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.

Plasmonic fluorescence enhancement by metal nanostructures: shaping the future of bionanotechnology

Abstract: This review focuses on metal enhanced fluorescence (MEF) and its current and future applications in biotechnology. The mechanisms of MEF are discussed in terms of the additional radiative and nonradiative decay rates caused by the close proximity of the metal. We then review the current MEF materials and structures that show promise in bioapplications. The use of electromagnetic modelling to predict fluorescent rate enhancement is then considered. We then give particular focus to the recent work carried out in the homogeneous fabrication of metal nanoparticles using colloidal lithography. It is concluded that the use of computational electromagnetic modelling alongside homogeneous fabrication techniques will lead to predictable and controllable MEF, paving the way for increased applications in biotechnology.

Causes of accidents at construction sites

Abstract: The statistic of accidents at construction sites give us a picture that Malaysian construction industry is one of the critical sectors that need a huge and fast overhaul from the current site safety practices. Accident don’t just happen, they are caused by unsafe acts, unsafe conditions or both. Most accidents result from a combination of contributing causes and one or more unsafe acts and unsafe condition. In order to improve the overall safety performance we need to investigate the root causes of construction accidents. That knowledge could be utilised in formulating more conducive working conditions and environments at construction sites. Therefore, a study has been conducted to identify the causes of accident at construction sites. This study was started out by reviewing literature from journals, books and web pages. Then reported accidents cases kept by the Department of Occupational Safety and Health Malaysia (DOSH) were examined to investigate causes of accidents. Surveys using questionnaire forms were carried out to obtain data from respondents who are mainly contractors and the rest are developers and consultants firms all around countries that are well versed with the construction safety. The finding of this study reveals that accidents are the result of many contributing factors, causes, and sub causes. Some of the critical factors are unsafe method, human element, unsafe equipment, job site conditions, management, and unique nature of the industry. The causes of accidents in Malaysia were found to be similar to that mentioned in literature review. However, some of the causes are low in frequency of occurrence. The main cause of construction accidents found are the workers’ negligence, failure of workers to obey work procedures, work at high elevation, operating equipment without safety devices, poor site management, harsh work operation, low knowledge and skill level of workers, failure to use personal protective equipments and poor workers attitude about safety.

A hybrid genetic algorithm and chaotic function model for image encryption

Abstract: The security of digital images has attracted much attention recently. In this study, a new method based on a hybrid model is proposed for image encryption. The hybrid model is composed of a genetic algorithm and a chaotic function. In the first stage of the proposed method, a number of encrypted images are constructed using the original image and the chaotic function. In the next stage, these encrypted images are used as the initial population for the genetic algorithm. In each stage of the genetic algorithm, the answer obtained from the previous iteration is optimized to produce the best-encrypted image. The best-encrypted image is defined as the image with the highest entropy and the lowest correlation coefficient among adjacent pixels. The use of genetic algorithms in image encryption has been attempted for the first time in this paper. Analyzing the results from the performed experiments, a high level of resistance of the proposed method against brute-force and statistical invasions is obviously illustrated. The obtained entropy and correlation coefficients of the method are approximately 7.9978 and −0.0009, respectively.

The application of internet of things in healthcare: a systematic literature review and classification

Abstract: The Internet of Things (IoT) is an ecosystem that integrates physical objects, software and hardware to interact with each other. Aging of population, shortage of healthcare resources, and rising medical costs make IoT-based technologies necessary to be tailored to address these challenges in healthcare. This systematic literature review has been conducted to determine the main application area of IoT in healthcare, components of IoT architecture in healthcare, most important technologies in IoT, characteristics of cloud-based architecture, security and interoperability issues in IoT architecture and effects, and challenges of IoT in healthcare. Sixty relevant papers, published between 2000 and 2016, were reviewed and analyzed. This analysis revealed that home healthcare service was one of the main application areas of IoT in healthcare. Cloud-based architecture, by providing great flexibility and scalability, has been deployed in most of the reviewed studies. Communication technologies including wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi), Bluetooth, radio-frequency identification (RFID), ZigBee, and Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks (LoWPAN) were frequently used in different IoT models. The studies regarding the security and interoperability issues in IoT architecture in health are still low in number. With respect to the most important effects of IoT in healthcare, these included ability of information exchange, decreasing stay of hospitalization and healthcare costs. The main challenges of IoT in healthcare were security and privacy issues.