Additions to the moss flora of Endau Rompin National Park, Johore State, peninsular Malaysia

In a recent survey of the Endau Rompin National Park (ERNP) in Johore State, 81 species and 4 varieties of mosses were documented. This increases the previous count from 62 species and 3 varieties of mosses in ERNP to 111 species and 5 varieties in total. Of these, 30 species are new records for Johore State. Rhaphidostichum bunodicarpum and Trichosteleum stigmosum are two species new to Peninsular Malaysia. Thuidium assimile is a new record for West Malesia. A new combination, Papillidiopsis aquaticum (Dix.) Boon-Chuan Ho & B.C. Tan is proposed. In terms of species composition, the pan-tropical families of Calymperaceae, Fissidentaceae, Leucobryaceae and Sematophyllaceae predominate the moss flora of ERNP

MOSSES OF GUNUNG HALIMUN NATIONAL PARK, WEST JAVA, INDONESIA

TAN, BENITO C.; HO, BOON-CHUAN; LINIS, VIRGILIO;ISKANDAR, EKA A.P.; NURHASANAH, IPAH; DAMAYANTI, LIA; MULYATI,SRI; HAERIDA, IDA. 2006. Mosses of Gunung Halimun National Park,West Java, Indonesia. Reinwardtia 12(3): 205–214.––150 species of mosses in 74 genera and 25 families are reported for the first time from Gunung Halimun National Park(GHNP)in West Java.Three mosses are new to the Indonesia flora (Distichophyllum collenchymatosum, D. malayense and Fissidens kinabaluensis),and another four mosses represent new records for Java (Dicranodontium asperulum, Daltonia armata, Glossadelphus bilobatus and Syrrhopodon semiliber).In additions, seven can be classified as uncommon mosses in the Malesian region. This shows that the forests of GHNP deserve a high priority of protection not only for the island of Java, but also for Indonesia and Malesia as well

How the Kano model contributes to Kansei engineering in services

Recent studies show that products and services hold great appeal if they are attractively designed to elicit emotional feelings from customers. Kansei engineering (KE) has good potential to provide a competitive advantage to those able to read and translate customer affect and emotion in actual product and services. This study introduces an integrative framework of the Kano model and KE, applied to services. The Kano model was used and inserted into KE to exhibit the relationship between service attribute performance and customer emotional response. Essentially, the Kano model categorises service attribute quality into three major groups (must-be [M], one-dimensional [O] and attractive [A]). The findings of a case study that involved 100 tourists who stayed in luxury 4- and 5-star hotels are presented. As a practical matter, this research provides insight on which service attributes deserve more attention with regard to their significant impact on customer emotional needs. Statement of Relevance: Apart from cognitive evaluation, emotions and hedonism play a big role in service encounters. Through a focus on delighting qualities of service attributes, this research enables service providers and managers to establish the extent to which they prioritise their improvement efforts and to always satisfy their customer emotions beyond expectation. Keywords: Kansei engineering, emotional feelings, Kano model, service

Identifying factors that affected student enrolment in Additional Mathematics for urban areas of Kuantan district

The skilful and qualified Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforces are expected to be in high demand in the 21st digital economy. In Malaysia public education system, the principal key to STEM education is Additional Mathematics. However, the statistics depicted that the number of upper secondary students enrolled in Additional Mathematics have been severely delineated. Furthermore, the prerequisite to enrol in STEM and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) courses in tertiary education is achieving a minimum grade C for Additional Mathematics. Therefore, the principal objective of this article is to identify the significant factors that affected the upper secondary students enrolled in Additional Mathematics using Pearson's chi-square test without Yates continuity correction and unadjusted odds ratio (OR). A validated questionnaire comprised nine potential factors that affected enrolment in additional mathematics was distributed to 389 Form Four students' cohort 2020 from four selected urban government schools to pursue this objective. Based on the finding of this article, several initiatives might be taken by the policymakers, such as the teachers may enhancing and throughout the broad of STEM and TVET careers in the 21st digital economy era, while the students' parents can participate in schools in building the communicating and coordinating mechanism. Consequently, the number of upper secondary enrolled in STEM education might be increased to pipeline the future STEM and TVET human capitals in sustaining and stabilising the national economy in the digital era

Non-repudiation in an agent-based e-commerce system

Abecos is an agent-based e-commerce system under development at the Nanyang Technological University. It aims to provide a software infrastructure for a large scale, distributed system whereby seller and buyer (software) agents engage in e-commerce activities on behalf of organizations and individuals. A key factor in making this system usable in practice is strict security controls. One aspect of security is the provision of non-repudiation services. As protocols for non-repudiation have focused on the singlemessage non-repudiation, its adaptation to afford non-repudiation in a communication session for two agents in Abecos is inefficient. In this work, we investigate and propose a protocol for enforcing non-repudiation in a session. We compare and show that it is more efficient than simple adaptations of existing protocols. Keywords: Electronic Commerce, Security, Non-Repudiation Protocol 1 Introduction Electronic commerce is an emerging paradigm of business on the fast g..

