A design of precision linear z-transverse antenna positioner

An antenna positioner is essential device in avionics as a testing instrument. It must be able to move the antenna under test (AUT) to the required position precisely and accurately. This research focuses on the design of precision linear z-traverse antenna positioner. It comprises designs of mechanical, electrical and control system. Besides, knowledge on software design is also of paramount important because the designed instrument run by own developed control algorithm. It is a positioner powered by a DC motor as an actuator which is equipped by a user friendly graphical user interface (GUI) written uniquely featured with several distinct and systematic operating modes and flexible data display. PID (Proportional, Integral and Derivative) controller embedded in GUI is also capable to move AUT to the target in shortest time with no or minimum overshoot and steady state error. In this research, PID controller was tuned to suit the application with the aid of MATLAB® simulation. The system was then calibrated. Based on calibrated data, it was then optimized to yield more accurate result by mean of correction through software compensation. The result was then analyzed and discussed. A very precise instrument with standard deviation m µ s 94 . 8 = was successfully designed. It was designed to be used in two ways with accuracy of approximately m µ 50 ± or 29ppm for high accuracy usage and approximately m µ 300 ± or 176ppm for lower accuracy usage. As a consequence, procedures of design and developing a positioner both theoretically and practically were acquired

Segmentation Of Ultisequence Medical Images Using Random Walks Algorithm And Rough Sets Theory

Segmentasi imej Magnetic Resonance (MR) merupakan satu tugas klinikal yang mencabar. Selalunya, satu jenis imej MR tidak mencukupi untuk memberikan maklumat yang lengkap mengenai sesuatu tisu patologi atau objek visual dari imej Accurate Magnetic Resonance (MR) image segmentation is a clinically challenging task. More often than not, one type of MRI image is insufficient to provide the complete information about a pathological tissue or a visual object from the imag

Predictive factors for special care units admission and in-hospital mortality of geriatric patients that presented to red zone of the Emergency Department of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia

Introduction: The objective of this study aimed to determine the prevalence of geriatric patients being treated in Red Zone of Emergency Department in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and factors associated with special care unit admission and in-hospital mortality. Methodology: This study was a single centre prospective cross-sectional study which was carried out from 1 January 2016 – 31 December 2016 at Red Zone of the Emergency Department Hospital USM. All patients aged 60 years and above were included. Systematic random sampling was used. Variables were analyzed using simple and multiple logistic regressions. Results: Total patients included in this study were 328 patients, 55.8% were male and 91.2% were Malay. The mean age was 70.6 years old. The cases geriatric patients commonly presented were cardiovascular (31.4%), infectious disease (29.6%), neurology (14.9%), and respiratory (12.5%). Out of 328 patients studied, 187 patients (57.0%) were admitted to general wards, 110 patients (33.5%) were admitted to SCU. 55 patients (16.8%) passed away within the period of in-hospital treatment. Factors associated with SCU admissionwere the usage of NIV, and the usage of inotropic support. On the other hand, factors associated with in-hospital mortality were blood urea level, serum albumin level and the application of mechanical ventilation. Conclusions: Geriatric patients who presented to Red Zone of ED requiring ventilator and inotropic support had shown to have worse outcome. The associated factors for SCU admission and in-hospital mortality had been identified, and this will enable better settings cater to the needs for critically ill geriatric patients

