Developmental research of sustainable technologies to minimise problematic road embankment settlements

Challenging, problematic and non-uniform ground conditions are a night mare to geotechnical engineers tasked with the design and construction of buildings and transport infrastructure. These often suffer undesirable structural settlements. Designing within the current understanding of geotechnics; settlement in peat and organic soils need to be recognised to include the known “primary and secondary consolidation characteristics” and the lesser known “tertiary consolidation phase”. These eventually contribute cumulatively to the consequential uneven and hazardous “bumpy road” surfaces. Undulating flexible road pavements result primarily from the transference of the heavy self-weight of the embankment fill to yielding and non-uniform subgrade. The adoption of conventional design/repair methods such as pile, vertical drain, soil replacement and soil stabilisation are expensive and inappropriate in very soft ground conditions. These then lead to unjustifiably high and repetitive maintenance costs. There being no one quick fix solution for all; pragmatic research must necessarily identify the best/progressively improved practical and sustainable solution. A viable solution is to develop criteria and explore the concept of a “masonry arch bridge structure/lintel-column structure” and adopting sustainable materials through pragmatic searching for appropriate recyclable waste materials. This will lead to the basis for a sustainable, innovative, strong, stiff, permeable composite mat structure that can be used on soft and/or yielding ground conditions. Conceptual lightweight fill technology including the popularly used expanded polystyrene (EPS) and the innovative composite mats recently being developed by the research team are outlined

The impact of direct nucleation control on crystal size distribution in pharmaceutical crystallization processes

The control of crystal size distribution (CSD) in pharmaceutical crystallization is of primary importance, as downstream processes such as filtration or drying are greatly affected by the properties of the CSD. It is recognized that the variability in the final CSD is mainly caused by the significant uncertainties in the nucleation rates, and therefore, a good control of nucleation events is necessary to achieve the desired CSD. In this paper, a new direct nucleation control (DNC) approach is introduced that directly controls the apparent onset of nucleation defined as the formation of new particles with detectable size using in situ instruments. The approach uses information on nucleation and dissolution, provided by focused beam reflectance measurement (FBRM), in a feedback control strategy that adapts the process variables, so that the desired quality of product is achieved, for example large crystals with a narrow CSD. In addition, DNC provides in situ fines removal through the operating protocol, rather than having additional equipment and external recycle loops. DNC does not require concentration measurement and has the advantage of being a model-free approach, requiring no information on nucleation or growth kinetics in order to design an operating curve. The DNC approach automatically and adaptively detects the boundary of the operating zone; hence it is more robust to the presence of impurities or residual solvent than the supersaturation control approach. The approach has been applied for the crystallization of glycine and experimental results demonstrate the benefits of DNC of producing larger crystals with narrower CSD compared to classical operations

Properties of chicken head gelatins as affected by extraction method

Malaysia is a surplus poultry producing country with well-established commercial slaughtering and processing plants. Immense quantity of heads, feet, viscera, blood and feathers are usually discarded and not optimally utilized. Chicken heads are rich in protein, and could be a potential source of gelatin. The aim of the present work was therefore to find a simpler, faster, cheaper and greener gelatin extraction technology as compared to current available methods of gelatin extraction from poultry heads. A comparison of three different gelatin extraction methods with alkaline-acid pretreatment (E1), single acid pretreatment (E2) and single alkaline pretreatment (E3) were studied to extract gelatin from chicken heads. E1 and E2 produced gelatins of Type A, while E3 produced gelatin of Type B. High bloom gelatin (>300 g) with <1% of ash content, high gelling (25.8-26.0°C) and melting (30.8-32.3°C) temperatures, good functionality and physical appearance were obtained from E1 and E2 extraction methods. Gelatins of E1 and E2 had higher viscous (G’’) and elastic modulus (G’) values on cooling and heating as compared to the commercial bovine skin gelatin. FTIR spectra of the gelatins indicated different degrees of structural denaturation. Overall, extraction methods of E1 and E2 produced better gelatin quality than E3. Nonetheless, E1 was the best extraction method for the production of high quality gelatin from chicken heads

Cymbidium mosaic virus and odontoglossum ringspot tobamovirus genes cloned from infected Oncidium orchids (Gen-gen cymbidium mosaic virus dan odontoglossum ringspot tobamovirus yang diklon daripada orkid Oncidium yang terinfeksi)

