Technological Leaders in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Training: The Scenario of a Primary School in Equipping Its Teachers With Appropriate ICT and the 21 st Century Skills to Enhance The Quality of Students' Learning

There has been a lot of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development in Malaysian schools, from the introduction of Malaysian Smart Schools (from 19992010) and the enculturation of smart schools through High Performance Schools (2010 onwards). The Malaysian Ministry of Education (MoE), particularly the Educational Technology Division, has organized numerous training programmes and initiatives such as ICT skills training and Video Library (e-videos) to elevate the professionalism of teachers of all subjects in schools. In order to boost the academic achievements of students, school administrators are expected to equip teachers with the 21 st century teaching skills and ICT that can enhance students' learning. This paper presents the findings of aqualitative research study conducted on 80 teachers (in a national primary school) in adistrict in the Kedah state.This study uses three methods - questionnaires, semi-structured interviews as well as documentary analysis to gather the data concerning the effectiveness of ICT training attended. Even though majority of teachers (95%) interviewed had understood the expectations of teachers to improve learning through the use of ICT, some (30%) felt that they were not trained adequately to integrate ICT tools into their teaching and learning. Even though the existence of Web 2.0 tools has opened up plentiful of opportunities, yet the teachers were still very comfortable with their chalk and talk approach. They were unclear as how to effectively integrate ICT/ educational technology tools in their teaching strategies and also felt that the training programmes were ·impractical as they felt that they could hardly integrate ICT while teaching. Recommendations given include the appropriate and careful selection of trainees and practical solutions, headmasters/principals as effective ICT drivers to ensure training effectiveness and smart generation of studentslteachers by MOE or its agencies. It is hoped that effective instructional management quality is achieved eventually through ICT enculturation initiatives by MOE

Exploring and Developing Items Measuring Teachers’ Followership Modalities : An Exploratory Factor Analysis Procedure

The concept of followership has received considerable attention over the past three decades. Good followers play crucial role in determining the success of an organization. However, past followership literature has revealed that there is limited understanding of the dimensions that made up followership modalities, especially in the school context. The purpose of the study was therefore to contribute to the existing literature by performing a thorough validation of the dimensions of Teachers' Followership Modalities through the Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) procedure. This study used a cross-sectional survey approach to develop precise measurements for the Teachers’ Followership Modalities construct. A structured questionnaire in Google Form format was used to collect data. The study included 108 randomly selected public secondary school teachers from three districts in Sarawak, namely Kuching, Padawan, and Samarahan. The study revealed that all 20 items adapted and modified from Kelley's (1992) Followership Questionnaire met the EFA procedure's factor loading cut-off point of .60 using IBM-SPSS software version 25.0. Therefore, all 20 items were kept and deemed appropriate for measuring the Teachers' Followership Modalities construct. However, the EFA procedure disclosed 5 components as compared to Kelley’s two-dimensional model. The findings of this study offered a validated and reliable questionnaire to measure Teachers' Followership Modalities among public secondary school teachers in Malaysia. Thus, the Malaysian Ministry of Education which seeks to gain from teachers with good followership modalities will benefit from this research

Suppression of Sn whisker growth from SnAgCu solder alloy with TiO2 and ZnO reinforcement nano-particles by increasing the corrosion resistance of the composite alloy

The main joining process of the electronic industry is still soldering with different alloys of Sn. This work studied the relationship between Sn whisker growth and corrosion resistance of 99Sn0.3Ag0.7Cu-TiO2/ZnO (0.25wt%) composite solder alloys in a corrosive environment via scanning electron microscopy and focused ion beam techniques. The corrosive environment test showed that the application of TiO2 and ZnO nano-particles almost totally suppressed the Sn whisker growth and improved the corrosion resistance of the composite solder alloys compared to the reference 99Sn0.3Ag0.7Cu alloy. The microstructural analysis of the reference 99Sn0.3Ag0.7Cu solder alloy showed that the volumetric increase of the corroded β-Sn grains resulted in local mechanical stress in the solder joints, which was released by Sn whisker development. However, in the composite solder joints, the increased grain boundary fraction and segregation of the TiO2 and ZnO nano-particles to the grain boundaries resulted in a relatively uniform and compact protective oxide layer at the β-Sn grain boundaries. This suppressed the formation of SnOx, and via this, the corrosion-induced whisker growth

