UniMAP RIS :: Browsing Publications 2020 by Issue Date

Publication

Photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue using zinc oxide/styrene butadiene rubber photocatalyst

( 2020-01-01)

Nordin R.

;

Latiff N.

;

Yusof R.

;

Nawawi W.I.

;

Muhammad Salihin Zakaria

;

Ishak Z.A.M.

The zinc oxide/styrene butadiene rubber (ZnO/SBR) photocatalyst was successfully prepared via mechanical mixing at 30 °C. ZnO/SBR square shaped (3 x 3 cm) with 0.54 mm thickness was investigated towards photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue (MB) solution under visible light irradiation and compared with bare ZnO and raw SBR. FTIR absorption spectra reveal the characteristic peaks and estimated intensity of conjugated carbon for ZnO/SBR. ZnO/SBR showed excellent photocatalytic performance nearly as good as bare ZnO.

Publication

Aeroacoustic performance of high-lift airfoil with serrated slat cusp

( 2020-01-01)

Jawahar H.K.

;

Syamir Alihan Showkat Ali

;

Azarpeyvand M.

;

da Silva C.R.I.

Experimental measurements to assess the aeroacoustic capabilities of 30P30N airfoil fitted with two different types of serrated slat cusps were carried out at the aeroacoustic wind tunnel at the University of Bristol. The results from the simultaneous surface pressure measurement within and close to the slat cove region and far-field noise measurements above the slat trailing edge are presented to gain a deeper understanding of the noise generation mechanism of the slat and other presented configurations. The far-field noise measurement results showed that significant noise reduction at the vortex shedding frequency can be achieved by the use of serration-2 and No-Cusp configuration. The coherence results for all the frequencies are almost zero for the No-Cusp configuration and the coherence was notably reduced for the Serration-2 configuration. Further higher order statistical and spectral analysis showed that even the serration-1 with small serrations reduces the energy within the norrowband peaks to some level.

Publication

High performance work system and human resource professionals' effectiveness: A lesson from techno-based firms of Pakistan

( 2020-01-01)

Fareed M.

;

Ahmad AA.

;

Saoula O.

;

Sri Sarah Maznah Mohd Salleh

;

Zakariya N.H.

The inevitability for HR professionals to perform at their best, being creative and effective is very crucial in gaining sustainable competitive advantage in the 21st century. Likewise, HR professionals have to successfully manage human resources, need personal credibility and business knowledge, understanding of the business strategies, adapting with technology changes and the ability to deliver HR services. Despite there being a substantial amount of discussion about HR professionals' effectiveness, which is featuring massive challenges and opportunities in this innovative age, there is a paucity of information concerning the extent of this subject matter in Pakistan. Therefore, the current study responded to fill this research gap in the context of Pakistan. This research surveyed 40 HR professionals in five techno-based firms in Pakistan. Data were analysed through SEM-PLS. The findings of the study showed that high performance work system significantly influences HR professionals' effectiveness. The study contributed to RBV theory by taking HR professionals' effectiveness as a source of competitive advantage for a firm. The study is also important for HR practitioners and organisations as it highlights the importance of comprehensive HR system, i.e. high performance work system to boost HR professionals' effectiveness to sustain competitive advantage.

Publication

Field-Effect Transistor-based Biosensor Optimization: Single Versus Array Silicon Nanowires Configuration

( 2020-01-01)

Ong C.C.

;

Mohamad Faris Mohamad Fathil

;

Mohd Khairuddin Md Arshad

;

Mohammad Nuzaihan Md Nor

;

Ruslinda A. Rahim

;

Uda Hashim

;

Rafizatul Fitri Abdullah

;

Mohd Hazmi Mohd Ghazali

;

Tamjis N.

