Tahap Penerimaan Guna Amalan Pertanian Tepat dalam Kalangan Pesawah di Sawah Sempadan, Selangor, Malaysia

Kerajaan, melalui Kementerian Pertanian dan Industri Asas Tani, telah memperkenalkan Amalan Pertanian Tepat (APT) berdasarkan Manual Semak Padi untuk meningkatkan pengeluaran padi dan pada masa yang sama mengurangkan import beras. Walau bagaimanapun, pengenalan kepada teknologi baru ini kurang memberi kesan yang menyeluruh, sebagaimana yang diukur daripada tahap pengeluaran dan perbandingan dengan negara pengeluar beras yang lain. Kajian-kajian lampau mendapati bahawa faktor sikap, pengetahuan dan kemahiran dapat menyumbang kepada penerimaanguna teknologi. Tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk mengenal pasti tahap sikap, pengetahuan dan kemahiran yang mungkin memberi kesan kepada penerimaanguna APT dalam penanaman padi. Kajian ini juga melihat pengaruh umur, saiz sawah padi, tahap pendidikan, sumber maklumat APT dan penglibatan petani dalam aktiviti-aktiviti sosial terhadap penerimaanguna APT. Kajian ini melibatkan 119 orang responden yang telah dipilih secara Convenience Sampling Method untuk menjadi sampel kajian. Mereka adalah pesawah yang mengusahakan padi di Sawah Sempadan, IADABLS. Maklumat dikumpul menggunakan borang soalselidik yang diisi sendiri oleh responden. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa sikap, pengetahuan dan kemahiran mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan penerimaanguna APT. Sementara semua faktor demografi tidak mempunyai hubungan yang signifikan dengan penerimaanguna APT. Sikap dan kemahiran menyumbang kepada penerimaanguna APT, namun pengetahuan tidak menyumbang kepada penerimaanguna APT. Penerimaanguna APT dalam kalangan pesawah di Sawah Sempadan, Selangor adalah berada pada tahap tinggi. Tahap APT yang tinggi ini menunjukkan pesawah di Sawah Sempadan mempunyai sikap, pengetahuan dan kemahiran terhadap penerimaanguna APT yang baik. Pihak berwajib khususnya Jabatan Pertanian perlulah berusaha mengekalkan lagi dan seterusnya meningkatkan lagi penerimaanguna APT dengan cara memberi latihan dan bimbingan yang dapat mengubah sikap, pengetahuan dan kemahiran pesawah

Revisiting exchange concept: A rationale for marketing mix in Islamic Marketing / Johari Abdullah

Marketing mix has been the cornerstone of the discipline and dominating marketing early thought. This concept has been the focal point in the development of conventional managerial paradigm with strong adherence to its normative pillars of ‘4 Ps’. History has shown that a new paradigm constantly shifting the status quo of such concept into more advance findings. The objective of this paper is to present the rationale of marketing mix in Islamic marketing. Despite the evolution of marketing mix paradigm over more than 40 years, it is undeniable that such classical marketing canon has its root from concept of exchange. By using both qualitative and quantitative approaches in the development of instruments has led to the development of the 5Cs model. It is aimed to proposed a more advance finding derived from an Islamic perspective towards the concept. In depth literature review and survey has found a distinct set of marketing mix variables catering to Muslim consumer that are in line with Islamic principles. 5Cs models of Commitment, Characteristics, Conformity, Conscience, Customer centric offers a new way of marketing to Muslim consumers governed by Islamic principles and injunctions. Therefore, 5Cs model can be applied in many areas, for instance in Halal industry. It is recommended that business and academia will apply and further develop the model as it will enrich the framework and as to remain relevant

Psychometric properties of organisational structure scale in the Malaysian public service agencies: Preliminary results

Organisational structure has been assessed with various different scales resulting in inconsistencies in the measures of this construct. Hence, a re-conceptualisation of the organisational structure construct is crucial due to the fact that researchers have thus far provided inconclusive agreement on what dimensions should be included in measuring organisational structure, although many studies have conceptualized organisational structure as a multidimensional construct. This study attempted to examine the psychometric properties of the organisational structure construct by integrating four subscales – decision making, hierarchy of authority, job codification, and rule observation. A priori proposition was made that organisational structure measurement could be explained by four of the hypothesised dimensions. SPSS version 12 and AMOS 4 were used to analyse the data. Findings supported the hypothesis that organisational structure can be measured by the four aforementioned subscales. Findings also showed acceptable internal consistency reliability for the overall and the four specific subscales of organisational structure latent construct

Postpartum Reproductive Performance Of Kedah Kelantan Cattle And Its Crossbreds

The calving interval of 286 Kedah-Kelantan (KK) cattle and KK crossbreds were obtained from the individual cow breeding records from a crossbreeding project between 1988 to 1990 at Livestock Research Centre MARDI, Kluang, Johore. Postpartum ovarian activity and fertility in 80 suckled cows were studied using clinical observation and progesterone radioimmunoassay. The effect of restricted suckling period on the subsequent reproductive performance of the cows and the growth of their calves were investigated using 46 Kedah-Kelantan and KK cross bred cows.The objectives of these studies were to compare the calving interval and the postpartum ovarian activity and fertility of KK crosses to that of straightbred KK and to evaluate the effect of restricted suckling period on the subsequent reproductive performance of the cows as well as their calves growth performance. The present results showed that the KK and KK crossbred cows had satisfactory reproductive performance. The mean calving intervals of KK, Brahman-KK (BK), Rereford-KK (RK) and Friesian-KK (FK) were 12.6+0.1, 12.4+0. 14, 11.9+0 . 11 and 12.3+0. 14 months, respectively. The first calving interval tended to be the longest, while the fourth, fifth and sixth calving interval tended to be the shortest

