University of Malaya

About: University of Malaya is a education organization based out in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Fiber laser. The organization has 25087 authors who have published 51491 publications receiving 1036791 citations. The organization is also known as: UM & Universiti Malaya.

Total-Text: A Comprehensive Dataset for Scene Text Detection and Recognition

Abstract: Text in curve orientation, despite being one of the common text orientations in real world environment, has close to zero existence in well received scene text datasets such as ICDAR'13 and MSRA-TD500. The main motivation of Total-Text is to fill this gap and facilitate a new research direction for the scene text community. On top of conventional horizontal and multi-oriented text, it features curved-oriented text. Total-Text is highly diversified in orientations, more than half of its images have a combination of more than two orientations. Recently, a new breed of solutions that casted text detection as a segmentation problem has demonstrated their effectiveness against multi-oriented text. In order to evaluate its robustness against curved text, we fine-tuned DeconvNet and benchmark it on Total-Text. Total-Text with its annotation is available at https://github.com/cs-chan/Total-Text-Dataset.

Investigation of thermal conductivity and rheological properties of nanofluids containing graphene nanoplatelets

Abstract: In the present study, stable homogeneous graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) nanofluids were prepared without any surfactant by high-power ultrasonic (probe) dispersion of GNPs in distilled water. The concentrations of nanofluids were maintained at 0.025, 0.05, 0.075, and 0.1 wt.% for three different specific surface areas of 300, 500, and 750 m2/g. Transmission electron microscopy image shows that the suspensions are homogeneous and most of the materials have been well dispersed. The stability of nanofluid was investigated using a UV-visible spectrophotometer in a time span of 600 h, and zeta potential after dispersion had been investigated to elucidate its role on dispersion characteristics. The rheological properties of GNP nanofluids approach Newtonian and non-Newtonian behaviors where viscosity decreases linearly with the rise of temperature. The thermal conductivity results show that the dispersed nanoparticles can always enhance the thermal conductivity of the base fluid, and the highest enhancement was obtained to be 27.64% in the concentration of 0.1 wt.% of GNPs with a specific surface area of 750 m2/g. Electrical conductivity of the GNP nanofluids shows a significant enhancement by dispersion of GNPs in distilled water. This novel type of nanofluids shows outstanding potential for replacements as advanced heat transfer fluids in medium temperature applications including solar collectors and heat exchanger systems.

Synthesis and characterization of a narrow size distribution of zinc oxide nanoparticles.

Abstract: Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) were synthesized via a solvothermal method in triethanolamine (TEA) media. TEA was utilized as a polymer agent to terminate the growth of ZnO-NPs. The ZnO-NPs were characterized by a number of techniques, including X-ray diffraction analysis, transition electron microscopy, and field emission electron microscopy. The ZnO-NPs prepared by the solvothermal process at 150°C for 18 hours exhibited a hexagonal (wurtzite) structure, with a crystalline size of 33 ± 2 nm, and particle size of 48 ± 7 nm. The results confirm that TEA is a suitable polymer agent to prepare homogenous ZnO-NPs.

A review on global wind energy policy

Abstract: With the increasing negative effects of fossil fuel combustion on the environment in addition to limited stock of fossil fuel have forced many countries to inquire into and change to environmentally friendly alternatives that are renewable to sustain the increasing energy demand. Energy policy plays a vital role to mitigate the impacts of global warming and crisis of energy availability. This paper explores the wind energy industry from the point of view of the wind energy policy. It is noticed that energy policy could help increasing wind power generation as well as stimulating the energy industry. It may be stated that without specific energy policy, a country would not be able to solve the acute problems like reducing greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission, scarcity of energy, etc. This paper discussed the existing successful energy policies for few selected countries. Based on literatures, it has been found that FIT, RPS, incentives, pricing law and Quota system are the most useful energy policies practiced by many countries around the world. Then, status of wind energy policy for Malaysia was investigated and compared with few selected countries around the world.