Grain-size distribution of sediment in the vicinity of Setiu Lagoon-estuary system

The sediments in the Setiu Lagoon-estuary system on the east coast of Malaysia consist mostly of coarse to very fine panicles. The major portions of the sediment are negatively skewed. The estuary area is under the influence of transportative and erosive forces. The lack of silt and clay in the estuary is attributable to less depositional factor under the influence of stronger current than in the lagoon area. The beach sediment ranges from coarse to fine sand. Generally, the mean grain-size decreases towards the north-west sector. The skewness value of the beach sand area is mostly negative, indicating that the study area is under the influence of rather strong wave and current action

[Further Discussion on The Concept and The Approach of Modern Islamic Literature] Kupasan Lanjut Terhadap Konsep dan Peranan Pendekatan Sastera Islam Moden

The purpose of this paper is to give additional explanation on the concept of Islamic literature and its fundamental elements according to the article “Pendekatan Sastera Islam Moden (The Approach of Modern Islamic Literature)” by Rosni Samah and Nurhasma Muhamad Saad, in Jurnal Islam dan Masyarakat Kontemporari volume 5, July 2012. This is to give further explanation on the concept, roles, origin of the theory, and the key elements of the Islamic literature definition. To achieve this purpose, their article was analyzed by focusing on the relationship between Islamic literature and religion, roles, origin of the theory and the key elements of the Islamic literature definition. This study found that based on aqidah, Islamic literature is a beautiful  expression of arts which can admire the hearts produced by a muslim resulting from his interpretation about life, human being and the universe following the principles of tasawwur  Islam (Islamic world view). Islamic literature serves as a media of dacwah for the good in this life and hereafter in line with the principles of Islam itself. The development of Islamic literature started from an idea proposed by the late Sayyid Qutb in 1952. The development on this idea should be known by Islamic literature practitioners so they will understand that the establishment of Islamic literature theory actually derived from Islamic resurgence in the 20th century on the name of muslim brotherhood. The two key elements of Islamic literature are aesthetic values and Islamic values. The combination of aesthetic and ethics then can lead to the perfect meeting between the beauty of arts and the truth of God. Keywords:  Islamic literature; tasawwur Islam; media of dacwah; arts; aesthetic   Kertas ini bertujuan membuat kupasan lanjut tentang konsep sastera Islam dan elemen-elemen penting yang berkaitan berdasarkan artikel “Pendekatan Sastera Islam Moden” oleh Rosni Samah dan Nurhasma Muhamad Saad, Jurnal Islam dan Masyarakat Kontemporari keluaran 5, Julai 2012. Ia bagi memberikan maklumat tambahan berkaitan dengan konsep, peranan, punca cetusan teori dan inti pati definisi sastera Islam. Bagi mencapai tujuan tersebut, artikel yang berkenaan telah dianalisis dengan menumpukan kepada hubungan sastera Islam dengan agama, peranan, punca cetusan teori sastera Islam dan inti pati penting dalam definisi sastera Islam. Kajian ini mendapati bahawa dengan berpaksikan aqidah, sastera Islam adalah luahan seni yang indah, dapat menawan kalbu, terhasil daripada seseorang mukmin serta merupakan terjemahan tentang kehidupan, insan dan alam semesta berasaskan tasawur Islam. Sastera Islam berperanan sebagai wadah dakwah untuk kebaikan duniawi dan ukhrawi yang sejajar dengan prinsip-prinsip Islam itu sendiri. Perkembangannya bermula dengan cetusan idea yang dikemukakan oleh al-marhum Sayyid Qutb pada tahun 1952. Kronologi perkembangan idea sastera Islam perlu diketahui oleh para pejuang sastera Islam agar mereka memahami bahawa teori seni sastera Islam terbentuk adalah hasil daripada kebangkitan Islam pada abad ke-20 yang digembleng di atas dasar ukhuwah Islamiyah. Terdapat dua elemen utama dalam sastera Islam iaitu nilai estetika dan nilai keislaman. Kombinasi elemen estetika dan etika inilah yang membawa kepada pertemuan yang begitu sempurna antara keindahan seni dan kebenaran Ilahi. Kata kunci: sastera Islam, tasawur Islam, media dakwah, kesenian, estetika

A review on Ficus deltoidea medicinal properties and its potential use as ergogenic aids in athletes

