Modelling of commercial property market segmentation to improve price prediction accuracy in Malaysia

The commercial property market is strategic to the global economy. Significant attention is therefore given to its pricing by various stakeholders. The most common price modelling technique is the traditional hedonic price model. The commercial property market is too complex to be modelled by the traditional single equilibrium model. Property market segmentation models are used to improve the accuracy of price modelling, mostly reported in the housing market. This research, therefore, aims to propose a commercial property market segmentation model to improve price prediction accuracy in Malaysia. 14,043 commercial property transaction records obtained from Malaysia’s National Property Information Centre (NAPIC) was used. The submarkets were delineated using conventional hedonic, data-driven and spatial econometrics approaches. The evidence of submarket existence was determined using the Chow test and weighted RMSE, MAE and MAPE. The research found a significantly high level of spatial dependence in Malaysia’s commercial property market. Submarkets were efficiently delineated using all the methods except using submarket dummies. The research proposed the spatial error model using adaptive kernel maximum KNN spatial weight matrix as the optimal model for commercial property market segmentation in Malaysia. The proposed model improved the model fit by 19.76 per cent, reduced the RMSE, MAE and MAPE by 20.82 per cent, 24.63 per cent, and 25.92 per cent, respectively. The research shows that accounting for spatial dependence in the commercial property market reduces error, improves model fit and increases the accuracy of price modelling. The research has contributed to the existing body of knowledge by extending the commercial property market segmentation from a priori methods to the empirical data-driven and spatial econometrics approach in Malaysia. The implication to policymakers, financial institutions, the economy, property valuers, and property investors is that the findings will guide them in making informed decisions regarding the differentiated commercial property market

Feature Selection with IG-R for Improving Performance of Intrusion Detection System

As the popularity of the internet computer continued to grow and become an indispensable in human life, the security of computer network has become an important issue in computer security field. The Intrusion Detection System (IDS) is a system used in computer security for network security. The feature selection stage of IDS is considered to be the most critical stage in IDS. This stage is very costly both in efforts and time. However, many machine learning approaches have been presented to improve this stage in order to improve the performance of an IDS. However, these approaches did not give desirable results with respect to the detection accuracy in the IDS. A novel technique is proposed in this paper combining the Information Gain and Ranker (IG+R) method as the feature selection strategy with Naïve Bayes (NB), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) as the classifiers. The performance of these IG+R-NB, IG+R-SVM, and IG+R-KNN was evaluated on NSLKDD dataset. The experimental results of our proposed method gave high accuracy and low false alarm rate. The results obtained was compared and benchmarked with existing works. The results of this paper outperformed the existing approaches in terms of the detection accuracy

Determining house price for mass appraisal using multiple regression analysis modeling in Kaduna North, Nigeria

The research applied Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA) in estimating house price for mass appraisal in Kaduna north, Nigeria. Two basic micro determinants of house price were considered, namely; structural attributes and location of property. Using a sample of 106 house sale transactions data which were recorded between 2011 to 2015, MRA was used to determine the structural variables and locational attributes that have statistically significant influence on the house price. It was found that among the variables included in the MRA, year of transaction, type of house, availability of swimming pool, availability of security post, type of door and location of the property were significant in determining house price in Kaduna. However, number of bedroom, number of living room, type of ceiling, condition of the house were not significant in influencing house price. Using the significant variables, a mass appraisal model was developed for the study area. The performance of the model was evaluated using the ratio study method and the model was found to be satisfactory. It was recommended that, this model be used in mass appraisal of residential properties in Kaduna north in the future, with a view to improve accuracy, objectivity, efficiency, and fairness of the property taxation system, which will lead to generating more revenue for the government and, encourage physical infrastructural development in Kaduna North.Keywords: Mass Appraisal, Multiple Regression Analysis (MRA), House Price, Valuatio

Operative Technique and Complication Avoidance in Supraorbital Endoscopic Keyhole Craniotomy

Objective: The aim of the current study is to describe the technical details of the endoscopic supraorbital keyhole craniotomy and how to avoid complications related with it.Material and Methods: In this cross sectional observational study nine preserved human cadavers from TheSkull Base Lab of Weill Cornell Medical College, Cornell University, New York, USA were used. Total number of18 endoscopic supraorbital keyhole craniotomies were performed. Distances between the different targetedanatomical constructs were looked at and measured.Results: A supraorbital craniotomy was performed with details on the technique of the surgery. The secondmajor part of the results comprised of per-operative complications and how to avoid these complications.Conclusion: To treat anterior and middle skull base pathologies, the endoscopic supraorbital keyholecraniotomy is an effective, valuable and minimal access surgical choice

An Integrated View of Knowledge Management Enablers, Components, and Benefits: Comprehensive Literature Review

The key to success in the 21st century, knowledge-based economy, will be the effective and efficient management of knowledge. Knowledge Management (KM) has a direct impact on organizational success. KM in a knowledge-based economy entails growth, value, and improving living standards through knowledge creation, storage, and dissemination. This study aims to integrate KM enablers, components, and benefits into a single view through a comprehensive literature search. The integrative view of these three factors would facilitate the understanding of KM initiatives within organizations. This paper performs a comprehensive literature review to explain the KM enablers, components, and benefits. From the literature review, KM enablers have been explained in different ways. However, this paper categorized them into eight (8) classes: organizational culture, organizational structure, management support, champion support, design of KM strategy, performance and evaluation, training, and technologies. Additionally, this study identified six (6) major components of KM: people, processes, technology, information/content, governance, and strategy. In this study, the KM benefits were seen to support business organizations to achieve both process outcomes and organizational outcomes

