Assessment of drought impacts on vegetation health: a case study in Kedah

Prolonged drought in the early of 2014 has caused Malaysia to experience water supply shortage which directly affects both health and growth of vegetation. Thus this study aims to assess the risk vegetation areas that were impacted during 2014's drought by integrating the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Normalized Differentiation Vegetation Index (NDVI) methods. These two methods were able to assess the risk areas for the vegetation by measuring its health and classifying them according to its severity while considering the rainfall reduction at the specific time and location. The results obtained from this study shows that the central and north west of Kedah was vulnerable to the occurrence of drought. Kedah was more impacted by the dry event during the northeast monsoon. This study is significant as a fundamental input for further research and as an alternative approach by the application of space technology

Reduced graphene oxide-multiwalled carbon nanotubes hybrid film with low Pt loading as counter electrode for improved photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells

In this work, the role of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) with hyperbranched surfactant and its hybridisation with multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) as counter electrode (CE) were investigated to determine the photovoltaic performance of dye-sensitised solar cells (DSSCs). Sodium 1,4-is(neopentyloxy)-3-(neopentyloxycarbonyl)- 1,4-dioxobutane-2-sulphonate (TC14) surfactant was utilised as dispersing and stabilising agent in electrochemical exfoliation to synthesise graphene oxide (GO) as initial solution for rGO production prior to its further hybridisation and fabrication as thin film. A chemical reduction process utilising hydrazine hydrate was conducted to produce rGO due to the low temperature process and water-based GO solution. Subsequently, hybrid solution was prepared by mixing 1 wt% MWCNTs into the produced rGO solution. TC14-rGO and TC14-rGO_MWCNTs hybrid solution were transferred into fluorine-doped tin oxide substrate to fabricate thin film by spraying deposition method. Finally, the CE films were prepared by coating with thin Pt NPs. Photoanode film was prepared by a two-step process: hydrothermal growth method to synthesise titanium dioxide nanowires (TiO2 NWs) and subsequent squeegee method to apply TiO2 NPs. According to solar simulator measurement, the highest energy conversion efficiency (η) was achieved by using CE-based TC14-rGO_MWCNTs/Pt (1.553%), with the highest short current density of 4.424 mA/cm2. The highest η was due to the high conductivity of CE hybrid film and the morphology of fabricated TiO2 NWs/TiO2 NPs. Consequently, the dye adsorption was high, and the photovoltaic performance of DSSCs was increased. This result also showed that rGO and rGO_MWCNTs hybrid can be used as considerable potential candidate materials to replace Pt gradually

IMPLEMENTATION OF NEURAL - CRYPTOGRAPHIC SYSTEM USING FPGA

Modern cryptography techniques are virtually unbreakable. As the Internet and other forms of electronic communication become more prevalent, electronic security is becoming increasingly important. Cryptography is used to protect e-mail messages, credit card information, and corporate data. The design of the cryptography system is a conventional cryptography that uses one key for encryption and decryption process. The chosen cryptography algorithm is stream cipher algorithm that encrypt one bit at a time. The central problem in the stream-cipher cryptography is the difficulty of generating a long unpredictable sequence of binary signals from short and random key. Pseudo random number generators (PRNG) have been widely used to construct this key sequence. The pseudo random number generator was designed using the Artificial Neural Networks (ANN). The Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) providing the required nonlinearity properties that increases the randomness statistical properties of the pseudo random generator. The learning algorithm of this neural network is backpropagation learning algorithm. The learning process was done by software program in Matlab (software implementation) to get the efficient weights. Then, the learned neural network was implemented using field programmable gate array (FPGA)

The Effects of Cognitive Behavorial Therapy Group and Social Support Group on the Self Esteem Among Breast Cancer Patients

This study is aimed to determine the main effects of CBT group, social support group (DS) and control group (KK) on the self esteem among breast cancer patients. Rosemberg self esteem scale (RSE) was used to measure self-esteem. The treatment group consisted of CBT and DS groups. Each  treatment group received 12 counselling sessions within six weeks. Quantitative analysis general linear model (GLM) repeated measures was used to identify the groups’ (CBT, DS, and KK) main effect, the repeated test RSE scale (pre test, post test 1, post test 2, and post test 3) main effect and the interaction effect (CBT, DS, and KK), and repeated tests RSE scale (pre test, post test 1, post test 2, post test 3). There was no significant difference in the groups (CBT, DS, and KK) main effect on the Rosenberg Self Esteem (RSE) scores. There was a significant difference (F (3.10) =  66.823, p = 0.0001 (Wilk's Lambda) on the repeated test RSE scale (pre test, post test 1, post test 2, and post test 3) main effects on self esteem score. Overall findings showed an increase in RSE scores between the pre test, post test 1, post test 2 and post test 3

Design Minkowski Shaped Patch Antenna with Rectangular Parasitic Patch Elements for 5.8 GHz Applications

