Competition, non-financial measures and the effectiveness of management control system

This paper reports the results of an empirical study examining the relationship between the emphasis on non-financial measures and two other variables; the intensity of competition and the effectiveness of a management control system, in a manufacturing company. Two important issues focused in the study are: does competition compel managers to utilize more non-financial measures in decision making and is the emphasis given to non-financial measures worthwhile? Data from 105 manufacturing companies throughout Malaysia were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis. The results of both analyses indicate that the emphasis given to non-financial measures in decision making has a positive correlation with the effectiveness of a management control system and secondly, the intensity of competition faced by an organization is positively correlated with the emphasis on non-financial indicators. Descriptive analysis was also performed to evaluate the distribution of emphasis on non-financial measures by the age, location, ownership, size of an organization and its industry

An automated framework for software test oracle

Context: One of the important issues of software testing is to provide an automated test oracle. Test oracles are reliable sources of how the software under test must operate. In particular, they are used to evaluate the actual results that produced by the software. However, in order to generate an automated test oracle, oracle challenges need to be addressed. These challenges are output-domain generation, input domain to output domain mapping, and a comparator to decide on the accuracy of the actual outputs. Objective: This paper proposes an automated test oracle framework to address all of these challenges. Method: I/O Relationship Analysis is used to generate the output domain automatically and Multi-Networks Oracles based on artificial neural networks are introduced to handle the second challenge. The last challenge is addressed using an automated comparator that adjusts the oracle precision by defining the comparison tolerance. The proposed approach was evaluated using an industry strength case study, which was injected with some faults. The quality of the proposed oracle was measured by assessing its accuracy, precision, misclassification error and practicality. Mutation testing was considered to provide the evaluation framework by implementing two different versions of the case study: a Golden Version and a Mutated Version. Furthermore, a comparative study between the existing automated oracles and the proposed one is provided based on which challenges they can automate. Results: Results indicate that the proposed approach automated the oracle generation process 97% in this experiment. Accuracy of the proposed oracle was up to 98.26%, and the oracle detected up to 97.7% of the injected faults. Conclusion: Consequently, the results of the study highlight the practicality of the proposed oracle in addition to the automation it offers

Gaya ‘Lukisan Kajian’. Perbandingan Karya Lukisan Pengkaryaan Dan Perekaan: Fenomena Visualisasi

Kajian ini meneroka gaya penghasilan‘stroke line’ atau kesan palitan mata pen secara ‘free hand drawing’ dalam menghasilkan bentuk illustrasi 3 Dimensi(3D).Tujuan kajian, adalahmembuat perbandingan ‘Gaya stroke line’(gSLine) antara bidang 'Art'dengan 'Architecture Graphic Presentation Drawing' yang diringkaskan sebagai ‘A+AGPD’. Batasan responden terdiri daripada pelukis artistik dan pelukis illustrasi seni bina yang aktif berkarya dan menghasilkan buku rujukan atau bahan ilmiah.Pengkaji mengkaji perbandingan (gSLine)dikalangan 6 orang responden yang dianggap pakar dalam kajian ini. Isu lukisan ‘free hand’ yang tidak berpekadaran, kejung dan kurang menjadi dikalangan pelajar seni dan seni bina ‘under-graduate’ sering dibincangkan dalam jurnal-jurnal dalam dan luar Malaysia bermula tahun 2001 hingga 2014. Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan kualitatif.Metodologi kajian melalui kaedah secara trangulasi iaitu pemerhatian, rakaman visual serta kajian literature telah digunakan dalam kajian ini.Fenomena (gSLine) dianalisis berdasarkan kepada unsur-unsur seni: garisan, rupa, bentuk, tekstur dan warna dalam menghasilkan illustrasi bentuk 3D secara ‘free hand’. Dapatan kajian secara literatur, mendapati karya artistik dikenali sebagai lukisan pengkaryaan.Manakala lukisan yang dihasilkan oleh pelukis illustrasi grafik seni bina, grafik dikenali sebagai lukisan perekaan.Dapatan kajian daripada 6 orang responden mendapati terdapat tiga perbezaan (gSLine) antara dua disiplin ilmu seni ini iaitu daya visual(perkadaran) ,emosi(seimbang) dan estetik(bernada) yang diringkaskan sebagai (dVEE). Dapatan kajian ini dikumpulkan dalam usaha pengkaji menghasilkan model hibrid ‘Art+Architecture Graphic Presentation Drawing’ (A+AGPD).Teori pemodelan Albert Bandura dan teori gabungan organik dirujuk dalam penghasilan model Proses dalam pembangunan menghasilkan (gSLine) yang berkualiti dalam menjelaskan ‘how’ atau bagaimana lukisan illustrasi 3D yang mempunyai (dVEE) boleh dihasilka

