UNIMAS Journal (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak)
Not a member yet
1087 research outputs found
Sort by
Parents' Determinants Buying Intent on Environmentally Friendly Children's Clothing
Fast-fashion products encourage parents to spend more on their children’s necessities. As a result, children’s clothing consumption is increasingly higher in a family due to child growth and change of needs. Due to the short lifespan of children’s clothes, the waste of clothing is increasing rapidly. This research aims to study the opinion of parents and the acceptance of children’s environmental-friendly clothing. The research examined parents’ buying patterns such as shopping frequency, disposal practices and the purchase of child clothing experience. This work has embraced the idea of eco-fashion design to examine the clothing needs of children and the knowledge of the parents. Hence, a quantitative analysis was applied to research among parents in January 2020 in Malaysia. This research contributes to academic results about parents’ decision-making on the children clothing subject. The findings showed that parents were aware of the idea of sustainable apparel; the cost, quality, design, and health issues were the most significant factors that influenced consumer’s decisions to purchase children’s clothing. Sustainable children’s clothing was preferred by parents as it had multiple benefits which impacted children’s health, preserves the environment as well as cost and time effective. For future research, further exploration relating to disposal and sustainable clothing design for children is suggested
Phenotype and Genotype Characterisation of the Asian Clam of the Genus Corbicula Megerle von Mϋhlfeld, 1811 (Venerida, Cyrenidae) from the East Coast of Peninsular Malaysia
The Corbicula taxonomy in Malaysia is equivocal and scarcely being reported. This study aims to characterise phenotype and genotype of the Asian clam of the genus Corbicula (Mergele Von Mühlfeld, 1811) from three locations in east coast of Peninsular Malaysia. The phenotypic characterisation of the three population of the clam was evaluated on the basis of morphometric characters, while mtDNA cytochrome b (cytb) was used to characterise the genotypes. Results of morphometric analysis showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in shell height (SH), shell width (SW) and umbo length (UL) among three locations between the evaluated population. Discriminant analysis also revealed significant difference of the characters among the study sites. However, cluster analysis revealed an overlapping of morphometric characters among evaluated C. fluminea intricate complete separation between populations. Besides, a comparison of the Corbicula with the morphotypes and holotypes had proposed the Corbicula in this region known as C. fluminea. The genotypes characterisation using mtDNA cytb verifies the existence of C. fluminea. Phylogenetic trees demonstrated polymorphism and low genetic variances although geographically separated which parallel to the phenotypic characterisation. Thus, these findings enhance the knowledge on geographical variation and elucidate the complexity of taxa
The Control of Panicle Blight Bacterial Pathogen on Rice Seeds Through In Vitro Treatments
Burkholderia glumae is a seed-borne pathogen of rice known to cause bacterial panicle blight disease. The lack of effective control methods makes seed treatment the alternative management approach. The aim of this research was to determine an effective seed treatments technique, using liquid smoke, clove oil, hot water and copper hydroxide fungicide treatment against bacteria B. glumae. The experiment used a complete randomized design with five treatments and three replications, including control, liquid smoke, clove oil, hot water, and copper hydroxide fungicide. The results showed the propensity for all treatments to reduce bacterial populations on rice seeds, while liquid smoke, clove oil, and fungicide did not reduce vigour and viability. Application of copper hydroxide fungicide 77% at concentration of 5% was recommended as the best treatment to control the bacterial pathogen.
Keywords: Burkholderia glumae, clove oil, copper hydroxide fungicide, hot water, liquid smoke, ric
The Determinants Of Human Capital Disclosure For Financial Sector In Malaysia
Disclosure of human capital is evolving and has rapidly emerged as a critical area of focus through the lens of stakeholders. This study analyses the factors influencing human capital disclosure for financial sector in Malaysia from 2013 to 2017. The result of this study reported that there is significant positive relationship between firms’ performance and leverage towards human capital disclosure. This study discovered among the human capital characteristics, employee benefit has the highest value on human capital disclosure for Financial sector in Malaysia followed bytraining of employee, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the lowest value is descriptive employee.This study usesdescriptive analysis, content analysis, correlation analysis, and regression analysisto test and analyse the dependent variables and independent variables of this study. The results of this study should be great importance tomany parties such as employees, stakeholder, government, researcher and university in making right decision with regard to human capital disclosure.
