Dynamic leveling control of a wireless self-balancing ROV using fuzzy logic controller

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is essentially an underwater mobile robot that is controlled and powered by an operator outside of the robot working environment. Like any other marine vehicle, ROV has to be designed to float in the water where its mass is supported by the buoyancy forces due to the displacement of water by its hull. Vertically positioning a mini ROV in centimetres resolution underwater and maintaining that state requires a distinctive technique partly because of the pressure and buoyancy exerted by the water towards the hull and partly because of the random waves produced by the water itself. That being said, the aim of the project is to design and develop a wireless self-balancing buoyancy system of a mini ROV using fuzzy logic controller. A liquid level sensor has been implemented to provide feedback to the Arduino microcontroller. A user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) has been developed for real-time data monitoring as well as controlling the vertical position of the ROV. At the end of the project, the implemented fuzzy control system shows enhanced and better performance when compared with one without a controller, a proportional-derivative (PD) controller, and a proportionalintegral-derivative (PID) controller

Development of hybrid force-position controller for ultrasound-guided breast biopsy robotic system

Conventional ultrasound-guided breast biopsy (UGBB) procedure is commonly performed to assess abnormal masses within the breast. It requires a radiologist to handle multiple devices at once, which could reduce the abilities in performing such procedure resulting in radiologist’s fatigue, compromised breast tissue due to multiple insertions and susceptibilities to pneumothorax complication for the patient. Previous studies have reported that many of the restrictions associated with handheld minimally invasive methods were tackled when physician assist instruments were used. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to assist radiologist in conventional UGBB procedure by introducing a semi-automated robotic system to maintain desired contact force between the ultrasound transducer and the breast. For that reason, a hybrid force/position controlled UGBB robotic system has been developed in simulation environment. The UGBB robotic system involves a 5 degree of freedom (DOF) articulated robot arm to control the transducer movement, a force/torque (F/T) sensor system to measure the contact force, an ultrasound machine to view the inside structure of the breast tissue and a computer-based control system. As such, the RV-2AJ robotic arm has been modelled with its positional accuracy of almost 100%. A breast model based on a medical grade breast phantom has been established with a mean error of 0.69% by using black-box modelling approach. Motion disturbance from human respiration has been explored as well since it plays a significant element that would affect the stability of the system to constantly maintain low contact force on the breast.Finally, intelligent Fuzzy-PID hybrid force/position controller has been successfully established to maintain low contact force on identified breast stiffness characteristics. The overall hardware-based simulation shows promising outcomes with almost no overshoot, fast rise time, high robustness and stability on different environment condition. In conclusion, the success of this work serves as significant foundations for long-term related research, especially in the development of UGBB robotic system and approaches of force control mainly for human-robot interaction

Tahap kepuasan bekerja dan motivasi kerja di kalangan pekerja industri pelancongan

Kajian ini berkaitan dengan tahap Kepuasan Bekeija dan Motivasi di kalangan pekeija di dalam Industri Pelancongan yang berbentuk kajian deskriptif. Teori Kepuasan Bekeija dan Teori Motivasi Herzberg telah digunakan sebagai asas kepada kajian ini. Dua agensi telah diambil sebagai tempat kajian. Sampel telah diambil dari keseluruhan populasi untuk pengumpulan data. Borang soal selidik digunakan sebagai instrumen untuk pengumpulan data. Kajian ini menggunakan perisian Microsoft Excel untuk analisis data. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan skor min kepuasan bekeija berada di tahap sederhana (min = 2.97). Melalui kajian yang dijalankan pengkaji mendapati keadaan penyelenggaraan memperolehi tahap kepuasan yang rendah. Oleh itu beberapa cadangan telah diusulkan untuk memperbaiki tahap yang lemah ini

Effectiveness of libraries in supporting researchers' information needs: The impact of a digital library

