Population ageing is inevitable in Malaysia as a result of declining fertility rates. Steps can be taken to face this challenge. These include ways to promote “healthy ageing” and “compression of morbidity” and ways to promote “productive ageing”, i.e., keeping the elderly economically and socially engaged. This article, based on a review of the literature, argues that it is illogical to force people into compulsory retirement at an arbitrary age when they can continue to contribute actively to society. Instead, ways can be devised to promote healthy ageing, prolonging independence and encouraging productive ageing through gradual economic and social disengagement of the individual depending on the individual’s physical health, mental health, contribution to society and personal inclination and preferences. Public policy in general and public health policy in particular can be designed or redesigned to help achieve this.
MeSH terms: Aged; Aging; Birth Rate; Health Policy; Humans; Malaysia; Mental Health; Morbidity; Public Policy; Retirement; Review
Low back pain (LBP) is a major medical and social problem associated with disability and work absenteeism. Since the effect on unawareness on back care among hospital staff may affect the smooth running of the services to the public and patients, it is the objective of this study to identified the awareness of back care among nurses so that preventive measures can be taken. About 80 nurses working in the outpatient clinic was survey using self addressed questionnaires which were adapted from Zutphen Physical Activity Questionnaire at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu. Demographic analysis demonstrated that among the eighty nurses that responded, 37.5% (n=30) are Malays, 25% (n=25) Chinese and 37.5% (n=30) ( to include other Sabahan tribes). Their age group varies between 23 to 55 years of age. A total of 72 nurses, both agreed (45%,n=36) and strongly agreed (45%,n=36) that understanding good postures is important to prevent LBP. They felt strongly (55%, n=44) about the importance of correct lifting techniques, and having a well-designed workplace (50%,n=40). Regarding factors that cause LBP, 55% (n=44) of them strongly agreed that good lifting technique can prevent LBP while 56 (70%) agreed that prolong sitting doing computer work can cause LBP. About 60% (n=48) also agreed that LBP can cause stress and that 45% (n=36) of them strongly agreed that being overweight than average can worsen LBP. However, 40% (n=32) provide a neutral answer to whether height have any influence on LBP while 50% (n=40) agreed that weak back muscles can worsen the backache further. However, 45% (n=36) agreed that games that involved back movement have high risks and 55% (n=44) agreed that swimming helps to strengthen back muscle. The environmental factors addresses issues of footwear and soft mattress where 60%(n=48) agreed while 15%(n=12) strongly agreed that good footware and appropriate use of soft mattresses 60% (n=48) can prevent LBP. This study have demonstrated that the nurses that participated had a clear understanding and knowledge on back care even though a wider study need to be carried out to ensure validity of study finding.
Study site:outpatient clinic, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kota Kinabalu
MeSH terms: Absenteeism; Back Pain; Cross-Sectional Studies; Hospitals, General; Humans; Malaysia; Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; Posture; Surveys and Questionnaires; Low Back Pain; Workplace; Overweight
Gender bias are most obvious in the distribution of income and wealth. This reflects women’s unequal position in the labour market , their less favorable treatment in most social security systems and their lower status within the household. Discrimination against women is also evident in the political sphere. Their access to power is not commensurate with their numbers, their needs or their contributions as citizens. As well as affecting women’s physical and mental health, gender bias also affect the quality of the services they receive. In most developed countries, women are offered equal access to basic health care. However their use of those service may be hindered by a number of gender related factors which are likely to affect poor women in particular. In health organization, gender bias gives significant impact to the evaluation of staff performance, increase stress level and miscommunication. It is also influence the leadership style and also can create ‘glass ceiling’ phenomenon. Job dissatisfaction , absenteeism and high turn over are also the consequences of gender bias. Alongside the development of gender sensitive methods of routine data collection, gender bias in health research will also need to be addressed. Most biomedical research continues to be based on the unstated assumption that women and men are physiologically similar in all respects apart from their reproductive systems. Other biological differences are ignored, as are the social/gender differences that have such a major impact on health.
