The Impact Of Employees’ Training Programme On The Performance Of Small Medium Enterprises In Northern Malaysia

The trend towards global market orientation and trade liberalization requires the SMEs in Malaysia to increasingly emphasize on compressed product life-cycles, enhancing quality improvements, and towards product and process innovations. Employees’ training is one of the factors that have the effect on SMEs’ performance. Thus, the objective of this study is to identify the impact of SMEs’ training programme on SMEs’ performance

Physicochemical And Functional Properties Of Mango Seed Dietary Fiber Extract (Msdfe), Papaya Seed Dietary Fiber Extract (Psdfe) And Honeydew Seed Dietary Fiber Extract (Hsdfe)

Fruit seeds were previously discarded as waste, which could lead to environmental pollution and loss of valuable biomass. Recent research, however, has indicated that the seeds may have potential use as dietary fiber (DF) source and important ingredient of a healthy diet. In this research, DF was extracted from mango, papaya and honeydew seeds and the optimum extraction conditions were determined. All fruit seeds showed maximum DF extraction yield when extraction was conducted at 80 °C for 3 h using 3% NaOH at a liquid-solid ratio of 15:1. The nutritional composition, pH value and some physical and functional properties of the extracted DF were then examined. Analyses revealed that all DF extracts exhibit low moisture, fat, ash and protein contents and present high amounts of total sugar, starch and total dietary fiber (TDF). Of the three DF extracts, mango seed dietary fiber extract produced the highest amounts of starch (28.68 g/100 g dry extract) and total sugar (41.77 g/100 g dry extract) whilst honeydew seed dietary fiber extract (HSDFE) revealed the highest TDF content (81.96 g/100 g dry extract). A great difference in the ratio of insoluble dietary fiber (IDF) to soluble dietary fiber contents was found in papaya seed dietary fiber extract and HSDFE. Besides slightly acidic and low bulk density, all DF extracts were yellowish in colour and showed high water holding (WHC), water swelling (WSC) and oil holding capacities (OHC)

Simulation Study on the Behaviour of N2 and CO2 Injection and Their Mixtures on ECBM Recovery

The challenge to produce hydrocarbon from conventional type of reservoirs are getting tougher and tougher. Therefore, there is a need to look into alternatives source of method which is by means of looking into the prospect of unconventional reservoir- production of coalbed methane. There are few differences between conventional and unconventional reservoirs. In conventional reservoir, hydrocarbon is produced first while water acting as an aquifer support will be produced later once the hydrocarbon is depleted. Meanwhile, in unconventional reservoir, water is produced first to depressurize the water pressure (hydrostatic pressure) that is acting on the coal seam so that methane (CH4) gas is allowed to escape from the coal matrix. Deep coal is able to hold considerable amount of gas but due to different type of coal ranks and high lithostatic load on the coal resulting in very low permeability makes producing gas from such reservoir a challenge. Enhanced Coalbed Methane (ECBM) recovery process is a type of method to improve the recovery process of methane gas after the primary production is declining. One of the method mostly used are the injection of gas to replace the methane gas in the pore matrix. The behavior of injected gases; CO2 and N2 alone and their mixtures will be simulated into 2 commercial and one non-commercial fields (San Juan Basin, Powder River Basin, and Balingian Coalfield) will be analyzed and compared. The simulation process will be conducted by using popular and easily available simulators like ECLIPSE simulator. Based on the simulation results, fields that are simulated by injection of pure nitrogen gas yield the highest amount of total recovered methane (CH4) gas

Generation Y’s Behavioural Usage of Small Businesses’ Retail Websites in Canada

This research delves into the factors that influence Generation Y’s usage of Canadian small businesses’ retail websites in order to suggest how they can be attracted to use them more. Based on the Use of Technology Two (UTAUT2) theory, questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews revealed linkages between Behavioural Intention, Habit, Facilitating Conditions and Use Behaviour with demographic variables moderating some relationships. Improving the website designs and social media marketing can entice Generation Y consumers

Structural break and cointegration in Malaysian Stock Market

This study explores the empirical influence of domestic and foreign factors on equity pricing in Malaysia for the period 1990-2013. This research seeks to determine if the dynamics have changed over time with the period of study spanning across major episodes of crisis such as the Asian Financial Crisis, the Global Financial Crisis and the European Debt crisis. Advanced econometric techniques namely unit root test with structural breaks, multivariate cointegration analysis, error correction model and innovation accounting technique are employed in the analysis. The findings show that share prices and macroeconomic variables (inflation rate, industrial production, money supply and US share price) are cointegrated in Malaysia for the period 1990-2013. In the long-run, consumer price index and US share prices contribute positively to share price movement while industrial production and money supply have a negative relations with KLCI. As for short-run dynamic interaction, Malaysia share prices are not significantly affected by lagged information from macroeconomic variables. Macroeconomic activities have weak explanatory power on stock market movements in short-run. Structural change has occurred after the Asian Financial Crisis

Molecular dynamics simulations and photoluminescence measurements of annealed ZnO surfaces

The effect of thermal annealing on wurtzite ZnO, terminated by two surfaces, (0 0 0 $\bar 1$) (which is oxygen-terminated) and (0 0 0 1) (which is Zn-terminated), is investigated via molecular dynamics simulation using reactive force field (ReaxFF). As a result of annealing at a threshold temperature range of 700~K < T_{\mbox{\small t}} \leq 800~K, surface oxygen atoms begin to sublimate from the (0 0 0 $\bar 1$) surface, while no atom leaves the (0 0 0 1) surface. The ratio of oxygen leaving the surface increases with temperature $T$ (for T \geq T_{\mbox{\small t}}). The relative luminescence intensity of the secondary peak in the photoluminescence (PL) spectra, interpreted as a measurement of amount of vacancies on the sample surfaces, qualitatively agrees with the threshold behavior as found in the MD simulations. Our simulations have also revealed the formation of oxygen dimers on the surface and evolution of partial charge distribution during the annealing process. Our MD simulation based on the ReaxFF is consistent with experimental observations.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures. Manuscript submitted to Physica

Role of the C-terminus of Protein kinase C-related kinase in cell signalling

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Optical disc design and design software development

Master'sMASTER OF ENGINEERIN