Multi-criteria decision making techniques in successful knowledge sharing behaviour among Malaysian student

This research was identified the success determinants of knowledge sharing behaviour (KSB) among Malaysian university students (MUS).Each university has their own method in delivering knowledge to their undergraduates, but occasionally there would still be incomplete or hidden information. The research question is: what are the success factors in knowledge sharing behaviour (KSB) among Malaysian undergraduate communities in one of northern university in Malaysia? The aim of this research is to identify the success factors for effective knowledge sharing behaviour (KS) among Malaysian university students (MUS) in one of northern university in Malaysia.The identification was done through multi-criteria decision making techniques, which are Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Ranked Base on Percentage.Both techniques has come out with same result, where the personal contributes as success factors in knowledge sharing behaviour among undergraduate students

Modeling flood estimation using fuzzy logic & artificial neural network

Estimates of flood discharge with various risks of exceedance are needed for a wide range of engineering problems: examples are culvert and bridge design and construction floods in major projects. At a site with a long record of measured floods, these estimates may be derived by statistical analysis of the flow series. Alternatively the storm magnitude of an appropriate duration, aerial coverage and return period may be estimated and converted into the flood of a given return period using a rainfall/runoff model such as the unit hydrograph. However, in cases where adequate rainfall or river flow records are not available at or near the site of interest, it is difficult for hydrologists and engineers to derive reliable flood estimates directly and regional studies can be useful. This is particularly true in the case of semi-arid areas, where, in general, flow records are scarce. The problem of assigning a flood risk to a particular flow value is one which has received considerable attention in the literature. The estimation of flood risk through the evaluation of a flood frequency distribution is complicated, however, by the lack of a sufficient temporal characterization of the underlying distribution of flood events. The inadequacies in the data availability necessitate the estimation of the flood risk associated with events which have a return period beyond the length of the historical record. Regional flood frequency analysis can be effective in substituting an increased spatial characterization of the data for an insufficient temporal characterization, although problems exist with the implementation of regional flood frequency analysis techniques

Untreated sullage from residential areas - a challenge against inland water policy in Malaysia

Malaysian water policy was mainly focusing on the protection of the inland water resources by controlling point pollution from industrial activities and domestic sewage. Contribution of pollution loading from untreated sullage is not determined yet in Malaysia. This study was conducted to evaluate the quantity and quality of sullage discharged from an urban residential area in hot ttopical climate. Median concentrations of the physical parameters, e.g. TSS, VSS, TDS, Turbidity and pH were 38, 7, 170, 36 mg L-l and 6.71, respectively. Concentrations of BOD, COD, DO, TKN, AN, OP, TOC, Zn and Oil & Grease were 49,120,1.6,7.08,4.85,1,.94,35.43,0.056 mg/l respectively. Generally, the pollutant concentrations in sullage were higher than the limits stated in the Environmental Quality Act (EQA) of Malaysia. flowever, the sullage issue is not seriously considered by the relevant authorities due to unavailability of data gathered from detailed study conducted in the country. The information on various parameters provided in this paper would be a reference material for the typical characteristics of sullage discharged from theurban residential areas in Malaysia and most likely for other developing countries

Untreated sullage from residential areas - a challenge against inland water policy in Malaysia

Malaysian water policy was mainly focusing on the protection of the inland water resources by controlling point pollution from industrial activities and domestic sewage. Contribution of pollution loading from untreated sullage is not determined yet in Malaysia. This study was conducted to evaluate the quantity and quality of sullage discharged from an urban residential area in hot tropical climate. Median concentrations of the physical parameters, e.g. TSS, VSS, TDS, Turbidity and pH were 38, 7, 170, 36 mg L-1 and 6.71, respectively. Concentrations of BOD, COD, DO, TKN, AN, OP, TOC, Zn and Oil & Grease were 49, 120, 1.6, 7.08, 4.85, 1.94, 35.43, 0.056 and 13 mg L-1, respectively. Generally, the pollutant concentrations in sullage were higher than the limits stated in the Environmental Quality Act (EQA) of Malaysia. However, the sullage issue is not seriously considered by the relevant authorities due to unavailability of data gathered from detailed study conducted in the country. The information on various parameters provided in this paper would be a reference material for the typical characteristics of sullage discharged from the urban residential areas in Malaysia and most likely for other developing countrie

