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Kejuruteraan genetik dan teknologi rekombinan merupakan penemuan penting yang telah memacu perkembangan pesat dalam bidang bioteknologi moden terutamanya dalam penyelidikan dan pembangunan (R&D). Walaupun begitu, perkembangan tersebut menimbulkan isu dan persoalan agama serta etika khususnya melibatkan teknik pembiakan buatan, pemindahan organ, pengklonan dan kejuruteraan genetik itu sendiri. Isu etika sering ditekankan dalam pelbagai cabang ilmu dan memainkan peranan sangat penting dalam sistem hidup manusia serta berkait rapat dengan agama. Oleh yang demikian, penulisan kertas kerja ini bertujuan mendedahkan berkaitan Projek Genom Manusia (PGM) dan isu-isu genetik manusia yang timbul dari perspektif sains dan Islam seperti Teori Evolusi Darwin, PGM, pengklonan manusia dan eugenik. Akhirnya, isu-isu yang timbul dari aplikasi teknologi genetik manusia perlu ditangani dengan sebaik mungkin melalui etika sains serta diintegrasikan dengan ajaran Islam supaya segala pencapaian bidang ini tidak merosakkan alam dan populasi manusia seterusnya menjadikan kehidupan manusia lebih baik dan kondusif dari semasa ke semasa.

The aim of this study is to examine the impact of board characteristics on financial distress companies. Specifically this study examines board attributes (size of board, percentage of inside directors, CEO is founder, CEO is chairman and CEO duality) and its relation with companies that experienced financial distress after controlling for leverage, market return, lagged of market return, and GDP growth. Compared with previous studies in Malaysia, this study uses PN17 criterion to select the sample and that is defines as the shareholder’s equity is less than 25% of issued and paid-up capital of a firm. Using a data, the results show size and CEO-founder are negatively significantly related to distress while CEO duality and fraction of independent director affect distress positively. This study could be used to measure the effectiveness of The Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance (MCCG). This study is also useful to directors, investors and authorities who would want to know which corporate governance factors explain distress.

The purpose of the study is to understand the role of self-efficacy in influencing entrepreneurial orientations of small scale Malay entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial orientations are consistently found to influence performance quite positively. Therefore, the understanding of how strong self-efficacy influences entrepreneurial orientations would also help in identifying ways to improve the performance of small scale businesses. There was a lack of research to see what drives business owners to choose among the entrepreneurial orientations, while there were so many researches conducted to see the impact of entrepreneurial orientations on performance. Thus, finding what influences entrepreneurial orientations would be a significant contribution to the field of entrepreneurship. The samples comprised of 162 small scale Malay SMEs in the manufacturing industry in all the states of Malaysia. The Rasch Measurement Model was used for the purpose of construct reliability and validity. In order to identify the influence of self-efficacy on entrepreneurial orientations and its two dimensions (proactivity and innovativeness), a simple linear regression and independent-t test were undertaken by using the SPSS as a tool. The findings indicated that self-efficacy was significantly related to entrepreneurial orientation and self-efficacy of the Malay entrepreneurs has affected innovativeness more strongly than the proactive dimension of entrepreneurial orientations. The independent-t test also was able to identify that Malay entrepreneurs withwith low self-efficacy. The findings give important implications to management consultants whose clients are SMEs to design training modules that specifically focus on developing self-efficacy among average performing SMEs because self-efficacy was found to improve the entrepreneurial orientations of entrepreneurs. Keywords: Self-efficacy, entrepreneurial orientations, innovativeness and proactivity.

