Utility of triphenylphosphine dihalides in organic reactions: esterification using triphenylphosphine dibromide as the dehydrating agent

A new esterification method was investigated using triphenylphosphine dibromide as a dehydrating agent. This investigation has established that the method is useful when the acid is aromatic or arylallylic. That primary and secondary alcohols esteTZfy acid satisfactorily whereas tertiary alcohols fail to react was also established in this experiment

Perceived stress, smartphone dependency, coping behaviors, and psychological well-being among undergraduate students in Malaysia

Well-being is essential to promote students’ development. The present research investigated the association between life events, perceived stress, smartphone dependency, coping behaviors, and psychological well-being. This cross-sectional study employed convenience sampling, and the sample consisted of 303 undergraduates at one public university in Malaysia. Most of the participants were Malay (74.6%), followed by Chinese (15.8%), Indian (6.9%), and other ethnic groups (2.6%). Several types of analyses were used: descriptive statistics, bivariate correlations, mean differences, and structural equation modeling. Descriptive research indicated that the five most common life events were “family get-together,” “getting an unjustified low grade on a test,” “vacation with parents,” “minor financial problems,” and “vacation alone/with friends.” The analyses yielded significant gender and year of study differences in perceived stress. Women had higher perceived stress levels than men. Perceived stress was significantly lower for first-year students than second- and third-year students. Next, there was a significant effect of ethnicity on psychological well-being and daily life disturbance. Specifically, psychological well-being was significantly lower for Malay than Non-Malay students. In contrast, daily life disturbance was significantly higher for Malay than Non-Malay students. In addition, there was a significant interaction between gender and ethnicity on life events and problem focused-coping. Non-Malay men experienced fewer life events than Non-Malay women, Malay men, and Non-Malay women. Non-Malay men were less likely to utilize problem-focused coping than Non-Malay women, Malay men, and Malay women. The measurement and structural model fit very well after allowing some modifications of the models. Results of the structural equation model indicate that experiencing higher levels of life events may lead to higher levels of perceived stress. Higher levels of perceived stress predicted lower levels of psychological well-being. Perceived stress had significant effects on smartphone dependency, emotion-focused, and avoidance-focused coping. In addition, problem-focused had a significant effect on psychological well-being. In terms of mediation effects, perceived stress fully mediated the association between life events and psychological well-being. Perceived stress partially mediated the relationship between life events and avoidance-focused coping. However, there were no mediation and moderation effects of smartphone dependency and coping behaviors on the association between perceived stress and psychological well-being. The results have implications for college students’ well-being programs and give insights for future researchers, counselors, educators, and policymakers. The results confirm the validity of concepts, appropriateness in a different culture, and enrich the cross-cultural literature

They passed with flying colours, but why are they failing now?

To continue their studies to the pre university level, students need to excel in their Malaysian Certificate of Education Examinations. Pre-university education is provided by the Ministry of Education in the form of matriculation programs.. However a small number of these students who succeeded in enrolling into these matriculation programmes are not faring well. They either fail or are given conditional passes. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss findings of a research which aimed to investigate why these students are failing. A qualitative design employing in depth interview involving five respondents was undertaken. The findings reveal five important factors namely students’ life style, attitude, adjustment to a different environment, the overloaded curriculum and lack of attention given by lecturers are contributory factors. The findings suggest that continuous monitoring of students’ academic and social behavior need to be undertaken by the Matriculation centers. This means that early intervention in the form of tutorials, individual attention and counseling are crucial steps to be undertaken in order to prevent able students from dropping out

Crowdfunding: The Two Sided Financing Alternative

This paper examines crowdfunding, an internet-based source of financing and investment tool, which is gaining popularity due to its simpler and faster process compared to the traditional financing and investment tools. Although it has a handful of benefits and potentials, the threats associated with it should not be ignored. Information asymmetry is one of the problems identified. High information asymmetry may exist when the fund seekers intentionally do not fully disclose some information in order to protect their own interest. Consequently, the limited information disclosure could result in adverse wealth effect to the contributors or investors. This paper contributes to the extant literature by providing thematic discussions about the crowdfunding’s practices, threats and opportunities based on the information gathered from a desktop research. The findings would be able to provide insights to the fund seekers looking for funding and to the potential investors looking for an alternative investment product

Organisational Change Framework for Lean Manufacturing Implementation

Lean manufacturing system is a proven approach for success in manufacturing companies worldwide. However, several companies have failed in their attempt to implement this system. The transition to lean manufacturing system requires a radical change which involves a total reshaping of purpose, system, and work culture. This paper develops a framework that may assist manufacturing companies to implement lean manufacturing system. This study has employed explanatory mixed method approach, which begins with survey distribution and is followed by in-depth interviews at Malaysian automotive companies to further refine the general picture attained from the survey. Both quantitative and qualitative results show that the key factors to managing a smooth transition to lean manufacturing are: change readiness, leadership and management, the change-agent system, team development and empowerment, communication, and the review system. The results also serve as the basis for developing organizational change that aids the framework implementation for lean manufacturing system. This framework has strong theoretical significance because of its explicit focus on the relationship between lean manufacturing and the management of its implementation. This framework may also provide practitioners with a better understanding of the transition process to lean manufacturing, which will minimize potential resistance and conflicts and thus improve the systems chances of success. Failure to recognize the organizational changes towards lean manufacturing system may hinder the systems long-term benefits to organization

