Introduction: Transboundary haze occurred was primarily derived from seasonal forest fires which has highly been concerned of the health effect on the local community. As awareness of the source and dangers of smoke haze spread, Malaysian government increasingly came under pressure from the public and civil society at the national, state, and district level to address the haze issues. However, the knowledge, attitude, and practice (KAP) inequalities of urban and rural community could be a barrier in promoting awareness on haze. Objective: To determine the urban and rural inequality in KAP on haze. Methodology: A total of 400 urban and rural residents from Klang Valley was recruited to participate in this study. A validated survey form was used as the study instrument which composed of four parts: (1) Sociodemographic information, (2) Haze knowledge, (3) Attitude (concerns) during haze episodes, (4) Practices (protective behaviors) to prevent against the health effects of haze. Result: There were significant differences of KAP on transboundary haze among urban-rural population. Urban population has higher knowledge and protective behaviors on hazes; however, both the rural-urban residents presented moderate levels of concerns on hazes. Conclusion: It is necessary to provide timely information (knowledge and practices) on haze to rural residents, at the same time, improve the urban residents’ concerns (attitudes) over the haze phenomenon. This will help to raise the overall awareness level to transboundary haze by translating into a state of the resilient community.
The paper puts forth the need for health care workers safety whilst undertaking their job on a daily basis. Presently there are number of factors that are directly linked to the safety of health care workers. However, Occupational Health is very important and useful for health workers that are exposed to their job hazards. Every year, many lives are lost because of the spread of infections in hospitals. Every hospital’s occupational health departments should ensure that all new staff are vaccinated to protect them against microorganisms carried by other patients, and with vaccinated against preventable diseases. This will help to prevent the health workers from occupational exposure to patients’ blood or any other bodily substances, including injury from sharp objects, and also guarantees that the new employees does not infect the patients with infectious diseases. Furthermore, all the new staff should be screened for blood borne pathogenic diseases.
The purpose of this study is to review the literature on microsporidiosis in various high-risk groups among the Malaysian population, i.e., HIV/AIDS, cancer, hospitalised patients and Orang Asli, and to update information with regards to microsporidia prevalence, diagnosis and association of the disease with gastrointestinal symptoms in Malaysia. Hospitalised patients showed the highest prevalence (28.3%) of microsporidiosis compared to other risk groups. This review did not find any direct correlations between gastrointestinal symptoms and microsporidiosis. Since microsporidiosis is an emerging threat to the high-risk groups, greater awareness should be instilled among clinicians to consider microsporidiosis in their differential diagnosis if no other causes can be defined.
MeSH terms: Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome; Diagnosis, Differential; Gastrointestinal Diseases; Humans; Malaysia; Neoplasms; Risk Factors; Prevalence; Microsporidia; Microsporidiosis; Population Groups
Health care has emerged as one of the fastest growing industry worldwide. This induced health care costto rise tramendously. However, it is important to preserve high quality health care services that are equitable and affordable. In many countries, people are expected to contribute to the cost of the health care. Are populations ready to accept the concept and willing to pay for health financing scheme? What possible factors that may associate with their decision? This is the objective of the study, to examine the relevance evidence for this through a systematic review of literatures.We systematically searched Ovid MEDLINE and Google Schoolar databases until April 2016. We assessed the study population willingness to pay for health financing scheme and determine the significant variables that associate with WTP. 19 full-text articles were included in the review. Factors that were found significantly associated with WTP for health financing scheme by many studies were age, education, income and residential locality. Other factors that also found associated with WTP were health care services utilization and expenditure. The review findings showed that WTP for health financing scheme is beyond the households’ financial capacity and has multifactorial influences.
The large population of human congestion in Makkah during Hajj would promote contagious diseases. Thus, the pilgrims require health care services that are efficient, effective, and high quality. The aim of this study is to determine the type of health-related problems among Malaysian pilgrims and to identify the health care services required by them during Hajj in Makkah. A cross-sectional study was conducted in which involved 379 Malaysian pilgrims in 2013/14234H. The survey was conducted after the pilgrims completed their Hajj ritual. A total of 400 sets of questionnaires were distributed at Abraj Janadriyah Hotel, which was occupied by more than 3000 Malaysian pilgrims. The response rate for this survey was 93%. Male respondents were constituted of 49.6% and female respondents were 50.4% with the mean age 52 years old. The underlying disease among Malaysian pilgrims during Hajj was respiratory disease (77.5%). The demands for health personnel (36.1%) and quality medication (34.7%) are among the important healthcare services required by the Malaysian pilgrims in Makkah. Respiratory disease is a common disease experienced by Malaysian pilgrims in Makkah. A certain types of services such as health personnel and quality medicine are strongly demanded by the Malaysian pilgrims to overcome their health problem during Hajj. This research provides a fundamental input to the health care providers, and also benefited the Hajj management authority to improve the quality of hajj management in future.
