The robots operated in automotive assembly plant are a large portion of investment which contributed to the automation level of the manufacturing assembly line. Significant impact on the profit and lost (P&L) of the company contributed from the operating efficiency of equipment including robots, in term of maintaining cost and replacement cost. Timely replacement could reduce the downtime which might result in significant saving on the company P&L. The objective of this research is to develop a replacement model for replacement of robots in automotive assembly line. The approaches used in this research are 1) gathering mean time between failures (MTBF) and mean time to repair (MTTR) data for availability assessment, 2) computational of the defender marginal cost (MC) and challenger equivalent uniform annual cost (EUAC) and 3) using spreadsheet computational model for sensitivity analysis. From the analysis the robot with lowest availability (99.41%) had the lowest MTBF of 5280 hours. The robot was taken as a candidate for replacement. Replacement study using MC and EUAC analysis was done for the robot and the potential candidate for replacement. Upon computing the defender MC and challenger EUAC cost analysis, the minimum EUAC of Malaysian Ringgit 68,619 and MC of Malaysian Ringgit 62,000, if it is kept in the services for only five (5) years. The MC of defender in year 5 is Malaysian Ringgit 71,000, hence it is due for replacement. Based on the sensitivity analysis, the initial capital investment is the most sensitive factor compared to other factor. The current robot can be maintained for one more year in service.

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This paper presents the conversion methodology of a spark ignition (SI) engine to operate on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as an alternative fuel. Minor modifications were carried out to enable the conversion and the system was controlled by a dedicated LPG electronic control unit (ECU) through input signal from the original engine ECU. Existing system remains unchanged and the selection mode of the fuel was easily switched by a selection button.

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Sound pollutions have become a disturbing source that interfere with the human life. Most of the expensive sound absorption materials are employed to control noise disturbances. Therefore, this research is aimed to study the effect of sound absorption properties of alternative absorption materials from natural fibers with different types of mixture composition. This includes natural fibers of coconut coir, rice straw, arenga pinnata, palm oil and kenaf fibers. Researchers are more interested in natural and renewable materials where the fibers are well modified by adding some polymers or binder and also recycled materials such as recycled rubber from industries. The method used for identifying the performance of absorption is by using the impedance tube where the loudspeaker feeds the signal in the tube as the incident wave and the reflected sound is recorded by the microphones which is then processed to quantify the absorption coefficient of the material. The other method are by using the reverberant room which is rarely because it required a large and expensive facilities but both method have same purpose. From the result, we can get the value of noise reduction coefficient for each of the samples. Predictably, different materials and compositions give different result of sound absorption coefficient same as other potential aspects that influence the absorption performance. As progress in technology, reinforced natural fiber has enhanced the control of sound quality in the room interior and it is important to balance the development of advanced materials which is cost effective and environmental friendly.

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In simple terms, noise is unwanted sound. Sound is a form of energy which is emitted by a vibrating body and on reaching the ear causes the sensation of hearing through nerves. Sounds produced by all vibrating bodies are not audible. The frequency limits of audibility are from 20 HZ to 20,000 HZ. Excessive levels of sound can cause permanent hearing loss while continuous exposure could be physiologically and psychologically deleterious to one’s well-being. Nowadays much importance is given to the acoustical environment. Noise control and its principles play an important role in creating an acoustically pleasing environment. This can be achieved when the intensity of sound is brought down to a level that is not harmful to human ears. Achieving a pleasing environment can be obtained by using various techniques that employ different materials. One such technique is by absorbing the sound. This paper review and describes how the physical prosperities of materials like fiber size, material thickness, density, porosity and tortuosity can change the absorption behavior. The sound absorption of different natural fibers was experimentally tested. The results show the relationship between natural fibers like kenaf, bamboo, paddy and the sound absorption, material density, thickness and air gap. Higher airflow resistance always gives better sound absorption values but for airflow resistance higher than 1000 the sound absorption have less values because difficulty movements of sound wave through the materials. More fibers can create more tortuous path (increase tortuosity) and can also increase the flow resistivity. However, by further increasing the density (adding more fibers), close pores could be formed and thus greatly increase the flow resistivity and eventually reduce the absorption capability.

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Beam structures are common parts in many structural applications. Due to its slenderness, beams are susceptible to lateral vibration motion. Continuous structure such as beam has finite number of vibration modes that make it difficult to control. In this paper, the concept of tuned vibration absorbers applied to a beam structure was analyzed by finite element analysis code, ANSYS APDL. The tuned vibration absorbers were attached to the fixed-fixed end beam with four different conditions according to its location of attachment. First, modal analysis has been carried out to determine the natural frequencies and natural mode shapes of the studied beam structure. Then, the effect of tuned absorbers locations on beam vibration characteristics have been studied by harmonic analysis. The vibration characteristics of the beam were discussed with respect to the corresponding tuned absorbers and beam natural modes. It was found that the absorber location affect the beam vibration amplitude greatly. High percentage of vibration amplitude reduction is achieved when the beam amplitude node is avoided. Beam vibration amplitudes were reduced by 99.9% and 99.8% at its 1st and 2nd mode respectively when the absorbers were placed near the fixed end.

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The effects of 3 wt.% heavy rare earth Gadolinium (Gd) addition on the microstructure and mechanical properties (Hardness) of as-cast Mg-Zn-Ce-Zr alloy (base alloy) were investigated using optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectrum (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Vickers hardness. The purpose of this research is to investigate the variations occurred in grain size and the formation of intermetallics with Gd addition, as well as their effect on hardness. The results of microstructure indicated that Gd addition led to significant grain refinement, which decreased by 28%. Both grain refinement and hard secondary phases (Mg,Zn)12RE and (Mg,Zn)3RE led to the improvement in hardness of Mg-Zn-Ce-Zr by 34%.

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The purpose of this study is to improve the efficiency of press machine for producing finish good product thru design of experiments application. Press process is significant to improve since the output of the palm oil product will be divided into two which are palm oil and palm nuts. The objective of this study is to identify the best parameter setting for reduce broken nuts during press process thru adoption of the design of experiments method. A full factorial design with single replication has been used to study the effects of important parameters which are temperature, cone angle, cone pressure and percentage of water. The measurement of output response is identified as percentage of broken nut. Referring to the company specification, the percentage of broken nuts must not exceed than 7 %. Randomize experiments was conducted based on table generated thru Minitab software. Normal probability test was carried out using Anderson Darling Test and show that the P-value is 0.325. Thus, the data is normal since there is no significance different between the actual data with the ideal data. Referring to effect estimate value for each parameter, factor B (Cone Angle) was not significant. Thus the experiments were converted from 24 to 23 with two replications. Referring to the ANOVA, all of the factors are significant except the AC interaction since the P –value for each of parameters less than 0.05. From the main plot and interaction plot, the recommended setting for each of parameters were suggested as low level for temperature, low level for cone pressure and high percentage of water. The prediction model was developed thru regression in order to measure effect of output response for any changes on parameters setting. In the future, the experiments can be enhanced using two replications of experiment and Taguchi methods in order to do verification of result.

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Inconel 718 is one of the extremely difficult to cut materials at room temperature due to the excessive tool wear and poor surface finish. Previous researchers has reported that the laser assisted machining (LAM) offers the ability to machine Inconel 718 more efficiently by providing the local heating of the work piece prior to material removal. With increasing material removal temperature using a laser preheating technique from room temperature to 700 °C indicated the reduction of yield and materials strength at a certain depth in underneath surface. However, in laser assisted micro milling (LAMM) preheating temperature shall be reviewed to ensure that the resulting temperature does not worsen the properties of materials. By using higher preheating temperature the material becomes softer and it will result in the cutting process more difficult with increasing cutting force and this promotes higher tool wear. Moreover, the application of the micro ball mill needs deeply study due material removal mechanism is more complicated in groove cutting compare to side cutting. Generally, ball end mill is designed for lower depth of cut. In this study, the cutting force, chip formation and tool wear of conventional and LAMM on Inconel 718 have been measured and compared. Result of preheating technique using a laser beam shows an improvement in cutting force when ball milling of shallow groove. However, inconsistence force results were produced for the deep groove ball milling due to the ineffective materials removal and adhesion phenomenon on the rake surface of cutting tool. It also demonstrated that the application of preheating in softening the work piece has consequently initiated the formation of connected chip, build up edge and the undeformed chip also piled in the up milling area. Lower preheating temperature is recommended in micro cutting compared to the macro cutting process because of tool size and cutting depth applied. Machining with lower spindle speed is more preferable to prevent the formation of connected chip and build up edge.

