Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 442 in total

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  1. Łuniewska M, Wodniecka Z, Miller CA, Smolík F, Butcher M, Chondrogianni V, et al.
    PLoS One, 2019;14(8):e0220611.
    PMID: 31393919 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0220611
    We present a new set of subjective Age of Acquisition (AoA) ratings for 299 words (158 nouns, 141 verbs) in seven languages from various language families and cultural settings: American English, Czech, Scottish Gaelic, Lebanese Arabic, Malaysian Malay, Persian, and Western Armenian. The ratings were collected from a total of 173 participants and were highly reliable in each language. We applied the same method of data collection as used in a previous study on 25 languages which allowed us to create a database of fully comparable AoA ratings of 299 words in 32 languages. We found that in the seven languages not included in the previous study, the words are estimated to be acquired at roughly the same age as in the previously reported languages, i.e. mostly between the ages of 1 and 7 years. We also found that the order of word acquisition is moderately to highly correlated across all 32 languages, which extends our previous conclusion that early words are acquired in similar order across a wide range of languages and cultures.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language*
  2. Zuraida, Z., Mohd Normani, Din Suhaimi, S., Zalina, I., Geshina, M. S.
    MyJurnal
    Background: Vertigo Symptom Scale (VSS) by Yardley et al. (1992) is one of the disease specific
    questionnaires used widely in clinical settings. It is conducted in English and had been translated into six languages including Dutch, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. It has been acknowledged as a good subjective tool to determine the severity of balance disorders. Objective: To develop a valid Malay version of VSS (MVVSS) using appropriate translation methods and validation technique. Method: Forward and backward translation was performed by four professionals from different fields. The translated questionnaire was then assessed for its test reliability based on an experiment on 30 normal subjects. Further, to determine the cultural adaptation issues, the face validity of MVVSS was assessed from 32 normal subjects. They were asked to fill in the MVVSS questionnaire accordingly and give opinions regarding its language, understanding and overall format of questionnaire. Results: Final results of the translation process showed sufficient concurrence among the professionals involved. The reliability test among the normal subjects also showed a high Cronbach’s alpha value (0.90). The face validity method on 32 subjects (mean age of 29.9 ± 9.2 years) showed good feedbacks in terms of language, understanding and overall format of the MVVSS. Conclusion: The translation process was successful and the further validation showed an adequate face validity response. This suggests that our MVVSS has been culturally adapted and can be used in all Malay conversing patients.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  3. Zun AB, Ibrahim MI, Mokhtar AM, Halim AS, Wan Mansor WNA
    PMID: 31185665 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph16112054
    BACKGROUND: Patient feedback is an important tool in assessing health system quality. The Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) was developed in 2006 as a standardized instrument to assess patient perceptions in the United States of America. This study aimed to translate and validate the HCAHPS questionnaire into the Malay language in order to assess patient perceptions of health services in Malaysia.

    METHODS: The original HCAPHS in English was translated into Malay based on the established guideline. The content validation involved an expert panel of 10 members, including patients. The face validation pilot testing of the HCAHPS-Malay version was conducted among 10 discharged patients. The exploratory factor analysis (EFA) used principal axis factor, and varimax rotation was established based on a cross-sectional study conducted among 200 discharged patients from Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (Hospital USM).

    RESULTS: The overall content validity index was 0.87, and the universal face validity index was 0.82. From the EFA, the factor loading value ranged from 0.652 to 0.961 within nine domains. The internal consistency reliability with Cronbach's alpha was 0.844.

    CONCLUSION: The HCAHPS-Malay is a reliable and valid tool to determine patients' perception of healthcare services among inpatients in Hospital USM based on the content and face validation result together with a good construct validity and excellent absolute reliability. Further testing on HCAHPS-Malay version in other settings in Malaysia needs to be done for cross-validation.

