Public-Private Partnerships for E-Government Services: Lessons from Malaysia

Implementation of e-government is seen as a tool to improve government service delivery to citizens, businesses and within government agencies. The benefits could be more transparency, greater convenience, less corruption, revenue growth and cost reduction. However, lack of financial resources, and low levels of skills and limited capacity of governments are some of the main obstacles faced in pursuance of e-government nationwide. The introduction of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) is seen as a solution to overcome many of the obstacles and challenges faced by governments in realizing the objectives of e-government projects. PPP model is expected to increase opportunities for both the public and private sectors to serve their customers more effectively and efficiently. The main aim of this paper is to explore the need for PPP in e-government service delivery. This is done by discussing some success stories and looking at lessons learned by the Malaysian government to serve the stakeholders better in line with its vision and mission.- public-private partnership, information, communication, technology, e-government

Impact of Intervention on the Psychological Well-Being of Injured Workers

This chapter examined the impact of an intervention program on the psychological well-being of injured workers. Data consisted of 4041 injured workers who were insured with Social Security Organization (SOCSO) and participated in the case management rehabilitation program from 2012 to 2015. Psychological well-being was measured using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and Depression, Anxiety and Stress (DASS) consisting of seven and three components, respectively. The assessments were conducted before commencement and after completion of rehabilitation. Results showed significant improvement in all 10 components of VAS and DASS. Workers registered higher scores on skills, career goals, independence, self-esteem, confidence, health condition and pain tolerance in the post-intervention assessment while significant reduction was observed in the level of depression, anxiety and stress. This improvement suggested the importance of a structured disability management program in enhancing the quality of life and motivation for workers to return to work

Some aspects of Malay relativization : A transformational account by deletion.

The present study is an attempt to provide an explicit account of Malay relative clause formation using the transformational approach. It aims at providing an analysis which can characterize Malay relative clauses in the most adequate manner. Various analyses which have been proposed for English are examined and their problem as applied to Malay discussed. It is found that there is no justification for assuming that yang, introducing relative clauses is a relative pronoun and I propose that this element be analyzed as a complementizer. The standard analysis of relative clause formation, ie the wh-movement analysis, is found to be inadequate for describing Malay relatives and as an alternative a deletion rule is proposed. It is shown, however, that only nominals in the left-most position of the embedded clause may be relativized (deleted) and it is argued that whenever the relativized element does not occupy this position, other rules such as Passives, Topicalization, Tough Movement and Left-Dislocation have to apply prior to relativization process. The proposed analysis is found to be capable of accounting not only for restrictive relatives but also for free relatives as well as non-restrictive relatives

Technology adoption in the public sector: an exploratory study of e-government

ABSTRACT All around the world, the quest to improve government service delivery is becoming an important agenda for most governments. Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the Internet in particular have opened new possibilities for the government and the governed. Successful delivery of online services has rapidly become an important measure of effective public sector management and this has made many governments to deploy Electronic Government (e-Government) as a tool to achieve this vision. The dual objectives of e-Government are to reinvent the government of Malaysia in terms of service delivery through the use of ICT and to catalyze the successful development of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) with ICT as one of the leading sectors of the economy. This paper provides the various initiatives taken by the government in implementing eGovernment projects as well as the issues, challenges and benefits derived. A brief case study on electronic procurement as one of the projects in e-Government initiative will be presented

Factors associated with sexual engagement among schooling adolescents in Sarawak, East Malaysia

