House price volatility metamodel for managing house price volatility knowledge

A change in house price is a situation that is very dynamic and unpredictable. The study found that changes in house price volatility are more dynamic than the changes in the price of goods or household income. Demographic changes, market forces and the rise of speculation are among the factors that influence the volatility in house prices. Through this research all the determining factors associated with changes in house price volatility were identified because the changes on the determinant factors have an impact on the pattern of the house price market. For the purposes of showing a comprehensive relationship between the determinants of house price with house price volatility, the methods in modelling the concept in software engineering known as metamodelling has been adapted. Through metamodelling, an artifact known as 'metamodel' is produced. Specifically for this study, the metamodel is known as House Price Volatility Metamodel (HPVM). By combining qualitative and quantitative methods, the development of HPVM implemented using 8 Step Metamodelling Creation process, where HPVM is capable of modeling the determinant factors that determine the volatility in house prices in three major categories: i) Socio-Economic view, ii) Economic view and iii) HPV Significant Value view. Three types of validation technique, Expert Review (Face to Face Validation), Frequency-Base Selection and Tracing (Case Study) in three states in Malaysia, namely Penang, Johor and Kuala Lumpur have been used to assess the effectiveness of the metamodel. Metamodel development is believed to be beneficial to various stakeholders in the domain of property market such as the government like from Ministry of Finance, real estate investors, economists, buyers and real estate practitioners where they are able to get a variety of views and considerations in assessing house price market and house price volatility. These considerations are very important in evaluating the real estate market, as it will be an input in decisionmaking basis for this field

Hubungan Persepsi Latihan Dengan Kepuasan Kerja Di Kalangan Guru-Guru Koperasi Sekolah-Sekolah Menengah Zon Sentul, Wilayah Persekutuan : Satu Kajian Emperikal

This emperical study was conducted among the co-operative teachers at 11 secondary schools in Sentul Zone, Wilayah Persekutuan. The main aim of this research is to investigate; (i) perception of adequate training and job satisfaction; (ii) perception of beneficial training and job satisfaction, (iii) demographic factors that have significant relationship with job satisfaction, (iv) the level of job satisfaction among the cooperative teachers, and (v) to detect the predictors of job satisfaction. Questionnaire was constructed based on the measurement suggested by; (I) Koning, 1993, which focused on 6 items on adequate training, (ii) Garavan and Cinneide, 1994, which consists of 12 items on beneficial training, and (iii) 15 items on job satisfaction by Chalykoff and Kochan, 1989. Selected demographic factors analysed are age, gender, academic qualification, working experience, teaching periods, performance appraisal and rewards. Research findings showed that; (i) there is a positive and significant relationship between beneficial training and job satisfaction, (ii) teaching periods a negative and significant relationship with job satisfaction, and (iii) there is a difference in job satisfaction among the co-operative teachers. Other hyphotheses testing are not significant and are not supported. Finally, researcher would like to make recommendations to the administrators which are; (i) to give full commitment to the co-operative activities without depending totally on Jabatan Pembangunan Koperasi, and (ii) it is an advantage to apply Strategic Management techniques to improve the work and the school co-operative performance

Integrated Marketing Communication:Where does it stand in the Malaysian Institutions of Higher Education?

Globalization foresees the rapid development of information technology (IT) and the Internet,where by customer’s choices grow at a very fast rate.These factors are well reflected in the extremely competitive market environment in institutions of higher education (IHEs) (Dawes & Brown, 2002)

The development and validation of maternal spiritual characteristics scale.

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a family counseling instrument that measures maternal spiritual characteristics. Particularly, the instrument aims to measure three domains of spirituality namely, Maternal Piety, Mercy and Accountability. These characteristics are considered as the characteristics for functional Muslim mothers. The study is designed into three phases. The first phase is a pilot study of a focus group from an Islamic Integrated Primary School (IIPS). In this phase, Cronbach’s alpha is employed to assess the reliability index. Accordingly, Principle Component Analysis is employed to explore the underlying dimensions of Maternal Piety, Mercy and Accountability. The second phase is an ex-post facto study that involved 12 IIPS in the Klang Valley of Malaysia. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is utilized to examine the construct validity of the instrument. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to investigate the relationship between maternal spiritual characteristics and mother-child attachment as supporting evidence for the criterion-related validity. The third phase was a cross-sectional study that involved 1000 students (age 13-17) from various secondary schools (inclusive of religious and non religious schools) of 4 states in Malaysia. In this phase, multistage cluster sampling technique is employed to select 200 students from each age group of Form 1,2,3,4 and 5. The results provide evidence that the instrument has sound psychometrics properties. This instrument has succeeded the standard Cronbach’s alpha > .70 for internal consistency and proportion variance explained > 50 % for the dimensions of Maternal Piety , Mercy and Accountability . The goodness-of -fit measures GFI, AGFI, IFI, TLI, and CFI > .90 and RMSEA < .08 are evidences for construct validity. Moreover, the criterion-related validity is supported with the findings of significant positive relationship between maternal spiritual characteristics and mother-child attachment. In short, Maternal Spiritual Characteristics Scales (MSCS) is a reliable and valid instrument. Hence, it may be used for the assessment in family counseling and other related studies

