Comparison of normal incident sound absorption coefficient of direct piercing carved wood panel for circular, geometry and floral design

Direct Piercing Carved Wood Panel (DPCWP) is among the famous Malay wood carving art in the Malay culture. It is the best example of Malay people’s creativity and masterpiece. In this paper, the comparison of normal incidence sound absorption coefficient, αn (SAC) for three major types of design for the DPCWP is discussed. The simplest form of DPCWP, the circular type, then the geometry and floral types were investigated based on simulation and measurement works using sound intensity method to determine the normal incidence SAC, for 30% and 40% perforation ratios. The simulation work was carried out by using BEASY Acoustic software based on Boundary Element Method (BEM). From the results, there is an identical trend for DPCWP with geometry and floral design from 250 Hz to 4 kHz. At high frequencies (1 kHz to 4 kHz), both design show the tendency of decrement, suggesting that the complexity of the design does affect the average SAC value. However, for circular design, SAC is higher than other design at 1 kHz and shows a similar trend with other design at 2 kHz and 4 kHz for both simulation and measurement result

One-minute rain rate statistics prediction using Ito-Hosoya model in Malaysia

This paper investigates one-minute rain rate in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia predicted based on Ito-Hosoya model. The model is categorized into meteorological based model as it receives as input local meteorological parameter. The best part about this model is it does not requires measured rain rate data to be converted into one-minute, instead it depends on long-term meteorological parameter values which widely available from various sources. In this paper, the local meteorological parameters are extracted from TRMM database which are average accumulation rainfall (from TMPA 3B43) and thunderstorm ratio (from TRMM PR 3A25 and TMI 3A12). The result shows that this model could be promising for use in Malaysia region as it produces better performance compared to the ITU-R model

M-GEAR: Gateway-Based Energy-Aware Multi-Hop Routing Protocol for WSNs

In this research work, we advise gateway based energy-efficient routing protocol (M-GEAR) for Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). We divide the sensor nodes into four logical regions on the basis of their location in the sensing field. We install Base Station (BS) out of the sensing area and a gateway node at the centre of the sensing area. If the distance of a sensor node from BS or gateway is less than predefined distance threshold, the node uses direct communication. We divide the rest of nodes into two equal regions whose distance is beyond the threshold distance. We select cluster heads (CHs)in each region which are independent of the other region. These CHs are selected on the basis of a probability. We compare performance of our protocol with LEACH (Low Energy Adaptive Clustering Hierarchy). Performance analysis and compared statistic results show that our proposed protocol perform well in terms of energy consumption and network lifetime.Comment: IEEE 8th International Conference on Broadband and Wireless Computing, Communication and Applications (BWCCA'13), Compiegne, Franc

Exposure to Caper Spurge (Euphorbia lathyris) Sap: A Case of Ocular and Periorbital Toxicity

Introduction: We aimed to describe a case of bilateral keratoconjunctivitis after exposure to the toxic sap of Euphorbia lathyris. Case Report: A 76-year-old gentleman presented after exposure to E. lathyris whilst he was gardening. He had 6/12 visual acuity in his right eye, and 6/ 4 in his left. Examination revealed marked periocular dermatitis, conjunctival injection and corneal oedema in the right eye with diffuse punctate epithelial staining. He was treated with ocular irrigation, topical steroids, antibiotics, cycloplegics and lubricants. Over 48 h, his left eye started to become symptomatic. He developed bilateral corneal epithelial defects and anterior chamber inflammation. His visual acuity worsened to 6/36 right and 6/24 left. At his 3-week follow-up, there wasmarked improvement in the resolution of the toxic keratoconjunctivitis in both eyes. Conclusion: Toxic sap from E. lathyris can cause severe keratoconjunctivitis. Irrigation of both eyes despite unilateral symptoms and early follow-up should be considered signs of toxicity may only become evident after 24-48 h

Exploring the Roles of Social Participation in Mobile Social Media Learning: A Social Network Analysis

