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Bimetallic oxide derived from metal organic framework (MOF) as potential electrode materials for supercapacitor / Farah Juliana Juni
No full textMetal oxide is one of the promising electrode materials due to higher capacitance capabilities, higher energy density, low manufacturing cost and easy processability. However, due to major changes of structure and phase during charge-discharge, the performance of the devices will be degraded. In this research, a highly controllable nanostructure of metal oxide was synthesized using a new molecular building blocks with porous structure called metal-organic framework (MOF) as the self-sacrificing template. 2-methylimidazole was reacted with copper ions via co-precipitation method to produce Cu-MOF which exhibits capacitance value of 35 Fg-1 at current density of 0.25 Ag-1. The capacitance value of the electrode was then able to increase through addition of secondary metal, cobalt (CuCo-MOF). The shale-shaped microcrystal copper cobalt nitrate hydroxide exhibits capacitance value of 179 Fg-1 at current density of 0.25 Ag-1. Finally, Cu-MOF and CuCo-MOF were calcined under nitrogen flow at temperatures of 700, 800 and 900 °C to derive the metal oxides and were verified by XRD and XPS results. Oxide obtained at 900 °C (CuMOF-900) exhibited the highest capacitance values of 585 Fg-1 at current density of 0.25 Ag-1. This might be due to the richer oxidant and reductant taking place during the charging and discharging process. However, CuCo-700 was observed to be the most stable since the electrode can retain up to 98 % after 2500 cycles at reversible current densities of 0.25, 0.35 and 0.45 Ag-1. Metal oxide derived from bimetallic-OF proved to enhance the capacitive performance of the electrode materials due to porous structure and richer oxidant and reductant
Investigation of the interfacial energy level within organic semiconducting devices / Wong Wah Seng
No full textThis main goal of this research is investigating the interfacial energy level of organic semiconducting devices by correlated to the devices performance as well as physical/chemical change in the blended/mixed organic semiconductor system. The first project reported the high efficiency extra warm white organic light emitting diodes (WOLEDs) by blending tris(4-carbazoyl-9-ylphenyl)amine (TcTa) to poly(vinylcarbazole) (PVK). The hole current for PVK:TcTa (60:40) increased by one order of magnitude in hole only device, but the current efficiency of WOLEDs improved only by 7% compared to pristine PVK. Using Ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS), it was discovered the hole injection barrier between poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) and PVK:TcTa blend was reduced by merely ~ 0.1 eV. Phase segregation of TcTa is observed using atomic force microscopy (AFM) resulting in percolation path which increases the hole current. However, using ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy the PVK:TcTa blend absorption was found redshifted with increasing TcTa suggesting the compactification of PVK which resulted in triplet quenching that limited the increase in current efficiency. The second project demonstrated the lowering of the work function of PEDOT:PSS by mixing with barium acetylacetonate (Ba(acac)2). The increasing pH, formation of precipitation, disappearance of PEDOT signature in UV-Vis spectroscopy suggested PEDOT was dedoped when mixed with Ba(acac)2. The work function of PEDOT:PSS was reduced from 4.9 eV to 3.6 eV upon mixing Ba(acac)2. The n-doped PEDOT:PSS increased the electron current density in electron only device due to the reduced electron injection barrier height. Both UPS and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) suggested the formation of barium polystyrene sulfonate (Ba-PSS) which resulted in the interfacial dipole up to 1.37 eV at indium tin oxide (ITO)/ Ba-PSS interface which result in reduction of PEDOT:PSS:Ba(acac)2 work function
Keberkesanan audiasi ke atas prestasi pendengaran muzik dan keupayaan menulis melodi secara kreatif dalam kalangan pelajar sekolah menengah rendah / Liow Bee Teen
No full textThis study aims to examine the effectiveness of Audiation. Literature references indicate that there are scholars who suggest that the use of Audiation can be used to enhance students' listening ability, singing skills and creativity in writing melodies. Therefore, the objective of this study is for researchers the effect of Audiation on the ability to listen to music in terms of tonality and rhythm, singing skills in terms of rhythm, pitch and melody and creativity of students' melody writing in terms of originality, fluency and elaboration. The study sample consisted of 90, 14-year-old students studying in Tanjong Malim, Perak. This study employed pre-test design and post-test treatment group who underwent an intervention with Audiation. The duration of treatment was 90 minutes per week for ten weeks and all study subjects completed all assignments in pre- and post-intervention. The Music Aptitude Profile measurement instrument created by Edwin Gordon was used to collect data for this study. The results of the multivariate test, the SPANOVA test, show that the level of achievement of students after exposure to the use of Audiation in deep listening, singing and creative melody writing and the resulting profile plot is positive and successful. In addition the results of the study also show that there are significant relationship between the level of listening to music and Audiation; singing skills significantly affect singing quality (pic, rhythm and melody). Besides that, Audition has a positive effect on the creativity of creating melodies among students. The results show that Audiation has a positive effect on students' ability to listen to music, singing skills and creativity in writing melodies. The findings of this study confirm that the implementation of Audiation in music teaching in the classroom can improve the performance and achievement of better- quality music in terms of pitch singing, accuracy of rhythm applause, performance and melody writing as well as appreciation of music art for life. Recommendations for future studies include researching the use of Audiation extended to the upper secondary school level with the extension of skills in improvisation of students' melody writing
