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After the successful delivery of two mammoth deep water projects in Sabah, Shell Malaysia turned its attention to develop cost competitive solutions to further develop and generate growth for small/marginal field development. The initial focus was to develop a low cost, minimal facility platform, which meets all the HSSE and operational requirements for a marginal gas field in Sarawak. To do things differently, new but proven technology had to be utilised and for this initial low-cost development wellhead platform, solar panels were employed to generate power for the platform facilities. Electricity generated by this technology is currently limited to 1200 Watts and due to this, the design of the controls of automation systems had to morph along with this limitation. Equipment such as pumps, control and safeguarding systems had to run on 24VDC supply. A low powered integrated control and safeguarding systems, limited to a power consumption of no more than 250 watts, suitable for installation and operation in outdoor hazardous environment, with temperatures reaching 50°C, had to be employed. Due to the power supply limitation, pressurised control rooms to house controls and safeguarding systems now are a thing of the past. And the design of the wellhead control panel was optimised by minimising the number of 24VDC pumps and utilizing pressure boosting regulators to achieve the different required pressures.

In this paper, we present a smart wearable hand-gesture recognition system based on the movement of the hand and fingers. The proposed smart wearable system is built using the fewest sensors necessary for gesture recognition. Thus, motion sensors are placed on the thumb and index finger to detect finger motions. Another sensor is placed on the back of the hand to measure hand movement. A total of six gestures are analyzed via hand and finger movement using a dynamic time-warping method. Gestures include "swipe right," "swipe left," "zoom in," "zoom out," "rotate left," and "rotate right." An Android-based mobile device application simulator measures gesture recognition effectiveness. Gestures are analyzed using a trained recognition model. Once a gesture is detected, it is transmitted to the mobile application via Bluetooth low energy communication. Received gestures then trigger corresponding commands, as specified in the mobile application. The proposed smart wearable system can detect gestures at mean accuracy of 93.19 %.

One of the most frequently encountered operational problems with Imhoff tanks is filter media clogging. Traditionally, the restoration procedure is to remove the clogged rock media and replace them with clean material. This is costly and may require the facility to close for a time. Recently, an innovative approach has been tested at lab- and full-scale. It consisted of aggressive oxidation and segregation of the clogged solids, using catalyzed hydrogen peroxide. The results indicate that, after treatment, clogging was substantially reduced. The outcomes of the lab- and full-scale studies are discussed in this paper.

Driver fatigue had been a major reason that leads to road accidents. This paper focuses on investigating the usage of electromyography and galvanic skin response to detect the driver fatigue symptoms. The study reveals that the variation of EMG signal patterns can be mapped to simulate the driving behavior. In the study, five attachment positions of EMG sensors are observed to indicate the best position of the mapping for wheel steering control behavior. Hereby, the study also reveals that the changing variations of EMGs in frequency-domain are excellent and significant fatigue indicator than the usual time-domain features. On the other hand, existing systems only focused on analyzing the signal pattern of GSR, but not the variation of GSR in accordance to frequency analysis, which is one of our main objectives study. The sensed EMGs and GSRs are transmitted to the mobile device via Bluetooth Low Energy. The analysis takes part in mobile device with implemented fatigue monitoring application. If the developed classifier indicates the driver vigilance level dropped to dangerous predefined threshold, a vibration warning will be triggered to alert the driver. In fact, the experiment results revealed that the significant differences in EMG and GSR features are managed to determine the driver fatigue in five seconds interval. The developed SVM classifier of mobile application shows average of 92% fatigue detection accuracy rate.

