Development Of Design Response Spectra For Penang Island [QE538.8. F146 2007 f rb].

Semenanjung Malaysia terletak di dalam kawasan yang kejadian gempa buminya kurang aktif yang dipanggil ‘para Sunda yang stabil’ dan dianggap sebagai kawasan yang bebas dari kejadian gempa bumi. The Peninsular Malaysia is located in a low–seismicity region, the so called ‘stable Sunda Shelf’, thus, it is assumed to be an earthquake free zone

Values and moral development of undergraduate accounting students at an Islamic university and a non-religious university in Malaysia

This thesis explores the implications of education within the context of an Islamic university on ethical development of accounting students, namely, on the aspects of moral reasoning ability and personal value preferences. A mixed-methodology research approach was used to address the thesis’ two-part research purpose. First, a case study investigation was carried out to explore the values that are emphasized at the Islamic University, and the ways the values are conveyed to the students. For comparison purpose, a similar investigation was conducted on the case of another university with generally secular orientation. The case study data were generated from semi-structured interviews with faculty members and students, documents, and direct observation. Second, data on moral reasoning ability and personal value preferences of accounting students at the two universities were gathered using a survey instrument containing Rest’s Defining Issues Test (DIT) and Schwartz’s Values Survey (SVS). The survey data were analyzed to establish the differences between accounting students from the two universities, and changes that could have taken place during their course of study. The findings of the case study revealed that the Islamic University indicates a greater commitment toward developing the students’ moral character, namely, by instilling Islamic values. There were indications that such values are delivered through the formal curriculum, the lecturers, and some aspects of the university’s general environment. Analyses of the survey data, on the other hand, have yielded mixed results. While moral reasoning ability was found to be higher for students at the Islamic University, there was no evidence of an increase with progression into a higher level of study, which is in contrast with the case of students at the non-religious University. There were also differences between these two cohorts as regards personal value preferences, particularly, in respect of values that are associable with religious commitment. In general, however, significant changes in personal value preferences seem unlikely for students at both universities. Overall, the findings have contributed toward understanding the impact of university setting on ethical development of accounting students, and thus are of potential benefits to accounting educators and regulators

Cooperative beamsteering in wireless sensor network based on backtracking search algorithm

The progressive development of Wireless Sensor Network (WSNs) contributes to many applications such as in the intelligent transport system (ITS), safety monitoring, military and in natural disasters prevention. In parallel to WSNs, the idea of internet of things (IoT) is developed where IoT can be defined as an interconnection between identifiable devices within the internet connection in sensing and monitoring processes. With recent growth in both size and power efficient computing, the concept of the ubiquitous WSN has aggressively emerged as an acknowledged research topic. As the capabilities of individual nodes in WSNs increase, so does the opportunity to perform more complicated tasks, such as cooperative beamsteering (CB). This CB manages to improve the range of communications and save precious battery power during the transmission. Therefore, this research proposes a meta-heuristic algorithm to organize node location in array arrangement. It is expected to effectively improve radiation beampattern fluctuations, exhibits lower complexity and less energy. From the simulation that has been done, it's observed that the proposed algorithm helps to reduce the side lobe level, thus better radiation beampattern is achieved

A completeness evaluation of patient records in medical tourism using completeness evaluation tool

Medical tourism is a new and fresh industry that is not fully explored by researchers. In fact, there are too few medical tourism data due to the lack of exploration in this area. In recent years, it is shown that medical tourism industry is blooming. People travel worldwide in order to find cheaper, available and accessible medical treatments. However, when people travel a lot from one place to another for medical treatments, some of their medical records went missing or incomplete. Due to lack of tuple-based completeness evaluation tool in medical tourism, the completeness of patients’ medical records in hospital databases are unknown.This study aims to investigate data completeness issues in medical tourism. This study also proposes a prototype that able to evaluate tuple-based completeness of patients’ medical records. This study will involve two important phases which are investigation and implemention phase. In investigation phase, various literatures regarding data completeness issues in database are reviewed. In implementation phase, the prototype is developed to evaluate tuple-based completeness. In this study, diabetes patient records from 1999 until 2008 of clinical care at 130 United State hospitals were collected. A prototype is developed by using object-oriented and PL/SQL programming. The method used to evaluate tuple-based completeness is aggregate measure. This prototype is able to evaluate tuple-based completeness of patients’ medical record. To justify the results generated from tuple-based completeness evaluation, the prototype also evaluate null-based completeness. An experiment is conducted based on three cases using three different patients’ medical records which are Patient X, Y and Z. From the experiment, the completeness of patients’ medical records for each Patient X, Y and Z are known. As a conclusion, data completeness issues of patients’ medical records in medical tourism are explored and the prototype is able to evaluate both tuple-based and null-based completeness of patients’ medical records

