13474 research outputs found
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Poly (acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) gel polymer electrolytes for quantum dot-sensitized solar cells / Lee Yap Chen
No full textSodium based gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) have been developed and used in quantum dot sensitized solar cells (QDSSCs). Poly(acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PAAm-PAA) which contains lone pairs of electrons, such as oxygen and nitrogen atoms was used as the polymer host. The GPE with PAAm-PAA : sodium sulfide (Na2S) aqueous solution : sulfur (S) : ethylene carbonate (EC) : potassium chloride (KCl) in wt.% ratio of 24.7 : 72.5 : 1.8 : 0.4 : 0.6 exhibits the highest ionic conductivity of 70.75 mS·cm-1. The chemical bonds between solvent, polymer, salt and additive were identified by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Different methods of electrode deposition for titanium dioxide (TiO2) layers have been applied for QDSSCs. Cadmium sulfide (CdS) and zinc sulfide (ZnS) sensitized photoanode were synthesized by successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR) method. The TiO2 with different particle sizes (~14 and 21 nm) was deposited by spin coating and doctor blade methods. The spin coating and doctor blade methods give the thickness of 0.70 μm and 10.51 μm, respectively. The most efficient charge transfer process was observed when the TiO2 electrode was made from the combination of spin-coated 14 nm-TiO2 and doctor-blade 21 nm-TiO2 layers. The best efficiency and charge transfer resistance at the photoanode/ electrolyte interface are 1.80% and 35.33 Ω, respectively
Development of a men's health index / Muhammad Ashraf Khalid
No full textMen have a higher burden of disease and mortality as compared to women across the
globe. Despite this alarming phenomenon, focus on the health of men is notably absent
in global health policies and programmes. One facilitator that might potentially capture
the attention of policymakers, health professionals, and academics is the development of
a men’s health index. An index can function in two major ways—to assess the magnitude
of a problem, and to monitor changes in the problem, both over space and time. The
purpose of this study is to examine the global state of men’s health by developing a men’s
health index. This study was conducted in three phases. In phase 1, a scoping review was
conducted to explore theories, models, and frameworks in men’s health studies. In phase
2, another scoping review was conducted to identify existing population health indices
and to examine the methods used to develop these indices. In phase 3, a health index that
measures health-related behavioural outcomes of countries and territories was developed
to show the poorer health status of men as compared to women across the globe. The
scoping review in phase 1 found theories, models, and frameworks of men’s health to be
either generic to health sciences, generic to social sciences, or specific to men’s health.
Three types of processes were observed: behavioural, cognitive, and gender processes.
The scoping review in phase 2 discovered a low number of population health indices that
measure specific health topics or health of specific sub-population. There is also lacking
in the usage of universal theories, models, or frameworks in developing these indices. In
phase 3, the developed health index comprises of five dimensions of health-related
behaviours: (1) healthcare utilization, (2) diet, weight and physical activity, (3) substance
use, (4) risk-taking, and (5) violence. The index evidently shows that men perform more
health-compromising behaviours as compared to women and this gap remains consistent
over the years. The index also shows significant associations with healthy life expectancy and the gender inequality index. The health index presents a multidimensional global
assessment of health-related behavioural outcome, which explains the poorer health status
of men as compared to women. The behaviours represented are modifiable lifestyle habits
and the resulting adverse health effects of these behaviours are preventable. The index
may serve as a baseline assessment and monitor the effectiveness of men’s health policies
and programmes over the years. The comparable measure of the index provides objective
assessment and potentially helps health policy design using evidence-based decision
making to address men’s global burden of ill health
Systematic palaeontology of marine carboniferous fossils from Bukit Buchu, Terengganu, Peninsular Malaysia / Tang Hung Yung
No full textBukit Buchu has been known for its well-preserved Carboniferous marine fossils. In this
study, six detailed geological mapping localities cover the western and eastern hillsides
of Bukit Buchu. Three fossiliferous horizons were identified at the eastern hillside, but
the western hillside yielded no fossil. The Bukit Buchu sedimentary sequence is
informally called Bukit Buchu Beds and is estimated at more than 1100 m thick.
