Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Research Articles

COMPARATIVE TEMPORAL DISCOLOURATION OF DRY MUSEUM SPECIMENS OF MOUNTAIN BLACKEYE (Chlorocharis emiliae)

Plumage colour studies using museum skins is one of the ways to understand species evolution and plumage polymorphism. The invaluable scientific information on a single historic specimen should be well-presented in the most regarded form of quality skin. However, aging plumage feathers are hypothetically susceptible to colour fading therefore doubting the relevant of using old specimens for plumage colour assessment. We examined the colour changes in 36 museum specimens by conducting series of Munsell colour scoring by comparing recent and old skins of mountain blackye (Chlorocharis emiliae), at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) and Sarawak Museum (SM). The year-gap of both sets of specimens ranged from 52 to 75 years. Eight plumage characters included in this study were crown, supercilium, auricular, mantle, rump, breast, belly and vent. The results revealed that the head (crown and auricular) and underparts (breast and vent) tend to fade extensively overtime compared to the upperparts. Therefore the results of this study support the earlier findings that aging plumage feathers are susceptible to colour fading.

HOW TO MASTER GENERIC SKILLS IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE? AN ELECTRONIC-PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING WAY: A MALAYSIAN EXPERIENCE

Does it matter in whatever language a student acquires generic skills? The answer is, YES it matters a lot. The reality is that other than the content area or the hard skill, competence in generic skills AND communication in the English language among undergraduates are also of utmost importance, if they are to achieve academic excellence and more importantly secure employment upon graduation. Stakeholders including parents, sponsoring bodies, the community and especially the employers have high expectations on the university to produce graduates who not only excel in the content matter but equally important possess mastery of communication skills in English and generic skills. Unfortunately, the current scenario in Malaysia is not so encouraging. The lack of competence in English and generic skills among graduates in Malaysia have been the two major contributing factors for their unemployment (Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia, 2015) so much so that almost half of Malaysian graduates were unemployed (The Star Online, 2013) and 400 thousand Malaysian graduates were unemployed in 2015 (Bernama, 2015 cited in The Malaysian Insider, 2015). The nation has long been asking WHY? Despite the 17 years of education from kindergarten to university level, Malaysia is still grappling with producing graduates who are not only proficient in the English language but basic generic skills like citizenship, honesty, passion, knowledge transfer, critical thinking, perseverance, IT and problem-solving. This paper reveals the findings of a study on the use of Electronic-Problem-Based Learning (ePBL) towards enhancing learning of communication and generic skills in the English Language among Malaysian undergraduates. Using purposeful sampling, the samples involved 223 undergraduates and 12 lecturers from Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. The samples were treated with ePBL in their semester long studies; Effective Communication in English (UTHM) and Health Science (UNIMAS). Data was collected using a questionnaire set administered online and interview with both the students and lecturers. The findings show that the use of ePBL has a very positive effect in enhancing learning of the English Language and generic skills among the undergraduates. On the part of the lecturers, the approach has also open up new and more interesting ways of training future graduates who are both competent in the hard and soft skills areas much to the expectations of the nation in general. As a conclusion, ePBL has proven to be very instrumental towards improving learning and there is great potential for the approach to be adopted in other disciplines and the education system at all levels. Keywords : E-learning, Communication, English, Foreign Language Education, ESL/TESL, PBL, Generic, Soft, Higher Education, New Technologies in Education

Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21) among Counselling Students: A Preliminary Study

This research aimed to determine the correlation between level of depression, anxiety and stress among counselling students at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. This research adopted a correlational study with a quantitative approach in order to observe the correlation between the variables. Eighty six (86) respondents participated in this study. The study was conducted using Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) instrument. The result showed that there was a significant relationship between the level of depression, anxiety and stress among counselling students at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. This research also provides awareness towards the counselling students on their level of depression, anxiety and stress. For future research, it is suggested that personality test and scoring test be conducted for level of depression, anxiety and stress in order to see the correlations between variables.Keywords: DASS-21; depression; anxiety; stress; counselling student; Malaysia