Measuring the unmeasurable: maternal piety scales

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument that measures maternal spiritual characteristics. Particularly, the instrument aims to measure a domain of spirituality which is commonly regarded as “the un-measurable” i.e. Maternal Piety. The study was conducted in two phases. The first phase was a longitudinal study of a focus group from an Islamic Integrated Primary School (IIPS). In, this phase Cronbach’s alpha was employed to assess the reliability index. Accordingly, Principal Component Analysis was employed to explore the underlying dimensions of Maternal Piety. The second phase was an ex-post facto study that involved 12 IIPS in the Klang Valley area. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was utilized to examine the construct validity of the instrument. Finally, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilized to investigate the relationship between Maternal Piety (MP) and Maternal Quality Relationship (MQR) as supporting evidence for the criterion-related validity. The results provided evidence that the instrument achieved sound psychometrics properties. This instrument succeeded the standard Cronbach’s alpha > 0.70 for internal consistency and the proportion of variance explained was >0 50 % for the three dimensions of Maternal Piety. The goodness-of-fit measures GFI, AGFI, IFI, TLI, and CFI were > 0.90 and RMSEA was < 0.08 which were evidences for construct validity. Moreover, the findings supported the postulation that MP positively influenced MQR as evidence for the criterion-related validity. In short, Maternal Piety Scales is a reliable and valid instrument. From the practical standpoint, it suggests that spirituality is no longer remaining aloof in theoretical forms and neither exclusive for theologians only

Failure of steel fabric wall-slab connection under gravity load / Siti Aishah Abdullah

Steel reinforcement used for concrete structure has assumed a major role in construction industry. Many contractors are looking to replace the steel reinforcement used in reinforced concrete structural elements such as shear wall to steel fabrics because its ability to reduce construction time is also in line with Government emphasis on Industrialized Building System (IBS)-prefabrication and automation in order to solve the increasingly great shortage of construction workers in Malaysia. The performance of the wall slab connection becomes more important because most of the reinforced concrete failures occur at the connection of the main structure element not because of any inadequacies in analysis of the structure or in the design but because of inadequate to the detailing of reinforcement. The problem becomes more significant in the case of wall-slab connection as there are no specific provisions design code cater for this type of connection. Analysis of wall-slab connection model can be analyzing using LUSAS of version 14.3 using 3 dimensional models. In this study 5:4 wall to slab thickness ratio, concrete grade 30 N/mm2, 510 N/mm2 yield strength of the steel fabric and 460 N/mm2 yield strength of the ordinary reinforcement were used to the models. While aspect ratio (h/1) and slenderness ratio (h/t) used are 1.5 and 20 respectively. The models were analyzed under vertical load of 35 kN with eccentricity of approximately 600 mm from the face of the wall and about 400 mm to the edge of the slab. The support for the model is fully fixed at the wall ends and pinned at the slab far end. The analysis shows that the wall-slab connection model using welded steel fabric as reinforcement in structure panel would help to reduce the stresses and strain about fifty percent compared to ordinary reinforcement while in term of displacement and deformation shape it would help the concrete elements to reduce the value of the deformation and displacement value at the connection area about ten percent compare to ordinary reinforcement. Thus, further care has to be taken in detailing the connection to ensure safer behaviour was provided during application of vertical loads. From the deformation shape also clearly show that under applied load, the compression forces develop at the upper part of connection and extended throughout the thickness of the slab causing the steel reinforcement to yield. So by using welded steel fabric with high strength would help to prevent the connection to fail because a welded steel fabric has ability to elongate the reinforcement during yielding. To a great extend, through this research analysis, it is proved that the finite element program is an excellent method because it can calculate stress of the structural element which is impossible for the engineer to calculate it manually

Early intervention implementation preschool special education students in Malaysia

