Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 312 in total

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  1. Chamran MK, Yau KA, Noor RMD, Wong R
    Sensors (Basel), 2019 Dec 19;20(1).
    PMID: 31861500 DOI: 10.3390/s20010018
    This paper demonstrates the use of Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP), together with Raspberry Pi3 B+ (RP3) as the brain (or the decision making engine), to develop a distributed wireless network in which nodes can communicate with other nodes independently and make decision autonomously. In other words, each USRP node (i.e., sensor) is embedded with separate processing units (i.e., RP3), which has not been investigated in the literature, so that each node can make independent decisions in a distributed manner. The proposed testbed in this paper is compared with the traditional distributed testbed, which has been widely used in the literature. In the traditional distributed testbed, there is a single processing unit (i.e., a personal computer) that makes decisions in a centralized manner, and each node (i.e., USRP) is connected to the processing unit via a switch. The single processing unit exchanges control messages with nodes via the switch, while the nodes exchange data packets among themselves using a wireless medium in a distributed manner. The main disadvantage of the traditional testbed is that, despite the network being distributed in nature, decisions are made in a centralized manner. Hence, the response delay of the control message exchange is always neglected. The use of such testbed is mainly due to the limited hardware and monetary cost to acquire a separate processing unit for each node. The experiment in our testbed has shown the increase of end-to-end delay and decrease of packet delivery ratio due to software and hardware delays. The observed multihop transmission is performed using device-to-device (D2D) communication, which has been enabled in 5G. Therefore, nodes can either communicate with other nodes via: (a) a direct communication with the base station at the macrocell, which helps to improve network performance; or (b) D2D that improve spectrum efficiency, whereby traffic is offloaded from macrocell to small cells. Our testbed is the first of its kind in this scale, and it uses RP3 as the distributed decision-making engine incorporated into the USRP/GNU radio platform. This work provides an insight to the development of a 5G network.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  2. Pines R, Sheeran N, Jones L, Pearson A, Pamoso AH, Jin YB, et al.
    Med Care Res Rev, 2023 Apr;80(2):205-215.
    PMID: 35815591 DOI: 10.1177/10775587221108749
    Inadequate consideration has been given to patient preferences for patient-centered care (PCC) across countries or cultures in our increasingly global society. We examined what 1,698 participants from the United States, Hong Kong, Philippines, and Australia described as important when making health care decisions. Analysis of frequencies following directed content coding of open-ended questions revealed differences in patients' preferences for doctor behaviors and decision-making considerations across countries. Being well informed by their doctor emerged as most important in decision-making, especially in Hong Kong. Participants in Australia and the United States wanted their doctor to meet their emotional needs. The safety and efficacy of treatments were the most common consideration, especially for Hong Kong. Findings suggest that doctors should focus on information exchange and identifying patient concerns about efficacy, lifestyle impact, cost, and recovery speed. Rather than assuming patients prefer shared decision-making, doctors must assess patient's decision control preferences.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  3. Man MY, Ong MS, Mohamad MS, Deris S, Sulong G, Yunus J, et al.
    Malays J Med Sci, 2015 Dec;22(Spec Issue):9-19.
    PMID: 27006633 MyJurnal
    Neuroimaging is a new technique used to create images of the structure and function of the nervous system in the human brain. Currently, it is crucial in scientific fields. Neuroimaging data are becoming of more interest among the circle of neuroimaging experts. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a large amount of neuroimaging tools. This paper gives an overview of the tools that have been used to image the structure and function of the nervous system. This information can help developers, experts, and users gain insight and a better understanding of the neuroimaging tools available, enabling better decision making in choosing tools of particular research interest. Sources, links, and descriptions of the application of each tool are provided in this paper as well. Lastly, this paper presents the language implemented, system requirements, strengths, and weaknesses of the tools that have been widely used to image the structure and function of the nervous system.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  4. Bervell B, Al-Samarraie H
    Soc Sci Med, 2019 07;232:1-16.
