Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

About: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia is a education organization based out in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Membrane & Adsorption. The organization has 21644 authors who have published 39500 publications receiving 520635 citations.

Global stability and cost-effectiveness analysis of COVID-19 considering the impact of the environment: using data from Ghana

Abstract: COVID-19 potentially threatens the lives and livelihood of people all over the world. The disease is presently a major health concern in Ghana and the rest of the world. Although, human to human transmission dynamics has been established, not much research is done on the dynamics of the virus in the environment and the role human play by releasing the virus into the environment. Therefore, investigating the human-environment-human by use of mathematical analysis and optimal control theory is relatively necessary. The dynamics of COVID-19 for this study is segregated into compartments as: Susceptible (S), Exposed (E), Asymptomatic (A), Symptomatic (I), Recovered (R) and the Virus in the environment/surfaces (V). The basic reproduction number R 0 without controls is computed. The application of Lyapunov’s function is used to analyse the global stability of the proposed model. We fit the model to real data from Ghana in the time window 12th March 2020 to 7th May 2020, with the aid of python programming language using the least-squares method. The average basic reproduction number without controls, R 0 a , is approximately 2.68. An optimal control is formulated based on the sensitivity analysis. Numerical simulation of the model is also done to verify the analytic results. The admissible control set such as: effective testing and quarantine when boarders are opened, the usage of masks and face shields through media education, cleaning of surfaces with home-based detergents, practising proper cough etiquette and fumigating commercial areas; health centers is simulated in MATLAB. We used forward-backward sweep Runge-Kutta scheme which gave interesting results in the main text, for example, the cost-effectiveness analysis shows that, Strategy 4 (safety measures adopted by the asymptomatic and symptomatic individuals such as practicing proper coughing etiquette by maintaining a distance, covering coughs and sneezes with disposable tissues or clothing and washing of hands after coughing or sneezing) is the most cost-effective strategy among all the six control intervention strategies under consideration.

Application of load monitoring in appliances’ energy management – A review

Abstract: Energy monitoring is one of the important aspects of the energy management, as such there is a need to monitor the power consumption of a premises before planning some of the technical measures to minimize the energy consumption. This paper presents the current state of art of appliances’ energy management through Intrusive Load Monitoring (ILM) and Non-intrusive Load Monitoring (NILM), ILM is referred to as distributive sensing and NILM is based on single point sensing. In an effort to explore the recent trend in Energy Management for researchers in the area, various techniques of Home Energy Management (HEM) using ILM and NILM have been analyzed and categorized. Different contributions made by the researchers have been highlighted together with some techniques of reducing power consumption of a building for cost saving and greener environment. This study reveal that there are issues concerning load monitoring and load management that need the attention; issues such as more accurate recognition and the need for monitoring system that can recognize as many kind of loads as possible. More efforts to apply NILM in appliances’ energy management is also required. Finally there is need for promoting the energy management culture among the electricity consumers whether in homes, offices or industries. The study will help the researchers in the area to have a clear vision of the recent trends in the area.

Factors affecting knowledge sharing intention among academic staff

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate factors affecting knowledge sharing among academic staff in universities. Utilizing the theory of reasoned action (TRA) as the underlying research framework, the main objective of this study was threefold. First, was to examine the relationship between attitude, subjective norm, and trust with knowledge sharing intention. Second, was to examine the relationship among factors, i.e., self-efficacy, social networks and extrinsic rewards with attitude toward knowledge sharing intention and the third objective was to find out the relationship between organizational support and subjective norm. Design/methodology/approach – A total of 200 questionnaires were distributed among academic staff at three social science faculties in one public university in Malaysia. Collectively, 117 usable responses were returned. Partial Least Square analysis was utilized to analyze the data. Findings – The results indicated that of the two components of the TRA, only attitude ...