Risk factors for high caries experience among 16 year old school in Tumpat district, Kelantan

The objectives of this study were to determine the prevalence of dental caries, the differences in knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) level among caries experience group as well as to determine the associated factors for caries and high caries experience among 16-year-old school children in Tumpat district. The first part was a cross-sectional study to determine the prevalence of caries and the second stage of this study was a case-control study. The outcome of the study revealed that the prevalence of dental caries was high among the study group in Tumpat. Low educational level of parents, unhealthy deciduous teeth and salivary factors were important factors determining the caries experience. Positive dental attitude and low frequency of sugar intake had protective effect against caries experience. The knowledge on factors associated with caries experience is very useful in planning effective preventive dental program especially for group experiencing high caries

Perception and Awareness Among Food Manufacturers and Marketers on Halal Food in the Klang Valley

The increasing demand for halal food that is USD 346.7 billion or equal to RM 1 317 billion annually is in tandem with the growth of Muslims population,better education level and higher purchasing power. With expanding global markets, innovative food companies are leading the charge by carving a new niche to gain competitive edge in the marketplace.The mission of Malaysian Government to position Malaysia as an International Halal Food Hub sets the country on a strategic route to be the main halal food supply base and global halal certification centre. As a highly reputed, moderate and progressive Islamic country with more than 3,500 food manufacturing companies and total output exceeding USD 9 billion, Malaysia is well poised to play a leading role in boosting the halal food market.This study attempts to look at the perceptions and awareness among food manufacturers and marketers on halal food including halal food hub and government grant or incentives with regards to halal food.The data for this research were collected from 90 food manufacturers and marketers operating in Klang Valley.The findings indicate that 69 percent of food companies that obtained halal certification from JAKIM are still lacking initiative to appoint halal food committees in their organization.In addition, they do not refer to any halal authority before purchasing any unconventional raw materials.The food manufacturer’s and marketers perception on grant or incentive for halal food purposes showed more than 70 percent of the food manufacturers and marketers agreed that grant or incentive provided by the government can helps to develop halal food industry in Malaysia.This study also revealed that 61.1 percent of the companies in food industry do not get any grant or incentives from any government agencies.This situation was due to lack of promotions and information about grant or incentives offered to the food company involved in halal food industry.The same statistical analysis was used to determine the food manufacturers’and marketers perceptions of Malaysia as halal food hub. A total of 40 percent of the respondents think that Malaysia is able to become halal foodhub of the world. This low figure showed that there are weak coordination among government agencies in Malaysia and poor support from the private sector to materialise the concept of halal food hub. The study showed that the awareness regarding halal food [perception on halal label (Pearson Chi-Square, 0.029) and the need to have halal food act (Pearson Chi-Square, 0.009)]are found to be significantly related to the company’s annual sales turnover with level of confidence at 95 percent (α = 0.05). The study also showed those food manufacturers’ and marketers’ perception of Malaysia as a halal food hub is not influenced by the companies’ annual sales turnover.This study indicates that most of food manufacturers and marketers in Klang Valley are perplex with regards to the initiative to appoint internal halal food committee and referring to halal authority before purchasing unconventional raw materials. Although there are many cases of fake and misused halal logo in Malaysia,most of the food manufacturers and marketers in Klang Valley still have deep awareness and good perception towards halal food matters.Therefore,Malaysian government should take this opportunity as a yardstick to measure the effectiveness of government policies regarding halal food matters including educating Malaysian food manufacturers and marketers and promoting attractive grant or incentives specifically for halal food businesses. This is important to increase Malaysian halal food industry competitiveness in the global market and to position Malaysia as a Global Halal Food Hub

Job satisfaction of secondary school teachers in Tawau, Sabah

In order for the teachers to function effectively in a school system, it is important that teachers need to seek satisfaction and happiness not only in the intrinsic aspects of teaching job but also in other dimensions related to the teacher work experience in the wider social environment. This paper examines the level and differences in the job satisfaction of 200 Sabah secondary school teachers with respect to the various teachers characteristics identified as gender, service category, job title, tenure and place of origin. Data was collected through survey questionnaire. The finding reveals that secondary school teachers in Tawau, Sabah are generally satisfied with their job. There is significant relationship between job satisfaction and gender, whereby the male teachers are generally more satisfied than female teachers. The graduate teachers are more satisfied than non-graduate teachers. The higher ranking teachers are more satisfied than the ordinary teachers. Also, older teachers are more satisfied than younger teachers. However, there is no significant relationship between places of origin of teachers with job satisfaction. Based on the findings, several recommendations are proposed

Personal characteristics, occupational stress and turnover intentions among school teachers in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

Stress is considered as a serious problem in the modern workplace. This paper summarizes occupational stress and turnover intentions experienced by secondary school teachers in the state of Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. The aim of this study is to investigate the differences across different personal characteristics of the teachers and their level of stress and turnover intention. A total of 150 self-administered questionnaires were collected from secondary schools in the state of Negeri Sembilan. The study reveals that there are significant differences between teachers’ personal characteristics with occupational stress and turnover intention. This study also revealed that there is a positive significant relationship between occupational stress and turnover intention experienced by these teachers. Based on the results, some recommendations are provided

