A novel green antenna phase-shift system with data acquisition boards

A novel green phase shifter system is proposed in this research. The system is developed by a combination of reconfigurable beam steering antennas and data acquisition (DAQ) boards. A combination of two reconfigurable beam steering antennas, located side-by-side, forms a spatial configuration structure with a fabricated ‘green’ element plank of rice husk placed in between. The concept of a spatial configuration technique has been ‘mutated’ by shifting the structure of spiral feed line and aperture slots of first beam steering antenna by as much as 45 ◦ . The PIN diode switches connected to the DAQ boards enable the intelligent capability of the spatial antennas. The activation of certain degree radiation patterns of either the first beam steering antenna or the second beam steering antenna depends on the memory of the DAQ boards — Beam Manager. When an intruder comes from the cardinal angles of 0◦/ 360◦, 90◦, 180◦, or 270◦, its range and angles’ location will be automatically detected by the first antenna through the output ports of the 1st DAQ: P1.0, P1.1, P1.2, and P1.3. The second antenna is then activated by the output ports of the 2nd DAQ: P2.0 up to P2.3, to adaptively maneuver the beam towards four different ordinal directions of 45◦, 135◦, 225◦, and 315◦

Microfinance: Viable Approaches for Islamic Banking Implementation

Islamic banks have very much engaged in debt financing businesses the same way and as much as their conventional counterparts do. Debt financing businesses, as widely implemented, were specifically targeted for and tailored to the needs of middle and upper income group of people. The low income people remain left out and forgotten in most banking businesses while microfinance instruments, which are meant to help the poor and needy, remain unpopular among the banking institutions. There is indeed increasing calls for Islamic banks to seriously consider this type of instrument as part of their religious obligation embedded under their Islamic identity. This paper demonstrated that microfinance instruments are viable for Islamic banks to consider despite the claims that the contracts are less secured and hence, too risky to embark in. A number of microfinance instruments based on Islamic concepts namely Musyarakah, Murabahah, Mudharabah, Ijarah and Qard al-Hassan as well as operational frameworks such as SPV and wakalah, were being proposed and discussed to pave ways for its implementation by the Islamic banks

Torrefaction of palm biomass briquettes at different temperature

The climate change has driven towards transformation from the high energy dependence on fossil fuel to inexhaustible renewable energy such as solar, wind, mini hydro and biomass. In Malaysia, abundant of palm biomass residues are produced during the processing of fresh fruit bunch. Therefore it is inevitable to harness these bioenergy sources in order to prevent waste accumulation at adjacent to palm mills. In order to utilize such bioenergy sources and to cope with the fast growing demand of energy, combination technique of densification and torrefaction is one of the potential ways to be practised. In the present study, the physical and combustion properties of torrefied empty fruit bunch (EFB) briquettes were investigated experimentally with constant nitrogen flow rate of 1 l/min, for various torrefaction temperatures (225 °C-300 °C). Before torrefaction process, EFB briquettes were initially produced under controlled condition with compaction pressure of 7 MPa and briquetting temperature of 150 °C. In general, the torrefied EFB briquettes were successfully produced in the present study. The results show that an increase in torrefaction temperature from 225°C to 300℃ causes a significant increase in gross calorific value (from around 17400 kJ/kg to 25000 kJ/kg), fixed carbon content (from 16.2% to 46.2%) and ash content (from 2.4% to 17.2%). On the other hand, relaxed density and volatile matter decrease, from 1017 kg/m3 to 590 kg/m3 and from 73.1% to 29.7%, respectively. As a conclusion, the gross calorific value and fixed carbon content are improved due to torrefaction. In addition, it was found that gross calorific value and moisture content of the torrefied EFB briquettes fulfil the requirement for commercial briquette production as stated by DIN51731 (gross calorific value>17500 kJ/kg and moisture content <10%)

Sequestering atmospheric CO₂ inorganically:a solution for Malaysia's CO₂ emission

Malaysia is anticipating an increase of 68.86% in CO2 emission in 2020, compared with the 2000 baseline, reaching 285.73 million tonnes. A major contributor to Malaysia's CO2 emissions is coal-fired electricity power plants, responsible for 43.4% of the overall emissions. Malaysia's forest soil offers organic sequestration of 15 tonnes of CO2 ha(-1) year(-1). Unlike organic CO2 sequestration in soil, inorganic sequestration of CO2 through mineral carbonation, once formed, is considered as a permanent sink. Inorganic CO2 sequestration in Malaysia has not been extensively studied, and the country's potential for using the technique for atmospheric CO2 removal is undefined. In addition, Malaysia produces a significant amount of solid waste annually and, of that, demolition concrete waste, basalt quarry fine, and fly and bottom ashes are calcium-rich materials suitable for inorganic CO2 sequestration. This project introduces a potential solution for sequestering atmospheric CO2 inorganically for Malaysia. If lands associated to future developments in Malaysia are designed for inorganic CO2 sequestration using demolition concrete waste, basalt quarry fine, and fly and bottom ashes, 597,465 tonnes of CO2 can be captured annually adding a potential annual economic benefit of (sic)4,700,000.</p

Nutritive and anti-nutritive evaluation of Kleinovia hospita, Leucaena leucocephala abd Gliricidia sepium with respect to their effects on in vitro rumen fermentation and gas production