This study examined the factors of sexual behaviours among schooling adolescents in Sarawak. Respondents for the study were adolescents aged 13 to 19 years from 16 secondary schools in Sarawak using self-administered questionnaire. Information on socio-demographic characteristics, knowledge on and attitudes towards sexual and reproductive health, involvement in risky lifestyle and sexual activities, family relationships, school attachment and religious beliefs were obtained. Chi-square tests and logistic regression analysis were performed to examine factors associated with sexual intercourse. A total of 1,462 students participated in the study, with 60.1% female respondents, mean age 15.6 ± 1.72 years old. The prevalence of sex engagement was 3.6%, majority aged 16-17 years (58.5%). Mean age at first sexual intercourse was 16.8 ± 1.27 years, with a minimum age of 14 years. Age of respondents, knowledge on SRH, risky behaviours, peers’ risky behaviours, negative self-evaluation, cognitive inefficiency, perceived lack of motivation, religious belief and family support were significantly associated with sexual engagement. Logistic regression showed that age, respondents’ risky behaviour and peers’ involvement in sexual intercourse were significant risk factors of sexual engagement while a strong religious belief was a significant protective factor. Although the prevalence of sexual engagement was quite low compared to many other countries, there is a need to strengthen comprehensive sexual health education both at the school and community levels. It is important for adolescents to make informed decisions on their risky sexual behaviours as there are serious consequences of such behaviours on their current and future life

Design of 3.1-10.6 GHz UWB CMOS Power Amplifier using Cascade Topology

Power amplifier is an important component in the wireless communication system. Design of the power amplifier in UWB transceiver is challenging as the signal need to be transmitted over a wide bandwidth. Several criteria need to be fulfilled such as good linearity, good wideband matching, high efficiency and low power consumption.This paper presents the design of a power amplifier with 3.1-10.6 GHz using 0.18 μm CMOS technology for ultra-wide band application. The proposed power amplifier used three cascaded amplifier stages in order to achieve good gain and wide-band width. The results show that the proposed power amplifier design hasan average gain of 7.28 dB, an input return loss less than -7.48 dB, an output return loss less than -4.782 dB, and group delay variation of ±151.9 ps is achieved over the entire band. A good input1dB-compression point of 6.67 dBm and input third order intercept point of 0 dBm is achieved at 5 GHz

Q-switched fiber laser based on CdS quantum dots as a saturable absorber

In this work, a Q-switched fiber laser is demonstrated using quantum dots (QDs) cadmium sulfide (CdS) as a saturable absorber (SA) in an erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) system. The QD CdS is synthesized via the microwave hydrothermal assisted method and embedded into polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). The QD CdS/PVA matrix film is sandwiched in between two fiber ferrules by a fiber adapter. The generation of Q-switched fiber laser having a repetition rate, a pulse width, and a peak-topeak pulse duration of 75.19 kHz, 1.27 μs, and 13.32 μs, respectively. The maximum output power of 3.82 mW and maximum pulse energy of 50.8 nJ are obtained at the maximum pump power of 145.9 mW. The proposed design may add to the alternative material of Q-switched fiber laser generation, which gives a high stability output performance by using quantum dots material as a saturable absorber

Passively mode-locked fiber laser by utilizing TTG film on a D-shaped fiber as a saturable absorber

In this paper, we propose a mode-locked fiberlaser by utilizing single layer Trivial Transfer Graphene film (TTGF) as a saturable absorber (SA). The SA was deposited on the top of a side-polished D-shaped fiber. The SA was then integrated in the ring cavity configuration, with a clockwise light propagation. Three distinctive 2 m erbium doped fibers (EDFs) those are Metro-Gain15 EDF, Iso-Gain6 EDF and Iso-Gain12 EDF were used as gain media, interchangeable in the experiment. From the results, the Metro-Gain15 EDF gives the most proficient gain medium on generating a passively mode-locked fiber laser. The Metro-Gain15 Erbium doped mode-locked Laser was successfully producing ultrashort pulse with 8 nm spectral band-width, 13 MHz of repetition rate and 915 fs pulse duration. These outcomes demonstrated that TTGF deposited on the D-shaped fiber is a suitable component as an SA to produce a stable output passively mode-locked fiber laser for many optical fiber applications

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Abstract Malaysia was ranked 16 th and 10 th in mathematics based on the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 1999 and 2003, respectively while its neighbor, Singapore, used to be a part of Malaysia until 1965, was ranked first in both years. Hence, it is the aim of this study to investigate what makes Singaporean students better in mathematics performance compared to Malaysian students using TIMSS data. Factors examined in this analysis include characteristics of students, teachers and schools, educational aids and resources as well as students' attitudes towards mathematics learning. It is hoped that the findings from this study will provide useful inputs to improve mathematics learning among Malaysian students