Validity and reliability of clothing fashion design (CFaDC) competency instrument

This research intends to determine the validity and reliability of Clothing Fashion Design (CFaDC) Skills instrument among instructors (ITR) in Skills Training Institutes (STI). This instrument was administered on 330 instructors in STI that teaches in the field of fashion and clothing. Rasch Measurement Model and Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were used to evaluate the construct validity of this instrument. The CFaDC have reached the Cronbach alpha > 0.7 for the reliability of six sub constructs of skills competency. This instrument also obtained consistent and good internal validity which were convergent and discriminant validity. The goodness-of-fit measure of CFI, IFI, TLI > 0.90 and RMSEA < 0.08 further proved the construct validity. In summary, the research findings showed that the CFaDC instrument achieved sound psychometric properties and can be used to measure the competency level of instructors in STI

Keperluan kompetensi Rekaan Fesyen Pakaian (ReFP) dalam industri fesyen

Kajian ini bertujuan meninjau keperluan kompetensi Rekaan Fesyen Pakaian (ReFP) agar graduan dapat menempatkan diri dalam industri fesyen. Kajian kualitatif ini menggunakan kaedah temu bual kumpulan berfokus ke atas dua kumpulan tenaga pengajar seramai 16 orang. Kesemua responden mengajar dalam bidang ReFP di Institut Latihan Kemahiran Awam (ILK) di Malaysia. Majoriti responden berpendapat kompetensi yang paling penting adalah kemahiran perdagangan/ keusahawanan, pengetahuan rekaan dan pengetahuan penilaian tekstil. Responden juga mengemukakan perubahan program yang sering berlaku menghalang mereka untuk mengaplikasikan sebahagian kompetensi yang sangat diperlukan dalam bidang fesyen. Kebanyakan kompetensi pengetahuan ini diaplikasikan secara tidak formal semasa pengajaran dan pembelajaran bergantung pada kesesuaian masa mereka. Oleh yang demikian, sewajarnya pihak yang terlibat dalam penggubalan dasar mahupun pembentukan kurikulum perlulah menjalankan kajian menyeluruh ke atas sesuatu program yang telah dijalankan sebelum membuat sebarang perubahan. Ini bertujuan agar dapat meninjau dan mengenal pasti permasalahan yang berlaku sepanjang pelaksanaan sesuatu program. Ini bertujuan menghasilkan graduan Technical Vocational Education Training (TVET) yang berkualiti, mempunyai nilai keboleh pasaran, seiring dengan perubahan teknologi dan boleti menjadi usahawan yang berjaya. Tambahan pula, mereka adalah bakal tenaga kerja yang akan menjadi tulang belakang kepada pembangunan ekonomi berpendapatan tinggi negara

Two-year performance of Acacia crassicarpa provenances at Serdang, Malaysia

A trial of eight provenances of Acacia crassicarpa A. Cunn. ex Benth. was assessed for survival and growth at age two years. Three provenances were from northern Queensland, Australia, four from Papua New Guinea and one from Irian Jaya, Indonesia. All provenances survived well (> 94 %), but they differed significantly (P < 0.01) in their growth performance. All provenances had more than 43% of their trees with single stems. For timber production, the provenance from Irian Jaya (Samlleberr) and two provenances from Queensland.(Olive River and Jardine River-Bamaga) were identified as promising

COMPETENCY ASSESSMENT OF CLOTHING FASHION DESIGN: RASCH MEASUREMENT MODEL FOR CONSTRUCT VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY

The Clothing Fashion Design (CFaD) assessment instrument was used to measure the level of competence among instructors in Skills Training Institute (STI). This study was conducted to select items that are valid, fair, and of quality. The CFaD instrument consists of 97 Likert scale items with six constructs of designing, pattern drafting, computer, sewing, creative, and trade/entrepreneurship. The instrument was administered for the first stage of testing to 95 instructors in STI who teach in the field of fashion and clothing. The Rasch measurement model was used to obtain the reliability, validity, relevance of person items and unidimensionality of items. Therefore, Winsteps software version 3.72.3 was used to analyze the data. The findings showed that the items in the six constructs of skill competency have high reliability, from 0.63 to 0.96 for the Likert scale items. Meanwhile, the reliability of the respondents was estimated between 0.93-0.98. The analysis also indicate that 11 out of the 97 items were misfit while 32 items need to be repaired prior to the decision of dropping some of them due to lack of unidimensionality and differing levels of difficulty. Decisions to remove or repair were made so that the instrument is more fair and equitable to all respondents, and reliable. &nbsp

