Finite element analysis of bioscrew fixation in ACL reconstruction / Ahmad Zainalabidin Zolkepli

Bio-screw is an interference screw used in Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) reconstruction. ACL reconstruction is a process of replacing the broken ACL with a graft made from soft tissue from the other parts of human body. The screw is used to fix the graft in the tunnel. Bio-screw is a screw made from bio-absorbable material that is Poly-L Lactide Acid (PLLA). It replace the use of metal interference screw for its bioabsorbable properties and the strength it posses. However, its capability to fix the graft to the femoral tunnel is questioned by the clinical. Thus, experimental study had been done to answer it. In this project, the mechanical behavior of samples of screws with different diameters and lengths in the bone tunnel with respect to the ACL reconstruction is studied. In spite using experimental study, finite element modeling is used to study the behavior. The distal femur and the bio-screw is remodeled using computer aided design (CAD) software and the stress distribution between the screw and the bone tunnel is obtained using the finite element software. In this project, a tensile force of 200 N is used as the loading conditions because it is the approximation of the graft tension at full extension of the knee during gait. It is found that the maximum Von Mises stress occurs on the tunnel is 29 MPa which is far away from the bone's yield strength that is 182 MPa. The maximum Von Mises stress occurs on the screw is 15.5 MPa which is also far from the screw's yield strength that is 26 MPa. The maximum deformation occurs on the screw caused by the 200 N tensile force is recorded to be 0.021 which is too small. It can be concluded that the bio-screw is capable to fix the graft in the tunnel. Further study using different contact condition is suggested to clarify the effects of bio-screw in the tunne

Desulphurization of Model Oil using Immobilized [BMIM]FeCL. onto Polysulfone (PSF)

Final Dissertation of the experiment "Desulphurization of Model Oil using Immobilized [BMIM]FeCl4 onto Polysulfone (PSF)" is the requirement of complementation of Final Year Project 2. Desulphurization has become one the important criteria that need to be concentrated especially in oil industries. Other than the conventional Hydrodesulphurization, many methods and alternatives have been discovered and yet to be discovered on order to cater the advance technology of Chemical Engineering, as well as the quality of the existing crude oil throughout the world One of the major methods is desulphurization using ionic liquids. Ionic liquid is a new technology that can help to improve the quality of desulphurization due to its nature and jUnction. [BMIM}FeCl4 has been found out that it is the most suitable ionic liquid to desulphurize model oil. However, a limitation occurs as the ionic liquid exists in liquid form which later will cause a problem in doing the Liquid-Liquid Extraction. Thus, a new method is required to overcome this problem, which is the immobilization technique, Spraying Suspension Dispersion (SSD). SSD can immobilize any ionic liquid onto a solid structure, such as [BMIM]FeC14 onto Polysulfone (PSF). It works by dissolving the [BMIM]FeCl4 together with PSF using dichloromethane and later they are sprayed into water solution. The water will wash away dichloromethane and as a result, droplets of PSF with [BMIM]FeCl4 onto it are produced These droplets will solidifY and become a solid compound. The results from characterization has proven that [BMIM]FeCl4 has been successfitlly hooked onto PSF. The desulphurization results also have shown that the immobilized [BMIM]FeCl4 can still remove sulphur from model oil. Thus, this is a new method of desulphurization that engineers can go into and study into details

Atribut sistem penilaian prestasi dengan kepuasan kerja dalam kalangan guru

Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti atribut Sistem Penilaian Prestasi dengan kepuasan kerja guru sekolah kebangsaan di negeri Perlis. Kajian ini meninjau hubungan antara pemboleh ubah atribut Sistem Penilaian Prestasi dengan kepuasan kerja guru. Sejumlah 107 orang guru telah dipilih sebagai responden kajian. Atribut Sistem Penilaian Prestasi (ASPP) terdiri daripada enam pemboleh ubah tidak bersandar iaitu keadilan sistem, kejelasan sistem, kawalan kriteria penilaian, penyertaan guru dalam sistem penilaian, pengendalian sistem penilaian dan kredibiliti penilai dengan pemboleh ubah bersandar iaitu kepuasan kerja guru. Instrumen kajian ini mengandungi sejumlah 26 item yang diadaptasi daripada instrumen Kelly, Ang, Chong dan Hu (2008). Data yang dikumpul dianalisis dengan menggunakan SPSS versi 12.0 melalui ujian korelasi Pearson. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan hubungan positif yang signifikan antara atribut Sistem Penilaian Prestasi iaitu keadilan sistem, kejelasan sistem, kawalan kriteria penilaian, pengendalian sistem penilaian dan kredibiliti penilai dengan kepuasan kerja guru-guru kebangsaan di negeri Perlis. Namun, terdapat satu pemboleh ubah yang tidak mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan kepuasan kerja guru iaitu penyertaan guru-guru dalam sistem penilaian prestasi. Dapatan kajian ini memberikan input kepada pihak pentadbir sekolah kebangsaan tentang tingkah laku guru-guru terhadap penilaian prestasi dan bagaimana hubungan pelbagai atribut Sistem Penilaian Prestasi dengan kepuasan kerja. Setiap individu mengharapkan Sistem Penilaian Prestasi yang dilaksanakan adil dan telus. Melalui kajian ini, terbukti bahawa keadilan merupakan perkara yang perlu dititikberatkan dalam pengendalian Sistem Penilaian Prestasi

