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The study of project management practices to enhance the project success / Adibah Alya Shahari
Get PDFProject Management can be described as the application of a certain guideline to the process of completing the project. It is the function of specific knowledge, suitable tools and techniques, and excellent skills to meet the objective and requirements of the Project Management (Rozenes, 2011). Successful projects created various definitions from a different views, as it can be a perception from sponsors, project managers, and system analysts (Shokri-Ghasabeh & Kavousi-Chabok, 2009). Factors that contribute to a project failure may be varies and complex to understand. Previous research studies by Kaming et al. (1997) and Noor et al. (2020) shows the biggest challenges in managing the housing project was mainly due to incompetent project manager and inexperienced project management team such as contractors and consultants. The objective of this study is to assess the implementation of project management practices in Malaysia, to evaluate the impact of project management practices on the project and to recommend the best practice for the project manager in managing the project. To have a better understanding of the project management practices, this study has referred to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) guide with the support from the previous research studies. This study is conducted based on samples selected i.e., housing development located at Klang Valley area. From the data collected and case studies explored, the most contributing factors in project failure are due to poor Project Schedule Management, Project Cost Management, Project Communication Management and Project Quality Management. Furthermore, it summarised the common issues for all projects selected are the project progress which all projects are delayed for more than 90 days, poor contractors’ performance in terms of financial and quality, and internal management control where iv
the internal project team did not have enough knowledge to implement the best practice of project management. Therefore, PMBOK guidelines are proven to be the most effective way in promoting successful project management. Even though failure in project management practices does not mean the project itself is failed, it is proven that implementing proper project management practices helps in increasing the project success
Investigation and simulation on transmission, emersion and dispersion of dust particle from point of generation / Mohd Syahmi Jasman
No full textWood dust is one of the world's oldest and most prevalent occupational hazards. The
current studies examine at the impact of lifetime exposure to wood dust in various
occupational situations on the risk of lung cancer. In this work, the investigation on
occupational safety and health in wood furniture manufacturing sectors from one factory
is reported. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has now made it possible to simulate
the airflow behavior using simulation applications. Knowing how the fresh air circulates
within a building, around the people inside, and through its openings is crucial to improve
air quality. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to use CFD to examine the air flow
characteristics in a wood furniture industry. In this study, the flow was assumed to be a
steady-state, incompressible, and two-dimensional turbulent flow. A standard k-epsilon
turbulent model was applied to show more accurate and reasonable result. A CFD
software was used to perform the numerical simulation. The simulation model of wood
furniture factory was constructed with one inlet and three outlets where two opening
outlets located on the top side wall while the main outlet located at the end of the factory.
For the simulation model, the average air speed at the inlet was 5 m·s-1
by considering the
average wind speed in our country and the speed from the fan available inside the factory.
For validation of simulation model, the air quality data of particulate matter which refers
to wood dust obtained from five different station are compared to the permissible
exposure limit (PEL) according to the Department of Occupational Safety and Health
(DOSH). The level of particulate matter pollutants are collected from several locations to
identify the sources of respiratory hazards using the air quality monitor devices. The
findings revealed that the sources of dangers changed depending on the workstation's
purpose. Finally, two modifications are proposed on the original layout of factory to reduce the dust particle inside the factory: (1) Modification on the size of inlet and main
outlet; (2) Modification on the location of inlet and main outlet. Three situations were
simulated for each category of modification to predict the airflow pattern in the
investigated factory. Result suggest that both inlet and outlet need to have a similar size
for a smooth flow of air and the location of the outlet need to change into the middle at
the end of factory in order to reduce the zero-velocity area. An addition of inlet in one of
the stations are also proposed for a better result
Online water monitoring system in Malaysia: An overall assessment / Iffa Munira Mohd Mizan
No full textWater monitoring is identifiable as a systematic analysis of water quality to identify and
notify us of the current and ongoing status of the water bodies. It also highlighted emerging
problems and the countermeasure that should contemplate in managing water quality. Water
is not only crucial for industrial uses but also domestic usage. Untreated water can affect the
ecosystem of living and non-living organisms. There are several methods of identifying the
contaminants in the water bodies, such as the conventional approach and online water
monitoring. The type of water monitoring implemented in Malaysia are manual water quality
monitoring and continuous monitoring. There are only 15 stations for continuous monitoring,
while there are almost 2000 stations for conventional monitoring. This research aims to
propose the best online water monitoring model for Malaysia. Online water monitoring
implements current technology such as sensors to identify contaminants that have disturbed
the water elements' properties. This study aims to access the current online water monitoring
practice in Malaysia and determine the best systems for online water monitoring based on
the best practices. The data obtained in this research are from secondary data of the studies
conducted in other countries. This particular data was chosen based on the technology and
capabilities to be carried out in Malaysia. This work presents an analysis of recent works
carried out in the system of online water monitoring. Also, best practices of online water
quality monitoring based on the Internet of Things (IoT) method. The model developed is
used in identifying the water sample, and data transmit in the cloud/internet/systems are
analyzed. Water parameters such as color, odor, taste, and bacterial value are discussed as
indicators to analyze water quality. In addition, federal and state government plays a
significant role in managing water monitoring as they are the policymakers and the regulatory
authorities
Hazard identification risk assessment and risk control in medical divice manufacturing company during pandemic outbreak / Khairil Anuar Mohammad Pakri
No full textThe coronavirus, known as COVID-19, started in December of 2019. It started in Wuhan, China,
then started spreading around the world till it became a global pandemic. Many people around
the world are affected not only in terms of health but also in the economy due to COVID-19.
