The exceptionally high species richness of arthropods in tropical rainforests hinges on the complexity of the forest itself: that is, on features such as the high plant diversity, the layered nature of the canopy and the abundance and the diversity of epiphytes and litter. We here report on one important, but almost completely neglected, piece of this complex jigsaw-the intricate network of rhizomorph-forming fungi that ramify through the vegetation of the lower canopy and intercept falling leaf litter. We show that this litter-trapping network is abundant and intercepts substantial amounts of litter (257.3 kg ha(-1)): this exceeds the amount of material recorded in any other rainforest litter-trapping system. Experimental removal of this fungal network resulted in a dramatic reduction in both the abundance (decreased by 70.2 ± 4.1%) and morphospecies richness (decreased by 57.4 ± 5.1%) of arthropods. Since the lower canopy levels can contain the highest densities of arthropods, the proportion of the rainforest fauna dependent on the fungal networks is likely to be substantial. Fungal litter-trapping systems are therefore a crucial component of habitat complexity, providing a vital resource that contributes significantly to rainforest biodiversity.
Identifying local extinctions is integral to estimating species richness and geographic range changes and informing extinction risk assessments. However, the species occurrence records underpinning these estimates are frequently compromised by a lack of recorded species absences making it impossible to distinguish between local extinction and lack of survey effort-for a rigorously compiled database of European and Asian Galliformes, approximately 40% of half-degree cells contain records from before but not after 1980. We investigate the distribution of these cells, finding differences between the Palaearctic (forests, low mean human influence index (HII), outside protected areas (PAs)) and Indo-Malaya (grassland, high mean HII, outside PAs). Such cells also occur more in less peaceful countries. We show that different interpretations of these cells can lead to large over/under-estimations of species richness and extent of occurrences, potentially misleading prioritization and extinction risk assessment schemes. To avoid mistakes, local extinctions inferred from sightings records need to account for the history of survey effort in a locality.
Southeast Asia experiences frequent fires in fuel-rich tropical peatlands, leading to extreme episodes of regional haze with high concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) impacting human health. In a study published recently, the first field measurements of PM2.5 emission factors for tropical peat fires showed larger emissions than from other fuel types. Here we report even higher PM2.5 emission factors, measured at newly ignited peat fires in Malaysia, suggesting that current estimates of fine particulate emissions from peat fires may be underestimated by a factor of 3 or more. In addition, we use both field and laboratory measurements of burning peat to provide the first mechanistic explanation for the high variability in PM2.5 emission factors, demonstrating that buildup of a surface ash layer causes the emissions of PM2.5 to decrease as the peat fire progresses. This finding implies that peat fires are more hazardous (in terms of aerosol emissions) when first ignited than when still burning many days later. Varying emission factors for PM2.5 also have implications for our ability to correctly model the climate and air quality impacts downwind of the peat fires. For modelers able to implement a time-varying emission factor, we recommend an emission factor for PM2.5 from newly ignited tropical peat fires of 58 g of PM2.5 per kilogram of dry fuel consumed (g/kg), reducing exponentially at a rate of 9%/day. If the age of the fire is unknown or only a single value may be used, we recommend an average value of 24 g/kg.
The response of tropical forests to global climate variability and change remains poorly understood. Results from long-term studies of permanent forest plots have reported different, and in some cases opposing trends in tropical forest dynamics. In this study, we examined changes in tree growth rates at four long-term permanent tropical forest research plots in relation to variation in solar radiation, temperature and precipitation. Temporal variation in the stand-level growth rates measured at five-year intervals was found to be positively correlated with variation in incoming solar radiation and negatively related to temporal variation in night-time temperatures. Taken alone, neither solar radiation variability nor the effects of night-time temperatures can account for the observed temporal variation in tree growth rates across sites, but when considered together, these two climate variables account for most of the observed temporal variability in tree growth rates. Further analysis indicates that the stand-level response is primarily driven by the responses of smaller-sized trees (less than 20 cm in diameter). The combined temperature and radiation responses identified in this study provide a potential explanation for the conflicting patterns in tree growth rates found in previous studies.
