13474 research outputs found
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The impact of ownership structure on corporate reputation: Evidence from Malaysia / Nur Nadhirah Syahirah Zainul Abidin
No full textCorporate reputation study has witnessed significant growth and development in recent years. The research indicates a significant association between corporate reputation and corporate performance. Nevertheless, due to the expansive nature of corporate reputation, relying solely on corporate performance may not provide a precise assessment. Further investigation is necessary to identify variables that can accurately gauge corporate reputation. Previous studies conducted in Spain have tried to establish a connection between the structure of ownership and their overall corporate reputation. Based on earlier studies conducted in Spain, it has been determined that family ownership has a detrimental effect on corporate reputation. The statement supports the agency theory, which posits that family ownership might harm a corporate reputation due to conflicting interests between majority and minority shareholders. However, the ownership structure of Spain exhibits diversity, whereas Malaysia's is characterized by concentration. Implementing the study in Malaysia may provide challenges and may not be practically achievable. The study is further motivated to pursue research endeavours, particularly within the context of Malaysia. The primary objective of this research is to examine and gain a comprehensive understanding of the correlation between the structure of corporate ownership and the reputation of corporations operating within the Malaysian business environment. Next, to offer significant insights to businesses, investors, and policymakers in Malaysia, enabling them to make well-informed decisions. It will be achieved by investigating the influence of various ownership patterns on corporate reputation, including family, institutional, foreign, and concentration ownership. Gaining insight into these dynamics can contribute to the existing scholarly research on corporate governance and reputation management. The study employs a total of 519 observations spanning across firm years, explicitly focusing on 173 non-financial enterprises listed on Bursa Malaysia from 2017 to 2019. The results suggest that factors such as family ownership, foreign ownership, and concentration ownership have no significant impact on corporate reputation. On the other hand, a significant positive association exists between corporate reputation and institutional ownership. The research findings are relevant to the agency theory field and benefit shareholders' decision-making process. Future research should consider employing a broader range of measurements to ascertain the most accurate measure of business reputation, using the exact definition provided in this study. Furthermore, the findings of this study hold considerable significance for enterprises in devising efficacious strategies for managing reputation. Additionally, it can aid investors in making informed choices, guide policymakers in formulating corporate governance policies, and foster trust and relationships with stakeholders. Lastly, it enhances the scholarly understanding of corporate reputation, governance, and ownership relations
A multimodal analysis of glojas aesthetics anti aging advertisements on facebook / Presana Kalaichelvan
No full textAdvertisements play a pivotal role in influencing the choices of consumers especially in the beauty business. These advertisements function as a vehicle to convince consumers that more is needed to make themselves look desirable and attractive. This study aims to identify how the anti-aging advertisements from Glojas Aesthetics are visually and verbally constructed to promote youthfulness and to recognise the messages conveyed by Glojas Aesthetics on aging through the anti-aging advertisements on its official page on Facebook. This paper employed Kress and van Leuwen’s (2020) Visual Social Semiotics and Fairclough’s (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis to conduct a discourse analysis on the anti-aging advertisements from Glojas Aesthetics. The data needed to carry out the research are collected from Glojas Aesthetic’s verified page on Facebook. A total of 30 advertisements were collected and analysed by using the proposed frameworks. Through the analysis, the study seeks to educate consumers on how anti-aging advertisements work visually and verbally to promote youthfulness as well as shed light on the anti-aging messages conveyed through the advertisements that construct aging as a problem or disease to be dealt with
Design and analysis of unipolar magnetic coupler with improved performance for dynamic wireless power transfer applications / Hassan Khalid
No full textInductive power transfer (IPT) occurs with the assistance of a well-designed magnetic coupler. Unlike static wireless charging, dynamic wireless charging (DWC) is gradually becoming a viable option for charging electric vehicles on the go. DWC has the potential to reduce the cost of EV batteries by minimizing the need for bulky battery packs. However, for it to gain widespread acceptance in the market, the Dynamic Wireless Power Transfer (DWPT) system needs optimization. Concerns arise about the performance of the magnetic coupler within limited size and cost constraints. Conventional magnetic couplers are renowned for their power-carrying capacity and mutual inductance. Nevertheless, the performance of these magnetic couplers is significantly influenced by size and the use of ferrite. Given the limited space in electric vehicles, extending the size of the magnetic coupler is not feasible. Additionally, the use of ferrite adds both weight and cost. Therefore, an optimal solution is necessary to design a pad that meets both performance and cost requirements. In this context, this study proposes a unipolar ferrite-less magnetic coupler with improved characteristics. The presented analysis also suggests that the proposed coil is suitable for both Single Transmitter Single Receiver (STSR) and Multiple Transmitter Single Receiver (MTSR) applications. The proposed coil shape is initially optimized for better performance in an STSR test bench. The results are then validated through a 400W IPT system. Subsequently, the proposed coil transmitter and receiver coils are separately optimized to meet the requirements of the DWPT system. The proposed coil is said to maintain the highest coupling coefficient, low self and side-by-side transmitter mutual inductances, and minimal output pulsations during dynamic operation. In this regard, a 1.
