Recently research in creative leadership has ballooned to encompass the essential qualities in organizational leaders (Petrie, 2014). In this study, Generativity Theory was utilized to explore the concept of creativity in leaders. Epstein (1999) presented four main core skills and abilities that assist people in expressing creativity individually which are capturing, challenging, broadening and surrounding. Model of high performing school by Shannon and Bylsma (2007) was utilized to measure school effectiveness. The purpose of this study is to determine teacher’s perceptions related to principals’ creative leadership practices towards school effectiveness in secondary schools in Klang District. Simple random sampling was used to select ten secondary schools from three different clusters of schools in the Klang District. A total of 250 teachers from these ten schools participated in this study. The study used self-administered questionnaires. The data are collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics (mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (Pearson correlation and Multiple Regressions). This research endeavoured to answer the research questions through employing quantitative research method. This study discovered that the level of school effectiveness as practiced by secondary school teachers was overall high level. On the other hand, it was concluded that the level of creative leadership practiced by school leaders is at moderate level. This study also found out a moderate correlation between school principals’ creative leadership practice and school effectiveness (r = .617, p < .01). Additionally, multiple regression analysis indicated creative leadership practices domain; Encourage Capturing received the strongest weight in the prediction (β = 0.383, p
Diabetes mellitus has a high prevalence in Malaysia and is expected to rise in the future due to lifestyle changes. Thus, consumers are turning to alternative methods in the prevention and cure of the disease. The Momordica charantia has been studied for its anti-diabetic activity both in vitro and in vivo and is shown to be effective in inhibiting glucose absorption. Therefore, the MC is used as a main ingredient in the development of health beverages to offer alternatives for patients or the health conscious. The microbial quality of the product is examined to ensure the safety of the product and to find methods to enhance its shelf life.
Essential oil production in plants is known to play crucial roles in attractive and defensive
mechanism responses to environmental conditions. Various factors are known to determine the
chemical variability and yields for specific essential oil bearing plants including genetic, physiology
and environment. The purpose of this review is to summarize recent publications on the variation of
essential oil and its composition with regards to physiological aspects of the plants.
Canarium odontophyllum Miq. fruit, popularly recognized as dabai fruit in Sarawak, is a
seasonal fruit found in the tropical rainforest of East Malaysia. A dabai fruit can be divided into
several anatomical parts, and different parts of the fruit have different valuable phytochemicals. Due
to the lack of promotion, dabai fruit is viewed as nutritionally inferior fruit by the public. On the
contrary, the fruit is rich in nutrients such as protein, fat, carbohydrates, sodium, calcium and iron.
Many phytochemicals have been detected from different parts of dabai fruit, and these molecules have
been linked to beneficial properties such as hypolipidemic, anti-atherosclerotic, anti-cholinesterase,
antimicrobial and potentially anti-diabetic. The aim of this article is to review research studies on this
fruit in order to provide adequate baseline information for commercial exploitation as well as for
future studies.
A resistant variety with high yielding potential is key for increasing crop production to
fulfill the food requirement of the ever increasing world populations. Consequently, the aim of plant
breeders is to develop high yielding varieties or cultivars that are resistant or tolerant to specific
diseases or insects. For developing a resistant variety, it is enormously indispensable to incorporate or
introgress the specific resistant genes of that particular disease into the recipient. Suppression
subtractive hybridization (SSH) is a powerful technique for the identification of disease specific
differentially expressed genes that are expressed in a resistant or susceptible variety. This paper
presents a brief review on the SSH technique with examples focusing on the identification of the
wheat disease specific differentially expressed genes and their defense mechanisms against fungal
pathogens in global wheat cultivars. This review is helpful for wheat researchers for the updated
information on the SSH technique for the identification of differentially expressed genes in the global
wheat cultivars and varieties. Eventually, the identified genes could be used to develop the disease
resistance variety through marker-assisted backcrossing programme or conventional breeding.
Swiftlet
s
are small insectivorous birds which breed throughout Southeast Asia and
the South Pacific.
Among many swiftle
t species, only a few are notable to produce edible bird’s
nest
s
(EBN) from the secreted saliva during breeding seasons.
The taxonomy of swiftlet
s
remains one of the most controversial in the avian species due to the high similarity in
morphological charac
teristics among the species. Over the last few decades, researchers have
studied the taxonomy of swiftlet
s
based on the morphological
trade
, behavior, and genetic
traits
.