Academic excellence of students with special needs depends on many factors such as the level of individual intelligence, slow development, the level of hearing loss, vision problems and age at diagnosis. Children who have been identified to undergo continued in the preschool early intervention such as the use of hearing aids, provide training in language and communication, socialization, teaching them how to read and write using Braille, improve motor skills, orientation and mobility to increase student confidence. The findings of previous studies have found the teachers lack the skills, knowledge, experience and the lack of disclosure of the technical conduct of early intervention. Therefore this study was conducted to explore the practice of implementation of early intervention preschool special education towards preparation for school. This study used a qualitative approach with case study design. Data were collected through structured interview techniques and document analysis. The study used purposive sampling involving three preschool special education teachers with learning disabilities, vision and hearing. Data was analyzed using ATLAS. ti 7.1.8.The findings show that there are seven themes identified practices affecting the implementation of early intervention teachers\u27 understanding of early intervention, early intervention program implementation practices, Preschool Special Education curriculum, teacher recruitment, infrastructure, collaboration and monitoring. The implications of these findings suggest that preschool teachers need specialized training in the implementation of early intervention in preschool special education. The Ministry of Education should devise strategies to improve pre-school teachers in order to help special education students toward school supplies

The implications of integrated marketing communication in maintaining student relationship of a Malaysian public institution of higher education

Integrated marketing communication (IMC) is a business process that improves the higher education institutions’ marketing strategy by sending clear and consistent messages throughout the institutions in every contact point. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the strategic processes of IMC in the Malaysian public institution of higher education (IHE) and its correlation with leadership in maintaining student relationship. Quantitative analysis was performed to observe the level of IMC implementation and leadership styles exhibited in the selected Malaysian IHE. The IMC four-stage framework and seven dimensions of full range leadership theory, which comprises of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership theory served as the basis of the study. The study found that the lecturers and administrative staffs of the Malaysian public university in Penang were adequately experienced in their job. They have also played their roles well by communicating with the students, and were thus respected, appreciated, and trusted by their students. Hence, they have created a strong emotional bond with the customer, and at the same time, maintained internal stakeholder relationships

The relationship between transformational leadership, organizational culture and employees job performance of Abu Dhabi National Oil Company

Optimum job performance is often the primary result that organization seek to achieve. Available literatures have shown that leaders’ behavior shape organizational culture which lead to optimum job performance, thereby contributing to organizational success. However, despite compelling evidence on previous studies on the effects of transformational leadership and organizational culture and employees’ performance, there is an overwhelming lack of insights regarding the dynamics and interplay of transformational leadership and employees’ job performance in Middle Eastern countries such as UAE. Likewise, based on preliminary interview conducted, employees’ job performance at Abu Dhabi oil and gas companies is not satisfactory. Therefore, this research examined the effect of transformational leadership on job performance of employees at Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, with the mediating role of organizational culture. In this quantitative research work, a structured questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale was used as the instrument for data collection from the total of 450 respondents from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. The validity and reliability of the measurement and structural models were ascertained. The Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the hypotheses. Findings of this research revealed a moderate level of transformational leadership, organizational culture and job performance. Furthermore, the result reveals that there was a substantial mediating effect of organizational culture on the relationship between transformational leadership style and job performance. The results add to the existing literature by incorporating variables that might improve job performance. It is recommended that UAE oil and gas companies to enhance their organizational culture by hiring managers with transformational leadership qualities. Through this, employees’ job performance can be improved, leading to a positive and significant effect on overall organizational performance. The research also addressed the implication of practices and future research

Conceptions of functions among first degree and diploma students / Siti Aishah Sheikh Abdullah

The concept of functions is one of the most important topics in mathematics learning. However many studies have indicated various difficulties students exhibited in learning the concept of functions. Tall & Vinner used the term concept images to describe how students think about concepts. A person S concept image can differ greatly from the formal mathematical definitions of the concept. This study explores an aspect of understanding the concept of functions related to this theme. One hundred and ninety university students from two different universities and with a different academic background participated in the study. The first group of students were diploma students in their second semester of engineering programme. The second group were first year students enroll in science based degree in another higher institutions. Data were gathered from questionnaires which asked students to identify functions in graphic and algebraic forms. They were also requested to give reasons for their choices. A large number of students indicated a strong tendency to observe function only as a formula between x and y. Their justification for rejecting or accepting representations of functions showed a rather rigid and limited understanding of the concept. Many were unable to give clear reasoning explaining their choices according to the formal definition from their previous learning