This paper demonstrated the effect of different number of silicon nanowire transducer channels, in other word single, double, and triple channels towards the performance of field-effect transistor-based biosensor through simulation tool. These silicon nanowire field-effect transistor biosensors were designed and simulated in device simulation modelling tool, Silvaco ATLAS with fixed length, width, and height of the silicon nanowire. Different negatively interface charge density values were applied on the transducer channels’ surface of the biosensors to represent as detected target biomolecules that will bind onto the surface of the transducer regions. Based on the results, more negatively interface charges density values presented on the sensing channels had reduced the electron carrier accumulation at the channel’s interface, therefore, reduced drain current flow between the source and drain terminal. With the increase number of the transducer channels, significant change in drain current for every applied negatively interface charges became more apparent and increased the sensitivity of the biosensor. The triple transducer channels silicon nanowire field-effect transistor biosensor had demonstrated highest sensitivity, that is 2.83 µA/e∙cm2, which indicates it has better response for the detection of interface charges, thus increases chances for transducer channels reaction to the target biomolecules during testing or diagnosis.

Publication

The correlation between ischemic stroke and thrombosis by nanoscale biomarker analysis

( 2020-01-01)

Wang G.

;

Shen X.

;

Tian Q.

;

Lakshmipriya T.

;

Subash Chandra Bose Gopinath

Ischemic stroke, which is the fifth leading cause of death, is an attack in the brain due to blockage of a brain artery. It occurs when a sudden loss of blood flow to the brain leads to a reduction in the oxygen supply. A wide range of reasons have been found for ischemic stroke, including high blood pressure and associated thrombosis. Suitable biomarker analysis followed by proper treatment helps to prevent ischemic stroke. An aptamer is an artificial antibody generated against various clinical biomarkers from a smaller molecule of a whole cell. Recently, several researchers conducted biomarker analysis for ischemic stroke using aptamers. Furthermore, factor IX, which is a blood clotting factor, is highly correlated with thrombosis and plays a role in ischemic stroke. In this review, we summarized the potential role of aptamers in ischemic stroke by nanoscale analysis, and factor IX was the distinct focus of this review.

Publication

Mhd mixed convection flow and heat transfer of a dual stratified micropolar fluid over a vertical stretching/ shrinking sheet with suction, chemical reaction and heat source

( 2020-01-01)

Khan A.A.

;

Wan Mohd Khairy Adly Wan Zaimi

;

Sufahani S.F.

;

Ferdows M.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) mixed convection flow and heat transfer of a dual stratified micropolar fluid over a vertical permeable stretching/ shrinking sheet with chemical reaction and heat source. The governing nonlinear partial differential equations are reduced into a system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations using an appropriate similarity transformation. Then, the obtained ordinary differential equations are solved numerically using the boundary value problem solver (bvp4c) in MATLAB software. The numerical results are tabulated and plotted for the heat transfer characteristics, namely, the skin friction coefficient, the local Nusselt number, the local Sherwood number as well as the velocity, temperature and concentration profiles for some values of the governing parameters. The present numerical results also have been compared with the previous reported results for a particular case and the comparisons are found to be in an excellent agreement. The results indicate that the skin friction coefficient and the local Nusselt number increase with chemical reaction and heat source. The magnitude of the local Sherwood number increases with the increasing of chemical reaction parameter. However, the magnitude of the local Sherwood number decreases with heat source effect.

Publication

In-situ Noise Measurement and Analysis for the Motorcycle Muffler

( 2020-01-01)

Tan Wei Hong

;

Chuah H.G.

;

Cheng Ee Meng

;

Lim Eng Aik

;

