A MOBILE PLATFORM FOR LOCATION-BASED SERVICE APPLICATIONS USING AUGMENTED REALITY: ONLINE MAP, TRACKING AND NAVIGATION ON GOOGLE ANDROID SMARTPHONE DEVICE (TOC, Abstract, Chapter 1 and Reference only)

This project paper is about Augmented Reality (AR) using location-based visualization and implementation on the smartphone devices. That is partly because smartphone comes packed with built-in sensors have grown and become popular over the years. This will explore the interactive and interaction Location Based Services that AR allows on Android devices. The use of mobile applications and advancement in mobile technology such as Global Positioning System (GPS), compass and accelerometer sensors are able to identify and determine the location and orientation of the device, location-based applications with augmented reality views are possible. AR combines the real world with virtual, the integration of information in the user's environment in real time, the user interaction techniques of representing rich, intuitive information data of the real world. The AR application which typically takes the image of the integrated camera, positioning location as a representation of the real world and project objects on top of this image to create the AR view. The research was initiated by exploring and reviewing literature related domain and existing AR application available on Android devices. There are a number of AR applications available and the rapid development of Android smartphone devices has provided an improved platform for the application of mobile AR technologies. Developing application will help the researcher explore the topic while going through this technology. The aim of this study is to develop a combination of location-based information and AR features by blending both visual, map-based and nonmap based elements like live projection of a nearby landmark on camera preview on mobile devices, utilizing free and open source software development tools. In the context of this paper a prototype application, based on the Android platform and Mixare engine library is developed. This paper showed the initial thoughts on this application and overall process that leads to the final system development. This report describes MyARTGuide, a prototype application of augmented reality designed to be run over Android based smartphone. The user can now look through their phone as if taking a picture to look at the augmented world which leads to a better user experience. MyARTGuide is developed for experiment, simulation and to test the AR functionality of these project objectives is not a fully functional product. Thus, there are still more areas that can be improved and new features can be added. With the use of AR and Andorid technology it is possible to spread the experience which will be shown in this report. (ABSTRACT BY AUTHOR

Experimental Investigation on the Effectiveness of Truss-Shaped Punching Shear Reinforcement in Flat Slab

The use of reinforced concrete flat slabs in building construction increases the floor-to-floor clearance, expedites site operations, and offers aesthetically rewarding features. However, punching shear failure in a flat slab is brittle in nature and can be potentially catastrophic. Many studies have been conducted to improve the punching shear capacity of flat slabs but some of the proposed punching shear reinforcements were complicated and costly. This research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a simple and cost-effective; truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement embedded in a 1200 mm × 1200 mm × 175 mm thick flat slab specimen. Three types of truss-shaped punching shear reinforcements were prepared. All specimens were supported at the edges and subjected to gravity load tests. The results showed that the introduction of truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement increased the punching shear capacity in the range of 7.71% to 21.47%. The maximum deflection of these specimens exhibited an insignificant increase compared to the control specimen, suggesting that punching failure governed the ultimate behavior. The additional strength offered by truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement makes flat slabs as a construction material more appealing because they allow them to withstand higher design loads

Experimental Investigation on the Effectiveness of Truss-Shaped Punching Shear Reinforcement in Flat Slab

The use of reinforced concrete flat slabs in building construction increases the floor-to-floor clearance, expedites site operations, and offers aesthetically rewarding features. However, punching shear failure in a flat slab is brittle in nature and can be potentially catastrophic. Many studies have been conducted to improve the punching shear capacity of flat slabs but some of the proposed punching shear reinforcements were complicated and costly. This research aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a simple and cost-effective; truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement embedded in a 1200 mm × 1200 mm × 175 mm thick flat slab specimen. Three types of truss-shaped punching shear reinforcements were prepared. All specimens were supported at the edges and subjected to gravity load tests. The results showed that the introduction of truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement increased the punching shear capacity in the range of 7.71% to 21.47%. The maximum deflection of these specimens exhibited an insignificant increase compared to the control specimen, suggesting that punching failure governed the ultimate behavior. The additional strength offered by truss-shaped punching shear reinforcement makes flat slabs as a construction material more appealing because they allow them to withstand higher design loads

Synthesis and characterization of coconut pith char adsorbents for carbon dioxide capture

The emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) from anthropogenic sources has become a public concern. Several effective and affordable post combustion CO2 capture technology has been reported and one of the approaches is through adsorption process. This study focused the adsorption onto low-cost adsorbent that can be produced from waste biomass through carbonization method. Coconut pith (CP) was used as precursor and carbonized at temperature of 300 and 700 ºC under ambient condition. The chemical and physical properties showed that the surface area, pore volume, ash, moisture and carbon content of chars increased, while the yield content decreased with increasing carbonization temperatures. The char adsorbent carbonized at higher temperature (CP700) showed the better performance with CO2 adsorption capacity of 10.00 mmol/g at 25 ºC. It was revealed that carbonization temperature greatly affects the properties of CP, hence influence the ability of the adsorbent to capture the CO2. Hence, these unique properties and adsorption performance showed that char adsorbent enable to be used as an effective adsorbent for CO2 capture and thus improving environmental quality and sustainability

