Abstract: This study aims to identify cellular phone users- shopping motivating factors towards online shopping. 100 university students located in Klang Valley, Malaysia were involved as the respondents. They were required to complete a set of questionnaire and had to own a cellular phone in order to be selected as sample in this study. Three from five proposed hypotheses were supported: purchasing information, shopping utilities and service quality. As a result, marketers and retailers should concentrate more on the less important factors in order to encourage and create willingness of the consumers to purchase online. Recommendation for future research is also presented.
Abstract: Careful design and selection of daylighting systems can greatly help in reducing not only artificial lighting use, but also decrease cooling energy consumption and, therefore, potential for downsizing air-conditioning systems. This paper aims to evaluate the energy performance of two types of top-light daylighting systems due to the integration of daylight together with artificial lighting in an existing examinaton hall in University Kebangsaan Malaysia, based on a hot and humid climate. Computer simulation models have been created for building case study (base case) and the two types of toplight daylighting designs for building energy performance evaluation using the VisualDOE 4.0 building energy simulation program. The finding revealed that daylighting through top-light systems is a very beneficial design strategy in reducing annual lighting energy consumption and the overall total annual energy consumption.
Abstract: It is important to remove manganese from water
because of its effects on human and the environment. Human
activities are one of the biggest contributors for excessive manganese
concentration in the environment. The proposed method to remove
manganese in aqueous solution by using adsorption as in carbon
nanotubes (CNT) at different parameters: The parameters are CNT
dosage, pH, agitation speed and contact time. Different pHs are pH
6.0, pH 6.5, pH 7.0, pH 7.5 and pH 8.0, CNT dosages are 5mg,
6.25mg, 7.5mg, 8.75mg or 10mg, contact time are 10 min, 32.5 min,
55 min, 87.5 min and 120 min while the agitation speeds are 100rpm,
150rpm, 200rpm, 250rpm and 300rpm. The parameters chosen for
experiments are based on experimental design done by using Central
Composite Design, Design Expert 6.0 with 4 parameters, 5 levels and
2 replications. Based on the results, condition set at pH 7.0, agitation
speed of 300 rpm, 7.5mg and contact time 55 minutes gives the
highest removal with 75.5%. From ANOVA analysis in Design
Expert 6.0, the residual concentration will be very much affected by
pH and CNT dosage. Initial manganese concentration is 1.2mg/L
while the lowest residual concentration achieved is 0.294mg/L,
which almost satisfy DOE Malaysia Standard B requirement.
Therefore, further experiments must be done to remove manganese
from model water to the required standard (0.2 mg/L) with the initial
concentration set to 0.294 mg/L.
Abstract: This project aims to investigate the potential of
torrefaction to improve the properties of Malaysian palm kernel shell
(PKS) as a solid fuel. A study towards torrefaction of PKS was
performed under various temperature and residence time of 240, 260,
and 280oC and 30, 60, and 90 minutes respectively. The torrefied
PKS was characterized in terms of the mass yield, energy yield,
elemental composition analysis, calorific value analysis, moisture and
volatile matter contents, and ash and fixed carbon contents. The mass
and energy yield changes in the torrefied PKS were observed to
prove that the temperature has more effect compare to residence time
in the torrefaction process. The C content of PKS increases while H
and O contents decrease after torrefaction, which resulted in higher
heating value between 5 to 16%. Meanwhile, torrefaction caused the
ash and fixed carbon content of PKS to increase, and the moisture
and volatile matter to decrease.
Abstract: Anti-money laundering is commonly recognized as a
set of procedures, laws or regulations designed to reduce the practice
of generating income through illegal actions. In Malaysia, the
government and law enforcement agencies have stepped up their
capacities and efforts to curb money laundering since 2001. One of
these measures was the enactment of the Anti-Money Laundering
Act (AMLA) in 2001. The implementation costs on anti-money
laundering requirements (AMLR) can be burdensome to those who
are involved in enforcing them. The objective of this paper is to
explore the perceived effectiveness of AMLR from the enforcement
agencies- perspective. This is a preliminary study whose findings
will help to give direction for further AML research in Malaysia. In
addition, the results of this study provide empirical evidences on the
perceived effectiveness of AMLR prior to further investigations on
barriers and improvements of the implementation of the anti-money
laundering regime in Malaysia.
