Teknostres Dalam Kalangan Pegawai Akademik Di Sebuah Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam

Kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenalpasti teknostres yang berlaku di kalangan pegawai akadernik di Institusi Pengajian Tinggi Awam (IPTA). Kajian yang dijalankan ini menggunakan persampelan bersistematik (systematic sampling) jenis persampelan rawak berstrata. Kaedah borang soalselidik digunakan untuk melaksanakan kajian. Instrumen kajian ini adalah berasaskan kepada instrumen Inventori Teknostres Peribadi (Personal Technostress Inventory, PTSI) yang telah dibangunkan dan digunapakai oleh Rosen dan Weil pada tahun 1998 dan 1999. Di dalam kajian ini, seramai 189 pegawai akadernik yang terdiri daripada pelbagai strata jawatan telah menjawab soalselidik yang diedarkan. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa secara majoritinya, wujud teknostres tahap sederhana di kalangan pegawai akademik di IPTA yang dikaji. Hanya sebilangan kecil responden yang mengalami teknostres tahap tinggi, t etapi t iada s atu pun r esponden yang t idak m engalami t eknostres. H asil kajian juga mendapati bahawa pegawai akadernik IPTA yang dikaji kerap mengalami teknostres persekitaran masyarakat (societal technostress). Ini diikuti dengan teknostres persempadanan (boundary technostress), teknostres di tempat kerja (workplace technostress), teknostres masa (time technostress), teknostres keluarga (fhmily technosiress), teknostres komunikasi (communication technostress), dan teknostres yang paling sedikit dialami oleh pegawai akademik ini ialah teknostres pembelajaran (learning technostress). Selain itu, Ujian-t yang dijalankan menunjukkan bahawa tidak wujud perbezaan tahap teknostres di kalangan pegawai akademik yang berbeza jantina. Bagaimanapun, pel-bezaan tahap teknostres didapati wujud di kalangan pegawai akademik I PTA yang berbeza mengikut status perkahwinan. Dengan menggunakan Ujian-t juga, kajian menunjukkan wujudnya perbezaan tahap teknostres antara pegawai akadernik yang telah berkahwin dengan pegawai akademik yang belum berkahwin. Pegawai akademik yang telah berkahwin didapati lebih kerap mengalami teknostres berbanding pegawai akademik yang belum berkahwin. Ujian ANOVA Sehala yang dijalankan juga menunjukkan perbezaan tahap teknostres yang signifikan di kalangan pegawai akademik IPTA yang berbeza mengikut umur, jawatan, perasaan terhadap teknologi, dan tahap teknofobia. Sebagai lanjutan kepada ujian ANOVA Sehala, iaitu melalui ujian Post-Hoc yang digunakan, didapati bahawa pegawai akademik yang lebih muda kurang mengalami teknostres berbanding pegawai akademik yang telah berusia. Begitu juga bagi jawatan yang berbeza, tutor didapati paling sedikit mengalami teknostres berbanding guru bahasa. Perbezaan teknostres yang signifikan d i kalangan p egawai a kademik IPTA juga d ikenalpasti b erlaku a ntara guru bahasa dengan profesor ~nadyad an pensyarah. Menggunakan ujian yang sama, didapati bahawa antara pegawai akademik yang berbeza perasaan mereka terhadap teknologi juga mengalami tahap teknostres yang berbeza. Didapati bahawa responden yang lebih rela menunggu dan menunggu sehingga perlu menggunakan teknologi lebih teknostres berbanding responden yang sangat berminat dan bersedia menggunakan teknologi. Perbezaan yang signifikan juga menunjukkan bahawa teknostres di kalangan pegawai akademik adalah berbeza bagi mereka yang mengalami teknofobia tahap tinggi dengan mereka yang mengalami teknofobia tahap sederhana dan rendah. Didapati juga bahawa semakin teknofobia, pegawai akademik juga semakin lturang teknostres

