Browse publications by year: 2021

Fulltext Malaysia's Health Systems Response to COVID-19

Ang ZY, Cheah KY, Shakirah MS, Fun WH, Anis-Syakira J, Kong YL, et al.

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 Oct 22;18(21).
PMID: 34769629 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111109

This study aimed to highlight the COVID-19 response by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Government of Malaysia in order to share Malaysia's lessons and to improve future pandemic preparedness. The team conducted a rapid review using publicly available information from MOH, PubMed, and World Health Organisation (WHO) Global Research on Coronavirus Disease Database to compile Malaysia's responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures taken between 31 December 2019 and 3 June 2020 were classified into domains as well as the pillars described in the WHO COVID-19 Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan (WHO SPRP). Malaysia's response incorporated all pillars in the WHO SPRP and consisted of five domains, (i) whole-of-government, (ii) cordon sanitaire/lockdown, (iii) equity of access to services and supports, (iv) quarantine and isolation systems, and (v) legislation and enforcement. Some crucial measures taken were activation of a centralised multi-ministerial coordination council where MOH acted as an advisor, with collaboration from non-government organisations and private sectors which enabled an effective targeted screening approach, provision of subsidised COVID-19 treatment and screening, isolation or quarantine of all confirmed cases, close contacts and persons under investigation, with all strategies applied irrespective of citizenship. This was provided for by way of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988. A combination of these measures enabled the nation to contain the COVID-19 outbreak by the end of June 2020.

MeSH terms: Communicable Disease Control; Humans; Malaysia; Quarantine; Pandemics*
Fulltext The Impact of Meteorological Factors on Communicable Disease Incidence and Its Projection: A Systematic Review

Baharom M, Ahmad N, Hod R, Arsad FS, Tangang F

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 10 22;18(21).
PMID: 34769638 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111117

BACKGROUND: Climate change poses a real challenge and has contributed to causing the emergence and re-emergence of many communicable diseases of public health importance. Here, we reviewed scientific studies on the relationship between meteorological factors and the occurrence of dengue, malaria, cholera, and leptospirosis, and synthesized the key findings on communicable disease projection in the event of global warming.
METHOD: This systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) 2020 flow checklist. Four databases (Web of Science, Ovid MEDLINE, Scopus, EBSCOhost) were searched for articles published from 2005 to 2020. The eligible articles were evaluated using a modified scale of a checklist designed for assessing the quality of ecological studies.
RESULTS: A total of 38 studies were included in the review. Precipitation and temperature were most frequently associated with the selected climate-sensitive communicable diseases. A climate change scenario simulation projected that dengue, malaria, and cholera incidence would increase based on regional climate responses.
CONCLUSION: Precipitation and temperature are important meteorological factors that influence the incidence of climate-sensitive communicable diseases. Future studies need to consider more determinants affecting precipitation and temperature fluctuations for better simulation and prediction of the incidence of climate-sensitive communicable diseases.

MeSH terms: Forecasting; Humans; Meteorological Concepts; Incidence; Climate Change
Fulltext Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials in Bracelets and Necklaces: Radiological Risk Evaluation

Hassan HJ, Hashim S, Abu Hanifah NZH, Ghoshal SK, Sanusi MSM, Binti Suhailin FH, et al.

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 10 24;18(21).
PMID: 34769689 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111170