As one of the supporting departments of a university, the academic library plays a vital role in providing essential information resources and services to the researchers. Changes in information technology have impacted libraries due to change in the format of information resources and the information seeking behavior of users. Technology has transformed the way researchers seek, obtain and use information. Libraries therefore need to critically examine their effectiveness and continuously support researchers in fulfilling their research needs. Research has been conducted at an academic library that is moving towards transforming traditional services to a highly digital environment. The fruition of this idea is blooming into reality with the almost completed research wing of the library. In preparation of ensuring suitable and relevant research information, the research analyzed the effect and impact of digital information services existing so far. Moving from here the research hopes to further enhance facilities, services and training with special focus on academic clientele. Research results will be discussed in the course of this paper’s discussion. Amongst factors studied are the relationship between demographic characteristics and the perceived effectiveness of library services among researchers

DETERMINANTS OF STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Final examination results of Management Accounting in November 2009 were found to be poor with the failure rate of more than 40 percent. This triggers the question of what factors that may contributes to the failure. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate empirically factors that may affect the poor performance of 44 students of Management Accounting from two programmes that are Diploma in Accountancy (AC110) and Diploma in Accounting Information System (AC120) in UiTM Perlis. Multiple regression was estimated using Ordinary Least Square in testing the significance of gender, program, prerequisite fulfilment, previous GPA, absenteeism, hours of attending early topics in Management Accounting, and part of studies. Results showed the number of hours attending lecture for early topics in Management Accounting and pre GPA are positively and significantly related to the score of management Accounting. On the other hand, absenteeism and students in higher parts are significantly and negatively associated with the score. The estimated results also indicated that students from AC110 performed significantly better than those in AC120. In addition students that fulfilled prerequisite costing paper performed much better than those who took the papers concurrently. The findings imply that prerequisite provide students with minimum level of understanding, thus create better chances of accomplishmentManagement accounting, prerequisite, academic performance

Development of a Travel Advisory Expert System for Ecotourism Sites in Malaysia

This research concerns with the establishment of a Traveling Advisor in which the main inclusion is the ecotourism sites offered to tourists.Thereby,LetsTravel provides an online traveling advisor in accordance with tourists demand.The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive Expert System (ES) as a traveling advisor that could be used as an aid in giving advice on travel to tourists.This system also advises them on the best way to travel within Malaysia and provides assistance in planning such travel.The advice given is based on their entry point, destinations, preferred activities at ecotourism sites, duration of visit at each site and the duration of stay.Apart from advising tourists about their journey, this system also provides general information about the states, roads and ecotourism sites in Malaysia.This travel route assistant was developed for online assessment.The combination of web server software, middleware and database package has everything required by all possible users of the system. This expert system was developed by using the Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Version 6.0 software, ASP as the server language,VBScript as the coding language and Microsoft Access as the database.This system was uploaded onto the server, and it was successfully implemented and tested as an online system.From the system validation stage, it was evident that tourists can use this system advisor in planning their journey effectivel

An assessment of the effectiveness of library resources and services in supporting researchers' information needs

As one of the supporting departments of a university, the academic library plays an important role in providing essential information resources and services to the researchers. Changes in information technology have impacted libraries due to changes in the format of information resources and the information seeking behavior of users. Technology has transformed the way researchers seek, obtain and use information. Libraries therefore need to critically examine the effectiveness of their services in fulfilling their researchers‟ information needs. An assessment of the effectiveness of library services has been conducted at an academic library based on selected criteria in four domains stated in the literature; 1) resources 2) services 3) library/stakeholders interactions and 4) access. The result from the survey has provided ideas about the strengths and the weaknesses of the library services from the perspective of researchers

Social Entrepreneurial Intention among Business Undergraduates: An Emerging Economy Perspective

