PROBABILITY AND STATISTIC SOFTWARE FOR ENGINEERING APPLICATION: MODELING AND FORECASTING COPPER PRICES FOR INDUSTRIES

Theobjective of thisfinal year project is to develop a probability and statistics software for engineering application. The chosen engineering application is modeling and forecasting copper prices for industries. The software may be used by managers, market researchers, and survey companies, in making decisions in copper-related business. The price of copper has been volatile over the years due to competing materials, remaining stocks available, and economic uncertainties. Therefore, me software modeling tool will be useful to forecast the future price of copper to enable the user in making someadjustments or preparation in their business. The proposed framework of the system consists of three inter related components, the database that will provide input to the model, the forecasting modeling and user interface that provides a medium for the userto communicate with the system. Three stages have been identified in order to develop the system. They are variable identification, statistical model development and the development of the software. Several variables have been identified but only eight variables are finalized as the independent variables ofthe model. The models mat were identified are multiple regression analysis and time series. The best possible R2 obtained in the modeling is 0.939 which is quite high. The accuracy ofthe forecasted price ofcopper isapproximately higher than 87%.The model is incorporated in an interactive user-friendly interface

Estimating Value of PT. Sentul City TBK, real Estate Sector Company-Using Four Methods valuation

Real Estate sector in Asia, including Indonesia, are experiencing significant progress. This is happens because of the global economic crisis in Europe and America, thus making the investors start to touch the real estate sector, especially Asia. But how big is the value of the real estate sector in Indonesia that makes the investors interested in this sector? From there the author tries to analyze a company engaged in real estate and property sector. PT Sentul City Tbk is a company engaged in the sector and has the most extensive inventory of land in Indonesia compared to other companies in the same sector. In this study, the authors will use four methods to assess the company. The method is Asset-Based Approach, Market Approach, Discounted Cash Flow, and Capitalization Rate. The author also wanted to see whether to assess a company engaged in real estate and property sector will be effective by using the methods already mentioned, especially the Discounted Cash Flow method. The conclusion of this study is that assessing a company engaged in real estate and property sector by using the Discounted Cash Flow method is less effective, especially for companies that have too many land owned.Purpose:   This  research  is  made  to  estimate  the   value   of  PT.Sentul City Tbk. and as the addition, this research also focuses to finding the recommendations that can be implemented to maximize the company value.Design/methodology/approach: The methods that used in this research were Asset Based Approach, Market Approach using P/E Ratio, Discounted Cash Flow using the Weighted Average Cost of Capital as the discount rate, and Capitalization Rate as the adjustment of Net Operating Income to find the value. This research will use the audited fianancial statements from 2007-2011.Findings: The result in this research shows that the company value at the beginning of year 2012 ranged from Rp3,766,066,940,143 - Rp17,153,451,874,388. And the current share price now which is Rp205 per August 10th 2012 is between Rp109-Rp535, which means this company still be a good choice for investors.Research limitations/implications: This research focuses on estimating the value and stock price of the PT. Sentul City Tbk. Originality/value: This paper valuing a public listed company using four method in valuing a firm, and also to know that using discounted cash flow to valuing company in company which have high inventory effective or not.Keywords: Valuation; Real Estate Sector; Asset-BasedApproach; Market Approach; Discounted Cash Flow; Capitalization RateCategory: Financ

Principal's role in the implementation of curriculum effectiveness strategy in Zimbabwean polytechnics

The central aim of this study was to investigatethe role of principals in the implementation of polytechnic curriculum effectiveness strategy (PCS) in Zimbabwe. The specific objectives of the study were to: determine and evaluate the role and strategic leadership skills of polytechnic principals in the development of PCS, understand the challenges faced by polytechnic principals in the development and implementation of PCS, investigate the extent to which principals provide lecturers with opportunities to enhance their teaching skills through professional development and derive a suitable model to be used in drafting and implementing PCS. The main research question which this study sought to answer was, „What is the role played by strategic leadership in the implementation of polytechnic curriculum effectiveness strategy?‟ In an attempt to realise that end, a mixed method research design was used to collect data, making use of questionnaires and interviews. The participants included 5 polytechnic principals, 123 lecturers, 77 students and 9 company training managers. The participants were selected through purposive, stratified and simple random sampling techniques drawn from five polytechnics selected for the study. The findings suggest that most polytechnic principals are rendered ineffective in implementing the PCS. Though the principals have a sound theoretical knowledge of their roles, they however experience a litany of practical impediments. These barriers include, inter alia, lack of curricula knowledge in the currere approach, action research, Basil Bernstein‟s and Paulo Freire‟s pedagogical discourses and reconceptualisation of curriculum, shortage of relevant instructional resources and poorly evaluated polytechnic curriculum, low level of staff incentive, training and development. Two systemic impediments in the principals‟ role of implementing PCS are: lack of autonomy in crafting and implementing PCS and lack consensus between Curriculum Research and Development Unit (CRADU) and National Manpower Advisory Council (NAMACO) in crafting policies on curriculum standards.Educational Leadership and ManagementD. Ed. (Education Management

IRIS BIOMETRICS STEGANOGRAPHIC METHOD WITH PIXEL VALUE DIFFERENCING AND HOUGH TRANSFORM FOR HIGHER SECURITY SYSTEM

In biometric security, steganography has become one of the techniques used in defending biometrics data and system. This is due to fraud to the biometric data and illegal activites occured at the biometrics point of system. The biometric data, which in this study, iris, is preprocessed using Hough Transform in producing the iris feature. The pixel values of iris feature is formed, in order to embed the iris feature with the stego key which gained from the cover image (thumbprint from the same trained sample). Studies showed that various techniques of embedding such as least significant bits and pixel value differencing are among popular researches. However, none has been designed for iris implementation in biometrics system. Therefore, a new technique is presented in this paper which integrates pixel value differencing with Hough method in the iris biometrics system. The proposed method modified the pixels values by modifying the most conservative pixels of the block. The theoritical estimation and results produce a scheme which provide a better embedding. The new simulation method provides an embedding capacity, human visual quality and PSNR value is 39.34 dB which is better than the previous methods