Electro-deposited transition metal dichalcogenides absorbers for producing Q switched and mode-locked fiber lasers / Lee Lian Hong
No full textThis PhD research work will use two-dimensional (2D) materials especially transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) such as MoS2, MoSe2 and MoTe2 as saturable absorber (SA) to passively generate Q-switched and Mode-locked fiber lasers. Previously, the above mentioned TMDs based SAs were prepared using conventional methods including liquid-phase exfoliation, PVA film, drop-cast technique and mechanical exfoliation. In this research, a new method is being proposed to fabricate the mentioned TMDs and this method involves the technique of electro-deposition. This method has been applied in other research field but has not been utilized in the specific domain of Q-switched and mode-locked fiber laser. The advantage of this electro-deposition method is that it can produce a more homogeneous and more stable SA for the generation of the Q-switched and mode-locked fiber laser. The fabricated SAs will be used in the designated experiment setup to achieve Q-switched and mode-locked fiber laser by sandwiching the SAs in between two fiber ferrules. Furthermore, the characterization of the fabricated SAs is performed using field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), electron dispersion spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to check the surface morphology of the SAs and to confirm the presence of 2D TMD materials in the fabricated SA. Moreover, the linear absorption and modulation depth are also presented for each of the fabricated SAs. Finally, this research will analyze the Q-switched and mode-locked performance of the system using the fabricated SAs. Ultrashort pulse fiber lasers operating at 1.55- and 2-micron regions with various performances are successfully achieved in this work. For instance, the prepared MoS2 thin film exhibits the saturable absorption characteristic of 3.4%, when this MoS2 SA was introduced into an Erbium-doped fiber laser (EDFL) cavity, a stable Q-switched pulse at 1559.4 nm was achieved by adjusting the pump power above the threshold of 51.67 mW. The pulse has a maximum repetition frequency of 89.89 kHz, minimum pulse width of 4.75 μs and maximum pulse energy of 15.03 nJ at 105.27 mW pump power. Mode-locked pulse is also obtained at 1560.8 nm when the cavity length was extended to 106 m. The repetition frequency and pulse width of the mode-locked pulse were 1.88 MHz and 1.47 ps respectively. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that Q-switched and mode-locked pulses have been obtained in a fiber laser based on this new electrodeposition method
Surface roughness of lithium disilicate glass ceramics before and after crystallization with different milling techniques: Wet vs submerged milling / Sharon Wong Kah Khei
No full textThis study investigates the impact of wet milling and submerged milling on the surface
roughness of milled lithium disilicate glass ceramic with sequential milling and before
and after crystallization process. Submerged milling is gaining traction for its potential to
dissipate heat, reduce friction, remove debris more efficiently, increase milling tool
longevity, and ensure accurate and efficient milling of final products. A total of 24 Hass
Amber® Mill lithium disilicate blocks were divided into 2 groups according to different
milling methods: wet milling group (n = 12) and submerged milling group (n = 12). The
milling process was performed using a 5-axis CRAFT 5X milling machine. The milled
surfaces of the lithium disilicate glass ceramic were evaluated for surface roughness (Ra)
using a 3D optical non-contact surface profilometer and observed through Scanning
Electron Microscopy (SEM), both before and after the crystallization process. The
diamond-coated milling burs (GC 25, GC 20, GC 10) were initially observed under SEM
and at 1st, 6th, and 12th milling. Overall comparisons between the surface roughness of
lithium disilicate discs of the two groups were done using Paired T-test. Comparisons
between the surface roughness of the disc before and after crystallization were done using
Paired T-test. The comparison of surface roughness intragroup was done using one-way
ANOVA. Significance was set at p value < 0.05. Results indicated that the mean surface
roughness of lithium disilicate discs milled with submerged milling technique was
significantly lower than that of wet milled discs, both before (p < 0.001, t = 7.093) and
after crystallization (p < 0.001, t = 6.020). Within each milling group, Ra reduced after
crystallization, with significant differences pre- and post-crystallization (wet: p < 0.001, t = 3.344; submerged: p < 0.001, t = 4.683). One-way ANOVA results showed that there
