Displaying publications 1 - 20 of 120 in total

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  1. Chanakit T, Low BY, Wongpoowarak P, Moolasarn S, Anderson C
    Am J Pharm Educ, 2014 Nov 15;78(9):161.
    PMID: 26056400 DOI: 10.5688/ajpe789161
    To explore the current status of pharmacy education in Thailand.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  2. Saad B, Zin ZM, Jab MS, Rahman IA, Saleh MI, Mahsufi S
    Anal Sci, 2005 May;21(5):521-4.
    PMID: 15913140
    Poly (vinyl chloride) membrane electrodes that responded selectively towards the antimalarial drug chloroquine are described. The electrodes were based on the use of the lipophilic potassium tetrakis(4-chlorophenyl)borate as ion-exchanger and bis(2-ethylhexyl)adipate (BEHA), or trioctylphosphate (TOP) or dioctylphenylphosphonate (DOPP) as plasticizing solvent mediator. All electrodes produced good quality characteristics such as Nernstian- and rapid responses, and are minimally interfered with by the alkali and alkaline earth metal ions tested. The membranes were next applied to a flow-through device, enabling it to function as flow-injection analysis (FIA) detector. The performance of the sensor after undergoing the FIA optimization was further evaluated for its selectivity characteristics and lifetime. Results for the determination of chloroquine in synthetic samples that contained common tablet excipients such as glucose, starch, and cellulose, and other foreign species such as cations, citric acid or lactic acid were generally satisfactory. The sensor was also successfully used for the determination of the active ingredients in mock tablets, synthetic fluids and biological fluids. The sensor was applied for the determination of active ingredients and the dissolution profile of commercial tablets was also established.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  3. Hussain H, Khalid NM, Selamat R, Wan Nazaimoon WM
    Ann Lab Med, 2013 Sep;33(5):319-25.
    PMID: 24003421 DOI: 10.3343/alm.2013.33.5.319
    BACKGROUND: The urinary iodine micromethod (UIMM) is a modification of the conventional method and its performance needs evaluation.
    METHODS: UIMM performance was evaluated using the method validation and 2008 Iodine Deficiency Disorders survey data obtained from four urinary iodine (UI) laboratories. Method acceptability tests and Sigma quality metrics were determined using total allowable errors (TEas) set by two external quality assurance (EQA) providers.
    RESULTS: UIMM obeyed various method acceptability test criteria with some discrepancies at low concentrations. Method validation data calculated against the UI Quality Program (TUIQP) TEas showed that the Sigma metrics were at 2.75, 1.80, and 3.80 for 51±15.50 µg/L, 108±32.40 µg/L, and 149±38.60 µg/L UI, respectively. External quality control (EQC) data showed that the performance of the laboratories was within Sigma metrics of 0.85-1.12, 1.57-4.36, and 1.46-4.98 at 46.91±7.05 µg/L, 135.14±13.53 µg/L, and 238.58±17.90 µg/L, respectively. No laboratory showed a calculated total error (TEcalc)
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  4. Ashraf A, Saion E, Gharibshahi E, Kamari HM, Kong YC, Hamzah MS, et al.
    Appl Radiat Isot, 2016 Jan;107:17-23.
    PMID: 26405840 DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2015.09.004
    A study was carried out on the concentration of REEs (Dy, Sm, Eu,Yb, Lu, La and Ce) that are present in the core marine sediments of East Malaysia from three locations at South China Sea and one location each at Sulu Sea and Sulawesi Sea. The sediment samples were collected at a depth of between 49 and 109 m, dried, and crushed to powdery form. The entire core sediments prepared for Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) were weighted approximately 0.0500 g to 0.1000 g for short irradiation and 0.1500 g to 0.2000 g for long irradiation. The samples were irradiated with a thermal neutron flux of 4.0×10(12) cm(-2) s(-1) in a TRIGA Mark II research reactor operated at 750 kW. Blank samples and standard reference materials SL-1 were also irradiated for calibration and quality control purposes. It was found that the concentration of REEs varies in the range from 0.11 to 36.84 mg/kg. The chondrite-normalized REEs for different stations suggest that all the REEs are from similar origins. There was no significant REEs contamination as the enrichment factors normalized for Fe fall in the range of 0.42-2.82.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  5. Bradley DA, Wong CS, Ng KH
    Appl Radiat Isot, 2000 9 26;53(4-5):691-7.
