The impact of night shift work on health and social life among technical employees in Global Rail Malaysia Sdn Bhd and Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd in MRT Kajang line

Shift work is considered necessary especially to industries that provides 24/7 services to the community. In particular, night shift can have negative impact on health and well-being of the employees as it can cause disturbance of the normal circadian rhythms, causing significant alterations of sleep and biological functions including disturbances to eating habits, which in long run can increase the risk of hypertension, diabetes and obesity. Employees working on night shift have more difficulties to lead a healthy social life with many of them found difficult to be there for their families especially when it comes to social gatherings among family members. After some time, this will affect the marital relationship, care of children and social contacts. The aim of this paper is to analyse whether the night shift work has any impact on the health and social life of technical employees in Global Rail Sdn Bhd and Rapid Rail Sdn Bhd in MRT Kajang Line. To analyse the data in this study, SPSS Statistics 21 was used. The findings conclude that night shift has significant influence to sleep deprivation and obesity among the respondents. This study could help the MRT or rail industry in designing policies and creating cultures that could encourage their employees to lead a better healthy lifestyle and health regime so that the night shift does not lead to negative impact to the employees’ health and social life. (Abstract by author

Development Of Denaturing High Performance Liquid Chromatography (Dhplc) In Detection Of Common Polymorphisms In The Multi-Drug Resistance (MDR1) Gene Among Malay Patients With Leukemia [QH324.9.L5 B138 2006 f rb].

Although the use of chemotherapy has evolved remarkably during the past 30 years for treatment in leukemia patients, it remains a difficult disease to treat where the main problem is drug resistance. This is due to over expression of multi-drug resistance gene (MDR1) and it’s over expression has been described in many tumors resistant to cytotoxic drugs including leukemias. Walaupun keberkesanan penggunaan kemoterapi dalam rawatan terhadap pesakit leukimia adalah jelas terbukti, namun leukimia tetap merupakan penyakit yang sukar dirawat terutamanya dalam masalah kerintangan pesakit terhadap ubat-ubatan (dadah)

Efficiency Evaluation of Islamic Banking in the Dual Banking System: An Analysis of Commercial Banks in Malaysia

This study presents new perspectives on performance evaluation of Islamic banking operations by investigating for the first time, both cost and profit efficiency of full-fledged Islamic banks and the Islamic window operations of domestic and foreign banks in Malaysia. The best period is from 1998 to 2004. The application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)technique has provided several efficiency measures such as allocative, pure technical and scale efficiency that explain cost and profit efficiency differentials among banks, as well as the sources of productivity growth and efficiency change of these banks. In addition, the Generalized Least Square (GLS) multiple regressions explain the differences in the calculated efficiency measures. We also investigate the relation between risk, asset quality factors and a new variable called corporate social responsibility (CSR), and the bank's degree of efficiency. Finally, we test the impact of CSR on bank profitability. The following are the main findings. Profit efficiency levels of banks are lower than cost efficiency levels. This implies that banks are better at controlling costs than maximizing profit. The main contributor for cost efficiency of domestic and foreign banks comes from improved resource management practices and improved economies of scales respectively. In contrast, both domestic and foreign banks record improved resource management practices as the highest profit efficiency contributor. The results of productivity show that increases in productivity are mainly due to technological advancement for the cost model and increases in technical efficiency for the profit model. Despite technological advancement for the cost model, there is little improvement in cost efficiency of banks. The efficiency and productivity analyzes indicate that the average cost and profit efficiency of Islamic banks in Malaysia over the test period is far from satisfactory, that is, there is lack of full efficiency. Unlike the results in the profit model, the increase in technical efficiency has improved the profit efficiency levels of banks. For both cost and profit models, the scale efficiency change result indicate that size is significantly related to efficiency in terms of economies of scale. The regression results identify size of operation, market power, profitability, and capitalization level to be characteristics of efficient banks in the sample. Finally, as expected CSR is positively and significantly related to profitability of banks. Overall the results from this study support the efficient structure theory which suggests that increased profit is derived from firm-specific efficiency

