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The analysis of socio-political views in the reporting of ICERD ratification / Kock Yoke Leng
No full textThe International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) is a treaty certified by the United Nation (UN) in 1965 advocating to end discrimination against race and the spread of superiority or hatred based on race, colour or ethnic origins so that everyone can live peacefully. However, it became one of the most talked about topics in Malaysia in 2018 creating controversies which some said stirred the harmony of the country. Malaysia, being one of the 14 countries that has not ratified the ICERD treaty perceive it as a threat to the rights of a certain group of people and it is said to be contradicting the Article 153 of Federal Constitution, which\ protects the special entitlement in terms of political and socio-economic advantages of the Malays and natives of Sabah and Sarawak. Uproars and protests precipitated expressing anger and resentment from different groups of political parties and people when the PH government announced their plans to review and ratify ICERD in October 2018. Despite having the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM)’s support that recognizing ICERD is the way forward for Malaysia, many have disagreed and the PH government has decided to not ratify the treaty. The issue was viral since the announcement made by P. Waytha Moorthy in October 2018 for a period of time leading to the day of the rally which was organized as a platform to express dissatisfaction towards the ICERD issue. Many newspaper articles were written and published regarding the issue, and hence, this study aims to reveal how The Star and New Straits Times, which are two mainstream Malaysian English print media, have at length presented the views and ideas of the different parties involved. Using a dialectical-relational critical discourse approach and basing on theories on identifying politics and racism the research shows the relationship of racial, social and political voices and the rationalizations for the positions taken. Findings suggest that ICERD was constructed as the discourse of fear, threats and discriminatory against the Bumiputera by the social actors. These are shown through the use of conditionals and modality along with the overlexicalization of vocabulary and structures to intensify the tone of extremity. ICERD is also said to be intimidating, undermining and threatening the minority
A corpus study of the conceptualization of learners in applied linguistics / Tan Ken Siang
No full textThe differing views on language learners across the relevant literature have been observed. With the observed changes in ideology in looking at language learners, it would be good to investigate how the applied linguistic research community varies over time, mainly in conceptualizing learners as the focus of the disciplinary studies and discussions. Despite this interest, very little is known about how the change of views on learners has been portrayed in the Applied Linguistics field. How is the learner conceptualized in research articles in a period of 10 years of research in Applied Linguistics (from 1950-2016), and what are the changing views observed? Drawing on a corpus of 17.9 million words or 2655 articles taken from The Modern Language Journal, the study looks for answers to these questions to determine whether learners’ conceptualization has changed in Applied Linguistics over the past 60 years. This study presents and attempts to account for possible surprising variations and possible explanations for the observed variations during the period under study
Characterization of spatial-mode properties in few-mode fiber BRAGG gratings and its applications / Muhammad Khairol Annuar Zaini
Get PDFRecently, few-mode fiber (FMF) has gained much research attention compared to single mode fiber (SMF) due to its capability to overcome the capacity limit. FMF based fiber sensors have many distinctive advantages such as cost efficiency, great sensitivity, and have the ability to employ the spatial dimension for multi-parameter sensing with discrimination capability. In this work, an analytical model has been proposed to investigate the relationship of the resonant wavelength shift of a few-mode FBG (FMFBG) to the axial stress of the FMF. By applying the proposed model, the axial stress of an FMFs was determined. Besides, the polariscopic technique for measuring the reference stress profile of the FMFs has been described. Based on the experimental results, it can be seen that the axial stress in the fiber cladding determined by using the proposed model fits well with the polariscopic measurement. Therefore, the determination of the axial stress of the FMFs was accomplished based on the resonant wavelength shifts during the chemical etching process. Furthermore, a comparative analysis of two different signal processing techniques is carried out to identify the multiple reflection wavelength peaks of the etched FMFBG sensor. Modal effective indices in FMF have been numerically computed to determine the self- and cross-mode coupling resonant wavelengths in FMFBGs. After that, the chemical etching process has been performed to fabricate an etched FMFBG for the investigation of modal sensitivities. For all the acquired spectra both of the techniques such as conventional peak detection (CPD) and digital matched filter (DMF) have been applied to examine the more accurate sensitivity of the sensor for RI and temperature. It has been shown that the DMF gives a better performance in the measurement accuracy as compared to CPD. In addition, a 3×3 order characteristic matrix has been used to suppress the effect of the cross sensitivity issue. Hence it is clear that the etched FMFBG can be used as multi-parameter with enhanced performance by DMF technique. Moreover, based on mode conversion inside FMFBGs an optical delay system is constructed. A pair of FMFBGs are served as selective mode converters. The time delay introduced by the few-mode delay line with different FMF segment lengths has been theoretically and experimentally investigated. It depends on the chosen configuration based on laser operating wavelength of the input pulse stream and the resultant accumulated optical path length in the FMF. Besides, the shift of the relative phase of LP11o and LP11e modes with respect to LP01 when a section of two-mode fiber (TMF) was heated to a different temperature in the range of 26-34˚C is demonstrated. Based on the mode profile recorded at the TMF output, the relative phase has been determine
