Displaying publications 21 - 40 of 111 in total

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  1. Fulltext Letter from Malaysia
    Loh LC
    Respirology, 2018 12;23(12):1198-1199.
    PMID: 30084515 DOI: 10.1111/resp.13382
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  2. Tarantism, dancing mania and demonopathy: the anthro-political aspects of 'mass psychogenic illness'
    Bartholomew RE
    Psychol Med, 1994 May;24(2):281-306.
    PMID: 8084927
    This study questions the widely held assumption that the phenomenon known as mass psychogenic illness (MPI) exists per se in nature as a psychiatric disorder. Most MPI studies are problematical, being descriptive, retrospective investigations of specific incidents which conform to a set of pre-existing symptom criteria that are used to determine the presence of collective psychosomatic illness. Diagnoses are based upon subjective, ambiguous categories that reflect stereotypes of female normality which assume the presence of a transcultural disease or disorder entity, underemphasizing or ignoring the significance of episodes as culturally conditioned roles of social action. Examples of this bias include the mislabelling of dancing manias, tarantism and demonopathy in Europe since the Middle Ages as culture-specific variants of MPI. While 'victims' are typified as mentally disturbed females possessing abnormal personality characteristics who are exhibiting cathartic reactions to stress, it is argued that episodes may involve normal, rational people who possess unfamiliar conduct codes, world-views and political agendas that differ significantly from those of Western-trained investigators who often judge these illness behaviours independent of their local context and meanings.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  3. Spotlight: Malaysia
    Patriquin W
    Popul Today, 1988 Mar;16(3):12.
    PMID: 12341834
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  4. Comparative Study on Migration, Urbanization and Development in the ESCAP Region (RAS/P13/79). Rev. version
    United Nations. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific ESCAP
    Popul Res Leads, 1982 Jan.
    PMID: 12313285
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  5. Fulltext An Efficient Soft Set-Based Approach for Conflict Analysis
    Sutoyo E, Mungad M, Hamid S, Herawan T
    PLoS One, 2016;11(2):e0148837.
    PMID: 26928627 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0148837
    Conflict analysis has been used as an important tool in economic, business, governmental and political dispute, games, management negotiations, military operations and etc. There are many mathematical formal models have been proposed to handle conflict situations and one of the most popular is rough set theory. With the ability to handle vagueness from the conflict data set, rough set theory has been successfully used. However, computational time is still an issue when determining the certainty, coverage, and strength of conflict situations. In this paper, we present an alternative approach to handle conflict situations, based on some ideas using soft set theory. The novelty of the proposed approach is that, unlike in rough set theory that uses decision rules, it is based on the concept of co-occurrence of parameters in soft set theory. We illustrate the proposed approach by means of a tutorial example of voting analysis in conflict situations. Furthermore, we elaborate the proposed approach on real world dataset of political conflict in Indonesian Parliament. We show that, the proposed approach achieves lower computational time as compared to rough set theory of up to 3.9%.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  6. Fulltext Revisiting the Measurement of Anomie
    Teymoori A, Jetten J, Bastian B, Ariyanto A, Autin F, Ayub N, et al.
    PLoS One, 2016;11(7):e0158370.
    PMID: 27383133 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0158370
    Sociologists coined the term "anomie" to describe societies that are characterized by disintegration and deregulation. Extending beyond conceptualizations of anomie that conflate the measurements of anomie as 'a state of society' and as a 'state of mind', we disentangle these conceptualizations and develop an analysis and measure of this phenomenon focusing on anomie as a perception of the 'state of society'. We propose that anomie encompasses two dimensions: a perceived breakdown in social fabric (i.e., disintegration as lack of trust and erosion of moral standards) and a perceived breakdown in leadership (i.e., deregulation as lack of legitimacy and effectiveness of leadership). Across six studies we present evidence for the validity of the new measure, the Perception of Anomie Scale (PAS). Studies 1a and 1b provide evidence for the proposed factor structure and internal consistency of PAS. Studies 2a-c provide evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. Finally, assessing PAS in 28 countries, we show that PAS correlates with national indicators of societal functioning and that PAS predicts national identification and well-being (Studies 3a & 3b). The broader implications of the anomie construct for the study of group processes are discussed.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  7. Fulltext An examination of the factorial and convergent validity of four measures of conspiracist ideation, with recommendations for researchers
    Swami V, Barron D, Weis L, Voracek M, Stieger S, Furnham A
    PLoS One, 2017;12(2):e0172617.
