High energy density fuels derived from mallee biomass: fuel properties and implications

Mallee biomass is considered to be a second-generation renewable feedstock in Australia and will play an important role in bioenergy development in Australia. Its production is of large-scale, low cost, small carbon footprint and high energy efficiency. However, biomass as a direct fuel is widely dispersed, bulky, fibrous and of high moisture content and low energy density. High logistic cost, poor grindability and mismatch of fuel property with coal are some of the key issues that impede biomass utilisation for power generation. Therefore, innovations are in urgent need to improve biomass volumetric energy densification, grindability and good fuel matching if co-fired with coal. Biomass pyrolysis is a flexible and low-cost approach that can be deployed for this purpose. Via pyrolysis, the bulky biomass can be converted to biomass-derived high-energy-density fuels such as biochar and/or bio-oil. So far there has been a lack of fundamental understanding of mallee biomass pyrolysis and properties of the fuel products.The series of study in this PhD thesis aims to investigate the production of such high-energy- density fuels obtained from mallee pyrolysis and to obtain some new knowledge on properties of the resultant fuels and their implications to practical applications. Particularly, the research has been designed and carried out to use pyrolysis as a pretreatment technology for the production of biochar, bio-oil and bioslurry fuels. The main outcomes of this study are summarised as follows.Firstly, biochars were produced from the pyrolysis of centimetre-sized particles of mallee wood at 300-500°C using a fixed-bed reactor under slow-heating conditions. The data show that at pyrolysis temperatures > 320°C, biochar as a fuel has similar fuel H/C and O/C ratios compared to Collie coal which is the only coal being mined in WA. Converting biomass to biochar leads to a substantial increase in fuel mass energy density from ~10 GJ/tonne of green biomass to ~28 GJ/tonne of biochars prepared from pyrolysis at 320°C, in comparison to 26 GJ/tonne for Collie coal. However, there is little improvement in fuel volumetric energy density, which is still around 7-9 GJ/m[superscript]3 in comparison to 17 GJ/m[superscript]3 of Collie coal. Biochars are still bulky and grinding is required for volumetric energy densification. Biochar grindability experiments have shown that the fuel grindability increases drastically even at pyrolysis temperature as low as 300°C. Further increase in pyrolysis temperature to 500°C leads to only small increase in biochar grindability. Under the grinding conditions, a significant size reduction (34-66 % cumulative volumetric size 4) in comparison to green wood chips. Bioslurry fuels with high biochar concentrations (11-20 wt%) showed non-Newtonian characteristics with pseudoplastic behaviour. The flow behaviour index, n decreases with the increasing of biochar concentration. Bioslurry with higher biochar concentrations has also demonstrated thixotropic behaviour. The bioslurry fuels also have low viscosity (<453 mPa.s) and are pumpable at both room and elevated temperatures. The concentrations of Ca, K, N and S in bioslurry are below the limits of slurry fuel guidelines.Fourthly, bio-oil is extracted using biodiesel to produce two fractions, a biodiesel-rich fraction (also referred as bio-oil/biodiesel blend) and a bio-oil rich fraction. The results has shown that the compounds (mainly phenolic) extracted from bio-oil into the biodiesel-rich fraction reduces the surface tension of the resulted biodiesel/bio-oil blends that are known as potential liquid transport fuels. The bio-oil rich fraction is mixed with ground biochar to produce a bioslurry fuel. It is found that bioslurry fuels with 10% and 20% biochar loading prepared from the bio-oil rich fraction of biodiesel extraction at a biodiesel to bio-oil blend ratio 0.67 have similar fuel properties (e.g. density, surface tension, volumetric energy density and stability) in comparison to those prepared using the original whole bio-oil. The slurry fuels have exhibited non-Newtonian with pseudoplastic characteristics and good pumpability desirable for fuel handling. The viscoelastic behaviour of the slurry fuels also has shown dominantly fluid-like behaviour in the linear viscoelastic region therefore favourable for atomization in practical applications. This study proposes a new bio-oil utilisation strategy via coproduction of a biodiesel/bio-oil blend and a bioslurry fuel. The biodiesel/bio-oil blend utilises a proportion of bio-oil compounds (relatively high value small volume) as a liquid transportation fuel. The bioslurry fuel is prepared by mixing the rest low-quality bio-oil rich fractions (relatively low value and high volume) with ground biochar, suitable for stationary applications such as combustion and gasification.Overall, the present research has generated valuable data, knowledge and fundamental understanding on advanced fuels from mallee biomass using pyrolysis as a pre-treatment step. The flexibility of pyrolysis process enables conversion of bulky, low fuel quality mallee biomass to biofuels of high volumetric energy density favourable to reduce logistic cost associated with direct use of biomass. The significance structural, fuel and ash properties differences among various mallee biomass components were also revealed. The production of bioslurry fuels as a mixture of bio-oil and biochar is not only to further enhance the transportability/handling of mallee biomass but most importantly the slurry quality highly matched requirements in stationary applications such as combustion and gasification. The co-production of bioslurry with bio-oil/biodiesel extraction was firstly reported in this field. Such a new strategy, which uses high-quality extractable bio-oil compounds into bio-oil/biodiesel blend as a liquid transportation fuel and utilises the low-quality bio-oil rich fraction left after extraction for bioslurry preparation, offers significant benefits for optimised use of bio-oil

