CHROMO-STEREOSCOPIC VISUALISATION FOR DYNAMIC MARINE OPERATIONS

Chromo stereoscopy (CS) is a simple and cost effective 3D system that can easily deliver geospatial information. CS has been used in several scientific data presentations, including remote sensing, physical modelling and hydrographic applications. In some of these applications the 3D effect was solely CS-related, while others integrated CS with other methods of implementing 3D. CS was mainly used in static visualisation, but no dynamic applications were found. Also, the restricted use of colour was acknowledged as a limitation for CS suggesting its unsuitability for applications where colour conventions are significant. This research focuses on CS for the marine applications and aims to (i) investigate users’ perception to CS effect and its interaction with other depth cues, (ii) assess the acceptance of the potential users to the changes in conventional colouring systems, (iii) and evaluate the usability and practicality of CS as an additional visualisation system in dynamic marine applications. To address these, visual scenarios were developed and expert human participants were recruited and interview for the evaluation. CS was well perceived among the participants. The interaction between different depth cues has advantages of increasing the depth perception and comprehending the 3D nature of the surrounding environment. For instance, from a certain view angle where two objects block each other, CS enhances the interposition effect, that indicates which object is in the front and gives a qualitative estimation of the spatial separation between them. Shading increases the realism of surface objects, and provides information for their undulation. It also dilutes the colours used in CS and increases the range of colours perceived and enhances the effect perceived from CS. The advantage of using the colour coding system to indicate distance is a valuable and original outcome of this thesis. This coding improved the participants understanding of the behaviour of moving objects (whether vessels coming closer or drifting apart) and enabled users to locate them in reference to the surrounding topography. Such knowledge is important to attain safer operations in a 3D environment. Accepting changes in colours in a visual presentation is linked to experience gained during interaction with the system, and the changes would be tolerated by the users in favour of improvements in situation awareness. Blind navigation and underwater operations are examples of where CS can be beneficial

COMMUNITY LOSS OF RESIDENTIAL VALUE FROM WATER AND NOISE POLLUTION

The impact of environmental disamenity on residential value had continued to receive attention in the property market. This study estimates community loss of residential value resulting from water and noise pollutions in the local neighbourhoods. The study areas comprised residential neighbourhoods nearby sources of such pollutions. Upon integration of the digital cadastre and house transaction data, digital maps were used to identify parcels of residential properties that were presumably affected by such pollutions in the study areas. Using the overlay and buffering functions, two proxy environmental variables were included in the regression models to capture pollution effects on residential values. The analysis disclosed that houses located closer to water and noise pollution were sold at lower prices compared to those located farther away from it. The total amount of community loss of “pollution-imposed†residential value in seven selected neighbourhoods was in excess of RM 57 million. The evidence shows that house buyers regard environmental quality as an important factor in real estate transaction. In particular, environmental disamenity resulting from water and noise pollution could have been negatively capitalised into residential values

Factor structure of the student engagement instrument among Malaysian undergraduates

Keterlibatan pelajar telah diketahui secara positif berkaitan dengan prestasi akademik, tetapi terdapat kekurangan kajian yang menyerlahkan fenomena ini di kalangan mahasiswa Malaysia. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji struktur faktor Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) dengan sampel pelajar di Malaysia. Alat kajian telah ditadbirkan kepada 290 pelajar ijazah dari Fakulti Ilmu Wahyu dan Sains Kemanusiaan dan Fakulti Ekonomi dan Sains Pengurusan Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia. Ekstraksi principal axis factor dengan putaran Promax telah digunakan dalam analisis faktor penerokaan (Exploratory Factor Analysis) dan mendedahkan satu penyelesaian enam faktor yang konsisten dengan struktur faktor yang terdapat dalam kajian asal oleh Appleton et al. (2006). Faktor baru yang dinamakan kepunyaan tidak dibincangkan dalam kajian sebelum ini telah ditemui dan patut diterokai. Student engagement has been known to be positively associated with academic performance, but there has been a lack of studies that highlight this phenomenon among Malaysian undergraduates. This study seeks to examine the factor structure of the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) in a Malaysian sample. The scale was administered to 290 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences as well as the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of the International Islamic University of Malaysia. Principal axis factor with Promax rotation was used in exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and revealed a six-factor solution that was consistent with the factor structure found in the original study by Appleton et al. (2006). A new factor labelled belongingness which was not discussed in previous studies was also discovered, which is worth exploring