Social acculturation through short + sweet drama festival 2017: An analysis on selected plays / Muhammad Shukri Mohd Tahir
No full textThis research focused on the three selected drama plays from the Short + Sweet
Drama Festival 2017, a famous festival held yearly by the Actors Studio at the Kuala
Lumpur Performing Arts Centre, Kuala Lumpur. Two objectives will be highlighted in
this particular study. The first, to identify the essence of social acculturation elements
embedded within the three selected scripts through organic solidarity. Secondly, to
analyze the social acculturation impact through the experiences of the playwrights,
directors and actors respectively, from the three selected theatre plays. This writing will
be based on two different theories that connect two different sides of this particular
research. One of these theories is Syd Fields’ (1979) three act structure or in other
words ‘paradigm’, and also Emile Durkheim’s (1892) social solidarity theory. At the
end of this writing journey, this research will be a solid proof in justifying that the
performing arts platform (particularly theatre), can be the best channels to equipt the
Malaysian society, with in-depth understanding and realization of the significance of
social acculturation upon the growth, progress and harmony of our own unique nation
The elements of liberal feminism in Ang Lee’s films: An analysis of the female cheracters and characteristics in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) and Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) / Qiu Minchan
No full textIn recent years, Chinese films have shown a lack of attention to women. The hollowedout
female images created in Chinese films are inconsistent with the real ones. With the
development of China's economy, the economic status of women is constantly
improving. However, the female images in the movies cannot meet modern Chinese
women's spiritual and cultural needs. Director Ang Lee has created many female
characters in his films: three-dimensional, realistic, and feminist consciousness. Chinese
women in economic and social transformation can resonate with their roles, reflecting
on how to deal with the contradiction between tradition and modernity under the
background of tradition and modernity combining, and find a way out. It also provides
references for Chinese film and television practitioners in shaping female characters.
This dissertation summarizes the different characteristics of female characters with the
changes in history and times since the film came to China. Taking the two films directed
by Ang Lee, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Eat Drink Man Woman as examples,
this dissertation analyzes the liberal feminist consciousness of six female characters.
They pursue the equal right of men in education and work, pursue freedom of marriage
and love, pursue woman's right of self-determination, as well as the right to resist the
patriarchal system. The growth experience under the eastern and western living and
studying background, and the two influential women in his life- his mother and his wife,
are the inspiration sources for director Ang Lee to create female characters with a
feminist consciousness. At the same time, this dissertation also analyzes the
characteristics of Ang Lee's female characters from the perspective of tradition and
modernity. The female characters in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon are "modern
women" living in the traditional society. In contrast, the female characters in Eat Drink
Man Woman are women who live in modern times but return to tradition finally. In
addition, this dissertation analyzes Ang Lee's use of plots, lens, clothing, makeup, and other film means to create female characters, which show the feminist consciousness of
female characters, which has particular reference significance for other directors to
create female characters
Advanced online battery states coestimation using Kalman filter for electric vehicle Applications / Prashant Shrivastava
No full textCarbon impression and the growing reliance on fossil fuels are two unique concerns
for world emission regulatory agencies. These issues have placed electric vehicles (EVs)
powered by lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) on the forefront as alternative vehicles. The LIB
has noticeable features, including high energy and power density, compared with other
accessible electrochemical energy storage systems. However, LIB is exceedingly
nonlinear and dynamic; therefore, it requires an accurate state estimation technique in a
battery management system (BMS). Due to the existing correlation between the battery
states, the co-estimation method for different battery states estimation is preferred over
individual state estimation. Though, the trade-off between accuracy and computational
burden of the co-estimation method is difficult to maintain in real-time application. This
thesis focuses on the development of the co-estimation methods of lithium-ion battery
states of interest, which are capable to improve the efficiency of BMS, especially for EV
applications.
