Multiresolution Ray Tracing For Point-Based Geometry [QA445. N832 2007 f rb].

Tumpuan utama di dalam tesis ini adalah kajian tentang integrasi teknik berbilang peleraian dengan penyurihan sinar di dalam menjanakan imej objek objek 3D berasas titik. The primary concern in this thesis is with the incorporation of multiresolutionbased optimization into ray tracing algorithms specially tailored for point-based geometry

Hybrid shear-warp rendering

Shear-warp rendering is a fast and efficient method for visualizing a volume of sampled data based on a factorization of the viewing transformation into a shear and a warp. In shear-warp rendering, the volume is resampled, composited and warped to obtain the final image. Many applications, however, require a mixture of polygonal and volumetric data to be rendered together in a single image. This paper describes a new approach for extending the shear-warp rendering to simultaneously handle polygonal objects. A data structure, the zlist-buffe, is presented. It is basically a multilayered z-buffer. With the zlist-buffer, an object-based scan conversion of polygons requires only a simple modification of the standard polygon scan-conversion algorithm. This paper shows how the scan conversion can be integrated with shear-warp rendering of run-length encoded volume data to obtain quality images in real time. The utility and performance of the approach using a number of test renderings is also discussed

Multiresolution Ray Tracing For Point-Based Geometry

Tumpuan utama di dalam tesis ini adalah kajian tentang integrasi teknik berbilang peleraian dengan penyurihan sinar di dalam menjanakan imej objekobjek 3D berasas titik. The primary concern in this thesis is with the incorporation of multiresolutionbased optimization into ray tracing algorithms specially tailored for point-based geometry

Malaysian Young Voters’ Voices in the New Political Landscape

The 12th General Election in March 2008 had changed Malaysia’s political landscape in significant ways. A series of unexpected events happened and for the first time in history, the ruling party, Barisan Nasional (BN) failed to obtain the two third majority votes. This ‘political tsunami’ had influenced people from various backgrounds especially those in the political parties to probe further into the reasons behind the changes. After a series of ‘post mortem’ and discussions, political leaders now began to realise about the importance of moving out from their ‘comfort zone’ and responding immediately to the signals from the public. By ignoring people’s voice particularly the young voters who made up more than forty percent of the total voters, political parties were digging their own graves. Thus, this paper was written in order to identify young voters’ trends and preferences in choosing their candidates to represent them in the new political landscape. The findings of this research showed that young voters preferred to choose candidates based on their profile, images and personal characteristics, visions and missions as well educational backgrounds. Most importantly, the candidates must also be ‘clean’ in all aspects. Hopefully, the findings will provide political parties better understanding of the young voters’ needs and want in order to ensure their parties’ survival since this group of voters is the deciding factor of the future Malaysian political landscape.Keywords: by- election; young voters; candidate factor; Permatang Pasi

The history of petroleum pollution in Malaysia; urgent need for integrated prevention approach

Petroleum pollution is known as point and non-point source of contaminations in the environment. A major class of petroleum contaminant is groups of compounds consist of two or more fused benzene rings called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are carcinogenic, mutagenic and toxic. Source identification of petroleum pollution is necessary to prevent pollution entry into the environment. Eight sedimentary cores were obtained from developed and developing areas around Peninsular Malaysia to investigate the historical profile of PAHs, their characteristics and its possible origins. The results showed that the PAHs concentrations varied from very minimum to 2400 ng/g d. w. in average quarter century intervals. Most of the studied locations showed high contribution of PAHs from combusted fuel, coal, biomasses and wood materials except for the southern part of Peninsular Malaysia in which revealed dominance of petroleum products. The findings indicate that PAHs are delivered from different intermediate materials such as asphalt, street dust, vehicular emission and crankcase oil. However, there has been a decline of PAHs input into the marine environment in recent years; petroleum is shown to be a significant cause of marine pollution since the second quarter of 20th century. An overview on sourced materials of petroleum pollution indicates multi-approach necessity toward pollution control, regardless of concentration and possible degradation processes. Various sectors both governmental and non-governmental are needed for prevention and control of petroleum pollution where different sources apparently contribute to the pollution generation process

Zerumbone-induced antinociception: involvement of the L-arginine-nitric oxide-cGMP -PKC-K+ ATP channel pathways.