was no significant difference in surface roughness between discs in the same group (p >
0.05 for all groups), suggesting that the 12-cycle milling sequence did not significantly
affect the surface roughness. SEM analysis showed loss of abrasive particles on milling
bur in both wet and submerged milling groups. This study concludes that submerged
milling is more effective in reducing surface roughness compared to wet milling and that
crystallization plays a crucial role in further reducing the surface roughness of lithium
disilicate glass ceramics. Also, using sequential milling tool usage up to the 12th mill did
not affect the surface roughness of milled lithium disilicate
Cutaneous leishmaniasis in Yemen: Epidemiology, knowledge, attitude and practices among rural populations, and genetic diversity of Leishmania Tropica in Utmah District / Manal Ali Saleh Al-Ashwal
No full textCutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a major public health problem in Yemen and is hyperendemic in many rural areas across the country. However, there is a dearth of research investigating the epidemiology of CL in the local communities where it is endemic. This study aimed to investigate the epidemiology (prevalence, risk factors and population’s knowledge, attitude and practices towards CL), and genetic diversity of CL-causing Leishmania species among rural populations in Utmah district, western Yemen. A community-based cross-sectional survey, followed by unmatched case-control comparisons, was conducted among 612 participants from 289 randomly selected households in four rural sub-districts. A total of 223 participants were included in the case-control analysis. Skin scrapping/slits samples were collected from 81 individuals found with suspected active CL lesions while skin slits and/or blood samples were collected from 122 animals. The samples were examined by microscopy and internal transcribed spacer 1 (ITS-1) nested PCR. Genetic structure and haplotype diversity were analysed. Demographic, socioeconomic, environmental and KAP related data were collected using a pre-tested questionnaire. Overall, 8.7% and 16.4% of the human and animal (goats, cows, donkeys, bulls, rabbits, bats, dogs and rats) samples were found positive, with Leishmania tropica was the only causative agent identified. Multivariate hierarchical logistic regression analyses showed that being ≤ 10 years old, being female, living in poor housing conditions with cracked walls, living in the presence of other family members with typical ulcerating skin diseases, sleeping outside and keeping livestock on the ground floor of the house were factors significantly associated CL. A total of 51.2%, and 33.9% of the participants had good knowledge about CL and sandflies, respectively. Moreover, only 38.1% and 16.3% had a positive attitude and good CL-related practices, respectively. The phylogenetic analysis of 54 human and animal sequences segregated six different L. tropica haplotypes, with low haplotype diversity (Hd = 0.242 ± 0.077) and no genetic differentiation (FST = 0.050). The genetic diversity analysis for 367 L. tropica sequences (54 obtained by this study plus 313 sequences were retrieved from GenBank) showed high haplotype diversity (0.605 ± 0.028) but low nucleotide diversity (0.005 ± 0.0004), with significant Tajima’s D (-2.583) and Fu’s Fs tests (-33.210). The median-joining haplotype network produced 54 haplotypes with one dominant haplotype. Overall, the study revealed an alarmingly high prevalence of CL and identified related key risk factors among the rural population in Utmah district. Also, the study demonstrated poor levels of KAP about CL and sandfly vector among studied population. Moreover, L. tropica was identified in different kinds of animal, suggesting potential important role of animal in the transmission of CL. These findings indicated that there is an urgent need for effective preventive and control measures to protect these vulnerable populations from this devastating disease
Context-based model for domain-specific lexicon building / Tasnim M. A. Zayet
No full textWith the numerous amounts of users’ generated data over the internet and the need to analyse it and get their opinions regarding a service, sentiment analysis has emerged. To perform sentiment analysis, many approaches have emerged. The easiest one is sentiment lexicons. There are two types of sentiment lexicons: general and domain-specific. General lexicons have a static public sentiment of the words, while domain lexicons have different sentiments of a word depending on the context. Domain lexicons usually extract the opinion pairs formed from the main domain noun and its corresponding opinion word. Sentiment will be assigned to the pair. One of the popular methods for this aim is frequency-based approaches. Frequency-based approaches