Balanced Scorecard (BSC) implementation towards value creaction within a Malaysian Government-linked Company (GLC) / Norlaila Md Zin

It has been noted that businesses seek to increase capability and improve performance using Balanced Scorecard. From a performance viewpoint, Balanced Scorecard has been widely advocated as a potential competitive management tool that contributes to firm performance, particularly in the Government-linked Company, the focus of this study. This is important because Government-linked Companies play a vital role in the Malaysian economic development and constantly responding to the changes following the environmental forces of globalization. A possible opportunity for advancement of Balanced Scorecard as a competitive management innovation tool is the potential contribution to create value for companies. Furthermore, the shift towards comprehensive value creation within BSC adoption and implementation is consistent with the recent developments in management accounting. However, studies which examine Balanced Scorecard adoption and implementation have often resulted in inconclusive results. Furthermore, it has been acknowledged that the successful adoption and implementation depends on the factors that facilitate or hinders (critical success factors). Yet, the studies are mainly conducted in the developed countries with little emphasis on developing countries. Little attempt also has been made in the literature to examine the diffusion of Balanced Scorecard at organisational level within Malaysian Government-linked Companies. In addition, the cumulative knowledge on the motives of adoption and implementation of innovations from the theoretical and practical perspectives is still lacking. These issues are examined using an exploratory and explanatory case study method on a Government-linked company in Malaysia to provide a holistic view of the adoption and implementation of BSC

Robot Controller and Manipulator

This project, entitled Robot Controller and Manipulator comprises of development of a manipulator and controller. The project scopes are to develop an articulated manipulator with three degrees of freedom (3-DOF), a PC-based robot controller, capability of robot to determine path plan and some graphical user interfaces. The invention of robot manipulator aggressively carried out during the industrial revolution, starting from twentieth century. The robot manipulator is extensively used in industry since it is believed that its implementation has several advantages over conventional ways, such as several jobs executed by human are very dangerous, designed components are sometimes having defects and long period of time taken to execute repetitive jobs. Generally, the scope of this project is to develop 3-DOF robot manipulator by considering dynamic properties. 3-DOF is purposely for positioning function. If the manipulator is needed to be equipped with manipulating function, it is required higher than 3-DOF system, usually 6-DOF. The project is divided into two parts; manipulator design and controller design. The manipulator design involves construction of manipulator from suitable material, implementation of forward and reverse kinematics, workspace determination, movement analysis and finally integration of the designed components. The controller design consists of development of dc motor drive system, controller chip by using PIC microcontroller, motor feedback system and graphical user interface at host PC. The user will control the manipulator through this user interface and this host PC will communicate with PIC microcontroller through serial communication

The Relationship Between Job Rotation Practices and Employee Career Development Among Production Workers in Japanese Companies in Malaysia

This study investigated the relationship between job rotation practices and employee career development prospects among production workers of Japanese electronic companies in Malaysia. It examines the extent to which job rotation practices are significant to career development outcomes that are career progression, knowledge and skill and career management. A model of job rotation developed by Campion, Cheraskin and Stevens (1994) was used as the premise to test the linear relationship between job rotation and employee career development in the workplace. This is done by analyzing survey-based data sets particularly obtained from samples of 209 production workers in Japanese electronic manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The Pearson Correlation was used to measure the association between the variables and to test the research hypotheses. The results of the study found that there were significant correlation between job rotation practices and employee perception towards three career development outcomes, namely, career progression, knowledge and skill and job rotation benefits. Job rotation is considered as an important on-the job training and the emphasis on this practice should be made in order to ensure all employees participating in the job rotation could enjoy various experiences, knowledge and skills valuable to their career development in the future

The Differences in Thermal Breakdown of H2PtC16 and cisPt( NH3)2C12 in Carbon Furnace Atomic Absorption.

A study using a combination of thermogravimetric and x-ray diffraction analyses has shown that a solution of hexachloroplatinic acid (Hj'tCI(), usually used as a standard in atomic absorption spectrophotometric (AAS) measurements, was broken down to yield volatile PtCt before being converted to metallic platinum. On the other hand, a solution of cis-diaminodichloroplatinum(II) (cis-Pt(NH)zClz ; cis-DDP) was converted to metallic platinum in a single step. The differences in their thermal decomposition mechanisms could be one of the leasons as to why carbon furnace atomic absorption spectrophotometric (CFAAS) signal from Hj'tCI~ was found to be lower than that of cis-DDP in aqueous solution. INTRODUCTION Studies by earlier workers have shown differences in absorbance signals of platinum from different platinum complexes when analyses by flame AAS technique. For example, the platinum absorbance of ( H4)2PtC14 (50 ppm) is about twofold greater than that of ~PtCI6 (Macquet and Theophanides 1974) and the cis-DDP signal is about 12% higher than that of H2PtCI6 (Macquet et al. 1974). These differences are said to be due to the differences in thermal stability of the complexes. The ability of the more stable complex to survive as volatile species in the flame is greater than the less stable complexes; a volatile species is more easily decomposed to free atoms hence a higher AAS signal is obtained. (Macquet and Theophanides 197

Preparation of a Poly (Hydroxamic Acid) Ion-Exchange Resin from Poly (Ethyl Acrylate-Divinyl Benzene) Beads and its Properties.