Many industries are facing issues with operating their businesses during a pandemic. Because of
a lack of resources, particularly manpower, industry is unable to function normally. They still
need to operate the plant to fulfill customer demand. Due to the limitations that industry is facing
in order to run a business during a pandemic outbreak, there will be new hazards from
manufacturing activities. Lack of skilled workers, attendance issues due to COVID-19,
employee’s motivation, and workplace configuration to meet COVID-19 Standard Operating
Procedure (SOP) regulated by National Security Council (NSC) becomes a limitation for
industries. Details of hazard assessment are required to review past activities and processes in
each department of an organization during a pandemic outbreak. Risk analysis needs to be
performed immediately once a hazard is identified to find an effective control measure to prevent
any unexpected incident from happening. Instead of controlling the spread of COVID-19 in the
workplace, industries still need to focus on preventing accidents and occupational health issues
to ensure employees come to work safe and healthy. Every employee must be aware of the
hazards in their workplace and understand how to overcome the hazards using the control
measures discovered during the risk assessment. Employees must be trained on how to work
within the new norm in order to protect their safety and health. Even during pandemic season,
incidents can be avoided if a proactive assessment is performed to identify new hazards and
effective control measures. Assessment needs to be effective and comprehensive in order to
cover every angle and situation of a pandemic. The risk assessment needs to be conducted
regularly based on the pandemic situation. An industry can operate smoothly if an effective
assessment has been conducted. It can minimize the limitations due to a pandemic outbreak.
Support from each employee and management is important to ensure it can be done effectively.
All countries are facing the same pandemic situation. The only difference is how they manage it,
either proactively or not. Proactive countries will accelerate their growth and improve their
economies when their industries can operate normally while meeting safety and health standards.
From the study, the COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on a medical company's device
manufacturing. It can be measured by using the Hazard Identification Risk Assessment and Risk
Control method to indicate the level of risk rating for a company operating during the COVID-19
outbreak. Employees' perception of COVID-19 can also be evaluated, and most of them respond
that the COVID-19 pandemic has an impact on their daily routine in medical device
manufacturing companies
An empirical investigation on the temporal variations of urban heat island in greater Kuala Lumpur / Logaraj Ramakreshnan
No full textBackground: Greater Kuala Lumpur (GKL) suffered inevitable territorial urban development with many primary urban areas within the conurbation experiencing the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon, expressed as the temperature difference between areas of different degrees of urbanization process. Nonetheless, very limited studies have evaluated nor understood the temporal dynamics of canopy-level UHI in the local context. Aim: This study investigated the temporal variations of canopy-level UHI in selected urban stations, Petaling Jaya (PJ) and Subang (SUB), of GKL in relation to the reference Sepang (SEP) suburban station. This study also investigated the association between selected meteorological variables (relative humidity and wind speed) and UHI Intensity (UHII) in the urban stations. Methods: Hourly dataset of 112 calm and clear days of the year 2016 corresponding to all the monsoon seasons obtained from the meteorological observatories are included in the analysis after excluding the synoptic scale effects. The mean differences between the selected meteorological variables (relative humidity and wind speed) of the urban and suburban stations are tested using one-way ANOVA and Tukey’s HSD test. Thereafter, the association between the meteorological variables and UHII is evaluated using Pearson correlation and Multivariate Linear Regression models. Results: The difference between the means of the average temperature of PJ-SEP pair is statistically significant during the northeast (Q = 4.037, p < 0.05) and southwest monsoon (Q = 11.344, p < 0.001) seasons whereas the SUB-SEP pair registers statistical significance during the southwest monsoon (Q = 7.742, p < 0.001) only. The yearly average of the UHII in the PJ station (1.25 °C) is higher compared to the SUB station (0.67 °C). High UHII of 0.74 - 1.70 °C is recorded in the PJ station compared to the SUB (0.15 - 1.40 °C) station during relatively drier months associated with the southwest monsoon seasons. In terms of diurnal variations, the daily average of UHII in the PJ station (1.19 °C) is higher compared to the SUB (0.73 °C) station, with the magnitudes surpassing the daily average recorded before sunrise and from late afternoon until the midnight. In addition, the highest cooling rate in SUB (1.10 °C/h) and PJ (0.90 °C/h) is attained around 6 p.m. In contrast, the cooling rate of SEP station is the lowest before sunrise (0.15 – 0.34 °C/h) and after sunset (0.20 – 0.47 °C/h), justifying the development of nocturnal UHI with high intensities in these urban stations. Indeed, most of the hourly UHIIs between 1-3 °C occur at night during all the monsoon seasons. Besides, the relative humidity demonstrated a moderate negative linear relationship with UHII in PJ (r = -0.568, p < 0.001) and SUB (r = -0.629, p < 0.001) stations. Likewise, hourly change in UHII (ΔUHII) and relative humidity (ΔRH) also revealed a moderate negative correlation in PJ (r = -0.508, p < 0.001) and SUB (r = -0.543, p < 0.001) stations. On the other hand, wind speed exerts a low and moderate negative correlation with UHII in the PJ (r = -0.450, p < 0.001) and SUB (r = -0.601, p < 0.001) stations. In terms of hourly changes, a moderate negative relationship (r = -0.588, p < 0.001) is observed between ΔUHII and wind speed (ΔWS) in the SUB station. Nonetheless, this effect is insignificant (r = -0.147, p = 0.087) in the PJ station. The combined influences of relative humidity and wind speed on UHII indicating a strong and moderate negative relationship in PJ (r = -0.714, p < 0.001) and SUB (r = -0.630, p < 0.001) stations, respectively. Conclusion: The findings of this study is expected to fill the existing knowledge gap on the magnitudes of UHII of urban stations in GKL and how strongly the meteorological factors can affect the UHII in an equatorial country like Malaysia by adding more research evidence from the tropical region
Development of saliency metric for autonomous landmark selection in cognitive robot navigation / Gao Hanyang
No full textUrban landmarks are spatial features that are visually significant in the neighbourhood. Humans cognitively select landmarks based on their visual appearance like size, colour, and shape. Many researchers have attempted to evaluate and extract visual landmarks, usually by abstracting their features and quantifying their salience. Humans use qualitative, high level visual features of landmarks in their navigation. In contrast, robots use empirical, low-level HOG and SURF features in their landmark extraction for navigation. A quantitative model for visual salience indicators in urban landmark extraction seems beneficial to the robotics community and could improve understanding for cognitive robot navigation. Quantifying visual salience indicators for urban landmark extraction is challenging when the goal is to compute qualitative, high-level visual features. Existing robot landmark extraction methods are based on low-level features like HOG and SURF, which fails to express landmarks cognitively like humans. This dissertation proposes an algorithm to quantify urban landmarks based on visual salience indicators for cognitive robot navigation. The dissertation follows three objectives; to segment urban landmarks in an image, to develop an algorithm to quantify visual salience
indicators for urban landmarks extraction, and to compare the performance of proposed algorithm in extracting urban landmarks between robot and human. A drone is used to collect fourteen aerial images of urban landmarks. Four images are taken from top view and for variation, one image is taken from front view, for each landmark. The images processing follows bilateral filtering, Otsu thresholding, morphing to resolve connectedness issues, and segmenting the landmarks. Next, the size, colour and shape salience equations are considered following pixel counting, extracting intensity value from hue, saturation and value (HSV), and an equation for shape indicator, respectively. The experiment done suggests that the final salience value for each landmark can be calculated by adding size, colour and shape together according to weightage 45%, 35%
and 20% respectively. Sixty participants between the age of 18 and 60 agree to answer a survey in evaluating 14 urban landmarks based on their size, colour and shape. Encouragingly, 12 out of the 14 urban landmarks selected by the robot match the human selection, with 85.7% accuracy