are widely used in the field due to their easy implementation. However, these approaches suffer from the ambiguity problem. To overcome this problem, we proposed a new frequency-based model. The new model is a contextual-aware domain lexicon generation model. In the proposed model, a new contextual-aware frequency-based equation was proposed. It considers the nouns and their cooccurrences in the score calculation to extract the top n nouns and filter the candidate opinion pairs. The model has three main modules: a domain terms identification module, a context-based lexicon construction module and a sentiment assignment module. The proposed model considers the verb and noun sentiment during the sentiment assignment process. A two-step evaluation was done to evaluate the model, first to evaluate the proposed equation and then to evaluate the model. The equation was compared with other popular equations in building domain lexicons term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) and pointwise mutual information (PMI), while the model was compared with the performance of other general lexicons. The evaluation was conducted using five datasets from Amazon reviews datasets: Sport & Outdoors, CDs & Vinyl, Fashion, Electronics and Appliances. The equation was evaluated on different percentages of top n, mainly 20%, 40%, and 60%. Both equation and model proved their efficiency and outperformed other approaches regarding recall and precision in most cases. The results exposed the importance of “context” in lexicon building and in decreasing the effect of ambiguity problems besides the significance of the sentiment of the nouns and verbs leading to effective domain-specific lexicons. Domain-specific lexicons result in more efficient classification of the sentiment compared to general ones besides holding sentiment regarding specific features and aspects rather than general static sentiment of the opinion words
Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD): Translation, cross-cultural adaptation and validation of the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (BIDQ) / Ruzanna Hussain
No full textBody Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a relatively common but often underdiagnosed disorder. BDD can be challenging for orthodontists to diagnose due to the lack of a universally accepted diagnostic tool to aid in diagnosis or prediction of BDD among orthodontic patients. The Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (BIDQ) is a tool that can be utilized to evaluate the perception of negative body image in patients. Aims: The aim of this study is to translate and validate the Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (BIDQ) into a culturally adapted version for assessing perception of negative body image in Malaysian orthodontic patients. Methods: A quantitative study was carried out involving 30 orthodontic patients at the Postgraduate Orthodontic clinic, Universiti Malaya. Individuals aged 18 to 40 years old who were able to speak in Malay and/or English language were recruited. The first step of the research involved forward-synthesis-backward translation. The translation process followed a methodological guideline with bilingual translators and expert input from medical officers, English lecturers and certified translator. Eight content validity experts—an orthodontist, psychiatrist, methodologist, a language expert and all forward and backward translators—reviewed the translated questionnaires for relevance and comprehension in the next phase. Iterative revisions resolved discrepancies and created culturally appropriate and context-sensitive Malay and English BIDQs. The process of continuous revisions fixed inconsistencies and produced a culturally and contextually sensitive Malay BIDQ draft. Testing translated questionnaires on adult orthodontic patients validated them. Probe interviews were used to reevaluate questionnaire clarity and comprehensiveness, identify ambiguities, and assess response options. Both were scored for I-CVI and I-FVI, including inter-rater reliability. The expert committee used all findings to finalize the questionnaires. Results: The BIDQ was successfully translated and culturally adapted for the Malaysian population using the forward-backward translation method, resulting in a Malay Body Image Disturbance Questionnaire (M-BIDQ). Content validation was conducted by a team of eight experts. It obtained a perfect CVI score of 1.00 for relevance and representativeness, along with a Kappa score of 0.78. A total of 30 adult orthodontic patients, were interviewed to assess the clarity and comprehensiveness by face validity and the resulting high FVI score of 0.89. Conclusion: The original BIDQ has been translated into Malay and culturally adapted for Malaysian use. The FVI and CVI scored highest, demonstrating their relevance and understanding in assessing negative body image perceptions. Clinicians and researchers can use this translated version for Malaysian orthodontic patients to pre-diagnose BDD in patients. To improve research reliability and confidence, construct and criterion validation should be done in the future
