The public awareness towards Islamic micro finance in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia / Norhayati Mamat @ Ali

At a glance, the Islamic Microfinance (IMF) is getting appreciation by the whole world and everybody is utilizing it since it provides end-to-end solutions which that is not only about faith but encompasses a complete way of life. However, are we really aware about the IMF? How far that we know about the IMF? Which individuals should be afforded society’s protections? It is too good to be truth that the public should be aware of the IMF as it serves the whole society and offers many benefits to both Muslims and non-Muslim’s regardless religious beliefs as the IMF is a faith-based financial system which a mixture of three basic principles; economic, social and religious principles (Micro banker Connection, 2012). In response to these, this research paper attempt to determine the level of public awareness towards IMF in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. A survey method involves in this research study is by using a sample of 100 respondents taken from the Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia area. Based on the findings, it has been found that the normality test for all variables are normally distributed considered as parametric statistic which further proceed with Pearson Correlation test that shows positive and relatively strong relationship knowledge and the public awareness while moderate relationship for both government encouragements and social concerns with the significant value 1-tailed;0.000.The Cronbach’s Alpha values indicate all the variables are good range which is reliable and acceptable with highest Cronbach’s Alpha for independent variables is knowledge ; 0.894. The lowest average mean is knowledge; 2.8880 while the highest is social concerns; 3.6600 which indicates all the respondents gave the answers in range of2 (disagree) to 4 (agree) for all variable’s sections. Thus, all the results are attempted to reveal and answer all the research questions for this study

Improving Consistency of UML Diagrams and Its Implementation Using Reverse Engineering Approach

Software development deals with various changes and evolution that cannot be avoided due to the development processes which are vastly incremental and iterative. In Model Driven Engineering, inconsistency between model and its implementation has huge impact on the software development process in terms of added cost, time and effort. The later the inconsistencies are found, it could add more cost to the software project. Thus, this paper aims to describe the development of a tool that could improve the consistency between Unified Modeling Language (UML) design models and its C# implementation using reverse engineering approach. A list of consistency rules is defined to check vertical and horizontal consistencies between structural (class diagram) and behavioral (use case diagram and sequence diagram) UML diagrams against the implemented C# source code. The inconsistencies found between UML diagrams and source code are presented in a textual description and visualized in a tree view structure

A performance measurement framework for Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) in global IT projects

In spite of the increasing prevalence of global virtual teams (GVTs), It should be noted that in spite of the advantages of technology provides, most of global IT projects tend to face problems and risks, and great deal of such projects fail to reach all their objectives. According to the literature review we found that there is a lack of communication within global virtual teams in global IT projects and this problem affect the global IT project performance and leads to global IT project failure. So there is a need to develop a framework to measure the performance for global virtual teams in global IT projects. Early stage and before developing the instrument and conducting the pilot test, the researchers conducted a structured interview with 6 experts to validate the proposed framework. In conclusion, The validity and reliability of the instrument were tested through experts, typical respondents, and analyzed by SPSS 22. The results confirmed the validity of the proposed framework and the validity and reliability of the instrument

Global virtual teams’ (GVTs) performance: online training and development, organizational commitment, and motivation

The global virtual teams (GVTs) comprise of team members who are geographically dispersed, culturally varied, and mainly depends on information and communication technologies (ICT) to communicate with each other's. In spite of technological leverages, the GVTs facing many challenges that affect their performance. Hence, the online training and development is very important for GVTs to perform. The main goal of online training and development is to improve the skills and behaviors of the GVTs, which leads to increase the performance of the team. A systematic literature review was conducted to answer two research questions. The first research question is to investigate the relationship between online training and development and global virtual teams' performance. The second research question is to find out the existing frame works involving online training and development in GVTs. Then, the related frameworks are analyzed to highlight the gaps and limitations for each of them. The findings indicated that there is a positive relationship between online training and development and global virtual teams' performance. The existing frameworks are overlapped in some variables such as online training and global virtual teams' performance. However, the existing frameworks are still not sufficient to measure the performance of GVTs. A Performance Measurement Framework for GVTs was proposed to assist the project manager on measuring the global virtual teams' performance involving the online training and development, organizational commitment, and motivation based on defined key performance indicators (KPIs)

