Managing A Change: Case History of a Bumiputera Entrepreneur

This study seeks to understand what an individual did, in the entrepreneurial processes that he underwent, when he entered the world of entrepreneurship. Specifically, the objectives were 1) to identify the processes in the individual's entrepreneurship development, 2) to know how the entrepreneur handle the changes in his entrepreneurial life, and 3) to identify the profile of the entrepreneur. The life period of the Bumiputera understudied covered the time prior to his leaving the salaried job until his business venture became profitable. A historical case study design was utilised. Three in-depth interviews of the informant were made and a two month field observation of the informant was done. All the interviews were tape recorded and transcribed. The daily observations were recorded. The data were then inductively analysed

The Nucleotide Sequence of the Matrix (M) Protein Gene of Newcastle Disease Virus (NDV) Strain AF 2240

The complete nucleotide sequence of the matrix (M) protein gene of the local Newcastle disease virus (NDV) strain AF 2240 was determined. Based on consensus primers, several segments of the M gene were reverse transcribed and amplified by the polymerase chain reaction. The RT-PCR products were cloned into a plasmid vector pCR™2.1. The DNA inserts in the clones were then cycle-sequenced. The start and polyadenylation signals have been identified. Assuming that the M gene starts and terminates at these sequences, the M gene is 1223 nucleotides long and encodes an open reading frame of 364 amino acids, corresponding to a polypeptide calculated molecular weight of 40 kDa. The M protein, is both hydrophobic and basic. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the strain has a close relationship with the North American Fontana strain. The M protein amino acid sequence also shows similarities with members of the Rub ulavirus genus such as the Simian virus 5, the human parainfluenza virus type 4 and the mumps virus. Similarities of the amino acid sequence also exist between the local strain and other members of the Paramyxovirus and Morbillivirus genus

Ubah suaian gred pencapaian pelajar dalam pemeringkatan sekolah menggunakan pendekatan VIKOR

Pemeringkatan merupakan satu proses penyusunan beberapa alternatif mengikut tertib keutamaan. Ianya berdasarkan kepada kriterium atau atribut yang ditentukan bagi setiap alternatif yang terlibat. Penilaian terhadap kriterium tersebut dilakukan dan kemudiannya suatu indeks komposit digubah bagi setiap alternatif untuk tujuan menyusun alternatif mengikut urutan keutamaan. Amalan ini dikenali sebagai pemutusan pelbagai kriterium (PPK). Terdapat beberapa pendekatan yang diamalkan dalam PPK, di antaranya dikenali sebagai VIKOR (Pengoptimuman Pelbagai Kriterium dan Penyelesaian Kompromi). Kajian ini bertujuan memerihalkan penggunaan VIKOR dalam pembinaan indeks komposit PPK bagi menyusun sekolah mengikut tahap pencapaian peperiksaan Sijil Peperiksaan Malaysia (SPM). Sekolah mewakili alternatif manakala kursus sebagai kriterium. Keputusan peperiksaan bagi sesuatu kursus diberi dalam bilangan pelajar mengikut gred. Setiap kursus ini dinilai berdasarkan sembilan skala gred, iaitu dari gred terbaik sehingga gred gagal sebagai gambaran tahap pencapaian setiap kursus yang kemudiannya diubah suai menggunakan skor merit

A Comparison of Risk Classification Methods for Claim Severity Data

The objective of this article is to compare several risk classification methods for claim severity data by using weighted equation which is written as a weighted difference between the observed and fitted values. The weighted equation will be applied to estimate claim severities which is equivalent to the total claim costs divided by the number of claims

Penggunaan gambar rajah nisbah LQ-momen dalam pemilihan taburan terbaik

The method of moments has been one of the simplest and conventional parameter estimation techniques used in statistical hydrology. However, moment estimates are usually inferior in quality and generally not as efficient as the L-moment estimates, especially for distribution with three or more parameters. Of late, many regional frequency studies in hydrology use the L-moment ratio diagram to select the most appropriate distribution of hydrologic and meteorological data. An advantage of L-moment ratio diagrams is that one can compare the fit of several distributions using a single graphical instrument. The purpose of this paper is to revisit the LQ moments and to develop the LQ-moments ratio diagrams based on median estimator. Using flood-flow data at 73 stations in Peninsular Malaysia, we explored the suitability of various flood frequency models using LQ-moments ratio diagrams compared with L-moments ratio diagrams. The result shows that the new diagrams perform as well as L-moments ratio diagrams for selecting a suitable frequency distributions and makes it an attractive option in flood frequency analysis