Despite being effective in promoting healthy dietary behaviour, smartphone apps are scarcely available for our local communities and the majority of nutritional-related information is based on western food selections. Our new innovation aims to provide specific educational advice about recommended food intake, types, nutritional qualities and weight issues for cancer patients and survivors who suffer appetite problems and nutritional deficits. The Cancer Dietary (CanDiTM) app was developed as a convenient, flexible and attractively engaging smartphone app containing healthy tips which are uniquely tailored to the local food choices, preferences and ingredients. This helps customise users’ dietary needs besides permitting constant information up-dating. Features are broadly categorised into Healthy Eating Guide (advice from healthy eating to eating problems, weight loss prevention and increasing proteins and calories intake) and Malaysian Recipes For Cancer Patients (focusing on common Malaysian dishes, ingredients, treatment-based recipes and special diets). An additional Symptom Diary allows user’s personal profile to be recorded and stored virtually online. Its feasibility and acceptability were further tested among 30 cancer patients, family caregivers and dieticians recruited from a public hospital in Terengganu, Malaysia. Very good feasibility (> 80%) and excellent acceptability (> 90%) were reported regarding its ease of operation, suitability of language used, attractiveness, knowledge enhancement and perceived usefulness. With this scientific yet creative innovation, routine dietary habits related to cancer conditions could be easily facilitated for both patients/survivors as well as family caregivers for their independent and healthy living.
Indoor air quality is an essential aspect for occupational health including in a densely populated university. This study aimed to assess the indoor airborne microorganisms via biochemical and molecular approaches in five enclosed workplaces, and their resistance towards six commonly used antibiotics. Cfu/dm2/h for five enclosed workplaces was determined using settle plate technique with 1/1/1 scheme and Gram staining was performed for all pure strains isolated. Two strains with the highest count and with different morphologies were identified using biochemical test as well as 16S rRNA amplification and direct sequencing. Minimum inhibitory concentration for antibiotics was carried out for these two strains. In this study, 27 microbial strains with different morphologies were obtained from all workplaces and 2 strains with the highest count were strain J in café and strain M in library, which were identified as Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus cohnii, respectively. Both of them were highly susceptible to ampicillin and tetracycline. With resistance up to 0.78 µg/mL; B. cereus was less sensitive to kanamycin and neomycin whereas S. cohnii was less sensitive to streptomycin. In conclusion, antibiotics resistant B. cereus and S. cohnii were two of the microorganisms showing the most abundance in the café and library of a Malaysian public university, respectively. This study may serve as the baseline for the prescriptions of antibiotics to airborne microbial related infections especially to the community in the university who seek for medical treatments; particularly for respiratory and digestive infections which often associated with indoor microenvironment.
In this paper, the differential transformation method (DTM) is employed to find the semi-analytical solutions of SIS and SI
epidemic models for constant population. Firstly, the theoretical background of DTM is studied and followed by constructing
the solutions of SIS and SI epidemic models. Furthermore, the convergence analysis of DTM is proven by proposing two
theorems. Finally, numerical computations are made and compared with the exact solutions. From the numerical results,
the solutions produced by DTM approach the exact solutions which agreed with the proposed theorems. It can be seen that
the DTM is an alternative technique to be considered in solving many practical problems involving differential equations.
Integrating an exit choice model into a microscopic crowd dynamics model is an essential approach for obtaining more
efficient evacuation model. We describe various aspects of decision-making capability of an existing rule-based exit
choice model for evacuation processes. In simulations, however, the simulated evacuees clogging at exits have behaved
non-intelligently, namely they do not give up their exits for better ones for safer egress. We refine the model to endow
the individuals with the ability to leave their exits due to dynamic changes by modifying the model of their excitement
resulted from the source of panic. This facilitates the approximately equal crowd size at exits for being until the end
of the evacuation process, and thereby the model accomplishes more optimal evacuation. For further intelligence, we
introduce the prediction factor that enables higher probability of equally distributing evacuees at exits. A simulation to
validate the contribution is performed, and the results are analyzed and compared with the original model.
