Perceived leadership practices and organizational commitment of consulting engineers at their working place

The objectives of this study are to examine the issues confronting consulting engineers. The issues are: (a) the relationship between perceived leadership practices and consulting engineer's organizational commitment in their working place and, (b) the differences of consulting engineers’ organizational commitment based on gender, age and years of working experience. This study leverages on (a) Kouzes and Posner’s five perceived leadership practices (1987), and (b) Mowday, Porter and Steers’ organizational commitment (1979). This study was specifically addressed to 387 respondents who worked with consulting firms registered under the Association of Consulting Engineers, Malaysia (ACEM). The random sampling technique was used and a self-administered survey was performed for this research which included a set of questionnaires consisting of sections on personal information, leadership practices index (LPI) and organizational commitment (OCQ). The quantitative research method was used for data analysis. Firstly, it involved using the Spearman-rho correlation analysis to examine the relationship between the consulting engineers’ perceived leadership practices and organizational commitment at their work place. Secondly, the Kruskal Wallis test was used to investigate the differences between the consulting engineers’ organizational commitment based on age and years of experience. Thirdly, the Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was used to investigate the differences between the consulting engineers’ organizational commitment based on gender. The findings revealed that the five perceived leadership practices have significant relationships between perceived leadership practices and the consulting engineers’ organizational commitment at their work place. Another finding revealed that there is a significant difference between the consulting engineers’ organizational commitment based on gender, and age, and years of working experience. The findings contribute to the knowledge that consulting engineers’ organizational commitment is positively related to the engineering superior’s leadership skills of coaching, leading and guiding consulting engineers to achieve the same goa

Depression, anxiety, stress and satisfaction with life: moderating role of interpersonal needs amongst university students

© 2022 Ooi, Khor, Tan and Ong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Depression, anxiety, and stress are ranked among the top mental health concerns faced by university students in recent times perpetuated by the proliferation of digitalization. Thus, this study was performed to assess the relationship between depression, anxiety, stress, and satisfaction with life, with interpersonal needs (perceived burdensomeness and thwarted belongingness) as moderators. A cross-sectional study using a convenient sampling method was conducted among 430 Malaysian private university students (Mean aged= 20.73 years; SD = 1.26 years). A self-administered questionnaire comprising the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21), Satisfaction with Life Scale, and Interpersonal Needs Questionnaire were used. Students who experienced lower depression and anxiety reported higher satisfaction with life under the influence of low perceived burdensomeness. Perceived burdensomeness, when coupled with depression (β = 0.76, p < 0.01) and anxiety (β = 0.79, p < 0.01), contributed 15.8% of variance in satisfaction with life. Students who experienced stress reported higher satisfaction with life under the influence of high thwarted belongingness (β = 0.73, p < 0.01), contributing 17.3% of the variance in satisfaction with life. For university students who experienced depression and anxiety symptoms, mental health practitioners may need to be cognizant of how to support students' education and management of their perceived burdensomeness perceptions.Peer reviewe

Environmental noise impact assessment from mass rapid transit to the adjacent community

Due to the extension of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) network throughout the years, the noise generated from MRT had increased and this environmental noise tends to cause annoyance to the adjacent community. The aim of this research is to measure the environmental noise level generated by MRT at one of the MRT stations in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, compare the permissible limit and community annoyance response to the measured noise impact to the surrounding community. A total of 4 monitoring points were selected for environmental noise impact assessment. After that, a sound level meter was set up at these monitoring points to measure the sound level. For each monitoring point, the noise level was measured for 6 hours continuously from 7:00 am to 1:00 pm. Based on the results, the noise levels at critical monitoring points exceeded 9.23 % in Taman Midah MRT Station. Little community annoyance is caused in the study areas and this will affect the quality of life of the adjacent community. In conclusion, the environmental noise impact assessment was carried out to safeguard the noise level to be within the noise limit and to enhance the quality of life of the community alongside MRT

Assessing the performance of the simple noise chart method for construction noise prediction in earth-moving activity

Construction activity has long been associated with health problems caused by excessive noise exposure from the high noise emission machines. Indeed, predicting noise levels during the planning stages of a construction project can be challenging, particularly when considering complex and dynamic noise sources. This study aims to determine the accuracy and reliability of the simple prediction charts method in predicting construction noise. A case study of piling activity had been conducted at a construction site in Klang valley, Malaysia. The results showed that the average predicted noise levels were slightly higher than the actual measurements, but the highest absolute difference was only 0.9 dBA. The simple prediction charts can approximate the sound pressure level with high reliability with R2 values of 0.9959. These results show that the simple prediction charts can accurately and reliably predict construction noise levels, providing a useful tool for predicting the noise levels from earthmoving machines at any point of the construction site. With the help of these charts, construction noise practitioners can more easily anticipate and manage potential noise issues