Keutamaan amalan perniagaan di kalangan usahawan efisien

Sebanyak lapan amalan kewangan telah dinilai secara berpasangan. Pendekatan Saaty digunakan bagi membentuk pemberat bagi setiap amalan tersebut setelah matrik bandingan berpasangan dibentuk. Satu susunan amalan mengikut pemberat terberat diperolehi. Pembuat keputusan terhadap amalan ini ialah pengusaha produk makanan di negeri Kedah

Consensus of Criteria Ranking in Women's Decision-making

This paper investigates the nine criteria often weighed by working women in their decision-making. Four methods of deriving weight for each criterion are applied. Each method used will produce different weight values. In this paper we are going to suggest a way to reconcile the differences in order to get a consensus. For that purpose, ordered weighted average with fuzzy quantifier will be employed. As an illustration, a set of data collected from 340 women, academic and support staff of Universiti Teknologi MARA in Shah Alam, will be utilised. Ratings of importance of each criterion by these women were obtained through a set of questionnaires. The nine criteria used are also presented in this paper

An efficient iris image thresholding based on binarization threshold in black hole search method

In iris recognition system, the segmentation stage is one of the most important stages where the iris is located and then further segmented into outer and lower boundary of iris region. Several algorithms have been proposed in order to segment the outer and lower boundary of the iris region. The aim of this research is to identify the suitable threshold value in order to locate the outer and lower boundaries using Black Hole Search Method. We chose these methods because of the ineffient features of the other methods in image indetification and verifications. The experiment was conducted using three data set; UBIRIS, CASIA and MMU because of their superiority over others. Given that different iris databases have different file formats and quality, the images used for this work are jpeg and bmp. Based on the experimentation, most suitable threshold values for identification of iris aboundaries for different iris databases have been identified. It is therefore compared with the other methods used by other researchers and found out that the values of 0.3, 0.4 and 0.1 for database UBIRIS, CASIA and MMU respectively are more accurate and comprehensive. The study concludes that threshold values vary depending on the database

Penentuan taburan terbaik daripada hujan maksimum bagi tempoh ribut yang panjang melebihi 48 Jam (MR) dan hujan maksimum tahunan (MT)

Kajian ini tertumpu kepada penentuan taburan terbaik untuk memodelkan siri data maksimum tahunan (MT) dan siri maksimum hujan dalam tempoh ribut yang melebihi 48 jam (MR). Data hujan setiap jam dari tahun 1970 hingga 2008 dari 4 stesen hujan di Semenanjung Malaysia telah digunakan dalam kajian ini. Kedua jenis data maksimum ini mempunyai kegunaan yang sangat baik bagi mengesan banjir di kawasan bandar terutama yang disebabkan oleh kegagalan sistem perparitan dalam menampung hujan lebat semasa tempoh ribut yang panjang, manakala kajian yang boleh meramalkan ketahanan empangan dalam masa 50 atau 100 tahun kehadapan sangat bergantung kepada penentuan taburan hujan maksimum tahunan. Pelbagai taburan yang sering digunakan bagi kajian pemodelan ekstrim digunakan untuk mendapatkan taburan yang terbaik bagi menerangkan taburan kedua jenis data hujan maksimum tersebut. Dua ujian kebagusan model telah digunakan iaitu kaedah bergraf dan kaedah PRKD. Hasil menunjukkan bahawa taburan Pearson Jenis 3 adalah yang terbaik untuk menerangkan taburan hujan maksimum tahunan pada kesemua stesen hujan yang digunakan pada kajian ini. Taburan Pareto dan Gama adalah taburan yang terbaik bagi menerangkan taburan hujan maksimum yang berlaku pada tempoh ribut yang panjang. Hasil kajian penentuan taburan terbaik bagi hujan maksimum tahunan di atas juga telah berjaya dalam meramalkan hujan maksimum yang akan berlaku untuk masa 50 dan 100 tahun yang akan datang

Conceptual framework of organizational knowledge management capabilities

Various efforts were attempted by companies to deploy knowledge management.The quest to move beyond information management and into the realm o undertaking involving the development of the structures of the firm.Therefore, the identification and assessment of precondition is necessary for the organization to have successful knowledge management initiatives.The paper provides a theoretical framework on assessing the capability of an organization towards successful knowledge management.The framework providestwo dimensions of organizational capabilities namely socio-technical and processes.Then, it leads to organizational effectiveness, and finally, leads to organizational performance