Redefining internal audit performance: Impact on corporate governance

One of the preventive measures to situations akin to world financial crises increasingly forwarded is effective internal audit function (IAF) (e.g., Imhoff, 2003; Mohamad & Muhamad Sori, 2011). Internal audit, a component of corporate governance, continues to evolve due to changes in business strategies and requirements placed on it by legislators. The roles of internal auditors and audit committees (ACs), the key personnel in IAFs, are changing to a more value-added approach as business strategies move towards corporate sustainability and organisational excellence. Suggestions forwarded to improve the performance or determining the quality of IAF include effective involvement of ACs in internal audit activities, the employment of competent internal auditors and determining the impact of internal audit on corporate governance (e.g., Mohamad & Muhamad Sori, 2011, Sarens, 2009, Turley & Zaman, 2007). Research on the quality of internal audit has focussed mainly on the relationships of internal audit with internal control and ACs (e.g., Fadzil, Haron, & Jantan, 2005; Mat Zain & Subramaniam, 2007; Turley & Zaman, 2007). However, none has linked the impact of internal audit performance to corporate governance. This study provides an agency of value view, explaining the effectiveness of IAF and its impact on corporate governance. Using a convergent mixed methods approach, the main findings from survey data collected from corporate members of the Institute of Internal Auditors Malaysia are compared and integrated with perspectives from chief audit executives of selected public listed companies interviewed. The factors investigated are the structure of the IAF, activities of best practices in internal auditing, ACs’ involvement as stated by the Malaysian public listing guidelines (Bursa Malaysia, 2000, 2009b) and the World Bank’s corporate governance framework (World Bank, 1991). An exploration on the extent of collaborations and combined assurances in internal audit is also carried out. The primary analysis on the probability of an effective IAF and profiling of the internal audit activities, level of AC involvement and areas of corporate governance is made using the Rasch model. Non-parametric tests are also used to determine the statistical significance of the relationships of the components investigated. In-depth interview data are analysed using template analysis. The findings support the establishment of an in-house IAF with a definitive team size and professional expertise for an effective IAF. Other IAF components are member experience, combined audit activities and collaborations of audit activities. Although these other components are not significantly related to the effectiveness of IAF, the indepth interviews provided more explanations on their importance in internal audit. An important structure of the IAF is the AC’s oversight role. The findings also indicate that the level of ACs’ involvement in the reviews of each stage of the internal audit process contributes to the overall effectiveness of IAF. Due to issues in staffing and the changing business environment, collaborations particularly in risk management, information technology audits and quality audits, are increasingly being used as a strategy in internal audit to provide value add services. Further, as suggested by Sarens (2009), the level of internal audit performance could now be identified to its impact on corporate governance, for example such as in areas of expenditure management, revenue management, analysis of data and conflict resolution. The results have implications on the policy regarding internal control for public listed companies, favouring an in-house internal audit function as opposed to outsourcing the function, to address the recommendations on the effectiveness of ACs and its relationship with IAFs. The practice of internal audit in future should be more collaborative to harness the expertise and experience of other departmental personnel in producing effective internal audit, ultimately creating a greater impact on corporate governance

An empirical analysis of the status of good faith in contractual performance: the Australian experience

This thesis examines the concept of good faith in contractual performance as an important element in Australian contract law. The research begins with an empirical investigation of the extent of judicial support for an obligation of good faith in contract law since it was first put onto the judicial agenda in Australia by the case of Renard Construction (ME) v Minister for Works (1992) 26 NSWLR 234 through the obiter comments of Priestley J in 1992. The research continues with an empirical investigation of the meaning of good faith. There are many possible interpretations of the meaning of good faith, most of which are complex, contradictory, and unclear, which has led to undesirable uncertainty in the concept of good faith. The research then critically evaluates the possibility of legislating an obligation of good faith in contractual performance. 104 Australian cases from 1992 to 2009 that raised the issue of good faith were identified. The study period was divided into three phases; ‘Introduction Phase 1992- 1998’, ‘Development Phase 1999-2003’, and ‘Consolidation Phase 2004-2009’. These phases are examined for trends and development of the concept. A four Likerttype scale was used to access the attitude of the judges regarding the concept of good faith. In order to measure the validity and reliability of the data, the ‘average’ and ‘standard deviation’ is used in this study. The empirical observation concluded that there is still inconsistency of support from judges towards the issue of good faith. A rigorous thematic analysis of the meaning of good faith was conducted to propose a workable meaning of good faith. Despite the traditional reservations arising from uncertainty associated with the many meanings of good faith, an empirical analysis concluded that a workable meaning of good faith could be achieved by way of ‘multi-categories’. The previous Australian government accepted the recommendation to legislate good faith in the context of franchising to regulate the unethical behaviour of franchisors toward franchisees. In the context of franchising, good faith is legislated by way of ‘non-discretionary reference criteria’ as prescribed in S 22 of Australian Consumer Law. The development of good faith in the context of franchising offers a valuable opportunity for legislating good faith in contractual performance. Overall, this thesis argues that in the absence of a High Court decision regarding the application and meaning of good faith in contract law, there is scope for legislating a good faith obligation by defining good faith. This thesis suggests that good faith can be defined by way of ‘multi -categories’

