Balanced scorecard framework for IT project tender evaluation

Balanced scorecard (BSC),a strategic performance management tool, provides non -financial performance measures which reflect a more 'balanced' view of organizational performance. It has been extensively used in business industries, government agencies, and non-profit organizations worldwide particularly in aligning their business /management activities to the vision and strategy of their organizations.BSC can also improve internal and external communications, and monitor organizational performance against strategic goals.The BSC approach provides a clear prescription to organizations in identifying non-financial elements/components to be measured in order to 'balance' the financial perspective.The financial perspective is one of the key measures that are normally used in a tender evaluation process.The tender evaluation process is performed to determine and select suitable contractor for a particular project. Therefore, this paper aims to contribute an understanding on the effective use of the BSC and establish a conceptual framework for an information technology (IT) project tender evaluation. The framework describes the objectives and organizes the measures or criterions for tender evaluation based on four different perspectives: financial, internal business process, customer and learning, and growth perspectives

Pengembangan Usaha Petani Sayur untuk Meningkatkan Perekonomian Masyarakat Desa Bulotalangi Timur”

This service activity aims to provide education to farmers and housewives in an effort to develop vegetable farming businesses. So far, vegetables that have only been consumed or marketed to the general public can be converted into other ingredients. The people of this village do not yet understand that these vegetables, especially the produce of kale and spinach vegetable farmers, can be used as other ingredients in the form of snacks, namely as sticks and noodles. The processing process does not require a lot of money, but when it is marketed it will be able to increase the economic value of the community. The method used is direct training to groups of housewives and vegetable farmers with innovative technology. From the results of the implementation of this activity, the community was very enthusiastic about participating in the activity and was interested in making/producing kangkong chips and spinach noodles themselves. The community also suggested that they would make a business in the form of snacks as well, apart from those made from kale and spinach, according to their statements after participating in the training activitie

Unconfined compressive strength and microstructure of clay soil stabilised with biomass silica

This study presents the Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) and microstructure of clay soil stabilized with locally made Biomass Silica (BS) in the form of SH-85. Since the construction of highway on soft soil raises many problems due to its low strength, understanding about the basic characteristics of soft clay and mixed with BS, play important role for improving the strength of the soft clay. The study carried out had the specific objectives to determine engineering properties of soft clay, to investigate the UCS of soft clay treated with BS and to analyze microstructure of the soft soil treated by BS with respect to various curing periods. In this study, 30 samples of clay soil were prepared under various curing periods (0, 7, 14 and 28 days) and mixed with BS at various percentages (5%, 7% and 9%). The test results show that BS can increase the strength of the clay soil. The 9% BS treated sample for 7 days curing time achieved UCS of 710 kPa. This was approximately 6 times greater than that of untreated soil strength. The highest strength was 1216 kPa at 28 days curing for soil mixed with 9% BS. The images of Scanning Electron Microscopic show that the voids of the clay would filled by the new component resulted by the reaction of BS stabilizer with the natural clay samples. This led to a continuous soil fabric resulting with stronger and denser soil

Soft soil improvement using chemical-rubber chips mixture

Soft soils are widely found in many areas around the world as well as in Malaysia. Marine clay is one of the problematic soft soils. The marine clay should be pretreated before the construction to enhance the usability and serviceability of highway constructed on this type of soil. This paper presents the research results on the usability of chemical (SH-85)rubber chips mixtures as the stabilizing agent in improving the characteristics of marine clay from two engineering perspectives; the strength and the compressibility. Three types of laboratory tests were conducted; index soil test, unconfined compression test and oedometer test. The results show that the treated samples had higher unconfined compressive strength compared to untreated sample. The strength of marine clay increased when the amount of the SH-85 increased. The void ratio reduced in value when the chemical-rubber chips mixture was added to the marine clay. It is due to the chemical that acts as a binder that interlocks the rubber chips and the marine clay particles, reducing the compressibility. It has been concluded that the mixture of chemical-rubber chips with 8% SH-85 plus 1% of rubber chips is more effectively improved the characteristics of marine clay