A particular category of jewelry is one involving bracelets and necklaces that are deliberately made to contain naturally occurring radioactive material (NORM)-purveyors making unsubstantiated claims for health benefits from the release of negative ions. Conversely, within the bounds of the linear no-threshold model, long-term use presents a radiological risk to wearers. Evaluation is conducted herein of the radiological risk arising from wearing these products and gamma-ray spectrometry is used to determine the radioactivity levels and annual effective dose of 15 commercially available bracelets (samples B1 to B15) and five necklaces (samples N16 to N20). Various use scenarios are considered; a Geant4 Monte Carlo (Geant4 MC) simulation is also performed to validate the experimental results. The dose conversion coefficient for external radiation and skin equivalent doses were also evaluated. Among the necklaces, sample N16 showed the greatest levels of radioactivity, at 246 ± 35, 1682 ± 118, and 221 ± 40 Bq, for 238U, 232Th, and 40K, respectively. For the bracelets, for 238U and 232Th, sample B15 displayed the greatest level of radioactivity, at 146 ± 21 and 980 ± 71 Bq, respectively. N16 offered the greatest percentage concentrations of U and Th, with means of 0.073 ± 0.0002% and 1.51 ± 0.0015%, respectively, giving rise to an estimated annual effective dose exposure of 1.22 mSv, substantially in excess of the ICRP recommended limit of 1 mSv/year.

MeSH terms: Monte Carlo Method; Potassium Radioisotopes/analysis; Radiation Dosage; Radiation Monitoring*; Radioactivity*; Radiography; Spectrometry, Gamma; Thorium/analysis
Fulltext Blood Transfusion Knowledge among Nurses in Malaysia: A University Hospital Experience

Mohd Noor NH, Saad NH, Khan M, Hassan MN, Ramli M, Bahar R, et al.

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 10 25;18(21).
PMID: 34769712 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111194

Blood transfusion is a fundamental and life-saving procedure where the consequence of errors can be fatal. Nurses' knowledge plays an essential role in ensuring quality and safety in blood transfusion. The objective of this study was to assess blood transfusion-associated knowledge of tertiary hospital nurses on the east coast of Malaysia. This was a cross-sectional study with 200 registered nurses involved in blood transfusion procedures at Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. The knowledge of the nurses was evaluated by using the routine blood transfusion knowledge questionnaire based on five parts, and <50%, 50-74%, or ≥75% of the knowledge was considered as poor, moderate, or high, respectively. Based on the scoring system, the overall knowledge of blood transfusion among Malaysian nurses (33.2 ± 8.4 years) was estimated to be 54.9 ± 7.6%. In individual items, the scoring was 81.0%, 45.4%, 49.2%, 63.0%, and 90.0% in knowledge prior to blood transfusion, on pre-transfusion, on post-transfusion, on complications, and on transfusion policy, respectively. The findings of this study indicated that most of the nurses' overall knowledge of blood transfusion was at a moderate level; therefore, training courses and continuous medical education are warranted to improve knowledge and skills of the nurses to ensure good practices of blood transfusion.

MeSH terms: Blood Transfusion; Clinical Competence*; Cross-Sectional Studies; Hospitals, University; Humans; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Malaysia; Nurses*; Surveys and Questionnaires
Fulltext Reduction in Absolute Neutrophil Counts in Patient on Clozapine Infected with COVID-19

Ramli FF, Ali A, Syed Hashim SA, Kamisah Y, Ibrahim N

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 10 27;18(21).
PMID: 34769806 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111289

Despite its severe adverse effects, such as agranulocytosis, clozapine is the primary treatment for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. The established clozapine monitoring system has contributed to reducing agranulocytosis incidence and mortality rates. However, the pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has caused changes in the monitoring system. This review aimed to assess the current evidence on the neutrophil changes in the patient on clozapine treatment and infected with COVID-19. Individual cases reported various absolute neutrophil count (ANC) levels, normal, reduced, or elevated. No agranulocytosis case was reported. One case had a borderline moderate-severe ANC level, but the patient was in the 18-week period of clozapine treatment. A cumulative analysis of case the series initially reported inconclusive results. However, a more recent study with a larger sample size reported a significant reduction in the ANC during COVID-19 infection. Nevertheless, this effect is transient as no significant difference was found between the baseline and the post-infection period in ANC levels. In conclusion, COVID-19 is associated with a temporary reduction in ANC levels. The results supported the recommendation to reduce the frequency of clozapine monitoring in the eligible candidates. However, more data are required to confirm the current findings given the limitations, including study design, sample size, and statistical analysis.

