LCO flutter analysis on coir pressed mat fibre/epoxy composites plate

The effects of aspect ratio and fiber-epoxy weight ratio of coir fibre/epoxy composite wing idealized as flat plate on flutter speed were preliminary studied in this current research to investigate the aeroelastic response on natural fiber composite material. The usage of natural material such as coir fiber reinforced composite might become possible solutions in future since it offers lower weight, cost reduction, and preservation of the environment factor compared to presence structures like conventional glass or carbon fiber as the reinforcement for composites. For this work, the analysis of coir fiber on aeroelastic problem will be preliminary investigated to establish related data to be served, especially in the aerospace research areas. The research began with the existing raw untreated coir fiber, which was in the form of pressed mat and originally in random oriented fiber forms, were set in the composite preparation process by simple hand-lay-up and compression moulding method under the room temperature and also controlled pressure conditions. Specimen with different aspect ratios (5, 6 and 7) with 25% wt fiber reinforcement composite was installed in the wind tunnel for subsonic experimental aeroelastic test. The result shows that the plates with lower aspect ratio have higher flutter speed

A study comparison of different aggregate between concrete mixture with processed recycled waste and conventional concrete mixture with gravel

This comparison research was developed to compare the performance of concrete mixture that used waste recycled materials as the alternative replacement of coarse aggregate with a conventional concrete mixture that use common granular materials. This is important as different types of materials used in concrete mixture may affect the strength of a concrete. This is due to the nature differences of the material that varies in sizes, grip, endurance, and stability which greatly affects the strength of a concrete mixture. The use of recycled materials in construction industry would greatly affect total waste production. At the end of the comparison, the results shows that the use of recycled materials can be done to replace conventional granular coarse aggregate in concrete mixture

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN, BRAND IMAGE AND HIGH INVOLVEMENT PRODUCT TOWARDS CUSTOMER PURCHASE INTENTION: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE OF EAST MALAYSIAN CONSUMER

This research strives to understand East Malaysian consumers’ purchase intention when being exposed to the effects of brand image and country of origin (COO) image in the case of high involvement pro­ducts. Self-administered questionnaires were collected from 225 consumers in East Malaysia. The result of this study shows that East Malaysian consumers’ put a large importance on brand and country of origin image in high involvement products as they are more involved in information searching and decision ma­king when purchases these products. Implication and future research also discussed

Heterotrigona Itama Kelulut honey eehydration process to prolong shelf life

Oneofthemainchallengesinthetropicalhoneyindustrysuchaskelulut honey is the naturally occurring high water content in the kelulut honey composi- tion. If water content exceeds 22%, the fermentation process will occur at ambient temperature, spoiling the kelulut honey taste and reducing its shelf life. Therefore, the dehydration process is highly important to reduce the water content to less than 22% to halt the fermentation process in the kelulut honey. Nevertheless, the dehydra- tion process has its own risk, it had been known that prolonged heating at elevated temperature has adverse effects on the quality of kelulut honey. In this study, a dehy- dration process was applied using indirect heating system to achieve a reduction of water content below 22% adhering to MS 2683:2017. The results have shown that for the lowest capacity of 1 kg kelulut honey, a reduction of water content below 22% was achieved in 2 hours while the highest capacity of 30 kg kelulut honey took 15 hours to achieve the reduction of water content below 22%. Finding from this study will benefit the small-scale kelulut breeders to prolong the kelulut honey shelf life via dehydration process

Personal capabilities and social factor towards entrepreneurial intention: empirical evidence of Science and Technology undergraduate students / Jati Kasuma … [et al.]