A Virological Study of Enterovirus Infections in Peninsular Malaysia

Background: Hand, foot, and mouth disease (HFMD) is a common illness in infants and children. It can be caused by many different human enteroviruses. Of these human enteroviruses, human enterovirus 71 (EV71) infection is more frequently associated with serious neurological complications and fatalities. The emergence of this virus emphasized the need for surveillance study and identification of EV71 to provide early warning of potential EV71 encephalitis outbreaks and assist in directing public health interventions as well as inform clinical decisions. This surveillance study was aimed to examine the prevalence of enteroviruses and EV71 in suspected clinical specimens. Methods: Samples preparation: Specimens with the clinical and epidemiological data were received from various hospitals in West Malaysia from January to December 2007. The samples were analyzed immediately upon arrival in our laboratory otherwise stored at −80 ◦C. RNA extraction: The RNA from the specimens were extracted using High Pure Viral Nucleic Acid Kit. PCR analysis and primer sequences: One step RT-PCR was employed with primers EVPCR1 (5�-ACA-CGG-ACA-CCCAAA-GTA-GTC-GGT-TCC-3�) and EVPCR2 (5�-TCC-GGC-CCCTGA-ATG-CGG-CTA-ATC-C-3�) for enteroviruses and MAS01S (5�-ATA-ATA-GCA-YTR-GCG-GCA-GCC-CA-3�) and MAS02A (5�-AGA-GGG-AGR-TCT-ATC-TCY-CC-3�) for EV71. Results: A total number of 2,381 clinical specimens were analyzed for the presence of enteroviruses and EV71 by RTPCR analysis. Out of all of the specimens analyzed, 531 (22.3%) were positive for enteroviruses and 21 (0.04%) of these were positive for EV71. These results showed that EV71 is less prevalent than other enteroviruses in the clinical specimens analyzed. Conclusion: The outcomes of the present surveillance study suggested that the EV71 which is more frequently associated with serious neurological and complications and fatalities is less prevalent than other enteroviruses. The results obtained also confirmed the usefulness of the PCR as a simple and rapid method for the detection of enteroviruses and discrimination of EV71 from other enteroviruses in clinical specimens

Performance characteristics of embankment on soft ground

Soft clay deposits are available along the west coast and some parts of the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Due to the increase in population and good economic growth, a lot of projects are implemented in these areas. Constructions on soft clays are often affected by stability and settlement problems. In order to counter these problems, one has to know the engineering properties of the soft clay. Therefore, the first objective of this study is to determine the engineering characteristics of soft clay. Samples of soft clay for this study are taken at certain depth from construction sites being carried out along Peninsular Malaysia. This study is carried out to identify the engineering properties of soft clay such as soil index, consolidation characteristics, shear strength parameters, mineralogy and microstructure of the soil

Numerical parametric simulations for seepage flow behaviour through an earthfill dam

A finite element method is practical and applicable for many fields including for geotechnical engineering structures. Seepage through earth dam is difficult to analyse especially dams with multiple zones. Therefore, finite element is the best tool for analyzing seepage flow in an earthfill dam. The main objective of the project is to simulate the seepage flow through an earthfill dam. Three sets of steady state numerical modeling are presented in the paper. Two sets of parametric studies on long-term steady state flow were conducted using homogeneous and zoned earthfill dams for studying the behaviour of seepage in the dams. The third set of the simulations is a case study, which is analysis of steady state seepage condition for Kuala Yong Dam, the main part of Pergau Hydroelectric Project, Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). The seepage quantity at the core and the downstream section were determined for the steady state flow condition. The results of the parametric simulations show that the total fluxes at downstream changes with the coefficient of permeability value. The flux quantity changes linearly with maximum seepage velocity. Significant differences can be observed in the case study, for the analysis using the coefficient of permeability function (varies with matric suction) versus analysis using a constant coefficient of permeability. Relationship between flux quantity at downstream and maximum seepage velocity is non-linear when hydraulic conductivity function is introduced in seepage analysi

A simulation study of slope stability affected by construction of new buildings at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai.

Landslide occurrences had caused failure of sheet pile wall located about 6 m from Bangunan Tambahan, Fakulti Kejuruteraan Mekanikal (FKM), Universiti Telcnologi Malaysia in Skudai, Johor. With the aim of investigating cause(s) of the failure, the slope stability conditions prior and after construction were simulated using SLOPE/W Version 3.03. The results showed that effects of load of a newly filled water tank sited on the top of slope contributed to subsident of the slope surface within the vicinity by creating tension cracks near its raft footing. The slope became more unstable as the soil moisture or pore-water pressure increased due to infiltration of rainwater. This has reduced the shear strength, in particular the cohesion value, c. The simulation also confirmed the hyphothesis that the global soil mass movement started from the hill top where the water tank was located toward the installed sheet pile. The combined mobilized shear force and lateral pressure of the global slope was about 8 times the strength of the sheet pile. The associated stresses are found to be related to the formation of the heave pushing up the soil at the toe of slope and soil under the road pavement adjacent to the new laboratory buildings

Parametric study on seepage flow in unsaturated and saturated zones in earthfill dam

Earthfill dam, also called Earth Dam, or Embankment Dam, dam built up by compacting successive layers of earth, using the most impervious materials to form a core and placing more permeable substances on the upstream and downstream sides