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Workplace meeting optimisation: an action research on factors driving meeting effectiveness
No full textMeetings have become a hot topic of discussion for researchers and practitioners alike. Practitioners and researchers have examined how meetings should be designed and run in order to promote high-quality outcomes. Works of the literature found that effective meetings will have a greater impact on employee engagement and performance. Effective meetings will motivate employees to make more contributions and increase their commitment to their work. Given that meetings are the most common avenues of interaction among Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) employees, it is crucial to understand ways to promote meeting effectiveness. This action research aims to examine the extent to which meeting design characteristics influenced meeting effectiveness and provides practical recommendations on optimising the effectiveness of the meeting. A mixed-method consisting of quantitative and qualitative approaches was applied in this study. The findings revealed a significant relationship between meeting design characteristics and meeting effectiveness. The results showed that the meeting management toolkit intervention plan has successfully enhanced the meeting design and subsequently the effectiveness of meetings in MCMC. The findings of this study have implications impacting employees’ meeting experiences and perceptions of meeting effectiveness. This study also provides a foundation and reference for researchers and practitioners who want to explore further into this subject
Optimising resources and energy efficiency in grassroots eco-industrial park by selecting the optimal tenant companies
No full textThe generation of oil palm biomass in Malaysia is estimated to reach 100 million tonnes annually. It has vast potential to be monetised to various valuable products such as bioenergy, bio-agriculture, bioproducts and biochemicals. However, the biomass industry has not been able to create value along the industry’s value chain. The industry is also susceptible to several risks including regulatory, financing, technology, feedstock and supply chain, business, and environmental and social risks. Therefore, the selection and control of tenants' access have a vital effect on an Eco- Industrial Park’s (EIP) stability and overall process efficiency. The establishment of the Oil Palm Biomass-based-EIP (OPB-EIP) model might be an effective approach toward optimizing oil palm biomass resources and energy efficiency, promoting sustainable growth and mitigating some risks. Planning a sustainable grassroots OPBEIP can be complicated due to the competition among participating tenant companies. This study provides a systematic approach for selecting tenants. The entry indicator system consists of three primary and ten secondary indicators proposed from the perspective of the park developer. The criteria and sub-criteria are selected according to the industrial symbiosis principles and the three dimensions of sustainability (environment, economic and social dimensions). The technique renders the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model to prioritise the tenants. The optimal selection of tenants depends on the trade-offs between ten different indicators. The method is easy to use and improves the accuracy of decision-making. But there are two challenges in using this method. The first challenge is the unavailability and unreliability of data. It is difficult to get accurate values for some data and is also subject to manipulation. The second challenge is that an indicator’s value assignment is often influenced by subjective factors such as personal preference and professional knowledge. A case study on 100 acres of proposed OPB-EIP in Pahang is adopted for this research. The results indicated that the proposed indicators and AHP method could select tenants with specified criteria. Conclusively, the systematic methodology presented can help park developers formulate guidelines to control tenants' access to a sustainable OPBEIP
Numerical analysis of detonation stability in a rotating detonation engine fuelled with biogas and hydrogen
