Near Shore Environment and Its Corrosiveness Towards Steel Pipelines

Seabed sediment is an important environment that has significant effect on pipelines buried under it. Hereby, study on corrosion rate of actual steel pipelines has been conducted to highlight the importance of near shore environment as an aggressive environment towards steel structures. Coupons made of X70 steel pipelines have been considered for weight lost determination in order to calculate the corrosion rate at both near shore and offshore areas. The results show that the corrosion rate of coupons buried at near shore area was higher than the coupons at offshore. Conclusively near shore environment has shown a significant influence on corrosion of steel pipelines

Prioritization of Reputation Loss Factors Imposed By Pipeline Failure Subject to Corrosion

Reputation loss of a pipeline failure subject to corrosion is commonly neglected due to its qualitative nature. However, case studies found that perceptions of the stakeholders are prone to affect pipeline owner’s long-term reputation. Identifying the influence factors is insufficient to assist the owner to respond if pipeline failure occurs. Thus, this article endeavors to prioritize the influential reputation loss factors by interviewing six experts of pipeline integrity management personnel. The analytic hierarchy process multi-criteria decision making method was selected to help the prioritization process. Result shows that the most influenced factor is the loss of customer confidence (B1) and employee(s) caused accident (C9) ranked the least. The effort to quantify reputation loss can be substituted by prioritizing them according to stakeholders’ preferences as an initial step to monetarily quantify these factors in future. Thus, a comprehensive pipeline risk assessment and the pipeline integrity management can be achieved and simultaneously improve the company’s annual profit margin

State-space Modelling and Digital Controller Design for DC-DC Converter

The recent development in digital technology offers better platform for easy implementation of advance control algorithm in power converter design making digital control a viable alternative to analogue counterpart. Controller design for power converters has been very challenging due to non-linear characteristics of power switches, the supply voltage variability, load current changes and circuit element variation. This paper presents dynamic averaged state-space modelling of non-ideal dc-dc boost converter with parasitic and digital controller design for boost converter using digital redesign and direct digital design methods. The system was simulated in Matlab/Simulink to investigate the dynamic performance of the two controllers’ transient response, control bandwidth and response to variable supply voltage. The results demonstrated fast transient and wide control bandwidth for tight voltage regulation of variable input voltage

Phase-Shifted Full-Bridge Zero Voltage Switching DC-DC Converter Design with MATLAB/Simulink Implementation

Design of phase-shifted full bridge zero voltage switching DC-DC converter has been very challenging due to circuit parasitic effect on the system dynamics. This paper presents steady-state analysis and iterative approach for the systemic design of phase-shifted full bridge DC-DC converter with improved dynamic performance and satisfactory operational requirement in terms of zero-voltage switching range, operating switching frequency and switching resonance. A 3 kW DC-DC converter is designed using the iterative design approach and the system dynamics performance was investigated in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. The converter zero-voltage switching simulation results were satisfactory with 90% efficiency under full load condition

Talent Management in Higher Education Institutions: Developing Leadership Competencies

This paper presents the development process of talent management in higher education institutions. Specifically, this study aims to identify clusters that best fit the leadership competency framework for those institutions. This study utilizes the qualitative approach via focus group discussion with the Leadership Competency and Instrument Committee in AKEPT, and also by interviews with academics in the public universities. The findings from the focus group discussion and interview demonstrate five clusters of leadership competency skills framework: personnel effectiveness, cognition, leading, impact and influence, and achievement and action. Within these clusters, issues were identified that need to be taken into consideration when selecting future leaders in higher education institutions. Based on the findings, a set of attributes were listed that can be adopted in the future to allow leaders of higher institutional education to enhance their sustainability performance. This paper provides an understanding to interested parties on the attributes of good leaders for higher education institutions

Socio-economic determinants of students’ academic achievement in building technology in North-central Nigeria

This study investigated socio-economic determinants of students’ academic achievement in building technology in North-central Nigeria. It was a quest to probe into the incessant cases of students’ poor achievement in building technology to identify students’ determining factors. Survey research design was adopted in carrying out the study. Data were collected from 113 students on their socioeconomic attributes and their academic record. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics such as frequency, percentage, mean and multiple regression analysis. The results of the study showed that building technology education in Nigeria is male dominated and majority of colleges of education students in North-central Nigeria are under 20 years. Socio-economic determinants of students’ academic achievement in building technology include gender, age, study hours, family size, stipends per month, group reading, students’ health status, credit pass in SSCE and truancy. The challenges facing building technology students in the study area include epileptic power supply, inadequate ICTs, lack of functional building technology workshop among others

