A review of literature on communication skills development (CSD) in the engineering curriculum

Engineering education has expanded recently to include emphasis on the development of some very specific non-technical attributes that match a strong technical base to produce well-rounded engineering graduates who are flexible and adaptable to suit the constantly developing and changing requirements of the workplace. These non technical skills include communication skills, the ability to function in teams, knowledge of societal and contemporary issues, development of global perspective, and ethics awareness. A great importance of these abilities to engineering education has emerged over the last decade even within the international and local scene. Within the Malaysian context, the Engineering Accreditation Council’s (EAC) Engineering Program Accreditation Manual(BEM, 2007) , outlines ten learning outcomes that encompasses both the technical and non technical skills which are considered essential for graduating engineers. Similarly, the Accreditation Board of Engineering and Technology (ABET) Criterion 3 (ABET, 2000), outlines eleven criterion which targeted many of these as essential program outcomes in order for engineering programs to be accredited and which are seen as critical for the success in the twenty first century. Communication skills development(CSD) is one of the outcomes required by an undergraduate engineering program in the Engineering Accreditation Council (EAC) for Institutions of Higher Learning (IHL) in Malaysia as well as in the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000 (ABET, 2000). CSD is essential for an engineer who aspires to carry out his/her professional practice in the global arena and especially in the English language. With an increasingly global economy, the Malaysian education system must produce graduates who can communicate effectively in English. Otherwise, it would lose one of its vital selling points for foreign investors to ensure that skilled labor force are sufficient to support internationally competitive commerce and industry and to provide individuals with opportunities to optimize their potentials (Muhammad Rashid bin Rajuddin, 2006; Riemer, 2002)

The Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) on GST compliance research model in Malaysia

The questionnaire was constructed based on four constructs which are knowledge attitude and communication channels as exogenous variables while GST compliance is endogenous variable. The questionnaires were distributed to the wood-based manufacturers throughout seven states in Peninsular Malaysia. 352 valid data was evaluated for the validity and reliability. The ultimate objective of this article is to acquire the best fit of a research instrument for the GST compliance study using structural equation model (SEM) that enable to taking into account the unreliable factors (items) between exogenous and endogenous constructs. The items of the constructs undergo the confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) procedure involve of unidimensionality test, convergent validity, construct validity and discriminant validity. Followed by the measurement of reliability on all items using Cronbach alpha using SPSS and construct reliability (CR) and average variance extracted (AVE) using AMOS. The result revealed the constructs of the research model achieved the validity and reliability for other further analysis in acquiring high accuracy on the prediction outcomes

Intracellular thermal sensor for single cell analysis-short review

Temperature is a key environmental variable that affects almost all natural and engineered systems from the system level down to the molecular level. The first attempt to measure temperature goes back to 1592 when Galileo Galilei tried to develop a thermometer. Since then having accurate temperature measurements has been a challenging research topic. Recently, in single cell analysis, internal temperature and heat generation inside a living cell has proven to have important roles in the survival of cells, controls many cellular activities for instance; cell division and gene expression. Moreover, cancerous cells are identified with excessive heat production. Studies have been done by researchers from different fields in the attempt to develop sensors that can accurately report the temperature inside living cells. This short review presents the most recent developments in nanoscale thermometry for biological applications, highlighting the recent advances in the near field and the far field methods. The far field thermometry cover sensors that depend on the luminescence’s of the material, for example: quantum dots, nanoparticles, and fluorescents based compounds. While, near field thermometry is based on different principles depending on the sensing mechanism used. Some of the examples mentioned are thermocouple thermometry, RNA thermometry, resonant thermometry, photoacoustic thermometry and carbon nanotubes thermometry

Patterns of teacher trainee grammar talk in second language classrooms

Literature in Language Teacher Education (LTE) has highlighted that teaching of grammar should be included as a foundational framework for all language teaching. This indicates that teacher trainees need to be trained with a firm foundation for grammar teaching in language classrooms. Thus, an investigation on how teacher trainees taught grammar and the pattern of their grammar instruction can provide insights to teacher trainees and teacher educators on grammar teaching methodology practised in language classrooms. By understanding how teacher trainees present grammar in their classrooms and what patterns emerged from their grammar instruction can lead to ongoing process of searching for better grammar teaching in language classrooms. This article shares the findings on an investigation conducted on how and what was practised by teacher trainees in their grammar instruction. Two prevalent patterns were discovered. Transmission technique which is teacher fronted and interaction technique which is teacher-student-teacher fronted were commonly practised by the trainees. However, the teacher-fronted technique dominates the interaction technique. This signals that teacher educators need to promote more interactive techniques in the LTE programme so that trainees are trained to teach grammar by utilising more interactive techniques such as questioning (to use more convergent and divergent questions instead of literal questions) and giving corrective feedback (to elicit and recast instead of repeating) which promote two-way grammar teaching

The experimental study and numerical simulation of falling liquid film flow on horizontal tubes

