Teacher collaboration: Significant influence on self-efficacy of secondary school teachers

Teacher collaboration is an aspect that needs to be given due attention in the educational institutions in order to sustain the improvement of teachers’ learning. This study was conducted to examine the influence of secondary school teacher’s collaboration on their self-efficacy. Research design was based on quantitative approach by cross-sectional survey. Data collection via questionnaires was performed to obtain demographic information of respondents, as well as data on teacher collaboration and self-efficacy. A number of 410 secondary school teachers in the northern part of peninsular Malaysia were involved in the study as survey respondents. The collected data was processed and analyzed using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) via frequency, mean, standard deviation, Pearson correlation and multiple regression analysis. The study found that the level of teacher collaboration and teachers’ self-efficacy among secondary school teachers is high. The findings also discovered that there was positive relationship between teacher collaboration and teachers’ self-efficacy. In addition, the dimension of teacher collaboration was found to have a significant influence on the teachers’ self-efficacy. Thus, the findings clearly indicated the importance of the collaboration practices between teachers in influencing the self-efficacy of teachers

Relationship between physical activity in urban green space and dietary patterns among obese children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

In the past three decades, obesity rates affecting children in Malaysia have been rising rapidly, thereby presenting a major public health concern. However, physical activity and diet patterns in green space have been seen as effective environmental components that improve the quality of life. Hence, this study would determine the obesity levels at baseline (phase 1), after 90 days (phase 2) and after 180 days (phase 3). It further aimed to investigate the association of physical activity and diet pattern with the body mass index (BMI) of the respondents. The sample consisted of 12 respondents and this experimental study utilized a questionnaire and a checklist to record the measurements of height and weight by calculating the respondents’ physical activity, daily diet, and BMI. The scores were calculated to determine the level of obesity of the respondents by using paired sample t-test and linear regression model to analyze the influence of physical activity and diet patterns on the respondents’ BMI. The findings of this study show that there was a significant decrease in the levels of BMI before and after the study as participation in moderate to vigorous physical activities and more intake of fruits and water influence the respondents’ BMI. Therefore, this study reveals that physical activity and diet patterns in urban green space can have significant impacts on BMI and also play important roles in reducing childhood obesity

Monitoring urban green space (UGS) changes by using high resolution aerial imagery: a case study of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Urban green space (UGS) in a city is the foundation of natural productivity in an urban structure. It is also known as a natural cooling device that plays a vital role in the city as an urban lung, discharging oxygen to reduce the city heat and as a wall against harmful air pollution. When urbanization happens, UGS, including the gazetted areas, is essentially converted into an artificial surface due to the population’s demand for new development. Therefore, identifying its significance is a must and beneficial to explore. The purpose of this study is to identify the 10 years of UGS change patterns and analyze the UGS loss, particularly in the affected gazetted zone. The study used available aerial imagery data for 2002, 2012, and 2017, and database record of green space. The study had classified UGS by using the Support Vector Machine (SVM) algorithm. The training area was determined by visual interpretation and aided by a land use planning map as reference. The result validity was then determined by kappa coefficient value and producer accuracy. Overall, the study showed that the city had lost its UGS by about 88% and the total gain in built up area was 114%. The loss in UGS size in the city could be compared to a total of 2,843 units of football fields, transformed forever in just 10 years. The uncontrolled development and lack of advanced monitoring mechanism had negatively affected the planning structure of green space in KL. The implementation of advance technology as a new mitigation tool to monitor green space loss in the city could provide a variety of enhanced information that could assist city planners and urban designers to defend decisions in protecting these valuable UGS

The many benefits of urban green spaces

Recently, the ideology of greenery city has received global attention, whichaimed to address the issues of rapid urbanization, population growth,andclimate change. Urban green spaces (UGS) seem like the essentialasset that could help cities to mitigate the adverse effects of rapid urbanization and urban sprawl in a sustainable way. It plays a vital role in our cities as an urban lung, discharging oxygen to reduce the city’s heat, the wall for harmful air pollution and offersmost significantbenefits in term of the environment, social and economy to a city. However, the presence of UGS as one of the criticalsectors in urban planning are always neglected.Nevertheless, UGS is loved by everyone however when it turns to the need; thenit is often apparent as a liability and claim as non-commodity goods in a planning development process. Hence, this paper aims to understand the many benefits of urban green space development in the contemporary of urban sustainability thought. The systematic review has been carried out through scientific online atabase,documentation and relevant related papers

