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Behavioral biometric traits are not fully distinguished in recognition tasks, but they can improve the overall performance of biometric recognition systems by adding them. The behavioral biometric studied in this paper is related to keystroke dynamic. This paper examines the touch keystroke dynamics of computer users for the purpose of identifying their culture by using four different SVM kernels. It has been confirmed that racial classifications can be made by gathering keystroke data from 250 respondents representing various culture in Malaysia. Results show that different culture categories display different typing patterns. The classification is made using four SVM kernels and a comparison of the accuracy results is shown. The four kernels are Linear, Quadratic, Cubic and Fine Gaussian. The linear kernel has provided the highest accuracy and consistent readings compared to other kernels for the four features evaluated for dynamic keystrokes, namely press-press time, release-release time, press-release time and release-press time. The linear kernel has the highest accuracy reading of 92.4% for classification using press-press time features for the Malay vs Chinese category. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precast concrete is one of Industrialized Building System (IBS) types that is mainly used in Malaysia. Even though precast shows promising performance in ongoing project but in building maintenance, precast shows otherwise. This is due to the usage of the conventional method (paper-based report/unsystematic data of maintenance which is Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS) and by integrating it with BIM technology will help in enhance maintenance. BIM shows its benefits through maintenance by showing its coordination in design and three-dimensional visualization. This paper help into identifying the requirement of integrating CMMS and BIM technology in precast building maintenance. An interview was conducted to gain the objective of the study. Results showed that there are two requirements to support CMMS and BIM integration in maintenance management which is a complete and organize data and a compilation of a standard requirement that stated by the department (e.g., Fire and Rescue Department of Malaysia, Syarikat Air Selangor and JKR). This resulted in the creation of a crucial aspect of the maintenance management system that uses emerging technology to aid engineers at precast building in improving their present maintenance management practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entrepreneurial intention, as the preliminary idea of pursuing new ventures. Entrepreneurship is an important component to enhance the country's economic growth and sustainability as well as to meet the challenges of globalisation, such as increasing the unemployment rate among students. The objectives of this paper are to determine the relationship between personality, government support and entrepreneurship education with entrepreneurial intention among business students from selected public university in Malaysia and to measure the predictor of entrepreneurial intention. This study is quantitative in the form and questionnaires distributed to collect information from respondents based on the size of 100 samples and use convenience sampling method. The data obtained through questionnaires is analyzed and evaluated by correlation and regression testing. The results showed that all moderate linkages with entrepreneurial intentions. Government support also show the the most impact on the entrepreneurial intention. This paper provides a comprehensive framework that contributes to conceptualization and assists the Government and academic in enhancing skills and courses to increase the desire of business students to become future successful entrepreneurs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the country is not only focusing on the role of government alone. The private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) also play important role in ensuring that the public will get the benefits of sustainable development. The NGOs play a major role at grassroot level since they are close to community for implementing the programmes that will benefit to the community as a whole. They do have expertise and skills to deliver the services to the communities. Understanding the important role of the NGOS, this paper will explore their roles and contributions towards the community development in Malaysia. The research focused on members of NGO in Malaysia. The questions asked about their roles and contributions towards communities. The descriptive analysis will be discussed throughout the paper. This paper also will highlight the future relationship that should be focused by the NGOs and other stakeholders like government and corporate organisations towards creating sustainable development for the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promotional activities are among the most significant aspects in ensuring continual visits and engagements from visitors to heritage sites and institutions, including museums. An ineffective marketing technique will make it challenging to attract visitors and communities. This leads to the decrease number of visitors, undermining the fundamental mission of museums as an informal educational establishment for the public. However, few studies have been done on a promotional strategy for museum management in Malaysia. This paper seeks to bridge the gap by exploring the current museum's marketing technique, using the Kelantan State Museum as a case study. It aims to look further into the museum's promotional strategy, the involvement of responsible bodies, and the challenges in promoting the museum, specifically during the covid-19 pandemic. The research employed a qualitative design with purposeful approaches and snowballing techniques by interviewing the personnel at the Kelantan State Museum. The collected data were then analysed by applying Braun and Clarke's six-step thematic analysis methodology. The results identified three main themes: marketing strategies and activities, collaboration between stakeholders and challenges going forward. The overarching findings highlighted major stakeholders and their degree of participation in museum promotion. This paper also discussed the challenges posed by the museum management in promoting their establishment to the public. This include issues such as visitor expectations, funding cuts and digital adaptation; and the cessation of many museum hubs for physical visitations due to the Covid-19, leading to new rules being presented to adapt to the recent changes in ensuring visitors' safety. It is believed that the new norm has impacted the museum management's efforts to promote their institution, necessitating the development of new strategies to increase public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Coronavirus Disease 2021 or COVID-19 has affected almost all individuals around the globe. Consequently, Malaysia is one of the nations that has been facing tremendous changes in various sectors due to COVID-19. As the number of positive cases is on the rise, the Malaysian government has executed its National COVID-19 Immunization Program to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and the severity of disease in case a vaccinated person is infected. However, there are also individuals who have contributed to vaccine refusal due to