    PMID: 31035241 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.04.024
    This study distinguished between the application of e-health and m-health technologies in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries based on the dimensions of use, targeted diseases or health conditions, locations of use, and beneficiaries (types of patients or health workers) in a country specific context. It further characterized the main opportunities and challenges associated with these dimensions across the sub-region. A systematic review of the literature was conducted on 66 published peer reviewed articles. The review followed the scientific process of the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines of identification, selection, assessment, synthesis and interpretation of findings. The results of the study showed that m-health was prevalent in usage for promoting information for treatment and prevention of diseases as well as serving as an effective technology for reminders towards adherence. For e-health, the uniqueness lay in data acquisition and patients' records management; diagnosis; training and recruitment. While m-health was never used for monitoring or training and recruitment, e-health on the other hand could not serve the purpose of reminders or for reporting cases from the field. Both technologies were however useful for adherence, diagnosis, disease control mechanisms, information provision, and decision-making/referrals. HIV/AIDS, malaria, and maternal (postnatal and antenatal) healthcare were important in both m-health and e-health interventions mostly concentrated in the rural settings of South Africa and Kenya. ICT infrastructure, trained personnel, illiteracy, lack of multilingual text and voice messages were major challenges hindering the effective usage of both m-health and e-health technologies.
    Matched MeSH terms: Clinical Decision-Making/methods
  5. Waheed, Hira, Haider, Sajjad, Iqbal, Qaiser, Khalid, Adnan, Hassali, Mohamed Azmi, Bashaar, Mohammad, et al.
    MyJurnal
    Shared-decision making (SDM), occasionally called “participatory governance” is the approach in healthcare to ensure that patients have the right to participate effectively in the decision-making (DM) process. The aim of this research was to discuss the external aspect of SDM and put forward applicable solutions to ensure SDM at both patient and physician levels. A standardised validated nine-item SDM questionnaire (patient version SDM-Q-9) was employed. SPSS version 25 was used to perform data analysis. Multiple tests such as Mann-Whitney U and Jonckheere-Terpstra were used. Kendall’s Tau coefficient was used for interpretation of the significant relationship among all items of SDM-Q-9 and education. A total of 465 chronically ill patients took part, where majority (63.4%) of patients was above the age of 47. The cohort was dominated by females (67.5%) with 92% of the sample was married. Majority (86.9%) of the patient reported not involved in any decision. During analysis, considerable association was reported between gender and all items of SDM-Q-9, where more men were involved in SDM when compared with women. Our findings did produce significant association between education and SDM-Q-9, which reveals that increase in education can improve the SDM. SDM should not be limited to chronic or emergency in practice. Specific and tailored shared medical DM programmes must be developed for low literacy population implementation. SDM is to be supported at policy and operation levels.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  6. Hu Y, Loo CK
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:240983.
    PMID: 24778580 DOI: 10.1155/2014/240983
    A novel decision making for intelligent agent using quantum-inspired approach is proposed. A formal, generalized solution to the problem is given. Mathematically, the proposed model is capable of modeling higher dimensional decision problems than previous researches. Four experiments are conducted, and both empirical experiments results and proposed model's experiment results are given for each experiment. Experiments showed that the results of proposed model agree with empirical results perfectly. The proposed model provides a new direction for researcher to resolve cognitive basis in designing intelligent agent.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making*
  7. Mokhtar, M., Shuib, A., Mohamad, D.
    MyJurnal
    Portfolio optimisation is one of the most crucial issues in investment decision-making and has received considerable attention from researchers and practitioners. Traditionally, the portfolio optimisation models are formulated based on the assumption that investors have complete information on the distribution of random returns. However, in real life case, this is not possible since decisions have to be made under uncertainty. This paper deals with a fuzzy portfolio optimisation problem in which returns and turnover rates of securities are represented by fuzzy variables. A goal programming model is proposed to optimise three objectives: maximisation of portfolio return, maximisation of liquidity and minimisation of the portfolio risk. The cardinality constraints, floor and ceiling constraints are also taken into consideration. Finally, a numerical experiment using real data is conducted to demonstrate the applicability of the model.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  8. Taib NA, Yip CH, Low WY
    World J Surg, 2014 Jul;38(7):1676-84.
