Kecacatan fasad luar bangunan di iklim panas dan lembap dengan penumpuan khusus kepada bangunan-bangunan sekitar Lembah Klang / Ghazali Mohd Amin

Senibina Melayu tradisional seperti yang terdapat pada bangunan-bangunan rumah melayu tradisional di bina oleh tukang-tukang tradisional sejak bertahun yang lalu. Bangunan ini dibina berasaskan bahan serta teknologi tempatan yang diwarisi sejak turuntemurun. Walaupun evolusi senibina ini tidak banyak berubah, namun ia beijaya memenuhi fungsi serta keperluan penghuninya pada waktu itu serta tahan terhadap ancaman cuaca persekitaran. Malah sesetengah rumah tradisional ini seperti Rumah Tele di Terengganu dan Istana Sri Menanti masih dapat bertahan sehingga ke hari ini. Namun begitu. keadaan telah berubah, keperluan bangunan-bangunan yang lebih besar serta pengaruh kepada senibina asing, telah membawa bangunan-bangunan baru dalam bentuk bangunan batu dengan nilai-nilai senibina barat yang jauh berbeza daripada senibina tempatan. Sejak diperkanalkan oleh penjajah barat (Belannda dan Ingggeris), bangunan ini amat di minati oleh masyarakat tempatan. Berbgai-bagai arus perkembangan senibina barat dituruti oleh senibina tempatan seperti bangunan-bangunan 'pre-war’, 'post-war’, 'Utilitarian’ New Clasical’,' Art Deco’, sehinggalah kepada bangunan berkonsep moden hari ini. Setelah lebih seratus tahun sejak mula diperkenalkan, kini kita lihat bangunan berkonsep moden ini terdapat di serata tempat yang terdiri daripada berbagai-bagai jenis bangunan seperti masjid, pejabat, pusat institusi dan sebagainya. Disamping menyediakan tempat berlindung, bangunan-bangunan moden ini kini sedang mengalami keadaan yang tenat. Kebanyakannya mengalami kerosakan-kerosakan akibat daripada ancaman cuaca persekitaran. Bangunan-bangunan ini kelihatan kotor, berlumut dan mengalami beberapa keretakan. Kerosakan ini tidak terhad kepada bangunanbangunan yang lama, malah bangunan baru juga tidak ketinggalan daripada ancamaan kerosakan ini. Terdapat juga bangunan yang mengalami kerosakan seawal di tahun pertama penggunaanya lagi. Keadaan sungguh menyedihkan dan membayangkan terhaadap kualiti yang rendah. Namun begitu di dalam ekonomi yang sedang berkembang pesat ini, bangunan-bangunan yang baru tetap terus dibina. Sehingga kini terdapat lebih kurang 2/3 daripada jumlah nilai harta(aset) negara terletak pada bangunan. Keadaan ini perlu diberi perhatian yang teliti serta langkah-langkah penyelesaian bagi mengatasi masalah ini daripada terus berlaku. Kajian ini adalah bertujuan untuk mengenalpasti jenis dan punca-punca kerosakan serta mencadangkan langkah -langkah yang perlu di dalam mengatasi masalah kerosakan fasad bangunan yang terdedah kepada cuaca persekitaran

Theoretical Framework for Trees Management in Campus Landscape Design

Good tree management is the key basis for greener campus of the future. Lacking in tree management in term of knowledge is one of the factors that trees will produce hazards to the students and staffs at the campus. Two objectives of this study are (i) to determine the user comfort attributes that significantly influent the safety landscape and (ii) to create the theoretical framework for tree management in campus design. The qualitative method was chosen in this study. This study provides the guidance for the landscape architect to make the right design decision to ensure the user comfortability for safety built landscape environment

The development of local solar irradiance for outdoor computer graphics rendering

Atmospheric effects are approximated by solving the light transfer equation, LTE, of a given viewing path. The resulting accumulated spectral energy (its visible band) arriving at the observer’s eyes, defines the colour of the object currently on the line of sight. Due to the convenience of using a single rendering equation to solve the LTE for daylight sky and distant objects (aerial perspective), recent methods had opt for a similar kind of approach. Alas, the burden that the real-time calculation brings to the foil had forced these methods to make simplifications that were not in line with the actual world observation. Consequently, the results of these methods are laden with visual-errors. The two most common simplifications made were: i) assuming the atmosphere as a full-scattering medium only and ii) assuming a single density atmosphere profile. This research explored the possibility of replacing the real-time calculation involved in solving the LTE with an analytical-based approach. Hence, the two simplifications made by the previous real-time methods can be avoided. The model was implemented on top of a flight simulator prototype system since the requirements of such system match the objectives of this study. Results were verified against the actual images of the daylight skies. Comparison was also made with the previous methods’ results to showcase the proposed model strengths and advantages over its peers

