A review on critical success facteffect of tourism on demand of hotel room type and its tariff

Tourism industry is one of the major contributors to the national economy and it is closely related to the development of the hotel industry. Improvement of sub sectors accommodation (hotel) is often related to the increase of tourists to Malaysia. The aim of this paper is to analyse the effect of tourism on demand of hotel room type and its tariff. In addition, tourists’ behaviours were observed to understand demand of hotel room type because they contribute to the development of hotel industry. Four main factors were chosen as the main factors before choosing a hotel that are price, location, facility and accessibility. These factors were analyse using two methods that are descriptive analysis and multidimensional scalling analysis. The result of this analysis showed that tourist chose 2- star hotels and below as their preferred accommodation. Apart from that, this research further analyse hotel room tariff for the hotel type that was chosen by tourists using simple linear regression. This is useful as a simple guideline for hotel industry. © 2015 Penerbit UTM Press. All rights reserved

Assessment of Potential Non-Tax Revenue in Malaysian Local Authorities

Non-tax revenue trends and their potential have received less attention than property tax, which is the primary source for most Malaysian local authorities (LAs). This paper highlights the examination conducted on potentials and strategies adopted by each LA investigated to maximize return from non-tax revenue. In doing this, qualitative approach using secondary data acquired from financial reports and primary data from in-depth interviews was employed. Ten LAs were selected through purposive sampling. The trend of revenue collection among the selected LAs and the strategies to improve non-tax revenue collection through thematic analysis are highlighted. The analysis of the trend of local authorities’ revenue reveals that non-tax revenue remains the second most important after the tax revenue. However, Pulau Pinang City Council (MBPP) is the only LA that records an average of non-tax revenue exceeding 50 per cent of its total internal revenue. This study has also found that the divergence among the local authorities’ non-tax revenue collection is due to the revenue improvement strategies adopted by each local authority. Therefore, eight recommendations are made to improve non-tax revenue. Though this study is limited to 10 LAs as sample, the successful optimizing strategies highlighted from the study can represent an efficient model for other LAs, in improving their non-tax collection

A review on the effectiveness of safety training methods for Malaysia construction industry

Safety issues have become a vital issue in the management of facilities in the construction industry, as the labour-intensive construction industry is particularly regarded as one of the most unsafe industrial sectors worldwide. To increase workplace safety, Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) training has been introduced and pursued. Based on previous research, training methods range from less to more engaging. This paper has reviewed the research from 2006 to present done on effectiveness of different training methods as the first investigation research was carried out in 2006. The literatures were searched through multiple electronic databases for published peer-reviewed articles. Findings have suggested that both training methods were able to impart safety knowledge and safety awareness to the workers; however, more engaging training methods would be more effective on training outcomes. Nevertheless, it was noted that those research projects did not take into consideration on the multiculturalism issue where language communication problem exist. Hence, this research proposes a mix mode of less and more engaging training methods to be applied in a multi-cultural workplace to enhance the effectiveness of training outcomes. This review may provide information on effective safety training methods to be applied in the multi-cultural construction industry

A review on critical success factors of sustainable retrofitting implementation

Sustainable retrofitting has been one of the alternate solutions to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. However, it is apparent that limited existing buildings are being sustainably retrofitted and the reason lies within the influential forces which contribute to the failure of the sustainable retrofitting project. Thus, this study aims investigates the current literature based on critical success factors (CSFs) for sustainable retrofitting and to identify any gap that might exists. Journals were searched using the key words identified from the preliminary literature review. Successive round of article abstract reviews resulted in 59 articles being selected for compilation purpose. The CSF constructs were then identified using content analysis and inductive coding approach. Critical analysis of the literature revealed gaps in the literature. The most significant findings was the lack of research on CSFs for sustainable retrofitting from the stakeholders’ perspective. This research provides a comprehensive compilation of all previously identified CSFs for project purpose

Evaluation criteria of safety and health induction for construction worker (SICW) in Malaysia

Workplace safety is one the main concern by facilities managers due to high fatality rates in Malaysia construction industry. Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) training is an important effort to reduce workplace accident and improve employees’ safety and health in construction industry by enhancing the workers’ safety knowledge and awareness on workplace. In Malaysia, Safety and Health Induction for Construction Worker (SICW) or commonly known as Green Card Training, a mandatory safety training, has been introduced by Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) to the construction related workers in order to enhance the workers’ safety knowledge and awareness on workplace. However, SICW has never been evaluated in term of its effectiveness in delivering safety knowledge and awareness to the workers since it has been introduced. Therefore, an evaluation is needed to be carried out to evaluate the safety knowledge and awareness gain by the workers from SICW. This paper will show the evaluation criteria for SICW based on the topics covered by standardized materials provided by CIDB. The evaluation criteria will serve as a guideline for evaluation of SICW in future researc

Critical success factors for facilities management implementation in the healthcare industry

