Assessing cultural intelligence of Malaysian expatriates in Netherlands

Organizations could suffer losses due to the ineffectiveness of the expatriates to comprehend their host culture. Previous studies suggest that the important measures to identify expatriate effectiveness primarily focus on the individual-level factors which are personality traits, gender, and prior international experience. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether the Big Five personality model namely openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism have any influence on cultural intelligence. Using purposive sampling method, a total of 320 questionnaires were distributed via email to Malaysian expatriates in Hague, Netherlands. Results from multiple regression analysis indicate that personality traits of agreeableness, openness and extraversion are significant to Malaysian expatriate’s cultural intelligence.Keywords: big five personality; cultural intelligence; expatriat

Strategi Kepala Sekolah Dalam Meningkatkan Profesional Guru Pada SMA Negeri 1 Indrapuri Kabupaten Aceh Besar

: Teachers\u27 professionalism ability to create quality learning affects the successful of education. Guiding the teachers is one of the principal\u27s responsibilities. This research aimed to find out the principal\u27s strategies including programs, implementation, evaluation, supporting and inhibiting factors in improving teacher\u27 professionalism at State Senior High School 1 of Indrapuri. This research employed a descriptive method with quantitative approach. Techniques of data collection used were interview, observation, and study documentation. Subjects were principals, vice principal, teachers, supervisors, and school committee. Data were analyzed by reducing data, displaying, drawing conclusion, and data verification. The results showed that: 1) planning to improve teachers\u27 professionalism was implemented in discussion forum at the beginning of academic year and involves all school personnel. Teachers\u27 professionalism improvement programs planned were implementing team teaching, involving all teachers in school activities, managing student\u27s administration including facilities and infrastructure, conducting supervision, instilling discipline, and giving motivation and reward accordingly. 2) The programs were implemented by the team, which consisted of the principal, vice principal and senior teachers. The programs were implemented by dividing the tasks and setting the planning as a reference. 3) The evaluation was conducted at the end of semester and guided the teacher to understand the evaluation activities, showing instrument evaluation, and socializing the evaluation activities. 4) The supporting factors in improving teachers\u27 professionalism were having a formal legal basis, the socialization regarding the importance of teachers\u27 professionalism, cooperation, partnership and potential teachers, and the existence of formal and informal organization in school. The inhibiting factors were the low of bureaucratic culture, the low of work productivity, the low of output education to compete, and incomplete of facilities and infrastructure

Correlation between antibacterial activity and yeast extract of Orthosiphon stamineus extract

This paper investigates the boosting antibacterial effect of O. stamineus extracts supplemented with 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0 mg/ml concentration of yeast extracts. Leaves and stems of O. stamineus were extracted with methanol to assess their different antibacterial potential against Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa through disc diffusion assay. Post-hoc comparisons using Tukey HSD test indicated the mean zone of inhibition for leaves extract (M = 8.67, SD = 0.58) was different compared to stems extract (M = 10.33, SD = 0.58) towards S. aureus. Zone of inhibition produced by the leaves extract (M = 6.67, SD = 0.58) was different compared to the stems extract (M = 7.00, SD = 0.00) towards E. coli. O. stamineus have no antibacterial potential against P. aeruginosa. This study showed the addition of yeast extract have no enhancing or reducing effect towards antibacterial potential. The Pearson correlation coefficient ranging from r(6) = -0.003 to -0.594, p < 0.212 to 0.996.Keywords: correlation; antibacterial activity; yeast extract; Orthosiphon staminue

Review of biodegradable synthetic-based drilling fluid: progression, performance and future prospect

This paper provides a comprehensive review on ester based drilling fluid (EBDF). It is no secret that esters with biodegradability and bioaccumulation attributes are among the promising alternatives to synthetic base oil in drilling fluids. The findings from the literature explained the critical parameters for drilling fluid base which are i) kinematic viscosity, ii) pour point and iii) flash point iv) thermal stability and v) hydrolytic stability and vi) elastomer compatibility. In an ideal case, an EBDF requires base oil with low viscosity, low pour, high flash point, high thermal and hydrolytic stability and compatibility with existing elastomer. However in the real application, these requirements may not be the same as the bottom hole condition which is always subjected to high pressure and high temperature environment. At the moment, the performance of EBDF is considered outstanding for normal borehole depth and complexity. Nevertheless the constraints such as low temperature at the seabed while high temperature and high pressure at the bottom hole may be slightly different when dealing with an EBDF. This is due to its unique molecular structure of ester. Affected parameters include i) high kinematic viscosity, ii) hydrolytic degradation and iii) thermal stability. Failure in managing these parameters may lead to detrimental impacts on the drilling fluid performances and the fluid's stabilities. The application of low viscosity, high thermal and hydrolytic properties of esters and combination with unique carbon based nanomaterials into formulation might be able to close the gap of current EBDF performances

