The customers' perception toward Secret Recipe's reputation by using the Reptrak™ model

Reputation is a key feature of a successful business. To be among the most precious intangible assets to a small business, the excellent reputation is taken into account. However, in order to assess the company reputation, the variety of dimensions of corporate reputation can be perceived in different ways by different customers. This study perceives that these differences are significant to find out customers’ perception toward the Secret Recipe’s reputation specifically by using seven key dimensions of the Reptrak™ model. Thus, a survey research was applied in this study. The survey was carried out in three different outlets of Secret Recipe. The questionnaire was comprised of 23 attributes which are divided in 7 key dimensions of the Reptrak™ model while four questions have been asked in order to measure good feeling, trust, esteem, and admiration that customers feel toward a company. This study concluded that by analyzing corporate reputation dimensions, the company would have a better understanding and decide on which reputation dimensions to focus besides ensuring that they still have a place in the customer’s heart as well as enhancing their reputation

Hubungan pemberian beras angkak merah (monascus purpureus) terhadap hitung limfosit pada mencit Balb/C model sepsis

Abstrak Tujuan. Sepsis merupakan proses infeksi dan inflamasi yang ditandai dengan menurunnya kadar limfosit dalam sirkulasi sistemik sebagai respon terhadap faktor-faktor proinflamasi. Beras angkak merah mengandung monascidin A yang berperan sebagai antibakteri dan statin yang berperan sebagai antiinflamasi. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh pemberian beras angkak merah terhadap hitung limfosit pada mencit model sepsis. Metode. Jenis penelitian ini adalah experimental dengan metode post-test only control group design. Sampel yang digunakan adalah 27 ekor mencit Balb/C dengan berat badan ±25-35 gram dan berumur 4-6 minggu. Teknik sampling yang digunakan adalah random sampling, dengan jumlah sampel 27 ekor dibagi menjadi 3 kelompok masing-masing terdiri dari 9 ekor. Kelompok K sebagai kelompok kontrol, kelompok K1 sebagai kelompok model sepsis diinjeksi cecal inoculum 0,15ml/mencit/hari, dan kelompok K2 sebagai kelompok model sepsis yang diberi 4,68 mg/mencit/hari angkak dalam 0,2ml aquades peroral. Pada hari keenam semua mencit dikorbankan darahnya kemudian dibuat preparat apusat darah tepi dengan pengecatan Giemsa untuk dilakukan hitung limfosit. Data yang diperoleh dianalisis secara statistik menggunakan uji Kruskal Wallis karena syarat uji Anova tidak terpenuhi. Kemudian dilanjutkan uji Mann Whitney Post Hoc Test. Perbedaan signifikan bila p<0,05. Hasil. Penelitian memperlihatkan nilai rata-rata prosentase jumlah sel limfosit kelompok K 38,5%, K1 18,0%, dan K2 66,5%. Terdapat perbedaan yang signifikan pada seluruh kelompok perlakuan dan antar kelompok perlakuan. Simpulan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa pemberian beras angkak merah dosis 4,68 mg/mencit dapat meningkatkan hitung limfosit pada mencit Balb/C model sepsis. Dapat disimpulkan bahwa ada hubungan pemberian beras angkak merah dengan hitung limfosit pada mencit model sepsis

Time series analysis on Indian Mackerel Retail Price in Peninsular Malaysia

Forecasting fish price has been started for a long time worldwide. The main objective of this study is to predict the monthly retail price of Indian Mackerel in Peninsular Malaysia based on the 9 years data (2007-2015) using two methods which are Box-Jenkins method and Holt’s Linear Trend method. Analyse data showed that the Holt’s linear trend model and autoregressive integrated moving average or ARIMA (0, 1, 1) (0, 0, 0)12 model were proposed. The diagnostic checking for the estimated models confirmed the adequacy of the models. The result of the study showed that the Holt’s linear trend method was become the better model with the lower root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute percentage error (MAPE). Later, this method has been used to forecast 3 months upcoming Indian Mackerel price eventhough both models have been proven successful in forecasting the monthly fish prices. In conclusion, the potential result from this study could be used in helping fish farmers in their annual planning of increasing income especially in Peninsular Malaysia

The roles of technology in enhancing service excellence in higher education

The purpose of this study is to examine the rules of technology in enhancing service excellence in higher education.Service excellence is crucially needed in every business environment and previous studies have proven that, those implementing service excellence will increase their profit and remain competitive in the long run.The study will be thoroughly reviewing previous literatures in getting an idea on the existing condition.To look at how much fast-moving technology has enhanced the implementation of service excellence especially in higher education industry.The aims of the study are to explore any possible advantage of technology in enhancing service excellence.In a highly competitive environment, public universities are suffering from the high demand for unlimited information.Demand for fast communication has turn social media into a big role. In becoming customer‟s choice, universities all over the world must invest into a new and updated approach or application of mass media to remain competitive.Somehow, searching for related article regarding an approach in improving services in higher education industry by any specific technology is hard to find.Continuous study is needed in shaping our future education industry in becoming a world-class university

