Level of Chemophobia and Relationship with Attitude Towards Chemistry Among Science Students

This study was conducted to investigate the level of chemophobia among science students and their attitude towards chemistry and their relationship. 101 Form 4 and Form 5 respondents were involved. Instrument used in this study was questionnaires comprises of three sections namely demographic background, level of chemophobia (chemistry learning anxiety, chemistry evaluation anxiety and chemicals handling anxiety) and attitude towards chemistry (enjoyment of learning chemistry, enjoyment of conducting laboratory activities, importance of chemistry in life and behavioral tendency to learn chemistry). Research findings showed that chemophobia among science students was at moderate level whereas students' attitude towards chemistry was at high level. Research findings also showed that there was a moderate, negative significant relationship between the three factors of chemophobia with students' attitude towards chemistry. Based on multiple regression analysis, there was a factor in chemophobia (chemistry evaluation anxiety) that showed significant influence with students' attitude towards chemistry. This study implied that chemophobia among students should be overcome so that positive attitude towards chemistry could be instilled and hence, this would lead to the improvement in academic achievement and student's participation in chemistry and science-related field

Digital citizenship skills among undergraduate students in Malaysia: A preliminary study

The purpose of the study was to examine level of digital citizenship skills among undergraduate students at the Sultan Idris Education University, Perak, Malaysia. The study focused on three sub-variables of digital citizenship skills; online wellbeing, online learning and online safety. The paper present report from a questionnaire conducted on 1000 students from nine different faculties. Items for each variable were constructed based on literature highlights related to digital citizenship framework and through experts’ validation. A descriptive statistic was used in determined the level of digital citizenship skills among the undergraduate students. The findings of the study showed that the level of digital citizenship skills of students is at a high level. This study expected to help stakeholders to further emphasize the study of digital citizenship and digital citizenship education in Malaysia in more detail

Kesedaran kitar semula sisa minyak masak dalam kalangan pelajar Sarjana Pendidikan Sains Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Kajian ini dijalankan bagi mengenalpasti tahap pelaksanaan dan kesedaran kitar semula sisa minyak masak dalam kalangan pelajar Sarjana Pendidikan Sains Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. Tahap pelaksanaan dan kesedaran kitar semula sisa minyak masak diukur berdasarkan empat aspek iaitu pengetahuan mengenai kitar semula sisa minyak masak, cara pelupusan sisa minyak masak, budaya pengumpulan sisa minyak masak dan kesedaran menjaga alam sekitar. Kajian ini telah dijalankan bagi mencapai objektif meningkatkan tahap perlaksanaan dan kesedaran terhadap kitar semula sisa minyak masak dalam kalangan pelajar sarjana yang kebanyakannya merupakan guru sekolah. Kajian ini melibatkan 34 responden iaitu pelajar Sarjana Pendidikan Sains. Kajian ini merupakan kajian kualitatif dan data diperoleh berdasarkan temubual dan pengumpulan minyak masak selama 10 minggu. Hasil kajian menunjukkan pengetahuan mengenai kitar semula sisa minyak masak dalam kalangan responden meningkat kepada 91% (mewakili 31 orang) selepas menghadiri kursus Alam Sekitar dan Kelestarian berbanding hanya 38% sahaja (mewakili tiga orang) sebelum menghadiri kursus Alam Sekitar dan Kelestarian. Kebanyakan responden mengetahui kewujudan kitar semula sisa minyak masak semasa mengikuti kursus Alam Sekitar dan Kelestarian. Responden yang mengetahui tentang kewujudan kitar semula sisa minyak masak rataratanya mendapat informasi tersebut daripada internet dan kempen di universiti masing-masing. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan kebanyakan responden melupuskan sisa minyak masak dengan membuang sisa tersebut ke dalam longkang, sinki, tanah dan tong sampah dan hanya 9% responden sahaja yang menghantar sisa minyak masak ke pusat kitar semula

Effects of milling methods on tensile properties of polypropylene / oil palm mesocarp fibre biocomposite

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of milling methods on tensile properties of polypropylene (PP) / oil palm mesocarp fibre (OPMF) biocomposites. Two types of mills were used; Wiley mill (WM) and disc mill (DM). Ground OPMF from each milling process was examined for its particle size distribution and aspect ratio by sieve and microscopic analyses, respectively. Results showed that DM-OPMF had smaller diameter fibre with uniform particle size compared to the WM-OPMF. Surface morphology study by SEM showed that DM-OPMF had rougher surface compared to WM-OPMF. Furthermore, it was found that PP/DM-OPMF biocomposite had higher tensile strength compared to PP/WM-OPMF, with almost two-fold. Thus, it is suggested that small diameter and uniform size fibre may improve stress transfer and surface contact between the fibre and polymer matrix and cause welldispersion of filler throughout the polymer resulted in better tensile strength of PP/DM-OPMF compared to PP/WM-OPMF biocomposite. Overall, it can be concluded that disc milling could serve as a simple and effective grinding method for improving the tensile properties of biocomposite