    PMID: 28231266 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0172617
    A number scales have been developed to measure conspiracist ideation, but little attention has been paid to the factorial validity of these scales. We reassessed the psychometric properties of four widely-used scales, namely the Belief in Conspiracy Theories Inventory (BCTI), the Conspiracy Mentality Questionnaire (CMQ), the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS), and the One-Item Conspiracy Measure (OICM). Eight-hundred-and-three U.S. adults completed all measures, along with measures of endorsement of 9/11 and anti-vaccination conspiracy theories. Through both exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, we found that only the BCTI had acceptable factorial validity. We failed to confirm the factor structures of the CMQ and the GBCS, suggesting these measures had poor factorial validity. Indices of convergent validity were acceptable for the BCTI, but weaker for the other measures. Based on these findings, we provide suggestions for the future refinement in the measurement of conspiracist ideation.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  8. Fulltext Association between the school environment and children's body mass index in Terengganu: A cross sectional study
    Wafa SW, Ghazalli R
    PLoS One, 2020;15(4):e0232000.
    PMID: 32330177 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0232000
    With the on-going interest in implementing school policies to address the problem of childhood obesity in Malaysia, there is urgent need for information about the association between school environment and children's weight status. This study aims to investigate the association between school environmental factors (physical, economic, political and sociocultural) with BMI of school children in Terengganu. The school environment factors were assessed using a set of validated whole-school environmental mapping questionnaires, consisting of 76 criteria with four domains; physical environment (41 criteria), economic environment (nine criteria), political environment (nine criteria) and sociocultural environment (17 criteria). This involved face-to-face interview sessions with 32 teachers from 16 schools (eight rural and eight urban). In addition, 400 school children aged between 9 and 11 years of the selected schools were assessed for BMI (WHO 2007 reference chart), dietary intake (food frequency questionnaire (FFQ)) and physical activity level (physical activity questionnaire for children (PAQ-C)). Multiple regression was used to examine the association between school environment factors and BMI of the school children. Seven school environment criteria were found to be associated with BMI of school children when it was adjusted for calorie intake and physical activity level. About 33.4% of the variation in BMI of school children was explained by health professional involvement, simple exercise before class, encouragement to walk/ride bicycle to/from school, no high-calorie food sold, healthy options of foods and drinks at tuck shop, availability of policy on physical activity and training teacher as a role model. Policy makers should make urgent actions to address the obesogenic features of school environments. It should strive towards setting up healthy school environment and improving school curricula to promote healthy behaviours among the school children.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  9. Fulltext Significance of likes: Analysing passive interactions on Facebook during campaigning
    Khairuddin MA, Rao A
    PLoS One, 2017;12(6):e0179435.
    PMID: 28622350 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179435
    With more and more political candidates using social media for campaigning, researchers are looking at measuring the effectiveness of this medium. Most research, however, concentrates on the bare count of likes (or twitter mentions) in an attempt to correlate social media presence and winning. In this paper, we propose a novel method, Interaction Strength Plot (IntS) to measure the passive interactions between a candidate's posts on Facebook and the users (liking the posts). Using this method on original Malaysian General Election (MGE13) and Australian Federal Elections (AFE13) Facebook Pages (FP) campaign data, we label an FP as performing well if both the posting frequency and the likes gathered are above average. Our method shows that over 60% of the MGE13 candidates and 85% of the AFE13 candidates studied in this paper had under-performing FP. Some of these FP owners would have been identified as popular based on bare count. Thus our performance chart is a vital step forward in measuring the effectiveness of online campaigning.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  10. Fulltext Politicization of COVID-19 health-protective behaviors in the United States: Longitudinal and cross-national evidence
    Stroebe W, vanDellen MR, Abakoumkin G, Lemay EP, Schiavone WM, Agostini M, et al.