many factors including misinformation about vaccines, religious beliefs, lack of knowledge, and awareness. Therefore, this paper presents a combination of instructional design and cognitive load theory named CoLoMo model, to increase the awareness of COVID-19 among parents. The CoLoMo model is a theory for mobile application development involving three elements in mobile instruction design which include platform, design, accessibility, and design page. These elements have been chosen prior to the target users which are parents or adults. The three cognitive load theory types in this model are intrinsic, extraneous, and germane cognitive load. The combination of the mobile interaction design and cognitive load theory types will affect the user's cognitive performance which are concentration, learning capabilities and attributes. This paper also discusses the previous research on the implementation of cognitive load theory through mobile applications. Several strategies that emphasize different relevant cognitive processes which are useful to consider when developing mobile applications are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The period of substantial economic ambiguity such as recession and economic crisis had urged us to boost the savings rate as people forgo their current consumption expenditure to compensate for an unpredictable financial future. The exigency of saving amid new normal endemic is vital for economic growth and recovery. Hence, this paper is aimed to analyze some macroeconomic factors such as interest rate, inflation rate, household income, government consumption expenditure, and the household final consumption expenditure that can influence the household savings in Malaysia by using the ordinary least square method (OLS). This paper utilizes the secondary data sources from the World Bank Data and Department of Statistics Malaysia over the period from 1999 to 2019. The findings manifest that a new predictor variable which is the government consumption expenditure, as well as the household final consumption expenditure had a negative significant effect on household savings whereas household income and interest rate are known as less significant factors. Nonetheless, inflation rate is found insignificant towards the household savings in Malaysia. Therefore, this paper implies the exploration of factors affecting household savings could be useful to policymakers, investors, and financial advisors to help sustaining the macroeconomic wellbeing and hence raise the standard of living. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prevalence of obesity in Malaysia is one of the highest among the Asian countries and it is one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease which is the main cause of death in Malaysia. This paper aims to investigate the relationship between obesity and mortality rate and find its association with sociodemographic factors such as education and household income. This time-series study used secondary data from World Bank data and Household Income Survey (HIS), and it used annual data from 1990 to 2019. ADF test is used to test the stationarity. Simple linear and multiple linear regression were used in this paper to study the relationship between mortality with obesity, education, and household income. Multicollinearity, heteroskedasticity and R-squared were used to define the best regression model in this study. This study found that mortality was positively associated with obesity. Besides, the findings also shows that there was an inverse relationship between obesity and education, meanwhile positive relationship appears between obesity and household income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia has targeted to achieve 40% of renewable energy (RE) by 2035. It is evident that solar energy shall contribute the largest portion of the target due to the abundant resources of solar in Malaysia. Nevertheless, Malaysia should not limit its' RE resources to only solar energy. This includes RE in the likes of wind energy. Although generally Malaysia has comparatively low annual average wind speed, numerous studies have shown that there are several areas with relatively higher annual average wind speed. These areas may potentially be considered for wind energy development. Several methodologies have been utilized by researchers to identify such areas. Several researchers opted to develop wind maps to identify the potential area in Malaysia for wind energy development. Interpolation methods such as Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) and Kriging are commonly utilised in wind mapping studies as these methods are effective to estimate the wind speed at unmeasured area. This paper reviews the comparison between the wind speed interpolation methods which are IDW and Kriging for wind energy applications in Malaysia. Among the interpolation parameters compared include input, results and validation. The way forward proposed by this paper will aid as a reference for future advances in wind mapping in Malaysia and its surrounding region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID 19 disease has spread worldwide, disrupting the economy, society, education, and health. It became crucial to understand the transmission curve and identify the best action in combating this highly transmissible epidemic. Epidemiological parameters of the deterministic Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) model are widely used in explaining the characteristics and behavior of the disease spreading. Disease like COVID-19 is highly influenced by the uncontrolled factors of randomness, hence in this paper, the deterministic susceptible-infected-recovered-death (SIRD) model is extended to the stochastic SIRD (SSIRD) model. SSIRD model takes into consideration the noisy behavior of the process which explains the uncontrolled effects of the COVID-19 outbreak. The epidemiological parameter of the model changes throughout the epidemic due to external factors such as enforcement and public obedience to the control measures as well as the changes in healthcare facilities. These parameters need to be estimated. This paper estimates the epidemiological parameters of the SSIRD model using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) method of the Metropolis Hasting algorithm. The COVID-19 data from Malaysia and Indonesia are used and the dynamical behavior of the COVID-19 outbreak in both countries is simulated. The results show the parameter changing due to the uncontrolled factors influencing the trend of the pandemic curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shift from paper-based to web-based practice is a significant trend, as paper-based practice consumes time, is prone to error, and is more prone to data loss, all of which lead to inefficiency. Smart farming or agriculture 4.0 defined the new era of agriculture that moving toward digitalization. However, the absence of a centralized information system, which results in information asymmetry among agricultural sectors. One of the keys to success is reaching out to farmers with pertinent agricultural information at the appropriate time and platform. The purpose of this study is to design and create a dynamic web-based knowledge management system for the dissemination of agricultural knowledge in Malaysia. A centralized information system capable of achieving information symmetry, in which all important information is accessible to all participants. Creating an advanced