Fintech's development has amplified cybercrime, prompting trust and security concerns in banking. While earlier research predominantly viewed Fintech adoption through a tech-centric lens, emphasising its benefits, there is a paucity of studies on cognitive resistance arising from Fintech controversies. This review synthesises previous Fintech literature on behavioural intentions in banking, emphasising the role of trust, security, and other factors, and highlights existing research gaps. Utilising the ROSES (RepOrting standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses) framework, a Systematic Literature Review was conducted, analysing 26 articles from Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases (2009-2022). Thematic analysis produces five primary themes (UTAUT2 variables; risk; trust; quality; and other), branching into 24 sub-themes. The weight analysis emphasises the best well-utilised predictors like performance expectancy, trust, security, perceived usefulness, and attitude. In addition, the review identifies research gaps and offers recommendations for future studies using the TCCM (Theory, Context, Constructs, and Method) framework. This research provides insights to Fintech companies and regulatory authorities on the preferred attributes of Fintech services that can enhance their adoption within the banking sector.
This study aims to determine, from the perspective of investors, the factors that predict Islamic unit trust (IUT) investment intentions. Additionally, this paper examines the moderating effect of fintech self-efficacy (FSE) on the relationship between attitude and investment intention. A total of 392 data were collected from IUT investors in Malaysia and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. The findings reveal that subjective norms have the highest impact on investment intention, followed by attitude and FSE, while religiosity is not significantly associated with investment intention in Islamic unit trust funds. Attitude significantly mediates religiosity-intention and Islamic financial literacy-intention relationships. FSE significantly moderates the attitude-intention relationship. The results shed light on the key factors that increase investing behavior and have direct managerial implications with regard to marketing strategies and target markets. These findings suggest that IUT service providers should take the lead in attracting customers through effective and targeted marketing initiatives, particularly by enhancing customers' FSE and capabilities. This study provides empirical evidence on the interrelationships between Islamic financial literacy, religiosity, and FSE in examining investors' behavior using the Theory of Planned Behavior framework. The study explores the moderating role of FSE on the relationship between attitude and investment intention.
Uric acid is a waste product of the human body where high levels of it or hyperuricemia can lead to gout, kidney disease and other health issues. In this paper, Finite Difference Time Doman (FDTD) simulation method was used to develop a plasmonic optical sensor to detect uric acid with molarity ranging from 0 to 3.0 mM. A hybrid layer of gold-zinc oxide (Au-ZnO) was used in this Kretschmann-based Surface Plasmon Resonance (K-SPR) technique with angular interrogation at 670 nm and 785 nm visible optical wavelengths. The purpose of this study is to observe the ability of the hybrid material as a sensing performance enhancer for differentiating between healthy and unhealthy uric acid levels based on the refractive index values from previous study. Upon exposure to 670 nm wavelength, the average sensitivity of this sensor was found to be 0.028°/mM with a linearity of 98.67 % and Q-factor value of 0.0053 mM-1. While at 785 nm, the average sensitivity is equal to 0.0193°/mM with slightly lower linearity at 94.46 % and Q-factor value of 0.0076 mM-1. The results have proven the ability of hybrid material Au-ZnO as a sensing performance enhancer for detecting uric acid when compared with bare Au and can be further explored in experimental work.
Digital finance is an innovative financial model of great significance for sustainable economic growth. By constructing indicators of sustainable economic growth, we explore the impact of digital finance on sustainable economic growth using the fixed effect model, mediating effect model, threshold regression model, and dynamic spatial Dubin model. The study finds that digital finance can drive sustainable economic growth, and the robustness and endogenous treatment results strongly verify this. Digital finance promotes sustainable growth mainly through technological innovation. In addition, with technological innovation and the development of renewable energy, there is a significant nonlinear relationship between digital finance and sustainable economic growth. Finally, the spatial spillover effect results show that digital finance's impact on sustainable economic growth has a positive effect, whether it is a direct effect or an indirect effect. This article provides possible ideas for digital finance to promote sustainable economic growth.