The deliberate use of biological agents and the emergence of infectious diseases which can produce harm to human health and give effects to the public health and security are well recognised. A few years back, an attack of biological agents would be the most unthinkable situation to happen. However, the threat of bioterrorism is real and it is growing. It continues to be a major challenge today and the possibility of bioterrorism is undeniable as it is increasingly defined globally as ‘not if, but when’. Therefore, this paper attempts to give a brief explanation on the threat of bioterrorism as to the emergence of infectious diseases and the legal history of international law on bioterrorism. The main objective of this paper is to find out the need for bioterrorism law in Malaysian i.e. a legal approach. The study is a social legal research, which uses a qualitative approach. Thus, due to lack of materials and publications in Malaysia, in order to achieve the objectives, the methodology used was based on a semi structured interviews conducted with three respected experts in public health and security to explore the real situation in Malaysia. The authors found out that the finding of this study had established that an outbreak of infectious diseases can now be viewed as a threat that may result to bioterrorism if there is no preparation to handle it. Keywords: Bioterrorism, biological agents, infectious diseases, legal and preparedness

The main objective of the paper is to find out whether bankruptcy risk is a systematic risk. In particular, we investigate the contribution of size, bookto-market, excess market returns and bankruptcy probability in explaining returns. We allocate stocks into portfolios according to the probability of bankruptcy from the hazard model. Results show that bankruptcy risk is not a systematic risk. The results consistently show that excess market returns and size have strong power to explain returns in the UK for the period from 1988 to 1997. Book-to-market and bankruptcy risk only matt er in portfolios with higher probability of bankruptcy. Keyword: Bankruptcy risk, bankruptcy probability, hazard model. JEL Classification: G12, G33

By using a total of 52 distressed and non-distressed listed companies during the period 1990 to 2000, debt to total assets was found to be significant in predicting distressed companies for the multiple discriminant analysis (MDA), logit and hazard models. It appears that the higher the debt, the higher is the probability of defaulting among the financially distressed companies. MDA identified net income growth as another predictor whereas the logit and hazard model found that return on asset (ROA) to be an important predictor. Nevertheless, the sign of the ROA coefficient differred between the two models. Furthermore, company size was also identified as a contributing factor to financially distressed companies for the hazard model.

In Malaysia, most of the studies conducted on the effects of increase in fuel prices have focused on a group of people who have a regular monthly income. Little attention is given to the younger generation without income, especially among students in higher education. Malaysian students are also among the highest group of people who make daily trips. The increase in fuel prices has also increased the daily cost of students and can affect their daily commute. This study aims to examine the specific effects of the increase in the prices of fuel on the travel patterns of young people in higher education institutions. A total of 596 respondents among university students were involved in this study, which selected randomly from public and private universities in Malaysia. By focusing on the patterns of travel before and after the increase in fuel prices, the respondents were asked to fill out a questionnaire related to their weekly trip activities. From the survey conducted, there are variations in the choice of transport mode for educational purposes and personal activities of the respondents. Among the preferred mode of transport include driving cars, riding bikes, walking and taking public services. However, the highest mode of transport of the movement of respondents from residential areas to campus based on the weekly frequencies are walking and driving cars. Whereas, for personal purposes, students are most likely to prefer driving cars. Research shows, the rise in fuel prices do not provide a significant change to the travel patterns of the respondents. However, slight changes in the pattern of respondents' travel have occurred, such as the reduction in the frequency of personal vehicle used and the increase in the frequency of sharing the vehicle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Department of Chemical and Process Engineering (JKKP), Faculty of Engineering & Built Environment, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia has taken an initiative during the curriculum revision in 2016 to conduct their elective course in modular form for the year IV students since cohort intake 2015/2016 until 2019/2020. Module development method was based on benchamarking that was performed between a number of reknown local and international universities, also via direct input from the appointed industrial advisory panels and research surey with relevant industries. It is an effort to allow the students to choose their majoring course in chemical engineering field following the combination of courses offered, in order for them to be more focused with their interest. JKKP has introduced 3 modular elective courses namely bioprocess, process system engineering and industrial process. This approach is believed could benefit the students by giving more options for them in enrolling for these compulsory elective courses in a more structured way during their final semester of study. This practice is far different from the former one, which possessed least number of subject courses and the subject lists were randomly chosen during the enrolment. In the new curriculum, more subjects are offered per module in order to follow the industrial needs especially in the major areas identified. This work was conducted to compare the difference between elective course offered in the department for the period of before and after the curriculum revision. Next, the student preference was investigated upon