learning environment allowing for virtual engagement between external and internal stakeholders via a web-based knowledge management system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Long-term damage to the country's progress may result from tax evasion. An increasing number of businesses in Malaysia are not paying their fair share of taxes, and this is especially true for Goods and Services Tax (GST), according to the latest annual statistics. Even with the new Sales and Services Tax 2.0 (SST 2.0), businesses are likely still seeking to avoid paying tax, as seen by the past experiences of the GST. Many in Malaysia's business community, especially those in charge of smaller companies, are worried about how SST 2.0 would damage their bottom lines. SMEs also have been reported as having more opportunities for tax non-compliance than individuals. There are many factors that contributed to non-compliance issues among SMEs such as sector, size, and ownership. Thus, this paper is intended to study the differences between those factors towards SST 2.0 non-compliance. This study is conducted via a personally administered survey questionnaire to SME owner-managers in the northern peninsular of Malaysia, covering the state of Kedah, Perlis, Penang, and Perak. The list of SMEs obtained from the Department of Statistics, Malaysia indicated a total of 198,645 SME establishments in the northern 4 states, and the final random samples of 390 SMEs were chosen. This study built upon prior studies and the experiences of GST during the year 2015 to 2018, adjusted to suit the newly reintroduced SST environment, and thus add a contribution to indirect taxation literature and practices in Malaysia. The result of analysis via t-test and ANOVA revealed that there are significant differences between sector, size, ownership of the SMEs, and the probable area of difficulties. The probable of difficulties is indeed divided into technical and procedural requirements as well as system and documentation requirements in specific. This research indirectly enhances and improves the body of knowledge on the acceptance of SMEs in SST 2.0 compliance as well as on the theory as a whole. However, there are still rooms for improvement and a gap to be covered that could be taken care of in future research perhaps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The global average life expectancy has increased astonishingly. However, problems such as household income inequality, high unemployment and the continuous impact of economic growth have prevented Malaysia's life expectancy from increasing. This paper studies the effect of macroeconomic variables on life expectancy in Malaysia from 1991–2019. The data was collected from the World Bank and the Department of Statistics Malaysia. For this purpose, the analysis of the study is to use the Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach. The results show that household income variables and economic growth variables have a positive and significant effect on life expectancy in the long run, while only the economic growth variables have a significant effect on life expectancy in the short run. Therefore, the country needs to allocate greater expenditure on economic development because it can increase Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and reduce the inflation rate. Besides, people can have extra money to get better health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The palm oil industry is one of the most important agro-based industries in Malaysia, with more than 400 palm oil mills nationwide. These mills are generally self-sustained in energy by converting empty fruit bunch (EFB), palm mesocarp fibre (PMF) and palm kernel shell (PKS), into energy. However, palm fuel burned in boilers have caused severe air pollution problems due to improper boiler operation and inefficient air pollution control systems. This results in emission of bottom ash particulates from multicyclone and electrostatic precipitator (ESP) hopper after combustion. This paper discusses the characteristics of palm fuel, namely PMF, PKS and EFB, based on proximate analysis, gross calorific value, ultimate analysis and element composition. Morphology of bottom ash emitted from multicyclone and ESP was also examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM). EFB was found to have the ' highest moisture content of 63.1% among others, while mixture of PMF and PKS had the highest volatile matter of 54.5% and fixed carbon of 18.5%. PMF has the highest calorific value of 2993 kcals/kg among others. The bottom ash from multicyclone and ESP exhibited particulate sizes ranging from 18.4 to 68 µm and 10.9 to 44.6 µm, respectively. These were considered as preliminary results which require further future research. The outcomes of this study are useful for mitigation of fine particulate emission from air pollution control system in the palm oil mill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States and China are strong trading partners of Malaysia, with about 23% of total exports in 2017. Therefore, the trade war pressures since 2018 between the United States and China have affected the Malaysian economy. Thus, this paper aims to analyse the effects of the war on the Malaysian stock market using a threshold network approach. Then, the networks examine the changes of important stocks before, during and after the trade war in which the periods are taken from 16th March 2017 until 31st May 2021. The important stocks are determined by four standard centrality approaches, namely degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, and eigenvector centrality. This paper uses 240 companies of the FTSE Bursa Malaysia Emas Index to create the Malaysian stock market networks. The results show that Dagang Nexchange Berhad and Jaya Tiasa Holdings Berhad have higher connectivity with other stocks during the turmoil period and after the turmoil period respectively. Besides, Dagang Nexchange Berhad acts as the most important stock according to all centrality measures. The findings of this study give an insight to the government regulators and investors with information regarding the current topological structure of Malaysia's stock market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Individuals must begin saving money early to meet their future personal and household needs. It is important to focus on savings as soon as possible to achieve a healthy and stable economy after retirement. Retirement expectations can be unrealistic since many believe retirement is still a long way off. Insufficient money made it difficult for people, particularly B40 groups in Malaysia, to continue their monthly savings due to a restricted budget in the face of rising living costs. The majority of the B40 group in Malaysia are struggling with the issue of not having enough money to support the desired lifestyle after retirement, and this issue has deteriorated over time. This concept paper proposes financial literacy, future expectations, self-awareness, social influence, and financial management as predictive factors for the B40 group to plan for their retirement savings, applying the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and supported by prior studies. Due to this interest, this paper proposes a conceptual framework for the factors affecting the retirement decisions of B40 groups in Malaysia. The suggested framework could benefit all, especially B40 groups, in term of how they prepare themselves for