Perfluorinated compounds (PFCs) are non-biodegradable synthetic chemical compounds that are widely used in manufacturing many household products. Many studies have reported the association between PFCs exposure with the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). However, those reports are still debatable, due to their findings. Thus, this review paper aimed to analyse the association of PFCs compound with CVDs and their risk factors in humans by systematic review and meta-analysis. Google Scholar, PubMed and ScienceDirect were searched for PFCs studies on CVDs and their risk from 2009 until present. The association of PFCs exposure with the prevalence of CVDs and their risk factors were assessed by calculating the quality criteria, odds ratios (ORs), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). CVDs risk factors were divided into serum lipid profile (main risk factor) and other known risk factors. The meta-analysis was then used to derive a combined OR test for heterogeneity in findings between studies. Twenty-nine articles were included. Our meta-analysis indicated that PFCs exposure could be associated with CVDs (Test for overall effect: z = 2.2, p = 0.02; Test for heterogeneity: I2 = 91.6%, CI = 0.92-1.58, p < 0.0001) and their risk factors (Test for overall effect: z = 4.03, p < 0.0001; Test for heterogeneity: I2 = 85.8%, CI = 1.00-1.14, p < 0.0001). In serum lipids, total cholesterol levels are frequently reported associated with the exposure of PFCs. Among PFCs, perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) exposure increased the risk of CVDs than other types of PFCs. Although the risk of PFOA and PFOS were positively associated with CVDs and their risk factors, more observational studies shall be carried out to identify the long-term effects of these contaminants in premature CVDs development in patients.
Road traffic accidents have been recognised as a leading cause of death, and one of the prominent public health problems. The human factor, which is the driving behaviour in particular, is said to be the main cause. In line with this, the objective of this research is to present a data article on the response of driving behaviours among drivers. Driving behaviours have been classified into five dimensions, which are speeding, improper overtaking, mobile phone use while driving, tail-gating and disobeying traffic lights. A quantitative study was conducted with a sample size of 160 drivers consisting of residents in a suburban of Selangor, Malaysia. A stratified random sampling method was adopted to identify the respondents. Data analysis was presented in the form of descriptive statistics and tables. The findings show that the majority of respondents agreed that they have driving behaviours that involve improper overtaking, tail-gating and disobeying traffic lights.
Equilibrative nucleoside transporter 2 (ENT2) is a bidirectional transporter embedded in the biological membrane and is ubiquitously found in most tissue and cell types. ENT2 mediates the uptake of purine and pyrimidine nucleosides and nucleobase besides transporting a variety of nucleoside-derived drugs, mostly in anticancer therapy. Since high expression of ENT2 has been correlated with advanced stages of different types of cancers, consequently, this has gained significant interest in the role of ENT2 as a potential therapeutic target. Furthermore, ENT2 plays critical roles in signaling pathway and cell cycle progression. Therefore, elucidating the physiological roles of ENT2 and its properties may contribute to a better understanding of ENT2 roles beyond their transportation mechanism. This review is aimed at highlighting the main roles of ENT2 and at providing a brief update on the recent research.
