MATTER: International Journal of Science and Technology

REVIEW OF VIBRATION-BASED SURFACE & TERRAIN CLASSIFICATION FOR WHEEL-BASED ROBOT IN PALM OIL PLANTATION

2022-11-30T11:06:06+00:00

Palm oil can grow in almost flexible topography. On flats, slopes, hilly, or undulating areas and whether on inland or reclaimed coastal areas. This makes the palm oil plantation environment unique with various soil types & surfaces. Each surface has a unique physical characteristic that directly influences the driving, handling, power efficiency, stability and safety of a robot. A mobile robot should have knowledge not limited to obstacles, but also the surface that the robot traverses to estimate wheel slippage and apply corrective measures. This paper discusses the harshness factors in palm oil plantation estates and the effects on wheel traction. We then present our review of several vibration-based surface classification techniques. Based on our survey, a combination of multimodal sensory for surface classification is more suitable to identify surfaces and terrain in palm oil plantations.

THE HIJIRI CALENDAR AND ITS CONFORMANCE WITH THE GREGORAIN CALENDAR BY MATHEMATICAL CALCULATIONS

2023-01-06T08:49:55+00:00

The objective of this research is to develop a mathematical procedure to construct a Hijri calendar that is consistent with the Gregorian calendar. Our hypothesis was derived from the Quran Chapter, Alkahf verse (25), which states “They remained in their cave for three hundred years, adding nine”. We understand this verse to mean “every 300 solar years equivalent exactly to 309 lunar years”. The starting point was to locate the number of days for each month of each Hijri year. We found that the distribution of number of days per month coincided in the two rounds of the 309 Hijri years. Accordingly, we prepared a list of number of days per month for 1545 Hijri years. Hence, we constructed Hijri calendar starting consecutively from 1 Muharram 1AH to any Hijri Date. We considered the Gregorian Date consistent with the first of Ramadan 1442AH as a relevant reference versus the historical reference of the migration of Prophet Mohammed صلى الله عليه وسلم to Medina. Finally, we compared our results with previous official dates Therefore any Gregorian date corresponds to Hijri date could be known.

DEVELOPMENT OF A TOPICAL GEL CONTAINING A DIPEPTIDYL PEPTIDASE-4 INHIBITOR FOR WOUND HEALING APPLICATIONS

2022-08-16T09:05:31+00:00

Chronic wounds are challenging for healthcare because they are difficult to treat and cannot heal by themselves. Active compounds that can accelerate wound healing are, therefore, necessary. Dipeptidyl peptidase (DPP)-4 inhibitors are antihyperglycemic drugs widely used in patients with type 2 diabetes that not only maintain the homeostasis of blood sugar levels but have also been shown to promote chronic wound healing. In this study, we formulated a topical gel containing, sitagliptin, a commonly used DPP-4 inhibitor drug to treat diabetes, using Carbopol 940 as a base due to its high viscosity and biocompatibility. The characteristics of the sitagliptin gel, including its physical appearance, viscoelastic properties, swelling and degradation, and stability, were investigated. The gel appeared to be transparent with a uniform distribution of drug molecules and was stable at 4 °C for more than 1 month. Moreover, the gel was shown to exhibit shear thinning pseudoplastic behavior, which is desirable for topical gels. The gel could absorb up to 250% of liquid within 2 days but later degraded in aqueous solution following zeroth-order kinetics. In the in vitro release study, the cumulative release data were best fitted with the first order kinetic model, in which the release rate depended on the concentration. To further demonstrate the use of the DPP-4 inhibitor gel, the gel was applied directly onto subcutaneous wounds on experimental pigs. The topical gel was shown to exhibit the desired spread ability without causing any inflammation around the wound area which was comparable to IntraSite® gel and commercial silver nanoparticle cream.