Transition to e-learning in a Malaysian dental school during Covid-19 pandemic: Faculty experiences and future recommendations / Sahar Fatima
No full textDuring COVID-19 pandemic e-learning has emerged as the primary mode of
continuing teaching and learning activities in health professions education including
dental education. Due to its high reliance on clinical and skill-based teaching the dental
education has encountered challenges in maintaining quality and academic integrity
ensuring competent future clinicians. The present study aims to analyze the challenges
and opportunities experienced by the faculty in adversity of rapid and unprepared
transition to e-learning from conventional pedagogy in order to address future strategies
for efficient e-learning. A qualitative phenomenological research approach is adapted for
the study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposefully selected dental
faculty members of a private dental school in Malaysia, using online platform and were
recorded audio and video. The data was transcribed verbatim and interpretative thematic
analysis was done manually. The findings revealed distinct challenges and opportunities
that need to be addressed and explored further for better preparedness for possible blended
learning in future as recommended by the participants. The decision to integrate e�learning as a norm in health professions education, including dental education highly
relies on sincere efforts from educators, institutional management, and local government
authorities. A well-devised dynamic plan and policy considering resources and
infrastructure, curricular structure, faculty training and development, management and
standardization at institutional and national level is the need of time. The
recommendations made in the present study will facilitate educators in health professions
education, as well as policy makers to devise future strategies for efficient e-learning as
part of blended learning or exclusive online learning in any unprecedented situation
Implementation of mental health improvement programs in private offices: A case study analysis / Pritharshini Palanisamy
Get PDFMental Health has become an important aspect in Malaysia recently. There are many cases of workers experiencing mental health issues at workplace. The aim of this study is to improve mental health level and quality of life for people affected by these issues. By providing healthy environment, work culture and appropriate processes to prevent mental health issues from occurring has become very important. In this study a private and government offices are selected to evaluate the level of mental issues occurrence, the reasons for the occurrence and the effect on work performance, health, and other factors. This study was conducted through survey and interview session. SPSS software was used to analyze the data from the survey question. Subsequently, recommendations are made to mitigate the mental health issues in this case. By using the DASS-21 (Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale Assessment), it is found that 21% of the respondents experiencing mild depression, stress, and anxiety due to their workplace situations, where 12% were female and 9% were male. Aside from that, the survey results suggest that some of their companies do not value mental health as highly as productivity, and that their management is uninterested in resolving their employees' mental health difficulties. On the other hand, the hypothesis testing that were conducted shows that mental health and employers have relationship as the null hypothesis was accepted and alpha value is more than 0.05. From this study, a checklist of mental health interventions was proposed where employers can implement at their workplace to take care of their employees’ mental health continuously and mental health programs was proposed
Assessment of gut microbiome, metabonome and characterization of enterococcus species from swine and farmers / Tan Shiang Chiet
No full textGastrointestinal tracts of swine and farmers harbour a vast community of microorganisms which have enormous physiochemical and metabolic potentials. To date, study on the change of gut microbiome and metabonome in swine and farmers in response to their proximity remains scarce. Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) and Enterococcus faecium (E. faecium) are members of the gut microbiota. They are opportunistic pathogens which can cause severe infections. The objectives of this study were: (i) to assess the gut microbiome and metabonome of swine and farmers, (ii) to investigate the effects of occupational exposure on the gut microbiome and metabonome of farmers, (iii) to characterize the phenotypes and genotypes of the isolated E. faecalis and E. faecium and (iv) to compare the genomics of selected E. faecalis strains via whole genome sequencing. This study utilized 16S rRNA metagenomics and 1H NMR metabonomics approaches to investigate the gut microbiome and metabonome of swine and farmers. The faecal samples of 140 swine and 24 farmers were collected from seven swine farms located in Peninsular Malaysia. Characterization of E. faecalis and E. faecium were performed by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis, Repetitive Extragenic Palindromic-PCR, antibiotic susceptibility test, biofilm assay and resistance- and virulence genes detection. Six representative E. faecalis strains were selected for Next Generation Sequencing. This study showed that the gut microbiota of swine and farmers were constituted by two major phyla, the Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes. Provotella spp. is a member of Bacteroidetes, which was detected as the major genus found in the gut of swine and farmers. Analysis on the faecal microbiota and metabolic profiles showed no significant difference between swine and farmers while significant difference was observed between human control cohorts and swine (P < 0.05). However, the relative abundance of Bacteroidetes and Firmicutes showed the gut microbiota of farmers was closer to swine. Notably, higher level of trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) and butyrate were detected in human control cohorts and swine, respectively. Integration study was used to illustrate the association network between the faecal metagenomics and metabonomics profiles. In this study, the concentration of TMAO found in the faecal sample was positively correlated to the relative abundance of Prevotella copri in the faecal sample. From the 164 samples isolated from swine (oral, urine and faecal), farmer (nasal, urine and faecal) and environment (pen swab, water and feed), 211 E. faecalis and 42 E. faecium were isolated. All the strains were multidrug-resistant and harboured various resistance and virulence genes. Phylogenomic analyses with reference to global strains revealed the Malaysian strains were clustered with clinical and environmental strains. Two strains, each from a swine and a farmer from the same farm were clustered, implying the possibility of strain transmission between animals and humans. In conclusion, the faecal microbiomes and metabonomes of swine and farmers were more similar than between the swine and human control cohorts. The livestock industry could be a reservoir of multidrug-resistant Enterococci as high occurrence of multidrug-resistant strains. Comparative genomic analyses of E. faecalis revealed a possibility of strains transmission between swine and farmers
The efficacy of amino acids on regeneration and analysis of genetic fidelity of regenerated Chrysanthemum morifolium cv. Zembla / Sharifah Aina Afzan Syed Aminud-Din
No full textTissue culture technique has been widely applied for the propagation of Chrysanthemum morifolium, a high value ornamental plant. However, somaclonal variation is the biggest challenge for tissue culture industry due to generation of “off-types” plants. This study aims to investigate the effects of supplements in order to improve callus and shoot induction media composition and evaluate the clonal fidelity in regenerated plantlets using retrotransposon-based markers. Leaves and nodal explant materials of Chrysanthemum morifolium “Zembla” were used for callus induction on Murashige and Skoog (MS) media containing 30 g L-1 sucrose, 2 g L-1 gelrite, 3 mg L-1 benzylaminopurine (BAP), 1 mg L-1 naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA) supplemented with amino acids (glutamine and arginine) and casein hydrolysate at concentrations of 250, 500 and 750 mg L-1. Addition of amino acids and casein hydrolysate individually to the media showed no significant effect in callus induction efficiency. However, arginine (500 and 750 mg L-1) and casein hydrolysate (500 mg L-1) individually produced the highest number of shoots (4.6-4.8 shoots per explant) in calli induced from the nodal explants. Shoots with calli induced from leaf and nodal explants were transferred to elongation media. Elongation media supplemented with glutamine (750 mg L-1) produced the highest number of shoots at 1 cm within 4 weeks (1.4 shoots per explants) when nodal explants were used. Thirty regenerants of Chrysanthemum morifolium “Zembla”, (17 plants of white flower variety, and 13 plants of yellow flower variety,) were assessed for their genetic variation using Inter Retrotransposon Amplified Polymorphism (IRAP) marker. Out of nine primer combinations, only Sukkula primer was able to produce clear IRAP banding pattern in Chrysanthemum morifolium. Sukkula primer was able to differentiate between the white and yellow variants of Chrysanthemum morifolium “Zembla”. Furthermore, IRAP revealed polymorphic bands within the varieties. White and yellow flower varieties showed 20.0 % and 15.4% genetic variations, respectively. Further analysis is needed to confirm the linkage between these genetic variations and somaclonal variations
Relationship between internationalization and corporate social responsibility performance: Evidence from Chinese listed companies / Su Yu
No full textCorporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has gained increasing attention as a tool for companies to maintain their reputation and competitive advantage. Previously, Chinese companies did not have a good reputation internationally due to issues such as product quality and human rights concerns. With the encouragement of the government through policies such as the “The Belt and Road Initiative”, Chinese companies began to focus their efforts on internationalization. This study investigates whether the internationalization of Chinese listed companies will affect their CSR performance. In addition, financial performance and state ownership are introduced to explore whether they moderate the relationship between internationalization and CSR performance. In this research, a total of 2030 observations from 406 listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges are studied from 2013 to 2017. In order to ensure the robustness of the results, this study used Pooled OLS model, Fixed effect model and Dynamic panel model to test the hypotheses. The results suggest that the internationalization of Chinese listed companies has a positive impact on CSR performance. Financial performance has a negative moderating effect on the relationship between internationalization and CSR, while the results suggest that state ownership does not have a moderating effect. The results of this study are consistent with the results from prior literature such as Attig et al. (2014) and Kang (2012). The results suggest that Chinese listed companies that are involved in internationalization are associated with better CSR performance. Due to the social and cultural differences between China and developed countries, the previous conclusions on CSR and internationalization in developed countries may not be applicable in the context of China. Accordingly, this study contributes to the limited literature on CSR and internalization in the context of Chinese listed companies whereby results from this study suggest that companies should not only focus on profits and ignore sustainable development. This study has several limitations. Firstly, the results may not be generalizable to other countries, because this study is based on China’s institutional environment. Secondly, the results of this study may not be generalizable to all Chinese companies, as it was only conducted on listed companies
Investigation into the relation between geomagnetic data and earthquake occurrence using statistical approach / Nur Hidayah Ismail
No full textGeoeffective solar events, especially the coronal mass ejection (CME) and the high-speed solar wind (HSSW) will induce geomagnetic storm upon its arrival to Earth. The solar events could trigger an earthquake occurred during the arrival. In this study, the focus is on the proxy of the geoeffective solar events, which is the geomagnetic Ap index and the data of shallow worldwide earthquakes. The main objective is to understand the interaction of the geoeffective solar activities and the occurrences of the shallow worldwide earthquake. Firstly, by examining the correlation between solar activities (total sunspot number, R and solar wind velocity, V) and the geomagnetic Ap index from 1994 until 2017. Secondly, through investigating the impact of a strong geomagnetic storm on the occurrences of the shallow earthquake by using the statistical approach, specifically, principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA). Lastly, a case study is done as supporting evidence for the interaction. The Ap index has a moderate positive relationship with V, where the value of the correlation coefficient is 0.54 and a negligible positive relationship with R, where the coefficient value is 0.14. Meanwhile, V and R show a negligible relationship with 0.04 coefficient value. Two groups were obtained from the PCA biplot: Group 1 - before the event (Day-4 to Day-1) and Group 2 - after the event group (Day 0 to Day+4). A two-cluster solution was obtained from the HCA, which shows that days before and after geostorm are divided into two main clusters. The statistical results show that earthquakes activity might have different behaviour before and after the geostorm occurred. In the September 2017 case study, the massive earthquake may appear to be due to the intense geoeffective solar events resulting from the strongest CME of solar cycle 24. In conclusion, this dissertation emphasizes that there are differences between days before and after the geostorm occurrence, hence, the solar influence upon earthquake occurrences cannot be neglected entirely
Formulation and characterization of beeswax/rosemary oil nanostructured lipid carrier for drug delivery system / Farhanim Mohd Latif
No full textA stable colloidal suspension of nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) was synthesized from natural source of lipid. The toxicity and insolubility of drugs in water remain a significant problem and has led to the development of food-grade drug delivery systems such as nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs). NLCs composing various amount of beeswax (BW), rosemary oil (RO) and poloxamer 188 (P188) were prepared by melt-emulsification combined with ultrasonication method. The physicochemical properties of NLC also were determined. Optimization of the formulation (F) was performed based on the criteria of stability. Formulation with the smallest particle size and highest magnitude of zeta potential was selected to be loaded with terbinafine hydrochloride (TBHC1) and hydrophilic molecule, which is calcein. Drug separation methods that applied in this study were centrifugal ultrafiltration and size exclusion chromatography method. The percentage of encapsulation efficiency, drug loading efficiency and drug release were evaluated. The optimized formulation composing 3.75 % BW, 1.25 % RO, 3 % P188 and 92 % deionized water. The mean of particle size and zeta potential for optimize NLC were (174 2) nm and (-36 5) mV, respectively. By using x-ray diffractometer (XRD) and differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), the optimized formulation of NLC showed a lower degree of crystallinity and melting enthalpy compared to solid lipid nanoparticle (SLN) of BW. The morphology of NLC was observed as spherical shape with a dense appearance in the transmission electron microscope (TEM) images. The encapsulation efficiency and loading efficiency were found dependent on the amount of TBHCl and calcein. The release of TBHC1 and calcein from the optimized formulation were (62.87± 0.04) % and (41.70 ± 0.09) % respectively. It can be concluded that NLC prepared from natural source of lipid may serve as a potential carrier for drug delivery