Green and Sustainable Development for TVET in Asia

Green paradigm is emerging in Asia. In order to achieve sustainability, embracing green paradigm is critical. The growing significance of sustainability is having a major impact on business, industry, and society as a whole. Hence, preparing the future workforce for the coming green economy is a challenging task for many Asian countries especially in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the post-2015 agenda. As a ground work, transforming TVET in Asia to meet the challenges of the green economy for the purpose of sustainability should begin now. The aim of this paper is to map the sustainable development in terms of green mindset, lifestyle, economy, education, training, employability and sustainability in selected Asian countries. A country's quantum leap or leap-frogging in sustainable economy is dependent of its transformation of human resources especially in TVET sector. Thus, TVET should be transformed to fit the requirements of the sustainable green paradigm. The results posit the country's policies, best practices, and challenges toward green economy in order to achieve sustainable development. Finally, the implication of green paradigm on TVET system in selected countries in the Asia Pacific will be discussed

Mutual coupling reduction and pattern error correction in a 5G beamforming linear array using CSRR

A four-element printed antenna array operating at 25 GHz frequency with complementary split ring resonator. (CSRR) has been proposed for beamforming applications. The CSRR elements has been used to suppress the mutual coupling in the proposed array. The existence of the CSRR configuration in antenna array, controls the unnecessary surface current flow between the array elements, thus the mutual coupling between array elements has been significantly reduced up to -55 dB. The effect of mutual coupling on the array radiation patterns has been studied in the presence and absence of CSRRs. The effectiveness of CSRR has been studied by steering the main beam as well as the nulls in different angles. By implementing the CSRR elements in array antenna, the distorted array patterns have been recovered and are presented. The proposed antenna array with the CSRR has the advantage of easy and low-cost fabrication and it offers excellent coupling suppression without changing the antenna profile. The commercially available simulation tools such as Matlab and Ansys HFSS have been used for array weights calculation and antenna design respectively. Finally, the fabricated prototype has been experimentally verified, and it shows that the analytical and computed results agree well with the measured results

A Profile Analysis of Potential Investors in Ireit Waqf Investment Products

The objective of this study is to provide a profile analysis of potential investors in iREIT as an instrument for waqf asset development. By adopting a survey questionnaire approach, a total of 365 respondents participated in the survey, which assessed information pertaining to the understanding of iREIT as an investment instrument, level of acceptance towards the idea of its introduction in the context of waqf, the medium of promotion and collection that they most prefer, the suitable price, and the unique features that they agreed to have in this hybrid iREIT. The results suggest that majority of the respondents are interested to participate as investors rather than donors, indicating that greater amount of funds can be tapped from the issuance of the iREITs waqf if these preferences of the investors are given priority. Findings of this study would assist in the formulation of an innovative investment structure based on iREIT waqf that is both practical and appealing to the widest pool of investors, and further contribute towards the development of the waqf sector.     Keywords: Waqf, iREITs, investment, profiling, Islamic financ

Complementary split ring resonator for isolation enhancement in 5G communication antenna array

A square-shaped complementary split ring resonator (CSRR) filtering structure for isolation improvement is presented in this paper. The proposed research work investigates the design and development of a simple and compact CSRR structure. In order to verify the performance of the proposed filtering element and improve the isolation among the closely placed antenna elements, arrays of configured CSRR structures are implemented between two antenna elements. An array of configured CSRR elements has been integrated with the printed antenna on the top and bottom layers. The proposed filtering elements offer an enhancement in isolation by 25 dB as compared to the simple array. The entire configuration has been simulated using the Ansoft HFSS simulator. Finally, the proposed design is fabricated and experimentally validated. In the experiment, coupling suppression of -51 dB at the operating frequency is successfully achieved, resulting in a recovery of the array pattern. The proposed antenna is highly efficient, which is suitable to be utilized for 5G communication

Environmental Factors and Students\u27 Learning Approaches: a Survey on Malaysian Polytechnics Students

Several studies have shown the impact of environmental factors on student learning approaches. Despite the importance of such studies, studies on technical learners are few. Thus, this study aimed to determine the influence of learning environment on Polytechnics students\u27 learning approaches in Malaysia. Learning environment plays an important role in the cognitive, effective and social domains of students because it could improve students\u27 learning outcomes. Learning approaches refer to the ways students deal with academic tasks that are related to learning outcomes. This study used Course Experience Questionnaire (CEQ) and Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (RSPQ-2F) to collect the research data. Data were analyzed using AMOS Version 18. Multiple regressions were conducted to predict learning environment factors that influenced the level of students\u27 learning approaches. The result shows that effective teaching is a major factor that influences students\u27 deep approach followed by the assessment, learning resources and clear objectives