    PMID: 24280975 DOI: 10.1007/s00268-013-2339-4
    Advanced breast cancer presentation remains a large obstacle in lowering mortality rates in low- and middle-resource countries. This study aims to explore the reasons why women present with breast cancer at an advanced stage.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making*
  9. Nikpay F, Ahmad R, Yin Kia C
    Eval Program Plann, 2017 02;60:1-16.
    PMID: 27665066 DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2016.09.001
    Enterprise Architecture (EA) implementation evaluation provides a set of methods and practices for evaluating the EA implementation artefacts within an EA implementation project. There are insufficient practices in existing EA evaluation models in terms of considering all EA functions and processes, using structured methods in developing EA implementation, employing matured practices, and using appropriate metrics to achieve proper evaluation. The aim of this research is to develop a hybrid evaluation method that supports achieving the objectives of EA implementation. To attain this aim, the first step is to identify EA implementation evaluation practices. To this end, a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) was conducted. Second, the proposed hybrid method was developed based on the foundation and information extracted from the SLR, semi-structured interviews with EA practitioners, program theory evaluation and Information Systems (ISs) evaluation. Finally, the proposed method was validated by means of a case study and expert reviews. This research provides a suitable foundation for researchers who wish to extend and continue this research topic with further analysis and exploration, and for practitioners who would like to employ an effective and lightweight evaluation method for EA projects.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  10. Saw PS, Chuah LH, Lee SWH
    Int J Clin Pharm, 2018 Oct;40(5):1131-1136.
    PMID: 30078173 DOI: 10.1007/s11096-018-0707-8
    Background Pharmacists as highly qualified professionals face ethical dilemmas and conflicts in their daily practice. These issues manifest themselves in the daily practice of pharmacists, which require pharmacists to have the competencies to manage these dilemmas but there is limited formal training in ethical decision making during undergraduate pharmacy education. Objective To describe the implementation and evaluation of a methodological approach to managing ethical dilemma workshop for community pharmacists in Malaysia. Setting Community pharmacists in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Method During the workshop, pharmacists were provided insights into how they could use and apply a methodological approach towards managing a dilemma, followed by a case study and panel discussion. All participants were invited to complete a pre- and post-workshop questionnaire Main outcome measure Number and proportion of respondents answering questions related to practice of ethics and workshop effectiveness Results A total of 37 participants attended the workshop. Most of the participants reported that they had no formal training in professional ethics and often used their own approach to solve an ethical issue. Some of the most common issues mentioned include changing medication to generic. More than three quarter of participants agreed and strongly agreed the content was relevant to their job and they will be able to use what they learned in the program. Conclusion The evidence suggests that a module in ethical decision making should be introduced to community pharmacists in Malaysia. This module can be easily adapted for use in other countries and will help ensure that pharmacist can make a good professional judgement and deliver the deeds of beneficence to all their patients.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making/ethics
  11. Tong WT, Low WY, Wong YL, Choong SP, Jegasothy R
    Asia Pac J Public Health, 2014 Sep;26(5):536-45.
    PMID: 24368749 DOI: 10.1177/1010539513514434
    This study explores contraceptive practice and decision making of women who have experienced abortion in Malaysia. In-depth interviews were carried out with 31 women who had abortions. Women in this study did adopt some method of modern contraception prior their abortion episodes. However, challenges to use a method consistently were experiences and fear of side effects, contraceptive failure, partner's influence, lack of confidence, and cost. The decision to adopt contraception was theirs but the types of contraceptive methods to adopt were influenced by their spouses/partners. The women wanted to use modern contraception but were faced with challenges that hampered its use. More proactive contraceptive promotion is needed to educate people on the array of contraceptive methods available and made accessible to them, to correct misconceptions on safety of modern contraception, to increase men's involvement in contraceptive choices, and to encourage consistent contraceptive use to prevent unintended pregnancies.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making*
  12. Yip CH, Bhoo Pathy N, Teo SH
    Med J Malaysia, 2014 Aug;69 Suppl A:8-22.
