Displaying publications 21 - 40 of 152 in total

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  1. Henson S, Kambhampati U, Mogues T, Olsen W, Prowse M, Ramos R, et al.
    Eur J Dev Res, 2020 Nov 19.
    PMID: 33230373 DOI: 10.1057/s41287-020-00334-4
    What is COVID-19's impact on development? What lessons can be drawn from development studies regarding the effects of and recovery from COVID-19? The unprecedented scale and scope of government interventions carry implications at all levels: global, national, and local. In this introduction, our team of Editors underline the importance of systematic substantive study to further knowledge acquisition, and rigorous global-, national-, or context-specific evaluation to inform evidence-based policymaking. The 12 articles summarised here capture these values and sense of "high quality". In particular, despite early considerations in the first year of the pandemic, they illuminate the need for diverse responses beyond business-as-usual, attention to the multiplicity of impact of policies formulated, and progressive strategies to counteract the impacts of this disaster around the world. The path of future research is clear: studies need to consider and give voice to marginalised groups to counteract the short- and long-term impacts of the pandemic.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  2. Mousavi, Seyed Ramzan, Pirasteh, Saied, Pradhan, Biswajeet, Mansor, Shattri, Ahmad Rodzi Mahmud
    MyJurnal
    This research focuses on the ASTER DEM generation for visual and mathematical analysis of topography, landscapes and landforms, as well as modeling of surface processes of Central Alborz, Iran. ASTER DEM 15 m generated using tie points over the Central Alborz and Damavand volcano with 5671 m height from ASTER (Advanced Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) satellite data using PCI Geomatica 9.1. Geomorphic parameters are useful to identify and describe geomorphologic forms and processes, which were extracted from ASTER DEM in GIS environment such as elevation, aspect, slope angle, vertical curvature, and tangential curvature. Although the elevation values are slightly low in altitudes above 5500 m asl., the ASTER DEM is useful in interpretation of the macro- and meso-relief, and provides the opportunity for mapping especially at medium scales (1:100,000 and 1:50,000). ASTER DEM has potential to be a best tool to study 3D model for to geomorphologic mapping and processes of glacial and per glacial forms above 4300 m asl.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  3. Krishnaswamy S, Subramaniam K, Indran T, Low WY
    Asia Pac J Public Health, 2012 Jul;24(4):710-8.
    PMID: 22790355 DOI: 10.1177/1010539512453261
    Disasters, natural or man-made, bring numerous health care challenges. In any crisis, mental health programs are a requirement during both the acute and postemergency phases. In the Asian tsunami on December 26, 2004, some of the northwestern coastal areas of Malaysia, particularly the island of Penang, were affected with devastating effects on the residents. Such disasters can predispose to mental health problems among the affected people. An early mental health intervention program was carried out in Balik Pulau, Penang, an area badly affected by the tsunami. The objective of the intervention program was to identify the victims, counsel them, make referrals if necessary, and provide help and resources to prevent the development of mental health problems. Penang residents identified as tsunami victims by the local health authorities were recruited. A group of health care workers, school teachers, village authorities, and volunteers were trained to carry out the crisis intervention program by health care workers experienced in crisis interventions. A total of 299 adults participated in the crisis intervention program, with follow-up assessments being made 4 to 6 weeks later. At the follow-up assessment, 1% of the victims had a problem and they were then referred for further medical assessment. This indicates that the intervention program in the first 2 weeks after the tsunami disaster with referrals to medical services may have helped stabilize the victims.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters*
  4. Lau SW, Tan TP, Goh SM
    Sci Eng Ethics, 2013 Sep;19(3):1357-73.
