Repository@USM

Welcome to closed access digital repository of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

This repository contains multiple types of scholarly materials, especially USM theses and exam papers.

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  • Publication
    Water Rights Ownership In Sultanate Of Oman: A Case Study On The Aflāj Institution In Northern Oman
    (2024-03)
    Ali, Al-marshoudi Ahmed Salim Khalfan
    Using the ancient aflāj (singular falāj) system in Sultanate of Oman as a case study, this thesis investigates the Islamic water rights ownership and institution. This was conducted by analyzing the relationship of the physical water extraction variation among the three aflāj types in Oman and the development of water right types and the Islamic equitable principles/institutions. In literature many principles concerning water management and administration have been discussed. The most used one, in most Islamic studies, is how to manage water (as a natural gift) in relation with what Allah almighty given natural resource (also known as ecosystem) and human interaction. However, the focus of this thesis to fulfil the gap in our knowledge in how to provide a legal recognition of water rights ownership and institution. In fact, a guiding tool using Oakerson operational rule/institution which is considered as soft constrain for two main reasons: 1) decision making made operative only through human knowledge, choice, and action 2) rules found in decision making exist entirely in ream language (whether written or unwritten). It is these written and unwritten rules that have been applied in describing aflāj historical institutional (which researcher called Islamic equitable principles) and confirms with revealed information found within aflāj communities in Oman. In addition, Islamic equitable principles have been used to avoid confusion with another Islamic term known as uşūl al-fiĝh or jurisprudences.
  • Publication
    Lived Experiences Of Left-behind Children In Henan Province, China
    (2024-08)
    Lei, Daxia
    Since China’s reform and opening up, there has been a significant migration of surplus labourers from rural to urban areas. As a result, a growing population of children has been left behind in rural settings. These children face educational and psychological challenges that have emerged as important social issues. This study aims to explore the main challenges faced by these left-behind children, examine their coping strategies, and identify their specific needs. Additionally, the study seeks to develop an intervention model to improve their well-being. Conducted in Zhoukou City, Henan Province, the research focused on the care services provided for left-behind children. This study utilizes qualitative research methodology and employs the in-depth interview technique to gather data. Twenty-five (25) left-behind children were interviewed to understand their challenges, coping strategies, and specific needs. The study found disparities in living conditions and familial environments between left-behind children and those who were not left behind, contributing to the health vulnerabilities of left-behind children. Key findings include reduced interaction with parents, difficulties in forming interpersonal relationships, academic performance challenges, and the need for life skills acquisition. Left-behind children employ various coping mechanisms, such as recreational activities, emotional recalibration, seeking support, and taking proactive initiatives. Additionally, the study identified the needs of left-behind children, including the implementation of social work service programs, family care and support, educational engagement, community development and services, as well as national financial and policy support.
  • Publication
    Fault detection of electrical motor based on thermal imaging and machine learning
    (2023-08)
    Yap, Jun Hong
    Faults could occur on electrical motor due to various reasons, and an early motor fault detection system helps prevent interruption in service and financial losses. However, the current practice of manual fault inspection and preventive maintenance is time consuming, and it may not be effective. Thus, motor fault diagnosis using thermal imaging technique has been on the rise in recent years. To further improve the effectiveness and to automate fault detection using thermal imaging, artificial intelligence (AI) can be employed. Hence, in this project, an electrical motor fault detection system based on thermal imaging and machine learning (ML) technique was developed. Transfer learning (TL) approach using pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) was used. The CNN was trained to learn the features extracted from the thermal images of a faulty and a healthy motor and use them to diagnose the condition of the motor. Various hyperparameters were configured for network training to obtain the best results. Furthermore, performance analysis was conducted and discussed to evaluate the credibility and reliability of the trained network. A Graphical User Interface (GUI) was then created to ease the user in using the proposed fault detection system by just supplying the thermal images of a test motor to the GUI application for fault diagnosis. The evaluation results showed that GoogLeNet gives the best detection performance with both the mini-batch and the validation accuracy achieving a 100%, and both the losses were low as well, at 0.0015 and 0.0001 respectively. Thus, the final trained network based on GoogLeNet was used in the GUI for the implementation of the proposed motor fault detection system. In conclusion, the aim for implementing a fault detection system and GUI, through the use of thermal images and machine learning was achieved.