retirement life. Related organizations can use the proposed model to encourage early retirement savings among Malaysians, especially the B40 group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Precast concrete is one of the most common forms of Industrialized Building System (IBS) in Malaysia. Although it performs well in ongoing projects, it performs poorly in building upkeep. This is due to the use of the conventional approach of maintenance, Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), which will be enhanced by merging it with BIM technology. BIM demonstrates its value in maintenance by demonstrating design coordination and three-dimensional modelling. This paper help into identifying the factor lacking awareness of CMMS and BIM integration for precast building maintenance. An interview was conducted to gain the objective of the study. Results showed that one out of 6 interviewee is aware of the CMMS and BIM integration for building maintenance. It shows that there is a lacking awareness of the integration of this technology for building maintenance. The factors of this lacking awareness are due to lack of professional interactive, lack of research on BIM implementation and training expenses and the learning curve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A one-dimensional (1-D) seismic site response analysis were conducted using the nonlinear (NL) methods to assess the peak surface acceleration (PSA) and soil amplification. 10 profiles were selected from Peninsular Malaysia site. Three earthquake time history such as Loma Prieta, Acheh and Ranau were scaled to 0.03g, 0.07g and 0.10g and applied to all sites. The results showed that the calculated PSA and soil amplification factor are higher at soil types C compared to soil types D. Moreover, the NL results showed that deamplification did occur in the soft soils of Peninsular Malaysia. The paper contributes to the seismic site-response studies for soil amplification in Peninsular Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is strategically located at the crossroad between East and West. Due to this ideally location, this country has been exposed to many foreign influences and cultures. The Portuguese was the first colonial power that set up their establishment in the Peninsular Malaysia. This was then followed by The Dutch and later on by The British. Among these three colonial powers, it was the British that ultimately secured their sovereignty on this land. Under British administration, Malaysia has adopted their architectural styles with strong local identities that fit with the climate of the country. These influences can be observed in many heritage hotel buildings across Malaysia especially Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Perak and Melaka. This paper will be focused on the heritage in colonial building, interior design of the landmarks and how this aspect provide profound heritage exemplar for Malaysia rich and long history. The purpose of this study is to identify the evolutionary features of the interior design and the sustainability of the original characteristics. The research will be carried on by studying the heritage colonial building include interior architecture requirement. Ultimately, recommendations and guidelines in designing interior architecture at colonial building areas with strong heritage inspiration can be published. In conclusion, this study is to discuss the condition or criteria of the interior architecture in heritage building for future references. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Dialect exists due to the boundaries of geographical area where the speaker lives. Through this boundary there are various local dialects such as Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan and so on. Similarly, it is also apparent with the sub-dialects in respective states. In fact, researches concerning dialects in general have been variously conducted. This is also concerning researches in Kedah dialect in particular because Malaysia is rich with local dialects and that researches about dialects have never stopped until now. Therefore, this paper is written with a purpose to conceptualise the vocabulary of adjectives in Kedah dialect (KD) based on the speakers' understanding and knowledge about the dialect. This study is applying the urban dialectology approach pioneered Labov, Trudgill and Idris [11, 9, 21] with some modifications. There are six adjectives that have been chosen using interview technique and word list style conducted at some districts in Kedah. The findings of the study showed that the speakers conceptualised the vocabulary based on their own understanding and knowledge. Nonetheless, most Gen Z speakers have never heard of the vocabulary. Hence, it is hoped that this study will contribute to the sociolinguistics development in Malaysia, and to retain the legacy of Malay dialects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a real-world school timetabling problem (STP) at a school in Malaysia. The previous studies of solving real-world datasets of STP were focused more on the approaches, rather than the details on generating the real-world of STP datasets. This study aims to provide details on producing the real-world datasets of STP based on the XHSTT dataset format. The real-world case problem has the same constraints as depicted in XHSTT dataset and are categorized into three difficulty levels which are easy, normal and hard based on the difficulty level of preassigned teachers. The STP timetable in this study was obtained from a primary school located in the north of Kedah, Malaysia. Next, the XHSTT dataset was solved using the KHE construction method to produce the solution. The proposed solutions adheres to all the hard and soft constraints set for the datasets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current pandemic situations have worsened the economic situations in most developing countries. Malaysia is one of a developing country that has been impacted by covid-19 badly. In Malaysia, cases of Covid-19 is arising everyday especially in the year of 2021. Many have losses their job and income, and they were out of resources to support their families, and providing food for families becomes a challenge. Due to that, students who have been sent to home from university have to face this as well. Therefore, this paper intends to highlight food security and its impact towards academic performance by providing framework and determines the research trends of the area of food security and academic performance. A conceptual framework here explained the progress and event that may happen in future if unbalance diet were practiced by the community. Next, this research adopts a method of web-based data search for studies related to food security and academic performance. Result shows that the trend of this research is keep increasing according to the year. Current research concludes that food security is important for nation wellbeing and sustainable development of a country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to develop a sampling frame and develop a probability-based sampling design for Muslim consumers who have experience in purchasing halal cosmetic products from various website in Malaysia. A 'sampling frame' is the sampling units in a population and their locations. It may consist of a listing of sampling units, or it may be based on a map of the population area within which sampling units can be observed. For Muslim consumers