Factors influencing service-oriented organizational citizenship behaviors among nurses

The role of nurses as service personnel in delivering service to patients is important in the healthcare industry. In order to gain competitive advantage in a highly competitive market, an organization should enhance and stimulate the practice of Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (SO-OCBs) among employees. The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that affect SO-OCBs among nurses. A total number of 500 questionnaires were distributed to registered nurses in the state of Penang. However, only 443 questionnaires were usable for analysis. Correlation and regression analysis were conducted in analyzing the data. The findings exhibited that all of the independent variables (perceived organizational support, service climate, organizational service orientation, service commitment, and job satisfaction) are positively related to SO-OCBs. On the other hand, from the result of multiple regression analysis, it indicated that service climate is the strongest factor influencing SO-OCBs of nurses. Service-Oriented Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (SO-OCBs) is vital because it contributes to the overall success of the organization. Therefore, the management of the organization needs to examine the factors affecting SO-OCBs

Comparative taxonomy and breeding behavior of five populations of betta pugnax group (osphronemidae) from Johor, Malaysia [QH1].

Taksonomi dan kelakuan pembiakan kumpulan Betta pugnax berdasarkan lima populasi dari Johor, Malaysia telah dikaji. The taxonomy and breeding behaviour of the Betta pugnax group based on five populations from Johor, Malaysia was investigated

CFD study on Energy Promoter insertion for drag reduction in oil pipelines

In oil and gas industry, transportation of crude oil from terminal to terminal has cost companies enormous amount of money in order to restore back pressure which is lost due to the inner surface friction of the pipeline through pumping operation. In this study, it proposed that a small section of pipeline with energy promoter is added to the pipeline in order to achieve drag reduction effect. CFD Simulation was used to study the drag reduction at various number and configurations of energy promoters. Mesh independence study was conducted to ensure the integrity of the result. The dimension and shape of the energy promoter to learn the relationship between the variable and the drag reduction percentage. ANSYS CFX was used to simulate the flow inside the pipeline with a section of energy promoter embedded at the inner wall. The pipeline with energy promoter is modelled using Solidworks and imported to ANSYS CFX Fluid Flow to undergo simulation. The results obtained were compared with the empirical table to ensure the validity of the simulation procedure. Pressure loss at the outlet will become the parameter to be compared in the case of pipeline with energy promoter and energy promote. Through CFD study, drag reduction effect has been discovered with insertion of Energy Promoter and encouraging results are obtained when the Energy Promoters are arranged in reverse direction with 2mm height. The maximum drag reduction efficiency of energy promoter is approximately 7% and it is possible to further push the boundary for drag reduction efficiency limit. In summary, it is feasible to reduce drag in flow through insertion of energy promote

Land settlement in Malaysia: the possibility of self-sustained development

The Federal Land Development Authority in Malaysia organizes, manages and finances new land settlements. The program of guided land settlement has been successful in bringing approximately 250,000 acres of hitherto uncultivated land under rubber and oil palm cultivation. However, the physical development of the land and the successful crea-tion of economical farm enterprises in the immediate future does not by itself assure that the settlers will be able to improve or at least maintain the planned level of living in the long run. There is a need to investigate and to project the long-term consequences of the present action program. The primary objective of the study was to determine by way of conceptual analysis the adequacy of the Malaysian settlement program in stimulating, establishing and maintaining self-sustained development in the new settlements so that living levels do not fall to subsistence levels in the long run. A subsidiary objective was to suggest alterna-tive courses of action in the light of experiences in other countries which might be applicable to the Malaysian land settlement program. The procedure followed involved identifying those decisions in the design of a land settlement program that might increase the possi-bility of self—sustained development. The Malaysian program was then examined in detail according to the framework of decisions identified to determine its compatibility with, and adequacy in the promotion of self-sustained development. In the study of relevant experiences in other developing countries, preliminary literature review pointed to Israel as the major source of successful land settlements in terms of self-sustained development and continuously improving living levels. The Israeli Moshav was studied in detail because of its similarity in ideology and operational rules to the Malaysian settlements and because of its apparent success. Relevant experiences in the Israeli Moshav supported by significant experiences in other developing countries were used to suggest modifications that might increase the possibility of self-sustained development in the Malaysian Federal Land Development Authority settlement projects. Possibly, applicable programs in the immediate future were also proposed. The study revealed that the present settlement program of the Malaysian Federal Land Development Authority is highly developed and efficient in the development of the land. However, a number of inade-quacies in promoting self-sustained development arise because the pro-gram emphasizes land development more than community development. The inadequacies are as follow: 1. There is lack of emphasis on diversified skills both agricul-tural and nonagricultural in the settler selection process. 2. Inadequate flexibility in resource allocation within the farm is a major problem. 3. The Federal Land Development Authority exercises an extremely paternalistic attitude in the decision-making process within the farm during the developmental stage. 4. There is an over-rigid financial arrangement. 5. Present planning and action to stimulate capital accumulation, investment and expansion of employment within the settlement by promoting diversified agriculture, rural industry and supporting services is inadequate. 6. One program model is applied to all settlements in West Malaysia, thus failing to exploit the diversity in skills, resource ownership and ideological inclinations of the settlers. Based on experiences in the Israeli Moshav and in specific land settlement projects in Sudan, Algeria, Nigeria, Tanzania, Thailand, and Ceylon, recommendations were made to redress the observed inade-quacies in the Malaysian program without excessive additional cost to the Federal Land Development Authority and the government. Two alternative settlement programs—the Graduated Land Allocation Model and the Collective Farming and Individual Consumption Model—were pro-posed. The Graduated Land Allocation Model involves allocation of land by stages according to the ability of the individual settler. The Collective Farming and Individual Consumption Model attempts to provide an alternative to the existing oil palm projects that would emphasize settler community development. Additional work needs to be done to determine the feasibility of these programs in Malaysian land settlement

