Determinants of information and communication technology usage among village administrators in Malaysia using extended technology acceptance model

ICT projects in Malaysia have been one of the impetuses for achieving development in this country. Parallel with the ICT development in Malaysia, ICT usage among the Malaysian has increased significantly. Nonetheless, things are different in the rural areas where past studies have shown that ICT usage among the rural community in Malaysia is still discouraging. Albeit this fact are the same situation can be identified among the village administrators and what are the factors that impinge their ICT usage? Purportedly, as the leaders of the rural community they should use ICT in order to encourage the rural community to use ICT. This quantitative study used questionnaire to gather information. Through a multi-stage random sampling, a total of 240 village administrators from four states in Peninsular Malaysia have been selected as the respondents. In general, ICT has been used moderately among the village administrators. All of seven factors of Extended Technology Acceptance Model studied have been detected to be positively and significantly related with ICT usage while self-efficacy was identified as the main contributor towards ICT usage. A number of recommendations and discussions have been highlighted and expectantly it can aid the concern parties and policy makers in drawing plans for strengthening the ICT usage among the rural community leaders

Ethical and Methodological Challenges of Implementing Social Work Survey Research in Schools: A Perspective from the Suburban United States

Many researchers view schools as the ideal setting to study social and behavioral interventions with youth. As trusted community-based organizations, schools are natural partners for social work researchers who focus on bridging the needs of the most vulnerable populations. Awareness and consideration of critical issues related to conducting research within the school system enables social work researchers to plan and conduct rigorous studies while developing sustainable partnerships with schools. This article outlines key ethical and methodological challenges of conducting school-based survey research, and shares lessons learned and recommendations from the evaluation of a dating violence prevention curriculum implemented in U.S. suburban high schools

Fishermen and ICT: towards creating knowledgeable fishermen in Malaysia

The significant relationship between ICT and community development in Malaysia cannot be denied. Groups such as farmers, students, teachers, rural administrators and entrepreneurs have benefited a lot from the advantages that ICT offers. Besides this fact, do the fishermen as one of the major groups in Malaysia have benefited from ICT? This is a qualitative study and which used the data gained through literature and document analyses. Based on the analysis it was found that ICT development in Malaysia is well managed and planned. This can be seen through the establishment of several initiatives such as Rural Internet Center, Rural Info Center, National Information Technology Agenda and National Broadband Initiatives. Further analysis has discovered that there are a lot of benefits that fishermen could obtained through ICT. However, to ensure the fishermen will gain the benefits of ICT, a number of problems and obstacles related to ICT usage must be overcome

What Affect Perceived Ease of ICT Usage: the Case of Village Development and Security Committee Members in Malaysia

Abstract: Rural development and ICT cannot be separated in this modern days. Malaysia is well known with its effort to strengthen its ICT development and interestingly the rural community is one of the main targets of such developments. Rural community must be encouraged to continuously use ICT in their daily life. However, before the community is encouraged to use the ICT, are their leaders Village Development and Security Committee Members use ICT? How they perceive the ease of ICT usage? What are the factors that influence Village Development and Security Committee members perception towards ease of use in using ICT? This paper attempts to answer the above question which will uncover factors that determining Village Development and Security Committee members perceived ease of ICT usage. This is a quantitative study where a set of questionnaire was employed for the data collection process. A total of 240 respondents among Village Development and Security Committee members were selected. The respondents were selected from four states in Malaysia namely Kedah, Terengganu, Perak and Johor. Results from data analyses revealed that job relevance, self efficacy, compatibility and attitude recorded a high and significant relationship with perceived ease of ICT usage. Further insight into the analysis unveiled job relevance as the most significant factor towards perceived ease of ICT usage. In order to create a positive perceive ease of ICT usage among the Village Development and Security Committee, it is recommended that ICT learning session with the assistance of related agencies officers should be established within all the Village Development and Security Committee Members. On top of it, language is among the top matters that should be stressed in order to enhance Village Development and Security Members perceived ease of ICT usage

Factors that influence attitude towards ICT usage among rural community leaders in Malaysia

Rural communities in Malaysia have been encouraged to develop themselves with ICT skills and knowledge. Mega ICT projects such as Rural Internet Center, Rural Info Center and National Broadband Initiatives have been introduced to encourage rural people to use ICT. To encourage rural people to use ICT, they must have positive attitude towards it and this study would specifically investigate the rural community leaders attitude towards ICT usage. This is a quantitative study. A total of 240 rural community leaders comprising Village Development and Security Committee were selected as the respondents. Using SPSS, descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to fulfill the objectives determined. Based on the results gained, it can be concluded that Village Development and Security Committee have a moderate level of attitude towards ICT usage. It was also identified that the self-efficacy, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, subjective norm, compatibility and job relevance have positive and significant association with attitude towards ICT usage. Further analysis done have proved that self-efficacy was the major significant contributor for attitude towards ICT usage. To further develop Village Development and Security Committee attitude towards ICT, it is recommended that rural community access and exposure to ICT must be strengthened

