Mitigation measures for significant factors instigating cost overrun in highway projects

Construction industry has created numerous employment opportunities and playing a role model in economic growth of Pakistan. This industry is facing serious and critical problem of cost overrun especially in highway sector in country Pakistan particularly in Sindh Province. The purpose of this study is to identify mitigation measures for significant factors of cost overrun in highway projects of Sindh Province. In this study, mixed-mode research approach has been used. Quantitatively, a structured questionnaire based on 64 common factors of cost overrun from in-depth literature review was developed and distributed to30 selected respondents among the client, contractor and consultant having more than 15 years of experience in handling highway projects in Sindh Province. The collected data was statistically analyzed using SPSS where 8 most significant factors of cost overrun were identified. Qualitatively, the identified eight most significant factors were then incorporated in open ended questionnaire and distributed to 30 selected experts for them to write possible mitigation measures for each of the significant factors. The data was then analyzed through content analysis technique to rank the mitigation measures according to their substantiality. The results of this study would be helpful for construction practitioners to be used as reference in taking up appropriate measures in controlling cost overrun in highways projects in Pakista

Improving thermal conductivity of fired clay brick using sawdust waste

The demand for energy efficient design and construction has become progressively important with the growing energy costs and increasing awareness on the effects of global warming. Global warming causes a higher temperature of the surrounding, which will give significant effect to the energy consumption in commercial and residential building. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the possibility of incorporating sawdust as an additive material to improve thermal insulation properties of clay brick through lowering its thermal conductivity value. This study uses three types of soils with the proportion of clay soil (80%), laterite soil (10%) and grey soil (10%). The percentages of sawdust waste used as an additive are 2.5%, 5% and 7.5% by weight. The laboratory works performed involve the geotechnical gradation, physical, mechanical, chemical composition and thermal conductivity of fired clay brick. There are two types of brick that were produced in this study, which are control brick (CB) and sawdust brick (SB). The results show that the thermal conductivity of fire clay brick improves with the increasing percentage of waste material. Therefore, in this study, it appears that the brick incorporated with 5% of the sawdust waste is the optimum value that can achieve 7.5 MPa of compressive strength, 23.01.56% of water absorption and 0.384 W/m˚C of thermal conductivity. Thus, 5% of sawdust waste is chosen as the optimum percentage that yields better fired clay brick. This study reveals that the sawdust is a potential waste material that can be used to improve the thermal property and as a sustainable construction material

Metode Ruqyah Dalam Mengatasi Pasien Gangguan Kejiwaan Di Yayasan Islam Terengganu Malaysia

Penelitian ini secara umum bertujuan untuk mengetahui bagaimana metode ruqyah di Yayasan Islam Terengganu Malaysia dalam mengatasi pasien yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan, kegiatan yang dilakukan dalam proses metode ruqyah, dan hambatan-hambatan yang dihadapi dalam proses mengatasi penyembuhan pasien gangguan kejiwaan. Penelitian ini adalah studi lapangan dan jenis penelitiannya adalah penelitian kualitatif. Informan utama adalah pimpinan Yayasan Islam Terengganu,Ustad Peruqyah, dan Pasien yang mengalami gangguan kejiwaan. Penelitian kualitatif adalah suatu pendekatan yang juga disebut pendekatan investigasi karena biasanya peneliti mengumpulkan data dengan cara bertatap muka langsung dan berinteraksi dengan orang-orang di tempat penelitian. Penelitian kualititaf adalah jenis penelitian yang temuannya tidak diperoleh melalui prosedur statistik atau bentuk hitungan lainnya Dari penelitian yang dilakukan, maka hasil yang didapat yaitu metode yang digunakan adalah menggunakan metode air dan sentuhan, kegiatan yang dilakukan dengan membaca Al-Quran, berzikir, melakukan shalat malam, berwudhu, serta bergaul dengan orang yang soleh. Hambatan-hambatan yang dihadapi pasien malas membaca Alquran atau tidak bisa membaca Alquran, malas berzikir, dan salah dalam bergaul. Hasil yang didapat adalah bahwa metode ruqyah yang dilakukan oleh Yayasan Islam Terengganu Malaysia dapat memberikan pengobatan dalam mengatasi pasien gangguan kejiwaan

The Role of Personality Factors on Job Satisfaction Among Academic Staff at Public Research University

Abstract The current study was intended to examine the association between personality factors and job satisfaction among academic staff. The job satisfaction assumed as an essential factor in educational organizations spatially university that influenced by various factors. Moreover, distinguishing these effective factors is very important and lack of consideration to this inner feeling leads to several abnormal organizational behaviors at university. Therefore, this study focused on the association between these two factors at university. A cross-sectional examination design was applied with purposive selected sample that taken from academic staff (N=440) of public research universities in Klang Valley, Malaysia. In present study, the participants completed the job descriptive index inventory and the big five personality test which explained their personality factors and their relation with job satisfaction. It is concluded that neuroticism as one of the main personality factors predicts job satisfaction and there is negative relationship between neuroticism and job satisfaction and also there are positive relationships between agreeableness, consciousness and openness with job satisfaction that analyzed by correlation coefficient and regression analysis test.Key word: personality factors, job satisfaction, academic staff, universit

