Search results for: Usman Ghani

Authors: Usman D. Hamza, Noor S. Nasri, Mohammed Jibril, Husna M. Zain

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Activated carbons (M4P0, M4P2, and M5P2) used in this research were produced from palm shell and polyetherether ketone (PEEK) via carbonization, impregnation, and microwave activation. The adsorption/desorption process was carried out using static volumetric adsorption. Regeneration is important in the overall economy of the process and waste minimization. This work focuses on the thermal regeneration of the CO2 exhausted microwave activated carbons. The regeneration strategy adopted was thermal with nitrogen purge desorption with N2 feed flow rate of 20 ml/min for 1 h at atmospheric pressure followed by drying at 1500C. Seven successive adsorption/regeneration processes were carried out on the material. It was found that after seven adsorption regeneration cycles; the regeneration efficiency (RE) for CO2 activated carbon from palm shell only (M4P0) was more than 90% while that of hybrid palm shell-PEEK (M4P2, M5P2) was above 95%. The cyclic adsorption and regeneration shows the stability of the adsorbent materials.

Keywords: activated carbon, palm shell-PEEK, regeneration, thermal

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Authors: Hamad Al-Turaif, Usman Saeed

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The development of nanofibers with the help of electrospinning is being prioritized as a method of choice because of the simplicity and efficiency of the process. The parameters of the electrospinning process effectively convert the polymer solution into an electrospun final product made of the desired diameter of nanofiber. The aim of the study presented is to recognize and analyze the effect of proposed parameters on biodegradable and biocompatible polylactic acid (PLA)/polybutylene succinate (PBS) nanofiber developed by the electrospinning process. The morphology of the fiber is characterized by implementing Scanning Electron Microscope. Studies were conducted to characterize the result of using different electrospinning parameters on the final diameter and orientation of fiber. It was determined that varying polymer solution concentration, feed rate, and applied voltage show different outcomes. The best results were obtained at 6% polymer solution concentration, 20 kV, and 0.5 ml/h, which can be applicable for biomedical applications. Finally, protein adsorption and mechanical testing were conducted on the PLA/PBS fiber.

Keywords: electrospinning, polylactic acid, polybutylene succinate, morphology

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Authors: Norazharuddin Shah Abdullah, Harshita Aini Haroon, Norazian Mohmad Azman, Erlane K. Ghani, Ismie Roha Mohamed Jais, Kamaruzzaman Muhammad, Azleen Ilias

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This study examines the factors that influence academics' decisions to accept or decline leadership roles in Malaysian universities. A questionnaire survey was distributed to a total of 1771 academics from public and private institutions in Malaysia. This study shows that the majority of academics in universities, regardless of whether they are public or private, have a reluctance to take on administrative roles. In particular, this study shows that female academics in public universities have no ambition for administrative roles, while female academics in private universities show a strong enthusiasm for taking up administrative positions. In terms of age, academics of all age groups made comparable choices, but academics who are under 30 years old have a greater propensity to aspire to an administrative position. Associate professors at private universities also opt for an administrative position. The factors that influence academics' decisions to accept or decline an administrative position are categorised into five categories: career development, skills and experience, preferences, perceptions, and organization. The findings of this study suggest that the increasing number of academics not seeking institutional leadership positions is a concern, as universities need a sufficient pool of potential successors to effectively fulfil the purpose and vision of the university. This study suggests the implementation of awareness and training initiatives to inspire academics, especially young academics, to take up leadership roles within the institutions.

Keywords: academics, institutional leadership, leadership, universities, Malaysia

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Authors: Abdullateef Abdulkarim Jimoh, Muhammad Lawal A., Usman Muhammad, Hamisu Abdullahi, Nuhu Abdullahi Jega

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Smart city projects can be aided by urban development policies in public facilities, but economic resources to finance urban system reorganization is an issue to various governments. This is further compounded with the impact of the slowing down of national economies. The aim of this paper is to emphasize the need to prioritize the economic benefits of smart city projects and, specifically, in towns transforming into cities like Birnin kebbi. The smart-city projects can aim at developing a new form of ‘‘modernity and civilization’’ of the productive economy. This study adopts the descriptive statistical approach to identify the key performance indicators (KPI) for tracking the progress of cities and its developmental objectives. It has been established that numerous aspects of the modernization policies can enhance the competitiveness of territories, particular in aspects of social cohesion, the diffusion of knowledge, creativity, accessibility, etc.