No full textThe novel rotating detonation engine (RDE) fuelled with biogas offers a significant contribution to the application o f combustion engines powered by renewable-based fuels. However, the potential of a biogas-fuelled RDE has never been properly examined in terms o f key operating parameters such as ignition intensity, equivalence ratio, and total mass flow rate (MFR). Hence, the primary research goal for the current numerical study was to examine the stability o f continuous rotating detonation waves (CRDW) in RDEs powered by hydrogen and biogas on the basis of the aforementioned operating parameters. The numerical model o f CRDW was first established to represent the CRDW stability. Following that, the modified one-step chemistry for biogas detonation was developed and merged with the validated CRDW numerical model. The impact o f the above-mentioned critical operating parameters on CRDW stability in the biogas-fuelled RDE was explored using the validated CRDW numerical model, which was merged with the modified one-step chemistry for biogas detonation. The CRDW numerical model revealed that the predicted CRDW pressure was within 10% of the experimental data. The one-step model was compared to experimental data and the detailed chemistry data, revealing 15.75% and 8.29% discrepancies in biogas detonation velocities. The result is that in a fuel-lean nonpremixed environment at fixed ignition intensities, the biogas-fuelled RDE outperformed the hydrogen counterpart in terms o f detonation stability, with the predicted time to achieve a stable one-wave CRDW in the former RDE being 1327 microseconds shorter than that of the latter RDE. However, the former RDE fell short in detonation sustainability, as predicted by the wave longevity. After 0.0146 seconds from the one-wave emergence, the CRDW was extinguished in the former RDE, while the CRDW pressure was only decreased by 1.52% in the latter RDE. The fundamental explanation for this was that biogas, which has lower diffusivity and reactivity than hydrogen, created an imbalance in counter-rotating waves, resulting in a faster CRDW mode transition than hydrogen. Multiple collisions o f counter-rotating waves have been discovered to be the primary mechanism in the CRDW stabilization process. There was a balance between gaining and losing energy for counter-rotating waves, culminating in a CRDW mode transition or CRDW extinguishment. The enhanced ignition intensity, equivalence ratio, and MFR produced the expected increase in CRDW intensity in the biogas-fuelled RDE. Enhancing these parameters aided in boosting the detonability of the biogas-air mixture. Quasi one-wave CRDW was observed from the start of ignition in all parametric cases, showing that the state of chaotic detonation instability was hardly occurred using biogas. To conclude, the current study discovered that the CRDW from the biogas-fuelled RDE has a more comprehensive operating stability range than the hydrogen-fuelled counterpart. Still, the rapid biogas detonation decay highlights the necessity for an enhanced mixing rate to preserve detonation continuity. The assessment of CRDW instabilities in the current study is pivotal for ensuring that these instabilities are effectively regulated and taken into account during the establishment o f a RDE powered by biogas. The findings will also spearhead further research into parameters that could sustain CRDWs in the future working prototype o f biogas-fuelled RDE
Numerical analysis on bonding stress of carbon fibre reinforced epoxy
Get PDFThe application of fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites in pipelines repairing and rehabilitation process revolutionizes the whole oil and gas industry especially in a condition which repair technique is hard to be implemented. The bond strength between FRP and the pipeline metal is the major element in determining the system strength. Numerous researchers studied the adhesion failure between FRP and metal using both experimental work and finite element (FE) simulation. However, the evaluation of bond strength has been specifically constraint within the bonding system and materials used only. This study aimed to simulate the pipeline repair system and investigate the adhesion shear stress acting at the joint using FE analysis. Double strap joint (DSJ) samples consisted of carbon fibre reinforced epoxy (CFRE) and ASTM A36 steel as the adherend were prepared to model the repairing system using SIKADUR 330 epoxy as the adhesive. A number of parametric tests was performed to obtain material data input for FE simulation. FE model of the DSJ samples was developed using ABAQUS software and a linear cohesive zone model was applied to model the behaviour of the cohesive layer. Laboratory tensile test was also conducted to validate the FE simulation results. The maximum load value in simulation result showed 9.8% higher than the result from experimental work while deeper analysis in stress distribution data provided an estimation of 69.1% effective length of the bonded area. A parametric study was conducted to evaluate the effect on the bond strength by varying adherend’s thickness and elastic modulus. For CFRE cases, the maximum applied load increased non-linearly with average increments of 2.08% and 1.25 % respectively, while adhesive horizontal displacement non-linearly decreased with average decrements of 6.16% and 5.62%, respectively as its thickness and modulus increased. Meanwhile, for ASTM A36 steel cases, a slight decrement was observed for maximum applied load with average decrements of 0.33% and 0.16%, while adhesive horizontal displacement non-linearly decreased with average decrements of 2.21% and 2.37 % respectively as its thickness and modulus increased. In conclusion, the stiffness of the bonded structure was influenced by both parameters, which beneficial in structural design
