Stick insect of Taman Negara Johor, Gunung Ledang according to the altitudes

Stick insects (Phasmida) are important herbivores in tropical ecosystem. To date, only few studies that had been conducted on phasmids diversity in Malaysia. We conducted a study on the diversity of phasmids in Gunung Ledang National Park, Johor, Malaysia. Our objective is to determine whether there is a variation in phasmids diversity at different elevation levels. Besides that, this study was aimed to provide an inventory of phasmids in Gunung Ledang for different altitudes. Samplings were denoted by four locations based on altitude i.e. Location L1 (altitude 1000 – 1200m), L2 (700 – 900m), L3 (200 – 350m) and L4 (100 – 120m). Samplings were done by active samplings for every location using torch light between 2000 to 2230 hours during a dark moon phase. This was based on twelve sampling occasions conducted from November 2012 until October 2013. A total of 765 individuals of phasmids comprising 46 species in 22 genera under 5 families (Phasmatidae, 4 spesies in 3 genera; Heteronemiidae, 35 spesies in 15 genera; Aschiphasmatidae, 4 spesies in 1 genus; Bacillidae, 2 spesies in 2 genera; Phyllidae, 1 spesies, 1 genus) has been recorded for Johore National Park, Mount Ledang. The Margalef’s Species Richness index (R’) based on altitude shows the highest at L4 (R’= 4.857) and lowest at L1 (R’ = 3.765). Analysis of Shannon Wiener Diversity Index (H’) following the altitude was highest in altitude L2 (H’ = 2.547) and L3 shows the lowest value (H’ = 1.6). The Evenness Index, E’ = 0.6072 was highest at L4 and lowest at L3 (E’ = 0.1981). Species Accumulation Curve was not reaching the asymptotes; hence, further samplings are needed in order to obtain better results to represent species richness of phasmids for these areas

Integrated Scheduled Waste Management System in Kuala Lumpur Using Expert System

Over the past decade, Malaysia has enjoyed tremendous growth in its economy. This has brought about a population growth along with a great influx of foreign workforce to cities. This resulted in an increase in the amount of waste scheduled generated. Furthermore, scheduled waste management has long been a problem area for local authorities in Kuala Lumpur. Continued illegal dumping by waste generators is being practiced at large scale due to lack of proper guidance and awareness. This report reviewed and discussed about service provided for scheduled waste management by an authority and international scenario of scheduled waste management. An expert system was developed to integrate scheduled waste management in Kuala Lumpur. The knowledge base was acquired through journals, books, magazines, annual report, and web sites. An object oriented expert system shell, Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition was used as the building tools for the prototype development. The overall development of this project has been carried out in several phases which are problem identification, problem statement and literature review, identification of domain experts, prototype development, knowledge acquisition, knowledge representation and prototype development. Scheduled waste expert system is developed based on five types of scheduled waste management which are label requirements, packaging requirements, impact of scheduled wastes, recycling of scheduled wastes, and recommendations. Besides, it contains several sub modules by which the user can obtain a comprehensive background of the domain. The output is to support effective integrated scheduled waste management

Exploring the relationships among service quality features, perceived value and customer satisfaction

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationships among service quality features (responsiveness, assurance, and empathy), perceived value and customer satisfaction in the context of Malaysia. The empirical data are drawn from 102 members of an academic staff of a Malaysian public institution of higher learning using a survey questionnaire. The results indicate three important findings: firstly, the interaction between perceived value and responsiveness was not significantly correlated with customer satisfaction. Secondly, the interaction between perceived value and assurance also did not correlate significantly with customer satisfaction. Thirdly, the interaction between perceived value and empathy correlated significantly with customer satisfaction. Thus the results demonstrate that perceived value had increased the effect of empathy on customer satisfaction, but it had not increased the effect of responsiveness and assurance on customer satisfaction. In sum, this study confirms that perceived value act as a partial moderating variable in the service quality models of the organizational sample. In addition, implications and limitations of this study, as well as directions for future research are discussed.Peer Reviewe

Quantifying the Higher Education Leadership Competency Framework for Talent Management in Malaysia

This paper presents how a Malaysian centre associated with the ministry of higher education developed a framework for assessing leadership abilities in higher education. A qualitative approach is used in this study and the primary focus was on group discussions involving human resource professionals and well-known academics from higher education. The result of this study shows that the Behavioral Event Interview (BEI) instrument is used to quantify each of the five clusters that make up the higher education leadership competencies framework. These five clusters are: impact and influence, achievement and action, leading, cognitive and personal effectiveness. The leaders are then classified into five position levels ranging from Level 1 to Level 5. Level 1 is individual contributor which is coded as ‘Reviewable’ whilst Level 5: is leading the whole organization coded as ‘Significantly Exceeds’. The study’s findings provide an instrument for determining whether the potential leaders in high education institutions are ready to take on the responsibility of leading. In order to improve a leader’s abilities as a part of succession planning, the findings could assist the center. This study provides some considerations for alternatives to the prevalent frameworks for evaluating leadership skills in the interest of sustaining a high-quality organizational culture