Social media is increasingly becoming an essential platform for social connectivity in our daily lives. The availability of mobile technology has further fueled its importance – making it a ubiquitous tool for social interaction. However, limited studies have been conducted to investigate roles of social participation in this field. Thus, the study investigates roles of social participation in mobile social media learning using the “ladder of participation and mastering.” Participants were students taking an educational technology course in a local university. The study was conducted in a four-month period. Data was collected from discussions while learning among the students a social media platform, Facebook groups, on mobile devices. The data was analyzed using a social network analysis tool, NodeXL. Data was analyzed based on egocentric networks, betweeness centrality, and closeness centrality. The findings revealed that there are four roles of social participation in mobile social media, which are: (i) lurkers; (ii) gradually mastering members/passive members; (iii) recognized members; and (iv) coaches. The findings also indicated that over the course of four months, learners can inter-change roles of social participation – becoming more central or less central in learning discussions. As a result, a roles of social participation continuum for mobile social media learning is proposed. Future research could be conducted in other fields to investigate whether the continuum produced could be used to understand the relationship between mobile social media learning and social participation roles

Micellar liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of norfloxacin and tinidazole in pharmaceutical dosage forms and human plasma

A micellar liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous analysis of a binary mixture of norfloxacin and tinidazole (NOR and TIN) in dosage forms and human plasma. The analysis was carried out using a Waters Symmetry® C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm i.d., 5 µm particle size). The running mobile phase consisting of 0.15 M sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), 0.3 % triethylamine (TEA), 5 % n-propanol, the pH was adjusted to 4 by addition of 0.02 M orthophosphoric acid pumped at a flow rate 1.0 mL/min with UV at 275 nm. Calibration curves were linear over the range 1-28 and 1.5-42 µg/mL for NOR and TIN, respectively. The quantification limits were 0.7 and 1.0 µg /mL for NOR and TIN respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the simultaneous determination of NOR and TIN in human plasma without prior precipitation of protein. The mean percentage recoveries of bioavailability test in human plasma (n = 3) were 90.31 ± 4.22 and 90.05 ± 1.3 for NOR and TIN, respectively.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Micellar liquid chromatographic method for the simultaneous determination of norfloxacin and tinidazole in pharmaceutical dosage forms and human plasma

A micellar liquid chromatographic method was developed for the simultaneous analysis of a binary mixture of norfloxacin and tinidazole (NOR and TIN) in dosage forms and human plasma. The analysis was carried out using a Waters Symmetry® C18 column (250 mm x 4.6 mm i.d., 5 µm particle size). The running mobile phase consisting of 0.15 M sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS), 0.3 % triethylamine (TEA), 5 % n-propanol, the pH was adjusted to 4 by addition of 0.02 M orthophosphoric acid pumped at a flow rate 1.0 mL/min with UV at 275 nm. Calibration curves were linear over the range 1-28 and 1.5-42 µg/mL for NOR and TIN, respectively. The quantification limits were 0.7 and 1.0 µg /mL for NOR and TIN respectively. The proposed method was successfully applied for the simultaneous determination of NOR and TIN in human plasma without prior precipitation of protein. The mean percentage recoveries of bioavailability test in human plasma (n = 3) were 90.31 ± 4.22 and 90.05 ± 1.3 for NOR and TIN, respectively.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

ASSESSMENT OF SEASONAL VARIABILITY FOR WIND SPEED AND SIGNIFICANT WAVE HEIGHT USING SATELLITE ALTIMETER OVER MALAYSIAN SEAS

Malaysia is located in the equatorial region and experienced climate hot, humid and rainy throughout the year. These have brought four monsoon seasons to Malaysia which can be categorised as Northeast monsoon, Southwest monsoon, First-inter monsoon and Second-inter monsoon. Although Malaysia is surrounded by large scale marine resources, the lack of understanding in seasonal variability has affected the spatial and temporal analysis. Thus, this study will highlight the assessment of seasonal variability of wind speed and significant wave height over the Malaysian seas. For more than two decades satellite altimeter data were used to generate a prolonged trend of regional ocean wind speed and significant wave height in order to study the monsoons in Malaysia. A set of wind speed and significant wave height data are compared with the in-situ measurement to validate the accuracy of the wind speed and significant wave height observation using the satellite altimeter. Two selected buoys were using as benchmarks and assessed using the statistical analysis by conducting a root mean square error and a correlation calculation. Seasonal variations assessment is conducted with significance to analyse the monsoon effect towards the wind speed and significant wave height condition. As a result, both ocean parameters present a good value of root mean square error and positive correlation which were 0.7976 (wind speed) and 0.92 (significant wave height), which proves the measurement from satellite altimeter is reliable to use. In addition, the seasonal variation assessment illustrates during the Northeast monsoon, each part of the Malaysian seas experienced with great wind speed and significant wave height