The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence and Mathematical Competency Among Secondary School Students

Anxiety towards mathematics among secondary school students have been reported. Anxiety creates strong negative emotions and can hinder a person's cognitive, learning and academic performance. Fear of mathematics came early in the educational process and if this is not handled properly, it will negatively affect the students to adulthood. In learning mathematics, emotional intelligence (EI) impacts on how a person deals with emotions, mathematics and the general self-regulations strategies that the person adopts. A study was carried out to access secondary students' EI and their mathematical competency (MC). The EI was tested using an EI questionnaire for adolescents (IKEM-R/MEQI) consisting of 7 domains, while the MC was tested using selected questions from PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) 2012 released items. Analysis shows that EI predict significantly students MC, but with low correlational value. Most of the respondents have moderate level of EI in all 7 domains whereby self awareness and self-regulation are the two domains with lowest scores. On the other hand, most of the students' MC are poor. This particular research shows that EI is not a good predictor of MC which contradicts other reports. However it is suggested that the data collection can be improved by examining students' EI while they are engaging in activities that call for MCs rather than doing it before or after the tasks

Effect of Serving Time on Microbiological Quality of Food Served (Chicken Dish and Rice) During Wedding Banquet

Ayam masak merah (chicken in tomato sauce) and nasi minyak (flavoured ghee rice) are among the common dish served in Malay wedding banquet. The microbiological quality of these dishes becomes a concern when there was a food poisoning that caused four deaths after attending the wedding banquet. Therefore, the aim of this work is to investigate the microbiological quality of ayam masak merah and nasi minyak during the serving time (0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 hours) at the wedding banquet. The microbiological analysis were; total plate count (TPC), total coliform, Escherichia coli , Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Salmonella spp., and Listeria spp. The results showed that ayam masak merah has the highest count for TPC, total coliform, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, but low count in Listeria spp. and Salmonella spp. was not detected. Highest TPC was observed at the first hour of serving time, 7.33 log CFU/g, while for total coliforms and Staphylococcus aureus was at the 4 hours of serving time, 7.44 log CFU/g and 7.27 log CFU/g respectively

Securing superior properties of composite (PP+WF) through central composite design

Due to numerous attractive properties, use of composites is in increasing trend. Efforts are being made to develop new composites securing their useful properties at optimum level for more demanding applications. The purpose of this project is to optimize the mechanical properties of composite (polypropylene + wood fiber) using Central Composite Design (CCD) technique. Accordingly experiments were conducted to develop mathematical models in terms of three process parameters - composition (percentage of PP and wood fiber), injection pressure (bar), and time (second) for functional characteristics such as tensile strength and water absorption. Design expert software was used for convenience to carry out the analysis with a view to identifying the optimum level of the processing parameters for securing the desirable properties of the composite

Data recovery in wireless sensor networks using network coding

Data transportation over resources constraint and noisy channel of wireless sensor network (WSN) is very challenging in term of guaranteeing the data survival along the transmission. However, with the convergence of different research areas such as routing, source and channel coding techniques, the WSN technology has successfully been tremendously developed. This paper proposes an on-the-fly data recovery (ODR) scheme using network coding in order to enhance the robustness of the network against packet loss. Along with the ODR scheme, the packet loss formulation is presented while a network model for a network coding designed is also introduced namely for erasure channel. The data generated by the sources are transferred to the destination through relay nodes via three transmission paths. In ODR process, the lost packet is recovered by a relay node by listening to the transmission of two adjacent nodes and performing the XOR operation on the listened packets. We provide the analytical study on network coding performance and conducting the simulation experiment to verify it. In the simulation studies, we have also compared the performance of the network using network coding with and without packet recovery. The result shows that the number of packet loss has been reduced significantly using the proposed scheme compared to the network with normal network coding

Optimal risk computation on precious metal’s assets diversification

Optimization is the selection of a best element with regards to certain criterion from set of available alternatives. This paper investigates the effects of assets in optimizing risk using diversification strategy and also examines gold quality of hedging and safe haven. The reduction strength of assets is estimated. Hence, it is observed that gold exhibits highest risk reduction strength. Also it is noticed that gold acts as hedge and safe haven for investors during economic recession

Mechanistic insight of the formation of visible-light responsive nanosheet graphitic carbon nitride embedded polyacrylonitrile nanofibres for wastewater treatment

Effective capture and in situ photodegradation of methylene blue (MB) dye is a promising technique to purify wastewater containing MB. With recently elicited ripples of discovery on graphitic carbon nitride (g-C3N4), this study investigates the performance of g-C3N4 on photodegradation of MB. In this study, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibres embedded with g-C3N4 photocatalyst was successfully prepared using electrospinning technique which produced liquid-permeable self-supporting photocatalytic nanofibre mats that can be handled easily. Different configurations of g-C3N4 were synthesised, bulk g-C3N4 (bg-C3N4) and nanosheets g-C3N4 (nsg-C3N4) from urea using a green facile template-free method. Effective photocatalytic activity of the g-C3N4 nanofibres was confirmed by 97.3% degradation of MB under visible light irradiation. Photodegradation of MB in aqueous solution by g-C3N4 nanofibres predominantly attributed to the synergetic effects of MB adsorption by PAN nanofibres and photocatalytic degradation of MB by g-C3N4 photocatalyst. This present work not only presents the simplest ecofriendly and economical approach to fabricate g-C3N4 nanofibre photocatalyst, but also paves new opportunities for this advanced photocatalyst as great potential in environmental remediation for treatment of industrial MB wastewater

