Union commitment as a predictor of member participation in union activities

This study examined the relationship between union commitment and union participation. It also attempted to determine the most important dimension of union commitment in explaining union participation. Data were gathered through a survey of transportation union members in Malaysia. Correlation and regression analyses were used to examine the relationship. Findings showed that dimensions of union commitment, namely membership and efforts towards union, union loyalty, responsibility to the union, belief in unionism, and pride and confidence to union, were correlated with union participation. However, the regression result indicated that only union loyalty was found to be the most significant factor that explained union participation. Implications of the findings are also discussed

Study on characteristics of patients with repeated admissions for asthma in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

ABSTRACT (Perlu disediakan makluman di antara 100 - 200 perkataan di dalam Bahasa Malaysia dan Bahasa lnggeris. lni kemudiannya akan dimuatkan ke dalam Laporan Tahunan Sahagian Penyelidikan & Pembangunan sebagai satu cara untuk menyampaikan dapatan projek tuan/puan kepada pihak Universiti). Objective To determine the characteristics in patients with repeated admissions for asthma compared to patients with no repeated admission for asthma over the same period of one-year duration. Methods A cross-sectional comparative study among 30 patients with asthma who had repeated admissions and another 30 patients with asthma who had no repeated admission for exacerbation of asthma over the same period of one-year duration (2001 ). The socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and evaluation data were collected. The evaluation included measurement of peak expiratory flow (PEF), inhaler technique skills and questionnaires on knowledge of asthma. Results There was no significant difference in socio-demographic characteristics, measurement of PEF and inhaler technique skills in both groups. In clinical characteristics, there was significant difference noted in history of atopy, history of absenteeism, asthma symptoms and use of medications. There was significant difference in .the knowledge of asthma where the total mean scores was 14.8 in repeated admissions group and 17.7 in non - repeated admission group from the total sco~e of 31. Conclusions Patients with repeated admissions for asthma tend to have high past history of atopy, high history of absenteeism from work or school, more frequent nocturnal symptoms and more use of low dose inhaler corticosteroids. They also had poor inhaler techniques and less asthma knowledge. USM J

Survey on end to end congestion control techniques in different network scenarios

Most of the traffic on the Internet is depend upon the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), so the performance of TCP is directly related to Internet. Many TCP variants are developed and modified according to the environment and communication needs. Most of current TCP variants have set of algorithms which control the congestion in critical situations and maintain the throughput and efficiency of network. Now a day’s TCP is facing fast growth of Internet with the demands of faster data communication techniques on high speed links. In last 15 years many computer systems and cellular networks become linked together with protocol stack used in TCP. TCP variants with different congestion control techniques are working in different operating systems but a very small number of techniques are able to minimize the congestion in the network. This paper presents a survey on end-to-end congestion control techniques used in different TCP versions. The main purpose of this study is to review the characteristics and behavior of TCP variants with different techniques to control the congestion in the different network scenarios

Effect of blended method on learning achievement and development online material in curriculum information document online system (CIDOS) for computer application course.

The effect on learning achievement is a vital part of the tertiary education. It can be measured by summative evaluation whether using conventional, virtual or hybrid teaching and learning method. As the learning technology transforms to a new era and so do the alternatives come to generate the smoothness and effectiveness of learning outcome

Study on characteristics of patients with repeated admission for asthma in Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia

Objective: To determine the characteristics among patients with repeated admissions for asthma compared with patients with no repeated admission for asthma over the same period of one-year duration. Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study among 30 patients with asthma who had repeated admissions with another 30 patients with asthma who had no repeated admission for exacerbation of asthma over a same period of one-year duration (2001). The socio-demographic, clinical characteristics and evaluation data were collected. An evaluation included measurement of peak expiratory flow (PEF), inhaler technique skills and questionnaires on knowledge of asthma. Results : There were no significant differences in socio-demographic characteristics, measurement of PEF and inhaler technique skill in between both groups. In clinical characteristics, there were significant differences in duration of asthma, history of atopy, history of absenteeism, asthma symptoms and use of medications. There was significant difference between groups in their knowledge of asthma where the total mean scores of both groups were 14.8 in repeated admissions group and 17.7 in non - repeated admission group from the total score of 31. Conclusions: Patients with repeated admissions for asthma tends to have less duration of asthma, high past history of atopy, high history of absenteeism from works or schools, more frequent nocturnal symptoms and more use of inhaler corticosteroids. They also had poor inhaler techniques and lesser asthma knowledge

Assessing the factors of green computing adoption among manufacturing employees: an analysis of the electrical and electronic sector

