Developmental research of sustainable technologies to minimise problematic road embankment settlements

Challenging, problematic and non-uniform ground conditions are a night mare to geotechnical engineers tasked with the design and construction of buildings and transport infrastructure. These often suffer undesirable structural settlements. Designing within the current understanding of geotechnics; settlement in peat and organic soils need to be recognised to include the known “primary and secondary consolidation characteristics” and the lesser known “tertiary consolidation phase”. These eventually contribute cumulatively to the consequential uneven and hazardous “bumpy road” surfaces. Undulating flexible road pavements result primarily from the transference of the heavy self-weight of the embankment fill to yielding and non-uniform subgrade. The adoption of conventional design/repair methods such as pile, vertical drain, soil replacement and soil stabilisation are expensive and inappropriate in very soft ground conditions. These then lead to unjustifiably high and repetitive maintenance costs. There being no one quick fix solution for all; pragmatic research must necessarily identify the best/progressively improved practical and sustainable solution. A viable solution is to develop criteria and explore the concept of a “masonry arch bridge structure/lintel-column structure” and adopting sustainable materials through pragmatic searching for appropriate recyclable waste materials. This will lead to the basis for a sustainable, innovative, strong, stiff, permeable composite mat structure that can be used on soft and/or yielding ground conditions. Conceptual lightweight fill technology including the popularly used expanded polystyrene (EPS) and the innovative composite mats recently being developed by the research team are outlined

Effects of Process Parameters on Vibrational Behaviour of Sansevieria cylindrica Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composites

© 2024 American Scientific Publishers. All Rights Reserved.The natural fiber composites have attracted much interest among the researchers, due to their low cost, easy availability and enhancement in their properties. Many plants based natural fibers, including banana, sisal, hemp, jute, oil palm, Coirand kenaf, among others, have been studied extensively. Sansevieria cylindrica fiber (SCF) is one of the plant-based leaf fibers, which has not been explored to a greater extent. The main purpose of this study focused on utilizing SCF as a potential reinforcement to produce polyester matrix composites. Unsaturated polyester resin was used as matrix, because of its low cost and ease of use. In this work, free vibration studies were performed for pure SCF reinforced polyester composites. The SCF composites were fabricated with various fiber percentage weight (wt%) and different curing temperatures. The effects of both fiber wt% and curing temperatures on natural frequency and damping of SCF composites were studied. It was observed that both natural frequency and damping showed significant variations on different process conditions of polymer composites. Based on vibrations studies, the optimum fiber wt% was obtained at 40 and optimum curing temperature was observed as 60 °C. Furthermore, the effects of various chemical treatments on vibration behaviors of SCF composites was also investigated for the optimum fiber loading and curing temperature of 40 wt% and 60 °C, respectively. Ca(OH)2 treated composite exhibited highest natural frequencies for all the three modes of vibration and silane treated counterpart showed highest damping values for the last two modes of vibration. Therefore, it was evident that chemical treatment significantly influenced the dynamic properties, including natural frequency and damping of SCF reinforced polyester composites. This study can guide the composites/manufacturing companies to design and manufacture composites for engineering system applications, especially where vibration response is inevitable.Peer reviewe

Enhancement of Landfill Daily Cover in Minimizing the Migration of Heavy Metals in Landfill Leachate by Using Natural Soil, Pressmud Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB) in PulauBurung Landfill

This study emphasizes on the removal of heavy metals in landfill leachate by using natural soil mixed with agricultural wastes. The agricultural wastes used in this study werenatural soil or known as laterite soil, pressmud which is a waste from sugar refinery process and Empty Fruit Bunch (EFB), one of many forms of waste fromoil palm industry. The laterite soil was mixed with these wastes at different percentages of weight ratio namely 50S:40P:10E, 50S:30P:20E, 50S:25P:25E, 50S:10P:40E and 50S:20P:30E. The terms S, P and E each refers to soil, pressmud and empty fruit bunch respectively.Removal efficiency tests were also carried out and the results showed that the mixtures of laterite soil have the ability to remove concentrationsof As2+, Cd2+, Cr2+, Cu2+, Fe2+, Ni2+ and Zn2+between a range of 86% (minimum) and 99% (maximum) compared to removal via soil per se. Ergo, the laterite soil-pressmud-EFB mixtures signify great potential to be made as a daily cover material that minimizes heavy metals migration in landfill leachate, eliminates odor issues and providesadditional protection from further infiltration

The nonrelativistic limit of the Majorana equation and its simulation in trapped ions

We analyze the Majorana equation in the limit where the particle is at rest. We show that several counterintuitive features, absent in the rest limit of the Dirac equation, do appear. Among them, Dirac-like positive energy solutions that turn into negative energy ones by free evolution, or nonstandard oscillations and interference between real and imaginary spinor components for complex solutions. We also study the ultrarelativistic limit, showing that the Majorana and Dirac equations mutually converge. Furthermore, we propose a physical implementation in trapped ions.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. Proceedings of 18th Central European Workshop on Quantum Optics (CEWQO 2011), Madrid, Spai

Automated attendance management and alert system

“Automated Attendance Management and Alert System (AAMAS)” was developed to help UiTM lecturers and Academic Affairs Department in monitoring students’ absenteeism and improving the absenteeism record management. AAMAS provides various functions, from managing and recording students’ attendance record, to sending automatic alerts to students with high absenteeism via short messaging system (SMS) and email. The system is also able to track the number of alerts sent. Through AAMAS, a significant amount of time and money can be saved, for instance time needed to fill out forms and issue notification letters manually can be minimized significantly. Besides, message interception, human resources and human errors can also be reduced. AAMAS which was tailored to UiTM could be also enhanced and custom-made to cater other learning institutions’ requirements throughout Malaysia.Keywords: automated system; attendance management; system development

