HIGHER EDUCATION FACILITIES MANAGEMENT: READY FOR INTERNATIONALIZATION?

The last ten years has seen dramatic growth in Facilities Management (FM) activities worldwide, including Malaysia. Facilities Management is responsible for coordinating all efforts related to planning, designing and managing physical structure and it equipment, furniture and fixtures to improve the organization’s ability to compete successfully in a fast changing world. The facilities of a Higher Education Institution (HEI) like Universiti Teknologi Malaysia are one of its most valuable assets and must be manage properly in order to meet the need of the Institution’s end-user (Local and International students). This research provides essential concept on the application of facility management in general and specific emphasis on Higher Education facilities like library, class rooms, transportation services, catering services among others. The purpose of this study is to identify and assess whether the facilities provided in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) meet the International students’ requirement and recommend measure necessary to meet the shortfalls of these requirements. 210 questionnaires were administered to seven colleges and quantitative analysis technique was used in the analysis of the result. The finding shows 70% of the respondents (male and female) are satisfied and comfortable with the academic facilities which include (Library, class rooms) however, 30% were not. Similarly, 65% of the respondents said the transportation service (bus) on campus is inefficient. Finding also shows that 55% and 85% of the respondents complained on road signage and catering services. On college facilities, between 58% and 70% of the respondents are satisfied with the college facilities (rooms, desk, bed, sport facilities, parking space). Results indicate that 70% of the respondents complained of the chair provided in their rooms (not to ergonomic standards). Overall result shows that 65% of the respondents are satisfied with the campus facilities while 35% are not satisfied

Simulation of erosion rate in a reducer for liquid-solid flow system using computational fluid dynamics (CFD)

This research aims to simulate the influences of flow parameters such as particles size, stream velocities, and outlet reducer diameter on the erosion rate for a reducer in light crude oil (C19H30)-solid (sand) flow system. A commercially accessible ANSYS Fluent 2020 R1 (Academic Version)-computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was applied to numerically simulate the erosion rate in the reducer. Three separate models were used in the CFD approach called as a continuous flow modelling, Lagrangian particle tracking, and empirical erosion equation. The simulated parameters covered 100 - 500 μm particles size, 3 - 7 m/s stream velocities and 0.0762 - 0.1778 m outlet reducer diameter. It was found that the maximum erosion rate increased with the increasing size of the particles and stream velocities and decreased with the increasing of the outlet reducer diameter. For all the simulated parameters, the location of maximum erosion rate was found to be at the outlet location of the reducer except for the reducer with the diameter larger than 0.1270 m whereby it is located at the inlet location of reducer

A Review of Wearable Sensor Systems for Hand Transmitted Vibration (HTV) Applications

Hand-transmitted vibrations (HTV) are a common occurrence in everyday human life. The vibration exposure differs by individuals and presents a major health risk especially in industries that require manual operation of rotating power tools. Humans can develop symptoms known as hand arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) if this exposure is excessive and unmonitored. This review paper aims to summarize the recent advancements in the field of wearable sensor systems specifically for hand transmitted vibration applications. Available systems are compared, and limitations are highlighted. Aspects of the enabling technologies that allow for the increased significance of wearable systems such as the sensor technology and wireless communication technology are discussed. This paper also proposes a conceptual model of a smart wearable system for hand-transmitted vibration measurements. It is predicted that the wearable sensor technology will transcend measurement and monitoring purposes and will be an important component in hand vibration control applications via cloud-computing and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies

Mental Health Status Among Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) Patients at Tertiary Hospital in Malaysia

Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) is an autoimmune disease that can affect and cause damage to several human organs such as the skin, kidneys, muscles, joints, lungs, heart and brain. Uncontrolled relapses in SLE patients can lead to death. SLE patients and their families also face difficulties due to lack of information about the disease. Therefore, studies focused on the psychological aspects such as symptoms of anxiety and depression among SLE patients is still needed in Malaysia. Thus, this study investigated the psychological status of SLE such as the occurrence of anxiety and depression in SLE patients and its associated factors. A cross sectional study using the purposive sampling was carried out at University Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale questionnaires were used to occurrence of anxiety and depression respectively. Out of 150 SLE patients participated, 46.6% had anxiety while another 33.3% experienced severe depression. Anxiety and depression were significantly correlated with socio demographic factors such as gender (p = 0.006, p = 0.003 respectively), level of education (p = 0.028, p = 0.003 respectively), and monthly income (p = 0.008, p = 0.001 respectively). Overall, socio demographic factors have important influence on the occurrence of anxiety and depression in patients with SLE. Mental health issue among SLE patient in Malaysia should be taken into consideration by health care provider especially by medical social worker

Steric Quenching of Mn(III) Thermal Spin Crossover: Dilution of Spin Centers in Immobilized Solutions

Structural and magnetic properties of a new spin crossover complex [Mn(4,6-diOMe-sal2323)]+ in lattices with ClO4−, (1), NO3−, (2), BF4−, (3), CF3SO3−, (4), and Cl− (5) counterions are reported. Comparison with the magnetostructural properties of the C6, C12, C18 and C22 alkylated analogues of the ClO4− salt of [Mn(4,6-diOMe-sal2323)]+ demonstrates that alkylation effectively switches off the thermal spin crossover pathway and the amphiphilic complexes are all high spin. The spin crossover quenching in the amphiphiles is further probed by magnetic, structural and Raman spectroscopic studies of the PF6− salts of the C6, C12 and C18 complexes of a related complex [Mn(3-OMe-sal2323)]+ which confirm a preference for the high spin state in all cases. Structural analysis is used to rationalize the choice of the spin quintet form in the seven amphiphilic complexes and to highlight the non-accessibility of the smaller spin triplet form of the ion more generally in dilute environments. We suggest that lattice pressure is a requirement to stabilize the spin triplet form of Mn3+ as the low spin form is not known to exist in solution

N-Terminomic Changes in Neurons During Excitotoxicity Reveal Proteolytic Events Associated With Synaptic Dysfunctions and Potential Targets for Neuroprotection.

Excitotoxicity, a neuronal death process in neurological disorders such as stroke, is initiated by the overstimulation of ionotropic glutamate receptors. Although dysregulation of proteolytic signaling networks is critical for excitotoxicity, the identity of affected proteins and mechanisms by which they induce neuronal cell death remain unclear. To address this, we used quantitative N-terminomics to identify proteins modified by proteolysis in neurons undergoing excitotoxic cell death. We found that most proteolytically processed proteins in excitotoxic neurons are likely substrates of calpains, including key synaptic regulatory proteins such as CRMP2, doublecortin-like kinase I, Src tyrosine kinase and calmodulin-dependent protein kinase IIβ (CaMKIIβ). Critically, calpain-catalyzed proteolytic processing of these proteins generates stable truncated fragments with altered activities that potentially contribute to neuronal death by perturbing synaptic organization and function. Blocking calpain-mediated proteolysis of one of these proteins, Src, protected against neuronal loss in a rat model of neurotoxicity. Extrapolation of our N-terminomic results led to the discovery that CaMKIIα, an isoform of CaMKIIβ, undergoes differential processing in mouse brains under physiological conditions and during ischemic stroke. In summary, by identifying the neuronal proteins undergoing proteolysis during excitotoxicity, our findings offer new insights into excitotoxic neuronal death mechanisms and reveal potential neuroprotective targets for neurological disorders

Measurement of charged particle spectra in minimum-bias events from proton-proton collisions at root s =13 TeV

Pseudorapidity, transverse momentum, and multiplicity distributions are measured in the pseudorapidity range vertical bar eta vertical bar 0.5 GeV in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of root s = 13 TeV. Measurements are presented in three different event categories. The most inclusive of the categories corresponds to an inelastic pp data set, while the other two categories are exclusive subsets of the inelastic sample that are either enhanced or depleted in single diffractive dissociation events. The measurements are compared to predictions from Monte Carlo event generators used to describe high-energy hadronic interactions in collider and cosmic-ray physics.Peer reviewe