Search

Higher education institutes such as universities suffer from a range of issues in managing their academic records and relevant digital contents. Many universities nowadays use specific software applications for their effective mechanism in records management. The effective provision of enterprises records management (ERM) software for managing records especially for maintaining research activities are of paramount importance to meet complex criteria outlined by the university. The purpose of this study is to describe the design of a locally-innovated Electronic Document and Records Management Systems (EDRMS) implementation for managing academic records in the context of a Malaysian University. The lessons learned from the design study can be applicable for improving relevant technologies for record keepings in other similar enterprises.

Understanding how people engage in daily activities within a region can provide valuable information for smart city planners and strategic partners to use to assist in their decision‐making processes. Such insights may relate to economic activities, sustainable city design, environmental impacts, and responses to climate change, contributing to the improvement in the quality of human life. Considerable attention is recently directed towards smart city initiatives that benefit majority of people, rather than projects that cater to the political, architectural, or vanity needs of a minority. However, understanding citizen requirements, behaviors, and opinions is difficult, and requires the use of technology and appropriate information sources. While social‐media big data have provided opportunities to develop evidence‐based insights into human daily activities, effective analytical methods to harness these opportunities remain in development. We propose a new analytical method to provide a deeper understanding of citizen activities by constructing building blocks in their activity storylines, with analysis of these storylines providing evidence‐based insights into their activities. Results demonstrate the usefulness of our method to smart city planners and strategic partners, providing invaluable insights to assist them in making decisions regarding sustainable smart city development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Refugees are confronted with the task of adapting to the long-term erosion of psychosocial systems and institutions that in stable societies support psychological well-being and mental health. We provide an overview of the theoretical principles and practical steps taken to develop a novel psychotherapeutic approach, Integrative Adapt Therapy (IAT), which aims to assist refugees to adapt to these changes. This paper offers the background informing ongoing trials of IAT amongst refugees from Myanmar. Methods: A systematic process was followed in formulating the therapy and devising a treatment manual consistent with the principles of the Adaptation and Development After Persecution and Trauma (ADAPT) model. The process of development and refinement was based on qualitative research amongst 70 refugees (ten from West Papua and 60 Rohingya from Myanmar). The therapeutic process was then piloted by trained interventionists amongst a purposively selected sample of 20 Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Results: The final formulation of IAT represented an integration of the principles of the ADAPT model and evidence-based techniques of modern therapies in the field, including a transdiagnostic approach and the selective use of cognitive behavioural treatment elements such as problem-solving and emotional regulation techniques. The steps outlined in refining the manual are outlined in relation to work amongst West Papuan refugees, and the process of cultural and contextual modifications described during early piloting with Rohingya refugees in Malaysia. Conclusions: IAT integrates universal principles of the ADAPT model with the particularities of the culture, history of conflict and living context of each refugee community; this synthesis of knowledge forms the basis for participants gaining insights into their personal patterns of psychosocial adaptation to the refugee experience. Participants then apply evidence-based techniques to improve their capacity to adapt to the serial psychosocial changes they have encountered in their lives as refugees. The overarching goal of IAT is to provide refugees with a coherent framework that assists in making sense of their experiences and their emotional and interpersonal reactions to the challenges they confront within the family and community context. As such, the principles of a general model (ADAPT) are used as a springboard for making concrete, manageable and meaningful life changes at the individual level, a potentially novel approach for psychosocial interventions in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This randomised controlled trial (RCT) aims to compare 6-week posttreatment outcomes of an Integrative Adapt Therapy (IAT) to a Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) on common mental health symptoms and adaptive capacity amongst refugees from Myanmar. IAT is grounded on psychotherapeutic elements specific to the refugee experience.Methods and Findings: We conducted a single-blind RCT (October 2017 -May 2019) with Chin (39.3%), Kachin (15.7%), and Rohingya (45%) refugees living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The trial included 170 participants receiving six 45-minute weekly sessions of IAT (97.6% retention, 4 lost to follow-up) and 161 receiving a multicomponent CBT also involving six 45-minute weekly sessions (96.8% retention, 5 lost to follow-up). Participants (mean age: 30.8 years, SD = 9.6) had experienced and/or witnessed an average 10.1 types (SD = 5.9, range = 1-27) of traumatic events. We