Thermal Performance Evaluation of a Small-Scale Drying Machine for Palm Oil Mill Sludge

Malaysia is one of the major contributors of palm oil production globally with large amount of palm oil production. This has significantly contributed to large amount of palm oil mill effluent that eventually affect the environment. A small-scale drying machine for palm oil mill is evaluated on its thermal performance to assess the suitability of the machine to produce organic fertilizer from the palm oil mill sludge. Evaluation was performed with computational fluid dynamics simulation and experiment on design configuration options of the drying machine. The effect of air flow to the thermal performance was also studied in conjunction with the design configurations of the drying machine. The results showed promising potential of a design configuration over another in term of thermal performance and functionality

Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP)-Based Nonlinear Auto-Regressive with Exogenous Inputs (NARX) Stock Forecasting Model

The prediction of stocks in the stock market is important in investment as it would help the investor to time buy and sell transactions to maximize profits. In this paper, a Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP)-based Nonlinear Auto-Regressive with Exogenous Inputs (NARX) model was used to predict the prices of the Apple Inc. weekly stock prices over a time horizon of 1995 to 2013. The NARX model belongs is a system identification model that constructs a mathematical model from the dynamic input/output readings of the system, and predicts the future behaviour of the system based on the constructed mathematical model. The One Step Ahead (OSA) and correlation tests were used to test validate the model. Results demonstrate the predictive ability of the model while producing Gaussian residuals (indicating the validity of the model)

Dual-Band Bandpass Filter with Dumbbell Shaped Defective Ground Structure

A dumbbell shaped defective ground structure (DGS) is implemented to improve the performance of an existing dual-band bandpass filter topology. The filter design is based on parallel-coupled lines connected to matched transmission lines. Various positions and dimensions of dumbbell DGSs are implemented and their effects on the filter performance are investigated. It is found that the utilisation of dumbbell shaped DGSs in this topology improve the steepness of the responses for the first and second passbands with centre frequencies of 1.365 and 2.932 GHz respectively. The optimised dimensions of the DGS are 5 x 5 mm2 for both its rectangular slots connected by a 0.5 mm narrow slot width. The optimised positions of the DGSs are located at the centre and the edges of the parallel-coupled lines. The simulated and measured results of the filter are analysed and discussed in this paper

Thermal Performance Evaluation of a Small-Scale Drying Machine for Palm Oil Mill Sludge

Malaysia is one of the major contributors of palm oil production globally with large amount of palm oil production. This has significantly contributed to large amount of palm oil mill effluent that eventually affect the environment. A small-scale drying machine for palm oil mill is evaluated on its thermal performance to assess the suitability of the machine to produce organic fertilizer from the palm oil mill sludge. Evaluation was performed with computational fluid dynamics simulation and experiment on design configuration options of the drying machine. The effect of air flow to the thermal performance was also studied in conjunction with the design configurations of the drying machine. The results showed promising potential of a design configuration over another in term of thermal performance and functionality

Simulation of U-shaped plastic optical fiber ethanol sensor

The prediction of optical loss in different bending diameter of U-shaped POF sensor towardvariation of ethanol’s refractive indices was investigated using ray-tracing method perform byZemax software. It can provide information on how the propagation ray is perturbed bydifferent bending diameter of U-shaped POF. There are five designs of POF models werepre-drawn with different bending diameter; 2.0cm, 2.5cm, 3.0cm 3.5cm and 4.0cm. From theresults, U-shaped with 2.5 cm bending diameter has shown the most sensitive bendingdiameter as compared to the rest. Either with the presence of cladding layer or not thesensitivity detected was 0.014 x10-4 Watts/Vol%Keywords: ray-tracing; Zemax software; U-shaped POF sensor; ethanol sensor

Strength and physical properties of concrete brick at elevated temperature

This paper discusses the strength and physical properties of lightweight concrete brick before and after being exposed to fire. For this study, lightweight concrete brick was made up of cement, sand, expanded polystyrene (EPS) and palm oil fuel ash (POFA). EPS and POFA are replacement materials used as sand and cement replacement respectively. The percentage of replacement materials was varied, which 0%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% for EPS and 0%, 10% and 25% for POFA. The strength and physical properties of bricks were observed and tested before and after being exposed to elevated temperature. Fire performance test of bricks was tested using electronic furnace where the temperature of fire was 300oC, 500oC and 700oC with heating rate 10oC/min. The duration of fire test was conducted for 2 hours. Among the physical properties that have been observed are deformation of shape, discolouration and surface cracking of brick samples. Generally, the brick strength were decreased as the percentage of materials replacement increase. The reduction of strength was continued when bricks were exposed to high temperature. However, the strength of the bricks was fluctuated when been exposed to different temperature

