A study on factors affecting quality deterioration in housing construction industry in Klang Valley

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors that affecting the quality deterioration in housing construction industry in Malaysia. A reliable survey instrument has been used for gathering the data’s from the construction project workers such as Project Manager, Construction Manager, Engineer and Supervisor. Upon that, series of analysis has been conducted to identify and confirmed the factors affecting the quality deteriorations problem in construction industry. The results indicate that construction staff’s training, the role of Managers with the top management commitment is the significant variables explaining variability of operational performance. Furthermore, a series of analysis on training factors shows the importance of necessary and suitable training which relates to quality of the products in construction industry. The study also shows that training factors was influenced by other related factors such as the manager in charge and the management commitment towards the works. As the study was within Klang Valley, the implicating factors show a general result. But in future, the studies could continue with a larger sample size. This study contributes to the important relevant factors and it’s affects in development of quality control within the construction project activities. Although other investigation was carried out on other factors but this study is focusing to the actual construction project. (Abstract by author

A Study On Ultra Fine Grinding Of Silica And Talc In Opposed Fluidized Bed Jet Mill [TJ1345. S187 2008 f rb].

Fine grinding is normally carried out in energy intensive grinding mills such as jet mill. Besides size reduction, jet mill also induced mechanochemical effect on the ground product. Proses pengisaran halus biasanya dilakukan di dalam pengisar intensif tenaga seperti pengisar jet. Selain daripada pengurangan saiz, pengisar jet juga meghasilkan kesan mekanokimia terhadap partikel yang dikisar

Surface Entropy Reduction to Increase the Crystallizability of the Fab-RNA Complex

Crystallizing RNA has been an imperative facet and a challenging task in the world of RNA research. Assistive methods such as Chaperone Assisted RNA Crystallography (CARC), employing monoclonal antibody fragments (Fabs) as crystallization chaperones have enabled us to obtain RNA crystal structures by increasing the crystal contacts and providing initial phasing information. Using this technology the crystal structure of [delta]C209 P4-P6 RNA (an independent folding domain of the self-splicing Tetrahymena group I intron) complexed to Fab2 (high affinity binding Fab) has been resolved to 1.95 Å (1). Although the complexed class I ligase ribozyme has also been crystallized using CARC (2), in practice, it has been found that the crystallization of, large RNA-Fab complex remains a confrontation. The possible reason for this difficulty is that Fabs have not been optimized for crystallization when complexed with RNA. Here we have used the Surface Entropy Reduction technique (SER) for the optimization process. Candidate residues for mutations were identified based on combining results from visual inspection of [delta]C209 P4-P6/Fab2 crystal structure complex using pyMOL software and a web-based SER software. The protruding lysine and glutamate residues were mutated to a set of alanine (Super Mutant Alanine SMA) and serine (Super Mutant Serine SMS) mutant clones. Filter binding assay studies confirmed that the mutant clones bind to [delta]C209 P4-P6 with similar binding affinities as that of the parent Fab2. Large scale expression of the mutants, parent clone and [delta]C209 P4-P6 RNA were optimised. Crystal trays for [delta]C209 P4-P6 complexed with Fab2, Fab2SMA and Fab2SMS were set-up side-by-side using Hampton crystal screen kits and ~600 conditions including temperature as a variable condition were screened. Crystal screening shows significantly higher crystal-forming ratios for the mutant complexes. As the chosen SER residues are far away from the CDR regions of the Fab, the same set of mutations can be potentially applied to other Fabs binding to a variety of ribozymes and riboswitches to improve the crystallizability of the Fab-RNA complex

Transforming The Bad Debt Into Cash Flow

The increasing amount of bad debt and uncollected accounts in the banks and other creditors have affected the cash inflow very badly. The transformation of bad debt into cash flow is vey crucial for daily business operation or for further expansion in the future. In view of the above, effective collection and recovery of bad debt strategies are very important for the business to be successful and mitigate losses. Banks and creditors maintain the current recovery model, the in-house collection activities to recover the bad debt. However, in certain circumstances, the amount recovered is not as expected and as such, alternative options are required. The two most feasible and efficient recovery tools are to outsource the bad debt to an established debt collection agency or to sell the bad debt to an interested buyer to maximize the recovery. The procedures, concepts, and workflow including the guidelines of Bank Negara Malaysia involved in all the three options are outlined to have a better understanding and comparison on the different recovery activities. Literature reviews on the causes of bad debt and other recovery tools are discussed with the relevant examples. These bad debt problems are not only affecting Malaysia, but also has been a major problem in the developed and emerging economies. The worldwide financial crisis has affected a lot of banks and other creditors with substantial amount of bad debt. Further, the increasing demand for unsecured loans including credit cards is one of the main causes for increasing of bad debt amount. The research is conducted with the appropriate research methodology and suitable respondents are selected as the samples. The feedbacks from the interview are reported and summarized in a tabular format to develop three different hypotheses. The findings are discussed in detail with the benefits and limitations available for the three alternatives. The selection of the recovery tool is subject to the guidelines and requirement of the individual bank or creditor to maximize recovery and minimize the cost of operation

Development Of Nanocrysta Lite Cati03 Via High Intensity Grinding Using Value Added Local Raw Materials.