A Classifier Model based on the Features Quantitative Analysis for Facial Expression Recognition

In recent decades computer technology has considerable developed in use of intelligent systems for classification. The development of HCI systems is highly depended on accurate understanding of emotions. However, facial expressions are difficult to classify by a mathematical models because of natural quality. In this paper, quantitative analysis is used in order to find the most effective features movements between the selected facial feature points. Therefore, the features are extracted not only based on the psychological studies, but also based on the quantitative methods to arise the accuracy of recognitions. Also in this model, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithm are used to classify facial expressions. Genetic algorithm is an exclusive attribute of proposed model which is used for tuning membership functions and increasing the accuracy

The Implementation of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) Principles in Branding and Advertising: A Conceptual Exploration

Theorists and advocates of Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) behold that IMC was an innovation to rescue the downward of advertisement industry and to strengthen the strategic and tactical power of branding. IMC offer the option of integrating several marketing communication approaches in one message content for the purpose of developing effective brand equity. However, IMC is a theoretically celebrated panacea that has experienced a longstanding conceptual and practical muddling, which includes the practicality, definitions, implementations and measurement of its effectiveness. Pertinently, an explicit strategy and tactics of implementing the principles of IMC in advertisement still remain obscure. In a quest to quench the conceptual haziness of IMC and its implementation in advertisement-being one of the very crucial tool in marketing communications, this paper presents the review of the implementation process of IMC in the general marketing communication fields, advertisement and branding in particular. Relevant theoretical and practical gaps were deduced from past studies to inform future studies of possible ways to resolve the theoretical and practical inconsistencies in implementing the principles of IMC in an effective advertisement and brand equity. Keywords: Integrated Marketing Communication; Brand Equity; Advertisement Effectiveness; Message Strategy

Applications Of Science And Technology In Malaysian Cosmetic Industry

The use of cosmetics and toiletries is an integral component of life. Malaysian cosmetics and toiletries market recorded approximately RM 3 billion sales in 2004. Facial care contributed 60% of the market value in the skin care segment. In the facial care segment, moisturiser is identified as the most marketable product. Moisturiser is used to restore the barrier function of the epidermis; provide a soothing protective film ; increasing water content of the skin and other properties such as anti-ageing. The function is depending on the ingredient used in the formulation of the product. Although there is a strict regulation on cosmetics product, the development of ingredient technology is continuously evolving to cater the sophisticated consumer demand. Application of science and technology is critical to ensure the cosmetic industry to remain competitive and sustainable. The future of Malaysian skin care industry is hence dependent on the application of science and technology to success. A study on the local entrepreneurs regarding the formulation technology and marketing of facial moisturiser is recommended

Facial Expression Recognition Using Uniform Local Binary Pattern with Improved Firefly Feature Selection

Facial expressions are essential communication tools in our daily life. In this paper, the uniform local binary pattern is employed to extract features from the face. However, this feature representation is very high in dimensionality. The high dimensionality would not only affect the recognition accuracy but also can impose computational constraints. Hence, to reduce the dimensionality of the feature vector, the firefly algorithm is used to select the optimal subset that leads to better classification accuracy. However, the standard firefly algorithm suffers from the risk of being trapped in local optima after a certain number of generations. Hence, this limitation has been addressed by proposing an improved version of the firefly where the great deluge algorithm (GDA) has been integrated. The great deluge is a local search algorithm that helps to enhance the exploitation ability of the firefly algorithm, thus preventing being trapped in local optima. The improved firefly algorithm has been employed in a facial expression system. Experimental results using the Japanese female facial expression database show that the proposed approach yielded good classification accuracy compared to state-of-the-art methods. The best classification accuracy obtained by the proposed method is 96.7% with 1230 selected features, whereas, Gabor-SRC method achieved 97.6% with 2560 features

Designing for privacy from Islamic perspectives using value sensitive design

One of the advantages of computerized record-keeping system is its ability to shield sensitive information from prying eyes. There are many system development methodologies to safeguard privacy and Value Sensitive Design is one approach that focuses on embedding moral values into technology design.Islamic traditions while supporting commonly regarded moral values such as justice and truth often has additional requirements for believers to fully uphold those values from Islamic perspective. Privacy is one such value.While in agreement on many techniques introduced by western scholars to safeguard privacy in system design, the unique concept of awrah as part of privacy consideration in Islam is one such additional reflection for system designers