Development of decision support system prototype for PLKN selection process (DSSPSP) / Masrul Farihan Mohamad

Decision Support System Prototype for PLKN Selection Process is to assist the risk in selecting an appropriate trainee for PLKN program. This research focuses on selecting all youth aged 18 in the year according to the criteria that stated by government. Several criteria are identified and define; 1) Criteria for each camp, 2) Criteria based on gender at each camp, 3) Criteria for school selection, 4) Criteria based on school activities (merit). The criteria are represented in form of rules to make sure all the information is qualified. The inference engine works by selecting rules for testing and then checking if the condition for that rules are true and match with the condition provided. The multidimensional arrays are used in to represent certain rules. In completing this research, system development life cycle and system requirement engineering process technique are follows. The decision support system helps in making effective and reliable decisions to select the appropriate candidates. The result of this research is the list of qualified or eligible candidates for every series of PLKN in selection year. As a conclusion, this prototype achieved the objectives and succeeds in doing their task for selection candidates for Program Latihan Khidmat Negara

Spatial assessment of water quality affected by the land-use changes along Kuantan river basin

This study addresses the effects of development on water quality in the Kuantan River Basin from 2003 to 2008. Chemometrics analysis namely MLR, HACA, DA and PCA was utilised as part of the methods for this study. From the result, MLR was irrefutably proven as an efficient predicting method for missing data. HACA classified seven stations as Low Polluted Stations (LPS), six stations as Moderate Polluted Stations (MPS) and two stations as High Polluted Stations (HPS). DA result depicted the accuracy rate for all reclassified data was 83.61 % respectively, while the constituting parameters namely Dissolved Oxygen (DO), Escherichia coli (E. coli), pH, Phosphate (PO4), Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD), and Chloride (Cl), gave the biggest impacts towards water quality by means of forward and backward stepwise methods. The PCA result after varimax rotation indicated that five varimax factors have presented strong parameter coefficient exceeding 0.7 by E. coli, coliform, Dissolved Solids (DS), Total Solids (TS), Chlorine (Cl), Ammonical Nitrogen (NH3NL), nitrate and pH. The relationship between land use and water quality denoted that after applying Spearman correlation based on 90 % interval population distribution, aspects influencing the rate of DO was successfully identified

Indoor air quality at higher institution’s laboratory: A study on presymptoms, awareness and understanding among occupants

This study intends to show the effectiveness of indoor air quality (IAQ) at the higher institution laboratory. The objective is to determine the impact of current IAQ, to study the occupants’ knowledge in the indoor air pollutants and to identify the significance of occupants’ personality regarding the IAQ awareness. 100 respondents had responded to answer the questionnaires given. The questionnaires were analysed using XLSTAT2014 software for descriptive statistic and discriminant analysis in order to fulfil the outlined objectives. The finding shows that 56% of the respondents know about IAQ, while 40% and 4% did not know and not sure about the IAQ, respectively. By gender, there were 20 of male respondents having the IAQ knowledge and 21 of male respondents did not know about the IAQ. Meanwhile, 36 of female respondents have IAQ knowledge, 19 of female respondents did not know the IAQ knowledge and 4 of female respondents were not sure regarding the IAQ knowledge. Furthermore, the IAQ in the laboratory at the higher institution is considered as unhealthy based on the respondents’ complaints of their health problem symptoms. Meanwhile, the results of personality tests show that women have more IAQ awareness compared to men. It indicated that the personalities of the occupants have significance to influence and able to determine their awareness on the IAQ. Hence, it described that IAQ is a significant factor to determine and influence the health of laboratory occupan

Reliability Impact Of Energy Storage In A Wind Integrated Power System

This thesis presents the reliability evaluation of wind farms incorporating with energy storage. Wind power are intermittent in nature, and may cause risk for continuous power supply. In order to minimize the risk, energy storage is introduced where it is used to supply power to the system when wind power is inadequate. Monte Carlo Simulation is used in this research to evaluate generating system reliability. This method described in this thesis are tested using IEEE Reliability Test Systems, in which it has been modified for research purpose. In this approach, a few parameters are tested to evaluate effects of the parameters adjusted towards the working scenario of an energy storage. Reliability studies conducted on wind systems incorporated with energy storage demonstrates that overall power system reliability increases with the aid of energy storage. The energy storage reliability and the power system reliability as a whole can further be improved by selecting the most appropriate working scenarios for the energy storage. This is illustrated by the implementation of two different models of energy storage to the system