A method to synthesize a poly (hydroxamic acid) chelating ion-exchange resin from poly (ethyl acrylate-divinyl benzene) and its behaviour towards some metal ions are described. The resin was prepared from this copolymer by treatment with hydroxylamine in the presence of sodium hydroxide. The hydroxamic acid capacity of the product is 2.29 mmol/g and its sorption rate, based on sorption of copper ion at pH 4, is rapid. Sorption capacities of Fe(/II), Cu, Co, Ni and Zn ions are pH dependent and its selectively towards these metal ions is in the following order: Fe(II/) >Cu >Ni >Co >Zn. The ability of this resin to extract and to separate these metal ions are also reported

Chemical and Biological Investigation of Apiculture Products from Stingless Bees Heterotrigona itama

Heterotrigona itama is one of common stingless bee species in Malaysia. Similar to sting bee, stingless bee also produce honey, propolis and beebread in their hive. Propolis and beebread of Malaysian stingless bee were less explored compared to honey. This work examine nutritional content, antioxidant activity and chemical profiling of honey, propolis and beebread produced by stingless bee species Heterotrigona itama. Nutritional contents such as moisture content, ash, protein, fat and carbohydrate were measured. Antioxidant activity was determined using DPPH method; Folin-Ciocalteau method for total phenolic content (TPC) and Aluminium Chloride method for total flavonoid content (TFC). Chemical profiling was carried out by using thin layer chromatography (TLC) in solvent system of toluene: ethyl acetate: formic acid with ratio 8 : 2 : 0.1 v/v/v. The results revealed that honey possessed the highest moisture content and total carbohydrate with values of 30.67%±1.30 and 65.88%±1.70, respectively. Meanwhile, propolis contained the highest total fat (49.2% ± 5.31) which due to its compositions of wax and resin. Total protein and ash contents were abundant in beebread with values of 30.43%±0.40 and 3.28%±0.13, respectively. The highest total phenolic (70.64%±01.81 µg/mL) and flavonoid contents (31.75%±0.05 µg/mL) were found in propolis. Propolis also possessed the highest antioxidant activity with the lowest IC50 value of 5 µg/mL as comparable to positive control, Trolox (IC50 value: 3µg/mL). These results revealed that propolis is a good source of antioxidant as compared to honey and beebread. TLC analysis revealed that propolis also contained higher chemical compositions as compared to honey and beebread. This finding shows that stingless bee products have potential in therapeutic as strong natural antioxidant (propolis) and high in their nutritional content (honey and beebread)

Separation of Gold from Nickel, Cobalt and Zinc by a Poly(hydroxamic acid) Ion-exchange Resin

Behaviour of poly(hydroxamic acid) resin prepared from poly(ethylacrylate) towards gold, silver, copper, iron, nickel, cobalt, and zinc in dilute acid solutions was evaluated. Batch method study shows that although this resin shows high affinity towards the gold ion, it can also be used for the extraction of other metal ions. Sorptions of these metal ions by the resin column are complete and their desorptions from the column can be carried out quantitatively by suitable eluants. Further investigations show that gold can be completely separated from nickel, cobalt and zinc in addition to its separations from silver, iron and copper

Determination antioxidant (ascorbic acid) in different type of fruits / Rosmawati Md Zin

Eat fruit as a good natural source of anti-oxidants which help to prevent the dangers of free .Antioxidants protected cells from the damage caused by highly reactive molecules known as free radicals which have been linked to health problems including cancer, Alzheimer's, and cardiovascular diseases. Antioxidants reacted with and effectively neutralize these free radicals as far as their damaging health impacts are concerned. Although free radicals were part of the natural cell metabolic processes, the body does not 100% effectively remove them particularly as one gets older. Eating antioxidants like the fruit antioxidants helps the body make up the difference

A survey to assess community pharmacists’ knowledge, attitudes and practices about adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting in Malaysia / Rosdi Md Zin

Introduction: Spontaneous report of Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) required initiative as well as motivations from healthcare practitioners to submit a report. Report published by National Pharmaceutical Control Bureau (NPCB) indicated that despite increment in number of reports from healthcare practitioners, community pharmacists contributed very little to the increment. Therefore, this study aimed to provide basic information with regards to submissions of ADR reports by the pharmacists in retails. Objectives: To describe knowledge, atitude, practices, barriers as well as factors contributed to submission of ADR reports. Method: A crosssectional face-to-face distributions of questionnaires was conducted in the state of Selangor involved 278 phamacists to study the knowledge, attitude and practices among community pharmacists in term of ADR reporting. Pharmacists involved were selected by using combination of cluster and convenience sampling. Districts involved were selected by using cluster sampling while individual pharmacists was selected based on convenience sampling. Data gathered were analyzed by using descriptive statistics in the form of frequency and percentages. Results: A total of 278 questionnaires were distributed but only 219 pharmacists responded (response rate of 78.8%). Pharmacists were evenly distributed regarding involvement in pharmacovigilance courses though 26.0% were not aware of the presence of pharmacovigilance center in Malaysia. MADRAC (75.8%) were considered as the method to report ADR among community pharmacists, though upon encountering one, pharmacists preferred to ask patients to contact physician regarding their ADR problems. Among the top reasons for not reporting ADR were lack of informations from patients (84%), uncertain associations between the reactions and the drugs (72.2%), insufficient clinical knowledge (64.9%), unavailability of ADR reporting form (49.3%) as well as unaware of the necessity to report ADR (48%). Conclusions: The study provided general information regarding pharmacists’ knowledge, attitude and practices about ADR reporting which the national authorities could venture and act upon to draft strategies and methods to further increase ADR reports from the retail pharmacists. Based on the study, pharmacists have a good knowledge and awareness regarding national ADR reporting systems. However, attitude and practices among community pharmacists provided rooms for improvements in ADR reportin