PBwiki on-line learning: The effectiveness of pedagogical role online teachers' on students with difference learning style in their critical thinking

PBwiki (Peanut Butter wiki) is an asynchronous online learning that integrates collaborative learning.By using this web-based software tool, students can create, add, remove and edit content in hypertext quickly and easily.In this paper, a study on the teachers’ pedagogical roles on students’ critical thinking skill in a PBwiki environment will be discussed.The students’ learning style (active or reflective learning style) as a moderating variable was investigated to identify whether PBwiki online learning influence their critical thinking in essay writing.A total of 120 Form Six (Grade 12) students from two high schools in Penang were involved in this 2x2 factorial quasi-experimental study.These students have to write and edit their essays in General Study’s subject with the assistance of pedagogical role online teachers (PROT).Felder and Soloman (2001) instrument were used to measure the moderating variable.Paul’s (1993) model were used to analyze student’s critical thinking in online General Studies essay writing.The findings shows that students who received the PROT treatment performed significantly better in critical thinking score and enhanced students’ critical thinking in General Studies essay writin

Effects of resveratrol supplementation on delayed onset muscle soreness and muscle recovery: A systematic review

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) and impaired muscle recovery significantly affect athletes and recreational exercisers, influencing their performance and training consistency. Resveratrol, a natural polyphenol known for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, is thought to mitigate these effects, yet its effectiveness remains to be fully verified. This systematic review evaluates the impact of RES supplementation on muscle recovery in adults by examining its influence on DOMS, oxidative stress, and inflammation, along with its interactions with other supplements. Three electronic databases and one registry were searched in October 2023. A total of 10 studies met the inclusion criteria, encompassing a combined participant count of 238 (N=238). The review encompassed diverse participant populations, exercise types, and resveratrol dosages. The findings indicated that resveratrol potentially reduces markers of muscle damage, such as creatine kinase and lactate dehydrogenase, and alleviates DOMS symptoms to varying degrees. However, results varied based on exercise intensity, participant demographics, timing of supplementations and dosages. Synergistic interaction studies suggested that resveratrol, in combination with other compounds, could be more effective in exerting its effects. Despite promising findings, the research was limited by diverse study designs and the absence of long-term impact assessments. Further studies should standardise methods and explore resveratrol’s long-term safety and effectiveness. Nevertheless, these results underscore resveratrol’s potential as a beneficial supplement in exercise and sports medicine, meriting additional detailed exploration to refine its use

Fostering resilience among children: a life skills intervention

The promotion of Child Mental Health can lead to prevention of mental illness. 'Life Skills Education is a proven method for promoting mental health. This indicates that life skills education is required by young people for their holistic development and hence it should be imparted. Well designed, tested and delivered life skills programmes can achieve much in helping children and adolescents become more responsible, healthy and resilient both during childhood and as adults. The concept of resilience emerged in the psychiatric literature in the 1980's, in an attempt to understand individual differences in their responses to stress and adversity, which has a direct linkage with wellbeing. Resilience and Life Skills Training are topics of interests to school psychologists, yet little is known about the relationships among the two. It was hypothesized that resilience would mediate the relationship with Life Skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Life Skills Training for fostering Resilience. The training was conducted over a period of 30 days for 60 min per day. A total of 15 students participated in the training programe. Wagnild and Young's Resilience Scale was utilized for assessing the resilience before and after the training programme. The result of the training indicates a positive effect on life skills training for fostering resilience. The statistical analysis also indicates that there is an improvement in the level of resilience on the experimental group

Job preferences among marginalized and non-marginalized youth in Malaysia

This study aimed to explore the factor job preferences among youth in marginalized and non-marginalized in Sabah. Preferences job four dimensions identified in this study, namely communality, job comforts, job goals and self-realization. The study will also explore the different job preferences by demographic background, namely gender and multi-ethnic. A total of 5954 youths was involved, ranging from marginalized (N = 4107) and non-marginalized (N = 1847). The study found no significant differences in job preferences among marginalized and non-marginalized youth in Malaysia as a whole. However, job comforts show selected key factor in the youth as job preferences. For multi-ethnic difference that there were no significant differences for non-marginalized youth, but there are significant differences in the dimensions of self-realization for marginalized youth. The implications of this study are identified factor can contribute to the implementation of government policies to help young people get jobs

Cytokine expression profile of dengue patients at different phases of illness

Background: Dengue is an important medical problem, with symptoms ranging from mild dengue fever to severe forms of the disease, where vascular leakage leads to hypovolemic shock. Cytokines have been implicated to play a role in the progression of severe dengue disease; however, their profile in dengue patients and the synergy that leads to continued plasma leakage is not clearly understood. Herein, we investigated the cytokine kinetics and profiles of dengue patients at different phases of illness to further understand the role of cytokines in dengue disease. Methods and Findings: Circulating levels of 29 different types of cytokines were assessed by bead-based ELISA method in dengue patients at the 3 different phases of illness. The association between significant changes in the levels of cytokines and clinical parameters were analyzed. At the febrile phase, IP-10 was significant in dengue patients with and without warning signs. However, MIP-1 beta was found to be significant in only patients with warning signs at this phase. IP-10 was also significant in both with and without warning signs patients during defervescence. At this phase, MIP-1b beta and G-CSF were significant in patients without warning signs, whereas MCP-1 was noted to be elevated significantly in patients with warning signs. Significant correlations between the levels of VEGF, RANTES, IL-7, IL-12, PDGF and IL-5 with platelets; VEGF with lymphocytes and neutrophils; G-CSF and IP-10 with atypical lymphocytes and various other cytokines with the liver enzymes were observed in this study. Conclusions: The cytokine profile patterns discovered between the different phases of illness indicate an essential role in dengue pathogenesis and with further studies may serve as predictive markers for progression to dengue with warning signs

