Perception of motorcyclists on safe riding in Kota Kinabalu

Despite the high risks reflected from the annual road traffic casualties, motorcycles remain a popular mode of transport in Malaysia due to economic and ease-of-use factors. Therefore, various parties need to play their roles, make proper plans and take actions to accommodate the needs of the motorcyclists in Malaysia. Consequently, some fundamental basis on how motorcyclists interact with the road environment and other drivers was needed. For this reason, this study was to examine and assess motorcyclist perception towards safe riding regarding the road environments and other drivers' attitude and behaviour. A survey by distributing questionnaires among motorcyclists in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah was conducted and was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) tools. It found that most motorcyclists, regardless of their demographic and riding background, perceive that poor road conditions such as road surface defects and slippery roads highly affect their safe motorcycling. Besides that, there was no statistically significant difference between motorcyclists' perceptions of positive and negative attitudes and behaviour. These findings also guide the development of any road safety initiatives and strategies, as well as for future studies specifically related to motorcycle concerns

Mechanical performance of stone mastic asphalt incorporating steel fiber

Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) is a gap-graded hot mix asphalt that contains a large percentage of course aggregate and bitumen filler mastic. SMA is suffered from severe binder drain down due to the gap graded aggregates mixtures. Large difference between the sizes of aggregate tend to reduce tensile strength of the asphalt mixture. To overcome this, a type of fiber which is steel fiber is utilized to improve the tensile strength of SMA. Thus, the aim of this study is to increase the strength of SMA by utilizing steel fiber. To prepare SMA mixtures, specimens were compacted by applying 50 blows on each face using Marshall Compactor. Then, the modified specimens were tested to investigate the performance in terms of Los Angeles Abrasion Test, Marshall Stability Test, Resilient Modulus Test, and Dynamic Creep. From the results, it indicates that the addition of 0.3% fiber leads to better stability and stiffness while 0.5% fiber for resilient and enhanced modulus dynamic creep at 25C and 0.4% fiber at 40C. Thus, it can be concluded that the addition of steel fiber in the mixture significantly enhance the overall performance of SMA

Referrals to a facial pain service

AIM: To assess the quality of referral letters to a facial pain service and highlight the key requirements of such letters. METHOD: The source of all referral letters to the service for five years was established. For one year the information provided in 94 referrals was assessed. Using a predetermined checklist of essential information the referral letters were compared to these set criteria. RESULTS: The service received 7,001 referrals and, on average, general dental practitioners (GDPs) referred 303 more patients per year than general medical practitioners (GMPs). Seventy-one percent of all referrals were from primary care practitioners, the rest were from specialists. Over 70% of GMP and 52% of GDP letters included a past medical history, with GMPs more likely to suggest a possible diagnosis and include previous secondary care referrals. The mean score for GMP referrals compared to the standard proforma (maximum of 12) was 5.6 and for GDP referrals 5.0. A relevant drug history was included by 75.6% GMP compared to 38.7% of GDPs. GMPs were more likely to include any relevant mental health history. CONCLUSIONS: The overall quality of referral letters is low which makes it difficult for the specialists to provide robust treatment plans

Volumetric Properties and Resilient Modulus of Stone Mastic Asphalt incorporating Cellulose Fiber

Stone mastic asphalt (SMA) is well known as a high coarse aggregate content that interlocks to form a stone skeleton that resist permanent deformation. However, it facing a lot of problems such as rutting and stripping because of the high temperature and repeated axial load. It also suffers with creep issue. The cellulose fiber is a type of synthetic fiber that can enhance the properties of asphalt mixture. Thus, the aim of this study is to utilize the cellulose fiber that has high tensile strength to overcome the problem of SMA. Among the tests involve are Resilient Modulus, Marshall Stability and Cantabro Loss. From the results, it shows that the addition of cellulose fiber improved the recovery ability of asphalt binder. From each test, the addition of 0.2% cellulose fiber contributes to lowest value of abrasion, while 0.3% producing highest value of resilient modulus. Thus, the addition of cellulose fiber is capable in enhancing the properties of SMA

Volumetric properties and resilient modulus of stone mastic asphalt incorporating cellulose fiber

Stone mastic asphalt (SMA) is well known as a high coarse aggregate content that interlocks to form a stone skeleton that resist permanent deformation. However, it facing a lot of problems such as rutting and stripping because of the high temperature and repeated axial load. It also suffers with creep issue. The cellulose fiber is a type of synthetic fiber that can enhance the properties of asphalt mixture. Thus, the aim of this study is to utilize the cellulose fiber that has high tensile strength to overcome the problem of SMA. Among the tests involve are Resilient Modulus, Marshall Stability and Cantabro Loss. From the results, it shows that the addition of cellulose fiber improved the recovery ability of asphalt binder. From each test, the addition of 0.2% cellulose fiber contributes to lowest value of abrasion, while 0.3% producing highest value of resilient modulus. Thus, the addition of cellulose fiber is capable in enhancing the properties of SMA