Optimization of transport properties of poly (acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) based polymer electrolytes / Saminatha Kumaran Veloo
No full textOver the last few decades, transport properties of solid polymer electrolytes play vital role in variety of electrochemical devices such as high energy density batteries, super capacitors, fuel cells, sensors, and dye-sensitized solar cells. Generally, solid polymer electrolytes have several advantages such as leakage-proof, lightweight, improved safety, inexpensive, good thermal stability, high flexibility, and ease of fabrication. In this research work, polymer electrolyte thin films based on Poly (acrylamide-co-acrylic acid) (PAAC) doped with Sodium Iodide (NaI) (System A) and system B was prepared by adding ionic liquid of 1-Butyl-3-Methylimidazolium Iodide (BMI) with optimized PAAC-NaI system in different ratios of polymer, salt, and ionic liquid by using solution casting method. In both Systems A and B, a fixed amount of additive of Propylene Carbonate (PC) was added to polymer electrolyte systems. The Propylene Carbonate (PC) was added to the mixture of the solution to provide more flexibility to the polymer film by increasing the plasticity of the thin film membrane. The conductivity and dielectric studies were carried out on these thin films over the wide range of frequencies from 50 Hz to 5 MHz to understand the ionic transport properties of the polymer electrolytes. The highest ionic conductivity has been found to be 1.88 × 10−5 Scm−1 for the system A optimized with 30 wt.% of NaI salt-doped polymer electrolyte system at room temperature and maximum ionic conductivity of 4.73 × 10−4 S cm−1 achieved for system B containing the optimized 30 wt. % NaI salt-doped polymer electrolyte and 15 wt.% BMI ionic liquid at room temperature. For both systems, the temperature dependent ionic conductivity agreed with Arrhenius relationship which shows the ion hopping mechanism of ions in the polymer matrix. The dielectric properties especially the loss tangent was analyzed to observe the segmental relaxation of the polymer chain upon incorporation of salt and ionic liquid. Further investigations were made to analyze the behaviour of thermally activated ionic diffusion and its overall effect on segmental dynamics of solid polymer electrolyte systems
Comparative study of naphthalocyanine-based near infrared organic photodiode using VTTBNc:PC61BM and VTTBNc:PC71BM blend films / Siti Anis Khairani Alwi
No full textIn this work, the experimental evaluation of solution-processed bulk heterojunction organic photodiodes using vanadyl 2,11,20,29-tetra-tert-butyl-2,3-naphthalocyanine (VTTBNc) as an electron donor has been presented. VTTBNc is blended with two different fullerene derivatives and served as electron acceptor in which influence the performance of organic photodiode (OPD). The fullerene derivatives involved are [6,6]phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) and [6,6]phenyl-C71-butyric acid methyl ester (PC71BM). Three different ratios (1:0.5, 1:1.0, 1:1.5) (vol:vol) of VTTBNc:PC61BM and VTTBNc:PC71BM blend films have been varied in the characterization and optimization of the OPD devices. The blended film of the ratio 1:1.5 and 1:1.0 were found to be the optimized based on the OPD performance for VTTBNc:PC61BM and VTTBNc:PC71BM, respectively. The blend film of VTTBNc:PC71BM (vol:vol 1:1.0) exhibits the highest performance in the VTTBNc blend structure with 2.31x109 Jones detectivity and 26.11 mA/W responsivity at -1 V bias. Besides that, the blend by using PC71BM shows the enhancement of the morphology as it exhibits higher visibility of the cluster on the surface with surface roughness increased to 62%. The light absorption measurement demonstrated that VTTBNc in the blend film can extend the absorption to the near-infrared (NIR) region furthering in more application for the photodiode. Moreover, the HOMO-LUMO levels of VTTBNc were found to be as -5.14 eV and -3.74 eV which properly aligned with the energy levels in fullerene derivatives
Prinsip bioetika Islam dalam teknologi pengeditan genom manusia / Nurul Atiqah Zulkifli
