Kualiti Kehidupan Kerja Di Kalangan Ahli Kesatuan Sekerja Syarikat Telekom Malaysia Berhad Alor Setar Kedah Darul Aman

The objective of this study is to examine the relationship of the quality of work life factor to the union members. The drastic changes in business environment in the new millenium have influenced many organizations, which in turns change quality of work life of workers. Motivation theories such as Maslow’s Hierarchical Needs Theory, Theory X and Y, Hygiene Theory and MC Clelland Theory have been studied and applied in the efforts to understand workers’ need. Management concepts such as Management by Objectives (MBO), Employee Recognition Programs, Employee Involvement Program and Quality Circle were also considered. The review of the quality of work life literature is based on Walton (1973) multidimensional 8 factors approach. Data were collected through questionnaire given to 127 randomly chosen member union workers of various departments at Syarikat Telekom Malaysia Bhd Alor Star Kedah. Statistical Package for Social Science Ver. 10.0 (SPSS) was used for data analysis. Descriptive analysis was done to obtain the mean, standard deviation, range, frequency and percentage for demographic and quality of work life factors. In order to examine the relationship, inferential statistics were applied to get the Pearson Correlation, Factor Analysis and Multiple Regression was used. The findings through the factor analysis, it is found that only 7 factors showed the relationship to one another and influenced to the union members. Only 2 factors were found dominant to the workers which is social integration in the work organization and rules in the work organization

A proposed value-based software process tailoring framework

Software process tailoring is the act of customising the existing software process to suit the specific software project. Current practices in software process tailoring consider project characteristics as the sole input to tailor the software process. In addition, it maintains the traditional approach whereby all the project characteristics factors are treated as being equally important. There is a need to shift the traditional software process tailoring approach to a value-centric approach by using a value-based software engineering concept. This study aims to propose a value-based software process tailoring framework to tailor the software process. A review was conducted to analyse the components embedded and input factors in the selected prior studies on software process tailoring. The framework proposed in this study uses value-based factors as input factors to tailor the software process. The framework also considers value prioritisation component, which rank the process elements according to value priority

Using grounded theory approach to identify value-based factors in software development

Grounded theory is an approach that can be used to analyse qualitative data. It is a systematic approach for data collection, handling and analysis. The objective of this paper is to present adapted grounded theory approach as data analysis strategy to identify value-based factors in software development. The grounded theory procedure started with data extraction and initial coding, memo writing and constant comparative analysis and finally identification of core categories and writing memos. Initial data extracted were 74 which were obtained from 28 sources generally related with software development. After constant comparison and memoing, the valid data (value-based factors) were reduced to 33 with six core categories (classification of value-based factors)

Unexpected case of ankle tuberculosis in a young professionals leading to delay in diagnosis

We report a case of a 38 year-old engineer presented with left ankle pain for 2 years and initially treated as gouty arthritis because of high serum uric acid. A year later his left ankle become swollen and plain radiograph showed soft tissue swelling around the ankle with normal articular surface and bone. An MRI investigation reported as gouty arthritis of ankle with tophi. While on treatment for gouty arthritis, he developed pus discharge from the swelling. The ankle pain also worsen and he was unable to weight bear on the affected leg. An incision and drainage shown pus from the ankle joint which grew pseudomonas aeruginosa. He was treated with intravenous followed by oral ciprofloxacin 250 mg bd. However his condition does not improved and a month after antibiotic treatment a repeated radiograph shows narrowing of joint space with irregular cortical destruction, osteopenic bone . suggestive of worsening of his septic arthritis. During this period he deny of having any fever, cough or night sweats. However he did notice some loss of weight and loss of appetite. He has worked in Africa and Russia before in petroleum industry. After 4 months of antibiotic and no sign of improvement, a biopsy and repeat culture was taken from the ankle which reveal tuberculous arthritis and positive for AFB culture. A plain chest radiograph revealed miliary tuberculosis picture. He was started on a anti TB treatment and the wound healed after a few weeks. After 4 months of treatment he was able to walk without support with reduce ankle range of motion. This case illustrate that the diagnosis was delay because tuberculosis was not suspected in a young professionals with ankle pain and elevated serum uric acid level. Further delay in diagnosis because MRI report also suggestive of gouty tophi and the pus culture and sensitivity grew pseudomonas aeruginosa

Early functional and radiological outcomes between plaster cast and fiberlass cast in stable thoracolumbar burst fracture

Introduction: Burst fracture results from compression failure of both the anterior and middle columns under substantial axial loads. Conservative treatment was a method of treatment for fractures without neurological deficit. This cross sectional study was designed to evaluate the functional and radiological outcome of patient with thoracolumbar burst fracture treated conservatively. Methods: 40 cases were recruited from January 2013 till December 2015. They were followed-up with minimum period of 1 year and evaluated for the functional (Oswetry Disbility Index) and radiological outcomes (kyphotic angle deformity and anterior body compression). Results: 20 patients were treated with body cast made form plaster of Paris and remaining 20 patients with fiberglass cast. In plaster of Paris group, mean kyphotic angle deformity at last follow up was 16.60 ± 2.95 with a mean improvement 4.45 degree and anterior body compression at last follow up was 30.35% ± 10.2 with mean improvement of 9.30%. In fiberglass group, mean kyphotic angle deformity at last follow up was 15.55 ± 3.38 with a mean improvement 7.25 degree and anterior body compression at last follow up was 25.90% ± 7.81 with mean improvement of 3.45%. The functional outcome showed Oswetry Disability Index (ODI) score in plaster of Paris group was 23.70 (SD = 7.82) and in fiberglass group was 18.50 (SD = 5.94). Conclusions: Application of body cast using a fiberglass material give better radiological outcome hence less pain, more functional and higher patient’s satisfaction as compared to plaster of Paris

