as virological and immunological failure that lead to second line highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) regimen treatment failure. This study was aimed at determining predictor factors to treatment failure with second line HAART and analyzing median survival time. An observational, retrospective study was conducted in Sungai Buloh Hospital (HSB) to assess current status of HIV patients treated with second line HAART regimen. Convenience sampling was used and 104 patients were included based on the study’s inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data was collected for six months i.e. from July until December 2013. Data was then analysed using SPSS version 18. Kaplan-Meier and Cox regression analyses were used to measure median survival times and predictor factors for treatment failure. The study population consisted mainly of male subjects, aged 30- 45 years, who were heterosexual, and had HIV infection for less than 6 years. The most common second line HAART regimen given was lopinavir/ritonavir (LPV/r)-based combination. Kaplan-Meier analysis showed that patients on LPV/r demonstrated longer median survival times than patients on indinavir/ritonavir (IDV/r) based combination (p<0.001). The commonest reason for a treatment to fail with second line HAART was non-adherence. Based on Cox regression analysis, other predictor factors for treatment failure with second line HAART regimen were age and mode of HIV transmission.

Keywords: Adherence, antiretroviral therapy, second line, treatment failure.

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Authors: Juhi Faridi, Mohd. Ajmal Kafeel

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The advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and technology has led to an evolution of an intelligent era. Neural networks, having the computational power and learning ability similar to the brain is one of the key AI technologies. Neuromorphic computing system (NCS) consists of the synaptic device, neuronal circuit, and neuromorphic architecture. Memristor are a promising candidate for neuromorphic computing systems, but when it comes to neuromorphic computing, the conductance behavior of the synaptic memristor or neuronal memristor needs to be studied thoroughly in order to fathom the neuroscience or computer science. Furthermore, there is a need of more simulation work for utilizing the existing device properties and providing guidance to the development of future devices for different performance requirements. Hence, development of NCS needs more simulation work to make use of existing device properties. This work aims to provide an insight to build neuronal circuits using memristors to achieve a Memristor based NCS.  Here we throw a light on the research conducted in the field of memristors for building analog and digital circuits in order to motivate the research in the field of NCS by building memristor based neural circuits for advanced AI applications. This literature is a step in the direction where we describe the various Key findings about memristors and its analog and digital circuits implemented over the years which can be further utilized in implementing the neuronal circuits in the NCS. This work aims to help the electronic circuit designers to understand how the research progressed in memristors and how these findings can be used in implementing the neuronal circuits meant for the recent progress in the NCS.

Keywords: Analog circuits, digital circuits, memristors, neuromorphic computing systems.

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Authors: Altab Hossain, Ataur Rahman, Jakir Hossen, A.K.M. P. Iqbal, SK. Hasan

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The measurement of aerodynamic forces and moments acting on an aircraft model is important for the development of wind tunnel measurement technology to predict the performance of the full scale vehicle. The potentials of an aircraft model with and without winglet and aerodynamic characteristics with NACA wing No. 65-3- 218 have been studied using subsonic wind tunnel of 1 m × 1 m rectangular test section and 2.5 m long of Aerodynamics Laboratory Faculty of Engineering (University Putra Malaysia). Focusing on analyzing the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft model, two main issues are studied in this paper. First, a six component wind tunnel external balance is used for measuring lift, drag and pitching moment. Secondly, Tests are conducted on the aircraft model with and without winglet of two configurations at Reynolds numbers 1.7×105, 2.1×105, and 2.5×105 for different angle of attacks. Fuzzy logic approach is found as efficient for the representation, manipulation and utilization of aerodynamic characteristics. Therefore, the primary purpose of this work was to investigate the relationship between lift and drag coefficients, with free-stream velocities and angle of attacks, and to illustrate how fuzzy logic might play an important role in study of lift aerodynamic characteristics of an aircraft model with the addition of certain winglet configurations. Results of the developed fuzzy logic were compared with the experimental results. For lift coefficient analysis, the mean of actual and predicted values were 0.62 and 0.60 respectively. The coreelation between actual and predicted values (from FLS model) of lift coefficient in different angle of attack was found as 0.99. The mean relative error of actual and predicted valus was found as 5.18% for the velocity of 26.36 m/s which was found to be less than the acceptable limits (10%). The goodness of fit of prediction value was 0.95 which was close to 1.0.

Keywords: Wind tunnel; Winglet; Lift coefficient; Fuzzy logic.

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Authors: Noor Zainab Habib, Ibrahim Kamaruddin, Madzalan Napiah, Isa Mohd Tan

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This paper presents a research conducted to investigate the effect of mixing process on polypropylene (PP) modified bitumen mixed with well graded aggregate to form modified bituminous concrete mix. Two mode of mixing, namely dry and wet with different concentration of polymer polypropylene was used with 80/100 pen bitumen, to evaluate the bituminous concrete mix properties. Three percentages of polymer varying from 1-3% by the weight of bitumen was used in this study. Three mixes namely control mix, wet mix and dry mix were prepared. Optimum binder content was calculated considering Marshall Stability, flow, air voids and Marshall Quotient at different bitumen content varying from 4% - 6.5% for control, dry and wet mix. Engineering properties thus obtained at the calculated optimum bitumen content revealed that wet mixing process is advantageous in comparison to dry mixing as it increases the stiffness of the mixture with the increase in polymer content in bitumen. Stiffness value for wet mix increases with the increase in polymer content which is beneficial in terms of rutting. 1% PP dry mix also shows enhanced stiffness, with the air void content limited to 4%.The flow behaviour of dry mix doesn't indicate any major difference with the increase in polymer content revealing that polymer acting as an aggregate only without affecting the viscosity of the binder in the mix. Polypropylene (PP) when interacted with 80 pen base bitumen enhances its performance characteristics which were brought about by altered rheological properties of the modified bitumen. The decrease in flow with the increase in binder content reflects the increase in viscosity of binder which induces the plastic flow in the mix. Workability index indicates that wet mix were easy to compact up to desired void ratio in comparison to dry mix samples.

Keywords: Marshall Flow, Marshall Stability, Polymer modified bitumen, Polypropylene, Stiffness.

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Authors: Y. S. Liew, K. A. Puteh Ariffin, M. A. Mohd Nor

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One of the Best Management Practices (BMPs) promoted in Urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA) published by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) in 2001 is through the construction of wet ponds in new development projects for water quantity and quality control. Therefore, this paper aims to demonstrate a case study on evaluation of a constructed mini wet pond located at Sekolah Rendah Kebangsaan Seksyen 2, Puchong, Selangor, Malaysia in both stormwater quantity and quality aspect particularly to reduce the peak discharge by temporary storing and gradual release of stormwater runoff from an outlet structure or other release mechanism. The evaluation technique will be using InfoWorks Collection System (CS) as the numerical modeling approach for water quantity aspect. Statistical test by comparing the correlation coefficient (R²), mean error (ME), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE) were used to evaluate the model in simulating the peak discharge changes. Results demonstrated that there will be a reduction in peak flow at 11 % to 15% and time to peak flow is slower by 5 minutes through a wet pond. For water quality aspect, a survey on biological indicator of water quality carried out depicts that the pond is within the range of rather clean to clean water with the score of 5.3. This study indicates that a constructed wet pond with wetland facilities is able to help in managing water quantity and stormwater generated pollution at source, towards achieving ecologically sustainable development in urban areas.

Keywords: Wet pond, Retention Facilities, Best Management Practices (BMP), Urban Stormwater Management Manual for Malaysia (MSMA).

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