405 selesai jalani latihan PSSTLDM, PALAPES Laut

SERAMAI 405 Pegawai Kadet Kanan (PKK) dari sembilan buah universiti tempatan selesai men­jalani Kursus Bakal Pegawai Simpanan Sukarela Tentera Laut Diraja Malaysia(PSSTLDM) dan Kursus Pasukan Latihan Pegawai Simpanan(PALAPES) Tahun l dan 2 yang diadakan selama dua minggu di KD Sultan Idris 1 (KDSI 1) di sini bermula 20 Januari lalu

Liberalization of retail sector and the economic impact of the entry of foreign hypermarkets on local retailers in Klang Valley, Malaysia

The primary purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of liberalization of retail sector via the presence of foreign hypermarkets in Malaysia on local retailers. Both quantitative and qualitative methods (survey and interviews) were used to collect and analyze the data. A total of 135 questionnaires were completed. The findings from the survey reveal that the entry of foreign hypermarkets in a town often affects the business environment of the local retail businesses. It is found that the newly established foreign hypermarkets tend to acquire much larger market share from the existing local businesses. The survey found that some businesses benefited from the presence of foreign hypermarkets (especially complementary type of retail businesses) while others do not (specifically those retail businesses that are related to groceries)

Corporate performance, CEO power and CEO turnover: evidence from Malaysian public listed companies (Prestasi syarikat, kuasa CEO dan pertukaran CEO: bukti dari syarikat tersenarai awam Malaysia)

This paper seeks to determine the impact of firm performance and CEO power on CEO turnover. Research in CEO turnover literature found that corporate performance is frequently used as an indicator to evaluate the effectiveness of CEO effort and findings from most of these studies indicate that the turnover rate of CEO is higher for poor performing firms when compared to well performing firms. Furthermore, social network theory and human capital theory suggest that CEOs gain their power from their educational background; skill and functional background; special expertise; experience; industry specialization; prestige; ownership; age; and length of tenure. This power will entrench the CEO in the company, thus making the decision to fire the underperforming CEO more difficult. Our results show that firms with poor performance and older CEOs are more likely to change their CEOs. In contrast, CEO turnover is less likely to occur when firms exercise CEO/Chairman duality; have CEOs who own a certain portion of company shares; and have CEOs with longer tenure

Understanding why mother can lose child custody in Malaysia

Custody decisions are tailored to the circumstances of each case based on related principles with the protection of child welfare as the courts’ paramount consideration. This paper sought to understand custody issues from the quantitative viewpoint through a conceptual model and examined how child custody principles have influenced loss decisions for mothers. The methodology used was content analysis and the Chi-Square correlation, with usable data provided by 47 cases decided in Malaysia between 1987 and 2017 based on Act 303. A coding instrument and a conceptual framework were developed with items covering the presumption of maternal custody, custodian qualification and loss of rights, and the child’s and the mother’s wishes. The findings revealed that mothers were less likely to lose custody cases, and when they did, their defeats were strongly influenced by factors related to children’s preferences and the status quo arrangement. The results contribute to an understanding of how mothers can lose custody of their children, and clarify whether some of the independent variables are used more regularly and are more predictive of the loss decisions than the others

Comparison of food choice motives between malay husbands and wives in an urban community.

The main objective of this study was to determine the motives underlying the selection of foods between husbands and wives in an urban community. This cross-sectional study was carried out in Bandar Baru Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia among 150 married couples aged 20 and above, who voluntarily agreed to participate and were not on any special diet. Data were collected using the Food Choice Questionnaire (FCQ) which measured the health-related and non healthrelated factor that influence people's food choices. It consisted of 36 items designed to assess the reported importance of nine factors: health, mood, convenience, sensory appeal, natural content, price, weight control, familiarity, and ethical concern. In this study, the FCQ was adapted and a new factor, religion (religious guidelines), was included. Demographic characteristics including age, occupation, education, household income and household size were also collected. Data were analysed using SPSS version 16. Results showed that 40.7% of husbands (mean age= 43.33 + 11.16 years) and 55.3% of wives (mean age= 41.28 + 10.93 years) perceived themselves as the main food shopper while 12.0% of the husbands and 85.3% of the wives perceived themselves as the main meal planner. Husbands rated religion as the most prominent factor in food choice motives with a mean average rating of 4.56 + 0.59 on a 5-point rating scale, followed by health and convenience factor. Meanwhile, the wives rated health as the most essential factor with mean average rating of 4.49 + 0.58, followed by religion and convenience factor. Sensory appeal, ethical concerns and familiarity were rated as the bottom three factors of food choice motives among these two groups. Price of foods was not considered as an important factor in making food choices for the subjects in this study. In conclusion, the husbands and wives of this urban community rated religion, health and convenience as the three most important food choice motives in food selection

