Empirical Investigation on Agile Methods Usage: Issues Identified from Early Adopters in Malaysia

Agile Methods are a set of software practices that can help to produce products faster and at the same time deliver what customers want. Despite the benefits that Agile methods can deliver, however, we found few studies from the Southeast Asia region, particularly Malaysia. As a result, less empirical evidence can be obtained in the country making its implementation harder. To use a new method, experience from other practitioners is critical, which describes what is important, what is possible and what is not possible concerning Agile. We conducted a qualitative study to understand the issues faced by early adopters in Malaysia where Agile methods are still relatively new. The initial study involves 13 participants including project managers, CEOs, founders and software developers from seven organisations. Our study has shown that social and human aspects are important when using Agile methods. While technical aspects have always been considered to exist in software development, we found these factors to be less important when using Agile methods. The results obtained can serve as guidelines to practitioners in the country and the neighbouring regions

Factors associated with parenting practices among preschoolers' parents in Ampang and Serdang, Selangor, 2016

Parenting practices is an important factor that determines child's behaviour. In the past 40 years, research proves that child’s development are affected by parenting. Hence, it is also important to know that there are factors that are associated with the parenting practice because that factors can determine whether the parenting being used is good or bad. To determine the factors (parents’ attitude, parental knowledge) associated with parenting practices among preschoolers' parents in Ampang and Serdang, Selangor. This was a cross-sectional study. Self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data from 252 preschoolers’ parents from 14 Tabika KEMAS in Ampang and Serdang, Selangor. The data collected were analysed by using SPSS version 21.0. Parental knowledge (source) and parents’ attitude (overprotective, interest in knowledge) were the most common factors affecting parenting practices of preschoolers' parents from 14 Tabika KEMAS in Ampang and Serdang, Selangor. Overall, parents play an important role in developing skills of good parenting practices to be applied on their children later on

Employability Skill Development of Mechanical Engineering Students Through Project Based Learning in Vocational High School in South Sulawesi

Abstract: Embedding employability skills in learning requires a learning model that allows effective in improving employability skills of students Learning model that if able to meet these expectations is project based learning. This study aims to determine the contribution of project based learning to employability skills of students of SMK Package Engineering Skills Engineering in South Sulawesi. This research uses quantitative approach with non experimental design with sample size 325 students. Data collection uses questionnaires to obtain data on project-based learning implementation and employability skills. The data of the research were analyzed by using descriptive analysis and regression analysis which previously conducted normality and linearity test. Based on the results of the research is known that the implementation of project based learning model contributes to the development of employability skill students of machining engineering SMK 59.8%

Visualisation and characterisation of mononuclear phagocytes in the chicken respiratory tract using CSF1R-transgenic chickens

Additional file 2. Location of B cells, T cells and follicular dendritic cells (FDC) in the lung of MacReporter chickens. The BALT region of 5 to 7 week old non-vaccination animals were analysed for B, T and FCD cells. Isotype controls were used to standardise the microscope and examine aspecific binding before acquiring images (A-B). The GC of MacReporter animals are tightly packed with Bu1-CSF1R-eGFP+ FDC cells and Bu1+CSF1R-eGFP- B cells (C) with few Bu1+ B cells found in the parabronchi (F). CD3+ T cells are disperse within and outside the GC (D) and parabronchi (G). CSF1R-eGFP+ FDC cells express Fc receptors and trap immunoglobulin by expressing IgY (E) and CSF1R-eGFP+ IgY+ FDC are rarely detected out with the GC, BALT region of the lung. GC are indicated by white dashed lines

Voltage Induced Effect for Vibration Suppression Using Eddy Current on Power Steering System

This paper describes the study of vibration suppression by using eddy current as a suppression agent on a power steering system. Vibration occurs due to some factors such as engine vibration, road surfaces, vibration direction, tire characteristics, suspension design and steering devices. The objective of this study is to investigate the voltage induced effect on vibration suppression occurred at power steering system using eddy current braking. Equipments involve are accelerometer, data acquisition (DAQ), electric motor, transformer, aluminium disc and Voltage regulator. Position of the accelerometer was placed at the steering wheel and aluminium disc. Based on the result for frequency domain, in a normal condition, the level of vibration amplitude produce is 0.2348mvolt. while, after voltage was apply to power steering system lowest vibration suppression at steering column (aluminium disc) is 0.166mvolt with 2mm air gap opening using 48 volt power supply. For steering wheel, in a normal condition is the level of vibration is 0.2251mVolt. After voltage was applied to power steering system, the lowest vibration suppression at steering wheel is 0.1836mVolt using 96 Volt of voltage induced. Based on the experimental result, increasing voltage induced managed to reduce vibration on power steering system since the electromagnetic braking force using eddy current increase which act as the vibration suppression agent

Retracted: Three-phase ac to DC CIHRC with wireless power transfer Function

This article was withdrawn and retracted by the Journal of Fundamental and Applied Sciences and has been removed from AJOL at the request of the journal Editor in Chief and the organisers of the conference at which the articles were presented (www.iccmit.net). Please address any queries to [email protected]

Q-Switched Erbium-Doped Fiber Laser Via Vanadium Pentoxide Polyethylene Glycol Saturable Absorber in a Long Band Region

Short pulse erbium-doped fiber laser in anomalous group delay dispersion has been shown to generate soliton output at 1562.4 nm wavelength with 0.4 nm spectral bandwidth. The Q-switching operation was induced by a vanadium oxide polyethylene glycol (V2O5-PEG) film saturable absorber (SA) for all-fiber ring cavity configuration. The pulsed laser has maximum pulse energy of 3.2 nJ, the shortest pulse width of 4.7µs, and maximum output power of 0.4 mW. These findings show that the fabricated vanadium pentoxide film can be an alternative SA device for generating a pulsed laser

A new algorithm to identify nonlinear vibration of car body in white (BIW) structure

In this project, the nonlinear force appropriation identification approach is applied to the detection of nonlinear or piecewise linear stiffness. The methodology will demonstrate using both simulations and experiments by hanging the car body structure with proper elastics bungee cord. The finite element models of the body structures will built in finite element package and perform model updating to minimise error between experimental and numerical results. Mass and stiffness matrices can be extracted after model updating process. The force appropriation method is implemented to determine the force vector that would excite a single mode of the underlying linear structure a time. At the end of the research, the propose method is expected to identify nonlinearity of car body structure