A virtual repository approach to departmental information sharing

Realising the difficulties in information sharing among the academicians, this paper introduces an alternative information sharing model supporting information management features. The model is designed in an attempt to facilitate information distribution and information sharing at minimum effort and cost. A centralised database approach is used in the model enabling any educator in the higher learning institution to participate and manage the database, conceptualizing that the database is their very own ‘personal library’. This model is then implemented in an application given a persona name ViRepo –-a web-based internal virtual repository. The process of analysing, designing, and implementing the model into ViRepo is sufficiently reported in this paper. ViRepo proved that the model, in actual fact, allows information access, information sharing, information management, partnership enhancement, and allows an utmost repository control by each and every participating educator

Predicting Diseases Using Multi-BackPropagation

A Computer-based medical system plays an important role in the current practice of medicine. Initially, computer is used to store and manage information effectively. The computer becomes more important with the introduction of the intelligent system. The intelligent medical system increases the ability of medical practitioners in providing diagnosis and prognosis. Neural network is one of the artificial intelligence techniques that emulate the human neuron function. Neural network enable the computer to "learn" and "think" like human. However, learning usually involves a large amount of data. If more data is used, the network complexity will be increased. Complex network is hard to learn and take more time to generalize. Thus this study proposed a multi-network approach as oppose to the single network approach. Multi-network approach does not require any changes in neural network learning algorithm. Instead, the large data is divided into several smaller categories or network. Both approaches are tested and compared. The results show that the estimation time for the single network with 26 variables based on 7466 data set is approximately 1,037,472,836 milliseconds to complete the learning with 100 percent generalization performance. On the other hand, based on 256 data sets the network takes 2,459,172,864 milliseconds to complete the learning. The epochs are estimated as 359,544 and 26,2 14,400 respectively. In the multi-network approach, five different networks and one integration network were constructed. The experiments showed that all six networks managed to learn the data completely in only several epochs. The time taken by the networks are 281, 197, 32, 440, 83 and 22 respectively for the risk factor, medication, investigation, ECG, complication and integrating network. On average, this approach takes 175.833 milliseconds and 7.66667 epochs to complete the learning. The total training time for all networks to learn is 1055 milliseconds with 46 epochs. Although many networks have to be constructed and trained separately, the multinetwork approach has reduced the complexity of network with large data set and has overcome the limitation of the single network approach. This is because the networks represent all the possible combination of data, which were all used to train them respectively. That is in the multi network approach all data sets are used in training. The knowledge (weight) produced by the network can be applied for all possible data sets

Effect of Roasting Temperature and Time on Precursors, Volatile Components and Flavour Quality of Cocoa Beans During Nib Roasting

The effect of roasting temperature and time on precursors, volatile components and quality of cocoa beans during nib roasting was studied using response surface methodology (RSM) which consisted two independent variables of temperature (110-170˚C) and time (5-65 min). Steam Distillation Extraction (SDE) method was used to extract and gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry equipped with an ICIS data system was used to identity the volatile compounds. The pH linearly increased during roasting period at 120˚C. The colour was used for 1.20-1.80 Fermentation index value. The moisture content of the nib decreased (to 1.1%) as the roasting time and temperature were increased. Fifty three volatile compounds had been detected in roasted nib. Among them, pyrazines and esters were two major groups which constituted of 34 different compounds. Tetramethylpyrazine, trimethylpyrazine, phenethyl acetate, isoamyl acetate, 3-methylbutyl acetate, 2-methylbutyl acetate, phenylacetaldehyde, and benzaldehyde were present in all treatments. The pyrazines formation increased as roasting time and temperature were increased. When roasting time was increased from 5 to 35 and 65 min at 140°C, the number of pyrazines increased from 4 to 10 and 11, respectively. The ratio value of esters increased when the roasting time was increased from 15 to 65 min (at 110-120°C). However, the ratio value of carbonyls linearly decreased with an increasing roasting temperature at shorter time (5-25 min). The ratio value of phenols was enormously reduced at the highest roasting temperature (170°C) with the longest roasting time (65 min) while that of alcohols slightly decreased as roasting temperature and time were increased. With the increase in roasting temperature and time, the concentration of free amino acids, reducing and non-reducing sugars had decreased. The concentration of total free amino acids decreased by 23.0% and 73.3% in the range of 1287.34 - 76.43 mg/100g. Sugars concentration decreased from 24.87 to 12.98 and 11.30 mg/l00g respectively as roasting temperature was increased from 110 to 140 and 170°C. The nib roasted at 140°C had higher response percent of cocoa taste, moderate response of bitter taste and low response of sour; astringent and absent of smoky. However, the nib roasted at 170°C had the lowest percent of cocoa taste but higher in bitter and high roast taste