  • Publication
    Explainable artificial intelligence for signature verification system
    (2023-10)
    Lee, Sze Yuan
    In recent years, the use of personal identity, such as signatures, as a means of authentication has gained significant attention. There are some concerns arise due to the potential for signature forgery and leading to the development of signature verification systems to determine the authenticity of signatures. The lack of understanding behind the AI and DL can erode trust in the tools as incorrect or biased decisions made. The application of Explainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) methods in signature verification systems can address these concerns by providing insights into the decision-making process and enhancing the trustworthiness and reliability of the system. This research aims to explore and evaluate various explanation models to improve the interpretability and performance of signature verification systems. Furthermore, this research seeks to identify the specific aspects that users and developers focus on when considering explanations generated by these models. Moreover, this research aims to develop a new explanation model by combining the strengths of two widely used methods, LIME and Grad-CAM. The experiment is conducted through MATLAB using package known as Deep Learning Toolbox. The explanation evaluates through the respond of 18 respondents in four aspects, understandability, interpretability, accuracy and usefulness. The survey is also used to identify the evaluation aspect that are focused by users and developers. In addition, a new explanation model is developed through the combination of “scoremap” of LIME and Grad-CAM. Preliminary findings indicate that the Grad-CAM method demonstrates better performance from the user's perspective, while developers tend to prefer the LIME method. By leveraging the strengths of both approaches, the new explanation model achieves an impressive increase in understandability, interpretability, accuracy, and usefulness.
  • Publication
    Evaluation of isolated type multilevel inverter with different DC source selection scheme
    (2023-07)
    Ooi, Wei Tao
    Multilevel inverters (MLI) play a major role in various power applications in converting direct current to alternating current for a power system. The ideal output voltage waveform should be a perfect sine wave. In practical, a real inverter will produce output voltage waveform which contains harmonics that are not acceptable for high power applications. Harmonics cause current and voltage waveforms to be distorted, resulting in power system degradation. To date, reducing the total harmonics distortion (THD) is always the main objective to conduct the research regarding the multilevel inverters, especially when the inverters are applied in renewable energy application. Therefore, the simulation testing of this project will focus on the total harmonic distortion value of the system. The proposed multilevel inverter in this research is asymmetrical multilevel inverter with trinary sequence. The targeted number of output levels are 5-L, 7-L and 9-L. This research is aimed to analyze the proposed topologies from the aspects of inverter power ratio, total harmonic distortion level and power contribution of DC voltage source in different DC source scheme. The switching signals are generated using a low frequency modulation technique where the switching angles are pre-calculated using derived mathematical equations. To evaluate the performance of the topology, linear load tests are conducted to ensure proper operation of the proposed topology in reference to theoretical analysis with MATLAB Simulink software. Based on simulation result, the THD values of the 5-L waveforms are the highest, followed by the 7-L waveforms and the lowest THD are measured on the 9-L waveforms. Under RL loads, the current waveforms show much lower THD readings since they are filtered by the inductive loads. The RL filtering effect causes the current waveforms to lost the stepped pattern which explains their smoother waveforms. The results show the high power ratio is averagely achieving 95% and above, indicating the reliability of the system. From DC source power contribution aspect, it is concluded that high power source is required to produce higher number of levels in MLI inverter. In short, the research outcome shows the topology with different DC source configuration is capable of generating high number of output levels with low number of total components. The individual current harmonics are also in accordance to the IEC/EN 61000-3-2 standard. Hence, this topology has great potential to be developed for real applications since the production cost is expected to be lower than the other topologies.
Most viewed
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    Evaluation Of Anti-Hypertensive And Vasorelaxant Effects Of Phaleria Macrocarpa Extracts
    (2015-04)
    Altaf, Rabia
    The present study investigated the anti-hypertensive effect of Phaleria macrocarpa extracts in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats and the vasorelaxant effect of the extracts in isolated rat aorta of Sprague Dawley rats using bioactivity guided approach. The dried fruits were extracted sequentially in solvents with different polarity. The anti-hypertensive effect of the graded doses of crude extracts was evaluated in SHR by non-invasive blood pressure method. Petroleum ether (PE) and water extracts (WE) significantly reduced the blood pressure on 14th day of treatment (15.9 and 27.7% respectively, p<0.05) suggesting profound anti-hypertensive activity of these two extracts. WE reduced both the mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR) in WKY by 16.3 and 4.3% respectively (p<0.05). WE inhibited norepinephrine (NE) induced elevation of MAP and HR in WKY with less effects against the pressor responses to isoprenaline (p<0.05) suggesting its possible alpha-antagonistic and calcium channel blocking effect. WE significantly inhibited MAP, HR and pulse wave velocity (PWV) when compared with control group (p<0.05). An oral administration of WE to SHR for 14 days significantly inhibited the plasma level of angiotensin converting enzyme (p<0.05). Moreover, it elevated plasma nitric oxide (NO) level with respect to control group (p<0.05) supporting its effect on PWV as NO directly reduces the stiffness in arteries determined by the values of PWV. In the in vitro study, PE and WE inhibited NE induced contraction in rat aortic rings by 40 and 58% respectively (p<0.05). The active WE fraction WF-4 showed considerable vasorelaxant effect (42.8% relaxation, p<0.05). The sub-fraction SF-2 of WF-4 inhibited contraction in rat aorta up to 44.5% (p<0.05). SF-2 elicited vasorelaxation in aortic rings with both denuded as well intact endothelium. However, incubation of intact aortic rings with L-NAME and indomethacin significantly blocked the vasorelaxant effect of SF-2, suggesting the involvement of NO and prostacyclin pathway respectively. Moreover, SF-2 was found to exhibit its vasorelaxant effect in denuded aortic rings pre-contracted with NE by inhibiting calcium induced contraction in calcium free Kreb’s solution suggesting blockage of calcium influx through receptor operated calcium channels (ROCC) (p<0.05). When subjected to high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis, SF-2 was found to contain rutin, mangiferin and gallic acid (0.04%, 0.21% and 0.04% respectively) in SF-2. This study supports the potential of use of Phaleria macrocarpa extracts to treat hypertension in traditional medicine.
