Failure of pancreas can cause uncontrolled blood glucose levels in the body. This research focuses on type 1 diabetes patients who depend on external insulin injection. The Hovorka model was used as the mathematical model in the development of control algorithm for artificial pancreas. However, the model showed a lack of interaction on selected parameters and variables in its glucose-insulin dynamic system. An improvement on the Hovorka equations was done, but no work was carried out to simulate the proposed equations. The objectives of this study are to simulate the modified Hovorka equations using MATLAB and to compare the simulation results between the reference and modified ones. This study showed better interaction among all variables and parameters on its glucose-insulin dynamic system using the modified equations compared to the original equations. The lower administered amount of insulin, Ut at 16.7mU/min and 20mU/min could regulate the blood glucose level at normoglycemic condition throughout the study.
The global Tuberculosis epidemic (TB) poses a significant public health threat. While the consequences of TB treatment interruption are indisputable, the knowledge about the timing and prognostic factors of TB treatment interruption is fundamental. Despite a considerable amount of evaluation, the timing and prognostic factors of TB treatment interruption have been inconsistently identified from one study to another. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the evidence obtained from published literature on the timing and prognostic factors of TB treatment interruption at different points of the treatment course. In this review, three databases namely Pubmed, Scopus, and Science Direct were used to identify articles published from January 2003 to February 2018. This was based on the inclusion criteria and keywords including ‘default’, ‘survival time’, ‘tuberculosis’, and ‘treatment interruption’. The nine selected studies were prospective and retrospective cohort studies conducted in developing countries. The diversity of the study’s participants and TB treatment interruption definition were allowed, thus delineating a heterogeneous finding. This review suggests that the interruption predominantly occurred during the maintenance phase of treatment course. Despite the finding, a considerable gap in understanding the prognostic factors at different time points of TB treatment interruption was elicited. The heterogeneity across the studies may limit the inferences and warrant further evaluation. In essence, the time-related information should be integrated into framing impactful public health strategy, while a vigorous attempt on the evaluation of the cognitive, behavioural and psychosocial aspects may be beneficial.
Aggression is one of the most common Paediatric Psychiatric emergency problems presented in healthcare services with major public health impacts. The aim of this review is to determine the psychosocial predictors of adolescent aggression. Systematic review on observational study designs were conducted. Recent five years English published journal articles (2014-2018) were searched in three databases (Science Direct, PubMed and EBSCO) from April 2018 until May 2018. The final 15 articles (seven prospective cohort, eight cross-sectional studies) were included in the systematic review. Psychological predictors were mainly on the personality traits and emotional problems experienced by the adolescents including callous-unemotional traits, hostility, anger, and low empathy. Self-control was found to be protective against adolescent aggression. Social predictors that contribute to the aggression among adolescents according to the highest reported number of articles were peer influence, followed by school climate, substance use, neighbourhood influence, family, and parent factors. In conclusion, psychosocial predictors of adolescent aggression include both Psychological Factors; mainly personality traits and emotional problems, and Social Factors; mainly peer influence and substance use. This warrants for more holistic approach in dealing with aggressive adolescents that can be applied in more targeted and focused intervention strategy deliveries.
The presence of imaging technologies in Malaysia needs to be supported by homegrown research to optimize and tailor their usage for local benefits. Research done elsewhere may not be applicable to local situations. This study investigates the contribution of researches by Malaysian academicians and service providers to the field of medical imaging, as evident in the Malaysian Citation index (MyCite) database. Bibliometric and thematic analyses were performed on publications featured in the database from 2006 to 2016. The bibliometric analysis provided information on the affiliation of the authors, their professional backgrounds, types of studies, and the journals involved while the thematic analysis identified the themes and sub-themes of identified articles. The study found that Malaysians contributed 54.1% of the publications, followed by non-Malaysians (41.8%) and collaboration authors (4.1%). Researchers were mostly from university-based and hospital university-based institutions. The thematic analysis presented that 42.9% of articles were classified under clinical themes. The results also suggested that the current trends of research in medical imaging are focused on topics involving clinical and modality, and only a few patient-centered researches. This is an indication that more researches that are relevant to local practices and needs are required as this will strengthen the medical imaging practice in the country.
