Role of Social Commerce Forums in Establishing Purchase Intention: A Nexus Between Credibility, Trust and E-Commerce Satisfaction

Social media is persuading to consumers in field of social commerce (S-Commerce) by providing goods or services and fulfill their demands in a very short period of time. Electronic-satisfaction (e-satisfaction) and credibility have distinctive activities of social media that motivate and successively build the trust at various stages of purchase intentions. For better understanding it is necessary to recognize the factors of social commerce such as referrals, reviews & ratings because they have a strong influence on buying behaviour of ecommerce consumers. A quantitative and descriptive approach has been projected through simple random sampling. A cross-sectional data of 250 participants were collected by a survey questionnaire from social commerce users examined through Partial Least Square- Structural Educational Modeling-3 (PLS-SEM-3). A social support theory has supported relationship on trust through social media activities, surface credibility, and presumedcredibility as well as e-commerce satisfaction. Interestingly trust, surface and presumed credibility considerably significant impact on e-commerce and social commerce satisfaction that leads to develop purchase intention. The current study theoretically contributes novel indicator, presumed credibility in the social commerce industry and practically it promotes specific websites that triggers trust

Performance of Low Cost Alternative Radiant Cooling Panel in Malaysia

Radiant panel cooling is still considered uncommon in Malaysia due to unavailability of local manufacturers with limited architects or engineers who are familiar in the system. The initial construction cost for radiant cooling system may be higher than air system and not forgetting the need for a smaller supplementary air system to dehumidify the air to avoid condensation which is an inherited problem of the system in hot and humid region. Promotion and public awareness is lacking in the country and very much dependable on government demonstration program of green technology application where only a few governments owned building having such system. With the aim of long term energy and cost saving this study looks into the development of custom design and locally assembled low cost radiant cooling panel and how its performance in comparison to its overseas and more expensive counterpart could help in provide alternative cheaper building cooling system. Custom build cooling panels with selected materials were constructed and tested to find out its cooling capacity. Finite Element Method (FEM) software was used to establish a design chart to assist in the design and sizing of the alternative radiant panel for Malaysian residential house. The experiment shows that cooling performance in term of mean surface temperature and its cooling capacity is almost identical to its overseas counterpart. Use of cooling radiant panel with free night cooling of water as its chill water supply shows a significant energy saving potential while at the same time provide an acceptable room thermal comfort. Given the local made product having similar performance and suits local condition the technology could grow and be applied with confidence.       Â

Renewable indoor radiant cooling and earth tube heat exchanger hybrid for thermal comfort improvement

This study investigates the applicability of hydronic radiant cooling system charged with night cooled water to cool down building in Sarawak particularly for low income building to a thermally acceptable level. The system uses night sky as well as the ground as a heat sink source to passively cool the building while operating at a low energy level. Results from building energy simulation program or Energy Plus shows that for a stand-alone hydronic radiant system only 77% of the time the thermal condition could meet ASHRAE acceptable PMV thermal condition between -0.5 and + 0.5. Another simulation of the radiant and earth tube system hybrid further improved the indoor thermal condition significantly by 100% to meet the same PMV level. The hybrid system was able to improve the baseline uncomfortable operative temperature of 37oC to 28.5oC while meeting the average comfort zone upper limit for Malaysia of 30.1 oC. Simulation on energy spent shows that as much as 94% energy could be saved by using the hybrid system. This level of saving is not impossible as renewable night cooled water was used to charge the indoor hydronic radiant cooling system

Microextraction of Xenobiotics and Biomolecules from Different Matrices on Nano Structures

Sample preparation is the backbone of any analytical procedure; it involves extraction and pre-concentration of the desired analytes; often at trace levels. The present article describes the applications of nanomaterials (carbon based inorganic and polymeric materials) in miniaturized extraction such as solid phase micro-extraction, stir-bar sorptive extraction, liquid phase micro-extraction, and dispersive liquid phase micro-extraction in the analyses of aqueous samples. The nanoparticles used for micro-extractions are discussed on the basis of their chemical natures. The synthetic route and the preparation of nanomaterials are described along with the optimization strategies for micro-extraction. A comparison between the conventional materials and nanomaterials for micro-extraction is proposed. The key roles of the nanomaterials for the micro-extraction of different analytes such as drugs, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, proteins and peptides from aqueous samples are reported. The use of nanomaterials, combined with miniaturized micro-extraction techniques, proved to be highly promising for sample preparation of various matrices with analytes at trace levels

Investigation of thermal characteristics of CNF-based nanofluids for electronic cooling applications