Numerical Analysis on Conceptual Feasibility of Hybrid Windcatcher and Turbine Roof Ventilator for Optimum IEQ and Wind Power Harvesting

This paper introduces "SmartTURVENT," a hybrid windcatcher and turbine roof ventilator system with triple benefits: enhancing indoor environmental quality (IEQ), harnessing renewable energy, and reducing carbon emissions. Utilising a transient state pressure-based solver with CFD airflow modeling, the SmartTURVENT system optimises heat exchange, achieving about 6-40% and 11-55% faster attainment of acceptable humidity levels compared to individual windcatcher and turbine roof ventilator operations, respectively. In energy harvesting, SmartTURVENT generates 0.37 W, 11.27 W, and 69.10 W at wind speeds of 2 m/s, 5 m/s, and 10 m/s, respectively. Over an 8-hour operation, SmartTURVENT reduces carbon emissions by an average of 13.0% compared to conventional systems

Creating green culturally responsive intelligent buildings: Socio-cultural and environmental influences

Today, the concept of green and sustainably built environments is considered one of the main targets of various governmental sectors and policy-makers in the creation of a better environment for the population. However, a critical task consists in debating the significance of sustainability and a green built environment before the initiation of any green project. Accordingly, this article suggests the fundamental role of sustainability in better built environments as well as indicating an omission within green and sustainable design development arising because of a lack of consideration of the traditional, cultural and regional values of users. Focus is made on smart housing as an intelligent building design development that is highly interrelated with sustainable issues, highlighting the lack of a deep consideration of the cultural values of users for ensuring socio-cultural sustainability. The article also draws attention to the profound vernacular features of vernacular settlements, which are substantially in harmony with the regional and cultural values of a region. The context is limited to the Malay experience, identifying the vernacular features of the functional spaces of a Malay vernacular settlement for utilization in a smart housing design within Malaysia with a view to making them culturally responsive. At the same time, this article proposes the concept of green culturally responsive intelligent building design development based on the integration of vernacular architectural features into intelligent buildings in order to enhance the quality of life

Impact of air pollution on health in Klang Valley, Malaysia

In Malaysia, as in other parts of the world, air pollution has recently been receiving priority among environmental issues. The ambient atmospheric conditions have been progressively deteriorating due to unprecedented growth in urbanization, number of motor vehicles and continuous industrial development. Monitoring data and studies on ambient air quality show that the ambient air quality of the country is clean in general but some of the air pollutants in several large cities especially in Klang Valley, the most densely populated area, are increasing with time and are not always at acceptable levels according to the national ambient air quality standards. This research employed contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the willingness to pay of the respondents to avoid the illness episodes due to air pollution. To evaluate the impact of additional information on the willingness to pay (WTP) of the respondents, different sub-samples were presented with contingent valuation scenarios offering different levels of information. One sub-sample was given the cause of ill-health episodes and the policy to be implemented to remedy the cause of the ill-health episodes (context version). Another sub-sample was asked to value the avoidance of episodes of ill-health, but was not given any details of the cause of the episodes nor the policy that would be implemented to remedy the cause of ill-health episodes (non-context version). The study has found that the inclusion of additional information in the presentation of scenarios in contingent valuation exercises significantly influenced WTP for the avoidance of ill-health episodes. The average mean value of WTP of the respondents for the context version was higher than that of the non-context version i.e. RM154 for the context version and RM134 for the non-context version. Since, WTP to avoid the ill-health episodes cannot be shown to be independent of the context in which it is valued, the validity of transferring benefits of avoided ill-health episodes from one country to another must be called into question and the results of the study will not allow decision makers to apply the estimated values for the avoidance of ill-health episodes in the consideration of policies with very different context