Superheated steam treatment of oil palm mesocarp fiber improved the properties of fiber-polypropylene biocomposite

The effect of fiber surface modification by superheated steam (SHS) treatment and fiber content (30 to 50 wt.%) was evaluated relative to the mechanical, morphology, thermal, and water absorption properties of oil palm mesocarp fiber (OPMF)/polypropylene (PP) biocomposites. SHS treatment of OPMF was conducted between 190 and 230 C for 1 h, then the SHS-treated fiber was subjected to melt-blending with PP for biocomposite production. The biocomposite prepared from SHS-OPMF treated at 210 C with 30 wt.% fiber loading resulted in SHS-OPMF/PP biocomposites with a tensile strength of 20.5 MPa, 25% higher than untreated-OPMF/PP biocomposites. A significant reduction of water absorption by 31% and an improved thermal stability by 8% at T5%degradation were also recorded. Scanning electron microscopy images of fractured SHS-OPMF/PP biocomposites exhibited less fiber pull-out, indicating that SHS treatment improved interfacial adhesion between fiber and PP. The results demonstrated SHS treatment is an effective surface modification method for biocomposite production

The Effect of Smart Device Usage Among the Undergraduate’s Towards Academic Performance

Almost all students at higher education institutions are now inseparably linked to their smart devices and have become increasingly reliant on them. So, the question of whether these devices can assist them to improve their academic performance or at least gain various benefits that improve the quality of learning through it arises. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine if there a relationship between smart device usage and academic performance among undergraduates’ in Universiti Utara Malaysia. The study employed quantitative method with a cross sectional time horizon and online survey with Google forms. A total of 473 students involved in the study, and the data was analysed using statistical software. The findings reveal there was a relationship between students' use of smart gadgets and their academic performance. Among the examples of such relationships are, addiction to using smart devices causes academic performance can decline. While the sharing of information and communication among students through the utilization of smart devices on the other hand can improve academic performance. Consequently, there are still negative matters related to these smart devices if they are obsessed with it without advisable self-control. So, there may be programs that can be organized by the university to manage this so as not to harm students’ health, social relationships, and weakening their academic achievement

Synthesis and characterisation of chitosan nanoparticle as a potential delivery carrier

Chitosan is a biodegradable, non-toxic polysaccharide that is extensively studied as a biocompatible vector for gene and drug delivery. However, the fabrication of chitosan nanoparticle (CNP) is usually encountered with a wide size distribution and poor particle stability, which unfortunately limits their role for certain biological applications. This study reports the synthesis and characterisation of CNPs under optimised conditions. The CNPs were synthesised via ionic gelation process utilizing tripolyphosphate (TPP) as a cross-linking agent. The particle size and morphology of samples were subsequently evaluated using dynamic light scattering (DLS), electron microscopy and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). Findings arising from this study showed the optimised nanoparticles exhibited spherical shaped CNPs with a size range from 4 to 25nm which lays the foundation for further applications

Comparison of meta-heuristic algorithms for fuzzy modelling of covid-19 illness’ severity classification

The world health organization (WHO) proclaimed the COVID-19, commonly known as the coronavirus disease 2019, was a pandemic in March 2020. When people are in close proximity to one another, the virus spreads mostly through the air. It causes some symptoms in the affected person. COVID-19 symptoms are quite variable, ranging from none to severe sickness. As a result, the fuzzy method is seen favourably as a tool for determining the severity of a person’s COVID-19 sickness. However, when applied to a large situation, manually generating a fuzzy parameter is challenging. This could be because of the identification of a large number of fuzzy parameters. A mechanism, such as an automatic procedure, is consequently required to identify the right fuzzy parameters. The meta-heuristic algorithm is regarded as a viable strategy. Five meta-heuristic algorithms were analyzed and utilized in this article to classify the severity of COVID-19 sickness data. The performance of the five meta-heuristic algorithms was evaluated using the COVID-19 symptoms dataset. The COVID-19 symptom dataset was created in accordance with WHO and the Indian ministry of health and family welfare criteria. The findings provide the average classification accuracy for each approach

Mortality from gastrointestinal congenital anomalies at 264 hospitals in 74 low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries: a multicentre, international, prospective cohort study

