Heterotrigona itama is a Malaysian stingless bee species that actively reared for meliponiculture. This stingless bee is cultivated in a commercial scale for its honey production, propolis and among the greatest commercial potential as crop pollinators. However, this species has been potentially exposed to agronomic practices, among which the use of synthetic insecticides against pests.The indirect toxicity effect of the post-insecticide had affected the mortalities of H. itama especially, to the foragers. Due to that, a study has been conducted to determine the lethal concentration of 50% (LC50) and 95% (LC95) of the selected insecticides against stingless bee forager workers through residual exposure. The bioassay test was conducted to the local stingless bee H. itama at Agricultural Research Station, Tenom. Four commonly used insecticides in crop protection; Deltamethrin, Chlorpyrifos, Cypermethrin and Malathion were tested at five concentrations that diluted with 500 ml of distilled water in three replications for each insecticide. Lethal concentrations (LC50 and LC95) were obtained from probit analysis after 1-hour dry residues exposure and 24-hour mortality observation. The result shows that; all four tested insecticides were harmful to H. itama through dry residue. Deltamethrin shows the higher value of LC50 (1.256 ml) and LC95 (3.582ml) that make it less toxic to the H. itama than cypermethrin, malathion, and chlorpyrifos, however, as the concentration gets higher it becomes more toxic.
University students are known to have different sleeping schedules. Students’ sleep difficulties will affect their health and their performances in studies. Sleep hygiene is a collection of healthy sleep habits that can improve one’s ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. It is considered to be imperative to treat sleep disturbance especially among university students. The aim of this study is to examine the sleep beliefs among the students of UiTM Sabah based on gender and academic performance. This study was conducted on Diploma students between March and July 2018. The respondents were randomly selected from Diploma students of all faculties in UiTM Sabah: Accounting, Business Management, Public Administration, Science, Planting Industry Management, Hotel Management, and Tourism Management. This paper is based on the Sleep Belief Scale questionnaire to assess the sleep hygiene awareness. Questionnaires were distributed using online survey. Findings of this study were analyzed using SPSS statistical software. The result of findings showed that the Sleep Incompatible Behaviours (drinking coffee, taking sleep medication, smoking before sleep) is the highest contributor of the students’ sleep hygiene and therefore it affects the sleep quality. While the Sleep Wake Cycle Behaviours (going to bed & waking up always at the same hour, going to bed two hours earlier than the habitual hour) and Thoughts and Attitude to Sleep (over thinking before sleep, trying to fall asleep without having a sleep sensation)also contributed to the sleep hygiene of the students but not as high as the Sleep Incompatible Behaviours. Based on the results of the findings, the counseling department of UiTM Sabah may organise an education program to create awareness among students about the intervention and prevention strategies as well as the incorrect beliefs about sleep.
Black pod rot is the most economically important disease of cocoa in Malaysia which is
mainly caused by a highly polyphagous Phytophthora species, called Phytophthora palmivora.
The fungus could attack all parts of the cocoa plant organs and caused various diseases at
any growth stage from seedling until the mature stages, especially during raining season. The
application of synthetic fungicides has been widely recommended to manage the disease but
their repeated use had led to other problems such as environmental, human health and
development of fungicide resistance issues. This study isolated and identified Phytopththora
isolate from a cocoa pod sample based on micro-morphological characters. Besides, the
present investigation was undertaken to screen for the antifungal potency of different weed
extracts against the Phytophthora pathogen using poisoned food technique. The fungal isolate
was successfully recovered from pod tissues of clone PBC123 on 20% tomato juice agar
culture (20T). Only one out of ten weed extracts tested showed a significant in vitro inhibitory
effect towards mycelial growth of Phytophthora isolate, which was aqueous crude leaf extract
of Solanum torvum (42.68%). This study indicated that the potential of weed extracts in the
management of Phytophthora diseases, and may offer more natural, effective and economical
control methods.
Several studies have indicated education inequality between rural students and urban students. In language learning, students in rural areas have lower proficiency in English than those in urban areas. The aims of the present study were to investigate the perceptions, instructional knowledge and classroom practices of English teachers in teaching reading in rural areas in Sabah. An online survey was conducted on a sample of 20 secondary English teachers in a teacher professional development programme in Kudat, Sabah. The implications of these findings for future practice in rural high schools are discussed.
Plants have sustained the life of man since the beginning of the time. Their functionalities go beyond being wood for fire, instead, they are able to protect, provide and nourish. The many purposes of plants have been described by many. In this article, we will describe functional plants through the chemical perspective particularly the biologically active secondary metabolites. The initiatives in natural products studies can be traced to the early years of man when plants were used for health and treatment management as documented in traditional materia medica. In modern days, numerous phytochemicals have become the main ingredients in drugs, foods, cosmetics and many more after detailed and rigorous research programs which determine their safety and efficacy. In Malaysia, and Sabah in particular, efforts are planned and carried out to identify potential traditional plants that will be beneficial in their truest forms.
Students’ perception and preferences on teacher-written feedback (TWF) tend to vary in different learning contexts. This study explores the perceptions and preferences of TWF among 78 Malaysian ESL students in a public pre-university college in Malaysia. Quantitative data were obtained from a questionnaire to examine the students’ general attitude and perceptions of TWF, and their preferences of the types and amount of written feedback received on their written work. This study reveals that the ESL students had a positive attitude and perception of the teacher-written feedback practice based on the perceived usefulness of the feedback, and the integrative-feedback type that combines both the content and language feedback was mostly favoured. The result also shows that the students had a high preference for indirect coded corrective feedback strategy in highlighting language errors, and preferred a large amount of feedback that highlighted all errors on their written work. These findings potentially help teachers to make a more informed decision when using teacher-written feedback so as to cater to students’ varying needs and perceptions in order to improve its use in writing.