Potensi dan pendekatan dalam perancangan pembangunan pelancongan pacuan komuniti di bawah inisiatif Pusat Transformasi Luar Bandar (RTC) Kedah, Malaysia

Pusat Transformasi Luar Bandar (RTC) merupakan sebuah pusat pelaksanaan pelbagai program pembangunan dalam merealisasikan matlamat membangunkan masyarakat luar bandar dari pelbagai segi seperti perkhidmatan, ekonomi, sosial, teknologi dan pendidikan.Pada asasnya terdapat lapan (8) inisiatif yang menjadi fokus pelaksanaan program transformasi masyarakat luar bandar oleh RTC yang diterajui oleh pelbagai kementerian berkaitan iaitu penyediaan latihan kemahiran kepada penduduk luar bandar, penyediaan kios informasi, memupuk pertanian bernilai tinggi, pemprosesan produk agro-makanan, pengurusan rantaian bekalan hasil pertanian, kerjasama universiti, perkhidmatan keselamatan makanan dan farmaseutikal, dan kemudahan pembiayaan kewangan kepada usahawan luar bandar.Namun bagi RTC Kedah, terdapat inisiatif ke-sembilan (9) iaitu pembangunan pelancongan yang diterajui oleh Kementerian Pelancongan dan Kebudayaan Malaysia. Kertas kerja ini membincangkan potensi produk pelancongan tempatan dan pendekatan strategik dalam perancangan pembangunan pelancongan di Negeri Kedah yang dipacu oleh masyarakat luar bandar selari dengan peranan dan fungsi RTC. Dengan pelbagai nilai keunikan yang dimiliki selain Pulau Langkawi, fokus pelancongan bagi RTC Kedah dengan mengambil kira objektif transformasi masyarakat luar bandar, boleh dikembangkan melalui beberapa sektor utama iaitu penginapan, pengangkutan, pusat membeli-belah, makanan dan minuman, sukan dan rekreasi, produk pelancongan tempatan, serta kesenian, kebudayaan dan sejarah. Bagaimanakah masyarakat luar bandar boleh memainkan peranan utama dalam memacu industri pelancongan tempatan dan apakah pendekatan strategik yang bersesuaian dalam perancangan pembangunan pelancongan oleh RTC Kedah dan kementerian penerajunya

Comparison between pixel-based and object-based classifications using radar satellite image in extracting massive flood extent at northern region of Peninsular Malaysia

Year 2010 massive flood hit the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia particularly Perlis and Kedah involved several districts and destroyed many agricultural areas and the infrastructure.This study focuses on the comparison between pixel-based classification and object-based classification of five machine learning algorithms including Parallelepiped (PP), Minimum Distance (MD), Maximum Likelihood (ML), Mahalanobis Distance (MH) and Neural Network (NN) using radar satellite image in extracting that flood extent. TerraSAR-X image was used to map the flood extent of the study area. In object-based approach, there were three simple machine learning algorithms such as PP, MD, MH together with NN performed with high accuracy while in pixel based approach, NN was the highest accuracy of all machine learning algorithms. The best output was chosen to be converted to vector format for mapping the flood extent.The result showed clearly through the map output that Kubang Pasu, Kota Setar and Kangar districts were highly affected by the flood. From the flood extent information, the collaboration of government, private sector, Non Governmental Organization (NGO) and community are needed to play the appropriate role in managing flood damage especially at the highly affected area and thus prevent loss of human live.Besides that, the authority could take action plan for pre-disaster, during and post-disaster caused by flooding

PROMOTING SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL LITERACY AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS AT THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION UTM