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The minimum quantity lubrication (MQL) machining is capable to reduce the machining cost and cutting fluid consumption, while enhancing machining performance. However, the performance of MQL technique to reduce the machining temperature is still ineffective. In recent study, the use of supercritical carbon dioxide (SCCO2) cooling technique has seen to give a very high effectiveness. This technique can reduce the machining temperature and cutting force subsequently prolong the tool life and surface quality. In this paper, the performance of SCCO2 as a cutting fluids has been compared with MQL technique. The results showed that the SCCO2 cooling technique was more effectiveness in reduce the cutting force and cutting temperature thus improve the surface roughness compare to the MQL technique.

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Advances in computer technology, coupled with the intention to utilize the limited resources to its best possible way while conforming to the prescribed objective, has led to a wealth of different optimization approaches in engineering problems. Of particular note is the rise of using evolutionary algorithms in obtaining the optimal solutions in the engineering design problems. This paper sets out to compare the optimization performances of three recently developed evolutionary algorithms, namely, bat algorithm, cuckoo search algorithm, and flower pollination algorithm in constrained engineering optimization. Three infamous constrained real world problems, specifically, spring design, welded beam design, and pressure vessel design, are considered in this study. The promising optimization capabilities of all reviewed evolutionary algorithms are shown in the performance assessment.

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An optimized Computerized Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model for frost-free refrigerators is reported A steady-state simulation model was devised and its predictions for temperature and air flow were compared with experimental data. The conservation equations of energy, mass and momentum are solved by using Finite Volume Method in an environment of three dimensional unstructured meshes. Experiments were conducted on a no-frost domestic refrigerator to compare and validate the results of the CFD model. For the refrigerator under analysis it was found that results from the CFD model and experiment are qualitatively similar even though there are certain discrepancies due to some insufficient information available for the numerical model.

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In the automotive industry indoor air quality or Vehicle Indoor Air Quality (VIAQ) are caused by various substances emitted from interior materials inside a vehicle. The volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are an example of emitted substances from the interior materials which is harmful to the human body. As stated by previous researches, there is a strong correlation between the total VOCs emission and interior temperature. This occurs due to the solar radiation through the back window glasses, windscreen and side window glasses. This trapped heat can accelerate the melting process of trim materials such as hard plastic and rubber, thus causing the emission of total VOCs (TVOCs). Therefore, reducing the percentage of visible light transmittance (VLT) will help to reduce radiation process. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of VLT level on TVOCs emission in the vehicle cabin under static condition (parked and unventilated) and operating condition (driving and air-conditioned). For static condition the result shows that the TVOCs concentration linearly decreases whenever the percentage of VLT level decreases. However, for operating condition the percentage of VLT have less significance after 50 minutes driving time. In conclusion, the VLT levels have a strong relationship to the TVOCs concentration despite after a long driving time.

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Most competitive organizations around the world have implemented Total Quality Management (TQM) to continuously improve their organizational performance. Based on the review of literature, Libya is a late adopter of TQM and Quality Management Systems (QMS). Number of certified ISO9001 companies in Libya versus the Arab world is relatively very low possibly due lack of enthusiasm and awareness of the need in Libyan society. The present study focuses on the development of a conceptual model of TQM in the Libyan industrial sector, and also to map the relationship between TQM, ISO9001 certification, organizational culture and Organizational Performance. A proposed conceptual model includes Hofstede dimensions of national culture to examine whether the theoretical constructs underlying the TQM model criteria are relevant across national cultures. Path analysis using Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) will be employed on the establishment and validation of TQM implementation and its effect on the organizational culture and organizational Performance The proposed model will promote a better understanding on the relationship between TQM and Organization Performance in Libya.

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Libya is among the few developing African economies. After the war in 2011, Libyan manufacturing industries was nurtured to offer better products and services as part of the Libyan government plan to rebuild their economy and improve their industry. Lean manufacturing is one of the improvement initiatives that can be used to boost industrial performance by eliminating of waste and enhancing value-added activities. The main purpose of this paper is to propose a relationship model between Lean Manufacturing practice and business performance with mediators of People Development and Process Improvement based on the Libyan manufacturing industries. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques are used to examine the relationships of the practices. The contribution of this paper would be a conceptual model that will help the academicians and industry practitioners to have a better understanding of the relationship between the Lean Manufacturing practices and business performance, especially related to the Libyan manufacturing industries.

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This paper describes a mechanical design and analysis of a simple auto-feeder using scissor lifter concept. The design has been proposed to replace current manual feeding of door panels in a factory by automatic system. The main instruments and tools are compressors, pneumatic cylinders and mechanical structure. A piston of part no. P1D-S125MS-500 is used for pneumatic cylinder at 10 bar and P1D-S032MS-100 at 5 bar. The mechanism of pneumatic cylinder is calculated to lift the load of 1000 Kg including the frame weight structure with payload of door panels. The material used for beam is S30400 stainless steel, with density is 8000 Kg/m3. The air pressure needed to lift the frame and the load has been calculated to be 9.8 bar, and the angle of inclination is set to be optimum at 17 degrees. Calculations of the structure capacity has been carried out in relation with strength of the material and capacity of the piston. Design and analysis of the model by Solid Work software shows displacements and stress of the frames and top platform are compared with manually calculated results and they are in agreement. For the automation controlling system, Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) has been used where ladder diagrams are programmed.

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Team sports coaches are always looking for tools to help them in their coaching routines. They are more toward statistical analyses and quantitative judgments like never before. Decades have passed, manual counting of athletes' attempts and blocks are no more practical for today's fast-paced team sports. In recent years, various commercial motion capture systems have been developed with scaring price tag since considered as hi-tech and exclusive. This work is established to document the elementary procedures to perform a motion capture system and analysis as a team sports strategic tool. Netball is used as case study in order to describe the steps involved for clarification. To further simplify the raw to simulated data process, a set of magnetic-driven points on a scaled-down court is used to represent players' movements during a match. A single camera located at the top centre of the court was used throughout the motion capture process. The full area covered 60 fps digital video was then converted into three-dimensional matrix consist of RGB color values via a matrix based programming platform. 'Players' from the competing teams were distinguished based on this color differences. Interpolation methods were used to quantify players' movements from the pixel data before it was then interpreted as transient simulation, motion analyses, statistics and strategic implications. In this work, the data was represented as a tailed displacement of all players, velocity and acceleration of selected players together with sample analyses. This work is expected to give an overview on how a motion capture system is manipulated in team sports such as netball. The same principle can be implemented for other team sports with proper arrangements and modifications.

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Alkali treatment is one of the treatments that widely used in natural fiber surface treatment process. However, the different in treatment condition setting produce variability in fiber properties characteristic. This study aims to determine the effect of alkali treatment conditions on kenaf bast fiber tensile strength. Three conditions at two different levels were selected during alkali treatment process. They are kenaf fiber immersion duration (at 30 minute and 480 minute); alkali solution temperature at room temperature (26 ± 1oC) and 100oC; and alkali concentration (at 2% w/v and 10% w/v). Untreated kenaf fiber was used as control sample and the tensile test was conducted according to ASTM C1557-03. Cross sectional area was measured using Leica video analyzer. The results showed that alkali treatment conditions have a significant effect on kenaf bast fiber tensile strength. The immersion time appears to be most dominant factor that influences the kenaf fiber tensile strength mean value during alkali treatment process with -108.82 magnitudes and followed by alkali solution concentration with - 30.99 magnitudes. On the other hand, temperature factor showed a small effect on fiber tensile strength mean value changes. Finally, from this study analysis of variance results, it indicated that the interaction effect between factors during alkali treatment process was not statistically significant to kenaf fiber tensile strength changes.

