Wearable resistance (WR) is an alternative proposed to be used in training with the aim to increase sport performance by allowing specific movements to be performed with additional loading. Although the benefits of allowing more sport-specific movement are undeniable, studies conducted on the effects of this WR in Taekwondo sport are scarce. This study aims to determine the acute effects of WR loading on Taekwondo axe kick kinematics. Twenty-four (n=24) state-level taekwondo athletes were recruited and were required to perform axe kick in four conditions by wearing a WR suit on their thigh and shank. Four different loadings were attached at the suit; i) 3% of body mass (3WR), ii) 5% of body mass (5WR), iii) 8% of body mass (8WR) and iv) without load (0WR). During the movement, movement kinematics (maximum kick height, angle between thighs, range of motion (ROM) of hip, ROM of knee, duration of power load, maximum speed of ankle, duration of drive and total time were analyzed for both d.....

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The study was carried out to evaluate the impact of seasonal variations on the hematological responses of goats in Malaysia. Fifty-two goats (24 bucks and 28 does), aged between 1 to 2 years old were used in the study. The goats were fed on commercial concentrate and forage, access to mineral salt and water was ad libitum. Blood samples were obtained from each goat in January, May and September to analyze hematology blood constitute during the study. The results showed that red blood cell (RBC) levels in Anglo-Nubian females rose dramatically in January and May while the Saanen breed remains without diversity. In all seasons, high hemoglobin (Hb) concentration of Anglo-Nubian males was unlike Saanen breed. For Saanen females, mean corpuscular volume (MCV) increased significantly, whereas in Saanen males, mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) and MCH concentration (MCHC) were increased. High packed cell volume (PCV) concentration of Anglo females compared to others during September. In conc.....

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Artistic freedom, the influence of the French revolution and the massive development of musicology had a significant influence on the variety and diversity of compositional forms in the Romantic era. However, many features of the performance style in romantic period require a deeper understanding, especially related to expression features from performer’s perspective. This article examines a number of aspects that correlate with the style of performance in the romantic era. There are three objectives in this article. The first is to correlate compositional works in the romantic era that illustrate the symbiotic relationship between artistic forms and non-musical ideas, especially socio-political sentiments. The second is to review the role of musicology and philosophical perspective in building a structure of knowledge in music performance. The third is to characterize the performance style in romantic era. The methodology of this research is carried out based on a literature study. .....

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In the past decade, franchising has become a well-known platform for business expansion. Various strategies have been employed by franchisors in expanding their business into the global market. However, few studies have assessed the determinants that can be adopted by the franchisors in bringing value as well as opening up opportunities for global market expansion. This study aims to explore the determinants of global expansion based on Malaysian franchisors’ experience. A qualitative research approach was adopted through various case studies with ten franchisors from the food and beverage industry in Malaysia. In-depth interviews were carried out to explore this topic. Thematic analysis was performed through the “Atlas.ti” software package version 9.0, which was also used in analyzing the data. The findings indicated that there are four themes, and nine sub-themes were discovered from the grounded data. The franchisors agreed that franchise brand, business location, product, adv.....

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Kajian ini bertujuan untuk melakukan pencirian morfologi, optik dan struktur bagi mengkaji kehadiran partikel-partikel nano CdS dan CdSe yang tertanam di antara matriks P3HT peranti filem nipis hibrid organik dan tak organik menggunakan teknik Pemendapan Angkutan Sudut (ALD) dan kaedah dedahan gas yang mudah, cepat dan berkos rendah. Penyelidikan bermula dengan menentukan kesan kehadiran ion Cd2+ dalam larutan P3HT, asid stearik (SA) dan P3HT:SA yang dicirikan dengan isoterma tekanan permukaan-luas yang dikawal oleh komputer. Peranti filem nipis disediakan dengan memendapkan P3HT, SA dan ion Cd2+ (dalam kemolaran 0.5 dan 1.0 mM CdCl2) ke atas substrat silikon dan kuarza menggunakan teknik ALD dan dedahan kepada gas H2S atau H2Se selama 2, 4, 6 dan 15 jam. Peranti filem nipis organik-tak organik dicirikan menggunakan FESEM, EDX, AFM, spektroskopi Raman dan UVVis. Pencirian isoterma tekanan permukaan-luas menunjukkan purata keluasan dan saiz molekul P3HT, SA dan P3HT:SA menin.....

