Child abuse is a part of violence and maltreatment towards a child. It has led to many immediate and longterm
consequences. The factors pertaining to the perpetrators of physical and emotional abuse were least
explored in the literature. The aim of this systematic review is to comprehend the factors of vulnerability
among the perpetrators of child abuse, and to identify the most common reported characteristics of child
abuse perpetrators in the literature globally. A systematic search of articles published between 2013 and
2018 was conducted in several databases (Scopus, Ovid Medline, EBSCOhost and Google Scholar). Fourteen
studies met the inclusion criteria and were included in the review. The risk factors and characteristics of
child abuse perpetrators are classified into three different levels; individual, relationship and community.
The most common reported characteristics are at the individual level. Family background plays an important
role in determining the risk of being a child abuse perpetrator. Low socioeconomic status of the family is the
prominent contributing risk factor for abusing own children.
Mobile Advertisement has become a focus point at the same time that wireless networking pursues into spreading an as well as the quantity of mobile users is expanding globally. Therefore, mobile phones come up with a new aspect for the marketer to develop stable customer connection through giving the customer with the desired information over mobile phones at all places anytime. But, the effects of mobile advertising have not been studied adequately. The aim of this research, thus, is to get a greater understanding on factors affecting the effectiveness of mobile advertising in food & beverage industry. To achieve this reason, research questions have developed about the effectiveness of mobile advertising along with the success factors. The findings as well as the conclusion of the research demonstrate that technology behave as the primary facilitator of mobile advertising. Factors affecting the mobile advertising are informativeness, entertainment, irritation and credibility has kept in mind by the organisation with high importance. Mobile phone is a very personal device that organization should always remember, so any services supply via mobile phone ought to have managed very cautiously.
Most studies done in the past on factors affecting academic performance did not touch on quality of life factor. Also, most studies only used correlation and regression analysis. Not many studies used classification analysis. Hence, this study aimed to classify students based on quality of life and academic performance. Students’ quality of life was measured by using WHOQOL-BREF questionnaire which consists of five quality of life domains namely physical health, psychological health, social relationship, environment and overall quality of life whereas the academic performances were represented by cumulative grade point average (CGPA). The selected sample for this study was 60 Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Perlis students from Bachelor of Science (Hons.) Management Mathematics program. This study applied support vector machine (SVM) method for classifying the students. The results for each quality of life domain showed that students with both low and high academic performance were classified into high academic performance class. The same result was obtained when all domains were combined. All models showed high accuracy which implied that the classification made by SVM were strongly correct. The findings of this study demonstrated that quality of life plays an important role in students’ academic performance.
Introduction: The Theory of Planned Behaviour by Ajzen (1985) states that breastfeeding intention which is made prior to pregnancy predicted future breastfeeding outcomes and also influenced by factors including attitude, knowledge and exposure. The goal of this study was to investigate the level of breastfeeding knowledge, attitude, prior exposure and intention to breastfeed and the relationship between these factors among non-pregnant, single undergraduates. There are limited studies in Malaysia involving young adults who will be future parents. Methods: This cross-sectional study involved 377 students in UiTM Puncak Alam, Selangor. Self- administered questionnaires adapted from Infant Feeding Knowledge Test and Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Score (IIFAS) were included as research instruments. Results: Overall study population had a low level of knowledge (10.61±2.10) and attitude (60.64± 5.02) towards breastfeeding, high exposure (2.7±0.52) and intention (4.74±0.64) to breastfeed especially in females. Breastfeeding knowledge is significantly associated with breastfeeding attitude and prior breastfeeding exposure. Breastfeeding intention also established an association with breastfeeding attitude and prior breastfeeding exposure. Subsequent predictive analysis found that breastfeeding attitude impacts breastfeeding intention. Conclusion: Breastfeeding intervention should target undergraduate university students in preparing these future parents with adequate and accurate knowledge and positive attitudes towards breastfeeding thus, resulting in higher breastfeeding intention and greater efforts of initiation and sustenance of breastfeeding.
A domination polynomial is a type of graph polynomial in which its coefficients represent the number of dominating sets in the graph. There are many researches being done on the domination polynomial of some common types of graphs but not yet for graphs associated to finite groups. Two types of graphs associated to finite groups are the conjugate graph and the conjugacy class graph. A graph of a group G is called a conjugate graph if the vertices are non-central elements of G and two distinct vertices are adjacent if they are conjugate to each other. Meanwhile, a conjugacy class graph of a group G is a graph in which its vertices are the non-central conjugacy classes of G and two distinct vertices are connected if and only if their class cardinalities are not coprime. The conjugate and conjugacy class graph of dihedral groups can be expressed generally as a union of complete graphs on some vertices. In this paper, the domination polynomials are computed for the conjugate and conjugacy class graphs of the dihedral groups.