    PMID: 11003508
    For broad-beam soft X-ray sources, assessment of the quality of image produced by such units is made complex by the low penetration capabilities of the radiation. In the present study we have tested the utility of several types of test tool, some of which have been fabricated by us, as part of an effort to evaluate several key image defining parameters. These include the film characteristic, focal-spot size, image resolution and detail detectability. The two sources of X-rays used in present studies were the University of Malaya flash X-ray device (UMFX1) and a more conventional soft X-ray tube (Softex, Tokyo), the latter operating at peak accelerating potentials of 20 kVp. We have established, for thin objects, that both systems produce images of comparable quality and, in particular, objects can be resolved down to better than 45 microm.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  6. Banjade DP, Tajuddin AA, Shukri A
    Appl Radiat Isot, 2001 Aug;55(2):235-43.
    PMID: 11393765
    Protocols developed for high-energy dosimetry IAEA (Technical Reports Series No. 277, 1997), AAPM (Med. Phys. 10 (1983) 741: Med. Phys. 18 (1991) 73: Med. Phys. 21 (1994) 1251), IPEMB (Phys. Med. Biol. 41 (1996) 2557), and HPA (Phys. Med. Biol. 28 (1983) 1097) have continued to enhance precision in dose measurements and the optimization of radiotherapy procedures. While recent dosimetry protocols, including those due to the IAEA and IPEMB, have made a number of improvements compared with previous protocols, it is further desirable to develop absolute dosimetry methods of dose measurements. Measurements based on careful implementation of procedures contained within the various protocols have been carried out in an effort to determine the extent to which discrepancies exist among the protocols. Dose in water at dmax was measured using cylindrical and parallel-plate ionization chambers for 6 MV photon beams and 5 and 12 MeV electron beams. Results obtained from the use of the AAPM and HPA protocols for 6 MV photon beams were found to be 0.9% larger and 0.1% smaller, respectively, than those measured following the IAEA protocol. Calibration dose measurements for 5 and 12 MeV electron beams in water phantoms were found to agree to within 1%, this being well within recommendations from the ICRU and other sources regarding the accuracy of dose delivery.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  7. Edam AN, Fornasier MR, De Denaro M, Sulieman A, Alkhorayef M, Bradley DA
    Appl Radiat Isot, 2018 Nov;141:288-291.
    PMID: 30122471 DOI: 10.1016/j.apradiso.2018.07.027
    Patient radiation dose and image quality are primary issues in the conduct of nuclear medicine (NM) procedures. A range of protocols are currently used in image acquisition and analysis of quality control (QC) tests, with National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) methods and protocols widely accepted in providing an accurate description, measurement and report of γ-camera performance parameters. However, no standard software is available for image analysis. Present study compares vendor QC software analysis and three types of software freely downloadable from the internet: NMQC, NM Toolkit and ImageJ-NM Toolkit software. These were used for image analysis of QC tests of γ-cameras based on NEMA protocols including non-uniformity evaluation. Ten non-uniformity QC images were obtained using a dual head γ-camera installed in Trieste General Hospital and then analyzed. Excel analysis was used as the baseline calculation for the non-uniformity test according to NEMA procedures. The results of non-uniformity analysis showed good agreement between the independent types of software and Excel calculations (the average differences were 0.3%, 2.9%, 1.3% and 1.6% for the Useful Field of View (UFOV) integral, UFOV differential, Central Field of View (CFOV) integral and CFOV differential, respectively), while significant differences were detected following analysis using the company QC software when compared with Excel analysis (the average differences were 14.6%, 20.7%, 25.7% and 31.9% for the UFOV integral, UFOV differential, CFOV integral and CFOV differential, respectively). Compared to use of Excel calculations use of NMQC software was found to be in close accord. Variation in results obtained using the three types of software and γ-camera QC software was due to the use of different pixel sizes. It is important to conduct independent analyses tests in addition to using the vendor QC software in order to determine the differences between values.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  8. Miskandar MS, Man YC, Yusoff MS, Rahman RA
    Asia Pac J Clin Nutr, 2005;14(4):387-95.