Lok, Chip Hao

Noise from the vehicles is one of the noise pollutions to the environment. The noises emitted by the vehicles have to obey the requirement of regulation of maximum sound pressure level permitted for respective vehicles. In this study, the aim is to reduce the noise emitted from the motorcycle muffler. The noise emitted from the motorcycle muffler is analyzed and measured using a sound level meter. The average sound pressure level of the motorcycle muffler is determined in certain conditions. The sound pressure levels for original installed muffler are recorded as 76.4dB, 79.5dB and 82.3dB under the constant speed of 10km/hr, 20km/hr and 30km/hr respectively by engaging 2nd gear. For the acceleration with the scope of 0 km/hr to 30 km/hr, the difference of sound pressure level between 2nd and 4th gear engaged is 5.4dB. The study is continued by using a modified muffler which contains sound absorptive materials. The absorptive materials chosen are glass wool, cotton and Styrofoam and they are taking turn to be placed into the modified muffler to reduce the sound pressure level. Then the experiment is repeated. By applying 100g absorptive materials in the modified muffler, the reduction of sound pressure level are recorded as 12.6% (glass wool), 7.5% (cotton) and 4.4% (Styrofoam) compared with original installed muffler while 2nd gear engaged. Styrofoam is observed does not perform significantly in absorbing sound or noise in this study. Glass wool demonstrates relatively better sound energy absorption compared with cotton. In general, soft and porous materials are considered good performance in sound absorption. Denser materials are better at soundproofing or sound blocking. Therefore, glass wool with relatively higher density among the investigated absorptive materials in this study has the greatest sound absorption performance.

Publication

Nanodetection of Head and Neck Cancer on Titanium Oxide Sensing Surface

( 2020-01-01)

Wang Y.

;

Guo Y.

;

Lu J.

;

Sun Y.

;

Yu X.

;

Subash Chandra Bose Gopinath

;

Lakshmipriya T.

;

Wu Y.S.

;

Wang C.

Head and neck cancer is a heterogeneous disease, originating in the squamous cells lining the larynx (voice box), mouth, pharynx (throat), nasal cavity and salivary glands. Head and neck cancer diagnosis at the later stage is greatly influencing the survival rate of the patient. It makes a mandatory situation to identify this cancer at the earlier stages of development with a suitable biomarker. Squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) is a circulating serum tumour biomarker, and the elevated level has been found in the head and neck cancer patients and highly correlated with the tumour volume. The present research was carried out to detect and quantify the level of SCC-Ag on titanium oxide (TiO2)-modified interdigitated electrode sensor (IDE) by SCC-Ag antibody. The detection of SCC-Ag was found at the level of 100 fM, while it was improved to 10 fM when the antibody was conjugated with gold nanostar, representing a 10-fold improvement. Interestingly, this enhancement in sensitivity is 1000-folds higher than other substrates. Moreover, the specificity analysis was carried out using two different control proteins and noticed that the antibody only recognised SCC-Ag, indicating the specific detection on IDE-TiO2 sensing surface.

Publication

Fabrication and characterizations of Al nanoparticles doped ZnO nanostructures-based integrated electrochemical biosensor

( 2020-01-01)

Gherab K.

;

AI-Douri Y.

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Uda Hashim

;

Ameri M.

;

Bouhemadou A.

;

Batoo K.M.

;

Adil S.F.

;

Khan M.

;

Raslan E.H.

The benefits of the electrical-based biosensor include cheap production and fast response time of detecting diseases. An interdigitated electrode (IDE) is fabricated using silver (Ag) as a metal contact that is deposited on aliminium (Al) nanoparticles doped with both zinc oxide (ZnO) and Silicon (Si) forming AZO/Si nanostructures by vacuum coater in a thermal evaporator. The electrical properties are studied as a function of frequency and voltage using I-V characteristics. Sol-gel method under annealing temperature, 500 ◦C is utilized to generate Al nanoparticles doped ZnO nanostructures. UV-vis spectrophotometer, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffractometer (XRD) are used for analyzing optical, topographical, morphological and structural studies of AZO nanostructure, respectively. Specific empirical models of optical dielectric constant, bulk modulus and refractive index are also verified.

Publication

Niblack algorithm modification using maximum-minimum (Max-min) intensity approaches on low contrast document images

( 2020-01-01)

Wan Azani Wan Mustafa

;

Wan Khairunizam Wan Ahmad

;

Mat Yusoff A.S.

