Modelling Soil Wetting Patterns under Drip Irrigation ...

Global Conference on Engineering and Technology conference homepage: www.gcoet.org

CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

Global Conference on Engineering and Technology on “Professional Breadth and Technical Depth – Cultivating the T-Shaped Engineer”

1st - 2nd JUNE 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

GATR ENTERPRISE, KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

EDITORS: KASHAN PIRZADA MUHD FADHIL NURUDDIN SUBRAMANIAN ARUMUGAM

GCOET © 2016 GATR Enterprise. All rights reserved.


Proceedings of the Global Conference on Engineering and Technology on Professional Breadth and Technical Depth – Cultivating the T-Shaped Engineer Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Printed and Published by: GATR Enterprise [002360364-P] 21-8-15, Taman Bukit Angkasa, Jalan Pantai Dalam 59200, Kuala Lumpur Tel: 603-22011665 Mobile: +6018-3619766 Whats App: +6017-3690275 Fax: 603-22011665 Email: [email protected] Website: www.gatrenterprise.com © GATR Enterprise, 2016.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of both copyright owner and the publisher, GATR Enterprise.

Pusat Kebangsaan ISBN- Library Negara Malaysia ISBN: 978-967-13147-0-8



ACKNOWLEGMENT It is our pleasure to edit this proceedings and putting together the abstracts of all accepted papers that were presented and considered suitable for publication at the Global Conference on Engineering and Technology held on 1st and 2nd June 2016 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in collaboration with the National and International Universities and Publishers such as Elsevier (UK), Inderscience (Switzerland), UPM Press (Malaysia), Kalasalingam University (India) and University of Brawijaya Indonesia. GCOET received a large number of abstracts for presentations, many of which were of a high quality. As a result, the selection panel had to make decisions with a considerable care. We are grateful to the authors for their enthusiasm and to the reviewers for their painstaking work. The Conference provided a platform for sharing novel ideas and inspiring research outcomes of the academics from several countries. It was also attended by two prominent keynote speakers: Professor Dr. Subramanian Arumugam, Kalasalingam University, India; and Professor Dr. Muhd Fadhil Nuruddin, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia – we are grateful to them for their invaluable contribution. We hope this conference will contribute to a meaningful paradigm shifts in engineering and technology, in general, and the delegates’ career development, in particular. Finally, we would like to thank everybody who contributed in many ways to the success of the conference, especially to session chairs and the members on organizing committee. Guest Editors: Subramanian Arumugam, Kalasalingam University, India Muhd Fadhil Nuruddin, Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Malaysia Kashan Pirzada* GATR Enterprise, Malaysia _____________________ * Corresponding Editor. Tel: +60322011665. E-mail address: [email protected]



TABLE OF CONTENTS NO 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.

ABSTRACT ID

GCOET-00429

TITLE Implicit Finite Difference Solution Of 1D Nonlinear Porous Medium Equation Via Four Points EGSOR With Newton Iteration. Effect Of Potassium On Ammonium-Nitrogen Recovery From Landfill Leachate By Struvite Precipitation Method Evaluation Of Methane Oxidation Efficiency Of Landfill Soil Cover: Influence Of Soil Texture. Blood Vessel Extraction Of Fundus Images Based On Edge Enhancement Using Kirsch’s Template And Other Image Processing Techniques Modelling Soil Wetting Patterns Under Drip Irrigation Using Hydrus-3D And Comparison With Empirical Models Analysis Of Micromilling Process Parameters For Silicon-Based Flow Cytometer Microfluidics Device

GCOET-00431

Energy Loss Due To Branching Channel Flow

GCOET-00442

A Numerical Model Of Flow In A Branching Channel With Different Branching Angles And Bed Slopes

GCOET-00441

Control And Analysis Of Pressure Variable In The UCP Process Control

GCOET-00406 GCOET-00407 GCOET-00410 GCOET-00416 GCOET-00422

GCOET-00440 GCOET-00444 GCOET-00445

Investigation On Ratio Effect Of Mwcnts In PVA As Passive Saturable Absorber For Pulse Laser Generation Localization, Tracking And Separation Of Multiple Acoustic Sources Using Triangular Microphone Array Static Deflection Analysis Of Stewart Platform Actuated By Shape Memory Alloy (SMA)

15.

GCOET-00479

A Trusted Behaviour Learning For Interest Prediction In Social Ontology Based On Weighted Graph Improving Rheological Properties Of Water-Based Mud With Non-Ionic Surfactant As An Additive Production Of Esterquats Aided By Hydrotalcite-Like Compounds As Solid Catalyst

16.

GCOET-00451

Performance Of Hot Recycling Mix With Variable RAP Content

17.

GCOET-00409

Theoretical Strength Investigation Of Cfrp Strengthened Cold Formed Built Up Columns

13. 14.

GCOET-00449 GCOET-00457

21.

GCOET-00489

A Comparison Of Solvent Effect On Sugar Yield From Sago Palm Bark During Microwave-Assisted Pretreatment Application Of Conjugate Gradient Method With Cubic Non Polynomial Spline Scheme For Two-Point Boundary Value Problems The Effect Of Extraction Conditions On Total Phenolic Content Of Mango Peels And Mango Seed Kernel Employing Ultrasound-Assisted Extraction Method Corrosion Study Of Carbon Steel In Co2 Loaded Amine-Amino Acid Solutions

22.

GCOET-00491

Case Of N-Methyldiethanolamine And Arginine

23.

GCOET-00476

Effect Of Notching Face On Fracture Toughness Of Green Metal Powder Compacts Effect Of Protease On Pomaceacanaliculata EGGS

18. 19. 20.

GCOET-00487 GCOET-00447 GCOET-00433



24.

GCOET-00500

25.

GCOET-00446

Application Of DPSIR Framework For Causes Analysis Of Mangrove Deforestation And Degradation In Johor, Malaysia Effects Of Hydrodynamic Parameters On Hydropurification Reactor Operation

26.

GCOET-00477

Performance Evaluation Of Double Pass Amplification By Using Newly Doped Fiber

27.

GCOET- 00492

A Study On Integrated Water Resources Management And King Bhumibol’s Theory On Land And Water Management In Wattananakorn Area, Sa Kaeo Province, Thailand

28.

GCOET- 00478

Sustainable Framework For Water Desalination Supply Chain: Delphi-AHP Technique

29.

GCOET – 00469

Computational Investigations On Producing Diesel-Biodiesel-Ethanol Optimal Fuel Blends To Specifications – Thailand Perspective

30.

GCOET – 00483

Relating 1D-Compressibility Of Kaolin Clay With S-Wave Velocity And Electrical Conductivity: An Instrumented Consolidometer Study

31.

GCOET – 00494

Identification Of Potential Drug Targets For Hepatitis C Virus Through Centrality Based Analysis

32.

GCOET – 00502

Analysis Of Tuberculosis-Human Protein Interaction Network Using Centrality Measure

33.

GCOET – 00508

Dominator Sequences In Trees

34.

GCOET – 00512

Truly Nontrivial Graphoidal Covers

35.

GCOET – 00513

Minimal 2-Point Set Dominating Sets Of A Graph

36.

GCOET – 00498

Achieving Robust and Stable Data Transmission on MPLS-TP Based Network using Ring Protection.

37.

GCOET – 00499

Optimization Backhaul capacity for LTE Network using Ethernet Based Technique.

38.

GCOET – 00516

Sentiment Analysis using Ontology.

39.

GCOET – 00480

Impact of Climate Change to the Community Batu Pahat Coastal.