Mechanical Performance of Stone Mastic Asphalt Incorporating Steel Fiber

Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) is a gap-graded hot mix asphalt that contains a large percentage of course aggregate and bitumen filler mastic. SMA is suffered from severe binder drain down due to the gap graded aggregates mixtures. Large difference between the sizes of aggregate tend to reduce tensile strength of the asphalt mixture. To overcome this, a type of fiber which is steel fiber is utilized to improve the tensile strength of SMA. Thus, the aim of this study is to increase the strength of SMA by utilizing steel fiber. To prepare SMA mixtures, specimens were compacted by applying 50 blows on each face using Marshall Compactor. Then, the modified specimens were tested to investigate the performance in terms of Los Angeles Abrasion Test, Marshall Stability Test, Resilient Modulus Test, and Dynamic Creep. From the results, it indicates that the addition of 0.3% fiber leads to better stability and stiffness while 0.5% fiber for resilient and enhanced modulus dynamic creep at 25°C and 0.4% fiber at 40°C. Thus, it can be concluded that the addition of steel fiber in the mixture significantly enhance the overall performance of SMA

An Overview of Lung Cancer Classification Algorithms and their Performances

In the world, lung cancer is the third most dreadful cancer. Thus, detection of lung cancer cells at early stage is a challenge. The symptoms of lung cancer do not appear in earlier stages which causes high death rates when compared with other types of cancer. In lung cancer detection, image processing algorithms have shown great performance in various high-end tasks. In this paper, different classification methodologies used for the prediction of lung cancer in its early stage are explained. Machine learning techniques are used to identify whether lung tumors are malignant or benign. Machine learning approaches such as: Convolutional neural network (CNN), Support vector machine (SVM), Artificial neural network (ANN), Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN), Entropy degradation method (EDM) and Random Forest (RF) are discussed in detail and their performance is evaluated in terms of accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. In this analysis, CNN approach using small dataset shows best result with 96% accuracy compared to other methodologies and EDM shows the worst accuracy of 77.8

Volumetric Properties and Resilient Modulus of Stone Mastic Asphalt incorporating Cellulose Fiber

Stone mastic asphalt (SMA) is well known as a high coarse aggregate content that interlocks to form a stone skeleton that resist permanent deformation. However, it facing a lot of problems such as rutting and stripping because of the high temperature and repeated axial load. It also suffers with creep issue. The cellulose fiber is a type of synthetic fiber that can enhance the properties of asphalt mixture. Thus, the aim of this study is to utilize the cellulose fiber that has high tensile strength to overcome the problem of SMA. Among the tests involve are Resilient Modulus, Marshall Stability and Cantabro Loss. From the results, it shows that the addition of cellulose fiber improved the recovery ability of asphalt binder. From each test, the addition of 0.2% cellulose fiber contributes to lowest value of abrasion, while 0.3% producing highest value of resilient modulus. Thus, the addition of cellulose fiber is capable in enhancing the properties of SMA

Relationship between rheological properties of nano polymer modified asphalt binder and permanent deformation of asphalt mixture

Asphalt binder plays an important part in determining many aspects of road performance. However, the rheological properties of asphalt binder are very complex and the parameters depend purely on the viscosity, various loading time and temperature. Therefore, relationship study on asphalt binder rheological properties and asphalt mixture is vital to predict the performance of the mixture. This paper evaluates the relationship between rheological asphalt binder and asphalt mixture performance containing nanopolymer modified binder. Five sets of asphalt binder rheology were tested to determine their viscosity, effect of short term and long term aging using the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR). The asphalt mixtures performance test was then conducted to evaluate the permanent deformation of the mix. Findings from this study indicate that the rheological properties of asphalt binder acts as indicator for the asphalt mixture performance. The G*/sin δ and viscosity of the asphalt binder significantly agree with the resilient modulus and rut depth results obtained. The dependent (resilient modulus at 40oC and rut depth) and dependent (G*/sin δ and viscosity) variables show that these variables significantly affects each other. An effective prediction models can also be developed according to predicted and measured permanent deformation value

Creep and resilient modulus properties of asphaltic concrete containing black rice husk ash

Black rice husk ash (BRHA) is one of the agro-waste that could be used to improve the properties of asphalt mixture. In this investigation, the BRHA was grounded using a laboratory ball mill with porcelain balls to fine particles size less than 76 μm. Four different BRHA contents were considered in this study namely 0%, 2%, 4% and 6% by weight of binder. The performance of asphaltic concrete containing BRHA was evaluated through resilient modulus and dynamic creep test. It was found that the BRHA can be satisfactorily used as a filler material in order to increase the properties of creep and stiffness modulus asphaltic concrete. Test results also indicate that asphaltic concrete containing 2% to 4% BRHA showed excellent performance to resilient modulus and dynamic creep properties