Abstract Several recombinant phages were picked at random from the cDNA library of Oncidium (Oncidium Goldiana x Oncidium Flexuosum) flowers, converted into plasmids by in vivo excision and sequenced. Two of the clones named CyMV1 and CyMV2, showed very high DNA and protein sequence homology to those of the cymbidium mosaic virus (CyMV) in the genebank database. CyMV1, 1,186 bp in size, contained within it the entire sequence for coat protein (CP) gene, movement protein (MP)3 gene and an almost complete sequence for MP2 gene. CyMV2, which is 626 bp in size, only contained the extreme 3&apos; end sequence of the RNA polymerase gene. The percentage of homology of the isolated CyMV1 gene was 97% to the Taiwanese strain (AY571289), 96% to the Korean type 2 CyMV complete genome (AF016914) and to the Singaporean CyMV complete genome (CMU62963) in the CP and MP regions of the genome. CyMV2 showed 95% homology to the Korean type 2 CyMV complete genome (AF016914) and to the Singaporean CyMV complete genome (CMU62963) but in the RNA polymerase region. Another clone named ORSV1, 728 bp in size, isolated by RT-PCR method was a partial fragment of odontoglossum ringspot virus (ORSV) RNA replicase gene. This partial gene sequence of ORSV1 showed 98% homology to the ORSV gene isolated from United States (Accession nos. ORU89894), Taiwan (Accession nos. AY571290) and Korea (Accession nos. X82130). All of these genes could be used in developing Oncidium orchids resistant to CyMV or ORSV through the transgenic approach

Sortion-Desorption Study of a Herbicide 2,4-Dichlorophenoxyacetic Acid on Acididc Tropical Soils.

The sorption and desorption of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) was evaluated on different soils with different range of organic matter content. The batch equilibrium technique under laboratory condition was used to determine the sorption/desorption behavior of 2,4-D in 4 different soil orders of Malaysia viz Histosols (peat), Inceptisols (Selangor and Briah) and Ultisols (Rengam and Serdang) and Oxisol (Munchong). Sorption data were fitted to the linear and Freundlich equations. The values of Kd and KF ranged from 1.35 to 35.26 and 2.70 to 42.04, respectively. Highest sorption was observed in peat soil and the lowest was in Rengam soil. According to the sorption and desorption results, organic matter and clay seemed to be the most important factor influencing the sorption capacity of 2,4-D. Thus, the contributions of organic matter were evaluated by comparing changes in 2,4-D of sorption before and after organic matter removal. After organic matter was removed from the soils, the Kd values for sorption by Selangor and Munchong, which were calculated from linear and Freundlich equations, decreased by 26.7 % and 28.0 %, respectively. This revealed that soil organic matter greatly influenced the 2,4-D sorption. Based on their sorption capacity, the soils can be ranked in the following decreasing order: Peat> Selangor> Munchong> Briah> Serdang> Rengam Soil Series

Knowledge-Management-Based-Nursing Care Model Improves Patient Adherence to Tuberculosis Treatment

Introduction. Pulmonary tuberculosis remains prominent as one of public health problems in the world. Patients’ non-compliance to treatment is a significant contributor to drug resistance. This study aimed to develop and to test the efficacy of a nursing care model to prevent non-compliance. Method This study consisted of two phases: phase one, model development, used a descriptive analytic, and phase two, model testing, employed a quasi-experimental design. Participants, comprised both patients and nurses at two health care centres in Surabaya, were recruited by consecutive sampling. Data were collected by interview, self-administered-questionnaires, check-list and focused group discussion. Data analyses were performed using both partial least squares and Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results. The model was statistically effective to improve nearly all aspects of patients’ compliance to TB treatment (knowledge, discipline in taking medications regularity of controls, and abilities to monitor the results of treatment with p < 0.05), except for abilities to cope with drug adverse effects (p = 1.000). This is possible because seldom do patients aware of the medication side effects, so their experiences were probably limited. Conclusion. This study concludes that the KM nursing care model was proven effective to improve patients’ adherence to treatment. Future study is suggested to evaluate the impact of the KM nursing care model in bigger population. Keywords: Pulmonary Tuberculosis, patient compliance, nursing care model, knowledge management

Mechanical and thermal properties of montmorillonite-reinforced polypropylene/rice husk hybrid nanocomposites

