Developing ethical guidelines for positive psychology practice: An on-going, iterative, collaborative endeavour

As positive psychology has developed as a field, questions have arisen around how to ensure best practice, including with respect to ethics. This issue is particularly pertinent vis-à-vis its applied dimensions, such as positive psychology interventions by students and graduates of MAPP programmes. However, the field has hitherto lacked clear ethical guidelines to assist practitioners. Aiming to address this gap, the authors have devised a set of guidelines, in collaboration with key stakeholders across the positive psychology community, published in the International Journal of Wellbeing. The current article briefly summarises the importance, development, content, and future directions of these guidelines, thus providing a concise overview of this important project. It is hoped that this article, together with the guidelines themselves, will not only highlight the importance of ethical practice, but offer practical suggestions for guiding practitioners in the field

Relationship Between the Selected Factors with Entrepreneurial Career Aspirations Among Students of Community Colleges in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to identify the relationship between the selected factors and the entrepreneurial career aspirations among the community college students in Malaysia. The selected factors are attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norms, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, and entrepreneurial exposure. A total of 280 students from 8 community colleges in the selected states were chosen to participate in this study. Cluster random sampling was applied in selecting the samples. After the data cleaning process, 265 usable responses were used for analysis. Pearson correlation analysis was used to identify the relationship between the selected factors with entrepreneurial career aspirations. The findings in this study indicated that there is a significant positive relationship between attitude toward entrepreneurship (r = 0.597, p < 0.01), subjective norm (r = 0.327, p < 0.01), entrepreneurial self-efficacy (r = 0.362, p < 0.01), and entrepreneurial exposure (r = 0.263, p < 0.01) with entrepreneurial career aspirations. Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that the attitude toward entrepreneurship is the main factor motivating students to pursue entrepreneurial career. Through the findings, the practitioners are recommended to advocate the benefits and outcomes of entrepreneurship in order to encourage students to pursue entrepreneurial career.     Keywords: entrepreneurial career aspirations, attitude toward entrepreneurship, subjective norm, entrepreneurial self-efficacy, entrepreneurial exposure, technical and vocational education and training (TVET

Patient and Public Involvement in the Development of Healthcare Guidance: An Overview of Current Methods and Future Challenges

Clinical guidelines and health technology assessments are valuable instruments to improve the quality of healthcare delivery and aim to integrate the best available evidence with real-world, expert context. The role of patient and public involvement in their development has grown in recent decades, and this article considers the international literature exploring aspects of this participation, including the integration of experiential and scientific knowledge, recruitment strategies, models of involvement, stages of involvement, and methods of evaluation. These developments have been underpinned by the parallel rise of public involvement and evidence-based medicine as important concepts in health policy. Improving the recruitment of guideline group chairs, widening evidence reviews to include patient preference studies, adapting guidance presentation to highlight patient preference points and providing clearer instructions on how patient organisations can submit their intelligence are emerging proposals that may further enhance patient and public involvement in their processes

Ethnobotanical studies on Berberis aristata DC. root extracts

The aqueous and alcoholic extract of fresh Berberis aristata DC roots, as well as aqueous extract of dried roots were compared for their antibacterial and antifungal activities by the disc diffusion method.All three extracts showed wide antibacterial activity against Gram-positive bacteria. Among the Gramnegative bacteria tested, the antibacterial activity was limited to Escherichia coli, Salmonellatyphimurium, Shigella dysenteriae type 1 and Vibrio cholerae; with the best activity against V. cholerae. MICs of the alcoholic extracts against Gram-positive bacteria ranged between 3.8 ×10-3 to 6.1 ×10-3 mg/ml and for Gram-negative bacteria from 6.1 ×10-3 to 7.6 10-3 mg/ml. The MICs for Candida species ranged between 0.02 to 3.8 ×10-3 mg/ml and for Aspergillus species, it was 3 × 10-3 mg/ml. All three extracts also had antifungal activity against the fungal species tested, except Candida krusei. The extracts of B. aristata also demonstrated anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and antipyretic activities.Chemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, amino acids, tannins, terpenes, resins, phenols and reducing sugars as major compounds. FTIR-spectral analysis of all the extracts revealed thepresence of berberine, as a major constituent, along with other chemical constituents