Tahap Kepuasan Kerja Dalam Kalangan Pensyarah Kolej Vokasional : Level of Job Satisfaction Among Vocational College Lecturers

Kepuasan kerja merujuk kepada perasaan positif atau puas yang dimiliki seseorang terhadap pekerjaannya. Terutamanya, kepuasan kerja pendidik TVET akan memberikan impak kepada pencapaian akademik, penglibatan, dan kesejahteraan pelajar. Maka kajian ini dijalankan untuk mengenalpasti tahap kepuasan kerja para pensyarah TVET di Kolej Vokasional. Seramai 44 orang pensyarah di Kolej Vokasional dari Negeri Sembilan telah terlibat dalam kajian ini. Kajian berbentuk kuantitatif ini menggunakan borang soal selidik yang mengandungi 50 item soalan yang merangkumi lima faktor iaitu keadaan kerja, kedudukan gaji, penyeliaan pengarah, rakan sekerja dan peluang kenaikan pangkat. Data dianalisis menggunakan perisian Statistical Package for Social Science Version 22.0. Hasil kajian mendapati secara keseluruhannya tahap kepuasan kerja pensyarah TVET di Kolej Vokasioanal berada pada tahap sederhana. Faktor rakan sekerja berada pada tahap kepuasan yang tertinggi manakala faktor kenaikan pangkat berada pada tahap kepuasan yang paling rendah. Analisis data juga mendapati bahawa tiada perbezaan yang signifikan antara tahap kepuasan kerja dengan jantina, bidang dan pengalaman bekerja. Untuk meningkatkan kualiti pengajaran dan komitmen para pensyarah, pihak berkepentingan perlu bertindak untuk meningkatkan tahap kepuasan kerja para pensyarah dengan menawarkan lebih banyak peluang kenaikan pangkat kepada mereka. Pada masa yang sama, para pensyarah juga perlu memanfaatkan peluang laluan guru cemerlang untuk peningkatan kerjayanya.     Job satisfaction refers to an employee's positive or contented feelings about his or her work. Significantly, the job satisfaction of TVET educators will impact academic achievement, engagement, and student well-being. Thus, this study aimed to determine job satisfaction among TVET instructors at vocational colleges, which involved 44 lecturers from the Vocational College in Negeri Sembilan. This quantitative study employs 50 questions covering five factors: working conditions, salary, direct supervision, coworkers, and promotion opportunities. The Statistical Package for Social Science Version 22.0 software analysed the data. The study results indicate that overall job satisfaction among TVET instructors at the Vocational College is moderate. The colleague factor is at the highest level of satisfaction, while the promotion opportunities factor is at the lowest level of satisfaction. The data analysis also revealed no significant correlation between job satisfaction and gender, expertise, or years of experience. In order to improve the quality of teaching and the commitment of lecturers, stakeholders need to increase the level of job satisfaction of lecturers by offering them more promotion opportunities. At the same time, the lecturers should take advantage of the excellent teacher pathway opportunities for career advancement

Preparation of immunotoxin herceptin-botulinum and killing effects on two breast cancer cell lines

Background: Worldwide, breast cancer is the most common cancer diagnosed among women and a leading cause of cancer deaths. The age of onset in Iran has become reduced by a decade for unknown reasons. Herceptin, a humanized monoclonal antibody, is a target therapy for breast cancer cells with over expression of HER2-neu receptors, but it is an expensive drug with only 20 beneficial rate of survival. This study introduces a novel approach to enhance the efficacy of this drug through immunoconjugation of the antibody to botulinum toxin. Decreasing the cost and adverse effects of the antibody were secondary goals of this study. Materials and Methods: Botulinum toxin was conjugated with Herceptin using heterobifunctional cross linkers, succinimidyl acetylthiopropionate (SATP) and sulfo-succinimidyl-4-(N-maleimidomethyl) cyclohexane-1-carboxylate (SMCC) according to the supplier's guidelines and tested on two breast cancer cell lines: SK-BR-3 and BT-474. Toxin and Herceptin were also used separately as controls. The cytotoxicity assay was also performed using the new bioconjugate on cultured cells with Alamar blue and a fluorescence plate reader. Results: Herceptin-Toxin bioconjugation significantly improved Herceptin efficacy on both breast cancer cell lines when compared to the control group. Conclusions: Toxin-Herceptin bioconjugation can be a potential candidate with increased efficiency for treating breast cancer patients with over expression of the HER2 receptor

