13474 research outputs found
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Synthesis and characterization of silver silica nanocomposite materials via sol-gel technique / Taifunisyam Taib
No full textVarious filling fractions of silver silica nanocomposites (Ag-SiO2 NC) were successfully synthesized via sol-gel technique and deposited onto indium tin oxide via electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The size of Silver Nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized by reduction method was determined to be within 20-30 nm, homogeneous and spherical in shape observed from Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. TEM images also confirmed that the particle distance between AgNPs in the Ag-SiO NC varies according to the filling fractions. The increase in crystalline phase was observed by the increase of peaks intensity of X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra as the increase of AgNPs amount in the nanocomposites. UV–vis spectroscopy shows that the intensity of the Ag–SiO2 NCs peak is greatly reduced with a clear and sharp absorption peak. The Fourier-transform Infrared (FTIR) spectra shows similar peaks for all the various filling fractions of Ag-SiO2 NC. However the peaks shown slightly shifted indicating the existence of the AgNP within the silica nanostructures. Spectroscopy Ellipsometry shows that the effective permittivity and refractive index obtained from the optimum filling fraction are -0.88 and 0.90, respectively. The use of 4-Aminobenzenethiol (4-ABT) as the probe molecule on the substrate greatly enhances the Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) signal of the nanocomposites. The results from different pH values confirm that the substrate is stable and gives the strongest SERS enhancements in alkaline environment. The photoelectrochemical behavior of Ag-SiO2 NC thin films was also investigated. Thin films grown at higher Ag composition showed good photoelectrochemical behavior
A study on postural control and lower limb muscle activation among individuals with and without ankle sprain / Nureen Shahirah Ahmad Zaghlul
No full textDamaged joint mechanoreceptors may necessitate the individuals with ankle sprain to develop coping strategies to maintain balance. This study investigated whether visual input contributes significantly to the balancing ability of individuals who had unilateral ankle sprains (AI). The specific objectives were to i) compare the time in balance (TIB) and Peroneus Longus (PL) activity with eyes-open (EO) and eyes-closed (EC) when performing balancing tasks, ii) compare the changes observed in AI with healthy individuals (HI), and iii) investigate whether the correlation between the Foot and Ankle Ability Measure (FAAM), a self-reported balance measure, with the observed performance (i.e. TIB and PL activity) is the same between AI and HI. Participants performed single leg (SL) and double leg (DL) tasks on a Lafayette stability platform. As this platform is frequently used for DL tasks, a reliability study for the SL stance on the Lafayette stability platform was first conducted with 36 healthy volunteers. After which, another 48 individuals (AI: n=24; age=23.5 ± 2.3 years; HI: n=24; age=23.5 ± 1.7 years) were recruited for the assessment. The participants performed three 20s trials of DL and SL stance in EO and EC conditions. The order of testing was randomized between conditions (i.e. EO, EC) and tasks (i.e. DL, SL). Bilateral activity of PL was recorded only during DL stance and was normalized to the peak maximum voluntary contraction (MVC). It was expressed as the side-to-side comparison, in percentage difference (%MVC). The duration the participants maintained the platform within ±1° deviation was considered as TIB. The TIB, PL activity, and FAAM scores were compared between groups and conditions. The relationship between FAAM scores and TIB and PL activity was analyzed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient (ρ). The results obtained suggest SL stance is reliable on the Lafayette stability platform. The TIB was statistically longer during EO in AI (DL_EO: 19.69 ± 0.80s; DL_EC: 18.12 ± 3.69s, p < 0.05; SL_EO: 18.59 ± 3.59s; SL_EC; 17.39 ± 2.66s, p < 0.05) and in HI (DL_EO: 19.68 ± 1.28s; DL_EC: 18.08 ± 3.60s, p< 0.05; SL_EO: 18.44 ± 2.59s; SL_EC: 17.01 ± 3.02s, p < 0.05). During DL stance, AI individuals showed a consistently lower side-to-side comparison PL activity in both EO (AI: 25.17 ± 12.53%MVC; HI: 29.82 ± 18.85%MVC, p = 0.163) and EC (AI: 24.48 ± 11.40%MVC; HI: 30.47 ± 19.03%MVC, p = 0.060) compared to HI. However, no significant difference in the TIB and side-to-side comparison PL activity was observed between groups. Additionally, a significant positive correlation was observed between FAAM and TIB during EO in AI (DL: ρ = 0.43, p = 0.04; SL: ρ = 0.59, p = 0.00), but not in HI (DL: ρ = -0.06, p = 0.77; SL: ρ = -0.11, p = 0.62). PL activity on the other hand had no significant correlation with FAAM scores in both groups irrespective of EO or EC. Overall, findings in this study suggested that AI does not rely on visual input entirely compared to HI in maintaining postural control
Hubungan Turki dan Israel pada zaman pemerintahan Perdana Menteri Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2003–2014) / Nur Syahirah Nor Hidayah