In silico molecular characterization of a Putative Haloacid Dehalogenase Type II from genomic of mesorhizobium loti Strain TONO
Get PDFHalogenated organic compounds are found as waste in the biosphere and can cause numerous dilemmas because of their toxicity and persistence in the environment. They play a major role in the quality of life of both, human beings and other living organ-isms. Degradation of these compounds by microorganisms is significant to reduce re-calcitrant and cost. Thus, in the current study, an in-silico approach was used for ho-mology modelling and docking assessment of a newly identified DehLt4, type II dehalogenase to predict its ability to degrade selected haloalkanoic acids and haloace-tates. The study aimed to establish the catalytic tendencies of the enzyme to optimally degrade the selected halogenated haloacids. The refined modelled structure of DehLt4 using GROMACS 5.1.2 software revealed satisfactory scores of ERRAT (94.73%), Verify3D (90.83%) and PROCHECK (99.05 %) assessments. Active site prediction by blind docking and multiple sequence alignment indicated the catalytic triads for DehLt4 were Asp9-Lys149-Asn175. Both L-2-chloropropionic acid (L-2-CP) and tri-chloroacetate (TCA) docked with DehLt4 exhibited binding energy of-3.9 kcal/mol. However, the binding energy for D-2-chloropropionic acid (D-2-CP) and monochlo-roacetate (MCA) was-3.8 kcal/mol and-3.1 kcal/mol, respectively. Thus, the findings of the study successfully identified the catalytic important residues of DehLt4 for pos-sible pollutant degradation. The in-silico study as such has a good potential for characterization of newly identified dehalogenases based on basic molecular structure and functions analysis
Occurrence and identification of Basidiomycetous Fomitopsis species—the causal agent of Brown-rot in oil palm Elaeis guineensis in Johor, Malaysia
No full textMacrofungi belonging to the family “Polyporaceae” in the phylum Basidiomycota are among the commonplace causal agents of plant diseases. In the present study, we reported the molecular characterization of a macrofungi basidiomycetous brown-rot fungal phytopathogen Fomitopsis strain MM4. The fungal phytopatho-gen was identified and molecularly characterized from the infected stem and tissue of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) in Kulai, Johor. The 18S rRNA nucleotide sequence of the fungal pathogen strain MM4 showed 99% similarity with partial sequences of Antrodia serialis maintained in the NCBI genebank database. The multiple sequence alignment and phylogenetic analysis revealed that the fungus clustered into a single branch of a phylogenetic tree; hence the fungus was designated as Fom-itopsis meliae strain MM4. The pathogenicity test revealed significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) in disease severity caused by the characterized basidiomycetous brown-rot F. meliae fungal pathogen on oil palm seedlings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of 18S rRNA F. meliae Basidiomycota brown-rot fungi infecting oil palm (Elaeis guineensis). The findings of this study thus support the diversity of pathogenic macrofungi affecting oil palm trees in Malaysia
Electrical conductivity characterization of zinc oxide seed layer and nanowire by conductive atomic force microscopy
No full textZinc Oxide (ZnO) is a semiconductor nanostructure metal oxide that offers a drastic reduction of energy and electricity consumption by regulating visible transmission. The rapid advancement of ZnO devices however necessitates increased complexity and compact dimensions. This research focused on the deposition and characterization of ZnO seed layer and ZnO nanowire growth. Spin coating technique was used to deposit ZnO seed layers on the silicon substrate. Chemical bath deposition (CBD) technique was used to grow ZnO nanowire with different concentrations between 0 to 1M of Hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) on silicon substrate. Electrical characterization of ZnO nanowire was measured by conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM). C-AFM is considered as a versatile technique to measure the electronic structures at nanoscale. C-AFM was used to determine the local current-voltage characteristic of ZnO of nanowire. Current-voltage characterization revealed a characteristic similar to Schottky diode curve with forward and reverse bias voltage. Moreover, this ZnO nanowire was identified with good rectifying behaviour, small turn on voltage and good ideality factor. The morphology was confirmed by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) which showed ZnO nanowire with different patterns according to concentration of HMTA used during nanowire growth process. ZnO nanowire growth with HMTA below 0.03M showed a flower-like pattern with long hexagonal shape. Whereas, ZnO nanowire grown with 0.06M and 0.09M showed long cylindrical shape with uniform diameter around 30-40nm. These properties of ZnO nanowires can be guided to provide opportunity for direct integration of high-performance semiconductor nanoscale devices
