Wireless structural health monitoring (SHM) system for damage detection using ultrasonic guided waveform response

This paper presents an improved version of a wireless device embedded with a smart PZT sensor to detect flaws and structural defects on selected investigated structure. Smart PZT sensors were used as an actuator and sensor, coupled with two XBee's and one signal generator IC chip. Programme execution on transmitting and receiving the ultrasonic guided wave via the PZT sensor had been written in MATLAB. The developed source code is basically to receive serial data from one Xbee to another remote Xbee attached to the investigated structural system. The refined waveform response is utilised for prognosis of the true structural status. The 4-mm simulated holed into one of the aluminium structural plate is benchmarked with its pristine condition in validating the effectiveness of the developed SHM wireless module. Results showed that the wave is more even in non-defected area and disrupted in affected area. Ultrasonic waves increase continuously for non-destructive evaluation and structural health monitoring in various structural applications because the guided wave can propagate long distances and reach difficult-to-access regions; for inspecting porous and some non-porous materials ultrasonic waves attenuate fast and are very useful. Recent advances in ultrasonic wave application model and results are discussed in this paper

Examining the fit of social media as a tool to share disaster-related knowledge: From the perspective of task-technology fit theory

ICT is emerging as a process of knowledge-sharing without any physical and geographical constraints.ICT has successfully been used to disseminate knowledge during a constrained situation (i.e. disaster).In other words, ICT can be used to connect the public during a time of crisis.In Malaysia, the National Security Council(NSC) is one of the agencies responsible for managing disasters.Having a reputation as being a "champion of agencies", the NSC is responsible for providing a social media by which to share disaster-related knowledge with the public.Nevertheless, to what extent this social media actually supports the knowledge-sharing process is unknown.Hence, the purpose of this study is to determine the extent to which a social media actually supports the knowledge-sharing process; a theory known as Task-Technology Fit (TTF) is adopted. The data will be collected by distributing questionnaires to the users who have experience in accessing the social media tools of the NSC to acquire disaster-related knowledge during the occurrence of a disaster (i.e. flood). Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) will be used to analyze the data.The development of a theoretical research model will assist the agencies involved in disaster management to predict user evaluation of the social media tool in order to gather knowledge/information related to disasters

Bending analysis on circular polarization array textile antenna

This paper presents the performances of circular polarization (CP) array textile antenna in different bending condition. The antenna composed four circular patches in array formation where the patches composes a cross slot at the centre of the patch. In flat condition, a good bandwidth (2.06 GHz – 2.49 GHz), axial ratio (2.38 GHz – 2.62 GHz) with realized gain of 3.09 dB is presented and compared with other bending condition to suits with application of rectenna for energy harvesting system and antenna for monitoring system

Torrefaction of palm biomass briquettes at different temperature

The climate change has driven towards transformation from the high energy dependence on fossil fuel to inexhaustible renewable energy such as solar, wind, mini hydro and biomass. In Malaysia, abundant of palm biomass residues are produced during the processing of fresh fruit bunch. Therefore it is inevitable to harness these bioenergy sources in order to prevent waste accumulation at adjacent to palm mills. In order to utilize such bioenergy sources and to cope with the fast growing demand of energy, combination technique of densification and torrefaction is one of the potential ways to be practised. In the present study, the physical and combustion properties of torrefied empty fruit bunch (EFB) briquettes were investigated experimentally with constant nitrogen flow rate of 1 l/min, for various torrefaction temperatures (225 °C-300 °C). Before torrefaction process, EFB briquettes were initially produced under controlled condition with compaction pressure of 7 MPa and briquetting temperature of 150 °C. In general, the torrefied EFB briquettes were successfully produced in the present study. The results show that an increase in torrefaction temperature from 225°C to 300℃ causes a significant increase in gross calorific value (from around 17400 kJ/kg to 25000 kJ/kg), fixed carbon content (from 16.2% to 46.2%) and ash content (from 2.4% to 17.2%). On the other hand, relaxed density and volatile matter decrease, from 1017 kg/m3 to 590 kg/m3 and from 73.1% to 29.7%, respectively. As a conclusion, the gross calorific value and fixed carbon content are improved due to torrefaction. In addition, it was found that gross calorific value and moisture content of the torrefied EFB briquettes fulfil the requirement for commercial briquette production as stated by DIN51731 (gross calorific value>17500 kJ/kg and moisture content <10%)

THE STATUS OF ORGANIC POLLUTION AND THEIR SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION IN THE WEST COAST OF SOUTH SULAWESI

