This study was designed to examine the essential oils compositions of Litsea glauca Siebold and Litsea fulva Fern.-Vill. growing in Malaysia. The essential oils were achieved by hydrodistillation and fully characterized by gas chromatography (GC-FID) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The study identified 17 and 19 components from the leaf oils from L. glauca (80.7%) and L. fulva (81.5%), respectively. The major components of L. glauca oil were β-selinene (30.8%), β-calacorene (11.3%), tridecanal (7.6%), isophytol (4.8%) and β-eudesmol (4.5%); whereas in L. fulva oil gave β-caryophyllene (27.8%), caryophyllene oxide (12.8%), α-cadinol (6.3%), (E)-nerolidol (5.7%), β-selinene (5.5%) and tridecanal (5.0%). Anticholinesterase activity was evaluated using Ellman method. The essential oils showed moderate inhibitory activity on acetylcholinesterase and butyrylcholinesterase assays. Our findings demonstrate that the essential oil could be very useful for the characteriza.....

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Swarm robotic is well known for its flexibility, scalability and robustness that make it suitable for solving many real-world problems. Source searching which is characterized by complex operation due to the spatial characteristic of the source intensity distribution, uncertain searching environments and rigid searching constraints is an example of application where swarm robotics can be applied. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) is one of the famous algorithms have been used for source searching where its effectiveness depends on several factors. Improper parameter selection may lead to a premature convergence and thus robots will fail (i.e., low success rate) to locate the source within the given searching constraints. Additionally, target overshooting and improper initialization strategies may lead to a nonoptimal (i.e., take longer time to converge) target searching. In this study, a modified PSO and three different initializations strategies (i.e., random, equidistant and centrali.....

397 hits

Purpose: The massive expansion of digital platform has been responsible for the widespread progressive engagement created amongst learners and educators. The practice of requiring student feedback on online learning services ensures that teacher education continues to advance its strategic approach to online learning. This paper aims to examine the level of accessibility and adaptability of digital technology with particular focus on Malaysia, by elaborating the value of superior learning service and practical adaptability of online learning during the pandemic era. Design/methodology/approach: This study was conducted using qualitative approach of data collection, namely via structured interview. The listed respondents included 30 higher learners who participated in the study by providing feedback on the issues encountered during the research process. Findings: The findings revealed that the strategic enhancement of digital accessibility continued with digital adaptability to sources .....

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Purpose: The aim of this paper is to examine the strategic approach of culturally responsive and communicative teaching (CRCT) through a critical assessment of interracial teachers in their daily school interactions. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical data were obtained through interviews among ten interracial teachers. The analysis was made through a thematic approach to obtain substantial data from interviews. Findings: The findings reveal that attempts to gain sufficient comprehension of CRCT are actualized through routine interaction in the multicultural school environment hence resulting in embedding self-awareness of cultural competence in a multicultural classroom, constructing emotional and social development on cultural awareness and internalizing responsive awareness on social engagement in global learning. Originality/value: The contribution of this research provides an insightful value on expanding key consideration to support the multicultural classroom environment.....

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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have their eating habits impacted by their traits, such as difficulty remaining seated at the table and exhibiting behaviors during mealtime. This often worries parents and causes stress and anxiety. Given video modeling's potential in helping children with ASD, experts should evaluate its effectiveness for teaching eating skills due to limited research in this area. Thus, the study aim to evaluate the validity of the developed videos of eating skills for children with ASD. For face validity, a focus group discussion was held to obtain experts' feedback on the eating skills video and was transcribed verbatim. Otherwise for content validity, the experts received content validity assessment forms and guidelines via email and the results was analysed using Microsoft excell. Face validity revealed four themes: suitability of videos, video quality and clarity, video instructions suitability, task analysis arrangement, and "other" recommendati.....

427 hits

The problem of discipline and moral decay nowadays in society in Malaysia is very concerning, especially among children and teenagers, as it spreads very fast and keeps being very difficult to deal with. Drug abuse is a big problem that is spreading among the world community and this will have a very bad effect especially the development of human capital. This study aimed to find out the effectiveness of Drug Prevention Programs among children at school. From this Program we want to know the level of awareness, knowledge, skills, and spirituality among children. This study has used quantitative design and is supported by qualitative data. The first phase is a case study that uses the interview with teachers and government anti-drug agency officers who are involved in the implementation of the program. For the second phase of the study, researchers have used the survey method by distributing questionnaires to the recipient subjects, who are primary school students in at-risk states who .....

273 hits

Addiction to social media addiction is considered a leading risk factor for depression among adolescents, but the relationship needs to be supported empirically. This study investigates the social media addiction level and its association with depression among Malaysian adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted by distributing a structured questionnaire to potential respondents aged 13 to 21 years old from Johor and Sarawak. Data were analysed in SPSS using descriptive statistics, correlation, and Chi-square tests. Overall, 72.0% and 33.0% of the 384 respondents recorded high levels of social media addiction and depression, respectively. A significant and low positive relationship was detected between social media addiction and depression among adolescents. The levels of social media addiction and depression differed across age groups, gender, race, and the time spent on social media platforms. These findings reflect the need to address excessive social media usage among adole.....

1105 hits

Purpose: Despite the vulnerability of rapidly developing and emerging market economies, researchers have paid less attention to the determination of the size of money laundering (ML) in these economies, including the United Arab Emirates (the UAE). Therefore, this paper aims to estimate the magnitude of ML in the UAE between 1975 and 2020 based on the currency demand approach (CDA). Design/methodology/approach: The study uses the Gregory–Hansen cointegration technique alongside the autoregressive distributed lag bounds testing procedure to estimate the CDA model. Findings: The results illustrate that an amount equivalent to about 19.034% of the GDP is laundered in the UAE between 1975 and 2020, on average, with the value lying between 15.129% and 23.121%. In addition, the results demonstrate the importance of the real estate market, gold trade, remittance channels and the size of the underground economy in facilitating the laundering of illicit funds in the country. Originality/value.....

751 hits

In recent years, the global e-commerce landscape has witnessed rapid growth, with sales reaching a new peak in the past year and expected to rise further in the coming years. Amid this e-commerce boom, accurately predicting user purchase behavior has become crucial for commercial success. We introduce a novel framework integrating three innovative approaches to enhance the prediction model’s effectiveness. First, we integrate an event-based timestamp encoding within a time-series attention model, effectively capturing the dynamic and temporal aspects of user behavior. This aspect is often neglected in traditional user purchase prediction methods, leading to suboptimal accuracy. Second, we incorporate Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to analyze user behavior. By modeling users and their actions as nodes and edges within a graph structure, we capture complex relationships and patterns in user behavior more effectively than current models, offering a nuanced and comprehensive analysis. Last.....

361 hits

The Malaysian Sports Culture Index (MSCI) is the baseline index for reporting on the achievement of Malaysians in practicing sports activities with the availability of its ecosystem. MSCI’22 is a continuation of the study which was first initiated by the Institute for Youth Research Malaysia (IYRES) in 2018. This index is the basis for the formation of the National Sports Vision 2030 and serves as a guideline for monitoring sports culture programs throughout the country. MSCI’22 succeeded in gathering 3,735 respondents from various backgrounds according to age group, gender, ethnicity, and location. In terms of location, the research used the Population Census 2020, with 720 Counting Blocks (CB) and 7200 Places of Residence (PR). The proportionate random stratified sampling method was used, and samples were taken based on the CB and PR population data of 23 million Malaysian citizens aged 13 years and above. IYRES developed a special research system (online and offline) for the pur.....

480 hits