    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  4. Zulfarina MS, Sharkawi AM, Aqilah-S N ZS, Mokhtar SA, Nazrun SA, Naina-Mohamed I
    Iran J Public Health, 2016 Dec;45(12):1545-1557.
    PMID: 28053920
    BACKGROUND: This study conducted to examine and to provide a systematic literature over the influence of adolescents' physical activity (PA) in maximizing`s peak bone mass (PBM). PBM or the 'bone bank' is an important determinant in achieving healthy bone. PA is one of the bone's lifestyle contributors and high PBM is one of the major strategies for preventing osteoporosis.

    METHODS: A computerized literature search using Medline (Ovid) and Scopus were conducted to identify relevant observational studies on the influence of different level of PA on bone acquisition among the healthy adolescent population. All articles included, were limited to original articles and English language.

    RESULTS: Nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Reported bone outcomes were of bone mass, bone structure and bone strength. Eight studies showed positive association between adolescents' PA and high bone variables. The influence of PA may differ according to sex, skeletal sites and bone outcomes.

    CONCLUSION: This study supported the importance of increase adolescents' regular PA in optimizing PBM thus preventing osteoporosis at later life.

    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  5. Zourmand A, Ting HN, Mirhassani SM
    J Voice, 2013 Mar;27(2):201-9.
    PMID: 23473455 DOI: 10.1016/j.jvoice.2012.12.006
    Speech is one of the prevalent communication mediums for humans. Identifying the gender of a child speaker based on his/her speech is crucial in telecommunication and speech therapy. This article investigates the use of fundamental and formant frequencies from sustained vowel phonation to distinguish the gender of Malay children aged between 7 and 12 years. The Euclidean minimum distance and multilayer perceptron were used to classify the gender of 360 Malay children based on different combinations of fundamental and formant frequencies (F0, F1, F2, and F3). The Euclidean minimum distance with normalized frequency data achieved a classification accuracy of 79.44%, which was higher than that of the nonnormalized frequency data. Age-dependent modeling was used to improve the accuracy of gender classification. The Euclidean distance method obtained 84.17% based on the optimal classification accuracy for all age groups. The accuracy was further increased to 99.81% using multilayer perceptron based on mel-frequency cepstral coefficients.
    Matched MeSH terms: Child Language*
  6. Zin NNINM, Rahimi WNAWM, Bakar NA
    Malays J Med Sci, 2019 Nov;26(6):19-34.
    PMID: 31908584 MyJurnal DOI: 10.21315/mjms2019.26.6.3
    Parasitic diseases represent one of the causes for significant global economic, environmental and public health impacts. The efficacy of currently available anti-parasitic drugs has been threatened by the emergence of single drug- or multidrug-resistant parasite populations, vector threats and high cost of drug development. Therefore, the discovery of more potent anti-parasitic drugs coming from medicinal plants such as Quercus infectoria is seen as a major approach to tackle the problem. A systematic review was conducted to assess the efficacy of Q. infectoria in treating parasitic diseases both in vitro and in vivo due to the lack of such reviews on the anti-parasitic activities of this plant. This review consisted of intensive searches from three databases including PubMed, Science Direct and Scopus. Articles were selected throughout the years, limited to English language and fully documented. A total of 454 potential articles were identified, but only four articles were accepted to be evaluated based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Although there were insufficient pieces of evidence to account for the efficacy of Q. infectoria against the parasites, this plant appears to have anti-leishmanial, anti-blastocystis and anti-amoebic activities. More studies in vitro and in vivo are warranted to further validate the anti-parasitic efficacy of Q. infectoria.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  7. Zihlif M, Afifi F, Abu-Dahab R, Majid AMSA, Somrain H, Saleh MM, et al.
    BMC Complement Altern Med, 2018 02 16;18(1):64.
    PMID: 29452588 DOI: 10.1186/s12906-018-2126-8