with experience in purchasing halal cosmetics from websites, it is common for no list of individual to exist. After the sampling frame of Muslim consumers was established, the probability sampling technique was used to determine the sampling size. The results are beneficial for researchers to serve as a guideline to conduct quantitative research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In line with the development of Industry 4.0 which takes place in almost every country in world. Malaysia also not left behind in adapting this transformation which initially has been outlined in Industry 4.0 Blueprint in the year of 2018. Then continued to that, Construction 4.0 eventually introduces in 2021 where it become as strategic plan for construction industry to gear up for 4th Industrial Revolution. As a part of construction professional in construction industry, Quantity Surveyors (QS) also being affected with this transformation and changes is needed in their roles and practices. The focus of this paper is to identify the emerging technologies in Construction 4.0 which have been currently adapted in Quantity Surveying practices. The data were collected using quantitative method via questionnaires survey among Quantity Surveyors in Malaysia. Based on the data obtained, emerging technologies in Construction 4.0 have been divided into 3 technology cluster. Ideally, Cluster 1 (Simulation and Modelling) and Cluster 2 (Digitalization and Virtualization) are slowly being adapted in Quantity Surveying practices meanwhile Cluster 3 (Smart Factory) are less being demanded and adapted in QS profession. Due to that, the result proven that Quantity Surveyors are currently taking their steps and grows towards adapting Industry 4.0 waves in their profession. This research is significant in providing an insight for other professionals in construction industry towards managing transformation of Construction 4.0 as well as Industry 4.0 in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The palm oil industry forms the backbone of the Malaysian agricultural economy and is indexed as one of the National Key Economic Areas (NKEAs). Despite the rapid demand for palm oil, the labor shortage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has reduced harvest activity since the dependability on human labor is still high. Based on this scenario, the way forward to resolve the issue is through the implementation of mechanized equipment to assist plantation activities. However, the output rate based on the implementation of mechanized equipment in the Malaysian palm oil industry is still unclear. In this regard, this paper aims to develop a simulation model that mimics the operation of the mechanized equipment in the palm oil mill using a discrete event simulation (DES) approach. The related mechanized equipment has been considered in the simulation model to resemble the palm oil mill operation, namely clarification, extraction, sterilization, and stripping stations. As a result, it is found that the sterilization process contributes to the longest waiting time (122.89 seconds) and the highest number of waiting (3.04 tons). In contrast, stripping stations turn the lowest percentage of resource utilization. By improving the utilization of identified mechanized equipment, the dependability on human labor can be reduced gradually. Consequently, it will increase the harvest output known as Fresh Fruit Branches (FFB) yield and crude palm oil (CPO) production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For decades, numerous theoretical models were introduced to explore the interaction between psychosocial factors and mental health. This paper systematically reviews previous research on the interaction of psychosocial factors with mental health among workers in Malaysia. A comprehensive systematic literature review was performed using PRISMA protocol through electronic databases including Web of Science, Scopus, Dimensions.ai, and ProQuest. The search included articles published between the years of 2017 to 2021. A total of 18 articles was found to offer appropriate evidence towards psychosocial factors and their relationship with mental health among workers in Malaysia. Prevalence of mental health among workers was documented between 10% to 100%. The identified psychosocial factors were high job demands, poor social support, workplace bullying, shift work, job insecurity, working overtime, discrimination at work, financial support issue, and work-family conflict. This review provides a fundamental understanding of the association between perceived psychosocial factors on the workers' mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the oil and gas industry, managing large quantities of produced water on a daily basis as the production blocks mature over time can be challenging, alarming for an effective and equally efficient treatment system to be embarked. A great solution would be to transform the produced water into a solar pond. Salt-gradient solar ponds (SGSP) are capable of storing large amounts of heat that could be used for producing electricity. Studies relevant to sodium bicarbonate solar ponds and its corresponding low-grade energy harvest are still at a pioneering stage, particularly in Malaysia. Thus, this paper investigates possible techniques and approaches to optimize thermal efficiency of solar ponds, using simulated produced water with high sodium bicarbonate content for power generation. It was determined that the best time to acquire the highest lower convective zone (LCZ) temperature is between 12 to 3 pm, when sun peaks right above the head. Also, addition of 18.8 litres of hydrochloric acid (HCl) had significantly reduced the pH and turbidity level of the pond, removing algae while improving solution clarity and heat storage at LCZ. Utilization of neoprene rubber sheet and black soil as insulators had proven to optimize the solar pond thermal efficiency, yielding highest LCZ temperature of 52.3°C with a maximum temperature difference of 18°C. Besides, the application of thermoelectric generator (TEG) to convert heat energy into sensible power output was explored through simple laboratory-scaled design and set-up, where a total of eight TEG modules were required to produce 0.28W of electricity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to classify Malaysian drivers' driving styles (DS) using the Multidimensional Driving Styles Inventory (MDSI). Previously, an MDSI study was performed in Malaysia but was not carried out using the native language. In this study, 430 respondents participated, and the MDSI data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The Malaysian driving style profile distribution was then determined using the three methods: sum scores by the factor, weighted sum scores, and Barlett's method. Besides, the differences between the sociodemographic variables for the proposed driving styles were also reported. The results revealed five Malaysian driving style factors: careful, risky, angry-impatient, dissociative, and anxious. The sociodemographic variables' results significantly affect careful, risky, angry-impatient, and anxious driving styles. This study indicates that Malaysian MDSI provides valid measures and useful instruments to classify the types of driving styles in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia is now ready to adopt Industry 4.0 as a vital tool for transitioning to a new industry. The major focus of this article is on Industry 4.0's challenges