Abstract: 4 Abstract: This study designed for understanding the nutrition knowledge, attitude and food habits of college's students. The target population consisted entirely of college student of Payam Nour Universities. Standard questionnaire (K Parmenter and J Wardle 1999) which was developed to measure subject's nutrition knowledge, attitude and food habits distributed among 415 students randomly. After translation, questionnaires were evaluated by professor's faculty of physical education and sport sciences. The reliability analysis yielded Cronbach Alpha values of 0.78 for the knowledge and 0.74 for the attitude scales. The collected data was analyzed by t-test, one-way ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient (P<0.05). Results show that nutrition knowledge score in physical education student were highest and in business management student were lowest. ANOVA show that there were no significant differences among nutrition knowledge of all majors and between genders. Also nutrition attitude scores for physical education were highest and for psychology were lowest; but difference between nutrition attitudes among all majors was not significant. There were significant positive correlations between nutrition knowledge and attitude; and between nutrition attitude and food habits of male and females students.According to our results, we suggest that student should more attention to nutrition. Also study in college as a golden period for learning, can affect on promote nutrition knowledge, attitude and practices of students, therefore the importance of nutrition in various college curriculums and improvement of the learning environment, related to nutrition need to be emphasized on college campuses.

Abstract: Service quality has emerged an important area in the hotel industry for decades. Thus, it is essential that service providers understand customer expectations and perceptions as well as the factors that influence their evaluation and satisfaction with the provided service. Therefore, this paper examines and measures the quality of services provided by hoteliers in Penang (Malaysia). Empirical research is used to determine guests' expectations and perceptions of the quality of service, and a comprehensive scale adopted from "SERVQUAL" is empirically evaluated for its usefulness in the Penang hotel industry. The findings of this research based on the mean differences between expectation and perception of hotels' guests represent positive and negative numerical scores. Two items reported positive scores, while the remaining items scores negative values which is the result of shortfalls in offering service quality and the guests' perceived value of the services less than their expectations based on measured variables. The paper findings help Penang hoteliers to improve their service quality to fulfill shortcomings.

Abstract: This study aims to investigate the role of economic growth and inflation in explaining the prevalence of poverty in Pakistan. ARDL bound testing approach to co-integration confirms the existence of long run relationship among the variables of poverty, economic growth, inflation, investment and trade openness over the period of 1972-2008. Empirical results show that economic growth and investment have negative and inflation has positive impact on poverty. The effect of trade openness on poverty is insignificant in this study. The short run analysis reveals that economic growth has negative and inflation has positive impact on poverty whereas the role of investment and trade openness in poverty reduction in short run is not significant.

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to develop a scale to determine the farmers’ perception on agro tourism business. This paper presents the findings and development of key factors determining farmers’ perception on the agro tourism industry in Cameron Highlands, Malaysia. Attributes from previous research of local communities’ attitude were combined with newly found factors through an initial exploratory investigation to produce a new measurement scale. This combination of existing and new variables provided the platform to develop the scale. Factor analysis was used as the tool in the reduction method. The significant variables found were extracted and regrouped according to the appropriate factors in generating the new scale. As a result, 36 items were identified to have significant contribution in determining farmers’ perception on agro tourism that was regrouped into 9 factors. This finding can be used in determining farmers’ perception on agro tourism. The scale on farmers’ perception on agro tourism also would be essential to conduct further studies in this particular area of research.

Abstract: Tourism in general has become one of the major cultural and economic forces in the world today and is regarded as an important means to benefit local communities. Langkawi for example, has experienced tremendous development since declared a duty free island in 1987. Many construction projects are carried out on the islands with only one purpose: to accommodate tourism development. Rapid investments by th e government and private sector had significantly turned Langkawi into a popular destination and a shopping haven for local and foreign tourists. However, despite the rapid development in this industry, the economic and socio-cultural impacts of tourism were hardly discussed and explained in academic literature. Therefore, a study on Langkawi Islands, Malaysia was conducted to explore and identify impacts of tourism development to the islands and local residents. A household survey based on stratified random sampling was conducted in Langkawi for 8 weeks. 392 questionnaires were completed from 784 respondents approached; representing a 50% response rate for this study. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) using principal component analysis was carried out to identify the respondents' perception of the impacts from tourism development to th e Langkawi Islands. Findings from data analysis identified three factors representing 55.63% of the explained variance extracted from 21 variables, namely: 1. Costs from tourism development, 2. Benefits from tourism development and 3. Socio-economic effects from tourism development. Finally, findings from data analysis suggested that tourism development in Langkawi has provided more benefits that costs to the residents.

Abstract: 2 Abstract: Bacteria isolated from various samples were screened for lipolytic activity. Optimization of fermentation conditions such as temperature and pH for maximum lipase production was examined. From the results obtained, it was showed that Lactobacillus sp has more lipase activity when compared to Bacillus sp and Pseudomonas sp. Partial purification of crude enzyme produced from Lactobacillus sp was carried out by ammonium sulphate precipitation and dialysis. The lipase was active at pH 9 and 40°C and was found to be stable between pH 8 - 9 and 30 - 50°C. The activity of lipase on degradation of meat was also studied to apply them in industry.

Abstract: Forecasting load demand with high accuracy is required to avoid energy wasting and prevent system failure. The aim of this paper is to develop a forecasting model based on double SARIMA for improving the accuracy of short term load prediction in Malaysia and compare the results with single SARIMA model. A half hourly load demand of Malaysia for 4 months, from September 01, 2005 to December 31, 2005 is used in this study with the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) as one of the accuracy measures. The results of the identification step show that the load data have two seasonal periods, i.e. daily and weekly seasonality with length 48 and 336 respectively. The estimation and diagnostic check steps show that the best order of double SARIMA for half hourly load demand of Malaysia is ARIMA([2,3,4,8,11,16,18,19,20,21,28,29,30,32,40,41,45,46,47],1,1)(0,1,1)48(0,1,1)336 with in-sample and out-sample MAPE values of 0.96840 and 4.49251 respectively. The in-sample and out-sample MAPE of a single SARIMA model are 1.07872 and 10.45530 respectively. Thus, the current study shows that the double SARIMA model performs better than single SARIMA model since the MAPE of in-sample and out-sample are reduced by 10.22676% and 57.03126% respectively.

Abstract: In Pakistan, the banking performance is influenced by deregulation, financial modernization and technological improvement. Financial sector is the back bone of the sustainable economic growth. So it is very important to assess the negative shocks in order to maintain the financial stability in Pakistan. This study is conducted to find out the main determinants of banks profitability considering the bank specific variables. The analysis has been conducted on 16 banks on the basis of availability of data over the period 2000 to 2010. This paper uses fixed effect model and random effect model to examine the impacts of net interest margin, profit to asset ratio, bank size, loan growth, non-interest earning, overhead expenses, taxation, insider lending, operating expenses, non-performing loans, return on asset ratio and deposit to asset ratio. The empirical results show a strong association between some banks specific variables and their profitability. The variables of deposit to asset ratio, deposit to loans ratio, loans to asset ratio, loan growth, non-performing loans, net interest margin, tax, non-interest income and return on asset are the main determinates of banks profitability in our analysis. Furthermore, the banks are divided into two groups according to their market capitalization i.e. large and small banks.. LNG is significant at 1% with positive value (3.56734) indicating that with loan growth, the bank’s capacity to earn more in the market enhances. In case of small banks, the variable of loan growth is insignificant. Hence, the non-performing loans are seriously reducing the profitability of banks in small banks.

Abstract: The contamination of ammonia (NH -N) and manganese (Mn) in Malaysian rivers exceeding standard 3

Abstract: Malaysia, one of the major tourism destinations in the world, has been successfully marketed as an ecologically and culturally rich destination. However, unchecked tourism activities have detrimental impact especially on the natural environment. Since nature and an unpolluted environment are major assets of hotels and the tourism industry in general, an increasing number of hotels are becoming more committed towards the protection of the environment and are incorporating environmentally friendly activities into their daily operations. Yet, it is not known to what extent Malaysian hotels and resorts have implemented these environmentally friendly practices. Hence, this paper examines the environmental initiatives of selected resorts in Malaysia to get insights of the different environmental practices implemented. Even though most of the resorts surveyed in this study are concerned about the environment, the implementation of environmental initiatives was still minimal due to unattractive benefits compared to costs and also the lack of knowledge in this area. The most popular practices are those that lead to a reduction in operational costs or are not too costly to be put in place.

Abstract: This study aimed to examine the relationship between transformational leadership by school principals and teacher activity toward the transformation of schools into 'learning organisations', based on teacher perspectives. A quantitative research study employing a survey method was conducted. The research involved 285 teachers in cluster secondary schools, selected based on a stratified sampling method. The data collected were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results have shown that the level of transformational leadership engaged in by the principals at the respondent schools and the amount of learning- organisation activity by the teachers are high. The results also reveal that there is a significant, moderate, positive relationship between transformational leadership by principals and teachers' learning organization- pursuant practices. Based on these findings, it is stressed that comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the two concepts studied and how they could contribute to school excellence is very crucial. Existing instances of transformational leadership as well as existing learning organisation-pursuant practices should be continuously improved to ensure the sustainability of schools as learning institutions. This would enable schools to cope with educational change and lead them towards achieving excellence.