Kesan suhu pensinteran terhadap sifat mekanik dan mikrostruktur bahan komposit alumina-zirkonia telah dikaji. Jasad
hijau alumina-zirkonia difabrikasi dengan menggunakan kaedah pengacuan suntikan seramik menggunakan sistem
bahan pengikat pelbagai komponen. Jasad perang yang terhasil selepas proses penyahikatan disinter pada suhu 1400,
1450, 1500, 1550, 1600 dan 1650°C selama 2 jam. Selanjutnya nilai ketumpatan, kekerasan dan keliatan patah bagi
jasad tersinter diukur. Mikrostruktur jasad tersinter ditentukan dengan menggunakan mikroskop imbasan elektron
(SEM). Kajian menunjukkan nilai ketumpatan, kekerasan dan keliatan patah bagi jasad tersinter meningkat sejajar
dengan peningkatan suhu pensinteran. Hasil uji kaji juga mendapati pada suhu pensinteran 1650°C sifat mekanik bahan
mencapai keadaan maksimum. Penumpatan jasad tersinter 98% menghampiri ketumpatan teori dengan nilai kekerasan
16.9 GPa dan keliatan patah mencecah 3.95 MPa.m1/2. Keputusan tersebut dapat dikaitkan dengan mikrostruktur bahan
yang padat didorong oleh tumbesaran ira yang lengkap.
Kesan penambahan In2
O3
terhadap superkonduktor (Bi1
.
6
Pb0.4)Sr2
Ca2
Cu3
O10 (In2
O3
)x
(x = 0- 0.1 peratus berat) telah
dikaji. Pencirian yang dijalankan ialah pembelauan sinar-X, mikrostrukur, rintangan elektrik, kerentanan arus ulang
alik dan ketumpatan arus genting antara butiran. Suhu genting mula, Tc mula dan suhu genting sifar, Tc sifar adalah
tertinggi bagi sampel x = 0 iaitu Tc mula = 112 K dan Tc sifar = 90 K. Corak pembelauan sinar-X menunjukkan peratus isi
padu fasa (Bi1
.
6
Pb0.4)Sr2
Ca2
Cu3
O10 (Bi-2223) dan (Bi1
.
6
Pb0.4)Sr2
CaCu2
O8
(Bi-2212) adalah hampir sama untuk semua
sampel. Pengukuran kerentanan ulang alik telah dijalankan pada frekuensi 295 Hz dan medan magnet H = 5 Oe.
Dua peralihan pada kerentanan ulang alik bagi x = 0 menandakan kewujudan fasa Bi-2223 dan Bi-2212. Suhu pada
puncak kehilangan tenaga, Tp
untuk kerentanan khayal, χ”adalah tertinggi (74 K dan 104 K) untuk x = 0. Penambahan
In2
O3
telah menyebabkan Tp
beranjak kepada suhu lebih rendah dan ini menunjukkan fluks magnet menembusi antara
butiran pada suhu yang semakin menurun apabila In2
O3
ditambah. Lengkung puncak Tp
juga melebar apabila In2
O3
ditambah. Ini menunjukkan gandingan antara butiran yang semakin lemah dan tenaga pengepinan fluks yang menurun.
Ketumpatan arus genting antara butiran Jc
(Tp
) telah diukur menggunakan model Bean dan nilainya adalah antara 16
hingga 20 A cm-2 bagi semua sampel. Satu model skematik arus aruhan bagi bahan polihablur yang mengandungi dua
fasa superkonduktor dengan pecahan isi padu yang sama tetapi suhu genting yang berlainan dibincangkan.