Understanding meaning and characteristics of civic development in higher education

Higher education is a central part of youth life, and its job is to prepare young people to engage in civil society. It is also important in constructing competencies and helping young people to develop a civic identity. Thus, the aim of this study is to explore the meaning and characteristics of civic development among students in the higher education system. A qualitative study using a semi-structural interview is conducted to collect data from 12 international postgraduates of Universiti Putra Malaysia, and the data establishes that three distinct but connected themes-that is, civic knowledge, tendency, and engagement-are key aspects of civic development. The findings relating to these three themes underline the requirements for a civically engaged youth. The findings suggest that policy makers should redesign civic programs based on suitable methods by which to educate students in formal and informal manners

Fishermen and ICT: Towards creating knowledgeable fishermen

Abstract: The significant relationship between ICT and community development in Malaysia cannot be denied. Groups such as farmers, students, teachers, rural administrators and entrepreneurs have benefited a lot from the advantages that ICT offers. Besides this fact, do the fishermen as one of the major groups in Malaysia have benefited from ICT? This is a qualitative study and which used the data gained through literature and document analyses. Based on the analysis it was found that ICT development in Malaysia is well managed and planned. This can be seen through the establishment of several initiatives such as Rural Internet Center, Rural Info Center, National Information Technology Agenda and National Broadband Initiatives. Further analysis has discovered that there are a lot of benefits that fishermen could obtained through ICT. However, to ensure the fishermen will gain the benefits of ICT, a number of problems and obstacles related to ICT usage must be overcome

Identifying Long-Term Deposit Customers : A Machine Learning Approach

Majority of the revenue from the banking sector is usually generated from long term deposits by customers. It is for banks to understand customer characteristics to increase product sales. To aid this, marketing strategies are employed to target potential customers and let them interact with the banks directly, generating a large amount of data on customer characteristics and demographics. In recent years, it has been discovered that various data analysis, feature selection and machine learning techniques can be employed to analyze customer characteristics as well as variables that can impact customer decision significantly. These methods can be used to identify consumers in different categories to predict whether a customer would subscribe to a long-term deposit, allowing the marketing strategy to be more successful. In this study, we have taken a R programming approach to analyze financial transaction data to gain insight into how business processes can be improved using data mining techniques to find interesting trends and make more data-driven decisions. We have used statistical analysis like Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Factor Analysis and Correlations in the given data set. Besides, the study's goal is to use at least three typical classification algorithms among Logistic Regression, Random Forest, Support Vector Machine and K-nearest neighbors, and then make predictive models around customers signing up for long term deposits. Where we have gotten best accuracy from Logistic Regression which is 90.64 % as well the sensitivity is 99.05 %. Results were analyzed using the accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity score of these algorithms.acceptedVersionPeer reviewe

Childhood Lead Exposure in the Palestinian Authority, Israel, and Jordan: Results from the Middle Eastern Regional Cooperation Project, 1996–2000

In the Middle East, the major sources of lead exposure have been leaded gasoline, lead-contaminated flour from traditional stone mills, focal exposures from small battery plants and smelters, and kohl (blue color) in cosmetics. In 1998–2000, we measured blood lead (PbB) levels in children 2–6 years of age in Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian Authority (n = 1478), using a fingerstick method. Mean (peak; percentage > 10 μg/dL) PbB levels in Israel (n = 317), the West Bank (n = 344), Jordan (n = 382), and Gaza (n = 435) were 3.2 μg/dL (18.2; 2.2%), 4.2 μg/dL (25.7; 5.2%), 3.2 μg/dL (39.3; < 1%), and 8.6 μg/dL (> 80.0; 17.2%), respectively. High levels in Gaza were all among children living near a battery factory. The findings, taken together with data on time trends in lead emissions and in PbB in children in previous years, indicate the benefits from phasing out of leaded gasoline but state the case for further reductions and investigation of hot spots. The project demonstrated the benefits of regional cooperation in planning and carrying out a jointly designed project

A Fiber Bragg Grating—Bimetal Temperature Sensor for Solar Panel Inverters

This paper reports the design, characterization and implementation of a Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG)-based temperature sensor for an Insulted-Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) in a solar panel inverter. The FBG is bonded to the higher Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE) side of a bimetallic strip to increase its sensitivity. Characterization results show a linear relationship between increasing temperature and the wavelength shift. It is found that the sensitivity of the sensor can be categorized into three characterization temperature regions between 26 °C and 90 °C. The region from 41 °C to 90 °C shows the highest sensitivity, with a value of 14 pm/°C. A new empirical model that considers both temperature and strain effects has been developed for the sensor. Finally, the FBG-bimetal temperature sensor is placed in a solar panel inverter and results confirm that it can be used for real-time monitoring of the IGBT temperature