Identification of domains for Malaysian university staff happiness index development

Without any doubt happiness among staff in any organization is pertinent to ensure continued growth and development. However, not many studies were carried out to determine the domains that will be able to measure the level of happiness among staff in universities. Thus, the aim of this study is to elicit the domains that explain the overall happiness index among university staff. A qualitative method using the Nominal Group Technique was employed to collect data from five clusters in a research university in Malaysia. The findings revealed a number of domains and sub-domains that will assist in the development of a happiness index. It is believed that this study will be useful for universities to examine on the level of happiness index in their respective universities

Sustainable livelihood among aquaculture entrepreneurs: the case of Cambodian migrants in Malaysia

This study attempts to discover the sustainable livelihood among the Cambodian migrants who operate the aquaculture industry in Pekan, Pahang. This study is qualitative in nature, based on a focus group discussion conducted among selected Cambodian migrants in Pulau Keladi Baru village in Pekan. The questions included within the interview protocol were largely based on the Pentagon developed by the department for international development. The Pentagon is a framework for sustainable livelihood based on five main capitals, namely human capital, social capital, financial capital, natural capital and physical capital. The data obtained were later transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis

A K-Means and Naive Bayes learning approach for better intrusion detection

Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) have become an important building block of any sound defense network infrastructure. Malicious attacks have brought more adverse impacts on the networks than before, increasing the need for an effective approach to detect and identify such attacks more effectively. In this study two learning approaches, K-Means Clustering and Naïve Bayes classifier (KMNB) are used to perform intrusion detection. K-Means is used to identify groups of samples that behave similarly and dissimilarly such as malicious and non-malicious activity in the first stage while Naive Bayes is used in the second stage to classify all data into correct class category. Experiments were performed with KDD Cup '99 data sets. The experimental results show that KMNB significantly improved and increased the accuracy, detection rate and false alarm of single Naïve Bayes classifier up to 99.6, 99.8 and 0.5%

The Quality of Life (Qol) of the Island People in the State of Terengganu, Malaysia: A Study on Pulau Redang and Pulau Perhentian

Enhancing the Quality of life (QoL) of the population is one of the most important development agenda for any developing countries, including Malaysia. The objective of this study is to examine the QoL of the people on Pulau Redang and Pulau Perhentian, two offshore islands in the state of Terengganu, using the mixed methodology. The findings revealed that nearly 20 percent of the respondents have never received any form of formal education, with more than half of the respondents received primary school education only. This low level education of the parents has resulted in the low level education of the second generation. Education, employment, family life and welfare support are among the factors which influenced the objective (actual) and subjective (perceived) QoL on both islands. The study also showed that the level of the objective and subjective QoL of most of the people on both islands were at the medium level. However, the housing quality was of low standard which affected the quality of peoples' life. The household income somehow influenced the score of the QoL. The study also revealed that the development to enhance the quality of life of the islanders by the government is progressing at a slow pace. The findings based on Pearson correlation also revealed that the objective and subjective QoL were significantly correlated. This means that for most of the people on both islands, the higher their objective QoL, the better their subjective QoL. Key words: Quality of Life; Objective Quality of Life; Subjective Quality of Lfe; Pulau Redang; Pulau Perhentian Résumé: L'amélioration de la qualité de vie (QdV) de la population est l'un des programmes de développement les plus importants pour tous les pays en voie de développement, notamment la Malaisie. L'objectif de cette étude est d'examiner la qualité de vie des habitants de Pulau Redang et de Pulau Perhentian, deux îles dans l'état de Terengganu, en utilisant la méthode mixte. Les résultats ont révélé que près de 20 pour cent des répondants n'ont jamais reçu aucune forme d'éducation formelle, et plus de la moitié des répondants ont reçu une éducation primaire seulement. Le faible niveau d'éducation des parents a abouti à la formation de bas niveau de la deuxième génération. L'éducation, l'emploi, la vie familiale et l'aide sociale sont parmi les facteurs qui ont influencé la qualité de vie objective (réelle) et subjective (perçue) des habitants des deux îles. L'étude a également montré que le niveau de la qualité de vie objective et subjective de la plupart des habitants sur les deux îles a été au niveau moyen. Cependant, un niveau faible de la qualité des logements a affecté la qualité de vie des peuples. Les revenus du ménage a influencé en quelque sorte le score de la qualité de vie. L'étude a également révélé que le développement et l'amélioration de la qualité de vie des habitants entretenus par le gouvernement de l'île progresse à un rythme lent. Les résultats obtenus de la corrélation de Pearson a également révélé que la qualité de vie objective et subjective ont été significativement corrélée. Cela signifie que pour la plupart des habitants sur les deux îles, plus haut le niveau de leur qualité de vie objective, meilleure leur qualité de vie subjective. Mots-clés: Qualité de vie; Qualité de vie objective; Qualité de vie subjective; Pulau Redang;, Pulau Perhentia

The quality of life of Muar river community and socio-economic factors that impinge it

Quality of life is indeed an important contributor for rural community development in Malaysia and this study would like to investigate the quality of life of the community who are living near to the one of the major rivers in Malaysia; The Muar River. This is a quantitative study, through a simple random sampling, a total of 150 people who live near to Muar River have been selected as the respondents. To gain the data needed, respondents were questioned through face to face interviews based on the developed and tested questionnaire. The results indicated that Muar River community has a high level of quality of life. Further analysis has revealed that aspect of home conditions and social involvement and relationship recorded the highest scores. Inferential analyses performed through ANOVA and Pearson product-moment correlation have revealed that income was the only factor that has a significant difference and significant relationship with quality of life. It is suggested that income generating activities such as boat renting, hotel, home-stay and local product shops be established along Muar River. Furthermore, responsible ministries and agencies can promote and advertise Muar River as one of the main tourism attractions in Malaysia

Factors impinging human capital of rural youth in Malaysia

The main aim of the present study is to identify the factors impinging the human capital of rural youth in Malaysia. The study is quantitative in nature whereby a developed questionnaire was used to collect the required data. Via a multi-stage cluster sampling, a total of 240 rural youth from four districts in Peninsular Malaysia had been selected as the respondents. Analysis performed confirmed that rural youth possessed a high level of human capital while specific analysis confirmed that there was a significant difference on human capital with the factor of occupation while significant relationship was detected between human capital and the factors of age and income. Several discussions have been highlighted and expectantly it can offer some ideas to the concerned parties in constructing strategies to further enhance the development of human capital among rural youth in Malaysia