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Performance of sequencing batch reactor for the removal of chemical oxygen demand from waste cooking oil

2022-06-01 , Abdul Rashid N.B. , Abdul Latif Abdul Rani , Mardhiah Farhana Omar , Muhd Afiq Hizami Abdullah , Permana Putri E.B. , Syafiuddin A.

The production of highly polluted waste cooking oil (WCO) that contains both inorganic and organic compounds has been increased in Malaysia particularly in food industries. This study was aimed to utilize a sequencing batch reactor (SBR) in order to investigate the aerobic treatment of WCO. The system was operated at pH ranging from 4 to 5 and temperature ranged from 25°C to 31°C. The SBR reactor was fabricated using Perspex with a working volume of 2 L. Experiments were con-ducted daily at fill, react, settle, draw, and idle phase at 1, 1, 2, 1, and 1 h, respectively. The chemical oxygen demand (COD) and turbidity were assessed in determining SBR performance. Highest COD removal and turbidity values were at 67% and 0.94 NTU, respectively. A stable effluent quality was achieved after 13 d of operational investigation. In general, the SBR treatment was able to achieve acceptable discharge limit for the final treated effluent.

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Competitiveness of Industrialised Building System (IBS) and Conventional Method in Construction Industry in Terms of Quality

2023-10-04 , Mardhiah Farhana Omar , Muhd Afiq Hizami Abdullah , Najihah Abdul Rashid , Fatt H.L. , Abdul Latif Abdul Rani , Ishak H.

Construction quality is defined as the achievement of a satisfactory level of performance in construction work. One of the variables considered in the management of construction projects is quality. The quality of the building can be determined by its performance and compliance with all applicable requirements. However, the construction sector is facing difficulties because the quality of several projects has fallen short of expectations. As a result, the problem of lack of attention to construction quality must be addressed. Therefore, the objective of this study is to identify the elements that affect construction quality in the construction sector when IBS are used compared to conventional techniques, as well as to evaluate the success of construction with IBS compared to conventional methods in terms of quality. The final objective is to evaluate the link between the elements affecting the building quality in the Industrial Building System (IBS) and the conventional technology, as well as the quality success of the building. In this study, the quantitative analysis was conducted through questionnaire surveys that included the G7 construction companies in Selangor interested in building quality. Stratified random sampling approach was used in this study. QLASSIC was conducted by 130 Class 7 contractors from Selangor registered with the CIDB. This means that 97 people from the population are needed to complete the questionnaires. The results suggest that the most important elements affecting construction quality are that the construction of IBS components is not affected by extreme weather conditions because the prefabricated components are manufactured in a controlled environment, unlike the traditional technique. In addition, unlike traditional methods, IBS requires the use of professional personnel to install the structural components. As a result, the quality of a building can increases and defects can be reduced if it is successful. The importance of this study is that it will help contractors improve their quality on certain jobs and reduce unsatisfactory results in the future.

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The effectiveness of successful maintenance management in public hospital building

2017 , Mardhiah Farhana Omar

Building maintenance is an important aspect in facility management and should be given particular emphasis especially for complex buildings such as hospital so that it can operate at an optimal level. Despite the concern of the government to allocate a sum of budget for aspects such as building maintenance, the level of maintenance management for public buildings are still unsatisfactory and ineffective. The same problem also arises in public hospitals where poor performance showed by the appointed contractors in the aspects of maintenance management. According to the survey results, various other factors influenced the effectiveness and success of facility management in hospital buildings. But these factors can be summarized into three main constructs namely 1) individual factors, 2) maintenance aspects and 3) administrative and organizational factors. Hence, this study aims to identify the key indicator of the effectiveness and key success of the implementation of maintenance management in public hospitals, evaluating the relationship between the effectiveness and successful maintenance management of public hospitals and factoring the dimension of maintenance management effectiveness in public hospitals. A survey approach has been chosen as the method for data collection and the target respondents in this study are composed of the maintenance managers in the hospitals in the Northern region of Peninsular Malaysia which are maintained by Edgenta Mediserve Sdn Bhd. Self-administration techniques has been used to carry out the set of questionnaire to the 32 maintenance managers in public hospitals in the Northern region and all survey questions sets have been successfully completed by the respondents. Descriptive analysis have been used to determine the effectiveness and successful maintenance management in public hospitals. Descriptive analysis results of the key indicator of the effectiveness of maintenance management in public hospitals showed that all constructs are considered as important and significant and accepted as a key indicator in the maintenance management of public hospitals. While the analysis results of the key success of maintenance management in public hospitals found that the six dimensions namely failure, reliability of equipment, time, quality, maintenance cost and safety are very important and accepted as the key success of maintenance management of public hospitals. Next, the relationship between the effectiveness and successful maintenance management had been achieved by using Pearson correlation and found that all three constructs have a great relationship with the successful maintenance management in public hospitals. The final analysis conducted for factoring the dimensions of maintenance management effectiveness is known as factor analysis. Result of the analysis found that three initial constructs are 1) individual factors, 2) maintenance aspects, 3) administration and organizational factors have formed two new constructs which are 1) administrative and organizational factors and 2) technical aspects. Overall, these findings are consistent with the findings of previous studies.