A warrant is a security that allows the holder to buy and sell the underlying share at a
fixed price until expiry date. Warrant price will always fluctuates since the underlying
share also fluctuates. Hence, determining the warrant price is the main problem
among the investors in Malaysia. This research is focusing on pricing the warrant for
five companies that were listed in Bursa Malaysia. The companies were chosen
randomly from UiTM DataStream. The selected companies were Boon Koon Sdn
Bhd, Hovid Bhd, Kelington Bhd, ML Global Bhd and Tropicana Corporation Bhd.
The data contained underlying share, interest rate, exercise price and actual warrant
price. This research aims to define the price of warrant by using Binomial model.
Historical volatility and implied volatility were used in this research whereby
volatility is the movement of the underlying share price. This research aims at
comparing the actual warrant price with the calculated warrant price. The data were
computed manually by using Microsoft Excel and the comparison was made between
the two type of volatilities to give the nearest value of calculated warrant price to the
actual warrant price. The nearest value was assumed the best value for this research.
The result was made by analyzing the line graphs and comparing between historical
volatility and implied volatility with actual warrant price. Mean Square Error was
used to support the results that were obtained from the line graphs. In the end, implied
volatility yielded better results compared to historical volatility.
Canarium odontophyllum is a rare tropical fruit that is primarily propagated by seeds.
However, there is little information regarding its seed handling and germination. As
low seed moisture content (MC), generally that below 10%, is the key determinant to
successful seed storage while avoiding microbial damage, the objective of this study
was, hence, set to investigate C. odontophyllum’s seed germination as affected by
desiccation using drying beads (DBs) at room temperature or convection oven at
40C to varying seed MCs, from its initial MC of above 20% down to that below 10%.
It was found that the seeds tolerated fast dehydration within 24h at room temperature
using DBs. They retained 90% germination despite seed MC was reduced to below
10%. Desiccation tolerance with DBs was, however, found only with seeds extracted
from fresh fruits. As the fruits started rotting with wrinkled appearance and fungi on
the pericarp from four days after harvest onwards, the seeds extracted from them died
at MC of below 15%. A slower seed drying method using convection oven at higher
temperature of 40C, on the other hand, took 72h to bring the seed MC down to
The highest formal academic qualification is the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Currently, in US alone, 1.77% of its population has doctorates or its equivalent degree holders. It differs in every country depending on the quality of education system that it has. As it is the highest recognition for academic performance, a lot have dreamt to hold the revered scroll. However, quite a number have failed trying. There are a lot of descriptions for the acronym PhD; the most frightening one, Permanent Head Damage. Upon reflection, one description fits well. The formula of success for obtaining PhD consists of the elements known as strategical Plan (P), the rich health (H) and the awesome determination (D). This paper is elaborating these three elements and more, required for a person who is attempting to acquire the degree based on a review of literature and my personal experiences. Hopefully, it will be able to help those who are still fighting their way through their journey.
Sabah, formerly known as North Borneo during the period of British colonisation from 1888-1963 produced many texts about the British presence and their activities on the island. This review highlights that the post-war studies especially Sabah’s colonial literature is the missing link to its alternative history. Colonial literature has left its legacy in the form of history, anthropology and art but also in the textual and literary representations of Sabah through a western lens. The critique of colonial fiction and non-fiction texts in former colonies in Malaya and Sarawak have paved the way for critical examination and commentary on the modes of representation of the indigenous and immigrants. This review discusses the highlights of postcolonial criticism in Malaysia. It briefly introduces some of the issues about postcolonial criticism in Sabah and its potential.
Rodents are the world’s largest group of small mammals with more than 2200 living species, comprising around 40 percent of all small mammal species existing today. Rodents are non-volant small mammals that weigh approximately less than 500g and inhabit various types of habitat such as grasslands, desert and even in human settlements. This review explained the roles, threats and distribution of rodents in the ecosystem they inhabit. Some species play critical roles as seed disperser, pollinator and even as laboratory subjects in many experiments. This article serves as an eye-opener about the rodent status distribution and abundance in natural and modified habitat, especially in Malaysia. This review of literature can provide knowledge to people to know more about rodents.
Generally, pineapple sucker is used as the main planting material for commercial cultivation
of pineapple. Pineapple sucker is usually obtained either from the stalk or the stem of a
pineapple plant. Research to study the effect of planting media using mineral soil as the main
component for the mixture on the growth of sucker by stem cutting technique was conducted. The objective of this research is to study the effects of mineral soil-based mixed planting
media on the growth of pineapple suckers produced cultivated via stem cutting of Madu
pineapple. The research was conducted at the Pineapple Nursery of the Faculty of Sustainable
Agriculture, UMS Sandakan, from March 2019 until September 2019. The treatments used in
this research were, soil as T1 (100%); Soil:coco peat as T2 (1:1,v/v); Soil:peat soil as T3
(1:1,v/v); Soil:sand as T4 (1:1,v/v). The data obtained showed there is a significant difference
in the number of a successfully germinated sucker. However, no significant difference was
detected for the sucker growth parameters. Planting media T3, soil: coco peat recorded the
highest number of successfully germinated suckers (12.25). Meanwhile, for growing media, suggested T2 soil: peat soil were recorded the highest for root length (15.53 cm), leaf number
(18.00), and stem diameter (2.18 cm) at 60 days after transplant (DAT).