No full textTeknologi pengeditan genom merupakan salah satu penemuan sains dan teknologi yang berpotensi besar dalam meningkatkan taraf kesihatan dan kehidupan masyarakat, khususnya dalam kalangan masyarakat Islam. Namun begitu, sebagai umat Islam, terdapat beberapa batasan agama yang perlu dijaga dan dinilai, sebelum menjalani rawatan pengeditan genom, lebih-lebih lagi apabila terdapat beberapa isu berbangkit yang dikaitkan dengan kesan pengaplikasian teknologi tersebut ke atas manusia. Justeru itu, terdapat keperluan untuk membincangkan isu-isu bioetika yang timbul melalui perspektif Islam dan menggariskan prinsip-prinsip bioetika Islam yang khusus supaya umat Islam dapat menjadikannya sebagai panduan dan rujukan, sebelum mengaplikasinya sebagai salah satu rawatan yang dibenarkan oleh agama Islam. Melalui kajian ini, beberapa objektif kajian telah dibincangkan: i) Mengenalpasti isu-isu bioetika dalam teknologi pengeditan genom menurut perspektif Islam; ii) Menggariskan prinsip-prinsip bioetika Islam mengenai teknologi pengeditan genom manusia, dan; iii) Menghuraikan perbandingan antara prinsip-prinsip bioetika konvensional dan prinsip-prinsip bioetika Islam berkaitan teknologi pengeditan genom manusia. Kajian berbentuk kualitatif ini dijalankan melalui kaedah perpustakaan dan temu bual. Melalui kaedah temu bual, pengkaji telah menemu bual tujuh (7) orang pakar yang terdiri daripada pakar dalam bidang sains, teknologi dan perubatan, bidang keagamaan (syariah Islam) dan bidang falsafah dan etika Islam, secara bersemuka. Hasilnya, kajian ini menggariskan lapan prinsip-prinisp bioetika Islam yang diformulasi daripada aspek pendekatan syariah iaitu konsep Maqasid al-syariah dan Qawaid Fiqhiyyah, serta aspek falsafah Islam iaitu aspek pandangan dunia Islam. Prinsip-prinsip bioetika Islam ini boleh dijadikan rujukan dalam menyediakan garis panduan bioetika Islam yang komprehensif dan lengkap pada masa hadapan. Prinsip-prinsip bioetika Islam tersebut ialah; i) penggunaan teknologi harus mempunyai matlamat dan tujuan yang jelas dan baik, ii) penggunaan teknologi hendaklah mendatangkan kebaikan dan manfaat secara yakin (qat’i) dan secara tidak pasti (zan), iii) penggunaan teknologi menolak dan menghalang kemudaratan dan keburukan yang bakal berlaku, iv) penggunaan teknologi tidak bercanggah dengan mana-mana larangan dalam syariat Islam, v) setiap aktiviti penyelidikan dan hasil dapatan haruslah selari dengan aspek ketuhanan, vi) penggunaan teknologi haruslah mengutamakan kepentingan umum berbanding kepentingan individu, vii) Ibu bapa mempunyai hak untuk menjalankan proses pengeditan genom ke atas embrio anak mereka, dan, viii) Hanya lebihan embrio (surplus embryo) sahaja yang boleh digunakan di dalam penyelidikan, seawal usianya 14 hari. Seterusnya, pengkaji mendapati bahawa terdapat persamaan dalam prinsip-prinsip bioetika konvensional dan prinsip-prinsip bioetika Islam, terutamanya dalam aspek nilai-nilai sejagat (universal value) yang meraikan kebaikan dan kesejahteraan kepada masyarakat. Walau bagaimanapun, terdapat juga perbezaan antara keduanya, yang mana prinsip bioetika Islam meletakkan kebergantungan kepada Tuhan dan pegangan kepada syariah Islam itu sebagai rujukan utama. Hasil kajian ini boleh dijadikan sebagai rujukan untuk menggubal sebuah garis panduan bioetika Islam dalam teknologi pengeditan genom manusia yang boleh diterima oleh masyarakat Islam.
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Experimental study of piezoelectric and dielectric responses in Poly-L-lactic acid / Siti Hannah Mat Zin
No full textThe piezoelectric d- and e-constants, as well as the elastic constant, c, and the dielectric constant, ε were determined as a function of frequency and temperature for oriented poly-L-lactic acid (PLLA) films with various elongation ratios and annealing temperatures using the dielectric resonance method. The findings are discussed in terms of a general theory of piezoelectricity for inhomogeneous systems, more specifically a disperse two-phase system. Five observations demonstrate that the piezoelectricity of PLLA film originates from the piezoelectric and optically active symmetry of PLLA crystallites and their orientation distribution. d14 component of the piezoelectric matrix is observed. The e14 is proportional to the product of orientation factor, Fc and crystallization fraction, Xc (Fc*Xc) of PLLA crystallites as determined by x-ray diffraction. The piezoelectric constants for a perfect crystal of PLLA was determined as e14 ~27 mC/m2 from the three-spring model and extrapolation to perfect orientation using the correlation of Fc*Xc assuming the PLLA crystallites are rigid. At ~100°C, the piezoelectric relaxation of PLLA is due to segmental mode relaxation in the amorphous phase within the crystalline region. A significant decrease in e14 with increasing temperature is caused by the non-crystalline phase softening, which results in a decrease in strain in the crystalline phase. The retardation of d14 is due to softening in the non-crystalline region caused by a parallel crystalline phase's stress concentration. An equivalent model is proposed that incorporates the PLLA film's higher order structure