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    Health remote monitoring with IoT
    (2019-06)
    Syameeza Natasha Binti Samsuri
    The growing number of elderly population aged 65 and over implied the importance of health care services to maintain their wellness. As we all know, the elderly have habit that they do not like to go to the hospital for their daily checkup. This is because in government hospital they need a long time for their checkup. With the help of new technology of Arduino, the health care system can be monitored. In this project aims to design a real-time system monitoring and implement in an openaccess mobile-web to obtain interoperability in various platforms. The system consists of heartbeat sensor for checking their heartbeat rate. The measured data from the sensors are processed on Arduino Mega before transmit and store at PHPMyAdmin database. An Android application is designed to display the data of heartbeat of the users with the addition of a personal profile page which users can always update their information details. Several testing is conducted to evaluate the performance of the system. First is the testing related to the effect of background color for the measurement of the pulse sensor. The dark background is recommended during measurement since the time required to synchronize with user heartbeat is shorter (7.44s) compared to white background (11.37s). The next testing is the comparison between sensors values and measuring tools. The testing involves 10 users with a different age for this testing The average error percentage for the sensor values is 3.861% and the accuracy of the pulse sensor is 96.139%. In conclusion, the system is capable to perform with control measurement error below 10%. The proposed IoTbased system in this study show promising performance and potential in providing better healthcare services for elderly.
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    Peperiksaan Perkhidmatan Penolong Pegawai Sains C29 Kertas Ii (Makmal Onkologi) 19 Julai 2017 (Rabu)
    (Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2017-07-19)
    Peperiksaan Perkhidmatan Penolong Pegawai Sains C29 Kertas II (Makmal Onkologi) Tarikh : 19 Julai 2017 (Rabu) Masa : 9.00 Pagi – 11.30 Pagi (2 ½ Jam) Tempat : Kampus Induk
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    Characterization Of Rambutan (Nephelium lappaceum L.) Seed Fat And Its Mixture With Cocoa Butter For Potential Application In Dark Chocolate
    (Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2018-06)
    Hassan, Luma Khairy
    Rambutan seed is one of rambutan by-product that has a potential to be utilized, especially as rambutan seed fat (RSF) and these fats can be partially incorporated into cocoa butter (CB). In this study, the fat from six days fermented and roasted rambutan seed was mixed with different proportions of cocoa butter, namely, 100/0, 80/20, 60/40, 40/60, 20/80, and 0/100 (w/w) CB to RSF, as CB, M1, M2, M3, M4 and RSF respectively. The changes that occurred to the physical properties and thermal stability were investigated. The results suggested that certain mixtures of CB and RSF, such as M1 (80%CB+20%RSF) exhibited the peak maxirnum during thermal behavior, polymorphism, morphology, and solid fat content of M1 sample similar to that of CB. Furthermore, the X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) showed that M1 had the same short spacing and wide angle reflections as those of CB at a temperature of 20 °C. In addition, CB and M1 sample had higher thermal stability and hardness index than other mixtures. The effect of different temperatures on the viscosity of CB and M1 sample showed CB and M1 had a lower viscosity than other mixtures with increasing temperature. This study was determined the chemical analysis such as fatty acid composition, acid value, free fatty acid, iodine value, antioxidant activity, triglycerides composition and lipid oxidation. The results showed that lauric acid, palmitic acid, and stearic fatty acid in rambutan fat were less than that in cocoa butter, whereas the oleic acid was the highest in RSF. The CB and M1 showed the highest antioxidant activity and the typical triglycerides compositions such as, Glycerol-1, 3-dipalmitate-2-oleate (POP), glycerol-1-palmitate-2-oleate-3-stearate (POS) and glycerol-1,3-distearate-2-oleate (SOS).
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    Dynamics Between Malaysian Equity Market And Macroeconomic Variables: An Application Of Kalman Filter Model With Heteroskedastic Error
    (Universiti Sains Malaysia, 2006-12)
    Cheah Lee Hen
    Ever since the pioneering work of Kalman and Bucy (1960), Kalman filter model has become widely used in the space programme and control engineering. However,its applications in financial time series have been very few and far in between. Kalman filtering is a set of equations which allows an estimator to be updated once a new observation becomes available. A model for the monthly Kuala Lumpur Composite Index from April 1986 to February 2005 is proposed and investigated. The model allows the mean reversion level of Kuala Lumpur Composite Index to be modeled stochastically.