Microglia-induced neurotoxicity occurs when inflammation mediated by microglia causes loss of neuronal structures or functions in the central nervous system implicated in stroke, spinal cord injury, sepsis, neurodegenerative diseases and even psychiatric illnesses. Various co-culture in vitro microglia-induced neurotoxicity (MINT) models have been established to enable an in-depth study of this process and yet there is a dearth of information regarding usages, advantages and limitations of each of the components of this model. In this review, we examined 56 MINTs for the cells, stimuli, parameters, methods of neurotoxicity measurement and formats of co-culture used in their construction. We aim to provide foundational information, overall guideline and framework for the novice researcher to develop his/her own model and for the advancement of improved, novel and more representative MINT models.
This study aims to investigate the perception of Muslim travellers toward Halal lifestyle in South Korea. This study is significant due to a huge growth of Muslim tourists in South Korea over recent years. Statistics has shown an influx of Muslim tourists from Malaysia travelling to South Korea from year-to-year. Interviews were conducted to gain in-depth and comprehensive insights of Malaysian Muslims’ percipience on the Halal culture in South Korea. The questions were designed in the interview covers three issues, which include the pre-travel behaviour, extensity of information search, and travel decision. According to the interviews, most of the travellers spent their time conducting research, explicitly on Halal dietary matters before heading to South Korea. They also stated that it was quite hard finding places that serve Halal food. Therefore, we concluded that the Halal principle adoption in Korea influences the travel decision by most Muslim travellers.
A large number of micro-organisms colonize in human body. These resident microbes gives protection to the healthy human body, but at the same time when the immune system of an individual is weakened these microbes can become pathogenic and can cause infection. These microbes are adapting to the human environment very fast and using various mechanisms for survival and pathogenicity. Recently several cases has been reported of multi drug resistant Staphylococcus aureus especially in hospital settings. In this connection, present paper discusses the assessment of antimicrobial activity of isolated methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain (MRSA-MSU-101) and confirms the tetracyclin sensitivity against the isolated strain. Initially, isolation of Staphylococcus aureus strains from skin of various community people has been carried out, then the screening has been done for the methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus strain. One strain shown methicillin resistance labelled as MRSA-MSU-101 and considered as potentially pathogenic. Subsequently, for this strain tetracyclin efficiency assessed by antibiotic disc diffusion test (Kirby-Bauer method). This strain MRSA-MSU-101 has shown significant susceptibility against tetracyclin (1cm-diameter, zone of inhibition). Therefore, tetracyclin antibiotic is recommended for treatment against methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains.
Gene augmentation therapy entails replacement of the abnormal tumor suppressor genes in cancer cells. In this study, we performed gene augmentation for BRCA1/2 tumor suppressors in order to retard tumor development in breast cancer mouse model. We formulated inorganic carbonate apatite (CA) nanoparticles (NPs) to carry and deliver the purified BRCA1/2 gene- bearing plasmid DNA both in vitro and in vivo. The outcome of BRCA1/2 plasmid-loaded NPs delivery on cellular viability of three breast cancer cell lines such as MCF-7, MDA-MB-231 and 4T1 were evaluated by MTT assay. The result in MCF-7 cell line exhibited that transfection of BRCA 1/2 plasmids with CA NPs significantly reduced cancer cell growth in comparison to control group. Moreover, we noticed a likely pattern of cellular cytotoxicity in 4T1 murine cancer cell line. Following transfection with BRCA1 plasmid-loaded NPs, and Western blot analysis, a notable reduction in the phospho-MAPK protein of MAPK signaling pathway was detected, revealing reduced growth signal. Furthermore, in vivo study in 4T1 induced breast cancer mouse model showed that the tumor growth rate and final volume were decreased significantly in the mouse group treated intravenously with BRCA1 + NPs and BRCA2 + NPs formulations. Our results established that BRCA1/2 plasmids incorporated into CA NPs mitigated breast tumor growth, signifying their application in the therapy for breast cancer.
Tuberculosis (TB) has become a worldwide public concern with 10.4 million new cases reported in 2015 and 1.4 million deaths. More importantly, an increase in trend in TB incidence among healthcare workers has become a major concern. Therefore, the present study was conducted to explore the knowledge and practice towards TB and the factors associated with it among nurses in a teaching hospital. The present study used cross-sectional design and stratified sampling method. A total of 275 nurses in a teaching hospital participated in this study. The knowledge and practice on management of TB was measured using a structured questionnaire. Majority of the respondents had good knowledge and practice on management of TB represented by 70.2% and 63.3%, respectively. However, knowledge gap (1.8%) and practice gap (0.4%) were identified in method of sputum collection. Work place setting was the only demographic factor found significantly associated with level of knowledge and practice (p=0.028). Level of knowledge and practice on management of TB identified among nurses was not associated with many socio-demographic factors. Nurses as frontline healthcare workers are at high risk of being exposed due to frequent contact with various patients especially those who are undiagnosed and TB suspect patients. Hence, implementation of TB Infection Control (TBIC) measures is important to minimize the risk of infection and cross-infection within hospital.
