Public complaints: An instrument to improve services in public institution of higher learning in post modern era. Case study: Student Affairs Department in Universiti Utara Malaysia

Jurgen Habermas dan Anthony Giddens are among other postmodern thinkers have proposed the theory of public sphere and social reflexivity. Because postmodenism has undermined the structure and function of the society and gives extra power to the periphery and individuals, the rise for individual participation in voicing out their need and wants is seen as important so that decision made at the top rung of the society reflect the masses. According to Habermas, in post modern era where tradition is lacking, people are losing trust and confidence in an abstract system – the system governing them beyond their immediate surrounding. To encounter it, citizen should be given power to participate in decision making. Habermas idea is supported by Giddens with his social reflexivity concept that suggests inputting public trust back into social institution. In coherence with this argument, the paper will discuss on the public complaint in public institution which is seen as a way to improve public services. The study is carried out in Student Affairs department in Universiti Utara Malaysia in 2003. The objectives of the study is to measure the level of awareness of the services offered at the Complaint Unit HEP and complaints by the students of the university. The paper will then discuss the findings and suggests ways to improve existing systems so that the quality of service is further enhanced

Web Enabled Waiters Tracking System - A Prototype

Waiter, which is an applicant for telephone service is registered as a waiter when service cannot be provided owing to shortage of facilities. Waiters tracking are one of the vital elements in processes of Telekom Malaysia. The existing system, namely CASS (Customer Automated Service System) provides some tools for clearing waiters in the form of waiter reports and congested cable route report. However, these reports are managed manually, are not effective to fulfill the Telekom Malaysia mission and vision. This project aims to deliver an efficient and effective system to replace the manual way of clearing waiters. This web-enabled system namely Waiters Tracking System should definitely assist the state zone to clear waiters. The software development methodology used to develop this prototype is the Rational Unified Process (RUP) approach. This prototype was evaluated using User Interface Satisfaction Questionnaire to discover its functionality and usefulness. The results of the project development and project evaluation, and contribution of knowledge are described at the end of paper

Village Building and School Readiness: Closing Opportunity Gaps in a Diverse Society

Examines a community's impacts on child development and frames strategies to build early learning systems in poor minority neighborhoods. Stresses combining services with community-building and developing a diverse early education workforce from within

Conditioned Seeing as Related to Bidirectional Naming for Unfamiliar Stimuli with Third through Fifth Grade Students Diagnosed with Autism

In a series of three experiments, I investigated the emergence of conditioned seeing, defined as delayed drawing responses, as a potential component of bidirectional naming (BiN) for unfamiliar stimuli, which was defined in this study as the emergence of untaught listener and speaker responses following a naming experience with school-aged participants diagnosed with autism. Following exposure to incidental naming opportunities (stimulus-stimulus pairing), participants demonstrated BiN responses to non-contrived stimuli but did not demonstrate BiN responses to unfamiliar stimuli. In Experiment I, I assessed BiN and delayed drawing responses to unfamiliar stimuli following a naming experience in which attending to auditory stimuli, or names of the symbol, was paired with reinforcing stimuli for 6 participants. Participants were matched for level of verbal behavior and subsequently assigned to an experimental multiple exemplar instruction (MEI) or control group. A multiple probe design with a simultaneous treatment condition was utilized. Participants in the MEI group were exposed to listener, speaker, and drawing (transcription) responses with teaching sets of stimuli, while the control group experienced the school curriculum only, Direct Instruction. Participants in the control group were also exposed to a repeated probe condition during which they experienced a matched number of probe sessions with participants in the MEI-experimental group. Results of the first experiment indicated the presence of BiN with unfamiliar stimuli and conditioned seeing repertoires for participants in the MEI-experimental group following the intervention, however BiN and delayed drawing responses were not present for participants in the control group. Based on the results of Experiment I, I hypothesized that BiN and conditioned seeing behaviors may be evoked as a function of the establishment of a history for conditioned reinforcement for simultaneously observing a visual and auditory stimulus while engaging a drawing response. Two participants were selected for Experiment II as they demonstrated the presence of unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli and delayed drawing responses during probe sessions; participants included in Experiment I did not demonstrate unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli. Utilizing a multiple probe design, Experiment II tested whether the presence of unidirectional naming and drawing responses would evoke multiple stimulus control across speaker responses following exposure to a learn unit procedure. The learn unit procedure implemented in Experiment II required participants to emit an echoic for the name of the target stimuli while simultaneously attending to the visual and auditory stimuli, as well as drawing the stimuli. Results of the study indicated that BiN repertoires were present for unfamiliar stimuli following the intervention. In Experiment III, I again implemented the learn unit procedure but eliminated requirement of the echoic. Participants in Experiment III did not demonstrate unidirectional naming for unfamiliar stimuli or delayed drawing responses before the learn unit intervention. Three of these participants included in Experiment III had been assigned to the control group in Experiment I and a fourth participant was added. Results of Experiment III indicated that the learn unit procedure evoked BiN for unfamiliar stimuli and conditioned seeing for all four participants, indicating the presence of multiple stimulus control for verbal behavior. The source of this learning may be the establishment of conditioned reinforcement for observation of unfamiliar stimuli