Fostering niches among SMEs in Malaysia through organizational commitment, leadership, organizational culture and job satisfaction

Niche creation is a challenge among firms regardless of size, ownership and the kind of product/service they offer. Once it is created, fostering such niche becomes a greater issue.In this paper, we focused on the SMEs in emerging markets particularly in Malaysia.By using questionnaires, data was gathered from 100 employees working in SMEs particularly in Selangor, Malaysia.The purpose of this study is to let owners/managers/founders of SMEs better understand how fostering niches is influenced by organizational commitment,leadership, and organizational culture, towards job satisfaction as antecedents of competitive advantage and/or success of SMEs. Employees’ attitudes and behaviours are affected by the relationship between them and their employer.This relationship is referred to as organizational commitment.Moreover, leadership and organizational culture considerably have an influence on job satisfaction.Understanding this concept will aid employers to instil strong organizational culture and create solid organizational commitment among their employees and lead effectively so that they would be able to retain their well-experienced and skilful employees. Ultimately job satisfaction plays a very important role in the success of organizations particularly in the context of SMEs in Malaysia. The findings revealed positive relationships among the variables and their importance as determinants of job satisfaction in SMEs, which hopefully could contribute to the extant literature on job satisfaction and competitive advantage from the perspective of this country in Asia

Pelaksanaan skema kaedah lelaran kumpulan tak tersirat terubahsuai bagi unsur terhingga dalam masalah resapan satu matra

Tujuan kertas kerja ini untuk memperihalkan perumusan skema kae-dah lelaran 2, 3 dan 4 Titik Kumpulan Tak Tersirat Terubahsuai (KTTT) dengan menggunakan penghampiran unsur terhingga bagi menyelesaikan per-samaan resapan satu matra. Adalah ditunjukkan bahawa kaedah lelaran KTTT adalah lebih cepat jika dibandingkan kaedah lelaran Kumpulan Tak Tersirat (KTT) separuh sapuan atau sapuan penuh

Exploring the relationships among service quality features, perceived value and customer satisfaction

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among service quality features (responsiveness, assurance, and empathy), perceived value and customer satisfaction in the context of Malaysia. The empirical data are drawn from 102 members of an academic staff of a Malaysian public institution of higher learning using a survey questionnaire. The results indicate three important findings: firstly, the interaction between perceived value and responsiveness was not significantly correlated with customer satisfaction. Secondly, the interaction between perceived value and assurance also did not correlate significantly with customer satisfaction. Thirdly, the interaction between perceived value and empathy correlated significantly with customer satisfaction. Thus the results demonstrate that perceived value had increased the effect of empathy on customer satisfaction, but it had not increased the effect of responsiveness and assurance on customer satisfaction. In sum, this study confirms that perceived value act as a partial moderating variable in the service quality models of the organizational sample. In addition, implications and limitations of this study, as well as directions for future research are discussed.Peer Reviewe

Flexible IGZO TFT Spice model and design of active strain-compensation circuits for bendable active matrix arrays

The detailed measurement and characterization of strain induced performance variations in flexible InGaZnO thinfilm transistors (TFTs) resulted in a Spice TFT model able to simulate tensile and compressive bending. This model was used to evaluate a new concept, namely the active compensation of strain induced performance variations in pixel driving circuits for bendable active matrix arrays. The designed circuits can compensate the mobility and threshold voltage shifts in IGZO TFTs induced by bending. In a single TFT, a drain current of 1 mA varies by 83 µA per percent of mechanical strain. The most effective compensation circuit design, comprising one additional TFT and two resistors, reduces the driving current variation to 1.1 µA per percent of strain. The compensation circuit requires no additional control signals, and increases the power consumption by only 235 µW (corresponds to 4.7 %). Finally, switching operation is possible for frequencies up to 200 kHz. This opens a way towards the fabrication of flexible displays with constant brightness even when bent

Linking supervisor’s role in training programs to motivation to learn as an antecedent of job performance

According to the literature pertaining to human resource development (HRD), a supervisor’s role in training programs has two major characteristics: support and communication. The ability of supervisors to play effective roles in training programs may increase employees’ job performance. More importantly, extant research in this field reveals that the effect of the supervisor’s role in training programs on job performance is indirectly affected by the motivation to learn. The nature of this relationship is less emphasized in training management literature. Therefore, this study was conducted to measure the effect of the supervisor’s role in training programs and the motivation to learn on job performance using 91 usable questionnaires gathered from employees who have worked in a state library in East Malaysia, Malaysia. The outcomes of stepwise regression analysis displayed that the inclusion of motivation to learn in the analysis had increased the effects of the two supervisor’s role elements of support and communication on job performance. This result demonstrates that the motivation to learn acts as a mediating variable in the training model of the organizational sample. The implications of this study to the theory and practice of training programs, methodological and conceptual limitations as well as future directions are elaborated.Peer Reviewe