13474 research outputs found
Sort by
Faith-based paths to business success: Malaysian manifestations of the evangelical-neoliberal nexus / Martin Králik
Get PDFThe thesis profiles a number of evangelical Christian groups which operate in Malaysia’s Klang Valley. Some of them have embraced business, financing, investment and real estate undertakings on a significant scale. The objective was to cast new light on how the confluence of evangelical and neoliberal capitalist forces (occurring first in the United States and now transnationally) influenced and at times directly shaped their setting up, development and growth, as well as broader socioeconomic and political positions. In particular, the aim was to map out and analyse the founders’ and members’ choice of religious affiliation; their personal motivations and the sociological formations they represent; the churches’ approach to marketing themselves to the community and other community outreach; and the groups’ entry into and participation in business, which has come with its own sets of governance structures and requirements. Conceptualizations of the dynamics and implications of the rising nexus of neoliberal and evangelical-Christian discourses are a young and underdeveloped field of social research. Despite its relevance to political economy as well as the emerging sub-discipline of sociology of commodification of religion, there is great paucity of literature on the topic. Therefore, fresh empirical data can fill many gaps, especially when it is situated in the context of a developing and multi-ethnic, multi-religious society. This data is presented in the form of case studies, portraying a cross-section of Malaysia’s urban evangelical community. Reflecting the nature of the material, our methodological approach is rooted in detailed empirical inquiry enriched with elements of large-scale social analysis. Academics have been in agreement that it is the hallmark of neoliberalism to commoditize all social relations including religion. Drawing on theories of commoditization and on organizational theory, this study examines the paradigm of churches as owners and distributors of “religious goods” targeted at specific segments of consumers. Also outlined here is how this distribution necessarily entails such processes as competition and specialization among groups. Upon completing archival and interview portions of the data collection, the research effort proceeded to a thematic, explanatory analysis of the main findings, linking fragmentary data to larger assertions and organizing these into coherent case studies. Throughout this process, the analysis was informed by an awareness of the contested nature of this research territory and of the possibility that different views and concepts revealed by the sources may compete and negotiate with each other. This study traces how the churches’ activities led to the creation of new social spaces, organized around notions of social attachment and belonging that resonate with a society undergoing neoliberal change. Also documented here are the newly porous boundaries between church and corporation; social good and profit; and worshippers and shareholders. Lastly, this study puts forward the emerging picture of a religious economy and discusses its ramifications for interacting with other groups, other religions and with the state
Mixed culture polyhydroxyalkanaotes (PHA) production using crude glycerol as carbon source / Ainil Hawa Mohamad Fauzi
Get PDFPolyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) is a biopolymer that has the prospect of becoming a preferred renewable and environmentally friendly resource with various applications including in manufacturing and medicine. Intensive studies have been carried out to find the most practical and economical method for PHA production because current commercial production of PHA is stringent and extremely costly. The aim of this study is to enrich PHA-accumulators with high PHA production capabilities by evaluating the stability of the enrichment process and by observing the effect of organic loading rate (OLR) on the production potential. In this study, PHA-accumulators were cultivated using activated sludge with crude glycerol in a sequencing batch reactor (SBR). An aerobic dynamic feeding (ADF) strategy was employed for the enrichment process. This is then followed by production tests in a batch reactor to test for the maximum PHA production. This study successfully maintained a long-term enrichment operation where the PHA-accumulators produced a maximum PHA content of 80 wt % in biomass dry weight. A production yield of 0.7 mg C PHA/mg C substrate was obtained with a productivity ranging from 193 mg/(L∙h) to 236 mg/(L∙h) where the maximum production time is 6 hours. The increase of OLR was found to have insignificant effect on the final PHA production. However, it highlighted the robustness of the enriched PHA-accumulators and had significant effect on the biomass concentration. The increase of OLR from 360 mg C/(L∙d) to 1000 mg C/(L∙d) led to the increment of biomass concentration from less than 0.7 g/L to 2 g/L. An OLR of 1000 mg C/(L∙d) was the
iv