Driver drowsiness detection system had been developed as mobile device application such as Percentage of Eye Closure (PERCLOS) measured by using mobile device camera. Nevertheless, the mobile device has the potential risk of distracting the driver's attention, causing accidents. Thus, a wearable-type drowsiness detection system is proposed to overcome such issue. The proposed system used self-designed wristband consisted of photoplethysmogram sensor and galvanic skin response sensor. The sensors data are sent to the mobile device which served as a main analyzing processing unit. Those data are analyzed along with the motion sensors, which are the mobile device built-in accelerometer and gyroscope sensors. Five features are extracted accordingly based on the received raw sensors data, including heart rate, pulse rate variability, respiratory rate, stress level, and adjustment counter. Those features are further served as computation parameters to a support vector machine to derive the driver drowsiness state. The testing results indicated that the accuracy of the system with SVM model reached up to 98.3%. In addition, driver will be alerted using graphical and vibration alarm generated by the mobile device. In fact, the integration of driver physical behavior and physiological signals is proven to be an outstanding solution to detect driver drowsiness in a safer, more flexible and portable used.

Acute query (Q) fever caused by Coxiella burnetii infection can present with various signs and symptoms such as flulike illness, pneumonia, or hepatitis, creating a diagnostic challenge. Patients with previous valve surgery are at a higher risk of developing chronic Q fever endocarditis, several months or years following initial infection despite treatment. Q fever was primarily seen in patients who have contact with farm animals. It is being seen in military or contracted personnel returning from Middle East deployment or in close proximity to a farm. The incidence has increased nearly seven times because it became a nationally reported disease in 1999. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) lists C. burnetii as a potential bioterrorism agent caused by its inhalation transmission and bacterial resistance to heat and chemicals. Currently, vaccination is not available in the United States. In Australia, vaccination has resulted in a decrease in prevalence.

This paper discusses the trends of technology in education and comparison between three types of technology: Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and Mobile Learning (ML). This paper aims to encourage educators and learners to incorporate the technologies in the teaching and learning process. The integration of these technologies in the teaching and learning process is able to provide new learning environment and improve the teaching and learning quality. The learning process becomes enjoyable and interesting with technologies. Although technology has a lot of benefit to the education field, educators must be creative and innovative to implement technology in the teaching and learning process. Therefore, educators and learners need to select the appropriate technology according to the lesson taught.

Background Mediastinitis, a serious complication after cardiac surgery, increases morbidity, mortality, and cost of care. Accumulating evidence implicates blood transfusions in the development of mediastinitis. Objectives We conducted a systematic review to evaluate the association between allogeneic blood transfusion and mediastinitis in adult cardiac surgery patients. Results After a search of Medline, PubMed, Cochrane Library, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and the Institute for Scientific Information's Web of Knowledge (1990-2010) for relevant studies, 7 (3 prospective cohort and 4 retrospective reviews) met our inclusion/exclusion criteria. Between 20% and 80.2% of patients received blood transfusions, with an incidence of mediastinitis ranging from 0.1% to 2.3%. Five studies demonstrated an independent association between red blood cell transfusion and mediastinitis. Two studies identified a dose-response relationship. Conclusion The findings of this systematic review suggest that allogeneic red blood cell transfusions are associated with an increased risk of mediastinitis in patients undergoing cardiac surgery. Individual risks and benefits should be assessed in each patient before a red blood cell transfusion.

This study discusses the issues and future trends of teaching physical education subject. The data is elicited from an interview conducted with four expert teachers. Four issues were identified after conducting an analysis of the interview transcript. The issues are time, teaching method, perception toward physical education and future trends in teaching and learning physical education. Physical education is important for a child's development from the cognitive, social and physical health aspect. Physical education is not emphasized in school. Based on the data obtained, a new teaching method must be devised to prevent the lack of interest in learning physical education in the classroom.

Commercial television has emerged today as the premier advertising medium, and it has the vast potential to reach the most private realms of the human psyche. Advertisement commercials have been extensively analyzed across the US, as well as in countries such as Australia, Britain, and Mexico. Researchers have focused on the way men and women were depicted in the media. However, little research has been conducted on the gender-role portrayals in television commercials in Asia. The research objectives of this study seek to examine the portrayal of male and female characters in Malaysian and Singaporean commercials, as well as to discover stereotypes, changed/emerging roles, and their meanings within the sociocultural context of these societies. This research has its main aim, the investigation of how the sociocultural context influences the gender-role portrayals in these two countries. It also highlights possible marketing implications for advertising professionals.