No full textHubungan kerjasama Turki dan Israel telah lama wujud sejak pengakuan Negara Turki majoritinya orang Islam akan kewujudan Negara Israel pada tahun 1949. Kerjasama merangkumi aspek politik, ekonomi dan ketenteraan. Kesinambungan warisan sekular dari Kamal Ataturk telah membawa kepada pakatan kerjasama antaraTurki dan Israel. Pada abad ke-21 pula, selepas sebuah parti iaitu AKP telah mengambil alih tampuk pemerintahan Turki, banyak perubahan telah berlaku. Apabila seorang Perdana Menteri Turki yang baru dari Parti AKP iaitu Recep Tayyip Erdogan memerintah, beliau telah melakukan pembaharuan terutama dari aspek dasar luar Turki. Melalui pembaharuan dasar luar Turki yang baru ini, telah menyebabkan hubungan Turki dan Israel berlaku perubahan. Oleh itu, objektif disertasi bagi kajian ini merangkumi tiga objektif untuk dicapai iaitu i) membincangkan sejarah awal perkembangan hubungan Turki dan Israel ii)mengkaji biografi Perdana Menteri Erdogan dan sumbangannya iii)Menganalisis hubungan Turki dan Israel pada zaman Erdogan sebagai Perdana Menteri. Secara keseluruhannya, reka bentuk kajian ini ialah kajian kualitatif yang merangkumi kajian sejarah. Dalam mengumpulkan maklumat, pengkaji telah menggunakan analisis komparatif dan analisis kritikal bagi mendapatkan sumber mengenai sejarah hubungan Turki dan Israel dan biografi Erdogan serta sumbangannya. Hasil dari kajian disertasi ini, dapat mengetahui mengenai hubungan Turki dan Israel selepas pembaharuan dasar luar Turki yang berlaku
Isolation of marine fungi associated with Sarcophyton ehrenbergi and the effect of temperature on their production of secondary metabolites / Liu Yuanwei
No full textDespite limited knowledge on their ecological functions, soft coral-derived fungi produce a range of bioactive secondary metabolites, and have an impact on a diverse microbiome. Little attention has been given to soft corals and their associated fungi in Malaysia, especially the secondary metabolites they produce. Increased seawater temperature has been found to promote pathogen growth and weaken coral disease resistance, thus shifting coral-fungi association. This study isolates and identifies four fungal strains, Aspergillus sydowii, Acrocalymma sp., Lindgomyces sp. and Phomatospora sp., from a population of soft coral Sarcophyton ehrenbergi collected off the waters of Port Dickson in the Straits of Malacca. In addition, Aspergillus sydowii and Acrocalymma sp. were incubated at 25°C, 30°C and 35°C for two weeks to investigate the effect of increased temperatures on secondary metabolites production. The fungal biomass was extracted in ethyl acetate to obtain crude extracts, which were then analysed by TLC, HPLC and Q-TOF LCMS. Findings revealed that increased temperatures negatively affected the biomass production of both species, while the highest yields of crude extract were recorded at 35°C for Aspergillus sydowii and at 30°C for Acrocalymma sp. HPLC profiles of both species indicate an overall reduction in peak detection with an increase in temperature, despite a few unique peaks recorded at specific temperatures. On the contrary, LCMS profiles indicate that total numbers of compounds from crude extracts of both species follow a similar pattern as temperature increases, whereas the highest numbers were recorded at 25°C for Aspergillus sydowii and at 35°C for Acrocalymma sp. Detailed analysis of chemical formulas of LCMS results shows that the majority of detected chemicals were primary metabolites, which could be the high sensitivity of Q- TOF LCMS. The investigation in secondary metabolites from soft coral-associated fungi under rising seawater temperature illustrated potential biological responses to seawater temperature rise
Translation techniques of Islamic finance and economic terms in Arabic-English dictionaries / Antar Fuad Ali Al-Harazi
No full textThe general aim of the current research is to study translation techniques employed in
rendering Islamic financial and economic terms (IFETs) in bilingual Arabic-English\ud
dictionaries within the context of semantic fields. The three specific aims of the study
are: (i) to investigate the semantic fields that may be utilized to classify IFETs (ii) to
identify the translation techniques most frequently employed in each semantic field by
the dictionary compilers of the five Arabic-English dictionaries selected for this study to
provide English equivalents to the IFETs in Arabic, and (iii) to recommend translation
techniques which could render adequate meanings for the IFETS undocumented in the
five selected Arabic-English dictionaries in this study. The data comprises a hundred
samples of IFETS randomly selected from a monolingual dictionary called ‘Dictionary
of Financial and Economic Terms in the Register of Jurists’ (DFETRJ) by Hammad
(2008) Based on a classification of semantic fields by Ash-Shay'a (2004), the researcher
could only employ fifteen semantic fields to classify most of the selected IFETs. To
classify some of the samples which did not fit into any of the fifteen semantic fields,
five additional semantic fields were devised in collaboration with an IIUM academic
staff who is an expert in Islamic economics. The research was thus able to present a
total of twenty semantic fields to classify IFETs which the researcher believes would be