Implicit Finite Difference Solution of 1D Nonlinear Porous Medium Equation via Four-Point EGSOR with Newton Iteration.** J. V. L. Chew1*and J. Sulaiman2 1,2

Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, 88400, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Porous medium equations (PMEs) have a great practical in fluid flow, heat transfer or diffusion and mass transfer. The nonlinearity in this equation makes it interesting in the development of nonlinear analytical and numerical tools in pure and applied mathematics and sciences. Therefore, this paper proposes four-point EGSOR with Newton iteration to solve 1D nonlinear PMEs. The reliability of proposed method is clearly showed. The formulation and implementation of the proposed methods have also been presented. Numerical results showed that four-point EGSOR with Newton iteration requires less number of iterations and computational time in obtaining approximate solution for PMEs.

Keywords: Porous Medium Equation; implicit finite difference; Newton; Explicit Group; SOR.

*Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 *

Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Faculty of Science and Natural Resources, Universiti Malaysia Sabah



Effect of potassium on ammonium-nitrogen recovery from landfill leachate by struvite precipitation method** Mohamad Darwish1, AzmiAris1, 2*, Mohd Hafiz Puteh1, Aeslina Abdul Kadir3 1

Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia 2 Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Research Institute for Sustainable Environment (RISE), UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia 3 Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UniversitiTun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), 86400, Parit Raja, BatuPahat, Johor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT Struvite precipitation (MAP, MgNH4PO4.6H2O) is a common method for the recovery of NH4-N from landfill leachate. However, different sorts of foreign elements could have negative effect. This study investigated the effect of K on NH4-N recovery by struvite precipitation from landfill leachate in benchscale experiments. The results showed that increasing the molar ratio of K:N from 0.0 to 1.0 affected NH4-N recovery efficiency to some extent. Besides, the precipitation of K compounds was confirmed a Scanning Electron Microscope/Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis. The results indicated that only high concentrations of K could affect the recovery of NH4-N. Type of Paper: Empirical Keywords: struvite, magnesium, ammonium, potassium, landfill leachate.

*Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Centre for Environmental Sustainability and Water Security (IPASA), Research Institute for Sustainable Environment (RISE), UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia (UTM) *



Evaluation of Methane Oxidation Efficiency of Landfill Soil Cover: Influence of Soil Texture Mohd Suzairiff Zainal1*, Faeiza Buyong2, Nurul Ain Mat Riping3 1, 2, 3

Faculty of Applied Sciences, UniversitiTeknologi MARA, 40450, Shah Alam, Malaysia

ABSTRACT Methane emission from landfills has come to a great attention over recent years for its adverse effect to environment and human health. Owing to the facts, researchers have come out with numerous studies to improve the capability of the soil cover to oxidise the fugitive landfill gas. This paper revolves around the determination of methane oxidation efficiency of different texture media via sand incorporation into clayey soil at laboratory scale. Addition of sand by 30, 50 and 70% of volume ratio resulted in clay transformation to clay loam, sandy clay loam and sandy loam respectively. Sandy clay loam exhibited the highest methane oxidation efficiency at 93% followed by sandy loam and clay loam at 88% and 87% respectively.

Meanwhile, unamended clay reduced methane concentration by 81%.

The

biooxidation of methane by methanotrophs was influenced by the conducive environment for the propagation of the consortia. Coarser texture media facilitated gas migration throughout the soil matrix by providing connected macropores to allow oxygen penetration and dynamic mixing of gases during the residence time of reaction. The study manifested the prospective added material to clayey soil to simulate soil bacterial growth and therefore enhance the capacity of methane sink of the media. Type of Paper: Empirical Keywords: biocover, CH4 mitigation, landfill gas, landfill soil cover, methane oxidation, soil texture.


Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Faculty of Applied Sciences, UniversitiTeknologi MARA, 40450, Shah Alam, Malaysia



Blood Vessel Extraction of Fundus Images Based on Edge Enhancement using Kirsch’s Template and other Image Processing Techniques J. PradeepKandhasamy *, S. Balamurali Department of Computer Applications, Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil, 626126,Srivilliputtur, Tamil Nadu, India.

ABSTRACT Now a day’s diabetes has become a more dangerous and quickly increasing disease all over the world irrespective of age group people. Since untreated diabetic leads to various ophthalmic disorders, among that Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a dangerous retinal disease. The main disadvantage of this DR is that it has no prior clear symptoms. So the people with diabetic should undergo regular retinal monitoring process for the early stage detection of DR.Extracting Blood Vessels from the Fundus images is a challenging task. This paper aims to develop a better algorithm which uses image processing techniques like Kirsch’s templates, image pre-processing, edge enhancement and thresholding for the extraction of Blood vessels. Our proposed algorithm has the following stages. First the RGB images are converted to Gray scale image to reduce the size of the image to uniform area. Then the image is passed to the filter with Kirsch’s template for edge enhancement and it is subjected to threshold after that the blood vessels are extracted. The results obtained from the proposed method are compared with the publicly available DRIVE database and found that the accuracy is high when compared to other techniques. Typeof Paper: Conceptual Keywords: Diabetic Retinopathy, Filtering, Image processing, Krisch’s template, Vessel Extraction.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 *

Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Kalasalingam University, India



Modelling Soil Wetting Patterns under Drip Irrigation Using Hydrus-3D and Comparison with Empirical Models Ahmed A. M. Al-Ogaidi1, 2*, AimrunWayayok2, MD Rowshon Kamal 2, Ahmad Fikri Abdullah 2 1

Dams and Water Resources Engineering Department, College of Engineering, University of Mosul, 41002, Mosul, Iraq 2 Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400, Serdang, Selangor Darul Ehsan, Malaysia, Tel (603) 89464328 Fax (603) 89466425

ABSTRACT The optimal design, operation, and management of drip irrigation systems relies highly on a suitable combination of emitter discharge, spacing between emitters and laterals, rooting depth, soil hydraulic properties, and wetting pattern dimensions under single emitter. The wetting pattern dimensions under surface emitter can be measured in field, laboratory or estimated by modelling. In this study, a comparison was conducted between some empirical models for estimating the wetting pattern dimensions and the well-known numerical model Hydrus-3D. Data from published papers covering wide range of soil textures, emitter discharges, application times, bulk densities, saturated hydraulic conductivities, and initial moisture contents were used. In order to assess the performance of the considered models, the estimated wetting pattern dimensions were compared with the observed ones statistically using some statistical criteria such as mean error, root mean square error, and model efficiency. The results revealed that the performance of empirical models varied among the models depending on the data that used in deriving the model. Some empirical models showed high performance in predicting the wetting pattern dimensions even better than Hydrus-3D. However, Hydrus-3D is a numerical model which can simulate soil water movement in multi conditions unlike empirical models which are appropriate for limited conditions. Keywords: emitter; numerical model; wetted depth; wetted radius; wetted soil zone.


Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia



Analysis of Micromilling Process Parameters for Silicon-based Flow Cytometer Microfluidics Device Muhammad Syafiq Rahim1, AbangAnnuar Ehsan1, B.T. Hang Tuah Baharudin2 1

Institute of Microengineering and Nanoelectronics (IMEN), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, 43600 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia 2 Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT Microchannels on silicon wafer for a microfluidics-based flow cytometer device has been fabricated. The microchannels have been machined on silicon material using CNC micromilling process. The device is based on a flow cytometer design which allows biological sample stream to be focused into a single center stream utilizing hydrodynamic focusing technique. The rectangular-shaped channel is 200 um in width and 50 um in depth. Analysis of micromilling parameters involved milling parameters including depth of cut, feed rate and the type of endmill tools. The fabricated microchannels have been characterized using both visual inspection and surface topography measurements. Visual inspection shows that the surfaces of the machined workpiece have been fractured in particular at the cut edges. Geometrical measurement showed that the microchannel geometry is consistent with the design but the step height is reduced from 50 μm to 38 μm. Surface topography measurement using an optical 3D profiler showed different surface roughness values which vary with different machining process parameters. The results shows that the roughness for a diamond coated endmill tool provides the lowest roughness of about 99.3 nm compare to that of the uncoated endmill tool which gives a surface roughness of 397.5 nm. Keywords: CNC, cytometer, hydrodynamic focusing, microfluidics, micro milling, silicon

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia *



Energy Loss Due to Branching Channel Flow** Nashwan K. Alomari1, 2, Badronnisa Yusuf1*, Moayed S. Khaleel2 1

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 2

Department of Dams and water resources, college of Engineering, Mosul University, Mosul, Iraq.