Micropolitics of middle managers in influencing centre-led change initiative: case study of a Malaysian based MNC

The purpose of this article is to explore the micropolitics of middle managers in influencing the development and outcome of a centre-led change initiative. This study was empirically based on a novel context in a Malaysia based multinational company (MNC) and four of its Asian subsidiaries. This qualitative study was conducted through a multiple embedded case study approach. The findings demonstrate that middle managers have within their powers to influence the development and eventually the outcome of change. This was achieved through control of middle managers on resources such as business knowledge and networking in influencing the meaning of change itself. This article allows the authors to investigate an in-depth exploration of how subsidiary managers operate. It contributes to the change literature by expanding the knowledge about the tight coupling between power and politics of organizational sensemaking

Age and sequence of eruption of permanent teeth in children and adolescents in North-eastern Malaysia

The aim of this study is to determine the age and sequence of eruption of permanent teeth as well as gender differences in children and adolescents in the state of Kelantan, north-eastern Malaysia. Cross-sectional data on permanent tooth eruption were collected by examining pre-school, primary and secondary school children of 5-17 years of age. The subjects were drawn by multistage random sampling from the school register. There were 2382 subjects in the sample, 1062 boys and 1320 girls. A tooth was considered erupted if any part of its crown was visible in the mouth. The data were subjected to probit analysis to compute the eruption time of each individual tooth in terms of median, 95th percentile and 99 percentile. The mean age of eruption of lower first molar is 6.0 years (5.8yr,6.2yr) at 95%CI and for lower canine is 10.2 years (10.0yr,l0.3yr) at 95%CI. The median age of eruption of each tooth was earlier in girls than in boys. Although the range of years during which the teeth erupted was similar in both sexes, the sequence of the individual teeth differed. All mandibular teeth, with the exception of first and second premolars in both males and females, tended to erupt earlier than their maxillary counterparts. The findings seem to correspond to earlier studies done in the other parts of the world, however the eruption time seems to be earlier compared to studies done in Thailand and Madras

WORK STUDY TECHNIQUES EVALUATION AT BACK-END SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING

Abstract – With the ever increasing labor cost and high labor turnover, performing labor productivity study is imperative for the back-end semiconductor manufacturer to stay competitive. However, an effective technique to perform the work study on the operators is required before any productivity improvement initiatives can be performed. This paper discusses the various techniques being evaluated based on the preset criteria established by the company’s management. Results from the method evaluation will be used to determine the suitable work study technique to be used to perform labor productivity study

Development of a randomised contrast detail digital phantom for observer detectability study

The accuracy and the efficacy of radiological diagnosis depend, to a large extent, on the conditions under which radiographs and images are viewed. This mainly involves the luminance of the display devices and the ambient room illumination. We report a perceptual study to investigate the relationship between detectability and monitor luminance as well as ambient illuminance. A statistical test pattern was used in this study, and the test pattern was developed using Microsoft® Visual Basic 6. The test pattern contained a set of randomised contrast detail objects, that is, disks of different diameters (0.7, 1.0, 1.4, and 2.0 mm) and contrasts against a black background (2.7, 3.9, 5.5, and 7.8%), simulating lesions in digital images. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was used in this study. The results indicated that a set of optimal viewing conditions exists and that it has a significant effect on detectability performance

Minimization of tool path length of drilling process using particle swarm optimization (PSO)

In the era of challenging economic, the industry in our country has been forced to produce a good quality product and increase the productivity of machining process simultaneously in order to compete with other countries. Drrilling process is one of a very important cutting process in industry. In a drilling for machining by Computer Numerical Control (CNC) such as drilling machines, the parameter of the tool routing path for the machining operation plays a very important role to minimize the machining time (Tiwari 2013, Rao and Kalyankar 2012) . This machine can be used with procedures for drilling, spreading, weaning and threading with a lot of the holes precisely. In order to increase the efficiency and productivity of drilling process, optimization on parameters of process can lead to better performance. Optimization of holes drilling operations will lead to reduction in time order and better productivity of manufacturing systems. Optimizing the tool path has played an important role, especially in mass production because reducing the time to produce one piece eventually lead to a significant reduction in the cost of the entire series (Pezer, 2016). In various publications and articles, scientists and researchers adapted several methods of artificial intelligence (AI) or hybrid optimization method for tool path artificial immune system (AIS), genetic algorithms (GA), Artificial Neural networks (ANN) Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) (Narooei and Ramli, 2014). These methods were been proven that can produce better performance and increase the productivity of drilling process. Therefore, in this study, the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm was develop in order to minimizing the tool path length in the drilling process which can produce the better results for the required machining time process. For this study, the main purpose is to apply the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm for use in searching for the optimal tool routing path for in simulation of drilling proces