Socialization of ethnic identity and its consequence in the form of polarization among youth in Malaysia.

Proses pembentukan identiti mempengaruhi hubungan etnik. Dalam konteks hubungan etnik di kalangan belia yang menuntut di universiti awam Malaysia, pembentukan identiti etnik telah menyebabkan berlakunya polarisasi. Kajian-kajian menunjukkan belia tersebut memilih rakan sebilik, rakan tugasan dan teman untuk duduk bersama ketika kuliah dengan berpandukan factor etnik. Bagi memahami permasalahan ini, kertas kerja ini menganalisis peranan sosialisasi dalam pembentukan identiti social dan kaitannya dengan polarisasi kaum di kalangan belia di university. Tahap intensity polarisasi dibincangkan dengan mendalami kajian-kajian lepas yang mengkaji fenomena polarisasi kaum di kalangan penuntut universiti awam. Selain itu, peranan biologi dalam pembentukan identiti akan juga dianalisis. Hubungan dialektik antara peranan struktur social (structural) dan tindakan individu (action) dalam pembentukan identiti etnik juga dihuraikan bagi menerangkan bagaimana perkaitan antara mereka boleh menghasilkan polarisasi etnik di kalangan belia universiti awam Malaysia

Chambers of commerce and Chinese business enterprise in Malaysia

The paper deals with the role of the Associated Chinese Chambers of Commerce and Industries of Malaysia (ACCCIM) that represents 17 constituent members located separately in the 13 states of the nation. It will examine how ACCCIM attempts constantly to enhance and create a favourable environment for enterprise development for the Chinese business community. The paper will analyse the intensity of ACCCIM in fostering better domestic business opportunities through joint ventures that involve other ethnic groups in the multiracial and multicultural context of Malaysia and to exert its influence on state economic policies. Its role in assisting the Chinese business community to expand their markets by various means and in weathering the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis and the current global financial crisis will be discussed

Optimization of concentrating process using rotary vacuum evaporation for pineapple juice

Pineapple juice has high water content which limits the storage duration and increases the transportation cost. This work was aimed to optimize the concentrating process of pineapple juice using a rotary vacuum evaporation statistically. The concentrating process was varied at temperatures (50–70 °C) and time (30–120 min) at the fixed pressure, 200 mbar in 13 experimental runs. The results found that rotary vacuum evaporation was able to reduce 44.3 % water content and increase total sugar content from 7.70 to 14.65 °Brix. The significant increment of total acidity from 4.43 to 10.91 g/100 mL could be due to the presence of citric acid and other organic acids in concentrated pineapple juice. The browning index of concentrated juice was also increased from 0.101 to 0.344 with the formation of hydroxymethylfurfural (1.55 mg/mL) as byproduct. Hydroxymethylfurfural is a carcinogenic substance which usually produced automatically in carbohydrate rich foods during thermal processing. Nevertheless, the content of hydroxymethylfurfural is still far below the permittable limit of 40 mg/kg as specified for table honey. Based on the response surface methodology, the optimized concentrating parameters were 60 °C for 75 min at 200 mBar using a central composite design

Settling down spiritually: Chinese Malaysian's worship of Datuk Gong

When the Chinese migrated to Malaya en masse in the 19th century, they brought along with them their religious belief. Many aspects of the Chinese Religion are still maintained and practiced by the Chinese in Malaysia today. However, after years of interaction with people from other ethnic origins in Malaysia, the Chinese has synthesized local elements into their belief system. Empirically, the worship of Datuk Gong is one of them. The worship originated from the Datuk Keramat cult, which was popular among the Malays in Malaysia. This paper attempts to explain why the Chinese in Malaysia accepted local elements such as the worship of Datuk Keramat into their religion and the meaning of such acceptance. When the Chinese Malaysian transfigured certain elements found in their religion to accept the concept of Datuk Keramat, it shows their long-term commitment to make Malaysia their home. In order to achieve these objectives, observations and interviews at ten Datuk Gong temples in Peninsular Malaysia were made to collect relevant data. Data gathered shows the Chinese have transfigured their religious practice to facilitate their adaptation to live in a country, which was once foreign to them

Sociological theory of race and ethnicity: contesting, substituting or complementing?

Issues, related to race and ethnicity, have always attracted attention from many. Throughout the development of sociology, many theories have been developed to explain these phenomena. Most of the time, however, the theories are read as contesting each other. Similarly, argument was laid out as though the theories are contesting to explain the truth of race and ethnicity. Readers have also contributed to the contest. In fact, it is the readers who, most of the time, categorize the theories they read into school of thought and consequently the theories are contesting at least from the readers’ perspective. The theories are also seen as trying to substitute each other, either from the theoreticians’ point of view or from the readers’ point of view. Maybe it is through these contests and the urge to substitute, more and more theories are constructed to explain race and ethnicity. However, instead of contesting and substituting, the theories should also be read as complementing. Sociology is a field that enables society to be understood. Theories related to race and ethnicity should be stitched together to provide the big picture which ultimately leads readers to understand race and ethnicity phenomena. Therefore, this paper focuses on the thoughts of three social analysts, viz., Banton, Geertz and Eriksen. Their contributions to the understanding of race and ethnicity are immense and have never failed to generate discussions and development relating to these areas. By studying and laying out their ideas in complimenting nature, the big picture of what is race and ethnicity could be developed. The big picture is vital and will give significant input to the understanding of issues related to race and ethnicity, particularly in the plural societies such as Malaysia

