An 8-year-old girl was noticed by her parents to be less attentive and she would respond only after being called several times. She had just recovered from an upper respiratory tract infection two weeks before. The parents brought her to see a primary care physician. The patient had no other complaints, and the rest of the history was unremarkable. Physical examination was normal except for the otoscopic findings shown below (Figure 1) Tuning fork tests indicated conductive deafness.
A study was carried out to determine short term diurnal radon concentration at five locations in Malaysia. Two locations (KG & AP) are former tin mining areas that has been converted to housing area and training centre respectively, one a relatively new city (SA), that was formerly a rubber and oil palm plantation area, one older cities (KB) and one housing complex by the sea (LP). The study was carried out in 2005, 2006 and 2007 using a diffused-junction photodiode sensor continuous radon monitor. The monitor is recognized by the USEPA. In each location, measurements were carried out on at least ten sites. Former tin mining areas of KG and AP shows up to seven times higher indoor average than the average in the other three locations. However the indoor average in all locations is still below the action level of 4 pCiL-1. For outdoor, the former tin mining areas average concentration was higher than the global average of 0.4 pCiL-1. For the twenty four hours temporal variation the trend indicated that former tin mining areas concentration are always higher, and at time up to six fold higher. The hourly variation of all locations follows an identical trend of high concentration during early to late morning and drop in the afternoon till evening. The outdoor twenty four hour temporal average of former tin mining areas is consistently higher than the outdoor global average of 0.4 pCiL-1. The strong correlation between indoor and outdoor concentration at AP, indicates that indoor radon might originates from outdoor environment. The study was also extended to estimate the effective dose (mSvyr-1) of Rn-222 to the public.
Clay has been regarded as very important natural industrial materials. All these industries exploit the properties that clay can be molded into any shape and fired to dry without losing its form. A study was carried out on clay samples from eight sites in the north-eastern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The study was accomplished by using X-ray diffraction (XRD) technique. The x-ray diffraction spectra obtained enable the determination of the lattice spacing associated with the types of clay and nonclay minerals present in the samples. Results of the study shows that the major components of clay minerals present in all samples studied are kaolinite and illite. The presence of kaolinite is confirmed by firing test in which the kaolinite diffraction peaks disappeared upon heating the samples at 600 o C. The presence of non-clay minerals such as quartz, mica, feldspar and chlorite are also observed.
Psychobiological predictors of emotionality were evaluated in relations to complex reaction and movement performances have been considered as the significant aspect of research interest. Considerable research base confirms that the expert players employ more pertinent search strategies, eliminate irrelevant cues which enable them to effectively anticipate action requirements and they have superior ability to use cue-related information to reliably anticipate occurrence of relevant events. Present study was aimed at identification of intricate relationship between the ability of the high performing swimmers (National - level swimmers of Malaysia) in anticipatory cue-utilization and corresponding autonomic phasic skin conductance responses isolated from the tonic measures. Altogether two-hundred and twenty-five individuals having high athletic calibre, and holding top-positions in recently held (within the period March 2011 up to the June 2011) National and International (Mostly ASEAN level) meets volunteered as the participants in this study. Simultaneous evaluation of autonomic arousal modulation (habituation paradigm tonic and phasic measures of skin conductance) was done when the swimmers were engaged in cue-related anticipatory task, associated with complex reaction performance. For this purpose, participants were evaluated intermittently (twice within the calendar year August 2010 - June 2011) with the identical research paradigm. Perceived sense of competence as well as the subjective feelings of apprehension of loosing was explored, and attempts were made to identify the obscure subjective expression of cognitive-emotional make-up, in explaining differential performance outcomes evident in the participants. Findings of multiple linear and polynomial regression analyses however suggested direct, inverse and supportive relationships between decomposition of skin conductance tonic and phasic autonomic components related to cognitive-affective and affective motivational aspects of sports behaviour explaining pathways to both excellent and debilitative performance outcomes during practice sessions as well as in actual competitive situations.
