Factors that influence job performance among employees in private sector / Mira Izanee Yahya and Muhammad Amirul Syafiq Dzulkifli

The research study will focus on the topic of job performance in organization, which is important to maintain company performance in order to achieve company goals through its employees itself. The ability of any organization to channel its organizational goals is to retain valuable employees in organization and continued success performance. Therefore, in order to investigate best factor that contribute performance among employees, the focus of this study will be investigated on most factors that influence employees to perform work in an organization

Discovering 100 birds of Universiti Putra Malaysia

Birds are the most widely studied group of vertebrates. They come in various colours, shapes and sizes filling up different levels of a trophic pyramid and occupying many niches of an ecosystem. This includes the top predators such as raptors and small prey species such as sparrows. Birds play significant ecological roles with respect to pollination, seed dispersal, pest control, natural carcass removal, and ecosystem engineering. Collectively, they help maintain the balance of ecosystems. The ability of migratory birds to travel long distances has made them one of the most magnificent taxa in the world. Some species such as hornbills, woodpeckers, owls and waders have been recognized as environmental indicators. In many places, birds have generated significant income locally or nationally through birdwatching tourism. In the Serdang campus of Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), a total of 116 bird species of 47 families have been recorded including 23 migrants. The largest family groups are Ardeidae and Sturnidae (each has 9 species), followed by Accipitridae and Pycnonotidae (each has 7 species), and Columbidae (6 species). It is worth to mention that UPM has long been carrying out research on birds ranging from species diversity, species abundance, community assemblages, physiology, systematics, population genetics, ecotoxicology, biological control, behaviour, parasites, diseases to economic values. The Faculty of Forestry, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Faculty of Science, as well as Faculty of Agriculture and Food Sciences (Bintulu Campus) are among the faculties in UPM that are conducting research on birds

Nocturnal bird composition in relation to habitat heterogeneity in small scale oil palm agriculture in Malaysia

The expansion of oil palm cultivation is recognised as a major cause of tropical biodiversity loss. In contrast to large-scale plantations, oil palm smallholdings being more heterogeneous may support greater biodiversity. This study examined the effects of local and landscape level variables on the composition of nocturnal bird species in Malaysian oil palm smallholdings. Using visual and aural point sampling, we made 1408 encounters with nine owl and two nightjar species. The Biota-Environment-Stepwise matching analyses (BEST) indicated four predictor variables (three local variables; number of crop species, widths of roads and trenches, and one landscape variable; distance to the nearest main road) significantly influenced the community assemblages of nocturnal bird species in the smallholdings. Generalized Linear Models (GLMs) further indicated seven predictor variables (numbers of palms and houses, widths of roads and trenches, distances to the nearest forest and house, as well as palm height) significantly influenced the abundances of certain nocturnal species. These findings not only improve our understanding on habitat preference of nocturnal birds in the Sunda region but also support the argument that habitat complexity in cultivated areas may aid in biodiversity conservation, at least for nocturnal birds

Khazanah Food Enterprise / Ahmad Sayuti Yahya Muhammad… [et al.]

Khazanah Food Industry is the new business entity that formed under the Partnership agreement. The company have been registered in 5th january 2010 with the purpose to introduce and popularized the Malaysian traditional food in the different form that can suit everyone's preference nowadays, and at the same time earning the business profits. Our company will operate the business officially in 5th October 2010. Faced with fast-paced modern life, consumers will continue to seek convenience and simplicity. The demand for the ready-to-eat form food nowadays become increase as the people nowadays tend to buy the product that doesn't provide them complexity, especially for food product. The demand for the junk food is increasing nowadays especially for children and teenagers. But there's an issues that relates the junk food that can effects someone's health as the junk food perceived to have little or no nutritional value, or to products with nutritional value but which also have ingredients considered unhealthy when regularly eaten, or to those considered unhealthy to consume at all. Apart from this issues, we found that this is the opportunity to sell the healthy food in form of snack, that usually represented by the junk food. The existence of our product in the market can give the alternatives to the consumer when it comes to the selection of helthy and delicious snack. Our company is located at bandar Baru perda, Pulau Pinang. We chose Bandar Perda because there is less competitor that will compete will our company in selling the product to the customer. Apart from that, the location is located at the urban area, where the potential buyer will always surround the place. The supplier for the rawa materal situated near to our business location thus reducing the cost on dealing with the process to obtain the raw materials. Other than that, our company also situated near to the distribution area which turn our business' location into the strategic place to produce our product at maximum effort. With the goal to become the well- known brand that become a leader in the snack producing industry, we are striving to satisfied the customer's needs and wants by producing the good quality product that consistent with it's value

Effects of polyculture and monoculture farming in oil palm smallholdings on tropical fruit-feeding butterfly diversity

1. In many developing countries, commercial oil palm farming supports the livelihood of millions of small-scale farmers in the rural areas. However, forest conversion into oil palm monocultures has a major impact on tropical biodiversity. In existing oil palm production landscapes, little is known about how different oil palm agricultural practices affect farmland biodiversity, particularly insect biota. 2. We quantified fruit-feeding butterfly species richness and community composition in oil palm areas subject to polyculture and monoculture farming in Peninsular Malaysia. Polyculture smallholdings were predicted to support greater butterfly diversity than monoculture smallholdings because of the greater structural complexity and floristic diversity associated with crop diversity in polyculture smallholdings. 3. We also identified local-scale habitat attributes important for maintaining fruit-feeding butterfly species richness. 4. We found no significant differences in butterfly species richness, abundance and the composition of butterfly assemblages between polyculture and monoculture smallholdings. Local-scale habitat quality explained 32.1% of the variation in fruit-feeding butterfly richness in oil palm smallholdings. 5. We found that polyculture farming failed to increase fruit-feeding butterfly diversity as a result of a limited number of crop species in oil palm smallholdings. To improve current agricultural practices and maintain high levels of butterfly diversity, commercial growers should increase the number of crop species planted in oil palm smallholdings