However, despite all the efforts,
the
swiftlet taxonomy remains unsolved.
The
EBN is one of
the
most expensive animal products
and frequently being referred
to
as the “
Caviar of the East
”.
The
EBN market value varies from
US
$1000.00 to
US
$10,000.00 per kilogram depend
ing
on
its grade, shape, type and origin.
Hence, bird’s nest harve
sting is considered a lucrative industry
in many countries in Southeast Asia.
However,
the
industry faced several challenges over the
decades such as the authenticity of the EBN, the quality assurance and the depletion of swiftlet
population. Furthermore,
there is limited scientific evidence regarding EBN’s medical benefits
as
claimed by manufacturers. This paper reviews the taxonomy of swiftlet
s
, its morphological
characteristics, the challenges currently encountered by the industry, and finally the
compos
ition and medical benefits of EBN.
The aim of this paper is to review the potentialities and major methodological challenges
of integrating remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) with socioeconomic data
from published articles or book chapters. RS and GIS combined with social science (SS)(termed as
geoinformation technology) serve many applications for sustainable management and monitoring of
the environment. This combined approach gives more accurate results than the single one. It makes
information available about the trend and pattern of land use and land cover change (LUCC) with
socioeconomic variables like population, demographic or income. This combined study which links
RS and GIS with socioeconomic data can also be used successfully for monitoring transmission rate
of disease and mapping or preparing vulnerability index. For impact assessment and modelling, this
combined technology provides better results than the single one. There are some methodological
problems for the researchers to link completely two different disciplines as the object of study and
observational unit is completely different. However, this interdisciplinary study is gaining popularity
day by day to researchers from different disciplines as well as decision makers.
The utilization of bamboo as a manufacturing material is becoming globally attractive in
the wood and wood product industries today. This is due to the numerous industrial applications and
uses of the bamboo plant from its fast growth, availability, unique appearance and strength. Bamboo
has been popularly known for its traditional uses such as poultry cages, vegetable baskets, incense
sticks, skewers and chopsticks, woven blinds and handicrafts. Very little has been done on the
industrial processing of bamboo into boards. Several authors have studied and reported on the
utilization, processing and the properties of this emerging material as an alternative to the increasing
decline of wood in the forest. This review aims to compare and contrast some of the works done on
the advancement in producing laminated bamboo timber. The properties of bamboo and its laminated
products attest to its potency in substituting wood. Bamboo utilisation has increased significantly in
the wood and wood product industries, with adequate retooling in most processing firms in the sector.
In line with the development and use of bamboo-laminated timber for the purpose of wood in
furniture production, the creation of bamboo plantations on degraded lands will meaningfully support
production and mitigate the degradation of forest.
Nitric oxide (NO) is a signaling molecule involved in numerous physiological processes in
both animals and plants. The bioactivity of NO is mainly transduced via post-translational modification
of cysteine residues of proteins termed S-nitrosylation. Interestingly, a number of key regulatory
components in plant defense responses have been found to be regulated by S-nitrosylation making this
type of protein modification an important modulator of plant immunity. As a signaling molecule, NO
intimately interact with other important molecules such as reactive oxygen species. Since the
identification of NO in plants, increasing number of papers isbeing published in the area of NO biology
each year. Here, a collection of papers describing the role of NO in plant immunity has been brought
together to provide a bird's-eye view on the focus area.
Quantum dots-sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) is one of the third generation solar cell that is
the most promising low cost, easy to manufacture and highly efficient solar cell. Compared to Dyesensitized
solar cell (DSSC), quantum dots (QDs) of QDSSC has a narrow bandgap and possess
excellent properties such as tunable band gaps, strong light absorption and high multiple electron
generation. Titanium dioxide or titania (TiO2) is an oxides semiconductor material that is frequently
used as a photoanode in this photovoltaic system due to high stability under visible light illumination.
TiO2 is also known as a good photocatalyst and an excellent choice in environmental purification. The
efficiencies of electron injection and light harvesting in QDSSC are affected by the nature, size
morphology, and quantity of this nanomaterial. In this review, the concept and principles of the
QDSSCs are reviewed. The preparation and fabrication method ofTiO2 electrode in QDSSC are also
discussed. It is worthwhile to know the architecture of TiO2 in order to enhance the efficiency of
QDSSC.
