The role of interactive advertisements in developing consumer-based brand equity: A conceptual discourse

Recently, the effects of advertising campaigns are not only by increasing sales revenues but by something even more important in the long run – brand equity.Brand equity is currently one of the most sought after field of research. Meanwhile, considerable efforts have been put into studying online advertising impacts, but the effects of advertising on the demand, sales and market shares of Libyan products in the information age are still understudied.Adopting the theoretical perspective of a consumer-based model of brand equity, this study reviews past studies and proffers recommendation for future researchers to approach the highlighted gaps

Developing markers for Sigatoka leaf spot disease (Mycosphaerella musicola Leach) resistance in banana (Musa spp.)

Sigatoka leaf spot (Mycosphaerella musicola Leach) disease is a limiting factor in banana production in India and other places. Breeding for resistance is the most effective method to control Musa diseases. However, Musa improvement using conventional methods has been hampered due to lack of genetic variability, resulting to biotechnological approaches. In this regard, marker-assisted selection has become a reliable method to improve disease resistance in Musa. The objective of this study was to identify markers that may be linked to Sigatoka leaf spot disease in Musa, using RAPDs and converting such into sequence characterized amplified region (SCAR). Consequently, a total of 102 oligonucleotide OPERON primer pairs were used to screen genomic DNA from two resistant cultivars: Calcutta 4 (Musa acuminate, AA) and Manoranjitham (AAA), and two susceptible cultivars Anaikomban (AA) and Grande Naine (AAA) with only 11 (10.8%) of the primers being polymorphic. Eventually, OPK 01 and OPK 11 primers in Calcutta 4 were eluted, but only OPK 11 was sequenced and cloned using pGEM-2T vector, resulting to a band size of 4.3 KB, and the development of two SCAR markers. A FASTA search in the Musa genome database could not identify corresponding gene sequences that show homology with the sequenced PCR fragment. Finally, the SCAR marker was used to amplify genomic DNA from the segregating population which could not discriminate between resistant and susceptible samples. This may be due to amplification conditions, limited number of primers and most importantly, the absence of tight linkage with the gene of interest. In conclusion, it may be necessary to screen the segregating population with more reliable and reproducible amplified fragment length polymorphism.Key words: Marker-assisted selection, disease resistance, Musa, random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD), genetic improvement, SCAR

Temporal variation in abundance and diversity of butterflies in Bornean rain forests: opposite impacts of logging recorded in different seasons

We used traps baited with fruit to examine how the temporal variation of butterflies within primary forest in Sabah, Borneo differed between species. In addition, we compared patterns of temporal variation in primary and selectively logged forest, and we tested the hypothesis that selective logging has different recorded impacts on species diversity of adults during the wet monsoon period and the drier remaining half of the year. Species of Satyrinae and Morphinae had significantly less-restricted flight periods than did species of Nymphalinae and Charaxinae, which were sampled mainly during the drier season. especially in primary forest. Species diversity of adults was significantly higher during the drier season in primary forest, but did not differ between seasons in logged forest. As a consequence, logging had opposite recorded impacts on diversity during wetter and drier seasons: primary forest had significantly higher diversity than logged forest during the drier season but significantly lower diversity than logged forest during the wetter monsoon season. The results of this study have important implications for the assessment of biodiversity in tropical rain forests, particularly in relation to habitat disturbance: short-term assessments that do not take account of seasonal variation in abundance are likely to produce misleading results, even in regions where the seasonal variation in rainfall is not that great

Impacts of online banner advertisement on consumers' purchase intention: A theoretical framework

Virtual discussion between students and lecturers nowadays become easier and effective by using computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools.The issue on geographical distance is no longer a problem but there are some aspects that need attention, such as the consultation documentation, record log and the ability to see the records of these virtual relationships.Most current virtual communications software is focused on the communication and less on the process of before and after the virtual communication. In order to enhance the virtual communication process, we have designed and developed an Online Instructional Consultation (OICon) model to facilitate student-lecturer consultation for higher education mentor-mentee system in Malaysia.The model consists of 5 interrelated domains that are personalization, consultation processes and task involved, features and multimedia components, consultation content and consultation document.It provides alternative means on delivery of the contents and services as well as provides participants a range of option. By this way, students and lecturer can involve actively through online consultation at remote places, not just between lecturer and students but also on post-session discussion among peers.Point of correspondence includes implementation of CMC tools to facilitate online consultation processes for academic advisory purpose. OICon model was then transformed into a prototype system to verify the model. Based on the evaluation conducted, we found that users are relatively positive towards implementation of multimedia communication tools for consultation in higher education and they agreed that the OICon model is crucial for enhance and promote interactivity for consultation among students and lecturers