Employment Seeking Under Consideration of Social Capital on Social Network Sites

This paper presents a model to measure the social capital of individuals seeking employment. The paper will explain the dimensions, which are used to measure social capital and gives an overview about the influence of social capital for the employment search process. Further define the paper the population for the research and will explain the hypotheses to evaluate the existence of social capital on social network sites. The interest for the scientific community is the existence of social capital in social networking sites and to explain, along the social capital theory the behavior of people on social network sites if possible. This paper describes the construct for measuring social capital with relation to the employment search process. Furthermore the paper describes the channels through which to identify available employment opportunities and explain the changes of social capital under the consideration of social network sites and social media. The paper is the theoretical basis to test the functionality of social capital in social networking sites

Natural and Consequence of Tourism Industry’s Susceptibility to Natural Disaster : A Conceptual Framework using Input-Output Model

Tourism business plays an important role in developing a region’s economy. Most of the operators are small businesses and are highly vulnerable to disaster. On top of bearing the direct loss such as personal asset damages, impacted and adjacent communities are concerned of the possibility of losing their jobs and future incomes due to business interruption between the primary and secondary industries. The government’s receipts of tax revenue would be disrupted as well. Despite recognition of indirect losses, the disaster literature’s focus had been on estimating the direct damages to local residents. Literature that studied impacts on the business community tended to focus on those that originated from the disruption in the economic system – such as economic recession rather than environmental disaster. Compared to direct losses, indirect losses are more difficult to estimate because of the complex task in obtaining relevant data to measure the multiplier impact, especially in smaller regions. This study extended the literature by highlighting a way to measure the indirect effects of natural disasters on the tourism and secondary industries and its local and adjoining communities. This study hopefully could contribute to a better understanding – by tourism industry analysts as well as public officials – of the trail of economic effects and its implications of carrying or not to carry-out restoration work

From compliance to adherence and concordance, what quantitative and qualitative studies have synthesized?

Poor adherence has long been identified as the major health challenge in the prevention and treatment of chronic diseases. The purpose of the present study is to provide a critical review on the revolution of the “compliance” concepts from compliance to adherence and concordance to both pharmacological and non-pharmacological therapies. Hence, the present study attempts to provide an update of the possible factors related to adherence by incorporating findings from both qualitative and quantitative studies with respect to various chronic conditions regardless of their causes. A comprehensive literature search was performed using online databases from Library of University Putra Malaysia, and Pub Med based on the keywords. From the present studies, the findings showed that both quantitative and qualitative studies cannot be neglected in assessing adherence and its related problems. One of major findings from the present review is that “compliance” was no more suitable for current treatments and it is important to defined concepts of the terms used (adherence or concordance) correctly and clearly. The problems of definition or concepts of the terms used further affects the measurements and the results of the studies. It should be noted that the measurements and findings of the studies reviewed reflected that researchers placed great value on medication adherence, but have little attention to the non-pharmacological aspect of adherence. Since medications is not the only way of treatments for many chronic diseases and many patients resisted to take medications due to the strong negative image of medications, non-pharmacological treatments like lifestyle modifications seems to be more natural way of treatments. This may be one of the vital factor of why little progress of patients’ adherence to treatments throughout these three decades. There were three general factors related to adherence to treatments, namely socio-economic factor, treatments-related factor and disease-related factor. The findings showed that both qualitative and quantitative studies found consistent results for most of the factors, except the experience of diseases symptoms. Factors identified in the qualitative studies provides a better understanding on patients’ adherence to treatments regardless of illnesses, but more quantitative studies with a representative sample and valid instruments are in need to clarify these factors. Both study designs contribute important values to the adherence studies. Hence, it is suggested that future studies should not only consider qualitative study but also quantitative studies

Hydrothermal Treatment of Palm Oil Mill Effluent (POME) under Oxidative and Non-oxidative Conditions

The performances of oxidative (OHT) and non-oxidative (NOHT) subcritical hydrothermal treatments of palm oil mill effluent (POME) were investigated. The experiments were performed in a pressurised 500 mL-autoclave at different temperature (493 K – 533 K) and reaction time (2 h – 8 h). At 533 K and 8 h, the OHT reaction showed the highest removals of 5-day biochemical oxygen demand (BOD5) and chemical oxygen demand (COD), recording 87.30% and 71.23% respectively, with the pH of liquid product attained 6.5 from an initial value of 3.5. The reduction of COD and BOD5 in NOHT was lower than that in OHT, which were 61.43% and 68.02%, respectively. The mechanism of OHT reaction was via the free radical's pathway. In contrast, the organic compounds originally present in POME degraded into water-soluble products, accompanied by deoxygenation that consisted of decarboxylation and dehydration during the NOHT

Recurrent ovarian torsion in a premenarchal girl

A 10-year-old girl presented with a recurrence of left ovarian torsion where she presented with intermittent left sided abdominal pain for 2 days. She had a similar presentation occuring 1 month ago. The patient underwent successful ovarian salvage with laparoscopic left ovary detorsion and bilateral oophoropexy 5 hours after presentation. Tumour markers were not raised. Intraoperative incisional ovarian biopsy showed no evidence of malignancy. Ovarian torsion is a rare gynaecological emergency in children with nonspecific symptoms. Early recognition and surgery are important to prevent ovarian necrosis. The presentation of acute onset unilateral abdominal pain on the background of a similar previous presentation should alert the clinician of this diagnosis. Although ovarian torsions occur more commonly in the presence of adnexal masses more than 5cm in size, it can also occur in normal ovaries especially in the premenarchal age group. Laparoscopic detorsion is the treatment of choice with oophoropexy a feasible option for prevention of a recurrence. Close follow up with ovarian surveillance is required to ensure resolution of ovarian enlargement