    CORRECTION: After the publication [1] it came to the attention of the authors that one of the co-authors was incorrectly included as Hamza Somrain. The correct spelling is as follows: Hamzeh Sumrein.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  8. Zhou Y, He S, Zhou K, Kuan G, Chin MK, Kueh YC, et al.
    PMID: 34501842 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph18179253
    Background: This study examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the Attitude toward Physical Activity Scale (APAS) using a cross-sectional design. Methods: The sample consisted of 692 primary students in China (boy 52.6%, girl 47.4%). The mean age of the participants was 9.4 years (SD = 0.92). Psychometric properties of the 57-item APAS was examined using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Results: The hypothesized seven factors model was supported by CFA (CFI = 0.912, TLI = 0.901, SRMR = 0.041, RMSEA = 0.029) after 22 items were removed and the inclusion of seven residual covariance for items loaded on the same factor. Cronbach's alphas of the scales ranged between 0.50 and 0.76. The composite reliability (CR) was between 0.50 and 0.75. All inter-factor correlation coefficient was less than 0.85. Conclusions: Findings provided empirical evidence that the Chinese version of the APAS has adequate psychometric properties for assessing attitudes of primary school children in China toward physical activity.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language*
  9. Zheng W, Mutha NV, Heydari H, Dutta A, Siow CC, Jakubovics NS, et al.
    PeerJ, 2016;4:e1698.
    PMID: 27017950 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.1698
    Background. The gram-negative Neisseria is associated with two of the most potent human epidemic diseases: meningococcal meningitis and gonorrhoea. In both cases, disease is caused by bacteria colonizing human mucosal membrane surfaces. Overall, the genus shows great diversity and genetic variation mainly due to its ability to acquire and incorporate genetic material from a diverse range of sources through horizontal gene transfer. Although a number of databases exist for the Neisseria genomes, they are mostly focused on the pathogenic species. In this present study we present the freely available NeisseriaBase, a database dedicated to the genus Neisseria encompassing the complete and draft genomes of 15 pathogenic and commensal Neisseria species. Methods. The genomic data were retrieved from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and annotated using the RAST server which were then stored into the MySQL database. The protein-coding genes were further analyzed to obtain information such as calculation of GC content (%), predicted hydrophobicity and molecular weight (Da) using in-house Perl scripts. The web application was developed following the secure four-tier web application architecture: (1) client workstation, (2) web server, (3) application server, and (4) database server. The web interface was constructed using PHP, JavaScript, jQuery, AJAX and CSS, utilizing the model-view-controller (MVC) framework. The in-house developed bioinformatics tools implemented in NeisseraBase were developed using Python, Perl, BioPerl and R languages. Results. Currently, NeisseriaBase houses 603,500 Coding Sequences (CDSs), 16,071 RNAs and 13,119 tRNA genes from 227 Neisseria genomes. The database is equipped with interactive web interfaces. Incorporation of the JBrowse genome browser in the database enables fast and smooth browsing of Neisseria genomes. NeisseriaBase includes the standard BLAST program to facilitate homology searching, and for Virulence Factor Database (VFDB) specific homology searches, the VFDB BLAST is also incorporated into the database. In addition, NeisseriaBase is equipped with in-house designed tools such as the Pairwise Genome Comparison tool (PGC) for comparative genomic analysis and the Pathogenomics Profiling Tool (PathoProT) for the comparative pathogenomics analysis of Neisseria strains. Discussion. This user-friendly database not only provides access to a host of genomic resources on Neisseria but also enables high-quality comparative genome analysis, which is crucial for the expanding scientific community interested in Neisseria research. This database is freely available at http://neisseria.um.edu.my.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  10. Zhao Z
    J Psycholinguist Res, 2024 Feb 14;53(1):13.
    PMID: 38353779 DOI: 10.1007/s10936-024-10058-9