    PMID: 25417947 MyJurnal
    Four hundred and nineteen articles related to breast cancer were found in a search through a database dedicated to indexing all original data relevant to medicine published in Malaysia between the years 2000-2013. One hundred and fifty four articles were selected and reviewed on the basis of clinical relevance and future research implications. Overall, Malaysian women have poor survival from breast cancer and it is estimated that half of the deaths due to breast cancer could be prevented. Five-year survival in Malaysia was low and varies among different institutions even within the same disease stage, suggesting an inequity of access to optimal treatment or a lack of compliance to optimal treatment. Malaysian women have poor knowledge of the risk factors, symptoms and methods for early detection of breast cancer, leading to late presentation. Moreover, Malaysian women experience cancer fatalism, belief in alternative medicine, and lack of autonomy in decision making resulting in delays in seeking or avoidance of evidence-based medicine. There are ethnic differences in estrogen receptor status, HER2 overexpression and incidence of triple negative breast cancer which warrant further investigation. Malay women present with larger tumours and at later stages, and even after adjustment for these and other prognostic factors (stage, pathology and treatment), Malay women have a poorer survival. Although the factors responsible for these ethnic differences have not been elucidated, it is thought that pharmacogenomics, lifestyle factors (such as weight-gain, diet and exercise), and psychosocial factors (such as acceptance of 2nd or 3rd line chemotherapy) may be responsible for the difference in survival. Notably, survivorship studies show self-management programmes and exercise improve quality of life, highlighting the need to evaluate the psychosocial impact of breast cancer on Malaysian women, and to design culturally-, religiously- and linguistically-appropriate psycho-education programmes to help women cope with the disease and improve their quality of life. Research done in the Caucasian populations may not necessarily apply to local settings and it is important to embark on local studies particularly prevention, screening, diagnostic, prognostic, therapeutic and psychosocial research.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  13. Mumtaz W, Vuong PL, Malik AS, Rashid RBA
    Cogn Neurodyn, 2018 Apr;12(2):141-156.
    PMID: 29564024 DOI: 10.1007/s11571-017-9465-x
    The screening test for alcohol use disorder (AUD) patients has been of subjective nature and could be misleading in particular cases such as a misreporting the actual quantity of alcohol intake. Although the neuroimaging modality such as electroencephalography (EEG) has shown promising research results in achieving objectivity during the screening and diagnosis of AUD patients. However, the translation of these findings for clinical applications has been largely understudied and hence less clear. This study advocates the use of EEG as a diagnostic and screening tool for AUD patients that may help the clinicians during clinical decision making. In this context, a comprehensive review on EEG-based methods is provided including related electrophysiological techniques reported in the literature. More specifically, the EEG abnormalities associated with the conditions of AUD patients are summarized. The aim is to explore the potentials of objective techniques involving quantities/features derived from resting EEG, event-related potentials or event-related oscillations data.
    Matched MeSH terms: Clinical Decision-Making
  14. Nur Azriati Mat, Aida Mauziah Benjamin, Syariza Abdul-Rahman
    MyJurnal
    The selection of landfill, which happens to be an environmental issue, has attracted
    the attention of many researchers from the fields of waste management and
    environmental sciences worldwide. Hence, in the attempt to overcome this problem,
    some decision-making techniques, including Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
    and Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), have been widely utilized in prior studies,
    where multiple criteria, particularly in site selection process, have been employed.
    With that, this article identifies the selection criteria for landfill selection and presents
    a review concerning decision-making techniques that have been used in past studies
    for two important phases involved during the process of site selection, namely, (1)
    preliminary site screening, and (2) assessment of site suitability. As such, some 82
    articles chosen from 34 peer-reviewed journals had been investigated in detail. The
    results showed that 42.68% of the selected articles integrated GIS and MCDA
    techniques to solve the problem of landfill site selection, and this is followed by
    integrating GIS and fuzzy MCDA technique (18.29%). Both these techniques are indeed
    powerful tools that can guide decision-makers to solve problems in making decisions
    on the basis of various criteria under certainty and uncertainty results, mainly involving
    environmental issues.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  15. Loh, Kok Fook, Ponusamy, Ragu, Shattri Mansor, Jamil Ismail
    MyJurnal
    Malaysia is in the process of modernizing its oil palm plantation management, by implementing geo-information technologies which include Remote Sensing (RS), Geographic Information System (GIS), and Spatial Decision Support System (DSS). Agencies with large oil palm plantations such as the Federal Land Development Authority (FELDA), Federal Land Consolidation and Rehabilitation Authority (FELCRA), Guthrie Sdn. Bhd., and Golden Hope Sdn. Bhd. have already incorporated GIS in their plantation management, with limited use of RS and DSS. In 2005, FELCRA, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Espatial Resources Sdn. Bhd. (ESR) collaborated in a research project to explore the potentials of geo-informatics for oil palm plantation management. The research was conducted in FELCRA located in Seberang Perak Oil Palm Scheme. In that research, a tool integrating RS, GIS and Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was developed to support decision making for replanting of the existing old palms. RS was used to extract productive stand per hectare; AHP was used to compute the criteria weights for the development of a suitable model; and GIS was used for spatial modelling so as to generate the decision support layer for replanting. This paper highlights the approach adopted in developing the tool with special emphasis on the AHP computation.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  16. Hooi PY, Yong CM, Cheong I
    Int J Clin Pract, 2001 May;55(4):272-4.