Ergogenic aids usage by athletes is a common scenario that can be seen in any level of athletes and any types of sports nowadays. Ergogenic aids can range from drugs, food, hormone, mechanical aid and herbs. Traditionally, ergogenic aids can be classified into categories namely: physiological, psychological, mechanical, pharmacological and nutrition. Despite all these classification, all ergogenic aids had one common purpose, which is to improve physical performance. Herbs consumption as ergogenic aids had been practiced since years ago by athletes as either nutritional or pharmacological aids. Using herbs as physical performance booster has gained popularity since it was claimed safer and natural. One of local herb that gets attention as energy booster is Ficus deltoidea (Mas Cotek). Ficus deltoidea had been used traditionally to restore energy. Few studies had reveal that Ficus deltoidea had medicinal properties such anti-nociceptive, antioxidant, wound healing enhancer and blood glucose regulation properties. There is no direct study on Ficus deltoidea as energy booster or ergogenic aids, but this medicinal value might be beneficial to increase athlete’s physical performance. Ergogenic aids, especially those that been produce using herbs, rarely have scientific evidence to determine its effectiveness, safety, dosage and mechanism of action. Ergogenic aids were normally marketed with claims and report as their reference, not scientific evidence. The most frequent claim used by traders is that ergogenic aids can increase and sustain body’s energy. This review will discuss on how ergogenic aids might help athletes to increase their physical performance and possibility of using Ficus deltoidea as ergogenic aids based on its medicinal properties

Thermal conductivity of water based magnetite ferrofluids at different temperature for heat transfer applications

Magnetic magnetite, Fe3O4 nanoparticles produced by Massart’s procedure were used to prepare water based magnetite, Fe3O4 ferrofluids without addition of any stabilizing agent or surfactant. The thermal properties and suspension stabilization of the ferrofluids were investigated by varying the magnetite, Fe3O4 nanoparticles concentration in the ferrofluids prepared. The thermal conductivity of water based ferrofluids prepared using five different volume fraction of magnetite, Fe3O4 suspension (0.1, 0.05, 0.02, 0.01 and 0.005) were measured at five different temperature, 25°C, 30°C, 40°C, 50°C and 60°C in order to evaluate its potential application as heat transfer fluid. The results shows that the thermal conductivity of the ferrofluids are higher than the base fluid, and the thermal conductivity of the ferrofluids increased as the magnetite concentration in the ferrofluids decreased however reached its optimum for ferrofluids prepared using 0.01 volume fraction of magnetite suspension over 0.99 volume fraction of water. Accordingly, the thermal conductivity of the ferrofluids significantly increased as the temperature increased where 49.4% enhancement with respect to water were observed at temperature 60°C

Performance of DWT and SWT in muscle fatigue detection

Ability of wavelet transform in accessing time and frequency information at the same time make it widely used in analyzing bio-signals like electromyography (EMG). Discrete wavelet transforms (DWT) and stationary wavelet transform (SWT) are examples of analysis based on wavelet. Both analyses are based on decomposition technique and splitting signals into few frequency band. The different is DWT will down sample resolution into half at each decomposition level, while SWT is not. This paper is investigating both analyses in its ability on de-noising process of EMG using the same properties. The signals will be decomposed into five level of decomposition using 'db20', and de-noised using the same threshold setting. The performance will be evaluated based on its signals to noise ratio and muscle fatigue detection. Results show that de-noising process through SWT give better signals to ratio. Inability in DWT removed 20Hz corner frequency in several reading lead to misinterpretation in fatigue detection

Estimation of wavelet threshold value for surface EMG baseline removal

High quality of surface electromyography is vital during investigation on muscle activity. Low quality of surface EMG signals causes extracted signals to be inaccurate and lead to misinterpretation and misclassification of the signals. A surface EMG signal quality is determined by the ratio of muscle contraction to its baseline during muscle relaxation period. Baseline noises are originated from powerline, cable motion artefact, electronics of the amplification systems and skin-electrode interface. The noises are quite difficult to be removed by digital or active filter since they do not have specific frequency range like powerline interference and corner frequency noise. However, wavelet de-noising enables users to remove noise by accessing both frequency and time information. Baseline surface EMG noise is possible to be removed by estimating de-noise threshold based on mean absolute value and root mean square of its baseline. The result of this study shows that the proposed estimation of threshold method is better than the conventional threshold setting

