Pathogenetical significance of porencephalic lesions associated with intracerebral inoculation of sheep with the bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) agent

Decreased rates of transmission of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs) to sheep have been attributed to some polymorphisms of the prion protein (PrP) and to a ‘species barrier’ on interspecies experiments. In addition, the blood–brain barrier may be a further impediment to TSE neuroinvasion. The intracerebral (I/C) route is generally considered the most efficient for TSE transmission, as it may help to bypass those factors. Therefore, susceptibility of particular species to specific TSE agents is conducted by this route. Aims: This study characterizes the traumatic brain lesions associated with the I/C injection of the bovine spongiform encephalopathy agent in sheep, assesses the relevance of such lesions in the outcome of clinical disease and provides insight into the mechanisms of PrPd conversion and amplification following I/C challenge. Methods: A total of 27 hemibrains have been macroscopically and immunohistochemically examined to investigate the presence of lesions compatible with the needle track and the PrPd distribution, respectively. Results: No residual inoculum was found and the extension and severity of the traumatic brain lesions were unrelated to the clinical outcome. Sheep with PrPd accumulation in the brain also showed conspicuous focal aggregates in the porencephalic lesions and in the circumventricular organs. In contrast, sheep without PrPd deposits in the brain were also negative in the traumatic lesions. Conclusion: Overall, these findings suggest that the efficiency of the I/C route is due to effective absorption and blood recirculation of infection, rather than to primary amplification at the site of injection

Logistic: Supply Chain Management and Purchasing Strategy "Case Study of Giant Hypermarket"

This research aims to explore about supply chain management and purchasing strategies at Giant Hypermarket. It is because for more one a decade, supply chain (SCM) has received increased attention among the industries for achieving competitive advantage. Supply chain management is a fundamental concept that has evolved to enable organizations to improve their efficiency and effectives in the global and highly competitive environment of the twenty-first century. Supply chain management (SCM) is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the operations of the supply chain with the purpose to satisfy customer requirements as efficiently as possible. For this research study, the interview session was designed in order to collect the data and information. The interviews have been done in three sessions to collect the information needed. A descriptive analysis is used in this study to explain regarding marketing policy, pricing policy, purchasing policy, quantity and delivery policy, human resource management policy and Just-in time purchasing strategies. This study also used qualitative methods, that indicates are methods that do not involve measurement or statistics. Supply Chain Management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies. Organizations increasingly find that they must rely on effective supply chains, or networks, to successfully compete in the global market and networked economy. Therefore, this study attempt to know and understand the important of supply chain management and purchasing strategies in the organization with hoping that the knowledge of this study will provide useful inputs to organization in developing impressive supply chain management and purchasing strategies to increase organization efficiency and effectiveness

Supporting New ODL Learners via Face-to-Face Academic Advising to Increase Retention: Sharing Open University Malaysia’s Experience

The last decade has witnessed an increased demand for tertiary education via Open and Distance Learning due to advance methods in technology for educators, administrators and learners that make a difference in effective instruction being delivered at a distance. More people too are beginning to embrace adult education and lifelong learning. Institutions that offer such mode of learning which include the Indira Gandhi National Open University, Islamic Azad University, Anadolu University and Allama Iqbal Open University, have all attained the ‘Mega’ university status with enrolment exceeding 1,000,000 learners. Attrition rate which can be based on completion or graduation rates of their learners is as low as 50 percent to as high as 80 percent. A high rate of attrition is always linked to the learners’ background, which includes their academic and social background, workplace settings, their ability to adapt to the new learning environment as well as their ability to finance their studies. As the cost of attracting learners to an ODL institution is higher than the cost of retaining them, thus the subject of retention has become a widely researched subject until today. At Open University Malaysia, the retention rate is within 69-79 percent among new learners and varies from one faculty to another and also varies for learners from different intakes. Data collected over the last five years revealed that attrition is highest for learners in their first semester as compared to later stages. Thus, several interventions were taken to reach out to new learners to provide support services to engage them actively in learning. Research conducted on 6,141 learners from all over Malaysia throughout a one-year period in 2011 found that early interventions that include face-toface meetings cum Academic Advising sessions conducted by Directors of Learning Centers, have successfully increased the retention rate of first semester learners to 80.1 percent in January 2012. This study is important as early intervention and engagement with new learners will help to improve retention rate and enable an ODL institution to remain sustainable. (abstract by authors