Kelestarian kualiti perkhidmatan ekopelancongan: aplikasi model analisa ‘Gap’ bagi memahami kepuasan pelancong zoo Malaysia

Sektor ekopelancongan di Malaysia dilihat semakin hari semakin mendapat sambutan pelancong tempatan dan antarabangsa. Keprihatinan terhadap kelestarian alam sekitar telah membuatkan sektor ekopelancongan mendapat tempat dihati pelancong yang mahu melihat kestabilan ekosistem dan kelestarian sejagat dicapai selaras dengan kemajuan sektor pelancongan tersebut. Bagi memastikan kejayaan digapai, pengusaha destinasi ekopelancongan perlu mengambil peranan dan turut bertanggungjawab terhadap keseluruhan kualiti perkhidmatan yang disediakan terutamanya dari segi pengurusan, penyelenggaraan, infrastruktur dan aktiviti pemasaran. Tanpa perlaksanaan dan pemantauan yang baik, pengunjung tidak akan dapat menikmati kepuasan secara holistik. Kelestarian dalam sektor pelancongan amnya dan ekopelancongan khasnya adalah penting untuk menjamin kehadiran pelancong secara berterusan. Oleh yang demikian, kajian ini dicorak untuk menganalisa kualiti perkhidmatan (SERVQUAL) destinasi ekopelancongan di Malaysia dengan melihat pada perbezaan yang wujud di antara jurang persepsi dan jangkaan pelancong dengan mengaplikasikan ‘Gap Analysis Model’. Kepuasan pelancong dikaji menggunakan item penilaian persepsi dan jangkaan berdasarkan 5 dimensi SERVQUAL. Dimensi yang diukur melalui skor item persepsi dan jangkaan telah menunjukkan bahawa pelancong mencapai tahap kepuasan dengan nilai jurang -0.731, yang memberi indikasi bahawa kepuasan terhadap kualiti perkhidmatan adalah pada tahap yang baik. Dapatan kajian melalui ‘Gap Analysis Model’ ini adalah penting untuk mengenal pasti jenis kualiti perkhidmatan yang berada pada tahap kritikal dan perlu diperbaiki oleh pengusaha destinasi ekopelancongan agar kelestarian sektor pelancongan terutamanya ekopelancongan dapat dilaksanakan secara tuntas

Structural, magnetic and electrical properties of barium titanate and magnesium ferrite composites

Structural, magnetic and electrical characteristics of multiferroics (1-x)BaTiO3-xMgFe2O4 composites with weight fractions of x = 0.3, 0.5 and 0.7 are reported. MgFe2O4 powders were prepared using sol-gel auto combustion technique. It was combined with commercial BaTiO3 to form composites by using wet milling solid state reaction technique. Formation of tetragonal perovskite for the ferroelectric BaTiO3 and cubic spinel for the ferrimagnetic MgFe2O4 phases, were identified from the XRD pattern. The average grain size for each composite was about 0.5 μm. The M-H loop showed soft ferrimagnetic properties due to the presence of MgFe2O4 in the composites. The increment of the MgFe2O4 weight fraction increased the saturation magnetization and slightly changed the coercive field. The complex impedance plot can be represented by a parallel R and C circuit. Composite sample with x = 0.5 has the highest resistance with lowest capacitance and dielectric constant value at room temperature. The dielectric constant showed a very strong dispersion at low frequencies, due to the Maxwell-Wagner mechanism and a slight dispersion at higher frequencies. Based on the results obtained, all of the composite samples exhibited high dielectric constant and tangent loss at the low frequency range

Generation Y As Organ Donor: Informational And Supportive Influence Of Socialization Agents On Attitude Towards Organ Donation