    PMID: 16326646
    Optimum processing conditions on palm oil-based formulations are required to produce the desired quality margarine. As oils and fats contribute to the overall property of the margarine, this paper will review the importance of beta' tending oils and fats in margarine formulation, effects of the processing parameters -- emulsion temperature, flow-rate, product temperature and pin-worker speed -- on palm oil margarines produced and their subsequent behaviour in storage. Palm oil, which contributes the beta' crystal polymorph and the best alternative to hydrogenated liquid fats, and the processing conditions can affect the margarine consistency by influencing the solid fat content (SFC) and the types of crystal polymorph formed during production as well as in storage. Palm oil, or hydrogenated palm oil and olein, in mixture with oils of beta tending, can veer the product to the beta' crystal form. However, merely having beta' crystal tending oils is not sufficient as the processing conditions are also important. The emulsion temperature had no significant effect on the consistency and polymorphic changes of the product during storage, even though differences were observed during processing. The consistency of margarine during storage was high at low emulsion flow-rates and low at high flow rates. The temperature of the scraped-surface tube-cooler is the most important parameter in margarine processing. High temperature will produce a hardened product with formation of beta-crystals during storage. The speed of the pin-worker is responsible for inducing crystallization but, at the same time, destroys the crystal agglomerates, resulting in melting.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  9. Saffor A, bin Ramli AR, Ng KH
    Australas Phys Eng Sci Med, 2003 Jun;26(2):39-44.
    PMID: 12956184
    Wavelet-based image coding algorithms (lossy and lossless) use a fixed perfect reconstruction filter-bank built into the algorithm for coding and decoding of images. However, no systematic study has been performed to evaluate the coding performance of wavelet filters on medical images. We evaluated the best types of filters suitable for medical images in providing low bit rate and low computational complexity. In this study a variety of wavelet filters are used to compress and decompress computed tomography (CT) brain and abdomen images. We applied two-dimensional wavelet decomposition, quantization and reconstruction using several families of filter banks to a set of CT images. Discreet Wavelet Transform (DWT), which provides efficient framework of multi-resolution frequency was used. Compression was accomplished by applying threshold values to the wavelet coefficients. The statistical indices such as mean square error (MSE), maximum absolute error (MAE) and peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) were used to quantify the effect of wavelet compression of selected images. The code was written using the wavelet and image processing toolbox of the MATLAB (version 6.1). This results show that no specific wavelet filter performs uniformly better than others except for the case of Daubechies and bi-orthogonal filters which are the best among all. MAE values achieved by these filters were 5 x 10(-14) to 12 x 10(-14) for both CT brain and abdomen images at different decomposition levels. This indicated that using these filters a very small error (approximately 7 x 10(-14)) can be achieved between original and the filtered image. The PSNR values obtained were higher for the brain than the abdomen images. For both the lossy and lossless compression, the 'most appropriate' wavelet filter should be chosen adaptively depending on the statistical properties of the image being coded to achieve higher compression ratio.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  10. Rassiah P, Ng KH, DeWerd LA, Kunugi K
    Australas Phys Eng Sci Med, 2004 Mar;27(1):25-9.
    PMID: 15156705
    A thermoluminescent dosimetry (TLD) postal dose inter-comparison was carried out amongst radiotherapy centres in Malaysia. The aim of this TLD inter-comparison was to compare the uniformity involved in the measurement of absorbed dose among the participating centres. A set of 5 TLD chips placed within acrylic trays were mailed to all participating centres for irradiation to an absorbed dose to water of 2 Gy. Measurements were made for 6 MV and 60Co photon beams. Results show an agreement of +/- 5% for all but three radiotherapy centres. The ratios of the TLD readings to that of the reference centre are comparable with other national/regional dose inter-comparisons. The importance of a proper ongoing quality assurance program is essential in maintaining the consistency and uniformity of doses delivered.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  11. Lim WK
    BMC Med Educ, 2012;12:89.
    PMID: 23009729 DOI: 10.1186/1472-6920-12-89
    Problem-based learning (PBL) has become the most significant innovation in medical education of the past 40 years. In contrast to exam-centered, lecture-based conventional curricula, PBL is a comprehensive curricular strategy that fosters student-centred learning and the skills desired in physicians. The rapid spread of PBL has produced many variants. One of the most common is 'hybrid PBL' where conventional teaching methods are implemented alongside PBL. This paper contends that the mixing of these two opposing educational philosophies can undermine PBL and nullify its positive benefits. Schools using hybrid PBL and lacking medical education expertise may end up with a dysfunctional curriculum worse off than the traditional approach.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  12. Meliana C, Liu J, Show PL, Low SS
    Bioengineered, 2024 Dec;15(1):2310908.