;

Syed Zulkarnain Syed Idrus

;

Mohamad Nur Khairul Hafizi Rohani

In recent decades, detection or segmentation has been one of the major interesting research subjects due to the analysis of the information. However, most of the historical document has degraded and low contrast problem. Recently, many binarization methods were proposed in order to segment the text region from the background region in the low-quality image. In this paper, an improved binarization method was inspired by Niblack method was presented. The modification focuses to find the optimum threshold value by using the Maximum-Minimum intensity technique. The main target is to reduce the unwanted detection image and increase the resultant performance compared to the original Niblack method. The proposed method was applied to the document images from H-DIBCO 2012 and H-DIBCO 2014 dataset. The results of the numerical simulation indicate that the target was achieved by the F-Measure by F-measure (58.706), PSNR (10.778) and Accuracy (86.876). This finding will give a new benchmark to other researchers to propose an advance binarization method.

Publication

Blood vessel detection monitoring system and mobile notification for diabetic retinopathy diagnosis

( 2020-01-01)

Mahmud A.S.

;

Wan Azani Wan Mustafa

;

Mohd Aminudin Jamlos

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Syed Zulkarnain Syed Idrus

;

Wan Khairunizam Wan Ahmad

;

Mohd Al-Hafiz Mohd Nawi

Disease diagnosis based on retinal image analysis is very popular in order to detect a few critical diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, high blood pressure, cancer and glaucoma. The important part of the retinal is a blood vessel. Besides, the blood vessel study plays an important part in different medical areas such as ophthalmology, oncology, and neurosurgery. The significance of the vessel analysis was helped by the continuous overview in clinical studies of new medical technologies intended for improving the visualization of vessels. In this paper, a new blood vessel detection based on a combination of Kirsch’s templates and Fuzzy C-Means (FCM) was proposed. The main objective of this study is to improve the detection result of FCM and achieved more effective performance compared to the Kirsch’s templates result. The proposed method experimented on 20 images is utilized namely from Digital Retina Images for Vessel Extraction (DRIVE) dataset. The resulting images are compared with the benchmark images based on a few image quality assessment (IQA) such as accuracy, sensitivity and specificity. The total average of accuracy is 92.64%, while sensitivity and specificity obtained was 95.73% and 60.45% respectively. The three parameters of the IQA will then be displayed in a column on the GUI. The second part of the system is for the mobile notification system to send SMS to a mobile phone. In order for the user to obtain the image analysis results, there must be a notification system on the mobile phone. By using the GSM module integrated with Arduino Uno, notification regarding image analysis will be sent to the mobile phone.

Publication

Drying performance evaluation of a commercial batch mixed-flow seed drying system

( 2020-01-01)

Azmi M.Z.

;

Rukunudin I.H.

;

Hirun Azaman Ismail

;

Aimi Athirah Aznan

Information on the performance of commercial grain dryers in Malaysia especially for paddy seed drying in terms of published reports are still lacking. This study was therefore undertaken to evaluate the performance of a commercial, mixed-flow, batch type grain dryer at Loji Pemprosesan Benih Padi Sah (A) Telok Chengai, Kedah. Five type of performance indices under three different fan configurations were studied, namely drying efficiency (DE), heat utilization factor (HUF), effective heat efficiency (EHE), coefficient of performance (COP) and specific energy consumption (SEC). From the results obtained, the average values for the performance indices for the seed dryer measured as DE. HUF, EHE and COP were found to range between 0.521 to 0.596, 0.695 to 0.708, 0.477 to 0.515 and 0.292 to 0.305 respectively. Depending on the fan's configurations, the SEC values registered by the dryer ranged between 5.677 to 6.896 MJ/kg water removed. This study also showed that different performance indices are suited for different conditions of the drying. As for an instance, HUF, EHE and COP are more suited for in-field drying evaluation while DE is more suited for a comprehensive evaluation of a dryer. SEC, on the other hand provides the most comprehensible results among the methods.

Publication

Improving Security Concerns of Mobile Cloud Computing Environment with Quantum Cryptographic Techniques

( 2020-01-01)

Maurya S.

;

Mukherjee K.

;

R Badlishah Ahmad

In the current scenario, mobile cloud computing (MCC) is termed as speedily developing field of IT. With the development of mobile phones and success of the Internet, computational resources have become cheaper, easily accessible, ubiquitous, distributed, and powerful tool for all types of organizations. Mobile cloud computing is a computational model in which services are offered on mobile phones in an on-demand fashion. Most of the service provider are concerned with privacy and security issues. In this endeavor, security concerns of MCC are discussed and proposed a new quantum cryptography (QC)-based encryption and decryption method. Proposed technique allows the users to store and process the user’s data through strengthened cryptographic method.