© 2019 by the authors. In recent years, there has been considerable interest in the use of natural fibers as potential reinforcing fillers in polymer composites despite their hydrophilicity, which limits their widespread commercial application. The present study explored the fabrication of nanocomposites by melt mixing, using an internal mixer followed by a compression molding technique, and incorporating rice husk (RH) as a renewable natural filler, montmorillonite (MMT) nanoclay as water-resistant reinforcing nanoparticles, and polypropylene-grafted maleic anhydride (PP-g-MAH) as a compatibilizing agent. To correlate the effect ofMMTdelamination andMMT/RHdispersion in the composites, the mechanical and thermal properties of the composites were studied. XRD analysis revealed delamination of MMT platelets due to an increase in their interlayer spacing, and SEM micrographs indicated improved dispersion of the filler(s) from the use of compatibilizers. The mechanical properties were improved by the incorporation of MMT into the PP/RH system and the reinforcing effect was remarkable as a result of the use of compatibilizing agent. Prolonged water exposure of the prepared samples decreased their tensile and flexural properties. Interestingly, the maximum decrease was observed for PP/RH composites and the minimum was for MMT-reinforced and PP-g-MAH-compatibilized PP/RH composites. DSC results revealed an increase in crystallinity with the addition of filler(s), while the melting and crystallization temperatures remained unaltered. TGA revealed that MMT addition and its delamination in the composite systems improved the thermal stability of the developed nanocomposites. Overall, we conclude that MMT nanoclay is an effective water-resistant reinforcing nanoparticle that enhances the durability, mechanical properties, and thermal stability of composites

Passively mode-locked ultrashort pulse fiber laser incorporating multi-layered graphene nanoplatelets saturable absorber

In this paper, a passive mode-locked erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) incorporating graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) powder-based saturable absorber (SA) with short pulse duration in femtosecond range is demonstrated. A good synthesis of GNP can be simply produced via a combination of thermal, chemical, and mechanical exfoliation of expandable graphite. The GNP-SA is fabricated by mechanically imprinting the powder onto the tip of a single mode fiber ferrule. The characterization of SA is done via focus ion beam scanning electron microscope, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, as well as Raman spectroscopy. The fabricated GNP-SA has 1.8 % modulation depth and C-band transmission loss of less than 1.8 dB. The ring-configuration EDFL integrated with GNP-SA yields a mode-locking threshold of 22.6 mW pump power. Net anomalous dispersion of the laser cavity is validated by the observation of Kelly’s sideband in the optical spectrum. At maximum pump power of 115.8 mW, the mode-locked EDFL has a pulse repetition rate of 13.11 MHz, sech2 profile fitted pulse duration of 694 fs, peak-to-pedestal extinction ratio of 58.2 dB, average output power of 6.7 mW, and pulse energy of 507.2 pJ. Our proposed GNP-SA is feasible as a mode-locker for ultrashort pulsed fiber laser with advantage in terms of simple synthesis and fabrication technique

Knowledge-Management-Based-Nursing Care Model Improves Patient Adherence to Tuberculosis Treatment

Introduction. Pulmonary tuberculosis remains prominent as one of public health problems in the world. Patients\u27 non-compliance to treatment is a significant contributor to drug resistance. This study aimed to develop and to test the efficacy of a nursing care model to prevent non-compliance. Method This study consisted of two phases: phase one, model development, used a descriptive analytic, and phase two, model testing, employed a quasi-experimental design. Participants, comprised both patients and nurses at two health care centres in Surabaya, were recruited by consecutive sampling. Data were collected by interview, self-administered-questionnaires, check-list and focused group discussion. Data analyses were performed using both partial least squares and Wilcoxon signed rank test. Results. The model was statistically effective to improve nearly all aspects of patients\u27 compliance to TB treatment (knowledge, discipline in taking medications regularity of controls, and abilities to monitor the results of treatment with p < 0.05), except for abilities to cope with drug adverse effects (p = 1.000). This is possible because seldom do patients aware of the medication side effects, so their experiences were probably limited. Conclusion. This study concludes that the KM nursing care model was proven effective to improve patients\u27 adherence to treatment. Future study is suggested to evaluate the impact of the KM nursing care model in bigger population

Wireless Voice-Based Wheelchair Controller System

In this paper, we present our work called wireless voice-based wheelchair controller system, which consists of an Android device and a control system that controls the movement of wheelchair using a DC motor. This project is aim to ease the burden for wheelchair user especially for elderly people to move around. The control system is build using the Yo-Yo (IOIO) platform that controls the DC motor, communicates with the Android phone application using RF receiver through a Bluetooth communication protocol and RF signal. The Android application is developed using Basic-4-Android (B4A) rapid development tool connected with one main control interface using voice command, D-pad and joystick to control the motor driver MD30C direction and speed through IOIO platform based on four conditions; forward, backward, right and left. The speed movement is controlled by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) signal while the direction movement for Qibla’ is generated by the control interface and guided by an electronic compass in the Android device. While there are some limitations in the cost and direction movement, the concept developed in this project are proven convenience innovation and provides better benefits to the targeted market and public interest