Customers housing preference : A case study in Kota Bharu / Nur Izzati Ab Ghani

Despite its resilence, the residential property sector is getting increasingly competitive and the developers are looking at the slower , taken - up rates and flattish earning performance property developers have to confront challenges in maintaining market share and profit margin, Many developers have to reluctant the sales of houses due to the poor sales of the houses. The developers have to keep themselves updated with the current market situation and hence, to develop the strategy that can enable them to boosts the sale of the houses, The objectives of this study is to identify the popular types of houses preferred by the potential house buyers, to determine the factors influencing the consumer preference in buying house and to identify the most and least important factors preferred by the potential house buyers, The findings of this study will be beneficial to the developers in Kelantan to identify the customers’ housing preference in order to fulfill the need and want of customers. In collecting data, the researcher used primary data (questionnaire) as a way to get feedback from the customers. Using non probability sampling, 100 respondents in Kota Bharu have participated on this study. In this research, the finding shows that only property - specific traits have significant relationship towards dependent variable (customers’ housing preference). Others factors are not contributing to the significant due to the changing of customers’ preference from time by time. Maybe other factors that axe not included in this research will contribute to the significant

Case study on the performance evaluation of the MASkargo agents at Madras, India / Nur Izzati Ab. Rahman

This studies was conducted for the purposed of to determine the process involved in appointing ground handling agents and to study on the performance evaluation of the MASkargo agents at Madras, India. This is involved by two agents, Air-India Limited and Esquire Express India Private Limited (Chennai). It is also to evaluate the process standardization positively impacts on the process performance of agent. The main objective of this study was to minimize the problem of agents in ground handling services at MASkargo. Even though MASkargo have follows the procedures before selecting the right agents, but the agents does not reach the company target of services and performance. The problems that usually occur such as operational analysis and many types of mishandled. It is worth to study the problems to find the ways to minimize the mishandled and suggest the elements needed for the company to make their agents successful

Development of Foreign Competitor Identification Index (FCII) in Malaysia

Most previous studies have dealt with foreign competitors in host country by considering how the contractors compete in international environment. The purpose of this study is to develop a foreign competitor identification index (FCII) by assessing the global orientation of international contractors in Malaysia using various characteristics. The exploratory study is based on the secondary data from Engineering News Record (ENR, 2013) and Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB, 2013) Malaysia. The sampling frame was from the ENR top 250 international contractors operating in more than 100 countries worldwide. Their involvement in international projects includes general building, manufacturing, power, water supply, sewerage/solid waste, industrial process, petroleum, transportation, hazardous waste and telecommunications. Six (6) measurements were used to develop the FCII mode which were based on number of years of experience and number of consecutive years operating in Malaysia, number of countries they are working outside Malaysia, number of projects and number of diversity of projects undertaken in Malaysia, and ranking in ENR. The data was analysed descriptively to make the comparison and establish the findings. Thirty eight (38) out of 250 top international contractors listed by the ENR have been operating in Malaysia. It was observed that that the most competitive contractor with the highest FCII score has more than 12 year of consecutive years working in Malaysia working on 99 projects, operating in more than 20 countries outside Malaysia and ranked at 17th place by the ENR (2013). The study used a sampling frame of population based on ENR. Therefore, the proposed measurements shall be further validated by the subject matter experts. The study will assist local contractors to recognize the foreign competitors in Malaysia and a competitive index model will be further developed to guide the local contractors to prepare themselves to compete with the foreign contractors in Malaysia. Neglecting to properly assess the foreign contractors’ characteristics can lead to poor performance in their local business ventures. This study intends to contribute to an improved understanding foreign contractor’s competitiveness in relation to the local contractors towards the development of the FCII model. Although there have been various models related to competitive index, there is currently no model that attempts to show the effects of foreign contractors on the local contractors

Hybridization Of Optimized Support Vector Machine And Artificial Neural Network For The Diabetic Retinopathy Classification Problem

Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is one of the most threatening disease which caused blindness for diabetic patient. With the increasing number of DR cases nowadays, diabetic eye screening has become a challenging task for ophthalmologist as they need to deal with a large number of retinal image to be diagnosed every day. Screening and early detection of DR play a vital role to help reducing the incidence of visual morbidity and vision loss. The screening task is done manually in most countries using qualitative scale to detect abnormalities on the retina. Although this approach is useful, the detection is not accurate. Previous researchers have tried a few attempts to propose an automatic DR classification, however it needs to be improvised especially in terms of accuracy. A group of literates showed that DR classification can be performed using the clinical features resulted from the blood test such as glycated haemoglobin, triglyceride, creatine and glucose value. Even this subject have been studied previously, but it remains the subject of on-going research. Hence, this research aims to obtain optimal or near-optimal performance value in the study of diabetic classification using supervised machine learning. There are many algorithms available for classification purpose such as k-Nearest Neighbour, k-Means, Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree, Artificial Neural Network and Linear Discriminant Analysis. Due to the success of many classification problems been proposed with good result, k-Nearest Neighbour, Artificial Neural Network, and Support Vector Machine algorithms are used in this research