The Effect of Parenting Styles, Personalities, Bully Behaviors Towards Suicide Attempt

The aim of this study is to identify the association between parenting styles, personality, bullying behavior, and suicide attempt among adolescents in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. This study is a descriptive-correlation quantitative study that emphasizes the relevance of variable variation and its relationship with other variables. Statistical analysis showed good reliability and validity of the research instruments. The reliability of the Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ) is .786; Big Five Inventory (BFI) is .702; the Measure of Bullying Behaviour-Adaptation (MBBS-A) is .824; and The Suicide Probability Scale (SPS) is .924. While the validity of all research instruments is good as the obtained value (p table) is greater than the critical value (r table) of .2542 and significantly high because < .05. The samples of the study were selected using the cluster sampling method and consisted of secondary school students in Johor. A total of 815 data were used for descriptive analysis while 659 data that had gone through the process of screening and normality analysis were used for inferential analysis. The findings showed that the level of suicide attempts among adolescents is high (45.6%). In addition, this study showed that the authoritative parenting style is the most dominant with a mean of 3.53; verbal bullying is the most dominant bullying behavior with a mean of 1.76; and agreeableness is the most dominant personality domain with a mean of 3.59. The results of the Stepwise-Multiple Regression analysis showed that social manipulation, verbal and, physical bullying behavior, agreeableness and conscientiousness in personality, and authoritative parenting styles are predictors of suicide attempts

Penilaian pengetahuan dan kesedian menghadapi bencana gempa bumi dalam kalangan guru sekolah di Ranau, Sabah

Gempa bumi Ranau yang melanda pada 5 Jun 2015 adalah gegaran yang paling kuat di Sabah dan menyebabkan penduduk tempatan dalam keadaan panik. Hal ini menunjukkan bahawa penduduk di Sabah harus dididik agar bersedia untuk menghadapi bencana alam ini yang dijangka akan berlaku dalam masa 20 tahun lagi. Pelbagai kajian menunjukkan hasrat murni ini akan tercapai sekiranya pengetahuan pencegahan dan mengahadapi gempa bumi ini diterapkan melalui pendidikan formal di sekolah. Namun begitu, pengetahuan dan kesediaan guru tentang pencegahan dan menghadapi bencana gempa bumi perlu diambil kira untuk memastikan mereka bersedia untuk mendidik murid. Kajian ini yang berpaksikan kaedah penyelidikan gabungan (Explanatory Sequantial Design) dijalankan untuk mengkaji pengetahuan dan kesediaan guru sekolah di Ranau untuk menghadapi bencana gempa bumi. Kaedah persampelan bertujuan telah digunakan untuk memilih 18 buah sekolah yang mengalami kerosakan teruk akibat dari bencana gempa bumi 2015. Enam orang guru lelaki dan perempuan telah dipilih secara rawak mudah untuk ditemuramah. Instrument The Spittal Eartquake knowledge and Readiness Scale digunakan untuk mendapatkan data kuantitatif. Data kualitatif dikumpul dengan menggunakan kaedah temuramah semuka. Analisis data kuantitatif menunjukkan bahawa tahap pemahaman konsep gempa bumi dan kesediaan guru untuk menghadapi bencana alam ini adalah sederhana. Terdapat juga perbezaan yang signifikan tahap pemahaman mengenai konsep gempa bumi dan kesediaan untuk menghadapi bencana ini antara guru lelaki dan perempuan. Analisis kualitatif menunjukkan tahap pemahaman konsep dan kesedian guru untuk menghadapi bencana gempa bumi adalah sederhana kerana mereka tidak jangka bahawa kawasan Ranau berisiko tinggi. Guru perempuan mempunyai pengetahuan yang lebih baik berbandingkan guru lelaki dalam menghadapi bencana gempa bumi kerana mereka meneroka maklumat melalui internet, akhbar, laman web dan group Whats App. Penemuan kualitatif juga merumuskan bahawa guru lelaki lebih bersedia menghadapi bencana gempa bumi berbanding dengan guru wanita. Oleh itu, disarankan agar pihak Jabatan Pendidikan Negeri dan Jabatan Pendidikan Daerah dengan kerja sama NGO menganjurkan kursus dan latihan untuk membantu guru meningkatkan pengetahuan bencana gempa agar mereka lebih bersedia untuk menghadapi bencana gempa bumi dan menyalurkan ilmu ini kepada murid di sekolah

The interaction between academic stress and self-control in predicting psychological well-being

This study was conducted to identify the influence of academic stress and self-control on the psychological wellbeing of university students in the Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia campus. Besides that, gender ethnicity and location (oncampus and off-campus) have been compared according to academic stress, self-control and psychological well-being. This study uses a quantitative method in which 320 university students were involved. The research questionnaire consists of the Perception of Academic Stress Scale (PAS), the Sense of Control Scale and the Psychological Wellbeing (PWB) Scale were used as instruments of this study. This study found that academic stress and self-control are direct predictors of the psychological well-being of university students during the COVID-19, with beta value, the study findings showed (Beta = –0.18, R² = 0.056, p < 0.05) and self-control (Beta = 0.17, R² = 0.052, p < 0.05). Based on this indicates, academic stress contributed (5.6%) and self-control (5.2%) to the psychological well-being of university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is due to the academic stress from the aspect of workload that is given during the online teaching and learning sessions. Therefore, university student needs to give importance to self-control and other recreational activity for them to be psychologically happy during the COVID-19 pandemic. With high self-control, students can manage their academic stress and increase their psychological well-being