Assessment of drinking water quality using principal component analysis and partial least square discriminant analysis: a case study at water treatment plants, Selangor

This study characterizes the drinking water quality on 28 water treatmentt plants in Selangor from 2009 to 2012 using multivariate techniques. The objectives of this study are to analyze the quality of collected drinking water and to detect the source of pollution for the most revealing  parameters.  The  Partial  Least  Square  Discriminant  Analysis (PLS-DA)  model showed a high correlation matrix of analysis for physicochemical quality of two types of water with  99.43% significant  value.  The classification  matrix  accuracy of the principal component  analysis  (PCA) highlighted  13  significant  physico-chemical water quality parameters and 14 significant heavy metal parameters. PCA was carried out to identify the origin and source of pollution of each water quality parameters. Therefore, this study proves that chemometric method is the principle way to characterize the drinking water quality.Keywords: partial least square, discriminant analysis; principal component analysis; drinking water qualit

Multi-criteria decision analysis integrated with GIS for radio astronomical observatory site selection in peninsular of Malaysia

No AbstractKeywords: site selection; radio astronomical observatory; multi-criteria decision  analysis; geographical information system; Peninsular of Malaysi

A study of tensile test on open-cell aluminum foam sandwich

Aluminum foam sandwich (AFS) panels are one of the growing materials in the various industries because of its lightweight behavior. AFS also known for having excellent stiffness to weight ratio and high-energy absorption. Due to their advantages, many researchers’ shows an interest in aluminum foam material for expanding the use of foam structure. However, there is still a gap need to be fill in order to develop reliable data on mechanical behavior of AFS with different parameters and analysis method approach. Least of researcher focusing on open-cell aluminum foam and statistical analysis. Thus, this research conducted by using open-cell aluminum foam core grade 6101 with aluminum sheets skin tested under tension. The data is analyzed using full factorial in JMP statistical analysis software (version 11). ANOVA result show a significant value of the model which less than 0.500. While scatter diagram and 3D plot surface profiler found that skins thickness gives a significant impact to stress/strain value compared to core thickness

Analysis of Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy for chlorophyll prediction in oil palm leaves

Oil palm nutrient content is investigated with using chlorophyll as a representative factor correlated with NIR spectroscopy spectral absorbance. NIR spectroscopy method of sampling have been tested to overcome time consuming, complex chemical analysis procedure and invasive sampling method in order to identify chlorophyll content in an oil palm tree. Spectral absorbance data from range 900 nm to 1700 nm and chlorophyll data, then tested through five pre-processing methods which is Savitzky-Golay Smoothing (SGS), Multiplicative Scatter Correction (MSC), Single Normal Variation (SNV), First Derivative (1D) and also Second Derivative (2D) using Partial Least Square (PLS) regression prediction model to evaluate the correlation between both data. The overall results show, SGS has the best performance for preprocessing method with the results, the coefficient of determination (R2) values of 0.9998 and root mean square error (RMSE) values of 0.0639. In summary, correlation of NIR spectral absorbance data and chlorophyll can be achieved using a PLS regression model with SGS pre-processing technique. Thus, we can conclude that NIR spectroscopy method can be used to identify chlorophyll content in oil palm with using time saving, simple sampling and non-invasive method

Controlling of green nanocellulose fiber properties produced by chemo-mechanical treatment process via SEM, TEM, AFM and image analyzer characterization

Nanocellulose fibers were extracted from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) fibers by a chemo-mechanical treatment process. The aim of this study is to observe and investigate the morphological structure and fiber dimension characteristic of each stage in the nanocellulose production. The fiber structure characterization of the raw, purified pulps, extracted cellulose and nanocellulose fibers were controlled by observation and investigation under Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Image Analyzer. The morphological observation illustrated that the isolation of nanocellulose fibers had greatly decreased from micron to nanoscale, up to 5-10 nm in diameter, and therefore suitable to be used as quality nano-reinforcement in the polymer matrix for a potential environmental green nanobiocomposites development.Keywords: nanocellulose fibers; morphological observation; fiber dimension; SEM; TE

