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Penglibatan ibu bapa dalam pembelajaran berbalik bagi penguasaan kemahiran proses sains dalam kalangan kanak-kanak prasekolah: Satu kajian kes / Mujimah Mujim
No full textPenglibatan ibu bapa dalam pembelajaran anak amat penting untuk membantu penguasaan kemahiran pembelajaran mereka. Pembelajaran secara tradisional di kelas prasekolah dan tiada penglibatan ibu bapa dalam pembelajaran anak di rumah merupakan faktor kanak-kanak kurang menguasai pembelajaran Sains Awal dengan baik. Justeru, tujuan kajian ini untuk meneroka komitmen ibu bapa dalam penglibatan pembelajaran anak di rumah terhadap penguasaan kemahiran proses Sains Awal melalui kaedah Pembelajaran Berbalik. Pengumpulan data kajian dilakukan melalui temu bual terhadap ibu bapa, pemerhatian melalui aktiviti pembelajaran Sains Awal dan analisis dokumen pentaksiran dan hasil kerja kanak-kanak yang berlangsung selama tiga bulan. Seramai enam orang ibu bapa dan enam orang kanak-kanak prasekolah yang telah mengaplikasikan kaedah Pembelajaran Berbalik dipilih dalam kajian ini. Lokasi kajian merupakan prasekolah rintis pertama di negeri Sabah yang melaksanakan kaedah Pembelajaran Berbalik. Manakala kesahan dan kebolehpercayaan berdasarkan teknik triangulasi dan pengesahan peserta kajian sepanjang tempoh kajian. Analisis data berdasarkan dapatan mentah yang dikumpul hasil dapatan temu bual, pemerhatian dan analisis dokumen. Daripada data dan maklumat yang bermakna akan disintesis dan diringkaskan, kemudian dipersembahkan dalam bentuk jadual dan laporan. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan pelbagai cara ibu bapa melibatkan diri dalam pembelajaran anak di rumah melalui kaedah Pembelajaran Berbalik. Pelbagai aktiviti Pembelajaran Berbalik yang dapat membantu kanak-kanak menguasai kemahiran proses Sains Awal juga telah dikenal pasti. Hal ini diperkukuhkan lagi melalui pentaksiran yang telah dijalankan iaitu melalui pemerhatian dan analisis dokumen serta analisis hasil kerja kanak-kanak. Cadangan kajian yang akan datang perlu menekankan pengetahuan kemahiran dan pemahaman guru dan ibu bapa terhadap Pembelajaran Berbalik dan penyediaan satu garis panduan yang tetap tentang kaedah Pembelajaran Berbalik di kelas prasekolah. Kajian ini memberi implikasi kepada ibu bapa, guru, kanak-kanak prasekolah, keluarga dan pendekatan pedagogi pengajaran prasekolah. Secara keseluruhannya, kaedah Pembelajaran Berbalik yang menekankan penglibatan ibu bapa dapat membantu dalam penguasaan enam kemahiran proses Sains Awal kanak-kanak yang terdapat dalam Kurikulum Standard Prasekolah Kebangsaan
Modification, characterization and formulation of Arabic gum hydrogel and microgel as drug carrier / Sani Mamman Ibrahim
No full textHydrogels and microgels prepared from natural and synthetic polymers continue to attract the interest of medical and pharmaceutical researchers due to their tunable properties by modifying their molecular structure through derivatization, cross-linking or grafting method. This work aimed at developing Arabic gum modified hydrogels and microgels as smart and stimuli-responsive materials for drug delivery applications. The molecular structure of Arabic gum was modified by graft polymerization process with a monomer methacrylic acid or polymers such as polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate and polyethylene imine respectively. The monomer and polymers of the hydrogels were successfully crosslinked using N, N’-methylenebisacrylamide, the process was initiated by free radical generated from ammonium persulfate and catalyzed by N, N’, N”, N’”-tetramethylenediamine as an accelerator. Chemically modified Arabic gum microgels were prepared by emulsion polymerization system using Tween20 as surfactant and hexane as the solvent. The modifying agents such as methacrylic acid, polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate and polyethylene imine were successfully cross-linked using N, N’-methylenebisacrylamide and precipitated using plenty acetone. Physico-chemical methods of characterization such as Fourier transform infrared, differential scanning calorimetry and X-ray diffraction were used to analyzed and confirmed the successful synthesis of the chemically modified hydrogels and microgels. The surface morphology of the hydrogels and microgels were observed using Field emission scanning electron microscope which shows the presence of network structure and porosity arrangements. The hydrogel yield, gel content and gelation time were found to depend solely on the composition proportions while the microgel size depends on the concentration of surfactant and modifying agents. The mechanical properties increase as the synthetic monomer and polymers concentration increases in the formulation. In response to pH hydrogels containing methacrylic acid swells more in higher pH and less in lower pH, while hydrogels containing polyethylene glycol dimethacrylate and polyethylene imine swelled more in lower or acidic pH and a lower swelling ratio was observed in higher pH solutions. The swelling of hydrogels also depends on the compositions of the swelling medium. The presence of ions in the medium reduces the swelling ratio for the modified hydrogels. The swelling kinetics of chemically modified Arabic gum hydrogels were found according to a non-linear second-order rate equation. The microgels particle size and zeta potentials were varied depending on the modifying agents. Quercetin as a model hydrophobic drug was successfully encapsulated in the hydrogels through direct synthesis method and the in-vitro release was study under pH 1.2 and 7.4. The microgels were encapsulated with doxorubicin through the swelling method and the in-vitro release was studied through a dialysis under condition of pH 4.2 and 7.4. The results confirm the potentials of chemically modified hydrogels and microgels in the application such as drug carrier for targeted delivery