Abstract: Work ethic and labour productivity issues are
extremely important for any society. It has been long proven by the
global practice and various scholars that the country promoting the
labour has always been way forward from the other countries. This
paper studies the thoughts suggested by M.Weber, Confucius, Lee
Kuan Yew, Mahathir Mohammad and other prominent thinkers
concerning the issues of work ethics and labour productivity. The
article analyzes why developed nations are way more advanced in
their development compared to other nations.
Abstract: So much energy is used in high rise buildings to fulfill
the basic needs of users such as lighting and thermal comfort.
Malaysia has hot and humid climate, buildings especially high rise
buildings receive unnecessary solar radiation that cause more solar
heat gain. Energy use specially electricity consumption in high rise
buildings has increased. There have been growing concerns about
energy consumption and its effect on environment. Building, energy
and the environment are important issues that the designers should
consider to them. Self protected form is one of possible ways against
the impact of solar radiation in high rise buildings. The Energy
performance of building envelopes was investigated in term of the
Overall Thermal Transfer Value (OTTV ).In this paper, the amount
of OTTV reduction was calculated through OTTV Equations to
clear the effectiveness of self shading strategy on minimizing energy
consumption for cooling interior spaces in high rise buildings which
has considerable envelope areas against solar radiation. Also increasing
the optimum window area was investigated using self-shading
strategy in designing high rise buildings. As result, the significant
reduction in OTTV was shown based on WWR.In addition slight
increase was demonstrated in WWR that can influence on visible
comfort interior spaces.
Abstract: The availability of broadband internet and increased
access to computers has been instrumental in the rise of internet
literacy in Malaysia. This development has led to the adoption of
online shopping by many Malaysians. On another note, the
Government has supported the development and production of local
herbal products. This has resulted in an increase in the production and
diversity of products by SMEs. The purpose of this study is to
evaluate the influence of the Malaysian demographic factors and
selected attitudinal characteristics in relation to the online purchasing
of herbal products. In total, 1054 internet users were interviewed
online and Chi-square analysis was used to determine the relationship
between demographic variables and different aspects of online
shopping for herbal products. The overall results show that the
demographic variables such as age, gender, education level, income
and ethnicity were significant when considering the online shopping
antecedents of trust, quality of herbal products, perceived risks and
perceived benefits.
Abstract: This paper presents the investigation results of UV
measurement at different level of altitudes and the development of a
new portable instrument for measuring UV. The rapid growth of
industrial sectors in developing countries including Malaysia, brings
not only income to the nation, but also causes pollution in various
forms. Air pollution is one of the significant contributors to global
warming by depleting the Ozone layer, which would reduce the
filtration of UV rays. Long duration of exposure to high to UV rays
has many devastating health effects to mankind directly or indirectly
through destruction of the natural resources. This study aimed to
show correlation between UV and altitudes which indirectly can help
predict Ozone depletion. An instrument had been designed to
measure and monitors the level of UV. The instrument comprises of
two main blocks namely data logger and Graphic User Interface
(GUI). Three sensors were used in the data logger to detect changes
in the temperature, humidity and ultraviolet. The system has
undergone experimental measurement to capture data at two different
conditions; industrial area and high attitude area. The performance of
the instrument showed consistency in the data captured and the
results of the experiment drew a significantly high reading of UV at
high altitudes.
Abstract: After the Terengganu state government decided to give a boost in teaching and learning through the allocation of free ebooks to all Primary five and six students; it was time to examine the presence of e-books in the classrooms. A survey was conducted on 101 students to determine how they felt about using the e-book and their experiences. It was discovered that a majority of these students liked using the e-book. However, although they had little problems using the e-book and the e-book helped to lighten the schoolbags, these new-age textbooks were not fully utilized. It is implied that perhaps the school administrators, teachers and students may not be able to overcome the unfamiliar characteristics of the e-book and its limitations.
Abstract: Building life cycle will never be excused from the existence of defects and deterioration. They are common problems in building, existed in newly build or in aged building. Buildings constructed from wood are indeed affected by its agent and serious defects and damages can reduce values to a building. In repair works, it is important to identify the causes and repair techniques that best suites with the condition. This paper reviews the conservation of traditional timber mosque in Malaysia comprises the concept, principles and approaches of mosque conservation in general. As in conservation practice, wood in historic building can be conserved by using various restoration and conservation techniques which this can be grouped as Fully and Partial Replacement, Mechanical Reinforcement, Consolidation by Impregnation and Reinforcement, Removing Paint and also Preservation of Wood and Control Insect Invasion, as to prolong and extended the function of a timber in a building. It resulted that the common techniques adopted in timber mosque conservation are from the conventional ways and the understanding of the repair technique requires the use of only preserve wood to prevent the future immature defects.
