Islam Hadhari’s principles and reward management practices: A study in Malaysian private organizations

This study is an attempt to provide further insights into the theory and practice of reward management in the local context as Malaysia is implementing Islam Hadhari’s principles in the country.This study also further investigates the relationship between Islam Hadhari’s principles and perceptions of non-monetary and monetary rewards toward the reward program influences.The study adopts a quantitative approach using Partial Least Square (PLS) based Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach.The study will benefit the human resource practitioners theoretically and practically by providing direction and suggestions in designing and implementing the non-monetary and monetary rewards for Malaysian private organizations from Islamic perspectives

The impact of students' attitude and subjective norm on the behavioural intention to use services of banking system

This study examines the ability and application of the theory of reasoned action TRA in explaining the use of banking system in Yemen.It investigates the impact of two theoretical variables attitude and subjective norms, using a sample consists of university students, on individuals' intention to use banking services. The results of the study revealed a strong predictive power of the theory of reasoned action model to explain university students' behavioural intention to use banking services. Statistically, the finding demonstrated that there are significant and positive relationships between students' attitude, subjective norm as predictor variables on the criterion variable of behavioural intention to use banking services in the context of Yemen. This study adds to the literature by showing non-financial variables such as attitude and subjective norm, which are important in understanding the behavioural intentions toward using banking services. It also provides some theoretical and practical implication. This study is one of the few studies that used theory of reasoned action in the context of Yemen. Furthermore, it has proven its effectiveness in predicting the behavioural intention of students towards using banking services. In addition, the finding will help to design strategies to attract more customers to use the banking system

A hybrid haptic stimulation wearable device to recover the missing sensation of the upper extremity prostheses’ users

A hybrid haptic feedback stimulation system that is capable in sensing the surface texture, and the temperature, simultaneously, was designed for a prosthetic hand to provide a tactile sensation to amputation patients. In addition, the haptic system was developed to enable the prosthetic’s users to implement withdrawal reflexes due to the thermal noxious stimulus in a quick manner. The re-sensation is achieved by non-invasively stimulating the skin of the patients’ residual limbs, based on the type and the level of tactile signals provided by the sensory system of the prostheses. Accordingly, a novel hybrid pressure-vibration- temperature feedback stimulation system was design to provide a huge information regarding the prostheses environment to the users without brain confusing or requiring long pre-training. An evaluation of sensation and response will be performed with healthy volunteers to evaluate the ability of the haptic system to stimulate the human nervous system. The results were presented in term of Stimulus Identification Rate (SIR). The test results and the volunteers' response established evidence that amputees are able to recover their sense of the contact pressure, the surface texture, and the object temperature as well as to perform thermal withdrawal reflexes using the solution developed in this work

Design and implementation of a t-way test data generation strategy with automated execution tool support

To ensure an acceptable level of quality and reliability of a typical software product, it is desirable to test every possible combination of input data under various configurations. However, due to the combinatorial explosion problem, exhaustive testing is practically impossible. Resource constraints, cost factors, and strict time-to-market deadlines are some of the main factors that inhibit such a consideration. Earlier research has suggested that a sampling strategy (i.e., one that is based on a t-way parameter interaction) can be effective. As a result, many helpful t-way sampling strategies have been developed and can be found in the literature. Several advances have been achieved in the last 15 years, which have, in particular, served to facilitate the test planning process by systematically minimizing the test size required (based on certain t-way parameter interactions). Despite this significant progress, the integration and automation of strategies (from planning process to execution) are still lacking. Additionally, strategizing to sample (and construct) a minimum test set from the exhaustive test space is an NP-complete problem; that is, it is often unlikely that an efficient strategy exists that could regularly generate an optimal test set. Motivated by these challenges, this paper discusses the design, implementation, and validation of an efficient strategy for t-way testing, the GTWay strategy. The main contribution of GTWay is the integration of t-way test data generation with automated (concurrent) execution as part of its tool implementation. Unlike most previous methods, GTWay addresses the generation of test data for a high coverage strength (t > 6)

(Critical Review) Repositioning Science and Technology Education for Security and National Economic Growth and Development in Nigeria