ABSTRACT

The flow lost some of its energy during flowing in open channels. In a channel with branching flow, this energy loss not only due to friction between water and boundary, but also due to turbulence of flowat the junction region between the main and branch channels. In this study, two sets of experiments were investigated to estimate energy loss coefficient at the junction. The first onewas a case of rigid boundary with 30˚, 60˚, and 90˚ branching angles and four different branch channel bed slopes for each angle. The second onewas a case of mobile bed with 30˚, 45˚, 60˚, 75˚, and 90˚ branching anglesand three branch channel bed widths. The results show that the most of the energy loss occurred in the branch channel and only small energy loss was recorded between the upstream and downstream of the main channel.In both types of the channel boundary, 60˚ branching angle gave the minimumenergy loss compared to the other angles. This studypresentsmore insight on the energy loss at the junction region for a wide range of branching angles and for both rigid and mobile boundaries. This information is useful to derive branching channel flow equationsbased on the energy conservation principles as well as to select an appropriate design for branch channel geometry if the energy loss is significant. Keywords: Branch channel; branching angle; energy loss; friction loss; open channel flow.


Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia.



A Numerical Model of Flow in a Branching Channel with Different Branching Angles and Bed Slopes.** Nashwan K. Alomari1, 3, Badronnisa Yusuf1*, Abdul Halim Ghazali1, Thamer Ahmed Mohammed1, Talal Ahmed Basheer2, 3 1

Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 2 Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. 3 Department of Dams and Water Resources, College of Engineering, Mosul University, Mosul, Iraq.

ABSTRACT A complex flow pattern represented by branching channel flow is simulated using BASEMENT software and verified by the experimental data. The numerical computation is based on Shallow Water Equations (SWE). The model includes rectangular main and branch channels with a 1:2 bed width aspect ratio. A sub-critical flow with three different branching angles (30°, 60° and 90°) and two different branch channel bed slopes (0.001 and 0.0015) were simulated. The percentage error of the predicted discharge ratio and water depths at upstream and downstream of the main and water depths at branch channels is in the range of ±5%. A numerical model is then employed to calculate the velocities distribution in x and y directions. A separation zone in the branch channel, at the beginning of the upstream wall of the branch channel for angles of 60° and 90° and at the downstream wall for the branching angle of 30°, was recorded. The high velocity region in the branch channel moves from upstream side of the beginning of the branch channel to the downstream side as the branching angle increases from 30° to 90°. Typeof Paper: Other (Numerical) Keywords: branching flow, branching angle, numerical simulation, open channel, velocity field.


Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia.



Control and Analysis of Pressure Variable in the UCP Process Control N. A. Abdullah, A. CheSoh, R. Z. Abd Rahman, and S.B. Mohd Noor Department of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor DE, Malaysia

ABSTRACT This paper is proposing on the pressure process control approach in Universal Control Plant (UCP) system in order to obtain the desired signal response. The structure of UCP is introduced and single input single output (SISO) model of pressure is designed through system identification toolbox. To achieve the best controller, analyses of traditional PID and intelligent controllers were made. The PID gains were tuned alternately in order to get the best gain. Then,a comparison of solver methods between Adam Moulton (AM) and Backward Differential Formula (BDF) for fuzzy logic techniques was highlighted. To evaluate the performance of controller system, the transient response and steady state response were analysed including overshoot, undershoot, settling time and steady state error. Finally, the comparison on the best PID gain and fuzzy logic AM solver method was concluded. The result has shown that fuzzy logic controller generated better performance compared to PID and steady state error improved more than 99%.

Keywords: Fuzzy logic controller, PID controller, Pressure, System Identification, Water level.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia *



Investigation on ratio effect of MWCNTs in PVA as passive saturable absorber for pulse laser generation. Eliza Amira Mohamed Zalehan1, Fauzan Ahmad1*, Mohd Haniff Ibrahim2, Sulaiman Wadi Harun3 1

Optical Devices and System (ODESY) iKohza, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia,54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 2 Lightwave Communication Research Group, Faculty of Engineering, UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia, 81310 Johor Bahru, Malaysia 3 Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ABSTRACT An investigation of the ratio effect of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTS) in polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as passive saturable absorber was demonstrated by characterizing the performance of the generated pulsed laser at 1.5 micron region. Three different ratios of passive saturable absorber were fabricated which is in the ratio of MWCNTs: PVA (ml) of 1:4, 2.5:2.5 and 3:2. The passive saturable absorber was integrated in all fiberized lasers set-up in ring cavity. The MWCNTs: PVA in the ratio 1:4 (ml) require the lowest of threshold pump power 26.08 mW to produce pulsed laser with the maximum input pump power of 245.2 mW. This ratio also shows the wide range of repetition rate from 26.3 kHz to 125 kHz with the highest signal to noise ratio of 70 dB.MWCNTs: PVA in 2.5:2.5 (ml) ratio operates at the lower range of input pump power from 34.8 mW to 104.9 mW and lowest range of repetition rates from 22.7 kHz to 62.5 kHz, at the expense of generating highest pulse energy of 139 nJ. MWCNTs: PVA in a ratio of 3:2 (ml) need highest threshold of pump power of 47.9 mW, produce shortest pulse width of 2.4 s but with the lowest signal to noise ratio of 47 dB. Type of Paper: Empirical Keywords: Multi-walled carbon nanotubes; passive saturable absorber; pulsed laser.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia *



Localization, Tracking and Separation of Multiple Acoustic Sources using Triangular Microphone Array. Siti Zahara Zambri, Hasleda Kamarudin, Norzul syakira Anuar, and Nozomu Hamada MJIIT, UniversitiTeknologi Malaysia

ABSTRACT

For better speech-based human-machine communication and robot audition, recent advanced sensor array system is promising technology. It utilizes the collection of multi-channel acoustic data from array of sensors for direction estimation and separation of target speech sound from other speakers as well as background noises. The short time Fourier transforms provides sparse representation in the TimeFrequency (T-F) domain of speech signal. This sparseness inherently implies W-disjoint orthogonality between speech signals, where the T-F components in different speech signals rarely overlap with each other. Under the W-disjoint assumption, a new direction angle estimation method is proposed for multiple sound sources using triangular array configuration. The preliminary process is to select reliable T-P points depending on both relative power and neighbourhood consistency. The next step applies kernel density estimation algorithm on the unit circle where theoretical wave propagation vector exists. The bandwidth of kernel is appropriately determined in this step. For tacking moving sound sources, kernel density estimation is applied within several frames. The resulting time-varying kernel density is utilized as an implementation of the likelihood function in particle filtering algorithm. Finally, EM (Expectation Maximization) algorithm is applied in order to cluster several sets of T-F points each of which is corresponding to speech signal. The conducted experiments in real environment show high accuracy of direction estimation for both static and moving sources and the ability of source separation. Keywords: microphone array;source direction estimation; blind source separation; time-frequency masking; kernel density estimation; particle filter; EM algorithm __________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Malaysia *



Static deflection Analysis of Stewart platform Actuated by Shape Memory Alloy (SMA). S.Krishnan1*, A.M.Abdul-Rani2, T.Nagarajan3 and T.V.V.L.N Rao4 1,2,3,4 Department of Mechanical Engineering, UniversitiTeknologi PETRONAS (UTP), Perak, Malaysia

