More successful feats by UMP undergrads at the international scene

Six Universiti Malaysia Pahang (UMP) undergraduates did the University proud when they won three gold medals, three silver medals and one special award at the Kaohsiung International Invention and Design Expo 2015 held from December 4-6, 2015 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Experimenting 'design' to reveal cultural factors

New designs should support the everyday environment and should refer to existing designs that are familiar to users. These would help to motivate designers to develop culturally localised designs that allow products to be manufactured and relevant to users' current lifestyles. Despite the growing number of studies on cultural factors in marketing research, designers have not been given much opportunities to present their designing skills and thinking in conducting such research related to cultural thus leading to product improvement. This article describes a framework and results of adapting a "practice-led" research-based approach to understand cultural factors of a specific ethnic group in Malaysia whose members migrated from traditional rural life to urban industrial setting. Findings from adapting this method have been generated into a design-research guideline for designers and product planners to understand users' culturally determined needs when developing a cultural product

Design elements regarding to cultural factors of Iranian carpet

The aspect of physical and nonphysical factors influence to the success of new product to be competence in the current market. Culture factors is one of the elements which need to be considered by designer during new product development process. This paper examine references of cultural factors to accommodate with appropriate design elements preferences on Iranian carpet which were created based on people’s beliefs, tradition and product function. This study involved with qualitative method where interview has been conducted to identify prior culture factors influence to product to match with relevant design element which have strong influence to the product. This study can be useful to the designers in designing cultural product for the future. This work aimed to assist designers in designing product based on culture for specific users, which can also be beneficial for others interested in developing products based on culture factors

Taking “anak emas” system (MyAnakEmas) to the cloud

This conceptual paper seeks to put forth a novel vision, namely the combined deployment of Quadruple Helix Model (QHM) collaboration mooted by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia, “whole-of-government” concept of ICT implementation across the Malaysian government agencies mooted by MAMPU, and the advances in cloud computing that can be used to set up what is known as of “Anak Emas” System or MyAnakEmas. The QHM actors, namely the Government, Academia, Industry and Citizen need to collaborate and share resources in nurturing and addressing the needs of less privileged and less fortunate children including orphans holistically, rather than the current practice executed in silos, isolation or independently. This proposed collaborative inter-organizational MyAnakEmas is to enable a consolidated approach for government agencies, NGOs, private sector and individuals in building up a single and trusted national database on “Anak Emas” or orphanage children. This database, owned and managed by a government agency such as Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat, can be used and updated by all other authorized and relevant organizations and individuals in making a consolidated contribution in nurturing and developing these orphanage children to be independent and developing entrepreneurship culture from an early age. Thus, eliminating duplication in data, efforts and investments made by various organizations. At the same time, enhancing timely decision-making based on quality, single and trusted view on “Anak Emas”

Employability skills for hospitality students in Malaysia

Malaysia needs high skilled workforce to support growth of the industry. With dynamically changing job market and progressive technological change, employees are expected to keep abreast of global economics. In the process of achieving the status of developed nation by the year 2020, Malaysia needs to restructure its workforce to ensure that middle level workers are highly skilled. Current job environment demands multi-task and skills. Thus, university graduates must be prepared to meet the demand especially in the hospitality industry. The purpose of this study is to identify the level of employability skills in the hospitality field. This research applied quantitative methodology. The respondents consist of final year students in bakery and culinary programme. Stratified sampling was used to select students in hospitality programs from 22 vocational colleges in Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed to 841 students in five regions which are Central, South, North, East and East Malaysia (Sarawak) in Malaysia. Descriptive analysis was used to analyse the quantitative data. The results showed that the level of hospitality employability skills among vocational students in Malaysia were at high level of competence (93.2%). The research has brought meaningful implications for hospitality vocational students, employers and policy makers

