Job satisfaction among Malaysian employees: An application of Spector’s Job Satisfaction Survey in the South East Asian context.

Job satisfaction explains individuals’ reactions towards their jobs. Many studies find that job satisfaction is a well-known construct that is widely used to study work-related well-being; and contributes significantly to employees’ overall quality of life. The current paper examines job satisfaction among Malaysian employees using the Job Satisfaction Survey (JSS). In particular, the present study compares the job satisfaction levels of Malaysian samples with those of a previously reported study involving samples from Singapore and the United States. Results of one sample t-test reveals statistically significant differences in pay, promotion, fringe benefits, contingent rewards, supervision, co-workers and nature of work subscales. No cultural influence exists between Malaysian and Singapore samples in terms of perceived operating conditions satisfaction. Similarly, no statistically significant difference exists between Malaysian and the United States perception towards the communication facet. Furthermore, the results of factor analysis support the previous study, suggesting possible cultural differences in the understanding of, and consensus regarding, the structure of the job satisfaction scale

Determination of toxic effects of commercial and local mosquito repellents in Oryctolagus cuniculus (New Zealand white)

Mosquito coils are slow-burning products which release smoke containing one or more insecticides. It burns for several hours in a confined place in order to provide protection against mosquitoes which spread diseases like malaria. The present study examined the in vivo effect of inhaling mosquito coil and two locally made mosquito repellents on liver function and haematology parameters of adult male rabbits. A total of 16 rabbits were divided into four groups i.e. groups A, B, C and D. Groups A, B and C were exposed to mosquito coil, rice husk and oranges peels respectively for 8 hours daily. Group D was not exposed and served as a negative control. The rabbits were exposed for four weeks. On day 29 blood samples were collected from the ear pinna of rabbits for haematology and liver function tests. It was observed that both haematological and biochemical results showed varying indices from that of the negative control. However only the group exposed to orange peels (group C) presented a statistically significant difference at P< 0.05 in lowering the blood glucose levels. Elevated levels of alanine aminotransferase were seen with statistical significance at P < 0.05 between the group exposed to rice husk and the control and also between the rice husk and mosquito coil groups respectively. The results showed increased levels of alanine aminotransferase which could indicate acute liver problems in the rice husk treated group. It is also worthy of note that the glucose levels were lowered in the group treated with orange peels. However there was evidence of toxicity in all treated groups.Keywords: Haematology, Liver function, Mosquito repellent, Oranges peels, Rice husk, Toxicit

Inquiry into the defining conditions of knowledge claim: an exercise from the perspective of integrative epistemology1

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A New Generating Function for Aunu Patterns: Applications in Integer Group Modulo n

This paper identified a new and more generalised generating function for the Aunu Patterns which is based on the methods employed earlier by Garba. It also identified and discussed some other theoretic properties of the Aunu Patterns and Aunu Groups especially in relation to integer modulo groups

Construction of Association Scheme Using Some (123)-avoiding Class of Aunu Patterns

This paper presents some backgrounds research on association scheme using a class of (123)-avoiding pattern of Aunu numbers as an application area. It also attempts to highlight some further applications in other set structures. The finding in this research has shown that there is some interrelationship between the succession scheme used in generating Aunu numbers and the concept of association scheme. This research also shows us that the Aunu patterns can be used in design theory

Antioxidant Activity of the Phenolic Leaf Extracts from Monechma ciliatum in Stabilization of Corn Oil

The total phenolic content and the antioxidan potential of methanolic extract (ME), ethyl acetate extract (EAE), and hexane extract (HE) from Monechma ciliatum leaves (MCL) were evaluated. The Folin-Ciocalteu, b-carotene bleaching, the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and the accelerated oxidation methods were used for evaluation. Both the extraction yield and the antioxidant activity (AOA) were strongly dependent on the solvent. Among the extracts, ME exhibited highest total phenolic compounds (TPC) and IC50 values for DPPH, followed by EAE and HE, respectively. Peroxide value (PV), anisidine value (AV) conjugated dienes (CD), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) were taken as the parameters for evaluation of stabilization efficacy of MCL extracts and results revealed MCL to be a potent antioxidant for the stabilization of corn oil. As a general trend, increased AOA was observed for increased extract concentration. The predominant phenolic compounds identified by HPLC-DAD in MCL extracts were p-coumaric acid, vanillin and ferulic acid

Auto-encoder based deep learning for surface electromyography signal processing

© 2018 Advances in Science, Technology and Engineering Systems. All Rights Reserved. Feature extraction is taking a very vital and essential part of bio-signal processing. We need to choose one of two paths to identify and select features in any system. The most popular track is engineering handcrafted, which mainly depends on the user experience and the field of application. While the other path is feature learning, which depends on training the system on recognising and picking the best features that match the application. The main concept of feature learning is to create a model that is expected to be able to learn the best features without any human intervention instead of recourse the traditional methods for feature extraction or reduction and avoid dealing with feature extraction that depends on researcher experience. In this paper, Auto-Encoder will be utilised as a feature learning algorithm to practice the recommended model to excerpt the useful features from the surface electromyography signal. Deep learning method will be suggested by using Auto-Encoder to learn features. Wavelet Packet, Spectrogram, and Wavelet will be employed to represent the surface electromyography signal in our recommended model. Then, the newly represented bio-signal will be fed to stacked autoencoder (2 stages) to learn features and finally, the behaviour of the proposed algorithm will be estimated by hiring different classifiers such as Extreme Learning Machine, Support Vector Machine, and SoftMax Layer. The Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) will be created as an activation function for extreme learning machine classifier besides existing functions such as sigmoid and radial basis function. ReLU will show a better classification ability than sigmoid and Radial basis function (RBF) for wavelet, Wavelet scale 5 and wavelet packet signal representations implemented techniques. ReLU will illustrate better classification ability, as an activation function, than sigmoid and poorer than RBF for spectrogram signal representation. Both confidence interval and Analysis of Variance will be estimated for different classifiers. Classifier fusion layer will be implemented to glean the classifier which will progress the best accuracies' values for both testing and training to develop the results. Classifier fusion layer brought an encouraging value for both accuracies either training or testing ones

The Accessory Nerve

The radical neck dissection (RND) in the management of head and neck cancers may be done in the expense of the spinal accessory nerve (SAN) 1. De-innervations of the muscles supplied by SAN and integrated in the movements of the shoulder joint, often result in shoulder dysfunction. Usually the result is shoulder syndrome which subsequently affects the quality of  life1. The modified radical neck dissections (MRND) and selective neck dissection (SND) intend to minimize the dysfunction of the shoulder by preserving the SAN, especially in supra-hyoid neck dissection (Level I-III±IV) and lateral neck dissection (level II-IV)2, 3. This article aims to focus on the SAN to increase the awareness during MRND and SND.Keywords: Spinal accessory, Sternocleidomastoid, Trapezius, Cervical plexus

“Non-functioning” Kidneys in Excretory Urography: Caution is the word!

Significant loss of renal function is objectively diagnosed with radioisotope renal scintigraphy. In many developing countries radioisotope study is notreadily available and the diagnosis of non-functioning kidney is often based on intravenous urography. We retrospectively reviewed the case notes of three patients that were diagnosed with ‘non-functioning’ kidneys based on intravenous contrast renal imaging but had salvage procedure for the renalmoiety. In the absence of radioisotope study, some restrain is advocated for nephrectomy, for ‘non-functioning kidney’, based solely on the result ofintravenous urography