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In the last few decades, Malaysia has faced problems in disposing of municipal solid waste (MSW) due to the difficulty of finding space for a landfill. MSW has given a negative impact on humans and the environment. In Malaysia, 44.5% of MSW was generated from food waste. This has become more serious due to the lack of awareness in food waste management such as composting. The objective of this study was to determine the physical (moisture content, temperature, and pH value) and chemical parameters (Total Nitrogen, Total Phosphorus, and Potassium concentrations) of composted fruit waste resulting from different types of fermentation liquids by using the Takakura composting method, and then compared the quality of the matured compost produced. Fermented soybean and mixed fermented food (fermented soybean, yogurt, and yeast) were used as fermentation liquid, and soil and rice husk were utilized as the decomposing medium. Four types of reactors were used in this study. Based on the results of three weeks of composting period, the range of moisture content was between 42% to 63% in all reactors. Moreover, the overall temperature of the reactors was within the range of 33°C to 47°C indicating the active phase for compost. Next, the pH value in each reactor exceeded 5.0 and approached neutral, 7, at the end of the composting period. The concentration range of Total Nitrogen (TN), Total Phosphorus (TP), and Potassium of all the compost reactors were from 81508 mg/L to 99187 mg/L, 96.08 mg/L to 108.06 mg/L, and 90.75 mg/L to 153 mg/L, respectively. In conclusion, the results showed that the utilization of mixed fermented food as fermentation liquid in fruit waste composting is more effective than the fermented soybean fermentation liquid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Isolated Enzyme from thermophilic bacteria is useful in a wide variety of industries, including the manufacturing industry which relies on high temperatures. These enzymes provide several benefits since they may speed up reactions, reducing manufacturing costs, energy consumption, and time in the industrial process. Here we report UTMSBA and UTMSBS isolates that showed positive results in the gelatin hydrolysis test, while the citrate test, catalase test, sulfide hydrolysis, gelatin hydrolysis, and mortality test showed negative results. The edges and elevations of UTMSBA and UTMSBS isolates appear circular, entire, and flat. The isolates were able to hydrolyze amylase, cellulase, and protease enzymes, and the 16SrRNA gene revealed 99.99 percent homology, indicating Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain V4. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, some GUI Matlab in mathematic research has been appeared, for example the research of the GUI Matlab application in some sub material mathematic, such as the concept of relation and function, trigonometry, quadratic equation. The construction GUI Matlab deserves an appropriate appreciation, since the complicated of the programming language level. From the explanation above, this study was aiming for determining the development process of Matlab (Matrix Laboratory) Graphical User Interface as a medium for calculating Statistics material in mathematics. The use of this Matlab-based Graphical User Interface (GUI) can assist in designing alternative learning media in the form of an easy-to-use GUI. The method used is literature study and development research with a 4D approach (define, design, develop, and dessimenate), but this research has only reached the development stage. The results obtained are that a design has been made for the Mean sub-material, the Median sub-material, the Mode sub-material, the Range sub-material, problem calculation in the statistics material, which the calculation had the same result with the manual calculations. However, this GUI Matlab has some strength and weaknesses which might be fixed in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As widely known, plastic has become an integral element of human culture. Despite posing a serious environmental hazard, plastic continuously used in a variety of domains ranging from industries to agriculture to our daily lives due to its lightness, sturdiness, inertness, and low cost. Low-Density Polyethylene (LDPE) is the thermoplastic that are commonly used to manufacture plastics bags and other plastic products. However, the excessive use of LDPE has caused a major environmental problem when they are accumulated in the environment. Currently, the physical and chemical methods of plastic degradation was proved to be inefficient and posed other environmental issues. As a result, eco-friendly methods like microbial plastic decomposition are being pursued as a better solution. This paper reports the potential ability of a Malaysian Rhodococci isolate obtained from Unisel Culture Collection (UCC), the Rhodococcus pyridinovoran strain UCC0018 in.LDPE biodegradation. The bacterium was cultured in nutrient broth supplemented with LDPE fine strips to evaluate the degradation of LDPE by weight reduction test. Results obtained demonstrated degradation activity where it reduced the weight of LDPE strips up to 5.2% after 24 hours of incubation. This result indicated the promising potential of Malaysian Rhodococcus in