Megawati Omar

Outdoor thermal comfort of two public squares in temperate and dry region of Esfahan, Iran

This paper presents a study on outdoor thermal comfort in a temperate and dry climate based on a field survey conducted in Esfahan, Iran. Studies on outdoor thermal comfort have mostly concentrated on street canyons and few on public squares. This study utilized ASHRAEs Thermal Sensation Vote (TSV) to assess peoples acceptance of the outdoor thermal comfort conditions with a data recording technique and observing thermal adaptation behavior of the people at two public squares in the heritage areas of the city. The fieldwork was a short-term survey during an extreme period of cold winter. The study was performed for a full week at each square in December 2009 and January 2010. Air temperature, RH, wind speed and solar radiation were measured. The preliminary results revealed that people visiting the squares in cold season mostly felt comfortable with the air temperature and sunlight. They prefered a higher humidity condition and a little more wind. Areas in the squares with water elements seemed to have attracted more people with majority of the respondents satisfied with the outdoor thermal condition resulting in higher percentage of TSVs within the three central categories. People seemed to prefer a square that offers longer episodes of sun-exposed periods and higher air movement in the winter.

Combining Mahalanobis and Jaccard to Improve Shape Similarity Measurement in Sketch Recognition

Mahalanobis, Jaccard and others are similarity measurements which are commonly used in sketch recognition. Attempts to improve similarity measurement can be made by manipulating formulae and reducing the testing data set used but less effort are attempted to propose algorithm. Hence, the purpose of this study is to propose a new algorithm for a better method in shape recognition. To do so, Mahalanobis and Jaccard distance measures were combined to improve the similarity measure. The pre-processing involved feature analysis, shape normalization and shape perfection and data conversion into a binary. In the new algorithm, each edge of the geometric shape was separated and measured using Jaccard distance. Shapes that passed the threshold value were measured by Mahalanobis distance. The results showed that the similarity percentage had increased from 61% to 84%, thus accrued an improved average of 21.6% difference. Having this difference, the three outcomes of this study were a combined algorithm, a new technique of separating the strokes in Jaccard, and lastly, the use of extreme vertices in Mahalanobis similarity measurement to reduce computation time.

Investigating Jaccard Distance similarity measurement constriction on handwritten pen-based input digit

This paper presents a preliminary study on conventional Jaccard Distance performance in recognizing shapes with and without pre processing tasks. This study also identified the pre processing tasks that should be conducted to improve recognition performance. Jaccard Distance is performed by measuring the asymmetric information on binary variable and the comparison between vectors component. It compared two objects and notified the degree of similarity of these objects. This study also evaluated recognition performance on hand writing on isolated digits written using pen-based device. The first part of the work showed low recognition performed by the conventional Jaccard Distance when there was no pre processing task done onto the input. However, after translation, rotation, invariance scale content and noise resistance were added it showed improvement on the recognition progress. However the improvement was not very significance. Result showed that the degree of accuracy only improve averagely by 20%. Therefore thorough pre-processing tasks are to be carried out for the pen-based input using Jaccard Distance measurement.

Factors in selection of a Malaysian university

This study examined the university selection factors in Malaysia. In particular it explored the relationship among the factors in the selection of Universiti Teknologi MARA by its students. The study was conducted by surveying a sample of the universitys first intake of 2011. Six hundred questionnaires were distributed and 365 responds were received for analysis. The result of the analysis showed that the universitys favourable reputation, facility and learning environment and its offered programmes were the major factors that influenced the participants to select Universiti Teknologi MARA to pursue their studies.

Zero Valent Iron Particles for the Degradation of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Contaminated Soil

The removal of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from contaminated soil through oxidative degradation by zero valent iron (ZVI) has been investigated in this study. The results showed a fast decrease of PAHs within the first 30 minutes of treatment followed by a slow degradation. The degradation rates coefficient (k) of PAHs analysed using pseudo first-order rate model showed the rate of reaction increased with the increase of ZVI concentrations from 0.003 min-1 at 1% ZVI concentration to 0.011 min-1 at 3% ZVI. However, the normalized surface area constant (kSA) decreased when the ZVI dosage above 3% was applied.

Animated pedagogical agents to teach kindergarteners selected English vocabulary

Animated pedagogical agent (APA) is a vital instructional tool in kindergartens. However, most kindergarteners are still conventionally taught basic second language words by flashcards especially by those in rural areas. Hence, this research explored the use of APA on teaching rural kindergarteners second language basic words. The software was built and tested on 40 kindergarteners of a kindergarten in a rural area of Malaysia. The items tested were English words and sentences. Pre-test and post-test were conducted on these kindergarteners using five topics of words and sentences. The results showed a significant gain from the pre-test and the posttest. These findings supported other data that APA, a multimedia instructional environment, offers great potential for assisting beginner learners of a second language.