A Critical Review on Root Cause Analysis on Gravel Packing Design and Installation Issues

Sand control plays an important role in oil and gas industry throughout the years. The objectives of sand control are to prevent sand formation from entering the well and ensure the well reaches its highest productivity. Failure to include sand control plan in developing wells cause many problems to companies especially when dealing with unconsolidated reservoir. Among the problems that will occur are production losses, erosion of hardware, tubular blockage, sand disposal issues and many more. There are many techniques available in the industry. The most widely used sand control method is gravel packing. The fundamental of gravel pack is by placing sized particles in annular space between screen and formation. However, there are many aspects need to be considered in designing gravels and placing the gravels downhole. It is crucial to study and understand these factors and considerations to ensure gravel pack completion achieves its highest efficiency. The objectives of this paper are to identify the issues related to gravel pack design and installation in different well conditions and the factors that affecting it. By understanding the problems and causes, it will minimize the risk of gravel pack failure and consequently enhance the effectiveness of this method. Extensive study will be carried out in this project to identify the designs and installation criteria and select few case studies on different condition

Electronic Toll Payment System Using RFID Smart Card

This Degree's Final Year Projectpresents RFIDpaymentsystemto be appliedto the car toll collection system. Theproject is entitled "Electronic Toll Payment System Using RFIDSmartCard".The objectives are to develop an electronic smart card integratedwith RFIDtechnology and prepaid features for toll farepaymentpurposes. Project's prototype will providea suitable, fast and up to date technology in collecting toll fare. In actual simulation, it doesn't required interaction between the car ownerandthe toll but only need the car to pass toll gantry where RFID reader will detect RFID smart card and toll farepaymentwill be madeautomatically. Hence, creatingan alternative solution for Toll Company whichcurrently using ticketingtechnology and facing traffic control issues during peakhours. Implementation procedure for this prototype in daily activities, RFID tag serves concurrently as smart cardimproving current automatic toll payment system, i.e. TouchN' Go. This tag can be programmed to saveuniqueidentifier(UID)that determines vehicle information details, retrieved from central database. I

Outbreaks of rhinoceros beetle (oryctes rhinoceros) on oil palm plantations selected area at Keratong 3, Pahang / Muhammad Jabrullah Badrul Hisham

Oil palm Elais guinensis is the large scale tree planted in Malaysia, human population that increasing rapidly has force the supplied food increasing their production, daily use of oil palm in food production make the oil palm hard to replace with other source of oil. The rhinoceros beetle attack lead to oil palm drop in production of yield, physically damage and lead to unproductive plant, attack from this coleopteran pest in oil palm industry has make this beetle become major pest for oil palm plantations. The research questionnaires were conducted via face to face interview to 132 respondents. The objective of this study are to determine the awareness of farmers regarding the damage of oil palm by rhinoceros beetle and to evaluate the best current control strategy that implement by farmers. Results from the study indicate that mostly of respondent’s belong to male farmers with age around 30-39 years old with annual income around RM 1,000 to RM 1,999 per month. As for the educational levels, respondents were mainly having the high school level of education and having one to five year experience in handling the field. As a result, significant difference between educations and knowledge about rhinoceros beetle attacks (0.023). The results show that the different level of education, it will influence the farmer’s knowledge about rhinoceros beetle attacks. Besides that, the result also showed that they is significant different between pesticide applications with gender of farmers (0.017). Significant shows that the different gender of farmers practices different pesticide applications. Respondents are understood and aware about the rhinoceros beetle attacks and its effects. Farmers need to take seriously about this matter since it will affect yield and growth performance of oil palm tree

‘It is empowering…’ Teachers’ voices on action research using Flanders' Interactional Analysis Categories (FIAC) for peer observation to improve teaching and learning of English language

