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This review paper aims to focus on recent advances of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) to produce gas sensors. Gas sensors are widely used for monitoring hazardous gas leakages and emissions in the industry, households and other areas. For better safety and a healthy environment, it is highly desirable to have gas sensors with higher accuracy and enhanced sensing features.

In this review, the authors focus on recent contributions of CNTs to the technology for developing different types of gas sensors. The design, fabrication process and sensing mechanism of each gas sensor are summarized, together with their advantages and disadvantages.

Nowadays, CNTs are well-known materials which have attracted a significant amount of attention owing to their excellent electrical, electronic and mechanical properties. On exposure to various gases, their properties allow the detection of gases using different methods. Therefore, over recent years, researchers have developed several different types of gas sensors along with other types of sensors for temperature, strain, pressure, etc.

The main purpose of this review is to introduce CNTs as candidates for future research in the field of gas sensing applications and to focus on current technical challenges associated with CNT-based gas sensors.

The paper aims to construct a theoretical framework to investigate whether the Shariah debt ratio screening in contemporary Shariah stock screening methodologies results in a bias towards a certain set of corporate financial behaviour for Shariah-compliant firms in the USA where access to a liquid Islamic debt market is non-existent.

The paper extends the earnings valuation approach of Modigliani and Miller (1963) to theoretically asses the impacts of the 33% conventional debt limit on Shariah-compliant firms’ corporate financial behaviour. Then, supporting evidence is shown via empirical stylised facts of samples of Shariah-compliant firms in the USA.

A theoretical floor limit to investment cut-off rates is found for US Shariah-compliant firms so that lesser projects pass their internal rate of return versus conventional firms. Subsequently, such firms consistently show the following corporate financial characteristics: above-average size, larger marginal change in size and profitability in response to a given marginal change in investments, low book-to-market ratio and lower investment rates.

The findings of this paper may not hold where access to a liquid Islamic capital market is present.

Caveat emptor. These findings may be inconsistent to the investor’s risk preferences.

The findings suggests that Shariah-compliant firms are more conservative compared to their conventional counterparts.

The paper is the first to introduce a theoretical framework to address consistent biasness in corporate financial behaviour due to the Shariah debt screening. It may prove useful for future academic studies as well as investment managers.

The main purpose of this study was to determine school leaders' ability to manage underprivileged students' needs, the level of achievement of these students and the relationship between the two variables.

A quantitative methodology comprising a questionnaire instrument was utilized to collect data from 239 underprivileged students attending schools in Kelantan, Malaysia. Descriptive statistics comprising mean values and standard deviations were calculated to determine school leaders' ability to manage underprivileged students' needs and the level of achievement of these students. Inferential statistics comprising a Pearson correlation was calculated to determine the relationship between the two variables.

School leaders' ability to manage underprivileged students' needs was high, whereas the achievement of underprivileged students was moderate. A weak positive relationship was observed between the two variables.

The sample was limited to 15–16-year-old students in one state in Malaysia. Further research is therefore needed on samples from across Malaysia. This paper enhances knowledge of the relationship between school leaders' ability to manage underprivileged students' needs and the level of achievement of these students. This study also has implications for Maslow's human needs theory.

The implications of the findings for school management practices are that an ability to manage underprivileged students' needs can increase the level of achievement of these students. The findings also indicate that adhering to Sustainable Development Goals, the Malaysian Education Blueprint and the Eleventh Malaysian Plan to ensure quality education for underprivileged students is relevant and should be continued. The findings can also be used as input in training school leaders.

The findings suggest that the community needs to take more responsibility for underprivileged students, especially in managing their needs, in order to increase the achievement. The findings can usefully be employed to reduce the social gap between underprivileged and privileged groups.

This is the first study to examine the relationship between school leaders' ability to manage underprivileged students' needs and the students' achievement.

This paper aims to investigate the dynamic portfolio optimisation performance of numerous samples of Shariah-compliant firms in the USA vis-à-vis the overall conventional sample.

This paper constructs efficient frontiers and subsequently the capital market line using the ovport set of commands in STATA. From the capital market line, the tangent portfolio is found, and the Sharpe ratio of the tangent portfolio is the primary measurement of the dynamic portfolio optimisation performance of the samples of Shariah-compliant samples in this study.

This paper finds that the overall conventional sample will outperform the Shariah-compliant samples in most cases. However, there exists a consistent trend whereby the performance of the overall conventional sample will converge towards the performance of the Shariah-compliant samples (and even be lower at times), as the market approaches a looming crisis suggesting that the Shariah-compliant samples do not experience significant deteriorations in their performance as compared to the conventional sample and that they provide stability during such times.

