This qualitative study describes the procedures undertaken to explore the Intangible Culture Heritage (ICH) preservation, especially focusing on the inhabitants? garments of different ethnic groups in Weld Quay, Penang, which was a multi-cultural trading port during the 19th century in Malaysia. Social life and occupational activities of the different ethnic groups formed the two main spines of how different the inhabitants? garments would be. This study developed and demonstrated a step-by-step conceptual framework of narrative analysis. Therefore, the procedures used in this study are adequate to serve as a guide for novice researchers who are interested in undertaking a narrative analysis study. Hence, the investigation of the material culture has been exemplified by proposing a novel conceptual framework of narrative analysis. This collaborative method has been utilized to ascertain the narrative data collected from an interview with visual and semiotic analysis. The information de.....

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PbTiO3 has emerged as a promising material for the thermoelectric application. In this study, we proposed to use density functional theory to investigate the underlying mechanism for improving the thermoelectric efficiency of ATiO3. The thermoelectric parameters of the designed surface structures have been obtained by using the Boltzmann transport equation approximation. The properties of the structure, electronic, and thermoelectricity were measured and analyzed. The surface (001) modification through the AO termination layer has increased the electrical conductivity, thus increasing the power factor. On the other hand, increasing the Seebeck coefficient, which is aided by declining thermal conductivity, which is aided by low thermopower, improves the figure of merit. It is shown that the thermoelectric performance of surface (001) SnTiO3 is higher as compared to PbTiO3 making it interesting towards lead-free materials in thin-film application. ? 2021 Elsevier B.V...

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Nutraceuticals are a category of products more often associated with food but having pharmaceuticals property and characteristics. However, there is still no internationally accepted concept of these food?pharmaceutical properties, and their interpretation can differ from country to country. Nutraceuticals are used as part of dietary supplements in most countries. They can be phy-tochemicals which are biologically active and have health benefits. These can be supplied as a sup-plement and/or as a functional food to the customer. For human health and longevity, these materials are likely to play a vital role. Consumption of these items is typical without a therapeutic pre-scription and/or supervision by the vast majority of the public. The development of nutraceuticals can be achieved through many bioresources and organisms. This review article will discuss the current research on nutraceuticals from different biological sources and their potential use as an agent for improving human he.....

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Ultrasonic-assisted extraction (UAE) on the Cassia sieberiana root was optimised by a three-factor-three-level Box-Behnken design (BBD). A single factor experiment revealed the logic ranges for the UAE parameters for extraction time, temperature and solvent to sample ratio were 10-60 min, 30-60 C and 10-30 mL/g, respectively. The BBD showed that a second-order polynomial model produced a satisfactory fitting of the experimental data (R2 = 0.9917, P < 0.001) with regards to extraction yield. The optimal UAE conditions were 29 min, 45 C and 16.79 mL/g. Under the optimised conditions, the UAE yielded 1.28 � 0.7% of C. sieberiana root extract as to 0.69 � 1.1% obtained by maceration and 0.82 � 0.5% obtained by Soxhlet extraction. The results affirmed that the BBD was suitable in establishing the optimum UAE conditions for a maximum extraction yield while being more efficient and rapid than conventional methods (maceration and Soxhlet extraction). ? 2021 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.......

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This study demonstrates the wafer bonding method for performance tuning of piezoelectric Micromachined Ultrasonic Transducer (pMUT) from on-the-shelf piezoelectric disc (PZT). Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and Epoxy were studied as adhesive materials. A thick bonding layer was deposited using the spin coating technique. Wafer bonding was carried out at room temperature to simulate in-situ pMUT repairing scenario. Bonding integrity is analyzed using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM) images, while electrical characterization of pMUT is carried out using impedance analysis. Fabricated pMUTs have been calibrated using the pulse-echo technique in a freshwater tank. This study found that PDMS at the minimum thickness of 28 ?m is preferably compatible for in-situ wafer bonding of pMUT compared to the Epoxy. PDMS has significantly reduced device impedance at 62.4 % reduction compared to 58.9 % reduction for Epoxy. Both pMUTs were able to transmit and receive short acoustic ping.....

