Potential dopant in photocatalysis process for wastewater treatment-a review

Nowadays, too much pollution has happened around us, and one of them is water pollution, which each day has become more severe and worse. One of the sources of water pollution comes from the industry that has used dyes either excessively or not. In case of that, the wastewater needs to be treated before released to the river or environment. In this paper, a review of the wastewater treatment using dopants such as nitrogen and magnesium, will be discussed

Financial capability and financial literacy among university student

The statistics information by Department of Statistics Malaysia and the Ninth Malaysia Plan’s indicate that most youth group had declared bankrupctcy. As information given, it is showed that young Malaysians are not prepared to deal with the consequences of having financial crisis.The objectives of this study are to identify the level of student university financial literacy and financial capability and to analyze the relationship between the theory of planned behavior (TPB) factor and financial literacy toward financial capability among university student. Using description analysis and multiple linear regressions, it is found that there is lower level or incapable on the level of financial capability among the university students. Furthermore, the attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavior which are TBP factor had shown the relationship toward the level of financial capability

THE SYNTHESIS OF GLYCEROL CARBONATE FROM GLYCEROL AND CARBON DIOXIDE OVER HETEROGENEOUS CATALYSTS

The aim of this work is to synthesise glycerol carbonate from carbon dioxide (CO2) and glycerol. Two key challenges that were investigated in this work including: (1) thermodynamic limitation of this work and (2) desirability of using crude glycerol as a feedstock. In this work, carboxylation of glycerol is carried out over La2O3 (commercial) and La2O2CO3 catalysts prepared via co-precipitation, sol-gel and hydrothermal methods. These catalysts are characterised using BET, ATR-FTIR, SEM, XRD, TPD-CO2 and TPD-NH3. The carboxylation reaction is thermodynamically limited, therefore a range of dehydrating agents were introduced to improve the glycerol conversion by shifting the reaction equilibrium to the product side. The impact of dehydrating agents on glycerol conversion and glycerol carbonate formation were therefore studied. Reaction conditions were as follows: 6 wt.% La2O3, relative to glycerol, glycerol to dehydrating agent ratio of 22.5:50 mmol, 160 °C and reaction pressure, 45 bar CO2 and reaction time, 18 hours. High selectivity to glycerol carbonate is observed upon the introduction of adiponitrile (17%), followed by benzonitrile (5%), acetonitrile (4%), and no glycerol carbonate was detected upon the introduction of acetic anhydride. Additionally this work demonstrated for the first time the efficacy of lanthanum-based catalysts to synthesise glycerol carbonate via the direct carboxylation of crude glycerol. Crude glycerol employed herein comprises 74% glycerol, 20% of fatty acid methyl esters, 5 wt.% water, 1% methanol, and 7 g/L of sodium methoxide. It was analysed by GG-MS, ICP-MS and Karl Fisher titration technique. The impact of single and multiple impurities are the aspects investigated in this work. The addition of 10 wt.% water inhibited the formation of glycerol carbonate while blending of glycerol and methanol (80:20 mol%) increased the selectivity to glycerol carbonate to 22%. Only 4% selectivity to glycerol carbonate over La2O3-C was observed in the presence of multiple impurities including methanol, fatty acid methyl ester and sodium methoxide. As a result, modification of La2O3-C catalyst is crucial. Introduction of ZrO2/La2O2CO3/Ga2O3 greatly improved the selectivity to glycerol carbonate (21%); while a selectivity of 5% to glycerol carbonate observed for the direct carboxylation of crude glycero

Critical gap analysis of merging sections at Kuala Lumpur middle ring road

At merging sections, drivers normally slow down and sometimes need to stop while seeking a suitable gap before merging with the mainstream. Thus, there will always be several observed rejected gaps and an accepted gap which can be used to determine the smallest average gap, so-called critical gap. This study was carried out to determine critical gap values at selected merging sections at the Jalan Tun Razak and the DUKE Expressway uses the Maximum Likelihood method. Data were collected by using videotaping method and the gap acceptance data were extracted for analysis. A gap acceptance event at highway merging sections in this study was redefined due to unavailability of stopping vehicles at the ramp junction. Therefore, the gap data were estimated starting from a ramp’s vehicle passing the end of gore marking to where it merges with the mainstream. The analysis of the critical gap takes into consideration accepted gaps greater than 5 seconds to avoid forced entry due to lead impedance of successive vehicles on mainstream. The critical gap values obtained in this study, according to vehicle classification were ranged between 4.5 to 5.0 seconds, which are slightly smaller if compared to critical gap values for particularly left turn from minor movement at priority junction of the Arahan Teknik (Jalan) 11/87 and the United States Highway Capacity Manual 2000. The findings shall help to study driving behavior of local drivers, especially at priority control facilities such as merging sections

Mechanical Strength Of Dissimilar AA7075 and AA6061 Aluminum Alloys Using Friction Stir Welding

The present study focuses on the effects of material position and tool rotational speed on the tensile strength of dissimilar AA7071 and AA6061 welded aluminum alloys with a thickness of 2.0 mm in using a conventional milling machine. Ten joints were produced by varying tool rotational speeds and by changing the fixed position of the material on the advancing and retreating sides. The results show that the maximum tensile strength of 207 MPa was achieved for Sample E when AA6061 aluminum alloys were placed on the advancing side at a rotational speed of 1000 rpm with seamless surface appearance and no inner defect across the weld area, while the lowest tensile strength of 160 MPa was obtained for Sample F when AA6061 was placed on the retreating side with severe tunnel defects across the weld area contributing to crack propagation. Thus, in dissimilar welding, weaker materials should be placed on the advancing side to trigger heat from the tool rotation and smooth the material flow formation in the stirred zone