Cultural influences and mandated counseling in Malaysia

It is unfair to conclude that Western and Eastern differences have caused conflict in the practice of counselling, especially in mandated counselling. It is reasonable to assume that without the Western approach and understanding of counselling, the East would still be unable to develop their own theory of helping. How then does one compare different approaches? Such an assessment can be argued clearly from a cultural perspective as in the case of mandated counselling. This paper discusses the influence of culture which has shaped the practice of mandated counselling and the appropriate practice of mandated counselling in a Malaysian setting. Many of the points discussed here are drawn from the data informed by seven informants in a research entitled ‘Mandated Counselling In Malaysia: A Heuristic Phenomenological Inquiry Of Involuntary Participation’. The phenomenon of counselling as originated and practised in the West, which has served as the significant model for the Malaysian style of counselling, is discussed. The concept of guidance and crisis intervention in counselling as practised in Malaysia has shaped the appropriate acceptance of mandated counselling. Respect for authority, a need to ‘save face’, directives from the authority and the values of we-ness makes mandated counselling in a Malaysian setting a relevant intervention

Book Review: Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia

It is not very often that one comes across a book about museums in Malaysia. Neither can one easily find such a book that has its contents closely intertwined with the history and culture of the country. This is because an attempt to link the museums with history and heritage is indeed full of complexities as the author has tried to show. The book nonetheless shows that such task is possible. In fact, for college students, the book is quite helpful in providing useful historical information of Malaysia's past. From the narratives of the book, readers will certainly be made aware about the truth of the saying that Malaysia is unique in every sense of the word. As a multi-cultural and multi-ethnic country, it is unique in its style of political pragmatism as seen from the unconventional way its political elites try to manage a plural society that is still struggling to become a viable and integrated nation. Through his book, Museums, History and Culture in Malaysia, the author Abu Talib Ahmad has painstakingly demonstrated how museums in Malaysia try to cope with the diverse and pluralistic views of the country's histor

Influence of Burrow Holes in Residual Soil Slope Infiltration

Infiltration rate is important factors in the rainfall induced slope failure. The infiltration of water into residual soil was govern by rainfall intensity and also saturated permeability of soil. The existing of burrow holes has proven increases the permeability of the soil with increase in number of burrow holes. Therefore, it is very important to study the effect of burrow holes in residual soil slope and its effect in infiltration rate. The modified constant head permeability was done to study effect of burrow holes in residual soil. Then, the infiltration test was done to study the infiltration rate of residual soil with existing of burrow holes.  The result from modified permeability shows that permeability of residual soil increases from 5 x 10-7 m/s to 1.14 x 10-3 m/s for different area of burrow holes. The result from infiltration test proven that when q/ksat greater than 1 the runoff was occurs. Meanwhile, when q/ksat less than 1 infiltration was occurs. The result also indicates that the smaller ratio between of resq/ksat, the faster the infiltration of water into the soil

Commercialization and its discontents

Since the late 1990s the government of Malaysia has increased emphasis on its Intensification of Research in Priority Areas (IRPA) program, focusing scientific research in universities and government research institutes (GRIs) on activities most likely to enhance national economic performance. The IRPA’s main purpose is to fund commercially viable research for the benefit of business. However, its 2001 mid-term review showed its rates and volumes of commercialization and technology transfer (CTT) to be inadequate. This study aimed to explain the perceived low rate of adoption and commercialization of scientific knowledge in manufacturing in Malaysia by exploring the actions of companies, universities and GRIs. Two main models of technical change, the Technik and the STH ones, were used. Fieldwork was carried out in Malaysia. Purposive sampling led to selection of 60 interviewees: 23 managers and professionals from companies, 17 scientists, eight Technology Transfer Office officers, six senior research administrators, three venture capitalists, two journalists and a politician. The interviews were open-ended. It was seen that research findings were not always relevant to company interests, and companies often preferred their own or adopted, sometimes reverse-engineered, technology. Government CTT funds did not help much in with design, prototypes and pilot plants. Inadequate communication and lack of trust influenced the low uptake of research findings. The commercial relevance of much scientific research was questioned. More government support for company risk-taking appeared to be needed. Differences in attitude and poor understanding of policies and principles tended to contribute to low uptake. Managers, professional, scientists, Technology Transfer Officers, senior research administrators, venture capitalists needed more flexibility, knowledge and skills to respond to profit-driven research findings. A specifically Malaysian approach to CTT was advocated

Assisted History Matching by Using Recursive Least Square and Discrete Cosine Transform