Performance comparison of distributed generation installation arrangement in transmission system for loss control

Placing Distributed Generation (DG) into a power network should be planned wisely. In this paper, the comparison of having different installation arrangement of real-power DGs in transmission system for loss control is presented. Immune-brainstorm-evolutionary programme (IBSEP) was chosen as the optimization technique. It is found that optimizing fixed-size DGs locations gives the highest loss reduction percentage. Apart from that, scattered small-sized DGs throughout a network minimizes transmission loss more than allocating one biger-sized DG at a location

Optimized non-linear multivariable grey model for carbon dioxide emissions in Malaysia

This paper analyses the relationship between carbon dioxide emissions with the energy consumption from the year 2005 to 2014 in Malaysia by introducing an optimized non-linear multivariable grey, NGM(1,N) model by establishing a power exponent term for its subsequent relevant factors. The aim of this research is to improve the existing NGM(1,N) model by solving the effect of non-linear properties which is able to correlate among the consequent factors based on the selection of power exponent optimization. This paper will also introduce the transformed NGM(1,N) known as TNGM(1,N) model that produces a more accurate result compared to NGM(1,N) model that prompted simulated output. The power exponent term value was determined using the generalized reduced gradient (GRG) method in Microsoft Excel Solver. It is proven that the TNGM(1,N) model performs the best and hence it serves as vital information for the government's environmental-related agencies and policymakers to focus on the effort to promote green efficient technology to society at large by reducing the releases of carbon dioxide emissions to the environment

Effect of personality traits and learning styles towards students' academic achievement in Johor Bahru

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of personality traits and learning styles towards the students' academic achievement in Johor Bahru. A total of 101 students from IPG Kampus Temenggong Ibrahim were chosen to be part of the respondents with the use of simple random sampling. The instrument Big Five Inventory (BFI), Kolb's Learning Style Inventory and The students' academic achievement is measured through the Cumulative Grade Point Average, also known as CGPA. Descriptive statistics, Chi-Square Test, Spearman's Correlation and Multiple Regression was used to anser research questions. The findings revealed that the most common per-sonality traits displayed by the students are Openness and Conscientiousness while the most common learning style displayed by the students is Converger. The research also revealed that there is no significant effect of the combination of both the personality traits and learning style towards the prediction of the academic achievement among school students. The same goes to the difference of personality traits and learning style between male and female students was not significant as well

Collapsibility of PMMA based material in direct investment casting

Over recent years, the rapid growth of Additive manufacturing (AM) has benefits the Direct Investment Casting (DIC) process for intricate design in which significantly reduces the cost when associated with low volume production. Nevertheless, ceramic shells cracking has been recognized as critical problem when involved direct casting in which leads to incomplete collapsibility. Therefore, this study presents a numerical and experimental on poly(methyl) methacrylate (PMMA) pattern collapsibility for investment casting process and the stress analysis study on the ceramic shells. Study revealed that there were significant average of 5.8 % reduction of stress between square and polygon patterns. This study was conducted to examine the collapsibility of AM materials in the IC process

Phylogenetics Study of the Black Scar Oyster, Crassostrea Iredalei in Peninsular Malaysia as Revealed by Mitochondrial COI Sequences

The present study attempts to assess the population structure and phylogenetics of the commercially important local black scar oyster, Crassostrea iredalei (Faustino 1932) from wild and cultured populations. We analyzed the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) sequence variation in 581 base pairs (bp) of the cytochrome c oxidase I (COI) gene among 141 individuals from eight localities within Peninsular Malaysia. The population genetics data showed a low within population nucleotide diversity, π (0.001 – 0.003) and the total haplotype diversity, h was moderate (0.417 – 0.682). Minimum spanning network revealed a complex geographical distribution of the haplotypes. Phylogenetic relationships among the populations inferred by Neighbor-Joining and Maximum Parsimony algorithm failed to detect differentiation between these sites, indicating genetic homogeneity across the populations. The findings from this study will have important implications for aquaculture, management and monitoring of cultured populations as well as conservation of wild oyster species in Malaysia