Titania nanotube is gaining tremendous interest for its unique features including high
surface area, ion-exchange ability, photocatalytic potential and prominent electrical properties. Many
attempts were made to manipulate the unique properties of titania nanotubes for supercapacitor
application. In this review a comprehensive list of literatures on fabrication of titania nanotubes via
anodisation method in fluoride-based electrolytes and its application as supercapacitor are discussed.
This review shows that the nanotube morphology can be optimized by varying the anodisation
parameter such as electrolyte concentration, pH, voltage, and bath temperature. The review also
includes studies on the application of titania nanotubes as supercapacitor on improving the specific
capacitance value by doping with metal oxides and conducting polymers.
This paper presents an evaluation of the alternative use of natural cellulose coir fibres for
soil reinforcement. Soil reinforcement is defined as a technique to improve the engineering properties
of soil. Inserting natural fibres into the soil has been proposed as a reinforcement method. Randomly
distributed coir fibre reinforced soils have recently attracted increasing attention in geotechnical
engineering due to their strength. Furthermore, there is a need to develop an innovative and
sustainable pre-treatment method to improve the effectiveness and performance of coir fibre as soil
reinforcement. The primary purpose of this paper is, therefore, to review the characteristics, benefits,
applications and weaknesses of coir fibre as soil reinforcement.
The aim of this paper is to review the principles of ground-borne vibration induced by road
traffic. Several researchers have studied the impact of ground-borne vibration on people, structure, and
equipment, and developed guidelines or standards in order to indicate the threshold limit of damage and
annoyance. Measurement of ground-borne vibration is a crucial aspect in ground-borne vibration
studies that needs to be understood well. The reliability of the measurement is dependent on the
accuracy of the data collected. Thus, discussion in this review paper proceeds on the types of groundborne vibration modelling that can predict and explain the phenomenon.
Brucella melitensis is one of the major zoonotic pathogens worldwide with enormous
economic losses as well as considerable human morbidity in endemic areas. The global burden of its
incidence in both human and animal populations remains significantly at an alarming rate. The impact
of the disease is even multidimensional in nature and not always well understood and significantly
complicating effective policy response. The pathogenesis is complex and governed by several factors
working together in synergistic manner. The evolutionarily developed diverse evasion strategy to avoid
the host’s innate and adaptive immunity is further worsening the situation. Until recently,
lipopolysaccharide (LPS) remains the major virulent factor of B. melitensis and responsible for the
mechanism by which the pathogen causes its deleterious effects. Mechanisms presiding to the
colonization of the pregnant uterus in different animal species are still largely unknown. Information
related to the epidemiology and immunopathophysiology is still scarce in the database and control
programs are rarely implemented. Therapy is based on wide spectrum antibiotics with mysterious
outcome. The pre-existing vaccines appear not promising. Thus, understating the biological behaviour
of the disease becomes a fundamental issue. In this review, we highlight various key aspects of the
disease with special reference to the epidemiology and the immunopathophysiology of the disease in
sheep goat populations.
Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is one of the leading nosocomial
pathogen that is also emerging as a zoonotic pathogen. In this review, it was observed that rapid
emergence of new MRSA clones at a higher frequency has ushered in a new knowledge on the clonality
and epidemic potentials of MRSA. Secondly, the success of treatment and management of MRSA
infection is threatened by the diversity in the clonal types. This is because different clones harbours
different antibiotics resistance characteristics and as such respond differently to treatment. Furthermore,
clonal replacement of hospital-acquired MRSA with community -acquired MRSA has also been
observed. Thirdly, the transmission of MRSA even though previously thought to be exclusively within
the hospital setting through hand contact and nasal colonization has now spread to the community and in
addition human to animal and animal to human transmission has also been observed. Similarly, pet
owners, veterinarians and farmers have been described as high-risked group with potentials of becoming
reservoirs of MRSA. Furthermore, the adoption of hand hygiene in healthcare setting have to a great
extent reduced the incidence of MRSA in the hospital. And lastly, the advent of molecular typing such as
Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE), Multi Locus Sequence Typing (MLST), Staphylococcal protein
A typing (Spa typing) and Double Locus Sequence Typing (DLST) have proven to be a useful tool in
providing valuable information on the evolution and clonal diversity of MRSA. These in turn help
researchers to answer some pertinent questions on the epidemiology of MRSA.