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Vibration analysis of thin walled structure has been an active research in engineering fields. This paper proposed to investigate the application of vibration absorber (VA) attached to the simply supported plate (SSP) in order to suppress the structural vibration. Two major factors influence on vibration reduction of plate are investigated in term of the attachment location of vibration absorber and the number of absorber applied on structural dynamic of the plate. Finite element software of ANSYS APDL was performed to measure the dynamic response of plate. The results found that the best positioning vibration absorber are at the location of 0.35 m of x-axis and 0.40 m of y-axis which can attenuate the vibration along the frequency band. Numerical result also presented that when attached multiple absorber, the vibration reduction of plate provide larger suppression to SSP which average reduction almost 80% over the frequency modes. This study conclude that right position and number of absorber can be the major contribute to suppress vibration on a plate structure more effectively.

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This paper presents the energy absorption of woven kenaf fiber reinforced composite tubes subjected to axial compressive force. As-received kenaf yarn is plain-weaved to form a woven kenaf mat. Then, it is oriented and wraped around the circular steel mould. Different fiber orientations and number of layers are used to fabricate the tubes and it is then quasi-statically compressed to obtain the force-displacement curves. Two important crashworthiness parameters are extracted from the curves such as peak forces and energy absorptions. The roles of these parameters are discussed with the relation of fiber orientations and number of layers. From the experimental works, it is found that fiber orientation and number of layer played an important role in determining the crushing performances. It is also found that maximum specific energy absorption is obtained for the fiber arrangement of [00/00] and [00/00/00]. Whereas, the minimum value is occurred when 150 fiber orientation is included. Local buckling failure mechanism is responsible in producing lower specific energy absorptions.

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Corrosion is one of the main causes of failures in onshore or offshore transmission pipelines (both gas and hazardous liquids). The reduction in the number of corrosion incidents in pipelines is strongly desirable regarding to safety and financial reasons. Owners of energy companies, industry trade organizations, and the scientific community have worked to increase pipeline safety and reduce incidents and related costs for many years. In fact, they have made significant improvements to corrosion detection, assessment, and mitigation technology. However, all the current approaches are not sufficient completely. On the other hand there are valuable results in the other engineering fields which have employed structural health monitoring technique in their applications. This paper provides a critical review about the pipeline corrosion monitoring techniques. Moreover, a brief description of Structural Health Monitoring method is discussed for its flexibility and viability for corrosion monitoring in pipeline.

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Damage detection in pipeline system is one of the most important goals for energy companies. As the pipeline network continues to age, monitoring and maintaining its structural integrity is needed. A few methods of nondestructive evaluation (NDE) are currently used for this purpose, but numerous accidents over the past several years have led to significant costs and fatalities, indicating that NDE techniques may not be sufficient. Researchers and owners believe that a structural health monitoring (SHM) system would enable pipeline operators to continuously monitor the structural integrity of their networks. This paper gives critical review about impedance-based structural health monitoring. Impedance method is one of the SHM system detection techniques that implemented using the piezoelectric patches, avoiding the necessity for two separate sensor arrays. Because piezoelectric patches are flexible and resilient, they can potentially be permanently bonded to the curved surface of a pipeline’s main body. This permanent installation allows for the continuous monitoring of the pipeline system and reduces the costs associated with implementing NDE techniques, such as excavation to gain direct access to the pipeline.

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In this paper, we analyze the steady stagnation-point flow and heat transfer of an incompressible copper nanofluids towards a shrinking/stretching surface. Copper nanoparticles of volume fraction 0.2% are dispersed in fresh water and sea water. The governing Navier-Stokes’ partial differential equations are transformed to a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations by means of a similarity transformation. The nonlinear equations are then solved numerically by using Runge-Kutta-Fehlberg method with shooting technique. A comparison analyses on sea water/fresh water based copper nanofluids is presented to investigate the effect of injection under the influence of pertinent parameters such as the magnetic parameter, Grashof number, Eckert number, thermal radiation and heat generation are discussed over a vertical porous surface. The temperature and velocity distributions of nanofluids at the porous surface illustrates that both nanofluids have quite similar characteristics for all stream conditions. Comparisons with published results is presented.

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Calcium phosphate (CaP) has been extensively studied for its excellent performance in promoting bone tissues in growth or osseointegration as in bone graft substitute and biomimetic coating of prosthetic implants. However poor mechanical properties of CaP has made its limited in a load bearing application and it has become an interests in research investigation for biomedical applications challenging. Here we employ an optimized mechanochemical method to synthesis calcium phosphate and Magnesium-doped Calcium Phosphate (Mg-CaP) in various weight percentages. The change of adsorption band in FTIR indicates that the Mg has been substituted into CaP. Doping by MgOH is found to effectively increase the densification and hardness of CaP when sintered at 1200oC. Mg doping could be contributes to the improvement in artificial implant of calcium phosphate (CaP) for bone implant application in load bearing area.

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Titanium oxide (TiO2) coatings were deposited on the surface of 316L stainless steel substrates by sol-gel methods. Gel titania was prepared by hydrolysis of a titanium butoxide through a sol–gel process. Uniform TiO2 coatings have been prepared on stainless steels using a dipping technique and thermal post-treatments at 300, 500 and 700oC. The temperature dependence of the coatings morphology and structure were analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The corrosion behavior of 316L stainless steel substrates coated with densified TiO2 coatings was studied in 3.5% NaCl by potentiodynamic polarization curves at room temperature. The result shows that as the thermal post-temperature increased, the corrosion rate increased and the corrosion current density decreased gradually. The effect of withdrawing speed of the coatings on the corrosion parameters is also reported.

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Titanium dioxide (TiO2) is one of the basic ceramic material which has found involves in variety of application in industry and in our daily life. The size of nano TiO2 proves has great potential of improvement in physical, optical, biological and electrical properties. The main purpose of this work is to investigate the effect of Fe incorporated TiO2 with Fe amount varied from 0.5 to 1.5 mol %. In this work, Fe-TiO2 nano powder was synthesized via sol gel method and subsequently followed by calcinations process at 500 oC for 2 hours. The as-prepared samples were characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer (UV-Vis). The results obtained from XRD showed the presence of anatase phase in all samples. FESEM images revealed that all samples were agglomerated with irregular shape while EDX analysis confirmed the presence of titanium, oxygen and iron in the samples. UV-Vis results exhibited that the wavelength threshold was shifted to 566 nm as the amount of Fe was increased to 1.5 mol% Fe. The band gap energy of Fe-TiO2 was ranging from 2.6 eV to 2.9 eV indicating that Fe-TiO2 has high potential for visible response photo catalyst.

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Carbon steel is a combination of the carbon (C) and iron (Fe) for which the maximum content of alloy elements. The various uses of carbon steel especially mild steel are depends on the amount of carbon added to the alloy. Mild steel steel are widely used in marine applications, nuclear, fossil fuel power plants, transport, chemical processing, construction, mining and metal processing equipment due to its cost and availability. However, corrosions are likely to attack carbon steel not only in aggressive environment, but also in normal environment. Several choices can be implement to reduce or control the corrosion attack on carbon steel, but inhibitors often play an important role in the oil extraction and processing industries where they have been considered to be the first line of defense against corrosion. However when the environment is of prime concern, as well as oil and gas operations legislation, anything is discharged overboard into the water in offshore operations it should meet the relevant regulatory requirements. Most of the effective inhibitors have an issue concerning biocompatibility, biodegradability, bioaccumulation and toxicity composition that is harmful to the sea habitat. Most issues arise when discharging the waste direct to the sea through bioaccumulation, which can be described as a chemical’s tendency to be taken up and stored by living organisms through their environment and diet. Inhibitor can be divided into four types namely; anodic inhibitors, cathodic inhibitors, mixed inhibitors and volatile corrosion inhibitors. The evaluation of inhitors type can be characterized by electrochemical or immersion test by additing identified amount of inhibitor into solutions which are normally seawater. This paper reveals some industrial green inhibitor that has been used as corrosion protection on carbon steel.