Non-destructive test which refers to electrical resistivity method is recently popular in engineering, environmental, archaeological and mining studies. Based on the previous studies, the results on electrical resistivity interpretation were often debated due to lack of clarification and evidences in quantitative perspective. Traditionally, most of the previous result interpretations were depending on qualitative point of view which is risky to produce unreliable outcomes. In order to minimise those problems, this study has performed a laboratory experiment on soil box electrical resistivity test which was supported by an additional basic physical properties of soil test like particle size distribution test (d), moisture content test (w), density test (ρbulk) and Atterberg limit test (LL, PL and PI). The test was performed to establish a series of electrical resistivity value (ERV) with different quantity of water content for clayey silt and silty sand in loose and dense condition. Apparently, the soil resistivity value was different under loose (L) and dense (C) conditions with moisture content and density variations (silty SAND = ERVLoose: 600 - 7300 Ωm & ERVDense: 490 - 7900 Ωm while Clayey SILT = ERVLoose: 13 - 7700 Ωm & ERVDense: 14 - 8400 Ωm) due to several factors. Moreover, correlation of moisture content (w) and density (ρbulk) due to the ERV was established as follows; Silty SAND: w(L) = 638.8ρ-0.418, w(D) = 1397.1ρ-0.574, ρBulk(L) = 2.6188e-6E-05ρ, ρBulk(D) = 4.099ρ-0.07 while Clayey SILT: w(L) = 109.98ρ-0.268, w(D) = 121.88ρ-0.363, ρBulk(L) = -0.111ln(ρ) + 1.7605, ρBulk(D) = 2.5991ρ-0.037 with determination coefficients, R2 that varied from 0.5643 – 0.8927. This study was successfully demonstrated that the consistency of ERV was greatly influenced by the variation of soil basic physical properties (d, w, ρBulk, LL, PL and PI). Finally, the reliability of the ERV result interpretation can be enhanced due to its ability to produce a meaningful outcome based on supported data from basic geotechnical properties.
The concentrations of the heavy metal in Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) purchased from the local wet markets throughout the state of Selangor were investigated using flame atomic absorption spectrometry. The order of the heavy metal concentrations were Zn>Cu>Pb>Cd, whereby the metal concentrations in most samples exceeded the limits of the Malaysian Food Regulation, 1985 and the guidelines set by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (1983). A health risk analysis based on the mean target hazard quotient (THQ) yielded values <1 for all metals for average and maximal consumers. The total THQ (tTHQ) which measures the aggregated risk due to heavy metal uptake via the ingestion of L. vannamei was 0.124 and 0.372 for average and maximal consumers, respectively. This suggests that although the metal concentrations are exceeding the limit, there is no calculated significant risk from metal toxicity by the consumption of shrimp.
MeSH terms: Agriculture; Food; Lead; Spectrophotometry, Atomic; Zinc; Metals, Heavy
As fossil energy resources are depleting quick and energy security is playing a vital role in the world economy. Quest for alternative energy sources have turned researches investigation in waste foods for next generation fuel. Biodiesel is usually considered to be environmentally friendly as it reduces greenhouse gas emission. Fish wastes rich in fatty acids and can be used as the raw material to produce biodiesel through transesterification reaction. The results showed that the seven peaks are fatty acid methyl esters, indicating all the triglycerides were successfully methylated to methyl esters. Fish based biodiesel provided a significant reduction in carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbon (HC) emissions under engine loads of 15 (Nm) and required no engine modification. The viscosity of the produced biodiesel was within the range of international standards (ASTM). The biodiesel was found to contain a low base number and exhibited a lower specific fuel consumption compared to the conventional diesel. It can be concluded that biodiesel derived from waste fish oil can be considered as a potential source of commercial biodiesel.
In this work, graphene has been utilized as the sensing material for the development of a highly-sensitive flexible pressure sensor platform. It has been demonstrated that a graphene-based pressure sensor platform that is able to measure pressure change of up to 3 psi with a sensitivity of 0.042 psi-1 and a non-linearity of less than 1% has been accomplished. The developed device, which resides on a flexible platform, will be applicable for integration in continuous wearables health-care monitoring system for the measurement of blood pressure.
In this study, graphene-on-silicon process technology was developed to fabricate a power rectifier Schottky diode for efficiency improvement in high operating temperature. Trench-MOS-Barrier-Schottky (TMBS) diode structure was used to enhance the device performance. The main objective of this research was to study the effect of reduced graphene oxide (RGO) deposited on silicon surface for Schottky barrier formation and heat transfer in Schottky junction. The study showed RGO deposited on silicon as a heat spreader could help to reduce the effect of heat generated in the Schottky junction that leads to a leakage current reduction and efficiency improvement in the device. With comparison to the conventional metal silicide (titanium silicide and cobalt silicide), the leakage reduced by two-orders of magnitude when tested under high operating temperature (>100°C). TMBS rectifier diode that uses graphene-based heat spreader could produce highly reliable product able to withstand high temperature operating condition.
