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Objectively measured sedentary behaviour and metabolic syndrome among breast cancer survivors in Malaysia
No full textDevelopment of digital food photographs as a tool to visually estimate food portion size in multi-ethnic Malaysian adult
No full textBackground/Alms: Unreliable food portion size estimation is one of the causes of under reporting in dietary surveys. Digital food photograph is a set of photograph series depicting different amounts of food that can be used to describe portion sizes. This study aimed to develop digital food photographs for multi-ethnic Malaysian adults and discuss its usage, advantages, and limita-tions. Methods: A total of 244 commonly consumed foods in Ma-laysia that were recognized by a local nutritional survey, market survey, and interviewing nutrition experts. were used in the study. In obtaining food items, certain dishes were prepared according to a standard recipe book, while other items were purchased from recognized restaurants and local markets. White crockery on with white background was used to present the food items and they were photographed using a camera setup recommended for food photography. Three types of digital photographs were used to show the food items i.e. serial (71%), range (25%), and guide (4%). Results: Three types of digital photographs were used to show the food items i.e. serial (71%), range (25%), and guide (4%). Mainly all digital photographs of foods (n = 217) were captured using a camera placed at an angle of 42° to represent the view of a person of average height, sitting at a table, and looking at a plate on the table in front of him/her. The liquid portion series (n = 27) were photographed at an angle of 90° to get life-size images. Conclusion: Digital food photographs could be a valuable resources for development of electronic dietary assessment tools in Malaysia as well as in other South East Asian countries where similar foods are consumed
Breast cancer diagnosis - a wale up call to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behavior?
No full textPhysical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviour (SED) are established risk
factors for breast cancer (BC) occurrence and recurrence. However, it is still
unknown if BC diagnosis can induce lifestyle changes in BC survivors
throughout the survival period. This study was conducted to determine the
difference in PA and SED behaviour among healthy women, short-term breast
cancer (BC) survivors and long-term BC survivors. In this cross-sectional study,
purposive sampling method with predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria
were used to recruit 31 healthy women, 32 short-term BC survivors, and 48
long-term BC survivors from two government hospitals in Terengganu and
Kelantan. Short-term and long-term BC survivors were defined as those wit
years, or >5 years duration since BC diagnosis, respectively. PA and SED
behaviour were objectively assessed for seven consecutive days using
ActivPAL accelerometers and data processing was conducted using MATLAB
software. Sociodemographic data and anthropometric measurements were also
recorded. Difference between groups was analysed using one-way ANCOVA
with age as covariate. The result of this study showed that healthy women had
significantly lower number of SED sporadic bouts (<10 mins), lower number of
SED breaks, shorter average SED bouts duration, lower number of lowintensity stepping, lower activity energy expenditure and shorter standing time
when compared against short-term and long-term BC survivors. No significant
difference was observed in all PA and SED parameters between short-term and
long-term BC survivors. In conclusion, our findings suggest that a diagnosis of
BC acted as a kick-start to increase PA levels and reduce SED behaviour, and
the active lifestyle was maintained even after prolonged duration of BC survival.