Keywords: economy, economic policy, public facilities, smart city, urbanization

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Authors: Iltaf Khan, Munzir H. Suliman, Muhammad Usman

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The rapid growth of modern industries has led to increased energy demand and worsened fossil fuel depletion, resulting in global warming, while organic pollutants pose significant threats to aquatic environments due to their stability, insolubleness, and non-biodegradability. So, scientists are investigating high-performance materials to resolve these issues. In this study, we prepared LaFeO₃ nanosheets (LFONS) employing a solvothermal method via a soft template such as polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP). The LFONS have good performance regarding surface area and charge separation as compared to LaFeO₃ nanoparticles (LFONP). To improve the efficiency of LFONS, it was further modified with Ag and ZIF-67 and utilized for CO₂ conversion. Herein, the results confirm that Ag-doped and ZIF-67 coupled LFONS (ZIF-67/Ag-LFONS) exhibit superior performance compared to pristine LFONP. In addition, the stability tests confirm that our optimal sample is the most active and stable one among various nanocomposites. Ultimately, our studies will open a new pave for cost-effective, eco-friendly, and electroactive nanomaterials for CO₂ conversion.

Keywords: LaFeO₃ nanosheets, Ag incorporation, MOFs coupling, CO₂ conversion

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Authors: Usman Tunde Saadu

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The study examined gender differences in emotional adjustment of fresh students in Kwara State University, Malete. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study, and 300 fresh students were randomly selected across the six colleges in the University. An adapted Questionnaire from Nadia (2012) was used to collect data from respondents on emotional adjustment. One research question was answered with a descriptive statistic of frequency count and percentage, and one hypothesis was tested with t-test statistical analysis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that fresh students have a low level of emotional adjustment, and male students were found to have more emotional adjustment than female. Based on these findings, the researcher, therefore, concluded that fresh students have a low level of emotional adjustment. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended among others that emotional adjustment skills should be introduced into the secondary school curriculum to give students the opportunity to learn about these skills before they are being admitted into University.

Keywords: emotional adjustment, fresh students, gender differences, students

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Authors: Muhammad Usman Sardar, Muhammad Haroon Nadeem, Shahbaz Ahmad, Ashiq Hussain

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The marketing of solar photovoltaic energy systems has one of the monetary settlements to address the higher rate to pay in advance with the purchase of two decades worth of electricity services. To deploy solar photovoltaic technologies and energy setups in areas, it’s important to create a system of credit that can ensure the availability of subsidized capital and commercial conditions for the society. Meanings of energy in developing countries like Pakistan were strongly prompted by marketable interests and industrialization trend influences within their culture. It’s going to be essential to prepare the concerned proceeding models of energy development strategies. This paper discuss the impact and share of environmental friendly solar photo-voltaic energy, researching to find the most appropriate alternate solutions for balance the energy demand and supply and current progressive position in different countries regarding to development and deployment. Based on the literature reviews, its presence found that most beneficial and concerning policies have implemented in several countries around the globe.

Keywords: photovoltaic marketing and pricing, renewable energy technology, solar photovoltaic, SPV

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Authors: Yahaya Sulaiman, Ibrahim Muhammad Yakuba, Abubakar Usman

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In this paper, we discuss that Sustainable Development Goals are in consonance with Islamic ethos and philosophy. Islam made emphasize on human well-being from spiritual, physiological, intellectual and economic perspectives. Islamic worldview and values framework strengthens moral consciousness, urge pro-social behaviour and engender environmental ethics which can help in influencing our attitudes towards meeting sustainable development challenges. Islamic social finance institutions like Zakat and Waqf can contribute towards scaling up efforts in commercially non-viable, but socially vital projects and programs. There is much potential for Islamic finance to promote sustainable economic development through such approaches as widening access to finance, financing infrastructure projects, and expanding the reach of Takaful. Real sector based productive enterprise in Islamic finance has positive implications for the ecosystem. Risk-sharing shifts the emphasis from credit-worthiness of the borrower to be placed on the value creation and economic viability of investments that create new wealth. Islamic social finance package can cater to the financially excluded households.