    PMID: 11406914
    A prospective study was conducted to determine the proportion of patients who received an antibiotic within 12 hours of admission to the medical wards. During the four-week study, 234 patients were admitted to medical wards from casualty; 68 patients (29%) received an antibiotic. The survey indicated that antibiotics were inappropriate in 22-65% of those treated. This study also shows that as many as 67% of patients who received intravenous antibiotics could have been equally well treated with oral preparations.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  17. LOW, LEE LAN, TONG, SENG FAH, LOW, WAH YUN
    MyJurnal
    The learning curve for doing a good qualitative study is steep because qualitative methodologies are often vague and lack explicit steps. We detail the formulation of the grounded theory approach in a study of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus who made decisions while strategizing their treatment types. This undertaking is to demonstrate how this systematic and yet flexible methods contributed to the understanding of the issue we were investigating. The process from deciding on research objectives and research questions, follow with systematic process for data collection and analysis allows us to generate a substantive theoretical model. By paying critical attention to theoretical saturation, grounded theory approach enabled us to construct all possible explanatory concepts related to decision making in strategizing diabetes treatment. We also describe the challenges throughout the whole research journey, including getting permission to interview patients, gaining the trust of research participants and staying open to the participants’ views.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  18. Nimdet K, Chaiyakunapruk N, Vichansavakul K, Ngorsuraches S
    PLoS One, 2015;10(4):e0122760.
    PMID: 25855971 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0122760
    A number of studies have been conducted to estimate willingness to pay (WTP) per quality-adjusted life years (QALY) in patients or general population for various diseases. However, there has not been any systematic review summarizing the relationship between WTP per QALY and cost-effectiveness (CE) threshold based on World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
  19. Azila NM, Tan CP
    Med J Malaysia, 2005 Aug;60 Suppl D:35-40.
    PMID: 16315622
    Accreditation is a process by which official accrediting bodies evaluate institutions using a set of criteria and standards, following established procedures, to ensure a high quality of education needed to produce highly competent graduates. Additional objectives include (1) ensuring quality institutional functioning, (2) strengthening capabilities of educational institutions for service to the nation and (3) improving public confidence in medical schools. The accreditation process provides an opportunity for the institution to critically reflect upon all the aspects of its programme and the level of compliance or attainment of the requirements. The self-evaluation exercise, which identifies strengths and weaknesses, is perceived as formative. It is envisaged that eventually institutions will adopt a learning culture for curriculum development, implementation, monitoring and matching the outcomes. In conclusion, periodic accreditation activities can act as a "monitoring" system to ensure that the quality of medical education is maintained according to established standards.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making, Organizational
  20. Othman, M., Boo, H.C., Wan Rusni, W.I.
    MyJurnal
    The role of adolescents in family decision making related to food consumption in Malaysia has received comparatively little or no attention by researchers although there were evidences of differences in influences found in other countries. This study addressed the research gap by testing adolescents’ bilateral strategies in influencing their family decision using family power theory. A survey of 500 adolescents from urban area was conducted to investigate their influence based on their involvement in family consumer tasks. Key findings include strong relationship between perception of influence and rewards thus indicate the existence of strategies in adolescents influence attempt.
    Matched MeSH terms: Decision Making
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