The purpose of this study is to explore how business organizations could effectively promote positive environmental norms among a larger section of the community. This study hypothesized that the development of a feel...The purpose of this study is to explore how business organizations could effectively promote positive environmental norms among a larger section of the community. This study hypothesized that the development of a feeling of high involvement among employees of organizations implementing the Environmental Management System (EMS) could result in the spillover phenomena of other environmentally responsible behavior in different domains such as, consumer preferences for environment-friendly products. The study also confirms the effects of environmental attitude (EA) and concrete knowledge (CK) as a mediator; acting not only as an axis to the spillover phenomenon but is also found to be the crucial factor in determining the strength of the whole spillover process.展开更多
A study was conducted to identify the factors related to diabetes mellitus among the diabetes patients at HUSM Kelantan. A total of 972 diabetes mellitus patients who had attended Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (...A study was conducted to identify the factors related to diabetes mellitus among the diabetes patients at HUSM Kelantan. A total of 972 diabetes mellitus patients who had attended Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) from 2005 to 2006 were involved in the study. The significant findings include: (1) Mean age of diabetes patients under the study was 44.36 years old; (2) The average age of patients from control group and pre-diabetes group which came from the middle-age were 44.30 and 42.43 years old respectively. Patients from diabetes group had recorded the highest mean age of 53.24 years old which are the elderly; (3) There was a significant difference in the average blood sugar between patient age group of〈30 years old and patient age group of〉30 years old. However, there was no significant difference in the mean blood sugar between male and female patients; (4) There were significant associations between diabetes mellitus and gender, occupation and clinical symptoms such as tired, polyuria and polydipsia. However, there was no significant association between diabetes mellitus and polyphagia symptoms. The authors believed that the symptoms ofpolyuria and polydipsia were highly associated with the chances of the patients to get diabetes mellitus.展开更多
Internal audit in Malaysian public and private sector organizations underwent a steady organic growth since gaining a foothold in the management process in the 1970s. The management of the Malaysian public sector is c...Internal audit in Malaysian public and private sector organizations underwent a steady organic growth since gaining a foothold in the management process in the 1970s. The management of the Malaysian public sector is continuously maturing in facilitating foreign input in national development, echoing similar advances expounded by the internal audit units of private sector organizations. The main difference being the public sector addresses the interest of a much wider group of stakeholders. Rapid development in infrastructures and industries positioned Malaysia on the fringes of globalization and the world market. This enlarges the crucial role of internal auditing to ensure transparency, integrity, quality and improved service delivery; among myriad positive aims, remain the end point of any process area. This study explored the significance of internal auditing in the Malaysian public sector, and its subsequent extent and influence in public sector hierarchy and decision making. Data was collected from responses to a questionnaire distributed to head of internal auditors, internal auditors and other staff of internal audit departments from various categories of public sector departments and agencies in Malaysia. The study concluded that the internal audit function in the public sector in Malaysia is curtailed by understaffing and hampered by inadequate support from top management while, the auditors seldom extend their full cooperation. The auditors themselves lack appropriate knowledge and training on effective auditing approaches. The negative perception accorded to internal audit led to inaction by management on recommended remedies which only serve to nullify the positive contribution internal audit potentially holds to elevate the service delivery quality of the public sector.展开更多
Malaysia is the biggest crude palm oil exporter to the world market for the last 16 years. However this achievement is still be overshadowed by the harvesting method which is conventional and labor intensive. An attem...Malaysia is the biggest crude palm oil exporter to the world market for the last 16 years. However this achievement is still be overshadowed by the harvesting method which is conventional and labor intensive. An attempt to use mechanization into the harvesting system, in particular the cutting process of tall palm trees, has been unsuccessful. At the beginning of the oil palm's fruit bearing fife, i.e. 3 to 4 years of age, fi'uit bunches are still accessible. For these palms, a chisel is used to cut the fiuit bunches. Growth is such 8-10 years, and the trees have already reached substantial height. In these cases a sickle mountedon flexible telescopic aluminum tube (pole) is used. This, however, exposes plantation worker to the risk of musculoskeletal discomfort and injury. This paper examines the problems by assessing the task posture and tool, and their implications for operators, using questionnaire survey and videotape analysis techniques. The result prevails that there is evidence to associate the problems of musculoskeletal disorders among the operators.展开更多
This study examines risk reporting in annual reports of Malaysian listed companies. The mandatory and voluntary disclosures of risk information are analyzed and the authors examine whether a relationship exists betwee...This study examines risk reporting in annual reports of Malaysian listed companies. The mandatory and voluntary disclosures of risk information are analyzed and the authors examine whether a relationship exists between company size, leverage, and industry type and risk disclosure levels. 150 listed companies from five industries are selected as sample. Content analysis and risk disclosure index of dichotomous measurement are used in data collection. Overall the results indicate that level of risk information disclosed in the annual reports is still minimal. OLS (Ordinary least squares) regression analysis indicates that the level of risk information disclosure is positively associated with size and not with leverage. However, a mixed result has been found for industry type; where only property industry shows a significant relationship with level of risk disclosure, and not for the other industries. This study contributes to financial reporting literature in relation to risk reporting, particularly the practice of Malaysian companies. Findings from this study are also useful to regulators and accounting standard setting body to assess the level of compliance to regulations and standards relating to risk reporting by these companies. More studies are required to further understand the importance of risk information disclosure, such as risk disclosure within specific industry, cross-country studies and usefulness of risk information disclosure from the stakeholders' perspectives.展开更多