MeSH terms: Absenteeism; Family Characteristics; Female; Humans; Income; Leadership; Male; Mental Health; Social Security; Socioeconomic Factors; Developed Countries; Biomedical Research; Sexism
Background: A randomised single blinded clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of two methods of cataract surgery with intraocular lens implantation: extracapsular cataract extraction (ECCE) and phacoemulsification (PEA) was carried out at Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (HUKM) between March 2000 and August 2001. Methods: The effectiveness of cataract surgery was assessed from the quality of life specifically for vision via Visual Function 14 (VF-14) preoperatively, one week, two months and six months after surgery. Results: The result showed that there was a significant increased in VF-14 scores after a week, two months and six months postoperation compared to the score before surgery for both techniques. However there was no significant difference in VF-14 scores when compared between ECCE and PEA. Conclusions: This study indicated that both techniques give equal benefit to cataract patients. Since effectiveness of cataract surgery with intraocular lens implantation is unrelated to operative procedures, less costly technique should be promoted.
Skin detection has gained popularity and importance in the computer vision community. It is an essential step for important vision tasks such as the detection, tracking and recognition of face, segmentation of hand for gesture analysis, person identification, as well as video surveillance and filtering of objectionable web images. All these applications are based on the assumption that the regions of the human skin are already located. In the recent past, numerous techniques for skin colour modeling and recognition have been proposed. The aims of this paper are to compile the published pixel-based skin colour detection techniques to describe their key concepts and try to find out and summarize their advantages, disadvantages and characteristic features.
An artificial neural network (ANN) was applied for the determination of V(V) based on immobilized fatty hydroxamic acid (FHA) in poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). Spectra obtained from the V(V)-FHA complex at single wavelengths was used as the input data for the ANN. The V(V)-FHA complex shows a limited linear dynamic range of V(V) concentration of 10 - 100 mg/ L. After training with ANN, the linear dynamic range was extended with low calibration error. A three layer feed forward neural network using backpropagation (BP) algorithm was employed in this study. The input layer consisted of single neurons, 30 neurons in hidden a layer and one output neuron was found appropriate for the multivariate calibration used. The network were trained up to 10000 epochs with 0.003 % learning rate. This reagent also provided a good analytical pedormance with reproducibility characters of the method yielding relative standard deviation (RSD) of 9.29% and 7.09% for V(V) at concentrations of 50 mg/ L and 200 mg/ L, respectively. The limit of detection of the method was 8.4 mg/ L.
MeSH terms: Algorithms; Calibration; Hydroxamic Acids; Learning; Neurons; Reproducibility of Results; Neural Networks (Computer); Polymethyl Methacrylate; Limit of Detection
Skin colour is an important visual cue for face detection, face recogmtlon, hand segmentation for gesture analysis and filtering of objectionable images. In this paper, the adaptive skin color detection model is proposed, based on two bivariate normal distribution models of the skin chromatic subspace, and on image segmentation using an automatic and adaptive multi-thresholding technique. Experimental results on images presenting a wide range of variations in lighting condition and background demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed skin-segmentation algorithm.
MeSH terms: Algorithms; Cues; Face; Gestures; Light; Lighting; Models, Theoretical; Skin Pigmentation; Normal Distribution
Detail chemical studies on Carcinia maingayi have yielded one xanthone, 1,3,7-trihydroxy-2-(3-methylbut-2-enyl)-xanthone, one benzophenone, isoxanthochymol, one benzoic acid derivative 3,4-dihydroxy-methylbenzoate and two triterpenoids, stigmasterol and sitosterol. Meanwhile, investigations on Carcinia parvifolia have afforded one triterpenoid, a-amyrin and two xanthones, cowanin and rubraxanthone. Their structures were derived based on spectroscopic evidence, mainly ID and 2D NMR spectroscopy. Acetylation reaction was carried out on rubraxanthone to yield triacetate rubraxanthone. It was found that the pure rubraxanthone was strongly active against the larvae of Aedes aegypti with LC50 value of 15.49 {lg/ ml and HL-60 cells line with an IC50 value of 7.5 {lg/ ml.