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Forecasting is a very effortful task owing to its features which simultaneously contain linear and nonlinear patterns. The Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model has been one the most widely utilized linear model in time series forecasting. Unfortunately, the ARIMA model cannot effortlessly handle nonlinear patterns alone. Thus, Support Vector Machine (SVM) model is introduced to solve nonlinear behavior in the datasets with high variance and uncertainty. The purposes of this study are twofold. First, to propose a hybrid ARIMA models using SVM. Secondly, to test the effectiveness of the proposed hybrid model using sea surface temperature (SST) data. Our investigation is based on two well-known real datasets, i.e., SST (modis) and in-situ SST (hycom). Statistical measurement such as MAE, MAPE, MSE, and RMSE are carried out to investigate the efficacy of the proposed models as compared to the previous ARIMA and SVMs models. The empirical results reveal that the proposed m.....

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This paper proposed a fractional order PID sliding mode control (FOSMC-PID) for speed regulation of permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). Fractional calculus has been incorporated in sliding mode controller (SMC) design to enhance chattering suppression ability. However, the design of fractional sliding surface is crucial to ensure that speed tracking accuracy is not jeopardized. The proposed controller is designed with a fractional order PID sliding surface, which balances the characteristics of sliding surface with PI or PD structure in terms of robustness and dynamic performance of the controller. By simulation, speed tracking is proven to be faster and more robust with the proposed controller compared to SMC with integer order. Both integration and derivative terms in the surface design outperform FOSMC-PI and FOSMC-PD in terms of disturbance rejection and chattering. Experimental validation proves the advantage of the proposed controller in terms of robustness. ..

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Kajian ini bertujuan membangunkan Modul Pedagogi Pembelajaran Aktif Berasaskan Kemahiran 4K bagi Nombor Bulat dan Operasi Asas Matematik (Modul Pedagogi PA4K) bagi kegunaan guru dan murid Tahun Tiga. Pendekatan Kajian Reka Bentuk dan Pembangunan (Design and Development Research - DDR) telah diaplikasikan. Kajian ini dilaksanakan dalam tiga fasa iaitu Fasa I (Analisis Keperluan) yang melibatkan kajian tinjauan ke atas 140 sampel yang terdiri daripada guru-guru matematik dan murid-murid Tahun Tiga. Manakala, Fasa II (Reka Bentuk dan Pembangunan) melibatkan 16 orang pakar matematik sekolah rendah dan pedagogi bagi menentukan elemen-elemen modul. Seterusnya, Fasa III (Penilaian) terdiri daripada penilaian kesahan draf modul oleh enam orang pakar serta penilaian kebolehgunaan modul melibatkan 40 orang murid Tahun Tiga dan seorang guru matematik. Selain itu, data tahap penguasaan kemahiran 4K murid selepas penggunaan modul juga digunakan untuk analisis nilai Cronbach’s Alpha ba.....

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The use of organic materials has become an increasingly important issue in sensing devices in recent times. Phthalocyanine is among the most promising materials in this undertaking. Zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) based microporous device was fabricated and its capacitance was utilized as the sensing mechanism for a humidity sensor. The effect of the electrode gap of the device on the electrical properties was investigated along with the correlation between the device's performances and the morphology of the sensing film. Using the solution-processed spin coating method, the capacitive type humidity sensor devices have been fabricated in a planar geometry of Al/ZnPc/Al with the presence of a microporous template. The size of electrode gaps measured with a surface profiler was 53.00 ± 0.06 μm, 119.00 ± 0.03 μm and 286.00 ± 0.01 μm. The surface morphology was characterized by using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and X-ray phot.....

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Purpose: Medical images are important in diagnosing disease and treatment planning. Computer algorithms that describe anatomical structures that highlight regions of interest and remove unnecessary information are collectively known as medical image segmentation algorithms. The quality of these algorithms will directly affect the performance of the following processing steps. There are many studies about the algorithms of medical image segmentation and their applications, but none involved a bibliometric of medical image segmentation. Methods: This bibliometric work investigated the academic publication trends in medical image segmentation technology. These data were collected from the Web of Science (WoS) Core Collection and the Scopus. In the quantitative analysis stage, important visual maps were produced to show publication trends from five different perspectives including annual publications, countries, top authors, publication sources, and keywords. In the qualitative analysis st.....

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