Development of hybrid force-position controller for ultrasound-guided breast biopsy robotic system

Conventional ultrasound-guided breast biopsy (UGBB) procedure is commonly performed to assess abnormal masses within the breast. It requires a radiologist to handle multiple devices at once, which could reduce the abilities in performing such procedure resulting in radiologist’s fatigue, compromised breast tissue due to multiple insertions and susceptibilities to pneumothorax complication for the patient. Previous studies have reported that many of the restrictions associated with handheld minimally invasive methods were tackled when physician assist instruments were used. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to assist radiologist in conventional UGBB procedure by introducing a semi-automated robotic system to maintain desired contact force between the ultrasound transducer and the breast. For that reason, a hybrid force/position controlled UGBB robotic system has been developed in simulation environment. The UGBB robotic system involves a 5 degree of freedom (DOF) articulated robot arm to control the transducer movement, a force/torque (F/T) sensor system to measure the contact force, an ultrasound machine to view the inside structure of the breast tissue and a computer-based control system. As such, the RV-2AJ robotic arm has been modelled with its positional accuracy of almost 100%. A breast model based on a medical grade breast phantom has been established with a mean error of 0.69% by using black-box modelling approach. Motion disturbance from human respiration has been explored as well since it plays a significant element that would affect the stability of the system to constantly maintain low contact force on the breast.Finally, intelligent Fuzzy-PID hybrid force/position controller has been successfully established to maintain low contact force on identified breast stiffness characteristics. The overall hardware-based simulation shows promising outcomes with almost no overshoot, fast rise time, high robustness and stability on different environment condition. In conclusion, the success of this work serves as significant foundations for long-term related research, especially in the development of UGBB robotic system and approaches of force control mainly for human-robot interaction

Tahap kepuasan bekerja dan motivasi kerja di kalangan pekerja industri pelancongan

Kajian ini berkaitan dengan tahap Kepuasan Bekeija dan Motivasi di kalangan pekeija di dalam Industri Pelancongan yang berbentuk kajian deskriptif. Teori Kepuasan Bekeija dan Teori Motivasi Herzberg telah digunakan sebagai asas kepada kajian ini. Dua agensi telah diambil sebagai tempat kajian. Sampel telah diambil dari keseluruhan populasi untuk pengumpulan data. Borang soal selidik digunakan sebagai instrumen untuk pengumpulan data. Kajian ini menggunakan perisian Microsoft Excel untuk analisis data. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan skor min kepuasan bekeija berada di tahap sederhana (min = 2.97). Melalui kajian yang dijalankan pengkaji mendapati keadaan penyelenggaraan memperolehi tahap kepuasan yang rendah. Oleh itu beberapa cadangan telah diusulkan untuk memperbaiki tahap yang lemah ini

DETERMINANTS OF STUDENTS’ PERFORMANCE IN MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING

Final examination results of Management Accounting in November 2009 were found to be poor with the failure rate of more than 40 percent. This triggers the question of what factors that may contributes to the failure. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to investigate empirically factors that may affect the poor performance of 44 students of Management Accounting from two programmes that are Diploma in Accountancy (AC110) and Diploma in Accounting Information System (AC120) in UiTM Perlis. Multiple regression was estimated using Ordinary Least Square in testing the significance of gender, program, prerequisite fulfilment, previous GPA, absenteeism, hours of attending early topics in Management Accounting, and part of studies. Results showed the number of hours attending lecture for early topics in Management Accounting and pre GPA are positively and significantly related to the score of management Accounting. On the other hand, absenteeism and students in higher parts are significantly and negatively associated with the score. The estimated results also indicated that students from AC110 performed significantly better than those in AC120. In addition students that fulfilled prerequisite costing paper performed much better than those who took the papers concurrently. The findings imply that prerequisite provide students with minimum level of understanding, thus create better chances of accomplishmentManagement accounting, prerequisite, academic performance

Dynamic leveling control of a wireless self-balancing ROV using fuzzy logic controller

A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) is essentially an underwater mobile robot that is controlled and powered by an operator outside of the robot working environment. Like any other marine vehicle, ROV has to be designed to float in the water where its mass is supported by the buoyancy forces due to the displacement of water by its hull. Vertically positioning a mini ROV in centimetres resolution underwater and maintaining that state requires a distinctive technique partly because of the pressure and buoyancy exerted by the water towards the hull and partly because of the random waves produced by the water itself. That being said, the aim of the project is to design and develop a wireless self-balancing buoyancy system of a mini ROV using fuzzy logic controller. A liquid level sensor has been implemented to provide feedback to the Arduino microcontroller. A user-friendly graphical user interface (GUI) has been developed for real-time data monitoring as well as controlling the vertical position of the ROV. At the end of the project, the implemented fuzzy control system shows enhanced and better performance when compared with one without a controller, a proportional-derivative (PD) controller, and a proportionalintegral-derivative (PID) controller

