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Preliminary study of gender effect on the growth performance of saanen kids
No full textSaanen goat appeared to be one of the best dairy goat breed, for its strong constitution
to their health, high production and high adaptability to the new environment (1). Due to the
high demand in Malaysia, farmer need to make sure the growth performance of the young goats
is at optimum level. In this study, the growth of different gender were observed and research
was conducted at UniSZA Pasir Akar Farm. There are two objectives in the present study; 1)
to determine live weight of pre and post-weaning Saanen kids and 2) to measure body condition
score (BCS) between male and female pre and post-weaning kids. 10 pre and post-weaning
Saanen kids (purebred) represented n=5 male and n=5 female respectively used in this study
Molecular detection and antibiogram of staphylococcus aureus and MRSA from recreational beaches and river sites in Terengganu, Malaysia.
No full textBackground: The emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Staphylococcus aureus such
as methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) is an expanding public health and veterinary concern. S.
aureus remains ubiquitous in the environment and normal flora of animals; hence, the presence of
MRSA could result in significant morbidity and mortality towards human. Aside from medical and
community settings, both S. aureus and MRSA have previously been reported in sand and seawater
from recreational beaches, suggesting the wide dissemination of AMR strains in these environments.
This aims of this study was to investigate the prevalence and determine the antibiotic susceptibility
profile of S. aureus from selected recreational beaches and river sites in Terengganu, Malaysia.
Methodology: A total of 120 samples (60 sand and 60 water samples) were collected from 10
different sampling sites (4 beaches and 6 river sites). Both sand and water samples were enriched
in tryptone soy broth for 24 hours. The samples were sub-cultured on Mannitol Salt Agar and nutrient
agar for further bacteria amplification and purification. The identities of the suspected S. aureus were
determined using species specific nuc (S. aureus) and mecA (MRSA) genes primers. The
antibiogram profile of the S. aureus isolates against 19 antibiotics was determined via Kirby-Bauer
disk method.
Results: A total 27 S. aureus (22.5%; 27/120) were isolated from 3 beaches and 2 river sites. PCR
revealed the presence of one MRSA (0.8%; 1/120). The isolated S. aureus were found showing
high resistance rate against penicillin (85.2%), amoxicillin/clavulanate (62.9%) and oxacillin (62.9%).
44% of the isolates can be categorised as multidrug-resistant S. aureus (MDRSA).
Conclusion: This study demonstrated the presence of S. aureus, MDRSA and MRSA in
recreational beaches and river sites in Terengganu, Malaysia
Resilient capacity of Malaysian schools’ headteachers in adversity: A review
No full textEducational leaders faced twin challenges of responding to unprecedented community needs while managing radical
changes within their own organizations and across the ministry of education plan and action. Within a few weeks in
March 2020, education in Malaysia changed with unimaginable speed and scope, paralleling earlier experiences
across the world. The pandemic amplified the urgency of action taken in education sector. Face to face learning is at
stake, curriculum has been simplified and public examination for primary school was postponed. Somehow school
leaders especially primary schools need to manage the school effectively. Multiple decisions needed to be made,
communicated, implemented, and managed which need resilience capacity. In this article, we describe some key
resilient elements identified and lessons from experiences as primary school headteachers during this time and
within the future to foresee. We draw some experienced from the six high-performing primary school headteachers
in Malaysia and two from the expertise. There were broad criteria of resilient leaders in primary schools. The criteria
fall into categories of leadership whereby resilience capacity within the school leaders towards the school
organization, parents, community and stakeholders have to be considered. The consequences of these responses
resulted in a renewed recognition for school leaders to be resilient and ingenuity of teachers and primary school
students. We provide examples of these lessons, themes and make recommendations for how to manage the school
in the “new normal’ of living with COVID-19 and global challenges to be prepared with the unprecedented incident
which might happens in modern times
Informed intertextuality in the conspiracy theories on Covid-19 within social media
No full textThis paper examines the strategic construction and justifications of conspiracy theories on COVID-19
within social media. This study employed an ethnographic approach and generated data through the
observation of purposively selected social media Pages, Groups, and Blogs. The six-month observation
from August 2020 to January 2021 yielded 230 postings presenting propaganda against the COVID-19.