Social entrepreneurs are viewed as having the abilities to combat social and economic problems in which government, businesses, and non-profits may not be able to solve the problems alone. Consequently, with the collaboration among these sectors, more social enterprises can be established to create social values and development in a nation, specifically among the emerging economies. Therefore, it is timely to investigate what motivates undergraduates to develop social entrepreneurial intention. Drawing from the entrepreneurial models of Shapero and Sokol (1982) and Kruger and Brazeal (1994), this study aims to examine the social entrepreneurial intention among undergraduates from the perspective of an emerging economy. The proposed conceptual model differs from the existing entrepreneurial intention studies by adding the concepts of empathy and social entrepreneurship exposure as the antecedents to perceived desirability and perceived feasibility of social enterprising start-up, which in turn link to social entrepreneurial intention. Using the quota sampling technique, data were collected from 257 business and economics undergraduates from both public and private higher education institutions in Malaysia. The survey instrument was adapted from prior related studies, for instance, Davis (1983) for empathy; Shapero and Sokol (1982) for social entrepreneurship exposure; Krueger (1993) for perceived desirability and perceived feasibility; and Chen et al. (1998) for social entrepreneurial intention. Partial least squares path modelling was used to analyze the hypothesized relationships in the proposed conceptual framework. It is hoped that the findings of this study will shed light on the existing literature of social entrepreneurship, specifically the social entrepreneurial intention studies from the emerging economies perspective.   

An observstion of the caesarean section rate at a teaching hospital in Johannesburg

Background In 1985, the WHO stated: “There is no justification for any region to have caesarean section rates higher than 10-15%”. Almost three decades later, the optimal caesarean delivery rate remains a topic of controversy in the developed and developing worlds. Caesarean births are on the rise globally. Although caesarean sections have a crucial lifesaving role in modern day obstetrics and are safer than ever before, they still remain a major surgical intervention that is not without risk. This is particularly prudent to South Africa where obstetric haemorrhage, most importantly bleeding at or after caesarean section, is the commonest direct cause of maternal death. Therefore, in the South African setting, minimising caesarean delivery is an essential strategy to reduce maternal mortality. Caesarean section audits are an important tool to understand and make recommendations for a possible reduction in caesarean delivery rates. The Robson’s Ten Group Classification System is such a tool and allows auditing, analysis and comparisons of caesarean delivery rates in a standardised manner. Methods A prospective observational study was conducted over a two month period at Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital in 2013. Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital is a tertiary hospital located south of Johannesburg. The hospital services 2 million people, mainly of low-income, and the maternity unit delivers in excess of 23 000 babies each year. Most patients are high-risk and are referred by midwife managed obstetric units (MOU) Demographic, obstetric and delivery outcome data of women who delivered by caesarean section during this period were collected and captured onto a data sheet. Each delivery was also categorised according to the Robson’s Ten Group Classification System. The data was entered onto an excel spread sheet and analysed using the STATA statistical program. Results There were 3898 deliveries during the two month period, of which 1534 were caesarean sections resulting in a caesarean delivery rate of 39.4%. The majority of patients underwent emergency caesarean sections after the onset of spontaneous labour (60.9%). Fetal distress, previous caesarean section and dystocia were the commonest indications for caesarean section in order of frequency. In terms of the Robson’s Ten Group Classification System, the high caesarean section rate in our institution is attributed to the women with previous caesarean deliveries at term (group 5) and nulliparous patients in spontaneous labour at ≥ 37 weeks (group 1). Groups 3 and 10 are also responsible for a significant amount of caesarean sections performed in this population. The near-miss ratio was 24.7 cases per 1000 deliveries. The rate of comorbid disease amongst patients that experienced near-miss was 84.6% and most (61.5%) patients required a preterm delivery due to comorbid disease. Hypertension was the most commonly occurring comorbidity (69.2%). Only 23.1% of near-miss was due to caesarean section. In most cases, morbidity was due to the indication for caesarean delivery rather than to the operation itself. The results demonstrate that pre-eclampsia and postpartum haemorrhage are the most important initiating factors of near-miss occurring in 76.9% of patients. Conclusion Defining an optimal caesarean delivery rate in our setting may not be realistic, as CHBAH is a tertiary, referral centre, with a wide range in the health status of patients. The World Health Organisations recommendations of 15% for caesarean delivery rates globally may need to be adapted to take into account the patient profile and morbidity in South Africa. Ensuring equal access to good quality, medically appropriate obstetric care should be our primary concern