MeSH terms: Humans; Leukocyte Count; Neutrophils
Fulltext Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of Evidence-Based Medicine among Emergency Doctors in Kelantan, Malaysia

Ahmad Ghaus MG, Tuan Kamauzaman TH, Norhayati MN

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 10 27;18(21).
PMID: 34769813 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111297

This study aimed to determine the prevalence of high levels of knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice on evidence-based medicine (EBM) and identify the associated factors for practice score on EBM among emergency medicine doctors in Kelantan, Malaysia. This cross-sectional study was conducted in government hospitals in Kelantan. The data were collected from 200 emergency physicians and medical officers in the emergency department using the Noor Evidence-Based Medicine Questionnaire. Simple and general linear regressions analyses using SPSS were performed. A total of 183 responded, making a response rate of 91.5%. Of them, 49.7% had a high level of knowledge, 39.9% had a positive attitude and 2.1% had good practice. Sex, race, the average number of patients seen per day, internet access in workplace, having online quick reference application, and attitude towards EBM were significantly associated with EBM practice scores. It is recommended that appropriate authorities provide emergency doctors with broader access to evidence resources. EBM skill training should be enhanced in the current medical school curriculums.

MeSH terms: Attitude of Health Personnel; Cross-Sectional Studies; Emergency Service, Hospital; Humans; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice*; Malaysia; Physicians*; Evidence-Based Medicine
Fulltext The Influence of Virtual Forest Walk on Physiological and Psychological Responses

Alyan E, Combe T, Awang Rambli DR, Sulaiman S, Merienne F, Muhaiyuddin NDM

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 Oct 29;18(21).
PMID: 34769937 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111420

The authors of this paper sought to investigate the impact of virtual forest therapy based on realistic versus dreamlike environments on reducing stress levels. Today, people are facing an increase in stress levels in everyday life, which may be due to personal life, work environment, or urban area expansion. Previous studies have reported that urban environments demand more attention and mental workload than natural environments. However, evidence for the effects of natural environments as virtual forest therapy on stress levels has not yet been fully explored. In this study, a total of 20 healthy participants completed a letter-detection test to increase their stress level and were then randomly assigned to two different virtual environments representing realistic and dreamlike graphics. The participants' stress levels were assessed using two physiological methods that measured heart rate and skin conductance levels and one psychological method through the Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaire. These indicators were analyzed using a sample t-test and a one-way analysis of variance. The results showed that virtual forest environments could have positive stress-relieving effects. However, realistic graphics were more efficient in reducing stress. These findings contribute to growing forest therapy concepts and provide new directions for future forest therapy research.

MeSH terms: Heart Rate; Humans; Stress, Psychological*; Walking*; Forests
Fulltext Influence of a Survival Swimming Training Programme on Water Safety Knowledge, Attitudes and Skills: A Randomized Controlled Trial among Young Adults in Sri Lanka

Ekanayaka J, Geok CK, Matthews B, Dharmaratne SD

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 10 30;18(21).
PMID: 34769944 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111428

Drowning among young adults is high in Sri Lanka. Water safety education is a recommended strategy for drowning prevention but is often overlooked for young adults. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of an adapted educational intervention, "Swim for Safety" on improving water safety knowledge, attitudes and survival swimming skills among undergraduates (19-28 years) in Sri Lanka. This study employed a parallel-group, two-arm randomized controlled trial design. The intervention group (n = 78) received a face-to-face, 12-lesson education programme, and the control group (n = 78) received a brochure and weekly mobile phone messages for six consecutive weeks. Baseline, post-intervention and three-month follow-up knowledge, attitudes and skills were evaluated. Knowledge and attitudes were assessed using a self-administered questionnaire and skills were evaluated following a skills assessment protocol. In total 116 participants, 60 intervention group and 56 control group, completed the study. At baseline there were no differences between groups in median scores of water safety knowledge, attitudes and survival swimming skills. The intervention group demonstrated statistically significant increases in median water safety knowledge, attitudes and survival swimming skill scores compared with the control group, following the intervention and maintained at three-month follow-up (p < 0.05). The adapted Swim for Safety programme significantly improved water safety knowledge, attitudes, and survival swimming skills among young adults in Sri Lanka. Therefore, it is recommended that the SfS programme be implemented widely to prevent drowning in young adults.