Keywords: assessment, Islamic, economic, sustainable, development

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Authors: Mohsin Ali Shaikh, Song Weiguo, Muhammad Kashan Surahio, Usman Shahid, Rehmat Karim

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This study investigated a catastrophic arson fire incident that occurred at a textile garment building in Karachi, Pakistan. Unfortunately, a catastrophic event led to the loss of 262 lives and caused 55 severe injuries. The primary objective is to analyze the aspects of the fire incident and understand the causes of arson fire disasters. The study utilized Fire Dynamic Simulation (F.D.S) was employed to simulate fire propagation, visibility, harmful gas concentration, fire temperature, and numerical results. The analysis report has determined the specific circumstances that created the unpleasant incident in the present study. The significance of the current findings lies in their potential to prevent arson fires, improve fire safety measures, and the development of safety plans in building design. The fire dynamic simulation findings can serve as a theoretical basis for the investigation of arson fires and evacuation planning in textile garment buildings.

Keywords: investigation, fire arson incident, textile garment, fire dynamic simulation (FDS)

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Authors: Sadaf Zahra Usman

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Business Incubation has become a pervasive phenomenon in numerous parts of the world and is seen as a tool for creating a startup ecosystem. The reason for greatest barriers to the advancement of business incubation centers is the need for an entrepreneurial ecosystem and underdeveloped financial assistance and angel investor networks for startup firms. Business incubation helps in creating successful startup ventures by providing administrative support services and assistance in creating their ventures. We identify incubators into three categories: University incubation centers (UICs), Private incubators (PICs), and Government incubator centers (GICs) to measure the influence of different types of business incubation practices and their performance by using a survey questionnaire from incubation managers across Pakistan. The analysis is conducted on eight Business incubators. Results suggest that the quality of incubation centers is extremely important in this regard. The research anticipated helping policymakers, government officials, and incubation management to utilize business incubation more effectively to “hatch” innovation-based entrepreneurial development.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, unemployment, startups, economy, business incubation practice

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Authors: Aimen Batool Bint-E-Rashid, Syed Muhammad Dawood Ali Shah, Muhammad Usman Farooq, Mahgul Anwar

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As the world is progressing, the needs and demands of the consumer market are also changing. Nowadays the trends of consumer purchase decisions are dependent upon multiple factors. This study aims to identify the influential impact of country of origin over the perception and devotion towards daily personal care products specifically in reference to the knowledge and awareness regarding that particular brand in Pakistan. To corroborate this study, a 30-item brand origin questionnaire has been used with 300 purchase decision makers belonging to different age groups. To illustrate this study, a model has been developed based on brand origin, brand awareness and brand loyalty. Correlation and regression analysis have been used to find out the results which conclude the findings on the perspective of Pakistan’s consumer market as that brand origin has a direct relationship with brand loyalty provided that the consumer has a positive brand awareness. Support for the fact that brand origin impacts brand loyalty through brand awareness has been presented in this study.

Keywords: brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand origin, personal care products, P&G, Unilever

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Authors: Muhammad Farhan Ul Moazzam, Tamkeen Urooj Paracha, Ghani Rahman, Byung Gul Lee, Nasir Farid, Adnan Arshad