Peer Mentoring Among Undergraduate Medical Students : Experience From Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Introduction: Peer mentoring is one of the mentoring essential components in any higher institution of learning. In the medical faculty of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), this mentoring system has existed long but has not undergone any formal evaluation. Objective: The main objective of this study is to determine the perception of peer mentoring among medical students of Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS), UNIMAS. Method: It was a cross-sectional study using self-administered questionnaire. All medical undergraduate students of FMHS were recruited. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 22. Result: A total of 234 respondents participated in this study. Peer mentoring system was preferred against other mentoring system. Majority of the respondents reported that academic gain was the main benefits they gained from peer mentoring system. Negative attitude of the mentee and poor time management for the meeting were the top two worst experience encountered by both mentors and mentees respectively. More than half of the mentor and mentee perceived that peer mentoring system was beneficial to them compared to other systems, with reason that the interaction between student themselves were more easier and comfortable. Nevertheless, there should be more interaction between the mentors and mentees. Conclusion: The findings indicated there is a positive contribution of peer mentoring towards the mentoring system of the faculty. There is a need to relook at the current mentoring system and consider peer mentoring to improve the student support.

The Effect of Substrate Concentration on Enzymatic Hydrolysis of Selected Food Waste for Glucose Production

Glucose is an important commodity for various domestic and industrial applications, rangingfrom the manufacturing of food and pharmaceuticals to biofuel production. It is thereforeimperative to explore novel sources of glucose that are easy to process, cheap andenvironmentally friendly. In this study, food wastes collected from restaurants and cafeteriawithin Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) campus were used as feedstock for glucoseproduction. Several feedstock loadings were investigated (7%, 10%, 20% and 30% w/v) in theenzymatic hydrolysis processes that were carried out at pH 5.0, 100 rpm and 58 ± 2 °C for 24 husing glucoamylase and crude protease preparations. Results showed that substrateconcentration of 20% (w/v) in batch hydrolysis experiments has the highest glucose productionat 140 g/L, with 46.20% glucose recovery. The highest amount of substrate being hydrolyzed(68.35%) within 20 h was also recorded in the same experimental set. We conclude thatsubstrate concentration or feedstock loading during enzymatic hydrolysis is a very crucialparameter for optimal glucose production and recovery from carbohydrate rich food wastes.

Thrombin and FXa plasma concentration levels in patients with atrial fibrillation on long term warfarin therapy

1 Department of Pharmacy, Sarawak General Hospital Heart Centre, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia 2 Clinical Research Centre, Sarawak General Hospital, Kuching, Malaysia 3Department of Cardiology, Sarawak General Hospital Heart Centre, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia 4 Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Kuching, Malaysia 5 Faculty of Engineering, Computing and Science, Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus, Kuching, Malaysia

Self-evaluation of medical students on the elective research course

The significance of learning research methodology and performing research has been accepted by various medical schools in Malaysia as well as in other countries. The aim of integrating research into medical curriculum is to inculcate the research culture and form part of the evidence-based practice among medical professionals. Hence, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak has incorporated the research component into the preclinical year of the medical curriculum. A survey was conducted to gauge the second year medical students’ level of knowledge of research process at the end of the course using a set of questionnaires. Seventy nine of second year medical students participated in the study. The outcome of the study shows significant improvement in the students’ knowledge on research components after completing the one year course (p<.05). Our findings suggest that the course has met its main objectives to make the students better understand the research processes. It is recommended that further evaluation should be conducted to refine the course.