The effects of arm movement on reaction time in patients with latent and active upper trapezius myofascial trigger point

Background: Myofascial pain syndrome is a significant source of mechanical pain. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of arm movement on reaction time in females with latent and active upper trapezius myofascial trigger point. Methods: In this interventional study, a convenience sample of fifteen women with one active MTP, fifteen women with one latent MTP in the upper trapezius, and fifteen normal healthy women were participated. Participants were asked to stand for 10 seconds in an erect standing position. Muscle reaction times were recorded including anterior deltoid (AD), cervical paraspinal (CP) lumbar paraspinal (LP), both of upper trapezius (UT), sternocleidomastoid (SCM) and medial head of gastrocnemius (GcM). Participants were asked to flex their arms in response to a sound stimulus preceded by a warning sound stimulus. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA Test. Results: There was significant differences in motor time and reaction time between active and control groups (p<0.05) except for GcM. There was no significant difference in motor time between active and passive groups except for UT without MTP and SCM (p<0.05). Also, there were no significant differences in motor times between latent MTP and control groups. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in premotor times between the three groups. Conclusion: The present study shows that patients with active MTP need more time to react to stimulus, but patients with latent MTP are similar to healthy subjects in the reaction time. Patients with active MTP had less compatibility with environmental stimulations, and they responded to a specific stimulation with variability in Surface Electromyography (SEMG)

Sound absorption of lightweight brick containing expanded polystyrene beads and palm oil fuel ash

Bricks are considered as important and strongest materials being used over the years. Commonly, bricks are made of clay mineral and usually used in construction of building wall. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of palm oil fuel ash (POFA) and expanded polystyrene beads (EPS) as a brick and its suitability as sound absorption material. POFA is used as partial replacement of cement while EPS as partial replacement of sand in the mortar mixture. Various percentages of EPS and POFA have been used which include 0%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50% as sand replacement and from 0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% as cement replacement respectively. Sound absorption tests were conducted using impedance tube. From this study, it has been identified that for sound absorption test, lowest result recorded is at maximum 25% POFA replacement with 50% EPS replacement with 0.011 sound absorption coefficient at frequency of 3500 Hz. The best sound absorption coefficient recorded is 0.998 at frequency of 250 Hz for sample with 0% EPS and 20% POFA replacement. It can be recognized that the brick produced have the excellent sound absorption

B40 online business platform: e-commerce and life cycle model considerations

A new online business platform is needed in Malaysia. The proposed system aims to provide B40 household income group with the necessary knowledge for increasing readiness in online business, and equip them with access to available financing, e-commerce, and logistic solutions. Prior to project commencement, a review is performed on e-commerce and development life cycle models. The adopted approach includes issues such as client engagement, development team, duration of project, requirement of prototype, and scale of deployment. In this case, a modified Rapid Application Development model is suitable for monitoring project progress and delivery

Mapping adaptation of barley to droughted environments

Identifying barley genomic regions influencing the response of yield and its components to water deficits will aid in our understanding of the genetics of drought tolerance and the development of more drought tolerant cultivars. We assembled a population of 192 genotypes that represented landraces, old, and contemporary cultivars sampling key regions around the Mediterranean basin and the rest of Europe. The population was genotyped with a stratified set of 50 genomic and EST derived molecular markers, 49 of which were Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs), which revealed an underlying population sub-structure that corresponded closely to the geographic regions in which the genotypes were grown. A more dense whole genome scan was generated by using Diversity Array Technology (DArT®) to generate 1130 biallelic markers for the population. The population was grown at two contrasting sites in each of seven Mediterranean countries for harvest 2004 and 2005 and grain yield data collected. Mean yield levels ranged from 0.3 to 6.2 t/ha, with highly significant genetic variation in low-yielding environments. Associations of yield with barley genomic regions were then detected by combining the DArT marker data with the yield data in mixed model analyses for the individual trials, followed by multiple regression of yield on markers to identify a multi-locus subset of significant markers/QTLs. QTLs exhibiting a pre-defined consistency across environments were detected in bins 4, 6, 6 and 7 on barley chromosomes 3H, 4H, 5H and 7H respectivel