applied a single-blind design in which independent assessors of pre- and posttreatment indices were masked in relation to participants' treatment allocation status. Primary outcomes were symptom scores of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Complex PTSD (CPTSD), Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), the 5 scales of the Adaptive Stress Index (ASI), and a measure of resilience (the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale [CDRS]). Compared to CBT, an intention-to-treat analysis (n = 331) at 6-week posttreatment follow-up demonstrated greater reductions in the IAT arm for all common mental disorder (CMD) symptoms and ASI domains except for ASI-3 (injustice), as well as increases in the resilience scores. Adjusted average treatment effects assessing the differences in posttreatment scores between IAT and CBT (with baseline scores as covariates) were -0.08 (95% CI: -0.14 to -0.02, p = 0.012) for PTSD, -0.07 (95% CI: -0.14 to -0.01) for CPTSD, -0.07 for MDD (95% CI: -0.13 to -0.01, p = 0.025), 0.16 for CDRS (95% CI: 0.06-0.026, p ≤ 0.001), -0.12 (95% CI: -0.20 to -0.03, p ≤ 0.001) for ASI-1 (safety/security), -0.10 for ASI-2 (traumatic losses; 95% CI: -0.18 to -0.02, p = 0.02), -0.03 for ASI-3 (injustice; (95% CI: -0.11 to 0.06, p = 0.513), -0.12 for ASI-4 (role/identity disruptions; 95% CI: -0.21 to -0.04, p ≤ 0.001), and -0.18 for ASI-5 (existential meaning; 95% CI: -0.19 to -0.05, p ≤ 0.001). Compared to CBT, the IAT group had larger effect sizes for all indices (except for resilience) including PTSD (IAT, d = 0.93 versus CBT, d = 0.87), CPTSD (d = 1.27 versus d = 1.02), MDD (d = 1.4 versus d = 1.11), ASI-1 (d = 1.1 versus d = 0.85), ASI-2 (d = 0.81 versus d = 0.66), ASI-3 (d = 0.49 versus d = 0.42), ASI-4 (d = 0.86 versus d = 0.67), and ASI-5 (d = 0.72 versus d = 0.53). No adverse events were recorded for either therapy. Limitations include a possible allegiance effect (the authors inadvertently conveying disproportionate enthusiasm for IAT in training and supervision), cross-over effects (counsellors applying elements of one therapy in delivering the other), and the brief period of follow-up.Conclusions: Compared to CBT, IAT showed superiority in improving mental health symptoms and adaptative stress from baseline to 6-week posttreatment. The differences in scores between IAT and CBT were modest and future studies conducted by independent research teams need to confirm the findings.Trial Registration: The study is registered under Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) (http://www.anzctr.org.au/). The trial registration number is: ACTRN12617001452381. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary scalable psychological interventions utilise task-shifting approaches that enable non-specialists such as social workers, nurses and lay persons to deliver structured interventions after a brief training and ongoing supervision by professionals. This field report describes a training-implementation approach we used to train lay counsellors to implement a psychological intervention, Integrative Adapt Therapy (IAT), with Rohingya Refugees in Malaysia. IAT is a theoretically guided programme based on the Adaptation and Development After Persecution and Trauma (ADAPT) model. Unlike existing cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT)-based interventions, IAT helps refugees trace their emotional and behavioural problems to the underlying psychosocial disruptions (reflected in the core ADAPT 'Pillars') they experience. We assessed implementation outcomes by conducting a focus group with the twelve lay IAT counsellors who completed a training workshop followed by six-month supervised implementation of the IAT programme with Rohingya refugees. The implementation outcomes focused on the value and benefits of the programme to the counsellors' clients and broader community, implementation challenges, cultural acceptability, and recommendations for improvement in training. There was a strong agreement amongst the counsellors that both the clients and they themselves benefited from the programme. Furthermore, the general consensus was that the clients reported improvements in their relationships with people (ADAPT Pillar 2: Bonds and Networks), in having a more realistic view about their Roles and Identities (Pillar 4) and in gaining a sense of purpose and meaning in life (Pillar 5: Existential Meaning). In addition, the focus group agreed that the programme fitted well with the culture and values of the Rohingya people. Implementation challenges include ensuring that the intervention team reflects gender balance, that the programme is sustainable and refining strategies to facilitate programme attendance and adherence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifty-seven accessions of torch ginger (Etlingera elatior) collected from seven states in Peninsular Malaysia were evaluated for their molecular characteristics using ISSR and SSR markers to assess the pattern of genetic diversity and association among the characteristics. Diversity study through molecular characterization showed that high variability existed among the 57 torch ginger accessions. ISSR and SSR molecular markers revealed the presence of high genetic variability among the torch ginger accessions. The combination of different molecular markers offered reliable and convincing information about the genetic diversity of torch ginger germplasm. This study found that SSR marker was more informative compared to ISSR marker in determination of gene diversity, polymorphic information content (PIC), and heterozygosity in this population. SSR also revealed high ability in evaluating diversity levels, genetic structure, and relationships of torch ginger due to their codominance and rich allelic diversity. High level of genetic diversity discovered