Seventeen species of marine invertebrates were identified and described. These faunas
include one new genus and species of Cyclida, Malayacyclus terengganuensis Tang et
al., 2021, a species of coral, Cladochonus sp., a new species of trilobite Linguaphillipsia
buchuensis n. sp. and fourteen species of brachiopods, Argentiproductus aff.
margaritacea (Phillips, 1836), Antiquatonia sp., Brachythyrina (Brachythyrina) sp.,
Eomarginifera sp., Hustedia sp., Leptagonia analoga (Phillips, 1836), Linoproductus sp.,
Oehlertella sp., Pleurogpugnoides sp., Podtsheremia cf. thomasi Roberts, 1971, Pugilis
sp., Punctospirifer cf. pahangensis Muir-Wood, 1948, Rugosochonetes sp., and
Vitiliproductus aff. gröberi (Krenkel, 1913). The fauna is determined as Visean age (Early
Carboniferous). Bukit Buchu Beds is best correlated to the Charu Formation instead of
Panching Limestone based on the interpreted geological age, faunal affinities, and the
lithostratigraphic data. During the Early Carboniferous, the East Malaya Block was
located close to the Indochina and South China blocks near the palaeoequator. The new
finding suggests that the Visean marine environment of East Malaya and Indochina
blocks is the migratory route for brachiopods and trilobites from the Eastern Tethys to
Australia in the southern region
The psychometric properties of Malay version of adjustment disorder new module-20 questionnaire (ADNM-20): A study on the housemen in a teaching hospital in Malaysia / Sia Siaw Khing
No full textThe prevalence of stress is increasing worldwide. Stressful working environments
and high expectations in medical practice put doctors at high risk of adjustment disorder especially
among housemen in Malaysia. It is important to assess adjustment disorder in the housemen for
early intervention to reduce the psychological distress. There are few measures to assessadjustment
disorder, which include the more recent scale named Adjustment Disorder New Module-20
(ADNM-20) questionnaire. However, there is no available study on Malay version ofADNM-20.
The goal of present study was to validate the Malay version of the ADNM-20 for use in the
Malaysian context. Method The study was cross-sectional in design and consisted of 140
housemen in the teaching hospital. Participants were given Malay version of the ADNM-20,
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and structure interview to assess adjustment
disorder. Result The Malay version of ADNM-20 exhibited good internal consistency (Cronbach’s
alpha=0.97) and good concurrent validity. Explorative factor analysis support two factors and six-
factor solution. Item 16 on the scale does not correlate with the other items. Receiver Operating
Characteristics (ROC) analysis demonstrated a cut-off value of 48 on the Malay version of the
ADNM-20 to identify probable adjustment disorder in the housemen. This score had a sensitivity
of 100% and specificity of 96%. Conclusion The Malay version of the ADNM-20 is a good tool with good validity and reliability for assessing adjustment disorder. Additionally, it is relatively
short and easy to administer, making it useful in the clinical setting
Development of drone-based solution for medicine delivery using face recognition and guidance landing system / Mohamed Osman Baloola Mohamed
No full textThis thesis presents the Development OF Drone-Based Solution for Medicine Delivery
Using Face Recognition and Guidance Landing System. The drone is equipped with a
Sanitiser Unit (SU) and a secure Delivery Box (DB) for contactless medication delivery
using face recognition and the GLS. The development of the drone GLS system consists
of two microcontroller sensor circuits that visualise the delivery area's lighting conditions
to improve efficiency. In addition to the SU and DB, the drone GLS system also has a
Motion Detection Unit (MDU) and a Voice Command Guiding Unit (VCGU) for
medication delivery. The first development board is the Arduino Uno, which controls the
face recognition camera, DB, SU, MDU, and VCGU units. The second development
board is the ESP32 DevKitC V4, which controls the GLS. An Internet of Things (IoT)
microcontroller is connected to the Internet using IoT mobile apps. GLS is combined with
four light-dependent resistors and a light-intensity sensor. Those sensors visualise the
light conditions to enhance face recognition, and a GY-30 light intensity sensor is used
to measure the value of the illumination. The drone Facial Recognition Camera (FRC)
and GLS system has been tested on 5001 animal faces, 5030 static human photos inclusive
of 5000 photos from Flickr-Faces-HQ, 30 actual photos, and 35 real human volunteers'
faces. The overall accuracy of the face recognition system is 98.53%. The GLS has
enhanced the detection distance to almost double and increased the detection distance to
1.47 metres. A strong correlation was found between face recognition distance, light
direction, illumination, and light colour temperature (p<0.05). The drone GLS system can
detect real human face recognition with high accuracy, and the development is for the
purpose of performing medication delivery outdoors
Development of coal-like refused derived fuel from hazardous waste / Balasubramaniam Karpan
No full textThe quantity of the hazardous waste (HW) generated in Malaysia increased to 7,185 thousand metric tons from 4,013 thousand metric tons in 2019 This was primarily due to power plants and water treatment plants, and the rate of waste generation is likely to continue to rise as these are regarded as essential services. At present only about 30% of these wastes are subjected to recovery activities in Malaysia, where the focus is on material recovery. Many of the HW generated in Malaysia contains more than 8,000 kJ/kg of energy. These wastes can be a potential for energy recovery activities where refused-derived fuel (RDF) can be developed for a specific large volume application and as an alternative to coal. Therefore, RDF has been developed in this work using hazardous wastes and biomass mixtures to obtain solid fuel with coal-like characteristics. For this purpose, the Design of Experiment software was used