degrading LDPE. Based on this discovery, the initiative intends to cultivate the bacteria in large quantities, optimize the degradation activity, and work with the industry to turn the bacteria into a product that can be utilized to address Malaysia's plastic waste problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Portulaca oleracea L is an annual grassy plant that is distributed in many parts of the world. Endophytes represent a complex community of microorganisms colonizing asymptomatically internal tissues of higher plants. Several reports have shown that endophytes enhance the fitness of their host plants by direct production of bioactive secondary metabolites. This study investigated the antibacterial activity of endophytes isolated from Portulaca Oleracea L. Isolation was carried out on potato dextrose agar chloramphenicol. Antibacterial activity using disc diffusion methods. Isolation results obtained as many as 8 endophytic fungi isolate with code IFK 1-IFK 8 isolates. The antibacterial activity test showed that the isolates with the IFK 6 had the best activity in inhibiting the growth of Staphylococcus aureus (14,03 mm) and Escherichia coli (15,93 mm). Then isolate IFK6 identified by PCR test. The results showed that the molecular characteristics of Portulaca oleracea isolates of IFK6 were genus Aspergillus Sp had similar species based on the results of sequencing, namely Aspergillus versicolor. Based on macroscopic and molecular characteristics, IFK6 isolates had similarities with the fungus Aspergillus versicolor and has antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Degradation of degradable municipal waste in bulk quantity is one of the main issues for municipality. This degradable waste is converted as manure by classic method such as Vermicompost, organic manure consumes more time. In this research work suggests Bacteria and fungus can form a range of physical associations that depend on various modes of molecular communication for their development and functioning. We used bacterial and fungal solution for converting solid waste into manure. In our project, initially waste was collected from Srivilliputhur municipality and waste has been separated according to the particle size. This waste decomposes into manure with the help of bacteria and fungus and to establish the efficiency between them. Among old techniques like vermicomposting, this type of waste culture concentrates more on obtaining manure in short time. Initially, waste was collected and separated using sieve analysis method. The sieve size includes 45 mm, 22.4mm, 13.5 mm and 9.5 mm and 4.65 respectively. Then the wastes are separated as suspended and retained particles accordingly. By solutioning (bio-inoculum solution) the waste on daily manner, we have identified which category tray waste is converted into manure as earlier. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to non biodegradability and limited sources of synthetic fiber and resin system, researchers are focusing to improve the performance of natural fiber and resin system. In this report we discuss about natural composite fiber. At present and future sight of commercial material, researchers are focusing on natural composite material due to its light weight. At the same time natural fibers are easily available and degrade eco friendly, which leads to the term Green fibers. Production of green fiber is very low when compared to synthetic composite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Batik industry in Indonesia frequently dispose liquid waste containing high level of toxic and carcinogenic dyes to the drainage without being treated. In accordance with it, plasma electrolysis has been proved as the efficient method to degrade dyes waste, yielding higher hydroxyl radicals than other methods. The experiment was conducted by generating plasma in circulated reactor using stainless steel cathode and tungsten anode with 2 cm depth immersed in 0.02 M Na2SO4 electrolyte solution added by 20 mg/L Fe2+ and 100 mg/L of Remazol Red initial concentration, with addition of varying air injection rate at maintained power. The results show that 1 L/min is the optimum air injection rate value to operate this reactor effectively at 450 W of optimum operating power so that it could lower the breakdown voltage, reduce energy consumption, produce more OH radicals and other reactive species, and elevate the degradation percentage. The experiment conducted in optimum operating condition provide result of 99.61% in degradation percentage for 60 minutes with final concentration of dye is 0.39 mg/L, 41.55 mg/L of COD, and 3177.16 kJ of energy consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vibrio sp. are one of the primary disease-causing pathogenic agents in shellfish aquaculture, ubiquitous throughout the world. With the rise of the antibiotic resistance phenomena, and current antibiotics cannot assure efficient control of luminescent vibriosis, it is primordial to to look for novel sources of antimicrobials. Along with the extensive research on isolating bioactive compounds from plants, research on the biodiversity of fungal endophytes has also received much attention. This study aims to isolate endophytic fungi from stem-barks and leaves of mangrove plants as mangroves exist under stressful conditions which let them able to