This paper assumes no transaction costs, illiquidity, bid-ask spread and non-compliant revenue purification all of which may negatively affect portfolio performance.

The findings of this paper suggest that Shariah-compliant samples should be included in portfolios during times of crisis because they are less affected by market-wide volatility.

The stability of Shariah-compliant samples reflects the conservativity of the contemporary Shariah stock screening methodologies and the Shariah itself.

Portfolio optimisation studies on Shariah-compliant samples are usually static in nature and are conducted in selected Muslim countries. This paper studies the dynamic portfolio optimisation in the USA where a liquid Islamic capital market is non-existent.

This study aims to analyse the Shariah issues in the implementation of tawarruq contract in the Islamic profit rate swap (IPRS) instrument in Malaysia.

This is a qualitative study in applying data analysis and semi-structured interview approaches. Data was collected from various documents including journals, articles and past studies conducted by scholars. To achieve the purpose of this study, the data is analysed based on thematic analysis.

The study found several Shariah issues regarding the implementation of tawarruq contract in the IPRS instruments, which have remained a dispute amongst the Islamic financial scholars such as its profit-making purpose, encouragement of debt, impediment of shared risk concept, disputed underlying assets, a deception towards allowing riba and dual agency.

This study recommends several improvements such as the establishment of a neutral agency that does not represent any banking institution to manage the tawarruq contract commodity purchase from Bursa Suq al-Sila’ (BSAS). In addition, a neutral agency can provide aid in terms of transaction facility or at least consultation service for clients to enable them to conduct the commodity transactions independently.

Moreover, guidelines should be established on the separation of the deadline to sign the agreement of appointment of a bank as the commodity purchase agent and the agreement of appointment of the bank as the commodity sale agent on behalf of clients. All transactions related to tawarruq contract commodity must be done through BSAS. The regulators and industry experts may create a guideline for the IPRS based on the issues and recommendations that have been discussed in this study.

On the basis of the analysis of the criticisms and issues in the implementation of tawarruq contract in the IPRS instrument, the current study found that an intermediating institution is allowed to gain profits from transactions conducted so long as they are based on Shariah principles of contract in Islam. As there is no parameter specifically for IPRS, thus the suggested parameter can be used by policymakers such as the Central Bank of Malaysia to ensure the industry complies with Shariah principles.

Malaysia has shifted from a labor-intensive, agriculture-based economy since its independence in 1957 to a knowledge and innovation-based economy. Human capital development (HCD) is a key enabler for driving and sustaining Malaysia's socioeconomic growth. The education and training system is the main platform for HCD intervention. To sustain and achieve goals, long-term survival, competitive advantage, and sustainability, the workforce is optimized through comprehensive HCD interventions to provide the necessary knowledge, skills, and competencies needed to work effectively in a rapidly changing and complex environment. Numerous efforts have been made by the government to ensure that the education and training system has the capacity to enhance the quality and availability of intellectual and skilled human capital to support the transition toward knowledge-intensive activities, sustain economic growth, and compete in the global market. The country's development plans and policies as well as the economic development which lead toward a knowledge-based economy with a knowledge-based workforce have charted out clear transformation journeys for the development of the human capital ecosystem. This chapter presents an overview of the landscape of HCD in Malaysia. Relevant reports, plans, policies, and strategies to strengthen human capital through education and training is reviewed. Finally, a few issues and challenges that Malaysia experiences are discussed.

Intelligent pneumatic actuator (IPA) is a new generation of actuator developed for Research and Development (R&D) purposes in the academic and industrial fields. The purpose of this paper is to show the application of optical encoder and pressure sensor in IPA, to develop a real-time model similar to the existing devices, and to assess the position control performance using a proportional-integrative (PI) controller and a bang-bang controller in real-time.

A micro optical encoder chip is used to detect cylinder rod position by reading constructed laser stripes on a guide rod, whereas a pressure sensor is used to detect the chamber pressure reading. To control the cylinder movements by manipulating pulse-width modulation (PWM) cycles, two unit valves of two ports and two positions were used. A PI controller and a bang-bang controller are used with suitable gain value to drive the valve using PWM to achieve the target actuator position.

The results show the experimental results of the closed-loop position tracking performance of the system using a data acquisition (DAQ) card over MATLAB software.

This paper presents a real-time model used to replace the microcontroller-based system from previous IPA design. The paper proposes two control strategies, PI and bang-bang, to control position using encoder and pressure reading.