    PLoS One, 2021;16(10):e0256740.
    PMID: 34669724 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256740
    During the initial phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. conservative politicians and the media downplayed the risk of both contracting COVID-19 and the effectiveness of recommended health behaviors. Health behavior theories suggest perceived vulnerability to a health threat and perceived effectiveness of recommended health-protective behaviors determine motivation to follow recommendations. Accordingly, we predicted that-as a result of politicization of the pandemic-politically conservative Americans would be less likely to enact recommended health-protective behaviors. In two longitudinal studies of U.S. residents, political conservatism was inversely associated with perceived health risk and adoption of health-protective behaviors over time. The effects of political orientation on health-protective behaviors were mediated by perceived risk of infection, perceived severity of infection, and perceived effectiveness of the health-protective behaviors. In a global cross-national analysis, effects were stronger in the U.S. (N = 10,923) than in an international sample (total N = 51,986), highlighting the increased and overt politicization of health behaviors in the U.S.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  11. Fulltext Exact parallel plurality voting algorithm for totally ordered object space fault-tolerant systems
    Karimi, Abbas, Zarafshan, Faraneh, Adznan Jantan, Abdul Rahman Ramli, M. Iqbal b. Saripan, Al-Haddad, S.A.R.
    Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology, 2012;20(1):89-96.
    MyJurnal
    Plurality voter is one of the commonest voting methods for decision making in highly-reliable applications in which the reliability and safety of the system is critical. To resolve the problem associated with sequential plurality voter in dealing with large number of inputs, this paper introduces a new generation of plurality voter based on parallel algorithms. Since parallel algorithms normally have high processing speed and are especially appropriate for large scale systems, they are therefore used to achieve a new parallel plurality voting algorithm by using (n/log n) processors on EREW shared-memory PRAM. The asymptotic analysis of the new proposed algorithm has demonstrated that it has a time complexity of O(log n) which is less than time complexity of sequential plurality algorithm, i.e. O (n log n).
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  12. Ecology, economics and political will: the vicissitudes of malaria strategies in Asia
    Kidson C, Indaratna K
    Parassitologia, 1998 Jun;40(1-2):39-46.
    PMID: 9653730
    The documented history of malaria in parts of Asia goes back more than 2,000 years, during which the disease has been a major player on the socioeconomic stage in many nation states as they waxed and waned in power and prosperity. On a much shorter time scale, the last half century has seen in microcosm a history of large fluctuations in endemicity and impact of malaria across the spectrum of rice fields and rain forests, mountains and plains that reflect the vast ecological diversity inhabited by this majority aggregation of mankind. That period has seen some of the most dramatic changes in social and economic structure, in population size, density and mobility, and in political structure in history: all have played a part in the changing face of malaria in this extensive region of the world. While the majority of global malaria cases currently reside in Africa, greater numbers inhabited Asia earlier this century before malaria programs savored significant success, and now Asia harbors a global threat in the form of the epicenter of multidrug resistant Plasmodium falciparum which is gradually encompassing the tropical world. The latter reflects directly the vicissitudes of economic change over recent decades, particularly the mobility of populations in search of commerce, trade and personal fortunes, or caught in the misfortunes of physical conflicts. The period from the 1950s to the 1990s has witnessed near "eradication" followed by resurgence of malaria in Sri Lanka, control and resurgence in India, the influence of war and postwar instability on drug resistance in Cambodia, increase in severe and cerebral malaria in Myanmar during prolonged political turmoil, the essential disappearance of the disease from all but forested border areas of Thailand where it remains for the moment intractable, the basic elimination of vivax malaria from many provinces of central China. Both positive and negative experiences have lessons to teach in the debate between eradication and control as alternative strategies. China has for years held high the goal of "basic elimination", eradication by another name, in sensible semi-defiance of WHO dictates. The Chinese experience makes it clear that, given community organization, exhaustive attention to case detection, management and focus elimination, plus the political will at all levels of society, it is possible both to eliminate malaria from large areas of an expansive nation and to implement surveillance necessary to maintain something approaching eradication status in those areas. But China has not succeeded in the international border regions of the tropical south where unfettered population movement confounds the program. Thailand, Malaysia and to an extent Vietnam have also reached essential elimination in their rice field plains by vigorous vertical programs but fall short at their forested borders. Economics is central to the history of the rise and fall of nations, and to the history of disease in the people who constitute nations. The current love affair with free market economics as the main driving force for advance of national wealth puts severe limitations on the essential involvement of communities in malaria management. The task of malaria control or elimination needs to be clearly related to the basic macroeconomic process that preoccupies governments, not cloistered away in the health sector Historically malaria has had a severe, measurable, negative impact on the productivity of nations. Economic models need rehoning with political aplomb and integrating with technical and demographic strategies. Recent decades in Chinese malaria history carry some lessons that may be relevant in this context.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  13. An analysis of vulnerability to HIV in Papua New Guinea
    Chen PC
    Pac Health Dialog, 2001 Mar;8(1):166-75.
