Proper identification of environment's air quality based on limited observations is an essential task to meet the goals of environmental management. Various classification methods have been used to estimate the change of air quality status and health. However, discrepancies frequently arise from the lack of clear distinction between each air quality, the uncertainty in the quality criteria employed and the vagueness or fuzziness embedded in the decision-making output values. Owing to inherent imprecision, difficulties always exist in some conventional methodologies when describing integrated air quality conditions with respect to various pollutants. Therefore, this paper presents two fuzzy multiplication synthetic techniques to establish classification of air quality. The fuzzy multiplication technique empowers the max-min operations in "or" and "and" in executing the fuzzy arithmetic operations. Based on a set of air pollutants data carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, and particulate matter (PM(10)) collected from a network of 51 stations in Klang Valley, East Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak were utilized in this evaluation. The two fuzzy multiplication techniques consistently classified Malaysia's air quality as "good." The findings indicated that the techniques may have successfully harmonized inherent discrepancies and interpret complex conditions. It was demonstrated that fuzzy synthetic multiplication techniques are quite appropriate techniques for air quality management.
Introduction: To investigate the questions that Muslim patients, embryologists, paramedics, clinical counsellor and doctors may have pertaining to the compliance of Assisted Reproductive Technique (ART) to Shari’aa.
Methods: As a preliminary study, an open-ended survey was administered to participants. Participants for the survey comprised of 21 patients, 2 embryologists, 2 doctors, 4 paramedics and 1 counsellor.
Results: Data analysis showed that most of the participants posed questions that fall into six classifications which are: Munakahat (Family Law), social Hukm, Fiqh Ibadah, Fiqh Qadha (Islamic Hukm), General Fiqh and Usul Fiqh.
Conclusion: It is clear that even though the participants were rather familiar with some of the existing Fatwas pertaining to ART and IVF in Malaysia, there are still remaining doubts which need to be clarified. This indicates that there are challenges faced in seeking and providing ART treatment to Muslim patients. This needs to be addressed perhaps in the form of Shari’aa-compliant guidelines to provide a clear explanation of each process and procedure in fertility treatment.
Many proteins derived from the latex of Hevea brasiliensis that remain soluble in trichloroacetic acid (TCA) can be precipitated by phosphotungstic acid (PTA). A combination of 5% TCA and 0.2% PTA precipitates a wide range of proteins effectively even when they are present in low concentrations (below 1 microgram ml-1). In addition to its protein purification function, acid precipitation also increases the sensitivity of the subsequent protein assay by allowing the test sample to be concentrated. Another advantage of protein precipitation by TCA and PTA is that very small amounts of protein (of the order of 10 micrograms) can be repeatably recovered without the use of precipitate-bulking agents such as sodium deoxycholate. This general procedure of protein purification and concentration is simple and rapid, but the use of PTA may not be fully compatible with the Bradford protein assay. A modified Lowry microassay is described which enables about 3 micrograms ml-1 to be quantitated at the photometric absorbance of 0.05. When used in conjunction with protein concentration by precipitating with TCA/PTA, approximately 0.4 microgram ml-1 protein present in 6 ml of solution can be assayed.
Bonferroni mean (BM) operators have been established as a powerful tool for handling the interrelationship between the input arguments under various decision-making information. However, the existing BM operators do not take into account the overall interaction among decision makers or criteria. To overcome this limitation, this study considers the Shapley fuzzy measure (SFM) with the normalized weighted BM (NWBM) operator under a neutrosophic environment. In addition, the current research ignores the bipolarity and hesitancy during decision elicitations, resulting in the imprecise decision results. In this paper, the hesitant bipolar-valued neutrosophic set (HBNS) which is the extension of hesitant fuzzy set and bipolar neutrosophic set is employed. The main focus of this paper is in the development of an aggregation operator for HBNS. Based on the literature review, we would like to fill in the gaps by developing a hesitant bipolar-valued neutrosophic Shapley NWBM (HBN-SNWBM) operator where the overall interaction among decision makers can be considered. Besides that, a three-phase decision making framework is also proposed to show the applicability of the proposed aggregation operator to the real-world decision problems. The HBN-SNWBM operator and the decision making framework are applied to two examples of investment selection where evaluations are implemented using the proposed aggregations that based upon hesitant bipolar-valued neutrosophic sets. In the first example, it is found that a weapon company is the best alternative for investment followed by a food company. Sensitivity of parameters of the aggregation operator is also analysed and it is found that the ranking results are consistent despite of different parameter values used. This verifies the insensitivity of p,q parameters in the developed aggregation operator. The proposed decision making framework and hesitant bipolar-valued neutrosophic sets would be a great significance for the practical implementation of the aggregation operators.
In this paper, the adsorptive performance of synthesized thiourea (TU) modified poly(acrylonitrile-co-acrylic acid) (TU-P(AN-co-AA)) polymeric adsorbent for capturing p-nitrophenol (PNP) from aqueous solution was investigated. TU-P(AN-co-AA) was synthesized via the redox polymerization method with acrylonitrile (AN) and acrylic acid (AA) as the monomers, then modified chemically with thiourea (TU). Characterization analysis with Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), elemental microanalysis for CHNS, zeta potential measurement, Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET) surface analysis and thermal analyses were carried out to determine the morphology and physico-chemical properties of the synthesized polymer. The characterization results indicated successful surface modification of polymer with TU. The performance of TU-P(AN-co-AA) for the removal of PNP was investigated under various experimental parameters (adsorbent dosage, initial adsorbate concentration, contact time and temperature). The results demonstrated that the Freundlich isotherm model and pseudo-second-order kinetic model best described the equilibrium and kinetic data, respectively. Thermodynamic studies showed that the uptake of PNP by TU-P(AN-co-AA) was spontaneous and exothermic in nature. The results of the regeneration studies suggested that the TU-P(AN-co-AA) polymer is a reusable adsorbent with great potential for removing PNP from wastewater.