A comparison of U.S. and Japanese management systems and their transferability to Singapore industry

This research compares U.S. and Japanese management systems and evaluates their transferability to the Singaporean manufacturing industry. The objectives were:- a) To determine the effectiveness of U.S. and Japanese management systems when applied to Singapore. b) Determine the extent of transferability of U.S. and Japanese management systems to Singapore. c) Survey general problems ecountered in the application of U.S. and Japanese management systems to the Singapore industry. The study using questionnaire survey and interviews covered a total of eighty companies from four groups of firms in four industrial sectors comprising of U.S. and Japanese subsidiaries based in Singapore and their respective parent companies. Data from the questionnaires and interviews were used to investigate environmental conditions, management philosophy, management functions/practices, management effectiveness, and firm productivity. Two-way analysis of variance was used to analyse the questionnaire data. The analysis of the perceptual data from the questionnaire survey and interviews suggested that both U.S. and Japanese parent companies performed better in almost all the management variables studied when compared to their subsidiaries in Singapore. U.S. subsidiaries have less difficulty in adjusting to the Singapore environmental conditions and obtained better results than the Japanese subsidiaries in management functions/practices and management philosophy than the U.S. subsidiaries. In addition, the firm productivity (in terms of labour and capital productivity) of U.S. subsidiaries in Singapore was found to be higher than those of the Japanese subsidiaries. It was found that the Japanese parent companies returned the highest score among the four groups of firms in all the four industrial sectors for all the four management variables (i.e. environmental conditions, management philosophy, management functions/practices, and management effectiveness) surveyed using questionnaires. In contrast, the average score for Japanese subsidiaries in Singapore was generally the lowest among the four groups of firms. Thus the results of this study suggest that the transfer of U.S. management system into the Singapore industry is more successful than the Japanese management system. The problems encountered in the application of U.S. and Japanese management in Singapore were identified and discussed by the study. General recommendations for the Singaporean manufacturing industry were then made based on the findings of the questionnaire survey and interview analysis

Genetic Algorithm for Web Data Mining

The use of various search engines could influence the number of search results in the World Wide Web. Therefore, this study attempted to discover any association between the word types or the information types used to search through the World Wide Web using the available search engines. By doing so, it could assist the process of data mining for information in the World Wide Web. This study used a prototype program based on genetic algorithm to manipulate the initial set of data. Three sets of inputs were used to generate new populations based on the individual fitness. New strains of individuals from a new population were used to test the results obtained from the World Wide Web. Eight search engines used for this study were tested with two groups of words. All the eight words were used as keyword search in all the eight search engines, and the numbers of web pages returned by each search engines were collected. The total web pages based on the selected new individuals were calculated and tabulated. In order to find any association between the search word and the search engines combinations, the individuals were ranked based on the most web pages to the least according to each of the eight words. Results obtained through the creation of new populations by the prototype program showed that the average fitness of each population improves as new populations were created and new strains of individuals were created through this evolution process. The test on results obtained from the Internet showed that certain class of words could be associated by certain combination of search engines

ASSESSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A COMBAT UGV SWARM IN URBAN OPERATIONS

Due to its complexity, an urban area is a challenging multi-dimensional environment for ground warfare. Recent technological advancements have enabled militaries to utilize different-size unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) to support a variety of missions. This thesis presents guidance algorithms for a search and kill mission developed for some generic UGV swarms, which may be an attractive application, particularly for smaller UGVs operating in an urban environment. Through a series of computer simulations, the research evaluates the feasibility and effectiveness of the algorithms in executing such a mission in indoor and outdoor urban environments. The developed simulation allows varying many parameters, thus achieving closeness to the real-world situation when different environments, platforms, sensors, and weapons are used. Computer simulations presented in this paper may also assist military leaders in choosing key mission parameters to maximize the outcome of potential future engagements.http://archive.org/details/assessingtheeffe1094560354Outstanding ThesisArmy, SingaporeApproved for public release; distribution is unlimited

Antibody-mediated therapy against HIV/AIDS: Where are we standing now?

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) cases are on the rise globally. To date, there is still no effective measure to eradicate the causative agent, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) is being used in HIV/AIDS management, but it results in long-term medication and has major drawbacks such as multiple side effects, high cost, and increasing the generation rate of escape mutants. In addition, HAART does not control HIV-related complications, and hence more medications and further management are required. With this, other alternatives are urgently needed. In the past, small molecule inhibitors have shown potent antiviral effects, and some of them are now being evaluated in clinical trials. The challenges in developing these small molecules for clinical use include the off-target effect, poor stability, and low bioavailability. On the other hand, antibody-mediated therapy has emerged as an important therapeutic modality for anti-HIV therapeutics development. Many antiviral antibodies, namely, broad neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs) against multiple strains of HIV, have shown promising effects in vitro and in animal studies; further studies are ongoing in clinical trials to evaluate their uses in clinical applications. This short review aims to discuss the current development of therapeutic antibodies against HIV and the challenges in adopting them for clinical use

Iterative Collaborative Ranking of Customers and Providers

This paper introduces a new application: predicting the Internet provider-customer market. We cast the problem in the collaborative filtering framework, where we use current and past customer-provider relationships to compute for each Internet customer a ranking of potential future service providers. Furthermore, for each Internet service provider (ISP), we rank potential future customers. We develop a novel iterative ranking algorithm that draws inspiration from several sources, including collaborative filtering, webpage ranking, and kernel methods. Further analysis of our algorithm shows that it can be formulated in terms of an affine eigenvalue problem. Experiments on the actual Internet customer-provider data show promising results