Collaborative barriers among University - Industry - Policy (U-I-P) entities on environmental matters: a case study in Sarawak, Malaysia

Realizing the importance of practicing environmental concern, it is needed to understand the tools used to tackle the issues. In this study, university - industry - policy (U-I-P) entities collaboration is a significant approach that was viewed to be the success factor towards the efforts of tackling environmental issues. Collaboration work, which involves different entities benefit in a way that pushes the entities to move towards shared objectives and goals which is to improve the environmental condition. However, although the significance of U-I-P entities collaboration was known and the linkages among U-I-P entities has started, there are still limited information on the practice of collaboration specifically on the U-I-P entities linkage structures on environmental matters in Sarawak. Thus, there is a need to identify the barriers and success factor in order to develop successful collaboration. This study addressed the gap through a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approaches which the data were collected from 199 respondents based on a face to face interview using structured questionnaires in the major divisions of Sarawak. Drawing from a large scale of study, the study explores the status of collaboration and the barriers of collaboration in Sarawak. Findings indicated that cost, private knowledge and knowledge barrier to be a major hurdle that inhibit the development of collaboration. The assessment suggested that more efforts to increase awareness on collaboration be disseminated

Quantifying Collaboration Level of Sarawak’s University Industry Policy Entities on Environmental Matters

Realizing the importance of practising environmental concern, it is needed to understand the tools used to tackle the issues. Collaboration approach is an effort that unites different entities together in a shared objectives to improve and manage any environmental matters. Although the linkages among the university, industry and policy have started, it offers relatively little information on the level of collaboration specifically on environmental matters so far. Thus, this study seeks to examine the level of linkages among university, industry and policy entities on environmental matters in Sarawak. This study addressed the gap through a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative approaches in which the data was collected based on a face to face interview using structured questionnaires in Sarawak. Drawing from a number of 199 respondents from 199 different entities in Sarawak, the study explores the pattern of collaboration, the level of existing collaboration, and the level of importance of collaboration perceived by the respondents. Findings indicated that the current level of collaboration work among university - industry - policy entities in Sarawak, particularly on environmental matters is at an infant stage and still relatively poor. This assessment suggested that more effort to promote or increase the number of collaborations among these entities in order to tackle and manage environmental issues in the near future

Sport-specific balance ability in Taekwondo practitioners

ABSTRACT Fong SSM, Cheung CKY, Ip JY, Chiu JHN, Lam KLH, Tsang WWN. Sport-specific balance ability in Taekwondo practitioners. J. Hum. Sport Exerc. Vol. 7, No. 2, pp. 520-526, 2012. Taekwondo is a combat sport emphasizing on kicking techniques and dynamic footwork. Specialized balance ability is crucial for Taekwondo practitioners. This study aimed to compare (1) the postural stability during turning, and (2) the forward lunge distance between adolescent TKD practitioners and non-practitioners. Nineteen TKD practitioners (12 males, 7 females; Mean age ± SD: 15.58 ± 1.07 years) and nineteen control participants (13 males, 6 females; Mean age ± SD: 16.21 ± 0.98 years) were recruited in the study. Balance performance was assessed by the Forward Lunge Test and Step/Quick Turn Test with the NeuroCom Balance Master system. Forward lunge distance, turn time and turn sway were measured. TKD practitioners were found to turn faster by 35.37% (p=0.004) and sway less during turning by 15.23% (p=0.034) than non-practitioners. The forward lunge distance in TKD practitioners was 5.67% shorter than that in control participants (p=0.046). This study shows that TKD practitioners might have sport-specific balance ability. The findings of this study inspire the exploration of the longitudinal training effect of TKD so as to develop the evidence base for this exercise option to improve the postural control of adolescents with balance problems

Health-Related Quality of Life Outcomes With Two Different Starting Doses of Lenvatinib in Combination With Everolimus for Previously Treated Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background: Preserving health-related quality of life (HRQOL) is an important goal during renal cell carcinoma treatment. We report HRQOL outcomes from a phase II trial (NCT03173560). Patients and methods: HRQOL data were collected during a multicenter, randomized, open-label phase II study comparing the safety and efficacy of 2 different starting doses of lenvatinib (18 mg vs. 14 mg daily) in combination with everolimus (5 mg daily), following one prior vascular endothelial growth factor-targeted treatment. HRQOL was measured using 3 different instruments-FKSI-DRS, EORTC QLQ-C30, and EQ-5D-3L-which were all secondary endpoints. Change from baseline was assessed using linear mixed-effects models. Deterioration events for time to deterioration (TTD) analyses were defined using established thresholds for minimally important differences in the change from baseline for each scale. TTD for each treatment arm was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results: Baseline characteristics of the 343 participants randomly assigned to 18 mg lenvatinib (n = 171) and 14 mg lenvatinib (n = 172) were well balanced. Least-squares mean estimates for change from baseline were favorable for the 18 mg group over the 14 mg group for the FKSI-DRS and most EORTC QLQ-C30 scales, but differences between treatments did not exceed the minimally important thresholds. Median TTD was longer among participants in the 18 mg group than those in the 14 mg group for most scales. Conclusions: Participants who received an 18 mg lenvatinib starting dose had favorable HRQOL scores and longer TTD on most scales compared with those who received a 14 mg starting dose.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Impact of news announcements and credit rating changes on the Japan premium

We examine how news announcements and credit rating changes affect the 90-day Euroyen TIBOR and Euroyen LIBOR

Sport-specific balance ability in Taekwondo practitioners

Taekwondo is a combat sport emphasizing on kicking techniques and dynamic footwork. Specialized balance ability is crucial for Taekwondo practitioners. This study aimed to compare (1) the postural stability during turning, and (2) the forward lunge distance between adolescent TKD practitioners and non-practitioners. Nineteen TKD practitioners (12 males, 7 females; Mean age ± SD: 15.58 ± 1.07 years) and nineteen control participants (13 males, 6 females; Mean age ± SD: 16.21 ± 0.98 years) were recruited in the study. Balance performance was assessed by the Forward Lunge Test and Step/Quick Turn Test with the NeuroCom Balance Master system. Forward lunge distance, turn time and turn sway were measured. TKD practitioners were found to turn faster by 35.37% (p=0.004) and sway less during turning by 15.23% (p=0.034) than non-practitioners. The forward lunge distance in TKD practitioners was 5.67% shorter than that in control participants (p=0.046). This study shows that TKD practitioners might have sport-specific balance ability. The findings of this study inspire the exploration of the longitudinal training effect of TKD so as to develop the evidence base for this exercise option to improve the postural control of adolescents with balance problems

A STUDY ON RELATIONSHIP AMONG ORGANIZATIONAL TRUST, ORGANIZATIONAL JUSTICE AND ORGANIZATIONAL SPIRITUALITY

ABSTRACT Enterprises must be from angle of human resources management t