Use Of Data Mining In Business Analytics To Support Business Competitiveness

Inthis paper, the use of data mining and text mining techniques in businessanalytics and how they support the use of business intelligence in e-businessesare discussed.  The distinction betweendata mining, business analytics and business intelligence is presented.  Suggestions on how electronic businesses canleverage on data mining to enhance their competitiveness are discussed

Gender Inequality Affecting Women’s Career Progression in Malaysia

The objective of this research is to assess whether gender inequality affects women’s career progression in Malaysia. The study examines the relationship between patriarchy, gender stereotypes, organisational cultural factors, family factors, and individual factors with women’s career progression. The study has adopted the Glass Ceiling Theory and feminist theory. A total of 250 questionnaires were collected from women employees working in Malaysia. The study revealed that patriarchy, organisational cultural factors, and family factors had a significant relationship with women’s career progression while gender stereotypes and individual factors had no significant relationship with women’s career progression. The findings of this study contribute to women’s empowerment in society, and for companies and the Government of Malaysia to have a better understanding of the factors involved in women’s career progression in Malaysia. This study contributes to the Glass Ceiling Theory and feminist thought by determining the relationship of these theories with regard to women’s career progression in Malaysia

Graphene based electrode decorated with nanoparticles for detection of high priority trace heavy metals in aqueous solutions

Water is essential to keep us to survive, but improper and careless treatment of the wastewater from industrialization may cause the release of heavy metals, such as Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd) and Copper (Cu) to water supply. These heavy metals may disrupt the supply chains and human health if the food and water were overdosed with heavy metals. Hence, detection of trace heavy metals in water is important for human health. The electroanalysis method was used with newly developed graphene-based working electrodes for the detection of trace heavy metals in aqueous solutions in this research due to their inexpensiveness, portability and sensitivity. In this project, two methods were used in the fabrication of the graphene-based electrodes. The first was an electrochemical method, with which drop-cast graphene oxide (GO) was electrochemically reduced to reduced graphene oxide (RGO). The electrochemical method was selected because it is simple and economic. In order to enhance the sensitivity of the electrodes, the electrochemically reduced RGO (ERGO) electrodes were decorated with tin nanoparticles (SnNPs). The second method was thermal reduction, where the drop-cast GO was thermally reduced to RGO at a high temperature. The thermal reduction method was chosen because it could potentially achieve large scale production. In addition, the thermally reduced RGO was further decorated with platinum (Pt) NPs to improve its sensitivity and selectivity towards the analytes (Cd2+, Pb2+ and Cu2+) in electroanalysis. In the characterization of the fabricated electrodes, several instruments, such as x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Raman spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) were been used. XPS was employed to investigate the reduction percentage of RGO by studying the carbon to oxygen (C/O) ratio. Raman spectroscopy was used to determine the graphitic structure of RGO by studying the D/G intensity ratio (ID/IG). FE-SEM was used to study the surface microstructure of the RGO based electrodes, while EDS was used to verify the elemental composition of metal NPs decorated RGO. In order to study the electrochemical behaviour of the electrodes, cyclic voltammetry (CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) were performed. The surface reversibility of the RGO based electrodes could be identified through CV, while the electron-transfer resistance (Ret) at the interface between electrodes and electrolytes could be determined through EIS. After that, several parameters, such as pH of buffer solution, pre-concentration potential and pre-concentration time, were systematically investigated to optimize the working conditions of the RGO-based electrodes during electroanalysis. Furthermore, the reproducibility, repeatability and storage stability of the prepared electrodes were also analyzed. After that, square wave anodic stripping voltammetry (SWASV) was performed to detect the analytes in aqueous solutions. Calibrations of the RGO-based electrodes were carried out to investigate the performance of the electrodes in electroanalysis, in terms of sensitivity, stability and selectivity. In addition, the limit of detection (LOD) of the analytes obtained from the electrodes was determined. Finally, real sample application was performed to justify the feasibility of the prepared RGO-based electrodes.Doctor of Philosophy (IGS

Development of microbubbles for molecular imaging and theraphy

This project focused on the development of microbubbles that will be used in medical imaging. In this project, experiment and numerical studies were carried out to investigate the microbubbles behaviours. The experiment focused on creation of polymer type of microbubbles. The size distribution of the microbubbles was measured and calculated by using hemocytometer. The microbubbles size obtained from the different concentration of PVA was 5μm to 70μm.Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical Engineering

An Activity Based Costing Approach to Systems Development and Implementation

Many organizations are in the process of replacing legacy systems with large, integrated systems using new technological platforms. Accurate estimation of project resources required and appropriate allocation of actual development and implementation costs to users are two critical issues faced. This study proposes an activity based costing (ABC) approach to estimating and recovering system development and implementation costs. We develop the model in the context of a bank, using a two-stage approach. A prototype is first developed using two systems projects. Development of the prototype requires us to identify the resource pools and attendant costs, the major development activities, the consumption of resource costs by activities, the primary cost driver for each activity, and the driver rates for allocating activity costs to the system being implemented. The prototype model is then refined and validated using additional data collected from another 20 projects

Control of wireless power transfer to a bioelectronic device by harmonic feedback

We demonstrate control of wireless power transfer to an implanted bioelectronic device using harmonic feedback from the backscattered field. The feedback mechanism relies only on inherent nonlinearities in the receiver circuit and can provide a direct measurement of the extracted power without any modification of the device. We use the method to control an implanted light-emitting diode while varying the coupling between the source and receiver