Gamma-tocotrienol (GTT) and hydroxychavicol (HC) exhibit anticancer activity in glioma cancer cells, where the combination of GTT + HC was shown to be more effective than single agent. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of GTT + HC by measuring the cell cycle progression, migration, invasion, and colony formation of glioma cancer cells and elucidating the changes in gene expression mitigated by GTT + HC that are critical to the chemoprevention of glioma cell lines 1321N1 (grade II), SW1783 (grade III), and LN18 (grade IV) using high-throughput RNA sequencing (RNA-seq). Results of gene expression levels and alternative splicing transcripts were validated by qPCR. Exposure of glioma cancer cells to GTT + HC for 24 h promotes cell cycle arrest at G2M and S phases and inhibits cell migration, invasion, and colony formation of glioma cancer cells. The differential gene expression induced by GTT + HC clustered into response to endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, cell cycle regulations, apoptosis, cell migration/invasion, cell growth, and DNA repair. Subnetwork analysis of genes altered by GTT + HC revealed central genes, ATF4 and XBP1. The modulation of EIF2AK3, EDN1, and FOXM1 were unique to 1321N1, while CSF1, KLF4, and FGF2 were unique to SW1783. PLK2 and EIF3A gene expressions were only altered in LN18. Moreover, GTT + HC treatment dynamically altered transcripts and alternative splicing expression. GTT + HC showed therapeutic potential against glioma cancer as evident by the inhibition of cell cycle progression, migration, invasion, and colony formation of glioma cancer cells, as well as the changes in gene expression profiles with key targets in ER unfolded protein response pathway, apoptosis, cell cycle, and migration/invasion.
For decades, water treatment plants in Malaysia have widely employed aluminium-based coagulant for the removal of colloidal particles in surface water. This generates huge amount of by-product, known as sludge that is either reused for land applications or disposed to landfills. As sludge contains high concentration of aluminium, both can pose severe environmental issues. Therefore, this study explored the potential to recover aluminium from water treatment sludge using acid leaching process. The evaluation of aluminium recovery efficiency was conducted in two phases. The first phase used the one factor at a time (OFAT) approach to study the effects of acid concentration, solid to liquid ratio, temperature and heating time. Meanwhile, second phase emphasized on the optimization of aluminium recovery using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). OFAT results indicated that aluminium recovery increased with the rising temperature and heating time. Acid concentration and solid to liquid ratio, however, showed an initial increment followed by reduction of recovery with increasing concentration and ratio. Due to the solidification of sludge when acid concentration exceeded 4 M, this variable was fixed in the optimization study. RSM predicted that aluminium recovery can achieve 70.3% at optimal values of 4 M, 20.9%, 90 °C and 4.4 h of acid concentration, solid to liquid ratio, temperature and heating time, respectively. Experimental validation demonstrated a recovery of 68.8 ± 0.3%. The small discrepancy of 2.2 ± 0.4% between predicted and validated recovery suggests that RSM was a suitable tool in optimizing aluminium recovery conditions for water treatment sludge.
Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) has exceptional potential for commercial and pharmaceutical applications due to its delicious fruit and medicinal properties. Nevertheless, the molecular mechanism of mangosteen seed development is poorly understood. In this study, we performed transcriptomic analysis of four seed developmental stages; eight, ten, twelve and fourteen weeks after anthesis. Illumina HiSeq™ 4000 sequencer was used to generate raw data of approximately 68 Gb in size. From 451,495,326 raw reads, 406,143,756 clean reads were obtained. The raw data were uploaded to SRA database and the BioProject ID is PRJNA395504. These data provide the basis for further exploration and understanding of the molecular mechanism in mangosteen seed development.
The aim of this study was to assess the carcass characteristic of male Dorper sheep weaned at three different ages.
A total of 27 newborn male Dorper sheep (average body weight, 3.06 ± 0.74 kg) were selected randomly and divided
into three groups. Animals in group 1 (n=9) were weaned at day 30, while animals in group 2 (n=9) and 3 (n=9) were
weaned at day 60 and 90, respectively. Group 3 was acted as a control group. Creep feed and grower feed were given to
the animals based on 3.5% of body weight. There were no significant differences (P
Mangosteen (Garcinia mangostana L.) is known for its delectable taste and contains high amount of xanthones which have been reported to possess anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and other bioactive properties. However, stage-specific regulation of mangosteen fruit ripening has never been studied in detail. We have performed a comparative transcriptomic analysis of three ripening stages (Stage 0, 2 and 6) of mangosteen. We have obtained a raw data from six libraries through Illumina HiSeq 4000. A total of ~ 40 Gb of raw data were generated. Clean reads of 650,887,650 (bp) were obtained from 656,913,570 (bp) raw reads. The raw transcriptome data were deposited to SRA database, with the BioProject accession number of PRJNA339916. These data will be beneficial for transcriptome profiling in order to study the regulation of mangosteen fruit ripening. The lack of a complete sequence database from this species impedes protein identification. These data sets provide a reference data for the exploration of novel genes or proteins to understand mangosteen fruit ripening behaviour.