Physicochemical Analysis and Antioxidant Activity of Honey from Three Malaysian Stingless Bees Species

This study investigates physicochemical and antioxidant activity of raw and honey extract from three different species of Malaysian stingless bees. The methanol extract of commonly found Heterotrigona itama (EHI), Tetratgonula laeviceps (ETL) and Geniotrigona thoracica (EGT) was tested for their total flavonoid, total phenolic, moisture, ash, fat, protein and carbohydrate. Antioxidant activity through DPPH radical scavenging activity was also determined. Nutritional analysis of raw honey showed a comparable result. Analysis of total flavonoid and total phenolic for honey extract showed a significant difference between three species. In contrast, raw honeys did not show any significant differences between species. The antioxidant testing showed that the three honeys does not possess good antioxidant activity with inhibition lower than 50%. ETL showed the highest inhibition with IC50 of 37.8%, followed by EHI with 24.3% and EGT with 9.8% of inhibition, respectively. Thin layer chromatography analysis revealed the content of phenolic and flavonoids in all tested honey. The three extracts displayed a characteristic profile and vary from each other. This study revealed that bee species is important in determination of honey’s quality

Leadership and Innovation on Performance of Private Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia

The contribution of private higher education institutions (PHEIs) in Malaysia is important to the higher education industry. Among the roles of PHEIs are providing a pathway to local and international students to the tertiary level of education, contributing towards making Malaysia an international and highly reputable hub for higher education as well as limiting the flow of our intellects to foreign countries. However, there has been a major concern over the performance of PHEIs. Due to the volatility of the higher education landscape, many local PHEIs are facing with serious issues and challenges which affect their organizational self-sustainability. If the issues and challenges are not seriously addressed, it could impede the growth of PHEIs as well as become the barriers to PHEIs to serve their roles in Malaysia higher education sector. This conceptual paper provides some insights into the issues and challenges of PHEIs in Malaysia. It also identified leadership and innovation as the critical success factors for PHEIs organizational self-sustainability and proposed that these two independent variables are tested in future research

Willingness to pay for air quality improvements in Klang Valley Malaysia

This research employed contingent valuation method (CVM) to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) of the respondents to improve the air quality in Klang Valley. The samples were divided according to different question formats i.e. open ended(OE), dichotomous choice(DC) and payment card(PC). The objective of this study is to investigate the convergent validity of contingent valuation estimates by comparing the WTP values of different question formats. The comparison of responses to different question formats in terms of positive response rate, valid zero, rejection of contingent market was carried out using the z-tests. Paired t-tests of equivalent means were also conducted to test the equality of the mean value of the WTP of the respondents for different question formats. The results of the study suggested that the WTP values of the respondents do not differ significantly across different question formats and the WTP values of the respondents using the DC format were the highest. However due to the nature of the question format, the mean WTP values using the DC method would normally be higher than those of OE and PC. The aggregate WTP value of the respondents was RM0.91 billion for air quality improvement in Klang Valley

Challenges to implement carrying capacity framework: A case study of Pulau Perhentian Marine Park institutional framework

The environmental quality at Pulau Perhentian Marine Park is degrading day by day. Many studies have been done in order to support sustaining the tourist sites such as having limits in development and tourist arrival,or better known as carrying capacity. Despite the existence of many agencies whose jobscope is related to Pulau Perhentian,poor implementation of the guideline is resulting in degrading environmental quality of the park.This paper looks at the roles and functionsof each government agencies related toPulau Perhentian. The outcome of this paper is the analysis of the current roles and responsibilities of the agenciesand where are the gaps that can be filled in order to promote sustainable tourism in Pulau Perhentian