highest OLR feasible in this study and a higher OLR of 1250 mg C/(L∙d) was found to be detrimental to the enrichment stage. The PHA-accumulators were found to accumulate a copolymer with 3-hydroxybutyrate (3HB) and 3-hydroxyvalerate (3HV) monomers at a HB:HV of 60:40. The PHA-accumulators were observed to be highly robust and the accumulation of copolymers is eminently a promising attribute. The feasibility of directly using waste substrate and mixed cultures for PHA production can help reduce the PHA production operational costs. This method also provides an option for resource recovery operation in converting waste to value-added products, paving the way for a more sustainable process
Waste cooking oil classification using artificial intelligence technology / Lau Kar Sin
Get PDFPalm oil – one of the most common edible oil consumed in Malaysia. It is because Malaysia is one of the countries which supply palm oil to the global market and it is cheap to obtain for the consumer in Malaysia. Most of the Malaysian consume it via food preparation such as deep-frying and cooking. However, due to widely available for Malaysians, consumers also lacking awareness in dealing after using the edible oil. Most of the household consumers discard excess waste cooking oil (WCO) into sewage and with courtesy, some of them stored them in containers and sell to NGOs. Fortunately, artisan soap making is getting on-trend in the Malaysian market plus more people are keen to do business online and thus involve more in Do-It-Yourself (DIY) soap making for small businesses. This is an opportunity to promote the WCO to be reused in terms of soap making. Although there is a minority industry taking part in dealing this WCO recycle and reuse, but for this study is to promote all domestic artisan soap makers to realize using vegetarian used WCO is as good as using fresh palm oil. So, to distinguish between WCO into vegetarian used and non-vegetarian used, a simple Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) system is developed to aid them in distinguish WCO. To develop an A.I. system, a few crucial parameters are chosen after performing literature reviews - total iron content and peroxide value (PV). After getting samples and performed characterization on those samples, total iron content does accumulate in the WCO when the WCO is deep-fried with meat products that contain iron in haemoglobin. While PV does increases when the WCO is stored in a container for a long time. For this study, the hypothesis of vegetarians used WCO should be higher PV due to the lacking of iron in the WCO which catalyses the decomposition of hydroperoxide to alkyl radicals by oxidation-reduction mechanism is not applicable. This is due to the WCO's stored life
iv
span factor overshadow it. Lastly, for A.I. development, 2 simple hypothesis sets - Perceptron and Multi-layered Perceptron with Back Propagation (MLP-BP) are chosen to compare the accuracy of each model. The reason for choosing simple models is because of limited data points (10 points). Programming on these 2 models via MATLAB software. Validation on both hypothesis sets is performed using cross-validation, "Leave One Out" method and minimal Eout is chosen. After performing the development, Perceptron has minimal Eout, 0% while MLP-BP has 3%. This is because of Perceptron is the simplest model and minimal overfitting error which can cause deterministic noise on the result. Hence, to improve this study, more data points are recommended so can develop a more robust A.I. system to tackle more complicated situations for the WCO
Solar power forecasting using wavelet transform and machine learning approaches / Nor Azliana Abdullah
Get PDFGeneration of photovoltaic (PV) power is intermittent in nature and integration of PV system into the grid system causes an imbalanced power production and power demand. One of the efforts to reduce this problem is to forecast the generation of solar power in the PV system. Solar power forecasting requires the collection of solar power and meteorological data. Hence, this work collected solar power data and various meteorological data (global radiation, tilted radiation, temperature surrounding, humidity surrounding, PV module/ PV panel temperature and wind speed) from Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM). A pre-processing process is carried out to ensure that solar power data and meteorological data can be simplified. The proposed work of this study is divided into four phases of works. The work in Phase 1 presents the solar power data and meteorological data into three forecasting models such as Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP), Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) and Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS). The performance of every forecasting model is estimated. The work in Phase 2 proposes a Wavelet Transform (WT) technique to remove noise in solar power data and meteorological data. The existence of noise in data is due to the presence of dirt on the sensor of measurement. The denoised solar power and meteorological data are then presented to MLP, RBFNN and ANFIS to conduct the forecasting process. The performance of MLP, RBFNN and ANFIS in Phase 1 and Phase 2 are compared. The comparison result is