Factors influencing the Middle East tourist travelling to Malaysia: The quantile estimates

This research examines the possible impacts of global oil prices, exchange rate and tourism prices on Malaysia’s demand for the Middle East tourists’ arrivals using monthly data covering the period from 1995 to 2017. We covered the 5 major sources of Middle East tourism to Malaysia in the last 2 decades, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. The estimates of the quantile regression reveal that the global oil price fluctuation has affected the Middle East tourist arrivals to Malaysia. First, we found that there is a positive quantile effect of tourism, domestic tourism prices and global oil prices with Middle East tourism demand in Malaysia throughout the estimated quantiles. Secondly, we could not find any specific influence of exchange rate and this shows that the fluctuating Malaysia’s currency is not a major issue for the Middle East tourists. Overall, this finding can be useful for policymakers while improving their future tourism planning and in attracting more tourists to visit Malaysia in the upcoming years

Hybrid Dy-NFIS & RLS equalization for ZCC code in optical-CDMA over multi-mode optical fiber

For long haul coherent optical fiber communication systems, it is significant to precisely monitor the quality of transmission links and optical signals. The channel capacity beyond Shannon limit of Single-mode optical fiber (SMOF) is achieved with the help of Multi-mode optical fiber (MMOF), where the signal is multiplexed in different spatial modes. To increase single-mode transmission capacity and to avoid a foreseen “capacity crunch”, researchers have been motivated to employ MMOF as an alternative. Furthermore, different multiplexing techniques could be applied in MMOF to improve the communication system. One of these techniques is the Optical Code Division Multiple Access (Optical-CDMA), which simplifies and decentralizes network controls to improve spectral efficiency and information security increasing flexibility in bandwidth granularity. This technique also allows synchronous and simultaneous transmission medium to be shared by many users. However, during the propagation of the data over the MMOF based on Optical-CDMA, an inevitable encountered issue is pulse dispersion, nonlinearity and MAI due to mode coupling. Moreover, pulse dispersion, nonlinearity and MAI are significant aspects for the evaluation of the performance of high-speed MMOF communication systems based on Optical-CDMA. This work suggests a hybrid algorithm based on nonlinear algorithm (Dynamic evolving neural fuzzy inference (Dy-NFIS)) and linear algorithm (Recursive least squares (RLS)) equalization for ZCC code in Optical-CDMA over MMOF. Root mean squared error (RMSE), mean squared error (MSE) and Structural Similarity index (SSIM) are used to measure performance results

Crushing behaviour of plain weave composite hexagonal cellular structure

The tradition of fibre composite materials in energy absorbing tube applications has gained interest in structural collisions in the composite materials industry. Thus, the subject of this work is the experimental investigation to understand the effects of the failure initiator at the specimen’s edge, causing the increase in the specific absorbed energy (SEA), as well as the influence of the cellular structure composed of cells with small hexagonal angle exhibited high energy absorption capability. An extensive experimental investigation of an in plane crashing behavior of the composite hexagonal cellular structure between platen has been carried out. The cellular structure composed of hexagonal cells with angles varying between 45 and 60°. The materials used to accomplish the study are the plain weave E-glass fabric as a reinforcement and the epoxy resin system as a matrix. Furthermore, the specific energy absorption increases as the hexagonal angle increases

Biofilter aquaponic system for nutrients removal from fresh market wastewater

Aquaponics is a significant wastewater treatment system which refers to the combination of conventional aquaculture (raising aquatic organism) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. This system has a high ability in removing nutrients compared to conventional methods because it is a natural and environmentally friendly system (aquaponics). The current chapter aimed to review the possible application of aquaponics system to treat fresh market wastewater with the intention to highlight the mechanism of phytoremediation occurs in aquaponic system. The literature revealed that aquaponic system was able to remove nutrients in terms of nitrogen and phosphorus