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The novel coronavirus pandemic disease (COVID-19) affected the whole globe, though there is a lack of clinical studies and its epidemiological features. But as per the observation, it has been seen that most of the COVID-19 infected patients show mild to moderate symptoms, and they get better without any medical assistance due to a better immune system to generate antibodies against the novel coronavirus. In this study, the active cases, serious cases, recovered cases, deaths and total confirmed cases had been analyzed using the geospatial inverse distance weightage technique (IDW) within the time span of 2nd March to 3rd June 2020. As of 3rd June, the total number of COVID-19 cases in Italy were 231,238, total deaths 33,310, serious cases 350, recovered cases 158,951, and active cases were 39,177, which has been reported by the Ministry of Health, Italy. March 2nd-June 3rd, 2020 a sum of 231,238 cases has been reported in Italy out of which 38.68% cases reported in the Lombardia region with a death rate of 18%, which is high from its national mortality rate followed by Emilia-Romagna (14.89% deaths), Piemonte (12.68% deaths), and Vento (10% deaths). As per the total cases in the region, the highest number of recoveries has been observed in Umbria (92.52%), followed by Basilicata (87%), Valle d'Aosta (86.85%), and Trento (84.54%). The COVID-19 evolution in Italy has been particularly found in the major urban area, i.e., Rome, Milan, Naples, Bologna, and Florence. Geospatial technology played a vital role in this pandemic by tracking infected patient, active cases, and recovered cases. Geospatial techniques are very important in terms of monitoring and planning to control the pandemic spread in the country.

Keywords: COVID-19, public health, geospatial analysis, IDW, Italy

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Authors: Usman Aliyu Jalam, Shuaibu Alolo Sumaila, Sa’adiya Iliyasu Muhammed

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Modern building industry lays much emphasis on sophisticated materials that have high embodied energy with intrinsic distinctiveness for damaging the environment. But today, advances in solid waste management have resulted in alternative building materials as partial or complete replacement of the conventional materials like cement, aggregate etc particularly for low cost housing. Investigations carried out revealed that an estimated 18.0 million tonnes of agricultural solid wastes are being generated in Nigeria annually. This constitutes a problem not only to the natural environment but also to the built environment more particularly with the way the wastes are being dispose of. The paper has discussed the present status on the generation and utilisation of agricultural solid wastes, their recycling potentials and environmental implications. It further discovered that although considerable quantity of these wastes were found to have the potentials of being recycled as building materials, the availability of the appropriate technology remains a big challenge in the country. Moreover, majority of the wastes type have gained popularity as fuel. As such, the economic and environmental benefits of recycling the wastes and the use of the wastes as fuel need further investigation.

Keywords: agricultural waste, building, environment, materials, Nigeria

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Authors: Mustapha Yakubu, Ahmed Usman, Hashim Ambursa

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This paper presents the findings of a research which sought to investigate techniques used to improve cost and time control of construction projects management practice in Nigeria. However, there is limited research on issues surrounding the practical usage of these techniques. Data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to construction experts through a survey conducted on the 100 construction organisations and 50 construction consultancy firms in the Nigeria aimed at identifying common project cost and time control practices and factors inhibiting effective project control in practice. The study reveals that despite the vast application of control techniques a high proportion of respondents still experienced cost and time overruns on a significant proportion of their projects. Analysis of the survey results concluded that more effort should be geared at the management of the identified top project control inhibiting factors. This paper has outlined some measures for mitigating these inhibiting factors so that the outcome of project time and cost control can be improved in practice.

Keywords: construction project, cost control, Nigeria, time control

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Authors: Usman Qamar, Younus Javed

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Frequent pattern mining is the process of finding a pattern (a set of items, subsequences, substructures, etc.) that occurs frequently in a data set. It was proposed in the context of frequent itemsets and association rule mining. Frequent pattern mining is used to find inherent regularities in data. What products were often purchased together? Its applications include basket data analysis, cross-marketing, catalog design, sale campaign analysis, Web log (click stream) analysis, and DNA sequence analysis. However, one of the bottlenecks of frequent itemset mining is that as the data increase the amount of time and resources required to mining the data increases at an exponential rate. In this investigation a new algorithm is proposed which can be uses as a pre-processor for frequent itemset mining. FASTER (FeAture SelecTion using Entropy and Rough sets) is a hybrid pre-processor algorithm which utilizes entropy and rough-sets to carry out record reduction and feature (attribute) selection respectively. FASTER for frequent itemset mining can produce a speed up of 3.1 times when compared to original algorithm while maintaining an accuracy of 71%.