presented in Phase 3 to estimate the efficiency usage of WT to eliminate noise. The result in Phase 3 depicts an improved performance of MLP, RBFFN and ANFIS when employing WT technique. This can be proven when the values of Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) for MLP, RBFNN and ANFIS in Phase 2 are smaller than the values of MAE and RMSE in Phase 1. Apart from that, the Correlation of Coefficient (R) values for MLP=0.9793, RBFNN=0.9788 and ANFIS=0.9799 in Phase 2 are greater than the R-values of MLP=0.9709, RBFNN=0.9722 and ANFIS=0.9674 in Phase 1. The work in Phase 3 also selects the most accurate forecasting model based on the values of MAE, RMSE and R depicted by MLP, RBFNN and ANFIS in Phase 1 and Phase 2. The result of this work proves that the integration of WT with the ANFIS (WT-ANFIS) surpasses the performance of other forecasting models by providing the lowest MAE value of 0.0278 and lowest RMSE value of 0.0385. The work in the final phase which is Phase 4 includes the integration of Hybrid Firefly and Particle Swarm Optimisation (HFPSO) to optimise the premise parameters of WT-ANFIS. It is observed from the result of WT-ANFIS-HFPSO that the Mean Square Error (MSE) value of 0.0012175, RMSE value of 0.034892 and MAE value of 0.025361 are the lowest compared to the integration of WT-ANFIS with single Firefly (WT-ANFIS-FF) and single Particle Swarm Optimisation (WT-ANFIS-PSO). Furthermore, the WT-ANFIS-HFPSO presents the R-value of 0.98220 which indicates the capability of the model to follow the data pattern efficiently. From the comparative analysis, WT-ANFIS-HFPSO has confirmed its reliability as a forecaster of solar power
The practice of Waqf land development in Malaysia: A social enterprise business perspective / Norinah Mohd Ali
Get PDFA large percentage (92.8 percent) of waqf lands in Malaysia are undeveloped due to inefficiency of waqf management and financing by the State Islamic Religious Councils (henceforth referred to as the Councils) that function as waqf trustees responsible for generating income from the current waqf to fulfill the needs of the beneficiaries and societies. In view of this issue, the objectives of this thesis are fourfold: (1) To examine the current waqf land development models employed by the Councils as social enterprises in Malaysia; (2) To examine the organizational strengths and weaknesses of the Councils in developing waqf lands; (3) To investigate perceived factors of the current waqf land development that contribute to the Councils’ success as social enterprises; and (4) To analyze the social impact of waqf land development to the communities. The study employs a mixed methods approach comprising both qualitative and quantitative. With regard to the qualitative method, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 22 waqf officers from 14 Councils across Malaysia. Meanwhile, for the quantitative approach, a survey questionnaire was employed to seek responses from 315 respondents from the communities who use and gain benefits from various categories of waqf land development. From interview data, themes were developed and organized into two categories; (i) the Councils’ practices for waqf land development and (ii) the social impact to the communities. Results from the interviews indicate that economic value is of primary importance when developing waqf lands for their sustainability. The interviews also reveal the income distribution model adopted by the Councils for waqf land development. There are nine factors for current waqf land development that contribute to the Councils’ success as social enterprises: (1) various types of waqf development; (2) sustainability; (3) opportunity; (4) knowledgeable; (5) financing creativity; (6) monitoring; (7) support; (8) public involvement; and (9) human development. Meanwhile, results from the questionnaire survey manifest that waqf benefits emerged from various categories of waqf land development are the most needed by the communities. The results further indicate that there is a significant difference between the needs of the communities and their satisfaction towards waqf land development. Further, the results evince, all mean scores for the needs of communities are higher than the mean score for their satisfaction. As such, the results provide empirical evidence that the current waqf land development has not met the needs of the communities. This study contributes to the literature on social enterprise business model for waqf activity, and waqf communities. Furthermore, it provides a methodological contribution through the formulation of questionnaire concerning waqf land development based on findings from qualitative data. The main implication of this study is that, it provides new and relevant perspectives on future waqf land development beneficial to the Councils and other waqf institutions
Characterization of reduced graphene oxide anode for application in algae biophotovoltaic platforms / Siti Aisyah Ibrahim
