Joyousmeeting event management system (Table of contents and abstract only)

This paper describes a new monitoring and event management concept. Event management is the application of the management science of project management to the creation and development of festivals and events. JoyousMeeting Event Management System lets clients and staffs register venues and events in a simple manner. From registering of venue to informing attendees, JoyousMeeting Event Management System simplifies the reservations process, enabling staff to operate at peak efficiency. And, when everyone is working together with complete, accurate, real-time information, customers receive the best possible service. Generally, the project is about registering venues by vendors for events like meeting, exhibition, convocation etc and for clients to book venue for events. The staff will exist in registering attendees for particular events and send emails days before the event as reminder. The design of the system was illustrated using several types of diagrams, namely Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD), Data Flow Diagram (DFD), and also Data Dictionary and Data Normalization. This project was written on VB.NET and ASP.NET. (Author's abstract

Spatio-temporal momentum: jointly learning time-series and cross-sectional strategies

The authors introduce spatio-temporal momentum strategies, a class of models that unify both time-series and cross-sectional momentum strategies by trading assets based on their cross-sectional momentum features over time. Although both time-series and cross-sectional momentum strategies are designed to systematically capture momentum risk premiums, these strategies are regarded as distinct implementations and do not consider the concurrent relationship and predictability between temporal and cross-sectional momentum features of different assets. They model spatio-temporal momentum with neural networks of varying complexities and demonstrate that a simple neural network with only a single fully connected layer learns to simultaneously generate trading signals for all assets in a portfolio by incorporating both their time-series and cross-sectional momentum features. Back testing on portfolios of 46 actively traded US equities and 12 equity index futures contracts, they demonstrate that the model is able to retain its performance over benchmarks in the presence of high transaction costs of up to 5–10 basis points. In particular, they find that the model when coupled with least absolute shrinkage and turnover regularization results in the best performance over various transaction cost scenarios

Diurnal attraction of fruit flies (diptera: tephritidae) to methyl eugenol in a village ecosystem in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, Malaysia

Diurnal rhythm of male Bactrocera fruit fly attraction to methyl eugenol (ME) was investigated using clear traps design in a village ecosystem in Tanjung Bungah, Penang, Malaysia. The diurnal rhythm pattern studied by half-hourly sampling from 07:00 to 18:00 hr showed significant male fruit fly attraction to ME in the morning from 07:30 to 09:30 hr, with a distinct peak at 08:30-09:00 hr. The male attraction to ME was significantly lower in the afternoon and remained low approaching late afternoon. The ME-responding fruit fly species captured were B. dorsalis (86%), which dominated the local Bactrocera community, followed by B. umbrosa (5.8%) and B. carambolae (0.1%). This showed that B. dorsalis is a more dominant species than its sibling species, B. carambolae in the area studied. In addition, ca. 8.1% of Bactrocera male flies that bore intermediate morphological characteristics between B. dorsalis and B. carambolae were also captured in those traps. The present study shows that for ME-responding Bactrocera spp., male attraction to ME occurs throughout the day with peak period of attraction to ME occurring ca. 30 mins following sunrise for 2 hrs before gradually tapering off

Time domain computational modelling of 1D arterial networks in monochorionic placentas

Published versio

Thesis, Characterization And Performance Of Zeolite A Membrane For The Recovery Of Alcohol From Alcohol-Water Mixture Using Pervaporation Process

The separation performance of the commercial ceramic membrane and selfsynthesized zeolite A membrane was studied for the recovery of alcohol from alcohol-water mixture using pervaporation method. Zeolite A membrane was synthesized on �-alumina tubular and disc-shaped supports using the microwave synthesis method. The seeding effect on the membrane synthesis was investigated. The synthesized zeolite membranes were characterized by XRD (structure), SEM (membrane thickness) and TGA (thermal stability). Pervaporation experiments at different operating conditions were conducted to evaluate the membrane separation performance. The results showed that the performance for the membrane synthesized with seeding was much better than those synthesized without seeding

