USM Journal Management System (Univ. Sains Malaysia)
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An Empirical Exploration of Factors Contributing to Malaysian Men Becoming Involved in a Feminine Career: A Case Study of Male Nurse and Pak Andam
Get PDFThe gender socialisation process will form and affect the career choices of children when they grow up. As a result, certain careers are considered appropriate only for a certain gender. However, this scenario of gender dominated career is now loosened. Currently, there are men who work as nurses, secretaries, and bridal beauticians. This study examines the factors that influence Malay, Muslim Malaysian men to work in two careers generally dominated by women, which are nurse and “pak andam” (Malay bridal beautician and consultant). Using a case study qualitative approach, the author investigated the factors that influence male nurses (N = 14) and “pak andam” (N = 5) to work in occupations generally considered to be the main domain of women in Malaysia’s culture. Data from semi-structured interviews revealed that the reason why men become male nurses is mainly caused by external factors, which are family obedience, financial disadvantage, and religious obligation. However, during their journey in becoming nurses, they developed their passion for nursing. In contrast, the males who become “pak andam” do so mainly because of personal factors, which is their interest in beauty and fashion. This paper will further discuss the participants’ experiences from the context of Malay Muslim culture
The Relationship between Corporate Governance, Employee Salaries, Salary Gaps and Financial Performance
Get PDFGiven the scarcity of literature exploring the nexus between corporate governance and employee salaries, this study investigates the impact of corporate governance on employee compensation and its subsequent effects on financial performance. We identify a positive correlation between robust corporate governance and higher employee salaries, which in turn enhances firm profitability and value. Our findings also suggest that employee salaries act as a partially mediate in the relationship between corporate governance and firm value, indicating a nuanced mechanism through which governance quality influences organisational outcomes. Notably, we observe that enhanced corporate governance is associated with a wider salary gap between management and non-management employees, a factor that might adversely affect financial performance. These results underscore the complex dynamics between corporate governance and employee compensation strategies, contributing to a deeper understanding of their interplay
Crude Palm Oil Price Prediction Using Simulated Annealing-based Support Vector Regression (SA-SVR)
Get PDFPalm oil is one of the major export products of Malaysia. Predicting the price of crude palm oil futures (FCPO) traded on BURSA Malaysia Derivative is essential as agricultural markets have an inherent tendency towards instability, and thus are more vulnerable to price shocks than other industrial sectors. Hence, if the price of the futures contract on crude palm oil can be forecasted accurately, many parties such as farmers, refiners and distributors can manage the risk of price fluctuations through FCPO. This study proposes the metaheuristic and machine learning hybridised model of simulated annealing-based support vector regression (SA-SVR). The SVR in this model produces close price predictions of the FCPO with minimum deviation from the actual value with the help of SA, which first determines the best hyperparameter set to be utilised in the SVR. Although the proposed Radial Basis Function (RBF) kernelised SA-SVR model inputs only 10% of training data due to memory overload issues, it has produced a satisfying prediction result with an average execution time of 2 minutes and 34 seconds. The model performance was analysed further by using different ratios in data splitting, varying temperature combinations for the SA algorithm and initiating the parameter search based on the previous best hyperparameter set. Results show that keeping the test size constant and extracting more historical data on FCPO price for model training is better than varying train-test split ratios. The temperature schedule strategy showed that different initial and minimum SA temperature combinations affects the overall optimisation results. The best combination was the initial temperature of 100 and minimum of 40. In addition, the number of temperature reductions and average execution time to reach the best state decreases when the starting point of the parameter search space is close to the best values
Moulting Performances Evaluation of Female Orange Mud Crab, Scylla olivacea (Herbst, 1796) In-Captivity: Effects of Water Salinity and Limb Autotomy
Get PDFFemale Scylla olivacea has become more popular in Malaysia as emerging species mainly for soft-shell crabs and crab fattening (to increase weight, size and ovary maturation so that they can be sold at a higher price). To harvest crabs in soft-shell conditions and fattening, both conditions depend mostly on moulting events. To accelerate the moulting process, the manipulation of water parameter (salinity) and autotomy of the limb is commonly used. In this study, the evaluation of the moulting performances of full limb autotomy (the removal of all the appendages except for the swimming legs) and non-ablated (control) using immature S. olivacea cultured in three different salinity treatments (10 ppt, 20 ppt and 30 ppt) were performed. Results indicate there were significant differences between mud crab’s culture duration, BW increments, growth performances and feeding efficiency with salinity. However, CW increments and survival indicate no significant effect with salinity. Meanwhile, limb autotomy proved to affect the culture duration, BW increments, survival and feeding efficiency of S. olivacea. The study concludes that both salinity and limb autotomy play significant roles in moulting performances of S. olivacea, with 20 ppt being the best salinity to stimulate S. olivacea moulting and development compared with the other two treatments (10 ppt and 30 ppt). Limb autotomy also indicates promising results as this technique proved to accelerate the moulting duration of S. olivacea with a 100% moulting percentage within 30 days. Therefore, the outcome would certainly benefit in the aquaculture production of this species of commercial importance mainly on soft-shell crabs production and also emerge as crabs fattening technique
The Performances of Adlay (Coix lacryma-jobi L.) As Component of Agroforestry on Teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) Plantation
Get PDFAdlay is an edible high nutritious minor cereal. The research aimed to study the adlay performance when cultivated intercropped on young teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) plantation. The treatments were consisted of two factors that were arranged by factorial (3 × 3) in randomised completed block design with four replicates. The first factor was three fertilisation dosages of NPK (16-16-16), as 0 g/hole (F0), 2 g/hole (F2) and 4 g/hole (F4). The second factors were three planting space as 2 m × 2 m (PS2), 3 m × 3 m (PS3) and 4 m × 4 m (PS4). The parameter observed were vegetative growth which was consisted of plant height, the number of leaves, tillers and sub tillers, leaf chlorophyll content, grain production and biomass weight. The results revealed that fertilisation treatment were significantly affected the growth and production of adlay. On 12 weeks after planting, the F4 treatment produced the tallest plant, and the highest leaf number. The highest grain number/plant was achieved on the F2 treatment that was significantly different compared with the control (F0). The shading intensity due to the teak coverage significantly affected adlay growth and production. The PS4 treatment produced the highest number of leaves, tillers and grains. The combination of F2 and PS4 treatments resulted in the best growth and production. The PS2 treatment which has lower light intercepted by plants due to lower incident light intensity, resulting in a significant reduction in plant growth and production. It is suggested that adlay offers potency as a component of agro-forestry on the teak plantations.