Aquaculture activities produce organic wastes that are discharged into coastal waters and may impact the water quality. This research aimed to study the status of organic pollution and its spatial distribution on the west coast of South Sulawesi, Indonesia. Water was sampeld from two locations (Punaga Village, Takalar Regency (an open water system), and Bojo Village, Barru District (in a bay, a semi-closed water system)). Water quality was assessed by using the STORET index. Whilst to assess the spatial distribution of organic waste, an interpolation technique was used. Results showed that the water quality was categorized as highly polluted by organic pollution. The distribution of the organic pollutant, however, showed a different spatial pattern between the two locations. The difference was may be due to the different origin of the pollutant and geomorphology of the sampling locations

Publication trends in technology roadmapping

This study aims to identify the trends in technology roadmapping based on the bibliometric analysis of more than two decades of references. The analysis focused on the types of publications (e.g., journal and conference), contexts of publications (e.g., international and national), and key themes (e.g., NPD and R&D) extracted into six groups of five-year interval time-periods each.The analysis on 699 references has revealed the interest on technology roadmapping was only started to increase since 1996-2000 time-periods with 38 publications, and have reached the highest peak with 305 publications in 2006-2010 time-periods.In details, both journal and conference were almost equal in numbers of publications, in which Technological Forecasting and Social Change was found to be the top journal, while IEEE is the top organizer with PICMET as the leading conference. Despite of most of the articles were written with generic titles, 12 of them have been identified written on international context (e.g., Asia Pacific and Europe), 78 on national context (e.g., China and Japan), and 14 on organizational context (e.g., Siemens and Motorola).In addition, the analysis has also found 17 key themes of studies led by ICT, innovation, and energy. Although the analysis was based on a single source of database with some limitations, future studies should pay more attention on the importance of technology roadmapping on the international context, emphasis on developing countries on the national context, focus on SME on the organizational context, and explore the applications of technology roadmapping on the non-technological themes

Value co-creation, co-destruction, and firm performance: A proposed mediation of the internet of things

Value co-creation is a study on consumer-firm interactions, where consumers can be actively involved with firms in designing, developing, marketing, distributing, and (or) selling of products to personalize their service experiences. In contrast, value codestruction exists due to imbalance involvement between consumers and firm in cocreating of value as a result of misuse of resources.Previous studies have suggested while value co-creation will increase firm performance, value co-destruction will do just the opposite of that. In the meantime, the internet of things (IoT) has becoming important topic to study how value co-creation and co-destruction can be created. Therefore, it was expected the effects of value co-creation and co-destruction on firm performance can be better understood with IoT.However, study that has looked into the mediating effects of IoT in the relationships between value co-creation and co-destruction on firm performance in a single topic is still hard to find.In line with the research gap, this paper will be investigating the aforementioned issue by building a conceptual framework with research propositions.This paper is proposing that IoT will positively improve the effect of value co-creation on firm performance, while at the same time reducing the negative effect of value co-destruction.This paper is expected to enhance our knowledge on the relationships between value co-creation and co-destruction, improve our understanding on the effects of IoT on firm performance, and promotes resource-based view (RBV) to complement Service-Dominant (S-D) logic at explaining superior firm performance

Deformation of the ABJM Theory

In this paper we analyse the ABJM theory on deformed spacetime. We show that this theory reduces to a deformed super-Yang-Mills theory when one of the scalar superfields is given a non-vanishing vacuum expectation value. Our analyse is done in N=1 superspace formulism.Comment: 10 pages, 0 figures, accepted for publication in EP

Gauge and Supersymmetric Invariance of a Boundary Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson Theory

In this paper we will discuss the effect of a having a boundary on the supersymmetric invariance and gauge invariance of the Bagger-Lambert-Gustavsson (BLG) Theory. We will show that even though the supersymmetry and gauge invariance of the original BLG theory is broken due to the presence of a boundary, it restored by the addition of suitable boundary terms. In fact, to achieve the gauge invariance of this theory, we will have to introduce new boundary degrees of freedom. The boundary theory obeyed by these new boundary degrees of freedom will be shown to be a generalization of the gauged Wess-Zumino-Witten model, with the generators of the Lie algebra replaced by the generators of the Lie 3-algebra. The gauge and supersymmetry variations of the boundary theory will exactly cancel the boundary terms generated by the gauge and supersymmetric variations of the bulk theory.Comment: 15 pages, 0 figures, accepted for publication in JHE