Medical emergency on board is a new phenomenon that lack of attention. Despite the
presence of cabin crew who is certified to provide medical care to the passenger, failure to
acquire the non-technical skills and low level of knowledge and technical skills retention is
reported to be major challenges in developing a highly competent cabin crew in providing
effective medical care. Having the ability to design simulations, implement it into teaching,
and effectively evaluate simulated performance is starting to become a key role for educators
in health care. For most educators, a practical knowledge and skills gap resides between
the need for simulation learning and proficiencies in designing and utilising simulation. The
purpose of this model was to develop a ‘trained educators’ from the aviation industry with
the knowledge and skills to utilise simulation effectively. The steps involve identification,
development, and integration with a follow-up assessment. The implementation of the program
yielded a significant improvement on the participants’ knowledge, t (129) = -6.27, p
< .001 together with a total DASH-SV score of 6.32. The barriers, including difficulties
encountered executing the model, are discussed combined with the implication for future application.
This model is an effective approach for developing a trained educator in first aid
for aviation incorporated with simulation learning. The trained educator will then become
a pioneer and train another organisation.
Finding a proper transition structure for the peptide bond formation process can lead to a better understanding of the role of the ribosome in catalyzing this reaction. A potential energy surface scan was performed on the ester bond dissociation of the P-site aminoacyl-tRNA and the peptide bond formation of P-site and A-site amino acids. The full fragment of initiator tRNAi met attached to both cognate (met) and non-cognate (ala) amino acids as the P-site substrate and the methionine as the A-site amino acid was used in this study. Due to the large size of tRNA, ONIOM calculations were used to reduce the computational cost. This study illustrated that the rate of peptide bond formation was reduced for misacylated tRNA without the presence of ribosomal bases. This demonstrated that there were indeed specific structural interactions involving the amino acid side chain within the tRNAi met.
The paper examines the propagation direction and speed of large scale travelling ionospheric disturbances (LSTIDs) obtained from GPS observations of extreme geomagnetic storms during the 23rd solar cycle; these are the October 2003 and November 2003 geomagnetic storms. In the analysis, the time delay between total electron content (TEC) structures at Scott Base station (SBA) (Lat. –77.85º, Long. 166.76º), McMurdo (McM4), (Lat. –77.84º, Long. 166.95º), Davis (DAV1), (Lat. –68.58º, Long. 77.97º) and Casey station (CAS1) (Lat. –66.28º, Long. 110.52º) GPS stations as well as the distance between these stations were employed in the analysis. The measurements during the October 2003 storm showed obvious time delay between the TEC enhancement occurrences at SBA/MCM4, DAV1 and CAS1 stations. The time delay indicated a movement of the ionospheric structures from higher to lower latitudes in a velocity ranging between 0.8 km/s – 1.2 km/s. The first sudden TEC enhancement was observed at SBA/McM4 (Lat. –75.84º) followed by CAS1 station (Lat. –66.28º) and the final TEC enhancement was seen at DAV1 station (Lat. –68.58º) with TEC magnitude decreasing while moving from higher to lower latitudes. One important observation was that although the latitude of the CAS1 station was lower than the DAV1 station, the TEC enhancement was firstly seen at the CAS1 station due to the shorter distance between SBA and CAS1 compared with the distance between SBA and CAS1 of about 500 km. The TEC measurements during the November 2003 storm showed an opposite propagation direction (i.e. poleward direction from lower to higher latitudes) which was seen with a velocity ranging between 0.3 km/s – 0.4 km/s. As similar response was observed using vertical TEC measurements obtained from individual PRN satellites but with higher velocity ranges (1.2 km/s – 2.4 km/s during October
and 0.5 km/s – 0.7 km/s during November). The equatorward or poleward expansion of LSTIDs during the October and November 2003 storms was probably caused by the disturbances in the neutral temperature which occurred close to the dayside convection throat or due to the neutral wind oscillation induced by atmospheric gravity waves launched from the aurora region.