In this study, ultra fine pitch wire bonding on a BGA device with Al bond pad was performed to compare 2N wire with conventional 3N and 4N wires for reliability performance after thermal aging. Strip level thermal aging at 175 degree C was carried out. Wire pull test was performed after different thermal aging read point of 100hrs, 250hrs, 500hrs, 750hrs, 1000hrs, 1250hrs, 1500hrs, 1750hrs and 2000hrs to check for pull strength and lifted ball failure mode. The result had proven that 2N wire demonstrated more superior thermal aging reliability performance as compared to 3N and 4N wire. In the 2nd portion of this study, 2N wire was successfully implemented in mass production. However, several challenges were encountered due to the fact that 2N wire is much harder than conventional 3N and 4N wire which resulted in narrower process window and poorer manufacturability. This study is also aimed to share the major problems encountered and the methods to overcome those challenges during high volume manufacturing. First major challenge was lower 2nd bond peel strength due to higher sensitivity towards 2nd bond surface condition. It was found that substrate bond finger surface roughness variation is a critical factor to 2N wire bonding process. This can be improved through substrate manufacturing process optimization to reduce bond fingers surface roughness. At the same time, less optimized bonding input parameters was found to induce low wire peel strength while certain bonding input parameters was found to cause higher missing ball and short tail problem. Hence bonding parameters optimization has to be done carefully through thorough DOE and RSM studies in order to achieve higher peel strength and improve process robustness against 2nd bond surface variation. The 2nd major challenge was off-bond-pad due to harder wire that resulted in higher aluminum squeeze-out upon bonding on aluminum bond pad. It was found that proper process characterization to determine the optimum length of time needed for device expansion on heater block plus further improvement on the wire bonder and bonding parameters could help resolve this issue. The 3rd problem was higher wire stickiness due to higher sensitivity towards moisture from the environment. The main impact of wire stickiness issue was found to be higher machine stoppages due to inconsistent tail, hence resulted in off-center-ball defect. 2nd impact was higher capillary clogging which caused wire sagging and wire loop collapsing. Such wire stickiness problem could be overcome by using different wire quenching solution. In summary, 2N wire is able to improve thermal aging performance of ultra fine pitch wire bonding to meet reliability requirement as stringent as for automotive application. However, to improve mass production friendliness, careful characterization and process optimization need to be done on several areas, namely bonding surface condition, wire bonding process, as well as wire manufacturing process.

SummarySpontaneous bladder perforation secondary to tuberculosis (TB) is very rare. Only three cases have been reported so far in the literature. Due to its rarity, the diagnosis of spontaneous bladder perforation is often missed. Confirmation of TB via culture takes a long time and starting empirical treatment for TB is necessary. We relate our experience with a young woman who presented with clinical features of a perforated appendix and was only diagnosed with bladder perforation during laparotomy. She also had distal right ureteral stricture and left infundibular stenosis. The provisional diagnosis of TB was attained via typical histopathological features and a positive Mantoux test. She was started empirically on anti-TB treatment and recovered without any complications. Urine culture after 6 weeks confirmed the diagnosis of TB.

The paper is to present report regarding the pad dual profile issues encountered in the production line. The pad dual profile is observed for thick passivation layer at the wafer edge. The defect caused the pad open area to be distorted. The location is at the wafer edge. Engineering simulation was performed to simulate the pad dual profile and understand the root cause. There were many factors contributing to the pad dual profile. The most significant is the thermal factor. The other factors were photoresist thickness, processing time, radio frequency (r. f.) power, gas ratio, passivation layer thickness and the wafer cooling efficiency. The split run was performed by varying the backside helium flow and varying the photoresist thickness. It is perceived that the backside helium cooling is the main contributor to cause the pad dual profile. The backside helium flow split has the highest severity impact on the result. The processing chamber which has dual backside helium cooling is used to perform the simulation. The wafer map for the edge zone which is flowing with low flow matches the defect area location.