Investigation on the potential of dried blood stain for the detection of amphetamine type stimulants by enhanced methods of liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry / Fathiah Ahmad Zubaidi
Get PDFThe investigation on the potential of dried blood stain for Amphetamine Type Stimulants (ATS) has been divided into four major parts, from which independent conclusions are drawn. The first part is the development and validation of a novel method for the simultaneous determination of the drugs using liquid chromatography with electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometer (LC-ESI-MS/MS). The method is enhanced from normal Multi-Reaction Mode (MRM) to Multi-Reaction Mode-Enhanced Product Ion Mode- Multi-Reaction Mode 3 (MRM-EPI-MRM3) and tested in whole blood specimens (WBS), dried blood stain (DBS) and urine specimens as well as applied to real forensic cases in Malaysia. The ATS are confirmed by their retention times, as well as the respective ions in MRM mode, complemented with higher level of detection using EPI (library matching) and unique identification by combinations of ions in MRM3 mode. The second part covers another novel technique of Flow Injection Analysis (FIA)-MRM3 spectrometry for the differentiation of prime critical isomeric compound related to ATS; methamphetamine and phentermine. The technique is designed to shorten the analysis time to 2 min by eliminating the chromatography/separation part and focusing on the strength of MRM3 mode in spectrometry part. From the validation and real samples testing, the both of isomeric compounds are successfully discriminated and gives a new dimension on high throughput analysis in the forensic field. While the third task evaluates the reliability of DBS versus WBS technique using Mean Concentration Ratio and Bland-Altman statistical analysis. he results show no significant difference for the ATS in the both techniques proving that the DBS method can be applied interchangeably in the future. The evaluation of DBS has been extended to testing the stability and efficiency of the medium during storage period in part four. The variants studied include the time and temperature in Malaysia for 6-month period of DBS storage. The study proves good stability and efficiency of ATS drugs and establishes the performance of DBS as an alternative and innovative method to be implemented in forensic analytical purposes
Application of modified river health index for Sungai Penchala / Sathis Venkitasamy
Get PDFThe aim of this study is to have a tool of management of an urban river. A simple tool in terms of index aimed to be developed to manage urban river to meet its intended usage. River Health Index (RHI) developed by combining both physico-chemical parameters and biological measures through scores and weightages. Sungai Penchala is the small urban river chosen for this study. Water quality study, which include physico-chemical parameters, benthic macroinvertebrates and surrounding land use activities have been carried out since May 2016 to September 2016. Ten sampling points have been selected to represent the condition of the river from upstream to downstream. WQI used to represent physico-chemical status of river while Average Species per Taxon (ASPT) value reported for biological water quality condition. Residential, commercial, industrial and mixed type of anthropogenic activities recorded at Sungai Penchala. Average WQI value of Sungai Penchala reported at 58. ASPT score of Sungai Penchala ranges from 2.2 to 5.1. Study findings showed that the Water Quality Index (WQI) and ASPT of Sungai Penchala has a significant positive Spearman rank correlation (0.857, p<0.05). This suggests biological monitoring can be carried out together with physico-chemical monitoring to study river health. RHI in this study required some modification during its development by adapting and simplifying an established framework. Station 1 reported ‘Good’ RHI while Station 4 reported ‘Poor’ RHI. RHI developed can be used to serve as one among earliest integrative indicators in monitoring and reporting the river health in our country
Fabrication and characterisation of highly aligned fibrous assemblies / Tan Chin Joo
Get PDFVascular grafting has been an effective remedy to vascular diseases for decades. Autografting by using the veins or arteries in the patient’s body is found to have patency rate for years. However, autografting may not be possible when compatible vessels are not available. In this case, synthetic vascular grafts are found to be effective replacements. Nevertheless, synthetic grafts with diameter less than 4 mm becomes challenging due to thrombogenicity and mismatch of mechanical properties with the native vessels. Along this line, the ability to develop new biostable synthetic materials suitable for smaller grafts and the ability to evaluate their resulting mechanical properties in view of minimizing properties mismatch become essential. The present thesis can be regarded as a first step toward integrated design of new biostable synthetic materials suitable for small diameter vascular grafts, i.e. less than 4 mm. While biological considerations are equally important, the emphasis of the present work is laid on the fabrication and evaluation of mechanical properties of materials using both experimental and numerical works. Owing to its wide use in biomedical