Keywords: rough-sets, classification, feature selection, entropy, outliers, frequent itemset mining

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Authors: Muhammad Usman

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Pattern extraction has been done in past to extract hidden and interesting patterns from large datasets. Recently, advancements are being made in these techniques by providing the ability of multi-level mining, effective dimension reduction, advanced evaluation and visualization support. This paper focuses on reviewing the current techniques in literature on the basis of these parameters. Literature review suggests that most of the techniques which provide multi-level mining and dimension reduction, do not handle mixed-type data during the process. Patterns are not extracted using advanced algorithms for large datasets. Moreover, the evaluation of patterns is not done using advanced measures which are suited for high-dimensional data. Techniques which provide visualization support are unable to handle a large number of rules in a small space. We present a theoretical model to handle these issues. The implementation of the model is beyond the scope of this paper.

Keywords: association rule mining, data mining, data warehouses, visualization of association rules

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Authors: Alec Wells, Aminu Bello Usman, Justin McKeown

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The growing usage of smart speakers raises many privacy and trust concerns compared to other technologies such as smart phones and computers. In this study, a proxy measure of trust is used to gauge users’ opinions on three different technologies based on an empirical study, and to understand which technology most people are most likely to trust. The collected data were analysed using the Kruskal-Wallis H test to determine the statistical differences between the users’ trust level of the three technologies: smart speaker, computer and smart phone. The findings of the study revealed that despite the wide acceptance, ease of use and reputation of smart speakers, people find it difficult to trust smart speakers with their sensitive information via the Direct Voice Input (DVI) and would prefer to use a keyboard or touchscreen offered by computers and smart phones. Findings from this study can inform future work on users’ trust in technology based on perceived ease of use, reputation, perceived credibility and risk of using technologies via DVI.

Keywords: direct voice input, risk, security, technology, trust

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Authors: Usman Yakubu, Muktar Haruna

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The paper examines the impact of the audit committee on the earning quality of the listed consumer goods sector in Nigeria. The study used data collected from annual reports and accounts of the 13 sampled companies for the periods 2007 to 2018. Data were analyzed by means of descriptive statistics to provide summary statistics for the variables; also, correlation analysis was carried out using the Pearson correlation technique for the correlation between the dependent and independent variables. Regression was employed using the Generalized Least Square technique since the data has both time series and cross sectional attributes (panel data). It was found out that the audit committee had a positive and significant influence on the earning quality in the listed consumer goods companies in Nigeria. Thus, the study recommends that competency and personal integrity should be the worthwhile attributes to be considered while constituting the committee; this could enhance the quality of accounting information. In addition to that majority of the committee members should be independent directors in order to allow a high level of independency to be exercised.

Keywords: earning quality, corporate governance, audit committee, financial reporting

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Authors: Muhammad Yousaf, Shoaib Usman

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Numerical studies were conducted using Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) to study the natural convection in a square cavity in the presence of roughness. An algorithm basedon a single relaxation time Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (BGK) model of Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) was developed. Roughness was introduced on both the hot and cold walls in the form of sinusoidal roughness elements. The study was conducted for a Newtonian fluid of Prandtl number (Pr) 1.0. The range of Ra number was explored from 103 to 106 in a laminar region. Thermal and hydrodynamic behavior of fluid was analyzed using a differentially heated square cavity with roughness elements present on both the hot and cold wall. Neumann boundary conditions were introduced on horizontal walls with vertical walls as isothermal. The roughness elements were at the same boundary condition as corresponding walls. Computational algorithm was validated against previous benchmark studies performed with different numerical methods, and a good agreement was found to exist. Results indicate that the maximum reduction in the average heat transfer was16.66 percent at Ra number 105.

Keywords: Lattice Boltzmann method, natural convection, nusselt number, rayleigh number, roughness

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Authors: Muhammd Usman Sardar, Mazhar Hussain Baloch, Muhammad Shahbaz Ahmad, Zahir Javed Paracha

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Likewise other developing countries in the world, Pakistan is furthermore suffering from electrical energy deficiency as adverse well-being nominated. Its generation of electricity has become reliant onto a great range of conventional sources since the last ten of years. The foreseeable exhaustion of petroleum and conventional resources will be alarming in continued growth and development for future in Pakistan so renewable energy interchange have to be employed by interesting the majority of power grid network. Energy adding-up through solar photovoltaic based systems and projects can offset the shortfall to such an extent with this sustainable natural resources and most promising technologies. An assessment of solar energy potential for electricity generation is being presented for fulfilling the energy demands with higher level of reliability. This research study estimates the present and future approaching renewable energy resource for power generation to off-grid independent setup or energizing the existed conventional power grids of Pakistan to becoming self-sustained for its entire outfit.