MeSH terms: Humans; Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; Sri Lanka; Swimming*; Water; Young Adult
Fulltext Optimization of Micro-Pollutants' Removal from Wastewater Using Agricultural Waste-Derived Sustainable Adsorbent

Alhothali A, Haneef T, Mustafa MRU, Moria KM, Rashid U, Rasool K, et al.

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 11 01;18(21).
PMID: 34770021 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111506

Water pollution due to the discharge of untreated industrial effluents is a serious environmental and public health issue. The presence of organic pollutants such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) causes worldwide concern because of their mutagenic and carcinogenic effects on aquatic life, human beings, and the environment. PAHs are pervasive atmospheric compounds that cause nervous system damage, mental retardation, cancer, and renal kidney diseases. This research presents the first usage of palm kernel shell biochar (PKSB) (obtained from agricultural waste) for PAH removal from industrial wastewater (oil and gas wastewater/produced water). A batch scale study was conducted for the remediation of PAHs and chemical oxygen demand (COD) from produced water. The influence of operating parameters such as biochar dosage, pH, and contact time was optimized and validated using a response surface methodology (RSM). Under optimized conditions, i.e., biochar dosage 2.99 g L-1, pH 4.0, and contact time 208.89 min, 93.16% of PAHs and 97.84% of COD were predicted. However, under optimized conditions of independent variables, 95.34% of PAH and 98.21% of COD removal was obtained in the laboratory. The experimental data were fitted to the empirical second-order model of a suitable degree for the maximum removal of PAHs and COD by the biochar. ANOVA analysis showed a high coefficient of determination value (R2 = 0.97) and a reasonable second-order regression prediction. Additionally, the study also showed a comparative analysis of PKSB with previously used agricultural waste biochar for PAH and COD removal. The PKSB showed significantly higher removal efficiency than other types of biochar. The study also provides analysis on the reusability of PKSB for up to four cycles using two different methods. The methods reflected a significantly good performance for PAH and COD removal for up to two cycles. Hence, the study demonstrated a successful application of PKSB as a potential sustainable adsorbent for the removal of micro-pollutants from produced water.

MeSH terms: Adsorption; Environmental Pollutants*; Humans; Biological Oxygen Demand Analysis; Waste Water
Fulltext Validation and Measurement Invariance of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 between Genders in a Malaysian Sample

Tan CS, Cheng SM, Cong CW, Abu Bakar ARB, Michael E, Mohd Wazir MIB, et al.

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 11 05;18(21).
PMID: 34770142 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111628

The 10-item Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2) is a measurement for individuals to self-report the extent to which they accept and respect their bodies. Although the BAS-2 has been translated into the Malay language and found to have promising qualities, the psychometric characteristics of the English version of BAS-2 remain unknown in the Malaysian context. The present study thus administered the English version BAS-2 and selfie-editing frequency scale to 797 individuals aged 18 to 56 years old in Malaysia. The dataset that was randomly divided into two halves were submitted to exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis respectively. Both of the factor analyses consistently support a one-factor model. The Cronbach's alpha and McDonald omega coefficients were greater than 0.90, indicating that the BAS-2 has good internal consistency. The incremental validity is also evident. A hierarchical multiple regression showed that the BAS-2 score had a positive relationship with selfie-editing frequency after controlling for age and gender. Moreover, the measurement invariance test supported scalar invariance between genders, and an analysis of covariance did not find significant gender differences. Overall, the findings replicate past findings and regularly support the usability of the BAS-2 in the Malaysian context. The implications of the BAS-2 and future directions are also discussed.

