The criteria and potential adaptive reuse of pre-war shophouses

Pre-war shophouses in some town areas of Malaysia are among national heritage buildings which require conservation efforts, among other through adaptive reuse. Adaptive reuse, in line with sustainability principles, is a process to revitalise or reinvent disused or ineffective existing buildings including old or historical buildings for new use, purpose or function. The aim of this study is to propose the decisionmaking in selecting the optimal reuse of pre-war shophouses by considering the importance criteria that are influenced the adaptive reuse process. A questionnaire survey among four (4) selective respondents consist of town planner from local authorities, valuer from valuation and property service department (JPPH), architects and building owners conducted to achieve the objectives. From the analysis, five (5) potential new uses which are new shophouses, pharmacy hotel, rental house anda restaurant were identified as a very suitable. Thirty-three (33) criteria were classified into six aspects which are economic, environment, social, architecture, technology, and legislative. Out of them, sixteen (16) criteria were identified as very important to be considered in deciding adaptive reuse for pre-war shophouses. The outcome of this study is a conceptual framework that can assist stakeholders, especially local authorities, Valuation and Property Service Department (JPPH), architects and building owners, in adaptive reuse decision-making process. This conceptual framework proposedly can be used by architects as the main actors in adaptive reuse process, building owners since they are the most entitle person to decide any conversion on their buildings, and government bodies since they are involved directly in preparing the guidelines for conservation of pre-war shophouse

IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM FOR SECURITY DEPARTMENT

Delivering real-time surveillance services to handheld devices over the Internet is an interesting application in the mobile environment. Developing such system needs tackle considerable design challenges including device downsides, platform heterogeneity and bandwidth limitation. In University Technology Petronas (UTP), the wireless technology is currently not very popular. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to introduce the wireless technology to the security department of UTP by strengthening the security summon, sticker, key booking and matrices card manual procedure and system from any violation and modification of information that can be detected easily and corrective action can be taken faster. As UTP become evolve and grow, security department rule are become huge. Therefore they need to prepare them with efficient computerized solution to perform data update and to access data from diverse location. The objective of this paper is to research on wireless technology that is suitable for security department system and suitable for UTP environment. To elaborate this, we can see that this system is integrated with Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) that equip with Bluetooth technology. With the capabilities of 10 meters radius sphere, this system can be accessed via the PDA in that range and data transfer rates are comparatively slow at 1-2 megabits per second. But there is another that can be used which is WIFI with the range of 30 meters and data transfer rated at 2-11 megabits per second. For the purpose of this project Bluetooth technology have been chosen to show the system functionality and performance. The methodology use for the project is Rapid Application Development that has four phases; requirement planning, user design, construction and cutover. The suggested solution will lead to build a prototype of new computerized system that can be accessed using the PDA for Security Department of University Technology Petronas.

Prototype Security Door Access System

Security Door Access System (SDA System) is a network device for validating, monitoring and controlling the security within buildings. The ultimate purpose of developing an SDA System is to enforce security features of the entire building structure, equipped with appropriate management control, particularly the network communication services. The basic mechanism of an SDA System is to secure all entrance doors within the entire building. This research proposed the SDA System to solve problems of illegal breaking and entering that are commonly happened due to lacking of attention to the security issues. One of the most pressing issues at hand is that many companies do not enforce a proper security management services for the entrance doors, despite them being the most obvious passing point. The SDA System focuses on the security and safety of the entire building, precisely the effective way of managing and organizing the security and works collaboratively with other subsystems by means of local area network (LAN) communication

Development of Deformation Monitoring System of an Engineering Structure using Reflectorless Total Station

The rationale ofFinal Year Project (FYP) is to develop student's ability in the process oflearning and applying knowledge in the area ofinterest with minimum guidance and supervision. This FYP entitled 'Development ofDeformation Monitoring System ofan Engineering Structure using Reflectorless Total Station' is basically preparing appropriate system from hardware and software aspect for deformation of engineering structure with the aid of reflectorless total station. Deformation of engineering structure is measured to ensure that the structure is exhibiting safe deformation behaviour. The engineering structure selected to assess the workability of the system was the UTP Academic Complex Canopy. The deformation data collected will be processed and analysed by developed computer system. The results will demonstrate if movement occurred on selected structure and give warning when the movement is critical. At the end if the project is realistic and reasonable, the developed system can be used for monitoring deformation work of other engineering structures