ABSTRACT In this paper the design and the manufacture of a 2–dof (degree of freedom) Stewart platform with diameter 150 mm and 300 mm with actuated by Shape Memory Alloy(SMA) is presented. This Stewart platform has a parallel structure including a fixed plate and a moving plate. The plate is linked together with 6 SMA and a mechanical spring is located in the centre part. Currently, DC motors are the most widely applied actuators employed in the design of prosthesis devices which do not use lightweight, strong and cheap actuators as an important mechanical system, and this is where SMAs play a key role. SMAs are the latest generation of the actuators which has the capability to restrict the freedom of movement when external forces are applied. Possible application was ankle/foot rehabilitation exercise for Continuous Passive Motion (CPM). Static equilibrium plays a very important role in mechanical engineering, precisely in static equilibrium towards quantitative description of loads. The paper explains the kinematic model of the Stewart platform and static deflection calculation were conducted and tested. The 150 mm base diameter Stewart platform actuated by 0.508 mm diameter SMA is found to be best suited for generating substantial deflection of a platform for ankle and foot. Validation through experimental and theoretical results has proven its feasibility and design. Keywords: Stewart platform, Shape Memory Alloy, Static analysis, Ankle rehabilitation, Continuous

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: UniversitiTeknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia *



A Trusted Behaviour Learning for Interest Prediction in Social Ontology Based on Weighted Graph. J. Kalavathi1*, S.Balamurali2, M. Venkatesulu3 1, 2, 3

Department of Computer Applications, KalasalingamUniversity,Krishnankoil- 626126, TN, India

ABSTRACT In this paper, an attempt is made to suggest a social ontology dependent behavior learning approach to anticipate the interest of group of users utilizing social graphs and density measure. Weighted clustering is implemented using trustness to ensure better linking among the social domain. The social ontology includes a set of classes in which related terms and properties are referred regarding a category or interest. The suggested approach clusters the user groups into N number of weighted clusters of Ontology set S, and there would be a weight cluster for each one of the interests or subjects or classes defined in the social ontology. From the social data set, a social graph can be built where every user may be regarded as a node and there would be a connection between users solely if they have general interest. The suggested technique clusters the user groups based on the trust value which is mostly dependent on density measures. This will be used to distinguishe the persistence of user interest based on the general interest of user groups. It is shown that the suggested technique has higher clustering accuracy and produces effective prediction of user group’s interest.

Keywords: Social Ontology; User Interest; Density Measure; Behavior Learning; Weighted Clustering; Trusted Graphs

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: KalasalingamUniversity, India *



Improving Rheological Properties of Water-based Mud with NonIonic Surfactant as an Additive. Putri Yunitaa, Sonny Irawana, Deni Subarab a

Petroleum Engineering Department, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia b Biotechnology Engineering Department, International Islamic University Malaysia, 53100 Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The frequent problem in the oil drilling is Water-based mud (WBM) poor their rheological and filtration properties mainly while used in the high temperature. However, WBM is preferable drilling fluid used for drilling compared to the Oil-based mud (OBM), it due to in-expensive and environmental friendly. This paper describes an extensive laboratory work of new types of non-ionic surfactant were mixed with WBM formulation. Rheological properties (plastic viscosity; the yield point; gel strength; and filtration properties), lubricity and swelling were investigated up to 300 F. The different density of mixed WBM was conducted. The result showed improvement of WBM in the rheological properties when surfactant used as additive for formulation. 53% of filtration loss was reduced by surfactant mixed WBM at temperature 275 F compared to the WBM without surfactant and 27% was reduced at 300 F compared to the WBM without surfactant.

Keywords: Drilling fluid rheology, non-ionic surfactant, water-based mud


Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author:

Affiliation: Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia



Production of Esterquats Aided by Hydrotalcite-Like Compounds as Solid Catalyst. Haliza Abdul Aziza*, Mohamed KheireddineArouab, RozitaYusoffb, Noor AzeerahAbasa, Zainab Idrisaand Hazimah AbuHassana a

Advanced Oleochemical Technology Division, Malaysian Palm Oil Board, 43000,Kajang, Selangor, Malaysia b

Department of Chemical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya,50603, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

__________________________________________________________________________________________

ABSTRACT _________________ The production fatty esteramine, an intermediate for esterquats, aided by hydrotalcite-like compounds (HTLC) as heterogeneous catalyst in a 500 ml reaction unit was investigated. Conversions of more than 90 % were observed when the reaction was aided by both Zn–Al and Ca–Al solid catalyst. The highest conversion of 98 % with composition of mono, di and tri-esteramine of 23.5, 47.0 and 23.9 % respectively was obtained using Ca–Al. Reactions employing this catalyst demonstrated similar conversion and fatty esteramine compositions with the conventional approach using sodium methoxide. Heterogeneous transesterification offers better separation and environmentally friendly process than the conventional route using homogeneous catalyst. The HTLC can be reused for three subsequent cycles.

Keywords: esteramine; esterquats; reusability; sodiummethoxide; solid catalyst



Affiliation: Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Malaysia



Performance of Hot Recycling Mix with Variable RAP Content. Ahmad Kamil Arshad1, a *, Mohd Azli Ayob2,b, Ekarizan Shafie3,c and Wardati Hashim3,d 1

Institute for Infrastructure Engineering and Sustainable Management, UiTM Shah Alam, Malaysia 2Faculty of Civil Engineering, UiTMPulau Pinang, Malaysia 3

Faculty of Civil Engineering, UiTM Shah Alam, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

The alternative to conventional pavement maintenance using asphalt overlay is the Hot InPlace Recycling (HIPR) method, which is to reuse the reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) during the process of recycling the pavement’s wearing course. This paper details a study that was carried out to investigate the volumetric properties and performance of Hot Recycle (HR) mixes using rejuvenating agent. Marshall design method was used to produce all HRsamples, which consists of 70%, 80%, 90% and 100% of RAP. Volumetric properties including bulk density, air voids in compacted mix, voids filled with bitumen as well as Marshall stability and flow were carried out to determine the effect of rejuvenating agent on the HR mixes. Then, the performance of HR mixes was evaluated by conducting the resilient modulus test, stripping test and rutting test. The results showed that the performance of RAP mixes are comparable to that of conventional mixes, thusthe use of HR mixes such as in the HIPR method should be encouraged, to save the cost of pavement maintenance.

Keywords: Reclaimed asphalt pavement, Hot recycling, Marshall Design Method, rejuvenating agent, stripping.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia *



THEORETICAL STRENGTH INVESTIGATION OF CFRP STRENGTHENED COLD FORMED BUILT UP COLUMNS. 1

Nahushananda Chakravarthy H.G, 2Dr. Sivakumar Naganathan, 3Dr. Sreedharkalavagunta, 4 Dr. Kamal Nasharuddin Bin Mustapha 1

Linton University College, KTG Education group, Mantin, Malaysia. 2 Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Selengor, Malaysia 3 Bently systems Pvt Limited, Singapore 4 Universiti Tenaga Nasional, Selengor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the studies on cold formed built up column sections strengthened with carbon fibre reinforced polymers (CFRP). The cold formed section channels were connected front to front to make a box sections and the sections were connected with screws. The experiments were carried out for two different lengths of plain and CFRP strengthened sections. The experimental results were validated with theoretical modular ratio concept method. These built up column sections were calculated based on direct strength method as per AISI code. The results show that there is a good agreement between experimentally tested CFRP strengthened built columns and theoretically calculated sections using modular ratio concept. Key words: cold formed steel, built up, column, CFRP. __________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Linton University College, Malaysia *



A Comparison of Solvent Effect on Sugar Yield from Sago Palm Bark during Microwave-assisted Pretreatment Saleem Ethaib1, 2,*, R. Omar1, M.K. Siti Mazlina3, and A.B. Dayang Radiah1 1, 3

Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia 2 University of Thiqar, Ministry of Higher Education, Iraq