A design of in-lab voltage measuring kit based on LabVIEW and Arduino application
Get PDFThis project is about designing an in-lab voltage measuring kit based on LabVIEW and Arduino Uno. This thesis involves designing an online monitoring system for a voltage of 1 kV or less for testing purposes and by using LabView software. The voltage circuit was developed for an Arduino board. The Arduino device used is Arduino Uno Board, which acts as a converter from analog to digital. The simulation software used is Proteus 8 Professional. In this project, there is no hardware developed. The Proteus 8 Professional software is the platform to design a circuit and connect to the Arduino Uno device. LabVIEW software can create a system that can measure and save a stream of data every second when inputting data from an Arduino device. Data will be kept automatically to be analysed by the user to convert raw data to graph representative. The main intention of this project is to build a system for measuring purposes that is user-friendly and easy to use that is suitable for the learning and teaching process in Low Voltage Laboratory
Surface elevation changes estimation underneath mangrove canopy using snerl filtering algorithm and dod technique on uav-derived dsm data
No full textEstimating surface elevation changes in mangrove forests requires a technique to filter the mangrove canopy and quantify the changes underneath. Hence, this study estimates surface elevation changes underneath the mangrove canopy through vegetation filtering and Difference of DEM (DoD) techniques using two epochs of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) data carried out during 2016 and 2017. A novel filtering algorithm named Surface estimation from Nearest Elevation and Repetitive Lowering (SNERL) is used to estimate the elevation height underneath the mangrove canopy. Consequently, DoD technique is used to quantify the elevation change rates at the ground surface, which comprise erosion, accretion, and sedimentation. The significant findings showed that region of interest (ROI) 5 experienced the highest volumetric accretion (surface raising) at 0.566 cm3 . The most increased erosion (surface lowering) was identified at ROI 8 at −2.469 cm3 . In contrast, for vertical change average rates, ROI 6 experienced the highest vertical accretion (surface raising) at 1.281 m. In comparison, the most increased vertical erosion (surface lowering) was spotted at ROI 3 at −0.568 m. The change detection map and the rates of surface elevation changes at Kilim River enabled authorities to understand the situation thoroughly and indicate the future situation, including its interaction with sea-level rise impacts
Verilog modelling of Modbus TCP at 100 mbps
Get PDFWith the continuous development of industry automation, industrial control systems and programmable logic devices are being widely used in the manufacturing production. Machines are required to work either in connection to each other or remotely controlled at a centralized control room using Internet of Things (IoT), Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA) or other communication means. Among the many industrial networking protocols, Modbus TCP is widely adopted. Software implementation of Modbus TCP network is common in the industry. Although software does the job, it is a burden to the processor. There are also Modbus TCP hardware modules selling in the market. But dedicated hardware incurs high cost and not scalable for any feature change. Hence, this project aims to analyse and design a hardware Modbus TCP client and server communication node with the help of RTL-ASMChart and Petri Net. It will be implemented at 100Mbps Ethernet speed within the appropriate power, performance, and area. This design is coded in SystemVerilog and validation is done in Quartus ModelSim simulation. Running testbench in ModelSim and Wireshark show the design is function as expected, after it can be compiled and fit into the target Cyclone V FPGA. Timing closure and throughput expectation of 100Mbps is met in Quartus, with power consumption of around 350mW. Round trip test results showed that RTL designed TCP module has speed improvement over the software TCP method of Windows operating system