very beneficial for indexing semantically related entries in lexicographic work. Next, to
examine the range of translation techniques used to provide English equivalents to the
IFETs, the researcher adopted the translation technique typology proposed by Mona
Baker (2018) alongside typologies proposed by other scholars. Overall, nine translation
techniques were found to be used by dictionary compilers. They are superordinate,
subordinate, synonym, paraphrase, definition, mixed translation, loan translation, loan
word and antonym. The study revealed that mixed translation and synonym were the most frequently used techniques by the dictionary compilers. Since IFETs are culturebound
terms, the mixed translation technique is clearly the most suitable to render
IFETs into English without loss of meaning. The findings also showed that antonyms
were seldom used while definition and loan words were less frequently employed. The
results also showed that out of the hundred IFETs randomly selected, only eighty-six
IFETs could be found in the selected five Arabic-English dictionaries. Twenty-four
IFETs were not lexicalized. This brought to light the need for more extensive work in
lexicographic work related to IFETs. Accordingly, the researcher requested two
professional translators to provide English equivalents for the twenty-four
undocumented IFETs. The researcher’s techniques used in rendering the equivalents for
the twenty-four undocumented IFETs were compared with the those employed by the
other two translators to identify the most frequently used techniques and the adequacy
of the English equivalents provided. The researcher recommends improvement of
current dictionaries, paper or online, specialized or general ones with regard to
incorporating more specialized terms in their item list and providing comprehensive
meanings via the use of techniques like the mixed translation. As this study was limited
to a sample of only a hundred IFETs, further research with a bigger sampling would be
beneficial for more insight into other semantic fields that IFETs can be classified into
and the translation techniques that can be suitably employed in lexicographic work
Local culture-related lexical items in Malaysian Chinese newspapers / Ng Jie Ee
No full textMalaysian Chinese language has a different vocabulary from that of other regions due to its unique social and geographical circumstances. As a member of Malaysia’s Chinese community, we have all the more reason to compile the discourse’s vocabulary in recent years. As a result, this study will examine local culture-related Chinese lexical items in Malaysian Chinese newspapers from three angles: (i) Identify the categories and word classes of these lexical items; (ii) Analyse the word formation of these lexical items, and (iii) Explore the causes of emergence of these lexical items. For textual and comparative analyses, a total of 135 words were collected from the supplements of four Malaysian Chinese newspapers (from 4 April 2021 to 4 July 2021). The findings for the first research objective revealed that four categories of these lexical items were people’s livelihood, festival customs and religion, communication and conversation, food and dining, also the nouns are the most used. For the second research objective, word formation of borrowing scored the highest in total. The study also discovered, through expert interviews, that the two main reasons for the formation of these words are language factors and social factors. Furthermore, by analyzing Malaysian word formation patterns, the study discovered a new type of word formation, namely the mixmode pattern, which is not mentioned in Chinese word formation theories. The present research shows that the Malaysian Chinese lexical items are mainly reflected in the absorption of foreign words and the new words created by the local Chinese language users
Settler colonialism and resistancein Palestine from 2009 to 2019 / Belal S.M. Alakhras
No full textIn 1948, Israeli forces took over most of the Palestinian territory and forced the majority
of Palestinians to leave their homes. Since then, Israel’s colonial endeavour against
Palestinians has continued, and Palestinians have faced numerous attempts to erase their
presence. Despite its efforts, Palestinian resistance has not achieved the end of Israeli
control. This study examines the continuation of Israeli settler colonialism in the West
Bank and Gaza Strip between 2009 and 2019. The research aims to provide insights into
these key questions: what are the influencing factors on the Israeli government’s
treatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip? How do the influencing
factors shape the Israeli government’s treatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip? How are the Palestinians affected politically and demographically by the
Israeli treatment of them in the West Bank and Gaza Strip? Why is the Palestinian
resistance unable to end Israeli settler colonialism? This study adopts the transformative
paradigm, a research framework that emphasizes analysing power dynamics, promoting
social change, and exploring the potential for transformative shifts that empower
marginalized groups. A qualitative research method involving a case study approach is
used here. The data was collected through semi-structured interviews and documentation.