Critical success factors of microcredit entrepreneurs

Poverty is being recognized and emphasized as important factors that lead to the downfall of other vital aspects such as national unity that could affect the stability of politics in Malaysia. Tragically, the poorest group in Malaysia is the original people of the land especially Malays.Viewing that Malays and Bumiputeras need to be assisted to exit from the clutch of poverty, many entrepreneurial programs are crafted by the government to correct this imbalance socio-economics.In order to support this endeavor, NGOs also get involve and one of them is the replicator of prominent microcredit program originated from Bangladesh; Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM) who give tiny loan to its beneficiaries.After more than 2 decades operating, the record stated that AIM is the most successful microcredit provider in Malaysia. Therefore, this study seeks to determine the key success factors of AIM beneficiaries in becoming successful micro-entrepreneurs. The personally administered questionnaire was distributed to beneficiaries of Amanah Ikhtiar Malaysia (AIM).The questionnaire is derived from the similar study done among micro-entrepreneurs in West Africa and additional related literature from previous scholars. This study indicated that the AIM beneficiaries in Pahang have recorded increment in their income after joining AIM and they are no longer remaining in poverty status. It shows that the beneficiaries of AIM microcredit program have achieved the successful record as proven by previous impact studies and the factors could be exemplified by other microcredit programs beneficiaries. This study perhaps can add the breadth of knowledge of the microcredit programs specifically on the success factor of the micro-entrepreneurs in Malaysia

Impact of green building certificate on firm’s financial performance

Implementation of green building (GB) practice is one of the environmental practice taken by some developers in order to overcome the loss of green space in urban area. The developers who are implement GB practice are eligible to get GB certificate. As reported by Green Building Index (GBI) on 2016, only 8% out of 2,000 developers have GB certificate. Most of them are not interested and stated that adoption of GB certificate is not a preferred investment for their business. Their perception are contradict with the previous studies which have proved that the environmental practice is positively significant with firms’ financial performance. Hence, the objective of this study is to evaluate the impact of GB certificate on the firms’ financial performance. A total of 323 developers’ financial reports for the year 2015 were collected from Bursa Saham Malaysia and Suruhanjaya Syarikat Malaysia. Using propensity score matching (PSM) technique, it was found that developers with GB certificate had higher return on asset (ROA) compared to developers without GB certificate. In conclusion, GB certificate have positive impact on firm’s financial performance. The finding of this study will motivate other developers to implement GB practice in their upcoming project development

Synthesis and characterization of secondary amine-functionalized silica for CO2 capture

As one of commonly used technique for carbon dioxide (CO2) removal, amine-absorption also required high amounts of energy for adsorbent regeneration and problems of equipment corrosion during chemical holding may happened. Alternatively, amine-impregnated solid adsorbent received wide attention for CO2 removal. However, there are limitations on the adsorbents’ adsorption capacity and their hydrolytic stability. In this study, amine-functionalized silica (T-Si) adsorbent was synthesized via oil-in-water emulsion technique using centrimonium bromide (CTAB) as surfactant, ethanol as oil phase, and tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) as silica precursor followed with impregnation with secondary amine (tetraethyl pentamine, TEPA). Results indicated that T-Si2 adsorbent has a surface area of 10.7338 m2/g, presence of amine group (N-H) peaks in the FTIR spectra, and is thermally stable up to temperature of 170 oC. CO2 adsorption study also shows that the T-Si also performed higher adsorption capacity (0.63 mmol/g) towards CO2 compared to the blank Si adsorbent (0.33 mmol/g). The obtained experimental data show a good fitting into Sips adsorption isotherm which indicate a multilayer adsorption that happen on a heterogenous surface. The findings of this study show that the introduction of amine groups from TEPA offers improvement towards CO2 capture due to the reaction with amine groups

The determination of the embedment strength of Malaysian hardwood

Research on determining the embedment strength of Malaysia timber species is currently being conducted. Prior to this, there is no data on the embedment strength of Malaysian timber available as there are no study been conducted locally which emphasize in this area. The experimental works on determining this fundamental parameter of a connection are being carried out on selected species of local hardwood timber. The species selected represents various joints groups. Data and results were analysed and using the embedment strength values approaches which are similar to those adopted in Europe, the basic load of timber joints to be used in the limit state design method will be forwarded for consideration to be incorporated in the Malaysian code of practice

Formaldehyde sensing using tapered u-shape plastic optical fiber coated with zinc oxide nanorods

Continuous exposure to formaldehyde may cause injury to the central nervous, respiratory, blood, and immunological systems. Tapered U-shape plastic optical fiber (POF) coated with zinc oxide nanorods was evaluated at wavelength of 645 nm for formaldehyde vapor sensing within a concentration range from 5% to 20%. The tapered POF with 500 µm waist diameter was prepared using chemical etching technique. Zinc oxide nanorods were synthesized using hydrothermal method and growth for 12 hours on the tapered POF. The proposed sensor exhibited a good response to formaldehyde concentration ranging from 5% to 20% with sensitivity and linearity measured to be 0.00543V/% and 98.58%, respectively. Excellent measurement stability was observed when the concentrations from 5% and above are maintain over a 600 second period. Highest difference voltage was produced by 0.0958V due to the more scattering effect of ZnO nanorods at 20% of formaldehyde concentration. This proposed sensor might be also used to detect air pollution produced not just by formaldehyde vapor, but also by other dangerous or poisonous vapors or gases

ZnO Nanorods Coated Microfiber Loop Resonator For Relative Humidity Sensing

This paper reported a new humidity sensor, employing microfiber loop resonator (MLR) coated with Zinc Oxide (ZnO) as a probe. The MLR was constructed from a silica tapered fiber with a waist diameter of 7 µm, which was prepared using flame brushing technique. The self-touching loop was coated by ZnO using sol–gel method. A significant response to humidity changes from 35%RH to 85%RH was observed due to the changeable refractive index of the ZnO coating material which modified the light propagation at the output of the MLR. The result shows that the sensitivity of the proposed sensor increases by a factor of 2 as compared to the uncoated MLR. The output power of the ZnO coated MLR drops linearly from −29.3 dBm to −43 dBm when relative humidity increases from 35%RH to 85%RH. The linearity and resolution of the ZnO coated MLR also outperformed the uncoated MLR with 99.4% and 0.013%RH respectively