The bad guys are using it, are you?

From Occupy Wall Street to 2011 England riots to Arab Spring to Mumbai 26/11 to the ethnic cleansing rumors in India and increasingly used by pedophiles, social media is a very powerful tool for pedophiles, troublemakers, criminals and even terrorists to target individuals and even to go against the establishment. On the other hand, social media can save lives in a disaster, and its a natural extension of community policing or engagement. Community engagement is a must-have strategy for any public safety and security agency. However, this strategy requires the removal of stovepipe processes and systems within an agency, allowing better process integration and information sharing, thereby offering improved services to all stakeholders. Improved information sharing within an agency is also a stepping stone towards cross-agency information sharing. Criminal and terrorist organizations do not follow and do not commit crimes and terrorism based on how public safety and security agencies are structured. They commit crimes based on maximum returns, be they financial ideological or to instill fear. This is why information sharing or intelligence fusion is crucial across agencies especially with more illicit use of technologies and social media by the ‘bad guys’

Light-Weight Digital Receipt System

The sole purpose of this project is to develop a light-weight digital receipt system that can counter the short-comings of the conventional digital receipt system and meet the market expectations desirably. The proposed system mainly focuses on achieving simpler receipt data extraction, leverage the use of server to a third party and eliminate as much cost as possible. The approach proposed is mainly used to counter problems and complications which are found in existing digital system nowadays. The author believes that retrieving receipt data must not necessary be done at the server, but could also be done at the POS system, particularly at the printer point. Besides, the author's proposed digital receipt will not require any reconfiguration processes to be done at retailer's POS system, which retailers will not need to worry for their POS system being modified just to integrate with digital receipt applications. The author will strive to produce a digital receipt system that is very cost-effective as compared to the conventional digital receipt system so that both retailer and customer can afford to use such as technology

A Study of Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence, Academic Achievement and Vocational Choice

This exploratory study looked into the relationship between emotional intelligence and academic achievement among the Form Four students in the Kulim/Bandar Baharu District. Other aspects explored included the correlation between the five dimensions of emotional intelligence (self-awareness, self-regulations, motivation, empathy and social skills) with academic achievement; the investigation of whether there were any significant differences in the mean emotional intelligence score based on the two demographic variables (gender and ethnicity); and the association between emotional intelligence and realism in vocational choice. This research was a quantitative survey carried out on 341 respondents. There were two self-report instruments used to measure emotional intelligence - the EQI (Tapia, 1998) and the EQR (self-developed). Academic achievements were measured by the grades of the Lower Secondary Assessment (PMR) and the grades of the First Semester Examination. Vocational choice was indexed by using the Rothwell-Miller Interest Blank. Findings from the study showed that the two instruments were found to be reliable and valid. There was a significant correlation between emotional intelligence scores and grades of PMR and the grades of the First Semester Examination. All of the five dimensions (self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, motivation and social skills) were found to have significant correlations with grades of the PMR and grades of the First Semester Examination. There were significant differences in the mean emotional intelligence scores when based on ethnic background. However, there was no significant difference in the mean emotional intelligence score according to gender. On realism in vocational choice, the findings were not consistent. The EQI showed an association between emotional intelligence and realism in vocational choice but the EQR did not

The Development Of A Portable Fiber Optic Based Lightning Detector System

This project is to demonstrate the development of a fiber optic based lightning detector system using a programmable logic controller. Basically, the project is developed to collect the lightning profiles. It is able to detect the lightning flash and store the lightning data as well as the time of occurrences into a programmable logic controller. It is capable of detecting the cloud to ground lightning, intercloud lightning, intercloud lightning and others. The data could be retrieved and viewed through the personal computer (PC) as desired. Two sections are taken into consideration for the whole system design. These sections are hardware and software design. The system hardware consists of 4 main parts. They include a sensing unit, a data transmission unit, a signal conditioning unit and a data storage unit. Most of the hardware involves circuitry designs. Based on the designs, printed circuit boards (PCBs) are constructed by using the electronics application software (PROTEL). On the other hand, the system software design is a program, which is written in ladder logic programming. The software is designed for the purpose of handling and organizing the incoming lightning data into PLC or data logger. This project was tested in 2 modes. One of the modes is the testing of the individual parts of the project. The other mode is the testing of the integration of all parts of the project, which is including software and hardware system. In individual part testing, each of the circuits was tested separately. The voltage is fed manually into the circuits for testing their performance and functionality. The software design is tested without integrating with the hardware system. In the integration testing, the hardware and the software have been combined or integrated. The project is tested and justified under the real condition of detecting lightning. Both of the testing has proven that the invention is working properly and successfully

Misconceptions in the teaching of chemistry in secondary schools in Singapore & Malaysia

Misconceptions are erroneous perceptions of what is universally accepted as physical laws that have been experimentally tested to date. There are many sources of misconceptions in the teaching of Chemistry and the origins of some of these misconceptions are discussed with reference to Malaysian and Singapore students. Surveys on students in the form of questionnaires, and Chemistry teachers having to conduct microteaching sessions with peer evaluations, have been shown to be effective tools in identifying some misconceptions among students and teachers. Many of these misconceptions are common with students of Chemistry world-wide arising mainly from text books and our general perceptions of things through multi media. Surveys in the form of questionnaires and micro-teach have been conducted to identify both students? and teachers? perceptions. Some of these misconceptions identified are derived from peers, family members within our different ethnicity and cultures. This is particularly important in this region of the world where there is so much diversity in language and culture. Malaysia, for example, has used English as the medium of instruction, reverted to Bahasa Malaysia and back again to English in the teaching of Science. This will invariably bring about a shift of conceptual visualization as we change from one language to another. The surveys also highlighted the importance of peer evaluation in an attempt to make teachers more aware of their misconceptions. The paper is by no means exhaustive and hopes to provide a general guideline for teachers of Chemistry in the region, to be aware of such misconceptions during their teaching of the subject

