Sustainability Assessment Methods for the Gulf Region

This paper describes the development of a sustainability assessment framework designed to be used in the Gulf Region, which is an area which has experienced large scale building development and also a region in which sustainability assessment is not yet widely used. The complexity and time resources needed to apply existing methods act as a deterrent to active use. Three well-known methods available at the time of the study were investigated in some detail. These were: BREEAM Gulf; Green Building Council LEED; and Estidama Pearl. Cross comparisons of the factors involved in each method were carried out on several levels including: theoretical comparison; practical development and usability; compliance with regulations and standards; and ability to achieve synchronization. A considerable degree of compatibility was found to exist between the methods, particularly if focused on key criteria. As a result a new and specific framework was developed which grouped 24 indicators under five principal headings: site/location, biodiversity and accessibility; energy; water; occupant well-being; and resources and wastes. This new framework was then evaluated by testing with practitioners resulting in confirmation of 20 out of the 24 indicators, and identification of suitable benchmarks

A preliminary study on the effectiveness of new students’ adjustment to university / Normala Ismail and Mohamad Kamil Ariff Khalid

Adjustment among new students at the university plays an important role in determining their success at university. This study showed one of the reasons students fail to complete their study is due to adjustment problems. Students found to be unable to deal with the challenges and demands on campus and experience a variety of problems that some of them failed to proceed to the next semester. The population of the study consist of 143 First Semester Diploma students in the Faculty of Business and Management studies at Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang Raub Campus. The instrument used is questionnaires. There are four subscales designed to measure the effectiveness of student adjustment to university that are academic adjustment, social adjustment, personal (emotional) adjustment and institutional commitment. The study shows that adaptability on campus has a relationship with psychosocial abilities possessed by the students. Among the psychosocial abilities have a positive and significant impact on student adjustment is emotional intelligence, coping, and social support. All three of these psychosocial capabilities found to play an important role in helping students adjust at the university. Thus, the university must take proactive steps to develop emotional intelligence, coping and social support among new students to improve their adaptability

Design a new notched UWB antenna to rejected unwonted band for wireless communication

This paper presents a slotted design for ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna. Design of a rectangular UWB antenna covering the frequency range 3.1-10.6 GHz, to achieve notch characteristics in the bands at 3.1-8.4 GHz and 8.6-10.6 GHz. By changing the direction of distribution of current to apply this technique by inserting three C-shaped holes and two pairs of rectangular notches below the antenna. The simulation results reveal that the proposed structure is in good accord with the simulation results. The proposed UWB antenna size is (100x90x1.6 mm)3. This proposed design could provide a solution to eliminating bands that interfere in a UWB band depending on the aperture design. The simulated findings reveal that the UWB antenna operates in the 8.5 GHz center frequency range and rejects all frequency bands utilizing slits. This antenna design can provide a solution to remove UWB bands from 3.1-10.6 except for 8.5 GHz which only works. By using the notch, we got a large increase in the gain. makes to be a suitable candidate for X-band-UWB applications

The relationship between cumulative grade point average achievement and time management skills among students at higher learning institution / Normala Ismail and Mohamad Kamil Ariff Khalid

Time management skills are one of the key learning skills that students can master in order to help them achieve excellence while studying at universities. However, a thorough study of the extent to which this skill is owned by students and the impact on their academic performance is rarely focused especially among Universiti Teknologi MARA students. Hence, this paper examines the issue based on a study of 200 diploma level students from three faculties in various programs studying at Universiti Teknologi MARA Pahang Branch Raub Campus. Data were collected using a set of questionnaires and analyzed descriptively using t-test, ANOVA and Pearson’s Correlation. The findings show that in general, time management skills among students are moderate and these skills differ significantly between gender and program of study. This study also found a significant relationship between time management skills and the students Cumulative Grade Point Average

The impact of spirituality and social responsibility on organizational citizenship behaviour from the Islamic perspective: empirical investigation of Malaysian businesses

The phenomenon of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) emanating from the Western value system has received enormous attention from researchers, however, the model of organizational citizenship behavior from other cross cultural or religious perspectives such as the Islamic perspective, has not been much explored. This empirical study attempts to enrich the understanding of OCB from Islamic management perspective. In view of this, Western OCB framework was studied and further enriched in light of the Islamic heritage (Qur’an and Sunnah, i.e. that Prophetic tradition of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him) and established the need for Taqwa serving as antecedent of citizenship behaviors from the Islamic perspective. The survey data used for this empirical research was drawn from 405 Muslim employees in business organizations in Malaysia. Principal component analysis (i.e. PCA using SPSS version 18.0) and confirmatory factor analysis (i.e. CFA using AMOS version 18.0) of the constructs; Islamic spirituality (IS), Islamic social responsibility (ISR) and Organizational citizenship behaviour from Islamic perspective (OCBIP), were conducted. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), good fit indices led to two major findings, thus, ISR influences employees’ OCBIP performance; IS does not. Several implications from the study were discussed

Tahap literasi komputer pelajar sekolah menengah di Kedah

Computer literacy has become the main agenda in today’s life. It has become one of the main sources for a country’s development. The main objective of the research is to measure the level of computer literacy among upper secondary school students in the state of Kedah. Moreover the research is to identify the relationship between parent’s level of education and income with student’s computer literacy. Furthermore the study also explores the relationship between student’s attitude and computer skill with computer literacy. Data was collected through the questionnaires distributed to 698 students from form four, form five and Lower Six in twelve secondary schools of seven provinces in Kedah state. Tools for measurement used in this study are Attitude Toward Computer Scale (ATCS), Computer Self – Efficiency Scale (CSES) and Minnesota Computer Literacy and Awareness Assessment Test (MCLAAT). To measure the objective and to examine the hypotheses of the study, tests such as mean, percentage, Chi Square and Cramer V are used. Significance level of 0.05 is used to accept or to reject the null hypothesis. Data is analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12.0. The study finds that the student’s computer literacy level is moderately high with mean score of 66.67%. The overall findings conclude that there is a significance relationship between parent’s level of education and income with student’s computer literacy. However there is no significance relationship between student’s attitude and computer skill with computer literacy. The study suggests that schools should offer more computer related activities as to increase student’s computer literacy level

