A survey of students' attitude towards occult and paranormal pulp magazines at a Technical University College in Malaysia: A question of value

In Malaysia, pulp magazines and tabloids that deal with the occult and the paranormal are ubiquitous. They are very popular with the masses but not much research has been done on them. This paper, therefore, hopes to bridge that gap and study, though in a somewhat preliminary and limited scope, the extent to which students at a technical university college in Malaysia identify with these magazines from a value perspective. This paper hopes to act as a platform for a more comprehensive and definitive study in the near future

CONTENT INSTRUCTOR AS SURROGATE ESL TEACHER: A SURVEY ON PERCEPTION, KNOWLEDGE AND WILLINGNESS

In a normal university curriculum, students have to fulfil a minimum of 120 credit hours before they can graduate with a bachelors degree; of these, about 6 to 9 credit hours are usually reserved for ESL classes where students are taught the necessary language skills for use within the academic ambience or for future communication in the workplace. The amount of time reserved for language instruction might not be enough to really prepare students for the rigor of real-life academic and workplace demands. It is felt that the huge amount of time utilized for content-based subjects might serve as a valuable platform for language acquisition to take place if content instructors have the necessary language skills and if they can be made to view their role as surrogate ESL instructors. This paper sets out to gauge content instructors perception of their mastery of English, the role they can play as surrogate ESL instructors and their willingness to do so. A total of 24 content instructors from a technical university were selected as participants to provide the necessary information. Results indicate that most of the respondents perceived themselves as not apt to act as surrogate ESP instructors due to shortcomings in their language proficiency.DOI:doi.org/10.24071/llt.2019.22010

Comparative analysis of text classification algorithms for automated labelling of quranic verses

The ultimate goal of labelling a Quranic verse is to determine its corresponding theme. However, the existing Quranic verse labelling approach is primarily depending on the availability of Quranic scholars who have expertise in Arabic language and Tafseer. In this paper, we propose to automate the labelling task of the Quranic verse using text classification algorithms. We applied three text classification algorithms namely, k-Nearest Neighbour, Support Vector Machine, and Naïve Bayes in automating the labelling procedure. In our experiment with the classification algorithms English translation of the verses are presented as features. The English translation of the verses are then classified as “Shahadah” (the first pillar of Islam) or “Pray” (the second pillar of Islam). It is found that all of the text classification algorithms are capable to achieve more than 70% accuracy in labelling the Quranic verses

Development of Emulation Network Analyzer Tool for Computer Network Planning

This paper describes the development of Emulation Network Analyzer (ENA) for heterogeneous services in campus environment. The purpose of this paper is to inform this ENA able to plan and predict network performance. For this purpose, our ENA development is differ from others system such as application and hardware network analyzer. This study focuses on the design of emulation network analyzer, user interface design, characteristics, model description, implementation and evaluation. This ENA can provide a useful network architectural solutions and optimization of network resources during preparation, proposal and planning phases. Finally, ENA tool is a good emulation analyzer that can be used in small to medium size networks for campus environment purposes with minimum cost

A study on students’ choice of metaphor to describe the process of learning English at an institution of higher learning in Malaysia

The goals of curriculum differentiation are to find the closest, most comfortable fit between the learner and the curriculum and to vary the process or content or product to match the needs of the learner to help them reach that close fit. One way in which we can try to understand the differences in the learning needs of our students is through their choice of metaphors. This paper is designed to identify the perceptions of 140 first-semester Malay students at the Northern Malaysia University College of Engineering on how they view the process of learning English in general from a metaphorical perspective. It has the following objectives: to identify the overall pattern in choice of metaphors among respondents; to identify the differences in the choice of metaphors among the respondents based on gender; and to identify the differences in the choice of metaphors among the respondents based on fields of specialization

CSLM: Levenberg Marquardt based Back Propagation Algorithm Optimized with Cuckoo Search

Training an artificial neural network is an optimization task, since it is desired to find optimal weight sets for a neural network during training process. Traditional training algorithms such as back propagation have some drawbacks such as getting stuck in local minima and slow speed of convergence. This study combines the best features of two algorithms; i.e. Levenberg Marquardt back propagation (LMBP) and Cuckoo Search (CS) for improving the convergence speed of artificial neural networks (ANN) training. The proposed CSLM algorithm is trained on XOR and OR datasets. The experimental results show that the proposed CSLM algorithm has better performance than other similar hybrid variants used in this study

“Experiential Learning” dan “Service Learning”: ke arah meningkatkan kemahiran insaniah pelajar UKM

Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran dewasa ini perlu merangkumi keseluruhan aspek perkembangan pelajar. Pembangunan minda dan intelek pelajar haruslah seiring dengan perkembangan dan keperluan rohani, jasmani serta emosi. Perancangan akademik masa kini juga mencadangkan supaya pengajaran dan pembelajaran kursus-kursus perlu mengandungi elemen kemahiran berkomunikasi, ketrampilan berfikir, semangat kerja berpasukan dan pembelajaran sepanjang hayat. Penekanan kepada pengluasan serta kepelbagaian kaedah pengajaran dan pembelajaran ini, pada prinsipnya, adalah selaras dengan cita-cita pendidikan dan falsafah UKM semenjak awal penubuhannya, iaitu untuk melahirkan siswazah berfikiran luas serta seimbang. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk meneroka pelaksanaan “experiential learning” dan “service learning” ke atas pelajar UKM serta melihat bagaimana kaedah-kaedah baharu ini dapatdilaksanakan dalam kursus yang bersifat kemahiran generik di UKM. Kajian penyiasatan kualitatif ini melibatkan tiga kumpulan pelajar tahun satu yang telah mengambil kursus Pembangunan Diri II di Fakulti Ekonomi dan Pengurusan UKM. Data kajian diperolehi melalui temubual mendalam, perbincangan berkumpulan serta refleksi peserta selepas selesai sesi-sesi tertentu dalam merujuk pandangan pelajar terhadap kaedah pengajaran dan pembelajaran “experiential learning” dan “service learning” kursus tersebut. Hasil kajian menunjukkan pandangan pelajar UKM terhadap kaedah pengajaran dan pembelajaran ini adalah positif secara keseluruhan di mana peningkatan dalam jatidiri, kerjasama, komunikasi dan pengurusan maklumat dapat dikesan

Antioxidant and anti-diabetic status of popular Malay health tonic consumed for wellness: help or hype?

Contemporary Malay health tonics labeled as botanical drinks are advertised in the Malaysian market as effective therapeutic supplements toward improving consumer health. The therapeutic claims associated with high antioxidants are based on the herbal ingredients used, yet unproven by scientific evidence. Moreover, they are mostly sweetened with sugar, which may arise the potential of diabetic risk. Thus, a dire clarification on the potential antioxidant status and diabetic risk of these products is essential to nullify over claims. Eight commercial botanical drinks that serve as health tonics were selected based on their advertisement popularity and traditional medicine sellers’ interview feedbacks. The selected tonics were mutually compared with a green tea (DGT01) as the benchmark for their total phenolic content (TPC); antioxidant activities [the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging inhibition capacities, IC50; Ferric ion reducing antioxidant power (FRAP); and Oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC)], anti-diabetic property through the α-glucosidase inhibition (AGI) and as well as the sugar content. The results were mapped for variations using Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Three out of 8 health tonics (NS12, SK53, and MU13) has approximately 3 to 4-fold, 1.1-fold and 2.5-fold higher in TPC, ORAC, and FRAP reducing capacities, respectively. Only NS12 and SK53 showed strong AGI (>80% inhibition). Three tonics, NS12, SK53, and HS06 exhibited precaution levels of sugar with more than 180 mg of total sugars per serving. From the PCA, DGT01 was dissociated from any tonic. NS12 and SK23 were closely related in terms of antioxidant and AGI activities. Although they showed promising therapeutic benefits due to high antioxidant activities and low diabetic risk, the tonics’ efficacies and safety are still dubious shall be verified by reliable clinical trials. The selection of a health tonic shall not only be based on multi antioxidant-rich ingredients but low in sugar for a healthier choice

Teachers' understanding and practice towards thematic approach in teaching integrated living skills (ILS) in Malaysia

Thematic approach is one of the teaching strategy that uses themes towards creating an active, interesting and meaningful learning. The purpose of this research is to identify the teachers’ understanding and practice towards thematic approach in teaching Integrated Living Skills (ILS). A total of 132 Integrated Living Skills teachers were involved in this study. This research was conducted in the District of Kinta Utara, Perak, Malaysia and the instruments used were questionnaires. The finding indicated that the Integrated Living Skills teachers’ understanding level towards thematic approach is high. Findings also showed that ILS teacher were often using thematic approach in teaching Integrated Living Skills. There is a significant relationship between teachers’ understanding level towards thematic approach with teachers’ constant practice. The findings also shows teachers’ years of experience in teaching were not significantly different from their practices on thematic approach

Utilizing local communities towards the marketability of EDC-UUM: a supply chain model

This study proposes a supply chain model for the Excecutive Development Center of Universiti Utara Malaysia (EDC-UUM) to enhance the usability and the visibility of EDC-UUM, thus increasing the demand for EDC-UUM services and indirectly, the profit as well. Specifically, this study embarks on two objectives which are to determine the resources available and opportunities that can be grabbed to strengthen the functions and usability of EDC-UUM and to develop a supply chain model for EDC-UUM that will incorporate all the resources and opportunities so that the demand for and the utilization of the training/seminar rooms and hotel rooms increases. To achieve the first objective, a SWOT analysis was conducted by assessing the current practice and future plans of EDC-UUM. The second objective was achieved by studying the characteristic of a hotel supply chain, and then mapping the supply chain to suit the characteristics of EDC-UUM. In this report, the supply chain model focuses only on the first tier for EDC-UUM's product development that directly involves the use of local community members