An exploration of co-development within the Malaysian automotive industry

This is a study of Malaysian vehicle manufacturer-supplier relationships in the product development process. The collaboration, referred to as co- development, is highly important in order for vehicle manufacturers to remain competitive within this area of globalisation. So far, there have been no studies on the above subject area within Malaysia, which therefore makes this study both valuable and immensely important. The motivation comes from the uniqueness of the Malaysian automotive industry, which is newly established compared to other countries, and which has also been protected by the Government since the establishment of first National Car company in the 1980s. The study has adopted a qualitative approach through exploratory study, and aims to explore in-depth the co-development practices within Malaysia. With the adoption of a case study research strategy, data is collected by means of interviews with consideration to both sides, i.e., local vehicle manufacturers and their suppliers. It was found that, within Malaysia, two different approaches of co-development exist. First, the local suppliers mostly have low design capabilities, and the local vehicle manufacturer-supplier relationship exists only in terms of manufacturing components. Moreover, local suppliers have not become involved in the design process, but have received detailed drawings from vehicle manufacturers. However, they nevertheless have a freedom to manufacture the product without significant interference from the vehicle manufacturer. In this study, this type of supplier is labelled as a ‗freedom to manufacture‘supplier. In contrast, ‗freedom to design, develop and manufacture‘suppliers—which are mostly overseas suppliers—are involved in the design process at a very early stage. They are invited to participate at this point of the product development process in order to cater to the vehicle manufacturer‘s limited knowledge regarding the product. The study provides insight into what has happened with regards to the Malaysian vehicle manufacturer-supplier relationship in the product development process. It gives an indication of and new knowledge regarding the co-development of the newly established automotive industry in Malaysia.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Determinants of SME's depositors retention in Maybank / Nor Samsinah Yahaya, Nadhirah Aiman Ahmad Nordin and Amiza Lina Nawari

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) is experiencing a critical challenge in retaining their SME's depositors mainly in Selangor region. Their decline in deposit is alarming and worsened over the year. This has led to possibility the decrease in revenue for the performance year 2018. As such, this study has focused on examining the determinants of SME's depositor retention in Maybank. Specifically, this study investigated the influence of pricing, customer relationship, responsiveness and reliability towards retention of SME's depositors. The simple random sampling technique was used to sample 131 respondents from Selangor region namely Shah Alam, Subang and Kajang. The results of multiple regression analysis show that reliability, pricing, customer relationship, responsiveness and retention of SME's depositors are significant. Out of the four variables, pricing showed the greatest influence on retention of SME's depositors (p=0.395, /><0.05). Pricing as according to Jain & Tarannum Syed, 2017, was the main factor reason behind any customer retention that, when it is significant and able to attract a new customer, it is a higher and main issue in mounting loyalty and retaining customer. Therefore, it is suggested that Maybank to place more attention at the price mechanism as it is part of the critical strategy in retaining their SME's depositor. This includes, providing the best flexible rate of return, fair pricing and the best interest rate that eventually become the best factor which customers would views it as value thus led to SME's loyalty and eventually retaining the SME's depositors

A SWARA-COPRAS approach to the allocation of risk in water and sewerage public–private partnership projects in Malaysia

In a situation of growing water demand, inadequate public funding, poor asset condition and lack of maintenance in developing countries, public-private partnerships (PPPs) play an important role in the development of infrastructure, such as water supply and sewerage services. The purpose of this study is to develop a quantitative approach to appropriate risk allocation, with attention directed to the impact of positive and negative factors in water and sewerage projects. The paper presents a hybrid SWARA-COPRAS approach to examine risk allocation, particularly for PPP water supply and sewerage projects in the context of Malaysia. In addition to PPP infrastructure projects, the approach has the potential to be adapted to other applications. The proposed method enables decision makers to utilise qualitative linguistic terms in the allocation of risk between the public and private sector, and to select the best strategy for risk allocation in a contract. Finally, 24 significant risks were identified: six risks would preferably be allocated to the public sector, while seven risks would be assigned to the private sector, and eleven risks would preferably be shared by both parties. The finding from this study can help the government of Malaysia to determine an attractive political strategy for private investors to support a PPP water and sewerage infrastructure project