Relationship between Brand Perceptions and Satisfaction: Empirical Study on Skin Products in Malaysia

In the highly competitive marketplace, marketers for the skin care product are facing challenges with identifying the consumer’s brand perception and brand satisfaction. Brand satisfaction is perceived as an important issue on skin care industry. Obviously, customers are the important stakeholders in organizations and their satisfaction is a priority to the company. This study aims to investigate the relationship between brand perceptions and brand satisfaction on skin care products with four independent variables (quality, promotion, image and preference). This study employed the statistic software of SPSS version 19.0 to evaluate 200 sets of questionnaires which collected from students, undergraduates, working adults and other respondents. The findings in this study shows that the brand perceptions on quality, image and preference have positive and significant relationship with brand satisfaction on skin care products. However, the relationship between brand perception on promotion and brand satisfaction is being rejected. Thus, the marketers can focus on perception on quality, image and preference to increase customers’ brand satisfaction to capture and retain them

Prevalence and characterization of verotoxigenic-Escherichia coli isolates from pigs in Malaysia

Background: Postweaning diarrhea caused by pathogenic Escherichia coli, in particular verotoxigenic E. coli (VTEC), has caused significant economic losses in the pig farming industry worldwide. However, there is limited information on VTEC in Malaysia. The objective of this study was to characterize pathogenic E. coli isolated from post-weaning piglets and growers with respect to their antibiograms, carriage of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases, pathotypes, production of hemolysins and fimbrial adhesins, serotypes, and genotypes. Results: PCR detection of virulence factors associated with different E. coli pathotypes (ETEC, EPEC, EHEC, and VTEC) revealed that VTEC was the only pathotype identified from six swine farms located at north-western Peninsular Malaysia. A low prevalence rate of VTEC was found among the swine samples (n = 7/345) and all 7 VTEC isolates were multidrug resistant. Five of these isolates from different hosts raised in the same pen were likely to be of the same clone as they shared identical sero-pathotypes (O139:H1, VT2e/α-hly/F18), resistance profiles and DNA fingerprinting profiles. Two other serotypes, O130: H26 (n = 1) and O168: H21 (n = 1) carrying virulence factors were also identified. O168: H21 is possibly a new serotype as this has not been previously reported. Conclusions: The occurrence of VTEC with infrequently encountered serotypes that are multidrug resistant and harbouring virulence factors may be of public health concern. The detection of possible clones in this study also showed that the combination of different typing tools including phenotyping and genotyping methods is useful for molecular epidemiologic surveillance and studies

Live vaccine infection burden elicits adaptive humoral and cellular immunity required to prevent Zika virus infection

10.1016/j.ebiom.2020.103028EBioMedicine6110302

Global patient outcomes after elective surgery: prospective cohort study in 27 low-, middle- and high-income countries.

BACKGROUND: As global initiatives increase patient access to surgical treatments, there remains a need to understand the adverse effects of surgery and define appropriate levels of perioperative care. METHODS: We designed a prospective international 7-day cohort study of outcomes following elective adult inpatient surgery in 27 countries. The primary outcome was in-hospital complications. Secondary outcomes were death following a complication (failure to rescue) and death in hospital. Process measures were admission to critical care immediately after surgery or to treat a complication and duration of hospital stay. A single definition of critical care was used for all countries. RESULTS: A total of 474 hospitals in 19 high-, 7 middle- and 1 low-income country were included in the primary analysis. Data included 44 814 patients with a median hospital stay of 4 (range 2-7) days. A total of 7508 patients (16.8%) developed one or more postoperative complication and 207 died (0.5%). The overall mortality among patients who developed complications was 2.8%. Mortality following complications ranged from 2.4% for pulmonary embolism to 43.9% for cardiac arrest. A total of 4360 (9.7%) patients were admitted to a critical care unit as routine immediately after surgery, of whom 2198 (50.4%) developed a complication, with 105 (2.4%) deaths. A total of 1233 patients (16.4%) were admitted to a critical care unit to treat complications, with 119 (9.7%) deaths. Despite lower baseline risk, outcomes were similar in low- and middle-income compared with high-income countries. CONCLUSIONS: Poor patient outcomes are common after inpatient surgery. Global initiatives to increase access to surgical treatments should also address the need for safe perioperative care. STUDY REGISTRATION: ISRCTN5181700

ICAR: endoscopic skull‐base surgery

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