Factors influencing transfer of training among Malaysian public sector officers

Transfer of training is vital to organizations. This is because organizations invested lots of money for sending their employees to training in order to increase the employees’ knowledge, skills, and abilities. From the training they attended, it is crucial for the employees to apply the learned knowledge in the workplace. This study examined factors influencing transfer of training among Malaysian public sector officers. The factors involved in this study are individual, training and organizational factors towards transfer of training. The individual factor’s dimensions are self-efficacy, motivation to learn and intent to transfer towards transfer of training. The training factor’s dimensions are perceived content validity and transfer design whereas the organizational factor’s dimensions are supervisor support, peers support and opportunity to use. A total of 293 Administrative and Diplomatic officers in Malaysia participated in this study. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were performed to test the research hypotheses. The result of this findings revealed that individual and organizational factors such as self-efficacy, motivation to learn, supervisor support, peers support and opportunity to use have significant and positive influence on transfer of training. Besides, individual factor and training factors such as intent to transfer, perceived content validity and transfer design did not influence transfer of training. Discussions elaborated on the research findings. Additionally, this study also discussed theoretical and practical implications, limitations of the study, directions for future research, and conclusion

Perceived work environment and employee engagement among manufacturing employees

Employee engagement has emerged as an important management focused activity in order to perform in a dynamic business environment. Engaged employees are expected to be able to help organizations in all sectors including manufacturing to achieve its business objectives. This study, in general, aims to explore the factors that may be relevant to employee engagement. In specific, this study attempts to examine the relationships between perceived of work environment (the work itself, relationship with co-workers, leadership of supervisor, pay and benefit) and employee engagement among manufacturing employees in Sendayan Tech Valley. Quantitative method was used whereby questionnaires were provided to participants. Data acquired was examined using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Inferential analyses specifically regression and correlation were used to examine the relationship between perceived of work environment factors and employee engagement. The findings of this study showed that, of four factors analysed, only the work itself had significant relationship with employee engagement whereas relationship with co-workers, leadership of supervisor, pay and benefit did not show any significant relationships with employee engagement. The results derived from this study suggest that the work itself should be given attention if the management of these manufacturing companies were to increase the engagement of their employees. This study was carried out on two manufacturing companies using convenience sampling technique, therefore the results cannot be generalized to other manufacturing companies or other organizations in different sectors. Future research is hope to extend the current scope of the research to include more manufacturing companies throughout the country and utilize a different sampling technique to confirm on these findings

Effect of Firm Size on Risk and Return: Evidences from Sultanate of Oman

The size of the firms is one of the important factors that determine the firm performance. This study covers the listed firms in MSM. These firms were classified into finance sector, industrial sector and services sectors. The information of the study was collected for a period of 10 years starting from 2008. MSM 30 Index is considered as the benchmark index in Sultanate of Oman. Out of 30 components firms in MSM 30 Index, the required data was available for 24 firms only. Therefore, the study was undertaken with the sample size of 24 firms. The descriptive statistics show that the larger firms risk and return is less while the smaller firms risk and return is high. The result of analysis shows that there is enough evidence to conclude that the firm size has no significant effect on return during the study period. However, the firm size has significant effect with market risk of firms. Keywords: Firm Size, Risk, Return, MSM, Effect of Firm Size, MSM-30 Index DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/12-9-08 Publication date:March 31st 202

Students’ perception of emergency remote teaching in the Sultanate of Oman

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, educational institutions adopted emergency remote teaching (ERT) practices. In ERT, courses are taught online by teachers who have experience with face-to-face classroom instruction. Students and teaching staff were concerned about the sudden change to ERT and learning practices. Higher education institutions (HEIs) need to understand students’ perceptions of ERT in order to prepare appropriate strategies for online teaching and learning. This study is intended: i) to analyze the students’ perception of ERT and ii) to explore the factors that determine the effectiveness of ERT during pandemic periods. The researchers used an online survey method to collect the primary data by employing a structured questionnaire. They employed the purposive sampling technique for this study. The results of the study highlight the fact that students prefer to take advantage of the available learning opportunities during the pandemic period. This is because they can earn their academic qualifications on time. It is also evident that the sudden transition to online teaching did compromise the efficacy of academic delivery to a certain extent. The study also found that motivation and assessment were crucial factors in determining the effectiveness of ERT during the pandemic period

Adipocyte ACLY Facilitates Dietary Carbohydrate Handling to Maintain Metabolic Homeostasis in Females

Sugars and refined carbohydrates are major components of the modern diet. ATP-citrate lyase (ACLY) is upregulated in adipocytes in response to carbohydrate consumption and generates acetyl-coenzyme A (CoA) for both lipid synthesis and acetylation reactions. Here, we investigate the role of ACLY in the metabolic and transcriptional responses to carbohydrates in adipocytes and unexpectedly uncover a sexually dimorphic function in maintaining systemic metabolic homeostasis. When fed a high-sucrose diet, Acly(FAT-/-) females exhibit a lipodystrophy-like phenotype, with minimal fat accumulation, insulin resistance, and hepatic lipid accumulation, whereas Acly(FAT-/-) males have only mild metabolic phenotypes. We find that ACLY is crucial for nutrient-dependent carbohydrate response element-binding protein (ChREBP) activation in adipocytes and plays a key role, particularly in females, in the storage of newly synthesized fatty acids in adipose tissue. The data indicate that adipocyte ACLY is important in females for the systemic handling of dietary carbohydrates and for the preservation of metabolic homeostasis

Systemic and local cues drive neural stem cell niche remodelling during neurogenesis in Drosophila.

Successful neurogenesis requires adequate proliferation of neural stem cells (NSCs) and their progeny, followed by neuronal differentiation, maturation and survival. NSCs inhabit a complex cellular microenvironment, the niche, which influences their behaviour. To ensure sustained neurogenesis, niche cells must respond to extrinsic, environmental changes whilst fulfilling the intrinsic requirements of the neurogenic program and adapting their roles accordingly. However, very little is known about how different niche cells adjust their properties to such inputs. Here, we show that nutritional and NSC-derived signals induce the remodelling of Drosophila cortex glia, adapting this glial niche to the evolving needs of NSCs. First, nutrition-induced activation of PI3K/Akt drives the cortex glia to expand their membrane processes. Second, when NSCs emerge from quiescence to resume proliferation, they signal to glia to promote membrane remodelling and the formation of a bespoke structure around each NSC lineage. The remodelled glial niche is essential for newborn neuron survival

Isu-isu pengintegrasian pangkalan data ukur kadaster dan sistem pendaftaran tanah berkomputer

The Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia has introduced the Cadastre Data Management System (CDMS) in the year 1997. One of the main purpose of the CDMS is to repopulate the Digital Cadastral Database (DCDB) for the Departments of Survey and Mapping at all states. On the other hand, The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environmental formaly known as The Ministry of Land and Cooperative Development has also introduced Computerized Land Registration System (CLRS) at the State Land and Mines Offices as well as the Land Offices throughout the country from the year 1995 onwards. The purpose of this system is to ease the registrations of the land titles and land dealings using the computerized system. Both systems are computer based stand-alone system whereby important land informations to be used effectively and effeciently. Therefore, the aim of this research is to investigate issues related to DCDB and CLRS in order to develope a conceptual model that can integrate DCDB and CLRS. The results of this research show that these two systems can be integrated base on procedure and regulation that fit to the technology and digital environment working concept