Facebook usage and its association with psychological well-being among Malaysian adolescents

Previous studies investigated possible effects of Facebook mostly on hedonic well-being but not focusing on individuals fully function of psychological well-being.This study tries to fill the gap by using Ryffs’ scale of psychological well-being.The respondents of this study were 401 adolescents aged between 13-16 years old, internet user, who lived in Selangor, Malaysia.Structural Equation Modelling was used to analyse the data.The results revealed that connectivity and organizing events on Facebook had a positive association with psychological well-being and information seeking has negative association with psychological well-being. This study offers two determinant factors on Facebook usage that can predict adolescents’ psychological well-being in Malaysian cultural context

A rapid review of the literature on HIV-related stigmatization and discrimination studies in Malaysia

This study on HIV-related stigmatisation and discrimination was conducted to summarize key findings and identify existing research gaps in this line of research in Malaysia. A search on available online databases yielded 58 documents, but only 25 were eventually included in the review. Searching process was conducted at the end of 2013 to include all previous relevant studies up to this year but not limited to any specific starting date. Eight journal articles and one research report were empirical studies, and hence were the core documents in the analysis. The studies included were synthesised to identify common shared areas that they investigated and make an updated conclusion about the current state of knowledge on HIV-related stigma in Malaysia. Results revealed that the published works mainly focused on knowledge and attitudes toward HIV. Most studies were descriptive and correlation research. Information about self-stigmatisation is limited, while HIV campaigns in some cases instigate fears that HIV kills. HIV-related stigma still remains pervasive in Malaysia and its literature is very limited and underdeveloped. To gain a better understanding of HIV-related stigma, more theoretically driven studies with rigorous research design and method need to be done

Determinants of online purchase intention and moderating role of trust in social network websites in Malaysia

The rapid growth of social networking sites (SNSs) has led to a change in marketing strategies and purchase behaviour of consumers. Drawing on the Extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, a theoretical basis for the online buying intention based trust, performance expectancy, hedonic motivation, habit, social influence and effort expectancy constructs was examined. The data came from a sample of 370 students who had a prior experience in online buying. It was found that habit, hedonic motivation and performance expectancy were significant predictors of buying intention; however, effort expectancy and social influence did not significantly predict purchase intention. Habit had stronger influence on buying intention for customers with a high level of trust, whereas hedonic motivation and performance expectancy had a higher effect for customers with a low level of trust. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed

Strategi meningkatkan hubungan interpersonal dalam talian dalam kalangan remaja Malaysia

The strategies used by the IRC (Internet Relay Chat) users will determine their level of interpersonal relations in computer-mediated communication. However, the strategies in building relationships between men and women are different. Therefore, this quantitative survey enumerates the different strategies used in improving interpersonal online relationship among teenagers. In-depth interview also has been used in this study to identify the strategies used in building interpersonal relationships through computer-mediated communication. Multi-regression tests are used to analyze the data

Chairmans statement of a Malaysian public university: a critical discourse analysis

This paper introduces and illustrates an interdisciplinary approach in analysing written and spoken texts via a critical discourse analysis (CDA) that provides researchers with a choice of resources to analyse corporate narrative documents to be more systematic and detailed from a linguistic perspective. CDA addresses how the content and linguistic features of texts influence and are influenced by the context of text production, distribution, reception and adaptation, and also by the wider socio-economic context in which texts are embedded. The analysis applies Fairclough’s (2003, 2006) Dialectic-Relational Approach from the chairman’s statement of a Malaysian public university. The aim of the analysis is to discover the grammatical devices that are used to represent an organisation’s activities and the ways in which they may obfuscate social agency (impersonalisation) and to assess entities, social actors and social events (evaluation). The paper provides an insight on how the management uses linguistic and semiotic devices strategically to achieve a variety of economic and political goals through their corporate narrative

Ellagic acid: A potent glyoxalase-I inhibitor with a unique scaffold

The glyoxalase system, particularly glyoxalase-I (GLO-I), has been approved as a potential target for cancer treatment. In this study, a set of structurally diverse polyphenolic natural compounds were investigated as potential GLO-I inhibitors. Ellagic acid was found, computationally and experimentally, to be the most potent GLO-I inhibitor among the tested compounds which showed an IC50 of 0.71 mol L–1. Its binding to the GLO-I active site seemed to be mainly driven by ionic interaction via its ionized hydroxyl groups with the central Zn ion and Lys156, along with other numerous hydrogen bonding and hydrophobic interactions. Due to its unique and rigid skeleton, it can be utilized to search for other novel and potent GLO-I inhibitors via computational approaches such as pharmacophore modeling and similarity search methods. Moreover, an inspection of the docked poses of the tested compounds showed that chlorogenic acid and dihydrocaffeic acid could be considered as lead compounds worthy of further optimization

