The landscape of private higher education institutions in Malaysia: the balancing act of quality versus bottom-line

This speech will reflect on the growth of Private Higher Education Institution in Malaysia over more than 2 decades beginning in the early 1990's. The focus is on the plans and strategies to enrich the institutions with quality academic programs balancing them against the landscape of a fast growing economic development and rising costs

Offline OTP based solution for secure internet banking access

Numerous applications are available on the Internet for the exchange of personal information and money. All these applications need to authenticate the users to confirm their legitimacy. Currently, the most commonly employed credentials include static passwords. But people tend to behave carelessly in choosing their passwords to avoid the burden of memorizing complex passwords. Such frail password habits are a severe threat to the various services available online especially electronic banking or e-banking. For eradicating the necessity of creating and managing passwords, a variety of solutions are prevalent, the traditional ones being the usage of One- Time-Password (OTP) that refers to a single session/transaction password. However, a majority of the OTP-based security solutions fail to satisfy the usability or scalability requirements and are quite vulnerable owing to their reliance on multiple communication channels. In this study, the most reliable and adoptable solution which provides better security in online banking transactions is proposed. This is an initiative to eradicate the dependency on Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) that is the most popular means of sending the One- Time-Passwords to the users availing e-banking facilities

Institutional repositories: Review and knowledge management perspective

This paper provides a review on current literatures on the concept Institutional Repository (IR) and to propose the use of KM theory to provide understanding on the implementation of IR. We will discuss the issues relevant to IR from the KM view by providing examples which indicated that research can be build on the knowledge gained by KM researchers to augment the understanding of IR. This paper will contribute in bringing together recent research in IR and KM and how these two concepts can collaborate in resulting better understanding of IR implementation

Real time telemedical health care systems with wearable sensors

The time between detection and response to chronic diseases could go a long way in saving lives. The current trend in health monitoring systems is to move from the hospital centered device to eventually portable personal devices. Hence,Telemedical health care involves the remote delivery of medical care service to either out-of-hospital or admitted patients through wireless network and computer information technology. This paper systematically reviews the most recent works in telemedical health care system to propose a more efficient model. The focus is more on wearable sensors and devices with most attention given to cardiovascular patients in recent times. The huge literature available reflects the size of activity and attention given to telemedicine. The reviewed works are published within the last five years. Furthermore, the proposed systems are compared in terms of their connectivity, targeted application, type of sensor used, etc. Our study reveals Telemedicine to be a profound field with researchers from multidisciplinary sectors. However, there are still many gaps that need to be filled before maturity. Factors such as efficient wireless transmission, cyber data security, sensor design and integration, device miniaturization and intelligent algorithm for multi parameter data fusion require further considerations

A survey on MANETs: architecture, evolution, applications, security issues and solutions

Mobile ad hoc networks or MANETs, also referred to as mobile mesh networks at times, are self-configuring networks of mobile devices that are joined using wireless channels. These represent convoluted distributed systems comprising of wireless mobile nodes which are free to move and self-organise dynamically into temporary and arbitrary, ad hoc topologies. This makes it possible for devices as well as people to internetwork seamlessly in such regions that have no communication infrastructure in place. Conventionally, the single communication networking application following the ad hoc concept had been tactical networks. Lately, new technologies have been introduced such as IEEE 802.11, Hyperlan and Bluetooth that are assisting in the deployment of commercial MANETs external to the military realm. Such topical evolutions infuse a new and rising interest in MANET research and development. This paper provides an overview of the dynamic domain of MANETs. It begins with the discussion on the evolution of MANETs followed by its significance in various fields. Besides, the MANETs have been analysed from the security perspective, particularly the work performed in the node misbehaviour paradigm has been elaborated

An estimation of the coupling coefficient of the series inductive resonant wireless power transfer coils

