Design of a 3-DOF Parallel Mechanism with Shape Memory Alloy Actuators.

This research is a study on the application of Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) as actuators in a 3-DOF parallel manipulator. The objectives of the project include the designing process of the 3-DOF manipulator, developing a control mechanism for the SMA actuators and also performing analysis on the finished prototype. The control strategy chosen is using Arduino programmable microcontroller to produce Pulse Width Modulation signal (PWM) which is the most ideal control strategy for a small scale prototype. The SMA actuator design and dimension is also displayed in the discussion section and the SMA wire selected is Flexinol by Dynalloy Inc. The research covers the designing process, modeling and up until the fabrication process of the 3-DOF parallel manipulator

Biodiversity conservation strategy in Malaysia: from an Islamic perspective

The rapid decline of world’s biodiversity and increasing need of natural resources to accommodate the growing population suggest that the current western philosophy of conservation biology is not achieving its mission and objective as expected in Southeast Asia. The existing religious tools and channels for conservation should be seriously considered. There is a high potential in achieving high standards of conservation biology if management of natural resources adheres to the fundamental principles of Islam in Malaysia. However religious approaches are mainly limited to Islamic norms and treated independently in many parts of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia. Therefore there is an urgent need to synergize Islamic concepts in conservation biology with the existing governance system. It is believed if Islamic concepts are genuinely practised and amalgamated into the existing implementation and governance structure in conservation biology, the future for biodiversity in this region will be bright

Study on Effect of Nanosilica Sand Addition on Physical and Mechanical Properties of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE)

Nanoparticles reinforced composite can be considered as a new technology and a good candidate material for research. Since this advanced composite are relatively new, studies need to be done to discover the properties changing in the composite. The aim of this project is to investigate the effect of nanosilica sand addition on physical and mechanical properties of thermoplastic. The thermoplastic that will be used in this research is TITANZEX HI 1100 high density polyethylene while the nanosilica is in the range of 0-100nm in size. The composite materials were manufactured using the compression molding process. Testing shows that addition of nanosilica provides improvement in mechanical properties of HDPE at low nanosilica percentage

Evaluation of Existing Drainage Capacity for Flood Mitigation Measures at Segamat, Malaysia

The drainage system is used for controlling, management, or convey the storm water into certain areas. The system is used to prevent the entry of water into the soil structure and reduce the strength and durability of the ground. The present study aimed to evaluate the existing drainage capacity and propose a conceptual flood mitigation measures. The study area was located at Kampung Paya Lang, Segamat with two types of drainage system included concrete and earth drainage. Determintion of the rainfall hydrograph was investigated in the site area, survey of existing drainage (cross-section), drainage profile and flow measurement in each existing drainage. The data of rainfall was analyzed in XP SWMM software to know the storm water movement when the existing drainage is not properly well. The rainfall data were obtained from Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) in the form of hours and minutes for nearby rain station for a period of 10 years from 2006 to latest. Therefore, the inventory for each drainage should fulfill the requirement of MSMA. The results revealed that the existing drainage was less effective in the process to convey the flow of storm water runoff due to the continuous rain occur that would cause overflow of drainage and flooding. The existing concrete drainage and earth drain was less effective to prevent the occurrence of flooding situation in every catchment area at the study area location

Anaerobic digestion of crude glycerol for biohydrogen production

Biodiesel has become one of the main interests for the diesel replacement because it is renewable, and can be produced from various sources. However, the rapid acceleration of biodiesel production consequently contributes towards the mass amount of generation of biodiesel by-product; the waste crude glycerol (CG) which consisted high amount of impurities including the heavy metal that may lead to environmental issues. This has raised the concern and also the interest for the researchers and industries to look for the best solution in managing the excessive crude glycerol. This is included to convert the CG into valuable products, chemically or biologically. Anaerobic digestion process for biohydrogen production using biodiesel waste or crude glycerol as sole substrate seems to have a great potential to be explored. Thus, this study used batch anaerobic fermentation approached using biodiesel wastewater sludge containing indigenous mixed bacteria to produce biohydrogen using CG as the main substrate, and to assess the performance of biohydrogen production under different pH, temperature, incubation time, and initial glycerol concentration. The experiments conducted with the biodiesel wastewater sludge and CG sample were collected from Vance Bioenergy Sdn. Bhd. and Carotino Sdn. Bhd, respectively. The results of the preliminary study using both pure and crude glycerol showed that the mixed culture favours crude glycerol than pure glycerol. There was no methane gas generated throughout this study based on the gas chromatography analysis. Thus, the crude glycerol is further used in this study. Results on the effect of various parameters showed that the mixed culture has successfully converted and utilized the CG up to 99% with hydrogen yield (HY) of 1.05 mol H2/mol glycerol utilized with 10 g/l concentration of CG at 48 hours with 37°C. The optimization study showed that, the most significant parameter that influenced the high HY were the pH and temperature. The result of HY at 1.0 – 1.26 mol H2/mol glycerol could be achieved under the pH, incubation time, and temperature range were within 7.0 - 9.0, 30 - 55 hours, and 31 - 38°C respectively

Evaluation of prognostic factors in patients with osteosarcoma: the HUSM experience

