Cost Estimation of Structural Work for Residential Building with Seismic Design Consideration

The Sumatra-Andaman earthquakes had triggered local earthquakes in Malaysia by reactivation of ancient inactive faults. Previously on 5th June 2015, Ranau, a region located in Sabah, Malaysia, had experienced a moderate earthquake of Mw6.1. The structural failures occurred because all existing buildings only designed for gravity load without any seismic provision. Recent research work exhibits the seismic designs’ impact on the cost of material and its parameters that impact the cost. There are two types reinforced concrete residential buildings called Type 1 and Type 2 for two storey and four storey which had been used as models. This research applied four seismicity levels to the reference peak ground acceleration value, αgR = 0.07g, 0.10g, 0.13g & 0.16g, and two soil types: Soil Types B and D. The result shows that for two storey reinforced concrete residential buildings on soil types B and D, seismic design increases structural work costs, which is around 0.62% to 1.31% and 0.61% to 2.16%, respectively, for Type 1 model compared to non-seismic design. Besides, model Type 2, the increment is around 0.24% to 1.22% and 0.20% to 1.71%, respectively. Otherwise, for reinforced concrete residential building with four storey on soil types B and D, the result shows that seismic design tends to have a higher structural work’s cost around 0.41% to 2.48% and 0.98% to 11.23%, respectively, for Type 1 model. Besides, for model Type 2 the increment is around 1.80% to 2.05% and 2.34% to 8.53%, respectively, compared to nonseismic design

Cost Estimation of Structural Work for Residential Building with Seismic Design Consideration

The Sumatra-Andaman earthquakes had triggered local earthquakes in Malaysia by reactivation of ancient inactive faults. Previously on 5th June 2015, Ranau, a region located in Sabah, Malaysia, had experienced a moderate earthquake of Mw6.1. The structural failures occurred because all existing buildings only designed for gravity load without any seismic provision. Recent research work exhibits the seismic designs’ impact on the cost of material and its parameters that impact the cost. There are two types reinforced concrete residential buildings called Type 1 and Type 2 for two storey and four storey which had been used as models. This research applied four seismicity levels to the reference peak ground acceleration value, αgR = 0.07g, 0.10g, 0.13g & 0.16g, and two soil types: Soil Types B and D. The result shows that for two storey reinforced concrete residential buildings on soil types B and D, seismic design increases structural work costs, which is around 0.62% to 1.31% and 0.61% to 2.16%, respectively, for Type 1 model compared to non-seismic design. Besides, model Type 2, the increment is around 0.24% to 1.22% and 0.20% to 1.71%, respectively. Otherwise, for reinforced concrete residential building with four storey on soil types B and D, the result shows that seismic design tends to have a higher structural work’s cost around 0.41% to 2.48% and 0.98% to 11.23%, respectively, for Type 1 model. Besides, for model Type 2 the increment is around 1.80% to 2.05% and 2.34% to 8.53%, respectively, compared to nonseismic design

Investigation on the effect of alkaline treatment on seaweed/ polypropylene (SW/PP) blend composites

Natural fibers are preferably used as a raw material in wood-plastic composites (WPC) due to their availability and low cost. However natural fibers composite need to be treated to enhance the properties before being used in the production of the composites. In this research, alkaline treatment was applied to the seaweed fibres. It is expected by alkaline treatment will improve the physical and mechanical properties of the seaweed/polypropylene (SW/PP) blend composites. The techniques used for making this composite are using extrusion and hot-pressing techniques. The results show that SW/PP composite after undergoing alkaline treatment has a low percentage of water absorption of the composites compared to untreated SW/PP composite. The greater value of melt flow resistance (MRF) in untreated SW/ PP composites shows the presence of waxy and cellulose elements and makes the composites easier to flow in the melt indexer. The tensile strength of composites is measured greater with a value 0.1944 MPa in treated SW/ PP composites compared to 0.1311 MPa in untreated SW/PP composites. Besides, the impact strength of the untreated SW/ PP composites measured low energy of 28.9910 J/m in contrast with the treated SW/PP composites that achieved a greater value of the energy 59.5800 J/m. The analysis of these data shows that alkaline treatment improves the properties of natural fibers in the composite

Influence of yarn parameters on cotton/kenaf blended yarn characteristics

Spinning kenaf fibers into yarns is challenging due to the stiffness and lack of cohesiveness of the fibers. Alkali treatment is known to remove hemicellulose, wax, and breaks down lignin, reducing stiffness of kenaf fiber and improving its spinnability. Kenaf fibers were treated at percentages of 4% and 6% and blended with cotton fibers at blend ratios of 40:60 and 50:50 prior to a ring spinning process to produce a double ply yarn of 70 tex. Yarn were twisted at three sets of twist. The responses were measured in terms of carding waste percentages and yarn strength. The results showed that the optimized yarn structural parameter is kenaf fiber treated at 6% and with a kenaf/cotton 40/60 blending ratio based on its tenacity and minimum carding waste. ANOVA shows that there is a good interaction effect between NaOH and kenaf/cotton ratio, and NaOH concentration and twist

Review of EEG and ERP studies of extraversion personality for baseline and cognitive tasks