Keywords: powergrid network, solar photovoltaic setups, solar power generation, solar energy technology

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Authors: Usman Ahmed Adam, Umar Ibrahim, Ezra S. Gbaje

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This study is posed to explore the practice of Public Access Computers (PACs) in academic libraries in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study aimed to determine the computers and other tools available, their services and challenges of the practices. Three questions were framed to identify number of public computers and tools available, their services and problems faced during the practice. The study used qualitative research design along with semi-constructed interview and observation as tools for data collection. Descriptive analysis was employed to analyze the data. The sample size of the study comprises 52 librarian and IT staff from the seven academic institutions in Kaduna State. The findings revealed that, PACs were provided for access to the Internet, digital resources, library catalogue and training services. The study further explored that, despite the limit number of the computers, users were not allowed to enjoy many services. The study recommends that libraries in Kaduna state should provide more public computers to be able to cover the population of their users; libraries should allow users to use the computers without limitations and restrictions.

Keywords: academic libraries, computers in library, digital libraries, public computers

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Authors: Usman Adekunle Ojedokun, Adeyinka Abideen Aderinto

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Migration remains an important course of action often resort-to by human and some other classes of animal for survival in the face of life-threatening conditions. However, the activity of certain group of immigrants, who are exploiting the socio-economic and environmental challenges in their home countries to conduct street begging across different countries in Africa, is fast becoming a major cause for concern. This paper examined the migratory trajectory of transnational street beggars in South Western, Nigeria. Strain and Migration Network Theories were adopted for the study. The methods of data collection were survey questionnaire, in-depth interview, and key informant interview. Convenience and purposive sampling techniques were employed for the selection of 395 transnational street beggars and 4 key informants were purposively chosen. Findings revealed that transnational street beggars immigrated into Nigeria all year round and all of them came by road. Also, while some of them entered the country officially, others gained entry illegally. The majority (29.3%) arrived through Sokoto, a border State to some neighbouring countries. This study calls for more security measures at the Nigerian borders as a way of controlling the influx of this category of beggars into the country.

Keywords: transnational street beggars, street begging, migration, Nigeria

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Authors: R. S. Sheu, H. Usman, M. S. Lawal

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Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model based control of a load frequency deviation in a single machine with limit nonlinearity on power coefficient is presented in the paper. Two T-S fuzzy rules with only rotor angle variable as input in the premise part, and linear state space models in the consequent part involving characteristic matrices determined from limits set on the power coefficient constant are formulated, state feedback control gains for closed loop control was determined from the formulated Linear Matrix Inequality (LMI) with eigenvalue optimization scheme for asymptotic and exponential stability (speed of esponse). Numerical evaluation of the closed loop object was carried out in Matlab. Simulation results generated of both the open and closed loop system showed the effectiveness of the control scheme in maintaining load frequency stability.

Keywords: T-S fuzzy model, state feedback control, linear matrix inequality (LMI), frequency deviation control

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Authors: S. Ibrahim, U. B. Abubakar, S. Danbirni, A. Usman, F. M. Ballah, C. A. Kudi, L. Lawson, G. H. Abdulrazak, I. A. Abdulkadir