Three-year Performance of Acacia auriculiformis Provenances at Serdang, Malaysia

A trial consisting of 28 provenances ofAcacia auriculifonnis A. Cunn. ex Benth. was measured for survival and growth at 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months. Tree form was also assessed at 18 months. Of the provenances, 7 were from northern Queensland and 15 from Northern Territory, Australia, and 6 from Papua New Guinea. All provenances survived well (> 66%) but they differed significantly (P < 0.01) in their growth performance after 6 months. Half of the provenances tested had more than 50% of their trees with single stems. Queensland provenances generally grew faster than those from Northern Territory and Papua New Guinea. For timber production, four Queensland provenances (Archer River, Coen River, Wenlock River and Kings Plain), three Northern Territory provenances (Noogoo Swamp, Douglas River and E. Alligator River), and a Papua New Guinean provenance (Old Tonda Village) were identifzed as promising

Incidence of fern contamination in nodal segment cultures of Shorea parvifolia dyer

The greatest drawback in large scale micropropagation of tropical woody forest species is high contamination of cultures. In developing a sterilization protocol for micropropagation of Shorea parvifolia Dyer utilizing nodal segments excised from nursery-grown seedlings, it was found that washing 20% (v/v) with Clorox solution for 18 minutes was the best. After six weeks of culture in WPM media supplemented with 10-5 M BAP (apart from fungal and bacterial contamination), the nodal segments developed hair-like structures which were amenable to subculture. Upon subculture, green leafy structures developed from the mass of hairy structure after six weeks. These later developed into ferns which are normally found as epiphytes on older forest trees, known as Asplenium nidus

A Review On SVC Control For Power System Stability With And Without Auxiliary Controller

Since the beginning of the last century, power system stability has been recognized as a vital problem in securing system operation. Power system instability has caused many major blackouts. This paper reviewed the previous technical works consisting of various methods of optimization in controlling power system stability. The techniques presented were compared to optimize the control variables for optimization of power system stability. Power system stability enhancement has been investigated widely in literature using different ways. This paper is focusing on SVC performance for enhancing power system stability either through SVC controlled itself or SVC controlled externally by other controllers. Static VAR compensators (SVCs) are used primarily in power system for voltage control as either an end in itself or a means of achieving other objectives, such as system stabilization. The analysis on performance of the previous work such as advantages and findings of a robust method approach in each technique was included in this paper

Clothing fashion design competency instrument: an application of rasch measurement model

Clothing Fashion Design Competency (CFaDC) instrument has been developed to measure the knowledge of instructors in order to become an educator who can implement effective teaching processes, as well as master various competencies to deliver the teachings according to the academic standards. This study aims to determine item/respondent reliability index, item/respondent separation index, item polarity, item difficulty level and respondents’ ability, as well as unidimensionality. A total of 330 instructors in the field of fashion and clothing have answered the CFaDC instrument. The instrument consists of 5 constructs, namely design knowledge, clothing construction, clothing selection, clothing care and textiles. The validation of the instrument applied psychometric characteristics of assessment procedures using Rasch measurement model. The findings showed that the item reliability index was high and acceptable. Meanwhile, respondents’ ability level could be divided into two levels in this study. Moreover, it was found that there was no second dimension in measuring the constructs in CFaDC instrument. The results revealed that out of 85 items, 54 items were retained, whereas 31 items were detected as misfits and should be dropped so that this instrument is fair and reliable to all respondents. The results of this study will be pointing towards the stability of standard of competencies for Clothing Fashion (CFaD) program in order for the program to always be updated and in tandem with the needs of today’s clothing and apparel industry

Fuzzy Controlled SVC For Power System Damping

This paper presents the ability of the fuzzy logic-based stabilizer used to generate the supplementary voltage control signal of the SVC to improve the damping of the inter-area mode oscillation in the power system. The base system is symmetrical, consisting of two identical areas connected by a relatively weak tie line. The SVC is chosen to be installed at the tie line midpoint. The active power of the local line will be used as an input signal for the stabilizer. The additional signal is calculated using fuzzy membership function to determine the quantity of reactive power supplied absorbed by SVC. The system oscillation is indicated by a 3-phase-to-ground short circuit occurring at 0.2s of the simulation and subsequently clearing after 100ms. Simulation with the sample power system shows that when subjected to a disturbance, fuzzy logic-based SVC stabilizer provides good damping in inter-area mode oscillation for the system. The effectiveness of the stabilizer applied with and without PSS will also be investigated