Contributions of ALADIN to eRegion Development: The Novi Sad Business School Perspective, Department for Informatics

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Linguistic sexism and gender role stereotyping in Malaysian English Language textbooks

Sexist language and gender stereotyping do not only disparage, but can also lower the dignity of one group of people, usually women/girls. If left unchecked, these negative norms of behavior and attitude could be institutionalized and gradually become part of our social and cultural code. Recent research findings indicate a strong presence of gender bias and linguistic sexism in the language and content of educational materials such as textbooks and practice books. This paper addresses linguistic sexism and gender role stereotyping in Malaysian English language school textbooks. Specifically, it looks at: If sexism is inculcated very early in life, how is it inculcated and what is inculcated? Are our school textbooks indirectly and unconsciously functioning as a conduit for the indoctrination and enforcement of sexism and sex role conformity among young Malaysians? This paper presents the preliminary findings of an on-going research study that documents the extent of gender bias and linguistic sexism in selected Malaysian primary and secondary school English language textbooks

Proliferation of Halal Regulation and Enforcement in Indonesia and Malaysia

As part of safeguarding human rights, Indonesia has issued regulations on halal products that encourage entrepreneurs to certify their products. To facilitate this effort, the country has implemented several policies. Adopting a human rights perspective, this article aims to elucidate the government's policies on halal products at the regulatory and implementation levels. To attain a more comprehensive understanding, this research employs a legal comparative approach, using Malaysia as a benchmark. The findings of this study indicate that normatively, Indonesia has generated a range of legal instruments serving as the foundation for halal products. These legal instruments are systematically implemented, from the central government down to the grassroots level. However, this implementation encounters challenges such as normative ambiguity and the expansive interpretation of products that require halal certification. This is in contrast to Malaysia, which regulates halal products in a more dynamic and flexible manner

Non-Invasive Measurement of Cortisol Metabolite in Feces of Toraya Buffalo by Using Enzyme Immunoassay Technique

Non-invasive measurement hormones in feces using enzyme immunoassay (EIA) technique needs to be validated. This study was conducted to develop and validate an enzyme immunoassay kit for measuring the concentration of cortisol metabolites in feces of Toraya buffalo. An EIA kit of 11β-hydroxyetiocholanolone (11β-hydroxy-CM assay) was developed and validated analytically and biologically using feces of Toraya Buffalo for cortisol metabolite measurements. Analytical validation comprises the parallelism test, accuracy, precision, and assay sensitivity. Biological validation performed by comparing concentration cortisol metabolites in feces of Toraya buffalo before and after pa’silaga tedong, a fighting contest of buffalo during the death ceremony of rambu solo at Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi Province. Results showed that the curve of serial dilution of fecal samples was parallel with the 11β-hydroxy-CM standard curves. The accuracy and sensitivity of the 11β-hydroxy-CM assay were 96.21%±7.59 and 0.78pg/well, respectively. The precision based on coefficient variation (CV) of intraand inter-assay was < 10% and < 15%, respectively. Biological validation results showed that cortisol metabolites concentrations after pa’silaga tedong were increased 3-10 fold than before pa’silaga tedong. In conclusion, the 11β-hydroxy-CM assay is a reliable assay for measuring cortisol metabolites in feces of Toraya buffalo

Digitization of natural history collections: A guideline and nationwide capacity building workshop in Malaysia

Natural history museum collections are the most important sources of information on the present and past biodiversity of our planet. Most of the information is primarily stored in analogue form, and digitization of the collections can provide further open access to the images and specimen data to address the many global challenges. However, many museums do not digitize their collections because of constraints on budgets, human resources, and technologies. To encourage the digitization process, we present a guideline that offers low-cost and technical knowledge solutions yet balances the quality of the work and outcomes. The guideline describes three phases of digitization, namely preproduction, production, and postproduction. The preproduction phase includes human resource planning and selecting the highest priority collections for digitization. In the preproduction phase, a worksheet is provided for the digitizer to document the metadata, as well as a list of equipment needed to set up a digitizer station to image the specimens and associated labels. In the production phase, we place special emphasis on the light and color calibrations, as well as the guidelines for ISO/shutter speed/aperture to ensure a satisfactory quality of the digitized output. Once the specimen and labels have been imaged in the production phase, we demonstrate an end-to-end pipeline that uses optical character recognition (OCR) to transfer the physical text on the labels into a digital form and document it in a worksheet cell. A nationwide capacity workshop is then conducted to impart the guideline, and pre- and postcourse surveys were conducted to assess the confidence and skills acquired by the participants. This paper also discusses the challenges and future work that need to be taken forward for proper digital biodiversity data management