In order to accomplish a wide range of duties and responsibilities that may be done under unpleasant working con- ditions, prolonged standing posture is common with school teachers. Nevertheless, standing upright for a long time or otherwise regarded as prolonged standing frequently contributes to body pain and discomfort, muscle fatigue and even health problems such as musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The aim of this paper is to review MSDs arising from prolonged standing and spread information on existing ergonomic and non-ergonomic interventions to alleviate prolonged standing discomfort. Systematic review on prolonged standing school teachers with specific keywords were recognized to discover the appropriate studies and information in a systematic search. The informations in this review may be helpful to guide teacher, school management and researchers to implement the suitable interventions in order to minimise the health issue due to MSDs among school teachers.
Since rice is a staple food in Malaysia, its price fluctuations pose risks to the producers, suppliers and consumers. Hence, an accurate prediction of paddy price is essential to aid the planning and decision-making in related organizations. The artificial neural network (ANN) has been widely used as a promising method for time series forecasting. In this paper, the effectiveness of integrating empirical mode decomposition (EMD) into an ANN model to forecast paddy price is investigated. The hybrid method is applied on a series of monthly paddy prices from February 1999 up to May 2018 as recorded in the Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) per metric tons. The performance of the simple ANN model and the EMD-ANN model was measured and compared based on their root mean squared Error (RMSE), mean absolute error (MAE) and mean percentage error (MPE). This study finds that the integration of EMD into the neural network model improves the forecasting capabilities. The use of EMD in the ANN model made the forecast errors reduced significantly, and the RMSE was reduced by 0.012, MAE by 0.0002 and MPE by 0.0448.
Green amaranth (Amaranthus viridis L.) is one of the most popular leafy vegetables cultivated in Malaysia. Photo-selective netting is a revolutionary agricultural-technical idea, allowing traditional nets to be improved to a sophisticated level, which can impact microclimate and solar radiation as well as protect crops from pests. This study aims to investigate the growth performance of green amaranth under different three different treatments of photo-selective nets including black, and yellow shade nets and control. The assessed physiological, pre-harvest and post-harvest parameters were air temperature and relative humidity, measurement of absorption of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), plant height, number of leaves, and dry weight. This study found that the yellow shade net showed the best performance in plant growth with the average difference in plant height (4.11 cm), average leaves number (7 leaves) and average dry weight (18.58 mg) were the highest compared to black shade net and control (without shading). In conclusion, photo-selective yellow shade net was able to enhance the growth development of green amaranth and could be applied in the large scale production to boost the growth and yield of leafy vegetables.
A series of ten 5-arylidene Meldrum’s acid derivatives had been synthesised in excellent yield via Knoevenagel condensation. This method does not require catalyst, or any further purification. Isopropylidene malonate (2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione), also known as Meldrum’s acid, is utilised as a core skeleton for various kind of reactions. Meldrum’s acid has features of a peculiar ring- opening sequences based on nucleophile-sensitive carbonyl functional groups at C-4 and C-6, which has made it possible for useful synthetic transformations, as well as its high acidity of methylene hydrogen at carbon position C-5. Hence, it allows the compound to be a flexible reagent for further reaction to prepare other derivatives. Therefore, Meldrum’s acid derivatives showed high potential of biological functions, such as antibacterial, antimalarial and antioxidant activities due to the olefinic linkage which played an important role in the enhancement of antimalarial activity. Furthermore, when arylidene Meldrum’s acid transformed to epoxide, the compound showed losses of antimalarial behaviour. Additionally, this compound has unique molecules due to the high acidity of methylene hydrogen at the carbon-5 position to initiate various reactions with different functional groups. In this research, Meldrum’s acid, 3 and ten its 5-arylidene derivatives (4a-e) and (5a-e) were synthesised by using two short and efficient reaction steps. The first step involved the condensation of malonic acid, 1 with acetone, 2 in acetic anhydride and acid via one-pot reaction to give Meldrum’s acid, 3 in 50% overall yield. Having Meldrum’s acid in hand, the reaction was proceeded with the Knoevenagel condensation reaction by using various functional groups, such as aryl aldehydes and aryl amines. All the synthesised compounds were characterised by using 1H and 13C spectroscopy.
