Simulating Primary Manufacturing Area (PMA) activities of fixed trailing edge panels production

Simulation clearly has the potential to play an important role in manufacturing decision-making at many levels. This simulation study is conducted at the local manufacturing plant that manufactures fixed trailing edge panels for the aerospace industry. The model focused on operational activities at the primary manufacturing area of cutting and laminating of aircraft’s composite parts. The model built was used to investigate a variety of issues, for example to determine the impact of a proposed change, without affecting production.The result shows that when production rate was increased by 20% to investigate the current plant capacity, the current resources capacity was unable to tolerate this increment. From the model experimentation, an increase of 60 minutes working time for ply cutter machines and 75 minutes of lay up operators found to be the best design to meet the expected production throughput and increase resources utilisation

Diffusion Coefficient Estimations by Thin-Channel Column Inverse Gas Chromatography : Preliminary Experiments

A thin-channel gas chromatography column was designed and used to measure diffusion coefficients of water and iso propanol in polymer phase via inverse gas chromatography (ICC) technique. The thin-channel column inverse gas chromatography technique proved to be a simple, fast and efficient alternative to sorption and desorption methods for measuring diffusion coefficients of permeants in thin polymer membranes films; the technique is especially useful when the problems associated with the irregularity of polymer distribution severely limit the accuracy of ICC measurement. Thin homogeneous chitosan membranes prepared by the solution casting technique were used as the stationary phase to provide a relatively uniform layer of polymer phase in the gas chromatography column. The diffusion coefficient of water was higher than that of isopropanol and diffusion coefficients of the permeants increased with column temperature. The effects of permeants size on diffusion coefficients were investigated on a series of alcohols: methanol, ethanol and isopropanol. The diffusion coefficients were inversely related to the permeants size

Spectroscopic studies on the transport properties of ionic liquids

Ionic liquids are liquids composed entirely of ions. These ions are in constant motion. Ionic liquids have found use in a wide range of electrochemical applications, such as batteries, fuel cells and solar cells. In these applications they are exposed to various external forces including magnetic and electric fields. Gaining a thorough understanding of how these external forces affect the physical and chemical properties of ionic liquids is important; and it remains a fundamental challenge. In this study, fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy was utilised as a technique to gain an insight into the behaviour of the ions when experiencing electric fields. To enable the fluorescence measurements, synthetic processes were explored and developed to produce good quality ionic liquids with low fluorescence backgrounds. The physical and chemical properties of the ionic liquids were characterised by various established techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, mass spectrometry, impedance spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry and elemental analysis. Upon the successful production of low fluorescence background ionic liquids, fluorescence lifetime experiments were conducted to monitor their local viscosities. In this study, molecular rotors were used as probes to estimate local viscosity of the ionic liquids. The fluorescence lifetimes were derived from a molecular rotor, 3,3'-diethylthiacarbocyanine (Cy3) which was dissolved in the ionic liquids (ca. 100 nM). The local viscosities were then estimated from a calibration curve developed from various ionic liquids and these values were also compared to those estimated from a calibration curve usually used for molecular solvent systems. Further to this, attempts to use the obtained correlation between fluorescence lifetime of Cy3 and viscosity to estimate the local viscosities of the ionic liquid under application of +2V potential were conducted. Even though the change of viscosity of ionic liquids was observed upon application of the +2V potential, the explanation to the observation is rather complicated due to many factors that can contribute to the viscosity change. Based on analysis and support data from the literature, the observed change in viscosity could be either attributed to change in molecular dynamics of ionic liquids as the potential is applied or it may be affected by instability of the indium-tin oxide (ITO) electrode over the applied potential which has the potential to cause dissolution of ITO components into ionic liquid system.Open Acces

Islamic influence on the architecture of the Malay world

It is a lecture to a architecture students from Crete University for “Beyond the Boundaries of the West. Journeys to Spatial Conception of the East” Course. The lecture explains what is Islam and Islamic Architecture, what is Malay traditional architecture and how Islam come about to the South East Asian region and minimally influence the built environment we inherit today. This was the first time, the Greek students were exposed to South East Asian architecture through a live-skype presentation real time

Performing Arts via Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling uses digital tools to take storytelling to a whole new level. It is an emerging area of creative work, thus its definition is still being debated. Digital storytelling has already been applied by many to tell short stories about basically any topic of their desire. The performing arts are those forms of art which uses the artist's own body, face and presence as a medium, as opposed to plastic arts that uses materials to create a tangible art object. According to survey conducted, there exists a lack of interest and understanding in Malaysian cultural performing arts, thus there is a need to promote interest in this art so that it will still be around in the future. Thus this project intends to develop a digital story on Malaysian cultural performing arts. Digital storytelling is utilized in the MCGS, and would be used by the general public, and specifically those with a special interest in this form of art, in order for them to gain more knowledge and generate more interest in the said topic. The system covers music and dance performances captured in UTP. The system is developed using the digital storytelling taxonomy as a guide, to create an interactive storyline. Through research, development, and evaluation, it is found that the level of awareness on Malaysian cultural performing arts is still relatively low, and that the MCGS has been able to raise awareness and interest level amongst the users