The data were analyzed using intertextual analysis, drawing upon features of intertextuality. The
analysis revealed that the conspiracy theories against COVID-19 are constructed upon five intertextual
bases whereby the specific marked intertextuality emerged as the most used technique. The analysis
also revealed that manipulation of others texts, obfuscation of intertextual sources, and exploitation of
Muslim sentiments are leveraged in the construction of conspiracy theories and digital propaganda
against COVID-19
Failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) of furniture production: A case study in Kelantan state, Malaysia
No full textThe primary objective of this research is to study the critical region of the local furniture
manufacturing company by using a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). At the same time, the
study also aims to help the organization to minimize production costs by presenting the preliminary
stage of the results of the assessment. Many industries used FMEA as a method to improve the
evaluation of the reliability of a production process. The use of FMEA is to analyze the layout
characteristics of the planned production process in order to ensure that the final product meets
customer requirements and expectations. It uses probabilities of detection and occurrence added with
a few severity standards to create a risk priority number (RPN) for rating improvement action
considerations. Utilized in both the manufacturing and design processes, they notably help to reduce
cost factors with the aid of determining product and process improvements early within the
development process while changes are inexpensively and relatedly easy to do. Based on the results,
there were two failure modes with a higher RPN. The assessment is deductive as it periodically moves
from one source to another. Thus, it can assist the company in improving its manufacturing process by
reducing the mistakes that been made by identifying the cause and effect of it
The moderating role of electronic voting system on board ownership and board effectiveness
No full textThe objective of this study is to examine the moderation effect of electronic voting system on the
relationship between board ownership and board effectiveness. A sample of 76 public listed companies
in Malaysia from a population of Top 100 public listed companies were studied. The data were
collected from the annual report in 2018 of the sampled listed companies. Data collected was analysed
using Stata analysis Version 13 through descriptive analysis and multiple regression analysis. The
findings of the study revealed that the influence of board ownership on board effectiveness was
partially confirmed. Government ownership has a significant and positive influence on board
effectiveness. However, institutional ownership and family ownership have no significant relationship
with board effectiveness. Furthermore, the results have shown that the moderating effect of electronic
voting system was rejected. This study suggests that the MCCG should formulate policies that ensure
all public listed companies in Malaysia utilize the electronic voting system at AGM in order to
encourage the participation of shareholders to vote for the resolutions
Identifying individuals using EEG-Based brain connectivity patterns
No full textConsidering the recent rapid advancements in digital technology, electroencephalogram (EEG) signal is
a potential candidate for a robust human biometric authentication system. In this paper the focus of
investigation is the use of brain activity as a new modality for identification. Univariate model
biometrics such as speech, heart sound and electrocardiogram (ECG) require high-resolution computer
system with special devices. The heart sound is obtained by placing the digital stethoscope on the
chest, the ECG signals at the hands or chest of the client and speaks into a microphone for speaker
recognition. It is challenging task when adapting these technologies to human beings. This paper
proposed a series of tasks in a single paradigm rather than having users perform several tasks one by
one. The advantage of using brain electrical activity as suggested in this work is its uniqueness; the
recorded brain response cannot be duplicated, and a person’s identity is therefore unlikely to be forged
or stolen. The disadvantage of applying univariate is that the process only includes correlation in time
precedence of a signal, while the correlation between regions is ignored. The inter-regional could not
be assessed directly from univariate models. The alternative to this problem is the generalization of
univariate model to multivariate modeling, hypothesized that the inter-regional correlations could give
additional information to discriminate between brain conditions where the models or methods can
measure the synchronization between coupling regions and the coherency among them on brain
biometrics. The key issue is to handle the single task paradigm proposed in this paper with
multivariate signal EEG classification using Multivariate Autoregressive (MVAR) rather than univariate
model. The brain biometric systems obtained a significant result of 95.33% for dynamic Vector
