Acceptance and usage of webcasting among users of selected cyber cafes in Klang Valley

The Malaysian public now has access to the Internet not only at home and the workplace, but also at cyber cafés. This study aims to examine the level of acceptance of webcasting among users of selected cyber cafés in the Klang Valley. The specific objectives of the study are: to determine the profile of webcasting users and its usage; to determine the types of webcasting technology most frequently used, level of knowledge of webcasting and the main source of knowledge in becoming aware of webcasting; to determine the acceptance of webcasting among non-users of webcasting; and to determine the relationship between behavioral intention to use and the actual usage of webcasting among users of webcasting. This study used the survey design, using purposive sampling to select the cyber cafés and visitors of these cafés. The findings indicate that usage of webcasting is still relatively low among users of selected cyber cafés in the Klang Valley. Users of webcasting were found to be mostly male, young and relatively well educated with at least a diploma as the highest level of education obtained

Molarity model of mass transfer process for extraction in rotating disc contractor column

In the rotating disc contactor (RDC) column, liquid-liquid extraction process occurs when one of the liquid phase (drops) is dispersed into another liquid phase (continuous phase). The mass transfer process occurs when the drops flows countercurrent to the continuous phase. In this study, a new mass transfer model will be presented. A number of mass transfer models have been developed. These models are Initial Approach of Mass Transfer (IAMT) model, Boundary Approach of Mass Transfer (BAMT) model and Simultaneous Discrete Mass Transfer (S-DMT) model. IAMT model is a model for mass transfer when the drops first enter the column and move upward the column. BAMT model is a model of mass transfer where the drops already exist in the whole column initially. Meanwhile S-DMT model is a modification of the BAMT model where the concentration of drops in S-DMT model is being determined by using number of particle. In this study, the S-DMT model will be modified in order to develop the Molarity Model of Mass Transfer (MM-MT). In MM-MT, the method to determine the concentration of drops and continuous phase is being substitute with molarity. Molarity is a method in chemistry to determine the concentration of a chemical solution. Since the system that involves in this study is cumene/ water/ acid isobutiric, molarity is used to improve the S-DMT model. A program for MM-MT was developed by using software C++ 6.0. After the program was test, the real simulation of mass transfer process that occurs in the RDC column has been run. The simulation took 500 iterations to complete. The results obtained from the MM-MT simulation were being compared with the result obtained from Separation Process System (SPS). The error for concentration of drops and continuous phase has been determined and this error showed whether the MM-MT model is better than the S-DMT model

Modeling and Forecasting Volatility of the Malaysian and the Singaporean stock indices using Asymmetric GARCH models and Non-normal Densities

This paper examines and estimate the three GARCH(1,1) models (GARCH, EGARCH and GJR-GARCH) using the daily price data. Two Asian stock indices KLCI and STI are studied using daily data over a 14-years period. The competing Models include GARCH, EGARCH and GJR-GARCH used with three different distributions, Gaussian normal, Student-t, Generalized Error Distribution. The estimation results show that the forecasting performance of asymmetric GARCH Models (GJR-GARCH and EGARCH), especially when fat-tailed asymmetric densities are taken into account in the conditional volatility, is better than symmetric GARCH. Moreover, its found that the AR(1)-GJR model provide the best out-of- sample forecast for the Malaysian stock market, while AR(1)-EGARCH provide a better estimation for the Singaporean stock market.ARCH-Models, Asymmetry, Stock market indices and volatility modeling, SAS/ETS software.

Modifications of the Limited Memory BFGS Algorithm for Large-scale Nonlinear Optimization

In this paper we present two new numerical methods for unconstrained large-scale optimization. These methods apply update formulae, which are derived by considering different techniques of approximating the objective function. Theoretical analysis is given to show the advantages of using these update formulae. It is observed that these update formulae can be employed within the framework of limited memory strategy with only a modest increase in the linear algebra cost. Comparative results with limited memory BFGS (L-BFGS) method are presented.</p

Capacity And Capability Building In the Indigenous Cntractor Through Technology Transfer.

The indigenous construction firms in developing countries are characterized by mostly small and the lack of capacity and capability, confidence, motivation, long term aspirations, etc

Tahap Profesionalisme Pegawai Perkhidmatan Tadbir dan Diplomatik

Tujuan kajian adalah untuk mengetahui tahap profesi onalisme pegawai PTD yang berkhidmat di dalam bidang Pengurusan Sumber Tenaga Manusia berdasarkan lapan kriteria profesionalisme terpilih.Sampel kajian terdiri daripada 120 pegawai PTD dari tujuh agensi perkhid· matan awam yang mengkhusus dalam bidang Pengurusan Sumber Tenaga Manu· sia. Pengumpulan data dibuat melalui soal selidik, temutanya dan kajian ke atas bahan-bahan bertulis. Statistik yang digunakan bagi menganalisis data termasuklah kekerapan, min, mod, sisihan lazim, korelasi Pearson (Pearson r), analisis varians sehala, ujian Scheffe dan ujian Tukey. Hasil kajian menunjukkan bahawa tahap profesionalisme responden secara keseluruhan adalah sederhana. Kajian ini juga menunjukkan bahawa tahap profe· sionalisme responden adalah sederhana berdasarkan kritria (1) penguasaan pengetahuan dan kemahiran; (2) kepentingan latihan dalam profesion PTD; (3) kepentingan pertubuhan profesional dan penglibatan responden di dalam PPTD; (4) kepentingan pengkhususan bidang tugas; (5) identifikasi kumpulan; dan (6) amalan etika kerja