To achieve high estimation accuracy at a low cost, the co-estimation method for state
of charge (SOC) and state of energy (SOE) is investigated in the first phase of the thesis.
A new dual forgetting factor-based adaptive extended Kalman filter (DFFAEKF)
algorithm to concurrently estimate the electrical equivalent circuit model parameters and
SOC at high accuracy is first developed. The DFFAEKF algorithm has the feature to
reduce the possibility of battery model parameter divergence from the true value under
different dynamic conditions with the same order of big O notation complexity as DEKF.
Thereafter, with the credible SOC estimation by using DFFAEKF, a co-estimation
method for SOC and SOE using a quantitative relationship between SOC and SOE is developed. The simplicity of the proposed co-estimation method can avoid the heavy
computational burden required by the individual state estimation of SOC and SOE.
Finally, to effectively utilize the correlation amongst battery states and reduce the
computational burden of the BMS, a unified frame of co-estimation method for battery
states including SOC, SOE, state of power (SOP). actual capacity and maximum available
energy is developed. In addition to co-estimation of SOC and SOE in the first method,
the SOP estimation is performed by using identified Rint battery model parameters using
the forgetting factor recursive least square (FFRLS) algorithm. Next, the actual capacity
and maximum available energy estimation are performed by using a new sliding windowapproximate
weighted total least square (SW-AWTLS) algorithm at a low computational
burden. The performance of the proposed co-estimation methods are experimentally
verified with battery cells of different chemistries and dynamic load profiles which
suitable for EV. Besides, the low computational burden of the proposed co-estimation,
the results demonstrate the high accuracy of the battery states estimation irrespective of
the change in battery chemistry under-considered dynamic operating conditions.
With the effective utilization of battery states correlation and high estimation accuracy
of the battery states co-estimation methods, the performance of the BMS can be
significantly improved. Furthermore, the proposed co-estimation methods in this thesis
can contribute to the safe, reliable, and efficient utilization of the LIBs used in EV
applications
A case study of health information system workflow on mitigating opioid drug abuse in Saudi Arabia's healthcare system / Alogaili Fahad Abdulrahman
No full textThe hospitals in Saudi Arabia, which have been studied in this research, are almost entirely automated. Healthcare information systems (HIS) are quite efficient; however, the health information exchange (HIE) is absent in the existing systems for different hospitals. Opioid drugs are an addictive substance, Saudi Arabia has the highest mean of drug abuse disorders in the region (680.5, group mean was 401.8). The lack of HIE had contributed significantly to the increase of opioid drug abuse in Saudi Arabia. If a patient has taken opioid as a painkiller, an interoperable system must have the information available for the healthcare department all over Saudi Arabia. Currently, this is not happening, and the HIE is limited. Authorization by the patient is one of the biggest challenges in HIE, as authorization is important to exchange health data through various technology and healthcare platforms. It may also lead to legal risks if the health information of the patient is shared without the patient's authorization. In response to the growing requirement of interoperability in healthcare system, this research aims to propose an interoperable and integrated HIS workflow processes that capable in mitigating abuse issues in Saudi Arabia. This study explored the magnitude of the opioid abuse issues in Saudi Arabia within the context of improper HIS design to identify abuse patients. Objectives associated with this research have been achieved using a qualitative approach with a case study research design. First stage was the observation conducted on sites to understand the practice of HIS workflow and how participants are using the currents HIS model. The primary data was collected through questionnaires that were filled out by the pharmacists and physicians. Interviews were also conducted with the physicians and pharmacists. Some secondary data has also been used in developing responses to the research questions. This research has also identified the current workflow processes of prescribing opioid drugs using HIS in Saudi Arabia while exploring physician and pharmacist perception on the usage of current HIS model regarding opioid drug abuse. Primary data collected from the physicians and pharmacists involved in the field has shown that they are aware of the existing situation that prevails in Saudi Arabia regarding the abuse of opioids. The suggested system workflow processes provide coordination of various sections of the healthcare industry in a manner that makes tracing opioid abuse possible. E-prescription is vital tool in this regard. Interoperability is the key to resolving this issue. At the end of this research, validation of the improved HIS workflow process is done by exploring participants’ and experts’ impressions on the proposed interoperable HIS workflow processes. For this purpose, information was collected from the participants, field experts, and IT professionals. The participants and healthcare experts have reviewed the proposed system and considered as valid for hospitals in Saudi Arabia. The IT experts also believe that such an interoperable system can work very well in Saudi Arabian hospitals. This study is a steppingstone for future research, which can help in overcoming drug abuse and misuse issue in Saudi Arabia. The same proposed HIS workflow processes can be applied in other countries to help control the drug abuse issues all over the world
