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Fish bombing impacts the marine ecosystem and local communities adversely, but is still being practiced in Sabah, Malaysia. To encourage more sustainable fishing practices, a creative educational strategy using a comic book was developed and evaluated in a marine protected area in Sabah. Questionnaire surveys and focus group discussions with 120 schoolchildren revealed that the comic book facilitated the improvement and retention of knowledge over time, knowledge sharing with family members, and growing intention to communicate the downsides of fish bombing to their community. This demonstrates the capability of comic books to convey sensitive environmental messages to coastal communities.

The recent growth of biotechnology requires a wide range of expertise within the industry. Education is the primary platform for students to gain information and knowledge on biotechnology. In Malaysia where biotechnology is relatively new, education programs and courses must be tailored to meet the demands of the industry. A combination of theoretical knowledge as well as practical and industrial training is essential to ensure graduates are prepared for their career in the fields of biotechnology. Results from this study show that university students lack literacy on biotechnology information and access to facilities provided by the universities. This may be a significant contributing factor to the lack of knowledge and information amongst graduates. Furthermore comparative analysis on the biotechnology program in Malaysian universities with that of other countries show the need to restructure the program by offering more specialized courses as well as soft skills and business subjects. This is to meet the demands of the related professionals as well as the various branches that exist in the biotechnology industry.

Fish bombing impacts the marine ecosystem and local communities adversely, but is still being practiced in Sabah, Malaysia. To encourage more sustainable fishing practices, a creative educational strategy using a comic book was developed and evaluated in a marine protected area in Sabah. Questionnaire surveys and focus group discussions with 120 schoolchildren revealed that the comic book facilitated the improvement and retention of knowledge over time, knowledge sharing with family members, and growing intention to communicate the downsides of fish bombing to their community. This demonstrates the capability of comic books to convey sensitive environmental messages to coastal communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional androcentric sociology has reinforced biased views of women and portrayed women as silent research objects of minor importance that figure marginally in academic writing, thereby distorting the knowledge base. The same tendencies have been observed in Buddhist religious literature. The bone of contention in the feminist critique of Buddhism is the omission of women from religious literature. Although Buddhist women's spiritual prowess was well documented in early Buddhism in religious literature such as the Therīgatha, later Buddhist literature began to demonstrate androcentric tendencies, in most instances completely ignoring the religious lives of women. Since women have been largely sidelined in Buddhist texts, it is important to go beyond textual dimensions to gain deeper insights into women's religious lives. The feminist Buddhist scholar, Rita Gross (2009), in her monumental work, A Garland of Feminist Reflections, emphasised the need to explore various ways other than our own to think, live and practice religion to broaden our horizons to avoid a narrow-minded approach to academic research. Citing two case studies of Buddhist nuns in Bhutan, this paper argues for ethnography as an alternative to traditional text-based scholarship on religious studies whereby women tell their stories and paint their own reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection is rooted in socio-cultural and biological challenges which are associated with various historical, cultural, economic, political, social class, and social exclusion factors among minority group. With this understanding of HIV risk, our study aims to explore the sociological factors that influence the causes of the risk of HIV infection among men of Indian descent in West Malaysia. This qualitative study is based on information gathered from in-depth interviews among 14 male respondents who are living with HIV. The study found that, social and economic factors are the main causes for respondents' engagement in high risk behaviour. Respondents in their late 30s indicated that internal migration and their social surroundings, followed by poverty and unemployment are among the factors that influenced risk behaviour. Meanwhile, young adults described that excessive alcohol use and cyber-sex involvement led them to risky sexual behaviour; further, cross-border activities such as sex tourism, multi-faceted relationship in foreign workplace, dormitory environment and male-on-male rape were among the predictors of HIV infection. However, lack of knowledge and awareness on how HIV is transmitted appears as a major predictor for risk and infection among the cohort. The results of this study can be applied in designing more effective intervention programs aimed to address the risk of HIV / AIDS infection among Malaysian Indian males in particular, and Malaysia men in general. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]