Measurement of pipe strain using an ultrasonic system

Ultrasonic sensors can be used to measure strain occurring on an object. In this investigation, an ultrasonic signal utilized the reflected signal as a means of monitoring the condition of a pipe. This is an alternative to the strain gage which is commonly used but has a limited life span. The ultrasonic signal was transmitted to a specific location on the pipe, and then reflected by the pipe surface which experienced strain towards the ultrasonic receiver. Collimation of the transmitted and received signals is performed by aluminum probe cones attached to both ultrasonic transducers. Changes in the strain due to the pipe bending will result in changes in the electric signal due to the changes in the sound intensity. The received electric signal was processed by a signal conditioning circuit consisting of preamplifier, amplifier, band-pass filter and rectifier before being displayed. Two experiments were conducted to establish the relationship between strain on the pipe and the ultrasonic intensity. In order to verify the results, an experiment was conducted using a strain gage and the results were identical. The results show that the system is able to measure strain when the pipe bends

Properties of particleboard from admixture of petai belalang (leucaena leucocephala) and kenaf core (hibiscus cannabinus l.) particles / Khairul Azhar Johari, Jamaludin Kasim and Wan Mohd Nazri Wan Abdul Rahman

The objective of this study was to determine the properties of particleboard from mix Kenaf core with Petai Belalang at different mixing ratio of (10:90), (30:70) and (50:50). Particleboard was produced in homogenous board with size of particle 2.0 mm until 0.5mm. The target density of the board was 700 kg/m3 . The board was bonded using Urea Formaldehyde (UF) as the resin and resin content of 7%. In the study particleboards made with 50% kenaf core showed the lowest properties of MOR, MOE, IB and worst TS value. Addition of kenaf core was found to significantly affect the MOR, MOE, IB and TS values. Boards made with at least 10% kenaf core were able to surpassed the minimum requirement of EN STO for MOR, MOE and IB. However, all boards failed to meet the minimum requirements of 12% for the TS

Materiality in reporting of Shari’ah non-compliant income for Malaysian Islamic Banking Institutions / Norhanizah Johari … [et al.]

Materiality in financial reporting is concern with whether an omission or a misstatement of such information would influence the economic decisions of financial statements users. An item is considered material, if it is capable of making a difference in the economic decision made by a user. Thus, materiality should be assessed not only in relation to the size of an item, but also to the nature and incidence of the item occurring. An item that is otherwise insignificant in size may be a material item. Therefore, judgments is required in deciding which items shall be considered as material or immaterial. Information is material if omitting it or misstating it could influence the decisions made by the primary users of a specific reporting entity. In other words, materiality is an entity-specific aspect of relevance based on the nature or magnitude, or both, of the items to which the information relates in the context of an individual entity’s financial report. This newly definition on materiality issued by MASB in 2018, will be referred as a basis of comparison with the previous concept of materiality issued by the board before. This study will explore how the concept of materiality viewed by the Islamic Banking Institutions (IBI) in Malaysia particularly for the reporting of the Shariah Non-Compliant Income in the IBIs annual report for the year 2016 until 2018. It is expected that the findings will embark on the materiality as a very important element of reporting particularly in the reporting of SNCI for the sustainability of the IBIs. The outcomes of this study is expected to benefit the policy makers, the IBIs, the accounting profession and the financial statement users with regards to the financial reporting of IBIs in Malaysia, where materiality of SNCI is the central issue of discussion of this paper

A review of policies and regulations of green infrastructure establishment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur (KL), a capital city of Malaysia has experienced significant development that has led to the fragmentation of urban green spaces. Even though green infrastructure (GI) may address the problem of green space fragmentation, there is a notable gap in the extent to which the existing policies and regulations support the development of GI in KL. Hence, a set of policies and regulations pertaining to GI patch and corridor establishment in KL is reviewed in this study. In total, 77 documents related to policies and regulations that might contribute to GI establishment spatially were studied using thematic analysis. Next, the identified GI elements were themed together based on policies and regulations. The outcomes revealed that most policies and regulations focused on patches with 15 categories, followed by corridors (three categories) and components (one category). A typology of Malaysia’s GI from the policies and regulations is prescribed in this study. The reported findings may catalyse GI planning and establishment in KL for a more sustainable future

