The real estate sector in Malaysia has witnessed rapid growth, especially in the residential and commercial segments. This study aims to determine the significant factors leading to the intention to either purchase or rent a house in Malaysia. Demographic factors, financial assessment and social attributes serve as independent variables for decision making concerning purchase or rental of a house. The Rational Choice Theory is applied in this study. Data collected via questionnaire to households’ in several shopping malls in Selangor. The findings reveal that educational qualification and households’ monthly income influence the intention to purchase or rent a house while marital status is not a significant determining factor. Respondents with higher educational qualification and higher household monthly income prefer to purchase a residential property rather than to rent. Financial assessment is a significant factor affecting the intention to purchase or rent a residential propert.....

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This study investigates the impact of internal corporate governance on the relation between disclosure quality and earnings management in the UK listed companies, in particular whether governance mechanisms have deterrent effect on earnings management similar to firms’ disclosure quality. Unlike prior literature, we measure a number of board and audit committee-related governance instruments, three disclosure quality proxies (i.e. Investor Relation Magazine Award, Forward-Looking Disclosure and Analyst Forecast Accuracy) and the Modified Jones Model to test the hypotheses of the study on a matched-pair sample data of Investor Relation Magazine Award winning and non-winning firms. Our findings in the OLS and sensitivity analyses using Heckman Procedure and 2SLS regressions consistently report a significant negative association between earnings management and disclosure quality for all proxies in restraining earnings management. In contrast, corporate governance variables are mostly in.....

489 hits

The main objective of this study is to examine the relationship of market penetration strategy, market development strategy and the competitive advantage (cost leadership) of manufacturing based SMEs in Nigeria. The study employed structured questionnaire survey involving 453 manufacturing based SMEs operating in Kaduna state, Kano state, and Sokoto state, the total of 277 valid questionnaires representing 61% response rate was used for the final analysis using PLS-SEM to test the hypotheses. The study finding shows that market penetration strategy has a significant positive impact on cost leadership. Similarly, the result found that market development strategy had a significant positive influence on cost leadership strategy of manufacturing based SMEs of Nigeria. The findings of this study will support owners-manager competency toward creating competitiveness, enhance market share, and sustain competitive advantage. Also, the framework will serve as a blue print for Government agencie.....

452 hits

Murraya koenigii (L.) Spreng, an evergreen plant, is mostly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions [1]. It belongs to the Murraya genus of the Rutaceae family, which is widely grown in home gardens in Malaysia for its aromatic leaves and as one of the important ingredients in Indian cuisine. Previous phytochemical studies on M. koenigii revealed the presence of carbazole alkaloids [2–7] and coumarins [8]. Herein, we present data on the isolation and identification of three triterpenes and two phenolic compounds from the hexane crude extracts of the bark and leaves of M. koenigii collected from Pahang, Malaysia. The hexane crude extract of the bark (30.0 g) was chromatographed over silica gel 60F254 (70–230 mesh) and extensively subjected to silica gel 60F254 (230–400 mesh) column chromatography and preparative TLC on silica gel GF254, leading to the isolation of compounds 1–3, and 5. Meanwhile, compounds 1, 4, and 6 were isolated from the leaves hexane extract (20.0 g).....

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The process of the language acquisition of children is reflected in two aspects; language structure and pragmatic functions. Data from "The Longtime Tracing Oral Corpus of Typical Development Children" (one child; 2,367 sentences) are analyzed. This study examines the child’s sentence final particle (SFP) “ba”, in which we focused on the intention of this word and concluding with the core pragmatic meaning and divided the different levels of “ba”. In this way, we combined the different sentence types, the intentions of utterance, and the degrees of “undetermined intention” and researched on the pragmatic function of child’s SFP “ba” in order to obtain the pragmatic acquisition of “ba” at the specific development period (1;12-4;01). The acquisition and development of children's language is the result of a combination of biological factors, discourse input, and cognitive ability. Finally, the enlightenment of the research conclusions on early childhood education a.....

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Learning through picture books is a method which is widely used in preschools to teach mathematics. However, the research findings on the benefits of using picture books in learning mathematics remain inconclusive. This study aimed to i) investigate the effects of a picture book entitled “What are the numbers?” (a picture book made up flora and fauna in Borneo) on early mathematics achievement (reading and writing numerals up to 20) and ii) to get feedback on how appropriate the use of “what are the numbers” from teachers and parents. The book consists elements of critical thinking, communication, collaboration and creative thinking. The effects were measured by comparing the change in early mathematical ability of children in reading and writing numerals up to 20 by using the Rasch measurement model. The mean of the pre-test achievement was -1.99 logits and the mean of the post-test achievement was 1.75 logits which shows a difference of 3.74 logits. The effect size of the dif.....

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The main aims of the study was to identify the students’ cognitive style. Secondly, to find the relationship between students’ cognitive style and their reading ability in Malay Language. Sample of the study consisted of 130 students (65boys, 65 girls) from selected primary schools in Malaysia. The participants were selected from standard 4 and 5 (10-11years old). Methodology of study was survey using questionnaire to collect data. In data collection, three instruments were used namely revised ‘Group Embedded Figures Tests’ (GEFT), demographic questionnaire and reading test. From data collected, researcher were able to identify student's cognitive style either 'Field Independent' (FI) or 'Field Dependent'(FD). Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Finding of the study showed that there were more participants with Field Independent cognitive style (97 students) than Field dependent (33 students). The study also found that there were positive correlatio.....

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Using ethnography and case study approaches from qualitative methodology, this study examined a Syrian immigrant child’s language acquisition and culture adaptation in the United States. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with the teachers and the mother of the child, participant observations during home visits, and field notes during classroom observations. The child’s culture and language learning were conceptualized through the lens of Bronfenbrenner’s (1994) ecological model and Funds of Knowledge approach to education (Ferreiro & Teberosky, 1985). The article documented factors that facilitated and negatively impacted on her process of becoming bilingual and her cultural adaptation after moving to an English speaking country. Implications for fostering a better school and home relationship was discussed...

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This study aims to examine the relationship between sleep and mood states on student-athlete. The respondent consists of 89 student-athletes from MajlisSukanNegeri, Perak. There were 53 male respondent (59.3%) and 36 female respondent (40.4%). These respondent were range from age 13 to 21 years old are chosen from the category of individual and team sports. The instruments used were Profile of Mood States (POMS). For sleep status, result was sort out by two categories, which is normal sleep and sleep deprivation. There were 34 respondent with sleep deprivation condition (38.2 %) and 55 respondent with normal sleep condition (61.8%). According to the results,Pearson’s correlation showed positive relationship between sleep status and athlete’s mood states. In conclusion, student-athletes showed more negative mood (depress and tension) in sleep deprived condition...

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In Malaysia, most parents prefer to choose registered early childhood learning centers (TASKA), due to their perceptions that the centers are with quality services and well-observed by the government authority. In this quantitative research, the main objective is to identify the best model to represent the contributing factors which influence arithmetic performance among children at registered Malaysian TASKA. Childrens’ arithmetic performance in general affect their mental capability and overall personal skills development. This research is significant to determining the important contributing factors which influence newborn babies’ mathematical skills. Data was collected using a survey questionnaire. Based on the right sampling method, 376 registered TASKAs in Malaysia were chosen. Among the 458 chosen centers, only 63 centres provide care and education services for children age of 0 to 6 months. Neural network technique was the analysis adapted in order to achive the research ob.....

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