Trigona thoracica propolis is known to have antimicrobial properties, however its antileptospiral properties and its synergistic effects with commonly prescribed antibiotics are scarcely documented. This study aimed to evaluate the antileptospiral properties of Trigona thoracica against pathogenic Leptospira species (spp.) and to study its synergistic effects with commonly prescribed antibiotics. Materials and Methods: The tested Leptospira serovars were Australis, Bataviae, Canicola and Javanica.Aqueous extract propolis (AEP) and ethanolic extracts propolis (EEP) were used. Broth dilution methods were used to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Minimum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) and the synergistic effects between the propolis and the tested antibiotics. The synergistic effects was evaluated by using the fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) index. Morphological changes of the treated Leptospira were observed under a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Results: The AEP and EEP were found to have antileptospiral properties against the tested Leptospiraspp. The synergy result showed that only combination of AEP and penicillin G against serovar Australis has demonstrated synergistic effect with the FIC index of 0.38. Morphological study using SEM showed significant structural changes of the treated Leptospira spp. Conclusions: The result suggests that Trigona thoracicapropolis could potentially be used as either a complimentary or an alternative therapeutic agent against pathogenic Leptospiraspp.
This paper describes the culture of Traditional Malays, in particular the use of sustainable furniture inside a Traditional Malay House (TMH). The sample houses for this study were retrieved from archived reports, from the Centre for Built Environment in the Malay World (KALAM), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Data collected were analysed using Componential Analysis for the presence of components (based on drawings of archival reports as well as photographic evidence from site visits). The findings showed that the Malays used a variety ofsustainable furniture in their houses. Additionally, their homes had built-in furniture, which indicated the houses were pre-designed based on its user.
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.
Storytelling is considered as an interactive social arts that uses word and
gestures to reveal the elements and images of a story while engaging the
listener's imagination. Multimedia based digital storytelling learning
approach provides interesting, interactive, engaging and multisensory
learning experience to children. Children explore new experience and
scenarios as new stories are being told. This study concentrates on
determining the best combination of elements for designing effective digital
storytelling applications specifically for the usage of dyslexic children.
Dyslexic children are known to have a common learning difficulty that can
cause problems with reading, writing, spelling and comprehension. These
applications are design with the objective to help in improving dyslexic
children ability in readings and comprehensions. Four elements were
derived from extensive literature studies. The elements are multimedia
components, multi-sensory instructional approach, emotional design and
games design. The relationship among all the elements were determine
and described in details as it will be used to contribute to the design and
development of the application in further works. The strength of this study
is it models the combinations of technology, psychology and instructional
approach as a support components for developing an effective digital story
telling learning application for dyslexic children.
Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengkaji hubungan antara orientasi matlamat dan keseronokan dalam kalangan atlet hoki UPSI. Kajian tinjauan ini dijalankan dalam kalangan 30 orang altet yang mewakili UPSI dalam kejohanan hoki peringkat Universiti (lelaki, n=17; perempuan, n=13). Instrumen soal selidik Task and Ego Orientation Sport Questionnaire (TEOSQ) dan Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) digunakan untuk mengukur orientasi matlamat dan tahap keseronokan. Analisis deskriptif min dan sisihan piawai; analisis inferens Ujian-t sampel tidak bersandar serta korelasi digunakan untuk mengenalpasti orientasi matlamat dan tahap keseronokan atlet serta perkaitan antara kedua-duanya. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan atlet hoki UPSI lebih berorientasikan tugasan berbanding ego dan mempunyai tahap keseronokan yang sederhana. Hasil keputusan inferens korelasi turut menunjukkan terdapat perkaitan yang signifikan (p = 0.001, p
Proses penyemperitan merupakan salah satu proses pra-pencampuran yang dapat membantu meningkatkan tahap serakan
bahan pengalir dalam komposit polimer pengalir (CPC). Tahap keberaliran elektrik dilihat tidak begitu memuaskan
walaupun telah melalui proses serakan melalui pengacuan mekanik. Kajian ini dijalankan bagi mengoptimumkan
proses penyemperitan bahan gentian karbon terkisar (MCF) dan polipropilena (PP) iaitu suhu penyemperitan dan halaju
putaran melalui kaedah reka bentuk eksperimen (Taguchi). Susunan orthogonal Taguchi L9 digunakan bagi menentukan
aras yang paling optimum serta menjalankan analisis varian bagi memperoleh nilai keberaliran elektrik yang paling
baik. Pengoptimuman parameter pada suhu penyemperitan 210ºC hingga 250ºC dan halaju putaran 50 hingga 90 rpm
menggunakan komposisi bahan sebanyak 80 % bt. MCF dan 20 % bt. PP dengan tahap keberaliran elektrik meningkat
pada tahap maksimum 3.67 S/cm. Pengoptimuman parameter ini menunjukkan bahawa reka bentuk eksperimen yang
terhasil mampu menghasilkan nilai keberaliran elektrik yang tinggi serta mempunyai sifat mekanik yang baik.