GOLD NANOPARTICLES INTERNALIZATION AFFECTS VIABILITY AND LIVER FUNCTIONS OF PRIMARY RAT HEPATOCYTES

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN

An Error Analysis of Orthographic Representation in Written Chinese Characters

This paper reports an error analysis of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters among Mandarin as foreign language (MFL) learners studying at an elementary level at a Malaysian public university in their dictation assessment. A total of 262 stroke error types of their orthographic representation in written Chinese characters were collected and analysed. The errors were consequently classified into four main categories among 165 MFL learners who took part in the study. The study found that participants made most mistakes in the stroke numbers and shape of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters. It was also found that there were detectable mistakes in stroke relation and stroke direction of orthographic representation in written Chinese characters. The cognitive factors contributing to the orthographic representation error types in written Chinese characters are discussed. It is concluded that beginner MFL learners would have a greater tendency to commit several character errors in writing Mandarin because of their low level of orthographic awareness and presumably a high cognitive load given to them as they transit from writing alphabets scripts to writing Chinese characters. Future research could examine how MFL learners cognitively adapt when transitioning from alphabet scripts to Chinese characters. Findings would guide instructors in the teaching Chinese characters more efficient and subsequently, it would allow them to interpret orthographic representations and write Chinese characters more accurately

The effects of elicitors and precursor on in vitro cultures of Sauropus androgynus for sustainable metabolite production and antioxidant capacity improvement

Sauropus androgynus, commonly known as ‘sweet shoot’ is an underutilized crop known for its high nutritive values and medicinal properties. To date, scientific studies assessing the potentially important benefits of sweet shoot for use as medicinal plants are still limited, with only six studies reporting on in vitro propagation and nine articles describing the production of secondary metabolites. The present study revealed that shadehouse-grown plants contained a low yield of bioactive phytochemicals, such as phenolic (61.20 µg/10g FW), flavonoid (193.62 µg/10g FW), naringenin (128.01 µg/10g FW), quercetin (1.56 µg/10g FW) and kaempferol (274.85 µg/10g FW). Moreover, it also had very low antioxidant activity in DPPH (54.03%) and FRAP (397.56 µg/10g FW) assay. The elicitation of cultured tissues is therefore necessary to improve the production of phytochemical compounds and to increase the antioxidant capacity in sweet shoot. In this study, four different types of cultured tissues (in vitro shoot cultures, light-induced callus, dark-induced callus and somatic embryos) were selected to achieve this goal, followed by the extraction of phytochemicals from these cultured tissues treated with elicitors and precursor for better production of phytochemicals. For in vitro shoot induction, nodal explants cultured on semi-solid MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/l 6-benzylaminopurine (BAP) and 0.5 mg/l indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) produced the highest number of shoots (7 shoots per explant) with longer shoot length (5.74 cm). For light-induced callus induction, leaf explants grown in illuminated conditions with semi-solid MS medium enriched with 2.0 mg/l α-naphthalene acetic acid (NAA) and 1.0 mg/l kinetin showed good proliferation from the leaf explants (71.67%) with the highest callus fresh weight (4.53 g) and highest callus expansion rate (18.50 cm2). Likewise, leaf explants induced in dark condition on semi-solid MS medium containing similar hormone composition, also displayed the highest callus fresh weight of 4.54 g and callus expansion rate of 13.85 cm2. Three-month-old dark-induced callus were transferred onto liquid MS medium fortified with a different concentration of NAA and kinetin to further induce somatic embryos. After three weeks of callus inoculation, as high as 83.33% of embryogenic cell cultures achieved its maximum density of 5.2 ml in liquid MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/l NAA and 1.0 mg/l kinetin. In histodifferentiation medium (liquid MS medium containing 1.0 mg/l NAA and 0.5 mg/l kinetin), a mean number of 15.60, 14.80 and 13.20 embryos per g callus of globular, heart-shaped and torpedo-shaped embryos developed respectively after 9 weeks of embryo induction. The torpedo-shaped embryos were then inoculated into hormone-free MS medium and 90% of these embryos successfully differentiated into cotyledonary embryos after 3 weeks of maturation. These results showed a complete ontogeny of sweet shoot somatic embryo from the globular stage to heart-shaped, torpedo-shaped and cotyledonary stage. After two months of shoot initiation on MS medium supplemented with 2.0 mg/l BAP and 0.5 mg/l IAA, a relatively high percentage (>75%) of shoot proliferation occurred from nodal derived shoot (6.74 shoots per explant), light-induced callus (6.23 shoots per callus) and somatic embryos (6.45 shoots per embryo) of sweet shoot. These well proliferated shoots were then subjected to root initiation in half strength MS medium containing 1.0 mg/l IAA and high percentage of root formation was successfully achieved in 90% of the plantlets after 10 days of culture. For hardening off, the rooted plantlets were transferred to culture jars containing purified water and maintained at ambient conditions for one month. High survival rate (>76.67%) was achieved in perlite:compost mixture (1:1) after one month of acclimatization in shadehouse. To enhance the production of phytochemicals and antioxidant capacity in tissue cultures of sweet shoot, elicitor and precursor treatments served as alternative methods in influencing the biosynthetic pathway for the accumulation of phytochemicals. In this study, shadehouse-grown plants and cultured tissues of sweet shoot were treated individually with different concentrations of methyl jasmonate (MJ), salicylic acid (SA) and phenylalanine (Phe) for a treatment period of 3 weeks. Light-induced callus culture produced the highest amount of phenolic and flavonoid compounds amongst the tested plant samples with those treated with Phe producing the highest antioxidants, followed by MJ and SA. After 3 weeks of Phe treatment at 20 mg/l, the highest levels of total phenolic (246.62 µg/10g FW), total flavonoid (636.26 µg/10g FW), naringenin (12081.05 µg/10g FW), quercetin (134.36 µg/10g FW), kaempferol (11325.13 µg/10g FW) and antioxidant activities (97.35% for DPPH and 5941.66 µg/10g FW for FRAP assay) were detected in light-induced callus cultures of sweet shoot. Since phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and chalcone synthase (CHS) were the key enzymes for the biosynthesis of phenolics and flavonoids, both enzymatic activities were also measured in light-induced callus cultures treated with Phe. The highest PAL (101.18 mmol CA/g FW) and CHS (14.49 nkat/mg protein) enzymatic activities were also attained in light-induced callus cultures fed with 20 mg/l of Phe at week 3. Light-induced callus cultures treated with Phe produced the highest amounts of phytochemicals, antioxidant capacity and enzymatic activities, and these results were chosen to undergo Pearson’s correlation coefficient analysis, which verified the positive co-relationship seen between all of the above-mentioned parameters. These findings showed that the addition of Phe enhanced the enzymatic activities in the phenylpropanoid pathway and increased the concentrations of phenolic and flavonoid compounds (naringenin, quercetin, kaempferol) which in turn contributed to the increase in antioxidant activities in light-induced callus cultures of sweet shoot. Data from this study showed that sweet shoot has the potential to be developed as a plant-based antioxidant for the pharmaceutical industry. Additionally, this study is the first to report on the complete ontogeny of sweet shoot and the positive effects of elicitation in tissue cultures of sweet shoot