produce diverse group of metabolic substances with wide range of biological activities including antimicrobial agents. Mangrove samples were taken from Bengkalis district, Riau Province, and identified as Ceriops tagal (Perr.) C.B.Rob and Bruguiera sp. A total of 22 isolates of fungal endophytes have been isolated and screened for their ability to inhibit the growth of Vibrio alginolyticus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Antagonist test results showed that 4 isolates were able to inhibit the growth of Vibrio parahaemolyticus with 10.46 ± 0.33 to 14.29 ± 0.12 mm of inhibition zone, while the growth of Vibrio alginolyticus was inhibited by 11 isolates with inhibition diameter of 9.72 ± 0.7 to 15.45 ±1.3 mm. One isolate is able to inhibit the growth of these two pathogenic bacteria and has been identified as Aspergillus sp. These findings indicate the potential of endophytes in producing secondary metabolites with anti-vibriosis activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present study we have synthesized nanocomposites of ZnO and SnO2 by the sol gel synthesis method and investigated their structural, morphological and electro-chemical properties. Particle size and strain corresponding to the variation in the composition of the composite has been determined using X-ray. AFM investigations reveal a partial homogeneous and granular surface morphology with increase in RMS value for increasing content of SnO2. From the Mott Schottky analysis establishes the n- type semiconducting behavior with high donor density for these materials. Cyclic Voltammetry study gives oxidation and reduction potentials and describes the electrochemical behavior of these materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zinc oxide (ZnO) has been under study since 1935 and it has attracted much attention in the scientific community as future material. From the scientific point of view, ZnO nanostructures are interesting because of their quasi – one dimensional structure with diameters in the range of tens of nanometers to hundreds of nanometers. Current research papers for non-doped and metal doped ZnO focusing on the UV sensor application are reviewed. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effect of metal doped ZnO to the performance of UV sensor applications. Some of the journals have been referred in order to find out the related study on this topic. It was found that UV sensing performance of doped ZnO improved in term of sensitivity and photoresponse properties compared to non-doped ZnO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The incorporation of inorganic nanomaterials into polymer matrix can result a wide range of property enhancement. Hence, mixed matrix membranes composed of polymeric thin film and well-dispersed nanoparticles have been extensively studied in CO2 separation. In this work, polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) with amino functionality was incorporated into polysulfone (PSf) membrane. After phase inversion, PSf/POSS membrane was impregnated with the gas selective ionic liquid (IL), [emim][TF2N] to enhance CO2 separation. was further used to modify the membrane after the phase inversion process. The membranes were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). The SEM images showed that the POSS particles were well distributed on the membrane surface without interfacial defects due to their compatibility with the polymer. However, the large nanocage structure of POSS allow gas permeation without much selectivity. After incorporating IL as proven in EDX results, PSf/POSS-IL exhibited an increment about 454 % and 430 % in CO2 permeance and CO2/N2 selectivity, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pollutant treatments are part of the human calling, as the crown of creation, to subdue, preserve, and cultivate the earth in bringing goodness for all creatures. The removal of pollutants is the major task of bioremediation involving a sequence of biological processes carried out by a consortium of the microbial community. The ability of bacterial communities in the natural process facilitates the bacteria to grow and survive in the presence of copper by accumulating copper inside the cells. The research aimed to study the influence of Acinetobacter sp. IrC1, Acinetobacter sp. IrC2, and Cupriavidus sp. IrC4 bacterial consortia on its capability to grow, as well as to biosorp and to accumulate copper. The bacterial consortium was isolated from activated sludge in an industrial wastewater treatment plant in Rungkut- Surabaya, Indonesia. The growth of bacterial consortium was monitored by measuring optical density at 600 nm. The ability of bacterial consortium to accumulate and biosorp copper were determined by atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The results showed that the potential of the bacterial consortium to grow, biosorp and accumulate copper was higher than the pure culture. However, Acinetobacter sp. IrC1 and Cupriavidus sp. IrC4 was the best bacterial consortia when grown in medium containing 3 mM of copper. The highest number of copper biosorption and copper accumulation was obtained from the consortia of Acinetobacter sp. IrC1 and Cupriavidus sp. IrC4 with a total of 33 % and 3.49 mg · g-1 dry weight of cells when it was grown on to a medium supplemented with 3 mM