Sound is a form of wave vibrations that contributes significantly in our daily life. Plants may interact with sound around us but we cannot certainly sure their reaction because of their immobility. Thus, this study intends to find the significant effect between different types of acoustic patterns on the growth of plants. Mung bean or its scientific name, Vigna radiata was chosen as seed material in this experiment due to their short growth cycle. The plants were grown in six environmental chambers with proper ventilations. The chambers were placed on open field with ambient conditions. Mung beans were exposed to five different types of acoustic patterns (soprano, classical, nature, rock, Quranic recitation) with sound pressure level of 60 dB ± 10 dB and one chamber was kept without any acoustic exposure. The length of stem, number of leaves and length of roots were recorded on the 15th day of mung beans’ growth. Experimental results indicate that different types of acoustic patterns promoted the growth of different part of mung beans. Soprano had significant effect on the length of stem while Quranic recitation promoted the production of leaves. However, there is no significant evidence that acoustic exposure stimulates the length of roots.
Degradation of coastal water quality is one of the major concern in the Malacca Strait since this area is one of the most important fishing ground in Malaysia. Despite being great in the fishery industry, Malacca and Negeri Sembilan somehow recorded the lowest marine fishes landing, which raises a question about dynamics of this area. It is therefore, a preliminary study of the physical properties and nutrient concentrations carried out from 27 March to 4 April 2016 at the coastal water off the southern west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, specifically at Pulau Besar, Malacca and Tanjung Tuan, Negeri Sembilan. Data for temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen (DO) was acquired by using Conductivity, Temperature, and Depth (CTD) probe. Meanwhile, nutrient concentrations determination in this study was done by using a Westco Smartchem 200 Discrete Analyser, according to the procedure adopted from United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA). In general, results of this study indicated the coastal stations were characterised with cooler, less saline, and high DO waters than stations away from coast. Large sea surface heating and weak winds were determined as the causative factors affecting dynamics of water column at the study area. At nearshore area, temperature, salinity, and DO variability were modulated by degree of freshwater intrusion. High nutrient concentrations at the stations closer to the coast was believed to be associated with river outflow, which acted as the main source of nutrients supply in this area. Comparison to previous study had shown that nutrient concentrations in this research were low, which could contribute to an insight on declining marine fish catches in these two states. With regard to Malaysian Marine Water Quality Criteria and Standard (MWQCS), mean nutrient concentrations at the study area were in Class 1, which are suitable for marine parks and marine protected areas conservation. Regardless of limited scope, the outcome of this study is believed to be a good baseline reference for future studies seeking to understand coastal dynamics.
Tripoli coastal aquifer, Libya, which is located in a densely urbanised area, is the primary source of water supply in Tripoli city. In the last few decades and due to population growth, more than 100 wells have been drilled in Tripoli aquifer for the purpose of increasing pumping to meet demand on groundwater. The urbanisation at the Tripoli upper aquifer system has reduced the recharge rates and affected the groundwater storage. In this study, changes in groundwater dynamics in Tripoli’s unconfined aquifers were simulated using MODFLOW-2005 code. The model was calibrated and validated using measured and simulated values. Statistical tests such as coefficient of determination, R2 mean error, mean absolute error, and the root mean square error were computed and found to be 0.97, 0.31, 1.70 and 2.32 respectively. The simulation will assist in the assessment of the long term saline water intrusion. Calibrated transient groundwater flow models for the years 2020 – 2100 indicated that this case is likely to occur along pumping profiles with high pumping rates. Simulation results show that the groundwater levels will decline and exceed 12 m in the Southern area while in the Northern area near the coastal line, depletion is continuous and more than 70 wells will face saline water intrusion by the year 2100. Doubling the pumping rate from the wells will accelerate the drop in the groundwater levels and about 98% of the wells will be subjected to high salinity level by 2100. The salinity levels in these wells will make the groundwater unfit for human consumption.