Though the power transfer efficiency of the inductive resonant wireless power transfer is relatively high, the power transfer efficiency of the inductive resonant wireless power transfer is undoubtedly depending on the coupling coefficient. Coupled with the coupling coefficient, the highest possible power transfer efficiency can be achieved by controlling the operating frequency with impedance matching. Therefore, the relationship of the input impedance to the variation of the coupling coefficient is of paramount importance in maintaining the highest possible power transfer efficiency for a given coupling coefficient. This paper presents the relationship of the input impedance of the series-to-series inductive resonant wireless power transfer to the variations of the coupling coefficient. The analysis is carried out by using the T-equivalent circuit, producing analytical results for comparison and validation by equivalently obtained simulation results, guarantying the maximum power transfer efficiency for a typical series-to-series inductive resonant link. The modeling validity is shown by percentage error in between the analytical and simulation results. The novelty of this paper is in the simplicity of the coupling coefficient estimation by reference to the input impedanc

Comparative analysis of UWB balance Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna for array configuration

In this paper, an Ultra-wideband Balance Antipodal Vivaldi Antenna in planar and h-plane array configuration is presented. The comparison of four elements of BAVA array in both planes has been observed. Each element of an antenna printed on the glass-reinforced epoxy laminate material (FR4) with a thickness of 1.5mm and relative permittivity of 4.3. The dimension of every single element is 60.75mm x 66mm approximately. The array elements of both planes almost cover the whole UWB frequency range with the reflection coefficient of -10dB. Based on the simulation results, the array elements in planar configuration showing good reflection and works well at 3.2GHz frequency while the configuration in h-plane the array elements works well at 7GHz of frequency. In planar configuration, the operating frequency of antenna elements is shifting as a result of the distance between inter elements which intensification in wavelength. The array elements in h-plane produce more gain up to 10.2 dB with good radiation patterns as compared to the planar plane. The antenna design and optimization development are verified using CST simulation software

The load reliant power transfer of the series-to-series inductive resonant wireless power transfer

In this paper, the effect of the output impedance to the power transfer efficiency of the series-to-series inductive resonant wireless power transfer at the resonance frequency is reviewed in details. The analysis is carried out by utilizing the theoretical inductive resonance wireless power transfer model using the MATLAB ® package. In this paper, the experiment is designed to confirm the highest power transfer efficiency is obtained at the resonance frequency for the given value of the coupling coefficient. Besides that, the experiment is also conducted to find the optimum load impedance for all given value of coupling coefficient. The analysis shows that the maximum wireless power transfer efficiency for series-to-series inductive resonant wireless power transfer is at the maximum peak when operational at the resonance frequency. In addition, the power transfer efficiency is improved by working at the optimum load impedance. The experimental set up is presented and the analytical results are reported

PI controller for hybrid biomass- solar photovoltaic- wind in microgrid: a case study of Mersing, Malaysia

Renewable energy (RE) is alternative energy to replace fossil fuels in electric power generation and has evolved into microgrid technology. Integration of RE has caused voltage stability issues in the power system. Reports in earlier studies have included three voltage control methods such as Model Predictive Control (MPC), Proportional Integral (PI) controller, and negative feed-forward voltage control implemented to ensure the voltage stability of microgrids. However, very few research reports apply voltage control in hybrid biomass (BM)-solar photovoltaic (PV)-wind microgrid, choosing only to focus on energy management, economic analysis, and best sizing. For this reason, the main objective of this paper is the integration of a hybrid BM-Solar PV-Wind off-grid microgrid comprising PI controller as the voltage control based on an actual input database at a location in a small rural town named Mersing in Malaysia. Additionally, this paper also intends to illustrate the implemented efforts to support the voltage stability of the system in Mersing. PI controller with a harmonic filter voltage controller is implemented in this study to reduce the total harmonic distortion (THD) percentage. Concurrently the measured THD voltage and current at each RE and distribution line show a percentage below 10%. It is thus shown that a hybrid BM-Solar PV-wind microgrid is stable, especially for distribution lines, according to harmonic standards in the electricity supply application book by the local electricity provider Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB). Indeed, a PI controller with a harmonic filter has proven as an effective method for controlling the voltage instability in this study