Performance Characterization of Stone Mastic Asphalt using Steel Fiber

Stone Mastic Asphalt (SMA) is a gap-graded hot mixture designed to provide higher resistance towards permanent deformation and rutting potential by 30% to 40% more than dense-graded asphalt, due to its stable aggregate skeleton structure. However, compared to other types of hot mix asphalt, SMA unfortunately has some shortcomings in term of its susceptibility towards moisture-induced damage due to its structure and excessive bitumen content in the composition. This research aims to assess the performance of a SMA mixture with steel fiber by enhancing overall stability, abrasion resistance, and, most importantly, moisture susceptibility. This study involved the incorporation of various steel fiber proportions of 0%, 0.3%, 0.5% and 0.7% by the total weight of mixture. The steel fiber modified SMA was made up of 6.0% PEN 60/70 bitumen content. The performance of SMA were evaluated through Marshall stability and flow test, Cantabro loss test and indirect tensile strength test. The results obtained from the testing showed that the incorporation of steel fiber is significantly effective to enhance the resistance towards moisture damage, while increasing the stability and reducing the abrasion loss of SMA mixture, compared to conventional mixture. Overall, it can be concluded that the addition of steel fiber in asphalt mixture specifically SMA, has improved the mechanical performance in the application of asphalt pavement with the optimum steel fiber proportion of 0.3% by the weight of mixture. The developed models between the independent variables and responses demonstrated high levels of correlation. The study found that Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is an effective statistical method for providing an appropriate empirical model for relating parameters and predicting the optimum performance of an asphaltic mixture to reduce flexible pavement failure.

Development of Appropriate Power Distribution Design for Can-Sized satellite (canSAT)

Can-Sized satellite (canSAT) is a small satellite that is used for educational purpose. CanSAT offer student to build their satellites with their creativity which make the learning process more effective. In Malaysia, SiswaSAT is held by the Malaysia Space Agency for students in different categories to participate and build their satellites according to rules set and it should be a low-cost project. CanSAT can be divided into few parts which are communication system, onboard data acquisition, ground control station and power system. The power system is one of the important and heaviest subsystems, it needed to supply power, but weight and size are one of the main concerned as the canSAT should not exceed the required weight and selecting power supply that is matched with the overall power budget that has small size and lightweight is challenging. Therefore, the power supply selection should consider this detail. The power distribution design should be able to supply an appropriate amount of current and voltage to the components according to their specification. This study aims to develop and test the proposed prototype which is named ScoreSAT able to provide data and have enough power supply for the whole operation. Therefore, an initiative to develop the appropriate power distribution design for canSAT is taken to overcome the problem of the power system. Moreover, each subsystem needs to be tested by obtaining the results from the onboard data acquisition and transmit the data using the communication system before integrating into the power system. ScoreSAT prototype needs to carry the system that is mounted inside, thus the space inside the prototype needs to be fully utilized for the whole system to fit in. ScoreSAT completes the mission by obtaining data acquisition during the operation.

The Benefit and Importance of Mobile Satellite Signal in Northern Nigeria: GPS Approach

Lack of equipment to study mobile satellites signal propagation in colleges and universities prone this research work. A Handheld GPS receiver used as a tool for training college students to learn mobile satellite signal propagation using Global Positioning System (GPS) approach. These refer to the experimental setup of the equipment that is the connection done between the GPS receiver with a computer. The satellite propagation data received from the GPS machine can be recorded continuously with an updates rate of 2 seconds. The experiment was carried out in an open space environment at predetermine locations using simple setup, where a cheap, readily and available portable GPS receiver were connected to the computer to acquire propagation data. The computer was equipped with a self-developed package graphical user interface (GUI) monitoring the propagation information from the GPS satellites and saving the data. The developed system can be set up anywhere at any location. The sate-up will serve as a database for satellites view and analysis of mobile satellite data orbiting the sky of Northern part of Nigeria. Cost effective referring to a low-cost and readily available GPS receiver that can be easily set-up as compared to equipment designed specifically for an experimental purpose that is normally very expensive.

Construction Cost for Soil Excavation (Cut and Fill) on-Site: Computer Based Program Analysis

Excavation is an important part of any construction project whereby removing earth to form cavity in the ground. This paper mainly focuses on cut and fill excavation by identify the cost of labor, material and equipment. Besides that, this paper aims to have better understanding on Bill of Quantity using coding. The method implemented for this study is using GNU Octave, version 6.2.0 and manual calculation to calculate the construction cost incurred during excavation process. Referring to the manual calculation, the overall cost obtained for the project is RM27352.15 whereas using GNU Octave software obtained for the project is RM27352.15. Thus, both GNU Octave software and manual calculation has zero percent difference. Octave is a computer programme that is designed for numerical computations and able to solve linear and nonlinear mathematical problems.

A Study on the Potential Pathways for Existing Drugs against COVID-19

Coronavirus infectious disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a global pandemic declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) in March 2020. This emerging infectious disease is rapidly transmitted and does not only pose a global threat to public health but also badly affects the economy. At present, there is no effective drug to treat COVID-19, leading to a significant challenge upon current global attempts at restraining the outbreak. There are several currently available drugs, also considered as the repurposed drugs are in use for treatment against COVID-19. However, these drugs are not as efficient as it is hoped. Therefore, this study is conducted to further explore into other established antivirus that could function better for COVID-19 treatment. In addition, the pathways that associated with the drugs are identified and potential targeted proteins for the repurposed drugs are also pointed out. The articles for review were selected from several search engine databases, which are ScienceDirect, SpringerLink, PubMed, and Scopus including the keywords COVID-19, SARS, MERS, potential pathways for antiviral drugs as well as repurposed drugs, with more than 50 primary research articles identified. Findings and analysis have discovered potential repurposed drugs that could be used for COVID-19, namely bisoxatin, nitazoxanide and teicoplanin which could be involved in corona-related pathways. Meanwhile, the associated pathways are JAK-STAT, Neprilysin (NEP) and cGAS-STING that counteract excessive immune response and act as a medium for the drugs to access antiviral activities. The repurposed drugs target protein identification is also a critical significance, and it was found that S-protein, TMPRSS2, RdRp and RDB which are the signalling protein can be interrupted by the repurposed drugs, presenting a promising antivirus against SARS-CoV-2. It is concluded that this study will provide information to assist logical design of the repurposed drug for its effectiveness as antivirus against COVID-19