Validation of Malay Gender Role Conflict Scale for Adolescents

Background: Living in a multiracial country undergoing rapid modernization with strong influence of Western media, exposed the Malaysian adolescents to conflicting gender role messages leading to potential gender role conflict. Objectives: This study aimed to validate the Malay Gender Role Conflict Scale for Adolescents (GRCS-AM). Methods: The GRCS-A was translated into Malay language and administered to 91 secondary school students in Kubang Kerian in July 2012. Results: The internal consistency coefficients of each subscale and the total scale were good with restricted affection between men 0.58; restricted emotionality 0.65; conflict between work, school, and family 0.64; need for success and achievement 0.62; and total scale 0.76. Conclusion: The GRCS-AM is a valid and reliable tool for assessment of gender role conflict in Malaysian adolescent population

Amplitude and frequency changes in surface EMG of biceps femoris during five days Bruce Protocol treadmill test

Electromyography (EMG) is one of the indirect tools in indexing fatigue. Fatigue can be detected when there are changes on amplitude and frequency. However, various outcomes from literature make researchers conclude that EMG is not a reliable tool to measure fatigue. This paper investigates EMG behavior of biceps femoris in median frequency and mean absolute value during five days of Bruce Protocol treadmill test. Before that, surface EMG signals are filtered using band pass filter cut-off at 20-500Hz and are de-noised using db45 1-decimated wavelet transform. Five participants achieved more than 85% of their maximal heart rate during the running activity. The authors also consider other markers of fatigue such as performance, muscle soreness and lethargy as indicators to adaptation and maladaptation conditions. Result shows that turning points of median frequency and mean absolute value are very significant in indexing fatigue and indicators to adaptation of resistive training

Germinated brown rice (GBR) reduces the incidence of aberrant crypt foci with the involvement of β-catenin and COX-2 in azoxymethane-induced colon cancer in rats

Chemoprevention has become an important area in cancer research due to the failure of current therapeutic modalities. Epidemiological and preclinical studies have demonstrated that nutrition plays a vital role in the etiology of cancer. This study was conducted to determine the chemopreventive effects of germinated brown rice (GBR) in rats induced with colon cancer. GBR is brown rice that has been claimed to be richer in nutrients compared to the common white rice. The male Sprague Dawley rats (6 weeks of age) were randomly divided into 5 groups: (G1) positive control (with colon cancer, unfed with GBR), (G2) fed with 2.5 g/kg of GBR (GBR (g)/weight of rat (kg)), (G3) fed with 5 g/kg of GBR, (G4) fed with 10 g/kg of GBR and (G5) negative control (without colon cancer, unfed with GBR). GBR was administered orally once daily via gavage after injection of 15 mg/kg of body weight of azoxymethane (AOM) once a week for two weeks, intraperitonially. After 8 weeks of treatment, animals were sacrificed and colons were removed. Colonic aberrant crypt foci (ACF) were evaluated histopathologically. Total number of ACF and AC, and multicrypt of ACF, and the expression of β-catenin and COX-2 reduced significantly (p < 0.05) in all the groups treated with GBR (G2, G3 and G4) compared to the control group (G1). Spearman rank correlation test showed significant positive linear relationship between total β-catenin and COX-2 score (Spearman's rho = 0.616, p = 0.0001). It is demonstrated that GBR inhibits the development of total number of ACF and AC, and multicrypt of ACF, reduces the expression of β-catenin and COX-2, and thus can be a promising dietary supplement in prevention of colon cancer

Gender Role Conflict among Malay Adolescent Boys in Malaysia

Background: Modernization process brings in economic and demographic changes where traditional masculinity could be forced to transform as men face conflicting messages about appropriate role norms. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate gender role conflict (GRC) among Malay adolescent boys and its associated socio-demographic factors using the newly validated Malay GRCS-A. Methods: A total of 282 Malay adolescent boys aged 13-17 from 6 secondary schools in Kota Bharu, Kelantan were randomly selected and evaluated using the Malay GRCS-A and DASS-21 to assess GRC and psychological wellbeing respectively. Results: GRC was significantly associated with anxiety and stress, but not with depression. Regression analysis showed GRC was positively correlated with upper secondary school (older age) and negatively correlated with separated parents and very low household income (< RM 1,000 per month). Conclusion: This study adds to the growing literature of GRC, particularly in the Malay adolescent boys. High GRC potentially worsen the already high prevalence of psychological distress among adolescents in Malaysi