Keris: mengenal asal-usul, falsafah dan fungsi

Keris bukanlah budaya yang asing dalam masyarakat Melayu Nusantara kerana ia mempunyai simbolik kepada konsep ketuanan dan kedaulatan bangsa Melayu sejak dahulu lagi. Keris dikenali sebagai salah satu daripada alat persenjataan orang Melayu selain tombak, pedang, badik, kelewang, kerambit dan sebagainya lagi. Ia adalah sebuah senjata yang telah diangkat martabatnya ke kedudukan paling tinggi dalam ketamadunan Melayu melebihi senjata lain kerana fungsi, ketinggian falsafah dan nilai seni estetiknya. Kajian ini bertujuan mendalami tentang sejarah asal usul, falsafah dan fungsi keris yang terdapat di alam Melayu. Artikel ini juga turut membincangkan tentang latar belakang keris, jenis-jenis keris, bahagian-bahagian keris dan falsafah di sebalik fungsi dan peranan tersebut sebagai sebahagian daripada cara untuk mengenali peradaban, dan susur galur asal usul budaya bangsa yang bertamadun ini. Fungsi keris telah banyak mengalami perubahan, dari penciptaan asal sebagai senjata, kemudian berubah menjadi barang keramat, pusaka yang dipuja, lambang ikatan keluarga, tanda jasa, tanda pangkat atau darjat, sehinggalah menjadi sebagai barang seni dan cenderamata. Semua ini tersimpul pelbagai falsafah dan nilai peradaban dan ketamadunan bangsa Melayu yang tinggi. Keunikan keris diperjelaskan dalam bentuk fizikal dan non-fizikal oleh pandai besi atau empu yang menciptanya. Frey (2010) menyatakan keris adalah lambang budaya yang terpenting bagi masyarakat Melayu. Sebagai sebuah lambang budaya yang terpenting, ia juga mempamerkan maruah dan status bangsa Melayu itu sendiri sebagai bangsa yang bertamadun dan berperadaban. Orang lelaki tidak akan keluar tanpa berkeris, kerana ia dianggap seperti bertelanjang. Teras dan fungsi keris masih lagi sama walaupun mempunyai perbezaan dari pelbagai bentuk rupa dan gaya kerana pemisahan dan perbezaan antara sempadan lokasi, suku kaum dan etnik. Secara umumnya, keris bukanlah semata-mata menjadi senjata mahupun sebahagian daripada busana, tetapi fungsinya lebih besar daripada itu. Ia menjadi lambang jati diri orang Melayu

An improved image processing approach for machinery fault diagnosis

Wavelet analysis has been proven to be effective in analysing non-stationary vibration signals. However, the interpretation of the wavelet analysis results, such as a wavelet scalogram, requires high levels of knowledge and experience, which remains a great challenge to practitioners in the field. Recently, the rapid development and advancement of image processing technologies have shed new light on this challenge. In this study, image features such as Harris Stephens(Harris);speeded-up robust features(SURFs);and binary, robust, invariant, scalable keypoints (BRISKs)were obtained from a red, green, and blue (RGB) colour-filtered wavelet scalogram. Each colour filter generates a set of image features from an RGB-filtered wavelet scalogram. Then, the features were utilised as inputs to the fault classifier, namely the support vector machine (SVM),for fault classification. However, there will be a situation where the classification results from the fault classifier, based on the image generated from the different colour filters, are contradictory to each other. No conclusion can thus be made in these situations. This paper employed the Dempster-Shafer (DS) theory to refine the contradicting results and provide an ultimate conclusion to the machine condition. Therefore, the proposed method has improved the fault classification accuracy from 69% to 78%

Preliminary Findings of the High Quantity of Microplastics in Faeces of Hong Kong Residents

Microplastics are recognised as a ubiquitous and hazardous pollutant worldwide. These small-sized particles have been detected in human faeces collected from a number of cities, providing evidence of human ingestion of microplastics and their presence in the gastrointestinal tract. Here, using Raman spectroscopy, we identified an average of 50 particles g−1 (20.4–138.9 particles g−1 wet weight) in faeces collected from a healthy cohort in Hong Kong. This quantity was about five times higher than the values reported in other places in Asia and Europe. Polystyrene was the most abundant polymer type found in the faeces, followed by polypropylene and polyethylene. These particles were primarily fragments, but about two-thirds of the detected polyethylene terephthalate were fibres. More than 88% of the microplastics were smaller than 300 µm in size. Our study provides the first data on the faecal level, and thus the extent of ingestion, of microplastics in Hong Kong’s population. This timely assessment is crucial and supports the recently estimated ingestion rate of microplastics by Hong Kong residents through seafood consumption, which is one of the highest worldwide. These findings may be applicable to other coastal populations in South China with similar eating habits