    PMID: 23065541 DOI: 10.1007/s11948-012-9406-3
    The aim of this study was to investigate the use of a newly developed design game called BLOCKS to stimulate awareness of ethical responsibilities amongst engineering students. The design game was played by seventeen teams of chemical engineering students, with each team having to arrange pieces of colored paper to produce two letters each. Before the end of the game, additional constraints were introduced to the teams such that they faced similar ambiguity in the technical facts that the engineers involved in the Challenger disaster had faced prior to the space shuttle launch. At this stage, the teams had to decide whether to continue with their original design or to develop alternative solutions. After the teams had made their decisions, a video of the Challenger explosion was shown followed by a post-game discussion. The students' opinion on five Statements on ethics was tracked via a Five-Item Likert survey which was administered three times, before and after the ethical scenario was introduced, and after the video and post-game discussion. The results from this study indicated that the combination of the game and the real-life incident from the video had generally strengthened the students' opinions of the Statements.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  5. Ranson D
    J Law Med, 2015 Jun;22(4):745-50.
    PMID: 26349375
    While forensic medical tasks are usually associated with supporting the criminal justice system, there are a range of forensic medical skills that can be brought to bear on addressing humanitarian activities. Disaster victim identification is a procedure that has achieved international standardisation through the work of a multinational Interpol Standing Committee. While part of a police organisation, it includes forensic pathologists, anthropologists, odontologists and molecular biologists who provide most of the specialist scientific input regarding identification that is integrated with police processes such as document examination and fingerprinting. The loss of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17 represented a major activation of these procedures in an environment that had both humanitarian and forensic criminal investigation components. The information that is derived from the processes involved in disaster victim identification has a value that goes far beyond the determination of identity. It has an important humanitarian role in supporting the family and friends of the victims in their bereavement journey.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  6. Mahdi SS, Jafri HA, Allana R, Battineni G, Khawaja M, Sakina S, et al.
    BMC Emerg Med, 2023 May 24;23(1):52.
    PMID: 37226121 DOI: 10.1186/s12873-023-00824-8
    INTRODUCTION: The simulation exercise (SimEx) simulates an emergency in which an elaboration or description of the response is applied. The purpose of these exercises is to validate and improve plans, procedures, and systems for responding to all hazards. The purpose of this study was to review disaster preparation exercises conducted by various national, non-government, and academic institutions.

    METHODOLOGY: Several databases, including PubMed (Medline), Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), BioMed Central, and Google Scholar, were used to review the literature. Information was retrieved using Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and documents were selected according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA). To assess the quality of the selected articles, the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) technique was utilized.

    RESULTS: A total of 29 papers were selected for final review based on PRISMA guidelines and the NOS quality assessment. Studies have shown that many forms of SimEx commonly used in disaster management including tabletop exercises, functional exercises, and full-scale exercises have their benefits and limitations. There is no doubt that SimEx is an excellent tool for improving disaster planning and response. It is still necessary to give SimEx programs a more rigorous evaluation and to standardize the processes more thoroughly.

    CONCLUSIONS: Drills and training can be improved for disaster management, which will enable medical professionals to face the challenges of disaster management in the 21st century.

    Matched MeSH terms: Disaster Planning*; Disasters*
  7. Nazahiyah R, Yusop Z, Abustan I
    Water Sci Technol, 2007;56(7):1-9.
    PMID: 17951862
    Sampling of urban runoff was carried out in a small catchment, which represents a residential area (3.34 ha) in Skudai, Johor. One hundred and seventeen runoff samples from ten storm events were analysed. Runoff quality showed large variations in concentrations during storms, especially for SS, BOD5 and COD. Concentrations of NO3-N, NO2-N, NH3-N, and P were also high. Lead (Pb) was also detected but the levels were low (<0.001 mg/L). In general, the river quality is badly polluted and falls in Class V based on the Malaysian Interim National Water Quality Standards. Event mean concentrations for all parameters were found to vary greatly between storms. The values (mg/L) were BOD5 (72), COD (325), SS (386), NO3-N (2.5), NO2-N (0.58), NH3-N (6.8), P (3.4), respectively. First flush phenomena were observed for BOD, COD, SS, NO3-N, NH3-N and P. The first 20-30% of the runoff volume evacuated between 20-59% BOD, 15-69% COD, 15-78% SS, 14-49% NO3-N, 14-19% NO2-N, 23-53% NH3-N and 23-43% P.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters*
  8. Dongsheng Li, Wenfei Xi
    Sains Malaysiana, 2017;46:2119-2124.
    The DEM construction of high and steep slope has great importance to slope disaster monitoring. The conventional method used to construct high and steep slope DEM model requires larger field surveying workload. First of all, the high and steep slope image was obtained through unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) platform; Then the SIFT algorithm is used to extract the feature points which are going to be matched accurately by using RANSAC algorithm. Finally, stereo pair splicing method is used to generate orthogonal images and construct DEM model. After comparing the DEM model with actual slope measurement result collected by total station finding, it is shown that elevation error between the DEM model constructed by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and actual measurement is minimal and its efficiency is proven.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  9. Badrul Hisham, A.S., Nor Azian Shaharom, C.M.D., Marzukhi, M.I., Norli, R., Fatimah, O., Kee, KF, et al.
    MyJurnal
    The state of Johore, Malaysia had been hit by the worst flood in the Malaysian modern history on the 19th December 2006 (first wave) and the 12th January 2007 (second wave) affecting all the eight districts. A total number of 157,018 and 155,368 Johore population had been displaced by the first and the second wave event respectively. The Johore State Health Department activated the Flood Action Plan which include mobilising medical teams to conduct daily clinical examinations on the flood victims and health teams to inspect flood relief centres, food premises and homes at flood-hit areas with regard to prevent and control communicable diseases. The spreadsheet format was used to collect data on diseases, injury and death throughout the Johore flood disaster period starting from the 19th December 2006 until 19th February 2007. Analyses showed that 19,670 flood victims (36.3%) had communicable diseases and 34,530 (67.0%) had non-communicable diseases. As for the communicable diseases and symptoms/syndromes related to communicable disease, 41.3% were acute respiratory infections (ARI) followed by 25.9% skin infections, 19.1% fever, 10.1% acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and 3.0% acute conjunctivitis. Other infectious diseases include 61 notifiable diseases (46 food poisoning, 14 dengue fever and one tuberculosis), 20 leptospirosis (with two deaths), 20 chicken pox and two melioidosis cases. The Batu Pahat district had the highest incidence for the majority of the communicable diseases because of the prolonged flooding period. No cholera, typhoid, malaria, measles or hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) cases were detected among the Johore flood victims. Trends of disease incidence follow the number of evacuees placed in the relief centres corresponding to respective wave. A total of 507 flood victims had physical injuries related to flood mostly due to fall onto wet floor at the relief centres. Fifteen deaths due to drowning were mainly caused by accidental fall into the flood water. The incidence of communicable diseases encountered had been appropriately anticipated and managed attributed to enhanced public health control programmes augmented by syndromic and laboratory surveillance on potentialy fatal infectious diseases. Equal emphasis should be given to the surveillance and control of chronic diseases.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  10. Niemand A, Jordaan AJ, Minnaar H
    Jamba, 2016;8(2):170.
    PMID: 29955305 DOI: 10.4102/jamba.v8i2.170
    Legislation that governs the health and safety of communities near major-hazard installations in South Africa is largely based on existing legislation that had been developed in the United Kingdom and other European Union countries. The latter was developed as a consequence of several major human-induced technological disasters in Europe. The history of the evolution of health-and-safety legislation for the protection of vulnerable communities in European Union (EU) countries, France, Malaysia and the USA is explored through a literature survey. A concise comparison is drawn between EU countries, the USA and South Africa to obtain an exploratory view of whether current South-African legislation represents an optimum model for the protection of the health-and-safety of workers and communities near major-hazard installations. The authors come to the conclusion that South-African legislation needs revision as was done in the UK in 2011. Specific areas in the legislation that need revision are an overlap between occupational health and safety and environmental legislation, appropriate land-use planning for the protection of communities near major-hazard installations, the inclusion of vulnerability studies and the refinement of appropriate decision-making instruments such as risk assessment. This article is the first in a series that forms part of a broader study aimed at the development of an optimised model for the regulatory management of human-induced health and safety risks associated with hazardous installations in South Africa.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  11. Su TT, Saimy BI, Bulgiba AM
    Prev Med, 2013;57 Suppl:S74-6.
