Pembangunan dan penganalisisan aplikasi permohonan peruntukkan penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah berasaskan proses pengurusan dalam kejuruteraan awam

Penyelenggaraan adalah aktiviti yang dilakukan secara berterusan bagi memastikan fungsi bangunan dapat dilaksanakan sebagaimana fungsinya secara normal. Penyelenggaraan bangunan sekolah adalah aktiviti rutin yang harus dijalankan memandangkan sekolah adalah lokasi pertama dalam pengembangan minda kanak�kanak. Namun begitu, kajian literatur menunjukkan terdapat beberapa masalah dalam pengurusan penyelenggaraan yang lazimnya diselia oleh ahli jawatankuasa penyelenggaraan sekolah. Antaranya ialah kegagalan mereka mematuhi Pekeliling Am Bil.2 Tahun 1995 dalam proses permohonan penyelenggaraan. Disebabkan permasalahan tersebut, tesis ini diwujudkan bagi membantu mereka dalam menyelesaikan sebahagian masalah yang dihadapi dengan cara membangunkan satu aplikasi permohonan penyelenggaraan sekolah berkomputer. Pembangunan aplikasi adalah menggunakan Microsoft Access. Aplikasi pertama yang dibangunkan adalah CoRTMaS di mana ia hanya tertumpu kepada penyelenggaraan bumbung dan tandas berdasarkan kepada kajian literatur yang mengatakan 2 komponen ini paling kerap mengalami kerosakan. Hasil soal selidik diuji menggunakan SPSS dan mendapati kadar ketepatan hasil kajian adalah α = 0.893. Walaupun hasil kajian CoRTMaS amat memuaskan, aplikasi SiPBaS dibangunkan bagi menambah baik fungsi aplikasi dalam CoRTMaS. Kesimpulannya, pembangunan aplikasi dapat menyumbang kepada kelancaran proses permohonan penyelenggaraan sekolah namun terdapat beberapa cadangan lanjutan yang dicadangkan bagi memantapkan aplikasi SiPBaS iaitu menjadikan aplikasi ini berfungsi secara atas talian, mewujudkan ruangan bagi memuat turun gambar kerosakan serta mewujudkan kod keselamatan untuk kontraktor terlibat

Predicting and simulating future land use pattern : a case study of Seremban district

As long as rapid urbanization which is a result of natural population growth and rural urban migration due to push and pull factors of social and economic conditions as well as the moving of urban populations from major city centres to urban fringe areas due to changing lifestyle which emphasized on spacious and more comfortable and environmentally friendly living environment continue to happen; towns and cities will continue to grow and expand to accommodate the growing and complex demand of the people. Experiences have shown that rapid and uncontrolled expansion of towns and cities has led to amongst others the deterioration in the quality of urban environment and sprawling of urban development onto prime agricultural and forest areas as well as cities starting to lose their identity. In order to avoid such phenomena continuing to happen, particularly in the Kuala Lumpur Conurbation Area, towns and cities need to be properly planned and managed so that their growth or expansion can be controlled and managed in a sustainable manner. One of the strategies adopted to curb sprawling development is through the delineation of urban growth or development limits (UGL). This means that the limit of towns and cities need to be studied and identified, so that urban development can be directed to areas that are identified and specified suitable for such development. One of the main tasks in the process of delineating UGL has been included as an important task in the preparation of development plans. With such policy a research study is now being carried out to develop a spatial modelling framework towards delineating UGL through the application and integration of spatial technologies and this will be a basis or framework for land use planners, managers and policy makers to formulate urban land use policies and monitor urban land use development. One of the main analysis involve in the process of performing this task is to understand past urban land development trend and to predict and identify future urban growth areas of the selected study area. This paper highlights the integration of statistical modeling technique via binary logistic regression analysis with GIS technology in understanding and predicting urban growth pattern and area as applied to District of Seremban, Negeri Sembilan. The result shows that urban land use pattern in the study area within the study period are significantly related to more than half of the predictors used in the analysis

Solid state morphology and band gap studies of ETS-10 supported CdS nanoparticles

Engelhard titanosilicate (ETS-10) supported cadmium sulphide (CdS) nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized by various solid state techniques including: XRD, DR UV-Vis, TEM and FESEM. The effect of different synthesis routes of CdS nanoparticles on its physicochemical character was studied. It was observed that CdS nanoparticles prepared by both in situ sulphur reduction (CdS-IS) and reverse micelle (CdS-RM) methods showed similar properties. However, CdS-IS nanoparticles are more feasible and economically practical. The reflectance measurements of the as-synthesized CdS nanoparticles are apparently blue-shifted compared to bulk CdS. This phenomenon of blue-shifted absorption edge has been ascribed to an increase in bandgap energy with a decrease in particle sizes. The bandgap of the as-synthesized CdS samples was calculated from the linear correlation of [F(R) h?]2 and h?. The bandgap of CdS in ETS-10 was noticeably slightly reduced when compared with the as-synthesized CdS (8 nm) due to the formation of cluster arrays on the pores of ETS-10

Radial basis function network based on time variant multi-objective particle swarm optimization for medical diseases diagnosis

This paper proposes an adaptive evolutionary radial basis function (RBF) network algorithm to evolve accuracy and connections (centers and weights) of RBF networks simultaneously. The problem of hybrid learning of RBF network is discussed with the multi-objective optimization methods to improve classification accuracy for medical disease diagnosis. In this paper, we introduce a time variant multi-objective particle swarm optimization (TVMOPSO) of radial basis function (RBF) network for diagnosing the medical diseases. This study applied RBF network training to determine whether RBF networks can be developed using TVMOPSO, and the performance is validated based on accuracy and complexity. Our approach is tested on three standard data sets from UCI machine learning repository. The results show that our approach is a viable alternative and provides an effective means to solve multi-objective RBF network for medical disease diagnosis. It is better than RBF network based on MOPSO and NSGA-II, and also competitive with other methods in the literature