Get PDFResearch interest in recent times has placed much focus on electrode technology for biophotovoltaics (BPV) especially in algal fuel cells (AFCs) application. The purpose of this investigation is therefore directed towards optimizing reduced graphene oxide (rGO) thin film as an electrode for AFCs application by means of annealing and plasma treatment. First stage involves deposition of six (6) layers of rGO thin film using Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method. The anode electrodes were then annealed at different temperatures under vacuum condition. For plasma treatment meanwhile, a variation of voltage was used to vary the plasma conditions resulting in different surface morphology. To characterize the multilayer films fabricated, the thin films were characterized by means of spectroscopic, structural and electrical studies. In general, results indicate improvement in conductivity and wettability test, which may prove beneficial for implementation in AFCs, and promote improved algae growth, adhesion and photosynthesis yield as an outcome of higher charge mobility
Vanadyl tetrabutyltetrakis(Dimethylamino) phthalocyanine based thin films for organic sensor and transistor applications / Nur Adilah Roslan
Get PDFOrganic electronic devices have been successively making progress into the commercial market to substitute conventional inorganic electronic devices. The endeavor to improve the performance displayed by organic semiconductor materials has urged a substantial number of researchers set to seek new materials. Metal phthalocyanines (MPcs), in particular, have garnered much attention due to their enticing benefits viz., cost efficiency, eco-friendly organic material, as well as thermal and chemical stability. Primarily, this study investigated the physical, morphological, optical, and electrical properties of vanadyl 3,10,17,24-tetra-tert-butyl-1,8,15,22-tetrakis(dimethylamino)-29H,31H-phthalocyanine or synonymously known as vanadyl tetrabutyltetrakis (dimethylamino) phthalocyanine (VTP). Subsequently, this study looked into the potential applications of VTP-based organic semiconductor devices in organic field effect transistor (OFET), as well as optical and humidity sensor. The initial phase of this study is devoted to the characterization of VTP thin films and fabrication of VTP-based OFETs. The photophysical study revealed that the band gap of VTP is 1.39 eV via expression approach, while 1.42 eV via Tauc plot. The highest occupied/lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (HOMO/LUMO) values of VTP were -5.10 eV and -3.90 eV, respectively, as determined via cyclic voltammetry (CV) analysis. The VTP was applied as the active layer in the fabrication of lateral OFETs (LOFETs), which served as a control device, whereby fixed parameters were employed for each layer, similar for the fabrication of vertical OFETs (VOFETs). The LOFETs exhibited poor performance due to the extended channel length between source and drain (S-D) electrodes. In the attempt of addressing this shortcoming, apart from enhancing the performance of LOFETs; the arrangement was altered to resemble that of VOFET, in which capacitor and diode cells were vertically stacked on top of each other. This design minimized the channel length and enhanced the device performance. In attaining optimum thickness for the active layer, VOFET was fabricated with a range of thicknesses; 90 5 nm, 66 5 nm, and 52 5 nm. As a result, VTP thickness at 66 5 nm exerted optimum performance, as it generated maximum current density and the lowest threshold voltage of ~ 37 mA/cm2 and 7.0 0.2 V, respectively. The second phase of this study probed into the fabrication of VTP-based optical organic devices. Initially, the study of optical properties and charge transport via current-voltage (I-V) method was executed. Utilizing the optimized bulk heterojunction (BHJ), ITO/PEDOT:PSS/VTP:PC71BM/Al organic photovoltaics (OPVs) were fabricated by using the solution processed technique. By employing the similar OPV fabrication parameters, the device was used for light sensing application, which falls under the organic optical device category. The light sensor appeared to display high stability, rapid response time, and high sensitivity in the visible light. These features are attributable to the extended ligands in the molecular structure of VTP. The final phase of this study assessed the applicability of VTP as an active layer in the fabrication of organic humidity sensor. Physical characterization that involved structural and wettability evaluations were executed in advance to determine the association between the thickness of sensing film and the performance exerted by the sensor. The Al/VTP/Al humidity sensor devices were fabricated in three thickness values, which revealed that the thinnest sensing film displayed the best performance with a maximum sensitivity of 9.2 pf/%RH. In sum, this study had successfully adopted highly reproducible, solution generating, and cost-efficient fabrication techniques
Differential expression of mucin in salivary gland tumours / Nurul Inaas Mahamad Apandi
Get PDFIntroduction: Varied alterations in types of secreted mucin may affect the regulation
of cell growth, immune response and adhesion of cell. These changes may indirectly
contribute to the ability of tumour invasion and metastasis. However, the expression of
mucins in salivary gland tumours has not been explored in depth. Objectives: To