applications, thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer is considered. To this end, the first stage of the work consists in fabricating single layer highly aligned thermoplastic polyurethane fibrous assemblies using dry spinning technique assisted by a weak electrical field. Simple biostability characterizations are conducted on the fibrous samples after immersing them in simulated body fluid for 24 weeks. Results indicate that the polyurethane fibres show no observable or significant deteriorations in physical, mechanical and chemical properties. The second stage of the work deals with the mechanical responses of single and multilayer highly aligned fibrous assemblies. The multilayer assemblies are obtained by weaving two single layer highly aligned assemblies at various woven angles during the spinning: 0°, 16° and 26°. Tensile samples are extracted from these assemblies and subjected to a number of mechanical tests. Results show that single layer assemblies are strongly anisotropic and exhibit inelastic mechanical responses along fibre direction such as hysteresis, stress-softening, stress relaxation and residual strain. For multilayer woven assemblies with average fibre’s diameters of approximately 8 and 15 μm, the dependences of effective elastic modulus on woven angle and fibre average diameter are investigated. The last stage of the work consists in evaluating the applicability of the classical linear elastic laminate theory to multilayer fibrous assemblies in view of predicting their elastic properties. The final aim is to propose new designs of vascular graft consisting of multilayer highly aligned fibrous assemblies whose mechanical properties match with those of native vessels. Results predicted using the classical laminate theory show that the polyurethane fibrous assemblies with fibres diameter approximately 8 μm, woven angle close to 100o and thickness ranges between 0.5 to 0.7 mm could be suitable as the grafts of carotid arteries
Investigation of dielectric properties of urine for pregnancy and bladder cancer detection / Zhu Chaozhe
Get PDFDetection and monitoring of pregnancy and bladder cancer are important for medical treatment and nursing. Urine has diagnostic and prognostic values for pregnancy and bladder cancer due to the presence of biomarkers. This study investigated the dielectric properties of human urine and compared them between two groups: 1) non-pregnant healthy female volunteers and pregnant healthy female volunteers, and; 2) healthy subjects and patients with bladder cancer. An open-ended probe network analyzer was used to measure the urine dielectric constant (Ɛ’) and dielectric loss (Ɛ’’) at microwave frequency ranging from 0.2GHz to 50GHz at 25˚C (room temperature), 30˚C and 37˚C (body temperature). Urine samples from 110 non-pregnant healthy female volunteers and 110 pregnant counterparts were collected to determine the correlation between human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) hormone levels and dielectric properties. For the bladder cancer study, 35 healthy subjects and 35 patients were recruited from the University of Malaya Medical Center (UMMC). In the analysis of results, subjects and patients with the presence of glucose, protein, bacteria, ketone or hemoglobin in urine were excluded. As a result, 30 healthy subjects and 30 pregnant women were involved for the pregnancy study while 10 healthy subjects and 10 subjects with bladder cancer were involved for the bladder study. Generally, the dielectric properties of urine decreased with temperature before the crossing point, and they increased again after the crossing point. In the study of pregnancy, the Ɛ’ and Ɛ’’were observed to be significantly different between the urine samples of the two groups across all three temperatures. The urine of pregnant women had significantly lower Ɛ’ than non-pregnant women (p<0.05), while Ɛ’’ was significantly higher in pregnant women (p<0.05). They correlated positively with hCG levels at low frequencies (rmax=0.868, f=2.4GHz) but negatively at high frequencies (rmax=-0.877, f=46.2GHz). In cases of bladder cancer, the dielectric properties were generally lower in healthy subjects compared to patients, especially at 25°C. Similar to pregnant women, they decreased with temperature before the crossing point and increased thereafter. Statistically significant differences in Ɛ’ and Ɛ’’ were observed between healthy subjects and patients (P<0.05). A high level of correlation was observed between urinary exfoliated urothelial cells and the dielectric properties of the urine at 25°C. The Ɛ’ correlated negatively with urinary exfoliated urothelial cells (rmax=-0.662, f=5GHz) while Ɛ’’ correlated positively with urinary exfoliated urothelial cells (rmax=0.664, f=40.6GHz)
Growth, physiological and biochemical responses of winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus) towards different shade levels / Murthazar Naim Raai
Get PDFAmbiguous evidence suggests that shade could regulate the indeterminate growth habit of winged bean (Psophocarpus tetragonolobus), an underutilized protein-rich legume from the tropics. This study was conducted to examine the effects of three different shade levels, including 60% (heavy shade), 30% (moderate shade), and 0% (as control) on 25 traits associated with morphological features, photosynthetic and agronomic characteristics of winged bean. The shade-house experiment was conducted using a completely randomized design. Collectively, approximately 80% of the studied variables displayed significant differences (P0.05), this project also demonstrates that winged bean can grow and yield well while maintaining its protein content under moderately shaded condition