Internet Usage and Different Domains of Lifestyle of University Students in Relation to Their Sex Differences

The present study was specifically targeted to determine the effect of Internet-use and Internet Non-use on the Lifestyle of university students with special reference to their gender difference. Sample of 600 (300 Internet-users and 300 Internet-Non-users) university students was taken randomly from University of Kashmir (J&K), India. Lifestyle Scale by S. K. Bawa and S. Kaur was used to collect the data. Besides, Information Blank developed by the investigators was used to ascertain the Internet-users and Non-users. The data was subjected to statistical analysis by computing Mean, S.D. and test of significance. The results concluded that Internet-users and non-users differ significantly in lifestyle. Internet-users were found better in lifestyle status. The difference between the Internet-user group of subjects found significantly different on gender but the difference between the Internet Non-users group on the gender could not be established. Keywords: Lifestyle; Internet-usage; Domains; Lifestyle; University Students; Sex

Internet-users and Internet Non-users Attitude towards Research: A Comparative Study on Post-Graduate Students

The purpose of the present study was to compare the Internet-user and Internet Non-user post-graduate students on their attitude towards research. The sample comprised 600 post graduate students (300 Internet-users and 300 Internet-Non-users) drawn from different faculties of University of Kashmir (J&K), India. Random sampling technique was used. Attitude towards Research Scale by Vishal Sood and Y. K. Sharma used to collect the data. Besides, Information Blank developed by the investigators to find the Internet-users and Non-users. The data was subjected to statistical analysis by computing Mean, S.D. and test of significance. The results concluded that Internet-users and Internet non-users differ significantly on all the four dimensions and on composite score of Attitude towards Research. Internet-users were found to have favourable Attitude towards Research. Gender differences on attitude towords research between the groups under the investigation were also found significantly different. Keywords: Internet-users; Non-users; Attitude towards Research, Post-Graduate students, University Students; Gender

Portrayal of Women in National and International Advertisements in Pakistani Magazines: Why Need to Rethink

This research examines the portrayal of women in the national and international advertisements of Pakistani leading magazines “The Mag” to explores that how women are presented in advertisement of print media. Four main categories regarding women portrayal with sub categories were used to apprehend the interpretation of the portrayal of the women by adopting comparative approach towards the national and international advertisements. The content analysis of the advertisements in the leading magazine is conducted to analyze the glamour, seductive smile and wearing short dresses in the advertisement to comprehend the portrayal of the women. Findings suggests that in Pakistani magazines women are used as decoratively through glamour look they are presented with glossy makeup and attractive hairstyle with flashy lights on their face in magazines. Outcomes of the comparative analysis indicates that the national advertisements in the female magazines are presenting women with more seductive and facial expressions appeals. Keywords: Advertisements, Respective, submissive, serious, smiling, seductive, with man, alone, full eastern dresses, short western dresses, natural makeup, heavy.

Production of liquid fuels from thermal cracking of palm oil in the presence of natural granite as a thermal cracking agent / Sharifah Noor Munirah Syed Mohamed Yunus

The search for alternatives to petroleum based fuels has led to the development of fuels from various sources, including renewable feedstocks such as vegetable oils. Cracking of vegetable oils is one of the invented processes to improve the yield of liquid fuels. However, the current study more concentrated on the catalytic cracking since the reaction would give high conversion with high yield of liquid fuels product. The use of this method on the industrial scale is limited by the high cost of catalyst. Therefore, to solve this problem, the natural granite was used as a thermal cracking agent since the availability of natural granite in market is more economically compare the used of catalysts. The purpose of this research is to study the potential of natural granite as a thermal cracking agent in thermal cracking for the production of liquid fuels from palm oil with physical and chemical properties similar to gasoline and comparing with ASTM specifications. The natural granite was characterized with X-ray Fluorescence (XRF), Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) methods to characterize the physical and chemical properties. The thermal cracking of palm oil was conducted in a batch reactor under atmospheric pressure for a 4 hour reaction time with the effect of thermal cracking with and without natural granite, different size ( 3 cm) and loading of natural granite (1,3 and 5 kg). The conversion reached to a maximum value of 60 wt%, 14.4 wt% of total liquid and 6.4 wt% of liquid fuels for olein. The liquid fuels essentially consisted of C5-C18 of hydrocarbons. 3 kg of natural granite considered the best amount with high selectivity of light hydrocarbon. All physical properties of liquid fuels like calorific value, kinematic viscosity, flash point, water content, density, and elemental analysis were comparable with commercial gasoline and can be used as alternative fuels. Analysis of the liquid fuels indicates that thermal cracking of palm oil with natural granite as a thermal cracking agent are promising, cost effectively and more profitable due to energy saving