According to psychological studies, the most fundamental personality is the extraversion personality. Most studies looking at differences between extroverts and introverts are pen and paper based studies. However, in a few studies, electrophysiological signals were involved. In this paper, we reviewed studies examining extraversion personality using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERP). It was found that some of the EEG studies claimed that extroverts and introverts can be differentiated using baseline EEG, while some others claimed otherwise. Conflicting findings were also observed in the ERP studies; higher/lower P300 amplitude in extroverts compared to that of introverts in visual stimuli tasks. These various findings are probably due to differences in their experimental protocols, sample size, or age of subjects. Other possible reasons include no consideration given on the main feature of extraversion and the studies only focused on EEG power spectral analysis. We are thus suggesting for future investigations to involve the main feature such as sociability and/or to incorporate more EEG features in the analysis to produce more robust and reliable results. This review constitutes a guidance for research on brain-related conditions of extroverts and introverts and shall be useful in many areas

Transformation towards risk-sensitive urban development : a systematic review of the issues and challenges

Risk-sensitive urban development is an innovative planning approach that can transform the way cities are built to face uncertainties that arise from climate-induced disaster risks. However, the potential to initiate such a transformative approach has not materialised due to many underlying issues that need to be understood properly. Therefore, this study conducted a systematic review to gather empirical evidence on the issues and challenges in implementing risk-sensitive urban development. The study identified forty-six issues and challenges under seven key themes that need addressing to facilitate the desirable transition: trade-offs, governance, fragmentation and silos, capacity, design and development, data, and funding. The issues and challenges that exist under trade-offs for negotiating solutions for risk-sensitive urban development and governance of multiple stakeholders were identified as the top two areas that need attention in facilitating the desirable transition. This study also revealed that important information such as scientific information, hazard and risk information, temporal and spatial information, and critical local details are not being produced and shared between stakeholders in decision-making. A profound participatory process that involves all the stakeholders in the decision-making process was identified as the pathway to ensure equitable outcomes in risk-sensitive urban development

A panel data approach towards the effectiveness of energy policies in fostering the implementation of solar photovoltaic technology: Empirical evidence for Asia-Pacific

Today, the growing Asia-Pacific population causes a dramatic growth in energy supply to meet energy demand. The rapid rise in energy demand is causing concern in the region. Thus, the present study scrutinizes the effect of energy policy involvement in steering-up renewable energy development by empirically assessing the role of policy instruments in encouraging residen-tial-scale and commercial-scale photovoltaic (PV) systems. The analysis is performed using a fixed effects estimator on a selected range of policy approaches (market-pull policies and tax incentives) and a technology-push policy (capital grants) in selected Asia-Pacific countries between 1998 and 2015. The return on investment is estimated to measure the incentives of feed-in tariff (FIT) tariff policies for both residential-scale and commercial-scale PV systems. This study has shown the im-portance of a strategic combination between technology-push and market-pull policies as comple-mentary to adopting technology and increasing renewable energy utilization for solar PV systems on a residential scale. Investigations into the effectiveness of regulatory support policies for solar PV systems indicate that energy policies are necessary to facilitate solar PV growth on a residential scale in the Asia-Pacific.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Deforestation awareness among the community living near mangroves in Mukim Tanjung Kupang, Johor, Malaysia

A study was carried out on the deforestation awareness among the community living nearest to Sungai Pulai mangrove forest under mukim (sub-district) Tanjung Kupang in Johor Bahru, Peninsular Malaysia. A Structured questionnaire was used to collect data on respondents’ socioeconomic condition, their familiarity to mangroves and awareness from six villages which have been selected randomly. Majority of the respondents were male, Malay, Muslim and from middle aged group. About 82% respondents had some level of education. Average household size was 5.5. About 71% respondents’ livelihoods were dependent on mangrove ecosystem of which 65% were fishermen, 5% aquaculture and 1% tourism. Mean monthly income of respondents was quite lower than national average income. Moreover, monthly average income of mangrove dependent group was lower than the non mangrove dependent group. About 93% of the respondents were somehow familiar to mangroves. Responden ts mean awareness score of 3.78 indicates respondents were aware about the mangroves. It was also found that male had significantly higher awareness than female for two out of ten awareness components. Likewise,mangrove dependent group had significantly higher awareness than the non- mangrove dependent group for six out of ten awareness components

Hollow-core photonic crystal fiber refractive index sensor based on modal interference

A refractive index sensor based modal interference in hollow core photonic crystal fiber (HCPCF) is proposed and demonstrated. The sensor is realized by splicing both ends of a HCPCF section to single mode fiber (SMF). At both splicing points, the HCPCF air holes are fully collapsed by the arc discharge. The collapsed regions excite and recombine core and cladding modes which formed modal interference for sensing purpose. The HCPCF sensor is tested in sugar solution and the response is measured from the wavelength shift in the interference spectra. The achieved sensitivity and resolution are 36.184 nm/RIU and 5.53-10-4 RIU, respectively, in refractive index range between 1.3330 and 1.3775. Result also shows that the sensor has a small temperature sensitivity of 19 pm/°C in the range of 35.5°C to 60.5 °C. The propos sensor potentially can be applied in biomedical, biological and chemical applications