Impact of dividend policy on the shareholders’ wealth: Shariah vs non-Shariah companies listed in Bursa Malaysia / Farazida Mohd Akit and Nor Haliza Hamzah

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of dividend policy on the shareholders’ wealth of Shariah and non-Shariah compliance companies listed in Bursa Malaysia main market. A sample of 274 Shariah compliance companies and 129 non-Shariah compliance companies listed on Bursa Malaysia for the period of 2004 to 2013 has been selected for this study. The results are obtained through two-way fixed-effect Generalized Least Squares (GLS) regression for Shariah compliance companies and random-effect GLS regression for non-Shariah compliance companies. The identified determinants are dividend per share (DPS), retained earnings per share (REPS), return on equity (ROE), lagged price earnings ratio (PER,_|), financial leverage (DTE) and firm’s size (InTA). The results indicates that the measurements for dividend policy (DPS and REPS) are significant determinants of shareholders’ wealth for both Shariah and non-Shariah compliance companies. On the other hand, it is revealed that financial leverage is an influential determinant of shareholders’ wealth for Shariah compliance companies but not for non-Shariah companies

Waqf : aporverty alleviation tool in Malaysia / Che’ Khalilah Mahmood, Nor Haliza Hamzah and Wan Nor Hafidzah Wan Mohd

Waqf is a charitable instrument in Islam that has many roles including helping the have-nots in the society. This paper discusses Waqf as a poverty alleviation tool in Malaysia, the key roles of Waqf institutions and the issues faced by those institutions in Malaysia. Â This is a conceptual paper which has been developed through literature reviews some of the current literature, journals, report and news on the subject matter. The findings includes the d iscussion on Waqf as a poverty alleviation tool which include socio-economic development for the poor and supporting in providing the facilities such as mosque, hospitals, orphanage shelters and others

Unlock day effect of expiration of mandatory IPOS lock up: Case of ace market in Malaysia / Syamsyul Samsudin ...[et al.]

This research studies the role of lockup in assessing price and volume of IPOs during the expiration of lockup in Malaysia market. The reaction of price is measured by the abnormal return while the reaction of volume is measured by the abnormal volume. The companies were selected from the years 2010 to 2018 and only companies that were still listed in Bursa Malaysia were chosen. The time frame of the study was 30 days before and 30 days after the expiration date of lock up provision. The results may show for these circumstances of i) the volume will remain and the price will decrease; ii) volume will be decrease and price will be decrease too and iii) promoters retain % of shares during expiration date. For situation number i), it might show the sign of a quite good quality of performance of IPOs in stock market. Evidently, the second circumstance shows decrease in price and volume of IPOs after expiration date. The scenario actually leads by demand and supply of stock. Another important evidence which supports the insignificant result is promoters retain % of shares during expiration date. The amounts that should be released by the companies are not offered to the market during that time. By looking the Signaling Theory, insiders of IPOs firms who are previously restricted from selling their holdings have the first chance to sell large proposition of their shares. Investors will know the dates of IPO lockup expiration and numbers of shares by looking at the prospectus. Due to the scenario, the price and volume of IPOs will be reacting during expiration date based on this theory. It is hoped that this study will help investors or any Malaysian market participation especially in the IPOs market to notice the situation in Malaysian market regarding the lock up provision

Effectiveness and challenges of problem-based learning implemented in engineering mathematics courses

Presently, graduates of institutions of higher learning are found to be passive and not competent in carrying out the tasks assigned to them. The number of graduates that fail in a job interview has increased. One of the contributing factors is their ineffective communication skill during the interview, thus failing to exhibit their generic skills abilities in convincing the potential employer. As a proactive move to improve this issue, an initiative was carried out by the Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) to introduce and implement problem-based learning (PBL) activities in the engineering mathematics courses. With the PBL method implemented at the early stage of the study period, the student’s ineffective communication issue can be addressed effectively. It is anticipated that the deployment of the PBL method can generally improve students’ soft skills, especially communication ability in meeting the demand and expectations of industry employers. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the effectiveness of the PBL implementation, thus identifying the benefits and the challenges of the PBL 5 Ladders of Active Learning strategy. In this study, the PBL activity was implemented in the Engineering Mathematics III (Differential Equation) course. To analyse the students’ feedback toward the implementation of the Five Ladders of Active Learning strategy and Self-Directed Learning method, the Rasch Measurement Model application software called Winstep was used. The results showed that the challenges faced during the PBL implementation are the readiness of lecturers as facilitators, the acceptance, and the readiness of students towards the learning process of the 5 Ladders of Active Learning strategy, the conducive learning environment, the crafting and constructing of PBL problems/triggers, the students’ reflection, and the PBL evaluation methods. To ensure that engineering students can master mathematics and generic skills as intended in the program, these challenges must be tackled effectively