A comprehensive prospective cohort study spanning before and throughout
cancer survival period is recommended to be done to ascertain this trend of PA
and SED behaviour
Persepsi Pelajar Mengenai Konsep LGBT dalam Kalangan Pelajar Prasiswazah UniSZA
No full textKajian ini bertujuan untuk menguji persepsi pelajar prasiswazah Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin (Unisza) mengenai konsep LGBT.Kajian ini menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dalam mendapatkan maklumat. Seramai 327 orang responden daripada dua buah fakulti iaitu Fakulti Pengajian Kontemporari Islam dan Fakulti Sains Sosial Gunaan yang terlibat dalam penyelidikan ini. Instrumen kajian yang digunakan adalah berbentuk borang soal selidik untuk menguji persepsi pelajar berdasarkan faktor demografi iaitu jantina dan jurusan. Data yang diperolehi dianalisis dalam berbentuk statistik deskriptif untuk memperihal pemboleh ubah serta statistik inferensi untuk menguji hipotesis yang dibina melalui ujian T dan Anova.Pada akhir kajian ini disertakan beberapa cadangan sebagai panduan dan tindakan pihak-pihak tertentu. Kajian lanjutan juga turut dicadangkan untuk penyelidikan pada masa akan datang
A review of internet of things: implementations and challenges
No full textInternet of Things (IoT) or Internet of Everything is regarded as the third wave of technological
innovations. IoT also can be considered as a global network which allows the communication
between many things including human and things. It is the network of physical devices which is
embedded and connected to allow for data to communicate. IoT project can be commercialized
in the area of electrical controlling such as light, fan and any electrical device. The main objective
of this paper is to provide an overview of Internet of Things, by examining the literature, describing
implementations, identifying technology used and IoT challenges. It was found that the area for the
implementations of IoT are including medical and healthcare, industry, home, building and city,
communication, education and agriculture
Modulation of macrophage activation marker induced by recombinant Mycobacterium smegmatis expressing Antigen-85B
No full textTuberculosis (TB) remains a major worldwide health
problem which causes more than 1.3 million deaths annually. The development of a new vaccine as a replacement
of Bacille Calmette Guerin (BCG) or to improve its efficacy is one of the goals mooted by the World Health Organization (WHO) to control TB. Mycobacterium smegmatis (M. smegmatis) is nonpathogenic and commensal in
humans, which shares many characteristics with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis). Mycobacterial
vectors including M. smegmatis have been successfully
used in the development of experimental vaccines against
T
Dissecting Socio-demographics Profile of Malaysian Agribusiness Small-Medium Enterprise (ASME) Owners
No full textChallenges for professional development of Malaysian ESL teachers
No full textThe paper aims to provide insights into the current understanding of the challenges
faced by in-serviced primary school ESL teachers in completing their degree on
a part-time basis. In relation to the government’s effort to improve the quality of
primary education, many English language teachers have enrolled in the ‘Teacher’s
First-degree program’ offered by the Ministry of Education. The participants of the
program, somehow, face a number of challenges. As adult learners, the ESL teachers
need to follow in doing the degree part time as all of them are full time teachers
and teaching in different schools. Sociocultural theory of Lev Vygotsky provided
the theoretical framework for this case study. This qualitative study explored the
experiences of five in-service primary school English language teachers who were
involved in the program. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to identify the
challenges faced by the teachers in completing a primary school teacher’s first-degree
program organized by the Ministry of Education (MOE). The main data generated
from semi-structured interviews was analysed using thematic analysis approach. The
findings revealed that job commitments, family commitments, health mental issue and
time management are the main challenges faced by them. Exploring in-service primary
school English teachers challenges in furthering their studies part-timely might give
the Ministry of Education (MOE) consideration in understanding of language teachers’
selves and needs while pursuing their first degree. This research might also be helpful
to investigate the current practices of the professional development of primary school
English teachers in Malaysia
Designing survey research: recommendation for questionnaire development, calculating sample size and selecting research paradigms
No full textThe present study aims to provide a brief guideline to novice researchers that how to develop research questionnaire,
research paradigm and theory in a survey based research. Using pragmatic approach, this study has discussed
questionnaire development process in detail including questionnaire wording and formatting. Extending to this
research paradigms and theory levels have been discussed. This study goes a step further and described sampling
issues such as selecting appropriate sample size. Moreover, research methods for instance quantitative and
qualitative research methods have been discussed. The main contribution of this study was to examine the sampling
size issue. A meticulous review has bared the exact sample size that is supported by different researchers. Banking
sector has been used for the development of questionnaire and sample size selection. Overall this article is designed
to give beginner researchers advice and support to help them to design good questionnaires, to maximize their
response rate, and to undertake appropriate data analysis
The implementation of partial least square modelling (PLS) for marketing research in Arab countries: introduction to beginner users - evidence from Islamic banks of Palestine
No full textPartial Least Square method works similarly to the standard regression model as each of these are oen used for
determining a relationship between certain variables that can influence the marketing strategies in general. The
reason why PLS is considered is because of its advantages such as its lower size sample, easier to test and implement
and capabilities to handle formative indicators. This is considered to be ideal in scenarios which are oen related with
international marketing as it could be difficult for an individual to adopt marketing strategies that are well suited for
that country or region. This is especially true for Arab countries due to the complexities in this region due to a deep
interconnection between their religion and their vast culture. This assessment will primarily focus on understanding
and evaluating the uses of Partial Least Square in international business literature towards helping in understanding
the benefits of using it to develop strategies for marketing research that are well suited for Arab countries. For this,
PLS soware such as SmartPLS will be used in order to run the tests to determine the viability of the marketing
strategies that will be used for this