investigate expressions of mucin in the salivary gland tumour microenvironment and
make comparisons between benign and malignant, and minor and major salivary gland
tumours. Methods: Special stains were used to stain neutral mucin (Periodic acid
Schiff), sialomucin (Alcian Blue) and sulfomucin (Aldehyde Fuschin) within tissues
from 6 normal salivary glands and salivary gland tumours including 31 pleomorphic
adenoma (PA), 27 mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) and 15 adenoid cystic
carcinoma (AdCC). Statistical analyses to compare mucin expression in these salivary
gland tumours were done using Chi-square tests. Results: Sialomucin was the most
expressed mucin in all salivary gland tumours regardless of origin. A significant
difference was observed in mucin expression between benign and malignant salivary
gland tumours, in which PA showed 3 times significantly higher expression of
sialomucin compared to MEC and AdCC (p=0.028). PAs of major gland origin
showed 42 times significantly higher expression of sialomucin compared to
PAs of minor gland (p=0.000). Conclusion: Alcian blue was the best special
stain to visualize mucin elements in salivary gland tumours. Sialomucin content in PA
of major glands was vastly increased from that in minor glands. The degree of
sialomucin expression may play a role in diagnosis of borderline salivary gland
tumours
Three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction of computed tomography (CT) abdominal images using visualization toolkit (VTK) / Afifah Husna Mat Saad
Get PDFA computerized tomography (CT) or computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan
combines data from several X-raysito produce a detailed image of structures inside the body. CT scans produce 2D of a “slice” or section of the abdomen but the data can also be used to construct 3-dimensional images. However, CT scan unable to accurately represent the internal structure of soft tissues and soft-tissue lesions. Therefore, using the program in Visualization Tool Kit (VTK) is needed to construct a much more clearer 3D
image. To reconstruct 3D images from 2D images of a “slice” or section of abdomen which will be resulting in more accurate CT scanned images that will help medical officer diagnose and plan their treatment more effectively and accurately. A 3D image will be
less dependent on human cognitive ability as well as lesser time required for human interpretation, resulting in much easier and more accurate clinical works.
Therefore, in this research, 4 different methods of rendering are employed and
compared to determine which method shows the clearest 3D
reconstruction images. The rendering methods that are utilized in this research are surface rendering, surface rending with multiplanar rendering, volume rendering and volume rendering with additional features. from the analysis, it shows that volume rendering with additional features has advantage in reconstructing the meticulous tissues and bones of abdomen and helps in providing a detailed data by coordinate, measurement and crop feature in order to determine the exact coordinate for lesions located in abdomen, length measurement of the v lesions and crop the outer surface of abdomen to see the inner surface of abdomen, respectively
Feasibility study on concentrated solar power plants in Malaysia / Choy De Jen
Get PDFThe rapidly growing economy and population in Southeast Asia has elevated the need for affordable, secured, sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources. One such energy source is solar energy which is a suitable energy source for most Southeast Asian countries which are within the Sun Belt region. This study performs a performance and financial analysis on concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies, specifically the solar power tower (SPT) in the Malaysian environment through the use of simulation software. The significance of the study lies in the fact that limited research has been done on CSP technologies in Malaysia and the study is in-line with the government’s effort to achieve 20% electricity generation from renewable energy by 2035. The layout optimization of the solar field was done using the SolarPILOT software which served as an input to the System Advisory Model (SAM) software where the performance and financial analysis were performed. Results based on the analysis showed that the capacity of the CSP models for KLIA and Gaya Island are 13.7 MWe with an annual energy production of 41,145,964 kWh and 57,999,736 kWh respectively. The net capital cost for both plants are RM 368,563,644 and RM 352,014,120 with a positive NPV of RM 32,649,339 and RM 30,965,316 respectively. The PPA price for the KLIA plant was found to exceed the Malaysian government’s Feed-in-Tariff (FiT) rate while the Gaya Island plant maintained below that rate. LCOE values for both CSP models were found to exceed the national average value of 0.78 RM/kWh. The study showed that the Solar Power Tower (SPT) technology is feasible in both the performance and economical aspects provided the required PPA price is agreed upon. However, it may not be the best option due to the higher cost and labor requirements compared to technologies like solar PV