Stemming text-based web page classification using machine learning algorithms: a comparison

The research aim is to determine the effect of word-stemming in web pages classification using different machine learning classifiers, namely Naive Bayes (NB), k-Nearest Neighbour (k-NN), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and Multilayer Perceptron (MP). Each classifiers' performance is evaluated in term of accuracy and processing time. This research uses BBC dataset that has five predefined categories. The result demonstrates that classifiers' performance is better without word stemming, whereby all classifiers show higher classification accuracy, with the highest accuracy produced by NB and SVM at 97% for F1 score, while NB takes shorter training time than SVM. With word stemming, the effect on training and classification time is negligible, except on Multilayer Perceptron in which word stemming has effectively reduced the training time

Effects of indoor air quality on the occupant's health and productivity in an office building

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) is an important parameter in deciding the status of Sick Bulding Syndrome (SBS). Poor IAQ which leads to SBS can result in adverse effect on the health of the occupant which causing lower productivity. This study was conducted to establish correlation between IAQ and employee’s productivity. Five parameters of IAQ which include air velocity, air temperature, relative humidity, particulate matters ≥ 0.3 μm and CO2 were considered in this study. The values of these parameters were measured using Davis Anemometer, Particle Counter GT 521 and YES Plus LGA Meter. The measured data were then used as an input data for simulation model of the room using Comsol Multiphysics software. The simulation generated the indoor air velocity of the room and particle distribution. For validation purpose, only the predicted velocity was compared with the measured value, and found that the percentage difference were in the range of 1.5% to 8.45% (below than 10%). Once the model had been validated, the parametric study of air supply inlet position was conducted on the model and found that the position of air supply inlet with x = 2.5 ft, y = 10 ft and H = 6.5 ft give the most efficient air distribution model for diluting the impurities due to the particulate. The questionnaire survey distributed amongst the occupants of the room showed that the occupants were less satisfied (75%) with the IAQ which can lead to SBS problem. The analysis of correlation between IAQ and occupant's productivity depicted that both of the factors were correlated with Rank-Spearman value of 0.648. This study serves as a good platform in assessing IAQ based on the modelling and simulation approach

Burn Area Processing to Generate False Alarm Data for Hotspot Prediction Models

Developing hotspot prediction models using decision tree algorithms require target classes to which objects in a dataset are classified.  In modeling hotspots occurrence, target classes are the true class representing hotspots occurrence and the false class indicating non hotspots occurrence.  This paper presents the results of satellite image processing in order to determine the radius of a hotspot such that random points are generated outside a hotspot buffer as false alarm data.  Clustering and majority filtering were performed on the Landsat TM image to extract burn scars in the study area i.e. Rokan Hilir, Riau Province Indonesia.  Calculation on burn areas and FIRMS MODIS fire/hotspots in 2006 results the radius of a hotspot 0.90737 km.  Therefore, non-hotspots were randomly generated in areas that are located 0.90737 km away from a hotspot. Three decision tree algorithms i.e. ID3, C4.5 and extended spatial ID3 have been applied on a dataset containing 235 objects that have the true class and 326 objects that have the false class. The results are decision trees for modeling hotspots occurrence which have the accuracy of 49.02% for the ID3 decision tree, 65.24% for the C4.5 decision tree, and 71.66% for the extended spatial ID3 decision tree

Effect of Energy Gain and Loss in Breathing Pattern of Solitary Wave for Nonlinear Equation

Nonlinear phenomena like soliton propagate over long distance in transmit information, without dispersion energy due to the properties of the solitons, which has balanced of the nonlinearity effect and dispersion effect resulted the signal undistorted and symmetric bell shape curve. We study about the properties and breathing pattern of solitary wave of pulses in absence and present of energy loss, by using one dimensional nonlinear equation; cubic-quintic complex Ginzburg-Landau equation (cqCGLE). Breathing pattern of soliton behaviour is constructed with hyperbolic sine and hyperbolic tangent as initial amplitude profile and observed by means of numerical simulation. Resulting in observation of breathing pattern of soliton in term of energy loss and gain while travelling, but it still maintains spatial localization of wave energy in the changing pulses shape through a unique dissipative soliton.Keywords— Soliton, nonlinearity, dispersion, breathing, energy

ANALYSIS OF PERFORMANCE OF THE KARATE PUNCH (GYAKU-ZUKI).

Variation in the movement sequence of the reverse punch (Gyaku-zuki) could affect kinematic variables such as punch time, distance and joint velocities. The reverse punches of nine elite Malaysian karate athletes were imaged in 3D at 150 Hz for two conditions (Jodan and Counter-chudan). Based on the linear resultant joint velocities of the shoulder and elbow two clusters are identified. One cluster is characterized by a more simultaneous movement sequence and the other by a more sequential movement sequence. The first cluster is mostly associated with female performances (87%) and the second cluster mostly with male performances (83%). It is found that the mostly male cluster achieved longer punch distance and higher peak linear resultant joint velocities for shoulder, elbow and wrist. Furthermore subgroups within the two clusters are identified and are associated with Jodan and Counter-chudan punches. The mostly female cluster achieves longer punch distance and higher peak linear resultant velocities in the subgroup associated with Jodan punches. However, the mostly male cluster achieves similar results for the subgroup associated with the Counter-chudan. Conclusion: the females tend to punch with a simultaneous sequence and men tend to punch with a sequential sequence with regard to the shoulder and elbow movements. Additionally women and men seem to have optimal performances in terms of punch distance and peak linear resultant joint velocities in different punching conditions