Summary Background Congenital anomalies are the fifth leading cause of mortality in children younger than 5 years globally. Many gastrointestinal congenital anomalies are fatal without timely access to neonatal surgical care, but few studies have been done on these conditions in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs). We compared outcomes of the seven most common gastrointestinal congenital anomalies in low-income, middle-income, and high-income countries globally, and identified factors associated with mortality. Methods We did a multicentre, international prospective cohort study of patients younger than 16 years, presenting to hospital for the first time with oesophageal atresia, congenital diaphragmatic hernia, intestinal atresia, gastroschisis, exomphalos, anorectal malformation, and Hirschsprung’s disease. Recruitment was of consecutive patients for a minimum of 1 month between October, 2018, and April, 2019. We collected data on patient demographics, clinical status, interventions, and outcomes using the REDCap platform. Patients were followed up for 30 days after primary intervention, or 30 days after admission if they did not receive an intervention. The primary outcome was all-cause, in-hospital mortality for all conditions combined and each condition individually, stratified by country income status. We did a complete case analysis. Findings We included 3849 patients with 3975 study conditions (560 with oesophageal atresia, 448 with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, 681 with intestinal atresia, 453 with gastroschisis, 325 with exomphalos, 991 with anorectal malformation, and 517 with Hirschsprung’s disease) from 264 hospitals (89 in high-income countries, 166 in middleincome countries, and nine in low-income countries) in 74 countries. Of the 3849 patients, 2231 (58·0%) were male. Median gestational age at birth was 38 weeks (IQR 36–39) and median bodyweight at presentation was 2·8 kg (2·3–3·3). Mortality among all patients was 37 (39·8%) of 93 in low-income countries, 583 (20·4%) of 2860 in middle-income countries, and 50 (5·6%) of 896 in high-income countries (p<0·0001 between all country income groups). Gastroschisis had the greatest difference in mortality between country income strata (nine [90·0%] of ten in lowincome countries, 97 [31·9%] of 304 in middle-income countries, and two [1·4%] of 139 in high-income countries; p≤0·0001 between all country income groups). Factors significantly associated with higher mortality for all patients combined included country income status (low-income vs high-income countries, risk ratio 2·78 [95% CI 1·88–4·11], p<0·0001; middle-income vs high-income countries, 2·11 [1·59–2·79], p<0·0001), sepsis at presentation (1·20 [1·04–1·40], p=0·016), higher American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) score at primary intervention (ASA 4–5 vs ASA 1–2, 1·82 [1·40–2·35], p<0·0001; ASA 3 vs ASA 1–2, 1·58, [1·30–1·92], p<0·0001]), surgical safety checklist not used (1·39 [1·02–1·90], p=0·035), and ventilation or parenteral nutrition unavailable when needed (ventilation 1·96, [1·41–2·71], p=0·0001; parenteral nutrition 1·35, [1·05–1·74], p=0·018). Administration of parenteral nutrition (0·61, [0·47–0·79], p=0·0002) and use of a peripherally inserted central catheter (0·65 [0·50–0·86], p=0·0024) or percutaneous central line (0·69 [0·48–1·00], p=0·049) were associated with lower mortality. Interpretation Unacceptable differences in mortality exist for gastrointestinal congenital anomalies between lowincome, middle-income, and high-income countries. Improving access to quality neonatal surgical care in LMICs will be vital to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 3.2 of ending preventable deaths in neonates and children younger than 5 years by 2030

A comparative study on the learning styles of second year education (Living Skills) students and the teaching styles of their lecturers

Learners’ learning styles are the most important factors in determining how well they learn second language. The success however is very much dependent not only on learner’s learning style but also teacher’s teaching style. However there has always been a mismatch between learners’ learning styles and teacher’s teaching style and therefore language learners do not learn effectively. This research was set out to investigate on the issue and to reveal the learning styles of University Technology Malaysia second year students from Faculty of Education who are majoring in Living Skills as well as the social and surrounding factors that influence their language learning styles and preferences. This study also investigated on the students’ view on their lecturer’s teaching style and consequently the problems that they encountered during the implementation of Advanced English for Academic Communication (UHB 2422) class due to the mismatch of their learning styles and lecturer’s teaching style. A number of 50 UTM students who are majoring in Education (Living Skills) became the respondents and the research instrument used was questionnaire. This research found out that the most preferred learning styles of the students is kinesthetic style while the major factor that influence their learning style is their course and major of study. Most of their lecturers are perceived as having visual teaching style. Out of 50 students, only 6 students have their learning styles matched with their lecturers’ teaching styles. The main problem encountered by the students is they felt drowsy during the class. This study recommended teacher or language instructor to vary their teaching style and match their teaching styles with their learners’ learning styles in order to ensure an effective teaching and learning