Performance evaluation of hybrid coagulation/nanofiltration process for AT-POME treatment

The presence of lignin and its degraded products such as tannin and humic acids is the main reason causing the aerobically-treated palm oil mill effluent (AT-POME) to display colour at the point of discharge. In this work, a hybrid method is employed to treat the AT-POME sample that was conventionally treated by biological method. This hybrid method that combines coagulation and nanofiltration (NF) membrane is used to treat the industrial effluent in which the coagulation is conducted prior to NF process. The effects of several variables during coagulation process, i.e., alum concentration, decolouring polymer dosage, cationic polymer dosage and pH on the colour removal and sludge volume production are investigated in order to determine optimum variable conditions for NF process. Under the optimum coagulation conditions (50 mg/L alum, 441 mg/L decolouring polymer, 534 mg/L cationic polymer and pH 9.2), the results showed 92% colour removal with sludge volume as low as 4.1 mL. Further treatment using commercial NF membranes indicated that a permeate sample with complete elimination of colour (almost 100% removal) could be produced with reasonably high water flux

Normalizing library records display using FRBR model for al-Qur'an work-set

The Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) model is a conceptual entity-relationship model developed for better arrangement, collocation, and navigation in bibliographic databases. As such, a FRBRized library online catalog (OPAC) can improve the performance of OPAC as a retrieval tool. We explored the utility of FRBR framework for supporting rich indexation, and rich interaction in digital libraries using an open source FRBR tool developed by the Library of Congress. We tested the system on some MARC-based bibliographic records from the International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) library. Several issues have been found useful to be explored which includes multi-script, complex work, and missing fields. We also experimented on FRBRzing the work-set on al-Quran using the LOC FRBR Display Tool. This paper will elaborate on the process of FRBRizing using this open-source tool. Several problems encountered in the experiment are discussed and future enhancements are proposed. This work may initiate interest among the librarian to adopt FRBR as advancement to the existing digital library system

Leveraging on social media as a communication channel for improving services of the government of Malaysia

In today’s competition, the private and public sector is taking social media to another level towards achieving their purposes, whether to improve profitability of the company or to improve organizational performance. Ubiquitous and innovative ICTs provide different communication channels for the public to give feedbacks on the services given the public sector. As such, social media provides an opportunity to gather feedbacks and responses towards improving services. The purpose of this paper is to give a background on leveraging social media to improve services in the Malaysian government sector. Based on the study background, observations and content analysis on the social media pages were carried out for the purpose of the study. It is understood that leveraging social media does have an advantage to give insights for successful social media implementation and can give a positive organizational effect to the departments

Involvement of mainstream teachers in inclusive education: are we ready?

The implementation of inclusive education is a challenging task because the teachers involved in inclusive education must equip themselves with field knowledge and pedagogical skills and, more importantly, they must have great passion for inclusive education. This research attempts to investigate the readiness of mainstream teachers who engaged in an inclusive education programme. Readiness was measured in three different aspects: (i) field knowledge, (ii) pedagogical skill, and (iii) attitude. A total of 128 mainstream teachers who were actively involved in inclusive education programmes in primary schools were invited to participate in this research. A questionnaire was constructed to measure the level of readiness among the participating teachers. The results revealed that although the readiness level in terms of pedagogical skill was high, the readiness for field knowledge and attitude were at medium level. Our findings suggest that more effort and pragmatic actions are required to facilitate mainstream teachers who teach in inclusive classes to enhance their field knowledge and strengthen their positive attitude towards inclusive education

Factors that Influence Consumer’s Attitudes and Decision Making in Shopping for Halal Food

This study aims to investigate the factors that influence consumers’ attitudes and decisionmaking in shopping for halalfood. These factorsinclude halal logo certification, social influence (word of mouth), and religious beliefs. The sample of consumers in this study is from Sibu, Sarawak targeting 300 random respondents via the questionnaire. Findings were assessed in terms of descriptive analysis, reliability test, Pearson correlation, and multiple regression. Results indicate that halal logo certificate, social influence (word of mouth), and religious belief have a significant positive relationship in the attitude and decision-making of consumers in shopping for halal food. The results provide some perspective to the industry players with information that will influence customers’ behavior and decision-making regarding Halal food