Protecting cross border online purchasers: analysis of Malaysian law / Siti Nurlina Mohd Sallehhudin ... [et al.]

The aim of this research is to develop a set of recommendations to protect cross border online purchasers who purchased goods from vendors in Malaysia. This research is motivated by the fact that cross border online purchasers are still vulnerable due to lack of special protection accorded to them. This research deals with five main issues commonly faced by cross-border online purchasers i.e. non-delivery of goods, late delivery of goods, goods that are unfit for a particular purpose, goods which are of non-merchantable quality and misleading of advertisement. Being a legal research, the methodology used in this research is purely qualitative , whereby primary legal sources such as statutes and case laws have been collected for the purpose of answering the two-tier research questions. This research analyses the relevant laws in Malaysia such as Contracts Act 1950, Electronic Commerce Act 2006, Consumer Protection Act 1999 and Sales of Goods Act 1957. In addition, this research also looks into the law of other countries i.e. the United States and the European Union. The findings from the legal and case analysis have been used as an input to develop a set of recommendations to protect cross border online purchasers who purchased goods from vendors in Malaysia. The recommendations contain both the substantive and procedural aspects of the law that can be used as a reference to develop a legal protection mechanism for cross-border online purchasers who purchased goods from vendors in Malaysia

Study on effects of surface modification on poly(Methyl Methacrylate) (PMMA) surface / Wan Nurlina Wan Yahya

This report presents study on photochemical and wet chemical surface modifications of poly(methy methacrylate) (PMMA) by means of UV (ultraviolet) irradiation and NaOH (sodium hydroxide), respectively. The PMMA solid substrate was prepared by PMMA solution casting on glass wafer resulting in PMMA thin films and commercial PMMA sheets. Both kinds of solid substrate were subjected to two different surface modifications techniques so as to yield carboxylic acid groups that enhanced PMMA surface hydrophilicity. The changes of surface properties of PMMA upon modifications were studied by non-spectral analyses which were contact angle measurement and Toiludine Blue (TB) assay. The findings reveal that both modifications techniques had increased the contact angle value by showing more hydrophobic water drop. On top of that, no carboxyl functional group was produced as confirmed by chemical surface analysis, TB. Considering the various factors, the increasing hydrophobicity is primarily due to surface roughness either pre- or post-treatment. Hence, spectral analysis is strongly recommended to verify each step of modifications in a more precise and accurate manner

Design and numerical analysis of interdigitated radiating-strips electrode for uniform 3D dielectrophoretic patterning of liver cells

This paper presents the design and numerical analysis of a new three-dimensional (3D) electrode having a non-uniform electric field gradient for dielectrophoretic patterning of liver cells. The strength of the dielectrophoresis (DEP) force is influenced by the gradient of electric field generated by the electrode. The new design of the 3D electrode with two different electrode configurations were first modelled and simulated using COMSOL Multiphysics. Results show that the electrical field distribution of vertical configuration concentrated only on the end strips and decays progressively towards the centre while the horizontal configuration shows a more uniform electric field distribution with minimal decrease of the electric field towards the centre. Besides, the horizontal configuration offered 2.7 times higher of the electrical field strength to establish the 3D DEP force hence the 3D cellular pattern. Thus, the electrode with the horizontal configuration has been proposed and optimized to be fabricated for the cell patterning application later on. The optimum electrode dimension identified in this work was 20 µm: 50 µm (gap: height) with a 20 µm electrode width that generates a maximum value of 1.06 × 106 V/m with a voltage set at 5 V. Increasing voltage leads to a stronger electric field and more DEP force would be imposed on the cells. This findings support that the unique design of the 3D electrode can further be used for dielectrophoretic-based patterning mechanism specifically for the complex liver tissue engineering. © 2018, Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature