Student satisfaction on service quality: a study at Malaysian public university

Students will engage in informal learning outside the lecture hall in addition to the formal learning. The Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) Centre’s for General Studies and Co-curriculum (PPUK) is a division that provides services focused on activities outside the lecture hall. Issues, particularly student satisfaction, become a critical concern for PPUK management as a result of these actions. The crucial element is determining the level of student satisfaction with PPUK's services where students have difficulty carrying out activities outside the lecture hall due to problems with the quality of services supplied by PPUK involving Credited Co-Curricular Courses (KKB) that the university has scheduled. As a result, if the services provided are unsatisfactory, which will have an indirect negative impact on the student's satisfaction as a student. The purpose of this study was to determine students' perceptions of satisfaction with the services provided by PPUK, UTHM based on the SERVQUAL Model's five dimensions (physical evidence, responsive, empathy, guarantee, and trustworthiness). The study is designed in the form of a survey, with data collected via a questionnaire. The researcher focused on UTHM students who registered for KKB in the second semester for this study. To answer the research questions, the data were analysed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software to measure the frequency, mean score, t-test, and correlation of each element. Overall, the results show that students are extremely satisfied with the services provided by the PPUK UTHM. Other inferential and regression analyses will be investigated further and improved to the PPUK curriculum

The practice of life cycle cost in Malaysia construction industry: a review / Wan Nur Hamizah Wan Hassan, Norhanim Zakaria and Muhammad Azzam Ismail

Life cycle cost (LCC) is a concept and practices that seem ambiguously understood in the construction industry in Malaysia. This paper reports on the initial phase of the study and its results. The initial study was carried out through the literature review on LCC in general and focuses on the application of LCC in Malaysia. The main focus on this study is to identify the current practice and the enhancement of the LCC in construction projects. There are six (6) practitioners in construction industry that been interviewed in related to the research study. The outcome of this research shows that most of the practitioners are aware on the term and concepts of the LCC but did not apply in their construction projects. There are few challenges are listed and their opinions on the solution to solve the lack of application LCC. The paper also identifies the elements cost and evaluation method used in developing the LCC plan

“Tahu Salah Tapi Mahu”: cabaran remaja perempuan berhenti menonton pornografi

The study aims to explore how much female adolescents are willing to stop watching pornography and the challenges they face in abandoning their behavior. This qualitative study uses a phenomenological approach to understand the personal experiences of the adolescents involved. Given that the issue of pornography is considered ‘taboo’, only five adolescents who have engaged in pornography have voluntarily agreed to be interviewed in depth by adhering to established criteria and data saturation. They consist of late teens between the ages of 19 and 21 and are students from a public college. Data was collected via in-depth interviews based on semi-structured questions to achieve the research objectives. The questions are based on the Transteoretic Model with a focus on the readiness and challenges of abandoning pornographic behavior. The results of this study found that all respondents were less serious about change despite having the knowledge and awareness that watching pornography had a negative impact. The study also identified five challenges faced by respondents in abandoning pornographic behavior that were (i) incapable of controlling their appetite, (ii) internet attraction, (iii) filling their loneliness, (iv) their habit and (v) the way of thinking. The findings of this study are discussed by linking issues of internet addiction and the change model. Besides that, suggestions for referral to professionals in the help profession are also discussed

Micronutrient levels in healthy term pregnant mothers and their newborns during the Covid-19 pandemic era

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, it is estimated that 10 million Malaysians, or 30% of the population, will face food insecurity. Environmental factors in early childhood influence neurobehavioral development, early obesity, and the global noncommunicable disease epidemic. Micronutrient levels in pregnant and lactating women are critical for healthy foetal and newborn environments. Our hypothesis was that during the COVID- 19 pandemic, the intrauterine micronutrient environment for foetal development was insufficient or deficient. The objective of this research was to determine the prevalence of micronutrient deficiency (vitamin D, iron, calcium, B12, and folate) in pregnant women and their newborns, as well as the risk factors associated with it. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 115 healthy pregnant women who delivered at Sultan Ahmad Shah Medical Centre @IIUM. Maternal serum was collected 24 hours before delivery, and cord blood was collected at birth. None of the ‘healthy’ mothers had normal levels of all five micronutrients, 70 % had three or four micronutrient deficiencies but none were folate deficient. Only 8 (7 %) newborns had sufficient levels of all five micronutrients, nearly half of newborns had at least one micronutrient deficiency, and more than a quarter had at least two micronutrient deficiencies. The therapeutic window of opportunity begins in the immediate postpartum period, where mothers should exclusively breastfeed. At the same time, micronutrient supplementation should be considered in both lactating mothers and their newborns. Keywords: Micronutrient, COVID-19, DOHa

Synthesis, molecular docking, and antimalarial activity of hybrid 4-aminoquinoline-pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole derivatives

Widespread resistance of Plasmodium falciparum to current artemisinin-based combination therapies necessitate the discovery of new medicines. Pharmacophoric hybridization has become an alternative for drug resistance that lowers the risk of drug–drug adverse interactions. In this study, we synthesized a new series of hybrids by covalently linking the scaffolds of pyrano[2,3-c]pyrazole with 4-aminoquinoline via an ethyl linker. All synthesized hybrid molecules were evaluated through in vitro screenings against chloroquine-resistant (K1) and-sensitive (3D7) P. falciparum strains, respectively. Data from in vitro assessments showed that hybrid 4b displayed significant antiplasmodial activities against the 3D7 strain (EC50 = 0.0130 ± 0.0002 µM) and the K1 strain (EC50 = 0.02 ± 0.01 µM), with low cytotoxic effect against Vero mammalian cells. The high selectivity index value on the 3D7 strain (SI > 1000) and the K1 strain (SI > 800) and the low resistance index value from compound 4b suggested that the pharmacological effects of this compound were due to selective inhibition on the 3D7 and K1 strains. Molecular docking analysis also showed that 4b recorded the highest binding energy on P. falciparum lactate dehydrogenase. Thus, P. falciparum lactate dehydrogenase is considered a potential molecular target for the synthesized compound