The nutritive and tannin content of tree forages (Kleinhovia hospita, Leucaena leucocephala, and Gliricidia sepium and their effects on in vitro rumen fermentation, digestibility and gas production were examined. Rumen fluid was obtained from three fistulated Boer goats with an average weight range of 31-32 kg fed forages. The fluid was incubated with 0.2 g of each forage at 39 °C for 48 h to determine the in vitro gas production, DM digestibility, metabolizable energy and volatile fatty acid. The proximate composition and the polyphenol composition of the forage were also evaluated. The experimental design was a completely randomized design and the treatments were K. hospita, L. leucocephala and G. sepium. The chemical composition, percentage of total polyphenol, non-tannin polyphenol, condensed tannin and hydrolysable tannin differed (P<0.05) among the forages. The K. hospita had higher (P<0.05) net gas production and in vitro dry matter digestibility compared with other forages. Similarly, K. hospita had higher (P<0.05) concentration of total volatile fatty acid and propionic acid followed by L. leucocephala and G. sepium. The molar proportion of acetic and butyric acid did not differ among the forages. The outcome of this study present K. hospita as a good potential forage to be used in ruminant diet as a result of better nutrient composition, moderate anti-nutritive value and best ivDMD in comparison with L. leucocephala and G. sepium

A classification framework for drug relapse prediction

This paper proposes a framework for relapse prediction using Artificial Neural Networkalgorithms among drug addicts at Pusat Rawatan Inabah. The data collected will be miningthrough Artificial Neural Network algorithms to generate patterns and useful knowledge andthen automatically classifying the relapse possibility. This research collaborates with PusatRawatan Inabah, which is one of the rehabilitation centers that provide a specific treatment torehabilitate the drug addicts from addiction. We expect that among the classification datamining algorithms, Artificial Intelligence Neural Network (ANN) is one of the bestalgorithms to predict relapse among drug addicts. This may help the rehabilitation center topredict relapse individually and the prediction result is hoped to prevent drug addicts fromrelapse.Keywords: classification; artificial neural network; drug addiction; Inabah rehabilitation

Viewboard Implementation Based on Javascript Charts as a Media for Submitting Sales Information on a Green E-Commerce Website Light Cafe

A media that can display information concisely is needed in presenting information effectively&nbsp;and efficiently. Information on the results of the Green Light Cafe sales report can now be&nbsp;easily accessed by top management and staff through the ledger. However, the process of&nbsp;presenting information with ledgers still uses tables, so it is not in line with current&nbsp;technological developments. In this study, 4 (four) methods will be described which are used to&nbsp;overcome 4 (four) problems, as well as 1 (one) solution, namely the implementation of a&nbsp;viewboard with Highcharts charts. The advantage of Green Light Cafe's viewboard is that it can&nbsp;be accessed through the website and mobile, as well as other advantages, namely minimizing&nbsp;the use of paper, so that it can help staff work in registering reports. By applying the graph as a&nbsp;medium for presenting information on the Green Light Cafe viewboard, it causes top&nbsp;management and employees to find out more about sales reports. Thus, it can be concluded that&nbsp;the use of Highcharts graphics is able to improve the quality and overcome the problems found&nbsp;in the Green Light Cafe

3D numerical modelling of shallow tunnel in weathered granite incorporating multi-stage excavation and pre-support

Generally tunnelling in urban ground condition is not always favourable due to the tunnels’ susceptibility to major displacement especially when excavated in the soft soil and/or weak weathered rock formation. Apart from conventional support systems, pre-support measure like forepoling umbrella arch is frequently used to reinforce the ground. Modern computational tools allows the inclusion of multi-stage excavations and pre-support which was not possible in two dimensional (2D) plane strain. This paper demonstrates the three dimensional (3D) finite element analysis of Pahang-Selangor raw water transfer tunnel, as a reference case, where multi-stage excavation and pre-support are incorporated as intrinsic part of the model. The New Austrian Tunnelling Method (NATM)-3 segments which encountered Grade III weathered granite, having shallow overburden cover, was selected for numerical analysis using RS3 software. Comparison between simulated and observed data has shown good agreement during verification

A CASE STUDY OF OCCUPANT ENVIRONMENTAL COMFORT AT AUTOMOTIVE ASSEMBLYWORKSTATION

The environmental factors assessment in the building has become a popular research area over the past decade. However, how the service life of a building affects the results of the environmental assessment of a building has not been emphasized previously. The aim of this study is to analyze how structural solutions and building design affect the results of the environmental assessment. Furthermore, how the environmental factors affects the productivity is analyzed. The environmental assessments in building were calculated for this study by Environment Factors Equipment. The current situation and the future of the environmental assessment of buildings are discussed. In addition, topics for further research are suggested which is the environmental impact of an occupant should be studied. The research concludes that comfort and productivity in the workplace is related more to design factors

A high gain pifa at 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz using wireless power transfer techniques for pacemaker application

The design of a high gain Planar Inverted F Antenna (PIFA) with two different frequencies for medical pacemaker is presented. Two PIFA designs have been optimized to be operated at ISM band of 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz respectively, under tolerable reflection coefficient of less than -10dB. Both of the proposed antennas are developed from copper plate with a simple structure of rectangular patch. All design and simulation has been carried out using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) Microwave Studio Suite. The simulated and measured results of the fabricated antenna on reflection coefficient, bandwidth radiation pattern, and gain are presented to validate the usefulness of the presented design. The 2D Anechoic Chamber and Agilent Technologies Network Analyzer have been used for the measurement. Both 2.45 GHz and 5.8 GHz antennas have successfully manage to achieve high gain of 6dB and 8.2dB respectively with a directional beam pattern. The presented ISM PIFAs could be potential for point-to-point communication using wireless power transfer technique for medical pacemaker application