Entrepreneurial intention is one of the focus and attention among researchers nowadays. The younger generation is encouraged to get involved in entrepreneurship. It may able to overcome the issue of unemployment rate by creating more job opportunities. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship and influence of Personal Capabilities and Social Factors towards entrepreneurial intention among Science & Technology students. A total of 214 respondents of science and technology undergraduate students from both Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Sarawak participated in the survey. The empirical results indicate that social factors were found to have positive relationship and significantly correlated with entrepreneurial intention. On the other hand, the relationship between personal capabilities and entrepreneurial intention was found to have a significant albeit weak positive relationship with entrepreneurial intention. Implication and future research direction are also discussed

Enhancement of electrochemical performance based on symmetrical poly-(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) coated polyvinyl alcohol/graphene oxide/manganese oxide microfiber for supercapacitor

In this study, a symmetrical poly (3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) coated on poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA)-graphene oxide (GO)-manganese oxide (MnO2) microfibers (PVA-GO-MnO2/PEDOT) supercapacitor was successfully prepared using a combination of two facile techniques; electrospinning and electropolymerisation. The FESEM analysis revealed the uniform distribution of manganese oxide nanoparticles on the surface of cross-linking PVA-GO microfibers and a cauliflower-like morphology was observed upon deposition of PEDOT on the surface of PVA-GO-MnO2 microfibers. The chemical composition of PVA-GO-MnO2/PEDOT and oxidation state of manganese were characterised using Raman and X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopies. The inclusion of MnO2 and PEDOT in the microcomposite proved the enhancement of specific capacitance where PVA-GO-MnO2/PEDOT exhibited a specific capacitance of 144.66 F/g compared to PVA-MnO2/PEDOT (107.22 F/g), PVA-GO/PEDOT (94.73 F/g) and PEDOT (62.86 F/g). A wide potential window (1.8 V) was achieved for PVA-GO-MnO2/PEDOT with an excellent capacitance retention of 91.18% suggesting an ideal capacitive behaviour and good cycling stability. PVA-GO-MnO2/PEDOT microcomposite also showed an improved specific energy and specific power with small equivalent series resistance (34.5 Ω) and charge transfer resistance (0.62 Ω). This demonstrated that symmetric electrode of PVA-GO-MnO2/PEDOT can offer a great promise in producing high-performance supercapacitors

Ternary functionalised carbon nanofiber/polypyrrole/manganese oxide as high specific energy electrode for supercapacitor

A successful fabrication of ternary functionalised carbon nanofibers/polypyrrole/manganese oxide (f-CNFs/PPy/MnO₂) composite was reported. The field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) image had revealed a random distribution of granular PPy and spherical nanoparticles of MnO2 on the surface of f-CNFs. The measured contact angle of f-CNFs indicated superhydrophilic nature which can enhance the surface wettability and ionic diffusion. The ternary f-CNFs/PPy/MnO₂ composite displayed a remarkable specific capacitance of 409.88 F/g compared with f-CNFs/MnO₂ (322.96 F/g) and f-CNFs/PPy (290.83 F/g). The electrochemical properties of f-CNFs/PPy/MnO₂ had contributed to the appreciable specific energy of 42.53 Wh/kg at a specific power of 297.32 W/kg. The assembled f-CNFs/PPy/MnO₂ composite also showed low resistance of charge transfer (Rct) value (3.40 Ω) with a better cycle life (86.30% capacitance retention over 3000 cycles). Hence, ternary f-CNFs/PPy/MnO₂ can be suggested as a high-performance electrode for supercapacitor

Supercapacitor with superior electrochemical properties derived from symmetrical manganese oxide-carbon fiber coated with polypyrrole

A supercapacitor electrode comprising conducting polypyrrole (PPy) coated on manganese oxide-carbon fiber (CNFMnO2) was successfully synthesized using electrospinning, followed by carbonization and in-situ polymerization. A non-uniform distribution of PPy on the surface of CNFMnO2 was observed via FESEM analysis. The chemical bonding of CNFMnO2/PPy and the valence state of manganese were revealed via FTIR, Raman spectroscopy, XRD and XPS measurements. CNFMnO2/PPy composite possessed high specific capacitance and specific energy of 315.80 Fg−1 and 13.68 Wh/kg, respectively. In addition, good electrochemical reversibility was proven upon CNFMnO2/PPy even at higher sweep rate (5–200 mV/s). Moreover, this one-dimensional electrode achieved an excellent long-term cycling stability (82.46%) over 2000 CV cycles with low charge transfer resistance (4.61 Ω). The modification of CNFMnO2/PPy contributes to good synergistic effects among the material which improve the electrochemical behavior of manganese oxide-based fiber composite for future supercapacitor