Managing water loss for sustainability of rural water supply

Water supply for rural areas flows through pipelines from many sources such as underground water and reservoirs. Due to factors such as human activities, geographic changes and natural hazards, pipelines are exposed to the ground, crack, leak and burst. Water flows out from the pipelines before reaching to the consumers is considered as water loss and this is a major component in non-revenue water. This paper highlights a framework and a work procedure for non-revenue water analysis. Based on this analysis, a comprehensive and flexible web based prototype has been developed to manage the water loss. Functions that have been developed are data recording,non-revenue water estimation and report generation. This prototype can be used by the water authority for assisting decision making and planning

The influence of cognitive satisfaction on the relationship between salesperson presentation skills and customer's intention to repurchase

The application of sales presentation skills by the sales force during their interaction with customers in the sales situation can have a significant effect on customer intention to repurchase in the Malaysian Computer retail business. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relations between important sales presentation skills and the relative roles played by cognition in the development of customer satisfaction which will lead to customer’s intention to repurchase in a computer retail setting in Malaysia. This will then lead to increased benefits for the organization in the form of customer loyalty. The cognitive evaluation of customer satisfaction was found to explain customer’s intention to repurchase in a retail setting in the Malaysian market. This finding holds importance to those retailers who have been able to generate high expectations in the eyes of their customers

"Lifestyle profile of condominium dwellers and marketing implication" / Wan Nasyatul Husna Wan Ishak

This study attempts to delineate the condominium dwellers' lifestyle dimensions, their desired condominium physical characteristics and attributes and socio-demographics in the more prestigious and less prestigious areas. The study also attempts to evaluate the relative importance of these dimensions in differentiating between the two groups of condominium dwellers. Six lifestyle dimensions, eleven socio-demographics and five condominium physical characteristics and attributes variable were examined and compared to differentiate between the two groups of condominium dweller. Only two lifestyle dimensions, six socio-demographics and two physical characteristics and attributes variables were found to be significant in differentiating between the two groups of condominium dwellers. The results of the lifestyle dimensions reveal that condominium dwellers in more prestigious area are more "artistically-biased", like art galleries and enjoy attending concerts. Alternatively, their counterparts in the less prestigious area are more "neighborhood-conscious" , emphasize a neighborhood at the same social class and prefer to have neighbors of the same race. A stepwise discriminate analysis was used to differentiate between the two groups of condominium dwellers in term of lifestyle dimensions, condominium physical characteristics and attribute variables and sociodemographics. The findings of the study could have significant implications for condominium development in Malaysia, particularly with respect to formulating marketing strategies, government policies and social communication program

APPLICATION OF POWERLINE COMMUNICATION TO WLAN SECURITY CAMERA SYSTEM

Security camera system at public areas, such as car parks, housing estates, buildings and town centers is increasingly commonplace. It is important to have a good security camera system in order to detect incident and to coordinate police responses. Besides that it will be used as evidence and to inform investigation. For this project, the main focus will be on the security of the Building 22 in UniversitiTeknologiPetronas. The building consists of several Communication Labs which equipped with expensive tools and equipments. The chances for the equipments to get stolen are high since there is no security camera system is implemented in the labs. However, most of the current security camera system in the market uses wireless communication. Because of its drawbacks in security and reliability, another alternative of networking is introduced. In this project, Power line Communication (PLC) is used. The power line communication technology uses existing in-building power distribution wires for data communication. It reduces re-wiring and it is much more affordable compared to the security camera system in the market. The project will outline the connections for all equipment used and the architecture of the system. The report consists of an introduction, problem statement, objectives, literature review and methodology used

Design and Simulation of Control Systems for Field Survey Mobile Robot Platform.

The aim of this study was to design automatic and accurate control systems for wheel speed and steering of an agricultural mobile robot. Three controllers, including lead-lag compensator, Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) and fuzzy logic controller were designed and simulated in this study to control the angular rate of the shaft of a DC motor actuator for a field survey mobile robot that moves between plants rows to perform image acquisition task through a digital camera mounted on a two link arm attached on the robot base. The response of the actuator model for each controller were determined and compared for a sinusoidal and a step input that simulated robot speed and positioning references respectively. Performance analysis showed the effectiveness of the PID and lead-lag compensator response for the wheel steering task, while the fuzzy logic controller design had a better performance in wheel speed control. The output of this analysis was a proved satisfaction of the proposed design criteria which results enhanced mobility of the robot in terms of fast response, speed control accuracy and smooth steering at row-end turnings