autoregressive (VAR) time series and 94.59% for Partial Directed Coherence (PDC) and Coherence (COH)
frequency domain features. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Hospitalized muslim trauma patients ibadah disability scale (HM[T]- IDS): Validation and reliability testing
No full textIntroduction: The HM[T]-10S is a bilingual, physician reported assessment tool, desired as a standard, objective evaluation scoring system to recognize disability levels of Muslim trauma patients during hospitalization in performing religious physical cleansing and prayer, thus improve the deliverance of assistance they need. It is constructed based on both patients' and physicians perspectives of difficulties et performing religious duties. The assessment is based on five domains: a) pain, b) mobility, c) extremity Involvement, d) bandage/ cast application, and e) touting, and utilizes a Linker, scale based on severity of the disabilities/ difficulties. From the total score given, patients are categorized (Category I-NI based on the assistance required. We aimed to validate and test its reliability .1 practice_ Methodology: Panels of experts were involved in the face and content validations. The inter-observer reliabilities were evaluated between raters of im tar and different levels of qualification (specialism, medical officers, housemen, and nurses). Parallel-forms re liability was evaluated between the scoring using different languages by the same raters. Cohen's or Fleiss' kappa statistics was calculated for ordinal variables (items of the scoring system) and intraclass correlation coefficient was calculated for continuous variables (total score of patients). Internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's alpha. Results: 100 Muslim trauma patents were recruited for the study. Statistical analyses showed moderate (k 0.40 to 059) to almost perfect agreement (k.0 80 to 1.00) in almost all domains, except some fair agreement (ke0.20 to 0 39) for pain and bandage application. Cronbadt's alpha ranged between 0.800 and 0.900 indicating good internal consistency. Conclusions: The proposed system provides a new practical measure to evaluate disability among Muslim patients in performing their religious duties. It will provide a balance approach in trauma patient' care. It is not %About limitations and further research work on be focused on implementing it at other institutions
Relationship between particulate matter and population of airborne microorganism in goat farm: A case study at Ladang Pasir Akar, Terengganu
No full textThe aim of this study is to determine the concentration of particulate matter and airborne
microorganism and to evaluate the relationship between particulate matter and airborne
microorganism in goat farm of Pasir Akar, Terengganu, Malaysia. Aeroqual 500 series sensor was used
to collect particulate matter, while DRF e-MAS was used to catch the airborne microorganism. The
collected airborne microorganism was incubated in laboratory and the colony forming unit (cfu) of
airborne microorganism was determined using Omeliansky's formula based on colonial observation
formed after incubation. The data were analysed using descriptive analysis to gain parameter
concentration and regression analysis to gain significance difference and correlation to assess the
relationship between particulates and airborne microbes. As a result, any particulate matter changes
will affect airborne microorganism population
Anti-proliferative properties of new variety organic rice MRQ74 extracts against colon cancer cell lines
No full textFragrant rice is one of high quality and special rice other than Basmati and Ponni rice. To meet the growing consumer demand for fragrant rice, varieties development was conducted at the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) more than a decade ago. To date. two fragrant rice varieties have been declared by MARDI namely MRQ76 and h1RQ74. Varieties MRQ74 had been declared in 2005 has properties similar to Basmati rice. Meanwhile, varieties MRQ76 was declared in 2012 by the quality of the hoc flagrant. soft and slightly sticky and medium resistant to bacterial leaf blight, blast. and sheath blight. The characteristics are similar to Jasmine. a type of fragrant rice imported from Thailand By maintaining the positive features and advantages in terms of health studies that have been done 14 it was needed to explore more on the pharmaceutical value of the organic flagrant it varieties. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the anti-proliferative properties of a new variety of organic nee MRQ74 on 11T-29. HCT-116 and CT-26 all lines. The study on anti-proliferative properties against colon cancer had been chosen to be done as based on our knowledge, the results of hIRQ74 samples have not yet been repotted in any medical journal. Besides, colorectal cancer is the most common cancer that occurred among men and women in the world. In conjunction with that. the apoptosis-inducing capabilities induced by plants arc of point interest due to cost efficiency and have fewer aftereffects compared to synthetic antioxidants. Therefore the results presented in this study were significant and needed towards more fundamental study in the future