    PMID: 23313790 DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.12.024
    The objective of the study is to assess the socioeconomic status of the households affected by the tsunami of 2004 & to determine the factors associated with the recovery of household economic status.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters/economics*
  12. Nur-A Yazdani DM, Abir T, Qing Y, Ahmad J, Al Mamun A, Zainol NR, et al.
    PLoS One, 2022;17(10):e0274898.
    PMID: 36264854 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0274898
    BACKGROUND: Social media addiction, a recently emerged term in medical science, has attracted the attention of researchers because of its significant physical and psychological effects on its users. The issue has attracted more attention during the COVID era because negative emotions (e.g., anxiety and fear) generated from the COVID pandemic may have increased social media addiction. Therefore, the present study investigates the role of negative emotions and social media addiction (SMA) on health problems during and after the COVID lockdown.

    METHODS: A survey was conducted with 2926 participants aged between 25 and 45 years from all eight divisions of Bangladesh. The data collection period was between 2nd September- 13th October, 2020. Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was conducted for data analysis by controlling the respondents' working time, leisure time, gender, education, and age.

    RESULTS: Our study showed that social media addiction and time spent on social media impact health. Interestingly, while anxiety about COVID increased social media addition, fear about COIVD reduced social media addition. Among all considered factors, long working hours contributed most to people's health issues, and its impact on social media addiction and hours was much higher than negative emotions. Furthermore, females were less addicted to social media and faced less health challenges than males.

    CONCLUSION: The impacts of negative emotions generated by the COVID disaster on social media addiction and health issues should be reconsidered. Government and employers control people's working time, and stress should be a priority to solve people's social media addiction-related issues.

    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters*
  13. Azimi M, Bin Adnan A, Sam AR, Tahir MM, Faridmehr I, Hodjati R
    ScientificWorldJournal, 2014;2014:802605.
    PMID: 25309957 DOI: 10.1155/2014/802605
    The seismic performance of RC columns could be significantly improved by continuous spiral reinforcement as a result of its adequate ductility and energy dissipation capacity. Due to post-earthquake brittle failure observations in beam-column connections, the seismic behaviour of such connections could greatly be improved by simultaneous application of this method in both beams and columns. In this study, a new proposed detail for beam to column connection introduced as "twisted opposing rectangular spiral" was experimentally and numerically investigated and its seismic performance was compared against normal rectangular spiral and conventional shear reinforcement systems. In this study, three full scale beam to column connections were first designed in conformance with Eurocode (EC2-04) for low ductility class connections and then tested by quasistatic cyclic loading recommended by ACI Building Code (ACI 318-02). Next, the experimental results were validated by numerical methods. Finally, the results revealed that the new proposed connection could improve the ultimate lateral resistance, ductility, and energy dissipation capacity.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters*
  14. Javanmardi A, Ibrahim Z, Ghaedi K, Khan NB, Benisi Ghadim H
    PLoS One, 2018;13(7):e0200482.
    PMID: 30059506 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0200482
    This paper investigated the seismic retrofitting of an existing cable-stayed bridge through the use of a seismic isolation system. The bridge is situated in a high seismic zone. During the Saguenay earthquake 1988, one of the anchorage plates of the bridge supports failed. Herein, several configurations of seismic isolation system were considered to identify an appropriate solution for the seismic retrofitting of the bridge in both the longitudinal and transverse directions. A three-dimensional model of the bridge was created, and its seismic behavior studied through nonlinear dynamic time-history analysis. The comparative performance study among the five retrofitting configurations showed that the partial seismic isolation of the bridge led to an enhancement of the seismic response of the bridge in one direction only. However, the overall seismic response of the cable-stayed bridge substantially improved in the longitudinal and transverse directions in cases where the isolation systems were utilized between the supports and the deck-tower connection of the bridge.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters*
  15. Pereira, J.J., Hunt, J.C.R., Chan, J.C.L.
    ASM Science Journal, 2014;8(1):1-10.