A Comparative Analysis of Techniques for Forecasting Electricity Consumption

The issue of obtaining reliable forecasting methods for electricity consumption has been widely discussed by past research work. This is due to the increased demand for electricity and as a result, the development of efficient pricing models. Several techniques have been used in past research for forecasting electricity consumption. This includes the use of forecasting, time-series technique (FTST) and artificial neural networks (ANN). This paper introduces a modified Newton’s model (MNM) to forecast electricity consumption. Forecasting models are developed from historical data and predictive estimates are obtained. This research work utilizes data from Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, a public university in Malaysia, from 2009 to 2012. The variables considered in this research include electricity consumption for different months over the years.

Antecedent and Consequences of Flow: Lessons for Developing Human Resources

Not much is known about flow, a positive psychology experience in non Western countries particularly in human resource development field. Although flow is a universal experience, flow can be expected to be culture specific and culture dependent. There are reasons to believe that emotions at work, and how people express their positive emotions reflects and originated from their cultural characteristics (i.e. Asian are not encouraged to show their negative emotions). The objective of this paper is to examine the antecedents and consequences of flow from literature review. The literature review was conducted within the accessibility limits provided to Universiti Malaysia Sarawak and INTI International University by online databases in Emerald, Sage, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, Elsevier, and EBSCOhost. Twenty one (21) journal articles published between 2000-2012 were reviewed. Fifteen (15) of the articles were studies carried out in Western countries while five (6) of the articles were studies in non-Western countries. The analysis showed that most of the studies were in quantitative method. It was found that antecedents of flow include job characteristics (combination of challenges and resources), work environment and negative organizational outcomes. On the other hand, consequences of flow include intrinsic motivation, engagement and positive mood which lead to higher performance. From this limited literature, no clear distinction between antecedents and consequences of flow between Western and non-Western can be found. Human resource practitioners could design work and environment that can cultivate flow experience in order to increase employees’ performance.

Electricity cost saving comparison due to tariff change and ice thermal storage (ITS) usage based on a hybrid centrifugal-ITS system for buildings: A university district cooling perspective

In this paper, the case study of a district cooling system of a university located in a South East Asia region (lat: 01°29′; long: 110°20′E) is presented. In general, the university has high peak ambient temperature of around 32–35°C coupled with high humidity of about 85% during afternoon period. The total electricity charge for the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Campus is very high amounting to more than $314,911 per month. In this paper, a few district cooling schemes are investigated to provide “what-if analysis” and in order to minimize the overall electricity charges. Few scenarios designed for the application of centrifugal with and without ice-thermal storage (ITS) systems on the buildings were investigated. It was found that, due to the local tariff status, marginally saving can be achieved in the range of 0.08–3.13% if a new tariff is adopted; and a total of further saving of 1.26–2.43% if ITS is operated. This marginally saving is mainly due to the local tariff conditions and lower local temperature range (ΔT) which are less favorable as compared with those reported in the literature elsewhere.

Perception Of The Mentor-Mentee System Among Medical Students Of The Faculty Of Medicine And Health Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak

Objective: To determine the perception of medical students towards mentor-mentee system in Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences of UNIMAS. Method: It was a cross-sectional study involving all 104 second year and 80 fifth year medical students. A self-administered questionnaire consisting of socio-demographic details, general perceptions on mentor-mentee system, academic support, personal development, and emotional and psychological support was distributed. The data was analysed using the SPSS version 19. Result: Majority of the subjects had a positive outlook towards the mentor-mentee system with a range of 45.6% to 57%. Three of the top rated perceptions were ‘mentor analyses mentee’s examination results and provides constructive feedback’, ‘mentor advises how to improve academic performance’, and ‘mentor gives encouragement and support for the challenges faced’ (66.8%, 68.0% and 62.9% respectively). Pre-cinical medical students had significantly better perception on mentor-mentee system than clinical students (p≤0.002) while those with non-clinician mentors significantly had better perceptions than those with clinician mentors (p≤0.003) on the system. No significant difference was found between the perceptions of males and females for all components (p=0.234 to 0.722). Conclusion: The mentor-mentee system was found to be successful as more than half of the respondents had posititve perception on the system and its aspects. However, pre-clinical students benefited more compared to clinical students, which reflects the need to look at the support given to clinical students. It was recommended that future studies should incorporate the perceptions of mentors.

