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Falsafah Liberalisme kepada Falsafah Pascamodenisme di Malaysia: Satu Kajian Awal
No full textThis article will focus on the continuation of the philosophy of modernism that supports modern liberalism to the philosophy of postmodernism that is growing in the Eastern world including Malaysia. The modernism philosophy developed in the West during the renaissance era which was later applied to the countries colonized by the Western countries including Malaysia. However, some Western philosophers consider that the liberalism philosophy is no longer relevant. As a response, the existence postmodernism is a philosophy that arose in response to the liberalism philosophy. Postmodernism began in the west in the 1940s but only began to develop as a philosophy in the 1970s by figures such as Lyotard and Foucault. Postmodernism emphasizes thinking that focuses on the issue of absolute truth. This article will discuss the history of the development of postmodernism and its development in Eastern countries, especially in Malaysia, as well as the continuity with the previous philosophy, which is liberalism philosophy that developed in the era of modernis
Dua Space Dance Theatre of Malaysia: Exploring Wheelchair Dance
Get PDFDua Space Dance Theatre, founded by Anthony Meh and Aman Yap in 1998, is a full-time contemporary dance company emphasising technical virtuosity and narrative choreography and often selecting themes centred on the local Chinese community. The dance company is highly associated with highlighting intercultural collaboration and embracing diversity. In 2006, with the nebular concept of Shang Jian Yi Jia (one family regardless of whether disabled or normal), Anthony and Aman were invited to establish a wheelchair dance troupe, Shuang Fu Performing Arts Troupe. This article explores the interaction between Dua Space Dance Theatre and Shuang Fu Performing Arts Troupe in terms of dance training, performance, artistic development, and its contribution to the collaboration of international disabled dance practitioners and producers. Their collaboration promotes innovation in dance-making, advocates accessibility to dance appreciation, and challenges disability stereotypes. Through interviews and archival research, this article re-visits the direction concept of Shang Jian Yi Jia, which has been practised since 2006. Through the lens of the four dimensions of social inclusion within the context of performing arts, this article identifies the Dua Space Dance Theatre’s expertise in making and performing wheelchair dance and suggests its potential for development that creates space for the visibility of disabled dancers
Interactive Theatre: An Alternative Method of Teaching and Learning for Rural Young Children in Sekolah Kebangsaan Pekan Ranau, Sabah
Get PDFCompared with children in urban areas, children living in rural areas experience a severe lack of exposure to alternative teaching and learning activities to enhance their self-potential. This development affects their opportunity to explore knowledge comprehensively. The Education Development Master Plan by the Ministry of Education identified five education gaps in the Malaysian education system. Among them are the urban and rural gaps and the gap between student achievement levels. In Malaysia, most districts that recorded the lowest performance in Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah are in Sabah and Sarawak. This fact is the foundation factor to justify the implementation of this study in Sekolah Kebangsaan Pekan Ranau, located in the rural district of Ranau in Sabah. A total of 60 level one students were involved in the research, which took place from 2017 until 2019. In other developments, the inclusion of theatre as part of the school curriculum in most urban areas in Malaysia has indicated a formal acceptance of the value of theatre as an educational tool. Therefore, this research focuses on using interactive theatre to develop teaching and learning strategies for young children in rural areas. Interactive theatre is a performance that engages the audience and makes them active participants in the show. It brings the audience into the same playing space as the actors and breaks the walls separating them from the actors’ world. Through practice-led research, the researcher conducted a workshop session that led to a live interactive theatre production. While the significant reference of this study is Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert, Piaget and Dewey’s concept of active learning was utilised to observe and analyse the research findings. This research indicates that interactive theatre activities successfully turn passive children into active participants. By getting the children involved in this performance, they shared the stage setting, became characters in the performance, and had the opportunity to change the direction of the play. As they immersed themselves in the performance, they unconsciously explored their ability to improvise the situation and articulate their opinion critically and creatively
Shaming to Emancipate: Metaphoric Bipolarisation in Jordanian Online Socio-Political Editorials
Get PDFThe emotion of shame in the Arab context is culturally specific and viewed in a shame-honour paradigm. The interdisciplinary study here unpacks the Jordanian sociopolitical issues which are embedded within the cultural concept of shaming using a critical metaphor method. The study on selected 97 online editorials written by Ahmad Hasan al-Zu’bi here reveals a metaphoric bipolarisation technique which conjures the notions of shame on Arab’s sociopolitical submissiveness to global powers but argues that the global powers’ domination is a myth. These claims communicated by the dual metaphors provoke the most intense shame emotion as they violate the Arab tradition and honour. They are intended at awakening the people from their own powerlessness due to internal squabbling and corrupt leadership as well as hegemony of external powers. From the perspective of political communication in the digital age, they echo both nationalistic and populist intentions through the dichotomous shame-pride cultural paradigm. Generally, this study demonstrates that the use of these journalistic rhetorical moves which are rooted in a shame herd culture is a distinctive tactical communication capable of foregrounding an emancipatory agenda in restoring the honour of any sociopolitically affected community. 