In Malaysia, airborne hyperspectral remote sensing is a relatively new technique used for research and commercial value in forest inventory and mapping. An advantage of airborne remote sensing, compared to satellite r...In Malaysia, airborne hyperspectral remote sensing is a relatively new technique used for research and commercial value in forest inventory and mapping. An advantage of airborne remote sensing, compared to satellite remote sensing, is its capability of offering a very high spatial resolution images. Thus, UPM-TropAIR AISA's airborne hyperspectral imagery that has been used in this study provides great quantity, better quality and also lower cost in identifying, quantifying and mapping of the Malaysian tropical timber forest resources. For the first stage in this study, the development of spectral library is deemed required in order for the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) classification be used to separate and map individual tree species in a tropical mixed mountain forest of Gunong Stong Forest Reserve. Pre-processing, enhancement and interpretation of image were conducted using ENVI Version 4.0 software. Results indicated that a total of eight commercial timber tree species was identified and mapped in a study plot of 5 ha using the TropAIR airborne hyperspectral imager with the aid of ground truthings.展开更多
Recent empirical work suggested that the ability of accounting numbers to explain the relationship between accounting numbers and stock prices has deteriorated over the past four decades. The findings of this study su...Recent empirical work suggested that the ability of accounting numbers to explain the relationship between accounting numbers and stock prices has deteriorated over the past four decades. The findings of this study suggest that the accounting earnings and book value are capturing most of the information that is relevant to assess the values of firms. At the same time, it also suggests that earnings and book value as well as non-accounting beta are more valued during the financial crisis as compared to after the financial crisis. Overall, the accounting estimate of the value of the firm is not deviating from the markets' estimate, which suggests that accounting numbers play an important role in the valuation of firms in Malaysia.展开更多
Management has addressed the critical issue of environmental protection by developing environmental management systems. The purpose of this research is to describe the organizational structure for environmental protec...Management has addressed the critical issue of environmental protection by developing environmental management systems. The purpose of this research is to describe the organizational structure for environmental protection, an attribute of environmental management systems of privately held companies, certified with MS ISO 14001. Descriptive statistics are reported for the primary data. The commonly reported attributes provide evidence of high-level commitment to environmental protection: written environmental policy statement, corporate-level environmental management function, and Board of Directors' responsibility for oversight of environmental affairs. Findings indicate that companies have educational programs and environmental goals to disseminate environmental management values throughout their organizations.展开更多
Bemisia tabaci is one of serious insect pests attacking vegetables and has been difficult to control using conventional insecticides. In the past 10 years, new insecticides have been introduced that provide a diversit...Bemisia tabaci is one of serious insect pests attacking vegetables and has been difficult to control using conventional insecticides. In the past 10 years, new insecticides have been introduced that provide a diversity of novel modes of action and routes of activity to effectively control whitefly. Consequently, intensive used of insecticides in vegetable cultivation has resulted in reduced susceptibility and develops resistance in agriculture industry. In controlling B. tabaci population, insecticides are the common method used by farmers. This study aimed to determine the most effective insecticide against B tabaci by using LC5o value. This study was conducted at the Crop Protection Laboratory, Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia with the controlled room temperature of 24.33 ± 0.14℃ with dark and light ratio of 1:1 (12 hours: 12 hours) is an ideal condition for rearing the insect. The hypothesis of the study is to test if insecticides can control the nymph of whitefly. A total of 50 two-day-old nymphs were treated with insecticides using leaf-dip bioassay procedure. This experiment was replicated three times. The survival rates of the nymphs were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Data on toxicity was analyzed by a special Probit Programme-Single Line Analysis based on Finney (1971). There was a significant difference (df = 8, F = 85.84, P = 0.000) in survival rate of nymph ofB. tabaci to eight insecticides tested. Among the insecticides tested, dimethoate, chlorpyrifos + cypermethrin and diafenthiuron showed significantly higher survival rate of nymph compared to other treatments. When LC50 values were compared for diafenthiuron which is less potent (LCs0 ---- 2.44), abamectin was found to be 3.44 times more potent than diafenthiuron, followed by esfenvalerate,acetamiprid, profenofos, chlorpyrifos + cypermethrin and dimethoate, and the least potent was deltamethrin. The toxicity of eight insecticides tested against nymphs was in the following orders: abamectin = esfenvalerate = acetamiprid = profenofos =- chlorpyrifos + cypermethrin ≥ dimethoate ≥ deltamethrin 〉 diafenthiuron respectively. This study implies that a proper application of the insecticide is a key component to a successful control programme of insect oests.展开更多
文摘The purpose of this study is to explore how business organizations could effectively promote positive environmental norms among a larger section of the community. This study hypothesized that the development of a feeling of high involvement among employees of organizations implementing the Environmental Management System (EMS) could result in the spillover phenomena of other environmentally responsible behavior in different domains such as, consumer preferences for environment-friendly products. The study also confirms the effects of environmental attitude (EA) and concrete knowledge (CK) as a mediator; acting not only as an axis to the spillover phenomenon but is also found to be the crucial factor in determining the strength of the whole spillover process.