Globalization and liberalization in the Malaysian construction industry

As a developing country, Malaysia has been gone through a lot of development works in the country. These activities give positive impact on the growth of the Malaysian economy. Globalization and liberalization have taken part in this growth by bringing in foreign direct investment (FDI) especially to the construction industry. As a result of the globalization and liberalization, the Malaysian government has signed free trade agreements (FTA) either the regional or bilateral free trade agreements. This paper which is undertaken via literature review aims at appraising globalization and liberalization in the Malaysian construction industry through the identification of the impacts of globalization and liberalization in construction industry by looking at the FTA signed by the Malaysian government from the perspectives of foreign contractors’ registration and project by foreign contractors. This paper shows the trend of the current foreign firm participation in the Malaysian construction industry of which the Malaysian government can promote various development programs for local contractors in giving positive competition to foreign firms in the Malaysian construction industry

The performance of reliability and validity using 5 and 7 likert point scales / Fatin Qistina Awang ,Nur Izzati Syaziah Ab. Gani and Nurul Adawiyah Mohd Zulkifli

Determination of number Likert point scale is one of the issues that should be compromised by the researchers to construct the questionnaire in social study. The objective of the present study is to review literatures regarding the influence of different Likert point scale on reliability of measurement reflective model. The study also gives a review on validity of the measurement reflective model when using different Likert point scale. The result indicates that 7 Likert point scale shows the highest reliability and validity are better compared to 5 Likert point scal

Challenges for Local Contractors to Compete with Other Local and Foreign Contractors in the Malaysian Construction Industry

Despite the benefits, globalisation and liberalisation impose challenges to local contractors. Main problem statement: The local contractors’ lack of competitive advantages provides opportunities to their competitors, limiting chances to secure local projects. This study aims to appraise local contractors’ competitiveness with the objective to assess the challenges to compete in the globalisation and liberalisation. Data from the questionnaire surveys on 60 Malaysian international contractors were analysed using the RASCH model. Three challenges assessed are: unstable economic situation, stiff local competition, and building reputation difficulties. The findings are aligned with the 2021-2025 Strategic Plan to encourage local contractors to venture overseas. Keywords: Challenges, Local contractors, Foreign contractors, Malaysian Construction Industry, Globalisation, Liberalisation eISSN: 2398-4287© 2021. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians/Africans/Arabians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v6iSI4.290

The Perceptions of Productive Asnaf Towards the Quality of Service and Assistance System by Baitul Mal Aceh, Indonesia

The effective implementation of modern and professional zakat management and service systems has opened a new chapter for various parties, especially zakat institutions. The quality of management and service is a crucial element in evaluating the ability of each zakat institution to achieve its goals. In Indonesia, Baitul Mal Aceh (BMA) excels due to its systematic management and service background. The institution has won several local awards for excellence in zakat management and administration. Hence, this study aims to assess how the productive asnaf group perceives the services and support provided by BMA, with the goal of evaluating the quality of assistance offered to this group. This study uses a qualitative research design through case studies and literature reviews. Primary data were obtained through unstructured interviews with 10 informants who received zakat assistance from BMA. Secondary data were obtained through scientific articles, books, journals, and official websites. The data obtained were analyzed through a thematic content analysis method. The result shows that productive asnaf have five positive perceptions towards the service and treatment provided by BMA. The implications of the study are also included in the discussion

Enzymatic hydrolysis of N.gaditana sp for bioactive peptide production

Microalgae Nannochloropsis gaditana (N.gaditana sp) was used as a starting material to produce microalgae protein hydrolysate (MPH) by protease enzyme. The effect of pH, temperature, enzyme concentration and substrate concentration on the degree hydrolysis (DH) were investigated. The screening of enzymatic hydrolysis reaction time was conducted from 1 hr and up to 48 hours. The enzymatic hydrolysis reactions were conducted for 24 hours for all set experiments based on the screening time. The maximum cleavage of peptide bonds occurred was found at pH 8 (DH=41.69%), temperature 55°C (DH=42.53%), enzyme concentration 0.3 mg/L (DH=43.96%) and substrate concentration 2 g/L (DH=58.70%). These results demonstrated that N.gaditana sp is rich in bioactive peptide which has the capability to be an antioxidant

A survey on knowledge and practices in erosive tooth wear among dental practitioners in Kuantan, Pahang: a preliminary study

Introduction: Erosive tooth wear (ETW) is an emerging dental condition worldwide. However, most dental practitioners overlooked the early stages of the condition due to vague clinical appearance of tooth surface loss. Therefore, this study was aimed to determine the knowledge of ETW and treatment given amongst dental professionals in private clinics in Kuantan, Pahang. Materials and method: Several private dental clinics in Kuantan, Pahang, involved in this cross-sectional study. Dental practitioners were volunteering to participate in this research. A validated self-administered questionnaire was distributed, and a descriptive analysis was conducted. Result: The overall response rate was 75%. Results revealed that most participants obtained a structured education on ETW (79.2%). Through continuous dental education, about half of the participants learnt further. All participants agreed that carbonated drink caused ETW, and most reported that gastroesophageal reflux diseases and pickles had related to the ETW. The majority of participants favoured case note (79%) with regards to ETW records. Nevertheless, 40.9% and 36.4% are recorded at the tooth surface and individual level, respectively. Surprisingly, 79% of them did not know about special scores when assessing ETW. Most participants prefer to give instruction on oral hygiene and diet counselling as preventive measures, but the use of fluoride was not given priority. 77% have not ever referred the case to a dental specialist and preferred to treat the patient on their own. Conclusion: ETW knowledge among recruited PDPs is adequate; however, no specific indices were used for ETW scoring and insufficient treatment strategies