Abstract: The psychological well-being of a family is a subjective matter for evaluation, all the more when it involves the element of religions, whether Islam, Christianity, Buddhism or Hinduism. Each of these religions emphasises similar values and morals on family psychological well-being. This comparative study is specifically to determine the role of religion on family psychological well-being in Pekan district, Pahang, Malaysia. The study adopts a quantitative and qualitative mixed method design and considers a total of 412 samples of parents and children for the quantitative study, and 21 samples for the qualitative study. The quantitative study uses simple random sampling, whereas the qualitative sampling is purposive. The instrument for quantitative study is Ryff’s Psychological Well-being Scale and the qualitative study involves the construction of a guidelines protocol for in-depth interviews of respondents. The quantitative study uses the SPSS version .19 with One Way Anova, and the qualitative analysis is manual based on transcripts with specific codes and themes. The results show nonsignificance, that is, no significant difference among religions in all family psychological well-being constructs in the comparison of Islam, Christianity, Buddhism and Hinduism, thereby accepting a null hypothesis and rejecting an alternative hypothesis. The qualitative study supports the quantitative study, that is, all 21 respondents explain that no difference exists in psychological wellbeing in the comparison of teachings in all the religious mentioned. These implications may be used as guidelines for government and non-government bodies in considering religion as an important element in family psychological well-being in the long run.
Abstract: This study investigated the relationship between urban
and rural ozone concentrations and quantified the extent to which
ambient rural conditions and the concentrations of other pollutants
can be used to predict urban ozone concentrations. The study
describes the variations of ozone in weekday and weekends as well as
the daily maximum recorded at selected monitoring stations. The
results showed that Putrajaya station had the highest concentrations
of O3 on weekend due the titration of NO during the weekday.
Additionally, Jerantut had the lowest average concentration with a
reading value high on Wednesdays. The comparisons of average and
maximum concentrations of ozone for the three stations showed that
the strongest significant correlation is recorded in Jerantut station
with the value R2= 0.769. Ozone concentrations originating from a
neighbouring urban site form a better predictor to the urban ozone
concentrations than widespread rural ozone at some levels of
temporal averaging. It is found that in urban and rural of Malaysian
peninsular, the concentration of ozone depends on the concentration
of NOx and seasonal meteorological factors. The HYSPLIT Model
(the northeast monsoon) showed that the wind direction can also
influence the concentration of ozone in the atmosphere in the studied
areas.
Abstract: The Malaysia Highway Authority (MHA) was
established by the Government in 1980 for the purpose of designing,
constructing and maintaining toll highways in Malaysia that include
the North-South Expressway and the Penang Bridge, which were
procured using the publicly-funded traditional procurement. However
following a recession in the mid 80-s, the operations of these tolledhighways
had been privatized to ensure that their operational services
continue through private financing as a result of long-term
concession agreement concurred between the Malaysian Government
and private operators. The change in the contract strategy for
highway projects in Malaysia would have a great tendency to dictate
a significant risk exposure towards the key parties involved,
particularly the Malaysian Government as project principal, unless
operational risks are clearly identified and managed via appropriate
mitigation measures prior to a contract signing.
This research identifies potential operational risks that have a
possibility to occur in highway projects in Malaysia from the
perspective of public sector clients. Since this research focuses on the
operational risks for highway projects in Malaysia, the initial results
acquired from literature review on the operational risks of highway
projects in some Asian countries are then justified by a number of
key individuals from the MHA through interviews. As a result,
among key operational risks that have possibility to occur in the
highway projects in Malaysia include initial toll-tariff decided by the
Government, traffic congestion, change of road network and overloaded
freight transportation, which could cause damage to the road
surface and hence affecting the operation of a particular highway.