    MyJurnal
    The role of science and technology (S&T) in preventing disasters and building resilience to climate change is featured in this paper, drawing primarily on the presentations and discussion of researchers, practitioners and policy makers from 31 institutions in 17 countries during the Workshop on Natural Disasters and Climate Change in Asia, held on 5–7 November 2012 in Bangi, Malaysia. Issues highlighted include advances in climate modelling and weather forecasts, with emphasis on information gaps; hazards and its cascading effects, focusing on current research and approaches; and the potential for land-based mitigation-adaptation strategies. Progress in mobilizing S&T to support disaster prevention and climate resilience is hindered by factors such as absence or lack of research, incomplete and non-existent scientific records, restricted access to data and capacity to innovate and transmit S&T, among others. The establishment of an Asian Network for Climate Science and Technology is proposed to provide and facilitate exchange of information and aid development of research co-ordination projects led by Asian researchers and possibly to act as a one-stop repository of global climate change related research too. The scope of the network would cover climate research with particular relevance to disaster resilience, including scientific capacity, which is all very distinct in Asia.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  16. Khan A, Ali I, Ghani A, Khan N, Alsaqer M, Rahman AU, et al.
    Sensors (Basel), 2018 May 18;18(5).
    PMID: 29783686 DOI: 10.3390/s18051619
    Recent research in underwater wireless sensor networks (UWSNs) has gained the attention of researchers in academia and industry for a number of applications. They include disaster and earthquake prediction, water quality and environment monitoring, leakage and mine detection, military surveillance and underwater navigation. However, the aquatic medium is associated with a number of limitations and challenges: long multipath delay, high interference and noise, harsh environment, low bandwidth and limited battery life of the sensor nodes. These challenges demand research techniques and strategies to be overcome in an efficient and effective fashion. The design of routing protocols for UWSNs is one of the promising solutions to cope with these challenges. This paper presents a survey of the routing protocols for UWSNs. For the ease of description, the addressed routing protocols are classified into two groups: localization-based and localization-free protocols. These groups are further subdivided according to the problems they address or the major parameters they consider during routing. Unlike the existing surveys, this survey considers only the latest and state-of-the-art routing protocols. In addition, every protocol is described in terms of its routing strategy and the problem it addresses and solves. The merit(s) of each protocol is (are) highlighted along with the cost. A description of the protocols in this fashion has a number of advantages for researchers, as compared to the existing surveys. Firstly, the description of the routing strategy of each protocol makes its routing operation easily understandable. Secondly, the demerit(s) of a protocol provides (provide) insight into overcoming its flaw(s) in future investigation. This, in turn, leads to the foundation of new protocols that are more intelligent, robust and efficient with respect to the desired parameters. Thirdly, a protocol can be selected for the appropriate application based on its described merit(s). Finally, open challenges and research directions are presented for future investigation.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  17. Wan Mohamed Noor WN, Sandhu SS, Ahmad Mahir HM, Kurup D, Rusli N, Saat Z, et al.
    Malays J Med Sci, 2014 Nov-Dec;21(6):3-8.
    PMID: 25897276 MyJurnal
    The current Ebola outbreak, which is the first to affect West African countries, has been declared to have met the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO). Thus, the Ministry of Health (MOH) of Malaysia has taken steps to strengthen and enhanced the five core components of preparedness and response to mitigate the outbreak. The National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) commands, controls and coordinates the preparedness and response plans for disasters, outbreaks, crises and emergencies (DOCE) related to health in a centralised way. Through standardised case definition and mandatory notification of Ebola by public and private practitioners, surveillance of Ebola is made possible. Government hospitals and laboratories have been identified to manage and diagnose Ebola virus infections, and medical staff members have been trained to handle an Ebola outbreak, with emphasis on strict infection prevention and control practices. Monitoring of the points of entry, focusing on travellers and students visiting or coming from West African countries is made possible by interagency collaborations. To alleviate the public's anxiety, effective risk communications are being delivered through various channels. With experience in past outbreak control, the MOH's preparedness and response plans are in place to abate an Ebola outbreak.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  18. Samah AA, Zaremohzzabieh Z, Shaffril HAM, D'Silva JL, Kamarudin S
    Am J Disaster Med, 2019 8 24;14(1):51-63.