Evolution of public healthcare facilities designs to health trend in Malaysia : a retrospect of nation building from pre colonial to today

Malaysia has its own inbuilt history of evolution of healthcare facilities designs from the traditional to contemporary mega structures we witness today. Each designs has its own story foretold the epidemiology phenomena, capacity and inspiration of a developing nation. From simplistic idea of housing aspects of health in single isolated buildings to complex structures that needs reviewing towards a sustainable future. The pictorial presentations briefly explore Malaysian public healthcare facilities from its humble beginnings in nation building from pre-colonial to what it is today. The objective is to provide ideas on the basis of why and how these designs were pragmatically evolved through time, to professionals, allied disciplines and users. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were adopted for this continuing research. Primary and secondary data, through literature review, observations, random interviews, post occupancy evaluations and hands-on experiences, were utilised. The significance of this presentation includes a sense of importance to the role of individual players in the healthcare services, construction and industry, the trust that our Creator, and humanity had conferred on us, towards contributing and sustaining a healthy and hence a ‘wealthy” nation

The concept of barrier free in healthcare spaces: Labour delivery room design case study

Healthcare spaces is one of the earliest spaces where barrier free concept of space design is being accepted and regularised as part of the essential building requirement. Spaces in healthcare buildings support activities that support the function of making ease in the delivery of care to sustain live and care for the decease. The paper introduces the subject of healthcare spaces and through case study illustrate step by step how designers – architects and the user clients approach design of the space, using the various available guidelines to produce the first draft drawing, conduct post occupancy evaluation (POE) and following analysis of POE adapt the design for approval and construction. For the purpose of demonstrating the concept of barrier free in healthcare spaces, labour delivery room designs of several hospitals are being selected as the case study. A qualitative research approach was adopted for this study. Literature review on the process of design and activities of labour were conducted prior visits to selected facilities for observation on its usage. Interview of the main players in the design decisions were made pre and post visit where relevant. The paper concluded that this is one of the many spaces in healthcare buildings that support the process of healing or bearable for many ailments and diseases that address physical and mental condition of a person. Each space has its own general and specific requirements to which designers need to understand and provide as appropriate. Barrier free concept is not only for the disable but for the able to support the disable at the time of crisis

Reviewing Evidence Based-Design (EBD)for healthcare to achieve best possible outcome

An overview of the history and development of Evidence Based- Design as aftermath of Evidence Based Medicine into the realm of healthcare facility designs. The presentation explore latest EBD research,determine components that research had proven to support healing, discusses clinical employability through good design and update with continuous improvement of EBD to meet current needs of flexibility and adaptability. The presentation is based on literature review, current research and discussions

Proposal for a budget in the setting up of The Indigenous Malaysian Heritage Village for Architectural Heritage Studies for the Kulliyyah of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia

A working paper to request fund to set up an indigenous village within the compound of IIUM Gombak campus for purpose of conservation and studies on heritage buildings of Malaysia

Polymorphic analysis of field collected Aedes Albopictus from Subang Murni, Shah Alam using Internal Transcribed Spacer 2 (Its2) Rdna Marker / Nadiah Mohd Nawawi

The increase of dengue cases at an alanning rate in Malaysia has been strongly associated with Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus vectors. However, the fonner is always the subject of interest while the latter is often regarded as the secondary vector-despite its worldwide expansion. Studies examining the population genetics structure of Ae. albopictus are established, although most of the studies emphasised on the interpopulation genetic diversities using mitochondrial genome markers. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate the intrapopulation and interpopulation genetic polymorphisms in Ae. albopictus from dengue infested area, Subang Murni, Shah Alam, Malaysia using nuclear DNA marker. Ovitraps used to collect Ae. albopictus eggs were placed at random in the study area and the eggs were reared to adults in the laboratory. The genomic DNA of five individuals and one pooled sample of Ae. albopictus from Subang Mumi was obtained and analysed for polymorphism at ITS2 region of ribosomal DNA. 337 bp of PCR products was obtained and sequenced. The sequences were subjected to BLAST and showed high similarities with homologous sequences from NCBI GenBank. Subsequently, the nucleotide sequences were aligned using ClustalX2.1 software. Phylogenetic tree inferred using maximum likelihood method in MEGA5.2 revealed that Ae. albopictus population from Subang Murni genetically differs from each other although they were from the same locality. Nevertheless, this population has shown unifonn homogeneity when compared with other worldwide populations namely Italy, United States, Japan, China and Greece. This is true except for a particular strain from Subang Mumi that was separated in another group together with populations from Italy and Subang Jaya, Malaysia. These findings deduced that there is higher genetic variation within population of the same locality compared to variation at geographical differences. This infonnation may be beneficial to construct the appropriate level of surveillance and control measures needed to prevent the future expansion of this vector and simultaneously reduce the health risks. Keywords: Aedes albopictus, Malaysia, ITS2, genetic polymorphis