and benefits. Inadequate time and effort, higher investment, lack of expertise and knowledge, and lack of internet coverage and IT facilities are some of the challenges associated with adopting Industry 4.0. Many other benefits of Industry 4.0 implementation include higher productivity, increased competitiveness, increased opportunities for collaborative working and knowledge sharing, cost reduction, flexibility and agility, and improved customer experience. As a result, this article contributes to a more realistic knowledge of Industry 4.0. As a final note, this paper offers some directions for firms wishing to implement Industry 4.0 with great success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The inclusion of the greatest number of people into the formal financial system is one of the fundamental motivations behind Islamic financial principles. Following the Global Financial Crisis, Islamic finance was able to overcome its financial losses and maintain its stability. Islamic insurance (Takaful) has served its communal responsibility well for enabling society during the crisis through postponement of premium contributions and continuous protection. This element translates into Islamic insurance integrating social finance instruments. However, the existing financial inclusion index is mainly built based on the banking perspective. The paper aspires to model the role of Islamic insurance in the Financial Inclusion Index in Malaysia. The proposed model to investigate this issue is by using a two-stages Principal Component Analysis (PCA). The benefit of this analysis includes reducing the dimensionality of the data, thus enabling us to better generalise the interpretation of the financial inclusion index. The constructed Takaful products-integrated financial inclusion index would allow policymakers to better assess the state of financial inclusion in Malaysia, thereby formulating more targeted and effective policies in the effort to enhance financial inclusiveness in Malaysia. The society, of which more than half are practicing Islam and especially those in the rural areas, would benefit from greater financial well-being when the emphasis is given to Takaful products to give them access to the financial system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a study on the relationship between income inequality and mortality by states in Malaysia. Even though there are several persuasive evidences to support the association between income inequality and mortality, research in this field is still progressing. This study aims to develop a new mortality model that incorporates the income inequality variable and subsequently to forecast the mortality rates for Malaysia until 2024. The data used are Gini Index and mortality rates for each state of Malaysia which are extracted from the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) from 2007 to 2018. Using the Pearson correlation coefficient, this study identifies the effects and significant level of income inequality on mortality for each state in Malaysia respectively. This study extends the Lee-Carter mortality model by including the new variable of income inequality factor to estimate the mortality rates. Next, ARIMA model is used to forecast the mortality rates from 2016-2024. Results show that almost all states in Malaysia experience positive relationship between income inequality and mortality. This indicates that most states in Malaysia which have higher value of the age component relative to Gini Index would positively affect the mortality experience significantly. The extended Lee-Carter model is deemed to fit the mortality rates better as compared to the original model. The forecasted results show that children and elderly are expected to have lower mortality rates as compared to adults. This study provides better understanding on the effect of income inequality on mortality and produces a reliable mortality forecasts reflecting the income inequality factor for Malaysian population. The development of new mortality model can benefit actuaries in pricing the insurance and annuity products appropriately and strengthen the social security and public health of Malaysia effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia's rare earth elements from saprolite are highly potential to be recovered as an alternative resource to China's rare earth supply due to its high concentration of non-radioactive rare earth elements source. Separation of high-purity lanthanum (La), cerium (Ce), praseodymium (Pr), neodymium (Nd), and yttrium (Y) obtained from Malaysian sources required multi-stages of solvent extraction (SX) and a multi-separation circuit. A massive number of multi-stage fractional SX is necessarily attributable to the similarity of physiochemical properties between the adjacent elements. Process design, data analysis, and prediction of process behavior of rare earth element extraction are multifaceted tasks. Process simulation is an ideal candidate for this complex task. The application of Xu's cascade extraction principles for process simulation of separation of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, and Y was discussed in this paper. A simulation model of HDEHP-HCl cascade fractional SX had been used to simulate the recovery of the elements from Malaysia saprolite. All the process properties, estimation of separation stages, purity, and recovery behavior were determined by Xu's cascade extraction principles. Process simulation results mapped out the space-feasible cascade fractional SX circuits and identified the optimal design parameter required to achieve the targeted purity and recovery. Material distribution and balance tables were used to evaluate the separation of the elements in each stage from the initial stage to the final stage. The production output was measured by predicting the output of the extraction of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, and Y. Even though it lacked an optimization attribute, it is crucial to get an insight into the recovery worthiness of the elements from a particular source. The process simulation predicted the separation stages (extraction and scrubbing stages), the recovery behavior of each circuit, and the production output of La, Ce, Nd, Pr, and Y. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rain attenuation is significantly affecting the FSO performance of a free-space optical communication system. Kuching/Samarahan region is situated in Malaysia state which is under tropical climate zone. The rain distribution is recorded high due to having rain season year-round. It worst when turn to monsoon season where the precipitation rate is expected high and dense. It is crucial to design the effect FSO system to ensure good quality transmission beam signal. This paper is focus on Kuching/Samarahan zone as the preliminary result to investigate the rain pattern and effect over FSO propagation. The investigation it focuses on that region is due to development that area to implement fully digital economy which need supported by high speed and capacity data that can be produced by optical technology. Therefore, FSO technology can perform this task. The rain data is collected from Malaysia Meteorology Department (Met Malaysia) which for three years 2017, 1018 and 2019. The performance will measure the effect of scattering coefficient, rain attenuation and geometrical loss. It is expected heavy rain will contribute the great impact over FSO link. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused severe repercussions that has affected many lives in Malaysia especially university or college students who still struggle with studying in the ongoing pandemic which physical distancing and quarantine are in place. Most of the educational institutions in the world were closed and the teaching and learning activities were placed online. Students have been severely impacted both physically and mentally, as some students are unable to manage their time for academic work due to a lack of motivation caused by online learning and other factors. This study aims to investigate the impact of social media and time management during the pandemic for students and to develop a mobile app to assist students who are facing time management issues or social isolation during this pandemic. This paper presents the architecture and the tools being used to develop the mobile app. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Leptospirosis, as a potential worldwide public health problem, has been a notifiable disease in Malaysia since 2010. This paper aims to establish an epidemic model for the outbreak of leptospirosis, so as to better understand the dynamic trend of leptospirosis and provide theoretical basis for the government and health departments to formulate corresponding prevention and control policies. In this study, we proposed the SIR hybrid optimization model of leptospirosis based on Runge-Kutta fourth order (RK4) method, and obtained the simulation results of the outbreak process of leptospirosis from 2012-2013 to 2031-2032, and compared the results with actual data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years, Malaysia has been facing an alarming situation of municipal solid waste (MSW) issue that is becoming worse to date. Population growth is causing Malaysians to also have increasing domestic waste generation that has exceeded 200,000 tons per month. Management systems for waste disposal is very limited, and the main approach in Malaysia is landfilling which has many problems including little to no leachate treatment. This paper presents a proposal to add benefit to the MSW to be a new precursor to produce activated carbon that can be used to replace non-renewable fuels such as coal and crude oil as a precursor, for leachate treatment. In this study, the composition of MSW used were 77.6% organics and food waste, and 22.4% plastics. The proximate analysis shows that the MSW is suitable to be used as a precursor to produce activated carbon due to its high carbon content which is 45%. Physical activation method was implemented by heating the MSW-derived carbon using CO2 gas at 700 – 900°C. After activation, morphology of the MSW-derived activated carbon indicates a presence of pore structure. From this study, it has been observed that the higher the activation temperature, the greater the surface area and pore volume of the MSW-derived activated carbon. The average pore size of MSW-derived activated carbon was less than 5 nm, that would be able to filter out heavy metals found in the leachate which has an average diameter of 10 nm, hence suitable to be used for leachate treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we empirically test the factors which affect investors' intention to adopt robo-advisory services in Malaysia. Multiple regression method is used. We found significant relationship between transparency, relative advantage, social influence, and perceived usefulness and the intention to adopt of robo-advisory services in Malaysia. However, there is no significant relationship between effort expectancy and intention to adopt robo-advisory services in Malaysia. Our results are consistent with previous similar research which showed a positive relationship between social influence and relative advantage with the intention to adopt of new technologies. In addition, our results could provide some insights into the robo-advisory services' market in Malaysia in order to further understand what encourages Malaysian investors' intention to adopt this new technology as well as how this technology can be adjusted to improve the adoption rate among Malaysian investors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the effects of COVID-19 on the capital structure of publicly listed firms in Malaysia. Using panel data regressions and total debt as proxy for capital structure, we study the relation between the leverage and asset tangibility, firm size, market to book value, liquidity, profitability, growth opportunity together with crisis dummies where it is built based on a sample of 478 firms listed on Bursa Malaysia within industrial products & services, consumer products & services, property, construction, energy, health care, plantation, technology, telecommunications & media, and transportation & logistics industries before and during COVID-19 pandemic for the period of 2016-2020. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studied the impact of COVID-19 on SME. We study the impact of COVID-19 in terms of demand, supply, employment, long term financing and short-term financing. Survival strategies for SME during COVID-19 are also incorporated in this study. To study the impact of COVID-19 on SMEs empirically, primary data will be collected using questionnaires and will be analysed by quantitative approach. The sample size of research is targeted to achieve 384 respondents. Methods used for data collection of this research are mainly adapted questionnaires which are sourced from the public documents of the US Bureau of Labour Statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia's standard operating procedure forbids the provision of Muslimah prayer outfits in public prayer facilities to minimize the risk of the COVID-19 virus spread among the shared-outfits users. The reuse of personal prayer outfits, overcrowding and spending longer in public prayer facilities can also increase the risk of fomite and airborne transmission by people with the virus. Thus, a Muslimah prayer outfit that forbids the spread of infectious diseases is crucially important. This paper presents a prayer gown that is made of disposable materials. Making efficient use of material, the gown is designed to be a single piece, comfortable and low cost. Besides the shari'ah-compliance features (reasonably thick fabric, black colour, elastic sleeves cuff and face opening), the prayer outfit provides a feasible solution to curb the transmission of contagious diseases amongst the prayers. It also serves as a gateway toward safe and easy travel for Muslim women. Introducing the disposable prayer gown helps achieve the perfect balance of the health, economic and social challenges of COVID-19 and other contagious illnesses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficiency in the stock market is an essential component of the capital allocation system and is crucial in promoting economic growth. In recent years, there has been a growing number of publications focusing on the effect of Covid-19 on human norms. Although there are many studies on the impact of Covid-19 on human norms, the empirical implications of the Covid-19 pandemic on financial markets are still poorly understood. This paper adds to the literature by discussing the effects of a pandemic by studying the stock market efficiency before and after the first case of Covid-19 hit Malaysia. Several robust techniques are utilised to validate the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), namely Ljung-box, Hurst