Robotic navigation has remained an open issue through the last two decades. Mobile robot
is required to navigate safely to goal location in presence of obstacles. Recently the use of mobile
robot in unknown dynamic environment has significantly increased. The aim of this paper is to offer a
comprehensive review over different approaches to mobile robots in dynamic environments,
particularly on how they solve many issues that face the researchers recently. This paper also explains
the advantages and drawbacks of each reviewed paper. The authors decide to categorize these articles
based on the entire content of each paper into ten common challenges which have been discussed in
this paper, including: traveling distance, traveling time, safety, motion control, smooth path, future
prediction, stabilization, competence, precision, and low computation cost. Finally, some open areas
and challenging topics are offered according to the articles mentioned.
– Feedback is one of the most influential tools in the learning of writing. However, there are
divided views on its impact on ESL writing. This article reviews past studies to explore the various
types of written feedback and its effectiveness. Firstly, it discusses the feedback role in ESL students’
writing, followed by the types of feedback. Furthermore, it highlights the type of feedback which is
useful and effective in the writing process. Next, it presents the different views on the effectiveness of
feedback in ESL writing due to the type of feedback and the way it is given. Lastly, it concludes that
feedback acts as a scaffold by providing a meaningful and impactful learning to students.
Hevea brasiliensis is one of the popular industrial crops in Malaysia better known as rubber tree belongs to the family Euphorbiaceace. From more than 12 species of Hevea, only Hevea brasiliensis is economically exploited because the milky latex extracted from the tree is the primary source of natural rubber. As in other crops, various plant physiological conditions and pathogenic diseases influence rubber production. Brown bast is one of the most serious threats to natural rubber production. In general, high-yielding clones of rubber tree are often considered to be more susceptible to this physiological disorder also commonly termed Tapping Panel Dryness (TPD). It is estimated that brown bast leads to approximately 15-20% decrease in yield. There is no known cure for brown bast yet. However, many plantation practices manage brown bast in rubber by giving tapping rest and changing tapping panel. Hence, this review condenses the causal of brown bast, symptoms of diseases and also control of brown bast affected Hevea tree.
Oil palm (Elaeis guineensis Jacq.) is one of the most planted trees in Malaysia for the palm oil production. Thus, solid biomass had been generated from this industry such as empty fruit bunch, shell, mesocarp fibre, frond and trunk produced that causes problematic to the nation and expected to escalate up to 85-110 million tonnes by 2020. Besides that, palm oil mill effluent and excessive steam also generated from the production of palm oil. In situ hydrothermal pretreatment means the utilisation of excessive steam produced by the oil palm mill and at the same time, generating value added product as well as reducing the biomass. Oil palm biomass is rich in lignocellulosic materials which comprised of lignin, hemicellulose and cellulose. Refinement of lignocellulosic from oil palm biomass can be utilised to form fermentable sugar, bioethanol and other potential chemicals. Recalcitrant property of lignocellulosic reduces the ability of enzymes to penetrate, thus pretreatment is required prior to hydrolysis process. Pretreatment can be either physical, chemical, biological or combined. In this review paper, three types of hydrothermal pretreatment were discussed as suitable in situ pretreatment process for oil palm biomass; in palm oil mill. The suitability was measured based on the availability of excess steam and energy in the mill. Furthermore, physicochemical pretreatment also facilitate the saccharification process, whereby it loosened the lignocellulose structure and increase the surface area. The effects and factors in choosing right pretreatment are highlighted in this paper.
Edible bird’s nest (EBN) originates from South East Asia and has become the most popular food delicacy among Chinese people. The price for raw and clean EBN are around RM 4,000 and RM 8,000 per kg, respectively. Due to the high market value of EBN and low maintenance cost, people ventures and invest in bird’s nest industry. The nesting house resembles the cave is built to attract swiftlets to roost and nest in it in order to meet the world’s growing demand. Out of the blue, in 2011, the EBN’s price falls half from its original price from RM 4,000 to RM 2,000. Nitrate found in raw or unclean EBN is one of the reason price plunges and the public also worried about counterfeit EBN that made from unclear substances. Thus, this review paper aims to highlight the nutritional properties in EBN that give medicinal benefits to consumers and the adulterant in EBN to increase the property contents with the dangerous mechanism by some irresponsible producers to obtain better profit which can threatening public’s health. In relation, these matters may influence consumer’s perception on EBN contents that could harm this industry. For that reason, scientific studies determined ways of handling EBN from scratch and distinguished the adulterant in EBN to reduce consumer anxiety was also discussed. Strict standard operation procedure enforces by the Malaysian Ministry of Health to farmers and producers are required, so that Malaysia EBN would appeal to the China market. Latter it can yield a good result and the price of EBN will slowly increase.