Pendekatan Pengubatan Berteraskan Spiritual Islam dalam Menangani Masalah Sosial Masyarakat [Rehabilitation Approach based on Islamic Spirituality in Overcoming Social Problems among Malaysian Society]

Malaysia sudah pun memasuki era baru iaitu zaman 2020 yang ditunggu-tunggu oleh semua pihak. Walau bagaimanapun, sebagai sebuah negara yang membangun, isu masalah sosial tidak dapat dipisahkan. Bukan itu sahaja, masyarakat di bandar mahupun luar turut mempunyai statistik masalah sosial yang meresahkan. Fokus utama dalam menangani masalah sosial sewajarnya menumpukan pendekatan berorientasi kepada aspek spiritual atau kerohanian tanpa pengabaian aspek lain. Oleh yang demikian, artikel ini menyasarkan suatu misi dengan mengemukakan langkah pro-aktif iaitu mengkaji mengenai pendekatan pengubatan berteraskan spiritual Islam dalam menangani masalah sosial yang berlaku dalam kalangan masyarakat di negara hari ini. Artikel ini mengetengahkan pendekatan metode campuran iaitu kualitatif dan kuantitatif. Pendekatan pengubatan berteraskan spiritual Islam dihasilkan menerusi penelitian terhadap literatur dan temu bual bersama tiga orang pakar. Pendekatan ini turut mendapat penilaian dan pengesahan lima orang pakar dengan menggunakan soal selidik bagi mendapatkan kesahan yang tinggi. Analisis kandungan digunakan pada fasa pertama, dan analisis khas metode Fuzzy Delphi digunakan pada fasa kedua. Berdasarkan pengumpulan data yang dijalankan, pendekatan pengubatan berteraskan spiritual Islam dijangkakan memberikan kesan yang positif dalam menangani masalah sosial masyarakat. Malaysia has progressed to the much-anticipated 2020s. Along with the progression, however, as a developing country, social issues are seemingly inextricable. This is further indicated through the alarming statistics on social problems for both urban and rural society. Therefore, the chief focus to resolve the social issues ought to be directed towards a spiritual-oriented aspect without disregarding other aspects. Accordingly, this article attempts to undertake a proactive step by studying a rehabilitation approach based on Islamic spirituality in overcoming social issues in society. This study utilizes a mixed-method research design of qualitative and quantitative research. The approach is formulated by perusing literature sources and interviewing three experts. For high validity outcome, this approach is reviewed and validated by five experts. Content analysis is used in the first phase, while a more distinctive analysis method, Fuzzy Delphi, is used in the second phase. The outcome from data collection is expected to deliver a positive result in resolving social problems in society

Unsupervised Fertigation and Machine Learning for Crop Vegetation Parameter Analysis

This study proposes an IoT-based smart irrigation management system that can optimize water-resource utilization in a smart agricultural system. The system uses unsupervised learning-based clustering to predict the irrigation needs of a field based on the ground parameters sensed by automated monitoring devices. These parameters include soil moisture, light intensity, temperature, and humidity. The system extracts feature such as the maximum, minimum, mean, and standard deviation of four soil moisture sensors from the primary dataset of plants. Then, it applies lag features to enhance the accuracy of the classification model. The system uploads the dataset of 108 features to the Orange GUI and performs k-means clustering to assign cluster labels to the data as meta-attributes in a new dataset. The study evaluates the system using a month’s worth of data and demonstrates its functionality and effectiveness. The system employs machine learning techniques such as Random Forest, Neural Network, and kNN, which achieve 100%, 99.9%, and 99.8% accuracy respectively