where more than 500 RDF samples were synthesized using combinations of various wastes to determine the optimum product formulation. In this study, the RDF production process was developed by combining various processes of sorting, weighing, mixing, drying, and fused them together in a process called Thermo-biofusion. The optimum operating conditions of wastes and biomass mixture was identified in this study based on the calorific value (CV), volatile matter , fixed carbon, ash content as well as moisture content. The RDF developed had a CV of approximately 20,000 kJ/kg, moisture content between 15 to 20%, volatile matter, fixed carbon, and ash content of 32 %, 40 %, and 28 %, respectively. A production process was developed, and 1000 tones of RDF was produced and tested for potential utilization as a coal alternative in a cement manufacturing plant with varying RDF ratios, utilising the optimum recipe. This study concluded that every ton of coal with 24,000 kJ/Kg CV could be replaced by approximately 1.5 tones of RDF. The maximum allowable limit of RDF usage was limited to 24% replacement to coal due to limitation on clicker quality and overall emission level. Emission levels of NOx were under the regulatory limit where at 5 ton/hour and 8 ton/hour of RDF feed, the levels of NOX emitted are 356 mg/ Nm3 and 301 mg/ Nm3, respectively, values are lower than the regulatory limits in Malaysia. Heavy metal concentrations were also within the standard limit to prevent any threats to the environment. In terms of the efficiency of clinker and stack gas emission values, the substitution of 15 % of RDF to the coal at a feeding rate of 5 tons per hour in cement production did not cause any processing and quality issues in the existing cement production process. The study concluded that substituting 15 % of RDF with the coal in 1000 ton/day cement plant may reduce 112.8 USD/hour in operating cost. The advantages of co-combustion RDF with coal in the cement plant including reduction in the CO2 emission, cost reduction of clinker production due to the usage of inexpensive fuel, and preservation of resources. This work has proven that by combining pre-selected hazardous wastes, mixture of biomass, and adding appropriate additives, a coal-like RDF can be produced for cement kiln application that meet the energy and emission requirements
Improving construction project scheduling performance amid COVID-19 pandemic / Lu Haw Zheng
No full textConstruction projects have been one of the pioneer economic activities in Malaysia ever since the economic transformation in the late 1980s. As part of the project management plan, project schedule management is deemed essential for upkeeping construction projects scheduling performance. The research statement is then established, as there is limited empirical research in dealing with constrained resources in complementing the scheduling performance other than the scientific calculation. Nonetheless, the resourcesconstrained project scheduling techniques are yet to be researched to confront the shortage of resources unpredictably throughout the pandemic. The aim of this research is to study the construction project scheduling performance issues due to resource constraints amid Covid-19 pandemic crisis in Malaysia. Whereas, the aim is supported by 3 research objectives: to identify the constrained resources in construction projects during Covid-19 pandemic, to analyse the implication of the constrained resources to the construction projects, and finally to propose empirical suggestions to reduce construction project scheduling performance issues in dealing with constrained resources amid Covid-19 pandemic. The study is carried out by applying mixed method approach where 5 site managerial staffs located in Klang Valley are chosen to be involved in the interview. This is followed by a qustionaire survey among architectural coordinators, project managers and senior project managers. Then, the data collected from both questionnaire surveys and interviews were analysed via correlational analysis in 2 phases, perceived and accessed analysis. Findings show that onstrained resources, including time, cost and quality constraints has been identified as the apparent contributors to the project scheduling performance amid the Covid-19 pandemic. A set of empirical suggestions in reducing project scheduling performance issues in dealing constrained resources. It is anticipated that this study will help the project management practitioners to improve their project schedule management practices and effectiveness. Furthermore, this research also has expended the knowledge on the current project scheduling problems amid the pandemic by identifying new variables and updating context issues related to project schedule management
Factors influencing motivation and behaviour in utilising pharmacy information system among pharmaceutical staff in Malaysia / Cenysia Joimur
No full textThe study has been performed in order to evaluate the factors influencing motivation and behavioural intention in using the Pharmacy Information System (PhIS) that has been conducted among Pharmaceutical Staff in Public Healthcare in Malaysia. PhIS has been developed after previous Hospital Information System (HIS) in Malaysia but there were several issues after the implementation of HIS including the resistant and negative thinking due to the unexpected performance occurred after the system implementation. Thus, the study has been conducted in order to evaluate the factors influencing towards users’ motivation and behavioural intention during the training session of the current system of PhIS. The research was using quantitative data and about 500 questionnaires have been distributed and collected among the Public Pharmaceutical Staff in Malaysia. However, according to the sample size needed, there were 310 respondents selected. These respondents selected among the Pharmaceutical Staff of Public Healthcare in Peninsular and East Malaysia to whom attended and represented their departments during the training. Based on the finding and analysis conducted, there were significant relationship between the teaching presence, cognitive presence and social presence. Each aspect in the study has been indicated positive relationship with each other in regards to the respondents’ perception, motivation and behavioural intention in using the system. Only minority who were not agreed to the benefit of using PhIS in their workplace. It draws the conclusion that the respondents have shown motivation in using the system after the training conducted despite of the resistance attitude towards the implementation of the previous system. In the study, the PhIS users at the Government’s Hospitals and Clinics in Malaysia show encourage feedback after the teaching, cognitive and socia