Effectiveness of libraries in supporting researchers' information needs: The impact of a digital library

As one of the supporting departments of a university, the academic library plays a vital role in providing essential information resources and services to the researchers. Changes in information technology have impacted libraries due to change in the format of information resources and the information seeking behavior of users. Technology has transformed the way researchers seek, obtain and use information. Libraries therefore need to critically examine their effectiveness and continuously support researchers in fulfilling their research needs. Research has been conducted at an academic library that is moving towards transforming traditional services to a highly digital environment. The fruition of this idea is blooming into reality with the almost completed research wing of the library. In preparation of ensuring suitable and relevant research information, the research analyzed the effect and impact of digital information services existing so far. Moving from here the research hopes to further enhance facilities, services and training with special focus on academic clientele. Research results will be discussed in the course of this paper’s discussion. Amongst factors studied are the relationship between demographic characteristics and the perceived effectiveness of library services among researchers

Development of a Travel Advisory Expert System for Ecotourism Sites in Malaysia

This research concerns with the establishment of a Traveling Advisor in which the main inclusion is the ecotourism sites offered to tourists.Thereby,LetsTravel provides an online traveling advisor in accordance with tourists demand.The purpose of this study was to develop a comprehensive Expert System (ES) as a traveling advisor that could be used as an aid in giving advice on travel to tourists.This system also advises them on the best way to travel within Malaysia and provides assistance in planning such travel.The advice given is based on their entry point, destinations, preferred activities at ecotourism sites, duration of visit at each site and the duration of stay.Apart from advising tourists about their journey, this system also provides general information about the states, roads and ecotourism sites in Malaysia.This travel route assistant was developed for online assessment.The combination of web server software, middleware and database package has everything required by all possible users of the system. This expert system was developed by using the Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Version 6.0 software, ASP as the server language,VBScript as the coding language and Microsoft Access as the database.This system was uploaded onto the server, and it was successfully implemented and tested as an online system.From the system validation stage, it was evident that tourists can use this system advisor in planning their journey effectivel

Diffusion of a Mechanical Technology: The Case of Combines in Muda

Factors associated with the use of combine harvesters by the farmers in the Muda Scheme were identified as the farm size, farmers' perception of the economic benefit of the machine, neighbourhood factor, membership in Farmers' Organisation and several other factors. It was concluded that the new technology will continue to spread among the paddy farmers because of its cost saving and speed of operation compared with human labour

An Econometric Analysis of Interstate Migration in Peninsular Malaysia

An econometric model is used to explain inter-stat migration in Peninsular Malaysia using the 1957 population census data. The determinants of interstate migration are the size of employment in the secondary and tertiary industries at the destination, the size of the population at the origin, distance between the two points, and a dummy variable indicating whether states share a common boundary and traversed by a road or railway

How social innovation “came to be”: tracing the evolution of a contested concept

AbstractSocial innovation is a contested concept with multiple meanings that have implications beyond academia. It is not a new term – its sociological heritage can be dated to the late nineteenth century. However, until the twenty-first century the concept was sparsely utilised, and, despite its current popularity among policy makers in Europe and the United States, remains largely ignored by social policy researchers. Through bibliometric analysis we identify the most influential articles on social innovation and explore how these have conceptualised the term. We show that over time social innovation has taken on a set of meanings far removed from its sociological roots. In particular we identify a weak tradition that sees social innovation as any increase in aggregate individual utility arising from an innovation, and a strong tradition that focuses on the process of collaboration between different groups and the restructuring of power relations. We conclude by outlining implications for social policy research.</jats:p

Agriculture drainage affects river water quality

The acidic level of the freshwater is a major concern to water treatment plant operators. Extremely acidic freshwater could affect the operation of the treatment plant in many ways. The cost to neutralisation the water would increase and treatment scheduling would be more complicated. This paper reports the influence of agricultural drainage on river water quality in Bekok river system in Johor, Malaysia. The river is the sole source of freshwater supply to two water treatment plants located at the downstream reach of the river. Three water quality parameters, i.e. pH, Iron and Ammonia-N, were used as an indication parameter. Water samples collected from 16 different river reaches along the 20-km river were analysed. A significant decrease in pH was found near the water intake point, where most of the drained areas are located. The study also found that in general, the quality of the river water was better during low flow condition (non-rainy days) compared to high flow (rainy days). Multiple regression analysis showed that pH was significantly related to Iron and Ammonia contents