Intellectual Capital: a Focus on Human Capital Reporting Practices of Top Malaysian Listed Companies

This paper aims to examine the extent of human capital (HC) reporting among top Malaysian companies and introduce an HC reporting guideline that can be used by Malaysian companies and regulator. It begins by developing the HC framework based on previous intellectual capital (IC) frameworks. This framework is then used to examine each of the top 100 Malaysian companies listed on the Bursa Malaysia in year 2008. Using the content analysis method, it reviews the annual reports of these companies to determine the extent of HC reporting. The findings of this paper highlight the need for the development of IC framework particularly on HC. HC differences were also identified between Malaysia and other countries such as Sri Lanka and Australia, and it is argued that these differences can be attributed to the social, economic, and political factors

Developing cultural sensitivity among Malaysian registered nurses as self-initiated expatriates in Saudi hospitals

This conceptual study explores the prerequisite to develop cultural sensitivity among Malaysian female Registered Nurses (RN) residing in Saudi Arabia who aim to become knowledge workers in the healthcare sectors. Key questions examined are: How do female RN knowledge workers acculturate themselves in a new environment and acquire cultural sensitivity? What adjustment processes were involved? In this study, we introduce a conceptual framework to explain this adjustment process and develop propositions to explain how female RN as knowledge workers adjust to a new environment where there is a large cultural distance between their home culture (Malaysia) and the host culture (Saudi Arabia). Using cultural adjustment theory we propose three classes of antecedents: individual, contextual and organizational

Nano-satellite attitude control system based on adaptive neuro-controller

The current research focuses on designing of an intelligent controller for attitude control system (ACS) of nano-satellite. The nanosatellite namely Innovative Satellite (InnoSAT) was organized by Agensi Angkasa Negara (ANGKASA) to attract the interest of Malaysian universities in satellite development.In this study, an intelligent controller based on Hybrid Multi Layered Perceptron (HMLP) network was developed. The network used model reference adaptive control (MRAC) system as a control scheme to control a time varying systems where the performance specifications are given in terms of a reference model.The Weighted Recursive Least Square (WRLS) algorithm will adjust the controller parameters to minimize error between the plant output and the model reference output.The objective of this paper is to analyze the tracking performance of ANC based on HMLP network and ANC based on standard MLP network for controlling a satellite attitude. The simulation results indicate that ANC based on HMLP network gave better performance than ANC based on standard MLP network

Non-Functional Requirement Traceability Process Model for Agile Software Development

Agile methodologies have been appreciated for the fast delivery of software. They are criticized for poor handling of Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) such as security and performance and difficulty in tracing the changes caused by updates in NFR that are also associated with Functional Requirements (FRs).This paper presents a novel approach named Traceability process model of Agile Software Development for Tracing NFR change impact (TANC). In order to validate TANC’s compatibility with most of Agile process models, we present a logical model that synchronizes TANC with the two of enhanced models: secure feature-driven development (SFDD) and secured scrum (SScrum).Then, we conducted a case study on TANC using a tool support called Sagile. In terms of adaptability with agile process model, the logical model could be depicted in SFDD and the case study proved that TANC is carried out successfully in SFDD

Binary black hole-based optimization for T-way testing

Software testing is an important process in software development life cycle, which aims to guarantee the quality of software and reduce the number of errors and bugs. In such a process, software inputs and parameters are used to create a set of testing cases. Nevertheless, the number of testing cases increases enormously when considering all combinations of those inputs. Although t-way testing can reduce the test cases, generating the minimum, yet representative t-way testing set is challenging due to the large search space, which renders finding the best solution computationally prohibitive. The extant solutions suffer from the sensitivity to the random initialization and the subjectivity to the local minima, which adversely affects the reproducibility of these algorithms and obstructs finding the optimal solution. To this end, this paper proposes a novel meta-heuristic searching algorithm called Binary Black Hole (BBH) optimization that formulates the t-way testing as a binary optimization problem. Experimental results show the superiority of BBH over the famous Binary Particle Swarm Optimization (BPSO) algorithm. The achieved improvement shows the capability of BBH in generating smaller covering arrays with the same t-strength compared to those generated by BPSO