Forensic Analysis of Gel Pen Inks using Hyperspectral Imaging coupled with Chemometric Procedures

Abstract Forensic examination of inks on questioned documents has become an important practice and the law enforcement agencies rely heavily on these techniques during criminal investigations. Although nowadays there are a variety of methodologies focused on the analysis of inks, the combination of non-destructive nature of Hyperspectral Imaging (HSI) coupled with the multivariate chemometric technique has received little attention. In this study, forty-five (n = 45) gel pen inks of three different colours i.e. blue, red and black of five different brands were analysed using HSI with the idea of classifying them according to the brand. In terms of discriminating similar coloured components between samples, this was achievable only on the basis of the % reflectance spectra. However, arguably, there was sufficient evidence to suggest that it may be possible to discriminate the samples using chemometric of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). A 2-D score plot from PCA analysis was enough to characterise the samples into five clusters. The synergy of complementary information provided by PCA narrows matching possibilities (in terms of classification) for forensic investigations involving ink analysis

Semi-automatic liquid filling system using NodeMCU as an integrated Iot Learning tool

Computer programming and IoT are the key skills required in Industrial Revolution 4.0 (IR4.0). The industry demand is very high and therefore related students in this field should grasp adequate knowledge and skill in college or university prior to employment. However, learning technology related subject without applying it to an actual hardware can pose difficulty to relate the theoretical knowledge to problems in real application. It is proven that learning through hands-on activities is more effective and promotes deeper understanding of the subject matter (He et al. in Integrating Internet of Things (IoT) into STEM undergraduate education: Case study of a modern technology infused courseware for embedded system course. Erie, PA, USA, pp 1–9 (2016)). Thus, to fulfill the learning requirement, an integrated learning tool that combines learning of computer programming and IoT control for an industrial liquid filling system model is developed and tested. The integrated learning tool uses NodeMCU, Blynk app and smartphone to enable the IoT application. The system set-up is pre-designed for semi-automation liquid filling process to enhance hands-on learning experience but can be easily programmed for full automation. Overall, it is a user and cost friendly learning tool that can be developed by academic staff to aid learning of IoT and computer programming in related education levels and field

Ultra-Morphological Changes of Trichophyton Rubrum Treated with Hydroxychavicol

Trichophyton rubrum is a common pathogenic fungal species that is responsible for causing infection on human skin, hair and nail. The antifungal-resistant strains complicate the treatment regime. Hydroxychavicol (HC) is one of the main compounds from Piper betel leaf that have antifungal potential and its mechanism of action has not been studied yet. The objective of this preliminary study to determine the antifungal properties of HC against T. rubrum using transmission electron microscope (TEM) on gross and ultrastructure of T. rubrum hypha. T. rubrum was treated with HC and miconazole (MI) at concentrations of 1.25, 2.5, 5 and 10 mg/mL for 1, 3, 5 and 7 days continuously. Generally, fungi structures became more severely damaged at increasing treatment duration. Microscopically, the fungi’s cell wall treated with HC showed a rough surface, shrinkage and demolition similar to the MI treated group. The fungi organelles were also demolished and disorganized. This study revealed that HC has the ability to inhibit T. rubrum growth and has potential to be an antifungal agent for skin infections

Effect of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) and coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) on microbial quality and sensory acceptability of frozen paratha

Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) and coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) are known to possess good antimicrobial properties. In the present work, spice-infused frozen parathas were formulated to investigate the effect of fennel and coriander on microbial (aerobic mesophilic bacteria, yeast and mould, and Bacillus cereus) reduction and sensory acceptability of frozen paratha throughout the storage at -18°C. The present work was also aimed at determining the relationship between spice concentrations and storage durations on microbiological quality of the samples. Fennel and coriander seed powder were used at concentrations of 2, 4 and 6% of wheat flour (w/w). The microbiological analysis was performed by total plate count, yeast and mould count, and Bacillus cereus count after 9, 12 and 15 weeks of storage. Sensory evaluation was conducted using hedonic scales at the end of storage durations. Results showed that spice infusion in frozen paratha significantly delayed the growth of aerobic mesophilic bacteria, yeasts and moulds, and Bacillus cereus during storage. The lowest log count was demonstrated by coriander at 6% in total plate count (3.85, 3.90 and 3.91 log10 CFU/g), and yeast and mould count (2.54, 2.59 and 2.60 log10 CFU/g) after 9, 12 and 15 weeks, respectively. Bacillus cereus was not detected throughout the storage durations. Fennel exhibited minimum activity against Bacillus cereus with no significant difference on log count reduction when compared with control. Coriander showed the highest decrease in both total plate count and Bacillus cereus count during the storage duration. Sensory evaluation result indicated that control sample exhibited the highest preference over all attributes when compared with fennel and coriander. Coriander-infused paratha was slightly darker in colour due to high concentration of 6%. Fennel yielded the lowest score in terms of taste among all samples. Fennel and coriander showed no significant difference for sensory acceptability. Overall, all frozen parathas were in good quality after 15 weeks of frozen storage. It can thus be concluded that fennel and coriander can be used as potential natural preservatives to inhibit the growth of microorganisms in paratha during frozen storage. Nevertheless, the optimum spice concentration should be determined to minimise the effects on the sensory attributes