CuSO4, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Controlled growth of ZnO based nano-structures, starting from a vertical nano-wall surface morphology to laterally grown nanorods/wires, has been achieved using systematic variation in the oxidation temperature of the thin Zn films form 100 - 700° C. Thin Zn films were deposited on glass and silicon substrates using a vacuum assisted thermal evaporation technique. The structure, morphology and chemical properties of the ZnO films were investigated using various surface characterization techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy. The XRD results show a crystalline growth of ZnO with preferred crystallographic orientations, depending on the oxidation temperature. SEM images show the vertical growth morphology of ZnO nano-wall/sheet structures at relatively lower temperature. However, the transition from vertical to lateral growth morphology of 2D layered growth has been observed at about 450°C. Even, at higher oxidation temperature (about 650°C) another morphological transition from 2D lateral to 1D nano-wires growth of ZnO starts to appear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previous study reveal that single culture of Lactobacillus plantarum has ability to ferment cassava tuber in relation to produce modified cassava flour (mocaf). It was used to accelerate a fermentation process. L. plantarum grow well and produce some extracellular enzymes i.e. cellulase to change the structure and breakdown the cell wall of cassava tuber. Then, the starchy materials will be hydrolyzed by i.e. amylase into simple sugar and convert to organic acid. All of these process will give new characteristic of cassava i.e. lower fiber content, good flavor, taste, aroma and texture and the amount of cyanide acid is lower. Therefore this present study was to analyze Michaelis kinetics of extracellular carboxymethyl cellulase and amylase production by L. plantarum during cassava fermentation. The maximum carboxymethyl cellulase and amylase activity of 8.60 U/ml and 14.07 U/ml, respectively, were obtained from filtrate which has been incubated at 37°C for 18 h under stationary conditions. The Vmax and Km of CMCase were 0.8506 x 10-3 U/ml and 0.9594 x 10-3 g/mL, respectively. For amylase were 9.291 x 10-3 U/ml and 0.9163 x 10-3 g/ml, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nanocomposite catalyst containing zinc oxide (ZnO), copper oxide (CuO), iron oxide (Fe3O4) and graphene was synthesized using a combined sol-gel/hydrothermal method in which we used two different types of graphene such as NGP and graphene. The as-synthesized samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive Xray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). We evaluated the photocatalysis, sonocatalysis, and photosonocatalysis of Fe3O4/CuO/ZnO, Fe3O4/CuOZnO/NGP and Fe3O4/CuO/ZnO/Graphene on the degradation of Methylene Blue (MB) and found that the Fe3O4/CuO/ZnO/Graphene exhibits catalytic activity higher than Fe3O4/CuO/ZnO/NGP and Fe3O4/CuO/ZnO. The effect of various scavengers has also been studied. Furthermore, all prepared nanocomposites could be used as a convenient recyclable catalyst because of their magnetic properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our previous study reveal that single culture of Lactobacillus plantarum has ability to ferment cassava tuber in relation to produce modified cassava flour (mocaf). It was used to accelerate a fermentation process. L. plantarum grow well and produce some extracellular enzymes i.e. cellulase to change the structure and breakdown the cell wall of cassava tuber. Then, the starchy materials will be hydrolyzed by i.e. amylase into simple sugar and convert to organic acid. All of these process will give new characteristic of cassava i.e. lower fiber content, good flavor, taste, aroma and texture and the amount of cyanide acid is lower. Therefore this present study was to analyze Michaelis kinetics of extracellular carboxymethyl cellulase and amylase production by L. plantarum during cassava fermentation. The maximum carboxymethyl cellulase and amylase activity of 8.60 U/ml and 14.07 U/ml, respectively, were obtained from filtrate which has been incubated at 37°C for 18 h under stationary conditions. The Vmax and Km of CMCase were 0.8506 x 10-3 U/ml and 0.9594 x 10-3 g/mL, respectively. For amylase were 9.291 x 10-3 U/ml and 0.9163 x 10-3 g/ml, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project has been focused on the electrical and optical properties respectively on the effect of Undoped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films at different annealing temperature which is varied 400 ºC, 450 ºC, 500 ºC, and 550 ºC.Undoped ZnO solutions were deposited onto the glass substrates using sol-gel spin coating method. This project was involved with three phases, which are thin films preparation, deposition and characterization. The thin films were characterized using Current Voltage (I-V) measurement and UV-vis-NIR spectrophotometer for electrical properties and optical properties. The electrical properties show that the resistivity is the lowest at 500 ºC which its resistivity is 5.36 × 104 Ωcm-1. The absorption coefficient spectrum obtained from UV-Vis-NIR spectrophotometer measurement shows all films exhibit very low absorption in the visible (400-800nm) and near infrared (NIR) (>800nm) range but exhibit high absorption in the UV range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project has been focused on the electrical and optical properties respectively on the effect of Tin doped zinc oxide (ZnO) thin films at different dopant concentrations. These thin films were doped with different Sn dopant concentrations at 1 at%, 2 at%, 3 at%, 4 at% and 5 at% was selected as the parameter to optimize the thin films quality while the annealing temperature is fixed 500 ºC. Sn doped ZnO solutions were deposited onto the glass substrates using sol-gel spin coating method. This project was involved with three phases, which are thin films preparation, deposition and characterization. The thin films were characterized using Current Voltage (I-V) measurement and ultraviolet-visiblenear- infrared (UV-vis-NIR) spectrophotometer (Perkin Elmer Lambda 750) for electrical properties and optical properties. The electrical properties show that the resistivity is the lowest at 4 at% Sn doping concentration with the value 3.08 × 10³ Ωcm-1. The absorption coefficient spectrum obtained shows all films exhibit very low absorption in the visible (400-800nm) and near infrared (NIR) (>800nm) range but exhibit high absorption in the UV range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Titanium dioxide (TiO2) seed layer was prepared by using sol-gel spin-coating technique, followed by growth of 0.01 M of Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures by solution-immersion. The molarities of TiO2 seed layer were varied from 1.1 M to 0.100 M on glass substrates. The nanostructures thin films were characterized by Field Emission Scanning Electrons Microscope (FESEM), Photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy. FESEM images demonstrate that needle-like ZnO nanostructures are formed on all TiO2 seed layer. The smallest diameter of needle-like ZnO nanostructures (90.3 nm) were deposited on TiO2 seed layer of 0.100 M. PL spectra of the TiO2: ZnO nanostructures thin films show the blue shifted emissions in the UV regions compared to the ZnO thin film. Meanwhile, UV-vis spectra of films display high absorption in the UV region and high trasparency in the visible region. The highest absorbance at UV region was recorded for sample which has 0.100 M of TiO2 seed layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Effect of thermal annealing on the structural and electrical properties of Ni/Bi layer deposited on Si substrates are studied as a function of temperature. Agglomeration of the thin films into island-like structures is observed after annealing whereas grazing angle x-ray diffraction studies shows formation of both NiBi and NiBi3 phases. We discuss the phase evolution in terms of diffusion of Bi and NiBi3/NiBi phase formation at the interfaces. Semi-metallic nature of the as-deposited film is revealed by resistivity versus temperature study, which transforms to metallic behavior after annealing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the homotopy perturbation method (HPM) combined with Padé approximant is applied to generate the approximate analytical solution of Korteweg de-Vries (KdV) equation. The results show that the combined method gives highly accurate approximate analytical solution. It is also found that this method can achieve more suitable results in comparison to HPM alone. The approximate solution is also compared with the exact solution and it is found to be in good agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly transparent conductive Zinc Aluminum Oxide (ZAO) thin films have been deposited on glass substrates using DC reactive magnetron sputtering method. The thin films were deposited at 200 oC and post-deposition annealing from 15 to 90 min. XRD patterns of ZAO films exhibit only (0 0 2) diffraction peak, indicating that they have c-axis preferred orientation perpendicular to the substrate. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to study the surface morphology of the films. The grain size obtained from SEM images of ZAO thin films are found to be in the range of 20 - 26 nm. The minimum resistivity of 1.74 x 10-4 Ωcm and an average transmittance of 92% are obtained for the thin film post annealed for 30 min. The optical band gap of ZAO thin films increased from 3.49 to 3.60 eV with the increase of annealing time due to Burstein-Moss effect. The optical constants refractive index (n) and extinction coefficient (k) were also determined from the optical transmission spectra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Iron Oxides nanostructures are very promising systems for a new generation of anode material for Lithium-Ion batteries because of their high capacity associated to their surface area. A core-level photoemission study of Fe2O3 nanowires deposited on highly-oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) under Li exposure is presented. The Fe-2p, Fe-3p, and Li-1s core- level lineshape evolution upon Li exposure in ultra-high-vacuum conditions clearly brings to light the Fe ion reduction from fully trivalent to prevalently divalent at saturation. Furthermore, the graphite substrate allows allocation of a large amount of Li ions surrounding the iron-oxide nanowires, opening a new scenario towards the use of graphene for improving the ionic charge exchange. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental and health problem caused by artificial colorant encourages the increasing usage of natural colorant nowadays. Natural colorant refers to the colorant that is derivate from living organism or minerals. Extensive research topic has been done to exploit these colorant, but recent data shows that only 0.5% of the wide range of plant pigments in the earth has been exhaustively used. Hence development of the pigment characterization technique is an important consideration. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a widely used technique to separate pigments in a mixture and identify it. In former HPLC fingerprinting, pigment characterization was based on a single chromatogram from a fixed wavelength (one dimensional) and discard the information contained at other wavelength. Therefore, two dimensional fingerprints have been proposed to use more chromatographic information. Unfortunately this method leads to the data processing problem due to the size of its data matrix. The other common problem in the chromatogram analysis is the subjectivity of the researcher in recognizing the chromatogram pattern. In this research an automated analysis method of the multi wavelength chromatographic data was proposed. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to compress the data matrix and Maximum Likelihood (ML) classification was applied to identify the chromatogram pattern of the existing pigments in a mixture. Three photosynthetic pigments were selected to show the proposed method. Those pigments are β-carotene, fucoxanthin and zeaxanthin. The result suggests that the method could well inform the existence of the pigments in a particular mixture. A simple computer application was also developed to facilitate real time analysis. Input of the application is multi wavelength chromatographic data matrix and the output is information about the existence of the three pigments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Membranes from composite materials have been used especially in water treatment applications. In this paper the composite membranes of celluloses filled ENR/PVC were successfully prepared for POME treatment application. The preparation of the membrane involves solution blending, casting, phase inversion and drying methods. Two types of fillers, cellulose (Cell) and cellulose grafting polymethyl methacrylate (Cell-g-PMMA) were added into ENR/PVC matrix in various compositions (1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 wt%) to determine the effect of the filler to the performance of the membrane. The membranes were characterized by using FTIR and SEM. Membrane properties in terms of porosity and water flux were examined using mathematical calculation. FTIR spectrum shows the existence of stretching vibration from the functional group of ester carbonyl, -C=O at peak 1725 cm-1 that belongs to Cell-g-PMMA filler in ENR/PVC/Cell-g-PMMA membrane which makes the membranes slightly hydrophobic. SEM micrographs exhibit that pores were formed on both ENR/PVC/Cell and ENR/PVC/Cell-g-PMMA membranes. Water flux test indicates that ENR/PVC/Cell-20% was the highest because the addition of Cell increases the hydrophilicity of the membrane. In POME treatment, ENR/PVC/Cell-20% and ENR/PVC/Cell-g-PMMA-10% showed the highest decolorization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The thermopower measurement of (In, N) co-doped ZnO thin films have been carried out using indigenous high and low temperature thermopower measurement system. The compact thermopower measurement system has been designed, developed, tested in house. The sensitivity and accuracy of indigenous thermopower system have been investigated by measuring thermopower of standard samples like Cu, Ni, Sb etc. It has been also investigated by the comparison of carrier concentration using Hall Effect and Thermopower measurement of these (In, N) co-doped ZnO thin films. The constant temperature gradient between hot and cold junction has been maintained by using the temperature controller. The room temperature and low temperature Seebeck coefficient measurements were performed on these codoped ZnO samples. A series of experiments have been performed to detect the p-type conductivity in co-doped ZnO thin films, particularly at low temperature. The negative Seebeck coefficient observed down to 40 K established the n-type behavior in these co-doped samples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LCMO) colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) materials were sintered to highly dense products by an extended arc thermal plasma assisted heating (EATPAH) technique within a short sintering time of 2.5 minutes as compared to conventional long range heating schedule (few hours of time). 2.5 minutes plasma sintered LCMO showed enhanced Tc (272 K), which is closed to TIM (275 K) [1] as compared to the conventional sintered LCMO sample. Specimens are analyzed by X-ray Photoelectron Spectra (XPS) and electron probe microstructure analysis (EPMA) to get idea on elemental distribution and valence spectra of all the elements present in the specimen. The binding energy of La, Ca & Mn are analogous to the conventional sintered LCMO and to the reference spectra [2]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]