Synthesis of starch-based bioplastics reinforced with lignocellulosic fibers / Yang Jianlei
No full textBiodegradable starch-based bioplastics are environmentally friendly and have attracted considerable interest to replace the conventional petroleum-based plastics. As compared to synthetic plastics, starch-based bioplastics show low mechanical and water resistance properties that hamper their applications. Therefore, the current research work focused on synthesizing starch-based bioplastics with enhanced properties by incorporating lignocellulosic fiber reinforcements with crosslinking agents. In Malaysia, the abundant natural resources such as cassava starch, oil palm empty fruit bunch (EFB) fibers, and epoxidized palm oil (EPO) derived from palm oil enable us to synthesize these bioplastics. Lignin-containing lignocellulosic fibers were obtained by thermal and alkali treatments in order to improve their adhesion in the composites. The treatments removed spherical particles, fatty acid, and part of lignin or hemicellulose on the fiber surface. Thermal stability of fibers decreased after the treatment. The EFB fibers treated with 10 wt% NaOH (aq) at 180 °C demonstrated the best reinforcing effect on the physical properties of bioplastics. This was confirmed by more compact surface and higher thermal stability, higher tensile strength and increased water resistance as compared to the other bioplastics. These optimally treated fibers (TEFB) were applied to strengthen the bioplastics at varying loading levels. The contents of fibers had a positive effect on the tensile strength and water resistance of the bioplastics but reduced the melting behavior, thermal stability, and plasticization of the composites. Moreover, TEFB fibers above 10 wt% contents formed the aggregates in the bioplastics. The optimum addition level of fibers was 5 wt%. Due to the inherent hydrophilicity and possible incompatibility of starch and fibers, starch/TEFB-based bioplastics were further crosslinked by citric acid (CA), EPO or epoxidized soybean oil (ESO). Low contents of the crosslinkers promoted the compatibility between fibers and starch effectively and led to a significant enhancement of tensile strength, while higher contents of crosslinkers showed a negative effect. The tensile strength increased from 0.83 MPa of the control sample to 1.62, 3.92 and 5.42 MPa for the bioplastics with the incorporation of CA, EPO and ESO, respectively. EPO was selected as the effective modifier of the bioplastics because EPO was the most abundant commodity oil in Malaysia and the bioplastics with ESO were very brittle. However, the compatibility and reactivity between EPO and starch were low. Further, starch/TEFB-based bioplastics were modified with CA-EPO prepolymer (CEPO) using melt blending to improve the compatibility. As evidenced by the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, CEPO generated strong interactions with starch/fibers through CA-inspired esterification reaction. The compatibility between starch and CEPO was obviously improved. As a result, the blending of CEPO in the composites has contributed to a higher evolution of the tensile strength than EPO. The tensile strength of the control sample increased from 3.67 to 6.90 MPa after the addition of 0.75 wt% CEPO. The water sensitivity of the composites was also moderately reduced upon the addition of both oils. This study indicated that the starch-based bioplastics with superior tensile strength and biodegradability can be used to replace part of commercial low-density polyethylene for packaging application
Deoxygenation of algae oil over nickel-based nanoparticles supported on zeolite Y / Choo Min Yee