MeSH terms: Adolescent; Adult; Body Image*; Factor Analysis, Statistical; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Psychometrics; Surveys and Questionnaires; Sex Factors; Reproducibility of Results; Young Adult
Fulltext The Validity and Reliability of the Malay Version of the Cyberbullying Scale among Secondary School Adolescents in Malaysia

Saman ZM, Siti-Azrin AH, Othman A, Kueh YC

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 11 06;18(21).
PMID: 34770183 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111669

The effect of cyberbullying among adolescents in Malaysia is not much studied. The Cyberbullying Scale (CBS) has been validated to be used among English speaking adolescents to measure cyberbullying but not in Malay language. Therefore, its validity should be established before use in the Malaysian context. Thus, the study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the Malay version of the CBS (CBS-M) among secondary school students. The study was cross-sectional and involved a self-administered questionnaire with 16 items from CBS-M, and 21 items from the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale (DASS-21). Participants were recruited using a multi-stage sampling method. The validity of the CBS-M was tested in two phases, namely, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Spearman's correlation was used to examine the strength of the relationship between the CBS and subscales from DASS-21 to further support the validity of CBS-M. A total of 401 respondents from Muar, Johor, participated. The mean age was 14.6 years (SD = 1.25). EFA results indicated a one-factor model of CBS-M with a total variance extracted of 33.9%. Internal consistency measured by Cronbach's alpha reached 0.87. The model was then tested using CFA. The initial model did not fit the data well. Thus, several model re-specifications were conducted on the initial model. The final measurement model of CBS-M fit the data well with acceptable fit indices (CFI = 0.946, TLI = 0.932, SRMR = 0.055, RMSEA = 0.049). The composite reliability for CBS-M was satisfactory with a value of 0.832. The CBS-M questionnaire is a valid and reliable tool for measuring cyberbullying among young adolescents in Malaysia.

MeSH terms: Adolescent; Cross-Sectional Studies; Humans; Language*; Malaysia; Psychometrics; Surveys and Questionnaires; Schools; Reproducibility of Results
Fulltext Development and Testing of a Community-Based Intervention to Address Intimate Partner Violence among Rohingya and Syrian Refugees: A Social Norms-Based Mental Health-Integrated Approach

James LE, Welton-Mitchell C, Michael S, Santoadi F, Shakirah S, Hussin H, et al.

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 11 07;18(21).
PMID: 34770188 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111674

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the leading form of gender-based violence globally and increases during times of conflict and displacement. To reduce IPV and encourage help-seeking, a two-phase community-based intervention was co-designed with Rohingya in Malaysia and Syrians in Lebanon. Three day workshops, utilizing a social norms-based mental health-integrated approach, were implemented for women and men in each country (n = 148). Pre- to post-measures indicated reductions in beliefs about acceptability of violence and rigid gender norms, and improvements in mental health, functioning, coping, and self-efficacy for women and men following workshop participation. Workshop participation was also associated with increased help-seeking intent, for both mental health and IPV (victims and perpetrators). Workshops included community design of poster campaigns to address IPV, which were then tested in each setting using a randomized controlled trial in Malaysia (n = 240) and a matched cluster comparison in Lebanon (n = 260). Women in both settings found IPV less acceptable in the poster condition. Help-seeking preferences were also influenced by the poster for women and men in both countries. This participatory intervention research can provide a roadmap for use in other settings, emphasizing the value of community-generated solutions to IPV among displaced populations.

