Development of a multimedia enhanced web prototype for technical learning instrument

Inconveniences in apparatus preparation, increased number of students and time constraints had caused the development of alternative learning instrument. Thus, a research on development and evaluation of multimedia enhanced web site as a learning instrument for metallogaphy subject was conducted. A website namely Visual Metallography (VM) was designed and enhanced with multimedia as the information transmission medium. Video clips were used to elaborate the specimen preparation process in laboratory whereas; animation was included to enhance the interactive circumstance. VMwas evaluated using questionnaire with a group of respondent. Reliability level of instrument used was determined through a pilot test. Cronbach's alpha for section 2, 3 and 4 were 0.942, 0.839 and 0.813 respectively. The research sample comprised 50 engineering students of KUiTTHO enrolling for Metallography subject. Research findings were analysed descriptively using SPSS 11.0 software. Referring to the analysed data, 55 items were highly rated except for item 23, which rated at medium level. In conclusion, the interface (GUI) design, multimedia provided and learning style presented in VMweb were fulfilling the users' needs. VMis indeed suitable as a multimedia-enhanced web based learning instrument purposely for lecturers and students

A mother's gift

WHEN she first realised that her daughter, Nada Musafir Kelana, was dyslexic, it took Zulikha Jamaluddin time to come to terms with it. That was 13 years ago

Genomic adaptation in antimicrobial resistance: elucidating the route and effects in Acinetobacter baumannii / Mohamad Izwan Ismail

Antimicrobial resistance has been a looming threat ever since its conception and it has become one of the greatest global problems of the current era. Although various studies have been conducted to better understand the mutational triggers leading to antimicrobial resistance, the specific genomic path towards it have yet to be discerned. Here, we aim to elucidate the pathway of genomic evolution throughout the resistance induction of an A. baumannii strain towards ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, meropenem and imipenem, as well as comparing the mutations acquired clinically versus in vitro. Twenty-five (25) local clinical A. baumannii strains were isolated and screened for antimicrobial susceptibility, and their genome were sequenced using the Illumina GAIIx genome sequencer. The susceptible parent was then challenged with ciprofloxacin, erythromycin, meropenem and imipenem separately until growth is still possible beyond the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) as defined by EUCAST standards. Once the resistance stability was confirmed, another sequencing run was done on the isogenic. Variant analysis was carried out using CLC Bio, and primers were designed to target the mutations of interest. PCR was then carried out on aliquots of the resistant mutants, each taken at increasing levels of antimicrobial tolerance throughout the challenging process. Phylogenomics and wgMLST analyses were carried out between the parent and resistant strain, as also the remaining isolates. Stable low and high-level resistant strains were successfully generated. Several genomic variants were identified in the high-level resistant strains. Validation of variant calling via PCR removed all miscalled variants. Comparative genome annotation revealed a high consistency in the genome structures of the clinical strains, despite non-consistent phylogenetic and synteny profiles. The mutation validation revealed several variations arising in genes responsible for signaling (yihG bvgS and srrA), metabolic activities (atpD, ribonuclease /, and epsL) and cell structure maintenance (ftsI and yceG) in addition to targeted mutations (mexB, acrB and gyrA). Analysis of the mutation chronology shows that when exposed to erythromycin, A. baumannii incurs modifications to genes bvgS and srrA, on days 4, 6, and to ftsI and its ribonuclease I encoding gene on day 67. When exposed to ciprofloxacin, mutations developed in gyrA and yihG on days 28 and 48. Meropenem exposure on the other hand has led to variations in epsL, mexB, and atpD on days 4, 10 and 70. In contrast, meropenem exposure resulted in mutations to acrB on day 38, and two mutations in ftsI occurred on day 19 and 67. From the results it is deduced that the chronology of intrinsic mutations is dependent on the types and intensity of selective pressures enacted, even on the same bacteria. Antibiotic pressure under in vitro and in vivo conditions has also resulted in development of different mutations leading to similar resistance profiles. It was also found that a prolonged exposure to the drugs used in this study plays as much of a role as the sub-inhibitory concentration

Enhanced non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm for test case optimization

Due to inevitable software changes, regression testing has become a crucial phase in software development process. Many software testers and researchers agreed that regression testing process consumes more time and cost during software development. Test case optimization has become one of the best solutions to overcome problems in regression testing. Test case optimization is focusing on reducing number of test cases in the test suite that may reduce the overall testing time, cost and effort of software testers. It considers multiple objectives and provides several numbers of optimal solution based on objectives of the testing. Therefore, this research aims at developing an alternative solution of test case optimization technique using NSGA II with fitness scaling as an additional function. Fitness scaling function is applied in NSGA II to eliminate pre-mature convergence among set of solution in the evolution of offspring in NSGA II which may produce more efficient fitness value. This research focuses on regression testing optimization by implementing weight of test cases and fault detection rate per test case as its objective function for optimization purposes. The proposed technique is applied to the GUI-based testing case study. The result shows that Pareto front produced by enhanced NSGA II give more wider set of solution that contains more alternatives and provide better trade-off among solutions. The evaluation shows that enhanced NSGA II perform better compared to conventional NSGA II by increasing the percentage of the reduced test cases with 25% and yield lower fault detection loss with 1.64% which indicating that set of reduced test cases using enhanced NSGA II is able to maintain the fault detection capability in the system under test