The impact of women directorship on real estate companies: a case in Malaysia

Worldwide, real estate industry is prevalent with its unpleasant image of corruption, political intervention and bribery. Women directorship is portrayed as one of the possible solutions that may neutralize the attributes that have undermined the credibility of these companies. Thus, the main aim of this study is to understand the pattern of women directorship in Malaysian real estate companies and its relationship with companies’ performance and value. Employing a robust statistical technique, GLS regression estimation and by utilising panel data spans of four years from 2012 to 2015, this study finds that the presence of women director(s) on Malaysian real estate corporate board has no impact on companies’ performance as well as on its value creation

CEO succession and firm performance: Evidence from publicly listed Malaysian firms

This study investigates the impact of CEO succession on the financial performance of publicly listed Malaysian firms.A match-paired t-test and Wilcox on signed-rank test are used to determine if there is a change in firm performance following CEO succession.The overall results show that performance improves following post-succession.We also find significant improvement in the performance of companies that experienced forced turnovers and subsequently selected outsiders as successors.On the other hand, forced CEO turnovers that are followed by internal successions disrupt firm performance.As CEO successions impact firms’ future performance, the succession planning process should be a priority for firms

Spillover effects of foreign hypermarkets on domestic suppliers in Malaysia

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a rapid expansion of large-scale foreign retailers in many countries across Southeast Asia, Central Europe and Latin America. This emerging trend has triggered a number of research interests on the issue of retail globalization. The research aims to consider the entry of foreign hypermarkets in Malaysia and their impact on the development and growth of domestic suppliers and manufacturers. This study uses both primary and secondary data. Secondary data were drawn from industry sources which included government departments, economic reports, retailing magazines and companies, web sites. Meanwhile, primary data are collected using mail survey questionnaire and face-to-face interviews. The findings of this study indicate that foreign hypermarkets play a very important role in the development and growth of the domestic suppliers via backward linkages. The main forms of linkages are product supply, informational linkages, assistance with inventory management, technical support and quality assurance and procurement systems. A majority of the firms indicated that they benefited substantially from the presence of foreign hypermarkets; however, they also face several challenges brought about by imposition of several unfair terms and procurement policy. The findings are largely derived from the experience encountered by domestic firms who participated in the survey. Thus, it is believed that their views could definitely help all the parties including the policymakers and researchers to better understand the impact of foreign hypermarkets on local businesses and take appropriate policy measures

In Vitro Micropropagation of Aquarium Plants Pearl Grass Hemianthus micranthemoides (Nuttall) and Micro Sword Grass Lilaeopsis brasiliensis (Glaziou) Affolter (Apiaceae)

Hemianthus micranthemoides and Lileaopsis brasiliensis are nowadays sold in the form of tissue culture production by aquaria and ornamental trade in Malaysia. However, there is no to limited report about in vitro micropropagation of both aquarium plants. In this study, an experimental procedure for micropropagation of both plants was documented. The propagation were done in Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with eight combination of different concentration of 6-Benzylaminopurine with Naphteneacetic acid (BAP-NAA) and 1-phenyl-3-1,2,3- thiadizol-5-yl urea with Naphteneacetic acid (TDZ-NAA) following the rooting technique for 42 days. All treatments for 1 L MS medium were regulated to pH 5.7 to 5.8 and added with sucrose (30 g/L) and phytagel (2.5 g/L). All combination treatments had induced rooting. There was a significance different in the shoot regeneration of H. micranthemoides in all treatment (95% confidence level, F = 13.907, n = 240, p = 0.000), on the contrary there was no different were observed in shoot regeneration of L. brasiliensis treatment. Overall, all treatment of TDZ- NAA were significantly higher in the shoot regeneration than those in BAP-NAA treatment. Particularly the T7 (TDZ-NAA, 0.075: 0.1 mg/L) given highest result in diameter (1.626±0.213 cm) and area (1.724±0.308 cm2) of shoot clumps in H. micranthemoides, and formation of shoots (51.5±4.95), nodes (20.0±2.83) and roots (45.5±13.4) in L. brasiliensis. Hardening of in vitro cultured plantlets was done in aquatic laboratory. All of the plants survived and transferred into aquarium. This study has provided beneficial information in further micropropagation protocol for the mass production of both aquarium plants.   Keywords: Aquarium plants, Hemianthus micranthemoides, Lilaeopsis brasiliensis, Micropropagatio

Is Current Formative Assessment Still Relevant in Turning Students into Deep Learners?

Universities should design the assessment activities that could induce students to be deep learners instead of surface learners, and at the same time equip them with relevant soft skills. This paper aims to gain insight on students’ perception on the appropriateness of the assessment activities in developing soft skills of a management accounting subject at a public university in Malaysia. 420 usable questionnaires were collected out of 686 distributed to fourth semester students taking the said subject. Descriptive statistics and Mann-Whitney U test were conducted to achieve the objective. Results revealed that students did not benefit much from test or quiz implying that such assessment does not turn students into deep learners as expected. On the other hand, group work and presentation do contribute to the development of soft skills. However, findings should not be generalized to other subjects