MeSH terms: Intimate Partner Violence*; Female; Humans; Male; Mental Health; Refugees*; Syria; Social Norms
Fulltext Cross-Cultural Adaptation and Validation of the Malay Version of Sports Motivation Scale-II

Chin NS, Liew GC, Kueh YC, Hashim HA, Tee V, Kuan G

Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2021 11 07;18(21).
PMID: 34770207 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph182111694

The 18-item Sport Motivation Scale (SMS-II) is one of the most-utilised scales measuring athletes' motivation and its psychometric properties. However, we found no Malay version used to examine the Malaysian multi-ethnic population. Thus, the study aimed to translate and validate the SMS-II into the Malay version using confirmatory factor analysis. A total of 436 (16.44 ± 1.22) state athletes were asked to complete the SMS-II Malay version, which utilised the forward-backwards translation method. The results showed an acceptable fit with the data (CFI = 0.906, SRMR = 0.064; RMSEA = 0.056) and internal consistency, with a Cronbach's alpha value that exceeded 0.50, which supported its usage for the assessment of motivation among the multi-ethnic Malaysian athletes. The Cronbach's alpha values of all the factors were satisfactory, except for introjected regulation. Thus, further studies are needed to improve the reliability of such factors. Nonetheless, the Malay version of SMS-II was found to be valid and reliable for assessing the level of motivation of the multi-ethnic Malaysian athletes.

MeSH terms: Cross-Cultural Comparison*; Humans; Malaysia; Motivation*; Psychometrics; Surveys and Questionnaires; Reproducibility of Results
Fulltext Effects of Tungsten Disulphide Coating on Tapered Microfiber for Relative Humidity Sensing Applications

Ali N, Azzuhri SR, Johari MAM, Rashid H, Khudus MIMA, Razak MZA, et al.

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Oct 27;21(21).
PMID: 34770442 DOI: 10.3390/s21217132

Tungsten disulphide (WS2) is a two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide material that can be used to improve the sensitivity of a variety of sensing applications. This study investigated the effect of WS2 coating on tapered region microfiber (MF) for relative humidity (RH) sensing applications. The flame brushing technique was used to taper the standard single-mode fiber (SMF) into three different waist diameter sizes of MF 2, 5, and 10 µm, respectively. The MFs were then coated with WS2 via a facile deposition method called the drop-casting technique. Since the MF had a strong evanescent field that allowed fast near-field interaction between the guided light and the environment, depositing WS2 onto the tapered region produced high humidity sensor sensitivity. The experiments were repeated three times to measure the average transmitted power, presenting repeatability and sensing stability. Each MF sample size was tested with varying humidity levels. Furthermore, the coated and non-coated MF performances were compared in the RH range of 45-90% RH at room temperature. It was found that the WS2 coating on 2 µm MF had a high sensitivity of 0.0861 dB/% RH with linearity over 99%. Thus, MF coated with WS2 encourages enhancement in the evanescent field effect in optical fiber humidity sensor applications.
Fulltext Long-Term Ship Position Prediction Using Automatic Identification System (AIS) Data and End-to-End Deep Learning

Ibadurrahman, Hamada K, Wada Y, Nanao J, Watanabe D, Majima T

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Oct 28;21(21).
PMID: 34770475 DOI: 10.3390/s21217169

The establishment of maritime safety and security is an important concern. Ship position prediction for maritime situational awareness (MSA), as a critical aspect of maritime safety and security, requires a longer time interval than collision avoidance and maritime traffic monitoring. However, previous studies focused mainly on shorter time-interval predictions ranging from 30 min to 10 h. A longer time-interval ship position prediction is required not only for MSA, but also for efficient allocation of ships by shipping companies in accordance with global freight demand. This study used an end-to-end tracking method that inputs the previous position of a vessel to a trained deep learning model to predict its next position with an average 24-h interval. An AIS dataset with a long-time-interval distribution in a nine-year timespan for capesize bulk carriers worldwide was used. In the first experiment, a deep learning model of the Indian Ocean was examined. Subsequently, the model performance was compared for six different oceans and six primary maritime chokepoints to investigate the influence of each area. In the third experiment, a sample location within the Malacca Strait area was selected, and the number of ships was counted daily. The results indicate that the ship position can be predicted accurately with an average time interval of 24 h using deep learning systems with AIS data.

