LabView Based AC Magnetization Characteristics and Measurement for Soft Magnetic Materials

This paper presents LabView based method combined with a simple analog circuitry to characterize the ac magnetization profile of soft magnetic materials. First, soft magnetic materials prepared as ring cores are wound with equal number of turns for the primary and secondary windings. The primary winding is excited with sinusoidal supply of varying voltage amplitude. The secondary winding is interfaced with the LabView for data acquisition and calculation. Graphical plotting and viewing of the hysteresis loop exhibited by the soft magnetic materials under test can be achieved using National Instrument NI6009 data acquisition card and LabView software. This research discusses the methods of measurement for flux density, magnetic field intensity and core permeability at different points of the ac magnetization. The measured results are then compared with those given by the manufacturer datasheets. Good agreement has been achieved to validate the proposed LabView based method

Hubungan burnout dengan kepuasan kerja dalam kalangan guru-guru Kemahiran Hidup Bersepadu (KHB) sekolah menengah di Daerah Batu Pahat

Tugas guru tidak terbatas kepada mendidik, tetapi juga dibebani dengan tugas-tugas sampingan yang boleh mendatangkan stres. Stres negatif yang berlarutan akan mendatangkan burnout di mana guru-guru akan mengalami ketandusan emosi, depersonalisasi dan penurunan pencapaian peribadi. Kajian ini dijalankan bagi mengenal pasti tahap burnout dan tahap kepuasan kerja guru, mengenal pasti hubungan di antara burnout dengan kepuasan kerja, serta mengenal pasti adakah terdapat perbezaan di antara tahap kepuasan kerja dengan tahap burnout. Kajian ini dilaksanakan ke atas 136 orang guru-guru Kemahiran Hidup sekolah menengah di daerah Batu Pahat dengan menggunakan instrumen borang soal-selidik. Data kajian ini dianalisis dengan menggunakan perisian Statistikal Package for the Sosial Science (SPSS) versi 21. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan guru-guru mengalami tahap burnout yang rendah di sub-skala ketandusan emosi dan depersonalisasi, serta tahap tinggi di sub-skala pencapaian peribadi. Manakala bagi kepuasan kerja guru-guru pula secara keseluruhannya berada pada tahap yang sederhana. Dapatan kajian juga menunjukkan burnout dan kepuasan kerja mempunyai hubungan songsang yang lemah di mana apabila tahap burnout meningkat, tahap kepuasan kerja menurun dan sebaliknya. Dapatan kajian perbezaan tahap kepuasan kerja dengan tahap burnout mengikut dimensi menunjukkan sub-dimensi pekerjaan itu sendiri dan gaji sekarang mempunyai perbezaan yang signifikan pada sub-skala ketandusan emosi dan depersonalisasi. Manakala bagi sub-dimensi peluang kenaikan pangkat, penyelia dan penyeliaan, dan rakan sekerja tidak mempunyai perbezaan yang signifikan. Hasil dapatan perbezaan kepuasan kerja keseluruhan pula menunjukkan terdapat perbezaan yang signifikan di ketiga-tiga skala burnout

The sports, politics and economics of the hosting of mega sports events in Malaysia: exploring the Commonwealth Games of 1998 and the F1 Grand Prix

Today, bidding to host international sports events is no longer a privilege of certain developed countries. Hosting international sports events has attracted many developing countries, as they have begun to realize the multiple benefits that it can offer. Sports as a form of popular culture that cuts across class, caste and ethnicity has a lot to offer to many developing countries that are still grappling with many crucial national agendas, provided its benefits and potential effects are creatively exploited. The successful hosting of a high-profile international sports event would not only trigger and promote national pride and a sense of patriotism, but quite often, its socio-economic outcome may outweigh the political effects. Whilst the political focus of sports is usually related to aspects such as national pride, improving the image of a nation as well as national unity, the economic dimension of sports has always been linked to economic growth, tourism and creating new frontiers for the economy. Over the past decade Malaysia has seen growing interest and intensive government investment in sports. The success of the Kuala Lumpur 1998 Commonwealth Games and the Sepang Formula 1 Grand Prix has gained the country outstanding international reputation in the hosting of world sports events, despite its average achievements in sports. This paper attempts to examine the underlying factors that prompted Malaysia to actively become involved in promoting itself as a host country for several world sports events in which it has never before partaken nor had achieved international reputation. In addition it will also look into the country sports policy as well as the roles of government and sports bodies in making sports an important dimension to strengthen the country's domestic and international agendas. The paper argues that for many developing countries, the role of government is still far more crucial than any other factors in the development of sports. Sports have far-reaching implications in the development of a country and should not be viewed merely as a form of popular culture. Therefore, many more 'focus studies' should be carried out to further apprehend the contribution that sports could make in developing countries

Poverty Alleviation and Job Creation: Integrating Social Investment Funds with Corporate Social Responsibility as Possible Solutions

“In West Michigan today, more families are struggling to put food on their tables and lacking basic necessities than any time in the past 15 years.” So wrote Sharon Parks in The Grand Rapids Press (September 13, 2008: Growing poverty in Michigan needs emergency response). The U.S. Census Bureau reports that the rate of poverty jumped 14%, one in five live in poverty, and the unemployment rate jumped to 8.5%. Apparently Michigan joined the rest of the world where two billion people live on one dollar a day, except we are in a relatively better position. Incidence and magnitude of poverty have spread over the past fifteen years. High unemployment rates increased to levels not seen since the Great Depression. Inflation is soaring and the number of foreclosures has multiplied. The U.S. is not alone in suffering from these ailments. We are sharing what many developing countries have been suffering for decades. There are some policies these countries adopted that Michigan and the rest of the U.S. can apply at state, county, or city levels. We can draw some parallels with the intention of showing how to implement a selective set of measures that proved to be effective in meeting the challenges