Dynamisk skjuvreometer och kompletterande metoder för bitumenundersökningar

Increasing heavy traffic on the roads raises demands on pavements and especially the binder of the pavements. The rutting and other deformations resistances are constantly improved. As a part of the development wax mixes and polymer modified variants are produced. These products are not anymore possible to classify with traditional test methods, requiring new measurement technique and new criteria. A Dynamic Shear Rheometer, DSR, avoids measurement problems with additives having different rheological properties and mixes can nevertheless be classified for pavement purposes by functional criteria. The Lund Institute of Technology, School of Technology and Society, acquired in 2013 a DSR for use in teaching, development and research. Using a DSR the rheological properties of the binders could be measured with tests that assess the viscoelastic character at different temperatures and frequencies. This thesis continues a long series of development work with rheological measurement methods at the Faculty of Engineering to find solutions to problems and needs. Oscillating sweep test was conducted together with creep test under the Multiple Stress Creep Recovery, MSCR. This was supplemented with low temperature measurements, Bending Beam Rheometer, Fraass Breaking Point and Fracture Toughness Testing, used for full assessment of the bitumen for pavement applications. The latter measurements were conducted along with RTFOT and PAV by Nynas AB. Measurements were made using three types of bitumen, 70/ 100 Sas 85-3 (with 3 % Sasobit) and PMB, all of which also dealt with short-term aging in the form of RTFOT and long-term aging with RTFOT + PAV. This gave a total of nine different bitumen varieties to test. The measurements were conducted on the unmodified 70/100 acting as the reference to the wax and polymer modified variants. The results after RTFOT and RTFOT + PAV corresponded to the expected outcome with different degrees of aging. Unfortunately, the oscillatory measurements at 10-20 °C had to be deleted due to machine mishap. This did not affect the final results. There was unfortunately no progress with PP8, measurement platform for low temperatures, and in conclusion the manufacturing of test specimens require improvements for the results to be acceptable. Sas 85-3 displays in a Black chart an unusual connection between the complex shear modulus and phase angle, which is explained by the presence of wax crystals. Angular frequency decreases with decreasing strain rate instead of increasing, as is the case of ordinary bitumen. The mixture can also be characterized as non- Newtonian. After RTFOT + PAV it loses the special properties of Sasobit and behaves accordingly more like a normal, aged bitumen. The polymer-modified mixture, PMB, appears also in a Black chart differently compared to unmodified bitumen. Generally, the binder is stiffer than 70/100 but the correlation with the phase angles form themselves differently. This particular look is smoothed out after RTFOT + PAV. We need more measurements with other polymer-modified variants, particularly at low temperatures to get to know the specific nature of polymer modified bitumen blends. With PP8 we would have been able to measure down to -30 °C. At the creep tests under MSCR 70/100 exhibits almost no elastic recovery but still manages creep criterion at 64 °C. For many years it has been known and shown empirically that Sasobit increases wheel track stability and this is illustrated by the improved creep capacity, although improvement compared to 70/100 is moderate. Somewhat surprisingly, there is an appreciable elastic recovery, which otherwise is usually reserved for polymer modifications. PMB displays all the expected characteristics in terms of strong elastic recovery and good creep properties at as high a temperature as 76 °C. According to traditional Superpave Performance Grading based on G^* and sin(d) all of the binders meet respective fatigue criteria. 70/100 lands in PG-class 64-22, Sas 85-3 in PG 70-22 and PMB in PG 76-22. Fraass values of 70/100 and PMB at -18 °C and -17 °C meet the Swedish binder criteria with a good margin, while Sas 85-3 lands spot on the limit value, -12 °C. Fracture Toughness is a new test for low temperature testing of bitumen, which has no limits in the regulations and has few references. 70/100 is within the expected range at -8 °C, while the PMB is far below the other two at -30 °C. Sas 85-3 parks at +2.5 °C. The results suggest structural differences between the binders but the assessment of the impact of these results must wait. Improved specimen manufacturing for PP8, program templates for LVE controls and MSCR temperature sweeps and checking for constant readings are high on the wish list of future theses, besides procedures to avoid instrument compliance

The Approximation of Weighted Hölder Functions by Fourier-Jacobi Polynomials to the Singular Sturm-Liouville Operator

تم مناقشة دوال هولدر المرجحة التي تحقق تقارب متعددات حدود جاكوبي لمعادلة ستورم- ليوفيل المنفردة من الدرجة الثانية. هذا يتوافق مع تحويلات جاكوبي المعممة ومعايير النعومة. يهدف هذا البحث ويركز على تحسين طرق التقريب وإيجاد أفضل تقريب على هذا النوع من الفضاءات عن طريق تحسين معايير النعومة. علاوة على ذلك، يتم النظر في بعض خواص معايير النعومة والقيود العليا والسفلى لدرجة تقريب الدالة.       In this work, a weighted H lder function that approximates a Jacobi polynomial which solves the second order singular Sturm-Liouville equation is discussed. This is generally equivalent to the Jacobean translations and the moduli of smoothness. This paper aims to focus on improving methods of approximation and finding the upper and lower estimates for the degree of approximation in weighted H lder spaces by modifying the modulus of continuity and smoothness. Moreover, some properties for the moduli of smoothness with direct and inverse results are considered