Thermal stress analysis for exhaust heat exchanger

Thermal stress induced in an object or structural member by restraint against movement is required to accommodate temperature changes. In this paper, the thermal stress and deformation of the exhaust heat exchanger on board a ship is analysed. The flow and temperature distributions of exhaust heat exchanger are conducted in ANSYS Static Structural by the coupled analysis of fluid and solid zones. According to the numerical analysis it is found that the thermal stress is increasing non-linearly with the increase of inlet sea water temperature. By increasing inlet sea water temperature will increase thermal stress. The result indicates that the maximum stress is equal to 479 MPa which is exceed the yield stress. Therefore, current heat exchanger being used is insufficient in design. By varying the different sea water inlet temperature and sea water inlet pressure at allowable limit still shows that maximum Von Misses Stress for current design is exceeding yield stress. The new design is proposed by increasing of thickness plate from 2mm to 3mm and proven to produce maximum Von Misses Stress below the yield stress which is equal to 245MPa. Percentage area for total thermal stress is also much lower compare to current design

Two phase flow of waxy crude oil-water in horizontal pipes

Water produced along with the crude oil during production and transported together in a pipeline is a common occurrence in a petroleum production system. Understanding the behavior of crude oil-water flow in a pipe is crucial to many engineering applications, such as design and operation of flow lines and wells, separation systems, logs interpretations, and determination of the amount of free water in contact with the wall of the pipes that could render erosion or corrosion problems. Presently, there is no two phase flow study done on the Malaysian waxy crude oil-water. Therefore, a research work was conducted at the UTM-MPRC Institute for Oil and Gas, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, to study the flow pattern, pressure drop, and water holdup of the Malaysian waxy crude oil-water flowing in a closed-loop system at an ambient condition through a 5.08 cm ID stainless steel horizontal pipeline. In the research work, water cuts were varied from 0% - 90% with mixture velocities ranging from 0.1 – 0.8 m/s. The research works comprised fluid characterization, flow pattern observation using a video camera camcorder, pressure drop, and liquid holdup measurement. Five flow patterns have been identified, namely stratified wavy flow, stratified wavy with semi dispersed flow at interface and oil film, dispersion of water in oil and oil continuous with emulsion, dispersion of oil in water with water continuous, and the newly found semi dispersed flow with semi emulsion at interface and thin oil film. The investigations proved that pressure drop was greatly influenced by flow pattern and mixture velocity. It was also found that the water holdup decreased slightly at higher water cuts due to the presence of emulsion in the crude oil – a great challenge when using a waxy crude oil in a two phase flow system. The experimental results could be used as a platform to understand better a more complex case of gas, oil, and water concurrent flow in a pipeline

A SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW TO STUDY THE FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO OBESITY AMONG MALAYSIAN SECONDARY STUDENTS

The prevalence of obesity among Malaysian secondary school students is increasing gradually. NHMS 2019 reveals that 29.8% children of the age five to 17 years have excess body weight. Prolonged energy imbalance which is caused by high calorie diet consumption and physical inactiveness, could lead to excess body weight. Despite several measures and initiatives, the prevalence of obesity among Malaysian secondary students is hiking up, presumably due to some reasons. Hence, this qualitative study is carried out to investigate the factors contributing to obesity among Malaysian secondary students. A semi-structured interview was conducted incorporating the students, parents, teachers and health officials, after obtaining a written consent. The study shows factors such as environment, existing health condition, dietary pattern and sedentary lifestyle could contribute to obesity. &nbsp

Certificate For Occupancies (CFO) and Certificate of Completion and Compliances (CCC): are customers satisfied? / Norisfarizan Ismail...[et al.]

This study focuses on identifying the factors causing delay on issuing Certificate of Completion and Compliance (CCC) and customer’s level of awareness on the process of getting those certificates. Certificate of Completion and Compliances (CCC) is an official certificate which acknowledged and certify that the building was complete and safe for occupation with complete infrastructure and comply with regulations under the Local Government Act 1976 (Act 171) and Uniform Building By-Law (UBBL). Previously, the issuance of CCC (formerly known as CF) would take about three to sixth month or even a year. In 2007 the Malaysian government reviewed the process and gave resposibility to professional architects and engineers instead of local authorities to issue the CCC. This is to reduce red-tape and to ensure that house buyers and building owners get to move in as quickly as possible without compromising their safety. Buyers are promised a time period of two weeks for CCC. Unfortunately until today, there are complaints from buyers about developers’ failure in issuing CCC on time. Questionnaires were distributed to obtain perception from relevant parties especially developers and buyers.The outcome of the study could contribute to the improvement of services to the relevant bodies

Ludological application in the gamification of tertiary level education / Mohamad Izwan Ismail...[et al.]

The education system is meant to prepare young minds for the workforce. Yet, despite the rapidly evolving industry, this system is still reminiscent of industrial-age values whereby students are trained to sit in line and follow instructions. On the contrary, the current industry requires candidates who are capable of critical thinking, creativity or flexibility, maintaining motivation, and being engaged with their work. The current conventional education approach lacks the necessary mechanics that drives the development of engagement in students. Through ludology, or game studies and gamification, it becomes possible to modify the current education approach and instill these values in students. Here, we aimed to develop a framework for applying ludological mechanics in the form of gamification to improve student participation and engagement in an education course. The core of the gamification system was developed using Microsoft Excel. The key student participation elements were first identified and segregated into three general categories; in-class participation, lab participation, and participation outside of the classroom. These were then broken down further for a more accurate record of each participation. A points-based reward system was then developed, dubbed “Extra Points” or “ExP” to act as a gamification currency. A shop mechanic was then designed to attribute value to the points. To avoid inflation, a balanced point-based economy was then developed, taking into account student behavior, perceived preferences, as well as feedback. The ExP system effectively assimilates the core values of well-balanced RPGs, encouraging students to willingly and actively participate and engage with the system. In this regard, the ludological approach successfully improves self-motivation in students while enumerating their participation, providing a clear indicator of each students perceived level of engagement during class