Civilizational Islam: Promulgating the New Approach of Islam in Malaysia

The government of Malaysia has heralded Civilizational Islam (Islam Hadhari) to be adopted as a new approach towards developing a modern society in this country. The concept of Islam Hadhari was first mentioned during the 11 general election campaign sometimes in March 2004. Since then, Malaysians, Muslims and non-Muslims alike were expecting to observe more detail explanations of the new concept and how it could be translated into actions in the multi-religion society. The mainstream media has also allotted special columns and programs to extend the new concept even though at times not in detail and lack of continuity. Today, after more than two years since this concept has been conceived, what are the peoples' perceptions towards it? Do the people really made to understand the concept? To what extent has the media been used to disseminate the idea? This paper will discuss the analysis of the dissemination of the new concept through the media in Malaysia

Determinants of total quality management in the Saudi public hospital : the moderating impact of knowledge management

Public hospitals in Saudi Arabia were undergoing tremendous pressure from the government and also public to improve their level of quality services. Hence, this study is undertaken as an effort to examine the factors that influence total quality management (TQM) practices in Saudi Arabia public hospitals. It has also aimed at examining the moderating effect of knowledge management on the relationship between the independent variables of information technology, employee capacity, employee commitment, and the dependent variable of total quality management practices. This study was motivated by the inconsistency of findings reported in the literature regarding the above mentioned relationship. The inconsistencies have led to the emergence of a new research stream that recommends the investigation of moderating variables that could explain the relationships. Therefore, in the present study, different theories were employed including the contingency theory and the resource-based view to providing an insight into the relationships. The study made use of a survey questionnaire randomly distributed to 259 public hospitals in the Saudi Arabia, of which 154 were found suitable for analysis. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used for the descriptive part of the analysis while Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed to assess the outer measurement model and the relationships between the variables. The findings of the study revealed that employees’ capacity and information technology were significantly related to TQM practices. The findings also revealed that knowledge management moderated the relationship between employee commitment and TQM while it did not moderate the relationship between employee capacity and information technology and TQM. The study has managerial, policy and theoretical implications along with the recommendations for future researc

The Effect of Re-Listing between First Market and Second Market on Dividend Policy in Amman Stock Exchange(ASE)

This study aimed at investigating the impact of re-listing between the first and second market on the dividend policy for the listed companies in the ASE. It also aimed at investigating whether these companies apply a clear dividends policy. The study used data available in the annual reports of the listed companies in the ASE. The study concluded there is a negative significant relationship between re-listing between the first and second market with dividend policy.  The results also indicated there is a strong significant positive relationship between EPS, FIXA and ROA with dividend policy. These results suggest that companies classified in the first market do not prefer adopting a constant dividend policy because it accomplished its goal to reaching the market, hence reducing the percentage of distributed profits. Keywords: Company Re-listing; Dividends Policy; Financial Performance

The physical and thermal properties of modified rotational molding grade silane cross-linked polyethylene compound

This study is aimed at investigating the physical and thermal properties of the modified rotational molding grade cross-linked polyethylene compound with respect to process ability. Rotational molding grade High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) was blended at various compositions with HDPE and Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE) using twin screw extruder. The melt index of the blends was studied according to ASTM D 1238. The blended compositions were chemically cross-linked with various amount of silane cross-linking agent using two roll-mill. Water curing was then undertaken at 100°C in water bath for 4 and 8 hours. Gel content was measured according to ASTM D 2765 to determine the degree of cross-linking. For thermal analysis, only samples crosslinked with 2.0 phr silane cross-linking agent were investigated on the Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) according to ASTM D 3417. The thermal stability test of the silane Crosslinkable Polyethylene (XLPE) was performed by Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) according to ASTM D 3850. Results on melt index (MI) indicated that the rotational molding grade HDPE blended with HDPE showed higher MI compared to that with LDPE thus improved process ability. The density of rotational molding grade HDPE with HDPE was slightly increased whereas that blended with LDPE was slightly decreased. Samples blended with HDPE, melting temperature, Tm, barely changed and degree of crystallinity, Xc, decreased with compositions. Samples with LDPE Tm and Xc decreased with compositions thus improved process ability. As the silane concentrations increased, the gel content after curing was also increased but independent of compositions. Longer curing time resulted in higher gel content. Thermal stability of the crosslinked HDPE was higher than the uncross-linked HDPE, thus silane cross-linking help to stabilize the blends