Information on feeding behaviour of tropical horseshoe crabs, Tachypleus gigas (M¨uller, 1785) is still scanty compared to Limulus polyphemus (Linnaeus, 1758). Foods condition such as decayed, sheltered and etc., would substantially influence the edibility of food by the T. gigas. However, horseshoe crabs might have specific behaviour to manipulate the foraged food. The aim of this paper was to investigate the feeding mechanism of T. gigas toward different feed conditions. Experiments were conducted inside a glass tank. A total of 30 males and females respectively were introduced to five different natural potential feeds, namely, gastropods (Turritella sp.), crustacean (Squilla sp.), fish (Lates calcarifer ), bivalve (Meretrix meretrix ) and polychaete (Nereis sp.). We have manipulated the condition of introduced feed based on the several potential foods conditions in nature such as sheltered (protected with shell, hard outer skin or host tube), unsheltered and decayed before introduced the feeds to the crabs. In present study, female crabs took shorter response period towards surrounding feed compared to males. Overall, they prefer to consume freshly dead feeds and would totally reject the sheltered feeds, such as, shell, hard outer skin and tube host. Male crabs have particular feeding behaviours to manipulate the edibility of the decayed feeds. Detailed experiments on the feeding mechanism of T. gigas could provide more information on their foraging activity in the wild.
Nowadays, the numbers of wild horseshoe crab harvested for study are increasing. However, general information on Tachyplues gigas satiation level, gut transit time, defecation pattern and acclimation period in captivity during holding period are still scanty. The aims of this study are to identify T. gigas food intake, gut transit time and defecation pattern during the rearing period by introducing the crabs with gastropod (Turritella sp.), crustacean (Squilla sp.) and bivalve (Meretrix meretrix ) in several feed ratios; 0.2%, 0.6%, 1.0%, 1.4%, 1.8% and 2.2% expressed of crabs’ body weight. The defecation of T. gigas was monitored for every three hours after being fed to measure their gut transit time and defecation pattern. Male crabs did not significantly eat until two weeks in captivity, while the females started to eat in the early first week after being harvested from the wild. The satiation levels of the females (gastropod: 1.8%±0.04; crustacean: 1.7%±0.08; bivalve: 1.8%±0.06) were significantly higher than the males’ (gastropod: 1.7%±0.08; crustacean: 1.4%±0.02; bivalve: 1.6%±0.05) for all feed types. Gut transit time of the males were significantly longer than the females’. Male crabs took shorter time (1±0 hr) to achieve their satiation than female crabs (2±0 hrs). This study provides useful information for T. gigas rearing activity and for designing a better rearing system.
Over the last century, the earth’s climate has changed. It is a serious global, long-term problem which involves complex interactions. A lot of evidence suggests that most of the observed factors contributing to the crisis over the last 50 years can be attributed to human activities. Malaysia has always been vulnerable to extreme climatic events such as typhoons, floods and drought. We expect climate change to exacerbate these vulnerabilities. To ensure, that our water resources will always be secure and ready for use. We need to create awareness in the public and the policy makers so that they will acknowledge that the climate change issue is real. They also need to accept that actions to adapt with our vulnerabilities should be immediately put in place. We can do this by integrating the various sector policies and securing the participation of all stakeholders in Malaysia and other countries.
Thoracic trunk shift and Coronal balance are main features to be considered while planning
treatment for scoliosis patients. Thoracic trunk shift refers to deviation of trunk from its
normal position. Coronal balance refers to deviation of seventh cervical bone from sacrum
in coronal plane. After undergoing scoliosis correction surgery, these two parameters are
measured by surgeons using radiograph images to make sure the scoliosis curve progression
is stopped and whether vertebral alignment is back to normal. Since the relationship
between thoracic trunk shift and coronal balance in the post-operated scoliotic patients is
questionable, this study is done to find the correlation between thoracic trunk shift and
coronal balance in the thoracic scoliosis patients who underwent correction surgery at least a
year before from the date of taking radiographs. Radiographs of 24 patients were collected.
Statistical analysis was done using paired sample ‘t’ test, with ‘p’ value of 0.05 as the level of
significance. The mean millimetre measurement of thoracic trunk shift and coronal balance
was found to be 27.62 mm and 10.50 mm. Results of our study showed that there is a 10.18%
of relation in between the post thoracic trunk shift and coronal balance of those 24 patients.
The present work discusses the structural studies of dual blended solid biopolymer electrolytes
(SBEs) based carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC)/chitosan (CS) doped with various
ammonium bromide (AB) composition using solution casting technique. X-ray Diffraction
(XRD) result reveal that all samples are completely amorphous except for sample Ab-30.
FTIR analysis shows interaction has occurred between CMC/CS and NH4Br. Analysis of
transport properties has shown that the dependency of ionic conductivity was on the ionic
mobility, µ and diffusion coefficient, D of mobile ion.