    PMID: 12017819
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  14. Fulltext Estimating direct and spill-over impacts of political elections on COVID-19 transmission using synthetic control methods
    Lim JT, Maung K, Tan ST, Ong SE, Lim JM, Koo JR, et al.
    PLoS Comput Biol, 2021 May;17(5):e1008959.
    PMID: 34043622 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1008959
    Mass gathering events have been identified as high-risk environments for community transmission of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Empirical estimates of their direct and spill-over effects however remain challenging to identify. In this study, we propose the use of a novel synthetic control framework to obtain causal estimates for direct and spill-over impacts of these events. The Sabah state elections in Malaysia were used as an example for our proposed methodology and we investigate the event's spatial and temporal impacts on COVID-19 transmission. Results indicate an estimated (i) 70.0% of COVID-19 case counts within Sabah post-state election were attributable to the election's direct effect; (ii) 64.4% of COVID-19 cases in the rest of Malaysia post-state election were attributable to the election's spill-over effects. Sensitivity analysis was further conducted by examining epidemiological pre-trends, surveillance efforts, varying synthetic control matching characteristics and spill-over specifications. We demonstrate that our estimates are not due to pre-existing epidemiological trends, surveillance efforts, and/or preventive policies. These estimates highlight the potential of mass gatherings in one region to spill-over into an outbreak of national scale. Relaxations of mass gathering restrictions must therefore be carefully considered, even in the context of low community transmission and enforcement of safe distancing guidelines.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  15. Sir Neil Hamilton Fairley, drug resistant malaria and the myth of massive infection in Malaya 1947-63
    O'Keefe BG
    Occas Pap Med Hist Aust, 1990;4:201-19.
    PMID: 11622898
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  16. IFSO (International Federation for Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders) Consensus Conference Statement on One-Anastomosis Gastric Bypass (OAGB-MGB): Results of a Modified Delphi Study
    Ramos AC, Chevallier JM, Mahawar K, Brown W, Kow L, White KP, et al.
    Obes Surg, 2020 May;30(5):1625-1634.
    PMID: 32152841 DOI: 10.1007/s11695-020-04519-y
    BACKGROUND: One-anastomosis gastric bypass (OAGB-MGB) is currently the third performed primary bariatric surgical procedure worldwide. However, the procedure is hampered by numerous controversies and there is considerable variability in surgical technique, patient selection, and pre- and postoperative care among the surgeons performing this procedure. This paper reports the results of a modified Delphi consensus study organized by the International Federation for Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO).

    METHODS: Fifty-two internationally recognized bariatric experts from 28 countries convened for voting on 90 consensus statements over two rounds to identify those on which consensus could be reached. Inter-voter agreement of ≥ 70% was considered consensus, with voting participation ≥ 80% considered a robust vote.