Observing teachers especially experienced teachers can be a difficult task. Nevertheless, observation is an effective means to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and learning practice of any course or programme. Peer observation is one of the effective ways with relative ease. This paper discusses the findings of a study that involves three ESL (English as a Second Language) teachers at Changlon Secondary School in Kedah Malaysia. This study incorporates the use of Flanders' Interactional Analysis Category (FIAC) for Teacher Support Team (TST) programme between Universiti Utara Malaysia(UUM) and the school. The paper begins first by explaining the involvement of the teachers and their feelings about peer observation. This paper then highlights teachers’ feelings and perceptions towards FIAC as an alternative tool to observe and improve teaching effectiveness and how its use create an awareness of the kind of teaching that takes place in their classrooms. The dogma of learner-centred versus teacher-centred teaching was evidently discussed. The paper concludes by providing ways to make the classrooms more learner-centred as opposed to the current practice of the teachers which are more teacher-centred

Role of Internal Auditors in Whistle Blowing Program to Reduce Corporate Fraud

According to Fraud Survey 2004 by KPMG Malaysia, 62 percent of respondents felt that fraud is a serious problem for Malaysian business. The survey finding also highlights the importance of implementing an independent communication channel for whistle blowing. Whistle blowing is one of the elements in corporate governance and it can play an important role in reducing fraud occurrence. Internal auditors can help Audit Committee in creating effective whistle blowing program that protect the employees and enable organisations to address fraud before they become public knowledge. This study examines the extent of whistle blowing complaints received by internal auditors based on survey responses from 213 Chief Audit Executive of Malaysian Public Listed Companies (PLC). Within the past two years, only 18 percent of Chief Audit Executive surveyed received genuine whistle-blowing complaints from internal whistle blower and only 14 percent of Chief Audit Executive surveyed received genuine whistle-blowing complaints from external whistle blower. The lack of whistle blowing program implementation in Malaysian companies is possibly due to absence of legislation in Malaysia that forces the establishment of whistle blowing program. Although the Securities Industry Act (1983) and Capital Market and Services Act 2007 (CMSA) provides the employees, independent auditors and key officers' protection when they whistle blow, the act does not compel a whistle blowing program. On the effectiveness of whistle blowing program, this study shows the CAE perception about the effectiveness of code of ethics in their organisation is negatively related to the fraud occurrence, that is the more the code is perceived as effective, the lesser fraud incidents will occur

Assessing production efficiency of Islamic banks and conventional bank Islamic windows in Malaysia

This study presents new perspectives on performance evaluation of Islamic banking operations in Malaysia, by investigating for the first time, both cost and profit efficiency of full-fledged Islamic banks and Islamic window operations of domestic and foreign banks. The application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique has provided several efficiency measures such as allocative, pure technical and scale efficiency that explain cost and profit efficiency differentials among banks. The findings of the study show that Islamic banking operators are relatively more efficient at controlling costs than at generating profits. The main contributor for cost efficiency of domestic and foreign banks comes from resource management and economies of scale respectively. These findings have implications on the reform process carried out in the aftermath of Asian financial crisis, particularly the Financial Sector Master Plan (FSMP).Data Envelopment Analysis, allocative efficiency, technical efficiency, foreign banks

The factors influencing health wellbeing in Celcom Johor / Badrul Emran Badrul Hisham

The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that have significant relationships and influence most on the state of health wellbeing towards Celcom employees at Celcom Southern Regional Office. The state of health wellbeing was assessed through various variables such as psychosocial work environment, physical workplace environment, work life balance and organizational culture. Demographic variables were also assessed to determine whether a relationship existed with health wellbeing. This research study is considered a quantitative research which used self-administered questionnaires as instruments to collect data. The data had been collected from 50 out of 52 respondents which was withdrawn from a total of 60 element population by using simple random sampling. The data collected is then evaluated by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) Version 23.0. Pearson correlation analysis, it was found that only two variables were found to have a significant relationship with health wellbeing which is physical workplace environment and organizational culture. The other two variables which are psychosocial work environment and work life balance had no significant relationship with health wellbeing. Multiple Regression analysis indicated that there is a significant relationship between organizational culture and health wellbeing. However, no significant relationship was found between psychosocial work environment, physical workplace environment and work life balance