Advanced fault detection in DC microgrid system using reinforcement learning

As technologies are expanding, the demand for power supply also increases. This causes the demand for power is difficult to be fulfilled as non-renewable sources are reducing. Therefore, the microgrid concept is introduced, where it is constructed with renewable energy sources, energy storage devices and loads. There are two types of microgrid, which are alternating current (AC) microgrid and direct current (DC) microgrid. Various research show that DC microgrid has more advantages over AC microgrid. However, DC microgrid is not widely used due to the lack of studies on it compared to AC microgrid. Besides, DC microgrid has one significant problem not fixed, which is the fault in the DC microgrid. Whenever a fault occurs, the whole DC microgrid will be affected rapidly. Therefore, this project aims to design a fault detector based on artificial intelligence to detect the fault and isolate the fault effectively. A fault detector based artificial intelligence should be implemented into the DC microgrid system to protect it. Two techniques in Artificial Immune System are being compared. The results showed that the improved Negative Selection Algorithm with variable sized detector has better performance than the general Negative Selection Algorithm with constant sized radius in detecting fault in DC microgrid system

High Sensitivity pH Sensor Based on Porous Silicon (PSi) Extended Gate Field-Effect Transistor

In this study, porous silicon (PSi) was prepared and tested as an extended gate field-effect transistor (EGFET) for pH sensing. The prepared PSi has pore sizes in the range of 500 to 750 nm with a depth of approximately 42 �m. The results of testing PSi for hydrogen ion sensing in different pH buffer solutions reveal that the PSi has a sensitivity value of 66 mV/pH that is considered a super Nernstian value. The sensor considers stability to be in the pH range of 2 to 12. The hysteresis values of the prepared PSi sensor were approximately 8.2 and 10.5 mV in the low and high pH loop, respectively. The result of this study reveals a promising application of PSi in the field for detecting hydrogen ions in different solutions

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P < 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Report on industrial attachment with Levi Strauss Asia Pacific Division Information Technology

This report provides details and encounters during my 22-week attachment. Levi Strauss Asia Pacific Division IT Department provides support and applications to all the affiliate countries in the Asia Pacific Region, namely Indonesia, HongKong, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, South Africa, Taiwan, Korea and Japan. During these 22 weeks, I was given a chance to support Hong Kong in a upgrading project for all the Asia Pacific affiliates. This attachment also exposed me to many technical issues of desktops and laptops faced by users. I was able to experience how IT enhances an apparel company and making it one of the leading clothing brand in the world

Sports video analysis and its tool development

The project is on the Image or Video Processing aspect of sports videos. The objective of this project is to use image or video processing techniques to analyze sports videos to generate information such as judging the flight of a tennis ball and where it landed on a court. The project is on the Image or Video Processing aspect of sports videos. The objective of this project is to use image or video processing techniques to analyze sports videos to generate information such as judging the flight of a tennis ball and where it landed on a court. The data collection process occupied the majority of this project. The software development process and the creation of the GUI are also important in the development of this project. The main focus of this project is to analyze 100m race videos to detect the timing that the first subject touches the finishing line. Difficulty was faced in the data collection process due to the complexity of the high speed camera capturing system.Bachelor of Engineering (Computer Engineering

Detection of blade rub in rotor system

This paper studies the detection of single blade rubbing in a multi-stage rotor system using vibration analysis. An experimental study was undertaken to simulate single blade rubbing conditions in a three-stage rotor system. Vibration signals were analyzed with both Fourier and Wavelet transforms for comparison purposes. Experimental results showed that single blade rubbing can be detected by comparing the pattern in both the vibration spectrum and wavelet map. The feasibility and effectiveness of wavelet analysis as compared to vibration spectrum to detect single blade rubbing was also presented in this paper

Review of underground storage tank condition monitoring techniques

This article aims to provide a comprehensive review on the condition monitoring techniques of underground storage tanks (UST). Generally, the UST has long been a favourite toxic substance reservation apparatus, thanks to its large capacity and minimum floor space requirement. Recently, attention has been drawn to the safety risks of the complex cylindrical-shaped system and its surrounding environment due to contamination resulting from unwanted subsurface leakage. Studies on related countermeasures shows that numerous efforts have been focused on the damage remediation process and fault detection practice; however, it has also been observed that there are uncertainties in present technical complications involving the effectiveness of corrective actions and the robustness of condition monitoring techniques. As an alternative means to deliver spatial information on structural integrity, the feasibility of integrating nondestructive evaluation (NDE) techniques with machine learning algorithms, on observing the degradation process of UST, so as to enhance condition monitoring competency, is discussed