Chinese Ethnic Coffee Shop Adaptation in Riau through Inclusivity in Malay Society
Get PDFThis article focused on non-Muslim Chinese ethnic coffee shop entrepreneurs, aiming to discover and analyse forms of adaptation that have led to the survival of these coffee shops and their acceptance by the Malay-Muslim community. This qualitative research, utilising an ethnographic approach, is situated in Pekanbaru. Data was collected through observation and interviews with 11 predetermined informants, including entrepreneurs from second and third-generation Chinese families, Malay Riau cultural figures, historians, tourism advocates, coffee enthusiasts and customer informants. Documentary data in the form of autobiographies/biographies of the early founders of coffee shops. This study identified forms of adaptation, including the coffee shop managers’ identification with the community, continuity of family management adhering to halal and hygienic standards, prioritising honesty to gain community trust, forming partnerships and employing Muslim-background workers, and fostering communication, organisation, social engagement, and philanthropy. The adaptation of coffee shop entrepreneurs was expedited by the openness and acceptance of Muslim traders in Pekanbaru since the early 20th century. The presence of these coffee shops, deeply rooted in the social and cultural life of the Malay-Muslim community, manifests inclusivity. This encompasses accepting the halal aspect of the coffee shops’ offerings, managed by non-Muslim Chinese ethnic groups
Endophytic Bacteria Induce Thiamine (Vitamin B1) Production in Oil Palm (Elaeis guineensis)
Get PDFThiamine or vitamin B1 is a micronutrient that has a crucial function in all living organisms and involved in several biochemical reactions. Concerning the capability of thiamine in inducing plant health, a study was carried out by applying bacterial endophytes (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Burkholderia cepacia cultures) in four-month-old oil palm seedlings (Elaeis guineensis) via soil drenching technique to evaluate the effect towards thiamine. Spear leaves were sampled at day 0 to 14 to analyse the expression of gene coding for the first two enzymes thiamine biosynthesis pathway, THI4 and THIC via qPCR analysis. The gene expression by qPCR showed a significant increase of up to 3-fold while high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis for quantification of thiamine and its derivatives accumulated ~ 20-fold in total thiamine when compared to control seedlings. However, concentration of thiamine metabolites was negatively correlated with the expression of THIC and THI4 gene transcripts suggesting post-transcriptional regulation mediated by an RNA regulatory element, a thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) riboswitch. Our findings demonstrated that the application of bacterial endophytes affected thiamine biosynthesis and enhanced overall thiamine content. This might increase the plant’s resistance towards stress and would be useful in oil palm maintenance for maximum yield production
Exogenous Cytokinin Induces Callus and Protocorm-Like-Bodies (PLBs) Formation in In Vitro Root Tips of Vanilla planifolia Andrews
Get PDFVanilla is a popular flavouring essence derived from the pods of vanilla orchid plants. Due to the high demand for vanilla flavour, high yielding vanilla plantlets are necessary for establishing vanilla plantations. Clonal micropropagation is a viable technique for the mass production of high yielding vanilla plantlets. This study reports an efficient regeneration protocol by using cytokinin as the sole plant growth regulator to regenerate plantlets from the root tips of a commercial vanilla orchid species, Vanilla planifolia. Most studies to date have reported using seeds and nodes as starting explants for in vitro micropropagation of vanilla orchids. So far, regeneration from roots has not been very successful. Previous studies favoured the use of auxins only or high auxin to cytokinin ratios to induce callus, and sole cytokinins were used for direct shoot regeneration. However, it was sporadically observed in plantlets regeneration of V. planifolia that multiple shoots were regenerated from the tips of intact aerial roots submerged in media. This study therefore investigated the regeneration of excised vanilla root tips through the application of most commonly used auxins (1-naphthaleneacetic acid and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and cytokinins (6-benzylaminopurine and thidiazuron). High auxin presence is known to promote callusing in in vitro plants. However, in this study, auxin treatment inhibits callusing in root tips. While cytokinin treatments, even at low levels, has promoted high rate of callusing. These callus cells regenerate into PLB shoots when cytokinin levels are increased to 0.5 mg/mL BAP under light conditions. The findings of the study have the potential of providing large quantity of high yielding vanilla plantlets through clonal micropropagation.
