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The sense of empowerment had always been reported as contingent upon resilience, the sense of financial security, and perceived social support (PSS). In the context of the Malaysian urban population, the outbreak shifted social dynamics through the enforcement of movement control order (MCO), a partial-to-full lockdown policy enforced by the government to curb the virus. Studies in the local context suggested that the implementation of MCO led to a sense of uncertainty towards social support and financial security among the population, as well as the decline of resilience and the sense of mattering. This sparked a question, whether the significance of PSS, resilience, mattering, and income levels are still significant in predicting the sense of empowerment among our population. Through open social media pages, 405 adults between 18 and 62 years of age (M=25.44) living in urban areas of Malaysia to respond to the scales of empowerment, resilience, PSS, and mattering with some financial compensation in the form of e-wallet credits. Our findings suggested that PSS was no longer a significant predictor of empowerment after controlling for resilience, mattering, and income, which was opposed to other predictors in the equation that were still significant even after controlling for each other. Further relationships among the variables, implications and suggestions are discussed.

Norges musikkhøgskole. Masteroppgave. Musikkteori Since the Japanese Occupation of Korea (1910-1945) and the Korean War (1950-1953), Western Classical music has been prevailing South Korea due to the promotion of Western influence by both Japanese and Korean political leaders. Two significant South Korean contemporary composers Isang Yun (1917-1995) and Unsuk Chin (1961- ) have been arisen from this. Best known for blending Eastern and Western elements in his music, Yun was a composer who took an active role in the attempt of the reunification of the Korean Peninsula. On the other hand, Chin is considered as one of the most accomplished composers today. Following her studies with György Ligeti, she has expanded her musical language also in the more modern genre of electronic music, and producing music that bypasses categorisation of any nation’s ethnomusical characteristics. The project aims to explore and demonstrate the mergence of Korean traditional influences in their music. The recognition of both of the composers’ bi-cultural memoirs is included in the analytic investigation of their piano works, Yun’s Fünf Klavierstücke and Chin’s Piano Etude No. 4 “Scalen”. The thesis is accompanied by the artistic practices and the project includes a lectire-recital as a result of the method of “research-analysis-practice”.

Under the enforcement of the recovery movement control order (RMCO), citizens of Malaysia were allowed to commute for work with tight protocols of social distancing. In this period of time, most individuals were adjusting to the new norm after being locked down for about six weeks. With an assumption that the social dynamics could have been different from the pre-pandemic era, this study aims to investigate how mattering predicts life satisfaction among individuals who live in the urban area of western Malaysia in the aforementioned timeframe. The role of other variables, namely perceived social support (PSS), resilience, and spirituality was also investigated. Data was collected from 402 adults between 18 and 66 years of age (M=25.44) who reside in the urban areas of Malaysia. A moderated serial mediation hypothesis was tested by employing the Bootstrap method in PROCESS Macro model 92. Our findings suggested that resilience does not play a significant role in the equation due to its insignificance in predicting life satisfaction after controlling the rest of the variables.

Vaccination is the most efficient method for infectious disease prevention. Parenteral injections such as intramuscular, intradermal, and subcutaneous injections have several advantages in vaccine delivery, but there are many drawbacks. Thus, the development of a new vaccine delivery system has long been required. Recently, microneedles have been attracting attention as new vaccination tools. Microneedle is a highly effective transdermal vaccine delivery method due to its mechanism of action, painlessness, and ease of use. Here, we summarized the characteristics of microneedles and the possibilities as a new vaccine delivery route.