Impacts of Energy Storage System on Power System Reliability: A Systematic Review

Research has found an extensive potential for utilizing energy storage within the power system sector to improve reliability. This study aims to provide a critical and systematic review of the reliability impacts of energy storage systems in this sector. The systematic literature review (SLR) is based on peer-reviewed papers published between 1996 and early 2018. Firstly, findings reveal that energy storage utilization in power systems is significant in improving system reliability and minimizing costs of transmission upgrades. Secondly, introduction of policies to shift from the use of fossil fuels to that of renewable energy positively affects energy storage system development. Thirdly, North America is an early pioneer of power system reliability and energy storage system studies. However, Asia has recently taken over the role, with China being the main driver. Research gaps within this field are also identified. This review can serve as basis for scholars in advancing the theoretical understanding of the reliability impacts of energy storage systems and in addressing the gaps within this field

Thermal adaptation and catalytic promiscuity of reconstructed ancient lipase from family I.3 bacterial lipolytic enzymes

Enzymes are widely used in the chemical and biotechnological industries and this includes hydrolase. Hydrolases are a class of enzymes that demonstrate broad substrate specificity. One of the most valuable classes of hydrolases in biotechnological applications are lipolytic enzymes, which comprise lipases and esterases. The 3-dimensional structure of lipases and esterases displays the characteristic α/β-hydrolase fold, a general structural feature shared between all lipolytic enzymes. Family I.3 lipase is a member of the large group of Gram-negative bacterial true lipases. This lipase family is distinguished from other lipase families by the amino acid sequence and secretion mechanism. Little is known about the evolutionary process driving these differences. This study attempts to understand how the diverse temperature stabilities of bacterial lipases from family I.3 evolved. Trends in thermostability are complex. This work briefly addresses the answer to this problem by reconstructing a protein which is an ancestor to family I.3 lipases. To achieve that, eighty-three protein sequences sharing a minimum 30% sequence identity with Antarctic Pseudomonas sp. AMS8 lipase were used to infer phylogenetic tree. Using ancestral sequence reconstruction (ASR) technique, the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) sequence of family I.3 was reconstructed. LUCA structure was modelled using structure modelling software and undergo molecular dynamics simulation. Next, gene encoding LUCA was synthesized, cloned and expressed in E. coli system. Lastly, LUCA was refolded, purified and characterized. Molecular dynamics simulation indicates LUCA is stable at 70 ℃ for 75 ns simulation period. LUCA was expressed as inclusion bodies. Insoluble form of LUCA was refolded using urea dilution method. The refolded LUCA was purified to a purification fold of 8.0 and a recovery of 51.4%. The molecular weight was approximately ~70 kDa including polyhistidine tag. Interestingly, the purified LUCA exhibited an optimum temperature and pH at 70 ℃ and 10 respectively. Various mono and divalent metal ions increased or retained the activity of LUCA while only Ni2+ decreased the activity. LUCA exhibited the highest activity towards C16 substrate followed by C10 substrate. Steady state kinetic study however showed a higher preference for C10 substrate over C16. In addition, LUCA also demonstrated tolerance towards various organic solvents in 25% v/v concentration. Circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy estimated the melting temperature of LUCA at 72 ℃. Catalytic promiscuity characterization of LUCA shows that LUCA is catalytically promiscuous. The finding from this study could support the understanding of environmental condition and wide reaction range of enzymes during ancient time. In summary, reconstructed ancestral enzymes have improved physicochemical properties that make them suitable for industrial applications and ASR technique can be employed as a general technique for enzyme engineering