Factor structure of the student engagement instrument among Malaysian undergraduates

Keterlibatan pelajar telah diketahui secara positif berkaitan dengan prestasi akademik, tetapi terdapat kekurangan kajian yang menyerlahkan fenomena ini di kalangan mahasiswa Malaysia. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji struktur faktor Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) dengan sampel pelajar di Malaysia. Alat kajian telah ditadbirkan kepada 290 pelajar ijazah dari Fakulti Ilmu Wahyu dan Sains Kemanusiaan dan Fakulti Ekonomi dan Sains Pengurusan Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia. Ekstraksi principal axis factor dengan putaran Promax telah digunakan dalam analisis faktor penerokaan (Exploratory Factor Analysis) dan mendedahkan satu penyelesaian enam faktor yang konsisten dengan struktur faktor yang terdapat dalam kajian asal oleh Appleton et al. (2006). Faktor baru yang dinamakan kepunyaan tidak dibincangkan dalam kajian sebelum ini telah ditemui dan patut diterokai. Student engagement has been known to be positively associated with academic performance, but there has been a lack of studies that highlight this phenomenon among Malaysian undergraduates. This study seeks to examine the factor structure of the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) in a Malaysian sample. The scale was administered to 290 undergraduate students from the Faculty of Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences as well as the Faculty of Economics and Management Sciences of the International Islamic University of Malaysia. Principal axis factor with Promax rotation was used in exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and revealed a six-factor solution that was consistent with the factor structure found in the original study by Appleton et al. (2006). A new factor labelled belongingness which was not discussed in previous studies was also discovered, which is worth exploring

Non-Coherent OFDM Transmission via Off-the-Grid Joint Channel and Data Estimation

Pilot-aided channel estimation techniques are known to waste the spectral bandwidth. An off-the-grid blind estimator for time-variant orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is studied in this letter. In this regard, we propose a blind estimator based on atomic norm minimization (ANM) for OFDM systems. To do so, at the first transmission block, using a lifted ANM (LANM) and simple constraint on ℓ2 norm of data, we simultaneously estimate the channel and data. For the subsequent blocks, we use a penalized ANM (PANM) to simultaneously track the channel’s parameters and detect transmit signals. The proposed problems require an infinitedimensional search, hence are NP-hard. Therefore, we propose two semidefinite programs (SDPs) to implement them. We then derive the total computational complexity of the proposed estimator. The simulation results show the superiority of the proposed estimator to the state-of-the-arts

Comparative whisper vowel space for Singapore English and British English accents

Whispered speech, as a relatively common form of communications, has received little research effort in spite of its usefulness in everyday vocal communications. Apart from a few notable studies analysing the main whispered vowels and some quite general estimations of whispered speech characteristics, a classic vowel space determination has been lacking for whispers. Aligning with the previous published work which aimed to redress this shortfall by presenting a vowel formant space for whispers, this paper studies Singapore English (SgE) from this respect. Furthermore, by comparing the shift amounts between normal and whispered vowel formants in two different English accents, British West Midlands (WM) and SgE, the study also considers the question of generalisation of shift amount and direction for two dissimilar accent groupings. It is further suggested that the shift amounts for each vowel are almost consistent for F2 while these vary for F1, showing the role of accent in proposing a general correlation between normal and whispered vowels on first formant. This paper presents the results of the formant analysis, in terms of acoustic vowel space mappings, showing differences between normal and whispered speech for SgE, and compares this to results obtained from the analysis of more standard English