exponent, Chow-denning, and Variance ratio tests. Results indicate a strong influence of Covid-19 on the stock movement. The returns are efficient for the overall sample period. However inefficient after the global pandemic. The findings reported here suggest an increasing chance for market predictability in the Malaysian stock market during the global Covid-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water is vital supporting resource for sustainable development of social, health and economics part of human being. Measuring the efficiency of water supply service is very important as the demands of water supply are increasing as the year passes due to the growing in population. Improving the efficiency of water supply service is also an economically viable way for water preservation. The studies of the water service performance measurement have been widely conducted by earlier researchers primarily using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). DEA has been established as an effective method to measure relative efficiency of homogeneous entities which are known as decision making units (DMUs). The main advantage is that DEA has the ability to manage multiple inputs and outputs. However, standard DEA has some disadvantages and one of them is not being able to discriminate and rank those efficient units. Standard DEA can only classify DMUs into two categories generally named as efficient and inefficient units and consequently, not being able to provide full ranking of DMUs. Ranking the water service provider are necessary and important for every state so that necessary changes can be made in making future improvements. The Method for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is a standard decision-making approach with multiple characteristics that are commonly used for decision-making. The advantages of the TOPSIS method are it is easy to be practiced and it allows the best alternative criteria to be attained in a simple mathematical form. This paper proposed a hybrid approach based on DEA and TOPSIS techniques to overcome the problem of ranking which arise in standard DEA in evaluating the efficiency and ranking of the 14 state of water service provider in Malaysia. The result shows the availability of the application of the hybrid method in providing full ranking for Malaysian water service provider as there is no states shares the equal efficiency result as well as their ranking places as compared to the classical DEA method. Inefficient state then will be able to perform benchmarking process from the efficient state to make future improvements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As of March 2022, there have been 3,116,564 infections and 32,827 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began on 1st March 2022. This drastic increase in numbers has been alarming everyone. Malaysia has successfully handled the first and second waves of the COVID-19 cases. However, the recent wave of omicron variants in Malaysia sees a massive increase in COVID-19 infections. Therefore, forecasting plays a vital role in determining preparedness for the current pandemic. This study aims to understand the behaviour of the current infection trend and provide valuable information to the authority to prevent future spikes of active cases. In this paper, the SIR model (Susceptible - Infected Recovered) was used to estimate the active cases in Malaysia. This forecast is essential to prepare for the current wave outbreak. Besides that, the number of susceptible can be reduced via vaccinations to reduce future outbreaks. Therefore, with proper planning and execution, the inoculation rates in Malaysia proved to be successful, and the impact of mass vaccination would be seen in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, majority of universities in Malaysia commonly implement the teaching and learning practices on physical face to face basis. However, the pandemic had drastically changed the norm of the teaching and learning practices into online teaching and learning as one of the measures to curb the spread of the virus among the community. The drastic move had greatly affected the academic communities particularly the students. Some of the possible factors influencing online learning difficulties faced by the students include poor internet accessibility, lack of self-motivation, lack of active interaction with lecturers and peers, lack of conducive learning environment and poor time management. In this paper, the technique of Fuzzy DEMATEL is employed in analyzing the level of influence and relationships of the aforementioned factors in contributing to learning difficulties particularly among fifty mathematic students at a public university in Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia. The cause-and-effect analysis that take into consideration the interactions or interrelationships between factors discovered that poor internet accessibility was classified in the cause group whereas the remaining factors which are lack of self-motivation, lack of active interaction with lecturers and peers, lack of conducive learning environment and poor time management were in the effect group. The results indicate that poor internet accessibility has the highest degree of relation in terms of influencing other factors. Based on the prominence value, the lack of self-motivation turns out to be the leading factor contributing to online learning difficulties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we demonstrated the effectiveness of modeling predictions of gold prices in Malaysia using the Euler numerical method. Our predictive model utilized the Euler numerical scheme to uncover the intelligent trend in the gold price distribution using the World Gold Council data for 10 consecutive years. Our forecasting model was built on Evan's price adjustment model, which identified demand and supply as the major factors responsible for price changes in commodities. Demand and supply functions are major determinant factors that influence the price of commodities at any particular time. Demand and supply can simultaneously compel the price of commodities to adjust to the oscillation caused by them. Using data from the World Gold Council between 2010 and 2020 for Malaysia, we were able to formulate a predictive model capable of predicting the price of gold. The results obtained using our model as a price predictor in computing future gold prices in Malaysia proved effective and efficient. Such a model will assist the government, banks, households, and other investors in optimizing profit, through better planning and wealth recreation within the economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to develop the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) transmission model using the fractional-order differential equation defined by Caputo. This model is developed based on the susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered model, commonly known as the SEIR model. The basic reproduction number, denoted by R0, is computed using the next-generation matrix method. The disease-free equilibrium point is evaluated, and local stability analysis is performed. The analysis shows that the disease-free equilibrium is locally asymptotically stable when R0<1 and unstable when R0>1. In other words, the COVID-19 disease can be eliminated when R0< 1. Finally, numerical results are presented based on the real data of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]