The development of new adsorbent has rapidly increased in order to overcome the problem
of waste water treatment from heavy metal pollution. The ability of nickel (II)-ion imprinted
polymer (Ni-IIP) as an alternative adsorbent for the removal of nickel ion from aqueous has
been investigated. The Ni-IIP was prepared via bulk polymerization by using functional
monomers; methylacrylic acid (MAA) with picolinic acid as a co-monomer. Nickel ion was
used as template, AIBN as initiator and EGDMA as cross-linking agent. Non-imprinted control
polymer (NIP) was prepared in the same manner as Ni-IIP but in the absence of nickel
ion. The resultant of Ni-IIP and NIP were characterized by using Fourier Transform Infrared
(FTIR) spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Result showed that, the adsorption
of nickel ion onto Ni-IIP increased as the adsorbent dosage increased and contact
time is prolonged. The adsorption isotherm model for Ni-IIP and NIP were fitted well with
Freundlich and Langmuir, respectively. Kinetic study for both Ni-IIP and NIP were followed
the pseudo-second order, indicates that the rate-limiting step is the surface adsorption that
involves chemisorption. Selectivity studies showed that the distribution coefficient of Ni2+
was higher compared to Zn2+, Mg2+ and Pb2+. The present work has successfully synthesized
Ni-IIP particles with good potential in recognition of Ni2+ ions in an aqueous medium.
A 'green tyre' concept has the advantage of low rolling resistance, improved wet grip and enhanced handling. It has been reported that 3% decrease in rolling resistance is equivalent to 1% fuel saving, thus giving the 'green tyre' economic benefits and customer satisfaction. In this study, epoxidised natural rubber (ENR) compounds containing various loading of silica filler were prepared. The processibility and viscoelastic properties were investigated using the rubber processing analyser and Mooney viscometer. Results showed that the properties were adversely affected by the poor dispersion of silica as supported by the bound rubber measurement. In addition, a reversion in the cure behaviour was also observed as the curing temperature was increased to 170ºC.
In this study the effects of phosphorus and nitrogen levels, temperature and light-dark cycle on the algal growth potential (AGP) of an Antarctic Chlorococcum isolated from an ephemeral stream at Reeve Hill, Antarctica was investigated. The highest AGP was attained when the cultures were grown at high nitrogen concentration (329.87 mg NO3-N/l) and low phosphorus concentration (2.6 mg PO4-P/l) at 4ºC on a 12 h:12 h light-dark cycle. The results showed that Chlorococcum sp. required a high concentration of nitrogen, low concentration of phosphorus, low temperature with equal lengths of light and dark period (12 h:12 h) for optimum growth.
This paper introduces a method for modification of the formula of the fractal box counting dimension. The method is based on the utilization of the probability distribution formula in the fractal box count. The purpose of this method is to use it for the discrimination of oil spill areas from the surrounding features e.g. sea surface and look-alikes in RADARSAT-1 SAR data. The result showed that the new formula of the fractal box counting dimension was able to discriminate between oil spills and look-alike areas. The low wind area had the highest fractal dimension peak of 2.9, as compared to the oil slick and the surrounding rough sea. The maximum error standard deviation of the low wind area was 0.68 which performed with a 2.9 fractal dimension value.
This paper proposes a signal-to-noise-ratio (SNR) improvement by using an external phase modulator that allowed flexible control of the spectrum amplitude by varying the modulation index for linewidth measurements. Compared with the conventional self-heterodyne detection technique, the results obtained in this study showed an SNR improvement as high as 10 dB. This 10 dB improvement in SNR could help to reduce the usage of a particular length of a single mode fibre (normally about 50 Km) when measuring a linewidth in the region of 10 kHz.
As textile production flourishes nowadays, the amount of dyed wastewater entering the
water body has also increased. Dyes could have serious negative impacts to the environment
and also the human health, hence, they need to be removed from the water body. In this
study, layered double hydroxide (LDH) of manganese/aluminium (MnAl) was synthesised
to be used as a potential adsorbent to remove methyl orange (MO) dye due to its unique
lamellar structure which provides LDH with high anion adsorption and exchange ability.
MnAl was synthesized by using co-precipitation method and characterized by powder X-ray
diffraction (PXRD), Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Inductively coupled
plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES) and Carbon, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Sulphur
(CHNS) elemental analysers, and Accelerated Surface Area and Porosity Analyzer (ASAP).
Adsorption studies were conducted at different contact times and dosages of MnAl to evaluate
the performance of MnAl in removing MO from water. Kinetic and isotherm models were
tested using pseudo-first order, pseudo-second order, Langmuir isotherm and Freundlich
isotherm. MnAl LDH was found to be perfectly fitted into pseudo-second order and Langmuir
isotherm.