Transistor berasaskan karbon tiub nano (CNTFET) telah dihasilkan melalui kaedah pertumbuhan langsung menggunakan alkohol pemangkin pemendapan wap kimia. Sifat struktur dan ciri elektrik peranti telah dikaji. FET ini menunjukkan operasi ambikutub dan ia selaras dengan jenis-Schottky FET. Ia telah didapati bahawa ketinggian halangan Schottky yang wujud antara sentuhan elektrod dan CNT, boleh termodulat oleh aplikasi berkesan daripada voltan pincang (VDS) dan voltan get (VGS). Aplikasi voltan pincang sahaja tidak mudah untuk merendahkan ketinggian halangan Schottky dan ketebalan halangan Shottky, tetapi ia berkait rapat dengan aplikasi voltan get. Bagi konfigurasi peranti dalam kajian ini, keberkesanan medan boleh dikaitkan dengan VGS:VDS = 10:-1. Peningkatan arus didapati disebabkan oleh pengurangan tenaga pengaktifan. Kaitan yang jelas antara kesan voltan pincang, voltan get dan tenaga pengaktifan telah diperhati dalam kajian ini.
Since its discovery in 2004, graphene has enticed engineers and researchers from various fields to explore its possibilities to be incepted into various devices and applications. Graphene is deemed a ‘super’ material by researchers due to its extraordinary strength, extremely high surface-to-mass ratio and superconducting properties. Nonetheless, graphene has yet to find plausible footing as an electronics material. In biomedical field, graphene has proved useful in tissue engineering, drug delivery, cancer teraphy, as a component in power unit for biomedical implants and devices and as a vital component in biosensors. Graphene is used as scaffolding for tissue regeneration in stem cell tissue engineering, as active electrodes in supercapacitor for powering wearable and implantable biomedical devices and as detectors in biosensors. In tissue engineering, the extreme strength of monolayer graphene enables it to hold stem cell tissues as scaffold during in-vitro cell regeneration process. In MEMS supercapacitor, graphene's extremely high surface-to-mass ratio enables it to be used as electrodes in order to increase the power unit's energy and power densities. A small yet having high energy and power densities cell is needed to power often space constrainted biomedical devices. In FET biosensors, graphene acts as detector electrodes, owing to its superconductivity property. Graphene detector electrodes is capable of detecting target molecules at a concentration level as low as 1 pM, making it the most sensitive biosensor available today. Graphene continues to envisage unique and exciting applications for biomedical field, prompting continuous research which results and implementation could benefit the general public in decades to come.
The effects of the annealing temperatures and thicknesses on the shapes, sizes and arrangement of platinum (Pt) nanoparticles (NPs) on graphene and their sensing performance for hydrogen (H2) detection were investigated. It shows strong dependency of the annealing temperatures and thicknesses on the properties of NPs. It was found that the proposed technique is able to form the NPs with good size controllability and uniformity even for thick deposited layer, thus eliminating the requirement of very thin layer of below 5 nm for the direct NP synthesis by evaporation or sputtering. The transport properties of Pt NPs/graphene structure and its sensing performance on H2 at room temperature under various H2 concentration were evaluated. The results showed an acceptable sensing response, indicating an innovative approach to fabricate Pt NPs embedded graphene for gas sensing application.
The advantage of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) method is the ability to deposit thin films at relatively low temperature. Plasma power supports the growth process by decomposing hydrocarbon to carbon radicals which will be deposited later on metal catalyst. In this work, we have successfully synthesis graphene on Ni and Co films at relatively low temperature and optimize the synthesis conditions by adjusting the plasma power. Low temperature growth of graphene was optimized at 600°C after comparing the quality of as-grown graphene at several temperatures from 400 to 800°C and by varying plasma powers in the range of 20 - 100 W. Raman analysis of the as-grown samples showed that graphene prefers lower plasma power of 40 W. The annihilation of graphene formation at higher plasma powers is attributed to the presence of high concentration of hydrogen radical from methane which recombines with carbon elements on thin film surface. The optimum graphene growth conditions were obtained at growth temperature of 600°C, plasma power of 40 W and growth time of 10 min with methane flow rate of 120 sccm.