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This paper presents a short-term, multi-state reliability model for an industrial gas turbine. A new method is introduced to define the state boundaries. The transition intensities between any two states are determined from actual operation data and a Markov chain embedded in the operation data. The Chapman Kolomogorov equation corresponding to N-states is given. The equation can be applied to any gas turbine system. In the current paper, it is applied to a power plant having two identical 5.2 MW (nominal capacity at ISO condition) Siemens Taurus 60S gas turbines. The specific model included droop and isochronous modes of operation. The results show that the forced outage rates for the two gas turbines converge to 0.513 and 0.2661, respectively, when t ??. Such a model will be applicable for short term planning of the operation of gas turbines hence contributing to a saving in life-cycle or maintenance cost.

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Aluminium foam is a metal that consist of porous medium with special characteristics such as good energy absorption, high thermal conductivity and good heat transfer. The special characteristic make suitable to be used for a wide range of application include heat exchanger and energy absorption. The aim of this project is to design and fabricate aluminium foam tube for heat exchanger application. The infiltration method with vacuum-gas was used to fabricate aluminium foam tube. Stainless steel mould was designed with diameter size of 10 cm and core at the centre. The aluminium foam produced was scanned by using CT-Scan to observe the geometry and pores size after replication. In addition, the density and porosity of aluminium foam tube also determined in order to get correlation between the space holder used. Result show that aluminium foam tube with large size was fabricated successfully by using infiltration method with vacuum-gas. The aluminium foam tube with diameter of 10 cm and height of 4 cm to 13 cm was produced by this method. The pore size of the foam tube is in range of 2 mm to 6 mm .This aluminium foam manufacture method can be produced for variety of shape and size and can be applied for many applications.

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Nowadays, natural and manmade disasters are often occurred which caused the chaos and worries in society. It cannot be avoided, but possible to predict by existing emergency respond in every country. There are several disaster such as floods, plane disasters, storms, sink holes and landslides. This research focuses on the flood regarding the management, respond and handling system. The disaster resulting loss of live, cost damage and environment damage which cause stag the human activity during and temporary after disaster. The disaster requires the management which involves resources, equipment, frequency and extensive manpower from various agencies as well as effective coordination. The individual is not concerned with the management process, they respond more to their heart connection and response of uncertainty sense. Therefore it is essential to ensure that each person have a system in place that will provide and inspire the ability to maintain their character and solidarity within themselves. The emergency respond plan system is exist in every country especially in Malaysia. However, there are several problem in information distribution to the society such as change the contact number, no signal, no contact number of interagency and less communication. Therefore, this research will approach the system which effective to undertake the disaster earlier and also linked to the every interagency in each area of Malaysia. It believed that will be high impact to the decreasing victims, cost damage and cost to recovery.

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Emergency response management is needed to reduce the disaster event. This paper presents the functions exist in a prototype was developed for emergency response management during disaster. The prototype is potentially useful in Malaysia that is face to natural disaster such as monsoon flood and flash flood. In this research, develop the emergency respond plant system base on online system which easy use and easy to find out. The system will be request to link with National Security Council (NSC) website in order to suitable for NSC database. The result of this research is the system which is beneficial for the flood management related agencies in order to plan further improvements in the current procedure for flood response. Developed system is completed by contact of each interagency in every area. It showed for fast disaster responsibility in order to decrease the possibility of victims and cost damage.

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Flood Catastrophic occurs every year in Malaysia. Recently, the end of 2014, the worst disaster occurred in Kelantan and followed by Pahang, Terengganu and Sabah. Therefore, need to advance flood catastrophic management to fast action when disaster is occurred. There were existing flood management systems that developed by Infobanjir website and Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia which conducted by short message system (SMS) as one of the delivering systems. Whereas, in the Flood Preparedness and Response in Malaysia was developed by Disaster Management and Relief Committee as well as Malaysia Disaster Preparedness Centre (MDPC). However, ineffective information distribution to the society become main issue to solve, because may have some peoples have changed their phone number which hamper that information. Therefore, the main purpose of this research is to review the flood catastrophic management system in Malaysia to enhance the effectiveness and adapted in flood disaster management in Malaysia. From the result mention that the emergency responds management is divided into 4 phase which are preparedness phase, response phase recovery phase and mitigation phase. It conducted into every level of the country which consists of central, state, district and area levels.

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Flame assisted machining is a promising machining process targeted at improving the machinability of difficult to cut materials. Oxyacetylene flame as a heating mechanism is dominantly applied in heat assisted machining with single point turning tools. Investigations with end milling cutters which have a wider cutting area were not explored. Even so, with this approach, previous investigations have notably predisposed interest on machinability end result. As a result, varying machinability improvements have been reported by adopting same approach. However, investigation of the heat source parameters and their influence on the machinability factors were not reported in the wide published literatures. In this work, mathematical model of the flame spot diameter as heat source factor responsible for influencing machinability outcome was obtained. An optimal spot diameter was developed to reconcile the heat source from oxyacetylene flame for application with 40mm diameter end mill tool holder fitted with honed edge insert. Heat source parameters namely focus height, oxygen pressure, acetylene pressure and resident time (FOAR) are investigated as the independent variables responsible for varying spot diameter utilizing Analysis of variance (ANOVA). A response surface methodology was used for the design and finding the optimum flame spot size which will yield minimum heat affected area and superior machinability improvement. The established empirical model suggested that flame spot diameter is influenced by focus height, oxygen gas pressure, acetylene gas pressure and resident time in the same order. It was found that catastrophic wear transpired towards the end of the tool life criterion for several test conditions during dry machining at room temperature. Flame assisted machining was evidently discovered to increase the tool life of uncoated WC – CO end mill insert. With flame assisted machining, surface finish has increased by 80 % when the cutting speed was purposely changed from 79 to 125 m/min.

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Cemented carbide (WC-Co) is a composite material consisting of a tungsten carbide (WC) embedded in a cobalt (Co) binder. The hard metal is known for its high hardness, superior toughness and high wear resistance in various applications. This study focused on the effects of sintering parameters of cemented carbide on its properties such as hardness, wear resistance, density, porosity and microstructure. The samples were fabricated through metal injection molding process with palm stearin and polyethylene binder system. The powder loading used was 63% volume and the binders had been removed under 2 stage debinding process without causing any defects onto the samples. The samples were sintered in different sintering temperatures and holding time which are 1400°C with 30 minutes, 1400°C with 60 minutes, 1400°C with 90 minutes, 1450°C with 30 minutes, 1500°C with 30 minutes and 1550°C with 30 minutes respectively. The results show that there are changes in microstructure on the surface of the material and found that abrasive wear resistance is proportional to the hardness of the material. The changes in the density, porosity and the grains growth size also show significant changes and are further discussed.

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The main attention of this research is to evaluate welding properties of 25Cr Super Duplex Stainless Steel (SDSS) or also classified as UNS S32750 under repeated welding cycles with the main properties, i.e. hardness and tensile strength. The research is utilized tubing test specimen and weld by automatic orbital TIG. A small bore tubing with size diameter of 9.53 mm and thickness of 2.1mm are welded at the heat input of 0.248 kJ/mm. This process requires no filler metal and bevel end preparation since it will directly melt down two opposites edge of base metals. Welding was positioned at 2G horizontal, DCEN polarity and 99.99% Argon gas for the shield and purge. Test specimens are evaluated to simulate repeated weld cycles of original welding, R1, R2, and R3, respectively. The result shows an increase in number of repeated welding cycles will affect the ultimate tensile strength (UTS), yield strength and hardness properties. A correlation between each result and number of welding cycles is summarized into a line chart.

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In composites, chemical treatment caused better adhesion interface between fibers and polymer. Thus, in this research, alkaline treatment was performed on jute and kenaf fibers in an alkaline solution containing 5wt % sodium hydroxide diluted with distilled water, at room temperature for 30 minutes. The pH levels of the alkaline solution were maintained approximately at pH 11 to pH 12. The untreated and treated fibers were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy in the range of 4000 cm-1 to 400 cm-1. It is found out that change in the structure and the removal of outer cell layers, cellulose, hemi cellulose, lignin, waxes and other impurities during the alkaline treatment that affected the improvement on the adhesion interface between fibers and polymer.