In this study, the implementation of the Regional Climate Model into the hydrodynamic model has been applied for streamflow projection on a river located at the south of Peninsular Malaysia within the years 2070 till 2099. The data has been obtained from a Regional Climate Model (RCM), named Précis, on a daily basis. It begins by comparing historical rainfall data generated from Précis versus the actual gauged recorded rainfall data from Department of Irrigation and Drainage Malaysia (DID). The bias of the generated rainfall data has been reduced by statistical techniques. The same has been applied to the future generated rainfall data from 2070 to 2099. Using the generated precipitation data as input to the hydrological model, results in the daily output of river discharge identified as the main contributor of flood occurrences. Based on the results of the hydrological model utilised, e.g. HEC-HMS, comparison was made between the future and historical generated discharge data using Précis between the years 1960 till 1998. Dividing a year into three segments, e.g. January-April, May-August, SeptemberDecember, the results show that there would be a significant drop of peak discharge in the third segment and an increase in discharge during the second segment. The first part remains almost with no changes. As an addition, the drop of the peak shows reduction in the probability of flood occurrences. It also indicates the reduction in water storage capacity which coherently affects the water supply scheme
The effects of topical application of Orthosiphon stamineus leaf extract on the rate of wound healing and histology of the healed wound were assessed. Four groups of adult male Sprague Dawley rats were experimentally wounded in the posterior neck area. A thin layer of blank placebo was applied topically to wounds of Group 1 rats. Wounds of experimental animals (Group 2 and 3) were dressed with placebo containing 5% and 10% O. stamineus extract, respectively. A thin layer of Intrasite gel® was applied topically to wounds of Group 4 animals as reference. Macroscopically, wounds dressed with placebo containing 5% (healed on day 14.50 ± 0.43) and 10% (healed on day 13.83 ± 0.21) O. stamineus extract each or Intrasite gel® (healed on day 13.13 ± 0.42) significantly accelerated the rate of wound healing compared to wounds dressed with blank placebo. Histological analysis of healed wounds confirmed the results. Wounds dressed with placebo containing 5%, 10% O.stamineus or Intrasite gel® showed markedly less scar width at wound enclosure and granulating tissue contained markedly more collagen, proliferating fibroblast with angiogenesis, and no inflammatory cells compared to wounds dressed with blank placebo. In conclusion, placebo containing 5% or 10% O. stamineus on extract-dressed wounds significantly accelerated the rate of wound healing in rats.
Ocimum basilicum seed extracts were found to possess significant anti-ulcer activity against ethanol-induced ulceration in experimental animal models. Three groups of adult male rats were used, with each group consisting of six rats. Oral administration of absolute ethanol to rats pre-treated with 10% Tween 20® (Group 1) produced extensive haemorrhagic lesions of the gastric mucosa. Rats orally pre-treated with O. basilicum extract suspended in 10% Tween 20® (Group 2) or cimetidine in 10% Tween 20® (Group 3), 30 min before oral administration of absolute alcohol had significantly reduced (p
A four-stage erbium-doped fibre amplifier with the gain bandwidth of 35 nm is demonstrated. The amplifier was designed to include a dispersion compensating module to compensate the accumulated dispersion by signals. The amplifier design permited some dynamic features such as the amplifier’s gain could be adjusted from 15 dB to 30 dB by varying the input signal power from –26 dBm to 8 dBm. The maximum output power of 23 dBm was obtained with a maximum allowable gain flatness of 1.5 dB.
In this paper a study on the wideband double-pass Raman fibre amplifier with mirror as the pump reflector is reported. The pump lights at 1435 nm and 1455 nm were launched in a co-directional manner with respect to the input signal. The double-pass direction of the signal was achieved through a fibre loop mirror constructed using an optical circulator. It was shown that multiple signal amplification was achieved without any disturbance of stimulated Brillouin scattering.
Throughout the years, the construction industry has made an important contribution to the Malaysian economy. Moreover, the Ninth Malaysia Plan (2006–2010) has also played a significant role in the demands of executing major residential housing project developments where it has been observed that construction waste was one of the priority waste streams. Due to the increasing number in the population that is actively involved in economic activities, and the modernization of the country, the types of construction waste that are being produced, and identifying the source such as waste are becoming more complex. Therefore, appropriate actions and approaches are needed to be taken with respect to its effective management in handling the solid waste from construction sites. This paper is intended to review the issues and the challenges enclosed within the supply chain management mechanisms in order for improving construction waste management. Throughout this review, useful information and better understanding concerning the current issues, challenges and the supply chain management mechanisms would be made inclusive in the field to be explored. The findings would also assist in improving the quality and awareness on the construction waste management that is being practiced.