Development of a New Converging Thermal Wave Technique for Diffusivity Measurement of High Conductivity Thin Foils

Major problems in measuring thermal diffusivity by using conventional optical technique arise due to difficulties in detecting the thermal signals particularly from high conductivity material in the form of thin foils. Despite the laser beam being tightly focused to form a heating ring on the sample surface, to the point that it could damage the sample, to induce converging thermal waves, the collected signals remain weak. The problems were overcome in this report by using a very large number of optical heating rings instead of a single heating ring in the conventional method. The thermal wave signals at the centre of the ring were generated subsequent to the absorption of the optical pulse beam in the form of a very large number of concentric rings. The signal was found to fit very reasonably well to the theoretical model signal based on very large number of concentric heating rings. The capability of the new design was proven from the measurement of thermal diffusivity of standard thin foils of Al, Cu, Zn, Ni and Brass of thickness in the range of ()0.75200 μm− with accuracy within 1%. In the case of Al and Cu foils, its thermal diffusivity was successfully measured for much thinner foil of thickness down to and as compare torespectively in the previous report

A Review of UWB MAC Protocols

In this paper, we review several ultra-wideband (UWB) medium access control (MAC) protocols that have been proposed to date. This review then considers the possibility of developing an optimal MAC layer for high data rate UWB transmission systems that transmit very little power especially in application to mobile devices. MAC in UWB wireless networks is necessary to coordinate channel access among competing devices. Unique UWB characteristics offer great challenges and opportunities in effective UWB MAC design. We first present the background of UWB and the concept of MAC protocols for UWB. Secondly, we summarize four UWB MAC protocols that have been proposed by other researchers and finally, a conclusion with a view to the planned future work. The main contribution of this paper is that it presents a summarised version of several MAC protocols applicable to UWB systems. This will hopefully initiate further research and developments in UWB MAC protocol design

Finding the Optimal MAC Protocol for Low-Power High Data Rate Ultra-Wideband (UWB) Networks

In this paper, we explore the possibility of designing an optimal medium access control (MAC) layer for high data rate ultra-wideband (UWB) transmission systems that transmit very little power especially in mobile devices. MAC in UWB wireless networks is necessary to coordinate channel access among competing devices. The unique UWB characteristics offer great challenges and opportunities in effective UWB MAC design. We first study the background of UWB and available MAC protocols that have been used in UWB. Secondly, we analyse the power consumption for UWB in mobile devices based on competing short-range wireless technologies such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi as references. Finally we present the key issue that will be considered in the design of an optimal MAC layer that will fully exploit UWB potential as a low-power, high data rate, short range wireless transmission system

Germination of rubber (Hevea Brasiliensis) seeds using different types of problematic soils as a medium / Fatin Nurfarhana Mohd Shahril

Large distribution of problematic soils in Malaysia such as peat soil, acid sulphate soil and sandy soil much potential of planting medium in agriculture sector through a proper management. Therefore, this aim of the study were to determine the soil chemical properties and to evaluate the growth of rubber seedlings grown in peat soil, acid sulphate soil and sandy soil, respectively. In this study, the clay loam soil of class 1 which is common in rubber nursery was used as control to compare the growth performance of rubber seedlings. Results showed that acid sulphate soil release higher concentration of P, K and Mg with positive growth of rubber seedlings throughout the experimental weeks as compared to other soil types. It is suggested that a thorough study need to be done to optimize the potential of acid sulphate soils as germination medium of rubber seedlings in future

Parameteric Study Of Aligned Carbon Nanotube Growth Using Alcohol Catalytic Chemical Vapor Deposition Technique