PENERAPAN SISTEM PENILAIAN OTOMATIS PADA JAWABAN TES URAIAN MENGGUNAKAN ALGORITMA RABIN KARP UNTUK MATA PELAJARAN INFORMATIKA DI MA KANJENG SEPUH

Penilaian hasil belajar merupakan faktor yang sangat penting dalam dunia pendidikan, karena terkait dengan pengambilan keputusan atas pencapaian hasil belajar peserta didik setelah mengikuti proses pembelajaran. Penilaian yang berbentuk tes uraian merupakan salah satu teknik yang dapat digunakan dalam proses penilaian hasil belajar. Dalam penerapan penilaian seacara otomatis pada jawaban tes uraian, telah dikembangkan berbagai model dan metode yang bervariasi, salah satunya seperti metode string matching, dan algoritma yang dapat digunakan dalam melakukan prosesnya adalah algoritma Rabin Karp yang merupakan algoritma pencarian string multi pattern yang dikembangkan oleh Michael O. Rabin dan Richard M. Karp pada tahun 1987. Media penilaian otomatis pada jawaban tes uraian dalam penelitian ini menggunakan algoritma Rabin Karp dengan pendekatan Synonym Recognition dan akan dikembangkan dengan metode Research and Development (R&D) model Plomp. Telah dilakukan validasi pada media penilaian otomatis oleh para ahli, dan diperoleh hasil persentase nilai validasi sebesar 90,51% yang dapat dinyatakan bahwa media yang telah dikembangkan sangat valid dan layak untuk diterapkan dalam proses penilaian hasil belajar. Hasil perhitungan akhir nilai peserta didik yang dilakukan secara otomatis memperoleh rata-rata sebesar 76,28 dan untuk hasil penilaian secara manual diperoleh rata-rata sebesar 74,15 yang kemudian akan dilakukan uji reliabilitas dan uji kesepakatan antara kedua hasil nilai pada tiap butir soalnya dengan menggunakan koefisien Cohen’s Kappa dan koefisien intra-class correlation (ICC) yang kemudian didapati hasil uji dengan kategori Low Agreement with High Reliability

Covid-19 and its impact on the Malaysian SMEs

The spread of the first Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Wuhan, China, shocked the whole world at the end of 2019. The World Health Organization (WHO) declared this epidemic a global pandemic for different countries worldwide on March 11, 2020 (Cucinotta & Vanellli, 2020). Due to this, many countries limited the movement of their people and business activities, and large gatherings, including schools, to effectively transmit the disease (Toda, 2020). On March 18, 2020, the Malaysian government had also announced the Movement Control Order (MCO). People of the country were instructed for a 'social distancing' to enable and resolve the spread of COVID-19

Factors that influence the quality of relationship between exporters and foreign intermediaries in relation to SMEs’ export performance

This study aims to investigate factors that influence the relationship quality between Malaysia SMEs exporter and foreign intermediaries. This paper draws insights from two integrating theories such as social capital theory (SCT) and internationalization process (IP) theory to evaluate the synergistic consequences of several constructs such as cultural similarity, effective communication, knowledge sharing and trust on export performance. The model is tested using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) via Smart PLS on a sample of 203 SME exporters in Malaysia. The findings revealed that all hypotheses are supported. The research highlights that cultural similarity is a catalyst in internationalization process and show the mechanism on how cultural similarity can influence effective communication and knowledge sharing thus impetus trust which finally reflect the performance outcomes. The findings extended the application of the underpinning theories and their tenets in explaining the Malaysian SMEs’ export performance use foreign intermediaries

Development of Pre-engineered Geomaterial for Use in Road Embankment and Retaining Structure Backfill

Load reduction effect of using lightweight material in new construction, expansion, rehabilitation or maintenance of transportation facilities provide advantages in term of reduction of total cost, construction time and maintenance work especially in soft ground areas. Lightweight geomaterial composite with controllable geotechnical properties were developed and tested in laboratory. The results indicated that, design mix of the geomaterial composite has significant influence on its strength, elasticity and deformation characteristics. (Authors' abstract

Planning and Implementation of the Bachelor of Education (Engineering) - The Open University Malaysia Experiences

This paper describes the process of designing and developing the curriculum of Bachelor of Education (Engineering) program at Open University Malaysia (OUM