STARZ-DRP: Improving Efficiency of Patient Care in Community Pharmacies

Customers are always becoming the center of interest among the physicians, dentists, and pharmacists in the healthcare system. However, they are always having favorable feeling with the community pharmacists (CPs) as the first spot to seek advice. For that reason, it is essential to determine the character, behavior, and habit of customers toward the CPs and their extended pharmacy services. In addition, it is critical to determine the possible factors, which might have an effect on their characters, behaviors, and habits. The outcome of the analysis might help the CPs to understand the scenario in a particular way. Afterward, a structured and systematic approach known as “STARZ-DRP” is instigated as a basic skill to ensure whether each pharmacist has the self-confidence and self-competence to interact with the customers. The entire course of action shall empower the strength of personality among the CPs in the healthcare system

STARZ-DRP: A STRUCTURED FRAMEWORK FOR TEACHING COMMUNITY PHARMACISTS TO COUNSEL SELF-CARE CUSTOMERS

Objective: Aim of this study is to take a look at the community pharmacists' (CPs) self-rating confidence of advocating self-care customers using before and after attending a STARZ-DRP training workshop.Methods: CPs (n=231) in the state of Penang had been invited via e-mail to engage in a STARZ-DRP training workshop. CPs had been trained to assess individual features and analyse the facts and figures before formulating a triage action plan. A self-administered questionnaire to evaluate CPs' self-confidence to performing self-care counselling had been handed out before and after the workshop.Results: Twenty CPs (8.7%) had responded to the invitation via e-mail. It was noted that CPs' self-rating confidence to performing self-care counselling making use of STARZ-DRP as a framework were improved in all domains reflected in the questionnaire. Among significant improvements (p<0.05) noted were making triage decision, consistently assessing individual features, and identifying actual or potential origins of the medical problem.Conclusion: CPs' self-confidence to performing self-care counselling making use of STARZ-DRP as a framework to advocate self-care customers is enhanced after turning up at the training workshop. It reflects the future use of STARZ-DRP as a potential framework to help out CPs to formulate a triage action plan for self-care customers

Improvement of thermal comfort inside a mosque building

A combined natural ventilation and mechanical fans are commonly used to cool the interior space inside the mosques in Malaysia. This article presents a study on thermal comfort in the Al-Jawahir Mosque, located in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. The objective is to assess the thermal comfort inside the mosque under the present ventilation system by determining the Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and the Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD). These values were then compared to the limits stated in the ASHRAE Standard-55. It was found that the PMV varies from 1.68 to 2.26 while the PPD varies from 61 to 87. These show that the condition inside the mosque is quite warm. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was used to carry out flow simulations, to identify a suitable strategy to improve the thermal comfort inside the mosque. Results of CFD simulations show that installing four exhaust fans above the windows on the west-side wall of the mosque is the most effective strategy to improve the thermal comfort inside the mosque. Both the PMV and PPD values can potentially be reduced by more than 60

Vapor pressure development in a FR4-CU composite structure during solder reflow

This article presents a study on the development of vapor pressure a FR4-Cu composite structure when heated to a solder reflow temperature of 215 °C. Abaqus® finite element software was used to develop a representative two-dimensional model of the composite structure and to simulate moisture absorption and desorption processes. Simulation of transient moisture absorption was performed to predict moisture concentration distribution in the structure after being preconditioned in 85°C/85 % RH environment for 15 days. Simulation of transient moisture desorption was carried out at the solder reflow temperature to predict the redistribution of the moisture. Results of the moisture desorption simulation were used to compute magnitude of the vapor pressure in the structure. It was found that the moisture redistributes itself during the solder reflow process. Moisture concentration in the vicinity of the FR4-Cu interface, below the longer copper trace increases during the solder reflow. The vapor pressure in nearly 70 % of the FR4 material and close to the FR4-Cu interface, below the longer copper trace is almost equal to the saturation pressure of vapor at 215 °C. Distribution of the vapor pressure is very similar to the new distribution of moisture concentration resulting from moisture desorption process

Computerized simulation of automotive air conditioning system: a parametric study

This paper presents results of a parametric study performed on an automotive air-conditioning (AAC) system of a passenger car. The goals are to assess the effects of varying the volumetric flow rate of supply air, number of occupants, vehicle speed, and the fractional ventilation air intake (XOA), on the dry-bulb temperature and specific humidity of the air inside the passenger’s cabin, and on the evaporator coil cooling load of the AAC system. Results of the parametric study show that increasing the supply air flow rate reduces the dry-bulb temperature of the cabin air, increases both the specific humidity of the air and the evaporator coil load. Increasing the number of occupants in the passenger cabin causes the cabin air temperature, specific humidity and the evaporator coil load to increase. Increasing the vehicle speed causes the specific humidity of the cabin air and the evaporator coil cooling load to increase but the dry-bulb temperature of the air is not significantly affected. Increasing the fractional fresh air intake (XOA) also increases the cabin air specific humidity and the evaporator coil cooling load