    Amidst the contemporary diasporic landscape in Sinophone literature, this research critically examines the nexus of language, culture, and identity. The study aims to analyze literary pieces composed in Sinophone languages across diverse diasporic communities and uncover the impact of language and cultural elements on the articulation and comprehension of diasporic identity. This paper used the following. comparative and typological research, an in-depth analysis of three Sinophonic texts, and contextual analysis. The subject of the study was three texts: The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan), Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (Dai Sijie), and The Woman Warrior (Maxine Hong Kingston). The results showed that In The Joy Luck Club, language and cultural facets unveil the characters' dual identity struggles due to living abroad, exemplified through code-switching's psychological tension. Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress utilizes language and cultural details to underscore the significance of preserving heritage within the diaspora, with literary allusions amplifying this endeavor. In The Woman Warrior, language and cultural elements reflect the heroine's inner conflict as she navigates her dual cultural allegiance. This scholarly revelation deepens comprehension of how these aspects influence identity formation in the diaspora. These findings broaden the understanding of Sinophone diasporic literature, spotlighting shared trends in identity portrayal through language and culture. The research has theoretical value for literary, cultural, and anthropological studies and practical significance, potentially informing educational initiatives on diasporic literature and cultural diversity. This study's outcomes hold relevance for students, researchers, and cultural scholars exploring the role of language and culture in diasporic identity expression.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language*
  11. Zhang B, Chandran Sandaran S, Feng J
    PLoS One, 2023;18(1):e0280190.
    PMID: 36696455 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280190
    Recently, ecological damage and environmental pollution have become increasingly serious. Experts in various fields have started to study related issues from diverse points of view. To prevent the accelerated deterioration of the ecological environment, ecolinguistics emerged. Eco-critical discourse analysis is one of the important parts of ecolinguistics research, that is, it is a critical discourse analysis of the use of language from the perspective of the language's ecological environment. Firstly, an ecological tone and modality system are constructed from an ecological perspective. Under the guidance of the ecological philosophy of "equality, harmony, and symbiosis", this study conducts an ecological discourse analysis on the Sino-US trade friction reports, aiming to present the similarities and differences between the two newspapers' trade friction discourses and to reveal the ecological significance of international ecological factors in the discourse. Secondly, this method establishes a vector expression of abstract words based on emotion dictionary resources and introduces emotion polarity and part-of-speech features of words. Then the word vector is formed into the text feature matrix, which is used as the input of the Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model, and the Back Propagation algorithm is adopted to train the model. Finally, in the light of the trained CNN model, the unlabeled news is predicted, and the experimental results are analyzed. The results reveal that during the training process of Chinese and English datasets, the accuracy of the training set can reach nearly 100%, and the loss rate can be reduced to 0. On the test set, the classification accuracy of Chinese text can reach 83%, while that of English text can reach 90%, and the experimental results are ideal. This study provides an explanatory approach for ecological discourse analysis on the news reports of Sino-US trade frictions and has certain guiding significance for the comparative research on political news reports under different ideologies between China and the United States.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  12. Zarei S, Memari AH, Moshayedi P, Mosayebi F, Mansournia MA, Khoo S, et al.
    Arch Iran Med, 2016 Oct;19(10):704-711.
    PMID: 27743435
    BACKGROUND: Given the importance of regular physical activity, it is crucial to evaluate the factors favoring participation in physical activity. We aimed to report the psychometric analysis of the Farsi version of the Physical Activity and Leisure Motivation Scale (PALMS).

