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Thermal design of building envelope and microclimatic conditions influence the indoor thermal comfort conditions and energy consumption of buildings. This paper presents the findings of study conducted to investigate the effect of building insulation on thermal impact and energy for cooling. The study were performed via computer simulation using a whole-building thermal energy software Integrated Environmental Solution (IES) with ApacheSim 5.9.2. The results show that pitch insulation (PITCH) was more effective to reduce the attic temperature but both pitch and wall insulation (WALL) had nominal thermal improvement for the indoor. However, compared to the BASE model, WALL model gave a significant savings of 41% for cooling

Research Highlights This study investigates the antecedents of organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and its dimensions (i.e. altruism, courtesy, civic virtue, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship) among Malaysia Public Hospital nurses. The operational definition of leader-member exchange (LMX) in this study is the quality of the exchange relationship between the leader and the nurses which are developed based on perceived contribution and affect dimensions. An operational definition of OCB in this study is a personal choice of extra-role behaviour among Malaysia public hospital nurses U29. This behaviour is not stated in job description, it is discretionary, and not directly or explicitly recognised by the formal reward system, but it can promote the organisational effectiveness. OCB compromises five dimensions which are altruism, courtesy, civic virtue, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship. Research Objectives The objectives of Wawasan 2020 have forced Malaysia organisations to confront unanticipated challenges. These challenges include changes in technological structure, shocks in economic trends, social changes, and structural transformations (Kim & Hunsaker, 2018). Meeting all these challenges is indispensable for an organisation’s survival but it has become a tough trade to do (Baek-Kyoo & Sung, 2017; Chen & Jin, 2014). One possible way to survive in this unpredictable situation is to make the best use of available resources such as organisational human resources (Baek-Kyoo and Sung, 2017; Bitmis and Ergeneli, 2011). It is believed that the practise of OCB among employees can enable an organisation to cope with these challenges (Bitmis & Ergeneli, 2011; Chen & Jin, 2014; Wu & Lee, 2017). Considering all of the above statements, it is necessary to find out how to increase nurses’ OCB in the workplace. Hence, this study was conducted to determine the direct effect of LMX on OCB as prior to the Social Exchange Theory. It is believed when subordinates have a high quality LMX, they will reciprocate the positive influence and perform OCB in the workplace. Methodology The data collection in this study was conducted through distribution of questionnaires. Multi-stage cluster sampling is used in this study because it involves a wide area and large population size which makes it difficult or impossible to list the subjects. There are more than 133 public hospitals all over Malaysia. Applying multi-stage cluster sampling method is useful because the researchers have no access to the entire population and it is geographically convenient. Hence, this study managed to get 539 respondents from four selected government hospitals with the return rate about 35.5 percent. In this study, the researchers adapted the Leader-member Exchange Scale by Bhal and Ansari (Bhal & Ansari, 1996, 2000) to measure LMX. While the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Scale by Podsakoff et al. (1990) was adapted to measure OCB. Structural Equation Modelling is employed in this research as a statistical approach to measure the comparative strength of the indirect and direct relationship between the variables. Results The result indicated the model has yielded a good fit with RMSEA = 0.05, GFI = 0.90, AGFI = 0.88, CFI = 0.95, TLI = 0.94, NFI = 0.90, and chisq/df = 2.01. Overall, the perceived contribution and affect found to explain 5.1 percent of altruism occurrence, 2.6 percent of courtesy occurrence, 5 percent of civic virtue occurrence, 1 percent of conscientiousness occurrence, and 4 percent on sportsmanship occurrence among Malaysia public hospital nurses. Specifically, perceived contribution was found to significantly give an effect to only sportsmanship (𝛽 = 0.242, p < 0.001). That is, high quality of perceived contribution increases the occurrence of sportsmanship among nurses. However, perceived contribution has an insignificant effect on altruism, courtesy, civic virtue, and conscientiousness. The second dimension of LMX which is affect was found to significantly contribute to altruism (𝛽 = 0.153, p < 0.05), courtesy (𝛽 = 0.102, p < 0.05), civic virtue (𝛽 = 0.228, p < 0.001), and sportsmanship (𝛽 = -0.164, p < 0.001). That is, high quality affect relationship between the leader and the subordinate increases the occurrence of altruism, courtesy, civic virtue, and sportsmanship among nurses. However, affect was found to have no significant contribution to conscientiousness. Findings This study expanded the Social Exchange Theory by providing empirical evidence on the association of LMX on OCB. From the empirical evidence, it was found out that high-quality of work-based relationship has a valid influence on sportsmanship. The findings also revealed high-quality of personal-based relationship between the leader and the subordinate has a significant positive influence on altruism, courtesy, and civic virtue, while the negative influence on sportsmanship. It is suggested that personal-based relationship between the leader and the subordinate needs to be practiced with precaution since high-level personal relationships could manifest the occurrence of negative effect towards sportsmanship. Acknowledgement We are grateful for the opportunity provided by Quest International University and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia to publish our research finding.

In this study, thermoplastic composite by blending of Polylactic acid (PLA) and Polypropylene (PP) was prepared with fixed ratio of 75:25 % by weight. Varying content of organoclay were studied with different loading of 1, 3, 5 and 7 wt.% in order to study the potential of this nanofiller in the composite. The composites were prepared by using twin screw extruder. Characterizing of PLA/PP-Clay (PLA/PP-C) composites were analyzed by focusing on physical, thermal and morphological properties. Water absorptions was analyze to observe the percentage of water uptake when percentage loading of organoclay added were increased. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was performed to analyze the thermal stability and thermal sensitivity of the composite. Meanwhile, x-ray diffraction (XRD) were observed to study the fracture surfaces of PLA/PP-Clay composites. In water absoptions analysis it was found that the percentage of water uptake were decreased when organoclay added at 7 wt.%. DSC results showed that melting temperature (Tm) were decreased when the loading of organoclay increased and the thermal stability was improved by addition of organoclay. Morphological analysis by XRD showed that exfoliation and intercalation happened in the system. It is suggested that these combination of PLA/PP-Clay have a good potential for the fabrication of nanocomposites.

Despite the great attention received by organisational citizenship behaviour in the organisational discussion, little is known about organisational citizenship behaviour among Malaysia public hospital nurses. Hence, this study extended the discussion by investigating nurses’ organisational citizenship behaviour dimensions namely altruism, courtesy, civic virtue, conscientiousness, and sportsmanship. While, the leader-member exchange consisted of perceived contribution and affect were examined as predictors of the study. Questionnaire of quantitative approach based on multi-stage cluster sampling techniques is used to obtained data from 539 nurses in Malaysia. By adopting structural equation model, the result indicates that leader-member exchange of affect dimension having a connection with altruism, courtesy, civic virtue, and sportsmanship; but vice-versa in perceived contribution dimension which only associated with sportsmanship. Theoretically, this study extends the Social Exchange Theory and its application to nursing practitioners. The findings could benefit the human resource practitioners in terms of the effects of the conduct of organisational citizenship by the nurses due to the leader-member exchange in the hospital. The study recommends the expansion of Social Exchange Theory model in organisational citizenship behaviour research by using longitudinal designs and multiple measures of other variables.