selecting these modular courses. It was found that most of the students preferred to choose industrial process module followed by process system engineering and lastly the bioprocess module. Through this practice, the student interest towards the given majoring areas as per modules can be identified. Positive feedbacks were also received whereby the students think that the modular elective course should be continued in the future so that they would have a clearer career direction based on the coursesselected. Apart from that, there are also challenges that need to be overcome by the department in a way to nurture more student interest towards the least popular area/field such as bioprocess. For instance by improving the quality of teaching and teaching materials used as well as involving industries in multiple ways to promote interest on the targeted areas. With the production of chemical engineering graduates in various field sufficiently, is believed should be able to supply competent workforces in the recent era of industrial revolution 4.0 (IR 4.0). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problems among the Balkan powers in 1912 could not be resolved through the London Treaty 1913. This was due to the reluctance of the members of the Balkans League, Serbia and Bulgaria, who did not want to accept the terms in the treaty. They felt, they were forced to sign the treaty by the Great Powers. Bulgaria saw the treaty as bringing many benefits and advantages to Serbia in the Balkans. Bulgaria's dissatisfaction sparked another conflict in the Balkans known as Second Balkan War in 1913. In the First Balkan War, the Balkan League alliance consisted of Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro who went against the Ottoman government, however, in the Second Balkan War, the war was between Serbia and Bulgaria. Therefore, the objectives of this article are to analyze the issues that led to the conflict in the Serbian-Bulgarian relations and to analyze the intervention of the Great Powers in the crisis. This study employed a qualitative methodology which involved primary sources such as British records obtained at the Public Record Office, Kew, London. This article found that the main cause of the conflict in the 1913 Serbia-Bulgaria relationship was due to the conflict over Macedonia and the intervention of European powers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Employees have great responsibility towards their country and society. They were expected to contribute their resources and expertise to advance the nation and to be the example in society, to behave well, to obey the laws and regulations. In the context of marriage, Article 16, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (resolution 34/180 of 18 December 1979) provides that (a) Women is given the same right to marry(Article 16 (a));) The same right to choose freely a spouse and to enter into marriage only with their free and full consent (Article 16 (b)); and have (c) The same rights and responsibilities during marriage and divorce. Therefore every married spouses have a right to enjoy a happy family life and free from any harassment that can threaten his or her family. Infidelity to the layman is a dishonest misconduct in a family life. The study uses legal qualitative research methodology and analyzes descriptively based on data obtained from literary sources in the field of family, gender and legal research. In this write-up, the focus of the discussions are within Indonesia legal context. The act of infidelity is interpreted in the Criminal Law (KUHP) as a moral offense that violates public security. This paper examines among others; (a) Anti-harassment for Infidelity issues and its definitional perspectives in Indonesia (b) Various existing anti-harassment for infidelity legal provisions and regulation, and its application to civil servant, (c)problems faced in enforcing the relevant law and regulations and, finally, (d) to suggest ways to resolve harassment because of infidelity at workplace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malaysia has a strong economic development plan to reach out for the National Transformation 2050. This development is closely linked to the need for sustainability of the labour resources needed to move this vision. Together with local sources of labour, migrant sources from abroad becomes employers' choice, most of whom belong to unskilled workers who are legally enrolled, exploited as trafficking victims or inadvertently entering Malaysia undocumented to meet various needs in economic sectors. This develops the phenomenon of unskilled foreign workers influx. This unhealthy situation threatens the well-being of the people and the country. In return, various policies are formulated by the government to control the situation but are still less effective in addressing the question of uncontrolled border crossing mobility. As a consequence, it exacerbates social and legal issues involving the influx of illegal migrant workers. This push and pull factor has an impact on the local society and the trespass on the country's borders due to unhealthy activities brought along with mobility and illegal entry. This affects the security and Malaysia images as a sovereign state. Other countries experiences in managing unskilled workers will be referred to in order to understand the problem of unskilled workers employment. the This article will highlight the country's needs for skilled migrant workers, the economic sectors employing unskilled migrant workers, entry requirements as legal migrant workers; the problem state borders trespassing; the implications of unskilled foreign workers influx in the economic sector, social security of society and compliance to the state legislation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malay Genome Project (MGP) is a Malay-genome related research which has been pioneered by two public universities in Malaysia namely Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). It mainly focuses on the production of pharmaceutical products and identification of the origin of Malays. Although it is beneficial indeed to the Malay community as a whole, this research is still bound by rules of scientific ethics and the values of humanity particularly related to law and religion. Therefore, the aims of this study were to elaborate