This article examined the repositioning of science and technology education for security and economic growth and development in Nigeria. The wreck on the nation's image by the incidences of insurgency has caused negative effects on the nation's security and economic development. Security issues are presently major challenges in Nigeria, especially in Northern Nigeria. Furthermore, the continuous rise in insecurity and deterioration in the economic development in Nigeria has called for concern among researchers and policymakers over the years. This article highlights the need for rebranding Nigerians through the internal process of repositioning the science and technology education system for national security and economic sustainability. Literature and other research papers using to gather information. The paper recommends that the nation adopt a proactive approach to improving the teaching and learning of science and technology education professionally and empowering youth while taking everlasting measures to curtail the issues of insurgencies in Nigeria. In other words, we need to reposition our youth's mental reasoning and economically empower them to certify the demands of the modern world. Repositioning Nigerian is one of the fruitful tools to achieve this objective, and rebranding directs the power and energy of Nigerians toward academic and productive goal

Density functional theory study of the electronic and optical properties of pure and magnesium doped Β-tricalcium phosphate compound

β-Tri-calcium phosphate material (β-TCP), have attract a wide interest in the material science and medical science applications, due to its excellent biocompatibility and its identical chemical compositions to the natural teeth and bones. For that reason, (β-TCP) compound is widely used as biocompatible ceramics in medical and dental science applications. However, research shows that, pure β-TCP material has lower ability to stimulate the growth of natural bone and teeth as needed. Therefore, in order to address this deficiency magnesium impurity is used to replace calcium in the matrix of pure β-TCP to enhance its electronic and optical properties which are not present in the pure one. Thereby, its biological performance becomes improved. By changing the chemical composition of β-TCP to be similar to the mineral compositions of the natural teeth and bones. This will give more insight in fabrication of biomaterial devices for replacing, repairing and rebuilding the broken or damaged human teeth and bones. Here, we present the study of compound β-TCP using density functional theory (DFT). For the calculations, we used full potential linear augmented plane wave method (FPL-APW), along with generalized gradient approximations (GGA) potential. The band gap values of 5.2 eV and 3.4 eV are obtained for the pure and Mg-doped β-TCP, respectively. These results are in good agreement with the experimental values. Our results show peaks which correspond to the refractive index, complex dielectric function, optical conductivity, optical reflectivity, extinction coefficient, absorption efficient, and electron energy loss. These peaks are shifted towards the higher energy values for the pure and Mg-doped β-TCP material. The obtained results have more significance for increasing the quality of electronic and optical properties of this material and offer more evidences to synthesize enhanced β-TCP material for dental and medical applications

Indoor air quality (IAQ) in educational institutions: a review on risks of poor IAQ, sampling strategies, and building-related health symptoms

Health and academic achievement of students from every level of education are affected by the provision of good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) since the students spend more than 5 hours of a day in school on average. Hence, this paper discusses on issues related to IAQ studies in maintaining a healthy level in educational institution. The presence of indoor pollutants such as VOCs, CO2, and other hazardous elements were assessed in terms of its effects on students’ well-being and health. This paper also examines commonly reported health problems related to poor IAQ such as sick building syndrome (SBS) and asthma. Every measurements and consideration regarding IAQ provision comes with different techniques and strategies, which were highlighted regarding its relative importance and frequency of use by different researchers. The review suggested substitution of natural-based products for indoor cleaning agents and installation of air ventilation and purification systems for a more acceptable indoor air quality

Rethinking Rights and (In)Security in (Post)Colonial Nigerian-State

Harold Laski’s assertion that political rights are useless to a starving being entreats us to move beyond limited notions of ‘human rights’, to more fundamental issues quintessential to minimally decent living. Notions of, and concerns for, human rights have long emphasised protection from bodily harm or physical violence at the expense of issues not limited to freedom from basic want or economic starvation, “basic sense of moral worth”, fear of social deprivation/exclusion, and basic sense of mental worth, etc., all revolving around the primary reason of the state, that is, the overall wellbeing of the human person. This draws directly from minimalist conception of security, which hitherto dominates human rights discourse, and downgrades economic deprivation, social exclusion, political marginalisation, and mental suppression, etc., as forms of terror endangering minimally decent life for humans. The contention is that the composite nature of human rights means that the realisation of one depends on and is in turn depended upon by others in an intricately linked and overlapping manner. This paper argues that states’ conduct, in some ways, either by error, omission and or commission, constitutes forms of terror in the broader spectrum of political violence. Anchored in critical terrorism studies (CTS) and employing content analysis, this paper examines the purpose of the state vis-à-vis its role in perpetuating terror and undermining ‘human rights’ through negligence and or political irresponsibility by focusing on security challenges in Nigeria. The paper concludes that, witting or unwittingly, state’s negligence in the provision of conditions necessary for security and wellbeing of the citizenry constitutes a major threat to ‘human rights’ and removes the human from human rights discourse. Keywords: Human rights, Security, Critical studies, Post/colonial state, Violence, Nigeria DOI: 10.7176/DCS/13-4-03 Publication date:June 30th 202