One important issue in the Science Education debate over the last century was how to preparea more relevant science education of the 21st Century that emphasizes on promoting scientificliteracy through a more meaningful science education program. In response to this call, ageneral science education elective course code named MPS1163 Epistemological, Social andEthical Issues in Science and Technology was designed and implemented starting in Semester2 Session 2009/2010. By the end of Semester 2 Session 2012/2013 the course has been runningfor 7 semesters and had invited 128 postgraduate students from 7 different programs, includinga PhD program. A questionnaire was distributed to 26 course participants at the end ofsemester 2 Session 2012/2013. The objective of the questionnaire was to seek their personalassessment on their knowledge and understanding on the eleven course contents taken duringthe whole semester. The results indicated that there was a mean increment of between 40- 50%on their knowledge and understanding on the topics covered compared to their knowledge andunderstanding before taking the course. The second part of the questionnaire consisted of sixitems, using five point Likert Scale, seeking their suggestions for improving a more relevantscience education through the elective course. The response was commendable. Implicationsof the study related to course contents and students opinions on the course contents andsuggestions for the improvement of the course are discussed in this paper.Keywords: scientific literacy, technological literacy, general education elective course, a morerelevant science education

Flood prediction in southern strip of Caspian Sea watershed.

Modeling of hydrological process has become increasingly complicated since we need to take into consideration an increasing number of descriptive variables. Soil, topography, land-use, rainfall and flow are some of the variables which are difficult to be spatially measured. In recent years black box solutions like artificial neural networks have been used in modeling complex process of hydrologic events. The potential applications of multilayer feedforward back propagation neural networks for developing rainfall-runoff relationships for some homogeneous catchments located in the north of Iran were studied and compared with those of a multiple regression model. A total of 24 sites yielding 356 pairs of observed data were studied. The most popular network in hydrology, i.e., multilayer feedforward back propagation was used. Results show that among the different backpropagation learning algorithms used in this research, the Levenberg-Marquardt resulted in the best performance. Keywords: artificial neural networks, estimation of flood, flood frequency, hydrological modeling

A hybrid model using genetic algorithm and neural network for predicting dengue outbreak

Prediction of dengue outbreak becomes crucial in Malaysia because this infectious disease remains one of the main health issues in the country. Malaysia has a good surveillance system but there have been insufficient findings on suitable model to predict future outbreaks. While there are previous studies on dengue prediction models in Malaysia, unfortunately some of these models still have constraints in finding good parameter with high accuracy. The aim of this paper is to design a more promising model for predicting dengue outbreak by using a hybrid model based on genetic algorithm for the determination of weight in neural network model. Several model architectures are designed and the parameters are adjusted to achieve optimal prediction performance. Sample data that covers dengue and rainfall data of five districts in Selangor collected from State Health Department of Selangor (SHD) and Malaysian Meteorological Department is used as a case study to evaluate the proposed model. However, due to incomplete collection of real data, a sample data with similar behavior was created for the purpose of preliminary experiment. The result shows that the hybrid model produces the better prediction compared to standalone models

Reflecting Media Content Values: Media Industry Attitudes Towards Malaysian Media Self-Regulation Practices

The popularity of the digital media and the availability of a borderless world of communication networks have formed a new environment, supported by the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Along with the Malaysian government’s Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) projects announcement, A National Communication and Multimedia Policy was introduced, as to encourage the development of industry self-regulatory mechanisms with minimize the costs of regulation while at the same time providing clear guidelines for industry behavior in line with Government policy objectives by implementing the industry voluntary codes of practice. This study identified to what extend the “Self-Regulatory” mechanism for the local media players would benefit the industry and the growth of future media technologies in this country, and the key issues and problems faced by Malaysian Media environment in its attempt to proactively respond to the winds of change breezing through media convergence technology policies and legislations. The study found that there has been an important relationship between the regulators, media industry, and public interest upon the implementation of media self-regulation in Malaysia. The challenges faced by the government and media players upon broadcast and new media content had become a discourse for the both parties to implement best practices of self-regulatory mechanism which allows the self-management of information dissemination for the public and industry interests, and as to ensure to perverse the national identity and cultures