ESL students’ online and offline reading strategies: scrolling, clicking, flipping and reading / Izyani Mohamad Zaki, Fauziah Hassan and Abu Bakar Mohamed Razali

In this borderless world, computers and the Internet have become important tools of communication and learning and they have also become an important part of our lives. The opportunity to seek information through the computer has made reading an important language skill. Despite the importance of reading and technology, little research to date has been carried out to compare the reading strategies employed by readers when reading online compared to offline. Such studies are important because awareness of the similarities and differences on the strategies employed between these two modes of learning will enable teachers to help develop students’ reading ability. Hence, this study investigates if there is a difference between online and offline strategies used by second language readers. The participants in this study were ESL undergraduates at a university in Malaysia. The instrument employed was the Survey of Reading Strategies (SORS) (Sheorey and Mokhtari, 2001) and Online Survey of Register Strategies (OSORS) by Anderson (2003). These questionnaires tap three different types of information: global reading strategies, problem solving strategies, and support strategies. The results of the study are discussed in terms of their pedagogical implications in the L2 classroom

The Socio-Economic Performance of the Penan Community at Murum Resettlement Site, Belaga, Sarawak

Murum Resettlement Site (MRS) is one of the government’s programmemes aimed at ensuring a better future for communities impacted by Sarawak’s dam developments. The Penan was the largest community being relocated to MRS in 2013 before the construction of Murum Dam. This relocation programmeme has resulted in various impacts and reactions from those involved. The objective of this study was to examine the socio-economic performance of the Penan community after relocating to MRS. The study was conducted in December 2020 using quantitative and qualitative approaches. Data were collected using questionnaires, in-depth interviews and site observations. A total of 269 head of households and six key informants were interviewed. SPSS software was used to analyze the data collected. Out of 24 aspects that were evaluated, a total of 11 socio-economic aspects were found to have improved well. These aspects were home ownership, household income, property ownership, job opportunities, level of skill and knowledge, educational facilities, electricity supply, road accessibility, communication facilities, religious building and sports/recreation facilities. Two aspects that remained good both before and after transferring to MRS were security and neighborhood relations. The four aspects that were getting worse were land ownership, access to forest resources, clean water source and air quality. The aspects that remained bad either before or after being relocation were saving, investment, level of education, transportation facilities, health facilities, business facilities and organized participation. Overall, the data showed that the families’ economic and social conditions had improved after they moved to the resettlement area. However, the study concluded that there is still room for improvement in terms of fundamental services, such as supplying every household with multiple clean water sources, more accessible healthcare services and better road conditions. Better road access comes with increased business and social activity, which in turn makes it easier for the Penans to find jobs and help to lift them out of poverty

Tensile behaviour for mercerization of single kenaf fiber

A natural fiber including kenaf fibers that reinforce with polymeric composite has increased attention in the manufacturing industries. However, the poor adhesion between fiber and matrix are commonly encountered respectively to their compatibility nature namely hydrophilic and hydrophobic. Therefore, alkaline treatment has introduced to reduce the hydrophilic effect of natural fiber. This paper presents the treatment of single kenaf fibers following tensile test and predicted using analysis of variance (ANOVA). Here, the kenaf fibers were modified using NaOH at different solutions. Then, the single kenaf fiber was performed under ASTM D3379-89 standard. The results showed that kenaf fiber which treats with NaOH solution of 6% significantly offered the outstanding performance of the tensile behaviour

Occupational risk to tuberculosis disease among health care workers in an emergency department hospital

Tuberculosis is known as an occupational hazard for healthcare workers especially in countries with high cases of tuberculosis (TB). There is an increase incidence of tuberculosis among Ministry of Health Workers in Malaysia. The objective of this study is to identify the main risk factor to tuberculosis among health care workers in an Emergency Department of Hospital XYZ. Currently there is no specific tuberculosis prevention program in this health care facility. Employees are usually given a longer sick leave and it will have a huge impact on the department operations. It will also involve an increase in morbidity and mortality cases. This is quantitative and qualitative study where the data is obtained through observation, questionnaires and interviews. The result findings was based on the observation, questionnaires and interviews and was analysed using Risk Assessment Matrix (HIRARC) to find out what are the main factor that caused tuberculosis infection among health care workers. Through the data obtained the main risk factor is the failure to wear PPE while working followed by other factors such as environmental control and administrative control as there is currently no screening done against all health care workers. It has been proven in this study that the main risk factors are PPE usage and followed by other risk factors such as environmental control and administrative control which causes them to tend to get tuberculosis infection

The fabrication of titanium alloy biomedical implants using additive manufacturing: a way forward

A biomedical implant is a man-made transplanted device used to replace missing life structures and support damaged biological hard tissue. The primary goal of these structures is to preserve the anatomical fixation of the human body. Currently, advanced titanium alloys occupy almost half of the market share of implant products however, they still pose concerns such as decreasing osteogenesis during application. This paper presents a review of the role of additive manufacturing (AM) in providing innovative methods for fabricating metallic alloys toward Industrial Revolution 4.0. Initially, an overview of biomedical implants is discussed, followed by an examination of the ability of titanium alloys produced using AM methods. Mechanical properties and other issues relating to the functional application of these biomedical implants are promptly discovered. Further, the effect of bone-implant contact between implants and tissues, which can lead to failure, while advanced methods to improve osteointegration through surface modification of the AM fabricated titanium alloys are also scrutinised