Examining the effect of oil price pass-through on the domestic prices: asymmetric versus symmetric adjustment modelling

We study the effect of oil price pass-through on the domestic prices, namely on the consumer price index (CPI) and producer price index (PPI), based on the asymmetric adjustment modelling approach. The behaviour of domestic prices in response to oil price changes was examined by comparing two groups of economies, namely the oil-importing versus oil-exporting countries. The results show that although the oil price has a significant influence on the domestic price inflation in the short-run and in the long-run for most of the oil-importers and oil-exporters, it is not the main factor affecting CPI and PPI inflation. Moreover, oil price inflation seems to trigger a higher impact on PPI inflation than CPI inflation. The pass-through of oil prices on CPI inflation is low, especially in the oil-importing countries while the main determinant of CPI and PPI inflation is gross domestic product (GDP). The results are found to hold for both groups of countries

The association between chronic severe pain and neuroticism personality trait among patients on methadone maintenance therapy in Alor Star, Kedah

Pain is very commonly reported among previous heroin users on methadone maintenance therapy (MMT) with the prevalence of chronic severe pain (CSP) of 37-48.2% being reported. The symptom causes distress and disability, and adversely affect patients’ quality of life, addiction treatment outcome and exacerbates their ambivalence towards MMT. In general, neuroticism personality trait has been shown by various studies to be associated with CSP, but similar association has yet been explored in MMT patients.Current study aim to assess the prevalence of CSP among patients on MMT, and to examine whether neuroticism is significantly associated with CSP in this group of patients.This is a cross-sectional study, utilizing validated Malay versions of Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) for pain measurement, Big Five Inventory (BFI) to measure neuroticism, Beck’s Depression Inventory (BDI) for measurement of depressive symptoms, and Beck’s Anxiety Inventory (BAI) for measurement of anxiety symptoms. All rating instruments mentioned are self-rated instruments. Sample size is determined using proper sample size calculation, and universal sampling method is applied for subject recruitment. Samples were collected from two MMT centres in Alor Star. By using Multiple Logistic Regression analyses, Neuroticism score (p<0.001), BAI score (p<0.012) and regular use of over-the-counter analgesics (p<0.016) were found to be statistically significant in association with CSP, with adjusted Odds Ratio of 1.60 (95% CI 1.27, 2.12), 1.44 (95% CI 1.08, 1.93), and 3.56 (95% CI 1.27, 10.01), respectively. Multicollinearity was not detected. However, interaction was noted between neuroticism score and BAI score (p=0.028). Hence, the interaction was included into the analysis of fitness of final model. The fitness of this final model was confirmed using Hosmer-Lemeshow test (p=0.282), classification table (overall correctly classified percentage= 83.4%), and area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve test (87.9%). It was interesting to note that the prevalent of daily usage of kratom product was over 40% in the sample. Neuroticism score is positively associated with CSP among patients on MMT, whereby with every one point increment in neuroticism score, there is 60% higher odds of having CSP. Though it is tempting to conclude that high neuroticism score predict CSP development among patient on MMT, the author recognizes the limitations of current cross-sectional study design in establishing the nature of the association. Other significant associative factors are BAI score and regular use of over-the-counter analgesics. For every one point increment in BAI score, there is 44% higher odds of patient having CSP; and if an MMT patient use OTC analgesics for at least 3 times a week, the odds of having CSP is 3.6 times compared to those not using OTC regularly. The results suggest that, firstly, addressing anxiety in patient might help to improve CSP, and unaddressed anxiety in patient with chronic pain might in fact adversely affect the efficacy of chronic pain intervention and MMT outcome. Besides, the strong association between OTC analgesics usage and CSP suggested that when CSP among this group of patients was not adequately addressed, patient resorted to OTC analgesics to relieve their pain. OTC use as a way of self-medication was reported by studies to be common, and the practice actually exposes the patients to adverse drug reactions, which is avoidable. In the case of MMT, drug-to-drug interaction of methadone with OTC analgesics could be fatal. Over 40% of the study subjects reported use of kratom product daily. Though its association with CSP was not statistically significant, its implication to our MMT patients cannot be ignored, as kratom has been increasingly reported locally, as well as globally, as an emerging illicit substance with high abuse potential

Light-Weight Digital Receipt System

The sole purpose of this project is to develop a light-weight digital receipt system that can counter the short-comings of the conventional digital receipt system and meet the market expectations desirably. The proposed system mainly focuses on achieving simpler receipt data extraction, leverage the use of server to a third party and eliminate as much cost as possible. The approach proposed is mainly used to counter problems and complications which are found in existing digital system nowadays. The author believes that retrieving receipt data must not necessary be done at the server, but could also be done at the POS system, particularly at the printer point. Besides, the author's proposed digital receipt will not require any reconfiguration processes to be done at retailer's POS system, which retailers will not need to worry for their POS system being modified just to integrate with digital receipt applications. The author will strive to produce a digital receipt system that is very cost-effective as compared to the conventional digital receipt system so that both retailer and customer can afford to use such as technology

Nutritional aspect of pediatric inflammatory bowel disease: its clinical importance

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disease mainly affecting the gastrointestinal tract. The incidence of the disease is rapidly increasing worldwide, and a number of patients are diagnosed during their childhood or adolescence. Aside from controlling the gastrointestinal symptoms, nutritional aspects such as growth, bone mineral density, anemia, micronutrient deficiency, hair loss, and diet should also be closely monitored and managed by the pediatric IBD team especially since the patients are in the development phase