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Performing culture and characterization of mycobacteria in low resource settings like Nigeria is a very difficult task to undertake because of the very few and limited laboratories carrying out such an experiment; this is a largely due to stringent and laborious nature of the tests. Hence, a rapid, simple and accurate test for characterization is needed. The “SD BIOLINE TB Ag MPT 64 Rapid ®” is a simple and rapid immunochromatographic test used in differentiating Mycobacteria into Mycobacterium tuberculosis (NTM). The 100 sputa were obtained from patients suspected to be infected with tuberculosis and presented themselves to hospitals for check-up and treatment were involved in the study. The samples were cultured in a class III Biosafety cabinet and level III biosafety practices were followed. Forty isolates were obtained from the cultured sputa, and there were identified as Acid-fast bacilli (AFB) using Zeihl-Neelsen acid-fast stain. All the isolates (AFB positive) were then subjected to the SD BIOLINE Analyses. A total of 31 (77.5%) were characterized as MTBC, while nine (22.5%) were NTM. The total turnaround time for the rapid assay was just 30 minutes as compared to a few days of phenotypic and genotypic method. It was simple, rapid and reliable test to differentiate MTBC from NTM.

Keywords: culture, mycobacteria, non tuberculous mycobacterium, SD Bioline

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Authors: Ahmad Dahlan Salleh, Nik Abdul Rahim Nik Abdul Ghani, Muhamad Firdaus M. Hatta

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Risk management has implications on pricing, governance arrangements, business practices and strategy. Nowadays, home financing contract offers more in the risk transfer form to increase bank profit. This is parallel with Islamic jurisprudence method al-Kharaj bi al-thaman (gain accompanies liability for loss) and al-ghurm bil ghunm (gain is justified with risk) that determine the matching between risk transfer and returns. Malaysian financing trend is to buy house. Besides, exists transparency lacking risk transfer issues to the clients because of not been informed clearly. Terms and conditions of each financing also do not reflect clearly that the risk has been transferred to the client, justifying a determination price been made. The assumption on risk occurrence is also inaccurate as each risk is different with the type of financing contract. This makes the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 in providing standards that transparent and consistent can be used by Islamic financial institution less effective. This study examines how far the level of the risk and obligation incurred by bank and client under various Islamic home financing contract. This research is qualitative by using two methods, document analysis, and semi-structured interviews. Document analysis from literature review to identify profile, themes and risk transfer element in home financing from Islamic jurisprudence perspective. This study finds that need to create a risk transfer parameter by banks which are consistent with risk transfer theory according to Islamic jurisprudence. This study has potential to assist the authority in Islamic finance such as The Central Bank of Malaysia (Bank Negara Malaysia) in regulating Islamic banking industry so that the risk transfer valuation in home financing contract based on home financing good practice and determined risk limits.

Keywords: risk transfer, home financing contract, Sharia compliant, Malaysia

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Authors: Zulkifli Zainal Abidin, Ahmad Shahril Mohd Ghani

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Agent-based systems technology has been addressed as a new paradigm for conceptualizing, designing, and implementing software systems. Agents are sophisticated systems that act autonomously across open and distributed environments in solving problems. Nevertheless, it is impractical to rely on a single agent to do all computing processes in solving complex problems. An increasing number of applications lately require multiple agents to work together. A multi-agent system (MAS) is a loosely coupled network of agents that interact to solve problems that are beyond the individual capacities or knowledge of each problem solver. However, the network of MAS still requires a main system to govern or oversees the operation of the agents in order to achieve a unified goal. We had developed a fleet management system (FMS) in order to manage the fleet of agents, plan route for the agents, perform real-time data processing and analysis, and issue sets of general and specific instructions to the agents. This FMS should be able to perform real-time data processing, communicate with the autonomous surface vehicle (ASV) agents and generate bathymetric map according to the data received from each ASV unit. The first algorithm is developed to communicate with the ASV via radio communication using standard National Marine Electronics Association (NMEA) protocol sentences. Next, the second algorithm will take care of the path planning, formation and pattern generation is tested using various sample data. Lastly, the bathymetry map generation algorithm will make use of data collected by the agents to create bathymetry map in real-time. The outcome of this research is expected can be applied on various other multi-agent systems.

