High Voltage Durability of Bambusa Vulgaris as a Bio-composite Material

This study is conducted in order to measure and identify the ability of a bio-composite material to the high voltage. According to it, the developed bio-composite material is tested to ensure the maximum voltage that the material can hold. The bio-composite material which made from a mixture of Bambusa Vulgaris and a selected polymer named as High Density Polyethylene (HDPE). The Bambusa Vulgarisis going through several processes before mixed together with HDPE using wood plastic composite (WPC) technique which also consists of several stages. There are several samples of bio-composite substance are fabricated. The difference among them is the composition of the raw materials (Bambusa Vulgaris and HDPE) used. In this research, the high voltage measurement which also called as breakdown voltage measurement of the bio-composite material is examined by using appropriate experiments. All the experimental results are presented and discussed in this paper

Social learning approach in designing persuasive e-commerce recommender system model

Intention to purchase in existing online business practice is learned through observation of information display by online seller. The emergent growth of persuasive technologies currently holds a great potential in driving a positive influence towards consumer purchase behavior. But to date, there is still limited research on implementing persuasion concept into the recommender system context. Drawing upon the principle design of persuasive system, the main purpose of this study is to explore social learning advantages in creating persuasive features for E-Commerce recommender system. Based on Social Cognitive Theory, the influence of personal and environmental factors will be examined in measuring consumer purchase intention. In addition, dimensions of social learning environment are represented by observational learning theory and cognitive learning theory. From those reviews, this study assumed that social learning environment can be created based on attentiveness, retentiveness, motivational, knowledge awareness and interest evaluation cues of consumer learning factors. Furthermore, the persuasive environment of recommender system is assumed to have positive influence towards individual characteristics such as self-efficacy behavior, perceived task complexity and confused by over choice. Findings from those reviews have contributed to the development of a research model in visualizing social learning environment that can be used to develop a persuasive recommender system in E-Commerce and hence measures the impact towards consumer purchase intention

Cayley--Klein Contractions of Quantum Orthogonal Groups in Cartesian Basis

Spaces of constant curvature and their motion groups are described most naturally in Cartesian basis. All these motion groups also known as CK groups are obtained from orthogonal group by contractions and analytical continuations. On the other hand quantum deformation of orthogonal group $SO(N)$ is most easily performed in so-called symplectic basis. We reformulate its standard quantum deformation to Cartesian basis and obtain all possible contractions of quantum orthogonal group $SO_q(N)$ both for untouched and transformed deformation parameter. It turned out, that similar to undeformed case all CK contractions of $SO_q(N)$ are realized. An algorithm for obtaining nonequivalent (as Hopf algebra) contracted quantum groups is suggested. Contractions of $SO_q(N), N=3,4,5$ are regarded as an examples.Comment: The statement of the basic theorem have correct. 30 pages, Latex. Report given at X International Conference on Symmetry Methods in Physics, August 13-19, 2003, Yerevan, Armenia. Submitted in Journal Physics of Atomic Nucle

Optical properties of diamond like carbon films prepared by DC-PECVD

Diamond-like carbon (DLC) thin films were deposited at different substrate temperatures using methane and hydrogen gas in DC-PECVD at 2x10-1Torr. From the light transmission using UV-VIS spectroscopy it was found that the optical transition had changed from allowed indirect transition to allowed direct transition as the substrate temperature increased. The Optical gap increased with temperature, highest of 3.034 eV was observed at 573 K, beyond which it dropped. Colour of the film changed from light brownish to a colourless transparent film in the higher temperature. The Urbach energy decreased from 1.25 eV to 0.75 eV with increasing substrate temperature till 573 K and a slight increase after it. This trend is attributed to change in sp3/sp2 ratio or change in structure. The cluster size decreases with temperature, resulting in larger band gap and the structure more ordered. Similar pattern is also witnessed in the emission spectrum of the photoluminescence

Customized physical and structural features of phosphate-based glass-ceramics: role of ag nanoparticles and ho3+ impurities