Non-Arrhenius Behavior of Secondary Relaxation in Supercooled Liquids

Dielectric relaxation spectroscopy (1 Hz - 20 GHz) has been performed on supercooled glass-formers from the temperature of glass transition (T_g) up to that of melting. Precise measurements particularly in the frequencies of MHz-order have revealed that the temperature dependences of secondary beta-relaxation times deviate from the Arrhenius relation in well above T_g. Consequently, our results indicate that the beta-process merges into the primary alpha-mode around the melting temperature, and not at the dynamical transition point T which is approximately equal to 1.2 T_g.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, revtex

Repair of rat critical size calvarial defect using osteoblast-like and umbilical vein endothelial cells seeded in gelatin/hydroxyapatite scaffolds

The present study used a previously developed three-dimensional Gelatin/Hydroxyapatite (Gel/HA) homogeneous nanocomposite scaffold with porosity of 82 and interconnecting pores ranging from 300 to 500 μm. Cell-seeded scaffolds were used to evaluate bone regeneration of rat critical-size calvarial defect. Totally, 36 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four experimental groups, including blank defect (defects without any graft), blank scaffold (defects filled with Gel/HA scaffold without cells), and two groups of cell-seeded scaffolds (defects filled with either Gel/HA scaffold seeded with osteoblast-like and endothelial cells or osteoblast-like cell-seeded constructs). After 1, 4, and 12 weeks of scaffold implantation, rats were sacrificed and the calvaria were harvested for histological, immunohistochemical and histomorphometric analysis. In vitro tests showed that scaffolds were nontoxic to cells and promoted ideal cellular attachment. In vivo investigation on scaffold revealed that blank calvarial defects indicated incomplete tissue coverage and little evidence of bone healing. However, blank scaffold and cell-seeded scaffolds significantly promoted osteoconduction and ostegogenesis. Taken together, pre-seeded Gel/HA nanocomposite scaffold with osteoblasts and endothelial cells presented an effective combination to improve osteogenesis in the engineered bone implant. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

A comprehensive review of barriers to a functional Zakat system in Nigeria: what needs to be done?

Purpose: Muslims in Nigeria, like in many Muslim-majority countries, are striving to have a functional Zakat system in search of solutions to the perennial problem of poverty and its damning consequences. Nevertheless, there are still unsettled concerns arising from the current and widespread implementation of dissimilar (diverse) approaches to the Zakat system in various parts of the country. The purpose of this paper is to review comprehensively what are the hindrances of a vibrant Zakat system and how far the identified impediments may affect the system in the Nigerian context.Design/methodology/approach:The methodology adopted is the review of extant relevant literature in the field of scholarly publications.Findings: The findings of this study revealed that the fragmented implementation of the Zakat system within the context of the Nigerian democratic system of government lead to the weak governance with respect to law, administration and management; lack of a generally accepted fatwa from the Muslims scholars (Ulamas); absence of Zakat accounting standard; and low compliance behavior are the major barriers that require the attention of government and other stakeholders such as the traditional leaders, the accounting regulatory bodies, the Ulamas, as well as the economic and accounting researchers.Practical implications: It was recommended that the stakeholders should make concerted efforts toward ensuring success of the Zakat system for attaining salvation in the hereafter and for social security, as well as economic prosperity. Originality/value: The paper is the first paper that comprehensively reviews previous literature in the Zakat environment on factors that become barriers to implement a comprehensive Zakat system in Nigeria