Electrochemical reaction and dissociation of glycerol on PdAu surface catalyst

Direct Glycerol Fuel Cell is one of the alternative energy that can produce electricity without burning. The production of electricity without combustion can reduce the use of fossil fuel as well as reduce environmental pollution. A new catalyst of PdAu has been synthesized in this study to increase the activity of the glycerol oxidation reaction. Morphologies analysis was performed on CNF-supported synthesized PdAu. FESEM and TEM image show the PdAu supported on the CNF surface. Both PdAu and CNF has a diameter size of 4-6 nm and 80-130 nm, respectively. In CV analysis, PdAu/CNF has produced an oxidation peak and current density at -0.9 V vs. SCE and 70 mA/cm2 , respectively. Each mechanism of glycerol dissociation step during glycerol oxidation, different atomic active sites are required in PdAu. For example, for glycerol adsorption, Au atom as an active site while for *C3 H7 O3 requires Pd atom and Au atom as the active site. The Au catalyst model shows better adsorption as Au/CNF has a slightly more negative oxidation peak than PdAu. Nevertheless, the Au catalyst showed less durability compared to PdAu

Effects of monoculture and polyculture farming in oil palm smallholdings on terrestrial arthropod diversity

Oil palm agriculture has become one of the economic mainstays for biodiversity-rich countries in the tropics. The conversion of native forests to oil palm monoculture plantation has caused unprecedented biodiversity loss in Southeast Asia. Little is known about the effects of oil palm polyculture farming on arthropod diversity. In this study, arthropods were sampled using pitfall traps at 120 sites in Peninsular Malaysia. We examined how arthropod biodiversity responded to different oil palm farming practices and local-scale vegetation structure characteristics. We found that the number of arthropod orders was significantly greater in polyculture than monoculture smallholdings. However, we did not detect a significant difference in arthropod order composition nor abundance between monoculture and polyculture practices. In situ habitat characteristics explained 16% of the variation in arthropod order richness, with key predictor variables including farming practice, height of oil palm stands, and number of immature palm. The findings of this study suggest that polyculture farming together with management for in situ habitat complexity may be a useful strategy in supporting biodiversity within in oil palm plantations

Birds associated with different tree species and structures in oil palm agroforestry landscapes in Malaysia

The expansion of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) cultivation has been recognised as a major threat to tropical biodiversity. Smallholdings, however, unlike large-scale conventional monoculture oil palm plantations, often practice polyculture which may resemble an agroforestry system. These private holdings provide more heterogeneous vegetation which may support greater a greater diversity of birds. This study compared species richness and abundance of birds detected perching in oil palm (both dead and living trees) and seven other planted crop species within oil palm smallholdings. Using transect line surveys, we recorded a total of 816 birds of 39 species from 20 families. Our results indicate that bird species richness and abundance differed significantly between oil palm and the other planted tree species. Non-oil palm trees cumulatively increased bird species richness and abundance. Although birds overall perched more frequently on living oil palm trees (probably reflecting relative abundance), other species including breadfruit, mango, papaya, banana, and coconut, as well as dead trees, were also used. By measuring effect size, we also found that both bird species richness and abundance rely on tree structure and type of tree species. These findings tentatively suggest that providing a larger diversity of tree species within intensively managed oil palm plantations may support a wider variety of local bird species compared to monocultures

The effect of operating temperature and equivalence ratio in an entrained flow gasification of EFB

Biomass is a renewable and sustainable source of energy that can be used to generate electricity and other forms of power. Rapid economic growth in developing countries, growing energy demand, high dependence on global and local transportation, pollution, depletion of sources, and endangered national security of energy importing countries have raised the awareness of the need for non-fossil based renewable energy sources. This paper presents the effect of operating temperature and equivalence ratio (ER) on the gasification of empty fruit bunch (EFB) in an entrained flow reactor. EFB is one of the most abundant biomass source in Malaysia, being the second largest palm oil processing nation in the world. The temperature ranges of between 700 °C to 900 °C and ER of 0.2 to 0.4 were studied to find the most optimum condition for biomass gasification in an entrained flow gasification system. It was found that the production of synthesis gas increases as the temperature increased, along with the carbon conversion and higher heating value of gas product. The most optimum operating temperature and ER for biomass gasification in the entrained flow gasifier were found at 900°C and 0.3 respectively

Density and diversity of nocturnal birds in oil palm smallholdings in Peninsular Malaysia

Over the past half century, oil palm cultivation has been expanding rapidly throughout many developing countries. Due to its economic importance, large tracts of natural land have been converted into oil palm cultivations and where increasing sightings of nocturnal birds have been made. A survey of nocturnal birds was conducted to assess their density and diversity in the oil palm smallholdings in the Selangor state, Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 90 sampling points were established within three oil palm smallholdings. A total of 1408 individuals of 11 nocturnal bird species were recorded. Based on distance sampling techniques, the density of Spotted Wood-owl (Strix seloputo) was estimated at 7 individuals 100 ha-1, followed by 15 individuals for Sunda Scops-owl (Otus lempiji), five for Barn Owl (Tyto javanica) and 79 for Large-tailed Nightjar (Caprimulgus macrurus) per every 100 ha. The presence of a high density of some nocturnal birds in oil palm smallholdings may be associated with the availability of food source and roosting structure that are linked to habitat heterogeneity in the oil palm smallholdings. Our study highlighted the potential of nocturnal bird species, other than the Barn Owl, as biological control agents in the agricultural areas