River flow and stage estimation with missing observation data using Multi Imputation Particle Filter (MIPF) method

An advanced knowledge of the river condition helps for better source management. This information can be gathered via estimation using DA methods. The DA methods blend the system model with the observation data to obtain the estimated river flow and stage. However, the observation data may contain some missing data due to the hardware power limitations, unreliable channel, sensor failure and etc. This problem limits the ability of the standard method such as EKF, EnKF and PF. The Multi Imputation Particle Filter (MIPF) able to deal with this problem since it allows for new input data to replace the missing data. The result shows that the performance of the river flow and stage estimation is depending on the number of particles and imputation used. The performance is evaluated by comparing the estimated velocity obtained using the estimated flow and stage, with the measured velocity. The result shows that higher number of particles and imputation ensure better estimation result

The influence of carbonization temperature on the development of carbon membrane with superior CO2/CH4 separation performance Pengaruh suhu karbonisasi kepada pembangunan membran karbon dengan kesan pemisahan gas CO2/CH4 yang cemerlang

In this study, P84-based carbon tubular membranes were fabricated and characterized in terms of their structural morphology and gas permeation properties, by using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and pure gas permeation system, respectively. The polymer tubular membranes were then carbonized under nitrogen atmosphere at different carbonization temperatures of 600, 700, 800 and 900 °C, with heating rate of 3°C/min and thermal soak time of 30 minutes. The manipulation of carbonization temperatures was required to see if it could enhance the permeation properties as desired. Pure gas permeation tests were performed using CO2 and CH4 gases. The CO2/CH4 selectivity was found increasing as the carbonization temperature was increased from 600 to 800 °C. The carbon membrane carbonized at 800°C showed the most promising result for CO2/CH4 selectivity, rendering 69.48 and CO2 permeance of 206.1 GPU

Potential and Electric Field Characteristics of Broken Porcelain Insulator

Overhead line insulators can be damaged for various reasons during their service life. Porcelain or glass insulators once damaged can affect the reliability of power system networks. This paper presents the study of voltage and electric characteristics along the surface of a broken porcelain insulator located in a string of 10 unit insulators. Three models of broken porcelain insulators were being proposed and the analysis results on voltage and electric characteristics were individually collected. The broken porcelain insulator with the most significant effect were then being investigated in the strings of 10 unit insulators. The finite element software of Quickfield was used to analyze the voltage and electric characteristics. Form the presented results, it is proven that the single porcelain insulators with broken shed at the nearest to the electrode terminal gave the most significant effect of voltage and electric field distribution pattern along the creepage distance. However, when this type of broken insulator was included in a string of 10 unit insulators, maximum average value of voltage achieved once the broken insulator was located at the HV terminal. Meanwhile, the highest electric field strength was recorded when the broken insulator was located in the middle of the string

Use of English at the Workplace : How Far is This True in Malaysia?

According to Ong etal. (2011), the importance of English in theMalaysian work environment is the main concern of manyemployers. Some employers reported that having employees withbetter English would improve productivity. How far is Englishbeing used at the workplace in Malaysia? This quantitative studytargets at possible direction of a language programme such asEnglish for Specific Purpose especially for Occupational andVocational purposes. It looks into how much English is used atselected industries in Malaysia. Specifically, it reports on howcommunication in English is used at different departments inselected industries as well as how the use differs across agegroups, genders and industries. Results of this study will haveinteresting implication for future English for business purposescourses.(125 words

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

Active involvement of students in co-curriculum (sports) versus generic skills

The active involvement of students in sports activities is viewed from different levels of achievement beginning with the national representation of the residential colleges, faculties, and universities in prestigious sporting events at international levels. The skills that are developed through extra-curricular activities are generic skills. The involvement of students in co-curricular activities can help to shape their generic skills, thus leading to self-promotion in the workplace. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to examine the enhancement of generic skills among engineering and technical students of UTHM who are actively involved in co-curricular activities (sports). This study will focus on identifying the factors of involvement, the level of application among students, and the perceptions of the students through their active involvement in extra-curricular activities (sports). A survey was conducted using a quantitative approach. A general questionnaire, which was designed to fulfil the objectives and to answer the research questions for this study, was distributed to 213 engineering and technical student athletes of UTHM who are actively involved in co-curricular activities (sports). It was found that the engineering and technical student athletes of UTHM agreed that their active involvement in extra-curricular activities (sports) was due to interpersonal, intrapersonal and structural factors. The results showed that out of seven generic skills, three constructs of generic skills, namely communication, teamwork and management, demonstrate a high level of application through active involvement in extra-curricular activities (sports). These findings may also help the university to focus on the development of generic skills in engineering and technical students through co-curricular activities (sports) in addition to producing athletes who are able to create a name for the university at national or international level

ERGONOMICS ASSESSMENT OF WORKSTATION DESIGN IN AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the ability to interpret the various aspects of ergonomics contributions and influences in the manufacturing industry. The application of knowledge and understanding of the ergonomics theories and techniques in the manufacturing industry also will be demonstrated in this study. Besides that, this report will be able us to appreciate the ergonomic role in manufacturing industry and everyday context by showing the ergonomics contribution towards employees’ health and safety in the workplace and tangible or intangible profitability of the company. Adequate posture, work height, normal and maximum working areas are determined for the intended user population. The procedure for determining the workstation dimensions and layout has been explained. The importance of building a mock-up of the designed workstation and its evaluation with representative subjects is emphasized. A case problem (Final Inspection workstation) is discussed to illustrate the workstation design procedure

Optimizing Economic Load Dispatch with Renewable Energy Sources via Differential Evolution Immunized Ant Colony Optimization Technique

Recently, renewable energy (RE) has become a trend in power generation. It is slowly evolving from an alternative energy source into the main energy source. The technology is currently working as an auxiliary to the existing generators. Demands for electricity is expanding rapidly nowadays, which require generators to run near its operation limit. This activity put grieve risk to the generators. Nonetheless, the extensive analysis should be conducted upon RE integration into the existing power system. This paper assesses its economic impact on the power system. Setting up RE technology such as photovoltaic and wind turbine are costly, yet may reduce generator’s fuel cost in the long run. Thus, economic load dispatch (ELD) is conducted to compute the operating cost of power system with the integration of RE system. In this study, the operating cost represents the fuel cost of conventional fossil-fuel generators. Furthermore, a novel optimization technique namely Differential Evolution Immunized Ant Colony Optimization is proposed as the optimization engine. Comparative studies are conducted to assess the performance of the proposed approach