The Existence of Alternative Framework in Students’ Scientific Imagination on the Concept of Matter at Submicroscopic Level: Macro Imagination

This study is conducted with the purpose of identifying the alternative framework contained in students’ imagination on the concept of matter at submicroscopic level. Through the design of purposive sampling techniques, a total of 15 students are interviewed to obtain the data. Data from analysis document is utilized to strengthen the interview. The qualitative data is analyzed using the grounded theory analysis strategy. The finding shows there is an existence of alternative framework in the students’ scientific imagination: macro imagination. The image of hydrogen gas is the highest macro alternative framework imagination generated by the students while the second is the water molecules formation and followed by hydrogen molecules collision. On the other hand, no imagination is produced on the hydrogen electron. Hence, the emphasis on scientific concept upon imagination must be enhanced so that they are able to master the chemistry concepts at submicroscopic level. The summary of the implications of the study suggests that the teachers need to associate the students’ imagination with the related science concepts so that even they are imagining according to their own capabilities and interest propensity, they are still maintaining the scientific perspective in the course of their imagination. Keywords: Imagination with alternative framework, Qualitative, Chemistry education, Submicroscopic level, Guided imagery, Macro imaginatio

Fiber Orientation In Short Fiber Reinforced Thermoplastic Composites

The objective of this project basically is to study the fiber orientation in short fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites especially at the geometry where the convergence and divergence flow is expected to occur. The material used for the study is chopped glass fiber 3mm in length as the reinforcement and high density polyethylene as the matrix. The study also includes a comparison of fiber orientation and the mechanical properties of the composites with different volume fraction of glass fiber. The volume fraction used is 5%, I 0%, 15% and 20% of glass fiber. The mold for the sample is using the standard shape for tensile test or called "dumbbell" shape. The advantage of this mold is able to investigate both the fiber orientation and the mechanical properties using the same mold geometry. The samples are produced using injection molding process with controlled parameters. The samples are characterized using micrographic test for the fiber orientation study and tensile test for the mechanical properties determination. The results show the fiber orientation in the sample confirm with the expected result with slight variation due to processing effects. While for the mechanical test show as the volume fraction increase the Young Modulus also increase. Therefore can be concluded that volume fraction of glass fiber have an effects to the fiber orientation and mechanical properties of the composite

Conceptualizing Muslim Consumer Religiosity: Challenges and Recommendations for Future Research

Recent trends focused on religion as an essential aspect of culture that affects Muslim consumer behavior, especially religiosity. Nonetheless, conceptualizing religiosity for Muslims shows the complexity of the concept that transcends culture and fields of study. Therefore, researchers face challenges in understanding religiosity and its role in predicting consumer behavior. This paper sheds some light on the topic by highlighting these challenges to provide insight for future research agendas

Development of matter concept on submicroscopic level across ages

This study is conducted to understand the development of the matter concept on the submicroscopic level among students of various age groups (16-17 and 24-25 years). A qualitative study with descriptive design was implemented across the ages. A total of ten open-ended questions from Ujian Kefahaman Konsep Jirim Pada Aras Submikroskopik (SUKKJPAS) were used to collect the data. 604 secondary students and training institute teachers were chosen using random sampling for this study. The data then were analysed using descriptive study and content analysis. The finding shows that the development of the matter concept on the submicroscopic level among the students is moderate from the scientific explanation aspect and poor from the scientific drawing aspect. Majority of the students has a basic knowledge about scientific explanation and scientific drawing, in fact, the matter concept also has becomes better across the ages from scientific explanation. Hence, this study recommends the teachers to emphasize on generating a drawing during in giving explanation about chemical phenomenon or situation so that the students will have a better understanding and at the same time familiarize the students with the scientific drawing. Students on the other hands should be encouraged to adapt this concept in giving explanation about chemical phenomenon or situation

An improved simulated annealing algorithm to avoid crosstalk in optical omega network

A major problem called crosstalk is introduced by Optical Omega Network (OON), which is caused by coupling two signals within a Switching Element (SE). It is important to focus on an efficient solution to avoid crosstalk, which is routing the traffic through an N times N optical network to avoid coupling two signals within each SE. Optimal routing in OON is an NP-hard problem. Many heuristic algorithms were designed by many researchers to perform this routing. Routing the messages in degree-decreasing of the message conflicts gave best performance among them. When Simulated Annealing (SA) algorithm was used to solve the problem, it gave good results. It is a good idea to use these two algorithms to improve the performance. This paper presents an Improved SA (ISA) for message routing in OON that combines SA algorithm with the best heuristic algorithms. Simulation Results show that the proposed ISA can be a competitive choice for solving the crosstalk problem

Characterization of the fuel properties of ananas comosus leaf for thermal application

In recent years, the demand of energy in Malaysia increases significantly. It is generally accepted that the source of fossil fuel will be depleted in future since it is classify as non-renewable energy. Consequently, Malaysia is a country rich in biomass energy resource that easily can be converted into biomass fuel for thermal applications such as AnanasComosus leaf for clean energy production. This study is aimed to characterizing AnanasComosus leaf of N36 hybrid, selected from between ‘Gandul' (Spanish) and the ‘Smooth Cayenne'.The physical and chemical properties of the AnanasComosus leaf were analyzed using ultimate analysis, proximate analysis and heating value. The thermal decomposition behavior of the fuel was determined through thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). From the result obtained, the parameter of ignition temperature (Tign) 322°C and maximum temperature (Tmax) 367°C, and final temperature (Tf) 810°C were gathered. The total weight of the fuel remaining at Tfwas 14.01% signifying that the conversion of the fuel will result in 85.99% conversion