In recent years, digital cameras have become one of the tools used by the new generation due to their unique advantages in capturing and processing data and usage in many applications, such as crop growth, forest monitoring and archaeological investigation. The quality of images captured by digital cameras originate from accurate measurements which are allied to the digital internal camera parameters. Instability of geometric cameras require consideration to achieve good accuracy in measurement. Therefore, camera calibration becomes an important task to ensure the stability of all internal camera parameters. This research is aimed to assess the internal camera parameters of non-metric cameras. The quantitative method was adapted by this research, which required an experimental implementation achieve quality in data acquisition. Several camera parameters needed to be emphasised in regard to camera calibration, which consisted of focal length, offset main point, radial lens distortion, and distortion of tangent lenses. The offset main point represents the image centre coordinates while the distortion of tangent lenses ensures image quality during image acquisition. The study found that Nikon SLR D60 camera provided a higher accuracy as compared to DJI 4 pro and iPad mini 4 cameras. In conclusion, all non-metric cameras can be used for mapping but it will provide various accuracy levels.
Unintentional injuries cause huge economic and social burden for the country. To further prevent unintentional injury by different age groups, it is crucial to identify the recent pattern of paediatric mortality. For a start, this study included a retrospective record review of 334 paediatric trauma patients (0-18 years) who were hospitalized due to unintentional injuries. The patient’s medical records from the period 2007 to 2010 were obtained from the National Trauma Database (NTrD). The patients were categorized into
Hepatitis C infection is a major public health problem that can be dealt with urgent and timely attention. Recently, WHO Global Hepatitis Report showed that 71 million people, equivalent to approximately 1% of the world population, are infected with hepatitis C. The disease incidence, mortality rate and risk factors vary across geographical regions. The virus is transmitted primarily through drug injection and exposure to infected blood products in healthcare and community settings. The common causes of death related to virus infections are decompensated liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatitis C infection is mainly prevented by identifying and controlling any possible risk factors for virus transmission because treatment is costly and limited in availability. In this review, articles discussing the natural history, epidemiology and risk factors for hepatitis C infection are reviewed.
This study was conducted to explore the manager’s perception towards Generation Y
employees particularly in the IT industry in Selangor. A case study approach was adopted in
which data was obtained through semi-structured interviews. Purposive sampling technique
was used and a total of eight (8) informants participated and interviewed. The data obtained
from the interview were qualitatively analyzed. Data analysis was conducted by adopting a
content analysis framework in which obtained data were divided into four (4) phases
including condensation, code, category and inference and summarize. The findings showed
majority of the managers perceived that openness to experience, conscientious and
extraversion’ are the most common personalities among Generation Y employees. Besides
that, the findings also revealed that in terms of work ethics, Generation Y employees are
perceived as accountable of own’s actions, respect authority, transparency and loyal. The
result of this study implicates the organization in terms of attrition and turnover rate among
Generation Y employees and organizational branding. The result of this study provided
some recommendations to HR practitioners and organizations in managing and handling at
the workplace.
A positive working environment is vital in ensuring employee productivity to avoid
unnecessary stress to the employees thus affecting their work performances. There are
several working environment factors that contributed towards job satisfaction. Hence, this
study aimed to investigate the relationship between the working environment and employee
performance based on five dimensions of the working environment. The quantitative survey
design was utilized in this study and data were collected by using questionnaires. The
respondents of this study were administrators from different departments in a local
municipality located in Kuching. The data were analysed by using Pearson’s Correlation
Analysis to measure the relationship between the variables. The finding shows there is a
significant relationship between the working environment and employee performance.
Support from supervisor was found to be the dominant variables in ensuring a positive
working environment.
This daily diary study investigates the effects of daily smartphone use for work during off-work hours on work-life conflict. Drawing on role theory which supports the notion that segmentation is a boundary management strategy, the moderating effect of individual’s segmentation preference is proposed. Results of multilevel regression analyses showed that smartphone use for work was positively related to work-life conflict. The result also shows that the preference to integrate work and personal life rather than separate these domains strengthened the relation between smartphone use for work and work-life conflict. The results of this study may help human resource practitioners to better understand the impact of staying connected to work during off-work hours.