正常および病的ヒト脂腺での各種ステロイド合成酵素、転写因子、核内受容体の発現解析

要約のみTohoku University笹野公伸課

An Exploratory Examination into the Relationship between Corporate Governance and Risk Management in Islamic Banks: Disclosure and Survey Analysis

Whenever corporate and financial failures and crises arise in the world, issues of corporate governance and risk management are always highlighted as major causes of the event. In order to substantiate such claims, it is first important to specify which factors, in either corporate governance or risk management, actually cause these failures. Furthermore, if such factors were identified, might these failures be avoided in the future? This line of questioning provides the rationale behind this research. This study thus aims to explore and examine corporate governance and risk management practices as well as the potential relationship between the two variables in the case of Islamic banks in various countries. In doing so, the research explores corporate governance and risk management practices by employing disclosure analysis through annual reports, by using content analysis, with the objective of identifying the state of Islamic corporate governance and risk management practices in Islamic banks. To achieve this, the study analyses 181 annual reports from 53 Islamic banks. In addition, the corporate governance and risk management practices of Islamic banks were also explored through perceptions analysis, based upon the responses obtained by questionnaire survey from Islamic bankers and financiers from 28 Islamic banks from 6 countries and locations. An attempt was also made to locate the correlation between corporate governance and risk management with both data sets as it is expected that good corporate governance practices should moderate risk exposure and establish a better risk management process. Thus, this study is predicated on the notion that if banks have good corporate governance practices, the risk management practices should then be efficient. By using qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis, including correlation analysis, this study found that the relationship between corporate governance and risk management is not incredibly strong in the case of the Islamic banks involved in the period that this study covers. However, in examining the type of relationship, it was established that there was a positive relationship between the two. Thus, it can be said that with regards to bank failures, if corporate governance is the aforementioned trigger, it is also partly due to risk management – based on the fact that a positive relationship exists between the two. The findings of the study reveal two important results: corporate governance and risk management do not have a strong correlation between them. The findings show that most Islamic banks have very poor scores in Shari’ah compliance and Shari’ah governance. Poor scores are also revealed in other dimensions such as ethics, audit and board composition. However, in determining which aspect of corporate governance has the stronger propensity for creating problems, it is important to establish the actual dimension which affects corporate governance and risk management the most. This study reveals that Shari’ah-related dimension has the highest bearing on the overall corporate governance positions. Risk management, on the other hand, depends very highly on reporting and disclosure. A further aspect to consider is that not all dimensions positively affect corporate governance. For instance, the structure, committee and senior management has a negative impact on corporate governance. For risk management, all dimensions had positive impacts except for primary key areas, which are market and liquidity risk and operational risk

CORRELATION BETWEEN NEURAL RESPONSE TELEMETRY (NRT) MESUREMENT LEVEL AND BEHAVIORL (T-LEVEL AND C-LEVEL) IN PRELINGUAL COCHLEAR IMPLANT PATIENTS

 Objectives: To study the correlation between Neural Response Telemetry (NRT) measurement level and behavioral (Threshold level and Comfort level) in pre lingual cochlear implant patients age between 2 -10 years old at one and three months post implant. Methods: A cross sectional study conducted at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Center from September 2010 to January 2012. Total numbers of hundred patients were involved in this study.All recipients implanted with Nucleus 24 cochlear implant and had full insertion and normal activation of the electrode array. Comparison between intra-operative NRT measurement level and behavioral (T-level and C-level) in cochlear implant patients at one month and three months post implantation were obtained respectively. Results: This study showed the intra-operative NRT levels were seen to fall between the T and C levels in one and three months respectively. There was also a positive correlation between NRT value measurements and both T and C value measurements in both one and three months (p value 0.01). There is a fair strength of the linear relationship between NRT and behavioral level in both one and three month post implant as shown by the r value (0.4 at one month, 0.2 at three months) Conclusion: It is useful to use the NRT values to predict the behavioral T and C values in prelingual children and an additional tool for the mapping. Key words: Neural Response Telemetry (NRT); Threshold level; Comfort level; Nucleus 24 cochlear implant.