Recovery of Petroleum Brine-Contaminated Soil by Eleocharis sp. in a Tropical Marshland
Get PDFAlmost all research on natural attenuation and phytoremediation of sites contaminated with briny produced water has been conducted in temperate climates, however, there is a dearth of information on the use of tropical species for this purpose. It is within this context, that we investigated a spontaneously growing hypersaline spikerush from a contaminated site in southeast Mexico, to determine its soil salinity limits, the relationship between soil organic matter and salinity, and for preliminary documentation of floristic succession with Typha sp. for phytoremediation o f brine s pills. Soil was sampled (0 cm–20 cm) three times between 2018–2021, focusing on the end of the dry season (most critical period). The species tentatively identified as Eleocharis mutata was tolerant to soil hypersalinity (Electrical Conductivity: 125 dS/m) and appeared to generate a cyclic process of succession to recover areas with soil salinity levels higher than it could otherwise tolerate. A salinity gradient was found between the most heavily contaminated part of the site (“kill zone”, > 212 dS/m), the first Eleocharis sp. individuals (125 dS/m), slowly advancing through the main spikerush stand, and finally into a cattail stand (< 8.02 dS/m). Similarly, an inverse relationship between Soil Organic Matter content and soil salinity was observed. This is the first time this species has been identified with a brine spill, its salinity limits determined, and investigated for use in phytoremediation of this kind
Prioritising Conservation Area in Species Management Strategy for The Edible Bornean Giant River Frog Limnonectes leporinus Anderson 1923
Get PDFLimnonectes leporinus, the endemic giant river frog, is a riparian (stream dwelling) species that lives along streams with moderate to steep gradients. The most serious threats to the species are deforestation caused by severe clear cutting, which fragments its distribution, and overhunting for local consumption. Excessive landscape modification alters habitat, making it critical for an organism to maintain heterozygozity for the population to be fit to adapt to a changing environment. The goal of this research was to project suitable habitats and predict the potential for habitat connectivity to allow gene flow across the Sarawak landscape. The presence data file and environmental layers were converted into ASCII format using ArcGIS and then used in MaxEnt modelling to generate the map of suitable habitats. To perform the connectivity model, the potential habitat model and genetic attributes of haplotype data were computerised in Circuitscape software. The findings revealed that suitable habitats corresponded to species distribution in lowland areas with sustainable stream networks as breeding sites, while higher elevations were identified as unsuitable habitats. Gene flow data, on the other hand, revealed that connectivity circuits are mostly found in unprotected forest, which includes development areas and private lands. As a result, prioritising conservation areas should include local governments and landowners in proper landscape management as well as species management strategies. This indirectly sustains and protects Borneo’s forests, flora and fauna
CEO Power and Tax Avoidance in Malaysia: The Moderating Effect of Board Gender Diversity
Get PDFThis study examines the relationship between chief executive officer (CEO) power and tax avoidance and the moderating effects of board gender diversity on this relationship. Based on companies listed on the Main Market of Bursa Malaysia from 2009 to 2019, it is found that CEO power is positively associated with tax avoidance. This suggests that CEOs with more dimensions of power are more competent in reducing the firm’s tax burden. Further tests show that this positive relationship is strengthened by board gender diversity. This implies that CEO competence in tax avoidance increases as the proportion of female directors on the board increases
Internationalisation Strategy and Management Accounting and Control Systems: A Network Approach
Get PDFInternationalisation has become crucial to economic development, especially for companies that are more technological and scientific. These companies arouse curiosity, as they quickly begin their internationalisation process (IP), adopting the Born Global model shortly after its creation. It has also been noted that, when they seek to benefit from mutual flexibility, the opportunity to use technical and economic knowledge, and even the collective assumption of costs and risks, it is common for them to resort to the internationalisation model based on Network Theory. Considering that internationalisation is part of the company’s growth strategy, and that this may require an adjustment of the information structure, namely the Management Accounting and Control System (MACS), it becomes relevant to understand how IP affects MACS. In this way, our study aims to respond to how MACS adjusts to Born Global internationalisation model (BGIM) and Network Model of Internationalisation (NMI) for a successful internationalisation strategy? In this study, we evaluate how MACS is adjusted in order to become a tool capable of collecting and processing the set of useful information necessary for the implementation of the internationalisation strategy. We conducted a single case study in a Portuguese health-sector company. Our results show that MACS needs to be adjusted to facilitate the implementation of IP
Predictibility of Returns with Buyback Cash Flows
Get PDFThis article re-evaluates return and cash flow predictability, extending beyond dividends to include repurchases and issuances cash flows. Employing total distribution in the Campbell-Schiller decomposition, I examine how prices respond to discount rate and cash flow growth changes. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the results indicate that while dividend yield predicts returns, distribution yield, encompassing all distributions, emerges as a more effective predictor of future cash flows. This challenge established literature, emphasising the significance of considering all cash flow components in asset pricing analyses