Civil society participation in the universal periodic review in Malaysia / Sarune Beh
No full textMalaysia underwent three cycles of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) since 2009 and accepted 60.2%, 64.66%, and 54.85% recommendations. The recommendations with the less controversial issues such as Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) received a positive response from the state, while the recommendations on the controversial issues such as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) received none of the acceptance although they both are vulnerable groups. The state responded differently to the CSOs in the UPR process. Meanwhile, CSOs interact differently with the state in the UPR in cooperative and highly-contested relationships. This has created questions on how CSOs establish relationship with the state to influence in the UPR? What is the nature of CSOs that make the interaction between CSOs and the state cooperative but at the same time, highly contested? And, why do the state and CSOs respond differently to the UPR process over the issues of PWDs and LGBT? The research focused on these two issues and compared the interaction between PWDs and LGBT CSOs with the state in the UPR process. There is a lack of literature on understanding the CSOs-state relationship in a decision-making process in the context of human rights and with the influence of international parties. Therefore, this research aims to fill in this literature gap. The study employed a qualitative research method with in-depth interviews, secondary data collection and, thematic analysis. 20 informants from the state, CSOs, and National Human Rights Institution (NHRI) were interviewed. Social capital and counter-hegemony theories were applied to understand how CSOs create the relationship with the state in the UPR process. While the approaches of CSOs-state relationship proposed by Lewis (2013) and Young (2000) were utilised to explain the causes leading to the formation of CSO-state. The key factors that contribute to the state’s decision-making in the UPR have analysed based on the four policy perspectives proposed by Bekkers. et. al (2017), namely Rational, Institutional, Political, and Cultural. Findings show that PWDs CSOs apply the social capital approach in developing relationships with the state through three elements, namely Trust, Norm, and Network while LGBT CSOs utilising the approach of counter-hegemony through the elements of Organisation, Ideology, and Action. PWDs CSOs enjoy wider chances to participate in the policy process while LGBT CSOs have no door to participate in the policy process. Thus, UPR plays a more significant role on the issue of LGBT rather than PWDs. PWDs CSOs have not expanded their involvement in the UPR broadly because they are comfortable with the channels provided by the state. While LGBT CSOs commonly act in a rights-based approach and they have limited chances to access the state. UPR provides an opportunity for LGBT CSOs to appear themselves in the policy process
Adsorption of metal ions by surface modified polycarbonates derived from waste optical DISCS / Saidu Akun Abdallah
No full textPlastic has been widely used in various industrial sectors due to its outstanding properties
and economical advantages. Since huge volumes of production and consumption are
associated with increased market demand, plastic waste has brought about environmental
concerns due to its non-biodegradable nature; polycarbonate from optical compact discs
and digital versatile discs are one of the significant waste. Instead of being destined for
landfills and incinerators, a more sustainable option is turning the waste optical discs into
valuable products, considering the chemical modification opportunity granted by
polycarbonate molecular structure. This study, therefore, attempts to retrieve
polycarbonate from waste optical discs and alter them chemically into adsorptive
materials for the removal of metal ions mainly mercury(II). In this work, the
polycarbonate was recovered via extraction-precipitation strategy and subsequently
modified into nitrated, aminated, thiol-modified polycarbonates. The products were
characterized with various instrumental techniques before being subjected to adsorption
studies. The adsorptive removal process with respect to individual adsorbent was
evaluated using response surface methodology, while the adsorption isotherms, kinetics,
and thermodynamic were modelled by batch experiments. The adsorption data best fit the
Freundlich isotherm and followed a pseudo-second-order kinetic for all the cases
(coefficient of determination > 0.9), which implied favorable chemisorption related to the
surface functionalization. The thiol-modified polycarbonate prompted further
investigation for copper(II) removal considering the highest adsorption capacity; the
fittings again satisfied the Freundlich isotherm and the pseudo-second-order kinetic.
Under the experimental settings optimized from the response surfaces, the adsorbents exhibited promising adsorptive removal efficiency (consistent with model prediction)
regardless of the water matrices. Even for three adsorption-desorption cycles, the
mercury(II) adsorptive removal performance of thiol modified polycarbonate remained
more than 80%. These findings suggested that the waste-derived polycarbonate-based
materials could be potential adsorbents for the treatment of metal contaminants in the
aqueous system