ABSTRACT This Production of value-added products from lignocellulosic waste is a challenge due to its extreme recalcitrant structure. An efficient pretreatment step is essential to ensure maximum and economical recovery of the fermentable sugar from enzymatic hydrolysis. Microwave-assisted pretreatment was found to be a good alternative of conventional heating pretreatment of acid or alkali due to its direct heating of sample which reduce the energy consumption. The present study aims to evaluate the effect of using very dilute solvent (acid and alkali) on monomeric sugar yield during microwave-assisted pretreatment. Three solvents were employed at three concentrations (0.01, 0.05 and 0.1 N). The solvents that utilized in the microwave-assisted pretreatment were sulfuric acid (MA), sodium hydroxide (MH) and sodium bicarbonate (MB) and compared with distilled water (MW). Sago palm bark (SPB) was soaked in these solvents as a substrate at 5% w/v and subjected to microwave power at 800 W in a modified household microwave oven for 5 minutes. Immersing feedstock in distilled water and heating using microwave irradiation released 5.32 mg/g of monomeric sugar. Highest yield of monomeric sugar was found by using 0.1 N H2SO4 which yielded 10.28 mg/g during. Applying the pretreatment using the similar concentrations of NaOH and NaHCO3 released 9.35 and 4.31 mg/g of monomeric sugar respectively. Decreasing chemical solvent level from 0.1 to 0.05 and 0.01 N shows a negative influence on sugar yield for MA and MH pretreatment while MB pretreatment displays a positive effect by extracting some useful components such as xylose. The changes of the surface structure of untreated and pretreated SPB were detected using SEM analysis for different.

Keywords: Microwave-assistedpretreatment, Monomeric sugar, Sago palm bark, Solvent. __________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia *



Application of Conjugate Gradient Method with Cubic Non Polynomial Spline Scheme for Two-Point Boundary Value Problems H. Justine1*, J. Sulaiman2 1,2

Faculty of Science and Natural Resource, University Malaysia Sabah, 88400, Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia

ABSTRACT This study focuses on the use of cubic non-polynomial spline approximation to discretize second order two-point boundary problems. Then, the cubic non-polynomial spline approximation equation can be used to construct the linear system which is solved iteratively by using Conjugate Gradient (CG) method. In order to obtain the approximate solution of the linear system, the formulation and implementation of CG method are also included. Furthermore, to investigate the performance analysis of the CG method, Successive Over Relaxation (SOR) and Gauss-Seidel (GS) methods are used to be control methods. Based on numerical results obtained from CG method together with the cubic non-polynomial spline approach, it has shown that the CG method is superior compared to the two proposed iterative methods.

Keywords: cubic non-polynomial solution; two-point boundary problems; Conjugate Gradient; Successive Over Relaxation; Gauss-Seidel


Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Faculty of Science and Natural Resource, University Malaysia Sabah



The Effect of Extraction Conditions on Total Phenolic Content of Mango Peels and Mango Seed Kernel Employing UltrasoundAssisted Extraction Method Noor Amirah Abdul Halim*, Mohamed Ghazali Mohd Yonus, Teo Sir Min Department of Chemical Engineering Technology, Faculty of Engineering Technology, Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP), UniCITIAlam Campus, 02100 Sungai Chuchuh, Padang Besar, Perlis Malaysia.

ABSTRACT

Mango is among the most economically and culturally important tropical fruits. Polyphenolic compounds being found in the all parts of mango, not only in the pulp but also in the peels and seed kernels.An increase consumption of this fruit consequently caused an abundant generation of mango peels and mango seed kernel wastes. Thus, greener approaches on recovering the wastes as low-cost source for high value-added products have been focused as the peels and seed kernels of mango which also have been shown to constitute a rich source of phenolic content. Ultrasonic-assisted solvent extraction (UAE) method is employed for the isolation of phenolic compound due to its ability to increase the extraction efficiency by enhancing the extraction kinetics through acoustic cavitation produced in the solvent. The total phenolic content (TPC) of the mango peels and kernels are evaluated based on three major extraction conditions which are extraction time,extraction temperature and ethanol (solvent) concentration by employing One-Factor-at-Time (OFAT) screening method.Based on screening, maximum TPC for the mango peels are obtained at (93.57, 114.02, and 116.28) mg Gallic acid equivalent (GAE)/g crude extracts respective to 15 minutes extraction period, 40 oC extraction temperature and 60% of ethanol concentration. Meanwhile for the mango seed kernel, the maximum TPC are achieved at (3.71, 4.53 and 6.33) mg GAE/g crude extracts respective to 25 minutes extraction period, 60oC extraction temperature and 60% of ethanol concentration. Among of the parameters tested, ethanol concentration exhibits significant influence towards TPC in both peels and seed kernel of mango followed by extraction temperature and extraction time. Keywords: Total phenolic content; Mango polyphenol; Ultrasound-assisted extraction; Mango peels; Extraction conditions. __________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia *



CORROSION STUDY OF CARBON STEEL IN CO2 LOADED AMINE-AMINO ACID SOLUTIONS: CASE OF N-METHYLDIETHANOLAMINE AND ARGININE AbdelbakiBenamor*, Ahmed GomaaTalkhan and Mohammed Jaber Al-Marri Gas Processing Centre, Qatar University, 2713 Doha, Qatar *E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Amine based carbon capture and storage technology using absorption process is arguably the best available technology for mitigation of the increased CO2 concentration in the atmosphere. However, this technology, considered as the most mature one faces a number of serious operational issues. Among these, the corrosion of some parts of the Gas treatment plant especially in the absorber and stripper columns. In this study, potentiodynamic polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS)) were applied to quantify the corrosiveness of blends of Methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and Arginine (ARG) at a total two molar concentration with different solvent proportions, temperatures and different CO2 partial pressures in the gas mixture. The obtained electrochemical data also indicate that the corrosion rate increased with increased CO2 partial pressure in all systems studied. The effect of temperature on the corrosion rate was assessed. As expected, the Tafel plots indicated that the rate of corrosion increased with increased temperature. However, when added to MDEA, arginine was found to act as inhibitor, the higher arginine proportion in the mixture, the more inhibition effect was observed. Keywords: Carbon dioxide, corrosion; Methyldiethanolamine, Arginine, electrochemical methods

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Qatar University, Qatar *



Effect of Notching Face on Fracture Toughness of Green Metal Powder Compacts A. A. Alabi1, S.M. Tahir1, N. I. Zahari,1 M. A. Azmah Hanim1 and M.S. Anuar2 1

Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

2

Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

To predict the failure of a powder compacted component, it is important to understand how its physical and mechanical properties varies in its green state. The variation of fracture toughness of iron and copper powder compact with compaction pressures, along the longitudinal axes of their green compacts is presented in this paper. Mode I fracture toughness, KIC, was determined for specimens compacted uniaxially, using the diametrical compression technique by comparing the effect of notching a specimen on its top surface against notching it on the bottom surface. Results showed that specimens notched on the top surface had higher KIC values for both powders at all compaction pressures. The pair of KIC values was more stable for the copper compacts than for iron compacts. For the purpose of design and manufacturing, it is essential to always specify the surface upon which the KIC of a powder component was determined.