Rainfall Characteristics and Its Effect on Road Infrastructure Health

Malaysia has a strategic geographical location in which it is protected from most of natural disasters such as earthquakes and typhoons. However, it is affected by flood which is a common occurrence in Malaysia. There is a direct relationship between rainfall and flooding as the increase in rainfall intensity would produce higher runoff. This research is first focused on the four rainfall stations located at the Northeast District of Penang Island, in which its rainfall pattern was determined from 2007 to 2016 and geospatial data analysis has been done by using ArcGIS. The occurrence of flood is found to have great impact on the road infrastructure health. Next, soil commonly used for road foundation (subgrade) in Malaysia was used to investigate the effect of moisture content on subgrade strength, in which the California Bearing Ratio (CBR) test was carried out with increment of moisture content. The findings indicated that the rainfall pattern in Northeast District of Penang Island was affected by the monsoon seasons, in which the Southwest Monsoon brings in more rainfall from April to September. The extreme rainfall during the Southwest Monsoon caused flood to frequently occur in the study area. Total rainfall in the area indicated a decreasing trend in which the total annual rainfall of the latest five years is less than that of the first five years, from 2007 to 2016. However, the intensity of rainfall can be seen on the increasing trend and this is expected to cause greater soil exposure to moisture. The CBR strength of soil is found to be reduced with the increasing moisture content, as the soil bearing capacity is reduced when the soil become saturated. The reduction in subgrade soil’s bearing capacity will affect the performance of the road systems

Monopole-Antimonopole Pair Dyons

Monopole-antimonopole pair (MAP) with both electric and magnetic charges are presented. The MAP possess opposite magnetic charges but they carry the same electric charges. These stationary MAP dyon solutions possess finite energy but they do not satisfy the first order Bogomol'nyi equations and are not BPS solutions. They are axially symmetric solutions and are characterized by a parameter, $-1\leq\eta\leq 1$ which determines the net electric charges of these MAP dyons. These dyon solutions are solved numerically when the magnetic charges of the dipoles are $n=\pm 1, \pm 2$ and when the strength of the Higgs field potential $\lambda=0, 1$. When $\lambda=0$, the time component of the gauge field potential is parallel to the Higgs field in isospin space and the MAP separation distance, total energy and net electric charge increase exponentially fast to infinity when $\eta$ approaches $\pm 1$. However when $\lambda=1$, all these three quantities approach a finite critical value as $\eta$ approaches $\pm 1$.Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures, 2 table

Big Data and Predictive Analytics Capabilities: A Review of Literature on Its Impact on Firm’s Financial Performance

In the era of the fourth industrial revolution, big data and predictive analytics (BDPA) capabilities considered as one of the significant resources that enable a firm to gain competitiveness. Nowadays, the advancement of technology information increases the difficulty of the firm to manage vast amounts of structured and unstructured data. The excessive growth between data captured and the firm’s capabilities to manage, process, analyze, and transfer the big data to actionable knowledge and value still challenges many firms in the competitive market. Besides, the lack of tangible resources, technical skills, management skills, organizational learning, and data-driven culture are some of the challenges for firms to apply analytics approach to support the data processing process. These situations led to poor decision making by the firm and result in high operation cost and lower profitability. However, the situation will be different if the firm able to manage BDPA capabilities in the right way. Based on the identified problems, this study aims to review the impact of BDPA capabilities on a firm’s financial performance. This study is expected to enhance the body of knowledge on BDPA capabilities and the firm’s financial performance. This study also provides information regarding the importance of BDPA capabilities on the firm’s financial performance to industrial practitioners. An empirical study on this subject matter is suggested for future researchers, especially in Malaysia manufacturing industry

Are socially responsible investments profitable? Evidence on performance and volatility in Malaysia

This study utilised various risk-adjusted performance measures, conditional volatility models and an event study methodology to conduct a comprehensive analysis on the profitability of SRI equity indices and mutual funds in Malaysia with sample data ranging from December 2014 to July 2022. The risk-adjusted performance of Malaysian SRIs are statistically indistinguishable from that of conventional investments, which suggests the opportunity of doing as well while doing good. The overall findings for the ratio-based performance measures indicate that the equity SRI indices tend to outperform their conventional counterparts, especially during periods of crisis recovery. Conditional volatility analysis is also conducted on index returns using a GARCH (1,1) and TGARCH (1,1) model. Although short-term transmission is volatility is greater for SRI indices, they experience substantially less systematic risk and lower persistence of volatility clustering compared to conventional indices. SRI index returns also display a leverage effect of a lower magnitude relative to conventional index returns. Lastly, an event study methodology is conducted using the market model and GARCH (1,1) with event dummy to assess the impact of critical economic and environmental events on the returns and conditional volatility of SRI index returns. In terms of economic events, SRI indices displayed sizeable recovery from five days up to a month following the COVID-19 market crash, but also exhibited greater volatility. As for positive environmental news, SRI indices demonstrated a shift from positive to negative returns within the 10-day event window following the ratification of the Paris Climate Accords, and vice versa following the adoption of the Glasgow Climate Pact. No significant evidence was found on the effects of negative environmental news on SRI index return and conditional volatility