History matching is the act of adjusting a model of a reservoir until it closely reproduces the past behavior of a reservoir. Before the computer was invented, history matching is done manually by trial and error method and personal judgment which only can be done by experienced engineer. Because of these factors, manual history matching technique consume a lot of time. Thus, this project is carried to do assisted history matching and to determine whether Recursive least square as optimization method and Discrete cosine transform as parameter reduction method can be combined or not. In order to achieve the objective, a number of steps have been done. First, a synthetic model has been built by modifying ODEH data. Two sets of permeability value have been selected to get two data which are historical and simulated data from the model. Then, the fluid flow equation is derived to get the forward model. Forward model is then used to design the objective function. After objective function has been designed, DCT is applied to the reservoir data in order to minimize the number of parameters. Next, RLS is applied to the parameter which has been reduced to optimize the data. These steps are repeated until the threshold value is lower than the set threshold. For this project, RLS and DCT methods are compared with the literature review to know the successfulness of this combination. For the first part of final year project, the derivation of forward model has been done. For the second part of final year project, a synthetic model has been built and objective function has been design from the forward model. Before applying the RLS and DCT, the illustrations of these methods need to be done to see how it work and then RLS and DCT were applied to the reservoir data. The outcomes at the end of this project are first two set of data is obtain from the synthetic model which are historical and simulated data. Then algorithms for DCT and v RLS are proposed which can be applied to the history matching problem. From the result, the combination of RLS and DCT are successful and can be used for history matching purpose

Performance modeling of e-procurement workflow using Generalised Stochastic Petri net (GSPN)

This paper proposes a Generalised Stochastic Petri net (GSPN) model representing a generic e-procurement workflow process. The model displays the dynamic behaviour of the system and shows the inter relationship of process activities. An analysis based on matrix equation approach enabled users to analyse the critical system's states, and thus justify the process performance. The results obtained allow users for better decision making in improving e-procurement workflow performance

A study on cost reduction for oil and gas industry of MMHE Sdn Bhd / Noor Zahrena Abu Talib

This research is about cost reduction implied in the oil & gas company known as Malaysia Marine and Heavy Engineering Sdn Bhd (MMHE SDN BHD) wholly owned subsidiary of MISC Berhad. Oil and gas industry is one of the most well establish with a rapid growth in the potential market in Malaysia, that can lead and contribute and income to the country. Therefore, what is involve in each cost of the production and raw material is calculate accurately. No oil and gas company is currently safe from cost pressures. The financial and economic climate that faces nowadays, forces close scrutiny of the cost bases. However, many oil and gas companies still lack a systematic or structured approach to managing cost. The quickest and surest way to improve profitability is to effectively reduce costs. Each expenditure removed from expenses reports to the bottom line profit. The most difficult approach is to increase sales. While the best corporate strategic and operating plans focus on both, one cannot deny the power of an effective cost reduction program. Cost Reduction are easy to install and can guarantee the results

STUDY ON THE CHARACTERIZATION OF SILICA SAND NANOPARTICLES-IRON BASED COMPOSITES (Fe-Si02) USING NITROGEN ATMOSPHERE AS SINTERING ENVIRONMENT

Metal Matrix Composite has become an attractive alternative in various applications especially in automotive and aerospace industries nowadays. Therefore, in order to study the characterization of Silica Sand Nanoparticles-Iron Based Composites (Fe-SiO:z) using Nitrogen atmosphere as sintering environment, samples were fubricated by mixing pure iron with different weight percentages (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) of silica sand nanoparticles and undergone several testing and observation before being evaluate. The silica sand nanoparticles-iron based composites were developed by powder metallurgy technique and being sintered in Nitrogen atmosphere at 1100°C. The characterization that being evaluated include physical properties (density of green and sintered silica sand nanoparticles-iron based composites), microstructure analysis (Optical Microscopy & FESEM), elemental composition (EDX Analysis) and mechanical properties (micro hardness test of silica sand nanoparticles-iron based composites). The research shows densities were reduced from pure iron to 20wt% of silica sand nanoparticles. However, there were increments in each density of the composite after being sintered which at the same time improved its hardness as well. During sintering, the microstructure also exhibits changes in porosity, pore size also pore shape and with the high rate of atomic motion progressively (diffusion) leads to growth of bonds between particles, shown by the microstructure analysis being conducted. Theoretically stated those properties will improved after sintering process were proven and the composite with highest weight percentage of silica sand nanoparticles (20wt%) offered the best characteristics compared to others