文摘A study was conducted to identify the factors related to diabetes mellitus among the diabetes patients at HUSM Kelantan. A total of 972 diabetes mellitus patients who had attended Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) from 2005 to 2006 were involved in the study. The significant findings include: (1) Mean age of diabetes patients under the study was 44.36 years old; (2) The average age of patients from control group and pre-diabetes group which came from the middle-age were 44.30 and 42.43 years old respectively. Patients from diabetes group had recorded the highest mean age of 53.24 years old which are the elderly; (3) There was a significant difference in the average blood sugar between patient age group of〈30 years old and patient age group of〉30 years old. However, there was no significant difference in the mean blood sugar between male and female patients; (4) There were significant associations between diabetes mellitus and gender, occupation and clinical symptoms such as tired, polyuria and polydipsia. However, there was no significant association between diabetes mellitus and polyphagia symptoms. The authors believed that the symptoms ofpolyuria and polydipsia were highly associated with the chances of the patients to get diabetes mellitus.
文摘Internal audit in Malaysian public and private sector organizations underwent a steady organic growth since gaining a foothold in the management process in the 1970s. The management of the Malaysian public sector is continuously maturing in facilitating foreign input in national development, echoing similar advances expounded by the internal audit units of private sector organizations. The main difference being the public sector addresses the interest of a much wider group of stakeholders. Rapid development in infrastructures and industries positioned Malaysia on the fringes of globalization and the world market. This enlarges the crucial role of internal auditing to ensure transparency, integrity, quality and improved service delivery; among myriad positive aims, remain the end point of any process area. This study explored the significance of internal auditing in the Malaysian public sector, and its subsequent extent and influence in public sector hierarchy and decision making. Data was collected from responses to a questionnaire distributed to head of internal auditors, internal auditors and other staff of internal audit departments from various categories of public sector departments and agencies in Malaysia. The study concluded that the internal audit function in the public sector in Malaysia is curtailed by understaffing and hampered by inadequate support from top management while, the auditors seldom extend their full cooperation. The auditors themselves lack appropriate knowledge and training on effective auditing approaches. The negative perception accorded to internal audit led to inaction by management on recommended remedies which only serve to nullify the positive contribution internal audit potentially holds to elevate the service delivery quality of the public sector.
文摘Malaysia is the biggest crude palm oil exporter to the world market for the last 16 years. However this achievement is still be overshadowed by the harvesting method which is conventional and labor intensive. An attempt to use mechanization into the harvesting system, in particular the cutting process of tall palm trees, has been unsuccessful. At the beginning of the oil palm's fruit bearing fife, i.e. 3 to 4 years of age, fi'uit bunches are still accessible. For these palms, a chisel is used to cut the fiuit bunches. Growth is such 8-10 years, and the trees have already reached substantial height. In these cases a sickle mountedon flexible telescopic aluminum tube (pole) is used. This, however, exposes plantation worker to the risk of musculoskeletal discomfort and injury. This paper examines the problems by assessing the task posture and tool, and their implications for operators, using questionnaire survey and videotape analysis techniques. The result prevails that there is evidence to associate the problems of musculoskeletal disorders among the operators.