The effects of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) embedment on the physical and structural characteristics of the holmium ions (Ho3+) activated phosphate-based glass-ceramics were assessed. Two series of such glass-ceramics were prepared using the melt-quenching and characterized. In the first series, the Ag NPs were nucleated from the incorporated AgCl via the redox process. In the second series, the pure Ag nanopowder was directly added. The overall properties of these glass-ceramics were strongly sensitive to the cooling procedure and NPs addition strategies, leading to different density and refractive index modifications in the two series. The recorded O1s XPS peaks were exploited to determine the bridging to non-bridging oxygen ratios in the studied glass-ceramics network that enabled to unfold the differences in the observed inferences. A compelling correlation among various attributes in the achieved glass-ceramics was established. Briefly, the overall traits of the proposed glass-ceramics were tailored by regulating the preparation conditions

Nonclassicality versus entanglement in a noncommutative space

Nonclassicality is an interesting property of light having applications in many different contexts of quantum optics, quantum information and computation. Nonclassical states produce substantial amount of reduced noise in optical communications. Furthermore, they often behave as sources of entangled quantum states, which are the most elementary requirement for quantum teleportation. We study various nonclassical properties of coherent states and Schrödinger cat states in a setting of noncommutative space resulting from the generalized uncertainty relation, first, in a complete analytical fashion and, later, by computing their entanglement entropies, which in turn provide supporting arguments behind our analytical results. By using standard theoretical frameworks, they are shown to produce considerably improved squeezing and nonclassicality and, hence, significantly higher amount of entanglement in comparison to the usual quantum mechanical models. Both the nonclassicality and the entanglement can be enhanced further by increasing the noncommutativity of the underlying space. In addition, we find as a by-product some rare explicit minimum uncertainty quadrature and number squeezed states, i.e., ideal squeezed states

Electrooxidation of nitrite ions on gold/polyaniline/carbon paste electrode

Nitrite ions can penetrate from fertilizers into underground water and consequently contaminate the water and food sources. A facile two-step electrochemical method was used to fabricate gold/polyaniline/carbon paste electrode (Au/PAni/CPE) for nitrite sensing. The Au/PAni/CPE was visualized and characterized by scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersed X-ray spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction and electrochemical methods. The electrocatalytic activity of bare CPE, PAni/CPE and Au/PAni/CPE toward the electrooxidation of nitrite was examined and compared via cyclic voltammetry. To obtain the optimal condition for fabrication of the electrode, the number of cycles in cyclic voltammetry for synthesis of polyaniline and the deposition time in potentiostatic deposition of gold were optimized with respect to the electrooxidation of nitrite. In a phosphate buffer solution (PBS, pH 7.0), the peak current was linear to the concentration of nitrite in the range from 3.8×10-5 M to 1.0×10-3 M with a detection limit of 2.5×10-5 M. The interference effect on the nitrite detection was also studied. The proposed method was also employed for the determination of nitrite in rain and lake water samples

Knowledge of dengue among students in Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UNISZA), Terengganu, Malaysia and the influence of knowledge of dengue on attitude and practice

Reducing the vector population not only organization responsible, individual itself plays as important role in dengue prevention and control. Upon the understanding of the value of baseline data, a cross-sectional study was carried out in the dengue hotspot areas in Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (UniSZA). The study results show that 83.9% of the population had a high level of knowledge, 10.6% had a good attitude and 81.8% were performing good practice against dengue infection. After adjusting confounding variables, age and educational level of respondents, knowledge as well as attitude were found to be significant associated factors for having good practice against dengue. The study findings provide the need for further information to undertake a holistic approach, which is in need of community participation and cooperation.Keywords: dengue fever; knowledge; attitudes; practice; studen

A Markovian Approach to Determine Optimal Means for SME Production Process

The determination of optimum process mean has become one of the focused research area in order to improve product quality. Depending on the value of quality characteristic, an item can be reworked, scrapped or accepted by the system which is successfully transform to the finishing product by using the Markovian model. By assuming the quality characteristic is normally distributed, the probability of rework, scrap and accept is obtained by the Markov model and next the optimum of process mean is determine which maximizes the expected profit per item. In this paper, we present the preliminary analysis of selecting the process mean by referring to SME production process. By varying the rework and scrap cost, the analysis shows the sensitivity of the Markov approach to determine process mean