Recent trends and heavy uses of IT products and electronic gadgets have led to a proliferation of green computing studies because these wastes are not biodegradable. A significant amount of previous studies has been performed on green computing at the organizational level with most studies tend to focus on developed countries. The present study examined numerically the most influential factor towards the employees’ intention to adopt green computing and measure the intention level of employees in green computing adoption. The current study explored five adoption factors with five hypotheses have been established. These hypotheses were theorized from Theory of Planned Behaviour with emphasis on environmental concern. Previous studies from Malaysia context have primarily concentrated on green computing in education sector compared to manufacturing sector. Hence the study was conducted at electrical and electronic industries located at southern Malaysia. Questionnaires were purposely distributed to 250 respondents, however only 110 responses were valid that yielded response rate of 56%. Respondents are among the employees in IT and administration department that equipped with ICT application. The finding verifies the most influential factor affecting green computing adoption is environmental concern with 43.8%. All factors were proved to have positive correlation to the green computing intention. This correlation is related to the high intention level of employees in practicing green computing due to headquarters initiatives and the conditions set by the importing countries. Social norms have less impact towards behavioral intention to practice green computing that manifested by the low correlation percentage. The current study contributes to our knowledge on the green computing intention among manufacturing employees in Malaysia besides the implications of the results and future research directions. This study will help the policy makers in promoting environmental awareness among users of computing devices

CO2 selective carbon tubular membrane: the effect of stabilization temperature on BTDA-TDI/MDI P84 co-polyimide

Membranes offer remarkable attributes such as possessing small equipment footprints, having high efficiency and are environmentally friendly, with carbon membranes progressively investigated for gas separation applications. In this study, carbon tubular membranes for CO2 separation are prepared via dip-coating method with P84 co-polyimide as carbon precursor. The prepared membranes were characterized using Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA), pore structure analysis Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) and pure gas permeation system. The permeation properties of the carbon membranes are measured and analyzed using CO2, CH4 and N2 gases. The P84-based carbon tubular membrane stabilized at 300°C and featured excellent permeation properties with permeance range of 2.97±2.18, 3.12±4.32 and 206.09±3.24 GPU for CH4, N2 and CO2 gases, respectively. This membrane exhibited the highest CO2/CH4 and CO2/N2 selectivity of 69.48±1.83 and 65.97±2.87, respectively

The impacts of NPD characteristics on innovation market performance and its survival: the mediating role of collaboration

While collaboration has been acknowledged as pertinent to the success of innovation product commercialization, the collaborative effort between the innovation recipient firm and the innovators remains limited.Besides,one of the central questions is how and under what condition the two parties are more likely to engage in a resilient collaborative effort, from the perspective of innovation recipient firms remain unclear.This new perspective requires an understanding of the relationships among new product Development (NPD) characteristics, collaboration, and product innovation market performance and survival within the context of technology transfer. In this paper, we employed transactional cost economic (TCE) theory to explain the relationships between NPD characteristics (innovation uncertainty and asset specificity) and collaboration,and the mediation effect of collaboration on the relationships between NPD and performance. Based on the response o 104 product innovation recipient firms, our findings suggest a positive relationship between NPD characteristics and, collaboration and market performance and innovation survival.This study revealed that consistent with TCE theory, NPD characteristics influence the pattern of ollaborationbetween the innovation recipient firms and the innovator, acted as an effort to reduce transactional risks. Our findings also concluded that collaboration mediates the relationship between NPD characteristics and market performance and innovation survival

Adequacy of contract provision in managing construction failure

In managing construction failure, normally efforts are made to identify the possible cause of failure and seek for the possible solution of the problems faced. Currently, there is no clear guideline available either within existing contract documents or legislations that can be used as a guide to resolve construction failure cases. Hence, this study has been undertaken to identify the limitations of current contract provisions which related to construction failure. It is conducted to evaluate the adequacy of contractual provisions in contract documents. The methodology adopted for this study includes literature research, interviews and questionnaire surveys with selected professionals in construction industry and legal sector. The findings of the study show that the limitations in current contractual provisions are eminent. It is also found that there is a need for consideration of inclusion of new provisions to be implemented into contract document. Despite there may be a difference of ideas between the respondents from construction industry and legal sector regarding to limitations of law and contract to solve construction failure cases. This study also made some proposal of important items that should be considered for improving current contract provisions

Utilising CIDOS LMS in technical higher education: the influence of compatibility roles on consistency of use

A remarkable educational phase should consider compatibility of technology use to ensure effective teaching and learning processes. Technical higher education institution has introduced Curriculum Information Document Online System Learning Management System (CIDOS LMS) for Malaysian Polytechnic educators and learners to facilitate the instructional system design, embolden meaning learning and optimise the consistency of use. The present study examines the relationship between compatibility roles among undergraduate engineering students and consistency of use, as well as android game-based learning (GBL) implementation. Previous research has based differences in compatibility on technology utilisation behaviour and found significant differences. One hundred of Year Two undergraduate technical students at Politeknik Merlimau Melaka, Malaysia, took part in the study and completed a survey dealing with compatibility roles, consistency of use and android GBL. The current study shows that compatibility roles, specifically in CIDOS LMS adoption, are the pertinent source of nurturing consistency of use among engineering field students. The findings indicated that compatibility roles have a moderate positive relationship with consistency of use [r = 0.560**; p = 0.01]. Moreover, there is a negative effect between compatibility roles and android GBL [r = −0.001**; p = 0.01]. To sum up, the lecture note obtained the highest percentage (85.8%) among other learning tools used in CIDOS LMS