Introduction: Osteosarcoma is a highly malignant primary bone tumour thus the evaluation of prognostic factors influencing the survival rates is extremely essential for defining the approach to the management of these patients. Despite the recent advancement in chemotherapy and improved prognosis, 30 - 40% of patients still succumb to the disease; therefore reliable prognostic factors would be essential to plan a more aggressive treatment in patients at a higher risk of failure of treatment. Among multiple variables evaluated in literatures, it is known that pulmonary metastases and chemo-necrosis are the best prognostic components on the survival. At present, there is no consensus on the prognostic significance of simple and cheap biochemical markers of pretreatment serum alkaline phosphate (ALP) and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). This study analyzed the prognostic factors of particularly ALP and LDH and other general variable for prognosis and overall oncological outcome. Method: Clinical data of at least 5 years related to prognostic factors of 163 patients with osteosarcoma who were under follow-up under Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia were retrospectively reviewed. This was a retrospective cohort study of all patients treated between January 2005 and December 2010. A total of 163 patients with the mean age of 18.9 years (range 6 – 59 years old) were evaluated. There were 109 males and 54 females. Majority of the patients were of Malay ethnic background (82.2%), compared to the Chinese (11.66%), followed by Indian ethnicity (4.29%). 55.2% of our patients presented with pulmonary metastases. In terms of type of surgery, 66.1% of our patients underwent limb salvage surgery and 33.9% underwent amputation. Results: The overall survival was 40.5%. The mean pre-treatment serum LDH level was 493.19 IU/L, and 52.8% of our patients had high values. The mean level of pre-treatment ALP was 273.93 IU/L, and 53% of our patients had high values. The 5-year overall survival rate of patients in the normal pre-treatment serum LDH group is 66.2%, whereas in the high pre-treatment serum LDH group is 17.4%. The 5-year overall survival rate of patients in the normal pre-treatment serum ALP group is 55.8 %, whereas in the high pre-treatment serum ALP group is 26.7%. In the multivariate statistical analysis, only the pre-treatment serum LDH and presence of metastasis maintained its prognostic significance as both the pre-treatment serum ALP and the type of surgery loses its independent predictive value. In regards to the other variables, 66.9% of our patients were male, with the overall survival of 39.4%. Our female patients had a similar overall survival of 42.6%. Pulmonary metastases presented in 90 patients (55.2%). The overall survival of these patients was 27.8% compared to 56.2% in those without metastatic disease. For patients who underwent limb-sparing surgery, their overall survival was 56.8%, whereas in the amputation group the overall survival was 17.6%. Conclusion: The overall survival of our osteosarcoma patients was influenced by the presence of pulmonary metastases and type of surgery. Pre-treatment serum LDH and ALP were of significant influence on the final survival. However age, gender, race, primary site of tumour, histological sub-type, were not of significant influence on the survival of our patients

Photoelectrochemistry of Solar Energy Capture and Conversion by Using Particulate Silicon Carbide Semiconductor

Solar technology is one of the alternative for future sustainable energy system. However, to capture and convert solar energy into electrical energy prove to be huge challenge. When the first photoelectrochemical (PEC) phenomena were observed back in 1839, numerous research have been done to determine the best semiconductor material suit for the process. This research focus on the preliminary investigation of photoelectrochemical cells using silicon carbide (SiC) as semiconductor material and observe the effect of electrolyte used. SiC is extracted from a conventional disk type sand paper and undergo series of washing and cleaning using toluene and hexane. Material characterization is done using Field Emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and later tested using X-ray Diffusion (XRD) to monitor its composition. Several modes of experiment conducted to observed cells performance in term of voltage and current produce with or without sunlight illumination. The experiment is conducted under ambient condition with two difference electrolytes tested which are 0.1 M Sodium Sulfite (Na2SO3) solution and 0.1 M Potassium Hydroxide (KOH) solution. General findings from the experiment and material characterization process is presented in this paper

GIS APPLICATION FOR BUILDING INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

The project title is "GIS Application for Building Information Management". The purpose of the project is to develop a GIS database in order to assist in building maintenance works. Maintenance is a very important activity especially for welldeveloped countries. For instant, Malaysia has a numerous number of high-tech engineering structures which require regular maintenance. They are Kuala Lumpur City Centre (KLCC), Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), Putrajaya Government buildings and Midvalley Megamall shopping complex; to name a few. Budget for maintenance works may be limited for each building. Thus, proper maintenance management should be done to minimize cost or to perform the maintenance within the given budget. The scope of the project will focus on several critical aspects in building maintenance, by preparing a database that is user-friendly and easily accessible by users. Users in this case refer to maintenance engineers and managers. In order to complete the project, research for raw data and drawing plans regarding building maintenance must be done. Then, this information will be inserted in a newly developed database using a GIS application. Learning GIS-based software is a very crucial task for this project. The GIS application chosen for this project is Maplnfo Professional 7.0. Other than that, Microsoft Visual Basic .NETis used to manipulate the GIS data. The final product from the project is a system, which can assist the engineers and managers in building maintenance management

Design a CVT lubricant test device

The technology of metal pushing V-belt (MPVB) Continuously Variable Transmission (CVT) is n o w commercially available in the market but to date the questionable reliabilities and limited torque capabilities have inhibited their growth. Belt slip is one of the major losses that cause inefficiency in CVT and limited the t r a n s f e r r e d torque f r om the engine to the tyres. One of the factors that believe cause this belt slip is because of unstable in oil lubricant behaviour especially due to operate in high temperature and pressure. Therefore, this report presents the work which has been carried out on designing a C V T Lubricant Test Device which capable to investigate the phenomena of f i lm collapse in a C V T mechanism. Modern design concepts and methods have been applied in designing this device where a five phase design model as proposed by Eggert has been used. The five phase designs are formulation, conceptual design, configuration design, parametric design and detail design. The device is significant because, hence to study and investigate film collapse, this device also capable to study and investigate the other specific parameters which affect the transmission efficiency such as differ in contact angle, contact area and material used