Residual soils occur in most countries of the world but the greater areas and depths are normally found in tropical humid areas. In these places, the soil forming processes are still very active and the weathering is much faster than the erosive factor. Most residual exhibit high soil suctions for most of the year. The absence of positive pore water pressure except immediately after rain, renders conventional soil mechanics for saturated soil irrelevant. In particular, the effective stress theories of saturated soil are not applicable at the practical leve l. Ignorance or lack of understanding of the geotechnical behavior of soil in the partially or unsaturated state has caused a lot of damages to infrastructures, buildings and other structures. For instances, the collapsibility and volume change of partially saturated soils in connection with the drying or wetting causes a lot of damage to foundation, roads and other structures. As such, the development of extended soil mechanics, which embraces the soil in the unsaturated state or subjected to soil suction, is essential. This paper examines the collapsibility and volume change behavior specifically of an unsaturated residual soil under various levels of applied matric suction (u -u ), and net mean stress (a-u) in a predetermined stress path. The volume change of ;he"' soil is found to be sensitive to both the applied matric suction and net mean stress. The soil is found to exhibit a collapsibility behavior upon a reduction in applied matric suction to 25 kPa at constant net mean stress.
Ergonomics management is a process that will have a significant, positive effect on a company’s profits through cost reduction, quality improvement, performance improvement and productivity enhancement. Also known as human factors of human engineering, it basically describes the interaction between an employee and his/her job functions, with the emphasis being on reducing unnecessary physical stress in the workplace. The goal of ergonomics is to enable workers to be more effective by matching the requirements and demands of the job to the abilities and limitations of the workers rather than trying to force the workers to fit the job. This paper theoretically describes the benefits of understanding the ergonomics to the workplace. The components and activities required to implement ergonomics management also have been discussed. Besides that, the practical approach of ergonomics has been described by giving practical workplace improvement suggested by scholars. By approaching work practices (stretching, reaching, and sitting) from an ergonomically correct point of view, a worker actually becomes stronger, healthier and more productive.
Heat stress is considered to be the sum of heat generated in the body (metabolic heat) plus the heat gained from the environment (environmental heat) minus the heat lost from the body to the environment. The consequences of heat stress can caused heat disorder such as heat stroke, heat syncope, heat exhaustion, heat cramps and other heat related diseases. The objective of this study was to compare the pattern of heat stress in each section. A crosssectional study was carried out in two sections (Paintshop A and Bodyshop B) in a selected automotive assembly plant in Selangor to monitor the environmental heat stress. The environmental heat monitoring was done on 89 March 2005. Heat stress monitor (Model: QUESTemp o 34 Thermal Environment Monitor, Quest Technologies, USA) was used to record the pattern of heat exposure in the workplace over a period of eight hours. Heat parameters such as dry temperature, wet temperature, globe temperature and relative humidity were measured. Wet Bulb Globe Temperature index (WBGT) and workload evaluation were used to compare both sections. Heat parameters such as timeweighted average wet bulb globe temperature for indoor setting (TWAWBGT indoor ), dry temperature (DB), natural wet bulb temperature (WB), globe temperature (GB) in Paintshop A were higher than those in Bodyshop B. The relative humidity in Paintshop A was hotdry compared to Bodyshop B which is hotwarm. Paintshop A was considered a hot area compared to Bodyshop B which is normal. Workers in both sections were not faced with heat stress problems because they were worked under acceptable condition according to American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists standard. Both sections in the automotive assembly plant exhibited acceptable working condition for workers in a tropical environment.
Fishing industry in Malaysia is dominated by small scale fishing, scattered along the coast of the country. The risk associated with fishing industry is well known but few studies have been done among those in the small scale fishing community. Fishermen not only have to cope with the uncertainty of nature but also the physical demands of the occupation. The objective of the study was to determine the injuries and its associated factors related to the small scale fishing industry. The study was conducted in a fishing village in northern Malaysia, which was hit by tsunami. Most of the boats and fishing gear were donated by many relief agencies. A descriptive cross sectional study was conducted using a standardized questionnaire. 50 (83.3%) of the 60 fishermen had consented for the study. All the fishermen were Malays males. 46% (n=23) of the fishermen reported to having sustained injuries. Most of the injuries occurred offshore (p
How people perceive risk influences their behaviour towards these risks. We do not know how workers perceive risk of dying from activities or technology. This study was conducted among 198 workers of a security company in Malaysia. The workers were asked to score on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 the perceived risk of death of Malaysians from activities and technology. The highest perceived risks of death were, in order of ranking, motorcycles, motor vehicles, handguns, alcoholic beverages and smoking. The difference in perception and reality is discussed.