Innovative sensing with tapered u-shaped plastic optical fibers: Applications in humidity and formaldehyde detection / Siti Halma Johari
No full textPrecise humidity measurements are vital for many applications including food, agriculture, and electronic industries. Continuous exposure to formaldehyde may also cause injury to the central nervous, respiratory, blood and immunological systems. This thesis aims to develop a portable and workable sensing device by generating evanescent waves (EW) on a tapered U-shape plastic optical fiber (POF) coated with Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanorods and Hydroxyethyl cellulose / polyvinylidene fluoride (HEC/PVDF) for relative humidity (%RH) and formaldehyde vapor concentration sensing. The tapered POF was prepared using chemical and mechanical etching techniques. The %RH sensor was successfully developed and optimized using a tapered U-shaped POF coated with ZnO nanorods and HEC/PVDF as a sensing probe. With ZnO nanorods coating, the sensor performance was greatly improved as compared to the uncoated POF. Zinc oxide nanorods were synthesized using the hydrothermal method and grown for 12 hours on the tapered POF. For three source wavelengths of 470 nm, 530 nm and 645 nm, the output voltage of the sensor was found to be inversely proportional to %RH in the range of 35% to 90% RH. The proposed sensor produced the best sensitivity of 0.0231 V/%RH at 645 nm, with a slope linearity of 99.47% and fastest response and recovery times of 61 seconds and 68 seconds respectively. On the other hand, the HEC/PVDF based humidity sensor exhibited the highest sensitivity of 0.0733 V/%RH, with the smallest standard deviation of 0.0034 V when the LED’s wavelength of 645 nm was used. The tapered U-shape POF coated with zinc oxide nanorods was also successfully evaluated at a wavelength of 645 nm for formaldehyde vapor sensing within a concentration range from 5% to 20%. The output voltage of 0.0958 V was observed, with the reduction of formaldehyde concentration from 20% to 0%. This was due to the more scattering effect of ZnO nanorods at 20% of formaldehyde concentration. The sensor response demonstrated an excellent linearity of 98.58% across all vapor concentrations. The sensitivity was measured to be -0.00543 V/%. This study showed that the proposed sensors were simple to fabricate, with the advantages of small size and good repeatability all of which are useful for %RH and formaldehyde sensing applications. The proposed sensor also has the potential to be used to detect air pollution produced, not just by formaldehyde vapor, but also by other dangerous or poisonous vapors or gases
Isu-isu penguatkuasaan kesalahan berkaitan perkahwinan tanpa kebenaran: Kajian di Bahagian Penguatkuasaan Syariah, Jabatan Agama Islam Negeri Johor / Siti Aishah Borhanuddin
No full textPerkahwinan yang sah dari sudut syarak ialah memenuhi kewajiban rukun dan syarat perkahwinan. Secara teori, prosedur perkahwinan mengenai pendaftaran perkahwinan serta hukumannya telah digubal menerusi Undang-undang Keluarga Islam. Malangnya, pelbagai isu masih timbul terhadap fenomena berkahwin tanpa kebenaran yang melibatkan masyarakat umum dan pelaku seolah-olah meremehkan perundangan kerana menganggapnya sulit untuk diikuti. Isu dalam menguatkuasakan kesalahan berkaitan perkahwinan tanpa kebenaran dari sudut bidang kuasa dan kredibiliti Pegawai Penguatkuasa Syariah turut timbul berikutan kesalahan ini dikategorikan sebagai kesalahan dalam pentadbiran sahaja. Oleh itu, kajian ini akan menghuraikan konsep kesalahan berkaitan perkahwinan tanpa kebenaran menurut syarak dan Undang-undang Keluarga Islam berdasarkan tiga (3) kategori kesalahan. Seterusnya, garis panduan, prosedur dan statistik kes penguatkuasaan kesalahan berkahwin tanpa kebenaran bagi menilai tahap keberkesanan serta isu dan cabaran yang wujud dalam menguatkuasakan kesalahan turut dikaji. Metode dokumentasi telah dianalisis secara kandungan dan metode temu bual semi struktur dianalisis menerusi metode analisis tematik. Hasil daripada statistik menunjukkan bahawa kecenderungan aduan dan siasatan kesalahan berkaitan perkahwinan tanpa kebenaran yang selesai adalah tinggi berbanding yang tidak selesai. Kajian turut mendapati empat (4) perkara yang menjadi isu dalam menguatkuasakan kesalahan berkaitan perkahwinan tanpa kebenaran berpunca daripada penguatkuasa dan masyarakat sehingga membawa kepada impak negatif penguatkuasaan kesalahan ini