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Traditionally a linear motion system consists of a rotational motor and motion translation component. However, the traditional systems inherit several drawbacks that contribute into operational limitation. Currently, use of a linear motor is seen as an alternative to produce direct linear motion without use any motion translation. Linear DC Motor (LDM) is one type of linear motor. Previously, a LDM has been developed to be use in a linear displacement system. Based on experimental result, it could achieve a desired displacement with fast settling time and low overshoot. However, in order to improve the system performance especially in term of time response, a new LDM need to be designed. In this paper, a LDM for similar application was designed. The shape of the LDM has been change from a rectangular to quarter circle due to changes in shape of permanent magnet. Furthermore, material of the permanent magnet also has been changed from ferrite to NdFeB to increase the magnetic flux density in air gap. Based on the designed, the LDM has produce about 3.1 N/A and 35.12 ms in term of thrust constant, kf and mechanical time constant, Tm respectively. In comparison with previous LDM, it only produced about 1.6 N/A and 111.72 ms in term of thrust constant, kf and mechanical time constant, Tm respectively.

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Micro encapsulation techniques have been developed for various applications such as bioengineering, pharmaceutical, drug delivery, cosmetics and food technology. Some of these techniques involve with complex process and harsh chemicals and may not be suitable for the micro encapsulation of cells. Micro-extrusion is a simple yet efficient technique to produce large number of microcapsules. However the simple extrusion only enables the production of microcapsules in a few millimeters that limits the transportation of oxygen and nutrients. In this paper, a micro-extruder with an inclusion of vibration mode was developed to reduce the size of the microcapsules. Smaller size of microcapsule provides better transportation of nutrients and oxygen. The effects of adding a vibrator motor to the customized micro-extruder were studied and characterized. The experimental results showed that the size of the microcapsules can be controlled and reduced to approximately 800-1000 µm using vibrational frequency ranging from 10 to 60 Hz at flow rate of 0.6 ml/min. A lower flow rate of the micro-extruder and a high frequency of vibration can produce smaller size of microcapsules. The technique developed is potentially easy and safe for micro encapsulation of cells.

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Multiple wavelength channels can be used for implementing transceiver modules in optical transmission system network in order to increase spectral efficiency. However, it leads to cost increment which is caused by employment of multiple optical components. Therefore, implementation of advanced modulation format has become an option to further increase spectral efficiency. But apparently, it involves complicated and costly transmission system. Carrier less amplitude and phase (CAP) modulation has emerged as promising advanced modulation format candidate in optical transmission system due to spectral efficiency improvement ability with reduction of optical transceiver complexity and cost. In this paper, we propose a transmission of 2.5 Gb/s CAP-4 and CAP-16 modulation formats over single mode fiber (SMF) link using 1550 nm vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) with 2.5 Gbaud modulation rate. The signal is successfully recovered after 35 km of SMF in system of 10 GHz sample rate.

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This paper describes the study of application of a complex band pass ??D/A modulator as Quadrature (I-Q) signal generation in communication system for communication Integrated Circuit (IC) testing as well as transmitter. The study shows that the complex bandpass??D/A modulator is superior compared to two real-bandpass??D/A modulators regarding to noise-shaping characteristics. Hence, the trade-off between bandwidth and sampling speed is better for the complex bandpass??D/A modulator. This study also presents the theoretical analysis and simulation results of its extension and complex multi-bandpass modulator characteristics from the result.

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This paper describes the fabrication process of thick-film lead free piezoelectric ceramics, consisting of barium titanate (BaTiO3), borosilicate, terpineol, on alumina (Al2O3) substrate. The BaTiO3thick-films piezoelectric are prepared by screen printing. Suitable ratio for the paste composition is crucial to ensure printability and functionality of lead-free piezoelectric ceramic. Ag/Pd is deposited as the lower and upper electrodes to form a unimorph piezoelectric device. The thick-film which contained 50wt. % BaTiO3, 10wt.% borosilicate, and 20wt.% terpineol demonstrated the optimal piezoelectric properties with the maximum piezoelectric charge coefficient of 17 pC/N. The thick-film was also inspected under SEM to investigate the quality of the films.

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Equipment damages cause by electrical surges can be attributed to ineffective grounding system which by right should provide protection to equipment and personnel safety. The grounding system ineffectiveness to surge protection is due to the remoteness of earth terminal or ground system entry points from the lightning surge occurrence. Despite all considerations taken such as maintaining low resistivity soil, multiple grounding terminal rods, mesh ground system still the problems remain unsolved. The underlying reason is that the connection between the earth terminal to the lightning induced surges occurrence points are as such, creating potential rises at points of unmatched surge impedance junctions thus effecting equipment reliability. The rise in ground potential magnitudes to remote earth at equipment proximity should be eliminated. This work has shown that by employing test-model grounding electrodes that used certain materials that have low thermal transfer impedance, acts like a kind of a portable earth to absorb lightning surge current energy, can be used for grounding system enhancement by connecting the tested ground.

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Fluorine doped tin oxide (FTO) thin films were prepared by using Ammonium Fluoride (NH4F) and DBTDA. These two solutions were mixed and finally get the Fluorine doped with tin oxide. The solution then proceeds to spray pyrolysis process to produce the FTO substrate. This works is focused on producing high transparency materials above 85% which allows more sunlight absorption by the inner part of solar cell. Besides, the fabrication of thin film with low sheet resistance is investigated for enhancing the conductivity. The sample then anneal with different annealed temperature. Surface Morphology of FESEM show the particle distribution and size of FTO of all the annealed temperatures used in this research. From this method, by adjusting the anneal temperature the best film obtained is at 150oC anneal temperature which has the sheet resistance of 5.11?x10?^8?/sq and highest percentage of transmittance.

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Photovoltaic (PV) system is one of the solution to the energy and environmental issue. It offer possibility of converting sunlight to electricity. Unfortunately, the conversion efficiency of electric power generation are very low especially under low irradiation condition and the amount of electric power generated by solar array change continuously with weather condition. In order to overcome this problem, Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) is being used. This project proposes to design Perturb and Obesrve (P&O) controller in order to maintain maximum power delivered by the PV system. The performance of proposed method is evaluated by using Matlab/Simulink and Arduino Mega. The proposed method is capable to maximize the power point for PV system.

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This paper presented the study of Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) structures characterization on poly (methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) layer by using the 248nm Krypton Fluoride (KrF) excimer laser micromachining. To study surface quality of PMMA, the micro drilling process was carried out to produce the holes. By using the KrF excimer laser, the relationship between the ablation parameter and the size of the holes was investigated. To further confirm the relationship between ablation parameters and the surface quality, several micro channels of the micro fluidic structures were fabricated by varying the energy and frequency in order to obtain the optimize parameters. The width of the micro channels increased when the energy increased. After the micromachining process, the micro channels were fabricated again by different beam size. The increment in beam size caused the width of the micro channel to be increased. The physical deformation of the holes and the micro channel were observed by using the High Power Optical Microscope.

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Electrical-based biosensor application in the medical application systems bring advantage in terms of fast responsive time of disease detection and with low cost production i.e. compatible with CMOS technologies. In this paper we present the interdigitated electrode (IDE) for detection of cardiac troponin biomarkers. IDE device is fabricated and followed by titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin film deposition on the IDE surfaces using sol-gel method, acts as a sensing area. TiO2 nanoparticle not only provide high surface to volume ratio and chemically-environment-dependent electrical properties, but it also promotes natural oxygen group bonding that is crucial for biomolecule linkage. After that, the TiO2 surface undergo surface functionalization process to allow the reaction of antigen-antibody protein. Surface morphology is characterized by using Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). For electrical characteristics after hybridication, the IDE is characterized using Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer (SPA). Result shows that, our IDE device is capable to detect troponin-I protein biomarkers.