A major problem being faced by existing coolants is the limited amount of heat that can be absorbed by the fluids. An innovative way to overcome this limitation is by utilizing a nano-coolant as a heat transfer medium in a cooling application. This paper was aimed at formulating an efficient nanofluid from Pyrograf III HHT24 carbon nanofibers (CNF) in a base fluid consisting of deionized water (DI) and ethylene glycol (EG) with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as the dispersant. The experiment was conducted by setting the variable weight percentage of CNF from 0.1 wt% to 1.0 wt%, with the base fluid ratio of 90:10 (DI:EG) weight percent. Then, the thermal properties of the formulated nanofluids were investigated. The test on the thermal conductivity of the nanofluids showed that the highest thermal conductivity of 0.642 W/m.K in this experiment was produced when the concentration of nanofluid is 0.5 wt% at a temperature of 40°C. Experimental investigations into the forced convective heat transfer performance of the CNF-based nanofluid in a laminar flow through a mini heat transfer test rig showed that the presence of nanoparticles enhanced the heat transfer coefficient as opposed to the original base fluid. The highest heat transfer coefficient was reported using nanofluid with a concentration of 0.6 wt% at 40°C. The enhancement of the heat transfer coefficient was due to the higher thermal conductivity value. The Nusselt number was also calculated and presented in this paper. This study showed that the CNF-based nanofluids have a huge potential to replace existing coolants in electronic cooling applications. Thus, in order to commercialize nanofluids in practice, more fundamental studies are needed to understand the crucial parameters that affect their thermal characteristics. Keywords: carbon nanofibers; nanofluid; thermal conductivity; heat transfe

Thermal conductivity and viscosity of deionised water and ethylene glycol-based nanofluids

This paper focused on thermal conductivity and viscosity of deionised water and ethylene glycol-based nanofluids at three different temperatures (6C, 25C and 40C). For the preparation of nanofluids, a two-step method, comprised of homogenisation and sonication, was used on a mixture of MWCNT-OH, PVP and the base fluid. The results revealed that thermal conductivity was enhanced by about 8.86% for 0.8 wt% deionised water-based MWCNT-OH nanofluid, and by 5.37% for 0.2 wt% ethylene glycol-based MWCNT-OH nanofluid. Meanwhile, in viscosity test, the highest temperature of 40C exhibited lowest viscosity. This phenomenon happened only with ethylene glycol-based nanofluid, whilst the data on the viscosity of deionised water-based nanofluid was inconsistent at certain nanofluid concentrations . In conclusion, addition of MWCNT-OH into base fluid enhanced base fluid performance , giving it the potential to be used in cooling system applications. Keywords: Nanofluids; thermal conductivity; viscosity

Investigation of earth tube system application in low income building in Kuching, Sarawak

Modern residential building in Malaysia particularly in Sarawak rarely consider the ground as a source of heat sink to cool down the building. This is probably due to the lack of information on surveyed ground temperature and energy modelling of such building. A typical low income residential building in Sarawak with earth tube was modelled in Energy Plus to determine the effect of earth tube to passively cool the building in Sarawak. From the simulation result, the indoor air temperature of the east facing zone of the building could be lowered from 33°C to 29.5°C. A further drop of about 0.6°C could be achieved if the room volume served by the earth tube is reduced. The PMV of the building were greatly reduced from 3 to 1.5 on a thermal sensation scale. The operative temperature is within 80% acceptability limits of 30.3°C operative temperature as per ASHRAE Standard 55 for naturally conditioned spaces. © School of Engineering, Taylor’s University

Night Cooled Radiant Cooling Panel for Sustainable Building Cooling Mode in Malaysia

Night air temperature in Malaysia is generally about 23°C and is a potential source of heat sink to dissipate heat gain from a building. A thermal storage tank was used to store a certain quantity of water and was passively cooled during the night using the pitched roof as a heat exchanger to chill the water to as low as 22°C. The free cooling of water was then used as a cooling medium to cool the modular radiant cooling panel during the day time when the outdoor temperature exceeds 30°C. The experiment shows that the system was able to maintain an indoor temperature of less than 28°C when the outdoor temperature peaked to nearly 34°C while providing acceptable thermal comfort with certain controlled air movement. The use of the hydronic radiant cooling panel with free night cooled water as its coolant is proven to have signifcant energy saving potential of up to 85% while at the same time provide an acceptable room thermal comfort which meets the international standard criteria such as the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 55

Decision making approaches in project management: A study in the Malaysian construction industry

It was May 1992; Jamilus Hussien, had been given 24-hour notice to report for duty to head the new airport task force that was the KL International Airport (KLIA). The Public Works Department engineer was overwhelmed.“I had managed million ringgit projects, but to be summoned overnight for a multi-billion ringgit project floored me….” The Government allocated one billion ringgit for initial start-up costs that included land acquisition for the replacement airport in Sepang. The responsibility was assigned to KL International Airport Berhad (KLIAB), a newly formed wholly government-owned entity under the Minister of Finance Incorporated and Jamilus Hussein as the Managing Director.The rest of the task force had similar directives, and were thrown into the deep end to evaluate a project that had no precedence in Malaysia. Normally this kind of project will take 10 to12 years.Apparently, the biggest challenge for KLIAB was the deadline.The urgency to have the airport built by 1998 required innovative strategies to manage the project