Reliability of graphene as charge storage layer in floating gate flash memory

This study aims to investigate the memory performances of graphene as a charge storage layer in the floating gate with difference doping concentration of n-channel and p-channel substrates using Silvaco ATLAS TCAD Tools. The simulation work has been done to determine the performance of flash memory in terms of memory window, P/E characteristics and data retention and have been validated with the experimental work done by other researchers. From the simulation data, the trend of memory window at low P/E voltage is nearly overlapped between simulation and experimental data. The memory window at ±20V P/E voltage for n-channel and p-channel flash memory cell are 15.4V and 15.6V respectively. The data retention for the n-channel flash memory cell is retained by 75% (from 15.4V to 11.6V) whereas for the p-channel flash memory cell is retained by 80% (from 15.6V to 12.5V) after 10 years of extrapolation with -1/1V gate stress which shows that p-channel flash memory cell demonstrates better data retention compared to n-channel flash memory cell

Cloud-Based Routing Resource Allocation in Cognitive Radio Networks

Wi-Fi Direct technology is enabled to support multiple services to be done via Wi-Fi connection. It provides the most efficient method to develop ad-hoc community among mobile devices for connecting quickly with one another without needing an access to the network. It allows communicating at common Wi-Fi rates for various applications including document exchange and online connection. This one-stop WiFi Direct application is able to connect a device to a single device at a time, i.e., only peer to peer communication is allowed within one hop. Hence, multi-device communication within multi-hop distance in a trusty Cognitive Radio (CR) network environment is in demand. This paper presents the development of an Android-based application with optimum cloud routing service to transfer files or chatting via Wi-Fi Direct technology in CR network. A system is developed using smartphones (with developed applications) and nodes with WI-FI connection. An indirect multi-hop routing approach is created if more devices transfer files simultaneously from hop to hop. After login and initializing, a device discovers the neighboring nodes first and then connects those (as necessary) to transfer a file or start chatting. The very moment a connection is established, a log file is generated in internal memory and save a backup copy in cloud containing necessary networking information of the client devices. The aim of these backup log files is for forensic investigation for intrusion detection/prevention and secured communications. Then the chatting or file transfer is carried out between the connected devices either in single or multi-hop routes. Results show that the system’s efficiency is around 92%. It shows that multi-device, multi-hop Wi-Fi Direct services can be implemented using Android devices with Eclipse Java programming in CR networks

Simultaneous computation of model order and parameter estimation of a heating system based on particle swarm optimization for autoregressive with exogenous model

System identification is a method used to obtain a mathematical model of a system by performing analysis of input-output behavior of the system. In system identification, the procedure can be separated into four main parts. The first part is constructing an experiment to collect the input-output data of the system. Then, based on some criteria, the model order and structure are selected. The next part is to estimate the parameters of the model. For the final part, the mathematical model is verified. In this study, a new approach called simultaneous model order and parameter estimation (SMOPE), which is based on Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), is proposed to combine model order selection and parameter estimation in one platform. In this approach, both the model order and the parameters of the system are searched simultaneously by a particle. Similar to other PSO implementation, a number of particles are utilized in the search process. In order to realize the simultaneous search of the best model order and the associated parameters, a suitable particle representation is employed. Based on a heating system case study, it is proven that the proposed approach is superior compared to some other methods in literature

The Study Of Dynamic Response Using ARX Model In Extraction Process

This work presents a model using system identification approach namely as ARX to represent the dynamic response for essential oil extraction process. A fresh set of data under feed in disturbance was collected using MATLAB Simulink. The 3000 samples of data was collected by using PRBS as an input and temperature in oC as an output. The collected data was separated into two groups; training data and estimation data by using interlacing technique. The model estimation was done by using linear regression method. The robustness of the model was evaluated by using best fit (R2), OSA, root mean square error (RMSE), correlation analysis and residual analysis (histogram). Based on validation results, the ARX model was successfully capturing the dynamic response of extraction process by provide the high best fit, low RMSE error and normally distributed by producing small mean and variance

Macronutrient concentration in stem, leaf and petiole of wild grown water spinach (ipomea aquatic forsk.) and its relationship with pond water

Water spinach (Ipomoea aquatic Forsk.) is a food for human beings and animals. It is rich in minerals, protein, dietary fibre, with high moisture content. The work was undertaken to determine contents of K, Ca, Mg, Na & P in the stems, leaves and petioles of water spinach. Atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) and Inductive Couple Plasma (ICP) were used to determine concentration of nutrients, where one way ANOVA was applied to analyse if there is any significant differences in the macronutrient contents amongst the leaves, petioles and stems of the water spinach. If any of the results showed significant differences, Turkey post-hoc HSD test (p<0.05%) was adopted to separate the means. In addition, Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient Test was conducted between the plant macronutrients samples (leaves + stem + petioles combined) and water macronutrients data run to determine their relationships. In addition, purpose of this study is to highlight to the public which parts of the plant should be consumed and also to indicate the relationship of Water Spinach with its growing medium. The K concentration was higher than the other elements and maximum concentration was in petioles (432+27.45 mg∙L-1) and stems (424.60+14.19 mgL-1). The element with the least concentration was Na (3.10+0.40 mgL-1), in the petiole. There was no difference in Mg content in leaves, petioles and stems (avg. 28.55+1.61 mgL- 1). High amounts of Ca (150+0.10 mgL-1) and low amounts of P (41.11+0.01 mgL-1) were in pond water. A positive correlation of each nutrient occurred between water spinach and pond water

Packages of Care for Schizophrenia in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

In the third in a series of six articles on packages of care for mental disorders in low- and middle-income countries, Jair Mari and colleagues discuss the treatment of schizophrenia