MeSH terms: Oceans and Seas; Ships*
Fulltext Fault-Tolerant and Data-Intensive Resource Scheduling and Management for Scientific Applications in Cloud Computing

Ahmad Z, Jehangiri AI, Ala'anzy MA, Othman M, Umar AI

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Oct 30;21(21).
PMID: 34770545 DOI: 10.3390/s21217238

Cloud computing is a fully fledged, matured and flexible computing paradigm that provides services to scientific and business applications in a subscription-based environment. Scientific applications such as Montage and CyberShake are organized scientific workflows with data and compute-intensive tasks and also have some special characteristics. These characteristics include the tasks of scientific workflows that are executed in terms of integration, disintegration, pipeline, and parallelism, and thus require special attention to task management and data-oriented resource scheduling and management. The tasks executed during pipeline are considered as bottleneck executions, the failure of which result in the wholly futile execution, which requires a fault-tolerant-aware execution. The tasks executed during parallelism require similar instances of cloud resources, and thus, cluster-based execution may upgrade the system performance in terms of make-span and execution cost. Therefore, this research work presents a cluster-based, fault-tolerant and data-intensive (CFD) scheduling for scientific applications in cloud environments. The CFD strategy addresses the data intensiveness of tasks of scientific workflows with cluster-based, fault-tolerant mechanisms. The Montage scientific workflow is considered as a simulation and the results of the CFD strategy were compared with three well-known heuristic scheduling policies: (a) MCT, (b) Max-min, and (c) Min-min. The simulation results showed that the CFD strategy reduced the make-span by 14.28%, 20.37%, and 11.77%, respectively, as compared with the existing three policies. Similarly, the CFD reduces the execution cost by 1.27%, 5.3%, and 2.21%, respectively, as compared with the existing three policies. In case of the CFD strategy, the SLA is not violated with regard to time and cost constraints, whereas it is violated by the existing policies numerous times.

MeSH terms: Heuristics; Cloud Computing*; Algorithms*; Computer Simulation; Workflow
Fulltext Color Index of Transformer Oil: A Low-Cost Measurement Approach Using Ultraviolet-Blue Laser

Hasnul Hadi MH, Ker PJ, Lee HJ, Leong YS, Hannan MA, Jamaludin MZ, et al.

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Nov 02;21(21).
PMID: 34770602 DOI: 10.3390/s21217292

The color of transformer oil can be one of the first indicators determining the quality of the transformer oil and the condition of the power transformer. The current method of determining the color index (CI) of transformer oil utilizes a color comparator based on the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) D1500 standard, which requires a human observer, leading to human error and a limited number of samples tested per day. This paper reports on the utilization of ultra violet-blue laser at 405- and 450-nm wavelengths to measure the CI of transformer oil. In total, 20 transformer oil samples with CI ranging from 0.5 to 7.5 were measured at optical pathlengths of 10 and 1 mm. A linear regression model was developed to determine the color index of the transformer oil. The equation was validated and verified by measuring the output power of a new batch of transformer oil samples. Data obtained from the measurements were able to quantify the CI accurately with root-mean-square errors (RMSEs) of 0.2229 for 405 nm and 0.4129 for 450 nm. This approach shows the commercialization potential of a low-cost portable device that can be used on-site for the monitoring of power transformers.

MeSH terms: Humans; Lasers*; Electric Power Supplies*
Fulltext A Sequential Handwriting Recognition Model Based on a Dynamically Configurable CRNN

Al-Saffar A, Awang S, Al-Saiagh W, Al-Khaleefa AS, Abed SA

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Nov 02;21(21).
PMID: 34770612 DOI: 10.3390/s21217306