Discovering your body system

Discovering Your Body System is targeted to a wide range of readers,from the general public to university students. The presentation of the entire content is injected with some fun elements such as colourful figures, diagrams, illustrations, cartoon sketches, fun activities/experiments, photos, tables and misconceptions. These elements are to enhance the effectiveness of the text materials and facilitate the learning process. Readers can try out the simple yet fun activities/experiments with their family and friends to explore the biology concepts. The writing style is informal and relaxed and the contents are presented with a clear and simple sentences. New terms are carefully defined in a simple explanation. The concept and idea of the book is intended to make the reading materials more appealing and enjoyable to the readers. The materials covered in this book are fundamental topics in Human Physiology or Biology. The main objective of this book is to provide the readers with a logical, succinct and interesting presentation of physiology/biology concepts through exciting and different approaches. Readers are provided with interesting information and facts related to the human body system. The readers are encouraged by the authors to explore their body systems and try grasping the biology concepts in a fun way. This book can also act as an important guide and source for different level of students; SPM, STPM, Matriculation, A-level or university students. Students may find this book useful in their process of learning Biology. This may help them to strengthen their understanding and comprehension of some topics in Biology

Laboratory manual: practical biology BIO0401

This is the Laboratory Report Practical Biology BIO0401 for Practical Biology course. Practical Biology is one of the courses offered by the Department of Biology, CFS IIUM. This laboratory report is intended for students to develop laboratory techniques and skills at the foundation level. The skills are required for the students to have the ability to carry out experiments and present findings scientifically and also to prepare and equip the students to pursue their study at the undergraduate level. This laboratory manual is organized into ten chapters. The experiments are designed to enhance students' knowledge and understanding of biology and biological issue thus the experiments are related to topics in Biology 1 and Biology 2 courses

Laboratory report: practical biology BIO0401

This is the Laboratory Report Practical Biology BIO0401 for Practical Biology course. Practical Biology is one of the courses offered by the Department of Biology, CFS IIUM. This laboratory report is intended for students at Foundation level to complete the report for each experiment

A forecast of surface ozone using analytical models

In this study, several analytical models were tested to forecast the surface ozone concentration using Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) and Time Series Regression (TSR). Four study areas were selected in this study, namely Seberang Jaya in Penang, Shah Alam in Selangor, Larkin in Johor and Kota Bharu in Kelantan. The main objective of this study is to determine the appropriate analytical models MLR and ANN for surface ozone forecasting in some zones of peninsular Malaysia, to forecast surface ozone concentration with TSR model in several zones of peninsular Malaysia and to compare the performance of each model by the performance index. The performance index that will be shown in this study for the model comparison are root mean square error (RMSE), mean square error (MSE) and determination of coefficient (R2). The ANN model showed better performance compared to the MLR and TSR models in the model comparison in each station. The station in Larkin, Johor provides high accuracy in forecasting surface ozone concentrations for each model with minimum MSE, 0.000009 ppm and RMSE, 0.0042 ppm compared to other stations. The value of R2 is 0.33 which is highest compared to station in Seberang Jaya and Kota Bharu

The effectiveness of new teaching style on the students’ performance in vector calculus during movement control order

Teaching style becomes more challenging especially during Movement Control Order (MCO) due to Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, online learning be one of the new teaching styles used during MCO at all educations level. Therefore, to study the effectiveness of this style, this paper is to investigate the effect of the new teaching style on engineering student’s performance by determining the difference of overall scores between batches for each program in Vector Calculus (VC) course with ordinary and new teaching styles at Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment (FKAB), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). Nonparametric test is used in this study is Mann Whitney to analyze the difference of the teaching style. The finding revealed that that students’ achievements in VC course could significantly distinguished by two batches of students with different teaching and assessment modes. In contrast, JKKP program shows there is no significant difference in overall scores between batches with different teaching styles

Factors affecting community-based participatory research in Iran: a qualitative study on health sector stakeholders' view

Community-based participatory research is an important strategy to deal with public health challenges. However, the application of community-based participatory research in public health has encountered many challenges. This study was conducted to address academic perspective about the challenges and factors that are influencing on the community-based participatory research in Iran. A qualitative design using a conventional content analysis approach was employed to collect and analyze data. Twenty –one participants were recruited by using purposive sampling. The data were generated through semi-structured interview. In this work, we found that there are different factors that influence the community-based participatory research projects. These factors are categorized into four main categories: "interpersonal relationships", "readiness", "environment-conducive", and "institutional issues". This study yielded valuable results for researchers aiming at implementation of community-based participatory research in Iranian community. Further efforts should be directed towards improving academician capacity and creating systems to support this method of research