Abstract: A comparison of the effectiveness and efficiency of gamma rays and ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) for inducing mutation in chilli seeds of 10 different doses along with one respective control. Seeds were treated with 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 kR of gamma rays and 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 mM of ethyl methanesulfonate. The M1 generation was produced from these mutagen treated seeds. Several unique and interesting chlorophyll and viable mutants were obtained in the M generation (subsequent generation derived from the seeds of M 21 generation). Chlorophyll mutations are used to evaluate the genetic effects of various mutagens. The spectra of chlorophyll mutants albina, chlorina, viridis and lutescens were most frequently. In M generation, gamma 2 rays induced higher proportion of chlorophyll mutants than EMS. Frequency of viable mutants was, in general, higher in treatments with EMS than with gamma rays. Treatment with 30 mM EMS was more effective in inducing desirable mutations at the highest frequency. The desirable viable mutants of long and dark red pods, base non-bulging fruits, flower mutant (normally pentamerous flower but an abnormal behavior of trimerous, tetramerous, heptamerous), two or three flowers on a peduncle, profuse branching and pod setting and genic male sterility were isolated from different treatments. Lethality or biological injury, apparent as reduced germination, increased with increasing dose of gamma rays and EMS. Mutagenic effectiveness and efficiency generally increased with increasing dose of EMS. Mutation breeding will significantly increase the chilli amelioration both the effectiveness and efficacy of induced variability of desirable traits to develop improved genotypes.

Abstract: 2 Abstract: Pesticide use in agriculture can cause undesirable effects to the natural environment as well as to humans. A field trial to determine residues of 2,4-D and paraquat in the ricefield soil and surface water of the drainage canals in the Kerian district of Perak, Malaysia, was conducted during 2006/2007. Analyses of 2,4-D and paraquat in the soil and water samples were carried out using a high performance liquid chromatograph (HPLC) fitted with a UV detector. The water sampling activities were conducted from 12 April to 03 September 2006 and18 February to 15 April 2007. The parameters of water drainage were measured during the study. Residues of paraquat were detected in only a few of the water samples at levels ranging from 0.6-6.9 µg/l but in many samples from the drainage canals 2,4-D was detected frequently at levels ranging from 0.04-1.49 µg/l. The fate of 2,4-D and paraquat in clay loam soil under tropical conditions showed that both herbicides leached downward to the depth of 5 cm on the first day after treatment (DAT). Throughout the sampling period, 2,4-D and paraquat were detected in the soil profile at levels ranging from 0.046-0.128 and 0.212-0.362 mg/kg, respectively. The maximum concentrations at one DAT at the (0-5) cm soil depth were 0.128 and 0.362 mg/kg for 2,4-D and paraquat respectively.

Abstract: This paper discussed the international migration studies and their shortcomings of entrepreneurs' migration reasons, especially between two developing countries. The push and pull factors of migration decision were discovered with reviewing the literature. By interviewing five Iranian small business owners in Malaysia, it seems there is a new category of migrational reasons for immigrant entrepreneurs. Findings showed that the entrepreneurial reasons were effective in the migration decision of immigrant entrepreneurs besides the socio-economic and politic factors. In this paper, focusing on immigrant entrepreneurs in developing countries will help to provide a better understanding of both migration and entrepreneurship phenomena, so that could pave the way to demonstrate a new entrepreneurs' migration model.

Abstract: The present communication deals with the phytochemical screening studies of leaves and stem of the medicinal plant Andrographis neesiana. Andrographis neesiana is an endemic medicinal plant belonging to the family Acanthaceae. It has been used in traditional medicine to treat antifungal and aphrodisiac. Phytochemical screening of any medicinal importance from Andrographis neesiana. Qualitative analysis of the plant parts the presence of various components of therapeutic importance including tannins, saponins, phenolic compounds, glycosides, flavonoids, gums and mucilases, steroids and triterpenoids and absence of alkaloids, carbohydrates, protein and amino acids have been reported here in this herb for the first time. The experiment carried out in the medicinal plant leaves and stem. The results are discussed with the available literature.

