Night Eating Syndrome and Its Association with Sleep Quality and Body Mass Index Among University Students During the Covid-19

Night eating syndrome (NES) is a disordered eating behaviour characterized by hyperphagia at night and is often accompanied by a sleep disturbance. This study aims to determine the prevalence of NES and its association between sleep quality and body mass index (BMI) among the private university students during the Covid-19. A total of 166 students from a private university participated in this cross-sectional study. Online self-administered questionnaires were used to collect and determine socio-demographic data, BMI, NES, and sleep quality. NES was assessed using Night Eating Diagnostic Questionnaire (NEDQ) while sleep quality was assessed using Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index Questionnaire (PSQI). The results showed that 38.6% of the participants were engaging with NES, 45.2% were having poor sleep quality and 25.9% were overweight or obese during the Covid-19. There were significant associations between NES with sleep quality and BMI, which students with NES were found to have poorer sleep quality (r=0.306, p<0.001) and higher BMI (r=0.024, p=0.763). In addition, poor sleep quality was found to be positively associated with BMI (r=0.161, p=0.038). Males (AOR=2.198, 95% CI=1.005-4.808) and poor sleepers (AOR=1.176, 95% CI=1.028-1.346) were the risk factors of NES. In conclusion, the prevalence of NES, poor sleep quality, and overweight and obesity were at an alarming rate. NES was found to be related to both poorer sleep quality and higher BMI among the students. Therefore, interventions such as behavioural and cognitive therapy should be implemented to promote healthy eating behaviour among university students

The adoption of Facebook mobile application for managing learning

Mobile technologies such as mobile device applications play a significant role within formal education and the use of social networking site such as Facebook through mobile devices has influence students’ management of learning in higher education. Researchers have identified a range of uses of Facebook mobile application in higher education. Despite the increasing use of Facebook mobile application by students and lecturers in higher education for educational purposes, very little empirical studies that concern the adoption of Facebook mobile application by university students in managing learning in the Malaysian higher education context. In this paper, we describe the likelihood of adoption of Facebook mobile application for managing learning by students of a private university in Malaysia, as well as how the perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and motivations of usage affect the behavioural intention of the students in adopting Facebook mobile application for managing learning. Through an online questionnaire survey, data were analysed using descriptive statistics, correlations and regressions. Results from the survey questionnaires (N=101) indicated a significant positive association between motivations of usage towards adoption of Facebook mobile application for managing learning as well as between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness towards students’ adoption of Facebook mobile application for managing learning. In conclusion, students’ perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, education purposes, information-seeking motive and interactivity were significant predictors of behavioural intention in adopting Facebook mobile application for managing learning

Assessing technical and functional features of office buildings and their effects on satisfaction and loyalty

This study assesses the service performance of commercial office buildings in the Golden Triangle Kuala Lumpur (GTKL) and understands how they influence tenant satisfaction and loyalty. Literature suggests that the commercial office building leasing context provides more service components compared to goods, hence, the service performance (SERVPERF) framework was used in this study. Data was collected from 250 tenants of 48 buildings using questionnaires. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) technique was used to test the hypothesis and three significant relationships were found. The result indicated that Building Features, Services and Management performance (BFSM), agglomeration performance and Responsive Customer Orientation (RCO) significantly influenced tenant satisfaction, and subsequently resulted in loyalty. The implications for managers and the theories in this regard are then discussed

Factors affecting office rent in Kuala Lumpur (KL)

The oversupply of office space in the Golden Triangle Kuala Lumpur (GTKL) and slow on-going demand has resulted in pressure on rental performance. Studies have shown that there are several strategies to improve rent performance. The purpose of this paper is to obtain a deeper understanding of these strategies and their applicability in the context of GTKL. Questionnaires were distributed to 42 office buildings in the GTKL. A total of 212 tenants completed the questionnaire and secondary data on building certifications and the building average rents were extracted from reliable property website sources. The results suggest that office building rental performance can be improved if the building management charges lower rent to longer-stay tenants, attracts more foreign-owned or bigger-sized firm and gets Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) or Green certifications. The implications for managers and theories in this regard are then discussed

Utilization of Geotextile Tube for Sandy and Muddy Coastal Management: A Review

Threats to beaches have accelerated the coastal destruction. In recent decades, geotextile tubes were used around the world to prevent coastal erosion, to encourage beach nourishment, and to assist mangrove rehabilitation. However, the applications of geotextile tube in sandy and muddy coasts have different concerns as the geological settings are different. Applications of geotextile tubes in sandy beaches were mainly to prevent coastline from further erosion and to nourish the beach. However, for the muddy coasts, mangrove rehabilitation and conservation were additional concerns in coastal management schemes. The mangrove forests are natural barriers which can be found on the muddy coasts of many tropical countries. In this paper, the viability of geotextile tubes in sandy and muddy beaches was analysed. The advantages and disadvantages of the utilization of geotextile tubes in coastal management were discussed based on the experiences from the tropical countries such as Mexico, Malaysia, and Thailand. From the case studies, impressive improvements in coastal restoration after installation of geotextile tubes were shown. Based on the discussion, several recommendations to improve the application of geotextile tubes were suggested in this paper