Selective logging is one of the major drivers of tropical forest degradation, causing important shifts in species composition. Whether such changes modify interactions between species and the networks in which they are embedded remain fundamental questions to assess the 'health' and ecosystem functionality of logged forests. We focus on interactions between lianas and their tree hosts within primary and selectively logged forests in the biodiversity hotspot of Malaysian Borneo. We found that lianas were more abundant, had higher species richness, and different species compositions in logged than in primary forests. Logged forests showed heavier liana loads disparately affecting slow-growing tree species, which could exacerbate the loss of timber value and carbon storage already associated with logging. Moreover, simulation scenarios of host tree local species loss indicated that logging might decrease the robustness of liana-tree interaction networks if heavily infested trees (i.e. the most connected ones) were more likely to disappear. This effect is partially mitigated in the short term by the colonization of host trees by a greater diversity of liana species within logged forests, yet this might not compensate for the loss of preferred tree hosts in the long term. As a consequence, species interaction networks may show a lagged response to disturbance, which may trigger sudden collapses in species richness and ecosystem function in response to additional disturbances, representing a new type of 'extinction debt'.
An outbreak of respiratory illness which is proven to be infected by a 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) officially named as Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) was first detected in Wuhan, China and has spread rapidly in other parts of China as well as other countries around the world, including Malaysia. The first case in Malaysia was identified on 25 January 2020 and the number of cases continue to rise since March 2020. Therefore, 2020 Malaysia Movement Control Order (MCO) was implemented with the aim to isolate the source of the COVID-19 outbreak. As a result, there were fewer number of motor vehicles on the road and the operation of industries was suspended, ergo reducing emissions of hazardous air pollutants in the atmosphere. We had acquired the Air Pollutant Index (API) data from the Department of Environment Malaysia on hourly basis before and during the MCO with the aim to track the changes of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) at 68 air quality monitoring stations. It was found that the PM2.5 concentrations showed a high reduction of up to 58.4% during the MCO. Several red zone areas (>41 confirmed COVID-19 cases) had also reduced of up to 28.3% in the PM2.5 concentrations variation. The reduction did not solely depend on MCO, thus the researchers suggest a further study considering the influencing factors that need to be adhered to in the future.
Paediatric patients are more vulnerable to drug administration errors due to a lack of appropriate drug dosages and strengths for use in this group of patients. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to determine the extent and types of drug administration errors in two paediatric wards and to identify measures to reduce such errors. A researcher was stationed in two paediatric wards of a teaching hospital to observe all drugs administered to paediatric inpatients in each of the ward, for 1 day in a week over ten consecutive weeks. All data were recorded in a data collection form and then compared with the actual drugs and dosages prescribed for the patients. Of the 857 drug administrations observed, 100 doses had errors, and this gave an error rate of 11.7% [95% confidence interval (CI) 9.5-13.9%]. If wrong time administration errors were excluded, the error rate reduced to 7.8% (95% CI 6.0-9.6%). The most common types of drug administration errors were incorrect time of administration (28.8%), followed by incorrect drug preparation (26%), omission errors (16.3%) and incorrect dose (11.5%). None of the errors observed were considered as potentially life threatening, although 40.4% could possibly cause patient harm. Drug administration errors are as common in paediatric wards in Malaysia as in other countries. Double-checking should be conducted, as this could reduce drug administration errors by about 20%, but collaborative efforts between all healthcare professionals are essential.
This paper assesses the potential equity impact of Malaysia's projected reform of its current tax financed system towards National Health Insurance (NHI).
Road traffic injuries (RTIs) are a growing public health problem that must be addressed through evidence-based interventions including policy-level changes such as the enactment of legislation to mandate specific behaviors and practices. Policy makers need to be engaged in road safety research to ensure that road safety policies are grounded in scientific evidence. This paper examines the strategies used to engage policy makers and other stakeholder groups and discusses the challenges that result from a multi-disciplinary, inter-sectoral collaboration. A framework for engaging policy makers in research was developed and applied to describe an example of collective road safety research in Malaysia. Key components of this framework include readiness, assessment, planning, implementation/evaluation, and policy development/sustainability. The case study of a collaborative intervention trial for the prevention of motorcycle crashes and deaths in Malaysia serves as a model for policy engagement by road safety and injury researchers. The analytic description of this research process in Malaysia demonstrates that the framework, through its five stages, can be used as a tool to guide the integration of needed research evidence into policy for road safety and injury prevention.