on the theoretical framework and to identify the relationship between MGP and the Islamic 'Aqeedah (faith) so that the Islamic 'Aqeedah-Compliant Index (IACI) is possible to be developed and will act as a "second filter" after the scientific ethics. This study involved both qualitative and quantitative methods, in which case it is typically referred to as Exploratory Sequential Mixed Method. Further, IBM SPSS 21.0 software was used to analyze the questionnaires administered to academics from selected public universities in Malaysia. The results revealed that there was a positive relationship between the variables (p-value < 0.05) i.e. firstly, MGP and Islamic 'Aqeedah (0.403), secondly, Islamic 'Aqeedah and IACI (0.639) and thirdly, MGP and IACI (0.304). Therefore, integrating MGP and Islamic faith is seen capable of producing scientific discoveries that is in line with Islamic teachings and at the same time to provide added value to the existing body of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes an Integrated Model of Infusing 21st Century Skills that has been developed from a case study that was carried out on four teachers who implement student-centered approach in their teaching and learning (T&L) sessions. Observations and interviews were conducted on all the study participants and some related documents were also analyzed. Deductive and inductive thematic analysis were conducted on data gathered in identifying the key themes relating the T&L methods used by teachers to adopt 21st century skills. These themes were then presented in the debriefing session with another four researchers who gave their opinions and views. The findings show that the main element that determine the success of the implementation of 21st century skills is the teacher's professional knowledge. Teacher's professional knowledge is the integration of teacher's practical knowledge in teaching with the knowledge of context in which they are located, and this knowledge is refined through continuous reflection. Based on the knowledge that they have, the implementation of 21st century skills in students can be done when teachers can integrate the teaching methods that include cooperative learning, democratic classroom and motivation. Cooperative learning will be more successful if teachers also practise democratic classrooms that emphasize the concept of equal opportunity, freedom of speech and the sharing of power between teacher and student. Such T&L activities will increase student motivation and engagement in the classroom and hence build the necessary skills to face the challenges of the 21st century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the relationship between image, corporate social responsibility (CSR), relationship quality and loyalty among shoppers of grocery items. To achieve the research objective, 191 questionnaires were conveniently distributed to students of a public university in Selangor. Using AMOS, results of the analysis show that image and CSR have positive significant relationships with relationship quality. The study also finds that relationship quality is positively related to loyalty among grocery customers. Meanwhile, image and CSR are not significantly related to loyalty. This paper also discussed the limitations of this study and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study is intended to examine the relationship between work safety practices and employee compliance of workplace safety. The dimensions of work safety practices include management commitment, safety training, employee involvement, communication and feedback, safety rules and procedures, and safety promotional policies. To achieve the research objective, 270 questionnaires were distributed to the ire officers of grade KB17 from 9 ire departments in Selangor . The regression analysis indicated that management commitment, safety training, and safety rules and procedures are positively related to compliance with safety behavior . Meanwhile employee involvement, safety promotional policies, and communication and feedback are not significantly related to compliance with safety behavior . This paper also discussed the implications and limitations of this study and directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The British occupation of Indonesia is an interesting topic for discussion. This is due to the fact that this superpower never colonized Indonesia. Instead, Indonesia was colonized by Dutch. Britain was chosen as the caretaker during the 1945-1946 transition periods after Second World War (WW2) by virtue of the fact that they were more moderate nation in comparison with Dutch. Besides that, Dutch did not have a good reputation as it had lost badly at the hand of the Allied powers in Europe during WW2. Britain's readiness to assume the responsibility was attributable to their need to strengthen power after suffering severe losses at the hand of the Japanese during WW2 in Southeast Asia. As well as the afore-mentioned, Britain's willingness was also due to the fact that Dutch had been a major British ally in Southeast Asia since 1824. This was a partial manifestation of the British-Dutch close alliance as Lords of the East and as an ideology of partnership in the context of Britain's alliance with other Western allies in Southeast Asia. It also related with the great agenda in Britain's foreign policy, however, was the continuity or survival of western powers over Southeast Asia. This article discusses the implementation of Britain's policies in Indonesia in an effort to ensure that the objective of western powers and Britain itself were achieved. In comparison, Britain's policies were more diplomatic compared to Dutch's rather militaristic approach. This caused Indonesian revolutionary's compliance to accept Britain's presence rather than Dutch. British occupation took less than two years but it had great effects on Indonesia's history of independence. Furthermore, Britain was involved in the series of independence talks between Dutch and Indonesia, leading to the Round Table Conference on 27 December 1949. This essay makes use of the historiographic approach and the primary sources used are British records obtained from the British National Archive, Kew, London. Secondary sources such as books have also been referred to. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]