Mechanochemical synthesis of calcium titanate, CaTi03 was carried out in planetary mill by varying the milling time and mill rotational speed at three levels. CaC03 and Ti02 (anatase) was used as starting materials

Study Of The Clinker Characteristics And Grindability During Cement Production.

The quality of cement product is dependent on a number of factors such as the quality of the raw material, the chemical changes during burning and cooling stages and the fineness of the grinding. Mineralogical and chemical studies on clinker will provide information about clinker characteristics and about conditions occurring at various stages of the manufacturing process

Comparative Study of Advanced Oxidation Processes to Treat Petroleum Wastewater

This study was carried out to compare the performance of different oxidation processes, such as solar photo-Fenton reaction, solar photocatalysis by TiO2, and the combination of the two for the treatment of petroleum wastewater from Sohar Oil Refinery by a central composite design with response surface methodology. The degradation efficiency was evaluated in terms of chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total organic carbon (TOC) reductions. Solar photocatalysis by the TiO2/Fenton method improved the performance of the photocatalyst at neutral pH for petroleum wastewater without the need to adjust the pH during this treatment. Under acidic conditions, the solar photo-Fenton process is more efficient than solar TiO2 photocatalysis while it is less efficient under alkaline conditions. The TiO2 dosage and pH are the two main factors that improved the TOC and COD reductions in the solar photocatalysis using combined TiO2/Fenton and the solar TiO2 photocatalysis processes while the pH and H2O2 concentration are the two key factors that affect the solar photo-Fenton process

Changes in the structure of talc by continuous jet milling in relation to imposed specific kinetic energy

Ultra fine talc is used in many industries such as paper, paints, polymers, cosmetics and pharmaceutical. Emerging demand with stringent specification from these industries has marked jet mill as one of the essential grinding mill to produce ultra fine talc. Ultra fine grinding testwork of talc was carried out in opposed fluidized bed jet mill by varying the feed rate, classifier rotational speed and grinding pressure at three levels. In this jet mill, grinding and classification took place simultaneously. The ground products were characterized in terms of particle size distribution and mechanochemical effect via X-ray diffraction. The ground product exhibited poly-modal distribution and the minimum size obtained was 4.28 µm at 4 kg/h, 13000 rpm and 4 bar. Besides size reduction in micron range, mechanochemical effect was exhibited by the product ground in jet mill as jet mill is classified as high-energy mill. Reduction in peak intensity and peak base broadening was observed which indicates fine grinding process in jet mill induced mechanochemical effect. Furthermore preferential distortion of (00l) planes was observed as well. The degree of crystallinity of ground sample, which ranged from 26.5% to 85.3% reduces as the specific kinetic energy increase and its reduction gradient varies according to the classifier rotational speed. The crystallite size and lattice strain of talc ranged from 147.69 nm to 353.72 nm and 0.08 to 0.2 respectively

Properties of Calcium Carbonate/Mica and Calcium Farbonate/Talc Filled Polypropylene Composites

Mineral fillers namely talc, calcium carbonate, mica, glass and carbon fibres are common fillers used in plastic industry that can alter thermoplastic properties. With the incorporation of fillers, significant outcome can be observed especially in the mechanical properties of polymer composites produced apart from its rigidity and resistance to temperature. Properties of single and hybrid fillers filled polypropylene (PP) composites were studied in this research work. Mineral fillers such as talc, mica and calcium carbonate (CaCO3) were incorporated into PP composites. Realising the advantage of each mineral filler and the effect of hybrid fillers, CaCO3/Talc (CC/T) and CaCO3/Mica (CC/M) at 40 wt% were investigated. Generally, the results demonstrated that CC/M has higher tensile modulus than CC/T and both hybrids composites did not give significant effect on the tensile strength. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) results revealed that CC/M increased thermal stability of PP composites when compared to CC/T. Flammability testing on PP hybrid composites was carried out where lower burning rate indicates better flammability. From the results, it shows that CC/M system have better flammability compared to CC/T system