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In this paper, a conventional proximity coupled microstrip antenna operating at 2.45 GHz is firstly designed as a reference antenna. Then, the proximity coupled microstrip antenna is incorporated with a star geometry pattern artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) as the ground plane. Performance comparison is analyzed between the conventional antenna and the antenna with the AMC ground plane. The proximity antenna with star geometry pattern AMC ground plane successfully enhances the efficiency and gain by 8 % and 3 % as compared to the conventional antenna. In addition, the size of the proximity antenna with star geometry pattern AMC ground plane is reduced by 13 % as compared to conventional antenna. It shows that AMC as a ground plane to the antenna are able to reduce the size, enhance the gain and efficiency of the antenna.

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Cupric oxide (CuO) thin films were deposited on the silicon substrate by dip coating technique. The starting material used was copper (II) sulphate pentahydrate (CuSO4.5H2O) which dissolved in de-ionized water and lactic acid while sodium hydroxide (NaOH) was used to control the pH of the solutions. Various pH values of solutions varying from 12.0, 12.3 and 12.5 were optimized in order to determine the optimum condition for dip coating process. The phase structure and morphology of the thin films were investigated by a X-ray diffraction (XRD) and a field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), respectively. Meanwhile, the thickness of the films was measured using surface profiler and confirmed with FESEM cross-section. The electrical properties were determined using a four-point probe instrument. The XRD pattern revealed that the deposited films are polycrystalline in nature with monoclinic CuO phase formation. Morphological studies revealed that the individual petals becomes larger, start to become more dense and then formed porous flower-like structure with completely covers over the substrate surface as the pH value increased. The film thickness was 19.6 µm at pH 12.0 which increased to 25.3 µm and 52.4 µm at pH 12.3 and pH 12.5, respectively. The film showed good resistivity at pH 12.5 with estimated value around 3.8019×103 ?.cm compared to the others. Consequently, it was observed that various pH value has strong effects on the structural, morphological and electrical properties.

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Titanium dioxide (TiO2) thin films were deposited on silicon substrates by using a sol-gel dip coating technique. In order to study the influences of the deposition layer on the properties of TiO2 films, the number of layer was varied. Then, the TiO2 films were analyzed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) and four- point probe. Generally, all films are uniform without the presence of any grain or grain boundary. The TiO2 films were confirmed by energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) which indicates the presence of titanium (Ti) and Oxygen (O). It was found that, the thickness and crystallite size of the films increases as the deposition layers increased. On the contrary, the resistivity of the TiO2 films decreases in the range of 5.80 x 102 O.cm and 1.45 x 102 O.cm as the deposition layer increased. Therefore, it has been determined that the properties of TiO2 films were strongly correlated with the thickness of the films.

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The effects of annealing temperature on properties of aluminium-doped tin oxide (ATO) thin films deposited by spray pyrolysis deposition (SPD) method were studied. Transparent sandwich structure ATO multilayered thin films were deposited on glass substrates from aluminium nitrate and tin (IV) chloride solution using spray pyrolysis deposition method. The deposited films were annealed at different temperatures using a furnace from 100oC to 500oC. Characterization of the films for its surface morphology, elemental analysis and optical properties were done by using FE-SEM, EDS and UV-Visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). Sample of 500?C annealing temperature was the optimum annealing temperature since the sample exhibited the lowest resistivity of 493.44 O • cm and highest percentage of transparency.

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The cobalt doped tin oxide thin film was fabricated by using the mixture of cobalt (II) chloride and tin (IV) chloride. It was fabricated on microscopic glass using spray pyrolysis deposition technique. The samples were annealed with different annealing time at 300ºC. The duration of annealing time is 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 hours. The samples were then characterized by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), ultraviolet visible spectrophotometer (UV-vis) and four-point probe. The FESEM results indicate that as the annealing time duration increased, the crack pattern on the surface of the samples increased. The optical properties of the samples were studied with the UV-vis results show the transmittance of all sample were between 70% to 80%. The sheet resistance for IV-characteristic increased when annealing time increased. The lowest resistivity was achieved at 2 hours annealing time.

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This paper presents a noveldesign of a circular polarized antenna for ultra-wideband (UWB) applications. A simple narrowband patch antenna is optimized to the geometry of the UWB antenna. A partial ground plane, a couple of cross slots, and additional slots were designed and optimized using CST Microwave Studio. Results indicate that the proposed antenna exhibits good circularly polarized radiations. The 3 dB axial ratio bandwidth is higher than 87.8%. Simulation results and measured values indicate that the antenna has an impedance bandwidth of 158.8% (1.4–12.2). In addition, the antenna exhibits good radiation characteristics and obtains a reasonable gain across the band, which makes the antenna an excellent candidate for UWB applications.

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This study compares various type of Fractional order PID (FOPID) Controller in regulating the steam temperature in distillation tank in the Small-Medium Industry Steam Distillation (SMISD) with intention to improve the tracking performances due to presence of noise. Three types of new modification version of FOPID have been proposed here. Based on literature review shows that the pole in origin of FOPID are absent due approximation by using Oustaloup Algorithm (ORA). The overall performances can be elevated by integrating the error filter. This new controller are named FOPIDer. Another problem faced during the development of FOPID is the effect of noise especially on derivative term. The sensitivity of derivate term are increasing exponentially as well as the effect of noise which are always uneven and random signal. Hence, to alter the effect of noise, the low pass filter are added to FOPID. By doing so, the effect of noise are gradually decreased and this controller are named as FOPIDlp. Both feature of error filter and low pass filter are integrate into single FOPID controller namely FOPIDerlp. Comparisons of assessing the effectiveness of controller performance and analyzed are based on the mean-square error (MSE) criteria index in noisy environment. This criteria measures the deviation of steam output from the predetermined set point which is 85 degree Celsius in this case. The real time showed that the FOPIDerlp provide the best performance in providing smaller MSE.

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This paper reports the investigation of the stress level and brainwave characteristics of breastfeeding women. The stress level measured individually using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) questionnaire by Sheldon Cohen, and while the brainwave signals were recorded from 25 of breastfeeding women either through direct feeding or milk expressing using wireless Electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment via Bluetooth. Then, the recorded EEG signal was analyzed using existing Simulink Matlab. The outcomes showed the stress level, Brainwave Balancing Index (BBI), brain hemisphere dominance and the correlation of PSS and BBI of breastfeeding women. The result presented 72 % of high in stress of breastfeeding women with 76 % of them were in balanced brainwave after breastfeeding session. Both methods either direct feeding or milk expressing showed balanced brainwave recorded by the women between 61.1 % to 77.8 %. Besides that, 44 % of breastfeeding women were in right dominance and 36 % of them had changed the dominance throughout the three sessions. Finally, there were no significant correlations between PSS and BBI of breastfeeding women for all three breastfeeding sessions.

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Cobalt doped tin oxide thin film (Co/SnO2) have been prepared by using spray pyrolysis method. The thin film were annealed at various temperatures ranging from 100 °C to 400 °C for one hour in a furnace. The effects of annealing temperature on transformers are able to step up or step down an output voltage from their input. It also can be used to directly supply an electrical motor when a constant frequency operation is required. Here, the research is focusing on designing a three-to-five phase transformer that acts as static phase converters for supplying a balance five-phase load. The designing process of the transformer is described based on the graphical phasor diagram that is flexible and easy to be implemented. At the end, the performances of the designed transformer are evaluated using a static and dynamic load. The designed three-to-five phase transformer is able to maintain a balance five phase voltage for several type and level of load as shown in experimental result. he properties of thin film including structural morphology, electrical and optical properties have been characterized by the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FE-SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS), Four point probe I - V measurement and Ultraviolet-spectroscopy (UV-Vis). Sample at 200 °C annealing temperature forming large grains shows the highest transmittance percentage that exceed 90% with 0.2k (Ohm-cm) of electrical resistivity.