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Vaccine success stories in eradicating infectious diseases such as smallpox and polio have long been acknowledged. However, the function of vaccines is not widely known currently as these diseases are low profile. Studies have shown that social media users have always disseminated the harmful effects of vaccines on health without referring to valid and credible sources. This has led to an increase in anti-vaccine sentiment among the public and contributed to vaccine refusal around the globe, including Malaysia. Facebook is well known for providing the space for anti-vaxxers to engage and share distorted and unfounded views about vaccination. Therefore, this study is conducted to examine anti-vaxxers on Facebook and to understand their characteristics. A total of 456 Facebook users who claimed to reject vaccines publicly on a selected Facebook page, Malaysia Kene Tahu (MKT), were quantitatively profiled. The results show that the majority used genuine profile accounts while revealing on.....

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The transmission of viral hepatitis type B (HBV) is of significant public health concern. The infection result depends on how well the virus interacts with the host and in particular, on the ability to respond inherently and adaptively to the humoral and cellular immunity. The purpose of this study is to evaluate clinical, immunology and tracer status (viral). This study showed the relationship between the immune and chronic conditions of Iraqi patients who are chronic hepatitis virus B or HBV carriers. The study included (111) chronically-viral hepatitis type (b) and (112) hepatitis virus surface antigen type (b) healthy carriers from out of patients. The result of this study proved that a non-significant correlation was observed between cellular immune response (CD4 and CD8) among chronic hepatitis B patients. For CD8+ lymphocytes: there was a highly significant decrease (P..

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This study aims at making possible the effective use of machine translation (MT) in interpreting the Malay compounds into Arabic ones following the structure and Arabic style. The necessity of this study arises on account of the weakness of translation quality using online MT and the lack of suitable methods to structure the compounds from the Malay language into Arabic. There are three objectives of this study which are to collect the results of Malay compound translations using online MT into Arabic, analyze the results of the compound translations, and suggest compound translation methods based on dynamic theory and Arabization method. The study uses three online MT as instruments to translate: Google Translate, Microsoft Bing Translator, and Yandex Translator. This qualitative study employs a descriptive approach and analysis method in collecting information and analyzing data. The study focuses on 15 Malay compounds which are later categorized into school names, hospital names, an.....

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Traffic congestions problem could affect everyday life especially in urban area. In order to solve the issue, an excellent traffic flow prediction needs to be developed for a better traffic management. Hence, this study was conducted in order to predict traffic flow by using the data of total volume of vehicles per hour at two main roads located in urban areas namely Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia by using application of chaos theory. Phase space reconstruction was used to determine the chaotic behaviour of the total volume of vehicles per hour data. The reconstruction of phase space involves a single variable of the total volume of vehicles per hour data to m-dimensional phase space. Meanwhile, the inverse approach as well as local linear approximation method was used to develop prediction model of the traffic flow time series data. This study found that (i) the time series data were chaotic behaviour based on the phase space plot and (ii) inverse approach can provide prediction .....

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Piper hispidum Sw. (Piperaceae) (syn. Piper hispidinervum) is a medicinal shrub distributed in Central and South America, widely used as an astringent, diuretic, stimulant for unblocking the liver and stopping hemorrhages. The plant has great interest among researchers due to the production of essential oil and important raw material for the chemical industry, which has a high demand for cosmetic, insecticide, and pesticide industries. In this review, traditional uses, phytochemicals, and biological activities of P. hispidum are comprehensively and systematically summarized through searching scientific databases, including Science Direct, PubMed, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Web of Science. Phytochemical studies revealed the presence of amides, benzoic acids, flavonoids, phenylpropanoids, butenolides, phenol, and essential oils; hence it has several activities, such as antioxidant, antibacterial, ?-amylase, insecticidal, schistosomicidal, leishmanial, larvicidal, antiplasmodial, cytotox.....

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