Abstract: The existence and the direction of the relationship between economic growth and globalization are very debatable. In this context, the paper analyses the "behaviour" of the relationship between economic growth and globalization, in Romania, using an unrestricted vector autoregressive model (Unrestricted VAR), for 1972-2006 period. The results show that if countries tend to maximize the economic growth, they must globalize more. This connection is functional only on medium and long term, but with a flat intensity. Unfortunately, this process cannot be absolutized.

Abstract: 2 Abstract: The experiment was carried out to investigate the effect of different concentrations of salicylic acid (SA), malic acid ( MA), citric acid (CA) and sucrose (Suc) on keeping quality and vase life of Chrysanthemum cut flowers. In this study three levels of malic acid (0, 100 and 150 mg l ) and salicylic acid (0, 1.5 and 3 mM) and - two levels of sucrose (0 and 3% w/v) and of citric acid (0 and 150 mg l ) were applied in a factorial 1 arrangement, carried out in a complete randomized design on 144 Chrysanthemum cut flowers in horticulture laboratory of agriculture faculty of Islamic Azad University, Karaj branch. The recorded traits included Vase life, total chlorophyll content (SPAD reading), anthocyanin leakage, malondialdehyde (MDA) content, ACC- Oxidase activity and water absorption. The results showed that malic acid and salicylic acid treatments increased cut flower water absorption, fresh weight and vase life, while descreased the MDA content, ACC- oxidase activity and membrane premeability together with total delay of senescence and peroxidation of lipids. Maximum flower vase life was recorded in 150 mg l MA +1.5 mM SA + 3% Suc treatments. A direct 1

Abstract: Tourism is viewed increasingly as an essential sector to local, regional and national reconstruction and development for economies at various scales. The objective of the study is to empirically investigate a two-way statistical relationship between the tourism development indicators and carbon emissions in Pakistan over a period of 1991-2010. To recognize this relationship, a time series, co-integration and Granger Causality Tests have been employed. The study further evaluates four alternative but equally plausible hypotheses, each with different policy implications. These are: i) tourism indicators cause carbon emission (the conventional view), ii) carbon emission cause tourism indicators, iii) There is a bi-directional causality between the two variables and iv) both variables are causality independent (although highly correlated). The results reveal that tourism indicators significantly increase carbon emissions in Pakistan. The causality results only moderately support the conventional view that tourism indicators have significant long run casual effect on carbon emissions in Pakistan. The present study find evident of unidirectional causality running between the tourism indicators and carbon emissions on one hand, while causal relationship running from carbon emissions to natural resource depletion and carbon emissions to net forest depletion in the context of Pakistan.

Abstract: Ecotourism is a becoming the hype word in tourism industry nowadays It gains its popularity due to two of its main prongs: economic incentives and conservation benefits, both to the locals and the destination Ecotourism greatly depends on the wealth of its natural heritage to lure in tourists Through the National Ecotourism Plan developed in 1996, the Belum Temengor Forest Complex (BTFC) was identified as one of the areas possessing great potentials for ecotourism development The rich biodiversity of flora and fauna and the unique culture of indigenous peoples living in the area are among the most important elements of attractions apart from the beautiful landscapes and lush sceneries However, the rampant poaching, uncontrolled logging activities and mismanagement issues are some of the perils that could destroy the potentials of this promising area from further developing into a worldwide ecotourism destination in Malaysia This paper examines some of these threats and provides suggestions and recommendations for the improvement of ecotourism in the study area

Abstract: 2 Abstract: The main objective of this research is to explore the perception of young consumers on mobile applications in Malaysia. The perception of consumers on M-Commerce applications seems to be positive, especially communication, emergency, entertainment, content delivery and transaction. However, there is a less preference on location factor. The correlations for most of mobile applications are correlated and it is significant either at 0.01 or 0.05. The third finding shows that emergency, entertainment, content delivery, transaction and location have a positive impact on M-commerce. Finally, there is a need for service providers carefully take the needs and considerations of various users into account to provide better services and attract them to M- Commerce because this study found that the overall research model can be considered as not a perfect-fit model.

Abstract: 67 7 Abstract: This study analyses the challenges for the commercialization of university research for agricultural based invention. It aims at promoting the commercialization of agricultural based research to compete with the existing inventions. From the discussion, it shows that the commercialization of agricultural based invention of university research usually takes a longer time to be marketable, when compared to inventions by agencies such as MARDI and FAMA. The article implies that agricultural based invention of university research should be considered as a significant tool for economic growth. It suggests that a case study and a quantitative analysis will be useful to further formulate propositions and to learn the agricultural based invention of university research.