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This paper present study of single molecule Human Papillomavirus (HPV) DNA through the gold nanoparticle system by using atomic force microscopy. Transduction of biorecognition events into electrical signals through the integration of single biomolecule HPV DNA probe in bioelectronic nanodevices requires both a reliable electrical contact and the metallic electrode for efficient conduction mechanism. These conditions have been met in the hybrid system obtained by linking gold nanoparticles with DNA probe. Such an assembling strategy, combined with a conductive atomic force microscopy (AFM) investigation, has allowed us to put into evidence an unprecedented matching between current and topography features and to attribute the intramolecular charge transport. Nanoparticles have been explored as signalling probes for Ultrasensitive DNA detection that can be used in field applications to overcome these limitations. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been extensively used mainly because of its optical property and ability to get functionalized with a variety of biomolecules. The study demonstrates the use of gold nanoparticles functionalized with single stranded oligonucleotide (GNP- oligo probe) as visual detection probes for rapid and specific detection of Human Papillomavirus (HPV).

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Nowadays, power system operates in a stressed condition and causes the voltage at a load bus to drop to a point lower than secure limit. Hence, this research involves development of an adaptive mutation algorithm based multi-objective for Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch (ORPD) in a power system in order to minimize the total loss and the improved voltage stability simultaneously. The Optimal Reactive Power Dispatch problem is formulated as a non-linear constrained multi-objective optimization problem. Furthermore, the proposed mutation was applied into the Multi-Objective Evolutionary Programming (MOEP) in order to optimize the installation of reactive power into the power system networks. The method was a test of IEEE 30-Bus RTS systems and the results have been compared with Multi-objective Evolutionary Programming based Polynomial Mutation Operator (MOEP-PMO) indicating that MOEP-AMO outperformed MOEP-PMO.

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Rapid identification of viruses has been important implications for medical healthcare. This paper presents an analysis study of a single gold nanoparticle system of Interdigitated Device Electrodes (IDEs) by using Energy-Dispersive X-ray (EDX). The presently available methods of detection are mainly based on rapid immunoassay techniques that require trained manpower and are time consuming and expensive. However a biosensor facilitates a doctor to identify the specific virus quickly and prescribe an appropriate course of treatment. In this study, a nanobiosensor based on gold nanoparticles (GNPs) and oligonucleotide probe was designed for the visual detection of Human Papillomavirus (HPV). A simple and facile method for the depositing of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) colloid was described via a simple deposition method on Interdigitated device electrodes (IDEs). The GNP pattern deposition on IDE was investigated by using an SEM combined with an EDX. The study demonstrates the use 30 nm of gold nanoparticles functionalized with single stranded oligonucleotide (GNP- oligo probe) as visual detection probes for rapid and specific detection of HPV. By addition of gold nanoparticles, it enhances the signal and sensitivity of IDE for detection of HPV.

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The effect of air pollution produced from world war, industrial activities and transportation clearly can change the earth ecology system such as the atmospheric conditions. Base on few studies reported from by researcher in USA, Brazil, Spain and South Korea researcher have proven that the pollution effect can enhance the activity of lightning. Those information above motivate Advanced Multidisciplinary System Technology researcher in UTeM to report the cloud-to-ground lightning flashes in Malaysia the influence of pollution. Particulate Matter (PM10) and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) concentration were used as gross indicator of Cloud Condensation Nuclei (CCN) and examined in relation to the urban increase in CG lightning activity. PM10 concentration recorded in Subang, Ipoh and Bayan Lepas were 51, 50 and 49µgm/m³ respectively. Meanwhile, SO2 concentration recorded were 8, 7.9, 7.7µgm/m³. The three urban areas have average number of CG lightning flashes of 200, 197 and 184. An analysis related number of CG flashes against pollutants show positive correlation in Malaysia with reading of 0.94. This indicates PM10 and SO2 concentration have high influential factor in enhancement of CG lightning activity in Malaysia.

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The concept of permeance is used in the analysis of flux linkage of 6/4 SRM. The aim of this paper is to develop an efficient algorithm exploiting the nonlinear feature of the 6/4 SRM using the aforementioned concept of permeance. The first step is to generate the relevant equations related to permeances of the 6/4 SRM under study. The 6/4 SRM’s magnetization curve is then derived from the summation of mmf drops at various blocks representing the motor. The air gap permeances are derived at various angles and 3-D leakage effects are taken into account. These permeances are used for the mmf drop computation. The algorithm is capable of efficiently computing mmf drop at every block to consequently yield a complete accurate nonlinear flux linkage feature of the 6/4 switched reluctance motor. In this way, the capability of the SRM to produce the expected four times the specific output torque due to operation in high saturation region compared to an equivalent induction motor as special the attribute of the SRM is demonstrated.

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This paper proposes a smart system for controlling the air-conditioners and lighting system in a lecture hall. The idea is to read the information of person who is entering the lecture hall by using a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader and activate the Air-Conditioning and Mechanical Ventilating System (ACMV) and lighting system. The system consists of a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader, microcontroller and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that will be used as a secondary control panel substituting the RFID reader. By applying this system, the energy consumption is reduced compared to the conventional method. As a preliminary result, a 35% reduction in the energy consumption of the air-conditioning and lighting system in UMP lecture room has been achieved.

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Visually detecting and tracking lane markings on the road is a difficult task. The challenges faced on the road are different lighting, raining, poor lane markings, and objects on the road. This paper presents a different method to detect and track lane markings. The system carefully selects region of interests from the road image for image processing and recognition, avoiding the need to process large part of the image. The feature extraction is based on modified local threshold that is robust to different lighting condition. The line recognition is based on template matching that imitates the orientation columns of visual cortex. Detection of lane marking is done by scanning the road image for line pattern and the line is trace to complete the detection. When detection is complete, the system will track the lane marking with simple alignment algorithm. The lane marking detection and tracking system was tested on the road, in speed up to 70 km/h. The system is able to detect lane markings under cast shadows, variable ambient lighting and raining conditions, with low processing power.

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Tin oxide (SnO2) is one of the semiconductor that has unique optical and electrical properties and high chemical stability so it is suitable to be deposited onto glass, ceramics, oxides, and other substrate materials. However, it has a very high electrical resistivity due to its low intrinsic carrier density and mobility. Intrinsic tin oxide is an insulator, yet upon doping with other elements such as antimony, fluorine, indium and etc., electrical conductivity can be enhanced extensively. Currently, tin doped indium oxide is the most extensively used electrodes due to its low resistivity and highly transmittance. However, indium is a rare material, expensive and has high toxicity. A good TCO must have low resistivity, high transmittance in the visible region, and high chemical stability. These properties can be changed by doping process with aluminum. Aluminum doped tin oxide is prepared by spray pyrolysis deposition method using a mixture of aluminum nitrate 9-nitrate with tin (iv) chloride pentahydrate as precursor and sprayed on a glass substrate. Five samples with different annealing time were analyzed. The annealing time was from 1 hour to 5 hour with an hour of interval for each group of samples. Optical and electrical parameters were measured and calculated. Surface morphology were being observed and analyzed. The percentage of atomic element is analyzed by using an energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). For application on window layer of solar cells, high transmittance archived on the samples deposited. Thin films thickness was obtained by using a thickness profiler for the use of resistivity and sheet resistance. A mechanism condition of thin film is proposed and discussed; initially the visual yellow color of some samples, related with a preparation of precursor solution, is associated to the amount of aluminum nitrate with tin chloride. The comparison of all characterization result shows sample that have been annealed for about 4 hours give the best conditions of TCO properties.

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Path planning is one of the issues to be handled in the development of autonomous systems. For a group of agents, cooperative path planning is crucial to ensure that a given mission is accomplished in the shortest time possible with optimal solution. Optimal means that the resulting path has minimal length hence the total consumed energy by the agents is the least. Cooperative path planning fuses information from all agents to plan an optimal path. There are a number of cooperative path planning methods available in the literature for multi-agent including Cell Decomposition, Roadmap and Potential Field to name but three. This paper will review and compare the performances of those existing methods that can find solution without graph search algorithm such as Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) techniques which exactly solves the problem and then propose four alternative MILP formulations which are computationally less intensive and suited for real-time purposes, but yield a theoretically guaranteed suboptimal solution.

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A three phase induction motor differences of stator slot size is investigated in terms of its localized flux distribution. The search coil induced voltage method is used to analyze the flux distribution in the stator core. For both stator models, the maximum flux density is found near the tooth and minimum towards the outer region of the stator core. By saying so, this investigation shows that if there are differences in the stator slot size, the values of flux density differs as well. The increasing size of stator slot size will give the lower flux density value.

