Research and supervision have become a vital process in the successful of postgraduate studies. Building an academic career path after Higher National Degree or Bachelor Degree needs intensive training and preparation. This culminates in writing of thesis or dissertation. In this process, the supervisor is designated to facilitate the student's research development based on good resources offered by the institution. At this stage, one of the most common complaints from research students concerns infrequent or erratic contact with supervisors, who may be too busy with administrative or teaching responsibilities, have too many students or be away from the university too often. The main objective of this paper is to expose what are postgraduate students' problems in research and supervision. The paper's thrust will be to highlight the importance of supervisory contribution to graduate study and to propose the best practice of supervisory inputs. Developing skills towards an effective supervision needs to be tackled in various ways. Effective supervision is essential to guide postgraduate students during their progress in postgraduate study.

This paper presents the tensile strength of woven kenaf fiber reinforced polyester composites. The as-received yarn kenaf fiber is weaved and then aligned into specific fiber orientations before it is hardened with polyester resin. The composite plates are shaped according to the standard geometry and uni-axially loaded in order to investigate the tensile responses. Two important parameters are studied such as fiber orientations and number of layers. According to the results, it is shown that fiber orientations greatly affected the ultimate tensile strength but it is not for modulus of elasticity for both types of layers. It is estimated that the reductions of both ultimate tensile strength and Young's modulus are in the range of 27.7-30.9% and 2.4-3.7% respectively, if the inclined fibers are used with respect to the principal axis.

The aim of this study is to prepare a dual layer polyvinyl (PVA) patch using a combination of electrospinning techniques and cryogelation (freeze-thaw process) then subsequently to investigate the effect of freeze-thaw cycles, nanofiber thickness, and diclofenac sodium (DS) loading on the physicochemical and mechanical properties and formulation of dual layer PVA patches composed of electrospun PVA nanofibers and PVA cryogel. After the successful preparation of the dual layer PVA patch, the prepared patch was subjected to investigation to assess the effect of freeze-thaw cycles, nanofiber thickness and percentages of DS loading on the morphology, physiochemical and mechanical properties. Various spectroscopic techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), water contact angle, and tensile tests were used to evaluate the physicochemical and mechanical properties of prepared dual layer PVA patches. The morphological structures of the dual layer PVA patch demonstrated the effectiveness of both techniques. The effect of freeze-thaw cycles, nanofiber thickness, and DS percentage loading on the crystallinity of a dual layer PVA patch was investigated using XRD analysis. The presence of a distinct DS peak in the FTIR spectrum indicates the compatibility of DS in a dual layer PVA patch through in-situ loading. All prepared patches were considered highly hydrophilic because the data obtained was less than 90°. The increasing saturation of DS within the PVA matrix increases the tensile strength of prepared patches, however decreased its elasticity. Evidently, the increasing of electrospun PVA nanofibers thickness, freeze-thaw cycles, and the DS saturation has improved the physicochemical and mechanical properties of the DS medicated dual layer PVA patches, making them a promising biomaterial for transdermal drug delivery applications.

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This paper numerically discusses stress intensity factor (SIE) calculations for surface cracks in round bars subjected to single and combined loadings. Different crack aspect ratios, a/b, ranging from 0.0 to 1.2 and the relative crack depth, a j D , in the range of 0.1 to 0.6 are considered. Since the torsion loading is non-symmetrical, the whole finite element model has been constructed, and the loadings have been remotely applied to the model. The equivalent SIE F& is then used to cnmbiue the individual SIF from the bending or tension with torsion loadings. Then, it is compared with the combined SIF, FgE obtained numerically using the finite element analysis under similar loadings. It is found that the equivalent SIF method successfully predicts the combined S E F i Q for Mode I when compared with F;E. However, some discrepancies between the results, determined from the two different a~c h e s ,~ it is also noted that the F$E is higher than the FgQ A.E. Ismail (€3)

Nowadays, natural fibers getting attention from researchers and industries to optimize the use it, with combination of polymers as composite structure, due to environmental awareness. Furthermore, it show a few advantage, such as biodegradability, light in weight and non-toxic characteristic. In this study, kenaf natural fibers was used as reinforcement material, with combination of polyester as matrix material, known as polymer matrix composites. The main purpose of this study is to analysis the mechanical properties of kenaf natural fiber/polyester composite structure, in order to know the suitability of kenaf natural fibers as replacement material for table tennis blade structure, instead of using wood. The structural panel of composite laminates has been produced using hand lay-up technique. The experimental works are performed in tension, impact (Charpy) and shear condition. The characteristic of different condition on kenaf composite structure was studied. Based on the result, it found the properties of kenaf composite structure, and it will used as a benchmark, to compare with initial properties of table tennis blade made by wood. In addition, the strength and a weakness of that particular materials and lamination structure will be identified.

Abstract. This research focuses on the study of oblique impact on kenaf reinforced composite plate. This study summarizes modeling analysis of targets subjected to certain angle of collisions which ranging from 0"-45". Due to the low density, natural fiber such as kenaf fiber provides relatively good mechanical properties than glass fiber. Thus, natwal fibers have high potential for better reinforcement in light weight structures such as aircraft, automobile. In this research, the velocity impact analysis is conducted by using the commercial finite element analysis software, ANSYS. A few finite element models of the nonwoven composite panel and a rigid impactor is developed using ANSYS software. Experimental investigations in determining mechanical properties and validating purposes are conducted in earlier study by using Universal Testing Machine and High Speed Impact Puncher. Total force, total energy, deformation, and energy absorption of kenaf reinforced composite for oblique impact are analyzed and discussed. The rise of oblique angle will increase the energy absorption of the composite. IntroductionOver the past few decades, there has been a growing interest in the use of natural fibers in composite applications. These types of composites present many advantages compared to synthetic fibers, such as low tool wear, low density, cheaper cost, availability, and biodegradability [I-21. The response of composite materials to ballistic impact has been investigated by many researchers [3-61. It is obvious from the open literature that research on ballistic impact has been focused on the high performance fibres, metals and ceramics. In replacing metals and ceramics, syntactic fiber such as aramid fiber was used to produce more lightweight composites. But, it's consumes to increasing cost of composite to be produced. Therefore, many researches had been done on natural fiber based composite [4-71. Producing composite samples and performing the experimental will consume much time and cost. By using finite element analysis software, the natural composite model can be numerically created in short time and many tests can be virtually performed. But, it is important to do a validation process by comparing the experimental and numerical results obtained before any hither work conducted. Natural impacts in which the projectile strikes the target vertically (90" towards plane) are virtually nonexistent. Its normally occurs in oblique impact by which the impacting occurs in a certain angle of collision.