A Systematic Functional Linguistics Writing Approach in an Online Mandarin as a Foreign Language Course

Guided writing instruction is a widely used scaffolding strategy. Nevertheless, most of the Mandarin as a Foreign Language (MFL) students have struggled with their guided writing essays. All the information in the guided writing essay is presented in the form of keywords. Initially, the students were still unsure what to write about using the keywords provided and they were unsure where to begin writing, especially in an online MFL course. This study aims to investigate the adapted Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) writing approach to guided writing instruction in an online MFL communicative course. Whiteboard.fi is used as an online tool to guide the students throughout the writing process. The SFL writing approach includes three categories of language aspects relevant to meaning-making that are organised step by step: ideational, interpersonal, and textual. A single group experimental design was used for the pre-test and post-test. This study includes twenty MFL students from a UNIMAS intermediate level MFL classroom in the first semester of the 2020/2021 academic year. The results of the pre-test and post-test have been analysed and three writing samples have been chosen for in-depth analysis. The quantitative results showed that the experimental group showed a significant and positive effect on their writing performance. The qualitative results revealed that there was a wide range of sentence patterns, grammar, and logical sequence of ideas in writing in the post-test when compared to the pre-test. The adapted SFL writing approach and the integration of Whiteboard.fi as an online tool are effective in improving students' writing competence and scaffolding their generation of writing ideas in an online MFL communicative course