This study aims to review the effect of copper percentage in Sn-based solder alloys (Sn-xCu, x = 0–5 Wt.%) on intermetallic compound (IMC) formation and growth after laser soldering.

This study reviews the interfacial reactions at the solder joint interface, solder joint morphology and the theory on characterizing the formation and growth of IMCs. In addition, the effects of alloying and strengthening mechanism, including wettability, melting and mechanical properties are discussed.

This paper presents a comprehensive overview of the composition of tin-copper (Sn-Cu) solders with a potential to enhance their microstructure, mechanical characteristics and wettability by varying the Cu percentage. The study found that the best Cu content in the Sn-xCu solder alloy was 0.6–0.7 Wt.%; this composition provided high shear strength, vibration fracture life value and ideal IMC thickness. A method of solder alloy preparation was also found through powder metallurgy and laser soldering to improve the solder joint reliability.

This study focuses on interfacial reactions at the solder joint interface, solder joint morphology, modelling simulation of joint strength and the theory on characterising the formation and growth of IMC.

The paper comprehensively summarises the useful findings of the Sn-Cu series. This information will be important for future trends in laser soldering on solder joint formation.

Pb-free solders have been developed to replace the standard Sn–Pb eutectic solder since the prohibition on Pb used in solders. The Sn–Ag–Cu series of lead-free solders is the most extensively used in the electronics industry. The Ag₃Sn, which forms during isothermal ageing, can significantly degrade solder joint reliability. Sn–Ag–Cu solder’s high price further hindered its use in the electronics industry. This paper aims to investigate different copper percentages into Sn–xCu solder alloy to improve its microstructure and strength performance.

The solder alloys used in this work were Sn–xCu, where x = 0.0, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 1.0 Wt.%, which was soldered onto electroless nickel immersion gold (ENIG) substrate using carbon dioxide (CO₂) gas laser. Then these samples were subjected to isothermal aging for 0, 200, 500, 1,000 and 2,000 h. The Sn–xCu solder alloy was fabricated through a powder metallurgy process.

Microstructure characterization showed that Cu addition resulted in fine and rounded shape of Cu–Sn–Ni particles. Shear strength of Sn–xCu solder joints was increased with increasing Cu content, but at aging duration of 1,000 h, it dropped slightly. It is believed that the strength improved due to the increment of diffusion rate during isothermal aging.

In a Cu–Sn solder, the recommended amount is 1.0 Wt.% of Cu. In extensive aging procedures, it was discovered that Sn1.0Cu solder improved the reliability of solder joints. The findings indicated that the innovative solder alloys might satisfy the needs of high-reliability applications.

The study shows that the right amount of Cu enhances the solidification of Sn–Cu solder, increasing the shear force of the Cu–Sn solder joint. The Sn1.0Cu exhibits a ductile fracture on the top microstructure, improving the joint’s average shear strength.

Based upon an extended SERVQUAL model, this paper attempts to measure and compare the service quality between conventional and Islamic banks in Malaysia.

A new dimension, i.e. convenience was added to the existing SERVQUAL model of five dimensions. Data were collected from 287 bank customers residing in two major cities in Malaysia using self‐reporting questionnaires. Factor analysis is used to validate the instrument, after which the gap and dominance analyses techniques are employed.

The factor analysis extracted four dimensions of service quality, i.e. tangibility, reliability, competence, and convenience. The results reveal that there are large and significant differences between respondents' expectations and their perceptions. Specifically, the expectations on competence and convenience are significantly different between the conventional and Islamic banks, whereas the perceptions on tangibility and convenience are found to be significantly different between the two types of banks. The application of dominance analysis to predict the SERVQUAL gap indicates that the difference between the two types of banks lie in terms of degree but not pattern. Competence and convenience are found to be the relatively more dominant dimensions in both types of banks. These two dimensions, taken together, can help to reduce the overall service quality gap to an extent of 72 percent in the case of conventional banks and 85 percent in the case of Islamic banks.

Although the outcomes lend support to the extended SERVQUAL model, the results are derived based on a relatively small sample size with an uneven distribution between the two types of banks. This limits the generalizability of the study results which calls for future research attention.

The Malaysian banking sector needs to take initiative to become more competent by being more responsive through fulfilling their assurance for customers and by providing banking facilities more conveniently.

This study is one of the first to examine and compare the service quality between conventional and Islamic banks using an extended SERVQUAL model. The results could be particularly useful to countries adopting dual banking systems.