Environmental Management Practices in Small Batik Industry in Kelantan, Malaysia

Small businesses form a backbone of economy in developed countries as well as in developing countries. However, at the same time, small businesses significantly contributed to environmental degradations because they are preoccupied with matters pertaining to business as well their limitation in resources to look after the environment. In Malaysia, batik industry is one of handicraft products that contributed significant to the country economy, but the industry has poor environmental record. Yet until recently, not many researchers in Malaysia conducted in research pertaining to environmental management practices of SMEs entrepreneurs by using batik as a case. This paper examines environmental practices adopted by entrepreneurs in their business activities. This study utilized in-depth interviews with three entrepreneurs in the industry in Kelantan. The results of the study found that the level of implementation of environmental-friendly practices among batik entrepreneurs were low. Keywords: Environmental management practices, SMEs, batik industr

Gnielinski method in calculating the heat transfer coefficient for metallic solar tower absorber

This work is done to calculate the heat transfer coefficient of metallic wire mesh to air in an open volumetric thermal absorber. It is aimed to replace the actual ceramic with metallic which latter has better thermal properties in order to increase the efficiency of the concentrating solar power plant. The calculation of the heat transfer coefficient from porous wire structure to the air has been conducted to pursue the purpose. The structure that has been chosen is a set of metallic wires with aligned and shifted configurations. The variations of wire diameter together with various porosities from 0.10 to 0.50 have been calculated to obtain the best configuration for the absorber. The flow characteristic within the mesh structure in terms of Reynolds number and its relationship with the heat transfer coefficient has been obtained. The condition on mass flow rate of heat transfer medium and other aspects which influence the heat transfer are also discussed

Non-dimensional distribution pattern analysis of particle transportation in simplified pipeline system

Sustainable preservation of pipeline system that deal with particle transportation is more appealing these days. In petroleum industries for instance, sand transported through the pipelines pose serious problems ranging from blockage, corrosion, abrasion and reduction in pipe efficiency to loss of pipe integrity. Accurate four-dimensional simulation that caters the transient effect of the phenomena is used to promote sustainability in design, evaluation and maintenance procedures. This is employed to minimize conventional practices which are costly and inefficient. This work demonstrates the advantages of applying four-dimensional Splitting Fluid-Particle Solver to simulate particle transportation within a simplified pipeline system. Single-phase fluid with solid sphere particles are the assumptions while drift and gravitational forces are taken into account. Effect of fluid flow rate and particle weight alterations are observed within vertical curled and 2-1-2 segmental pipeline. Flow rate variation on multiple inputs shows that proper simulation is essential in order to predict fluid flow behavior prior to pipeline construction. Particle weight variation shows that simulation can lead to better prediction of potential areas of blockage, corrosion, abrasion and other piping system issues. This work proves that four-dimensional simulation can promote sustainability, cost effectiveness and efficiency of pipeline system management

State of the Art Intrusion Detection System for Cloud Computing

The term Cloud computing is not new anymore in computing technology. This form of computing technology previously considered only as marketing term, but today Cloud computing not only provides innovative improvements in resource utilisation but it also creates a new opportunities in data protection mechanisms where the advancement of intrusion detection technologies  are blooming rapidly. From the perspective of security, Cloud computing also introduces concerns about data protection and intrusion detection mechanism. This paper surveys, explores and informs researchers about the latest developed Cloud Intrusion Detection Systems by providing a comprehensive taxonomy and investigating possible solutions to detect intrusions in cloud computing systems. As a result, we provide a comprehensive review of Cloud Intrusion Detection System research, while highlighting the specific properties of Cloud Intrusion Detection System. We also present taxonomy on the key issues in Cloud Intrusion Detection System area and discuss the different approaches taken to solve the issues. We conclude the paper with a critical analysis of challenges that have not fully solved

Elastohydrodynamics Lubrication for Bio-Based Lubricants in Elliptical Conjunction

This paper investigates a bio-based lubrication issue of elastohydrodynamic lubricants in mechanical part. Bio-based lubricants are one of the possibilities that might be used as a substitute for the conventional lubricants in the industries. The paper focused on elastohydrodynamic lubrication flows at the elliptical conjunctions by using bio-based lubricants and mineral oil. The computational fluid dynamic was used to determine the effect of lubricants in elliptical conjunctions. This software helps to verify the deformation of the pressure distribution at the conjunctions. From this study, at constant speed, the mineral oil has higher value of dynamic pressure than bio-based lubricants along X and Y axis between two mating surfaces. It is found that, the mineral oil carried more load compared to bio-based lubricant. Hence, the bio-based lubricant is the best lubricant to protect the surfaces from wear and damage due to its properties has less value of dynamic pressure than mineral oil