The Efficiency of Trading Halts; Evidence from Bursa Malaysia

This paper undertakes a comprehensive evaluation of the efficacy of firm-specific trading halts in the Malaysian context. The paper examines a total of 291 trading halts that occurred over the five year period 2000 to 2004. In addition to examining the three variables commonly impacted by trading halts, stock price reaction, volatility of returns and trading volume, we also examine four additional parameters that could have material impact. These are (i) the type of halt whether voluntary or mandatory, (ii) type of news released, (iii) duration of halt and (iv) frequency. Based on our overall sample, trading halts result in a positive price reaction, increased volume and volatility. We find evidence of information leakage, significant difference between voluntary and mandatory halts and the type of news released during halt to have a huge impact. The duration of halt has isolated impact and is largely inconsequential. The frequency of halts does not seem to matter. While these results broadly conform with previous studies of trading halts in other markets, our refined analysis by subcategory showed some interesting differences. The two key differences were the significantly positive price reaction for the sample of mandatory halts and the lower volatility for voluntary halts. We attribute the positive price reaction of mandatory halts to the peculiarity of regulation and the resulting survivor bias. We argue that the lower volatility for voluntary halts particularly for those in the good news category, imply that these stocks are being repriced. With the exception of some subsets, our overall results appear to be strongly supportive of The Price Efficiency hypothesis of trading halts which argues that trading halts help disseminate information and enhance the price discovery process

Development of polymeric nanocomposite (Xyloglucan-co-Methacrylic acid/Hydroxyapatite/SiO 2 ) scaffold for bone tissue engineering applications—In-vitro antibacterial, cytotoxicity and cell culture evaluation

Advancement and innovation in bone regeneration, specifically polymeric composite scaffolds, are of high significance for the treatment of bone defects. Xyloglucan (XG) is a polysaccharide biopolymer having a wide variety of regenerative tissue therapeutic applications due to its biocompatibility, in-vitro degradation and cytocompatibility. Current research is focused on the fabrication of polymeric bioactive scaffolds by freeze drying method for nanocomposite materials. The nanocomposite materials have been synthesized from free radical polymerization using n-SiO2 and n-HAp XG and Methacrylic acid (MAAc). Functional group analysis, crystallinity and surface morphology were investigated by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) techniques, respectively. These bioactive polymeric scaffolds presented interconnected and well-organized porous morphology, controlled precisely by substantial ratios of n-SiO2. The swelling analysis was also performed in different media at varying temperatures (27, 37 and 47 °C) and the mechanical behavior of the dried scaffolds is also investigated. Antibacterial activities of these scaffolds were conducted against pathogenic gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Besides, the biological behavior of these scaffolds was evaluated by the Neutral Red dye assay against the MC3T3-E1 cell line. The scaffolds showed interesting properties for bone tissue engineering, including porosity with substantial mechanical strength, biodegradability, biocompatibility and cytocompatibility behavior. The reported polymeric bioactive scaffolds can be aspirant biomaterials for bone tissue engineering to regenerate defecated bone

TCP Performance And Throughput Fairness Optimization In A Multi-Hop Pipeline Network

Node starvation wireless sensor network (WSN) is a critical factor that affects the overall performance in a typical multi-hop linear network especially in an extensive scale network. The unfairness of sharing network resources with all source nodes in a multi-hop linear network amplifies the node starvation that often results in passive nodes in a network. This factor becomes critical with the increasing network density, aggressive data transfer, single destination node and inadequate data scheduling. This paper highlights the Delayed acknowledgement timeout for flat one-tier throughput critical application model (DAT-FTCAM) a mathematical fairness model that ensure maximum throughput fairness for pipeline network scenario. The DAT-FTCAM enables the users to calculate the maximum delayed acknowledgement timeout for transmission control protocol (TCP) proportional to the travel time or difference between a source and a destination node. The implementation of DAT-FTCAM technique with modified TCP parameters on NS2 has revealed a network fairness index of above 0.99 with optimum network performance in a scalable pipeline network. The DAT-FTCAM decreases data packet collision and eliminates passive nodes in a pipeline network with optimum throughput fairnes

Author Correction:C16orf72/HAPSTR1/TAPR1 functions with BRCA1/Senataxin to modulate replication-associated R-loops and confer resistance to PARP disruption

Correction to: Nature Communications https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-40779-9, published online 17 August 2023

Repositioning of the global epicentre of non-optimal cholesterol

High blood cholesterol is typically considered a feature of wealthy western countries1,2. However, dietary and behavioural determinants of blood cholesterol are changing rapidly throughout the world3 and countries are using lipid-lowering medications at varying rates. These changes can have distinct effects on the levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol and non-HDL cholesterol, which have different effects on human health4,5. However, the trends of HDL and non-HDL cholesterol levels over time have not been previously reported in a global analysis. Here we pooled 1,127 population-based studies that measured blood lipids in 102.6 million individuals aged 18 years and older to estimate trends from 1980 to 2018 in mean total, non-HDL and HDL cholesterol levels for 200 countries. Globally, there was little change in total or non-HDL cholesterol from 1980 to 2018. This was a net effect of increases in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreases in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe. As a result, countries with the highest level of non-HDL cholesterol—which is a marker of cardiovascular risk—changed from those in western Europe such as Belgium, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Malta in 1980 to those in Asia and the Pacific, such as Tokelau, Malaysia, The Philippines and Thailand. In 2017, high non-HDL cholesterol was responsible for an estimated 3.9 million (95% credible interval 3.7 million–4.2 million) worldwide deaths, half of which occurred in east, southeast and south Asia. The global repositioning of lipid-related risk, with non-optimal cholesterol shifting from a distinct feature of high-income countries in northwestern Europe, north America and Australasia to one that affects countries in east and southeast Asia and Oceania should motivate the use of population-based policies and personal interventions to improve nutrition and enhance access to treatment throughout the world