Organ donation is a health issue which involves a process of an individual freely giving consent to donate organs or tissue for very ill or dying recipients. In Malaysia, the notion of organ donation has been facilitated by many government authorities since 1970s. However, recent statistics show that the number of patients requiring donated organs far outnumbers the donors. The unwillingness to donate is commonly associated with spiritual beliefs, myths, misunderstanding, lack of knowledge and lack of trust. Most of the studies conducted in Malaysia highlighted the reasons impeding Malaysians to become donors rather than looking at the aspect of communication that influences the attitude of the potential organ donor. Thus, this study is designed to focus on the values and norms which are commonly transmitted by the socialization agents that consist of parents, peers, educational institution, traditional mass media and new media, which are presumed to have significant effects on behaviour development of the potential donor towards organ donation. Particularly, this research attempted to examine the influence of these socialization agents on Generation Y’s attitude formation towards organ donation. Generation Y was selected based on the conclusion made by previous scholars that this group of individuals is at the stage of discovering themselves on how to fit into society and the social world, where they mostly consume ideas from their socialization agents to achieve their life goals. The study employed quantitative method using survey questionnaire. Individuals were chosen based on non-probability sampling and the age range was between 18-24 years old. The socialization agents were measured in terms of informational and supportive influence. The findings of this study indicated that the supportive influence from all the agents of socialization affected the attitude of Generation Y and parents appeared as the most influential agent. However, their attitude was negatively correlated with the intention to sign up as an organ donor. The implications for social marketers were also discussed

Mobile consumer behaviour on apps usage: The effects of perceived values, rating, and cost

The rapid development of technology and the use of smartphones and mobile applications (apps) have become significant and influential in today’s living. Despite the growing amount of research on mobile app usage, little is known on the role they play in shaping the behaviour of the mobile consumer. By deploying the framework, this study revises Sheth’s fundamental propositions of consumption values. While the fit of values has been recognised by many behavioural studies, insight into the theoretical interface in the mobile communication studies remains unsubstantiated. Therefore, this study explores the perceived consumption values on mobile apps behaviour and investigates the role of the rating of the apps and cost in influencing the behaviour. A total of 392 questionnaires were collected through an online survey with 9 hypotheses examined. The analysis of the structural equation modelling determined a final model with four significant factors (functional, social, emotional, and conditional values). It confirmed that the usage is influenced by the apps rating and cost towards a certain degree. This study indicates the potential significance variables in mobile consumer literature and sheds light on mobile communication marketing in the area of apps marketing, specifically in designing an effective user-experience (UX) apps for mobile consumers

Uncovering psychological gratifications affecting social media utilization : a multiblock hierarchical analysis

The purpose of this study is to examine internet users’ experience and gratifications of social media, which affect the utilization of the medium. The research model was developed in hierarchical multiblock, which consists of three key psychological components–personal, tension release, and social–that are derived from the Uses and Gratifications theoretical perspective. Data were collected through stratified probability sampling of 428 social media users using a web-based questionnaire. They were selected because they spend a significant amount of time on social media sites, at least on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram. Based on hierarchical multiblock PLS analysis, the results confirmed that social media utilization is affected by three key component psychological factors. All of these factors play a significant part in influencing user attitude toward utilizing social media. The findings are believed to increase understanding, especially for user-experience designers (UXD) concerning venues that can be used for direct targeting in designing social media marketing. The implications and recommendations for future research are discussed

Desulphurization of Model Oil using Immobilized [BMIM]FeCl4 onto Polysulfone (PSF)

Final Dissertation of the experiment “Desulphurization of Model Oil using Immobilized [BMIM]FeCl4 onto Polysulfone (PSF)” is the requirement of complementation of Final Year Project 2. Desulphurization has become one the important criteria that need to be concentrated especially in oil industries. Other than the conventional Hydrodesulphurization, many methods and alternatives have been discovered and yet to be discovered on order to cater the advance technology of Chemical Engineering, as well as the quality of the existing crude oil throughout the world. One of the major methods is desulphurization using ionic liquids. Ionic liquid is a new technology that can help to improve the quality of desulphurization due to its nature and function. [BMIM}FeCl4 has been found out that it is the most suitable ionic liquid to desulphurize model oil. However, a limitation occurs as the ionic liquid exists in liquid form which later will cause a problem in doing the Liquid-Liquid Extraction. Thus, a new method is required to overcome this problem, which is the immobilization technique, Spraying Suspension Dispersion (SSD). SSD can immobilize any ionic liquid onto a solid structure, such as [BMIM]FeCl4 onto Polysulfone (PSF). It works by dissolving the [BMIM]FeCl4 together with PSF using dichloromethane and later they are sprayed into water solution. The water will wash away dichloromethane and as a result, droplets of PSF with [BMIM]FeCl4 onto it are produced. These droplets will solidify and become a solid compound. The results from characterization has proven that [BMIM]FeCl4 has been successfully hooked onto PSF. The desulphurization results also have shown that the immobilized [BMIM]FeCl4 can still remove sulphur from model oil. Thus, this is a new method of desulphurization that engineers can go into and study into details