Customers' perception of Islamic Financing products pricing in Eastern Malaysia: an empirical investigation

Purpose - The main purpose of this study is to investigate bank customers' perception with regard to the pricing issuesof Islamic financing products in Eastern Malaysia. The study is intended to extend the work by Rosly (1999), Abdullah and Dusuki (2006), and a more recent study by Amin (2008). Rationality, these studies provide a research background with regard to the pricing issues in Islamic banking, not only in Islamic financing products but also to Islamic deposit products. Design/methodology/approach - The data for the research were collected using selfadministered questionnaires. A total of 400 questionnaires were distributed, and finalIy only 362 questionnaires were usable for the analysis purposes. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 17. Findings - All of the research objectives, certainly, were tested using survey data. Surprisingly, the majority of the respondents were of the opinion that Islamic financing products were not that of expensive as what was argued by previous works relevant to the pricing of Islamic financing products. On the other hand, there were also a number of respondents were still not clear about the pricing of Islamic financing products as proven to their responds to Islamic home financing, Islamic personal financing, Islamic car financing and Islamic credit card. It is therefore important to inculcate a dedicated support and further education to public with regard to the pricing concern in these products, which should be consistently and continuously done by Islamic bank managers in order to improve the pricing image of Islamic banking institutions in the eyes of bank customers. Research limitations/implications - The limitation of the study is the narrow focus on two cities in addition to the limited variables used in the research instrument. Notwithstanding, the research is important to provide insights on the pricing issues oflslamic financing products. The findings of this study shed some lights on the bank customers' perception level of Islamic financing products. Originality/value- This research is the first of its kind that examined bank customers' perception with regard to the pricing issues in Islamic financing products, which has limited previously been investigate

The potential of Islamic Pawn System: a study on the appropriateness on Muassasah Gadaian Islam Terengganu operation in Sabah

Purpose - The need for an Islamic pawnshop has been discussed by the researchers within in Malaysia as well as other countries (for example: Nasifah, Nor Mariana & Nur Azura, 2005; Ismail & Sanusi, 2005; Ismail, 2004; Kon Lim, 2003; Ismail & Nur Zakiah, 1997; Rugayah, 1986). The Islamic based pawnshop transaction is still overlooked in Islamic finance practices and abandoned cases for the state government of Sabah. This issue is important as it might create a greater impact in promoting Islamic financial transactions among local people in the future. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to understand public perceptions with regard to the need of Islamic pawnshop as this would help to improve the delivery of Islamic pawnshop facilities to Sabahan especially in terms of quality of services offered along with features and procedures of the products. Design/methodology/approach - The data for the research were collected using self-administered questionnaires. Out of the 1000 prepared questionnaires, only 500 questionnaires were managed to distribute to Sabahan. Out of these numbers, only 339 questionnaires were usable for further data analysis of the data. The data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) 17. Findings - All of the research objectives, certainly, were tested using survey data. The results indicated that, the majority of the respondents believed that there should be an introduction of Islamic pawnshop system in Sabah. The results also indicated that the respondents were support the collaboration between the states in accelerating the introduction and the development of Islamic pawnshops in Sabah. Furthermore, it is likely reported that, the majority of the respondents prefer to choose "Muasassah Gadaian Islam Sabah" or MGIS for Islamic pawnshops in Sabah. Research limitations/implications - The limitation of the study is the narrow focus on a couple of cities in addition to the limited variables used in the research instrument. Notwithstanding, the research is important to provide insights on the feasibility of establishing Islamic pawnshop system in Sabah. The findings of this study shed some lights on Sabahan perception level of Islamic pawnshop. Originality/value- This research is the first of its kind that examined Sabahan perception with regard to potential of establishing Islamic pawnshop in Sabah, which has limited previously been investigated

Maqasid-based Consumer Preference Index for Tawarruq Personal Financing (TPF)

Relatively, maqasid al-Shariah is a missing dimension element in the available tawarruq personal financing, resulting in a convergence of this facility and its traditional counterpart. This work examines the consumer preference of tawarruq personal financing using the maqasid-based consumer preference index (MCPi). Drawing upon the MCPi, the present study examines consumer preference on the offered Tawarruq personal financing by 7 Islamic banks in Malaysia based on valid 456 usable questionnaires. The primary findings obtained indicate that all banks somewhat have a moderate MCPi. These include Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad (BIMB), Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad (BMMB), Maybank Islamic, CIMB Islamic, RHB Islamic, Kuwait Finance House and Al-Rajhi Bank. This study examines a new approach to measure consumer preference using the MCPi. Our contributions are confined to these particular variables – Educating Customer, Establishing Justice and Promoting Welfare. Our study also limits its perspective on the general context of tawarruq personal financing. Future works may provide different perspectives on these interrogations. This study provides a new index for Islamic banks to manage tawarruq personal financing products according to maqasid al-Shariah effectively. This study introduces a new measure of consumer preference of tawarruq personal financing namely the MCPi in the context of Malaysia