A new fuzzy criterion-referenced assessment with a fuzzy rule selection technique and a monotonicity-preserving similarity reasoning scheme

The use of a Fuzzy Inference System FIS as a part of Criterion-referenced Assessment CRA is not new. Nevertheless, there are several limitations in combining FIS models and CRA, as follows. i It is difficult to maintain the monotonicity property of the FIS-based CRA model; ii it is difficult and impractical to form a complete fuzzy rule base when the number of required rules is large, and iii reducing fuzzy rules may cause the “tomato classification” problem. In this paper, a practical solution to overcome these limitations is provided. We adopt the sufficient conditions i.e., a mathematical foundation as a set of governing equations for designing fuzzy membership functions and fuzzy rules to preserve the monotonicity property. In this paper, our works in [21] is extended and a new procedure that comprises of the sufficient conditions, fuzzy rule reduction and a monotonicity-preserving similarity reasoning SR is proposed. The new framework reduces the number of fuzzy rules gathered from an assessor i.e., selected rules with a proposed fuzzy rule selection approach. Selected rules are identified in such that the unselected rules can be deduced via a monotonicity-preserving SR technique. We formulate the process of minimizing the number of selected rules as a constrained optimization problem and a genetic algorithm GA technique is implemented. Unselected rules are predicted with a proposed monotonicity-preserving SR scheme. The proposed approach contributes to a solution to reduce the number of fuzzy rules to be gathered from an assessor while maintaining the monotonicity property. Besides, this paper also contributes to a new application of SR in education assessment. The proposed approach is evaluated with a case study relating to a lab assessment in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak UNIMAS.

Enhancing a Fuzzy Inference System-Based Criterion-Referenced Assessment with an Analogical Reasoning Schema

In this paper, a fuzzy inference system (FIS) that incorporated with an analogical reasoning schema-based criterion-referenced assessment (CRA) is proposed. For a multi input FIS-based CRA, a large set of fuzzy rules are usually required. With the use of the grid partition strategy, the number of fuzzy rules required increases in an exponential manner and this phenomenon is known as the curse of dimensionality or combinatorial rule explosion problem. It is a tedious work in getting a complete set of fuzzy rules in practice. The main objective of this paper is to propose a new FIS-based CRA that allows fuzzy rules to be reduced. We suggest to adopt a systematic approach to select a set of fuzzy rules that to be gathered, and to incorporate an analogical reasoning schema to predict these unknown fuzzy rules. An FIS-based CRA procedure with an analogical reasoning schema is proposed. A case study relating to assessment of students’ laboratory projects in Universiti Malaysia Sarawak is reported.

Telecentre Replication Initiative in Borneo Malaysia: The CoERI Experience

AbstractThere are many bridging‐the‐digital‐divide initiatives implemented by various government agencies and non‐governmental organisations throughout the world. Numerous studies have been conducted to identify the critical success factors in providing remote and rural communities equitable access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). Malaysia has its fair share of successes and failures in such initiatives. One such initiative, the eBario Project, which provided ICTs to the rural and remote community in Bario, Borneo Malaysia, has been in operation over the last decade. The project was undertaken by the Centre of Excellence for Rural Informatics (CoERI), Institute of Social Informatics and Technological Innovations, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) with active participation of the local community in Bario. Critical success factors of the eBario Project include the close cooperation between the project initiator and the local community, strong support from the local champions, focus on actual needs and socio‐economic goals of the community, and deployment of appropriate technologies to the remote community. Given its relative success, the eBario project has been replicated to four other rural and remote communities in Borneo Malaysia. This paper highlights the approach used in implementing telecentres within these communities and some of the lessons learnt during the replication process. The CoERI Experience provides a useful guide to policy makers, project implementers and researchers who intend to deploy telecentres in rural communities at a larger scale.