    PMID: 38303521 DOI: 10.1080/21655979.2024.2310908
    The burden of food contamination and food wastage has significantly contributed to the increased prevalence of foodborne disease and food insecurity all over the world. Due to this, there is an urgent need to develop a smarter food traceability system. Recent advancements in biosensors that are easy-to-use, rapid yet selective, sensitive, and cost-effective have shown great promise to meet the critical demand for onsite and immediate diagnosis and treatment of food safety and quality control (i.e. point-of-care technology). This review article focuses on the recent development of different biosensors for food safety and quality monitoring. In general, the application of biosensors in agriculture (i.e. pre-harvest stage) for early detection and routine control of plant infections or stress is discussed. Afterward, a more detailed advancement of biosensors in the past five years within the food supply chain (i.e. post-harvest stage) to detect different types of food contaminants and smart food packaging is highlighted. A section that discusses perspectives for the development of biosensors in the future is also mentioned.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  13. Schiestl M, Li J, Abas A, Vallin A, Millband J, Gao K, et al.
    Biologicals, 2014 Mar;42(2):128-32.
    PMID: 24373974 DOI: 10.1016/j.biologicals.2013.11.009
    A determination of biosimilarity is based on a thorough characterization and comparison of the quality profiles of a similar biotherapeutic product and its reference biotherapeutic product. Although the general principles on the role of the quality assessment in a biosimilar evaluation are widely understood and agreed, detailed discussions have not been published yet. We try to bridge this gap by presenting a case study exercise based on fictional but realistic data to highlight key principles of an evaluation to determine the degree of similarity at the quality level. The case study comprises three examples for biosimilar monoclonal antibody candidates. The first describes a highly similar quality profile whereas the second and third show greater differences to the reference biotherapeutic product. The aim is to discuss whether the presented examples can be qualified as similar and which additional studies may be helpful in enabling a final assessment. The case study exercise was performed at the WHO implementation workshop for the WHO guidelines on quality assessment of similar biotherapeutic products held in Xiamen, China, in May 2012. The goal was to illustrate the interpretation of the comparative results at the quality level, the role of the quality assessment in the entire biosimilarity exercise and its influence on the clinical evaluation. This paper reflects the outcome of the exercise and discussion from Xiamen.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control*
  14. Halim SF, Kamaruddin AH, Fernando WJ
    Bioresour Technol, 2009 Jan;100(2):710-6.
    PMID: 18819793 DOI: 10.1016/j.biortech.2008.07.031
    This study aimed to develop an optimal continuous procedure of lipase-catalyzes transesterification of waste cooking palm oil in a packed bed reactor to investigate the possibility of large scale production further. Response surface methodology (RSM) based on central composite rotatable design (CCRD) was used to optimize the two important reaction variables packed bed height (cm) and substrate flow rate(ml/min) for the transesterification of waste cooking palm oil in a continuous packed bed reactor. The optimum condition for the transesterification of waste cooking palm oil was as follows: 10.53 cm packed bed height and 0.57 ml/min substrate flow rate. The optimum predicted fatty acid methyl ester (FAME) yield was 80.3% and the actual value was 79%. The above results shows that the RSM study based on CCRD is adaptable for FAME yield studied for the current transesterification system. The effect of mass transfer in the packed bed reactor has also been studied. Models for FAME yield have been developed for cases of reaction control and mass transfer control. The results showed very good agreement compatibility between mass transfer model and the experimental results obtained from immobilized lipase packed bed reactor operation, showing that in this case the FAME yield was mass transfer controlled.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  15. Molla AH, Fakhru'l-Razi A, Abd-Aziz S, Hanafi MM, Roychoudhury PK, Alam MZ
    Bioresour Technol, 2002 Dec;85(3):263-72.
    PMID: 12365494
    Twenty seven filamentous fungal strains representing five genera; Aspergillus, Penicillium, Trichoderma, Myriodontium and Pleurotus were isolated from four sources; domestic wastewater sludge cake (SC) from IWK (Indah Water Konsortium) wastewater treatment plant, palm oil mill effluent compost from Sri Ulu palm Oil Processing Mill, compost of plant debris, and fungal fruiting bodies from a rotten wood stump. Thirty-three strains/isolates were tested for their ability to convert domestic wastewater sludge into compost by assessing biomass production and growth rate on sludge enriched media. The strains/isolates Aspergillus niger, SS-T2008, WW-P1003 and RW-P1 512 produced the highest dry biomass at higher sludge supplemented culture media from their respective group (Aspergillus, Trichoderma, Penicillium and Basidiomycetes, respectively). This implied these strains are better adapted for growth at higher sludge rich substances, and subsequently may be efficient in bioconversion/biodegradation of sludge. The fungi isolated from ecological closely related sources were more amendable to adaptation in a sludge rich culture media.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  16. Brandon-Mong GJ, Gan HM, Sing KW, Lee PS, Lim PE, Wilson JJ
    Bull. Entomol. Res., 2015 Dec;105(6):717-27.