Genipin gel dosimeters are hydrogels infused with a radiation-sensitive material which yield dosimetric information in three dimensions (3D). The effect of inorganic salts and glucose on the visible absorption dose-response, melting points and mass density of genipin gel dosimeters has been experimentally evaluated using 6-MV LINAC photons. As a result, the addition of glucose with optimum concentration of 10% (w/w) was found to improve the thermal stability of the genipin gel and increase its melting point (Tm) by 6 °C accompanied by a slight decrease of dose-response. Furthermore, glucose helps to adjust the gel mass density to obtain the desired tissue-equivalent properties. A drop of Tm was observed when salts were used as additives. As the salt concentration increased, gel Tm decreased. The mass density and melting point of the genipin gel could be adjusted using different amounts of glucose that improved the genipin gel suitability for 3D dose measurements without introducing additional toxicity to the final gel.
The need for nutritional and functional foods has increased. Consumers, these days, do not
eat snacks only to provide satisfaction for their hunger, but also to supply essential nutrients
to body. The objective of this study was to develop six formulations of granolas/cereal bars
using different combination of Sunnah fruits such as dates (Phoenix dactylifera), raisins (Vitis
vinifera L.) and figs (Ficus carica). The cereal bars were formulated using dry raw materials
(glutinous rice, black Cummins, etc.) and binding agents (honey and glucose syrup). The cereal
bars were assessed for water activity and proximate composition. It was observed that the
sample B, made with 70 g of glucose syrup, 100 g honey and 450 g of total fruits had the
highest value of moisture (18.73%) as compared to other formulations (P˂ 0.05). There were no
differences in protein contents of the cereal bars formulated. Ash contents of the formulations
were significantly different (P˂ 0.05) in samples B and F; the values ranged between 0.97%
and 1.88%. The fat contents were significantly different with formulation B having the highest
fat content (10.72%) and carbohydrate contents were affected by fibre contents; samples with
lower crude fibres had higher carbohydrate contents which also reflect in the energy contents
of the granola/cereal bar samples. Lowest aw (water activity) was observed in the samples with
lower fruit contents which could be as a result of their lower moisture contents. According to
the results, incorporation of glutinous rice flakes with different composition Sunnah foods and
binding agents; honey and glucose syrup can be used to formulate cereal bars with appreciable
proximate and energy contents.
OBJECTIVE: To identify the stress-prevalence and coping-strategies among University Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) medical students.
METHODS: This was an observational study conducted among 234 UKM first and third year medical students. Standardized questionnaire on stress and coping strategies was used. Stress data was related to subjective experiences on some positive and negative adjectives such as tense, relaxed etc. Positive adjectives were measured by sign "++" and "+" scoring "1" while stress-negative adjectives were measured by sign "?" and "-" scoring "0". Forty-eight coping items under task, emotion and avoidance strategies were measured using 5-point Likert-scale.
RESULTS: Overall stress-prevalence was 49%. Female and Malay respondents were more stressed. Significant differences of stress-level was observed between Malays and non Malays in first year (p=0.04) and in third year (p=0.01). Most common strategies used to cope stress was task-oriented while emotion oriented was least.
CONCLUSION: Stress-prevalence and stress-level in UKM medical students was high. Most of the respondents coped stress using task-oriented strategies. Stressor and its effective management must be ensured. Educational institutions should act as a creative designer of learning environment to get relieve from educational stressor.