In end-of-life situation, the need for patient's preference comes into the picture with the intention of guiding physicians in the direction of patient care. Preference in medical directive is made by a person with full mental capacity outlining what actions should be taken for his health should he loses his competency. This is based on the reality of universal paradigm in medical practice that emphasises patient's autonomy. A specific directive is produced according to a patient's wish that might include some ethically and religiously controversial directives such as mercy killing, physician-assisted suicide, forgoing life-supporting treatments and do-not-resuscitate. In the future, patient autonomy is expected to become prevalent. The extent of patient autonomy has not been widely discussed among Muslim scholars. In Islam, there are certain considerations that must be adhered to.
As Malaysia is one of the world's largest producer of palm oil, large amounts of palm oil mill effluent (POME) is generated. It was found that negatively charged components are accountable for POME color. An attempt was made to remove residual contaminants after conventional treatment using anion base resin. Adsorption experiments were carried out in fixed bed column. Various models such as the Thomas, the Yoon-Nelson, the Wolborska and BDST model were used to fit the experimental data. It was found that only the BDST model was fitted well at the initial breakthrough time. A wavelet neural network model (WNN) was developed to model the breakthrough curves in fixed bed column for multicomponent system. The results showed that the WNN model described breakthrough curves better than the commonly used models. The effects of pH, flow rate and bed depth on column performance were investigated. It was found that the highest uptake capacity was obtained at pH 3. The exhaustion time appeared to increase with increase in bed length and decrease in flow rate.
Biobased polymers are useful materials in substituting conventional petroleum-derived polymers because of their good properties, ready availability, and abundance in nature. This study reports a new jatropha oil-based gel polymer electrolyte (GPE) for use in dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The GPE was prepared by mixing jatropha oil-based polyurethane acrylate (PUA) with different concentrations of lithium iodide (LiI). The GPE was characterized by infrared spectroscopy, thermal analysis, lithium nuclear magnetic resonance analysis, electrochemical analysis, and photocurrent conversion efficiency. The highest room-temperature ionic conductivity of 1.88 × 10-4 S cm-1 was obtained at 20 wt % of LiI salt. Additionally, the temperature-dependent ionic conductivity of the GPE exhibited Arrhenius behavior with an activation energy of 0.42 eV and a pre-exponential factor of 1.56 × 103 S cm-1. The electrochemical stability study showed that the PUA GPE was stable up to 2.35 V. The thermal stability of the gel electrolyte showed an improvement after the addition of the salt, suggesting a strong intermolecular interaction between PUA and Li, which leads to polymer-salt complexation, as proven by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis. A DSSC has been assembled using the optimum ionic conductivity gel electrolyte which indicated 1.2% efficiency under 1 sun condition. Thus, the jatropha oil-based GPE demonstrated favorable properties that make it a promising alternative to petroleum-derived polymer electrolytes in DSSCs.
Jatropha oil-based polyurethane acylate gel polymer electrolyte was mixed with different concentrations of tetrabutylammonium iodide salt (TBAI). The temperature dependences of ionic conductivity, dielectric modulus and relaxation time were studied in the range of 298 to 393 K. The highest ionic conductivity of (1.88 ± 0.020) × 10-4 Scm-1 at 298 K was achieved when the gel contained 30 wt% of TBAI and 2.06 wt% of I2. Furthermore, the study found that conductivity-temperature dependence followed the Vogel-Tammann Fulcher equation. From that, it could be clearly observed that 30 wt% TBAI indicated the lowest activation energy of 6.947 kJ mol-1. By using the fitting method on the Nyquist plot, the number density, mobility and diffusion coefficient of the charge carrier were determined. The charge properties were analysed using the dielectric permittivity, modulus and dissipation factor. Apart from this, the stoke drag and capacitance were determined.
Diacylglycerol (DAG) and monoacylglycerol (MAG) are two natural occurring minor components found in most edible fats and oils. These compounds have gained increasing market demand owing to their unique physicochemical properties. Enzymatic glycerolysis in solvent-free system might be a promising approach in producing DAG and MAG-enriched oil. Understanding on glycerolysis mechanism is therefore of great importance for process simulation and optimization. In this study, a commercial immobilized lipase (Lipozyme TL IM) was used to catalyze the glycerolysis reaction. The kinetics of enzymatic glycerolysis reaction between triacylglycerol (TAG) and glycerol (G) were modeled using rate equation with unsteady-state assumption. Ternary complex, ping-pong bi-bi and complex ping-pong bi-bi models were proposed and compared in this study. The reaction rate constants were determined using non-linear regression and sum of square errors (SSE) were minimized. Present work revealed satisfactory agreement between experimental data and the result generated by complex ping-pong bi-bi model as compared to other models. The proposed kinetic model would facilitate understanding on enzymatic glycerolysis for DAG and MAG production and design optimization of a pilot-scale reactor.