Measuring the Global Virtual Teams (GVTs) performance: confirmation study

Objectives: This paper found that there is a need to propose a framework to measure the global virtual teams’ performance involving online training and development, organizational commitment, and motivation in global IT projects. Also this research aims to examine the relationship among online training and development, organizational commitment, motivation, and virtual teams’ performance in global IT projects success, propose a framework to assist the project manager to measure the global virtual teams’ performance in global IT projects involving the online training and development, organizational commitment, and motivation based on defined measures and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the global virtual teams in global IT projects which is our contribution for this study. Method: The Confirmation study were conducted which is including study (expert-questionnaire interview, pilot study, and empirical study (the survey) then the framework proposed. The proposed framework was evaluated through experts from academics and industries. Findings: The results of the confirmation/preliminary study confirmed the validity of the conceptual framework and the validity and reliability of the instrument. Confirmation/empirical study were verified the conceptual framework and the final framework was proposed. Applications: This framework is to assist the project manager to measure the global virtual teams’ performance in global IT projects

Study of Fractional Differential Equations Emerging in the Theory of Chemical Graphs: A Robust Approach

The study of the interconnections between chemical systems is known as chemical graph theory. Through the use of star graphs, a limited group of researchers has examined the space of possible solutions for boundary-value problems. They recognized that for their strategy to function, they needed a core node related to other nodes but not to itself; as a result, they opted to use star graphs. In this sense, the graphs of neopentane will be helpful in extending the scope of our technique. It has the CAS number 463-82-1 and the chemical formula C5H12, and it is a component of a petrochemical precursor. In order to determine whether or not the suggested boundary-value problems on these graphs have any known solutions, we use the theorems developed by Schaefer and Krasnoselskii on fixed points. In addition, we illustrate our preliminary results with the help of an example that we present

Risk assessment of dietary exposure to Aflatoxin contamination in spices

This study highlights the daily consumption of spices in human diet and the potential of aflatoxin B1 (AFBI) contamination which attributable to the risk of developing liver cancer. All the AFBI contamination data in spices from various studies in Malaysia were considered for calculation of risk assessment by dietary exposure and margin of exposure (MOE). The mean dietary exposure to AFB1 ranges from 0.21-1.32 ng/kg-bw/day (overall mean, 0.59 ng/kgbw/ day), and 12.27 ng/kg-bw/day was the highest reported level of AFBI contamination. The MOEs derived from these dietary exposures at a benchmark dose lower confidence limit (BMDL10) of 0.305 μg/kg-bw/day were 230-1,450 (overall mean, 520). The MOE of less than 10,000 indicates the risk of AFBI contamination in spices should be a high priority for risk management actions. Based on the tolerable daily intake (TDI) in Asia of 0.11-0.19 ng AFB1/kg-bw/day for liver, the overall mean of 0.59 ng/kg-bw/day represents 3-536% of this TDI. Population risk for primary liver cancer attributable to AFB1 contamination in spices were 0.01-0.03 (0.1-0.7%) and 0-0.31 (0-6%) cancers/year/100,000 population, for mean and range of exposures. The risk, which was less than 1 cancer case/year/100,000 population, suggested that Malaysian population is not significantly at risk

'Direct DICOM slice landmarking' a novel research technique to quantify skeletal changes in orthognathic surgery

The limitations of the current methods of quantifying the surgical movements of facial bones inspired this study. The aim of this study was the assessment of the accuracy and reproducibility of directly landmarking of 3D DICOM images (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) to quantify the changes in the jaw bones following surgery. The study was carried out on plastic skull to simulate the surgical movements of the jaw bones. Cone beam CT scans were taken at 3mm, 6mm, and 9mm maxillary advancement; together with a 2mm, 4mm, 6mm and 8mm “down graft” which in total generated 12 different positions of the maxilla for the analysis. The movements of the maxilla were calculated using two methods, the standard approach where distances between surface landmarks on the jaw bones were measured and the novel approach where measurements were taken directly from the internal structures of the corresponding 3D DICOME slices. A one sample t-test showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the two methods of measurements for the y and z directions, however, the x direction showed a significant difference. The mean difference between the two absolute measurements were 0.34±0.20mm, 0.22±0.16mm, 0.18±0.13mm in the y, z and x directions respectively. In conclusion, the direct landmarking of 3D DICOM image slices is a reliable, reproducible and informative method for assessment of the 3D skeletal changes. The method has a clear clinical application which includes the analysis of the jaw movements “orthognathic surgery” for the correction of facial deformities

Factors for communication technologies selection within virtual software teams

Virtual teams are established to during software development environment. Virtual team members are gradually engaged in globalized business environments across space, time and organizational boundaries with links ensured by information and communication technologies. A virtual team relies on communication, collaboration, and information exchange is the most important criteria in virtual teams operations and their efficiency directly influences team performance. The aim of this paper is to identify the factors of selecting and using of technologies within virtual teams communication to improve virtual team communication to enhance the virtual team performance. This researcher uses systematic literature review by Kitchenham to review existing literature on the issues and implementation of virtual team members. In this review 22 papers were analyzed to answer the research questions