Development of Energy Storage Systems for Power Network Reliability: A Review

Electricity plays a crucial role in the well-being of humans and is a determining factor of the economic development of a country. Electricity issues have encouraged researchers to focus on improving power availability and quality along with reliability. This pursuit has increasingly raised the intention to integrate renewable energy (RE) into power systems to curb the problem of energy deficiency. However, intermittency in the sources of RE supply coupled with fluctuating changes in demand with respect to time has induced high risk in maintaining system reliability in terms of providing adequate supply to consumers. Whilst an energy storage system (ESS) is not another source of electricity, it is proven to be effective and viable in solving the aforementioned issues. Thus, this paper comprehensively reviews the development of ESS technologies and discusses the benefits and real-life applications of these technologies. The concept of reliability in power systems is also explored to provide an improved understanding of this study. Lastly, notable studies that have addressed the reliability impact of ESSs on power systems are discussed. This review paper therefore is expected to provide a critical analysis of ESS developments, as well as recognize their research gaps in terms of reliability studies in modern RE-integrated power networks

Ancestral sequence reconstruction of ancient lipase from family I.3 bacterial lipolytic enzymes

Family I.3 lipase is distinguished from other families by the amino acid sequence and secretion mechanism. Little is known about the evolutionary process driving these differences. This study attempt to understand how the diverse temperature stabilities of bacterial lipases from family I.3 evolved. To achieve that, eighty-three protein sequences sharing a minimum 30% sequence identity with Antarctic Pseudomonas sp. AMS8 lipase were used to infer phylogenetic tree. Using ancestral sequence reconstruction (ASR) technique, the last universal common ancestor (LUCA) sequence of family I.3 was reconstructed. A gene encoding LUCA was synthesized, cloned and expressed as inclusion bodies in E. coli system. Insoluble form of LUCA was refolded using urea dilution method and then purified using affinity chromatography. The purified LUCA exhibited an optimum temperature and pH at 70 ℃ and 10 respectively. Various metal ions increased or retained the activity of LUCA. LUCA also demonstrated tolerance towards various organic solvents in 25% v/v concentration. The finding from this study could support the understanding on temperature and environment during ancient time. In overall, reconstructed ancestral enzymes have improved physicochemical properties that make them suitable for industrial applications and ASR technique can be employed as a general technique for enzyme engineering

Indoor air quality at higher institution’s laboratory: a study on pre-symptoms, awareness and understanding among occupants

This study intends to show the effectiveness of indoor air quality (IAQ) at the higher institution laboratory. The objective is to determine the impact of current IAQ, to study the occupants’ knowledge in the indoor air pollutants and to identify the significance of occupants’ personality regarding the IAQ awareness. 100 respondents had responded to answer the questionnaires given. The questionnaires were analysed using XLSTAT2014 software for descriptive statistic and discriminant analysis in order to fulfil the outlined objectives. The finding shows that 56% of the respondents know about IAQ, while 40% and 4% did not know and not sure about the IAQ, respectively. By gender, there were 20 of male respondents having the IAQ knowledge and 21 of male respondents did not know about the IAQ. Meanwhile, 36 of female respondents have IAQ knowledge, 19 of female respondents did not know the IAQ knowledge and 4 of female respondents were not sure regarding the IAQ knowledge. Furthermore, the IAQ in the laboratory at the higher institution is considered as unhealthy based on the respondents’ complaints of their health problem symptoms. Meanwhile, the results of personality tests show that women have more IAQ awareness compared to men. It indicated that the personalities of the occupants have significance to influence and able to determine their awareness on the IAQ. Hence, it described that IAQ is a significant factor to determine and influence the health of laboratory occupants

Assessment on bacteria in the heavy metal bioremediation

The aim of this study was to identify and verify the potential bacteria as the bioremediation agent. It involved bacteria isolation, identification through Gram staining, analytical profile index (API) test and determine bioremediation activities by using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS). The soil and water sample were collected from downstream of Galing River, Kuantan Malaysia. Based on phenotypic identification and iochemical analysis, the bacteria present at the vicinity area are possibility of Myroides spp. and Micrococcus spp. These bacteria were proven as bioremediation agent based on the ICPMS result. The result 1 ppm of Zink (Zn), Lead (Pb), Arsenic (As), Selenium (Se), Cadmium (Cd), Manganese (Mn), and Indium (In) dwindled after the bacteria inoculated and incubated for seven days in mixture of base salt media (BSM) with the heavy metal elements. Therefore, this proves that the bacteria which are present at downstream of Galing River, Kuantan Malaysia are significant to help us in the bioremediation activity to decrease the heavy metal pollution in the environment