Keywords: Green compacts, uniaxial compaction, diametrical compression technique, fracture toughness

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. *



Effect oF Protease on Pomaceacanaliculata EGGS Noorhasyierah Mohd Salleh, Dachyar Arbain, Nurhadijah Zainal abidin. School of Bioprocess Engineering, University Malaysia Perlis, 01000 Kangar, Perlis, Malaysia,

ABSTRACT Pomaceacanaliculata (PC) is one of the most destructive pests as it causes severe damage to the paddy field. Most of the approaches are targeting its flesh rather than its egg; however in the same time, it has high fecundity and hatchability rate. Thus, effective approach is necessary to control the hatchability, which in-turn affects its life cycle. Protease has been shown to have the capability to suppress the hatchability of Pomaceacanaliculata eggs (PCE). The objectives of this study are to further support the findings, where it discusses the chemical and physical assessment of protease treated PCE. The assessment focuses on the effect of protease treatment on the PCE in term of the following factors, namely; non-hatchability, cuticle protein reduction and fragmentation, water loss, conductivity, gas exchange and eggs morphology. Non-hatchability of 42% and 91% after treating with 0.75U/ml and 5U/ml protease respectively was recorded. The correlation coefficient between the non-hatchability and all the above listed factors have shown good correlation with 0.942, 0.930, 0.903,, 0.951 and 0.843 respectively for cuticle protein reduction, water loss, conductivity, oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production rate. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) revealed that the protease treatment caused cuticle coagulation and concurrently increased the intensity of red colour appearance. With these findings, it is safe to consider that protease applicable to be used as biocontrol against PCE. The nonhatchability of protease treated eggs occurred as a result of cuticle disruption as supported by the present chemical and physical studies.

Keywords: protease, Pomaceacanaliculata eggs, cuticle, non-hatchability

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: University Malaysia Perlis, Malaysia. *



Application of DPSIR Framework for Causes analysis of Mangrove Deforestation and Degradation in Johor, Malaysia Noor Shaila Sarmin1, MohdHasmadi Ismail1*, Pakhriazad Hassan Zaki1, KhairilWahidin Awang1 1

Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Malaysia

ABSTRACT Globally, the coastal areas are changing due to increasing threats from different sources. Mangroves are most vulnerable and reducing its size during last few couple of decades. Some of the factors (such as land use changes) are acting directly while some factors are acting indirectly like socioeconomic factors. The mangroves in Johor are changing for different developments for land uses (agriculture, aquaculture, urbanization etc.) which are triggered by different socioeconomic factors like total population, population density, income etc. This change affect the local mangrove dependent communities both subsistence and commercially by reducing the ecosystem services both production or services functions of the mangroves. For environmental assessment the Driver-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework is mainly used for identifying, analyzing and evaluating complex environmental problems. This complex situation is responded by the society or government through different initiatives (activities or planning) to reduce the negative impacts or to encourage the positive impacts. In this paper only the anthropogenic factors of mangrove changes are considered and analysed using the DPSIR framework. Keywords: Deforestation, D-P-S-I-R, Land use factors, Mangrove, Population factors, Socioeconomic drivers

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: University Putra Malaysia, Malaysia. *



Effects of Hydrodynamic Parameters on Hydropurification Reactor Operation Abbas Azarpour1*, Mohamed Ibrahim Abdul Mutalib1, ShuhaimiMahadzir1, Anita Ramli2 1

Chemical Engineering Department, UniversitiTeknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia Fundamental & Applied Sciences Department, UniversitiTeknologi PETRONAS, 32610 Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

2

ABSTRACT In the class of three-phase catalytic reactors, trickle-bed reactors (TBRs) are extensively utilized in petrochemicals, petroleum, chemicals, waste treatment, electrochemical, and biochemical processing. One of the most significant applications of TBRs is the process of purification. Since the purified product has to meet the required specifications of a high quality chemical, the TBRs operation control is very critical. In other words, the deviation of the operating parameters from the normal range adversely affects the reactor efficiency. In this paper, the effects of hydrodynamic parameters on the hydropurification TBR performance are investigated considering the product quality. A first principle heterogeneous model incorporating the hydrodynamic parameters and catalyst deactivation was developed to analyze the reactor performance. The devised model along with its mathematical solution was coded into MATLAB R2013a environment. The model was validated against industrial data. The results reveal that the deviation of hydrodynamic parameters of liquid holdup and gas holdup considerably influence the efficiency of the purified terephthalic acid reactor operation in term of product quality. Moreover, the impact of liquid holdup is more than that of gas holdup. The findings of this research might be applied into actual operating system. Type of Paper: Conceptual (Dynamic Mathematical Modeling) Keywords: Hydrodynamic; Reactor; Modeling; Deactivation; Hydropurification; Catalyst.

*Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: UniversitiTeknologi PETRONAS, Malaysia. *



PERFORMANCE EVALUATION OF DOUBLE PASS AMPLIFICATION BY USING NEWLY DOPED FIBER Nor Syafiqah Rosli1, SulaimanWadi Harun2, 3, Azura Hamzah1,* 1

Department of Electronic Systems Engineering, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Jalan Semarak, 54100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2

Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 3

Photonics Research Center, Universiti Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

ABSTRACT In this paper, the amplification for double-pass operation is demonstrated by using a newly doped fiber namely as Zirconia based Erbium Doped Fiber (Zr-EDF) and a Broadband Fiber Mirror (BFM). The concept of double pass amplification is based on the forwarded and amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) signal that will double propagate into the gain medium and thus will increase the gain performance in the C- and L- band region. BFM is used as the reflector to ensure that the signal will reflect back into the gain medium. The performances of the double pass Zirconia based Erbium Doped Fiber Amplifier (Zr-EDFA) are investigated by varying the length of gain medium and pump power. Instead of that, the comparison between double and single pass Zr-EDFA are investigated at high and low input signal powers, -10 and -30dBm, respectively. By varying the length of gain medium from 0.5 to 2 m and pump power from 67 to 130 mW, the length of 1m Zr-EDF and 130 mW of pump power show as optimum length and pump power due to the highest gain with lowest noise figure. The double pass configuration shows a better amplification at lower input signal power of-30 dBm, compared to the high input signal power of -10 dBm. At lower input signal of -30 dBm, the maximum gain of 40.3 dB is achieved for double pass amplification at wavelength of 1560 nm. The gain enhancement between double and single pass amplification is achieved around 11.7 dB with the lower input signal power.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. *



A Study on Integrated Water Resources Management and King Bhumibol’s Theory on Land and Water Management in Wattananakorn area, Sa Kaeo Province, Thailand** Duangrudee Kositgittiwong1*, Chaiwat Ekkawatpanit2 Lecturer, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, KMUTT, 10140, Bangkok, Thailand 2 Assistant Professor, Civil Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, KMUTT, 10140, Bangkok, Thailand 1

ABSTRACT Recently, Thailand has experienced drought and flood frequently. Both drought and flood events have caused loss and damage to agriculture, industry and community areas. Current water management practices may not be sufficient to cope with the risk of drought and flood. The effective water management is needed to implement in Thailand. The Integrated Water Resource Management, IWRM, has been recommended by many related organizations. It is defined by the Global Water Partnership (GWP) as a process which promotes the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources. However, water management in Thailand still has not been successful enough due to many reasons from many stakeholders. In 1992, His Majesty the King introduced the concept of the New Theory which emphasizes proper land and water management for optimum benefits. The principle of the theory is the guideline of the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy, which encourages farmers to conduct their lives in moderation and enables them to become self-reliant. Wattananakorn area, Sa Kaeo Province, Thailand, is well-known as the extreme drought area because there is no efficient water management. His Majesty initiated two new reservoirs in this area, Upper Chong Klam and Lower Chong Klam Reservoirs to solve the problem. In addition, the water management in this area is needed to be the bottom-up strategy. The strengthen participation of local communities in water management is the most important and is increasing self-consciousness and self-sustainability communities. The overall objectives of the present study are to compare the Integrated Water Resources Management and King Bhumibol’s Theory on Land and Water Management and to promote at local level by strengthening and encouraging community initiatives. Keywords: Integrated Water Resource Management, King Bhumibol’s Theory, Land and water management, Local communities, sustainability, Thailand *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 *

Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Civil Engineering Department, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand.