Re-examining parental mediation model for children Internet safety

In Malaysia, children spend a lot of time online and are thus often exposed to undesirable experiences. However, little is known about how parents monitor children’s online activities to avert negative exposure. Using the Malaysian context, this study tests the Parental Mediation Model (PMM) developed by the European Kids Online project (a multi-national research network on new media and children). The objective of the study is to test the reliability and validity of measurements of parental mediation of children’s Internet use. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 420 school children and their parents/guardians. Self-administered questionnaires were employed and exploratory factor analyses and structural equation modelling used to test the model. The results show that the five-factor PMM (technical, monitoring, restrictive, active mediation of Internet safety and active mediation of Internet use) is not applicable to the Malaysian context. Instead, a three-factor model (technical, restrictive monitoring, and active mediation) emerged from the data. Thus, the five-factor PMM of online risks is not a generic construct of dimensions, though the re-constructed three-factor model seems to fit

Development of Liposomal Gemcitabine with High Drug Loading Capacity

Liposomes are widely used for systemic delivery of chemotherapeutic agents to reduce their nonspecific side effects. Gemcitabine (Gem) makes a great candidate for liposomal encapsulation due to the short half-life and nonspecific side effects; however, it has been difficult to achieve liposomal Gem with high drug loading capacity. Remote loading, which uses a transmembrane pH gradient to induce an influx of drug and locks the drug in the core as a sulfate complex, does not serve Gem as efficiently as doxorubicin (Dox) due to the low pKa value of Gem. Existing studies have attempted to improve Gem loading capacity in liposomes by employing lipophilic Gem derivatives or creating a high-concentration gradient for active loading into the hydrophilic cores (small volume loading). In this study, we combine the remote loading approach and small volume loading or hypertonic loading, a new approach to induce the influx of Gem into the preformed liposomes by high osmotic pressure, to achieve a Gem loading capacity of 9.4–10.3 wt % in contrast to 0.14–3.8 wt % of the conventional methods. Liposomal Gem showed a good stability during storage, sustained-release over 120 h in vitro, enhanced cellular uptake, and improved cytotoxicity as compared to free Gem. Liposomal Gem showed a synergistic effect with liposomal Dox on Huh7 hepatocellular carcinoma cells. A mixture of liposomal Gem and liposomal Dox delivered both drugs to the tumor more efficiently than a free drug mixture and showed a relatively good anti-tumor effect in a xenograft model of hepatocellular carcinoma. This study shows that bioactive liposomal Gem with high drug loading capacity can be produced by remote loading combined with additional approaches to increase drug influx into the liposomes

Keberkesanan media massa dalam memupuk dan memperkukuhkan perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional

Persoalan utama kajian ini ialah sejauh manakah media massa utama di negara ini, khususnya televisyen, radio dan akhbar, berkesan dalam memupuk dan memperkukuh perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional. Objektif umum kajian ini adalah untuk menilai keberkesanan media massa utama dalam memupuk dan memperkukuhkan perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional dan secara khususnya kajian ini bertujuan untuk 1) Mengenal pasti tahap pendedahan masyarakat kepada media massa yang mengandungi mesej perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional, 2) Mengenal pasti mesej mengenai perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional yang di perolehi daripada media massa dan 3) Mengenal pasti perssepsi khalayak terhadap keberkesanan media massa dalam menyampaikan mesej mengenai perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional. Daripada hasil kajian yang dijalankan menunjukkan bagi televisyen tahap pendedahan mesej perpaduan dan integrasi nasional ialah; tinggi (20.0%), sederhana (42.3%) dan rendah (37.7%) data juga menunjukkan pendedahan responden kepada mesej dari media akhbar ialah tinggi (8.8%), sederhana (25.6%) dan randah 65.6%). Pendedahan mesej aygn sama melalui saluran radio menunjukkan pendedahan tahap tinggi (0.6%), sederhana (8.4%) dan rendah (91.1%). Daripada data yang diperolehi juga menunjukkan bagi kesemua mesej, televisyen merupakan sumber utama mesej iaitu dari 65.8% bagi mesej "Perayaan-perayaan di Malaysia dirayakan oleh semua kaum" dan terendah ialah 42.4% bagi mesej "Laut Cina Selatan bukan penghalang Integrasi Nasional". Sumber utama kedua mesej-mesej berkenaan ialah dari akhbar iaitu yang tertinggi sebanyak 42.6% bagi mesej "Laut Cina Selatan bukan penghalang Integrasi Nasional" dan yang terendah ialah 24.3% bagi mesej "Perayaan-perayaan di Malaysia dirayakan oleh semua kaum". Bagi radio hasil kajian menunjukkan tidak banyak pendedahan kepada mesej perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional. Walau bagaimanapun sebanyak 16.5% responden menyatakan mendapat mesej "Sebagai rakyat Malaysia kita perlu bertoleransi terhadap kepercayaan kaum lain" dari radio. Hasil analisis keseluruhan juga menunjukkan kebanyakan responden mempunyai persepsi yang positif terhadap impak mesej perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional dalam media massa, dan ini menunjukkan media massa di negara ini didapati berkesan dalam memainkan peranan memupuk dan memperkukuh perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional. Hasil kajian ini mungkin dapat digunakan sebagai satu garis panduan dalam menilai keberkesanan media dalam memupuk dan memperkukuhkan perpaduan negara dan integrasi nasional di Malaysia