Purposive sampling was used to select the research informants. The theory of settler
colonialism and Square of Resistance were used as conceptual frameworks to analyse the
data. The results indicate that the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip was influenced by various internal and external factors.
Internal factors include political structure, ideology, public opinion, and the indigenous
people’s response. Regional (dis-)order and the US-Israel alliance are external factors. The bulk of these factors has driven a violent Israeli approach toward Palestinians. This
study also explained Israeli tendencies to eliminate Palestinian political viability and
demographic existence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. On the other hand, various
political, economic, cultural, and armed obstacles have hampered the Palestinian efforts
to end Israeli settler colonialism. Internal Palestinian divisions were found to be a major
impediment to achieving decolonization. The establishment of the Palestinian Authority
has shifted Palestinians’ attention away from the struggle for national liberation and
towards governance and internal power competition. The Palestinian economy has been
heavily reliant on the Israeli economy. Little effort was made among Palestinians to
preserve national traditions and arts. Palestinian consciousness suffered as a result of the
internal schism. The armed resistance was found to be lacking as various local and
regional forces have targeted it, and it has become less proactive in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian movements have not engaged in a broad-based decolonization struggle in
recent years
Macroeconomic analysis of population ageing in middle-income countries / Yip Tien Ming
No full textMany middle-income countries experienced rapid population ageing at the turn of the 21st century. However, limited research focuses on the causes and consequences of population ageing in this group of countries. Moreover, the issue of population ageing is amplified due to the growing concern that many middle-income countries are economically unprepared to embrace the increasing ageing population. Using a panel of cross-country dataset that covers 64 middle-income countries from 1996 to 2019, this thesis conducts three empirical analyses on the demographic determinants of population ageing, the macroeconomic implications of population ageing, and the moderating effect of labour force participation of older persons in the economic growth-population ageing relation. First, this thesis identifies the primary driver of population ageing by comparing the impact of fertility and mortality changes on population ageing. The empirical results provide robust evidence that the fertility rate dominates in accelerating population ageing. Additional comparative analysis between demographic and macroeconomic variables further ascertains the role of fertility rate in influencing population ageing. Further analysis indicates that fertility-driven population ageing is associated with lower economic growth. Second, this thesis formally examines the macroeconomic implications of population ageing by assessing the association between economic growth and population ageing. The empirical results provide robust evidence that population ageing is inversely and significantly associated with economic growth. More importantly, the economic impact of population ageing is substantial and larger than the conventional determinants of economic growth. Further analysis shows that population ageing adversely affects economic growth by reducing aggregate savings, labour force growth, and total factor productivity growth. Third, in light of the growth-deteriorating effect of population ageing, this thesis takes a further step to explore the moderating effect of labour force participation of older persons in the economic growth-population ageing nexus. The empirical results provide robust evidence that a higher older persons’ labour force participation rate mitigates the adverse impact of population ageing on economic growth. Further analysis shows that older persons’ labour force participation mitigates the growth-deteriorating effect of population ageing by compensating for the loss of aggregate savings, labour force growth, and total factor productivity growth induced by population ageing. Moreover, disaggregated analysis using gender-specific older persons’ labour force participation rate provides additional insights that older female and male workers are equally important in offsetting the adverse impact of population ageing on economic growth. Additional analysis found that a higher older persons’ labour force participation rate leads to a better labour market outcome for younger workers. The results suggest that promoting older persons’ labour force participation is economically feasible to offset the growth-deteriorating effect of population ageing. Regarding policy implications, this thesis urges policymakers in middle-income countries to recognise the scope of the new demographic trend and implement policy measures to counter the adverse effect of population ageing on economic growth. One effective way to accommodate the macroeconomic implications of population ageing is to promote the labour force participation of older persons
Enhanced solar still performance using mix wettability surface cover and thermoelectric cooling system / Nursyahirah Mohd Shatar