Some Strychnos spinosa (Loganiaceae) leaf extracts and fractions have good antimicrobial activities and low cytotoxicities

BACKGROUND : Strychnos spinosa Lam. is a deciduous tree used in traditional medicine to treat infectious diseases. This study is designed to determine the antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of extracts and fractions from leaves of S. spinosa. METHODS : Extracts were obtained by maceration with acetone, methanol and dichloromethane/methanol (1/1) while fractions were prepared by liquid-liquid fractionation of the acetone extract. A broth serial microdilution method with tetrazolium violet as growth indicator was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) against fungi, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The antioxidant activity was determined using free-radical-scavenging assays, and the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazolyl-2)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide reduction assay was used to determine cytotoxicity. RESULTS : Four extracts and five fractions had good to weak antimicrobial activity with MICs ranging from 0.04 to >1.25 mg/ml against both fungi and bacteria. The chloroform and ethyl acetate fractions had an MIC of 0.08 mg/ml against Aspergillus fumigatus. The n-butanol fraction had an MIC of 0.04 mg/ml against Cryptococcus neoformans. The hexane and chloroform fractions had an MIC of 0.08 mg/ml against Staphylococcus aureus. The antioxidant activities were much lower than that of the positive controls. Except for the alkaloid extract, all the extracts and fractions had free-radical-scavenging activity (IC50 ranging from 33.66 to 314.30 μg/ml). The cytotoxicity on Vero cells was reasonable to low with LC50 values ranging between 30.56 and 689.39 μg/ml. CONCLUSION : The acetone extract and the chloroform fraction had the highest antibacterial activity. By solvent-solvent fractionation it was possible to increase the activity against A. fumigatus and to decrease the cytotoxicity leading to a potentially useful product to protect animals against aspergillosis. Our results therefore support the use of S. spinosa leaves in traditional medicine to treat infectious diseases.A.I.I is grateful to the Nigerian Tertiary Education Training Fund (TETFund) through Ahmadu Bello University Academic Unit for supporting the work in this paper. M.D.A and J.P.D received Postdoctoral Fellowships from the University of Pretoria to work in the Phytomedicine Programme, Department of Paraclinical Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Science.http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmccom/plementalternmedam201

Telecommunication Infrastructure and Economic Growth in Nigeria: New Evidence From ARDL Bound Testing Approach to Cointegration

This study investigates the relationship between telecommunication infrastructure and economic growth in Nigeria using time series quarterly data for the period of 2002 to 2014. A functional relationship was modeled between macroeconomic variables such as GDP growth rate, teledensity, number of mobile telephone subscribers, number of landline subscribers, degree of openness in the economy, gross domestic investment and foreign direct investment. This study adopted an autoregressive distributed lag model (ARDL) estimation techniques approach to cointegration test using bound test, stability test and others. The results from the analysis revealed the existence of long run relationship between telecommunication infrastructure and economic growth in Nigeria and concluded that, gross domestic investment, foreign direct investment and degree of openness in the country has improved the teledensity, number of mobile telephone subscribers as well as number of landline which facilitates or enhanced economic activities and in turn leads to increased economic growth. We therefore recommends that government should implement policies that will enhance the development of the telecommunications sectors and complementary factors such as electrification particularly in rural areas, pay more attention to measures that would increase mobile telephone penetration such as reduce tariffs on telecommunication components, as well as formulate policies that will enhance domestic savings and attract more foreign direct investment. Keywords: Telecommunication Infrastructure, Teledensity, Gross domestic Investment, ARDL, Economic Growth