Dispersibility Study of Nitrated PETRONAS Cokes

Petroleum coke is a non-polar material which means it is not dispersible. Coke is insoluble and thus limits the development of petroleum coke based product. The dispersibility study of nitrated coke is an important prerequisite in order to understand the pattern of dispersibility over the time. To understand the nature and constitution of nitrated coke, or to separate the organic matter of coke for its conversion to useful products, detailed systematic studies on the solubilization characteristic of cokes in organic solvents is a must. This study will compare the stability of the suspension (colloid) among three samples of nitrated cokes (difference in nitration temperature) versus time. The reasons behind the solubility and the dispersibility characteristic of nitrated coke are also discussed. The experiment conducted will involve the usage of UV-vis spectrophotometer. The earlier findings are showing that the nitrated cokes dispersed in acids and neutral solution. Apart of that, treated cokes dissolved in high pH solution. A recommendation is suggested whether a 'new water dispersible solid coke' should be further developed or vice versa. The complete substitution is, if ever achievable, a long term goal. Possible problem encountered also will be also being discussed throughout this report

The Language of Evaluation in Jose Saramago's Blindness via Appraisal Theory

Appraisal theory is developed out of systemic functional linguistics as a discourse semantic resource that is concerned with how text producers express their attitudes. The current study is an attempt to expand appraisal framework applicability to a fictional text as modern linguistic studies in the field of appraisal theory have typically been applied to the limited scope of political speeches and debates. The present study strives to illuminate appraisal theory as a tool for analysing the novel Blindness by José Saramago by carrying out three hypotheses. First, appraisal theory can be applied to fictional texts to reveal its genre. Second, in Blindness, appraisal theory shows how the novel’s opening displays a high frequency of pessimistic attitudes. Third, Saramago's most prominent attitude in the beginning of Blindness is judgement. To investigate these hypotheses, the study applied Martin and White’s (2005) framework of appraisal theory to an analysis of 30 extracts as the most representative of the apocalyptic genre. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were applied. Consequently, this study has proven that appraisal framework can be applied to fictional texts to determine the stance and the genre of the text. The findings have also demonstrated that Saramago used an explicit judgment rather than affect or appreciation. Examining the apocalyptic genre and Saramago's attitudes through appraisal theory has led to a new linguistic reading of Blindness unfolding the stances towards the perspectives in the texts and the alignments made to the audience

Empirical Analysis of Determinants of Economic Growth: Evidence from SAARC Countries

This study investigates the factors that determine and enhance economic growth. The factors to determine the economic growth of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries are foreign direct investment, total debt, gross domestic investment and inflation. Simple ordinary least square is applied to analyze the determinates of economic growth with the help of panel data for 39 years with annual frequency from 1971 to 2009. The economic growth may gain boost by the factors not only by these but also many others. In this study foreign direct investment and inflation are found having inverse relationship with economic growth while gross domestic investment and total debt are found positively associated with economic growth. This study may prove useful contribution for policy making for South Asian countries

Constraints in Implementation of Green Building Projects in Malaysia: A Short Review

Green building (GB) is the foundation of sustainable construction and a part of promoting environmental conservation. Bringing change to the building construction industry requires multiple efforts from various angles especially to overcome any resistances in the form of technology, human aspects, financial and resources. The transition from conventional to sustainable approach consumes time as it requires changes from different facets in the industry ranging from individual, organizational to industry level. In Malaysia, there are various efforts to bring green into the industry but the progress is low moderate. The current review identified the major constraints that hinder a faster progress for green buildings development in Malaysia which include high initial cost, lack of knowledge and awareness among public and industry players, challenges in technology and expertise as well as lack of government enforcement and incentives. The outcomes of this paper will assist in enhancing and improving the sustainable practice in Malaysian’s construction industry for the betterment of life for sustainable communities

Synthesis, Spectroscopic Characterization of Cobalt ComplexfromC16H19N3O3S and photodegradation using prepared Nano TiO2catalyst

Coblatcomplex has been prepared by reaction between C16H19N3O3S (L) as ligand and metal salt (II). The prepared complex were characterized by infrared spectra, electromic spectra, magnetic susceptibility, molar conductivity measurement and metal analysis by atomic absorption and (C.H.N) analysis. From these studies tetrahedral geometry structure for the complex was suggested. The photodegredation of complex were study using photoreaction cell and preparednanoTiO2 catalyst in different conditions (concentration, temperatures, pH).The results show that the recation is of a first order with activation energy equal to (6.6512 kJ /mol)