Sustainable Framework for Water Desalination Supply Chain: Delphi-AHP Technique H. Balfaqih*1, Z.M. Nopiah1, M.T. Al-Nory 2, 3,N. Saibani1 1

National University of Malaysia, Malaysia; 2Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA; 3Effat University, Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT

The interest in desalination has been growing steadily for the recent decades due to the global increased demand for fresh water. However, there are few studies considered evaluating the desalination supply chain as a whole. Thus, the purpose of this study is to develop a framework that is designed to evaluate the sustainability of desalination supply chain. Different desalination and supply chain performance measures have been reviewed and distributed into economic, social, operation, and environmental perspective. The performance measures and metrics have been further refined by a panel of experts using Delphi-AHP technique. A weight factor has been assigned to each perspective and metric according to its significant in desalination supply chain. The proposed framework could serve as a reference for the researchers in desalination industry. It is believed that both academics and practitioners would benefit from the framework developed. Keywords: Supply chain; desalination; performance measurement; sustainability; AHP; Delphi.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: National University of Malaysia, Malaysia. *



Computational Investigations on Producing Diesel-Biodiesel-Ethanol Optimal Fuel Blends to Specifications – Thailand Perspective Sachin Muralee Krishna1, P Abdul Salam2* 1, 2

Energy FoS, SERD, Asian Institute of Technology, KhlongLuang, Pathumthani, 12120, Thailand

ABSTRACT In perspective of sustainability, environmental concerns and turmoil in the petroleum market, research on biomass-based alternative fuels for developing diesel run automobile has escalated. Biofuels blended with fossil diesel such as diesel - biodiesel (DB) and diesel - ethanol (DE) has found to be better options for reducing the petroleum imports and fossil fuel consumption [1]. However, above mentioned biofuel blends possess certain drawbacks such as poor performance in cold flow properties in case ofDB and fuel instability issues for DE [2, 3]. Recent studies have identified that using biodiesel as an additive at adequate amount can rectify the phase separation problems in DE blends. However, studies on finding optimal recipes for diesel-biodiesel-ethanol (DBE) combined ternary fuel are lacking, as prior studies mainly focussed on only experimentally characterizing the fuel properties [4]. Moreover, mathematical optimization models focussing on technical objectives have not yet been well developed to analyze petroleum fuels blended with biofuels.This paper reviews the feasibility of DBE ternary fuel as a regular diesel substitute and puts forward a generalized method for estimating the optimal blend ratio for use in automobiles without any engine modification, followed by a case study in Thailand. A nonlinear optimization model is developed in this work to investigate DBE blending process. The model establishes an ideal blend ratio by improving the energy content (LHV) of the ternary fuel while meeting multiple property criteria such as kinematic viscosity, density, cloud point, cetane index, and sulfur content. Applicable fuel mixing rules for anticipating the properties of DBE blend are extrapolated from previous works and applied as constraints in the current model [5]. The model is executed using Lingo optimization software at different scenarios with and without varying the diesel and ethanol content in the blend. The blended fuel properties are examined and compared to that of base diesel and Thailand Fuel standards. Taking all the constraints into consideration, it was found that a blend of 78% diesel, 17% biodiesel, and 5% ethanol is the most suitable ratio for DBE production in Thailand with respect to acceptable fuel properties and higher energy content. Keywords: Biodiesel; Blend ratio; Diesel; Ethanol; Optimization; Thailand

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. *



Relating 1D Compressibility of Kaolin Clay with S-Wave Velocity and Electrical Conductivity: An Instrumented Consolidometer Study Mohammed Mansoor*1, Chee Ming Chan2 1,2

University Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia

ABSTRACT

Non-Invasive and minimally invasive testing techniques for geotechnical engineering purposes, nowadays, are developing progressively. Nonetheless, due to the particulate nature of soil, there exists a transitional zone where the conventional testing (macro-level) is studied simultaneously in microlevel using non-destructive techniques. The incorporationof the conventional testing in parallel with non-destructive testing is to establish the correlation between well-known testing program under controlled conditions with innovative techniques. For this purpose the current paper is anticipated to study the one-dimensional consolidation characteristics of solidified soft clay in terms of stress-small strain relationships using the bender element and electrical conductivity (EC) in a modified oedometer cell. Kaolin slurry at twice liquid limit was mixed with5 % cement cured for 7 days which undergoes 2.5 to 1000 kPa vertical Stress. Shear wave velocity Vswas measured to quantify the small-strain stiffness of soil using bender element transducers triggered by GDS bender element master signal conditioning unit in a frequency range 1-100 kHz. Electrical conductivity and temperature was measured using HANNA commercial probe. The shear wave velocity was analysed using the conventional techniques (visual picking) and software to automate the interpretation process using a number of analysis methods. Results indicate that the Vs increased with applied stress whereas the EC decreased. The quality of the received shear wave is dependent on the frequency, stress and the arrival time interpretation method adopted. It can be concluded that there exists strong relationship between Vs, EC and one-dimensional consolidation parameters. Keywords: Wave velovity; Electrical Conductivity; Kaolin Clay; Consolidometer study;



Affiliation: University Tun Hussein Onn, Malaysia.



IDENTIFICATION OF POTENTIAL DRUG TARGETS FOR HEPATITIS C VIRUS THROUGH CENTRALITY BASED ANALYSIS M. Indhumathy, S. Arumugam and Veeky Baths Kalasalingam University

ABSTRACT

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the causative agents of Hepatitis infecting nearly 170 million people all over the world. Here we are finding novel drug targets to combat this disease. Hepatitis C virus-Human protein interaction network has been prepared by retrieving data from different databases like KEGG. Afterwards Cytoscape software has been used for network analysis. Different centrality values have been calculated and analyzed for identification of most influential proteins in this network. Finally a bipartite network involving 5 HCV proteins and 11 influential human proteins is constructed and this network is used to identify three HCV proteins and six human proteins which are the drug targets to combat this disease.

Keywords: Bipartite network, HCV-Human protein network, Centrality measures, Cytoscape, Influential proteins.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Kalasalingam University, India. *



Analysis of Tuberculosis-Human Protein Interaction Network Using Centrality Measure Merina Dhara1, Veeky Baths1, Tarkeshwar Sing1,S. Arumugam2. 1

Department of Biological Sciences, Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani,K. K. BIRLA Goa Campus, Goa 403 726, India. 2

National Centre for Advanced Research in Discrete Mathematics, Kalasalingam University. Anand Nagar, Krishnakoli-626126, Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT

Most of the cellular activity depends on the protein interactions. Computational biology focuses on understanding these protein interactions in every possible way.Studying protein-protein interaction (PPI) network will provide valuable insight about the inner workingstructure of the cell.These proteinprotein interaction (PPI) networks are commonly represented in a graph format, with nodes corresponding to proteins and edges corresponding to protein-protein interactions. The focus of this study is to find the central proteins in the tuberculosis network using graph theory. We have calculated and then used different centrality values of all the proteins present in the network for this purpose. The graph structure and important database values were imported from the KEGG database. Cytoscape software was used for analysis of the network and calculating centralities. We have isolated eight human influential proteins and also tuberculosis molecules which interact with these proteins.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Birla Institute of Technology and Science, India. *

Dominator Sequences in Trees GCOET © 2016 GATR Enterprise. All rights reserved.


B. Jayaramy1, S. Arumugam2, K. Thulasiraman3 1

School of Computing Science and Engineering, VIT University-Chennai campus, Chennai - 600 127, India.

2

National Centre for Advanced Research in Discrete Mathematics, Kalasalingam University, Anand Nagar, Krishnankoil-626126, India. 3

School of Computer Science - University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK 73019, USA.

ABSTRACT

Let G = (V;E) be a bipartite graph with bipartition X; Y and let jXj _ jY j: A dominator sequence in G is a sequence of vertices (x1; x2; : : : ; xk) in X such that for each i with 2 _ i _ k; the vertex xi dominates at least one vertex in Y which is not dominated by x1; x2; : : : ; xi�1: The maximum length of a dominator sequence in G is called the dominator sequence number of G and is denoted by l(G): In this paper we give a linear time algorithm to determine a maximum dominator sequence in trees.