Adult learners’ motivation and self-determination towards independent piano learning through mobile application / Teoh Cherylyn
Get PDFThis study examined the motivating factors and self-determined behaviours of adult learners in independent piano learning through a piano learning app. It employed the narrative inquiry method to gather stories and detailed experiences from the participants through participant interviews, participant journals and self-reflexivity of the researcher. Five working adults from the Klang Valley were recruited to take part in this study and each had a different motivation for piano learning. The unique scenario of this study challenged the adult participants’ motivation in piano learning and presented different challenges faced in self-determined learning. The piano learning app also presented different perceptions towards self-directed learning with apps. The findings of the study found that adult motivation for learning is a result of self-actualization and that self determined learning is challenging for adult learners in terms of human agency. The findings also indicated some success and pitfalls of self-directed learning with apps
Challenges in e-tendering implementation in Ministry of Youth and Sports Malaysia / Ahmad Zamie Azis
Get PDFThe Ministry of Youth and Sport, like most ministries in Malaysia, tenders its projects through the traditional paper-based tendering process, which has many weaknesses, including bureaucracy and lack of transparency. In 2008, e-Tender was one of government incentive under e-Government application was introduced to replace manual tendering system in public agencies to systematic procurement which using internet as platform of transaction. Like any other transition project, implementation of e-tender in Ministry of Youth and Sport, is associated with several challenges. This research aims to explore the challenges facing the implementation of the e-tender system in the Ministry of Youth and Sport and to propose some recommendations that should be adopted. 18 challenges are highlighted based on survey conducted, and 5 categories; Lack of System Integration and Standardization, Immaturity of system, Lack of supplier’s preparation, End User Resistance, Technology Risk / Technical Readiness and Top Management Support are identified by literature. 65 respondents are were involve with this study to examine and ranked with respect to their importance. This study also intentions to understand relations of implementation of e-tender with procurement performance and did it give an affect the procurement performance of the Ministry of Youth and Sports
Utility of molecular tools for the identification and characterization of infectious agents / Loong Shih Keng
No full textMolecular tools involving nucleic acid sequence-based detection offer rapid, sensitive and specific identification of bacterial infections, all together instrumental in timely patient management and infection control. Analyses of DNA sequences played a pivotal role in the discovery of novel or uncommon bacterial pathogens. This method can be applied to detect and identify rare and potentially pathogenic bacterial infectious diseases emerging from the interactions between human, animal and the environment. In this study, the 16S rDNA sequencing demonstrated superior utility against the conventional phenotypic identification systems for the identification of rare pathogenic bacteria. Its inability to differentiate between certain bacterial species however, was observed. For example, the 16S rDNA sequencing was unable to separate the non classical bordetellae. The 16S rDNA sequencing however, could serve as a primary
molecular tool for the identification of bacterial pathogens at the genus level. Subsequent molecular analyses for specific bacterial identification and characterization require deeper genetic assessments such as utilizing the nrdA sequencing for bordetellae, multilocus
sequence typing for Bordetella bronchiseptica, Burkholderia fungorum,Enterococcus faecalis and Escherichia coli, and determining ithe idraft igenome isequences for Kocuria marina. Additionally, structural analyses of ithe Tn1546 transposon of E.faecalis and E. igallinarum human clinical isolates revealed idistinct sequence variations that suggested possible nterspecies horizontal gene transfer events iin ithe ihospital. Findings from this study contributed indirectly to the eventual characterization of the novel bacterium, Bordetella pseudohinzii as this pathogen was initially named Bordetella genogroup 16. It was further noted that this bacterium was not confined only to laboratory rodents ias previously described, but also present in the wild rats. All laboratory rodent E. coli isolates turned out to be true commensals after testing negative for the presence iof antimicrobial and virulence genes, ensuring the reliability and reproducibility of research using these animals. Accurate identification of then opportunistic bacteria, B. fungorum and K. marina, and their association to the environment was made possible by using different molecular tools, highlighting the advantage of sequence-based methods to determine the source of infection. Overall, then 16S rDNA sequencing accomplished genus level identification of bacterial pathogens from various human, animal and environmental sources. Supplementing this method with other molecular tools and bacterial phenotypic assessments provided a multi dimensional specific identification mechanism to tackle the complexities involving the interactions between human, animal and environmental factors with emerging, opportunistic and rare bacterial pathogens