Issue of skilled and knowledge worker is an issue that frequently discussed among agricultural training institutions and employers in the sector. It is viewed seriously by Malaysian government through Agrofood Policy 2011-2015 by emphasising agricultural workers that are highly skilled and knowledgeable to assist Malaysia achieves high-income developed nation status. However, what are the characteristics of those high skilled and knowledge workers? This question is the base of this research. By using qualitative approach, modified Delphi technique / method is chosen as the research framework. Eleven experts from various stakeholders such as agriculture lecturer, leaders of agricultural training institutions, agricultural instructor and agricultural industry employer in Malaysia. Finding reveals ten characteristics of k-workers that are needed to enable them to have high employability skill in order to satisfy / fulfil national requirement of skilled workforce. This finding can be used .....

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The purpose of this study is to analyse lower primary science textbooks (grade 1-3), which were implemented by the Ministry of Education in Malaysia, in terms of thinking skills. To achieve this, a tool for content analysis including thinking skill items will be constructed. Two science teachers have be trained to conduct the content analysis for grade 1-3 science textbooks, the reliability and validity of analysis have be verified using Cohen’s kappa statistic. From the results, it can be seen clearly that Prioritizing”, “Evaluation” and “Detecting Bias” thinking skills are not included at all in the science textbook from year one until year three. While, the most frequent critical thinking skills are “attributing”, “analysing”, “Grouping and Classifying” and “Sequencing” gradually. Most of the skills have been in the pictures for year one, and in the “text” and then within the “picture” and finally within the “activities” for both of year two a.....

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This research aimed to develop and examine the effects of a simulation board game for learning  shipping management in two higher education institutions. A provisional board game design framework  was proposed by referring to the game-based learning literature. Based  on  the  framework,  an   instance  of  shipping  management  board  game  was developed, standing on the discreet event  simulation of a realistic shipping process and activity.  The  framework  was  converted  into   game  mechanics  for  constructing  the gameplay by applying a transparent process of gameplay,  while enforcing face-to-face interaction among players. The design of the board game was validated  by 27 experts through a playtesting session; and the effects of the board game usage was examined  through  a  non-equivalent  control  group  pre-test/post-test  quasi-experiment.  Edumetric tests   were  administered  to  measure  the  effects  of  the  boar.....

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Many studies have been done in addressing work-family conflict (WFC) among employees working in organizations. Thus, the focus of this study is to address WFC that has been faced by currently working and studying adults, and examine its relationship with their health and stress condition. In addition, this study examines the moderating effect of social support between WFC and working student’s health and stress condition. The sample for this study consists of working students enrolling in part-time programs in UniversitiPendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia. Questionnaires were distributed to students pursuing part-time programs in Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris. The questionnaire was developed based on past literature and proposed research framework. The questionnaire comprised of questions regarding WFC, stress, health, social support and demographic questions. Findings from the research indicated that WFC, faced by working students in UPSI, were significantly related to stress, he.....

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This  study  aimed  to  analyze  the  impact  of  employee  ownership  on  the  organizational  performance  of  state-owned  firms  with  the  mediation  of  employee  loyalty,  motivation and  satisfaction, and psychological ownership as a moderator in Pakistan. Agency theory is used as a  theoretical underpinning to operationalize the research framework. This study employed   quantitative  research  design.  The  data  was  collected  through  primary  and secondary data  collection tools. For primary data, a survey was conducted on a sample of 283 employees of the  state-owned firms under the scheme of employee ownership. The secondary data was collected for  financial performance, productivity, and financial cost. The findings showed a significant,  positive impact of employee ownership on net profit margin  (β=1.3198), return on assets   (β=1.167),  and productivity (β=0.0087), while the negative impact on financial cost (β.....

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The problem of an unsteady magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) and heat transfer over a stretching/shrinking permeable sheet with ohmic heating is studied in this paper.  Using a nonlinear partial differential equations system, the physical problem is modeled and transformed into ordinary differential equations using similarity transformation.  Along with the boundary conditions, the equations are solved numerically using bvp4c in the MATLAB software and a comparison with previous literature shows an excellent agreement.  The effect of suction parameter, unsteady parameter and magnetic parameter in porous plate are discussed.  The results show that the velocity profile and skin friction coefficient increases when suction parameter increases.  Furthermore, the increase in magnetic and unsteady parameters resulted in the increase in the velocity profile and the skin friction coefficient respectively...

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We investigated bird species richness and feeding guilds in two contrasting habitat types i.e. forest and developed areas in Muallim district of Perak, Peninsular Malaysia. Field surveys were conducted by using point-count observation along transects and mist-netting methods to determine the presence of bird species in the forest and developed areas. There were 28 species of birds from 23 families found in these habitats, where 13 species were found in forest and 15 species in the developed areas. The species richness was similar between forest and urbanized habitats. Forest birds were mainly frugivores and frugivore-insectivores whereas those from developed areas were insectivore-granivores and insectivores. Insects are important food resources in both habitats. Our results suggest that the availability of food resources in a locality may partly influence the community structure of Avifauna where conversion of forest into developed areas may induce shifts in the distribution of feedin.....

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Radiation dosimeters exhibit several performance properties characterized by their precision and accuracy, linearity, dose and energy dependence, stability and spatial resolution. However, these characteristics may not be satisfied by all dosimeters. The dosimetric performances of Instadose and Thermolumniscence dosimeters (TLDs) which are the two most commonly used personal dosimeters in health care institutions were comparatively assessed under clinical settings in which a GE haulum XR 6000 X-ray machine with a frequency of 50/60 Hz was used to serially irradiate Mironinstadose and TLD 100H badges to a controlled exposure factors and readings of absorbed doses for instadose were obtained from a portable computer with internet access, while that of TLDs was obtained through heating using Harshaw 4500 automatic TLD reader at Center for Energy Research and Training (CERT), Zaria. The dose equivalent quantities measured were; Hp (10), Hp (3) and Hp(0.07) all in mSv, representing deep, ey.....

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Glassesin  the  series  30MgSO4-(70-x)  P2O5-xSm2O3 0.2 ≤x≤1.0  mol  percentwere  prepared  by  single  step melt-quenchtechniques,   thestructure,   physicalandoptical propertiesofsamarium   oxide   at   different concentrationswere   studied.The   amorphous phase   of   the   samples   was   verifiedby   X-ray   diffraction spectroscopy,  the  structural  units  were  investigated  using  Fourier Transform  Infrared, Raman  and  NMR spectroscopy where the spectra revealthe presence of symmetric, asymmetric, torsoionalandbending vibration of phosphate groups,the NMR spectra reveals the changes in Qndistributionhere discussed,thecompositional dependenceonphysical (density,  average  molar  weight,dielectric  constant,Inter-nuclear  distance, Field strength,Molar volume, Molar refractivity  etc) and optical  parameterswere determined. In  terms  of  structural modifications, there  is variation of density and molar volume, t.....

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In this paper, we present the distribution of some maximal eigenvalues that are obtained numerically from the discrete Dirichlet Boundary Domain Integro-Dierential Equation (BDIDE) operator. We also discuss the convergence of the discrete Dirichlet BDIDE that corresponds with the obtained absolute value of the largest eigenvalues of the discrete BDIDE operator. There are three test domains that are considered in this paper, i.e., a square, a circle, and a parallelogram. In our numerical test, the eigenvalues disperse as the power of the variable coecient increases. Not only that, we also note that the dispersion of the eigenvalues corresponds with the characteristic size of the test domains. It enables us to predict the convergence of an iterative method. This is an advantage as it enables the use of an iterative method in solving Dirichlet BDIDE as an alternative to the direct methods  ..

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