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In this paper, rice husk (RH) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) composite have been fabricated as single layer microwave absorber. The MWCNTs with various weight ratio composites with RH have been prepared. Three different weight ratio 3 wt% MWCNTs, 5 wt% MWCNTs, and 15 wt% MWCNTs of the RH-CNTs have been designed and fabricated. Moreover, the dielectric properties of different RH-CNTs specimens have been verified by using rectangular waveguide transmission line technique. Furthermore, the microwave absorption of these RH-CNTs has been analyzed using free space measurement and CST Microwave Studio (CST-MWS). The dielectric properties and microwave absorption of different RH-CNTs were investigated in 8.2-12.4 GHz (X-band). From the measurement, the dielectric properties parameter of RH-CNTs is analyzed. The dielectric constant and loss factor of the RH-CNTs composite increases with increasing of MWCNTs weight ratio. However, the magnetic properties of RH-CNTs remain constant, ur= 1-j0. The measurement and simulation result show that such RH-CNTs composites has excellent microwave absorption up to 33 dB in a certain frequency range.

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Since the last two decades, many countries have passed regulations to encourage renewable energy (RE) electricity generation due to policy driven environmental such as rising concerns over climate change and pollution, national security risks associated with fossil fuels, a desire to promote innovation and increase the competitiveness of new energy sources. The Feed-in-Tariff scheme (FiT) and the competitive auctions are the most common successful support schemes that have been implemented. Numerous investors interested to bring growth of the technology because of the high profitability due to high FiT rate, but it will influence the end-user. However, competitive auction through bidding round may lower the prices and have potential to discover real production cost of RE. This study reviews the scenario and the use of the competitive auction mechanism and FiT scheme for the promotion of power generation from RE technologies, also provides an overview of the policy frameworks and support mechanisms scheme in several countries including the Association of South East Asian Nation (ASEAN). A reform should take into account the merit order effect caused by renewable energy sources even the feed-in of electricity generated by renewable energy sources lowers the wholesale price, since they offer electricity at close to zero marginal costs. Overall, the interaction of policy design, electricity price, and electricity production cost are more important determinant of RE electricity generation development than policy enactment alone.

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In this paper a simple audio visual information based speaker tracking technique is proposed for indoor environment. Specifically, a Kalman filter based image processing technique is used to extract visual information, and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) based approach is used to extract audio information for speaker tracking. Finally, a decision tree has been used to estimate the location of the speaker based on audio and visual information. One of the main advantages of the proposed technique is the use of a built-in microphone of the tracking camera; which makes this technique cost effective and simple. We have examined our method with case studies from the online SPEVI database. The proposed technique shows the best detection and works properly even when the speaker is not visible.

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Healthcare industry has been blooming due to increasing health awareness among the modern communities where unlimited innovations are produced following demands ranging from small healthy tablets to big complicated health machines. With current technological development, advanced application such as continuous remote healthcare monitoring system can be proposed since an effective healthcare system assures the healthy and nurturing future of a nation. This paper presents the design and development of remote health monitoring for multi-patient in real-time environment. The paper begins with an overview of the system architecture and its components that constitute the system. It proceeds with the development of the software of the monitoring system. The communication subsystem employs IEEE802.15.4 protocol. Based on the tests results carried out on a faculty building, the author concludes that ZigBee communications between two rooms on the same floor can be acceptable for distances less than 15 meters, while for rooms on different floors the allowable limit is less than 5 meters. In the final conclusion the author suggested wider coverage alternatives as well as inculcating monitoring patients health condition by employing IOS or Android based gadgets as future works for the project.

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This paper presents the execution of Differential Evolution (DE) algorithm in order to understand the principle operation of Harmonic Elimination Pulse-Width Modulation (HEPWM) switching technique. HEPWM utilizing the DE technique is proposed to eliminate low frequency harmonic components of three-phase inverter output voltage. Explanation of DE algorithm execution is given and the best approach of mutation strategy used in DE has been investigated. Switching angles of HEPWM are calculated offline by using the DE technique. Subsequently, the calculated switching angles are used to operate the three-phase voltage source inverter. Computation of DE algorithm and simulation of voltage source inverter using the calculated switching angles are carried out by using Matlab/Simulink software package. Simulation results show the effectiveness of proposed DE technique in eliminating the low order harmonic components of output voltage for three-phase voltage source inverter.

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This paper describes the method of finding the estimated plant transfer function of a low-cost robot gripper system by using the MATLAB System Identification Toolbox (SIT). The best output signal of the gripper is obtained in particular by introducing a fast response step input (i.e. big slope) and a slow response step input (i.e. small slope). The test is based on the hardware setup which consists of a low-cost robot gripper, a closed-loop DC servo motor with position feedback, the Arduino IO hardware control and data acquisition. The results show that the obtained output signal is sufficient to represent the low-cost robot gripper transfer function by using a slow response step input. The PID control is employed and the results show that the gripping performance is satisfactorily achieved in simulation and experiment.

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Ultrasound imaging is a cost-effective diagnostic tool to imagine the internal organisms of human beings that used routinely in the diagnosis of a number of diseases related to ligament, tendon, bone, blood flow estimation, obstetrics, etc. However, ultrasound imaging has limitations such as homogenous intensity regions, homogeneous textures, low contrast regions, enhancement artifact, limited view visualization and inaccurate qualitative/quantitative estimation. To overcome all these investigated problems, this research developed a Computer Aided Diagnosis (CAD) system that helps in efficient segmentation and Three Dimensional (3D) reconstruction of calcaneofibular ligament to enhance the diagnosis. The developed CAD system would help in the achievement of enhanced segmentation results, 3D reconstruction results and statistical analysis of the injured calcaneofibular ligament. Moreover, performance of the developed CAD system is analyzed based on the obtained results, which are indicates the improved performance with more than 92% accurate segmentation and precisely determined 3D measurements such as volume, thickness and roughness. In addition, this research opens new research dimensions for efficient musculoskeletal ultrasound modeling that makes it useful in clinical settings with accurate and cost effective diagnosis of calcaneofibular ligament injuries.

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This paper explains the number of deaths in different countries of the world. Based on the exhaustive review of lightning stroke, the fatalities and injuries have been reported during the last two decades. Lightning is an everlasting problem and during rainy seasons normally it takes place all over the world. Lightning affects the human life as it hits the people while working outside, jogging and taking refreshment. Likewise it affects the economy as it hits buildings, power lines and research premises. The present paper highlights the number of fatalities in numerous countries of the world. This paper aims to take the preventive measures against lightning in mentioned countries. As lightning effect human life as well as the industry, the quantitative review of this article will help the contractor, consultant, research institutes, governmental and non-governmental organization to plan perfectly for the betterment of individual and improvement of the economy of countries all over the world.

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Generally, loose fruit has been neglected and many of the fruit was left to rot due to the conventional collection system that can cause back pain to workers and very time consuming process. This project is about rapid prototyping of loose fruit collection system including its robotic mechanism as well as roller picker for the collection part. Wireless controller is used to move the robot towards the loose fruit and the rolling tool with minimum pressure are rolled on the land. Arduino Mega 2560 that capable to process and execute commands that have been programmed being used as the hardware platform, whilst the Arduino software was used to develop the system architecture. Evaluation on the proposed system in terms of its movement, quantity and quality of the collections as well as stability shows that the prototype is capable to collect scattered loose fruit with average of 0.5kg/min on various ground and 0% trash and injury.

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Transformers are able to step up or step down an output voltage from their input. It also can be used to directly supply an electrical motor when a constant frequency operation is required. Here, the research is focusing on designing a three-to-five phase transformer that acts as static phase converters for supplying a balance five-phase load. The designing process of the transformer is described based on the graphical phasor diagram that is flexible and easy to be implemented. At the end, the performances of the designed transformer are evaluated using a static and dynamic load. The designed three-to-five phase transformer is able to maintain a balance five phase voltage for several type and level of load as shown in experimental result.

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