Practical Volatility Modeling for Financial Market Risk Management

Being able to choose most suitable volatility model and distribution specification is a more demanding task. This paper introduce an analyzing procedure using the Kullback-Leibler information criteria (KLIC) as a statistical tool to evaluate and compare the predictive abilities of possibly misspecified density forecast models. The main advantage of this statistical tool is that we use the censored likelihood functions to compute the tail minimum of the KLIC, to compare the performance of a density forecast models in the tails. We include an illustrative simulation and an empirical application to compare a set of distributions, including symmetric/asymmetric distribution, and a family of GARCH volatility models. We highlight the use of our approach to a daily index, the Kuala Lumpur Composite index (KLCI). Our results shows that the choice of the conditional distribution appear to be a more dominant factor in determining the adequacy of density forecasts than the choice of volatility model. Furthermore, the results support the Skewed for KLCI return distribution.Density forecast; Conditional distribution; Forecast accuracy; KLIC; GARCH models

Explaining cohesion linkages in workgroups: the cooperative communication in collectivism and high power distance workgroup context

This study develops a multi-level model to advance research on how cultural context in workplace moderates the relationship between cooperative communication and group cohesion in a collectivist workplace setting. We tested the model by using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) with the data obtained from 375 employees representing 48 workgroups in a Malaysian organization. It is revealed that at the group level of analysis, cooperative communication is more strongly related to group cohesion-based in the collectivist cultural context in the individual level of analysis. On the other hand, the power distance context in the work group at the individual level of analysis did not moderate the relationship between cooperative communication and group cohesion in the group level of analysis. Practical implications are discussed

Memanfaatkan teknologi maklumat dan komunikasi (ICT) untuk semua

Kehadiran pelbagai teknologi maklumat dan komunikasi (ICT) telah mengubah cara manusia berkomunikasi, bekerja, berdagang, dan melakukan aktiviti harian. Menyedari betapa pentingnya pengetahuan dan kemahiran ICT, pihak kerajaan dan swasta telah menyediakan kemudahan di pusat ICT untuk orang ramai mendapatkan pendedahan, pengetahuan, dan perkhidmatan yang berkaitan. Oleh yang demikian, anggota masyarakat perlu memanfaatkan kemudahan ICT yang ada di tempat masing-masing untuk mendapatkan pengetahuan dan kemahiran demi untuk pemajuan diri, keluarga dan masyarakat. Untuk memastikan anggota masyarakat dapat melakukan yang terbaik untuk memanfaatkan ICT, maka sejarah perkembangan ICT akan dibincangkan dan diikuti dengan senarai sumber ICT yang terdapat di negara ini yang dapat digunakan oleh anggota masyarakat. Ini disusuli dengan perbincangan tentang peranan ICT terhadap masyarakat yang memberi gambaran betapa pentingnya ICT dan sumbangannya terhadap anggota masyarakat. Beberapa usaha yang dilaksanakan oleh pihak kerajaan dan swasta untuk orang ramai memanfaatkan ICT turut dipaparkan supaya maklumat ini memberi gambaran betapa komitednya pihak berkaitan menjayakan hasrat ini. Untuk memastikan usaha untuk memanfaatkan ICT dapat dilakukan dengan berkesan, maka beberapa penyelidikan berkaitan penggunaan ICT dalam kalangan anggota masyarakat telah diutarakan. Antara hasil kajian yang diberi penekanan adalah kesan positif penggunaan komputer dalam kalangan penduduk luar bandar, dan peningkatan pengetahuan serta kemahiran penggunaan komputer dalam kalangan mereka yang telah mengikuti program latihan yang dianjurkan oleh pusat ICT di tempat mereka. Lantaran itu, beberapa strategi untuk memanfaatkan ICT di peringkat individu, keluarga, dan masyarakat turut dicadangkan. Sungguhpun demikian, peranan dan tanggungjawab pihak kerajaan dalam menyediakan kemudahan fizikal, prasarana, galakan, serta polisi yang menggalakan penggunaan ICT termasuk Internet tidak boleh dipandang ringan. Usaha pihak kerajaan menyediakan kemudahan dan akses Internet supaya anggota masyarakat dapat memanfaatkan ICT secara optimum, akan dapat dikecapi sekiranya mereka melepasi cabaran dalaman dan cabaran luaran yang sedia ada pada diri masing-masing, yang ada pada keluarga, dan yang ada pada komuniti berkenaan

Transfer of Training Among Teachers Attending Short Courses

The transfer of training (the application of training in the workplace) is a critical issue faced by all organizations. This issue is concerned with the impact of training on employees and the organization. Trainee's characteristics, training design and organizational support are identified in many studies as the three major factors affecting the transfer of training. This study is aimed at investigating the transfer of training on the Art of Learning courses organized by the Education Department of Pahang. The objectives of the study were: (1) to identify the outcomes of the Art of Learning course; (2) determine the level of learning and transfer of training among course participants; (3) to determine the relationship between the transfer of training and trainee's characteristic, training design and organizational support. Ninety-four teachers out of 120 participants who attended three separate training programs were interviewed. They were asked to rate ten questions regarding trainee's characteristics, twenty questions each regarding training transfer, training design and organizational support. Data were gathered through personal interviews using questionnaires specifically designed for these studies. Three relationships were tested by using Pearson Product - Moment Correlation. Frequenc:ies, mean, median, percentages and t-test were also used in the analysis. The findings from the study showed that there were changes in the level of knowledge, level of skills and level of ability to solve problems among participants after attending training program. However the levels of training transfer among the participants were low . The study also found that the score on trainee's characteristic and training design were high. The score on organizational support was less than the median. The findings indicated a positive and significant correlation between: (1) transter of training and trainee' characteristics, (2) transfer of training and training design. However the finding did not show any relationship between transfer of training and organizational support