Keywords: autonomous surface vehicle, fleet management system, multi agent system, bathymetry

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Authors: Fahim Ullah, Muhammad Usman

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Energy consumption and environmental sustainability are hard challenges of 21st century. Energy richness increases environmental pollution while energy poverty hinders economic growth. Considering these two aspects, present study calculates energy deficiency and examines the role of renewable energy to overcome rising energy deficiency and carbon emission for selected countries from 1990 to 2021. For empirical analysis, this study uses methods of moments panel quantile regression analysis and to check the robustness, study used panel quantile robust analysis. Graphical analysis indicated rising global energy deficiency since last three decades where energy consumption is higher than energy production. Empirical results showed that renewable energy is a significant factor for reducing energy deficiency. Secondly, the energy deficiency increases carbon emission level and again renewable energy decreases emissions level. This study recommends that global energy deficiency and rising carbon emissions can be controlled through structural change in the form of energy transition to replace non-renewable resources with renewable resources.

Keywords: energy deficiency, renewable energy, carbon emission, energy trade, PQL analysis

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Authors: Haruna Abdu Usman, J. Mohammed Umar, U. M. Bashir

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Solid waste management continued to be the biggest threat to the sustainability of urban centers of developing countries. Most streets corners of these urban centers are characterized by heaps of uncollected wastes at drains, public spaces and road sides destroying the aesthetic qualities and environmental ecosystems of these cities. Also, harboring disease vectors and rodents putting the health of the populace at risk, thus posing a serious challenge to the municipalities who are in most cases responsible for the solid waste management in these cities. The typical or commonest method adapted by these agencies in dealing with the solid waste management is the conventional approach; focusing mainly on waste collection ,treatment(composting and incineration)and disposal giving little consideration to the 3RS, of waste reduce, re-used and recycled. The resultant consequence being huge budget spending in solid waste management as high as 80% but little collection rate as low as 50%. This paper attempt to analyze the impacts and effects of the conventional solid waste management practices on the stakeholders in solid waste management; the municipal authorities, the communities, formal and informal waste managers, the NGOs and CBOs and suggests appropriate measures that would lessen the effects.

Keywords: conventional waste management, solid waste, waste stakeholders, developing countries

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Authors: Umair Shafique, Hafiz Usman Zia, Fiaz Majeed, Samina Naz, Javeria Ahmed, Maleeha Zainab

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The Internet of Things (IoT) has become a hot topic for the last couple of years. This innovative technology has shown promising progress in various areas, and the world has witnessed exponential growth in multiple application domains. Researchers are working to investigate its aptitudes to get the best from it by harnessing its true potential. But at the same time, IoT networks open up a new aspect of vulnerability and physical threats to data integrity, privacy, and confidentiality. It's is due to centralized control, data silos approach for handling information, and a lack of standardization in the IoT networks. As we know, blockchain is a new technology that involves creating secure distributed ledgers to store and communicate data. Some of the benefits include resiliency, integrity, anonymity, decentralization, and autonomous control. The potential for blockchain technology to provide the key to managing and controlling IoT has created a new wave of excitement around the idea of putting that data back into the hands of the end-users. In this manuscript, we have proposed a model that combines blockchain and IoT networks to address potential security and privacy issues in the healthcare domain. Then we try to describe various application areas, challenges, and future directions in the healthcare sector where blockchain platforms merge with IoT networks.

Keywords: IoT, blockchain, cryptocurrency, healthcare, consensus, data

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Authors: Nasiru Inuwa, Haruna Usman Modibbo, Yahya Zakari Abdullahi

Abstract:

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effects of foreign direct investment (FDI), economic growth on carbon emissions in context of WAIFEM member countries. The Im-Pesaran-Shin panel unit root test, Kao residual based test panel cointegration technique and panel Granger causality tests over the period 1980-2012 within a multivariate framework were applied. The results of cointegration test revealed a long run equilibrium relationship among CO2 emissions, economic growth and foreign direct investment. The results of Granger causality tests revealed a unidirectional causality running from economic growth to CO2 emissions for the panel of WAIFEM countries at the 5% level. Also, Granger causality runs from economic growth to foreign direct investment without feedback. However, no causality relationship between foreign direct investment and CO2 emissions for the panel of WAIFEM countries was observed. The study therefore, suggest that policy makers from WAIFEM member countries should design policies aim at attracting more foreign direct investments inflow as well the adoption of cleaner production technologies in order to reduce CO2 emissions.

Keywords: economic growth, CO2 emissions, causality, WAIFEM

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