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Performance analysis of a modified conjugate gradient algorithm for optimization models
No full textThe Conjugate gradient (CG) algorithms is very important and widely used in
solving optimization models. This is due to its simplicity as well as global convergence
properties. Various line search procedures as usually employ in the analysis of the CG
methods. Recently, many studies have been done aimed at improving the CG method. In this
paper, an alternative formula for conjugate gradient coefficient has been proposed which
possesses the global convergence properties under exact minimization condition. The result of
the numerical computation has shown that this new coefficient performs better than the
existing CG methods
Istijrar sale in Islamic law: A potential for Islamic finance practices
No full textIstijrar is a supply sale contract, in which the seller supplies the goods on a regular basis by
instalments based on a pre-agreed contract with the buyer. For the subsequent supplies, no new
offer and acceptance are needed and thus it resembles sale by conduct (bay’ al-ta’ati). Istijrar
arrangement provides flexibility in price determination, as such the price can be calculated and
paid even after consumption of the goods. This paper intends to study the legal status of istijrar
sale in Islamic commercial law and to explore its potential in Islamic finance operations. This
is a qualitative study and a method of discourse analysis has been followed to achieve the
objectives. Both classical and contemporary literature along with different shari’ah resolutions
have been consulted to accomplish this study. The study finds that istijrar sale has great
potential for Islamic finance practices. Istijrar contract can be integrated with murabahah and
ijarah facilities of Islamic banks. Besides,Islamic letter of credit can be structured with istijrar
arrangement. The study concludes that apart from providing flexibility in price determination
and settlement, istijrar contract facilitates to manage the price fluctuation in the market and
helps to avoid uncertainty (gharar) in fixing the price upon the conclusion of the contract.
Thus, istijrar contract can be embedded with an option to be operationalised as a derivative
instrument for the purpose of risk mitigation
Isolation and characterization of effective microorganism from fermented fruit juice
No full textCurrent study was conducted to isolate and characterized the bacteria from fermented fruit juice of papaya
and pineapple using morphological and biochemical test. Isolated bacteria were cultured on selective medium
i.e Burk medium, Pikovskaya agar, Aleksandrow agar, , gelatin supplemented agar and tryptic soy broth
medium with L-tryptophan to evaluate their ability to fix nitrogen, solubilized phosphate, potassium and
gelatin, as well as produced indole-3-acetic acid respectively. A total of 6 bacterial strains were isolated from
papaya (3) and pineapple (3) respectively. All isolates were found to have the ability to fix nitrogen and
produced IAA, five out of six bacteria capable of solubilized phosphate, while only one out of six isolates
were able to solubilize potassium. Among isolates, bacteria from papaya named SB1 showed an outstanding
characteristic comparable to control. This study showed that the isolated bacteria had potential to be
exploited as an alternative biofertilizer and is worth for further investigation
What impacts the acceptance of e-learning through social media? An empirical study
No full textAn incredible volume of research was conducted to examine the students’ acceptance of e-learning systems through
the platforms of higher education institutions (HEIs). However, little debate was made concerning the exploration of
the factors influencing the acceptance of e-learning systems via social media applications. Accordingly, this study
extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) with social media practices, including knowledge sharing, motivation
and uses, and social media features to understand the impact of these determinants on students’ acceptance of elearning systems. The partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) along with the importanceperformance map analysis (IPMA) are employed to analyze the theoretical model using survey data collected from 410
students. The findings indicated that knowledge sharing, motivation and uses, and social media features have
significant positive effects on both perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU). It is also essential to
report that the e-learning system acceptance is positively affected by PEOU and PU together. Further, the IPMA results
showed that PEOU was the most important influential factor of e-learning systems acceptance. © Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2021
An information gain and hierarchical agglomerative clustering analysis in identifying key performance parameters in elite beach soccer
No full textThe current investigation is aimed at identifying the relevant essential performance parameters (PP)
that could discriminate winning and losing performance through the application of multivariate and
machine learning analysis. A set of 20 different PP was collected from the Asian beach soccer