    PMID: 31441028 DOI: 10.5055/ajdm.2019.0315
    There have been an increasing number of studies conducted on community preparedness, particularly on changing individual health behaviors in ways that minimizes individual risk to cope with the stress of a natural disaster. A variety of behavioral change theories and models used by disaster academics scrutinize the manner in which individual behavior is sought and transformed into disaster preparedness. This reflects the lack of knowledge about how these models identify certain behaviors regarding natural disaster preparation. This article seeks to address this lack of knowledge. It presents a set of health behavioral change models that can be used by scholars to comprehend variation in the nature and extent of individual disaster preparedness. The purpose of this study is to provide a review of the existing models on the subject, and also to present a comparative analysis of the models that may contribute to ways of understanding the investigation on natural disaster preparedness behaviors.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  19. Khoo LS, Lai PS, Saidin MH, Noor Z, Mahmood MS
    Forensic Sci Int, 2018 Jul;288:242-255.
    PMID: 29783180 DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2018.04.017
    Cadaver body bags are the conventional method to contain a human body or human remains, which includes the use for storage and transportation of the deceased at any crime scene or disaster scene. During disasters, most often than not, the first responders including the police will be equipped with cadaver body bags to do scene processing of human remains and collection of personal belongings at the disaster site. However, in an unanticipated large scale disasters involving hundreds and thousands of fatalities, cadaver body bags supplies may be scarce. The authors have therefore innovated the cling film plastic wrap as an alternative for the cadaver body bag used at the disaster site. The plastic wrap was tested on six different experimental subjects, i.e. both adult and child mannequins; body parts of the mannequin figure (arm and hand); a human adult subject and an unknown dead body. The strengths of the cling film plastic wrap are discussed in comparison with the cadaver body bag in the aspects of costing, weight, duration of the wrap, water and body fluid resistant properties, visibility and other advantages. An average savings of more than 5000% are noted for both adult body wrap and child body wrap compared to the cadaver body wrap. This simply means that the authors can either wrap 25 adult dead bodies or 80 children dead bodies with the cost of 1 cadaver body bag. The cling film plastic wrap has proven to have significant innovation impact for dead body management particularly by the first responders in large scale disasters. With proper handling of dead bodies, first responders can manage the dead with dignity and respect in an overwhelmed situation to facilitate the humanitarian victim identification process later.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
  20. Zulfa, A.W., Norizah, K.
    MyJurnal
    The mangrove forest ecosystem acts as a shield against the destructive tidal waves, preventing the coastal areas and other properties nearby from severe damages; this protective function certainly deserves attention from researchers to undertake further investigation and exploration. Mangrove forest provides different goods and services. The unique environmental factors affecting the growth of mangrove forest are as follows: distance from the sea or the estuary bank, frequency and duration of tidal inundation, salinity, and composition of the soil. These crucial factors may under certain circumstances turn into obstacles in accessing and managing the mangrove forest. One effective method to circumvent this shortcoming is by using remotely sensed imagery data, which offers a more accurate way of measuring the ecosystem and a more efficient tool of managing the mangrove forest. This paper attempts to review and discuss the usage of remotely sensed imagery data in mangrove forest management, and how they will improve the accuracy and precision in measuring the mangrove forest ecosystem. All types of measurements related to the mangrove forest ecosystem, such as detection of land cover changes, species distribution mapping and disaster observation should take advantage of the advanced technology; for example, adopting the digital image processing algorithm coupled with high-resolution image available nowadays. Thus, remote sensing is a highly efficient, low-cost and time-saving technique for mangrove forest measurement. The application of this technique will further add value to the mangrove forest and enhance its in-situ conservation and protection programmes in combating the effects of the rising sea level due to climate change.
    Matched MeSH terms: Disasters
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