Low cost negative pressure wound healing device system

Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NWPT) has been successfully used in treating acute and chronic wound by promoting wound healing. Many medical techniques like NPWT are available in this world but not approachable for many patients due to high in cost and lack of devices. In order for most of the patients accessible to NPWT, an inexpensive NPWT system is explored in this study. Aim of this work is to design a prototype of NPWT system that can generate negative pressure and the negative pressure can be regulated within the range. A NPWT system consists of vacuum pump, drainage tube, wound dressing, fluid collecting canister and adhesive film dressing. In this study, a miniature vacuum pump, canister and Arduino microcontroller were used in order to build up a functional NPWT system. The system has been designed to supply negative pressure from 0 mmHg to 200mmHg and negative pressure which can be controlled. To sum up, this system is able to function according to the require specification and suitable for home healthcare wound healing device with safety precaution implement and system stabilization is improved in future

Pelan Tindakan Malaysia bagi Mencegah dan Menangani Fahaman Pelampau Keganasan = Malaysia Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (MyPCVE)

Malaysia ialah sebuah negara yang mengamalkan sistem demokrasi berparlimen di bawah pentadbiran Raja Berperlembagaan. Kesinambungan Malaysia dalam kesepaduan rakyat, wilayah, kerajaan, kedaulatan dan pengiktirafan antarabangsa dinaungi oleh Perlembagaan Persekutuan Malaysia. Perlembagaan menjadi asas kepada kerjasama, keadilan dan hubungan erat antara Kerajaan Persekutuan dan Kerajaan Negeri. Kerajaan Persekutuan bertanggungjawab untuk memastikan keselamatan dan ketenteraman awam sentiasa dipelihara dan dilindungi. Fahaman pelampau yang menjurus kepada keganasan merupakan satu ancaman keselamatan dan ketenteraman dalam negara dan global yang perlu dihadapi secara menyeluruh. Fahaman pelampau keganasan merangkumi fahaman pelampau politik, sosial, agama dan elemen luar. Kejadian keganasan yang berlaku di serata dunia dan di rantau Asia Tenggara perlu diambil pedoman agar ia tidak berlaku atau bertapak di Malaysia. Sebuah pelan tindakan perlu dibangunkan agar kerajaan dan rakyat memahami secara menyeluruh pendekatan yang diambil dalam menghadapi ancaman ini. Pelan ini perlu berasaskan beberapa nilai yang konsisten dengan kerangka MADANI yang diperkenalkan kerajaan sekarang. Nilai dan budaya rakyat yang beradab, seimbang antara ilmu dan akal, hormat-menghormati, yakin dan peka dengan perubahan dunia luar, harus menjadi benteng pertama dalam menghadapi ancaman fahaman pelampau yang menjurus kepada keganasan. Sehubungan itu, kerangka MADANI yang diperkenalkan kerajaan merupakan suatu ikhtiar untuk menghasilkan rakyat yang mempunyai kecerdikan budaya yang tinggi, bersifat ihsan dan peduli, hormat-menghormati, mampu menghadapi cabaran semasa dan bersedia untuk masa hadapan. Kesemua enam komponen dalam kerangka MADANI: keMampanan, kesejAhteraan, Daya cipta, hormAt, keyakiNan, Ihsan, berfungsi secara bersepadu dan holistik. Pelan Tindakan Malaysia bagi Mencegah dan Menangani Fahaman Pelampau Keganasan atau Malaysia Action Plan on Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (MyPCVE) mengambil kira struktur sosial negara yang berbilang kaum, budaya dan agama. Kerangka MADANI menjadi tonggak utama memacu kejayaan pelaksanaan inisiatif MyPCVE. MyPCVE akan menjadi pelan tindakan yang komprehensif dan terangkum melibatkan pelbagai pemegang taruh di Malaysia. MyPCVE merangkumi empat (4) teras utama iaitu pencegahan, penguatkuasaan, pemulihan dan pengukuhan. Setiap teras mempunyai beberapa fokus strategik, yang akan dilaksanakan melalui inisiatif terpilih dan diukur pencapaiannya melalui petunjuk prestasi utama. Inisiatif yang dibangunkan akan dilaksanakan secara bersinergi oleh pelbagai agensi yang telah dikenal pasti bagi mencegah dan menangani ancaman fahaman pelampau keganasan di Malaysia