by SSR markers showed the effectiveness of this marker to detect the polymorphism in this germplasm collection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aromatic rice cultivars constitute a small but special group of rice and are considered the best in terms of quality and aroma. Aroma is one of the most significant quality traits of rice, and variety with aroma has a higher price in the market. This research was carried out to study the genetic diversity among the 50 aromatic rice accessions from three regions (Peninsular Malaysia, Sabah, and Sarawak) with 3 released varieties as a control using the 32 simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. The objectives of this research were to quantify the genetic divergence of aromatic rice accessions using SSR markers and to identify the potential accessions for introgression into the existing rice breeding program. Genetic diversity index among the three populations such as Shannon information index (I) ranged from 0.25 in control to 0.98 in Sabah population. The mean numbers of effective alleles and Shannon’s information index were 0.36 and 64.90%, respectively. Similarly, the allelic diversity was very high with mean expected heterozygosity (He) of 0.60 and mean Nei’s gene diversity index of 0.36. The dendrogram based on UPGMA and Nei’s genetic distance classified the 53 rice accessions into 10 clusters. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) revealed that 89% of the total variation observed in this germplasm came from within the populations, while 11% of the variation emanated among the populations. These results reflect the high genetic differentiation existing in this aromatic rice germplasm. Using all these criteria and indices, seven accessions (Acc9993, Acc6288, Acc6893, Acc7580, Acc6009, Acc9956, and Acc11816) from three populations have been identified and selected for further evaluation before introgression into the existing breeding program and for future aromatic rice varietal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Genotypes evaluation for stability and high yielding in rice is an important factor for sustainable rice production and food security. These evaluations are essential especially when the objective of the breeding program is to select lines with high adaptability and stability. This study was conducted to investigate G × E interaction over ten environments across the peninsular Malaysia for yield stability in fifteen rice genotypes comprising twelve mutant lines and three established varieties. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications across the environments. Yield component traits were evaluated over multiple harvests and measured as number of tillers per hill, filled grains per panicle, grain weight per hill and yield per hectare. Data analyses were through analyses of variance and stability analyses were conducted for univariate and multivariate stability parameters. The pooled analysis of variance showed highly significant differences among genotypes, locations, seasons, and genotypes by environment (G × E interaction) for all the traits. Based on univariate (bi,,σi2, Wi2, YSi)and multivariate (AMMI and GGE biplot) stability parameters, rice genotypes were classified into three main groups. The first group are genotypes having high stability along with high yield. These genotypes are widely adapted to diverse environmental conditions. The second group is a genotype that exhibited high yield but low stability, this genotype is suitable for specific environments. The last group is genotypes with low yield and high stability. Genotypes in this class are more suitable for breeding specific traits or yield component compensation such as the capacity to recover rapidly from stresses. Significant rank correlations were measured for regression slope(bi),deviation from regression(),Shukla stability variance(),Wricke’s ecovalence(),and Kang stability statistic(YSi)for all the traits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Backcross breeding is the most commonly used method for incorporating a blast resistance gene into a rice cultivar. Linkage between the resistance gene and undesirable units can persist for many generations of backcrossing. Marker-assisted backcrossing (MABC) along with marker-assisted selection (MAS) contributes immensely to overcome the main limitation of the conventional breeding and accelerates recurrent parent genome (RPG) recovery. The MABC approach was employed to incorporate (a) blast resistance gene(s) from the donor parent Pongsu Seribu 1, the blast-resistant local variety in Malaysia, into the genetic background of MR219, a popular high-yielding rice variety that is blast susceptible, to develop a blast-resistant MR219 improved variety. In this perspective, the recurrent parent genome recovery was analyzed in early generations of backcrossing using simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers. Out of 375 SSR markers, 70 markers were found polymorphic between the parents, and these markers were used to evaluate the plants in subsequent generations. Background analysis revealed that the extent of RPG recovery ranged from 75.40% to 91.3% and from 80.40% to 96.70% in BC 1 F 1 and BC 2 F 1 generations, respectively. In this study, the recurrent parent genome content in the selected BC 2 F 2 lines ranged from 92.7% to 97.7%. The average proportion of the recurrent parent in the selected improved line was 95.98%. MAS allowed identification of the plants that are more similar to the recurrent parent for the loci evaluated in backcross generations. The application of MAS with the MABC breeding program accelerated the recovery of the RP genome, reducing the number of generations and the time for incorporating resistance against rice blast. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]