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are nanoscale materials with diameters of few nanometer and length up to several tens of microns. They have been widely used in various industrial applications such as energy storage devices, solar cell application and reinforcement for polymer composites. CNTs are commonly grown using catalytic chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. However, until now only few attempts have been made to study CNTs growth with detailed parameters on the growth of CNT alignment using alcohol as carbon feedstock. Thus, the main objective of this research is to further the study on the growth of aligned CNTs (A-CNTs) employing the said technique. A practical and high performance alcohol catalytic CVD (AC-CVD) system has been modified aimed at increasing the quality of gas flow which allows a greater amount of A-CNTs to be produced. The higher quality of gas flow could be produced through a unique shower ring gas supply located above the sample holder that could enhance the growth rate of A-CNTs. The radio frequency magnetron sputtering deposition technique was performed to prepare a substrate-supported catalyst. This consisting of silicon wafer substrate with 300 nm thick silicon oxide layer sputtered with aluminum as catalyst support and cobalt as catalyst with thickness of around 25 nm and below 10nm, respectively, were used to grow A-CNTs. Ethanol (C2H5OH) and argon (Ar) gas were used as CNT precursor and carrier gas, respectively. The AC-CVD processing temperature and time were varied at 700, 725, 750, 775, 800 °C and 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 30 minutes, respectively, while other parameters were fixed. These parameters were chosen because 700 to 800 °C is the temperature range for CNT growth. Meanwhile, narrow initial time for AC-CVD processing time is due to the highly reactive growth of CNT at time under 10 minutes. The AC-CVD technique successfully produced CNTs with good alignment, high yield, and large area growth with improved controlling of the CNTs characteristics and morphologies. The CNT characterizations study were carried out using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), as well as Raman spectroscopy. The best AC-CVD processing temperature and time were found to be at 725 °C and 10 minutes. The as-grown CNTs over various AC-CVD processing temperature and time showed high degree of graphitization, purity and density. The CNTs grown over cobalt catalyst on the silicon wafer substrate are according to the tip-growth mechanism

Pembinaan Modul Pembelajaran Kendiri (MPK) bagi perisian Macromedia Flash MX (Penghasilan Montaj)

Modul Pembelajaran Kendiri (MPK) merupakan antara kaedah yang digunakan dalam proses pengajaran dan pembelajaran (P&P) bagi menyampaikan isi pelajaran kepada pelajar. Selain itu, Modul Pembelajaran Kendiri (MPK) didapati lebih berkesan berbanding kaedah pengajaran dan pembelajaran tradisional pada pendidikan alaf baru kini. Justeru itu, satu modul pembelajaran kendiri perisian Macromedia Flash MX dibangunkan sejajar dengan keperluan pendidikan masa kini yang memerlukan lebih banyak modul pembelajaran kendiri. Tujuan utama pembinaan modul ini adalah untuk membantu pelajar yang mengambil kursus Teknologi Grafik, Animasi, Audio dan Video Digital (SPM 2303) di Fakulti Pendidikan, UTM. Mereka perlu mempelajari perisian Macromedia Flash MX bagi melaksanakan antara keperluan projek yang terdapat dalam subjek tersebut. Pembelajaran tentang penghasilan animasi yang ditekankan di dalam modul ini adalah merangkumi proses-proses dalam menghasilkan sesuatu montaj. Pembinaan modul ini menggunakan Model ADDIE. Selain itu, pengaplikasian strategi tutorial juga digunakan dalam modul ini melalui aktiviti yang disediakan pada penghujung setiap kemahiran yang telah selesai dipelajari. Di samping itu, teori pembelajaran sosial/pemerhatian juga digunakan di dalam modul ini untuk memberikan satu corak self pacing dengan cara lihat dan buat. Ini boleh didapati melalui set-set arahan yang disediakan pada setiap topik berserta contoh-contoh bergambar. Dengan penilaian secara formatif melalui penyelia projek dan pembaikan yang dibuat semasa peringkat pembinaan diharapkan dapat memberikan satu suasana pengajaran dan pembelajaran yang berkesan kepada pelajar-pelajar