This study investigated the antinociceptive effects of zerumbone in chemical behavioural models of nociception in mice. Zerumbone given through intraperitoneal route (i.p.) produced dose-related antinociception when assessed on acetic acid-induced abdominal writhing test in mice. In addition, the i.p. administration of zerumbone exhibited significant inhibition of the neurogenic pain induced by intraplantar (i.pl.) injection of capsaicin and bradykinin. Likewise, zerumbone given by i.p. route reduced the nociception produced by i.pl. injection of glutamate and phorbol myristate acetate (PMA). The antinociception caused by zerumbone in the acetic acid test was significantly attenuated by i.p. pre-treatment of mice with l-arginine (nitric oxide precursor) and glibenclamide (ATP-sensitive K(+) channel inhibitor). However, the antinociception of zerumbone was enhanced by methylene blue (non-specific gyanylyl cyclase inhibitor). Together, these results indicate that zerumbone produces pronounced antinociception against chemical models of nociception in mice. It also strongly suggests that the l-arginine-nitric oxide-cGMP-PKC-K(+) ATP channel pathways, the TRPV1 and kinin B2 receptors play an important role in the zerumbone-induced antinociception

Magnetic Optimization Algorithm Approach For Travelling Salesman Problem

Lately, numerous nature inspired optimization techniques has been applied to combinatorial optimization problems, such as Travelling Salesman Problem. In this paper, we study the implementation of one of the nature inspired optimization techniques called Magnetic Optimization Algorithm in Travelling Salesman Problem. In this implementation, each magnetic agent or particle in Magnetic Optimization Algorithm represents a candidate solution of the Travelling Salesman Problem. The strength of the magnetic force between these particles is inversely proportion to the distance calculated by the Traveling Salesman Problem's solution they represented. Particles with higher magnetic force will attract other particles with relatively lower magnetic force, towards it. The process repeated until satisfying a stopping condition, and the solution with lowest distance is considered as the best-found solution. The performance of the proposed approach is benchmarked with a case study taken from a well-known test bank

Antinociceptive activity of a synthetic chalcone, flavokawin B on chemical and thermal models of nociception in mice

The present study examined the potential antinociceptive activity of flavokawin B (6'-hydroxy-2',4'-dimethoxychalcone), a synthetic chalcone using chemical- and thermal-induced nociception models in mice. It was demonstrated that flavokawin B (FKB; 0.3, 1, 3 and 10 mg/kg) administered via both oral (p.o.) and intraperitoneal (i.p.) routes produced significant and dose-dependent inhibition in the abdominal constrictions induced by acetic acid, with the i.p. route producing antinociception of approximately 7-fold more potent than the p.o. route. It was also demonstrated that FKB produced significant inhibition in the two phases of the formalin-induced paw licking test. In addition, the same treatment of flavokawin B (FKB) exhibited significant inhibition of the neurogenic nociceptive induced by intraplantar injections of glutamate and capsaicin. Likewise, this compound also induced a significant increase in the response latency period to thermal stimuli in the hot plate test and its antinociceptive effect was not related to muscle relaxant or sedative action. Moreover, the antinociception effect of the FKB in the formalin-induced paw licking test and the hot plate test was not affected by pretreatment of non-selective opioid receptor antagonist, naloxone. The present results indicate that FKB produced pronounced antinociception effect against both chemical and thermal models of pain in mice that exhibited both peripheral and central analgesic activity

Tourists’ Perceptions of Insects as the Determinants of Insect Conservation through Entomological Ecotourism

Insects are commonly featured in recreation and tourism around the world, despite the generally negative public perception surrounding them. Many people enjoy watching butterflies in insectarium gardens, observing and collecting dragonflies, and admiring the light displays of fireflies. In many cases, activities like these are becoming increasingly popular and these positive interactions with insects encourage public appreciation of insects, but vary acuities in their forms and approaches. Thus, understanding the pattern of insect appearances in recreation and tourism activities in a variety of discernments can provide important insights into effective ways of promoting insect conservation through ecotourism, which is often overlooked in biodiversity conservation strategies. However, these types of interdisciplinary studies are relatively new and remain limited in both entomology and tourism sciences. A field survey was carried out at Kangkawat Research Station, Imbak Canyon Conservation Area, where a 1 kilometre entomological ecotourism trail was designed and developed to incorporate insects in enhancing ecotourism at the reserve. Insects that can be found along the 1 kilometre trail were recorded and the collection was conducted using baited traps and sweep netting. Based on the insects survey, the Shannon Diversity Index (H’) of Kangkawat is 4.60 while Simpson Index is 176.72 with Fisher Alpha Index at 313.3 that concludes Kangkawat Research Station insect richness to be the second highest after the Crocker Range. In adressing the knowledge gaps between insect conservation and ecotourism, a survey on attitudes towards insects was designed and then completed by 384 tourists around Kota Kinabalu City. The standardized questionnaire known as the Personal Meaning of Insects Map (PMIM) was administered to tourists and their responses were elicited prior to and after observing insect photos. The results shows that “spider” had the 100% connectivity in response to the most detested insect based on their previous encounters with insects. This result shows that there is an existing entomology knowledge gap among the respondents, indicating the need for further interventions in terms of nature interpretation. Therefore a quality guided nature interpretation as an educational tool should take into account how the general public understands (or misunderstands) insects further and where interpretive information could be better applied if we are to develop management and educational tools that address human-insect encounters