    METHODS: The Farsi version of PALMS was completed by 406 healthy adult individuals to test its factor structure and concurrent validity and reliability.

    RESULTS: Conducting the exploratory factor analysis revealed nine factors that accounted for 64.6% of the variances. The PALMS reliability was supported with a high internal consistency of 0.91 and a high test-retest reliability of 0.97 (95% CI: 0.97-0.98). The association between the PALMS and its previous version Recreational Exercise Motivation Measure scores was strongly significant (r= 0.86, P < 0.001).

    CONCLUSION: We have shown that the Farsi version of the PALMS appears to be a valuable instrument to measure motivation for physical activity and leisure.

    Matched MeSH terms: Language*
  13. Zarei M, Qorbani M, Djalalinia S, Sulaiman N, Subashini T, Appanah G, et al.
    Int J Prev Med, 2021;12:8.
    PMID: 34084305 DOI: 10.4103/ijpvm.IJPVM_61_19
    Background: This review seeks to determine the relationship between food insecurity among elderly people over the past decades and nutrient deficiency, which is rather unclear. We aim to systematically review the relationship between food insecurity and dietary intake among elderly population.

    Methods: In this systematic review, we systematically searched the international databases including PubMed, Web of Sciences, and Scopus for scientifically related papers which have been published up until January 2018. For a more refined search, we used the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms and Emtree. In terms of search protocol, no restrictions were placed on time and language. Two independent reviewers conducted the data refining processes. Validated form (PRISMA) was used to conduct quality assessment and data extraction.

    Results: Eight cross sectional studies have been included in this review. Two of the studies were conducted in Asia and the remaining six studies were largely based in the United States and Canada. Food insecurity was associated with low levels of vitamin and mineral intakes such as vitamins E, A, B, and D and also zinc, calcium, magnesium, and iron. Most studies also reported insufficient energy, and micro and macronutrients intake among elderly people.

    Conclusions: The findings of this review evidence a considerable amount of food insecurity and nutrient deficiency, including vitamins E, C, D, B 2, and B 12 and zinc, phosphorus, and calcium among elderly population. These findings could be used as reliable evidence by policy makers and future complementary analyses.