Abstract—This paper presents the parametric study on the Minkowski shaped antenna with the rectangular parasitic patch elements. This patch antenna consists four parts – patch, feed line, ground plane and parasitic elements. The rectangular parasitic patch elements are located at the bottom of the Minkowski shaped patch. The parametric study of different patch sizes (Design 2A, Design 2B, Design 2C, Design 2D and Design 2E) is presented in this paper. The antenna parameters studied in this paper are resonant frequencies, return loss at the resonant frequency, bandwidth and realized gain. The target frequency of this antenna is 5.80 GHz for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) application. It shows the return loss of – 24.477 dB, bandwidth of 254 MHz (5.676 GHz to 5.930 GHz) and a gain of 2.351 dB. Index Terms—Minkowski; patch antenna; gain; return loss; bandwidt

RF Front End Receiver for WiMAX Application

This paper presents the design of a high gain, low noise direct conversion Radio frequency(RF) front-end receiver system. The Front end receiver is designed to operate at 5.8 GHz compliant with IEEE 802.16 WIiMAX standard. The system consists of a low noise amplifier (LNA), a radio frequency amplifier (RFA), a power divider and two band pass filters. The overall performance of the RF front-end receiver system produced a gain of 52.4 dB. A cascaded LNA designed for the system produced a high gain of 36.8 dB. The RFA contributed an extra gain 15.6dB. The overall noise figure achieved for the system is 3.7 dB. The return loss achieved is -25.5 dB for the RFA. The radio frequency bandwidth recorded for the system is above 1120 MHz. The measured power divider insertion loss is 2.80 dB. Using microstrip technology for designing the Chebyshev filter, the insertion loss is 3.00 dB and the channel bandwidth recorded is 107 MHz which can accommodate 4 sub channels IEEE WiMAX standard

DEVELOPMENT OF A REVERSED PHASE - HPLC METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF MELOXICAM IN TABLET FORMULATION AND HUMAN SERUM

Developing a simple, economic, sensitive and rapid isocratic RPHPLC method for determination of meloxicam (MX) in bulk drug, tablet formulation and human serum. The retention time observed for meloxicam was just 2.35 minutes using C18 column (150 x 3.0 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile: 0.2% formic acid (70:30 v/v%) at a flow rate of 1 ml/min with UV detector set at 355 nm. Linearity in concentration range of 0.05 – 50 µg/ml, with coefficient of determination, R² = 0.9956; slope= 25464 and intercept= -8872. The limit of detection and the limit of quantification were found to be 0.011 and 0.173 μg/ml, respectively. The precision and accuracy of method were checked by calculating RSD% and relative error E%, which were found to be reasonable. A RSD% (0.06 and 0.021%) for marketed brand and human serum, respectively and E% (0.64 and -0.47 %) for marketed brand and human serum, respectively. The method was found to be applicable for the analysis of MX in bulk, tablet formulation and human seru

DEVELOPMENT OF A REVERSED PHASE - HPLC METHOD FOR DETERMINATION OF MELOXICAM IN TABLET FORMULATION AND HUMAN SERUM

Developing a simple, economic, sensitive and rapid isocratic RPHPLC method for determination of meloxicam (MX) in bulk drug, tablet formulation and human serum. The retention time observed for meloxicam was just 2.35 minutes using C18 column (150 x 3.0 mm, 5 μm) with a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile: 0.2% formic acid (70:30 v/v%) at a flow rate of 1 ml/min with UV detector set at 355 nm. Linearity in concentration range of 0.05 – 50 µg/ml, with coefficient of determination, R² = 0.9956; slope= 25464 and intercept= -8872. The limit of detection and the limit of quantification were found to be 0.011 and 0.173 μg/ml, respectively. The precision and accuracy of method were checked by calculating RSD% and relative error E%, which were found to be reasonable. A RSD% (0.06 and 0.021%) for marketed brand and human serum, respectively and E% (0.64 and -0.47 %) for marketed brand and human serum, respectively. The method was found to be applicable for the analysis of MX in bulk, tablet formulation and human seru

Calculation of Electron Swarm Parameters in Tetrafluoromethane

The electron swarm parameters and electron energy distribution function (EEDF) are necessary, especially onunderstanding quantitatively plasma phenomena and ionized gases. The EEDF and electron swarm parameters including the reduce effective ionization coefficient (α-η)/N (α and η are the ionization and attachment coefficient, respectively), electron drift velocity, electron mean energy, characteristic energy, density  normalized longitudinal diffusion coefficient, and density normalized electron mobility in tetrafluoromethane (CF4) which was analyzed and calculated using the two-term approximation of the Boltzmann equation method at room temperature, over a range of the reduced electric field strength (E/N) between 0.1 and 1000 Td(1Td=10-17 V.cm2), where E is the electric field and N is the gas density of the gas. The calculations required cross-sections of the electron beam, thus published momentum transfer, vibration, electronic excitation, ionization, and attachment cross-sections for CF4 were used, the results of the Boltzmann equation in a good agreement with experimental and theoretical values over the entire range of E/N. In all cases, negative differential conductivity regions were found. It is found that the calculated EEDF closes to Maxwellian distribution and decreases sharply at low E/N. The low energy part of EEDF flats and the high-energy tail of EEDF increases with increase E/N. The EEDF found to be non-Maxwellian when the E/N> 10Td, havingenergy variations which reflect electron/molecule energy exchange processes. In addition, limiting field strength (E/N)limit has been calculated from the plots of (α-η)/N, for which the ionization exactlybalances the electron attachment, which is valid for the analysis of insulation characteristics and application to power equipment