The ability to produce performances at highest level under physically and emotionally demanding conditions underline the worth of a sportsperson. These stressful conditions places demands on the cognitive resources of the sportsperson; especially in anticipatory actions that require the allocation of cognitive resources. This study investigated the effects of cognitive stress on the temporal anticipation of a timing motor task. A repeated measures design was applied with two independent variables; cognitive stress and levels of difficulty, which included easy, intermediate and difficult. Study participants were 18 male and 18 female undergraduates of the Physical Education programme of Universiti Putra Malaysia. The experimental task involved performing a timing motor task across the three levels of difficulty, under two conditions as follows: (i) without cognitive stress, and (ii) under cognitive stress. Cognitive stress was induced via the continuous subtraction of two from a two-digit number. Participants performed the task individually and the sequence of the experimental task was counter-balanced. A two-way within subject ANOVA was
performed to ascertain the effects of cognitive stress on the temporal anticipation of the timing motor task. Data yielded significant difference in means for the stress main effect [Λ = .64, F (1.35) = 19.89, p < 0.05]; and the task main effect [Λ = .84, F (2, 34) = 3.35, p < 0.05]. Post hoc comparisons produced a significant difference in the means of the performance of the timing motor task at all three levels of difficulty. Data showed that cognitive stress had an effect on the temporal anticipation of the timing motor task. These results are explained from attentional and the neuromotor noise perspectives. It was concluded that the significant difference in the performance of the experimental task was due to the competition for intentional resources and the decrease of the signal to noise ratio due to cognitive stress.
A study on the distribution of Recent Ostracoda in offshore sediment was carried out around the South China Sea. A total of 30 sediment samples were taken from the sampling stations between latitude 1°48’ and 7°25’N and longitude 102°09’ and 105°16’E. From this study, 79 species of ostracods belonging to 16 families and 44 genera were identified. The dominant species was Foveoleberis cypraeoides with 937 individuals obtained. There were 13 to 43 species in total. Diversity Index, H(s), was in the range of 2.1 to 3.3, whereas the dominance values were between 4.4 and 14.7%. Several environmental parameters were measured including depth, temperature and salinity. The range values for each of these parameters are 13-72 m, 25.24-30.06o C and 27.74-34.91 ppt, respectively. The sediment texture in this study area can be categorized as sand, sandy mud, clayey mud, silty mud, silty clay, clayey sand, clayey silt and silty sand. The observations revealed that abundance and diversity of ostracod appeared to be principally controlled by depth. Two faunal assemblages were identified in terms of faunal composition, namely, shallow water (Hemikrithe orientalis, Neomonoceratina iniqua, Stigmatocythere indica, Cytherelloidea leroyi and Neocytheretta snellii) and deep water (Paracypris sp., Alataconcha pterogona, Bythocytheropteron alatum, Keijella paucipunctata and Actinocythereis scutigera). A comparative analysis showed a high degree resemblance between the study area and south-eastern Malay Peninsula (the South China Sea).
No population-based cancer registry exists in Malaysia; thus our main sources of incidence data were biopsy series. We determined the frequency of cancers by body site, sex, and ethnic group from biopsy records of the Division of Pathology of the Institute for Medical Research in Kuala Lumpur for the years 1969-71. We then made comparisons of leading sites with data from the Singapore Cancer Registry. Relative risk values for 21 sites indicated significant differences among ethnic groups for cancers of the nasopharynx, larynx, lung, bone, skin, cervix, ovary, prostate, and penis and for lymphomas.
Supernumerary chromosomes have been examined in 352 black rats, covering three geographic variants, by use of conventional and C-band staining techniques. Metacentric supernumerary chromosomes, one to three in number, were found in Malayan black rats (Rattus rattus diardii), with 2n=42, in Indian black rats (R. rattus rufescens), with 2n=38, and in Ceylonese black rats (R. rattus kandianus), with 2n=40. The supernumeraries had similar morphology and stained heavily along their entire length by C-band staining. These findings suggested that the supernumeraries had originally developed in the Asian-type black rats and then were sequentially transmitted to the Ceylonese and Oceanian-type black rats, probably in southwestern Asia. A subtelocentric supernumerary chromosome found in one Japanese black rat seemed to have developed independently from the above metacentric supernumeraries.