Solution-Processed Titanium Dioxide Ion-Gated Transistors and Their Application for pH Sensing

ABSTRACT: Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) is an abundant metal oxide, widely used in food industry, cosmetics, medicine, water treatment and electronic devices. TiO₂ is of interest for next-generation indium-free thin-film transistors and ion-gated transistors due to its tunable optoelectronic properties, ambient stability, and solution processability. In this work, we fabricated TiO₂ films using a wet chemical approach and demonstrated their transistor behavior with room temperature ionic liquids and aqueous electrolytes. In addition, we demonstrated the pH sensing behavior of the TiO2 IGTs with a sensitivity of ~48 mV/pH. Furthermore, we demonstrated a low temperature (120°C), solution processed TiO2-based IGTs on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrates, which were stable under moderate tensile bending

Syngas Production from Glycerol-dry(CO2) Reforming Over La-promoted Ni/Al2O3 Catalyst

A 3 wt% La-promoted Ni/Al2O3 catalyst was prepared via wet co-impregnation technique and physicochemically-characterized. Lanthanum was responsible for better metal dispersion; hence higher BET specific surface area (96.0 m2 g−1) as compared to the unpromoted Ni/Al2O3 catalyst (85.0 m2 g−1). In addition, the La-promoted catalyst possessed finer crystallite size (9.1 nm) whilst the unpromoted catalyst measured 12.8 nm. Subsequently, glycerol dry reforming was performed at atmospheric pressure and temperatures ranging from 923 to 1123 K employing CO2-to-glycerol ratio from zero to five. Significantly, the reaction results have yielded syngas as main gaseous products with H2:CO ratios always below than 2.0 with concomitant maximum 96% glycerol conversion obtained at the CO2-to-glycerol ratio of 1.67. In addition, the glycerol consumption rate can be adequately captured using power law modelling with the order of reactions equal 0.72 and 0.14 with respect to glycerol and CO2 whilst the activation energy was 35.0 kJ mol−1. A 72 h longevity run moreover revealed that the catalyst gave a stable catalytic performance

Effect of synthesis methods on properties of copper oxide doped titanium dioxide photocatalyst in dye photodegradation of rhodamine B

Copper oxide modified titanium dioxide photocatalysts have been widely reported for their excellent performance in the wastewater treatment. However, there is lack of information on the effect of different synthesis methods towards the properties and catalytic activity of the photocatalyst. In this research, a series of copper oxide doped titanium dioxide (Cu TiO2) photocatalysts were synthesized via three different methods of sonochemical, impregnation and physical mixing. Cu TiO2 of varied molar ratios of Cu dopant to TiO2 TR595 (1:99, 2:98, 3:97 and 4:96) were prepared. Comparison of physical-chemical properties and photocatalytic activity among the synthesized samples and unmodified TiO2 TR595 were made. X-ray diffraction analysis depicted the formation of TiO2 rutile phase in all samples. Besides, diffuse reflectance UV-visible analysis proved that the synthesized samples were active under visible light region. According to the Tauc plot and photoluminescence spectra, the band gap energies and recombination rate of electron-hole pairs of Cu TiO2 samples decreased upon loading of Cu. Moreover, EDX analysis confirmed the existence of Ti and Cu in all the samples. The photocatalytic efficiencies of the synthesized samples were discovered through photodegradation of Rhodamine B organic dye under 6 hours of visible light irradiation. Amongst, Cu TiO2 photocatalysts synthesized via sonochemical method with molar ratio of 2:98 produced the highest photocatalytic activity of 65% which attributed to the lowest recombination rate of photogenerated charge carriers and availability of large number of reactive oxidative species

The Relationship between Management Practices and Safety

Work-related accidents is a controversial topic in Malaysia as evidenced by the increased number of occupational accidents throughout the years. The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between management practices and safety performance in an or-ganization. The four management practices investigated are (a) training, (b) management commitment, (c) communication and feedback, and (d) employee involvement. The most effective safety practice is also identified. The data was collected at a manufacturing com-pany located in Shah Alam, Malaysia using closed-ended questionnaire. 95 respondents from the production line were involved in this study. The result found that training had a very weak relationship to the safety performance while the management commitment, as well as the communication and feedback, revealed to have a weak impact on safety perfor-mance. On the other hand, the analysis showed that employee involvement is the most ef-fective safety practice to the safety performance, as it had a moderate impact on safety per-formance