KEYWORDS: Coping strategies; Medical students; Stress prevalence
Gamma-tocotrienol (GTT), an isomer of vitamin E and hydroxy-chavicol (HC), a major bioactive compound in Piper betle, has been reported to possess anti-carcinogenic properties by modulating different cellular signaling events. One possible strategy to overcome multi-drug resistance and high toxic doses of treatment is by applying combinational therapy especially using natural bioactives in cancer treatment.
Mechanisms determining both functional rate of decline and the time of onset in aging remain elusive. Studies of the aging process especially those involving the comparison of long-lived individuals and young controls are fairly limited. Therefore, this research aims to determine the differential gene expression profile in related individuals from villages in Pahang, Malaysia. Genome-wide microarray analysis of 18 samples of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from two groups: octo/nonagenarians (80-99 years old) and their offspring (50.2 ± 4.0 years old) revealed that 477 transcripts were age-induced and 335 transcripts were age-repressed with fold changes ≥1.2 in octo/nonagenarians compared to offspring. Interestingly, changes in gene expression were associated with increased capacity for apoptosis (BAK1), cell cycle regulation (CDKN1B), metabolic process (LRPAP1), insulin action (IGF2R), and increased immune and inflammatory response (IL27RA), whereas response to stress (HSPA8), damage stimulus (XRCC6), and chromatin remodelling (TINF2) pathways were downregulated in octo/nonagenarians. These results suggested that systemic telomere maintenance, metabolism, cell signalling, and redox regulation may be important for individuals to maintain their healthy state with advancing age and that these processes play an important role in the determination of the healthy life-span.
Soil serves as a major reservoir for contaminants as it posseses an ability to bind various chemicals together. To safeguard the members of the public from an unwanted exposure, studies were conducted on the sediments and soil from water bodies that form the major sources of domestic water supply in northern peninsular Malaysia for their trace element concentration levels. Neutron Activation Analysis, using Nigeria Research Reactor-1 (NIRR-1) located at the Centre for Energy Research and Training, Zaria, Nigeria was employed as the analytical tool. The elements identified in major quantities include Na, K, and Fe while As, Br, Cr, U, Th, Eu, Cs, Co, La, Sm, Yb, Sc, Zn, Rb, Ba, Lu, Hf, Ta, and Sb were also identified in trace quantities. Gamma spectroscopy was also employed to analyze some soil samples from the same area. The results indicated safe levels in terms of the radium equivalent activity, external hazard index as well as the mean external exposure dose rates from the soil. The overall screening of the domestic water sources with relatively high heavy metals concentration values in sediments and high activity concentration values in soil is strongly recommended as their accumulation overtime as a consequence of leaching into the water may be of health concern to the members of the public.
BACKGROUND: Exacerbations, a leading cause of hospitalization in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), affect the quality of life and prognosis. Treatment recommendations as provided in the evidence-based guidelines are not consistently followed, partly due to absence of simplified task-oriented approach to care. In this study, we describe the development and implementation of a clinical pathway (CP) and evaluate its effectiveness in the management of COPD exacerbation.
METHODS: We developed a CP and evaluated its effectiveness in a non-randomized prospective study with historical controls on patients admitted for exacerbation of COPD to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC). Consecutive patients who were admitted between June 2009 and December 2010 were prospectively recruited into the CP group. Non-CP historical controls were obtained from case records of patients admitted between January 2008 and January 2009. Clinical outcomes were evaluated by comparing the length of stay (LOS), complication rates, readmissions, and mortality rates.
RESULTS: Ninety-five patients were recruited in the CP group and 98 patients were included in the non-CP historical group. Both groups were comparable with no significant differences in age, sex and severity of COPD (p = 0.641). For clinical outcome measures, patients in the CP group had shorter length of stay than the non-CP group (median (IQR): 5 (4-7) days versus 7 (7-9) days, p
To review published studies using action research in the intensive care unit (ICU) in order to provide an intervention framework to improve clinical outcomes.