Keywords: Bipartite graph, domination number, dominator sequence number, optical networks, survivability of IP-over-WDM networks.

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: VIT University, India. *

TRULY NONTRIVIAL GRAPHOIDAL COVERS GCOET © 2016 GATR Enterprise. All rights reserved.


Rajesh Singh1 , Purnima Gupta2 , S Arumugam3 1

2

3

Department of Mathematics, University Of Delhi, Delhi-110007,

Department of Mathematics,Sri Venkateswara College,University of Delhi, Delhi-110021,

National Centres for Advanced Research in Discrete Mathematics, Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil626126 Tamil Nadu, India

ABSTRACT

A graphoidal cover of a graph G is a collection of nontrivial paths in G, which are not necessarily open, such that every vertex of G is an internal vertex of at most one path in

and every edge of G is in

exactly one path in.If further every path in has length at least 2, then is called a truly nontrivial graphoidal cover (TNT graphoidal cover). We obtain necessary conditions for a graph to possess a TNT graphoidal cover. Also we construct some classes of graphs which admit a TNT graphoidal cover.

Keywords: Graphoidal Cover, Truly nontrivial graphoidal cover

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: University Of Delhi, India. *

Minimal 2-Point Set Dominating Sets of a Graph DEEPTI JAIN1, PURNIMA GUPTA2, S.ARUMUGAM3



1

Department of Mathematics,Sri Venkateswara College,University of Delhi, Delhi-110021, Department of Mathematics,Sri Venkateswara College,University of Delhi, Delhi-110021, 3 National Centre for Advanced Research in Discrete Mathematics, Kalasalingam University, Krishnan Koil-626126, Tamil Nadu, India 2

ABSTRACT

A set D _ V (G) is a 2-point set dominating set (2-psd set) of a graph G if for any subset S _ V � D, there exists a non-empty subset T _ D containing at most two vertices such that the induced subgraph

⟨S [T⟩ is connected. In this paper we characterize minimal 2-psd sets for a general graph. Based on the structure we examine 2-psd sets in a separable graph and discuss the criterion for a 2-psd set to be minimal.

Keywords: 2-Point Set Domination, Point Set Domination

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: University Of Delhi, India. *



Achieving Robust and Stable Data Transmission on MPLS-TP Based Network using Ring Protection* Beny Nugraha1*, Fadli Sirait1, Leonard N. M. Sitohang2, Setiyo Budiyanto1 1 Mercu Buana University, Jalan Meruya Selatan No. 1, 11650, Jakarta, Indonesia PT NEC Indonesia, Jalan Jenderal Sudirman Kav. 61-62, 12190, Jakarta, Indonesia

2

ABSTRACT

Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a technique to achieve efficient, and error free data transmission. MPLS has a vast amount of applications and can be implemented in high-speed data transfer medium such as the optical networks. Multi-Protocol Label Switch-Transport Profile (MPLSTP) is an improvement of MPLS and it is a core for the service of reliable packet-switched transport networks. Despite having such advantages, network failure may still occur on MPLS-TP, therefore, it needs a method to ensure that the performance of the network is not compromised. The failures in the network include the link fails to connect to each network element, the network element fails to transfer the data to the destination, or the quality drops below the standard. In order to overcome the quality drops due to failure on the main link, the ring protection method is implemented on MPLS-TP based network, and its performance is analysed. The result is, the ring protection is able to maintain the quality of the network after the main link fails, the parameters are: the throughput utilization is 100%, frame loss ratio is 0%, jitter is 0.015 ms, maximum latency is 0.218 ms, and the recovery time is less than 50 ms.

Keywords: MPLS-TP, ring protection, Quality of Service, data transmission, RCC 2544 Testing

* Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 *

Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Electrical Engineering Department, Mercu Buana University



Optimization Backhaul Capacity for LTE Network Using Ethernet Based Technique Fadli Sirait1*, Beny Nugraha2, Leonard N.M Sitohang3, Setyo Budianto4 1

Universitas Mercu Buana, Jln.Meruya Selatan, 11650, Jakarta, Indonesia 3 PT NEC Indonesia, Jln. Jendral Sudirman, 12190, Jakarta, Indonesia

ABSTRACT 4th Generation Long Term Evolution (4G LTE) networks offer significantly higher data rates and require suitably higher capacity backhaul networks.

As a result, it is urgent to emerge new transmission

technology as attempt to enhance the backhaul capacity. This paper worked in LTE MIMO 2 × 2, we used two Ethernet based technique, namely Ethernet over SDH and MPLS-TP to analyse the performance of network as the primary object by measuring and comparing the throughput, latency and jitter between Ethernet over SDH and MPLS-TP. We used bandwidth capacity 240 Mbps as plant bandwidth link, then we used this value as reference to get the best performance for those Ethernet based techniques that we used in this paper. The results of measurement indicate that MPLS-TP is a way for achieving improvement in performance to support LTE network respect to Ethernet over SDH. Keywords: MPLS-TP; Ethernet over SDH; LTE; Backhaul.

* Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 *

Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: Electrical Engineering, Universitas Mercu Buana



SENTIMENT ANALYSIS USING ONTOLOGY M. S. Razali1* 1

University College of Technology Sarawak, MALAYSIA,

ABSTRACT It is estimated that approximately 1.5 billion people visited a social media site in a year in average in recent years. They all had something to say; whether good, bad or indifferent. Social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram and Online News now affects virtually every area of life; from journalism, business, and entertainment to politics. Social analytics has not only changed the relationship between business organizations and their customers, partners and employees, but also affects the governments of the world in a big way in serving their citizens. The size of these data that has been generated by any industry online today is enormous. Hence the term Big Data. Most of these data are considered to be unbiased and more personal. In the past recent years, some successful organizations has been extracting useful patterns from social media data (commonly known as social data analytics) as part of their market research.

This research builds a personalized recommendation module or ontology to recommend effective solutions to companies in serving their stakeholders based on the sentiment analysis extracted from big social data analytics (or social analytics) and expert opinions. This research do not intend to reinvent the wheel but seek to develop a solution sitting on top of existing social big data analytics tools and techniques as well as widely adopted data mining and expert system algorithms.

Keywords: Sentiment Analysis, Social Analytics, Big Data, Social Media

__________________ *Paper Info: Revised: March, 2016 Accepted: May, 2016 Corresponding author: Affiliation: University College of Technology Sarawak, Malaysia. *



IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE TO THE COMMUNITY BATU PAHAT COASTAL Khairul Nizam Abdul Maulud1, Fazly Amri Mohd1, Zaini Sakawi2 1

Earth Observation Centre, Institute of Climate Change and Department of Civil & Structural Engineering, 1 Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, 2 Pusat Pengajian Sosial, Pembangunan & Persekitaran Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor

ABSTRACT The impact of global climate change to a community of coastal zone Batu Pahat is seriously in endanger situation if ignored. Based on this scenario that around the world discuss it, the research is being proceeded in accordance with the previous technique that necessary use by the professionalism by referring the sampling data in categories of census

and Coastal vulnerability index CVI

(Geomorphology) for feature class rank. Review on site area, there are major in the tourism area, residential area, agriculture plant, aquatic ecosystem, and other source feature most consumes to main economic development for the community of Batu Pahat. So, the result from the research shows many impacts that occur from climate change to the community either in aspect physical and social especially in the low elevated land area. In addition, research show there are major economic for fisheries community Batu Pahat consume by the Agriculture and Aquatic compare to minor in the tourism activity. Thus, action based on sustainable development should be continued to ensure harmony environment to local communities of Batu Pahat. Keywords: Climate Change, Coastal vulnerability index, Tourism, economic. fisheries



Affiliation: Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. GCOET © 2016 GATR Enterprise. All rights reserved.



GCBSS © 2016 GATR Enterprise. All rights reserved