No full textBiofuel has gained more attention worldwide due to the depletion and environmental issue of fossil fuel especially the carbon dioxide emission. Biofuel offers an effective carbon offset due to the modern carbon cycle. The high lipid productivity and tolerance towards ecological stress has make microalgae a promising feedstock for biofuel production. Conventional biofuel or known as biodiesel is used as after blended with petroleum fuel (diesel). Deoxygenation is a viable process to produce green biofuel, which shares the similar properties as petroleum fuel. Typically, deoxygenation is performed under high hydrogen gas (H2) pressure conditions with the use of expensive precious metal-supported catalysts. Therefore, this study aims to utilize zeolite Y based catalyst with transition metals catalyst for production of green biofuel via deoxygenation in solvent-free and hydrogen-free condition. Zeolite Y, a widely used catalyst in the industry and scientific community due to its large micropore opening (7.3 × 7.3 Å2) was selected as the support. Then, the selection of suitable TMO supported on commercial microporous zeolite Y. NiO showed the best deoxygenation ability (76.2% triolein conversion, 84.3% hydrocarbon selectivity, initial rate of 8.2 goilh-1) at 380 oC within 2 h. However, microporous zeolite Y with limited external surface area (<30 m2/g) faces diffusional limitation. This drawback renders it not ideal for the reactions involving bulky reactants such as triolein (0.625 × 4.37 nm). Therefore, introduction of mesoporosity was achieved by synthesizing nanosized zeolite Y is under organotemplate-free approach. The unsupported nanosized zeolite Y65 (crystal size: 65 nm) exbibited large external surface area (62 m2/g) and intercrystal mesoporosity. It showed 65.2% triolein conversion with 69.2% hydrocarbon selectivity at 380 oC within 4 h. Two preparation methods, namely impregnation (IM) and deposition-precipitation (DP) were investigated for preparation of NiO supported on nanosized zeolite Y (Y65). The DP-Y65 showed the best performance due to the small NiO nanoparticle (3.57 nm), high hierarchical factor (H.F) of 0.084, and high Brønsted to Lewis (B/L) ratio (0.29). The triolein conversion and hydrocarbon selectivity of 80.0% and 90.3% was achieved at 380 oC within 1 h. The initial rate of DP (14.8 goilh-1) was 1.5 times higher than that of IM (9.6 goilh-1). However, the DP-Y65 showed the sign of deactivation with deposition of filamentous carbon due to the reduced mesoporosity after the NiO loading. Finally, hierarchical zeolite Y with uniform mesopore (5.8 nm) was synthesized with addition of amphiphilic organosilane (TPOAC). After that, NiO with different Ni loading was deposited on hierarchical zeolite Y via DP method. It was found that 10 wt% of NiO with coexistence of 1:1 phyllosilicate (PS) deposited on hierarchical zeolite Y (10Ni-MY0.15) showed the best deoxygenation performance. The algae oil conversion of 87.2%, hydrocarbon selectivity of 98.8%, and initial rate of 16.0 goilh-1 was achieved at 380 oC within 1 h. Surprisingly, the 10Ni-MY0.15 showed good recyclability without filamentous carbon formation, offering it as a promising deoxygenation catalyst in producing green biofuel
Flexible content authorization using digital rights management in cloud computing / Ali Hussain
No full textCloud storages are popular for storing the user’s data. For the storage provider, complying with all aspects of user privacy agreement and safeguarding the user’s personal data is tough. In order to protect the data from security breaches and unauthorized access, Digital Rights Management (DRM) is used for controller access. Applying DRM enable content author of data to have more control over its published or shared content. The use of Cloud storage is common and therefore it is important to improve DRM technology to apply the copyrights policies over Cloud data. This is also important in protecting user’s content and providing addition data integrity and intellectual property protection feature as provided by Cloud storage platform. In easy online redistribution model, even authorized user can download the file from Cloud Storage and could easily republish it without prior permission. However, this can pose threat to Intellectual property, may violate copyright policy and may infringe public reputation by propagating false information. This problem is mainly due to the open and inclusive nature of Internet. And more prominent in online social media platform due to their flexible sharing feature which can make false information viral in negligible time. Digital Rights Management (DRM) tends to solve this problem by leveraging more access control to authors of content. Complex encryptions make DRM service difficult to achieve flexibility, interoperability, Cloud deployment and efficient serving. DRM pertains to solve the issue via strong encryption but most DRM authorization mechanisms directly depending on public-key certificates are relatively less suitable to the Cloud. This study presents a review of Cloud DRM technologies available, their features and limitations. This study also represents Macaroons as an alternative method for temper proof and flexible sharing of data over distributed computing. The study demonstrates that the proposed method can provide the immutable data integrity protection with flexible policy definition to limit the access. The integrity of data is verified with the use of HMAC algorithm chain using the verify function of versifier in Macaroon. The study also presents comparison on Macaroon DRM with related studies and performance benchmarking. The proposed method can be added on top of any Cloud storage's and server to achieve controlled sharing in Cloud DRM. The proposed method is found to be flexible, platform independent and easy integration with third party for controlled sharing with an possible unlimited set of authorization conditions