Candida sp. as a starter culture for cocoa (Theobroma cacao L.) beans fermentation

Two cocoa bean fermentation methods (spontaneous fermentation and the use of starter culture) for 7 days fermentation were compared in terms of safety and quality fermented beans. Candida sp. was used as a starter culture in this study. The safety of the fermented cocoa beans were measured by the growth colonies of pathogenic microorganisms namely Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella sp., Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas sp., on Bacillus cereus agar, eosin-methylene blue (EMB) agar, xylose lysine deoxycholate (XLD) agar, Baird-Parker agar (BPA), and Pseudomonas agar, respectively. B. cereus, E. coli and Salmonella sp. were early present in both fermentations. Candida sp.-fermentation showed detection of B. cereus at 5.34 log10 CFU/g and absence after 24 hours of fermentation while in spontaneous-fermentation B. cereus was too few to count. Moreover, the log10 E. coli number in Candida sp.-fermentation and spontaneous-fermentation were reduced from 5.72 to 3.66 and from 7.15 to 4.46 on day 1 to day 3, respectively. There were no presences of pathogenic microorganisms on day 5 and day 7 for both fermentations. In term of quality, proximate analysis of spontaneous-fermentation resulted that the content of moisture, ash, fat, crude protein, crude fibre and carbohydrate was 56.47%, 2.32%, 3.17%, 7.02%, 28.14% and 2.88%, meanwhile for the Candida sp.-fermentation was 53.96%, 2.19%, 3.44%, 8.25%, 25.46% and 6.70%, respectively. This study showed that both fermentations are considered to be safe and there is no significant difference in proximate value in fermented cocoa beans from spontaneous-fermentation and Candida sp.-fermentation

Role of the employment status and education of mothers in the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections in Mexican rural schoolchildren

<p><b>Background:</b> Intestinal parasitic infections are a public health problem in developing countries such as Mexico. As a result, two governmental programmes have been implemented: a) "National Deworming Campaign" and b) "Opportunities" aimed at maternal care. However, both programmes are developed separately and their impact is still unknown. We independently investigated whether a variety of socio-economic factors, including maternal education and employment levels, were associated with intestinal parasite infection in rural school children.</p> <p><b>Methods:</b> This cross-sectional study was conducted in 12 rural communities in two Mexican states. The study sites and populations were selected on the basis of the following traits: a) presence of activities by the national administration of albendazole, b) high rates of intestinal parasitism, c) little access to medical examination, and d) a population having less than 2,500 inhabitants. A total of 507 schoolchildren (mean age 8.2 years) were recruited and 1,521 stool samples collected (3 per child). Socio-economic information was obtained by an oral questionnaire. Regression modelling was used to determine the association of socio-economic indicators and intestinal parasitism.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> More than half of the schoolchildren showed poliparasitism (52%) and protozoan infections (65%). The prevalence of helminth infections was higher in children from Oaxaca (53%) than in those from Sinaloa (33%) (p < 0.0001). Giardia duodenalis and Hymenolepis nana showed a high prevalence in both states. Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura and Entamoeba hystolitica/dispar showed low prevalence. Children from lower-income families and with unemployed and less educated mothers showed higher risk of intestinal parasitism (odds ratio (OR) 6.0, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.6–22.6; OR 4.5, 95% CI 2.5–8.2; OR 3.3, 95% CI 1.5–7.4 respectively). Defecation in open areas was also a high risk factor for infection (OR 2.4, 95% CI 2.0–3.0).</p> <p><b>Conclusion:</b> Intestinal parasitism remains an important public health problem in Sinaloa (north-western Mexico) and Oaxaca (south-eastern Mexico). Lower income, defecation in open areas, employment status and a lower education level of mothers were the significant factors related to these infections. We conclude that mothers should be involved in health initiatives to control intestinal parasitism in Mexico.</p&gt