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LAPORAN TAHUNAN
UNIVERSITI PERTAHANAN
NASIONAL MALAYSIA
2015
penyel idikan
dan inovasi
Produk
Biodegradability
of Polylactic-Acid/
Layered Double
Hydroxides
Nanocomposites
Oxide-Based
Diluted Magnetic
Semiconductor
Through Rare-
Earth Gadolinium
Incorporation
Developing an
Instrument to
Measure Intangible
Human Factors in
Combat Climate
of Military UMTS
for Combat
Effectiveness in The
Malaysian Army
Nama Penyelidik
Puan Siti Hasnawati binti
Jamal, Prof. Dato’ Dr. Wan
Md Zin bin Wan Yunus, Prof.
Dr. Mansor bin Ahmad@
Ayob, Prof. Madya Dr. Ong
Keat Khim, Dr. Noor Azilah
Mohd Kasim, Mejar Madinah
binti Jaafar Mad Ariff, Mohd
Juneady bin Osman
Prof. Madya Dr. Siti Nooraya
binti Mohd Tawil, Nurul
Fadzilah binti Ab Rasid
Lt kol Inderjit Singh A/L Tara
Singh, Lt kol S Ananthan
(B),Kolonel Kwong Fook Wen,
Dr. Norshima Zainal Shah,
Zaidatulakmal binti Mohd
Radzi
Bil.
4.
5.
6.
Anugerah
Perak
Perak
Perak
Ringkasan Produk
Poly(lactic acid) (PLA) is a biodegradable plastic
polymer that has to be modified to reduce its
brittleness to make it more useful for some
industrial applications. One of the ways used
to alter this mechanical property is to mix this
material with a small amount of nanofiller to
produce nanocomposites. In this study, PLA
nanocomposites were prepared by mixing this
polymer with a surfactant modified layered double
hydroxide (LDH). The presence of the inorganic
filler may change the product biodegradability;
therefore a biodegradability study was carried
out by natural soil burial test. The degradation
rates of the pure PLA and PLA nanocomposites
were then compared and found that the rate of
the PLA nanocomposite is bigger than that of the
pure PLA indicating that the presence of the LDH
increases the PLA biodegradability.
The doping of oxide-based semiconductors
with rare-earth ions may serve as an alternative
to transition metal doping with the possibility of
room-temperature ferromagnetism. The availability
of such material that exhibits ferromagentism in
addition to the charge of carriers is prerequisite for
realizing various types of multifunctional electronic
devices and military relevant applications. To
achieve that purpose, rare earth Gd ions were
incorporated into ZnO semiconductors deposited
on glass substrates by means of sol-gel spin-
coating technique. It was found that the MFM
amplitude image shows clear magnetic domain
structures in which the bright and dark contrast of
domains associates to the high concentrations of
positive and negative poles especially in sample
doped with much higher Gd composition.
The climate of a unit has a direct impact on
its effectiveness. Reviewing the unit climate is
important for a commander as that would allow
him to manage his human resource effectively.
Thus, a tool for the review is necessary for
assessment of military units. This paper highlights
the research done in developing a command
climate survey tool for commanders. The paper
addresses the unit command climate survey
factors such as morale, leadership, cohesion,
quality of life and human relations environment.
The research adopted the quantitative method
approach using the post-positivism philosophy as
its philosophical paradigm. Proportionate stratified
random sampling was used for sampling and
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used
for the statistical validation of the model with the
data (n = 1,132). The results indicate that the
unit command climate could be explained by the
domains of morale and environment (R2 = 0.319).
Morale comprises of the dimensions of leadership,
motivation, espirit de corps and spirituality
while environment involves the dimensions of
work, neighbourhood, family and friends, and
community. The Importance-Performance Matrix
Analysis (IPMA) shows that both the morale and
the environment domains have similar total effect
on the command climate of a unit. However,
environment demonstrates a more important role
in determining the outcome of the unit command
climate when compared to morale. The paper
offers a stand-alone survey tool for a commander
who can administer it to obtain score and tally
the results for an analysis of the unit climate. This
would provide indications of the surveyed unit’s
strengths and weaknesses.