Publication

Electrospinning parameters evaluation of PVDF-ZnO/Ag2CO3/Ag2O composite nanofiber affect on porosity by using response surface methodology

( 2020-01-01)

Rosman N.

;

Wan Salleh W.N.

;

Mohd Riduan Jamalludin

;

Adam M.R.

;

Ismail N.H.

;

Jaafar J.

;

Harun Z.

;

Ismail A.F.

The electrospinning process is a very important technique for fabricating polymeric nanofibers by applying external electrostatic forces. This study reports on the modeling of the electrospinning process of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and the immobilized ZnO/Ag2CO3/Ag2O using response surface methodology (RSM) based on the central composite design (CCD). The individual and interaction effects of the most effective variables, such as applied voltage (6.5, 8 and 9.5 kV), nozzle-collector distance (10, 12.5 and 15 cm) and ZnO/Ag2CO3/Ag2O photocatalyst concentration (0.1, 0.8 and 1.5 g), have been evaluated on the porosity response of the nanofiber. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) confirmed that the spinning voltage was the main variable affecting the average porosity of the composite PVDF nanofiber. The regression coefficient between the variables and the mean porosity (R2= 0.8321) indicates acceptable evaluation of experimental data by quadratic polynomial regression.

Publication

Tensile Properties of Diffusion Bonded Duplex Stainless Steel to Low Carbon Steel

( 2020-01-01)

Baharudin B.A.

;

Hussain P.

;

Mustapha M.

;

Ayob F.

;

Ismail A.

;

Ab Rahman F.

;

Khalid P.Z.M.

;

Hamid D.A.

;

Mohd Afendi Rojan

The diffusion bonding is one of the methods used to join dissimilar metals. Specimens of duplex stainless steel and low carbon steel were joined by diffusion bonding under varied temperature and holding time. The specimens were clamped using jigs and heated in a furnace. Tensile test was performed on the joined samples. The effect of bonding time and holding temperature on tensile strength and quality of the diffusion bonds were observed. Tensile strength of the joints was examined and the highest tensile strength of 116.12 MPa are obtained at temperatures of 900 °C and holding time of 180 min.

Publication

Natural resources for nanoparticle synthesis

( 2020-01-01)

Letchumanan I.

;

Subash Chandra Bose Gopinath

;

Mohd Khairuddin Md Arshad

Drastically growing research areas are mainly dependent on nanotechnology for the purpose of a better outcome and to propose new advancements in their respective field. In fact, nanotechnology has been an attraction field for all researchers due to their outstanding key prospects in all the fields. Truly, to claim that nature also can be distinguished as a superior nanotechnologist. Nanoparticles are the subclass of nanotechnology which can be found everywhere and every time. Nanoparticles are particles with nano-sized range which are highly mobile and precise. In nature, nanoparticles can be found in volcanic ash, ocean spray, natural water, soil, plant extract, and plant biomass. Naturally, existing compounds or minerals by the bioreduction process can be either highly toxic or nontoxic to the environment. This chapter generally presents the types of nanoparticles that exist naturally and their way of production.

Publication

Nanoparticles in electrochemical bioanalytical analysis

( 2020-01-01)

Rajapaksha R.D.A.A.

;

Uda Hashim

;

Subash Chandra Bose Gopinath

;

Nor Azizah Parmin

;

Fernando C.A.N.