A closer look at the structure and gamma-ray shielding properties of newly designed boro -tellurite glasses reinforced by bismuth (III) oxide

This work presents the synthesis and preparation of a new glass system described by the equation of (70-x) B2O3–5TeO2 –20SrCO3–5ZnO –xBi2O3, x = 0, 1, 5, 10, and 15 mol. %, using the melt quenching technique at a melting temperature of 1100 °C. The photon-shielding characteristics mainly the linear attenuation coefficient (LAC) of the prepared glass samples were evaluated using Monte Carlo (MC) simulation N-particle transport code (MCNP-5) at gamma-ray energy extended from 59 keV to 1408 keV emitted by the radioisotopes Am-241, Ba-133, Cs-137, Co-60, Na-22, and Eu-152. Furthermore, we observed that the Bi2O3 content of the glasses had a significantly stronger impact on the LAC at 59 and 356 keV. The study of the lead equivalent thickness shows that the performance of fabricated glass sample with 15 mol.% of Bi2O3 is four times less than the performance of pure lead at low gamma photon energy while it is enhanced and became two times lower the perforce of pure lead at high energy. Therefore, the fabricated glasses special sample with 15 mol.% of Bi2O3 has good shielding properties in low, intermediate, and high energy intervals. © 2023 Korean Nuclear SocietyPeninsula Open Space Trust, POST: PY/2019/01269, PY/2022/03183, R.J130000.7854.5F236This work was supported by UTM-Professional Development Research University (POST DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP Ref No: PY/2022/03183 ) and FRGS grant (vot num: R.J130000.7854.5F236 , Ref No: PY/2019/01269 )

Evaporation lifetime and boiling curve on hemispherical stainless steel (304) surface

The purpose of this research is to study and investigate the evaporation lifetime and boiling curve on a hemispherical heated surface. The selected material was stainless steel (304). A nearly perfect and smooth hemispherical surface was developed by using EDM die sinker. For the test liquid, distilled water was used during the experimental work. The average droplet temperature was 31.36 °C corresponding to liquid subcooling ∆Tsub = 68.64K. Based on the theoretical calculation, the diameter of the water droplet was approximately 5.00 mm. Meanwhile, the impact height was approximately 65.0 mm corresponding to the theoretical impact velocity of 1.129 m/s. The material was heated using a digital hot plate which was able to give an accurate reading and stable temperature fluctuation during the heating process. The temperature ranged from a low temperature of Tw = 100 °C to a high temperature of Tw = 300 °C. As a result, the boiling curve showed a similar pattern of other experimental work that consists of two (2) important points which are the Critical Heat Flux (CHF) and Leidenfrost temperature

Commuting Accidents among Health Care Workers Working in Malaysia Government Hospitals

Commuting accidents are accidents occurring while travelling to and from work, and in the course of work. Studies have demonstrated that long working hours are associated with deprived sleeping time. Acute sleep deprivation may result in significant changes in cognitive functioning, alteration of mental status resembling depression or anxiety and difficulty with short-term memory. Some other studies have found that sleep deprivation significantly affects physician performance, alertness and patient safety. However, individual factors concerning workers’ behavior, family-related factors (parenting responsibility), work burden, workplace support as well as environmental factors such as bad weather and bad road conditions are also significant contributors of commuting accidents. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship of long working hours or odd working hours and the risk exposure of the drivers during their work-commuting trips. The study was based on data collected from official notification forms. Sample size for this research was 554 based on 2014 to 2017 reported cases. Review of the statistics showed that most of the commuting accident causalitiesoccurred during travel to work (30.1%), compared to back from work after normal office hours (28.7%) and during odd hours (night shift and post-call) (12.5%). Nurses contributed significantly to these causalities (53%), followed by hospital attendants (17%), medical officer and assistant medical officer, respectively, 6 percent. Theincreasing number of commuting accidents among healthcare workers is alarming. As such, it is timely that proactive actions be taken by employers to educate their employees, their most valuable assets, on safe commuting management. Keywords: commuting accident, healthcare workers, road crashe

Prevalence of Sickness Absence and Its Sociodemographic and Occupational Factors in a Public Service Organization

Sickness absence in any particular organization has negative impacts mainly toward economic, morale and productivity. The purpose of this survey is to determine the prevalence of sickness absence among employees in a government office in a central region of Malaysia to get profiling of the employees taking medical leaves, tocompare the frequency of sickness absence among the employees based on gender, age group and designation and to determine the perception of sickness absence among the employees in relation to their occupation. A cross-sectional study was carried out among 587 workers in the first half of 2017. Data was collected based on Sickness Absence Surveillance form, which was filled by any employee who took medical leave. Other variables such as demographic data, work characteristics and personal health were also included. Subsequently, data entry and analysis were done using SPSS Version 22.0. The overall prevalence rate was 63.0 percent (female = 42.6%, male 20.3%) that includes repeated medical certificate (MC)-taker. Reasons for sickness absence are varied like fever, URTI, pregnancy related, injury, diarrhea, clinic follow-up and many more. Results also showed that sickness absenteeism was higher among female, mainly middle managerial level, presently or previously married, aged from 30 to 39, employed in the organization for over 10 years with no background of chronic medical illness. Therefore, the prevalence of sickness absence among employees in a government office in a central region of Malaysia and factors associated with it are determined. It is recommended for continuation of surveillance simultaneously to have an intervention program in order to find the root cause of sickness absence and thus reducing sickness absence rate. Keywords: sickness absenteeism, surveillance, sociodemographic factors, occupational factor