Recently, there is a heightened level of awareness towards energy efficiency in highperformance data centers both to reduce environmental pollution and save cost. Such data centers consume massive amount of energy for processing huge computational requirements from users. These supercomputers demand a constant supply of electricity to be available 24/7 for both its core computing functions as well as cooling the data center. Previously, researchers had introduced various strategies for achieving energy efficiency. However, in order to achieve a truly effective energy management, factors that influence energy usages must also be taken into consideration. The failure to manage such factors leads to excessive energy consumption. In this work, we shall focus on factors relevant to running the operation of high-performance data centers. We reconstructed and analyzed such factors or attributes based on the universally accepted Reduce, Reuse and Recycle Concept (3R). We recategorized energy attributes of the existing Energy Efficient Data Center Frameworks (EEDCFs) to be aligned with 3R. Then, we developed energy-saving algorithms in response to the concept. Our framework was then measured according to the performance metrics namely power usage effectiveness (PUE), energy reuse effectiveness (ERE) and carbon usage effectiveness (CUE) against variability size of data center. The simulation results of our EEDCF showed that better energy saving is achieved in comparison to the existing EEDCFs. This signifies that the application of the 3R concept in energy consumption yielded a promising result as a platform for other researchers to explore more on energy renewal initiatives and embrace it for future application.
The breast cancer automatic diagnosis is a critical real world medical challenge. This study proposes a classifying cancer tumor method based on their gene expression signatures to specific diagnostic categories. The developed neural network model holds promise for patients, surgeons, and radiologists, providing them with information, which was only available using biopsy. This significantly reduces the number of pointless surgical procedures. This study utilizes Wave Atom Transform as feature extraction method, and Back Propagation Algorithm to classify cancer into pre-defined classes. The proposed model provides automatic detection with a high level of accuracy (90%).
In this study, papaya (Carica papaya) peel was dried using convection oven and microwave drying methods to investigate the drying kinetics and the drying behavior in the attempt to search for a feasible way to utilize waste peel. Three different drying temperatures (45, 55, and 65 oC) and microwave powers (250, 440, and 600 W) were applied to dry the papaya peel, wherein the drying data were fitted into the following seven drying kinetic models: Lewis, Page, Modified Page, Henderson and Pabis, Logarithmic, Two-Term, and Approximation of Diffusion models. The study outcomes indicated that the Page model emerged as the best fitted model for oven drying of papaya peels with the highest coefficient of determination (R2) value (0.994-0.996) for all the three temperatures. As for microwave drying, the Approximation of Diffusion model exhibited the best fit owing to the highest R2 value (0.996-0.999) for all the three powers. The effective moisture diffusivity values for convection oven and microwave drying methods ranged from 6.65 x 10-08 to 4.35 x 10-07 and from 2.43 x 10-07 to 6.67 x 10-07, respectively. Additionally, the activation energy values were recorded at 61.301 kJ/mol and 46.621 W/g for oven and microwave drying methods, respectively.
Notably in the construction industry, procurement is evidently important and cannot be played down because it constitutes every phase of a project delivery system. The low-bid system has remained the most popular procurement system globally. In Nigeria, it lacks transparency and accountability. Therefore, the Nigerian Procurement system has shown a need to be stabilised by shifting risk and control to the expert who has the duty to act in the client’s best interest by adopting “Best Value Performance Information Procurement System (BVPIPS)” in contractor selection. This paper aims at identifying factors that can hinder the implementation of this innovative procurement system and their relative influence. A total 314 questionnaires were distributed to 5 construction industry professionals in Nigeria they are: Architects, Quantity Surveyors, Civil Engineers, Builders and Services Engineers. The data collected were presented and analysed using: cross tabulation, exploratory factor analysis and mean score ranking using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 and Microsoft Excel respectively. Likert scaling was used to measure the level of agreement of the respondents. The paper found out that the social factor, political factor, procurement environment factors and the cultural factor in the construction industry ranked 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively and which factors have a very strong relative influence on hindering the implementation of BVPIPS in the Nigerian construction industry. The implication of this study is, to help construction practitioners, researchers, academics, industry players, and other stakeholders to look into the significant issues that can hinder the implementation of PIPS in Nigeria and make better the delivery of projects in the construction industry. Therefore, these factors identified should be considered and precautionary measures taken when implementing BVPIPS in the Nigerian construction industry so as to accommodate innovative approaches such as BVPIPS to improve project delivery in Nigeria.