A foresight study on green technology in paint industries in Malaysia

Green technology paint industries have been rising significantly over the years due to its benefit to environment and consequently to human health. However, the high manufacturing cost and other disadvantages threatened its sustainability in the future. Therefore a research was carried out to identify the issues and drivers of employing in green technology paint industries and to study the future trend of green technology paints in Malaysia. STEEPV approach which is an acronym for (Social, Technological, Environmental, Economic, Political and Values) is an internationally recognized tool used in conducting technology foresight worldwide. This tool was used in the current research in identifying various issues and drivers based on the above mentioned six categories. New technologies in preparing low energy consuming paints and the role of government and non-governmental organization was voted as the most influential drivers for the eco-friendly paint industries in Malaysia. In line with this regard, a scenario development carried out and a number of projects were suggested in order to move towards sustainable development of eco-friendly paint industry. As a consequence it is recommended to add more political will and support in such projects to ensure the ownership at the top level and maximize the chances of implementing the outcomes

Exploring relationship between perceived motivation factors and job satisfaction

A number of studies that have focused on perceived motivation factors towards employees’ job satisfaction have been conducted. However, very few relate these concepts from knowledge workers’ perspective. This paper set out to have an empirical look at the relationship between motivation factors and employees’ job satisfaction. The survey had been conducted by distributing questionnaires to employees describes as “knowledge workers” by the manager. 50 respondents participated in this study to yield a response rate of 84.75%. The results showed that only two out three motivator factors (recognition and achievement) have significant relationship between with intrinsic satisfaction and only two out of three hygiene factor (security and working condition) have significant relationship with extrinsic job satisfaction. Thus, this signifies the importance of both motivator and hygiene factors in enhancing job satisfaction among employees especially among knowledge worker

Virtual teams: A literature review

In the competitive market, virtual teams represent a growing response to the need for fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Virtual teams enable organizations to pool the talents and expertise of employees and non-employees by eliminating time and space barriers. Nowadays, companies are heavily investing in virtual team to enhance their performance and competitiveness. Despite virtual teams growing prevalence, relatively little is known about this new form of team. Hence the study offers an extensive literature review with definitions of virtual teams and a structured analysis of the present body of knowledge of virtual teams. First, we distinguish virtual teams from conventional teams, different types of virtual teams to identify where current knowledge applies. Second, we distinguish what is needed for effective virtual team considering the people, process and technology point of view and underlying characteristics of virtual teams and challenges they entail. Finally, we have identified and extended 12 key factors that need to be considered, and describes a methodology focused on supporting virtual team working, with a new approach that has not been specifically addressed in the existing literature and some guide line for future research extracted

SMEs: ERP or virtual collaboration teams

Small firms are indeed the engines of global economic growth. Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play an important role to promote economic development. SMEs in the beginning of implementing new technologies always face capital shortage and need technological assistance. Available ERP systems do not fulfil the specific requirements of Small firms. SMEs has scarce resources and manpower therefore many SMEs don?t have the possessions to buy and operate an ERP System. On the other hand competition and competitiveness of SMEs have to be strengthened. This paper briefly reviews the existing perspectives on virtual teams and their effect on SMEs management. It also discusses the main characteristics of virtual teams and clarifies the differences aspects of virtual team application in SMEs. After outlining some of the main advantages and pitfall of such teams, it concentrates on comparing of ERP and virtual collaborative teams in SMEs. Finally, it provides evidence for the need of ?Software as a Service (SaaS)? where an application is hosted as a service provided to customers across the web for SMEs as an alternative of ERP. It has been widely argued that ERP disadvantage in SMEs such as administrative expenditure and cost, isolated structure, severe lack of software flexibility, insufficient support of SMEs business and high operating cost, lead SMEs to use virtual collaborative team which is net work base solution

Innovation and R & D activities in virtual team

Innovation plays a central role in economic development, at the regional and national level. In the competitive environment companies are obliged to produce more rapidly, more effectively and more efficiently in new product development, which is a result of research and development (R&D) activities. It is necessary for them to put together different capabilities and services with the goal, through cooperation between suppliers and customers, service providers and scientific institutions to achieve innovations of high quality. Depending on the type of industry, the type of business, the type of innovation and the strategic objectives that have been set, firms will regularly have to modify the way in which their R\&D and innovation are organized. Nowadays, shift from serial to simultaneous and parallel working in innovation has become more commonplace. Literature's have shown that collaboration is as a meta-capability for innovation. By a comprehensive reviewing of literature this article after define virtual teams and its characteristics, addressing virtual environment innovation and the relationship to R&D activities. Finally conclude that innovation cannot be successful, unless the knowledge and information in the R&D project are effectively captured, shared and internalized by the R&D project?s virtual team members

Virtual R&D Teams: A potential growth of education-industry collaboration

Introduction: With the advent of the global economy and high-speed Internet, online collaboration is fast becoming the norm in education and industry 1. Information technology (IT) creates many new inter-relationships among businesses, expands the scope of industries in which a company must compete to achieve the competitive advantage. Information systems and technology allow companies to coordinate their activities in distant geographic locations 2. IT is providing the infrastructure necessary to support the development of new collaboration forms among industry and education. Virtual research and development (R&D) teams represent one such relational form, one that could revolutionize the workplace and provide organizations with unprecedented levels of flexibility and responsiveness 3-4