tournament that constituted information such as, tactical and technical strategies, winning and losing
performances. An information gain (IG) analysis is applied to extract the features that could best
describe winning and losing performance. Hierarchical agglomerative cluster analysis (HACA) is used
to create two different clusters based on the initial 20 PP, and the extracted features from IG whilst a canonical discrimination function analysis was used to ascertain the level of separation ability between
the two aforesaid clusters. The IG identified a set of 11 PP that could best describe the winning and
losing performances and the HACA formed two distinctive clusters. It is shown that the clusters formed
using the 11 PP identified was able to offer an excellent separation of the two teams as opposed to the
use of the initial 20 PP. The Canonical Correlation function provided a discrimination power of 0.80 for
the 11 PP in comparison to the 0.70 obtained when using the 20 PP. The techniques employed in the
present study serve useful in identifying key PP that could best describe winning and losing
performances in the elite Asian beach soccer tournament which could assist the coaches in modifying
playing strategies to ensure victory
Group decision making-based TODIM under linguistic aggregation majority additive operator
No full textThis paper proposes an extension of TODIM (interactive multi-criteria decision making ) under
group decision making (GDM) using the Linguistic Aggregation Majority Additive (LAMA)
operator . TODIM is an effective method in modelling experts' psychological behaviour in the
decision - making process. However, under the GDM, the method is based solely on the average of
all experts' judgments without any consideration to soft aggregation processes that include majority
and/or minority concepts. In this work, the LAMA operator is used to be integrated with TODIM -
GDM to aggregate the experts' opinions with respect to the majority concept under the linguistic
domain. This is to provide a greater flexibility in reaching a consensus instead of only considering
equally average using the classical averaging operators. Two linguistic representations, namely,
symbolic approach and 2-tuple linguistic approach for LAMA operator are proposed to be utilised in
the method. A numerical example in investment selection problem is provided to illustrate the
applicability of the proposed method. Finally, the comparison of these two linguistic approaches is
presented. The results show that LAMA under the 2-tuple linguistic approach is preferable to the
symbolic approach in case of there is a tie between alternatives in the final ranking
Beam parameters optimization of MEMS piezoresistive accelerometer by using response surface method
No full textThis article presents the optimization of a MEMS-based piezoresistive accelerometer sensor using design of
experiment (DOE) approach. Two structures of
accelerometers, which consist of a proof mass suspended by
eight beams, have been investigated. Response surface method
(RSM) was employed to optimize the geometric beam
parameters (thickness, width and length) in order to obtain
high sensitivity with an appropriate resonant frequency that
satisfies the design requirements for airbag application. The
beam thickness, beam width, and beam length were optimized
to achieve 0-400Hz bandwidth with high sensitivity. By
implementing RSM, the best combination of the three
parameters for structure 1 was thickness, = 23 µm, width, =
210 µm, and length, = 800 µm. On the other hand, the best
combination of the three parameters for structure 2 was
thickness, = 20 µm, width, = 300 µm, and length, = 800 µm. As
a result, by using optimized beam parameters, the mechanical
sensitivity of the MEMS accelerometer sensor was increased by
almost 34.7% and 22.1% for structure 1 and structure 2,
respectively. The optimization results showed that the
predicted beam parameters of MEMS accelerometer managed
to achieve the target specifications for airbag application.
Hence, the approach can be successfully applied in improving
performance of MEMS-based devices
In vitro antiviral activity of plant extracts from Clinacanthus nutans
No full textClinacanthus nutans is generally used to treat many diseases in folklore remedies. Whole dried plants were
macerated with methanol for crude extract preparation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxicity
and antiviral activities of C. nutans crude extract. Cytotoxicity screening against Vero cells using MTT assay
showed that the CC50 values for crude extract of C. nutans was 1.625 mg/mL. These results demonstrate that
the extract prepared from C. nutans was non-cytotoxic to the cell with potential antiviral activity. Plaque
reduction assays were carried out to evaluate the antiviral activity of C. nutans extract against herpes simplex
virus type 1 (HSV-1). These include post-treatment, pre-treatment and virucidal assays. The selective indices (SI
= CC50 / EC50) of C. nutans extract in post-treatment, pre-treatment and virucidal assays were 11, 6 and 3
respectively. In conclusion, this study showed that C. nutans extract has promising potential to be explored as
anti-HSV-1 agent regardless of the mode of treatment