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To code-switch or not to code-switch? This is a dilemma for many bilingual language teachers. In this study, the influence of teachers’ CS on bilingual children's language and cognitive development is explored within heritage language (HL) classes in Singapore. Specifically, the relationship between children's language output, vocabulary development, and cognitive flexibility to teachers’ classroom CS behavior, is examined within 20 preschool HL classrooms (10 Mandarin, 6 Malay, and 4 Tamil). Teachers’ and children's utterances were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for CS frequency and type (i.e., inter-sentential, intra-sentential). 173 students were assessed with receptive vocabulary and dimensional card sort tasks, and their vocabulary and cognitive switching scores assessed using correlational and mixed effects analyses. Results show that inter-sentential and intra-sentential CS frequency is positively and significantly related to children's intra-sentential CS frequency. Overall, findings revealed that teachers code-switched habitually more often than for instructional purposes. Neither inter-sentential nor intra-sentential CS was significantly related to children's development in HL vocabulary, and intra-sentential CS was found to positively and significantly relate to children's growth in cognitive flexibility. These findings reveal the multi-faceted impact of teacher's CS on children's early development.

To code-switch or not to code-switch? This is a dilemma for many bilingual language teachers. In this study, the influence of teachers' CS on bilingual children's language and cognitive development is explored within heritage language (HL) classes in Singapore. Specifically, the relationship between children's language output, vocabulary development, and cognitive flexibility to teachers' classroom CS behavior, is examined within 20 preschool HL classrooms (10 Mandarin, 6 Malay, and 4 Tamil). Teachers' and children's utterances were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for CS frequency and type (i.e., inter-sentential, intra-sentential). 173 students were assessed with receptive vocabulary and dimensional card sort tasks, and their vocabulary and cognitive switching scores assessed using correlational and mixed effects analyses. Results show that inter-sentential and intra-sentential CS frequency is positively and significantly related to children's intra-sentential CS frequency. Overall, findings revealed that teachers code-switched habitually more often than for instructional purposes. Neither inter-sentential nor intra-sentential CS was significantly related to children's development in HL vocabulary, and intra-sentential CS was found to positively and significantly relate to children's growth in cognitive flexibility. These findings reveal the multi-faceted impact of teacher's CS on children's early development.

Phonological awareness is critical for early reading acquisition across alphabetic as well as non-alphabetic languages. The grain size of phonological awareness varies with oral language structure and written orthography across languages. Phonological awareness’ grain size and contribution to reading for simultaneous biliterate children is currently unknown. In this study, we examine syllable, rime and phoneme level awareness for bilingual children with differences in structure of their known languages in order to investigate any potential cross-language effects of their ethnic language on English reading. For 612 Chinese and English, Malay and English, and Tamil and English speakers in kindergarten, different patterns emerged across the language groups with regard to the grain size of phonological awareness over a 2-year period. The patterns of phonological awareness levels in predicting early English reading skills also differed amongst these bilingual language groups. The role of vocabulary in the relation between phonological awareness and reading was not consistent, showing small moderating and mediating effects only in some instances.

Background: Functional Movement Screen (FMS)™ can be a valuable tool for assessing movement patterns and identifying potential movement dysfunctions. However, it is limited in terms of subjectivity and consistency of the ratings, especially among less proficient raters. Knowledge of minimally required training thresholds will provide valuable information on training adequacy. Thus, this study aimed to determine the interrater reliability of FMS™ among completely novice raters undergoing a one-off training session. Methods: Twenty active adults with no musculoskeletal injuries or muscular dysfunction performed seven FMS™ tasks while being recorded. Subsequently, 12 novice raters with no prior knowledge and skills about FMS™ rated the recorded movement videos at a normal play speed and without rewinding. Results: The interrater reliability analysis of the composite FMS™ score revealed an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) of 0.60. Moreover, the mean coefficient for interrater reliability for the seven FMS™ components score is 0.35. Conclusion: The results implied that a one-off FMS™ training produced a large variability in the rating consistency, especially for rotary stability, deep squats, and in-line lunge ratings.

Concrete cover plays an important role in protecting the reinforcement from harmful environments and high temperatures. In this study, the effects of the concrete cover containing garnet and rebar prepared with cover thicknesses of 20 and 30 mm and subjected to temperatures of 20°C, 200°C, 400°C, 600°C and 800°C for 1-hour duration were determined by conducting ultrasonic-pulse velocity and tensile tests. The results of the study show that concrete specimens with cover 30 mm protect steel completely before they disintegrate, almost up to 300°C and by replacing sand with 40% of garnet, gives significantly better fire resistance than normal concrete.