This research is motivated by two observations: No report has been found so far in studies of water falling film up to 100 mm intertube spacing. No simulation analysis of film thickness under influence of intertube spacing in 3 dimensional models. Therefore, to the best of author’s knowledge, this research aims to illuminate the effects of intertube spacing between horizontal tubes on water falling film. An experimental investigation of water falling film temperature was conducted to explore the characteristics of heat transfer coefficients. In this study, the intertube spacing from smallest size of 8 mm and up to 100 mm were analyzed for Reynolds number range of 300 to 3300. The experimental data was extracted from calibrated test rig and the effect is investigated using numerical study. On the other hand, the effect of film thickness is numerically investigated for intertube spacing range of 10 mm to 40 mm. The numerical simulation was presented using the Volume of Fluid (VOF) technique where it is capable in determining temperatures and thickness of water falling film under influence of ambient factors. The experimental results reveal that intertube spacing of 133 mm produced the maximum heat transfer coefficient of 6 kW/m² K with percentage of error below 7%. The results of the numerical simulation indicate that the 40 mm intertube spacing presented the minimal average film thickness of 0.3 mm within ± 50% errors. Implications of the results and future research directions are also presented

Diphtheria anti-toxoid antibody levels among pre-clinical students and staff in an institute of higher learning in Malaysia: are they protected?

Introduction: Little is known about the sero-prevalence of diphtheria anti-toxoid antibody levels among medical students in Malaysia. They too, just like other health care workers (HCWs) are at risk of contracting and transmitting diphtheria. Fortunately, this can be prevented by giving a specific vaccine: the diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis (DTP) vaccine. Nonetheless, data from local or regional surveys are needed before any decision is made by the respective authorities. General objective: We studied the epidemiology of diphtheria anti-toxoid antibody levels and vaccination history amongst medical students and staff in Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia. Specific objectives: We determined the level of diphtheria anti-toxoid antibodies amongst pre-clinical students and staff. Methodology: A total of 152 sera were collected from subjects aged 19 to 63, and diphtheria anti-toxoid levels were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: One hundred and fifty-two (94.4%) blood samples out of 161 participants were successfully withdrawn, which comprised 105 (69.1%) and 47 (30.9%) medical students and staff, respectively. A total of 77.6% and the other 22.4% of the subjects had full and basic protection, respectively. Higher levels were predominant amongst males and they were 1.3 times more protected than females in 20-29 year-old group (85.1% vs 66.2%; odd ratios 1.25 [95% CI 1.03-1.50]; P=0.03). No significant difference in the levels of immunity among subjects for ethnicity and academic position (P>0.05). Recommendations: Level of full protection against diphtheria toxin should be clearly defined by broad population based studies using several comparable detection methods. Medical students and staff with basic protection should be closely monitored or should be given a booster dose for those who are at high risk of acquiring the disease. Thus, a standard degree of coverage should be clearly determined for health workers to prevent a potential outbreak. Conclusion: Students and staff possess immunity towards diptheria toxin however the level of full protective antibody is yet to be determined in future

Penderaan Ekonomi Mangsa Keganasan Rumah Tangga: Perspektif Pengamal

Keganasan rumah tangga merupakan satu fenomena global dalam masyarakat sejak sekian lama yang begitu kompleks dan perlu ditangani dengan sebaiknya. Artikel ini cuba membincangkan salah satu hasil dapatan daripada keseluruhan kajian yang dilaksanakan bagi meneliti isu penderaan ekonomi dan kesejahteraan kewangan mangsa keganasan rumah tangga. Ia cuba meneroka isu ekonomi yang dihadapi oleh wanita yang menjadi mangsa keganasan rumah tangga daripada perspektif pengamal yang mengendalikan keskes sebegini. Data kajian kualitatif ini diperoleh semasa temubual dan perbincangan kumpulan berfokus (FGD) dilaksanakan dengan menggunakan analisis tematik. Seramai lima belas orang kakitangan atau pengamal di Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat telah diminta untuk berkongsi pengalaman mereka berkenaan isu pengendalian kes mangsa keganasan rumah tangga serta konflik kewangan dan kesejahteraan ekonomi wanita yang menjadi mangsa penderaan. Hasil kajian mendapati bahawa isu-isu penderaan ekonomi dan kewangan tertumpu kepada isu pekerjaan dan sumber pendapatan serta kebergantungan si pelaku dan mangsa, isu gaya hidup negatif pelaku dan kawalan pelaku kepada sumber kewangan yang dijana oleh mangsa

Sound HIV knowledge and common misconceptions about HIV among university students

The objective of the study was to determine the proportion of sound HIV knowledge and common misconceptions about HIV among university students. A set of pre tested and validated questionnaire assessing sound HIV knowledge and common misconceptions about HIV was used in this cross sectional study. HIV knowledge was defined as sound when one was able to identify correctly two ways of preventing the sexual transmission of HIV and reject three major misconceptions about HIV. Out of 300 respondents, 298 completed the questionnaire giving a response rate of 99.3%. A total of 40.9% of university students have sound HIV knowledge. The majority of those who lacked sound HIV knowledge were young (60.2%) and female (60.4%). A significant proportion still believed that HIV can be transmitted via social contact (13.8%), by sneezing or coughing (11.4%) and mosquito bites (10.1%). About 6.7% were believed wrongly that HIV can be treated by vaccine and healthy-looking people cannot have HIV