Computational Treatment of Transient MHD Slip Flow of an Arrhenius Chemical Reaction in a Convectively Heated Vertical Channel

A numerical computational treatment of transient electrically conducting fluid with an Arrhenius chemical reaction in the presence of Navier slip and Newtonian heating is obtained by using implicit finite difference scheme. A transverse magnetic field is applied to the flow direction due to the exothermic nature of the fluid. Numerical computation shows that, higher values of Frank-Kamenetskii parameter (λ) and Biot number (Br) significantly influence the transport phenomenon. Irrespective of smaller or larger time, Magnetic parameter (M) reduces velocity of the fluid as well as wall shear stress

The Influence of Construction Project Team Effectiveness in Higher Institutions’ Building Projects: A Case from Nigeria

Projects are required to meet the stakeholders’ requirements on the stipulated time, quality and budget. The achievement of such requirements is related to team effectiveness. However, there is poor project time and cost performance in Nigeria such that the constructions initiated mostly escalate beyond the cost and time budgeted. The construction project teams in Nigeria are shrouded with dysfunctions leading to undesirable project outcomes. This study aims to examine the influence of project team effectiveness on project performance of higher educational institutions’ construction in Nigeria. A quantitative survey design was employed where 150 questionnaires were administered to construction projects team members in four higher educational institutions in Bauchi state, Nigeria. The result indicated that the team effectiveness factors of communication, role and responsibility as well as team relationships have a substantial influence on project performance. However, goal and objectives, leadership, as well as trust and values factors, do not have significant influence. Overall, the result shows that the variation in the project performance can be explained substantially by changes in the construction project team effectiveness (Adj. R2 =.585). The implication of this finding is that project performance in Nigerian higher educational institutions can be significantly improved by strengthening communications, roles and responsibilities as well as relationships among team members. Thus, this research contributed to the existing body of knowledge on the linkage between team effectiveness and project performance in the Nigeria higher educational institutions' construction projects. The study, therefore, recommended the improvement of team effectiveness factors of the industry by all projects’ stakeholders and participants

The Influence of Construction Project Team Effectiveness in Higher Institutions’ Building Projects: A Case from Nigeria

Projects are required to meet the stakeholders’ requirements on the stipulated time, quality and budget. The achievement of such requirements is related to team effectiveness. However, there is poor project time and cost performance in Nigeria such that the constructions initiated mostly escalate beyond the cost and time budgeted. The construction project teams in Nigeria are shrouded with dysfunctions leading to undesirable project outcomes. This study aims to examine the influence of project team effectiveness on project performance of higher educational institutions’ construction in Nigeria. A quantitative survey design was employed where 150 questionnaires were administered to construction projects team members in four higher educational institutions in Bauchi state, Nigeria. The result indicated that the team effectiveness factors of communication, role and responsibility as well as team relationships have a substantial influence on project performance. However, goal and objectives, leadership, as well as trust and values factors, do not have significant influence. Overall, the result shows that the variation in the project performance can be explained substantially by changes in the construction project team effectiveness (Adj. R2 =.585). The implication of this finding is that project performance in Nigerian higher educational institutions can be significantly improved by strengthening communications, roles and responsibilities as well as relationships among team members. Thus, this research contributed to the existing body of knowledge on the linkage between team effectiveness and project performance in the Nigeria higher educational institutions' construction projects. The study, therefore, recommended the improvement of team effectiveness factors of the industry by all projects’ stakeholders and participants

The Efficacy of the Use of Depreciated/Replacement Cost Method as an Alternative to Profit/Account Method in Valuation of Hotels in Bauchi

Various valuation models were developed to value different interests in land and landed property. Although, the basis of valuation might be the same, the methodology may sometimes differ to capture certain peculiarities and attributes in respect of a particular property. In an ideal situation, the profit method of valuation should be adopted in the valuation of hotel properties. Where this is not attainable, the depreciated replacement cost method is adopted. The aim of the study is to examine the efficiency of the use of depreciated replacement cost method as an alternative to profit or account method in valuation of hotels, Bauchi with a view to suggest and recommend the best method of valuing hotel properties. This research is located in a positivist epistemology, where no objective truth is accepted and truth or meaning generation comes through social engagement with the world. The instruments used for data collection are interviews, house inspection, and document review. The study adopts the depreciated replacement cost method and profit or account method of valuation in analyzing the data obtained. Complete theoretical analysis was equally adopted in analyzing the data. The findings reveal that the cost approach may provide a reliable estimate of value in the case of new hotel properties, but as buildings and other improvements grow older and begin to deteriorate, the resultant loss in value becomes increasingly difficult to quantify accurately. The revealed results confirmed the importance of profit or account method of valuation as the most effective and efficient in the evident that the hotel property is not moving at a lost. The study recommends amongst others that before cost approach could be used in valuation of hotel properties, income-related consideration must be difficult to ascertain. Keywords: Depreciated/Replacement Cost Method, Hotel Valuation, Improvement, Land and Profit/Account Metho