Penglibatan kesatuan sekerja merupakan penglibatan ahli-ahli kesatuan sekerja dalam tindakan kolektif dan aktiviti-aktiviti kesatuan sekerja yang menjadikan sebuah kesatuan sekerja itu mencapai objektif penubuhannya dalam organisasi. Penglibatan kesatuan sekerja adalah sebahagian daripada proses pembuatan keputusan dan perancangan operasi organisasi di antara kesatuan sekerja dan pihak pengurusan. Oleh itu, tujuan kajian ini adalah untuk mengenalpasti tahap penglibatan kesatuan sekerja dan pengaruh komitmen kesatuan sekerja serta ideologi kesatuan sekerja terhadap penglibatan kesatuan sekerja di sektor telekomunikasi terpilih di Sabah. Kajian ini merupakan kajian rintis yang menggunakan pendekatan kuantitatif dengan melibatkan 30 orang ahli kesatuan sekerja. Analisis deskriptif serta analisis regresi linear digunakan bagi mencapai objektif kajian. Hasil dapatan kajian menunjukkan tahap penglibatan kesatuan sekerja berada pada tahap tinggi. Model kajian ini adalah signifikan di mana komitmen kesatuan sekerja serta ideologi kesatuan sekerja mempengaruhi penglibatan kesatuan sekerja sebanyak 68 peratus. Ini menunjukkan teori penglibatan kesatuan sekerja boleh diimplementasikan dalam sektor telekomunikasi di Sabah.

Ferulic acid (FA) production has become a frequent focus on today’s research due to its antioxidant properties. However, there has been little to none studies reported on the usage of mixed culture as inoculum in FA production. This study aims to determine the kinetics FA production in a mixed culture fermentation by applying the Michaelis–Menten kinetic model. In this study, mixed culture fermentation process using oil palm frond bagasse (OPFB) as substrate was applied for FA production improvement. Optimum condition was applied to study ferulic acid esterase (FAE) mechanism for kinetic modelling purposes. The kinetic model used was based on the Michaelis–Menten kinetic model. Runge–Kutta Fourth Order method was used to solve the kinetic model. Maximum FAE activity was achieved at the 28 h of fermentation process at 3.7 × 10 −3  mU mL −1 . This result proved that enzymatic hydrolysis occurred during fermentation process. Kinetic study was conducted with Michaelis–Menten kinetic model used as a reference kinetic equation. Three kinetic constants, V max , K m and K s were determined as 3.725 × 10 −3  g L −1  h −1 , 28.231 g L −1 and 1.33 × 10 −2  h −1 respectively using Runge–Kutta Fourth Order approach. The outcome of this study confirms that the kinetics of the process fit well with the Michaelis–Menten model. This also suggests that the usage of mixed culture has the potential to induce enzymatic hydrolysis hence improving FA production from OPFB during fermentation process.

Exploitation of soil bacteria for production of ferulic acid (FA) is extensively performed since bacteria are the largest soil community that have the potential in producing degrading enzymes. This study aims to isolate, identify and characterize the most efficient soil bacteria for high FA yield via co-culture fermentation of banana stem waste (BSW). Bacteria were isolated and screened from acclimatized mixture of soil culture and BSW. ARB programme package and biolog system were employed for identification and characterization. The results reveal that four isolates closely related to Bacillus spp. and one Lysinibacillus sp. had greater potential to produce FA in very large amounts. Specifically, the maximum FA yield of 394.76 mg/kg was achieved using co-culture of Bacillus sp. MB2, Bacillus sp. WB8A and B. pumilus strain WB1A, which was 2.5-fold higher than FA produced by single culture. The profiles of substrate utilization exposed strong hydrolyzation of pectin in those three potential cultures, while one showed strong hydrolyzation of glucuronic acid. The ability to efficiently hydrolyze the components proves that the chosen co-cultures are good sources of hydrolytic enzymes. The results suggest that the co-culture has contributed cooperative actions among the cultures to synergistically breakdown the FA linkage in BSW to produce high FA yield.

In this study, fibre pressed oil palm frond (FPOPF) was introduced as the raw material for the production of glucose using Sacchariseb C6 to maximise the utilisation of oil palm waste. Sacchariseb C6 is a commercial cellulase blended enzyme from Advanced Enzymes Technology. In order to achieve maximum glucose production, a factorial analysis 2^sup 5-1^ using response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to screen the best enzymatic hydrolysis condition by varying the parameters such as agitation speed, enzyme loading, glucan loading, temperature and hydrolysis time. FPOPF was treated with 4.42% (w/v) of sodium hydroxide at 100°C prior to the enzymatic hydrolysis. Raw FPOPF consists of 40.7% glucan, 26.1% xylan, 26.2% lignin, 1.8% ash and 4.5% extractives. On the other hand, pretreated FPOPF consists of 61.4% glucan, 20.4% xylan, 13.3% lignin, 1.3% ash and 0.3% extractives. From this study, it was found that the best enzymatic hydrolysis condition yielded 33.01 ± 0.73 g/L of glucose when performed at 200 rpm of agitation speed, 60 FPU/mL of enzyme loading, 4% (w/w) of glucan loading, temperature at 55°C and 72 h of reaction time. The model obtained from RSM was significant with p-value <0.0001. It is suggested that this model had a maximum point which is likely to be the optimum point and possible for the optimisation process.