Managing ethnicity and constructing the 'Bangsa Malaysia' (A United Malaysian Nation)

The question of nation-building has always been a central issue in Malaysian politics. Whilst the country has been able to sustain stable politics since the 1969 racial tragedy, spawning two decades rapid socio-economic development until the 1997 Asian economic crisis, the project of nation-building remained a basic national agenda yet to be fully resolved. This short paper investigates the delicate process of nation-building in Malaysia in the post 1970s, especially in the context of the vision of constructing the Bangsa Malaysia or united Malaysian nation enshrined in Mahathir's Vision 2020 project which was introduced in 1991. The aim of the paper is firstly, to highlight the underlying socio-political parameters that shaped and influenced the politics of nation-building in the country, and secondly, to explore the viability of the project of Bangsa Malaysia in the context of the daunting challenges involved in the process of nation-building. The paper contends that, based on the Malaysian experience, the potent interplay between the forces of ethnicity and nationalism constitute the crux of the problem in the politics of nation-building in Malaysia. This dialectic it is argued, stems from the prevalence of the varying 'nationalisms' within and across ethnic groups. These phenomena have not only shaped the pattern of ethnic political mobilization in the countv, but above all, laid the most complex set of obstacles in the path of the project of nation-building. The paper argues that the project of constructing the Bangsa Malaysia therefore, can be seen as significant attempt by the state to reconcile the competing 'nationalism'. It can also be considered as an attempt to consolidate Malay nationalism and cultural pluralism, thus promoting the development of 'civic nationalism' or creation of a 'supra-ethnic' national identity. The 'nation', therefore, is depicted as a 'mosaic of cultures', but with a strong fervour of Malay nationalism. However, the viability of the envisaged project is yet to be tested. The concept itself is still vague to many people and the challenges ahead are enormous, involving political, economic, socio-cultural and religious issues. Indeed the project risks becoming the 'latest' in the series of competing notions of 'nation-of-intent' circulating in Malaysia. The paper contends that whilst, to some extent, the socio-political landscape of Malaysian society has been rapidly changing, especially in the past two decades of Mahathir's reign, ethnicity still pervades Malaysian political life. The paper probably difers from many previous studies on nation-building in Malaysia, which have mainly focused on either the historical dimensions or those which have examined the impact of key national policies. It is hoped that this brief paper would be able to contribute towards broadening the perspective in the analysis of ethnic relations and nation-building in Malaysia, thus, deepening the understanding of Malaysia politics and society

Development and progress of aquaculture in Egypt with special reference to cage and pen culture

After a brief review of Egypt's present annual production of wild fish, the idea of increasing this production by means of cage and pen culture is discussed, as it would utilize vast aquatic areas of good water quality. A preliminary experiment on cage culture of the carp, Cyprinus carpio is briefly reported

Structural Changes and Global Trends in European Union Trade

The article aims at researching and presenting structural changes and global trends in distributive trade of European Union, resulted from liberalization of economic activities within the EU. During the last decades, EU trade went through deep transformation and structural changes. Traditional distributive trade has been replaced by organized and concentrated distribution. Even though, there are many developing trends which unify the EU trade, still there are some differences specific for particular countries. Level of development, structure of trade network, as well as structure of retail forms, differ from one country to another. Developing patterns of retail forms differ from one country to another. For instance, hypermarkets have reached mature stage in France, Germany and Belgium, just have started developing in Italy and are in developing stage in Spain. “Hard” discount shops are already one mature concept in Germany and Netherlands, while in France, they have just started developing. Regardless of differences between particular national and regional markets within EU, almost all countries participate in increased trend of internationalization, concentration and dislocation of traditional retail towards modern sale forms, which have more subsidiaries. However, degree of concentration in some countries is still quite different. While just a few companies control the markets in Scandinavia, France, Great Britain and Germany; in Italy there is not a company with similar comparable size or market strength. Trend of business globalization have emphasized the area of international retail as an important topic. With process of retail internationalization – retail has turned into a global industry quite fast.trade, retail, globalization, internationalization, concentration

The Effect of Communicative Language Teaching on Students' Speaking Skill

The aims of this research were to find out whether there are good response and improvement of students' speaking skill between before and after being taught through Communicative Language Teaching (CLT). The samples of this research were the VIII A and VIII B class of the Eighth Grade of SMP Negeri 21 Tangerang in academic year 2015/2016. The researcher used non-equivalent control group design. The instrument was oral test. The result of the research showed that there was improvement of the students' speaking skill in actively communicative by using CLT. The result of t-test showed that t was bigger than ttable. The result of tcount was 4.2105 and ttable was 2.0021. It means that the researcher's hypothesis (H1), there is significant difference of post-test scores between experiment class and control class is accepted. The average score of pre-test in experiment class is 67.33 while the average score of pre-test in control class is 66.50. The average of the post-test score in experiment class was 83.00 while the average of the post-test score in control class was 75.00. It showed that CLT can improve the students' speaking skill