Handwriting recognition refers to recognizing a handwritten input that includes character(s) or digit(s) based on an image. Because most applications of handwriting recognition in real life contain sequential text in various languages, there is a need to develop a dynamic handwriting recognition system. Inspired by the neuroevolutionary technique, this paper proposes a Dynamically Configurable Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network (DC-CRNN) for the handwriting recognition sequence modeling task. The proposed DC-CRNN is based on the Salp Swarm Optimization Algorithm (SSA), which generates the optimal structure and hyperparameters for Convolutional Recurrent Neural Networks (CRNNs). In addition, we investigate two types of encoding techniques used to translate the output of optimization to a CRNN recognizer. Finally, we proposed a novel hybridized SSA with Late Acceptance Hill-Climbing (LAHC) to improve the exploitation process. We conducted our experiments on two well-known datasets, IAM and IFN/ENIT, which include both the Arabic and English languages. The experimental results have shown that LAHC significantly improves the SSA search process. Therefore, the proposed DC-CRNN outperforms the handcrafted CRNN methods.

MeSH terms: Algorithms; Handwriting*; Neural Networks (Computer)*
Fulltext Harnessing the Challenges and Solutions to Improve Security Warnings: A Review

Zaaba ZF, Lim Xin Yi C, Amran A, Omar MA

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Nov 03;21(21).
PMID: 34770621 DOI: 10.3390/s21217313

The security warning is a representation of communication that is used to warn and to inform a person whether security menaces have been discovered in order to prevent any consequences of damage from taking place. The purpose of a security warning is to provide a legitimate alert (to notify and to warn) to the users so that a secure manner of action is safely conducted. It is worth noting that the majority of computer users prefer to dismiss security warnings due to lack of attention, the use of technical words, and the deficiency of information provided. This paper determines to achieve two outcomes: firstly, a thorough review of problems, challenges, and approaches to improving security warnings. Our work complements the previous classifications in the identification of problems and challenges in security warnings by value-adding a new classification, namely immersion in the primary task. Then, we add other related works within the known classifications accordingly. In addition, our work also presents the classifications of approaches to improving security warnings. Secondly, we propose two timelines by addressing the problems, challenges, and approaches to improving security warnings. It is expected that the outcomes of this research will be useful to researchers within the niche area for analysing trends and providing the groundwork in security warning studies, respectively.

MeSH terms: Attention*; Humans
Fulltext Detection of Iris Presentation Attacks Using Feature Fusion of Thepade's Sorted Block Truncation Coding with Gray-Level Co-Occurrence Matrix Features

Khade S, Gite S, Thepade SD, Pradhan B, Alamri A

Sensors (Basel), 2021 Nov 08;21(21).
PMID: 34770715 DOI: 10.3390/s21217408

Iris biometric detection provides contactless authentication, preventing the spread of COVID-19-like contagious diseases. However, these systems are prone to spoofing attacks attempted with the help of contact lenses, replayed video, and print attacks, making them vulnerable and unsafe. This paper proposes the iris liveness detection (ILD) method to mitigate spoofing attacks, taking global-level features of Thepade's sorted block truncation coding (TSBTC) and local-level features of the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) of the iris image. Thepade's SBTC extracts global color texture content as features, and GLCM extracts local fine-texture details. The fusion of global and local content presentation may help distinguish between live and non-live iris samples. The fusion of Thepade's SBTC with GLCM features is considered in experimental validations of the proposed method. The features are used to train nine assorted machine learning classifiers, including naïve Bayes (NB), decision tree (J48), support vector machine (SVM), random forest (RF), multilayer perceptron (MLP), and ensembles (SVM + RF + NB, SVM + RF + RT, RF + SVM + MLP, J48 + RF + MLP) for ILD. Accuracy, precision, recall, and F-measure are used to evaluate the performance of the projected ILD variants. The experimentation was carried out on four standard benchmark datasets, and our proposed model showed improved results with the feature fusion approach. The proposed fusion approach gave 99.68% accuracy using the RF + J48 + MLP ensemble of classifiers, immediately followed by the RF algorithm, which gave 95.57%. The better capability of iris liveness detection will improve human-computer interaction and security in the cyber-physical space by improving person validation.

MeSH terms: Bayes Theorem; Biometry; Humans; Iris; Support Vector Machine

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