This study attempts to develop a soil moisture measurement system with a monopole antenna sensor, mini-VNA Tiny and a mobile phone respectively. The mini-VNA Tiny is a compact vector network analyzer (VNA) with a USB connection to a smartphone or a tablet. There are 17 sets of data which have been collected from 15 different spots with varying soil moisture content. The actual moisture content on site was collected from TRIME-PICO 64/32 sensor. Upon collection, it was necessary to calibrate the resistance obtained from the mini-VNA between 1 MHz and 3 GHz. The data obtained from the study shows that the resonances of the antenna resistance shift to the left on the frequency spectrum as moisture content increases. A linear model relating the resistance and actual moisture content was developed from this study with coefficient of determination (R2) value of 0.723 at 13 MHz. This value is much less than the anticipated R2 = 0.95 for accurate measurement of soil moisture with monopole antenna at microwave frequency. This could be due to the 0.60 cm thickness of the monopole antenna which may not be suited for soil moisture measurement. Nonetheless, this study demonstrates the potential application of an inexpensive and portable mini-VNA Tiny and smartphone system for sensing applications.
High concentration of iron (Fe) levels (above 1.0 mg/L) in water causes bad taste, staining and deposition in pipes and results in high turbidity in water supplies. Existing treatment technologies (which have been conventionally applied to remove Fe ions), are expensive and cause toxic sludge production. A set of experiments was carried out to evaluate the Fe uptake potential of spent coffee grounds by conducting batch tests in an aqueous solution through a biosorption process. Batch sorption studies were conducted based on pH, contact time, adsorbent dosage and adsorbent particle size. In addition, initial metal concentration was investigated. Flame atomic adsorption spectroscopy analysis revealed that the maximum adsorption recorded was 0.470 mg g-1 by using 0.30 g of 210-355 μm coffee with the maximum uptake percentage of Fe (92.9%) for 60 minutes at pH 4. Adsorption behavior of Fe ions on a surface of coffee grounds was well-interpreted by Langmuir model (R2 = 0.999). A kinetic study indicated that the Fe ions uptake was wellfitted by the pseudo second-order reaction model with good correlation (R2 = 0.993). The study offered an affirmative answer to the hypothesis of reusing eco-friendly and low-cost coffee grounds for removal of Fe ions from polluted waters.
This paper highlights basic data collected over the 7 years and 8 years of establishment of the marine turtle hatchery projects in Pulau Rusukan Besar Marine Park Centre (PRBMPC), Federal Territory of Labuan and Pulau Redang Marine Park Centre (PRMPC), Terengganu; Malaysia, respectively. Compiled data were taken from year 2010 until 2017. The within and between season patterns in terms of nest number of the green (Chelonia mydas) and hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricate) turtles were shown. The population of marine turtles were estimated from the number of nests laid. Total annual nests were used as a crude index of female turtle abundance. Green turtles accounted for 96.18% (1,233 nests laid) of the total nesting recorded while hawksbills accounted for the remaining 3.82% (49 nests laid) in the PRMPC. However, in the PRBMPC 23.58 % (29 nests laid) and 76.42% (94 nests laid) were recorded respectively for the green and hawksbill turtle. 100 % of the nest laid have been incubated using the ex-situ conservation method with the production of 103,929 and 23,558 live green and hawksbill turtle hatchlings respectively. The 8-year average hatching and emergence success rates for green turtles and hawksbills were 87.11 and 88.33%, and 91.56 and 90.69% respectively. This paper provides important information that is fundamental for the understanding of population status to ensure effective conservation measures and management of marine turtles at both marine parks.