The legal and illegal trade in wildlife for food, medicine and other products is a globally significant threat to biodiversity that is also responsible for the emergence of pathogens that threaten human and livestock health and our global economy. Trade in wildlife likely played a role in the origin of COVID-19, and viruses closely related to SARS-CoV-2 have been identified in bats and pangolins, both traded widely. To investigate the possible role of pangolins as a source of potential zoonoses, we collected throat and rectal swabs from 334 Sunda pangolins (Manis javanica) confiscated in Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah between August 2009 and March 2019. Total nucleic acid was extracted for viral molecular screening using conventional PCR protocols used to routinely identify known and novel viruses in extensive prior sampling (> 50,000 mammals). No sample yielded a positive PCR result for any of the targeted viral families-Coronaviridae, Filoviridae, Flaviviridae, Orthomyxoviridae and Paramyxoviridae. In the light of recent reports of coronaviruses including a SARS-CoV-2-related virus in Sunda pangolins in China, the lack of any coronavirus detection in our 'upstream' market chain samples suggests that these detections in 'downstream' animals more plausibly reflect exposure to infected humans, wildlife or other animals within the wildlife trade network. While confirmatory serologic studies are needed, it is likely that Sunda pangolins are incidental hosts of coronaviruses. Our findings further support the importance of ending the trade in wildlife globally.
Introduction: The Faculty of Medicine & health sciences, UMS has implemented a co-curricular programme which is aimed to be improving rural health and reducing inequalities of health in Sabah. Groups of medical students are formed and distributed in various areas of rural remote areas in Sabah. Based on the observation and interview find-ings, each student group conducted health promotion activities with the limited resources. Various health problems were explored in different areas and different ethnic groups of Sabah and students conducted their health promotion activities .There are some questions “Are they effective, how it works in implementation?” Poor implementation can lead to errors in outcome of the programmes. In this paper we focus on process evaluation for measuring the degree to which Health promotion programmes were implemented as designed by using determinant framework (active implementation framework) and process evaluation tools in yearly health promotion programmes from 2009-2018.Methods: The study measures the implementation of programmes with active implementation framework (Explo-ration, Installation, Initial implementation, Full implementation) and process evaluation tools such as validation of implementation integrity using specification of intervention areas, making guidelines and manual for intervention protocol, competency of students and supervisors and fidelity monitoring. We used 7 components of process eval-uation particularly in context( Environmental influences), reach (Target participation), dose delivered (Lectures), dose received (learned by students with assessment methods), fidelity (Adherence to intervention delivery protocol), implementation (rating of execution and receipt of intervention) and recruitment (participant engagement). Results:It was found that fidelity, implementation strategies and some lessons learned after outreach programmes are impor-tantly influence in implementing the programmes. Conclusion: The study shows process evaluation strategies is ideal tool for conducting the rural outreach health promotion programme to reduce the errors and obstacles in implement-ing the programmes to maintain the better quality of the projects.
With the high demands on research ou tputs, academicians are under pressure to cope with their teaching responsibilities as well as other managerial and administrative responsibilities that may affect their in role and extra role performance. Four hundred and thirty one (431) academicians fr om twen ty (20) Malaysian public universities were sampled which drawn from a stratified sampling The study examined the factors affecting in role and extra role performance among academicians in Malaysian public universities. There were two (2) propose d affecting factors that being examined; namely job demands as independent factor, perceived job burnout as the mediating factor and religious perso nality as a moderating factor. The job demands, in role performance and extra role performance questi onnaire revised by Bakker (2014), while the perceived job burnout questionnaire by Demerouti (2010) and religious personality questionnaire by Krauss (2007) were adopted and adapted. The Job demands resources theory of burnout guided the study through a q uantita tive research design. Data were analysed using SPSS 23.0 and AMOS 23.0 approaches of structural equation modelling t o test the hypothesised model. The findings of this study largely supported the hypothesised relationships proposed in the theoreti cal mod el especially the mediating effect of perceived job burnout between job demands towards in role and extra role performance. The study concluded that all research objectives were successfully answered and achieved. Future studies applying the propos ed mode l are therefore recommended to be conducted at the institutions of higher learning across Malaysia in order to verify these findings.