This paper will explore the current literature that delves into the critical success factors (CSFs) for the implementation of Facilities Management (FM) in Healthcare industry in terms of the implementation, preparation of a compilation, and identification of any gaps that might exist. The research makes reference to various journals using the key terms and only 90 articles were short-listed as the most accomplished and relevant article. Using the key term between facility management success and healthcare success, this paper identified healthcare success factors. CSF constructs were then identified using the content analysis methodology and an inductive coding technique. A subsequent analysis identified gaps that exist in the literature base. Currently, a framework found for FM healthcare encompasses maintenance management, performance management, risk management, development, ICT and supply service management. No research has been conducted to extract these six factors and validate them as CSF’s in FM healthcare. A comprehensive review of FM practice in healthcare is presented in this paper. The framework of healthcare success factors in the FM developed is clear, cohesive and it can be well understood by all levels among the healthcare professionals. There is a lack of FM studies in the context of the healthcare industry, which limits the knowledge and exploration of the research scope. This study can further be explored for future research to secure FM as an added value to the healthcare sector, and therefore enhance the service quality and improve the corporate image. This research provides a comprehensive compilation of all previously identified FM implementation success factors, through a clearly structured methodological approach and gives comprehensive key factors which define the critical success factors for FM in the healthcare industry

Surface electromyography hand motion classification using time domain features and artificial neural network for real time application

This paper presents the efficiency of time domain features and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classifier for real time Surface Electromyography (SEMG) hand motion classification application in terms of real time delay and classification accuracy. For hand motion to be differentiated, SEMG data goes through pre-processing, feature extraction and classification steps. Data were collected from 10 healthy subjects. Two muscles were assessed which are flexor carpi ulnaris (FCU) and extensor carpi radialis (ECR) during 3 hand motions of wrist flexion (WF), wrist extension (WE) and co-contraction (CC) for 3 repetitions. The SEMG signals was first segmented into 132.5 ms window, full wave rectified and with a parallel process of comparing raw signal and a filtered signal using a 6 Hz low pass Butterworth filter. Five time domain features of mean absolute value (MAV), variance (VAR), root mean square (RMS), integrated absolute value (IEMG) and waveform length (WL) are used for feature extraction. Feed Forward Neural Network with 10 hidden neurons and 3 output neurons is used as classifier. First 2 repetitions of motion were used for training while the last repetition was used for classification testing. Features were added from 1 to 5 and tested for classification accuracy and computational times. Simulation computational times were recorded at pre-processing, feature extraction and classification steps. Meanwhile, hardware computational steps were recorded at pre-processing and feature extraction steps. It can be concluded that time domain features are efficient for real time application with 6 ms simulation delay. However, only MAV, IEMG, and WL is suitable for hardware with 68.6 ms delay. Meanwhile, the ANN classifier is unsuitable for real time application with 268 ms delay despite having achieving good accuracy of 92%

Affordable housing livability attributes

Purpose - Housing plays an important role in people’s wellbeing, contributing to the physical and mental health, education, employment and security outcomes for individuals. Still, housing affordability has always been an issue worldwide. Governments have been scrambling to build sufficient affordable houses to meet the forever increasing demand. In light of this there is concern that the livability aspects of these affordable houses built have been compromised. For that reason, this study presents a research on the attributes of livable-affordable-homes. The findings indicated that there are seven significant affordable housing livability attributes.Methodology - Data was gathered by identifying all livable attributes from literature and previous research carried out with particular focus on Malaysia. A Focus Group Discussion was conducted to finalise and refine the attributes and sub-attributes of affordable-livable homes. The participatory organizations were picked based on their housing expertise and knowledge, which the researchers recognized as contributory towards the research according to the attributes identified. Findings - The aim of the FGD is to discuss and determine the attributes and sub-attributes of livable- affordable-homes.This discussion enables the researcher to gain a larger amount of information in a shorter period of time. Altogether 12 individuals representing related government bodies, public and private universities and NGOs participated.The findings indicated that there are seven significant affordable housing livability attributes namely physical factor, community and neighbourhood factor, public amenities, economic development, residence wellbeing, safety and security and also psychological impact.This research has taken into account of not only physical aspect but also psychological well being of the residents

Permasalahan Dalam Mengendalikan Keperluan Laporan Penilaian Kesan Alam Sekitar ( Environmental Impact Assessment -EIA) Terhadap Pembangunan Hartanah Dari Sudut Pemaju Dan Jabatan Alam Sekitar

Keperluan semasa terhadap Laporan Dan Perlaksanaan Penilaian Kesan Alam Sekitar (Environmental Impact Assessment) atau dikenali sebagai EIA sering menjadi perhatian umum Kerajaan dalam Cadangan Sesebuah Projek Pembangunan. Jabatan Alam Sekitar merupakan pihak yang dipertanggung jawapkan dalam memerhati, mengawal dan menentukan perkara-perkara yang melibatkan alam sekitar bilamana cadangan pembangunan ingin dijalankan. Maka timbul berbagai persoalan dan masalah dalam mengendalikan keperluan Perlaksanaan Penilaian Alam Sekitar. Dleh itu kertas kerja ini dibentangkan dengan tujuan mengarap beberapa permasalah dan alternatif memperbaiki perbagai kelemahan yang sedia ada

Pengambilan balik tanah (akta pengambilan balik tanah 1960)

Monograf ini ditulis khusus kepada pelajar-pelajar Pengurusan Harta Benda yang mungkin dapat membantu serba sedikit pemahaman berhubung dengan konsep Akta Pengambilan Balik Tanah 1960 yang selama ini menjadi salah satu idola dalam tradisi pembangunan di Malaysia