A Morphological Analysis of MalaysianKerivoula(Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae)

Recent identification of new species within the genus Kerivoula from the Southeast Asian region has indicated that this genus was understudied and currently underestimated in terms of its species diversity. Thus, this morphological study was carried out to record and analyse the morphological characters of available specimens of Malaysian Kerivoula from the Museum of Zoology, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak. Thirty-one external, skull and dental characters were taken and analysed using the multivariate analysis, dicriminant function analysis. As the result, six groupings of Kerivoula was identified, namely K. intermedia, K. hardwickii, K. pellucida, K. lenis and K. papulosa which were divided into two distinctive groupings of K. papulosa type large (K. papillosa type L, hereafter) and K. papillosa type small (K. papillosa type S, hereafter). Variable dentary length was identified as the best predictor to characterize each group of Kerivoula. The separation of the K. papulosa specimens into two separate morphotypes were characterised by their different sizes whereby the former group was larger in size compared to the latter. It is suggested that each represents an independent species even though both morphotypes occur sympatrically. The homogenising effect of the previous environmental events might have been the primary factor of the sympatric occurrence of both morphotypes. Nevertheless, further study regarding ecology, morphology and genetics should be carried out to provide a better insight regarding the cryptic population of K. papillosa in Borneo and Malaysia.

Experimental Validation of EnergyPlus® Simulation of a Single Storey Building

EnergyPlus® simulated indoor temperatures of a single storey building at the east campus of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, for April and June, are validated with measurements taken in 2007.The measured local outdoor temperature was used together with the global solar radiation, wind velocity, relative humidity and cloud cover measured at the Kuching airport to replace the typical meteorological year (TMY) values in the EnergyPlus® weather (EPW) file to fonn a Modified EPW weather file at the time/date of experiments. The remaining fields of the Modified EPW contain TMY data including the direct and diffuse solar radiations and the 'sky's' infrared radiation, which is also present at night.Analysis of the temperatures at the windows simulated with the EPW and Modified EPW weather files for the April and June experiments show the strong influence of the outdoor temperature and importance of the global solar radiation in the weather file and local outdoor temperature is used in the Modified EPW.Day time peak mismatches between the measured indoor air temperature and the indoor air temperature simulated with the Modified EPW is 2 to 3 deg C. These are due to the use of the TMY direct and diffuse solar radiations in the heat balance algorithms at the outside surfaces. The corresponding night time mismatches are less than 1 deg C because the TMY values of the long wave infra-red radiation emitted from molecules and particles in the atmosphere in the Modified EPW are used in simulation.

Developing Global Public Health Links in Southeast Asia

At the end of 2009, the number of medical schools in Malaysia had exceeded 20 and there is every indication that this number, although large for a country of 28 million people, is likely to go up. However, very few medical schools engage in postgraduate programs due to lack of qualified staff and training facilities. Only 4 medical schools have a Master of Public Health (MPH) program. These medical schools are located in the University of Malaya (UM), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). Of these 4, only 2 (UM and UKM) have a Doctor of Public Health Program and take in international students for their postgraduate degrees. The oldest and most established public health postgraduate degree program in Malaysia is run by the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (popularly known as the SPM Department), University of Malaya, which is also the oldest academic public health department in Malaysia. Relative to public health departments in other universities in the Southeast Asian region, the SPM Department is small, with only 12 active academic staff and a further 9 staff who were still on study leave at the end of 2009. This small department delivers 2 general public health master’s programs, 4 specialty master’s in public health, a doctor of public health (DrPH), and PhD program and is the only department in UM’s medical faculty to maintain its own department Web site (http://spm.um.edu.my) since 1999. Since 1974, the SPM Department has produced 612 Master of Public Health and 106 Master in Medical Science (Public Health) graduates, in addition to a number of PhD graduates. Many of these graduates are international and increasingly international students make up a significant number of student intake. Currently half of its master’s and a quarter of its doctoral student intake every year are of international origin.