Eggshell Powder as an Adsorbent for Removal of Lead (II) in Panchor’s River

Heavy metal such as lead has increase in the natural environment especially in the aqueous solution. Remediation method of adsorption offer a treatment for removing heavy metal in river. This experiment is to analyse and compare eggshell adsorbent of activated carbon in Panchor’s river through its efficiency in removing heavy metal of Lead (II). Eggshell is designed as an activated carbon through physical and chemical activation in treating the water by undergoing adsorption process of few laboratory test. The efficiency of eggshell chemical activated carbon is high as the percentages removal of Pb is 48.21% compare to physical activated carbon with 32.14%. However, this study showed that both eggshell activated carbon is an effective adsorbent in removing Pb from aqueous solution of natural environment.

A Modelling Study by Response Surface Methodology (RSM) on Turbidity Removal Optimization using Nanocellulose Filter Paper (Neolamarckia Cadamba)

This study observed the influence of initial turbidity, pH and initial temperature on the turbidity removal from the textile wastewater using nanocellulose filter paper from Neolamarckia Cadamba. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) model was employed to optimize and create a predictive model to evaluate the turbidity removal performance on the nanocellulose filter paper. The performance of the RSM model was statistically evaluated in terms of coefficient of determination, R2. The optimum value of turbidity removal of 99.39% were found at 66 NTU, pH 6.4 and 35.9°C. The value of prediction that obtained from modelling (RSM) was in agreement with the experimental values with R2 = 88.23%, AAD = 6.87% and RMSE = 0.18 towards the efficiency of turbidity removal.

Hydrostatic Force on Submerged Gate: Computer Based Program Analysis

Resultant force caused by the pressure loading of a liquid acting on submerged surfaces are known as Hydraulic force. Calculating the hydrostatic force is necessary to design a building that can resist forces due to its fluid. There are 2 conditions of the submerged surface, those are fully submerged and partly submerged. In this study, three scenarios will be used for developing computer-based program for calculating hydrostatic force and will be compared to manual calculation. The numerical analysis will be conducted using GNU Octave, version 6.2.0. The scenarios are fully submerged plane with 90°, fully submerged plane with inclination angle and partially submerged plane with inclination angle. Overall, from scenario one to three, the percentage differences are 0%, with the mean percentage difference of the program is 0%. Hence, it satisfies all the elements that need to be checked based on the hydrostatic force calculation in Fluid Mechanics.

Experimental Investigation of Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) Test Specimen in Assessing the Strength of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete Structure

This study aims to conduct the Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity (UPV) test and compressive strength test of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC). This paper also examines the correlation of UPV test data and compressive strength test data for SFRC specimens. The experiments were carried out with the same value of the water-cement ratio, superplasticizer but different fiber volumes of steel fiber. Twelve prism sizes 100mm x 100mm x 500mm were casted and 0.5%, 1.0%, and 1.5% of steel fiber reinforced concrete were added and the prisms undergone curing for 7, 14 and 28 days. The highest value of the UPV test at the x-axis is SFRC-0.5%, 6.26 km/s at seven days and 6.8377 km/s at 14 days. The highest value of the UPV test at the y-axis is SFR-0.5%, 6.68 km/s at seven days and 6.34 km/s at 28 days. Nevertheless, the grading is still considered excellent concrete quality based on BS1881. The highest value of compressive strength is SFRC-1.0%, 193.2 MPa at 14 days. The R-squared value for the correlation coefficient between UPV result and the compressive strength result at the x-axis and y-axis is 0.9963 and 0.9966 respectively. The non-linear models show high regression coefficient of R-squared close to 1.00, which means the parameters are strongly correlated. The correlation equation obtained can be used to predict compressive strength based on UPV data for steel fiber volume fraction up to 1.5%. Thus, it can be concluded that percentage of steel fiber added, affect the strength of the tested concrete specimens and the optimized value of steel fiber added is at 1% in this study.

Comparative Suitability of RISHA’s Modular Structure for the Spatial Dimension of Human Activities (Case Study: The Living Bandung Korean Project Building, Indonesia)

Rumah Instan Sederhana Sehat (RISHA or the Simple Healthy Instant House) is a prefabricated, modular, and knock-down system for simple housing, developed by the Research Institute for Human Settlements, Ministry of Public Works and Housing in 2004. The current modular grid and its component sizes, which were initially developed based on the type of 36 m2 simple house, produce a space following the required function. The Living Bandung Korean Project (LBKP) building, selected as the case study of RISHA application on a non-residential building in this research, was programmed with multiple functions on its two stories. The study aims to gauge the suitability of RISHA components against each function in LBKP. Started with a literature study, this research focuses on comparing the referenced standard architectural spatial dimension for human activities and functions to that programmed into the LBKP building. The result shows that of the eight analyzed functions, almost all the spatial dimensions using RISHA components do not meet the standard. The RISHA components are too long for functions requiring smaller spaces, such as pantry and toilet, yet too short for ones requiring larger spaces, e.g., workshops, office, musala, minimarket, café, and guest rooms. This result is expected to inform the future development of RISHA’s alternative component sizes to fulfill the space functions.