Preparation and characterization of glass-ceramic synthesized from soda lime glass and wastewater sludge

This paper reports an alternative method for making glass-ceramic from disposal waste water sludge and soda lime silica (SLS) glass. The glass ceramic samples were prepared from a mixture of wastewater sludge and SLS glasses, melted at 1375°C for 3 hours and quenched by pouring into water to obtain a coarse frit. The frit glass was then crushed and sieved to 106μm before it was pressed to a pellet. The sintering process was performed at various temperatures between 700- 1000°C for 2 hours and morphologically characterized with XRD, SEM, and EDX. Overall results showed the crystalline phase of diopside sodian-critobalite glass-ceramic is depending on thermal treatment process and making them attractive to industrial uses such as in construction, tiling, and glass-ceramic applications

The effect of development and land use change on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships under humid tropical condition: case study of Bernam watershed Malaysia

Study of the land use changes and their effects on runoff and sediment patterns for the watershed level are essential in water resource planning and management. This study provides an approach to identify the effects of land-use changes on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relations in humid tropical region. For this purpose Bernam watershed located in Selangor state of Malaysia which is subjected to rapid land-use changes to residential and agriculture has been selected. The study was based on the comparison of the effect of land-use changes during two periods, 1980s and 1990s. The study objectives were to identify the change of land-use in the years of 1989 and 1998 and analyze its effects on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships. In this study, double mass curve with trend curve have been used to examine the effect of land use changes on rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships. The results showed that the land-use change can be considered as main reason for increased runoff and sediment in tropical regions where the change in rainfall amount can be neglected. Land use changes altered the rainfall-runoff and runoff-sediment relationships and lead to higher slope for the trend (STC) of annual rainfall-runoff mass curve and runoff-sediment mass curve in 1990s than those in 1980s. It is implied that more runoff and sedimentation occurred in 1990s. Hence in order to reduce flood occurrence and sediment increases due to land-use changes, planners should consider tighter and straight control measures to be part of any watershed development plan in the future

Effect of Co3O4 doping on nonlinear coefficient in Zn-Bi-Ti-O varistor ceramics

In the ZnO based varistor, the improvement of nonlinear coefficient (α) and prevention of evaporation of Bi2O3 during heat treatments can be achieved by the addition of MnO2 or Co3O4. In this conjunction, it is proper to see the effect of these additives at different low mol percentage and sintering conditions to nonlinear coefficient improvement of the varistor ceramics. In this paper, the investigation regarding to the α variation of Co3O4 doping on ZnO-Bi2O3-TiO2 system is discussed. Here, the crystalline phases were identified by an XRD (PANalytical (Philips) XPert Pro PW3040/60) with CuKα radiation and the data were analyzed by using XPert High Score software. The density of varistor ceramics was measured by the geometrical method. The current-voltage characteristics of the varistor ceramics were evaluated. The average grain size (d) was determined by lineal intercept method. The α of ZnO doped with 0.5 mol% of Bi2O3, 0.5 mol% of TiO2 and x mol% of Co3O4 was calculated from data analysis of current-voltage characteristics obtained through a Source Measure Unit (Keithley 236). The calculation of α is done by using Origin Pro8.0 software. The value of α at low concentration at 1170 °C has the value 5.36 and 3 at 45 and 90 min sintering time, respectively, and then decreases to 4.99 and 2.98 at 0.8 mol% Co3O4 concentrations. When the amount of dopant is increased then the value of α increase up to 0.4 mol% and then the value are slightly dropped after further addition. The addition of Co3O4 dopant in Zn-Bi-Ti oxide ceramics sintered at 45 minutes cause the value of α to increase up to 0.4 mol% and decrease after further addition

Study on simplified model for estimating evaporation from reservoirs

In this study, the Linacre evaporation model was tested for its accuracy using daily, weekly and monthly records. The records were collected from class A evaporation pan installed at Algardabiya Reservoir, Sirt, Libya. The records for three years were used to calibrate and validate the model. Statistical tests show that the model gives a reasonable accuracy. The errors in the model prediction are 5.8%, 8% and 8.5% for weekly, monthly and daily prediction respectively. Thus, the Linacre model can be used when the available meteorological data is limited (air temperature only) and for all types of record such as daily, weekly and monthly