[Leafospirosis Deadly Disease from Rat: Fiqh Al-Hadith-Based Analysis] Leptospirosis Wabak Maut Dari Tikus: Analisis Berasaskan Fiqh al-Hadith

Leptospirosis (rat urine epidemic) can be categorised as silent killer to mankind. It has raised concerns among Malaysians in 2012 to 2014. A series of deaths, including those involving celebrity groups has put widespread interest from all Malaysians. The rat-borne outbreak infects humans through water contaminated with urine, ear skin (body tissue), the mucus of the nose, mouth and eyes of rat. Various control measures deemed appropriate have been performed at the state and district, including poison, traps and reward for each rat caught or killed. Therefore, early preventive measures in the form of knowledge is very important in order to understand the concept of “interaction with pests” well. Significantly, Prophet Muhammad SAW has warned on threat posed by pest cluster including rat in his set saying. Thus, this article strives to peel regarding rats description with the methods to interact with pests through al-Hadith discussions. This case is important to provide guidance to society regarding harms that able to be incarnated by particular animal and also the most efficient control techniques to Prophetic tradition without marginalizing animal exclusive rights. The findings show that the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) himself explained the najasah of rat as a pest and the Islamic ruling of killing it. In addition, this study is also bring up five [5] methods of interacting with fasiq animals based on understanding of Prophetic Traditions and nine [9] infection control and prevention guidelines from leptospirosis.   Keywords: Rat; Threat; Pest; Significant; Control Technique   Leptospirosis (wabak kencing tikus) boleh dikategorikan sebagai pembunuh senyap kepada manusia. Subjek pernah membangkitkan keresahan dalam kalangan rakyat Malaysia pada tahun 2012 hingga 2014. Beberapa siri kematian termasuk melibatkan golongan selebriti telah membuatkannya mendapat perhatian meluas seluruh rakyat Malaysia. Penularan wabak bawaan tikus ini menjangkiti manusia melalui air yang dicemari air kencing, kuping kulit (tisu badan), lendir hidung, mulut dan mata tikus. Pelbagai tindakan kawalan yang difikirkan wajar telah dilaksanakan di peringkat negeri dan kawasan, termasuk meracun, memasang perangkap dan memberi ganjaran bagi setiap tikus yang ditangkap atau dibunuh. Signifikannya, Nabi SAW telah membincangkan mengenai ancaman kelompok haiwan perosak termasuk tikus dalam himpunan sabdanya. Justeru, makalah ini berusaha mengupas fiqh al-Hadith berkenaan tikus yang didapati daripada perbincangan ulama‟ klasik dan kontemporari. Ini penting bagi memberi panduan kepada masyarakat akan mudarat yang mampu dijelmakan haiwan tertentu dan teknik kawalan paling berkesan menurut sunnah Nabi SAW tanpa meminggirkan hak-hak eksklusif haiwan. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa Nabi SAW telah menjelaskan mengenai kenajisan tikus sebagai haiwan perosak dan hukum membunuhnya. Selain itu, kajian ini turut mengemukakan lima [5] kaedah berinteraksi dengan haiwan fasiq berdasarkan kefahaman al-Hadith dan sembilan [9] kaedah pencegahan daripada jangkitan wabak kencing tikus.   Kata kunci: Tikus; Wabak Kencing Tikus; Bahaya; Haiwan Perosak; Metode Interaks

Gaussian mixture model based probabilistic modeling of images for medical image segmentation

In this paper, we propose a novel image segmentation algorithm that is based on the probability distributions of the object and background. It uses the variational level sets formulation with a novel region based term in addition to the edge-based term giving a complementary functional, that can potentially result in a robust segmentation of the images. The main theme of the method is that in most of the medical imaging scenarios, the objects are characterized by some typical characteristics such a color, texture, etc. Consequently, an image can be modeled as a Gaussian mixture of distributions corresponding to the object and background. During the procedure of curve evolution, a novel term is incorporated in the segmentation framework which is based on the maximization of the distance between the GMM corresponding to the object and background. The maximization of this distance using differential calculus potentially leads to the desired segmentation results. The proposed method has been used for segmenting images from three distinct imaging modalities i.e. magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), dermoscopy and chromoendoscopy. Experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed method giving better qualitative and quantitative results when compared with the current state-of-the-art. INDEX TERMS Gaussian Mixture Model, Level Sets, Active Contours, Biomedical Engineerin

