The COVID-19 pandemic has forced higher-education institutions to switch to emergency online learning. This situation has also challenged the Muslim communities and institutions across the world to shift to the online mode of teaching Quran and Islamic studies. This research explored undergraduate students’ and instructors’ perceptions of the emergency online learning of Quran reading in Indonesia. Several aspects were analysed to compare the students’ perspective towards face-to-face class versus online learning, including class interaction, learning experience, motivation, satisfaction and comfort level. The study also compared students’ Quran reading performance in the online-learning setting with the records from a traditional face-to-face class during the previous year. The survey and performance data were obtained from 923 students. The findings indicated no significant difference in students’ performance between Quran reading classes in face-to-face and online classroom settings. Furthermore, although students and instructors felt that some aspects had changed, they generally tended to accept the Quran class in online mode. This is likely because, amidst the pandemic, students and instructors have no other options except to adapt to the rapid change and embrace the transition. Nevertheless, the study indicated signs of fatigue and reduction in the students’ acceptance of the Quran online learning over time.

In the globe, 40% of heat losses in domestic buildings were caused by single glazing windows usage and around 20% were due to air infiltration. Therefore, an improvement for the single glazed windows and reducing the air infiltration must be considered to lower the energy consumption. This study aims to investigate the thermal performance of the secondary glazing sheet on the ordinary windows in the low-income dwellers. The PVC sheets were used as the secondary glazing which easies to tailor and fit into the windows frame in the living room. Besides, a commercial foam insulation tape was used to seal the air leakage of the windows. The indoor and outdoor temperatures of a living room, pre-and post-retrofitting, were measured and the U-values were compared based on ISO 9869:2014 standard. It is found that the respective temperature differences between indoor and outdoor at pre-and post-retrofitting were 5.6 °C and 8.6 °C. The post-retrofitting indoor temperature was more stable, with fewer fluctuations compared to the pre-treatment. Furthermore, the U-values were improved by 57% where the number before and after retrofitting found to be 5.71±0.01 W/m 2 K and 3.23±0.01 W/m 2 K, respectively. The utilization of the proposed glazing and diminishing the air infiltration on a single glazing window play the key role in improving the thermal comfort, cheaper than commercial double glazing, eco-friendly, and easy to install.

Warm-mix asphalt (WMA) is commonly mixed and compacted 15°C to 30°C below that of conventional hot mix asphalt (HMA). The lower production temperature of WMA is expected to give an advantage of a lower cooling time of newly laid asphalt overlay before it can be opened to traffic during the nighttime airfield pavement construction. The reduced cooling time of WMA would allow shorter airport closure time window and/or extend the time for the contractor for paving, and thus shorten the overall construction period due to more volume done each night. This is a beneficial practical advantage to hectic airports where the typical off-peak period is as short as 6-8 hours. In this research, two different WMA technologies, Sasobit® and Rediset® (organic and chemical) were investigated through laboratory tests to see if there were notable differences in WMA rutting performance that could have considerable practical effects on the permissible temperature at the opening to traffic as compared to the HMA. Furthermore, a validated finite element (FE) solution for one-dimensional transient heat-transfer model is used to simulate the effect of the use of warm mix on shortening the cooling time and the overall project time. The laboratory test shows that the WMA with Sasobit has a significantly better rutting performance at the elevated temperature, enabling the WMA to be opened to traffic at a higher temperature, compared to HMA. The cooling analysis showed that, in comparison to HMA, the use of WMA could shorten the closure time of airport during the night time construction by 8-67 minutes, depending on the asphalt overlay thickness, traffic opening temperature and WMA production temperature. The use of WMA could also minimize the overall construction period by 2-16 nights for a single lift overlay, for the cases studied.

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