Behavioural Responses of Tropical Bed Bug Cimex hemipterus (F.) (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) to Coloured Harbourage
Get PDFPopulation of the tropical bed bug Cimex hemipterus (F.) (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), a temporary ectoparasite on both humans and animals, have surged in many tropical countries. Tropical bed bugs preferences when selecting a suitable harbourage and oviposition site were investigated. Two-choice and three choice colour assays were conducted to determine whether bed bugs will choose black, red or white coloured harbourages. Then, 50 1st instar were reared in containers containing black, red and white (control) paper served as the harbourages and observed for 12 weeks. Both fed and starve male, female and nymph strongly preferred red and black coloured harbourage compared to white coloured harbourage. Oviposition assays showed that female bed bugs prefered to laid their eggs on red coloured harbourages compared to black coloured harbourages. Rearing experiment showed that there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between final population size of tropical bed bug. However, tropical bed bugs reared in container with red paper (600 ± 89.238) have the highest number of individuals followed by black (473 ± 133.841) and white (485 ± 84.234) paper. Bed bug preference towards coloured harbourage provide useful information for those developing new bed bug control method or improving bed bug infestation monitoring devices.
Untargeted Metabolite Profiling of Wild and In Vitro Propagated Sabah Jewel Orchid Macodes limii J.J. Wood and A.L. Lamb
Get PDFMacodes limii J. J. Wood & A.L. Lamb is a terrestrial jewel orchid native to Sabah, recognised for its sparkling golden-yellow venations, uniformly distributed on its leaves. Despite its high ornamental value, the exploration of the plant’s medicinal potential remains ambiguous. The current study was conducted to gain a fundamental understanding of the metabolite composition and regulation in M. limii plants from two different growing environments: wild and in vitro cultivation, as well as to analyse their phytochemical contents and antioxidant activity. The metabolite profiling of the M . limii plant extracts through gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) analysis has tentatively identified compounds from various classes including sugars, carbohydrates, sugar alcohols, amino acids, organic acids, phenolic derivatives and lipid and lipid-like compounds. Subsequently, the multivariate statistical analysis confirmed the existence of significant metabolite variations across distinct growth environments. Notably, the leaf extract derived from wild-grown plants displayed the highest levels of total phenolic and flavonoid content, contributing significantly to its higher antioxidant activity as measured by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The discovery has offered a fundamental understanding of the metabolites in M. limii jewel orchids, indicating that in vitro regenerated plants may represent a viable alternative for further investigating their therapeutic potential, thus helping to alleviate the impact on wild populations
Further Insights into The Pathogenic Mechanisms of Haemotropic Mycoplasma ovis
Get PDFIn this study, we examined the effects of experimental intraperitoneal infection with haemotropic Mycoplasma ovis (0.5 mL of blood containing 80% parasitaemia) on selected serum biomarkers and cellular pathology in mice. After infection, M. ovis cells appeared in the blood films within one week. A dose-dependent peak of parasitemia was observed during the 3rd-week post-infection (pi), with a significant decrease in mean PCV between treatment versus control group at week 3 (t14 = –3.693, P < 0.02), week 5 (t14 = –2.096, P = 0.055), and week 7 (t14 = –4.329, P = 0.001). There was a significantly (t8 = –2.330, P = 0.048) lower serum oestrogen in treatment (10.38 ± 5.07) than control (17.43 ± 4.48), while serum progesterone was significantly (t8 = 5.415, P = 0.001) increased in treatment (27.37 ± 2.17) than control (15.92 ± 4.20). Serum haptoglobin was significantly (t8 = 8.525, P < 0.01) lower in treatment (8.72 ± 1.49) than control (18.16 ± 1.98) while the SAA was significantly (t8 = 3.362, P = 0.01) higher in treatment (16.79 ± 2.71) than control (11.59 ± 2.15). Prominent lesions observed in the ovary include degeneration, necrosis, vacuolation, and hypertrophy of the lutein cells in corpora lutea. In the lymph nodes, diffused cellular hyperplasia of the lymphoid tissue in the cortex. In the liver, degeneration and necrosis accompanied by leucocytic cellular infiltration and Kupffer cell proliferation within the sinusoids. There were diffused leucocytic infiltrations and proliferative lesions in the glomerulus of the kidneys. The disturbance in progesterone and ovarian pathology highlights the potential role of haemotropic M. ovis in reproductive disorders. The observed changes in biomarkers and cellular reactions following M. ovis infection in the mouse may be further advanced in sheep and goats