Keywords:Human Capital Disclosure, Performance, Leverage, Financial Secto
Attributes of Islamic Bank Service Quality: A Survey to Map Metropolitan Customer Satisfaction
This study aims to analyze service quality of Islamic Banking in Jakarta. Data were randomly obtained from metropolitan customers with the CARTER approaches, which comprises of Compliance, Assurance, Reliability, Tangibles, Empathy, and Responsiveness used to determine customer satisfaction index and importance performance analysis. Although the overall result showed that metropolitan customers of Islamic banks are satisfied, gaps were found on attributes of the services provided. Therefore, continuous improvement is needed to ensure the proper use of information technology (e-Banking), the ability of banks in responding to problems and complaints quickly, and the hospitality of employees while attending to customers
Regional Economic Impacts of Natural Resources: The Case of Petroleum, and Forestry and Logging in Sarawak
Extraction of natural resources has created significant contribution to the Malaysian economy as a whole. However, the growth and development of the industry do not necessarily bring considerable economic linkages to the local economy where the industry is located, thus fail to contribute to the welfare of local households. This paper validates this claim by examining the economic impacts of Crude Oil and Natural Gas; Petroleum Refinery; and Forestry and Logging industries on the state of Sarawak. For an empirical analysis, a regional input-output model that developed by using a so-called Simple Location Quotient technique, is used as the main methodology in this study. Results are consistent with our claim that the three industries show significant impacts on growth that measured by value added. However, socio-economic impacts that measured by employment are considerably low. The lower employment impacts can be supported by the two stylized facts. First, the extraction of natural resources is capital-intensive production. The activity requires skilled workers, which might be one of the factors contributing to lower income and job opportunities. Second, the industries are highly dependent on inputs from other states and from abroad, which eventually creates lower economic spill over effects within the state economy
Contents of Boric Acid in Noodles and Processed Foods
Boric acid is commonly used as pesticides, antifungal and antiseptics. It was also used as a food preservative to prolong the shelf life and enhance the food texture. In Malaysia, the addition of boric acid during food processing is prohibited due to its detrimental effect on health. In this study, noodles and fish-based processed food from different manufacturers were analysed for their boric acid concentrations by using the curcumin method. The results showed that there was high concentration of boric acid found in the noodles and fish-based processed food samples. The amount of boric acid detected in yellow noodles varied over the four weeks and amongst manufacturers. A similar pattern was also observed for ‘kuey teow’ (flat rice noodle) and ‘kolok’ noodle. The highest amount of boric acid concentrations was found in ‘kuey teow’ followed by yellow noodles and ‘kolok’ noodle. There was also inconsistency in the concentration of boric acid in fish cakes, fish balls and crab sticks. For fish-based products, crab stick contained the highest amount of boric acid followed by fish ball and fish cake. Even though the addition of boric acid to food is banned in Malaysia, the results of this study showed that boric acid is still being used as a food preservative in food manufacturing
Notes on Advertisement Calls Playback by Three Species of Sarawakian Frogs
Male and female frogs respond differently towards advertisement calls. The fittest call will be chosen by the conspecific female to produce progenies, means that call from male to female is to ensure the survival of the species. The objective is to observe the response of both male and female frogs by playing the advertisement call to another male or female of the same species at their breeding site. The advertisement calls were recorded manually and were replayed using a speaker with built-in amplifier. The frog’s responses were then recorded in video form. Ambient temperatures were taken using data logger. The calls were analyzed to describe call characteristics. From the acoustic playback, both male and female Pulchrana glandulosa responded towards the calls. The male produces a crying-like sound while approaching playback source meanwhile the female produces a small “wik” sound. Male Pulchrana baramica responded by straining their calls and approaches the playback source. For male Kurixalus appendiculatus, the individuals responded by moving towards the sound source without calling. Results show that male of different species and male and female of the same species react differently towards playback calls. This shows that the breeding call recorded can be recognized by other frogs when they were played on amplifier.
Keywords: Advertisement calls, call characteristics, playback recording, Sarawak frogs
An Ethnobotanical Study of Indigenous Leafy Vegetables Among Local Communities in Bintulu, Sarawak, Malaysia
The consumption of indigenous leafy vegetables (ILV) is a common practice among local people in Bintulu. It serves as an important food resource for local communities in rural areas. However, these traditional practices were declining in urban areas and among younger generations. Therefore, the study aimed to record the ILV consumed by the local people, and mode of consumption of the ILV. A field survey was carried out with two phases; phase one was the distribution of structured questionnaires and the second phase was the interview session with 20 respondents from each of the three native markets located in Bintulu Division; Bintulu, Tatau, and Sebauh market. The study has identified 20 species of ILV from 18 different families: Agavaceae, Anacardiaceae, Athyriaceae, Blechnaceae, Brassicaceae, Compositae, Euphorbiaceae, Flacourtiaceae, Gnetaceae, Leguminosae, Limnocharitaceae, Menispermaceae, Myrtaceae, Olacaceae, Ophioglossaceae, Piperaceae, Smilacaceae and Verbenaceae. Identified ILV were consumed in many ways by the natives. The plant parts used also differ from one species to another and had different taste. A further study should be carried out to analyse the plant nutritional values and agronomy factors for commercialization of the potential ILV.
Keywords: Bintulu, consumption method, ethnobotany, ethnobotanical study, indigenous leafy vegetable
Technical Analysis and Malaysian Banking Sector during COVID-19 Pandemic
The announcements of Movement Control Order and Loan Moratorium caused a significant impact on the stock prices of Malaysian banks during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aims to investigate the effectiveness of technical analysis in predicting the stock price movement and the ability of the technical analysis in generating returns. In doing so, six moving average rules used as the proxy of technical analysis and tested in this study. Majority of the MA rules shown positive returns before the various announcements dates. Specifically, this study revealed that MA rules of (2,5) and (2,10) were among the best performing MA rules during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study also recommends the investors to use the signals emitted by the technical indicator as the reference for their investment decision in the banks’ stock