Many factors account for why families or households move from one residence to another in an urban area and it is an enormous and difficult task to attempt to isolate or rank the factors in ordered importance. This is because many of them do not operate singly but often in company with others. Nevertheless, studies in Western cities by Rossi (1955),' Maisel (1966),' and Simmons (1968),' for examples, have shown that one important group of variables that consistently affect intra- urban residential mobility is that associated with the family life cycle. In fact, Simmons (1968) concluded that over half of intra-urban mobility within a moderately growing city in the United States "results from the changing housing needs generated by the life cycle."

Introduction: This case series is a retrospective review of iatrogenic bladder injuries treated at our institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Medical Centre, over a ten-year period, from 1999 to 2009. Materials and methods: A retrospective review of the operating theater database yielded the names and registration numbers of patients who underwent operative repair of bladder injuries. Patients who sustained bladder injuries due to nonsurgical reasons (such as traumatic bladder injuries due to pelvic fractures, blunt trauma or penetrating injuries to the pelvis) were excluded. Results: There were 12 cases of iatrogenic bladder injury treated during this time. A total of eight injuries occurred during gynaecological surgery. Five injuries occurred during lower segment caesarean section, two injuries during total abdominal hysterectomy and bilateral salpingo-oopherectomy, and a single injury during Burch colposuspension. Four out of the five injuries during caesarian section had a history of previous caesarian section. Of the four remaining non-gynaecological related injuries, two injuries occurred during hernioplasty, one during exploration of an enterocutaneous fistula and the other was during laparoscopic appendicectomy. Conclusion: Iatrogenic bladder injury should be anticipated in patients undergoing caesarean section who have had multiple previous caesarean sections. Iatrogenic injuries should be identified intra-operatively to enable early repair and the best outcome. These injuries were adequately assessed by ascending cystography. Continuous repair with absorbable sutures together with perivesicle drainage and bladder catheterization produces good outcome. Introducción: Esta serie del casos es una revisión retrospectiva de heridas iatrogénicas de vejiga tratadas en la Universidad Nacional de Malasia entre 1999 y 2009. Métodos: Se hizo una revisión retrospectiva de la base de datos de la sala de cirugía del Centro Médico de la Universidad Nacional de Malasia, en individuos a quienes se les realizó cirugía de heridas de vejiga. Se excluyeron los pacientes que presentaron heridas de vejiga sin cirugía como heridas traumáticas debido a fracturas pélvicas, trauma cerrado o heridas penetrantes en la pelvis. Resultados: Se encontraron 12 casos de herida de vejiga iatrogénica tratados entre 1999 y 2009. Ocho heridas ocurrieron durante cirugía ginecológica, 5 durante cesárea segmentaria baja, 2 durante histerectomía abdominal total y salpingo-ooforectomía bilateral y 1 herida durante colposuspensión de Burch. Las 4 heridas restantes no ginecológicas fueron: 2 heridas por iatrogenia ocurrida durante una hernioplastia, una durante exploración de una fístula entero-cutánea y la otra se presentó durante una apendectomía laparoscópica. Conclusión: La herida iatrogénica de la vejiga debe ser anticipada en pacientes que experimentan cesárea que han tenido múltiples cesáreas previas. Las heridas iatrogénicas deben ser identificadas intra-operatoriamente para permitir reparación temprana y obtener el mejor resultado. Obtuvo mejores resultados la reparación continua con suturas absorbibles junto con drenaje vesical mediante catéter. La cistografía ascendente con 300 ml de contraste es la mejor opción para el diagnóstico de herida iatrogénica de vejiga y también para la evaluación de la reparación total.

The increasing demand for better and cheaper products leads to the quest for even better designs as part of the overall product development strategy. Accordingly, companies in different geographical locations need to collaborate in order to realise shorter product life cycle, and hence shorter time to market. In order to assist designers in meeting this challenge in product development, conceptual design in particular, this work attempts to establish an intelligent hybrid approach to design analysis and design synthesis. The work proposes a new conceptual design paradigm known as design concept-capability mapping where past design data are used for the extraction of design rules. DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (MAE)