A multimodal conversation analytic study of word-searches in L2 interaction

PhD ThesisStudies on face-to-face interactions have demonstrated how spoken language involves not only verbal but also a mutual collaboration with embodied actions. Embodied actions, such as gaze, gestures, body posture and physical movement are part and parcel of the details of ordered social interaction, and they can be significant resources in interaction (Hazel et al., 2014). This study has investigated the embodied actions displayed in word search phenomenon in L2 interaction. Word search is regarded as a type of self-initiation repair in which the progressivity of the speaker’s turn is momentarily ceased due to an item (i.e. word) is not available to the speaker when due (Schegloff et al., 1977). The context of the study is a non-educational context (Firth and Wagner, 1997; Firth and Wagner, 2007; Gardner and Wagner, 2004) where casual conversation among international university students having dinner at a cafe is recorded. Furthermore, the study is a multiactivity setting in which multiparty participants are engaged in talking, eating and drinking. The L2 speakers are from different countries, and most of them have a different first language background. This study examines conversations between L2-L2 speakers communicating in English as it is the most common language that international students resort to when speaking with someone who has a different language background. Using multimodal Conversation Analysis (CA), this study aims to explore how participants with different language proficiency exploit embodied actions as resources in word search sequences. The analyses start with investigating how participants get into a word search and then moves to enquiring how participants use embodied actions for constructing a joint solution. The final analysis focuses on how embodied actions are used as a resource to resolve a word search when the targeted word is not attained. The findings from the investigation suggest that there is a relationship between talk and embodied actions in word search sequences among L2-L2 speakers. Based on the findings, six salient themes will be discussed; (1) the interactional phenomenon of a ‘word search’, (2) resources that are recognised as opportunities for co-participation, (3) joint solutions by non-speaking participants, (4) meaning-making through embodied interaction, (5) achieving mutual understanding through embodied negotiation, and ii (6) language use or learning in the wild. Overall, this study advocates the need for an in-depth exploration of multimodal resources in word search sequences, which can have significant implications to understand that language use is fundamentally multimodal (Seyfeddinipur and Gullberg, 2014).Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysi

Design and Fabrication of Portable Smoke Tunnel for Flow Visualization

A smoke tunnel design and fabrication is one of the improvement efforts to facilitate the flow visualization for the transparent fluid such as air and water to be visible. The field study of fluid kinematics such as the investigation over immersed model at different Reynolds Numbers and the complexity of flow characteristic when moving or static bodies or structure through a moving fluid also will be takes into consideration. However, wind tunnel and smoke generator which are available in UTP Fluid Mechanics laboratory are not exactly practical to visualizing the air flow pattern appropriately. The methodology of designing and fabricating of the smoke tunnel has been made based on the literature review on previous works or studies. The feasibility study also has been performed for selecting materials which are available in market with cost effective and effortless for construction. The smoke tunnel has been designed based on analysis on air blower characteristics followed by the diffuser length, the test-section cross section area, the contraction cone length, the setting chamber radius inlet, and smoke generator’s tubing. The total length of this tunnel is about 1.6 meters with square test section 0.12 x 0.12 m providing maximum free stream velocity of 23 m/s. The details drawing of the smoke tunnel will be provided through CATIA software for two dimension and three dimension outlines. The design criteria will try to create a good matching between the smoke and the surrounding air flow field by minimizing the difference in the two fluids velocities

Analysis of Chemical and Mechanical Properties of Geopolymer Cement

Due to increasing of industrial waste product, as well as environmental concern on conventional cement due to CO2 emission, a new green cement technology has been developed known as geopolymer cement. However, it is crucial that geopolymer cement can meet the specific requirement to ensure its efficiency in downhole condition. Industrial by products were utilized as raw material for geopolymer cement in this project. They are Fly Ash (FA) and Microwave Incinerated Rice Husk Ash (MIRHA). Numerous studies have been done on the application of fly ash in geopolymer cement and it has been proven that fly ash is a good raw material which can form geopolymer cement with high compressive strength. However, due to abundance of rice husk as waste materials that is not widely utilized, there are also several studies on the employment of MIRHA in geopolymer cement. Yet the contribution of MIRHA in compressive strength of geopolymer cement has not been extensively studied. Hence, this project studies the compressive strength of geopolymer cement composed of fly ash, and MIRHA as raw material and the effect of addition of different percentage of silica fume towards the strength development. Microstructure studies also were conducted to confirm the result of compressive strength of the sample by using X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscope (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)