No full textWater purification using renewable energy sources is prevalent to produce clean water for human consumption and sanitation. Solar still is a water distillation method that uses solar energy as a heat source to produce fresh water. Selection of a solar still condensing cover material remains a challenge, particularly for enhancing the condensate formation and collection. Therefore, this research proposed the application of a mixed wettability surface on the solar still condensing cover. A water-based silicone coating is used on a glass cover with different surface areas. Furthermore, utilisation of thermoelectric water-cooling system with varying cooling power was included to further enhance the rate of condensation on the solar still cover. Comparison in solar still performance between the use of mix wettability cover and other commonly used cover materials which includes uncoated glass, polycarbonate (PC) and acrylic (PMMA) with thermoelectric cooling was conducted. For solar still without cover cooling, the addition of coating showed improvement to the solar still productivity with the highest freshwater output at 30% coated surface area. For solar still using water cooling without thermoelectric, the productivity was enhanced by 10% and 26% for glass cover and mixed wettability cover, respectively but reduced by 21% and 22% for solar still using PC and PMMA cover, respectively when subjected to low solar radiation. Increasing the thermoelectric cooling power from 12 W to 36 W increased the solar still productivity for glass and mix wettability cover to 76% and 126%, respectively compared to the reference solar still. However, PMMA and PC covers had lower productivity compared to the reference solar still by up to -48% and -82%, respectively. A detailed analysis on the energy, exergy, environment and economic of the solar still using mix wettability cover and thermoelectric cooling showed that the system had an energy and exergy efficiency of 14.3% and 4.3%, respectively using 36 W cooling power. While the cost per litre, CO2 mitigation, enviro-economic and exergo-economic was found to be 0.036 83.21 and 4.64 kWh/$, respectively. Hence, the research outcome highlights the superior performance of using mix wettability surface combined with thermoelectric cooling for solar still application
The influence of an English mediating translation in translating the Malayalam novel Chemmeen into French / Shyla Thomas
No full textThe classic Malayalam novel Chemmeen written by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai in 1956 was a best seller of its period and hence was translated into about 25 different languages. Its English translation was done by Narayana Menon (1962) during the post-colonial period and a French translation, Un amour indien (1965) was produced based on the English version. Menon’s English version which was not a close translation of the original thus served as the mediating text (MT) for the French translation. The French version therefore reveals a range of pragmatic differences in comparison with the original novel in Malayalam. The first objective was to study how far has the MT influenced the French TT. For this purpose, first a comparison of the French translation of Chemmeen vis-à-vis the original Malayalam source text (ST) was carried out in an effort to study the extent of deviation in the French version and to identify to what extent these deviations were affected by Menon’s MT. Theories of equivalence by Koller (1989) and the techniques of translation proposed by Nida (1964) and Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) formed the basis of the study. The study proved that the English MT had influenced the French target text (TT) almost entirely. This study does not criticise Menon’s MT as it understands that Menon’s work was offered to the English-speaking audience during the post-colonial period and therefore the adopted style. The second objective of this study was to test out the supposition that if the MT was a more faithful translation of the original, then the French text would also have been more reflective of the finer nuances expressed in Chemmeen. To do this, another English translation of Chemmeen, done by Nair in 2011 was compared to the Malayalam ST to show how Nair’s English version, if it were considered as the MT would offer a greater possibility of a more effective subsequent translation in French or any other foreign language as Nair’s MT provides a closer resemblance to the ST than does Menon’s English MT. To answer this inquiry, French native speakers’ translations of Nair’s MT were sought together with interviews with them on their choices of strategy of translation. Nida’s (1964) and Vinay and Darbelnet’s (1995) translation techniques were employed to analyse the translation. The equivalences achieved / not achieved, as the case may be, was studied based on Koller’s (1989) five types/levels of equivalence. The high values of denotative, connotative and pragmatic equivalences demonstrated that as much as the semantic meaning of the text was faithfully represented, the implied or associated meanings, emotions and cultural connotations of words and expressions were preserved as well. The native speakers who have had considerable experience in translation work, were from different backgrounds and hence their choices of terms and expressions that were employed in the translation were different from each other’s. The subjectivity of translators, that is influenced by their aesthetic sense, creative style of writing and their perception of the socio-cognitive status of the characters in the novel, that was at play confirmed that translation is essentially, a rewriting of the text