In the present biomedical field, most of the bioanalytical analyses depend on the electrochemical based systems. Nanomaterials are one of the key factors in enhancing the efficiency of analytical devices. Various nanomaterials such as metal NPs, metal oxide NPs, inorganic NPs, polymeric NPs, carbon-based, and polyoxometalates nanostructures can be seen in a variety of electrochemical analytical systems. Two-electrode, three-electrode, and multi-electrode-based miniaturized electrochemical analytical systems are popular in both research and commercially available systems. Properties of various nanostructures, and their involvement as surface functionalization material for label-free, and label-based ways in different biosensor applications have been discussed. Usage of various analytical methods such as potentiometry, voltammetry, amperometry, conductometry, coulometry, and impedimetric for detection, characterization, and quantification of nanostructure-based sensor systems, have been discussed. Further advantages of nanomaterials in biosensors and other electrodes in electrochemical analytical systems are also discussed. Compared to overall detection methods nanoparticle-based electrochemical analytical systems offer an approach to single molecular detection. By presenting theory to implementation, we hope this chapter provides a broad overview of usage and behavior of nanoparticles in electrochemical analytical systems, which may help readers understand and apply this phenomenon for future electrochemical-based biomedical analytical applications.

Publication

T-way strategy for (sequence less input interaction) test case generation inspired by fish swarm searching algorithm

( 2020-01-01)

Rahman M.

;

Sultana D.

;

Qaiduzzaman K.M.

;

Hasan M.H.

;

R Badlishah Ahmad

;

Othaman R.R.

Since twenty years, several t-way strategies have been developed for Combinatorial Input Interaction (CII) based system to reduce the number of test cases in the test suite. The t-way strategy can be applied to Sequence-less CII system, where all inputs are parameterized and parallel. From the literature, the searching methods used in t-way strategies are divided into deterministic and non-deterministic for reducing test cases for all test configurations. It is found that t-way strategy is an NP-hard problem; no deterministic and non-deterministic t-way strategies claim that their strategy can generate the optimal number of test cases for all test configurations. In this research, an Interactive t-way Test Case Generation (ITCG) algorithm is proposed inspiring fish swarm searching algorithm to integrate with t-way strategy and evaluate the generated number of test cases comparing with existing renown t-way strategies. The results show that the proposed t-way test case generation inspiring Fish Swarm Searching Algorithm for sequence-less CII able to generate optimal and feasible results for different test configurations.

Publication

Erratum: Reconstruction of medical images using artificial bee colony algorithm (Mathematical Problems in Engineering (2018) 2018 (8024762) DOI: 10.1155/2018/8024762)

( 2020-01-01)

Rusdi N.A.

;

Yahya Z.R.

;

Roslan N.

;

Wan Muhamad W.Z.A.

In the article titled “Reconstruction of Medical Images Using Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm” [1], the Acknowledgments section should be corrected as follows. $is study was fully supported by Research Development Grant Scheme (RAGS) (Ref: RAGS/1/2015/SG0/UNIMAP/ 03/2) and Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) (Ref: FRGS/1/2017/STG06/UNIMAP/03/2.

Publication

Fabrication of polypropylene/acrylonitrile butadiene rubber/kenaf core composites: Effect of polypropylene maleic anhydride as compatibilizer

( 2020-01-01)

Othman N.S.

;

Ragunathan Al Santiagoo

;

Wan Azani Wan Mustafa

;

Othman N.L.

;

Mohd Al-Hafiz Mohd Nawi

The fabrication of polypropylene (PP)/acrylonitrile butadiene rubber (NBR)/kenaf core (KC) composites were investigated. Tensile and morphological properties of composites were evaluated with the addition of polypropylene maleic anhydride (PPMAH) as a compatibilizer Five compositions of PP/NBR/KC with varied NBR loading (0–60 phr) were prepared with the addition of constant PPMAH ratio at 5phr. All the materials were melts mixed using a heated two-roll mill at temperature 180 °C and speed of 50 rpm. PP/NBR/KC compounds were compressed into 1 mm thin sheet by using a hot press machine and cut into a dumbbell shape specimen. The tensile test was conducted according to ASTM D 638 using a Universal Testing Machine. The results indicated that tensile strength slightly decreased with increasing NBR loading. However, it is interesting to observe that PP/NBR/KC composites with PPMAH compatibilizer have better tensile strength. Almost 43% improvement resulted for PP/NBR/KC/PPMAH composites with ratio 70/30/10. From scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis, composites with PPMAH compatibilizer show good attachment of KC filler with PP/NBR matrices.

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