    PMID: 26344799 DOI: 10.1017/S0007485315000681
    Metabarcoding, the coupling of DNA-based species identification and high-throughput sequencing, offers enormous promise for arthropod biodiversity studies but factors such as cost, speed and ease-of-use of bioinformatic pipelines, crucial for making the leapt from demonstration studies to a real-world application, have not yet been adequately addressed. Here, four published and one newly designed primer sets were tested across a diverse set of 80 arthropod species, representing 11 orders, to establish optimal protocols for Illumina-based metabarcoding of tropical Malaise trap samples. Two primer sets which showed the highest amplification success with individual specimen polymerase chain reaction (PCR, 98%) were used for bulk PCR and Illumina MiSeq sequencing. The sequencing outputs were subjected to both manual and simple metagenomics quality control and filtering pipelines. We obtained acceptable detection rates after bulk PCR and high-throughput sequencing (80-90% of input species) but analyses were complicated by putative heteroplasmic sequences and contamination. The manual pipeline produced similar or better outputs to the simple metagenomics pipeline (1.4 compared with 0.5 expected:unexpected Operational Taxonomic Units). Our study suggests that metabarcoding is slowly becoming as cheap, fast and easy as conventional DNA barcoding, and that Malaise trap metabarcoding may soon fulfill its potential, providing a thermometer for biodiversity.
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  17. Okuma HS, Yoshida H, Kobayashi Y, Arakaki M, Mizoguchi C, Inagaki L, et al.
    Cancer Sci, 2023 Jun;114(6):2664-2673.
    PMID: 36919757 DOI: 10.1111/cas.15790
    Tissue specimen quality assurance is a major issue of precision medicine for rare cancers. However, the laboratory standards and quality of pathological specimens prepared in Asian hospitals remain unknown. To understand the methods in Southeast Asian oncology hospitals and to clarify how pre-analytics affect the quality of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) specimens, a questionnaire surveying pre-analytical procedures (Part I) was administered, quality assessment of immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining and DNA/RNA extracted from the representative FFPE specimens from each hospital (Part II) was conducted, and the quality of DNA/RNA extracted from FFPE of rare-cancer patients for genomic sequencing (Part III) was examined. Quality measurements for DNA/RNA included ΔΔCt, DV200, and cDNA yield. Six major cancer hospitals from Malaysia, Philippines, and Vietnam participated. One hospital showed unacceptable quality for the DNA/RNA assessment, but improved by revising laboratory procedures. Only 57% (n = 73) of the 128 rare-cancer patients' specimens met both DNA and RNA quality criteria for next-generation sequencing. Median DV200 was 80.7% and 64.3% for qualified and failed RNA, respectively. Median ΔΔCt was 1.25 for qualified and 4.89 for failed DNA. Longer storage period was significantly associated with poor DNA (fail to qualify ratio = 1579:321 days, p 
    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
  18. Lasekan O, Hussein FK
    Chem Cent J, 2018 Dec 19;12(1):140.
    PMID: 30569201 DOI: 10.1186/s13065-018-0505-3
    BACKGROUND: Pineapple is highly relished for its attractive sweet flavour and it is widely consumed in both fresh and canned forms. Pineapple flavour is a blend of a number of volatile and non-volatile compounds that are present in small amounts and in complex mixtures. The aroma compounds composition may be used for purposes of quality control as well as for authentication and classification of pineapple varieties.

    RESULTS: The key volatile compounds and aroma profile of six pineapple varieties grown in Malaysia were investigated by gas chromatography-olfactometry (GC-O), gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry and qualitative descriptive sensory analysis. A total of 59 compounds were determined by GC-O and aroma extract dilution analysis. Among these compounds, methyl-2-methylbutanoate, methyl hexanoate, methyl-3-(methylthiol)-propanoate, methyl octanoate, 2,5-dimethyl-4-methoxy-3(2H)-furanone, δ-octalactone, 2-methoxy-4-vinyl phenol, and δ-undecalactone contributed greatly to the aroma quality of the pineapple varieties, due to their high flavour dilution factor. The aroma of the pineapples was described by seven sensory terms as sweet, floral, fruity, fresh, green, woody and apple-like.

    CONCLUSION: Inter-relationship between the aroma-active compounds and the pineapples revealed that 'Moris' and 'MD2' covaried majorly with the fruity esters, and the other varieties correlated with lesser numbers of the fruity esters. Hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was used to establish similarities among the pineapples and the results revealed three main groups of pineapples.

    Matched MeSH terms: Quality Control
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