Impact of phonon scattering mechanisms on the performance of silicene nanoribbon field-effect transistors

Rigorous efforts are invested globally in the semiconductor industry to leverage next-generation nanoelectronics beyond Moore's law. Among them, silicene is foreseen as a viable two-dimensional (2D) material for future transistor applications. In this study, we assessed the performance of field-effect transistors (FETs) based on silicene nanoribbons (SiNRs) in terms of width scaling, length scaling and non-ballistic phonon scattering effects. Simulation of the channel material and transistor is performed based on the nearest neighbour tight-binding model and the top-of-the-barrier nanotransistor model, respectively. The device performance is analysed by graphically extracting the on-to-off current ratio, subthreshold swing and drain-induced barrier lowering from the current–voltage characteristics. It is also revealed that the impact of phonon scattering effects becomes less significant as the channel lengths of the SiNR FETs become shorter than the mean free paths. Overall, it is shown that the width and length scaling are among the crucial factors in designing nanoribbon-based FETs owing to their unique properties

Changes in cortical cytoskeletal and extracellular matrix gene expression in prostate cancer are related to oncogenic ERG deregulation

Abstract Background The cortical cytoskeleton network connects the actin cytoskeleton to various membrane proteins, influencing cell adhesion, polarity, migration and response to extracellular signals. Previous studies have suggested changes in the expression of specific components in prostate cancer, especially of 4.1 proteins (encoded by EPB41 genes) which form nodes in this network. Methods Expression of EPB41L1, EPB41L2, EPB41L3 (protein: 4.1B), EPB41L4B (EHM2), EPB41L5, EPB49 (dematin), VIL2 (ezrin), and DLG1 (summarized as „cortical cytoskeleton" genes) as well as ERG was measured by quantitative RT-PCR in a well-characterized set of 45 M0 prostate adenocarcinoma and 13 benign tissues. Hypermethylation of EPB41L3 and GSTP1 was compared in 93 cancer tissues by methylation-specific PCR. Expression of 4.1B was further studied by immunohistochemistry. Results EPB41L1 and EPB41L3 were significantly downregulated and EPB41L4B was upregulated in cancer tissues. Low EPB41L1 or high EPB41L4B expression were associated with earlier biochemical recurrence. None of the other cortical cytoskeleton genes displayed expression changes, in particular EPB49 and VIL2, despite hints from previous studies. EPB41L3 downregulation was significantly associated with hypermethylation of its promoter and strongly correlated with GSTP1 hypermethylation. Protein 4.1B was detected most strongly in the basal cells of normal prostate epithelia. Its expression in carcinoma cells was similar to the weaker one in normal luminal cells. EPB41L3 downregulation and EPB41L4B upregulation were essentially restricted to the 22 cases with ERG overexpression. Expression changes in EPB41L3 and EPB41L4B closely paralleled those previously observed for the extracellular matrix genes FBLN1 and SPOCK1, respectively. Conclusions Specific changes in the cortical cytoskeleton were observed during prostate cancer progression. They parallel changes in the expression of extracellular matrix components and all together appear to be associated with oncogenic ERG overexpression. We hypothesize that these alterations may contribute to the increased invasivity conferred to prostate cancer cells by ERG deregulation.</p

Prescribing patterns of low doses of antipsychotic medications in older Asian patients with schizophrenia, 2001-2009

Background: This study examined the use of low doses of antipsychotic medications (300mg/day CPZeq or less) in older Asian patients with schizophrenia and its demographic and clinical correlates. Methods: Information on hospitalized patients with schizophrenia, aged 55 years or older, was extracted from the database of the Research on Asian Psychotropic Prescription Patterns (REAP) study (2001-2009). Data on 1,452 patients in eight Asian countries and territories including China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, India, and Malaysia were analyzed. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics and antipsychotic prescriptions were recorded using a standardized protocol and data collection procedure. Results: The prescription frequency for low doses of antipsychotic medications was 40.9% in the pooled sample. Multiple logistic regression analysis of the whole sample showed that patients on low doses of antipsychotic medications were more likely to be female, have an older age, a shorter length of illness, and less positive symptoms. Of patients in the six countries and territories that participated in all the surveys between 2001 and 2009, those in Japan were less likely to receive low doses of antipsychotics. Conclusion: Low doses of antipsychotic medications were only applied in less than half of older Asian patients with schizophreni