Abstract: Research in e-Business has been growing
tremendously covering all related aspects such as adoption issues, e-
Business models, strategies, etc. This research aims to explore the
potential of adopting e-Business for a micro size business operating
from home called home-based businesses (HBBs). In Malaysia, the
HBB industry started many years ago and were mostly monopolized
by women or housewives managed as a part-time job to support their
family economy. Today, things have changed. The availability of the
Internet technology and the emergence of e-Business concept
promote the evolution of HBBs, which have been adopted as another
alternative as a professional career for women without neglecting
their family needs especially the children. Although this study is
confined to a limited sample size and within geographical biasness,
the findings show that it concurs with previous large scale studies. In
this study, both qualitative and quantitative methods were used and
data were gathered using triangulation methods via interview, direct
observation, document analysis and survey questionnaires. This paper
discusses the literature review, research methods and findings
pertaining to e-Business adoption factors that influence the HBBs in
Malaysia.
Abstract: This paper is part of an ongoing research on the
development of systemic maintenance management model Malaysian
university buildings. In order to achieve this aim, there is a need to
develop a performance model against which services are measure.
Measuring performance is a significant part of maintenance
management service delivery. Maintenance organization needs to
know where they are in order to provide user-driven services and to
enhance productivity. The aim of this paper is to formulate a
template or model for university maintenance organization in
Malaysia. The model is based on literature review and survey
questionnaire and has been validated. Through grounded theory, this
paper developed a 8 points matrix for the university maintenance
organizations for measuring and improving their service delivery.
The potential of the model is guide and assists towards providing
value added service delivery through initiating maintenance
according to user value system rather than on the condition of the
building.
Abstract: Bringing change to the housing industry requires
multiple efforts from various angles especially to overcome any
resistances in the form of technology, human aspects, financial and
resources. The transition from conventional to sustainable approach
consumes time as it requires changes from different facets in the
industry ranging from individual, organisational to industry level. In
Malaysia, there are various efforts to bring green into the industry but
the progress is low-moderate. Will the current efforts bear larger
fruits in the near future? This study examines the perceptions of the
developers in Malaysia on the future of the green housing sector for
the next 5 years. The introduction of GBI rating system, improvement
of awareness and knowledge among the stakeholders, support from
the government and local industry and the effect of competitive
advantage would support brighter future. Meanwhile, the status quo
in rules and regulation, lack of public interest and demand,
organization disinterest, local authority enforcement and project cost
escalation would hinder a faster progress.
Abstract: Prediction of highly non linear behavior of suspended
sediment flow in rivers has prime importance in the field of water
resources engineering. In this study the predictive performance of
two Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) namely, the Radial Basis
Function (RBF) Network and the Multi Layer Feed Forward (MLFF)
Network have been compared. Time series data of daily suspended
sediment discharge and water discharge at Pari River was used for
training and testing the networks. A number of statistical parameters
i.e. root mean square error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE),
coefficient of efficiency (CE) and coefficient of determination (R2)
were used for performance evaluation of the models. Both the models
produced satisfactory results and showed a good agreement between
the predicted and observed data. The RBF network model provided
slightly better results than the MLFF network model in predicting
suspended sediment discharge.
Abstract: University websites are considered as one of the brand primary touch points for multiple stakeholders, but most of them did not have great designs to create favorable impressions. Some of the elements that web designers should carefully consider are the appearance, the content, the functionality, usability and search engine optimization. However, priority should be placed on website simplicity and negative space. In terms of content, previous research suggests that universities should include reputation, learning environment, graduate career prospects, image destination, cultural integration, and virtual tour on their websites. The study examines how top 200 world ranking science and technology-based universities present their brands online and whether the websites capture the content dimensions. Content analysis of the websites revealed that the top ranking universities captured these dimensions at varying degree. Besides, the UK-based university had better priority on website simplicity and negative space compared to the Malaysian-based university.
Abstract: Different types of Islamic debts have been
increasingly utilized as preferred means of debt funding by
Malaysian private firms in recent years. This study examines the
impact of Islamic debts announcement on private firms- stock
returns. Our sample includes forty five listed companies on Bursa
Malaysia involved in issuing of Islamic debts during 2005 to 2008.
The abnormal returns and cumulative average abnormal returns are
calculated and tested using standard event study methodology. The
results show that a significant, negative abnormal return occurs one
day before announcement date. This negative abnormal return is
representing market participant-s adverse attitude toward Islamic
private debt announcement during the research period.