    RESULTS: At least 70% consensus was achieved for 65 of the 90 questions (72.2% of the items), 61 during the first round of voting and an additional four in the second round. Where consensus was reached on a binary agree/disagree or yes/no item, there was agreement with the statement presented in 53 of 56 instances (94.6%). Where consensus was reached on a statement where options favorable versus unfavorable to OAGB-MGB were provided, including statements in which OAGB-MGB was compared to another procedure, the response option favorable to OAGB-MGB was selected in 13 of 23 instances (56.5%).

    CONCLUSION: Although there is general agreement that the OAGB-MGB is an effective and usually safe option for the management of patients with obesity or severe obesity, numerous areas of non-consensus remain in its use. Further empirical data are needed.

    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  17. Peat fires: emissions likely to worsen
    Laurance SG, Laurance WF
    Nature, 2015 Nov 19;527(7578):305.
    PMID: 26581280 DOI: 10.1038/527305a
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  18. Mass communication in Asia and the Pacific. Recent trends and developments
    Lent JA
    Media Asia, 1989;16(1):16-24.
    PMID: 12315828
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics*
  19. Fulltext Empowerment approach in community development : an analysis from theory to practice
    Fauziah Ani, Asnarulkhadi Abu Samah, Ma'rof Redzuan, Norbaya Ahmad
    Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2016;1(1):36-44.
    MyJurnal
    This paper seeks to illustrate how empowerment theory can be applied as a critical approach which
    could heighten power and capacity in community development. This is because empowerment is not
    just viewed through theory or philosophy only, but as an active approach which could be applied to
    enhance individual, oganizational or even communal prosperity. Many communal issues discussed by
    scholars such as poverty, health, women, people with disability, single mothers, youth, leadership, organization and many others utilises the empowerment approach. This is because it is the most
    effective approach in resolving issues by empowering individual or target group to take effective action
    through ability and potential, which have been developed. Discussion will ensue with definition of
    empowerment, which will be elucidated, with the concept of power. In the context of community
    development, empowerment refers to a mechanism where individual, organization and community will
    amass control on life and related issues affecting them such as economy, social, psychology and
    politics. To understand this concept clearly, discussion of empowerment concept will be closely
    examined to view the definition from two different dimensions, which is whether empowerment can be
    ascertained as a process, benefit or outcome. By using the qualitative approach, which is through
    analysing content, books, journals and other references, a few steps or process have been unearthed to
    apply empowerment as an approach, which could be practiced in the context of community
    development specifically in rural areas.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
  20. Fulltext The Fabian political thought elements in the political movements in Malaysia (1952-1970): a preliminary review from historical perspective
    Ahamad Jama' Amin Yang
    Malaysian Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2016;1(2):67-77.
    MyJurnal
    Fabian Society is a type of political think tank which was founded by a group of students and
    intellectuals at London School of Economics (LSE), United Kingdom in the late of 19 centuries. The
    Fabian political thought is a new manifestation of socialist ideology in United Kingdom emerged through the role of Labour Party Partiat that time. After the World War II, the influence of this political
    thought began to widespread throughout Malaya via British-educated Malayan students. This
    development brought about a new form of political idealism based on social-democrat orientation
    which emphasized on class struggles and civil issues in Malaya. Thus, the aim of this article is to
    scrutinize objectively and descriptively the influence of the Fabian political thought in the Malaysian
    political development from 1952 to 1970. Using the approach of history reconstructionist, the analysis
    discussion was developed based on the use of primary sources as the argument base. The research
    findings indicate that the influence of the Fabian political thought developed in Malaya by the role of
    the socialist intellectual-progressive group throughout the research. The development did not only
    involve labour movements and left-wing political parties such as Malayan Democratic Union (MDU)
    and the Malayan Labour Party, but it also influenced students movements at universities through
    University of Malaya Socialist Club in Singapore around 1950s and students societies in Universiti
    Malaya, Kuala Lumpur around 1960s. In fact, at the same time the progressive Fabian group slipped in
    right-conservative group through their direct involvement in UMNO and the Perikatan regime at the
    time. This indirectly proves that there is a different side of the socialist role through the role of the
    Fabian group in the development of democracy and politics in Malaysia.
    Matched MeSH terms: Politics
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