    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  14. Zakaria MN, Jalaei B, Aw CL, Sidek D
    Neurol Sci, 2016 Jun;37(6):943-8.
    PMID: 26921173 DOI: 10.1007/s10072-016-2522-0
    Due to its objective nature, auditory brainstem response (ABR) evoked by complex stimuli has been gaining attention lately. The present study aimed to compare the speech-evoked auditory brainstem response (speech-ABR) results between two ethnic groups: Malay and Chinese. In addition, it was also of interest to compare the speech-ABR outcomes obtained from the present study with the published Caucasian data. Thirty healthy male adults (15 Malay and 15 Chinese) were enrolled in this comparative study. Speech syllable/da/presented at 80 dBnHL was used to record speech-ABR waveforms from the right ear of each subject. Amplitudes and latencies of speech-ABR peaks (V, A, C, D, E, F and O), as well as composite onset measures (V/A duration, V/A amplitude and V/A slope) were computed and analyzed. When the two ethnic groups were compared, all speech-ABR results were not statistically different from each other (p > 0.05). When the data from the present study were compared with the published Caucasian data, most of the statistical analyses were significant (p 
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  15. Zainudin, M.F., Hussin, H., Halim, A.K.
    MyJurnal
    Negative bias temperature instability (NBTI) is the most concern issue CMOS devices with the scaling
    down of the CMOS technologies. NBTI effect contributes to P-MOSFET device degradation which later
    reduce the performance and reliability of CMOS circuits. This paper presents a reliability simulation study
    based on R-D model on CMOS inverter circuit. HSPICE MOSRA model together with the Predictive
    Technology Model (PTM) was used as to incorporate the NBTI model in the circuit reliability simulation
    study for different technology nodes. PTM of High Performance (HP) models of 16nm, 22nm, 32nm
    and 45nm were used in this simulation study. The atomic hydrogen based model was integrated in the
    simulation. The results show that in a CMOS inverter circuit, the threshold voltage shift of p-MOSFET
    under NBTI stressing increased as the year progressed.. The threshold voltage shift was observed to
    increase up to 45.1% after 10 years of operation. The time exponent, n ~ 0.232 of the threshold voltage
    shift observed indicates that the defect mechanism contributed to the degradation is atomic hydrogen.
    The propagation delay increased to 19.5% over a 10-year period. s up to 19.5% from the zero year
    of operation until 10 years of the operation. In addition, the time propagation delay increased as year
    increased when the technology nodes smaller. The finding is important for understanding reliability
    issues related to advanced technology nodes in CMOS circuits study.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  16. Zainal N.Z, Nor-Aziyan Y, Subramaniam P
    MyJurnal
    Introduction: Interest in mindfulness and its enhancements have quietly exploded in recent years, bringing with it the need for validated instruments to assess mindfulness in the Malaysian population. The study aims to assess the reliability, factor structure and validity of the Malay version of The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MMAAS) in a group of nursing students. Methods: The MMAAS was ‘forward-backward’ translated from English to Malay. Two hundred and sixty six nursing students answered the MMAAS. At the same time, they responded to the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES). We performed Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with varimaxrotation to examine the factor structure of the MMAAS. Associations of retained factors were estimated by Spearman correlation coefficients. Results: Internal consistency reliability of MMAAS was good (Cronbach’s α = 0.851) and showed temporal stability in a 3-week period. Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) suggested three factors labelled as “Attention related to generaldomain”, “Attention related to the physicaldomain” and “Attention related to psychological domain”. These factors explained 52.09% of the variance. The Malay MAAS and the English version was highly correlated (r=0.82, p
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  17. Zainab, S., Ismail, N.M., Norbanee, T.H., Ismail, A.R.
    MyJurnal
    This study aims to determine the prevalence of denture wearing among elderly and to compare the oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) between elderly with dentures and those without dentures. This cross sectional study involved 506 randomly selected edentulous elderly in the district of Badang, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. Consented participants were interviewed in the Kelantanese dialect at their homes by a single trained interviewer using the short version Oral Health Impact Profile [S-OHIP(M)] which had been translated into the Malay language, tested and validated for use in Malaysian population. Denture wearing and self rated denture status was noted. The prevalence of denture wearing was 46.2% (95% CI=41.83, 50.70). There was a significant difference in sex, smoking status, self perceived treatment need and self perceived satisfaction between denture wearers and non denture wearers. Denture wearers reported better overall OHRQoL compared to non denture wearers (p
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  18. Zaidan AA, Zaidan BB, Kadhem Z, Larbani M, Lakulu MB, Hashim M
    J Med Syst, 2015 Feb;39(2):7.
    PMID: 25631841 DOI: 10.1007/s10916-015-0201-y
    This paper discusses the possibility of promoting public health and implementing educational health services using Facebook. We discuss the challenges and strengths of using such a platform as a tool for public health care systems from two different perspectives, namely, the view of IT developers and that of physicians. We present a new way of evaluating user interactivity in health care systems from tools provided by Facebook that measure statistical traffic in the Internet. Findings show that Facebook is a very promising tool in promoting e-health services in Web 2.0. Results from statistical traffic show that a Facebook page is more efficient than other pages in promoting public health.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  19. Yusoff N, Low WY, Yip CH
    Singapore Med J, 2012 Jan;53(1):36-9.
    PMID: 22252181
    The Breast Module (BR23) is increasingly being used worldwide in breast cancer research. This study evaluates the appropriateness of the translated version (i.e. BR23-Malay version) as a useful tool for the Malaysian population who could understand Malay, and examines the reliability and validity of the BR23-Malay version.
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
  20. Yousuf, R.M., Shahar, M.A., Marzuki, O.A., Azarisman, S.M.S., Rosle, C., Tin, M.H.
    MyJurnal
    Introduction: Epilepsy remains a stigmatised disease across geographical and temporal boundaries. Very little is known about epileptic stigma (ES) in cross-cultural settings. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of perceived stigma and factors associated with it, among patients with epilepsy (PWE) at a tertiary care referral hospital in East Coast of Malaysia. Methods: A cross sectional survey among 132 consenting PWE using pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire in Malay/English language to assess their knowledge, attitude and practices (KAPs). Results: Among 132 respondents, 51.5% were male and 48.5 % were female. Their age ranged from 14 to 70 years (mean=31.6±13.41). Majority (53.8%) of them were aged 30 years or younger. The median number of years they had epilepsy was 8.0 (IQR 4.0-18.8) years and average duration of seizure prior to seeking medical attention was 1.0 (IQR 0.3 - 4.5) year. Most of them (90.9%) did not know the cause of epilepsy; however nearly all (91.7%) believed that it was a disease of the
    brain. Higher education level respondents possessed significantly higher KAP scores compared to lower education level respondents (p
    Matched MeSH terms: Language
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