Novel kaolinite based coolant for hyperthermal pyrotechnic aerosol cooling

Novel spherical pyrotechnic aerosol cooling granulates which are made of 42.8% kaolinite powder, 38.8% water, 8.1% epoxy A&B glue and 10.2% ethyl cellulose are successfully synthesized and can cool down the temperature of hot pyrotechnic aerosol from 1400 to 400 °C below with only a 1:1 mass ratio of coolant to the aerosol forming agent. The cooling system is a packing bed randomly stacked with 5 mm diameter cooling granulates. The kaolinite based cooling granulate has proper yield stress to provide the cooling bed a constant porosity in order to avoid any tunneling effect and granulate structural failure during hot aerosol cooling. Moreover, the synthesis process of current novel kaolinite based granulate coolant is simple and economic. Compared to other coolants like irregular granite gravels or ceramic intalox used for pyrotechnic aerosol cooling, the cooling performance of spherical kaolinite based cooling granulates is superior

32 channel DQPSK DWDM-PON for local area network using dispersion compensation fiber

In the contest to improving optical channel rates in dense wavelength multiplexing (DWDM) service to realize 40Gb/s, different adjustment and coherent detection plans are being investigated. In this paper, we present differential quaternary phase-shift keying (DQPSK) balance for the arrangement of a 32-channel DWDM in a Local Area Network (LAN)

Novel Synthetic Monothiourea Aspirin Derivatives Bearing Alkylated Amines as Potential Antimicrobial Agents

A new series of aspirin bearing alkylated amines moieties 1–12 were synthesised by reacting isothiocyanate with a series of aniline derivatives in overall yield of 16–56%. The proposed structures of all the synthesised compounds were confirmed using elemental analysis, FTIR, and 1H and 13C NMR spectroscopy. All compounds were evaluated for antibacterial activities against E. coli and S. aureus via turbidimetric kinetic and Kirby Bauer disc diffusion method. Compound 5 bearing meta -CH3 substituent showed the highest relative inhibition zone diameter against tested bacteria compared to ortho and para substituent. Furthermore, aspirin derivatives bearing shorter chains exhibited better bacterial inhibition than longer alkyl chains

Activation and Inhibition of Transglutaminase 2 in Mice

Transglutaminase 2 (TG2) is an allosterically regulated enzyme with transamidating, deamidating and cell signaling activities. It is thought to catalyze sequence-specific deamidation of dietary gluten peptides in the small intestines of celiac disease patients. Because this modification has profound consequences for disease pathogenesis, there is considerable interest in the design of small molecule TG2 inhibitors. Although many classes of TG2 inhibitors have been reported, thus far an animal model for screening them to identify promising celiac drug candidates has remained elusive. Using intraperitoneal administration of the toll-like receptor 3 (TLR3) ligand, polyinosinic-polycytidylic acid (poly(I∶C)), we induced rapid TG2 activation in the mouse small intestine. Dose dependence was observed in the activation of TG2 as well as the associated villous atrophy, gross clinical response, and rise in serum concentration of the IL-15/IL-15R complex. TG2 activity was most pronounced in the upper small intestine. No evidence of TG2 activation was observed in the lung mucosa, nor were TLR7/8 ligands able to elicit an analogous response. Introduction of ERW1041E, a small molecule TG2 inhibitor, in this mouse model resulted in TG2 inhibition in the small intestine. TG2 inhibition had no effect on villous atrophy, suggesting that activation of this enzyme is a consequence, rather than a cause, of poly(I∶C) induced enteropathy. Consistent with this finding, administration of poly(I∶C) to TG2 knockout mice also induced villous atrophy. Our findings pave the way for pharmacological evaluation of small molecule TG2 inhibitors as drug candidates for celiac disease