A Majority Vote Based Classifier Ensemble for Web Service Classification

Service oriented architecture is a glue that allows web applications to work in collaboration. It has become a driving force for the service-oriented computing (SOC) paradigm. In heterogeneous environments the SOC paradigm uses web services as the basic building block to support low costs as well as easy and rapid composition of distributed applications. A web service exposes its interfaces using the Web Service Description Language (WSDL). A central repository called universal description, discovery and integration (UDDI) is used by service providers to publish and register their web services. UDDI registries are used by web service consumers to locate the web services they require and metadata associated with them. Manually analyzing WSDL documents is the best approach, but also most expensive. Work has been done on employing various approaches to automate the classification of web services. However, previous research has focused on using a single technique for classification. This research paper focuses on the classification of web services using a majority vote based classifier ensemble technique. The ensemble model overcomes the limitations of conventional techniques by employing the ensemble of three heterogeneous classifiers: Naïve Bayes, decision tree (J48), and Support Vector Machines. We applied tenfold cross-validation to test the efficiency of the model on a publicly available dataset consisting of 3738 real world web services categorized into 5 fields, which yielded an average accuracy of 92 %. The high accuracy is owed to two main factors, i.e., enhanced pre-processing with focused feature selection, and majority based ensemble classification

Dispersibility Study of Nitrated PETRONAS Cokes

Petroleum coke is a non-polar material which means it is not dispersible. Coke is insoluble and thus limits the development of petroleum coke based product. The dispersibility study of nitrated coke is an important prerequisite in order to understand the pattern of dispersibility over the time. To understand the nature and constitution of nitrated coke, or to separate the organic matter of coke for its conversion to useful products, detailed systematic studies on the solubilization characteristic of cokes in organic solvents is a must. This study will compare the stability of the suspension (colloid) among three samples of nitrated cokes (difference in nitration temperature) versus time. The reasons behind the solubility and the dispersibility characteristic of nitrated coke are also discussed. The experiment conducted will involve the usage of UV-vis spectrophotometer. The earlier findings are showing that the nitrated cokes dispersed in acids and neutral solution. Apart of that, treated cokes dissolved in high pH solution. A recommendation is suggested whether a 'new water dispersible solid coke' should be further developed or vice versa. The complete substitution is, if ever achievable, a long term goal. Possible problem encountered also will be also being discussed throughout this report

The prevalence of bipolar spectrum disorder in medical students of Pakistan

Background: Bipolar affective disorder is cyclic swinging of mood between mania or hypo-mania and depression. Bipolar disorder is the sixth leading cause of disability worldwide and has a lifetime prevalence of about 1 to 3% in the general population. Despite a growing body of knowledge on bipolar spectrum disorder (BSD), relatively little is known about the clinical characteristics of BSD in medical students. This study evaluates the prevalence and severity of BSD in medical students in relation to certain socio-demographic factors like age, sex and class of education.Methods: A questionnaire based study was done on 298 medical students of Nishtar Medical University, Multan and Shaikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan chosen on basis of random sampling to test the prevalence of bipolar spectrum disorders using Mood Disorder questionnaire (MDQ). Out of these students 161 were males and 137 were females. Students were interviewed to obtain information about age, sex and academic year of education.Results: According to mood disorder questionnaire scoring, of the total 298 students 80 (26.84%) screened positive for bipolar spectrum disorder (BSD). Among 80 students who screened positive for BSD 43 (53.75%) are males while 37 (46.25%) are females. Class-wise distribution of BSD is as follows: Out of 80 students screened positive 15 (18.75%) are from 2nd year, 22 (27.5%) from 3rd year and 43 (53.75) from 4th year. Age-wise distribution of BSD is as following: Students of age 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23 years suffering from BSD were 5 (6.25%), 17 (21.25%), 23(28.75),22 (27.5%) and 13 (16.25%) respectively.Conclusions: In our study, the estimated rate of prevalence for bipolar spectrum disorder among medical students of Pakistan is 26.84%. There was no significant difference in prevalence on the basis of gender. Prevalence was increasing with both age and class wise distribution