Evaluation of two commercially available ELISAs for the diagnosis of Japanese encephalitis applied to field samples

To compare two commercially available kits, Japanese Encephalitis-Dengue IgM Combo ELISA (Panbio Diagnostics) and JEV-CheX IgM capture ELISA (XCyton Diagnostics Limited), to a reference standard (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak - Venture Technologies VT ELISA). Samples were obtained from 172/192 children presenting to a site in rural India with acute encephalitis syndrome. Using the reference VT ELISA, infection with Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) was confirmed in 44 (26%) patients, with central nervous system infection confirmed in 27 of these; seven patients were dengue seropositive. Of the 121 remaining patients, 37 (31%) were JEV negative and 84 (69%) were JEV unknown because timing of the last sample tested was <10 day of illness or unknown. For patient classification with XCyton, using cerebrospinal fluid alone (the recommended sample), sensitivity was 77.8% (59.2-89.4) with specificity of 97.3% (90.6-99.2). For Panbio ELISA, using serum alone (the recommended sample), sensitivity was 72.5% (57.2-83.9) with specificity of 97.5% (92.8-99.1). Using all available samples for patient classification, sensitivity and specificity were 63.6% (95% CI: 48.9-76.2) and 98.4% (94.5-99.6), respectively, for XCyton ELISA and 75.0% (59.3-85.4) and 97.7% (93.3-99.2) for Panbio ELISA. The two commercially available ELISAs had reasonable sensitivities and excellent specificities for diagnosing JEV.

Postgraduate students' knowledge construction during asynchronous computer conferences in a blended learning environment: A Malaysian experience

&lt;span&gt;Blended learning, using e-learning tools to supplement existing on campus learning, often incorporates asynchronous computer conferencing as a means of augmenting knowledge construction among students. This case study reports findings about levels of knowledge construction amongst adult postgraduate students in six asynchronous computer conferences in a blended learning environment. The aim is to document and understand the kinds of task related postings in asynchronous computer conferencing that foster knowledge construction. The tool for analysis is an adaptation of the model by Veerman and Veldhuis-Diermanse (2001). Data were collected from&lt;/span&gt;&lt;em&gt;Quickplace&lt;/em&gt;&lt;span&gt;, the e-learning system at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, with 22 adult postgraduate students enrolled in the Masters of Science in Human Resource Development who were attending a 14-week course on Cognition and Learning. The results showed that the students were active in constructing knowledge but limited to seeking and giving opinions among peers and knowledge telling. The prevalence of low level knowledge construction points to the need for the e-learning facilitator to encourage the students to go beyond regurgitating facts of what they have learned. More guidance should be given to the students to refrain from mere knowledge telling. Results suggest that there are blended learning benefits for these students as they are given improved opportunities to learn outside the classroom.&lt;/span&gt;

A comparison of nearby incremental ground level and in plant concentrations of air pollutants emitted from electronics facilities

Air dispersion modeling by was recently conducted to predict the incremental ground level and in- plant concentrations of toxic organic chemicals due to stack and fugitive emissions from Sama Jaya Free Industrial Zone (SJFIZ), Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. Simulations of organic air pollutants emitted from industrial facilities in SJFIZ from years 1996 to 2001 were carried out in September 2004 by members of Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS). The results indicated that there were negligible amount of maximum incremental ground level concentrations of less than 3x10 -2 µg/m 3 for 365-day average, and less than 18x10 -2 µg/m 3 for 24 h. average. For in-plant maximum incremental concentrations, it is found that the simulated results were much lower than TWA values, except xylene. The predicted in plant concentration of xylene was 119.21 (parts per million) ppm as compared to ACGIH TLV-TWA of 100 ppm approximately 19% higher than ACGIH recommended values. From this study, it was concluded that both nearby population and in plant workers were not potentially at risk to exposing organic chemicals far lower than the threshold limit levels set by ACGIH.