文摘This study examines risk reporting in annual reports of Malaysian listed companies. The mandatory and voluntary disclosures of risk information are analyzed and the authors examine whether a relationship exists between company size, leverage, and industry type and risk disclosure levels. 150 listed companies from five industries are selected as sample. Content analysis and risk disclosure index of dichotomous measurement are used in data collection. Overall the results indicate that level of risk information disclosed in the annual reports is still minimal. OLS (Ordinary least squares) regression analysis indicates that the level of risk information disclosure is positively associated with size and not with leverage. However, a mixed result has been found for industry type; where only property industry shows a significant relationship with level of risk disclosure, and not for the other industries. This study contributes to financial reporting literature in relation to risk reporting, particularly the practice of Malaysian companies. Findings from this study are also useful to regulators and accounting standard setting body to assess the level of compliance to regulations and standards relating to risk reporting by these companies. More studies are required to further understand the importance of risk information disclosure, such as risk disclosure within specific industry, cross-country studies and usefulness of risk information disclosure from the stakeholders' perspectives.
文摘In Malaysia, airborne hyperspectral remote sensing is a relatively new technique used for research and commercial value in forest inventory and mapping. An advantage of airborne remote sensing, compared to satellite remote sensing, is its capability of offering a very high spatial resolution images. Thus, UPM-TropAIR AISA's airborne hyperspectral imagery that has been used in this study provides great quantity, better quality and also lower cost in identifying, quantifying and mapping of the Malaysian tropical timber forest resources. For the first stage in this study, the development of spectral library is deemed required in order for the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) classification be used to separate and map individual tree species in a tropical mixed mountain forest of Gunong Stong Forest Reserve. Pre-processing, enhancement and interpretation of image were conducted using ENVI Version 4.0 software. Results indicated that a total of eight commercial timber tree species was identified and mapped in a study plot of 5 ha using the TropAIR airborne hyperspectral imager with the aid of ground truthings.
文摘Recent empirical work suggested that the ability of accounting numbers to explain the relationship between accounting numbers and stock prices has deteriorated over the past four decades. The findings of this study suggest that the accounting earnings and book value are capturing most of the information that is relevant to assess the values of firms. At the same time, it also suggests that earnings and book value as well as non-accounting beta are more valued during the financial crisis as compared to after the financial crisis. Overall, the accounting estimate of the value of the firm is not deviating from the markets' estimate, which suggests that accounting numbers play an important role in the valuation of firms in Malaysia.
文摘Management has addressed the critical issue of environmental protection by developing environmental management systems. The purpose of this research is to describe the organizational structure for environmental protection, an attribute of environmental management systems of privately held companies, certified with MS ISO 14001. Descriptive statistics are reported for the primary data. The commonly reported attributes provide evidence of high-level commitment to environmental protection: written environmental policy statement, corporate-level environmental management function, and Board of Directors' responsibility for oversight of environmental affairs. Findings indicate that companies have educational programs and environmental goals to disseminate environmental management values throughout their organizations.
文摘Bemisia tabaci is one of serious insect pests attacking vegetables and has been difficult to control using conventional insecticides. In the past 10 years, new insecticides have been introduced that provide a diversity of novel modes of action and routes of activity to effectively control whitefly. Consequently, intensive used of insecticides in vegetable cultivation has resulted in reduced susceptibility and develops resistance in agriculture industry. In controlling B. tabaci population, insecticides are the common method used by farmers. This study aimed to determine the most effective insecticide against B tabaci by using LC5o value. This study was conducted at the Crop Protection Laboratory, Faculty of Applied Science, Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia with the controlled room temperature of 24.33 ± 0.14℃ with dark and light ratio of 1:1 (12 hours: 12 hours) is an ideal condition for rearing the insect. The hypothesis of the study is to test if insecticides can control the nymph of whitefly. A total of 50 two-day-old nymphs were treated with insecticides using leaf-dip bioassay procedure. This experiment was replicated three times. The survival rates of the nymphs were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Data on toxicity was analyzed by a special Probit Programme-Single Line Analysis based on Finney (1971). There was a significant difference (df = 8, F = 85.84, P = 0.000) in survival rate of nymph ofB. tabaci to eight insecticides tested. Among the insecticides tested, dimethoate, chlorpyrifos + cypermethrin and diafenthiuron showed significantly higher survival rate of nymph compared to other treatments. When LC50 values were compared for diafenthiuron which is less potent (LCs0 ---- 2.44), abamectin was found to be 3.44 times more potent than diafenthiuron, followed by esfenvalerate,acetamiprid, profenofos, chlorpyrifos + cypermethrin and dimethoate, and the least potent was deltamethrin. The toxicity of eight insecticides tested against nymphs was in the following orders: abamectin = esfenvalerate = acetamiprid = profenofos =- chlorpyrifos + cypermethrin ≥ dimethoate ≥ deltamethrin 〉 diafenthiuron respectively. This study implies that a proper application of the insecticide is a key component to a successful control programme of insect oests.