Recent advancement in isolation, processing, characterization and applications of emerging nanocellulose: A review

The emergence of nanocellulose from various natural resources as a promising nanomaterial has been gaining interest for a wide range application. Nanocellulose serves as an excellent candidate since it contributes numerous superior properties and functionalities. In this review, details of the three main nanocellulose categorised: cellulose nanocrystal (CNC), cellulose nanofibril (CNF), and bacterial nanocellulose (BNC) have been described. We focused on the preparation and isolation techniques to produce nanocellulose including alkaline pre-treatment, acid hydrolysis, TEMPO-mediated oxidation, and enzymatic hydrolysis. The surface modification of nanocellulose through esterification, silylation, amidation, phosphorylation, and carboxymethylation to improve the diverse applications has also been reviewed. Some invigorating perspectives on the applications, challenges, and future directions on the relevant issues regarding nanocellulose are also presented

Tensile behaviour of chemical treatment for bamboo epoxy composites

Previous studies proved that mechanical properties of natural fibres reinforced polymer composites are excellent and competent to be utilised in high-tech applications. In contrast, the presence of chemical constituents such as cellulose, lignin, hemicellulose and wax substances in natural fibres preventing them from firmly bind with the polymeric resin and thus, resulted in poor mechanical properties of composites. To overcome this defect, modification of fibre surface was done by chemical treatment. In this study, the effect of 1 %, 2 % and 3 % concentration of sodium hydroxide solution on tensile behaviour of the bamboo reinforced epoxy composite was studied. The result showed that treatment with highest studied concentration significantly influenced the tensile properties of the composite. Thus, indicates that the treatment has done excellent work in modifying the surface of bamboo fibre for better adhesion with epoxy matrix

Thermal degradation and mechanical behavior of banana pseudo-stem reinforced composites

Banana fiber has potential to beutilized in bio-based composite structures due to its low price, abundantly available and biodegradability. However, the performance of this fiber is still not comparable tothe synthetic polymeric system. In this work, the thermal stabilityanalysisand tensile test of optimized banana fiber thatwasinitially evaluated using response surface method wereconducted. The thermal analysisand the tensile testwere conducted using thermogravimetric analyzer and universal testing machinerespectively. It was shown that thebanana fiber content offered an outstanding performance in thermal stability. The highest thermal stability however,was found in neat epoxy resin system. The TG and DTG resultsshowedthe lowest amount of residueoccurredin banana/epoxy composite. The tensile data propertiesrevealed that banana compositeis comparable tosynthetic samples

Evaluation of Cerebral Hemodynamics in Cirrhotic Patients by Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography and its Relation to Hepatic Encephalopathy

The study aimed at Aim evaluation the cerebral hemodynamics in cirrhotic patients by transcranial Doppler ultrasonography and its relation to hepatic encephalopathy. This study is a prospective study , 50 subjects attended El Hussein university hospital, inpatient and outpatient clinic are classified into three groups, group I(10 subjects as a healthy control),group II (20 subjects with liver cirrhosis without hepatic encephalopathy) and group III(20 subjects with liver cirrhosis with hepatic encephalopathy). All patients included in the study underwent a full history taking,complete physical examination, liver functions tests,blood ammonia level,C.B.C,blood urea and serum creatinine and pelvi-abdominal ultarasonography. Transcranial Doppler done for all patients participated in the study using a 2 MHz transducer. The results showed that as regard Trans cranial Doppler ultrasound parameters, we found a statistical significant difference between the three groups as regard Pulsatility Index (P ˂ 0.001), Breath-Holding Index (P ˂ 0.001) ) , Maximum Flow Velocity(P ˂ 0.001) and Mean (P ˂ 0.001), whereas Pulsatility Index, , Maximum Flow Velocity and Mean are higher in patient with Hepatic Encephalopathy, but Breath-holding index is low, there is no statistical significant difference (P > 0.05) between them as regard Minimum Flow Velocity. Conclusion: Transcranial doppler ultrasonography is easy, rapidly done not invasive method for evaluation of cerebral hemodynamic in cirrhotic patient and predection of hepatic encephalopathy. Keywords: Transcranial doppler, Hepatic encephalopathy, Cirrhosis

Tensile properties of jute-polypropylene composites

This paper describes the tensile behaviour of jute-polypropylene fibre composites with different fibre volume fractions. Here, the composite laminates consisting of weaving jute fibres, with the fibre volume percent in the range of 20 to 80 % and polypropylene plies were prepared using hand lamination. The composite laminates were subjected to tensile testing as per ASTM D3039. The experimental results suggested that fibre-to-resin contents have a strong influence on the tensile properties of the composites. There is an increase in the tensile strength and Young's Modulus of the composites with increasing fibre volume fraction. However, upon reaching 60 % of the fibre contents, the tensile properties of the laminate showed a sudden decrease due to stress concentration of the fibre in the laminates. Theoretical models including Rule of Mixture, Halpin-Tsai, Hirsch, and Einstein-Guth models were used to predict the tensile strength of the composites. It was found that the experimental result attained is in close agreement with the values predicted using the rule of mixture model