The composite polymer films of polyvinyl alcohol/polypyrrole/chloral hydrate (PVA-PPy-CH) had been prepared. Effects of J-rays on the electrical conductivity of the composite polymer films had
been investigated by using Inductance Capacitance Resistance meter (LCR) meter at a frequency
ranging from 20 Hz to 1 MHz. With the incorporation of chloral hydrate in the polymer sample, the conductivity increased indicates that it is capable to be used as dopant for polymerizing conjugated polymer. The electrical conductivity obtained increased as the dose increased, which is in the order of 10-5Scm-1 indicates that J-rays is capable to enhance the electrical conductivity of the composite polymer films. The parameter of s is in the range of 0.31 d s d 0.49 and obeyed simple power law dispersion Zs. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) micrographs reveal the formation of polypyrrole globules in polyvinyl alcohol matrix which increased as the irradiation dose was increased.
Self-propagating high-temperature synthesis (SHS) of powder compacts is a novel processing technique being developed as a route for the production of engineering ceramics and other advanced materials. The process, which is also referred to as combustion synthesis, provides energy- and cost-saving advantages over the more conventional processing routes for these materials. In the case of titanium or titanium alloy materials, prior researches employed powder metallurgy technology for preparing metal matrix composites, MMCs and laminated structures through the use of fine powders of an inert phase or phases (TiC, TiN, TiB and TiB2B ) dispersed in Ti or Ti alloy powders. The present research relates to manufacture of titanium-ceramic composites that are synthesized by combustion synthesis (SHS) and retains a multilayered composite microstructure comprising one or more titanium-based layers and one ceramic titanium carbide layers.
Tin slag was collected from a slag dump in the Penang Island and was analysed for its elemental composition using microfocus XRF with a 300ȝm x-ray spot diameter. The tin slag sample was analysed direct without any sample treatment and analysis was conduct on four different spots. The result gives different elemental composition on these different spots. Among the elements analysed are Al2O3, SiO2, SnO2, CaO, TiO2, Nd2O3, MnO, Fe2O3, TaO, W2O3, As2O3, ThO2, U3O8, ZrO2 and Nb2O5. Elemental mapping was also done to show the distribution of these elements in the sample.
The growing concern over the workers safety and health has lead many factories and organizations do the air monitoring to ensure the airborne at their workplace is safe for the worker’s health and complying the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1994 (Act 514). In this study, the monitoring covers an indoor air quality and chemical exposure to the workers in one of the power plant repair shop. A few workers from different sections namely blasting, welding, grinding, fitting and maintenance area were chosen to assist in the personal monitoring for 8 hours measurement. PM10 were measured at a few sampling points to collect dusts for 24 hours duration. The samples were brought back to the laboratory for gravimetric and SEM-EDAX analysis. The results were certainly exceed the limit for air quality, and many elements were detected such as Fe, Ni, Al, Si, Ca, K, Ba, S, Cr, Zn and Cl. The present of these elements shows that exposure to these particulate matters is quite risky and some measure needs to be taken for remedial action.
MeSH terms: Dust; Maintenance; Occupations; Power Plants; Safety; Welding; Zinc; Occupational Health; Air Pollution, Indoor; Workplace; Particulate Matter
Small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) was used to investigate the nanostructure of the microfibrils of cell wall in Acacia Mangium wood. Parameters, such as the fibre length (L), surface area of the single fibre (S), the correspondence distance from the center of the fibre to the center of its neighbor and the shape of the fibre were determined as a function to the distance from pith towards the bark. The results indicate that the fibre length ranged from 53.44 nm to 13.72 nm from pith to bark. Surface area of the single fibre varied from 0.65 nm 2 to 4.36 nm 2 , the highest being found at the end of bark region. The mean value of the correspondence distance is 13.95 nm. Surface structure analysis from scattering graph showed a rod shape of fibre in the pith region of Acacia Mangium wood. The use of SAXS technique and scanning electron microscope (SEM) micrographs gives the most reliable dimensions values.
The low resolution Automatic Picture Transmission (APT) data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) polar-orbiting satellites Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) is being received and recorded in real-time mode at ground receiving station in School of Science and Technology, Universiti Malaysia Sabah. The system is suitable for the developing and undeveloped countries in south and Southeast Asia and is said to be acceptable for engineering, agricultural, climatological and environmental applications. The system comprises a personal computer attached with a small APT receiver. The data transmission between the ground receiving station and NOAA satellites is using the electromagnetic wave. The relation for receiving and processing the electromagnetic wave in the transmission will be discussed.