Relationship Between Service Quality and Behavioral Intentions: the Mediating Effect of Customer Satisfaction

This study was undertaken to measure the relationship between service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions. A survey method was employed to collect data from customers who received treatments at army medical organizations in Malaysia. The outcomes of Smart-PLS path model analysis confirmed that relationship between service qualities features (tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) with customer satisfaction were positively and significantly correlated with behavioral intentions. This result demonstrates that effect of tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy on behavioral intentions was mediated by customer satisfaction.DOI: 10.15408/etk.v16i2.553

Detection Technique of Squamous Epithelial Cells in Sputum Slide Images Using Image Processing Analysis

A good quality sputum is important to detect diseases. The presence of squamous epithelial cells (SEC) in sputum slide images is important to determine the quality of sputum. The presence of overlapping SEC in sputum slide images causes the process become complicated and tedious. Therefore this paper discusses on technique of detection and summation for Squamous Epithelial Cell (SEC) in sputum slide image. We addressed the detection problem by combining K-means and color thresholding algorithm. The design of aided system is evaluated using 200 images and the proposed technique is capable to detect and count each SEC from overlapping SEC image. Total of 200 images were clustered to 10 groups, labelled as Group Cell 1 to group Cell 10 that correspond to the number of cells in the image. Therefore, each group will contain 20 images. The accuracy of the algorithm to detect SEC was also measured, and results show that in 91% which provides a correct SEC detection and summation

Problematising international placements as a site of intercultural learning

This paper theorises some of the learning outcomes of a three-year project concerning student learning in international social work placements in Malaysia. The problematic issue of promoting cultural and intercultural competence through such placements is examined, where overlapping hegemonies are discussed in terms of isomorphism of social work models, that of the nation state, together with those relating to professional values and knowledge, and the tyrannies of received ideas. A critical discussion of cultural competence as the rationale for international placements is discussed in terms of the development of the graduating social worker as a self-reflexive practitioner. The development of sustainable international partnerships able to support student placement and the issue of non-symmetrical reciprocation, typical of wide socio-economic differentials across global regions, is additionally discussed

PENGARUH PARTISIPASI PEMAKAI TERHADAP KINERJA SISTEM INFORMASI AKUNTANSI DENGAN KEMAMPUAN PEMAKAI SEBAGAI VARIABEL MODERATOR (Studi Empiris Pada PT. INTI (Persero) Bandung)

ABSTRAK Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui pengaruh partisipasi pemakai terhadap kinerja sistem informasi akuntansi dengan kemampuan pemakai sebagai variabel moderasi. Penelitian ini dilakukan pada PT. INTI (Persero) Bandung. Pengambilan sampel penelitian ini adalah dengan metode nonprobability sampling dengan teknik sampel jenuh (sensus). Data dikumpulkan menggunakan metode survey dengan teknik kuesioner. Responden dari penelitian ini sebanyak 28 orang karyawan yang secara langsung menggunakan sistem informasi akuntansi dalam pekerjaannya. Moderating Regression Analysis (MRA) digunakan sebagai teknik analisis data. Berdasarkan hasil analisis ditemukan bahwa partisipasi pemakai berpengaruh positif terhadap kinerja sistem informasi akuntansi. Kemampuan pemakai mampu memperkuat hubungan partisipasi pemakai terhadap kinerja sistem informasi akuntansi. Kemampuan pemakai merupakan pure moderator. \ Kata kunci : partisipasi pemakai, kinerja sistem informasi akuntansi, kemampuan pemaka

Performance and Operation of the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

The operation and general performance of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter using cosmic-ray muons are described. These muons were recorded after the closure of the CMS detector in late 2008. The calorimeter is made of lead tungstate crystals and the overall status of the 75848 channels corresponding to the barrel and endcap detectors is reported. The stability of crucial operational parameters, such as high voltage, temperature and electronic noise, is summarised and the performance of the light monitoring system is presented

Has land use pushed terrestrial biodiversity beyond the planetary boundary? A global assessment

Land use and related pressures have reduced local terrestrial biodiversity, but it is unclear how the magnitude of change relates to the recently proposed planetary boundary (“safe limit”). We estimate that land use and related pressures have already reduced local biodiversity intactness—the average proportion of natural biodiversity remaining in local ecosystems—beyond its recently proposed planetary boundary across 58.1% of the world’s land surface, where 71.4% of the human population live. Biodiversity intactness within most biomes (especially grassland biomes), most biodiversity hotspots, and even some wilderness areas is inferred to be beyond the boundary. Such widespread transgression of safe limits suggests that biodiversity loss, if unchecked, will undermine efforts toward long-term sustainable development

IMPROVING FERTILITY OF ACID SULFATE SOIL USING VARIOUS LIME SOURCES FOR RICE GROWN IN MALAYSIA

The main problems of acid sulfate soils are high acidity and Al and/or Fe toxicity to the soil. This problem causes rice root inhibition, hence retard plant nutrient uptake for its growth. Improving these conditions is important; hence, liming seems to be a common practice to ameliorate this soil, especially for rice cultivation. A study was conducted to evaluate the effects of applying ground magnesium limestone (GML), hydrated lime and liquid lime on the growth of rice under glasshouse conditions. MR 219 rice variety was used in this experiment. It was found that the application of 4 t ha-1 of GML had produced the highest rice yield of 8.2 t ha-1 under glasshouse condition. The result showed that as panicle length increase, spikelet per panicle also increases. Relative rice yield is negatively correlated with the soil pH, and this indicates that as soil acidity increase (observed with pH between 2 to 3), the rice yield decreases and vice versa. At harvest, due to liming practices, the soil pH exceeded 6 for all the treatment. It was also observed that as soil exchangeable Ca increase, soil pH also increases. Among the treatment, soil treated with 2 t ha-1 of hydrated lime gave the highest exchangeable Ca in the soil of 11.86 cmolc kg-1 soil with Ca concentration of 0.12% in the root. It was observed that liming increases soil pH and exchangeable cations in the soil. Therefore, liming is essential to ameliorate the acid sulfate soils for rice cultivation

Behavioral Analysis on IPv4 Malware in both IPv4 and IPv6 Network Environment

Malware is become an epidemic in computer net-work nowadays. Malware attacks are a significant threat to networks. A conducted survey shows malware attacks may result a huge financial impact. This scenario has become worse when users are migrating to a new environment which is Internet Protocol Version 6. In this paper, a real Nimda worm was released on to further understand the worm beha-vior in real network traffic. A controlled environment of both IPv4 and IPv6 network were deployed as a testbed for this study. The result between these two scenarios will be analyzed and discussed further in term of the worm behavior. The ex-periment result shows that even IPv4 malware still can infect the IPv6 network environment without any modification. New detection techniques need to be proposed to remedy this prob-lem swiftly