Generalized Jacobi Elliptic One-Monopole - Type A

We present new classical generalized one-monopole solution of the SU(2) Yang-Mills-Higgs theory with the Higgs field in the adjoint representation. We show that this generalized solution with $\theta$-winding number $m=1$ and $\phi$-winding number $n=1$ is an axially symmetric Jacobi elliptic generalization of the 't Hooft-Polyakov one-monopole. We construct this axially symmetric one-monopole solution by generalizing the large distance asymptotic solution of the 't Hooft-Polyakov one-monopole to the Jacobi elliptic functions and solving the second order equations of motion numerically when the Higgs potential is vanishing and non vanishing. These solutions are regular non-BPS finite energy solutions.Comment: 17 pages, 5 figure

Supply chain drivers as a competitive advantage in hospitality company: A case study

Facilities, inventory, transportation, information, sourcing and pricing are the six supply chain drivers that determine the capability of gaining competitive advantage within a supply chain management. The constant growth of tourism industry in Malaysia has led to the rise of the hospitality industry over the recent years. However, some industries are still using inefficient and less responsive strategies to run their supply chain activities. Therefore, the supply chain drivers will be investigated based on their performance on achieving competitive advantage in hospitality company. The qualitative method used is by interviewing the manager of the selected hospitality company with interview protocol, which is a semistructured questionnaire. The qualitative data were analysed using qualitative data analysis software, ATLAS.ti. The result indicated that a good use of six supply chain drivers will definitely help a hospitality company in achieving the balance between responsiveness and efficiency. This study concluded that the performance of supply chain drivers is relatively important, to boost a hospitality company to gain their competitive advantage among competitors. Therefore, this study can be relevant for hospitality company to know how to gain competitive advantage through the supply chain driver

Variable Sample Size Control Charts for Monitoring the Multivariate Coefficient of Variation Based on Median Run Length and Expected Median Run Length

The monitoring of a well-functioning process system has always held significant importance. In recent times, there has been notable attention towards employing control charts to oversee both univariate and multivariate coefficients of variation (MCV). This shift is in response to the concern of erroneous outcomes that can arise when traditional control charts are applied under the condition of dependent mean and standard deviation, as highlighted by prior research. To address this, the remedy lies in adopting the coefficient of variation. Furthermore, this study underscores the application of MCV in scenarios where multiple quality attributes are simultaneously under surveillance within an industrial process. This aspect has demonstrated considerable enhancement in chart performance, especially when incorporating the variable sample size (VSS) feature into the MCV chart. Adaptive VSS, evaluated through metrics like median run length (MRL) and expected median run length (EMRL), is also integrated for MCV monitoring. In contrast to earlier studies that predominantly focused on average run length (ARL), this research acknowledges the potential inaccuracies in ARL measurement. In this study, two optimal designs for VSS MCV charts are formulated by minimizing two criteria: firstly, MRL; and secondly, EMRL, both accounting for deterministic and unknown shift sizes. Additionally, to assess the distribution's variability in run lengths, the study provides the 5th and 95th percentiles. The research delves into two VSS schemes: one with a defined small sample size (nS), and another with a predetermined large sample size (nL) for the initial subgroup (n(1)). The approach taken involves the development of a Markov chain method for designing and deriving performance measures of the proposed chart. These measures include MRL and EMRL. Moreover, a comparative analysis between the proposed chart's performance and the standard MCV chart (STD) is presented in terms of MRL and EMRL criteria. The outcomes illustrate the superiority of the proposed chart over the STD MCV chart for all shift sizes, whether they are upward or downward, and when n(1) equals nS or nL